An Intertextual Study Of Ku Hungming's Version Of Zhongyong

The present thesis is intended to study Ku Hungming's English translation of Zhongyong from the viewpoint of Intertextual theory. Intertextuality, first put forward by Julia Kristeva and developed by Roland Barthes, Gérard Genette and Michael Riffaterre, overthrows the traditional translation criteria of equivalence and fidelity by asserting that any text is an absorption and transformation of other texts. According to this theory, translation is viewed as a kind of transforming activity intertextualized with languages, texts and cultures, and any translated text is a tissue in an immense network of complexity. It offers a brand-new perspective for analyzing a translated text through a detailed and all-round consideration of historical and cultural contexts.Ku Hungming occupied a unique role in Chinese translation history as well as in the history of cultural exchange between the East and the West because he was the first Chinese to undertake the cause of translating Confucian classics into English all by himself. By doing so, he put an end to the embarrassing situation that the job of translating Confucian classics into foreign languages had long been monopolized by foreign missionaries and Sinologists. As a master both in English and Chinese culture, Ku lived in an era when China had gradually been turned into a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country. The inferiority in military, politics and economics resulted in Westerners'complete neglect of Chinese culture. Under such circumstances, Ku translated Zhongyong into English and his version enjoyed wide popularity in western countries. A representative book of Confucianism and the most philosophical one among Four Books, Zhongyong has dramatically influenced Chinese thoughts and behavior, and still exerts significant influence on the way how modern Chinese people talk and act. Ku skillfully employed an intertextual approach in his rendering so as to make his translation better understood by western readers and more easily accepted by the target culture. Through a comparatively detailed analysis of his choice of words, attachment of quotations and supplement of annotations, this thesis attempts to explore the intertextuality implied in his translation of Zhongyong. Examined from an intertextual perspective, quotation, comparison, cultural substitution and chapter rearrangement constitute the major features of Ku's version and they contribute a lot to its popularity. Meanwhile, this thesis also summarizes the traditional comments by dividing them into two categories– favorable and critical ones– since traditional comments on Ku's translation of Zhongyong always go to extremes. Based on previous comments, the present thesis gives some new insight into Ku's translation, asserting that it was a big success under his particular historical circumstance, but his intertextual approach is not advisable in translation practice in this global era since we are paying more attention to the differentials between Chinese and Western culture.