| Translation, in the light of Lefevere's theory, is a kind of rewriting, governed by factors such as ideology, patronage, poetics, etc., among which ideology is the most important one.Throughout the history of domestic and foreign translation, the influence of ideological manipulation of translation pervades the whole course of translation practice from the beginning to the end, which appears to be powerful or weak, implicit or explicit sometimes. Translation is closely related to the historical conditions under which it is conducted no matter what it is seen as a culture phenomenon, ideology movement or a technique. The concept, methods, models, standards and style of translation always change with the times. There are three translation peak periods existing in the Chinese history:translation of Buddhist scriptures from the Eastern Han to the Tang and the Song Dynasty, translation of science and technology in the Late Ming and the Early Qing Dynasty, and translation of Western literary works from the Opium War to May 4th. Translation motives, choices of source texts, translation strategies of each translation peak periods are all inevitably restricted and limited by contemporary social ideology, which clearly reflects ideological manipulation of translation.Yan Fu was a famous scholar and translator, who, taking the United Kingdom as his research subject, conducted researches on its way of becoming strong and powerful and explored the reason for its advanced political, economic and social systems. Bearing the ideal and goal of waking up the mass and rescuing the nation, enriching the country and strengthening its power in mind, Yan Fu translated more than ten kinds of works of philosophy, economics, sociology, law and logics successively, among which the most representative are the eight highly-praised social science works. Those translated works systematically introduced the valuable and advanced Western thought to China, brought fresh air to and broadened the horizon of the self-enclosed and out-dated Chinese ideological circle, and met the need of Chinese people for pursuing the truth of salvaging the country. As a well-known thinker and translator, Yan Fu has been the most discussed focus by the following translation circle. And his translation works and strategies have been often studied and debated. However, more researches on Yan Fu's translation need to be conducted under certain particular historical conditions. On the basis of studies on Yan Fu's translation, the thesis tries to interpret the relationship between ideology and translation from the outside factors of translation in order to illustrate the ideological manipulation in translation.Based on analysis of examples, the thesis is composed to demonstrate that ideology manipulates the entire process of translation. Firstly, the dominant ideology of the late Qing Dynasty places decisive restriction on Yan Fu's translation motives. The late Qing government was suffering from domestic trouble and foreign invasion and its sovereign was threatened to decline after the disastrous defeats of the two Opium Wars. The dominant ideology and cultural structure relying on Confucianism are both fettered the emergence of the new mode of production and hindered the development of productivity. The Reform Party advocated learning Western military and scientific technology in order to rescue the country. And this became gradually the dominant ideology of modern Chinese government. Deeply affected by the dominant ideology of that time, Yan Fu, as a progressive thinker and intellectual, conducted translation with clear political purpose:waking up the mass and rescuing the nation, making the country richer and strengthening its power to rescue the declining Qing Dynasty and keep up with the trend of the times. Secondly, ideology exerted great influence on the choice of source texts of Yan Fu's translation. With the purpose of salvaging the country, Yan Fu chose the typical and well-known social science works such as Evolution and Ethics, The Wealth and of Nations and A Short History of Politics as source texts in order to introduce advanced Western political, economic and social system, broaden the horizon of the confined Chinese intellectuals and rescue the country eventually. The choice of source texts of Yan Fu's translation certifies Lefevere's translation theory. Thirdly, ideology manipulates Yan Fu's translation strategies. In translation practice, the proposal of "faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance", his strategy of "paraphrased translation" and "pursuing elegance" all prove that translation is a kind of rewriting and ideology manipulates and restricts translation practice to a great degree.This research, applying Lefevere's ideological manipulation theory into Yan Fu's translation, will help us understand better the intrinsic nature of translation and the role played by ideology in translation, especially gain a better sense of translators' role acted in translation practice, cultural reforms and ideological revolutions. In the meantime, this application brings a new perspective of study to translation and lets us comprehend clearly how the outside factors of translation influence translation motives, the choice of source texts and translation strategies so as to evaluate and appreciate translation works in a more objective manner. |
