A Study On Aphorisms Of Confucius Edited-translated By Lin Yutang

As a great interpreter of the East to the West, lin Yutang's translation theory and practice have finally become a hot topic in China's translation circle since the beginning of the 1990s. However, due to his complicated artistic experiences and profound knowledge about both Chinese and western cultures, there are still some issues unsolved in exploring the uniqueness of this controversially great master's translated works. Up to now, researchers' achievements since the 1990s are mainly concentrated on the basic discussion on Lin's translation theory, the summarization of Lin's translation activities, and the analysis on Lin's translated versions of some specific Chinese classical works among which the study of Six Chapters of a Floating Life is most often seen. But his most important contribution to the Chinese translation history is seldom studied. His greatest achievements lie in his edition-translation of the Chinese classical works, which are his great efforts to introduce some important Chinese cultural images and literary works to the Western readers in a popularized way.The author of this thesis tends to elaborate how Lin Yutang's edition-translation of Aphorisms of Confucius in The Wisdom of Confucius, reconstructs a new image of the Chinese sage — Confucius by adopting different translation strategies.The emergence and development of target/culture-oriented translation theories offer the possibility of re-assessing Lin Yutang and his edition-translation. The re-assessment of lin Yutang and his translations in this study is based on target/culture-oriented translation theories, which emerged in the 1970s. Target/culture-oriented translation theories focus on the mutual influence between a translation and its target culture, especially on the influence of a translation on the target culture and readers as a criterion for successful translation rather than examining whether the target text is faithful to the source text, as in the traditional linguistic approach. These target/culture-oriented theories can effectively explain lin Yutang's edition translation, as Lin Yutang translated with the needs of the target culture and readers in mind.Adopting target/culture-oriented translation theories, this thesis examines Lin Yutang's translations in a cross-cultural context. Lin Yutang based his translations on the needs for the target culture and readers of that time, which was clearly embodied in his choice of and response to the original works. The introductions that he wrote for his translations illustrate the new cultural factors and image that Lin Yutang wanted to instill into target readers' minds.In presenting Confucius as a man of humour, wisdom and compassion, whichdeviates from the established didactic image in the western readers' minds, Lin Yutang resorts to different translation strategies. Selecting the passages from Lunyu is one way of shuffling out those passages denoting stiffened feudal Confucian doctrines. In regrouping those selected passages, Lin Yutang followed the inherent coherence of the original text, adding sectional headings to each section. These strategies make the edition-translation more adaptable to the Western readers'reading habit.Lin Yutang's edition-translation of Aphorisms of Confucius has been well received in the target culture. In brief, this study clarifies Lin Yutang's contribution in introducing the Chinese classical works, Lunyu and the cultural image of Confucius to the Western readers. His edition-translation is an apt way to introduce Chinese classical works in a popularized way.