An Attempt To Reconstruct The Chinese National Cultural Identity

Ku Hungming is an outstanding scholar and translator mastering in Sino-Western cultures of the late Qing Dynasty. He is the first Chinese that has independently and completely rendered into English Lun Yu, Zhong Yong and Da Xue of the Confucian classics. And Ku's translation has not only broken the monopoly secured by the Westerners in the field of "introducing Chinese learning into the West" for hundreds of years, but also contributed much to the promotion of the cultural exchange between China and the West in the modern history. However, in the domestic research circle, too much attention so far has been restricted to the studies of Ku's life experience, social activities, cultural thoughts and so forth, which leads to the neglect of in-depth and systematic studies on his translation activities. Among the papers published so far on the research into Ku Hungming, just a few focus their discussions on his translation. And most of them center on the analysis of Ku's translation techniques, while few touch upon the social and cultural background in which the translated texts were produced.In view of this, the thesis applies postcolonial theory concerned with power differentials and power struggles between different cultures to the examination of Ku Hungming's translation activities, in the hope of bringing some new hints to the research into Ku's translation. It points out that in the late Qing Dynasty when China got semi-colonized, Ku's devotion to translating the Confucian works and introducing the traditional Chinese culture into the West fundamentally served the persistent cultural claim of his whole life, that is, the excellent Chinese culture deserved respect and admiration instead of prejudice and distortion from the Western hegemonic countries. Enlightened by the enunciation about cultural identity involved in postcolonial theory, the thesis, through an exploration into his two translated texts of Lun Yu and Zhong Yong, further illustrates that Ku's translation of the Confucian classics is actually an attempt to reconstruct the Chinese national cultural identity in the world. As far as the establishment of cultural identity is concerned, three aspects should be taken into consideration, that is, role location, self identification and others' approval. Within the framework constructed based on these three points, the thesis, which aims to conduct an examination of Ku Hungming's translation of the Confucian classics in a relatively comprehensive and systematic manner, elaborates Ku's attempt to reconstruct the Chinese national cultural identity in the following aspects: firstly, Ku made up his mind to be the spokesman for China and Chinese civilization, and tried to subvert the distorted role of Chinese culture located by the West by taking the translation activities; secondly, through translation Ku exerted great efforts to reestablish the splendid image of Chinese literature and culture by highlighting the peculiar value of the Confucian classics and eliminating the West's misunderstanding and prejudice; and finally, Ku deliberately reduced the "foreignness" of the translated texts and displayed the similarities between the Sino-Western cultures in some aspects to win the European readers' understanding and approval of Chinese culture. Thus the thesis argues that Ku's translation of the Confucian classics is of great social and historical significance, for it articulates active resistance against the Western culture hegemony on one hand, and saves the loss of the traditional Chinese culture to some extent on the other. In addition, an insight into Ku's translation can benefit the undertaking of introducing the Chinese classics to the outside world in the contemporary period. At last, the thesis suggests that the research into Ku Hungming's translation needs to be further carried on in the future.