Translation Research On Nak Seon Jae Version Of "A Dream Of Red Mansions"

The Nak Seon Jae edition of A Dream of Red Mansions is undeniably important in translation history,for it is the earliest full translation A Dream of Red Mansions,the well-known Chinese classic novel.According to the long history of cultural exchange between China and Korea,Chinese literature has been popular in Korea since ancient times.However,as a milestone in Chinese literary history,A Dream of Red Mansions become sensational in Korea.There are many complicated reasons,such as politics,society,culture,but translation also plays a significant role.China and Korea share quite a few of common cultures since ancient times,such as Confucianism,the decrees and legal system,and language.With such a cultural background,the translation of Chinese literature in Korea has formed a special mode different from other countries.The nouns,including names,places,book titles,as well as a some verbs,adjectives and other vocabulary can be conveniently transliterated into Korean.However,in most cases,verbs,adjectives and adverbs can be understood more easily in native Korean lexis for Korean people,even though Korean and Chinese use the same writing system,which is Chinese characters,for a long time.In fact,the two languages are different in grammar.In addition,some auxiliary words and suffixes in Korean do not exist in Chinese.Thus,the two languages are related to a great extent,but they are not the same.Since language is an important token of a nation or a culture,when translation comes in between,something would inevitably either be missing or misunderstood.This dissertation will briefly introduce the background of the Nak Seon Jae edition of A Dream of Red Mansions.Through the analysis of the specific translation strategies and translation effects of the Nak Seon Jae edition of A Dream of Red Mansions,this dissertation will explore the profound reasons for A Dream of Red Mansions not appealing to a major attention in Korea.The introduction discusses the significance of the topic.Although A Dream of Red Mansions was introduced to Korea early in history,and the first full translation edition was finished in Korea,it got little attention at that time,compared with other Chinese classics,which would be a significant topic to delve into.However,there has been few researches done so far in this specific aspect.Therefore,this dissertation aims at filling this blank.In addition,from the perspective of the worldwide development of the translation and communication of A Dream of Red Mansions,it is also necessary and valuable to do a comprehensive study of the earliest translation edition of Dream of Red Mansions.The first chapter summarizes the current translation editions and studies of A Dream of Red Mansions in Korea,which includes the current researches of A Dream of Red Mansions in domesticChina,only to find that most studies are limited to the English translation editions,and involve little editions in other languages,including Korean.Only Korean experts published several articles on A Dream of Red Mansions in Chinese journals,which caused some attention in Chinese academia.This chapter also briefly introduces various editions,such as complete translation,abbreviated translation,re-translation,selected translation and the kinds of editions ever existed in Korea.It is worth-noting that,after the Nak Seon Jae edition of A Dream of Red Mansions,the first translation edition in Korean modern times did not appear until 2006.According to the literature review,Korean scholars has been engaged in the studies of Dream of Red Mansions since late twentieth Century,and at the present,those researches are still at the beginning stage.This situation is even more true for the studies of the Nak Seon Jae edition of A Dream of Red Mansions,due to the rare materials,the great amount of the text,and the big differences between old Korean and modern Korean.The second chapter introduces the reception of Chinese novels and A Dream of Red Mansions in Korea.China and Korea has a long history of cultural exchange.Korean has always maintain a deep interest in ancient Chinese literature,history as well as philosophy.The appearance of the Nak Seon Jae edition of A Dream of Red Mansions has everything to do with the then Korean literary conditions,the change of readership,and other social realities.It can be summarized into the following reasons:firstly,Chinese novel spread massively to Korea at that time,and scholars gradually became interested in writing and translating novels.Secondly,in order to solve the gap between the speaking and writing Korean language,King Sejong of Yi created their own characters in 1444,the expansion of which demanded a huge amount of publications of reading materials.Thirdly,the 17 th century in Korean witnessed the rise of Korean novel writings,which was regarded as the “novel time” in Korean literary history.This tradition created a far-reaching influence upon the literary writing and translation.Fourthly,the increasing amount of female readers also prompted the writing and translation that caters their reading taste.Finally,the government back then released several policies in regard to foreign language studies.A Dream of Red Mansions,with its rich cultural values,became an ideal studying object.Moreover,this chapter also introduces some widely-read editions of full translation edition in Korean,so as to discuss the translation strategies and translation effects of them.The third chapter discusses the original draft of the Nak Seon Jae edition of A Dream of Red Mansions.The studies by Korean scholars have shown that the original probably belonged to the“Cheng Jia edition” system,and “Cheng Jia edition”(1791),“Dong Guange edition”(around 1795),“Ben Yacang edition”(around 1796)and “Wang Xilian edition”(1832)are more likely to be the case.Therefore,the dissertation compares the similarities and differences of the characters between “Cheng Jia edition”(Shenyang University Press,2006 edition July)and the Nak Seon Jae edition of A Dreamof Red Mansions,which includes the chapter titles,the original Chinese text,and Korean translations.The fourth chapter discusses some translation strategies of the Nak Seon Jae edition of A Dream of Red Mansions.In short,there are five basic translation methods: transliteration,literal translation,annotation,exchange of the words and phrases and amplification.The fifth chapter analyzes the specific content and the translation effects of the Nak Seon Jae edition of A Dream of Red Mansions,including the translation skills applied to translating the etiquette and custom codes,poetry,rhetorical allusions,idioms,proverbs,places,names,appellations and so on.After a comprehensive study,it is found that the Nak Seon Jae edition of A Dream of Red Mansions is a collaborate work.The translation was not done by an individual person.The original draft and the translation were finished by a group of people.Therefore,the translators of A Dream of Red Mansions and the copiers were not the same,which caused some problems,such as the multiple translations of the same text,the inconsistency between different copies,and so on.The sixth chapter discusses the misreading of the Nak Seon Jae edition of A Dream of Red Mansions.The misreading that this dissertation involves is idioms,appellations,architecture,medicine and so on.There are basically four reasons for the misreading: firstly,the author of A Dream of Red Mansions used a tremendous amount of similes,metaphors,and other figures of speech,which could be mistakenly translated;secondly,the lack of punctuation in the original draft caused mistranslation;thirdly,in the original draft of the Nak Seon Jae edition of A Dream of Red Mansions,the transcription of the original Chinese text was different from the translation text,which caused a conflict between the original text and that in the Nak Seon Jae edition of A Dream of Red Mansions;fourthly,the differences between Chinese and Korean culture,customs and languages caused the misreading and mistranslation.The conclusion part reiterates the special historical and cultural background of the Nak Seon Jae edition of A Dream of Red Mansions.Although the “golden rule” of faithfulness and equivalence in translation should have been applied to evaluate all kinds of translation,the misreading and mistranslation of this edition is understandable or even inevitable.By observing,describing and exploring the restrictions of translation and reception,considering the translators and their specific social and cultural background,the author of this dissertation believes that,in different historical period,various translations have their own values.The Nak Seon Jae edition of A Dream of Red Mansions has undeniable assets in the research history and translation history of this great Chinese classic.It also has important referential values for the current translators.