Reception Oriented English Translation And Spreading Of The Mencius

The Mencius is one of Chinese Confucian classics, and it’s a treasure and an important part of Chinese traditional culture, which is included in“The Four Books”. The Mencius is not only a literary classic but also a philosophical giant, which has rich literary forms and profound ideological connotations. Culture and ideological values in this book has won itself an important role in the world’s cultural exchange.It has been over 300 years since the Mencius started its translation.Its current existing translated versions are rich both in forms and quantity.However, questionnaire on target language readers①and online survey of sales and comments of this research show that their reception by TLR is not optimistic, so is their spreading. Reader’s reception theory attaches importance to the relation among readers, authors and works, and it stresses the significance of reader’s understanding and reception. It holds that there is a complex relation between TLRs and translated works, so that TLRs should be involved in the process of translating. Under the historical background of internationalization of Chinese culture, the reception of TLRs becomes an important yardstick to measure the quality of translations, and it’s given new practical significance. In order to defuse conflicts between ceaseless emerging Mencius translations and their inefficient spreading, translation of the Mencius should be moved from author-centered to reader-centered.This dissertation,guided by reception theory,puts forward its research from readers’reception and try to find some efficient translating and spreading paradigms of the Mencius,expecting to give guidance to future translation of Chinese cultural classics.This dissertation mainly focuses on five issues:English translation of the Mencius and its study both in China and abroad;overseas readers’reception of the Mencius;features of representative popular translations of the Mencius;the construction of the Mencius’translation and spreading paradigms based on readers’reception.The focus of this research is to analyze and summarize successful translating mode of Mencius translation, and try to conclude paradigms of the Mencius’ translation and spreading. The findings of this research include:(1) although influencing factors for readers’ reception are various,all the factors as form, content, language, structure, prices, etc, are included, the key factors are usefulness and readability, which should be the most important guidance to translation of the Mencius.(2) separating of translation and spreading is a main negative factor affecting the Mencius spreading, future translation should be guided by spreading.As translation is a prerequisite for spreading, and spreading is continuation of translation, and readers are the receptors both for translations and spreading, all of the three elements are interrelated and influenced by each other. Taking TLRs’ reception as a guiding principle in the Mencius translation and spreading will be an efficient way to construct paradigms of both translation and spreading.