Lin Yutang’s Translation Of Confucian Classics From The Perspective Of Hermeneutics

As a world-famous literary translator，Lin Yutang is also renownedinternationally for his bilingual creation. His writing and literarytranslating career is highlighted by the couplet“One mind seeks thelearning of ancients and modems；two legs straddle the cultures of Eastand West”. He has translated a number of literary works all his life, andhas made an outstanding contribution for the Chinese culturaltransmission and has promoted the intercultural communication betweenthe West and China. Lin Yutang ever put forward his three standards oftranslation in accordance with his own experience of translation:“faithfulness”,“expressiveness”and“beauty”, and he thought thattranslation was a kind of art which was concentrated on the creativeactivity of the language transformation. Thus, how to interpret theoriginal meaning is the most important point during translating.Hermeneutics is a theory about understanding and interpretation,which is inevitably related to translation in their operation．At present theapplication of hermeneutics to translation has been studied broadly，butthe broadest application of key hermeneutic concepts in translation arefusion of horizons, pre-understanding and effective history proposed byGadamer. By taking Gadamer’s hemeneutic theories as the theoreticalbasis with special reference to fusion of horizons, pre-understanding and effective-history, this thesis makes a case study with Lin Yutang’sTranslation of Confucian Classics. And it aims at pointing out theinstructions of hermeneutics to translation studies through thecombination of theory and translation practice.This thesis consists of four chapters in addition to an introductionand a conclusion.The introduction briefly reviews the status and application ofhermeneutics in translation both at home and abroad and points out theclose relationship between hermeneutics and translation.Chapter one gives a brief introduction of the background oftranslation research from the perspective of Hermeneutics, whichincludes the domestic research and abroad research, and it mainlydiscusses the main achievements of the domestic and abroad experts’achievements in Hermeneutics study.Chapter two discusses researches concerning Hermeneutics andtranslation. Hermeneutics theory believes that translation is interpretation,and the translation concept of Hermeneutics breaks through thetraditional translation concept. Because it doesn’t emphasize the text andthe author’s purpose blindly, but rather concerning with the translator andreader’s horizons, which aims at the fusion of their horizons. It mainlydiscusses the relationship between hermeneutics and translation fromthese three aspects: fusion of horizons, pre-understanding and effective-history. And it also explains the translator’s subjectivity in theprocess of translating.Chapter three introduces Lin Yutang and his translation of ConfucianClassics. It focuses on Lin Yutang’s growing experience, culturalbackground and the fusion of Chinese and western horizons in histranslation , and it further points out that Lin Yutang’s translation conceptis a kind of cross-cultural interpretation.Chapter four is the main part, and it analyses Lin Yutang’s translationof Confucian Classics from the perspective of Hermeneutics. Though theapplication of the three principles of Hermeneutics in Lin’s translation, itarrives at the conclusion that Lin Yutang’translation of ConfucianClassics is impacted by the pre-understanding, and is carried out underthe principle of effective history, and the translation itself realizes thefusion of horizons between the author, translator and reader which fulfillshis purpose of cross-cultural interpretation.With analysis of Lin Yutang’s Translation of Confucian Classics byusing Hermeneutical theories including fusion of horizons,pre-understanding and effective-history，the author puts forward theinstruction of hermeneutics upon translation as follows. The process oftranslation the translators should make every effort to achieve fusion ofhorizons between the source text and the target readers. In order to havethe right pre-understanding to the original text, the translator must know the source languge and target language. And translation is not just the“faithfulness”and“equivalent”to the original author and text, but takesthe translator as the subject and pays close attention to the reader’sinterpretation and acceptance of the original text, so as to realize thetranslator’s cycle of re-creation; therefore, the translator’s subjectivitygets promoted. Furthermore, the effect of effective-history on translationcan not be ignored. Therefore, translation activities under the guidance ofphilosophical hermeneutics have explained the cross-cultural intentionmuch more better, which has promoted the translator’s subjectivity andrealized the intercultural communication of translation, therefore, it helpsto improve the influence of Chinese culture on the world and developnew perspectives on translation studies.