A Comparative Study Of English Versions Of Zhongyong

Zhongyong is one of A Book of Rites, and was extracted by Zhuxi. Zhongyong, with The Great of Learning, the Analects of Confucius and Mencius, is made up of The Four Books, which became necessary books in selecting talents during from the southern song dynasty to Ming and Qing dynasty. Zhongyong is a short one amongst Confucian classics, and contains abundant connotation inside. Wing-tsit Chan pointed out that Zhongyong was probably one of most philosophical ancient Confucian literature. Zhongyong inherits and develops the Confucian ideas, and as the most philosophical Confucian classics, Zhongyong English translation text plays a vital role in spreading Confucian ideas and Chinese ancient philosophy thoughts.Throughout existing Zhongyong English translation texts, the author finds that the translators have misunderstanding to the extent and miss to realize its profound connotation. For comparison and study for various Zhongyong English translation texts, there is a few work and papers, whose study mainly stays focused on translation thought, translation motivation and translation strategy of the translator. According to Zhongyong English translation texts from James Legge, Kung hungming and Chan, Wing-tsit, the paper makes comparison and studies important chapters and core concept words translation from translation texts, summarizes the characters of different translation texts, probes into the reasons of translation text characters formation,and finally attempts to find out the most appropriate translation approach in translating Zhongyong, so that Zhongyong plays a better role in trans-culture exchange.During comparison and study for three Zhongyong English translation texts, the paper will value understanding and translation extent of philosophy thoughts and culture content included in Zhongyong. For one thing, the translator has understanding on important chapters and sentences of Zhongyong, for example,"Xing refers to the nature that the god endows, Dao refers to the rules that people abide by, and Jiao refers to develop the Dao, the moral respects morality and study, broad and profound and impartial. For the other thing, comparing the translator’s understanding extent and translation approaches for core concept words, such as zhongyong, cheng, Junzi, and so on. The core concept is soul and essence of classics, whether core concept’s translation is right or not determines all thought convey of work.Through comparison and study on main contents and core concepts of three Zhongyong g English translation texts, the author found that James Legge’s Zhongyong translation text characterizes solid academy and rich Christianity spirit, Ku Hungming’s Zhongyong translation text characterizes strong moral culture propaganda and vividly uses western ideas and teachings to translate Chinese culture, Wing-tsit Chan’s Zhongyong English translation text shows philosophical thought of Zhongyong and better combines academy and popularity to make more progress than past.The translation text has aforesaid characters on basis of the following reasons; firstly, there is different extent understanding about Zhongyong, secondly, the translator’s choice for translation motivation and strategy became an important factor.Based on systematic comparison study for Zhongyong English translation text which is done by James Legge, Ku Hungming and Wing-tsit Chan and in light of Confucian classic English translation text such as the Analects of Confucius and Mencius, we found that there are three wrong places on current classic English translation:firstly, neglecting great differences between Chinese and western culture and using western concept to translate Chinese culture; secondly, disregarding Chinese culture core concept connotation abundance and uncertainty and conveying wrong and one-sided meaning; thirdly, effecting subjective assumption and overlooking thought inherit and development between classics, following above-mentioned materials, as we translate Confucian classic, we should pay attention to the following points:firstly, recognizing the disadvantage of using western thought to translate Chinese culture and making Chinese culture independence and personality; secondly, valuing reading for original literature and understanding culture connotation contained in classic; finally, taking light of different translation and employing flexible and effective translation strategy.The translation is replay of the version, and due to subjective and objective factors during translation, it leads to translation texts diversity which is not avoided during classic translation. However, through comparison and study for different translation texts, we can learn from other’s strong points to offset one’s weakness. Probing and studying applicable experience and approaches in classic English translation and expecting concise and feasible English translation texts of Chinese classic such as Zhongyong, which is the purpose of the paper.