Translation, Europeanization And Vernacularization--The Process And Influence Of Translated Literature's Entry Into Middle School Chinese Textbooks In Early 1920s

Mr. Pingyuan Chen once put forward the following argument with concern to the origination and dissemination of literature: "We should take into consideration these four interrelated and meanwhile independent aspects of newspaper, book publishing, textbook editing and compilation as well as readers research". Studies about newspaper and book publishing with regard to their literary significance began relatively earlier and prove to be fruitful; studies about textbook compilation and readers are comparatively much less sufficient with few research productions available.The evolution and transformation of modern Chinese grammatical system under the influence of foreign languages, especially that of European languages, is academically called "Europeanization". This phenomenon largely appeared among intellectuals and is intensively reflected in their translation works. Not only the Europeanized linguistic style impacted spoken Chinese, but was ultimately blended into the written language. The language used in translated literary works is the most typical Europeanized written language, which was then imitated by other writing forms and consequently had a direct impact on the production of original modern Chinese literature. Once the Europeanized language, with translated literature as a representative, entered Chinese textbooks, it would inevitably have a long and far-reaching influence.Based on the considerations mentioned above, this paper is aimed at pursuing and examining the production mechanism and distribution channels from the perspective of translated literary works entering Chinese textbooks. The author discusses the environment and conditions under which translated literature entered junior middle school Chinese textbooks in early 1920s, traces the evolving role of translated literature from "translation" to "Europeanization" and then to "vernacularization", and illustrates the functions that translated literature played in the textbooks at that time, such as "full-time literary role" and "laying the foundation of modern literary notions".The first two chapters are focused on how translated literature merged with New Literature Revolution and Mandarin Movement through translation methods aiming at achieving clarity and fluency, and how this process made the preparations for translated literary works entering textbooks.The third chapter discusses the 1920 Education Ministry reform, which paved the way for the sequent Chinese textbook modification and revision and provided opportunities on the institutional level for translated literature to be embodied into textbooks.The fourth chapter deals with the actual existence and classification of translated works in textbooks, and examines the reference books and teaching methods. The author takes great advantage of People's Education Press's the-largest-in-mainland textbook collections, which contributed significantly to the completion of this paper.The conclusion part briefly reviews the role of translated literature entering into textbooks and its impact on modern Chinese literature. The author presents the ideathat baihua (written-in-vocal) newspapers and magazines were not the single medium and vehicle of the nationalist enlightenment movement in early 20 century and, textbooks played a more fundamental and extensive role in that course. Because modern locally originated vernacular literary works were rarely included into textbooks, "translated literature" played a "full-time literary role" along with the dissemination of textbooks and made substantial contribution to the establishment of "modern literature notion". This paper also points out that remarks, commentaries and explanatory words played even greater part then "new novels" did in the enlightenment movement, which was often ignored or treated as neglectable by previous scholars.