On Gu Hongming's Translation Of Confucian Classics: From The Perspectives Of The Translator's Subjectivity And Norms Of Target Cultural System

Gu Hongming was a very influential literary figure in the world as well as a famous political conservative at the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of Republic of China. When most of the Chinese intellects turned to the west to import western science, technology, culture and thoughts to China, Gu Hongming, who had received a complete and systematic western education, tried his best to introduce Chinese traditional culture to the west and became the first Chinese to translate Confucian classics into English. However, his translation of Confucian classics is"unfaithful"according to the principle of equivalence assumed in the traditional translation theories. The cultural turn in translation studies laid more stress on the translator's subjectivity and translation norms and offered new perspectives in translation studies. So the thesis tends to give a reasonable explanation of Gu Hongming's particular translation activity from the perspective of interaction between translator's subjectivity and translation norms.Translation being a complicated activity, the translator is the subject of translation and his life experience, ideology, empathy and even personality may be involved in the translation process and influence the shaping of the translation purpose, the choice and interpretation of the source text. However, in order to have the target text accepted by the target readers, the translator has to consider the norms of the target cultural system and operate the text under the constraints of those norms. The translator's subjectivity is consequently restricted. After a detailed analysis of Gu Hongming's particular life experience, his linguistic and literary competence, ideology and norms of the target cultural system at the time, the author of the thesis argues that Gu's particular translation activity is the result of interaction between his play of subjectivity and constraints of norms of the target cultural system. On the one hand, he was absorbed in the Confucian culture and hated deeply the defects of the western culture, so he chose to introduce Chinese culture into the west by translating Confucian classics; on the other hand, he had to abide by the norms of the target cultural system in order to have his translation easily accepted and understood by the English readers. As a result, he adopted domestication strategy in the actual operation of the texts.