Lin Yutang And Lin Wusun's English Versions Of Lun Yu

With China's role in the world stage becoming increasingly prominent, more and more people are beginning to be fascinated by traditional Chinese culture, which has a history of more than five thousand years. The essence of Chinese culture is Confucianism, and it is one of the most precious treasures the Chinese nation has dedicated to the whole mankind. Until now, Confucian doctrine has influenced Chinese culture for more than two thousand years. Lun Yu or The Analects is the masterpiece of Confucianism, and in China, it has an incomparable and profound influence on different generations of Chinese people. Therefore, in order to promote traditional Chinese culture in the world, the translation of Lun Yu has become an essential bridge.Since the end of the sixteenth century, western missionaries and scholars have tried to introduce the Confucian ideas to the western world. Now. more than 300 years have passed. and during these centuries, many English versions of Lun Yu have been published, but they are different from one another because of translators diverse historical and cultural backgrounds, purposes of translation and the influences of some other aspects. Many Chinese scholars have made a lot of researches on relevant subjects. But these researches mainly concentrate on the quality of translations or the comparison among several versions. This thesis will focus on the translator's responsibility, make a comparative study of Lin Yutang and Lin Wusun-two language master's versions of Lun Yu in different stages of time, thus making a further discussion of translator's responsibility in translating the Chinese classics.This thesis consists in five parts. The first part is Introduction, which clarifies the theme of the paper.the author's motivation to write this paper, the research objective, the research methodology and the literature review. The second part introduces the concept of translator's responsibility. At any time in history, the translator takes many responsibilities during the translating process. In the world today, the translator's cultural responsibility seems especially important. The third part, the main body of this thesis, selects some typical examples from The wisdom of Confucius and Getting to Know Confucius—A New Translation of The Analects, and makes some comparative studies from the perspective of translator's responsibility. The fourth part introduces respectively Lin Yutang and Lin Wusun's living backgrounds, and points out the translator should take over the responsibility of disseminating traditional Chinese culture in different stages of time. The fifth part is Conclusion. The author briefly reviews the arguments of the thesis and points out the practical value and theoretical significance of the research to translation and translation studies. The author points out that the translation of Chinese classics is a complicated project. It requires a penetrating understanding and grasp of the original and its cultural connotations. Meanwhile, it demands an excellent mastery of the target language. None of the factors could be neglected. With the development of opening up and reform policy and the influential strength of China, the outputting of Chinese culture has made "being understood and being accepted" become an exigent demand to the Chinese language. During the translations of Chinese classics, translators must remember their cultural responsibility, and can add some explanatory notes which haven't appeared in the original text to make the reader have a better understanding, only in this way can translators enable the readers have a true knowledge of the essence of Chinese culture.