A Comparative Study Of Three English Versions Of Mencius

Mencius is one of the most important texts in Confucian classics. It inherits and develops the thoughts of Confucius. It not only takes an important position in the history of thoughts and cultures in China, but also has a full impact on the development of philosophy and cultural in the world. The translations of Confucian classics such as Mencius are important means of spreading Confucianism and traditional Chinese culture to the world now. However, the various English versions of Mencius translated by scholars or missionaries can not convey the spirits of Confucianism accurately. It is very common to find the intentional or unintentional misinterpretations in these versions. So it is necessary to select the most representative versions of Mencius and give them a comprehensive comparison to find out factors influencing translators'translation, to explore the proper ways of transmitting the Confucianism and traditional culture correctly to the world.Scholars who study English versions of Mencius simply compare English versions in the view of linguistics or translations. When engaged in translation, they give no attention to culture and usually ignore English versions'role in cultural transmission. So the versions of Mencius by James Legge, Leonard A. Lyall and D.C.Lau are chosen, to find out how much they can express philosophical and cultural connotations in the original from the angle of cross-culture in the history of thought. That is to say, by the all-round and multi-angle comparative study, we could summarize the three versions'characteristics, explore how much the translations can reflect the original, find out the reasons for variety and the approaches to faithful translation.From reading macro-contents and structures, we can not only grasp the main characters, but also experience translators'purposes and attitudes to traditional Chinese culture intuitively. Thus James Legge, Leonard A. Lyall and D.C.Lau' English versions are described in detail in macro-contents and structures, by which we can find out the translators'main ideas to the versions. As the identities, life experiences and academic backgrounds will not only affect their interpretations, but also directly determine the main contents and chapters of the versions, we firstly introduce lives of translators before giving a systematically introduce to these versions. This article mainly focuses on whether translators can understand and translate the philosophy and culture contained in the original. This will be explained in detail. Firstly, concern about whether translators can understand and reappeare rich ideas and philosophical connotations in Mencius, such as benevolent government and human nature is born good and so on. Secondly, pay more attention to the difficult and controversial chapters such as "Zhi Yan Yang Qi" and "Tian Xia Zhi Yan Xing". Thirdly, give special attention to several different punctuations in Mencius such as "Feng Fu" and "Shan Jing Zhi Xi"By comparing layouts and contents, it can be found that the English version translated by Legge has two main features:First, the translation highlights in academic, but ignores ordinary people. Second, it is permeated with strong Christian spirits and Legge's missionary identity can be found everywhere. The prominence feature of Lyall's version is that it pays more attention to popular than academic, weakening philosophical and ideological connotations in the original. He focuses only on corresponding of etymologies, and can not reproduce profound thoughts and philosophical connotations of the original. D.C. Lau's version of Mencius can be called perfect combination of academic and popularity. He always takes accurate transmission of Mencius as the primary aim. When faced with sentences with unclear or different meanings, he is good at understanding in the whole ideology of Mencius. So his version always contains more innovations than former ones.The reasons for these features are three:first, in understanding stage, translators' choices of words meaning will have direct impact on his understanding of the sentences or even the chapters. Second, in writing stage, translator's motivation, target audience, chosen translation methods and strategies could determine the versions' outline and connotation and even the loyalty to the original. Third, the historicities of translators, especially their backgrounds of lives are the deep-seated reasons for the variety.Based on comparative study of these three versions and other popular ones, it could be found that there are three general translation errors. First, ignore huge differences between Chinese and western cultures, and simply use western concepts and teachings to translate Chinese culture. Second, neglect semantic uncertainty, and convey the original meaning mistakenly. Third, break away from original texts, and despise different punctuations. Thus in the translation of Mencius and other ancient Chinese classics, we should pay more attention to the following. Firstly, realize the shortcomings of "Fan Xiang Ge Yi" and explore "Yi Li" in the original authors' ideologies and backgrounds. Secondly, be away from interpreting without real understanding by the fullest collection of exegeses and skillful management of exegetical methods, only in this way, can we find out the words'exact meanings. Finally, give more attention to the original literature and different punctuations as ignoring them could lead to misinterpretations.In a word, the diversity of versions is objective and inevitable. However, the recognition of diversity does not show that we approve of translating at will, or even distorting the original meaning. Translations are the incarnation of original texts. No matter how varied the versions will be, they must be based on original texts and seek to reproduce the thoughts and culture in them. "Unvarnished comprehending" will be the target of cross-cultural studies forever.