A Study On Zheng Zhenduo's Translation Thoughts

ZhengZhenduo, a literary master and preeminent scholar in China, was well versed in learning of both China and Western countries. He reached remarkable achievements in many aspects of academic field; his studies ranged from philology to aesthetics, from the history of literature to the history of art; and his discourses on literary criticism and archaeology studies have drawn widespread attention among Chinese intellectuals and scholars in the literary circle.However, Zheng Zhenduo's remarkable contributions to the cause of Chinese translation are often neglected, as his translation works and translation thoughts were wide scattered almost in fragments. Very few people in the translation circle have made a research on Zheng Zhenduo's translation works, and even fewer people have made comprehensive, systematic and scientific studies on his translation thoughts. In fact, Zheng Zhenduo was not only a patriot, a litterateur, an artist, an archaeologist and an editor, but also a prominent translator. He not only translated and introduced lots of foreign literary works but also made insightful statements on the issues of translation theories. His main contributions to Chinese translation cause are his translation thoughts in the 1920's and his life-long devotion to advocate translation practices.Starting from the May Fourth Movement, Zheng Zhenduo was engaged in literary translation and never ceased to translate in his whole life. During the early period of the 1920's, he translated lots of Russian and Indian literary works. In the latter part of the 1920's and the beginning of the 1930's he translated the Greek and Rome literary works. Besides, his translation of the literary works from some oppressed countries filled in the gap in developing Chinese new literature. Either from the perspective of quantity or quality, Zheng Zhenduo made tremendous contribution both to Chinese translation causes and the development of Chinese New Literature. Apart from the prosperous translated works, Zheng Zhenduo made great contributions to the development of translation theories. He provided quite mature viewpoints about some disputable issues on translation, such as the issue of translatability, the transfer of the style, the criteria of translation, the relation between translation and creation, translation criticism and etc. He made expatiations on the aim and function of translation, the principles and criteria of translation, and the methods and techniques of translation. Those comments and statements on translation not only worked at his time, but remain valid at present.This thesis aims to conduct a systemic study on Zheng's translation achievements by researching on his translation practices and summarizing the features of his translation thoughts and their relevance to the western translation theories with the hope of making this unknown contemporary translator known by the public.