A Comparative Study On The Translations Of Major Concepts In Three English Versions Of The Analects

The Analects is one of the classics of the Confucian school that was recorded by Confucius' disciples, and disciples'disciples. It is described based on the quotation and literary form of dialogues. It records Confucius'and his disciples'words and deeds, including political views of Confucius, thought of logic, moral concepts and principles of education. The Analects has been translated into multiple languages by scholars from many countries, in which the English translations are numerous with the amount of more than twenty versions.The Author has chosen three famous English versions by James Legge, Arthur Waley, and Ku Hungming to analyze the key Confucian concepts. Through the establishment of the parallel corpus, searching the translations of ren, de, li, and junzi to obtain the frequency of each word and analyze the differences of each version. Secondly, this thesis employed the method of documentary research and case study to make a comparative study of key Confucian concepts. Finally, the author will explain the reasons behind the different versions of key Confucian concepts with the aid of the related translation theory, including Peter Newmark's semantic and communicative Translation, Hermeneutics, and Skopos Theory. This thesis can be divided into five parts. The first chapter is the introduction, including background of the research, aim and significance of the research, research questions, and structure of the thesis. The second chapter is literature review, introducing three English translations, the main comments, recent research on the key Confucian concepts, and some related translation theory. The third chapter is methodology, talking about the documentary research and case study, and writing procedures of the thesis. The fourth chapter is findings, attaining the anticipative result with the help of the methodology mentioned above. The chapter five is the discussions and conclusion.The author hopes that through analysis and study of key Confucian concepts in the three versions of the Analects by Legge, Waley, and Ku Hungming, the different translations' diversity and advantages can be objectively judged and contribute to the translation research in the future.