A Comparative Study Of Three Chinese Versions Of The Good Earth:from The Perspective Of Gadamer’s Philosophical Hermeneutics

Hermeneutics is a theory on the understanding and interpretation of meaning, the development of it from theological hermeneutics gradually to modern philosophical hermeneutics has undergone a long process. Translation, literary translation in particular, is the art of understanding and expression of meaning in essence. Thus, modern philosophical hermeneutics sheds light on literary translation. This thesis makes a comparative study on the three Chinese version of The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck from the perspective of hermeneutics. On the basis of its key principles such as historicity of understanding, prejudice and fusion of horizons, a series of issues relevant are discussed as follows:ideology, attitudes of translators, fusion between languages and culture filtering, the subjectivity of translator, etc.According to Gadamer, the interpreter and the interpreted are both historical. The interpreted is the product of history and, meanwhile, the interpreter is under the influence of ideology. The historicity of understanding results in prejudice, which is the precondition of understanding. It has great impact on the translator’s attitude and strategy. Because of the historicity of understanding, the translator and the text each have distinctive horizon, and the translation process is the fusion of horizons between the translator and the author. This process, reflected in both language and culture, requires the subjectivity of translator. But the translator’s subjectivity is limited and restrained by many factors.From the textual comparison of different Chinese versions of The Good Earth, this thesis concludes that firstly, the interpretation of a certain text is diversified. Different time and perspective produce various interpretations. Thus the existence of many Chinese version is rational and of great significance, and hermeneutics provides a new perspective on the vicissitude and development of the Chinese versions. Moreover, this paper proves that philosophical hermeneutics is still applicable and illuminative in analysis of translation within the same culture, as most research deals with the trans-cultural translation studies. Secondly, it is a new attempt to study on Pearl S. Buck and her work in the field of translation against the backdrop of philosophical hermeneutics, since many studies have been carried out from the perspective of post-colonialism, culture communication and feminism. We expect more in-depth exploration on Pearl S. Buck and her works.