A Study On Translation Ethics From The Perspective Of Translation Variation As Observed In Tian Yan Lun By Yan Fu

Translation ethics has long been a subject that many scholars home and abroad have paid attention to. In2001, the Finnish scholar Andrew Chesterman published a paper titled "Proposal for a Hieronymic Oath" on the international magazine The Translator in which he put forward four models of translation ethics and instigated heated discussion. This paper intends to discuss the four translation ethics models with Tian Yan Lun as its reference material.Almost a century ago, Yan Fu, a famous Chinese scholar translated many western scientific works into Chinese, among which Tian Yan Lun is the most well-known. The way Yan Fu translated the books is very special at that time and still so at present. Many scholars have made abundant researches into the translation of Tian Yan Lun. In2002, Huang Zhonglian put forward a new translation theory, the Translation Variation Theory. We find that Yan Fu’s translation of Tian Yan Lun can be explained by the Translation Variation Theory, which brings us a new insight into translation and translation ethics.This paper adopts the four translation ethics models proposed by Andrew Chesterman as its theoretical basis to explore the translation ethics from the angle of translation variation.Since2001, domestic scholars have made abundant researches on translation ethics, almost all of which are based on the study of complete translation. Few scholars have discussed translation ethics from the point of view of translation variation theory out of their ignorance of the fact that abundant translation variation practices have been performed in our real life. Whether translation variation theory will shed new light on further studies of translation ethics is the attempt made by this paper.This paper has six chapters. The first chapter is a brief introduction to Yan Fu and Tian Yan Lun. The second chapter is a literature review as it summarizes the previous researches into Tian Yan Lun and translation ethics. The third chapter is the theoretical basis as it provides an introduction to two theories--translation ethics and translation variation theory respectively. The fourth chapter is to discuss Yan Fu’s translation methods in his version of Tian Yan Lun. With the discussion we get from Chapter Four, Chapter Five discusses the translation ethics from the point of view of translation variation theory. The last chapter is the conclusion. It’s found that the current four translation ethics models are exclusive of the translation variation theory. The translation variation theory provides a new angle to further study translation ethics and requires more studies from other scholars.