A Study Of The Three English Versions Of Yijing From The Perspective Of Rewriting Theory

Translation is the most ancient and complicated cultural phenomena in the history of communication of mankind. From the17th century many different kinds of English translation of Yijing had been appearing, which brought very important influence to the world. Under the context of "cultural turn" in the field of translation studies, Lefevere’s "rewriting theory" is the framework to the thesis. The three representative English translations of Yijing are the research objects:James Legge, a British missionary, got his I Ching Book of Changes published in1882(Legge’s version); German missionary Richard Wilhelm got his German translation of Yijing published in1924, then it was rendered as an English one by American Carry F. Baynes, The I Ching or Book of Changes in1950(W/B’s version); Chinese scholars Wang Rongpei and Ren Xiuhua’s Book of Change was published in1993.(W/R’ version)According to the rewriting theory put forward by Andre Lefevere, translation is the rewriting of the source text by the translator. Translation cannot take place in a vacuum. Inevitably it will be influenced by many factors such as ideology, poetics and patronage. The study on the three English versions of Yijing begins at the macro level. Translator’s individual ideology and the poetics in translations and the patron’s forces will be analyzed. And the manipulation of ideology, poetics and patronage on translation is also discussed. Successively, at the micro level, the translating of some culture-loaded words such as temporal word, place names, allusion and appellations, etc will be compared and analyzed.Legge’s version intends to assist the expansion of Western missionary work into China in the second half of the19th century, it is filled with religious features by literal approach and annotation. In addition to serve the religious purpose, it served as a pioneering work for Sinology. The patrons to Legge’s version are London Missionary Society, tradesman and professor Muller, so the patronage is differentiated; W/B’s version aims to spread the Chinese wisdom to Western scholars to save the degrading Western civilization in the first half of the20th century, it enjoys more philosophical features in Yijing. Literal approach and interpretation are adopted. The patrons to W/B’version are Bollingen Foundation and psychologist Jung, the patronage is undifferentiated; W/R’s version is the pursuit of Chinese scholars for a version by themselves rather than by foreigners at the end of the20th century, it mainly takes the paraphrase to convey the original implied meaning when literal approach cannot make it work. The patrons to W/R"s version are Shanghai Foreign Language Press and the domestic readers. The patronage is undifferentiated.By the case study, it is proved that the ideology, poetics and patronage indeed influence the translation of Yijing. Translation as a rewriting, the translated work could be rewritten through the big gap of time and space.