A Hermeneutic Approach To The Different English Versions Of The Peony Pavilion

Since the modern philosophical hermeneutics founded by Hans-Georg Gadamer mainly involved understanding, meaning and the relationship between readers and text, translation was found more inseparable from understanding and interpreting texts, which were the initial steps in any kind of translation, especially literary translation. Therefore, the introduction of hermeneutics into translation studies was of great importance for the development of translation theory and practice.Major principles in Gadamer's hermeneutics include: historicality of understanding, prejudice, fusion of horizons, effective history and conversational effect. This thesis, based on an analysis of the translations of culture-loaded words, allusions and verses in The Peony Pavilion, aimed at studying why there existed different versions produced by different translators from a hermeneutic approach. The English versions used are those of Cyril Birch, Wang Rongpei, and Zhang Guangqian. They all based on the Chinese version of The Peony Pavilion annotated by Xu Shuofang and Yang Xiaomei.In this thesis, after pointing out the relative advantages and disadvantages of the three English versions in specific cases, it drew the following explanations of different English rendering produced by different translators, which were open for discussion: the translators'different cultural background, the historicality of understanding and different prejudices. Hence, different translators must have adopted different translation strategies. In conclusion, it stressed that hermeneutic theories not only revealed the essence of translation by stating that it was an active process of creation, but also provided a new theoretical perspective for translation study, literary translation in particular.This thesis falls into three chapters. Introduction provides a brief history of the concept of hermeneutics, which plays a significant role in the translation field. In Chapter One, four aspects of culture-loaded words in The Peony Pavilion are analyzed and compared, namely from conventional expressions, Buddhism and Taoism, festivals, and examination system. Through comparison and analysis of different English versions of The Peony Pavilion, a conclusion can be derived easily that different translators tackle the cultural factors with different translation styles and principles. Translation and hermeneutics are closely related. The purpose of this chapter is to apply Gadamer's hermeneutic principles demonstrating the differences produced by different translators through comparison and analysis of the different translations of allusions in the three English versions of The Peony Pavilion used as examples in this thesis.Chapter Two makes a study into translations of allusions in different English versions of The Peony Pavilion. Allusions are categorized into four types: historical figures, legends, ancient stories and proper nouns. The author attempts to illustrate the fact that hermeneutics and translation are closely interrelated, and hermeneutics plays an essential role in translation. The translators'different cultural background, the differences exist in different translators'historicality of understanding and the differences exist in different translators'preconception and so on determined that different English versions of a Chinese classic would be generated inevitably.In Chapter Three, the focus is laid upon the translation on verses in The Peony Pavilion. It is known that rhythm is the perfect manifestation of poetry. In the three English versions of The Peony Pavilion, three translators adopted different translation techniques and different poetic forms. The author of this thesis attempts to relate the hermeneutic principles and translation, not only from the content, namely the cultural aspects tackling the culture-loaded words and allusions, but also from translators'different tackling in poetic forms.The last part is Conclusion. Hermeneutic principles play an important role in translation studies, namely providing theoretic basis for different English versions generated by different translators; enhancing the subjective role of translators. This thesis makes use of some hermeneutic concepts, such as"prejudice","prejudgment","horizons","fusion of horizons", and"prejudice in understanding"in order to explain that historicality of understanding is important in translation. Hermeneutics makes evident that translators should respect the original text, author and reader, but not to conform to them absolutely, which supports the notion that translation is a process of creativity involving the translator's subjective activity. More concerns on the close relation between hermeneutics and translation are desired.