A Study Of Liu Zhongde's Main Translation Thought

Liu Zhongde is a distinguished translator and translation theorist in contemporary China. Based upon the previous, fruits of research, this thesis delves into four main subjects of Liu's translation thought, trying to find out the origins, connotations, development, features, and significance, so as to obtain a clearer understanding of Liu's thinking on translation. Besides introduction and conclusion, it falls into five chapters.Introduction is a brief survey of Liu's translated works, academic papers, and monographs. In addition, the reason why the present study is carried out is made clear.Chapter One centers around Liu's three-character principle, namely, xin-da-qie. The theory attaches particular importance to the notion of source text-oriented "faithfulness," which originates largely from Liu's recognition of his professional ethics. It is also reflective of a strong sense of responsibility on the part of the translator-thinker and thus stands as a sharp contrast against random translation, scrambled translation, and plagiarism.As a further contemplation of qie, in Chapter Two, Liu dwells upon three questions: What is style? Is style translatable? If so, how to translate style? A case study is followed, through which Liu's insights, the two points of view—literary and linguistic—of representing the original style in particular, are proved to enlighten our translation practice and criticism.Chapter Three is devoted to Liu's speculation of the problem of literal translation and free translation. In a nutshell, the two methods are supplementary to each other with the former as primary whereas the latter secondary. Two points are brought into focus. The first is Liu's emphasis on literal translation, which gives a positive answer to the status of form in interlingual transfer. The second is that this kind of literal tendency, in our opinion, has much to do with one's perception of translation. To Liu, byretaining what is said and how it is said in the other tongue, literal translation is expected to spread the foreign culture, enrich the national language, and expand the receptors' horizon of knowledge.Chapter Four then intends to unfold Liu's view on translation of classical Chinese poetry. Liu's constant pursuit of the original beauty in meaning, in sound, and in form conforms to the "faithfulness" that he highly esteems.Chapter Five attempts a summation of three major contributions of Liu's translation thought as well as its revelations to further advancement of translation studies: to inherit, fuse, and develop;to treasure both theory and practice;to adopt interdisciplinary approaches;and to be dialectical with the controversies.It rounds off with the conclusion that Liu, with his theoretical reflections of academic value and practical significance, has made great contributions to the development and prosperity of China's translation cause. It is of much meaningfulness to have a systematic and profound study of Liu's main translation thought. Meanwhile, we sincerely hope that this thesis can be a modest spur to induce more efforts to explore the predecessors' treasure, theoretical or practical, so that we can learn from them and keep moving forward.