Gu Hongming's English Translation Of The Confucian Classics In The Light Of An Approach To Translation As Adaptation And Selection

Gu Hongming was a celebrated scholar and translator between the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of Republic of China. More than ten years of study in the West furnished him with a systematic and profound knowledge of the Western culture. However, after returning to China, he became a pious advocator of traditional Chinese culture, especially the Confucian culture. In order to make the Western readers understand the true spirit of Confucianism and change the Western prejudice against traditional Chinese culture, he chose to translate the Confucian classics including Lun Yu, Zhong Yong and Da Xue into English, thus became the first Chinese translating the Confucian classics into English and his translation has exerted great influence upon the later translators. His excellent manipulation of English made his version win wide acceptance in the Western world, thus making an indispensable contribution to the dissemination of the Confucian culture, and the cross-cultural communications between China and the Western countries. However, because of some historical reasons, Gu Hongming's English translation of the Confucian classics didn't get the due attention. With the uninterrupted introduction of contemporary Western translation theories in the late 30 years, his English translation of the Confucian classics has attracted the increasing attention of translation scholars. With the help of multiple theoretical perspectives of contemporary Western translation theories, they have carried out a relatively objective and systematic description of Gu Hongming's English translation of the Confucian classics and gained lots of accomplishments.The cultural turn in translation study gave great momentum to the study on translators, hence helping to bring about Hu Gengshen's monograph on the study of translators—An Approach to Translation as Adaptation and Selection. Its central idea is to treat translation as adaptation and selection done by the translator who dominates translation. This eco-translational paradigm with its translator-centeredness gives new explanations for translation process, principle, method and the criterion of translation criticism.From the above perspective, the thesis probes into Gu Hongming's multi-dimensional adaptation and selection to adapt to the translational eco-environment of English translation of the Confucian classics, with a view to providing enlightenment for today's English translation of traditional Chinese classics. As for the translator's adaptation, the thesis makes a detailed analysis of his bilingual and bicultural competence and his ideology that adapt to the translational eco-environment of English translation of the Confucian classics. His particular ideology mainly derives from his early life experience, educational background, and cultural attitudes. As for the translator's selections, the thesis points out that Gu Hongming's adaptive selection of domestication at macro level is the result of his adaptation to the translational eco-environment of English translation of the Confucian classics. Then the thesis makes a comprehensive analysis of his adaptive selections at micro level, concentrated on the linguistic, cultural and communicative dimensions.The conclusion points out that a translation is not just a language activity but an ecological activity. The translator's decisions in translation process must adapt to the corresponding translational eco-environment. Hu Gengshen's approach to translation as adaptation and selection provides a new perspective for the study on Gu Hongming's English translation of the Confucian classics and for translation criticism.