A Study Of Yan Fu's Creative Treason In Translating Evolution And Ethics Based On Skopostheorie

Tian Yan Lun (the Chinese version of Evolution and Ethics) is the first and most influential one among the eight famous Western social scientific works Yan Fu translated, which not only helped establish his reputation as an enlightenment thinker, but also that as a famous translator and translation theorist. In the Routine Remarks on the Translation of Tian Yan Lun, Yan Fu puts forward his three-character translation principle well-known as"xin (ä¿¡), da (è¾¾), ya (é›…)". It was for the first time that a systematical criterion was raised in Chinese translation history, which has exerted a far-reaching influence on later translation practice in China. Meanwhile, the criterion has often been taken to examine his own translations. As a result, Tian Yan Lun becomes an object of criticism, for it deviates from the source text so much and violates"xin".However, influenced by the"cultural turn", translation studies nowadays is no longer constrained by traditional equivalence-oriented theories but takes more extra-textual factors into account. With the study of translator's subjectivity going further, creative treason as an inevitable characteristic of translation, has been receiving more and more attention. As translator's subjective efforts for better translation, creative treason is undoubtedly a purposeful action. It happens that Skopostheorie holds translation is a purposeful action based on a source text and that'end justifies means'. Therefore, as a breakthrough to the traditional equivalence-oriented theories, Skopostheorie can offer a dynamic and multi-dimensional perspective for the study of translator's creative treason in translating.Given the fact that Yan Fu is well versed in both Chinese and Western learning, the present author believes that the deviation of Tian Yan Lun from the source text is a purposeful creative treason on the part of Yan Fu, but so far few scholars have ever made a systematic, in-depth study on the translation of Tian Yan Lun from the angle of creative treason based on Skopostheorie.Taking all the above factors into consideration, this thesis adopts the approach of the descriptive translation studies to probe into the inevitability, rationality and significance of Yan Fu's creative treason in translating Evolution and Ethics within the framework of Skopostheorie, with a view to making available an objective understanding and reassessment of his creative treason adopted in translating Tian Yan Lun and the translation of Tian Yan Lun itself. To achieve that, firstly, in light of the claim in Skopostheorie that Skopos have various possibilities in the field of translation which can be defined or influenced by the target situation, the initiator, the translator or the target readers, considering it was Yan Fu himself who defined the translation Skopos because of his dual role as initiator and translator and with reference to related historical and literary data, the present thesis firstly clarifies Yan Fu's translation Skopos as salvation, enlightenment, acceptability and intelligibility; secondly, it accounts for Yan Fu's creative treason, i.e. its inevitability, by analyzing how the four translation Skopos determined his adoption of creative treason in various aspects of the form and content since Skopostheorie holds that the Skopos of the overall translation action determine the translation process, the choice of the translation strategy in particular; thirdly, it makes an evaluation of Yan Fu's creative treason, that is, it expounds the rationality and significance of Yan Fu's creative treason on the basis of the three rules and translation criterion stipulated by Skopostheorie.Finishing the present study, we can find:(1) Creative treason is the major macro translation strategy Yan Fu adopted in translating Evolution and Ethics. It guided him to translate with addition, deletion and adaptation, thus making Tian Yan Lun deviate from the source text so much in many aspects of the form, content and thus the textual function;(2) Yan Fu's creative treason was not chosen and operated at his own free will but determined by his translation Skopos and influenced by the social-historical context, his individual political and cultural ideology and intended readership: as a patriotic translator at the time when China was in an unprecedented crisis, Yan Fu hoped to warn and enlighten the scholar-officials to devote themselves to the salvation of the race and nation by learning from the Western learning through a translation easily acceptable and intelligible to them. Driven by the very translation Skopos, Yan Fu took creative treason; in return, Tian Yan Lun became a book with abundant information and presented in a reader-friendly style and appealing, convincing tone and has exerted great influence on the then society, which could be regarded as the functional fulfillment of his translation Skopos and a reflection of the significance of his creative treason.