On Hu Shih's Literary Translation Thoughts

In recent years, there are more and more scholars paying more attention to Hu Shih, and do some research on him. As a banner man of Chinese New Cultural Movement, he was famous for his proposal of literature revolution and Vernacular Chinese Movement. In the period of May Fourth, Hu Shih's literary translation thoughts were coming out by the influence of social background and cultural factors. He put forward his literary translation thoughts by doing all kinds of translation activities in person. He insisted that the scholars should translate more western masterpieces in terms of literary themes; the Vernacular Chinese should be employed in translation and literary creation while the Classical Chinese should be abandoned; the literal translation was praised highly in his literary translation, and a"good"translation was pursued as his translation criterion. Meanwhile, Hu Shih supported literary creation in literary translation practices. Hu Shih's literary translation thoughts followed the literary trend closely at that time, which was full of abundant ideas from different horizons. It played a vital role in the contribution to the modernization of Chinese literature. However, Hu Shih's literary translation thoughts are not perfect but with limitations. The definition of Vernacular Chinese was too ambiguous and not clear enough, and was lack of scientific analysis and location; some of the"eight standards of translation"he had advocated was restrained only at that time, and not suitable for modern literary translation and creation. Hu Shih's literary translation thoughts belong to traditional translation theory, this thesis has combed and summarized his literary translation thoughts, which aims at arising readers and other scholars interest in Hu Shih's literary translation thoughts, doing further study on him, and the thoughts may be used helpfully in later study.