Evolution Of The Application Of Domestication And Foreignization In The Translation Of The Six Chapters Of A Floating Life

"Fu Shen Liu Ji"(the “Book’’, literary translation of the name is “Six Chapters of aFloating Life”) was written in the early1800’s by Shen Fu, an unsuccessful Yamensecretary, painter and businessman. The Book is Shen Fu’s autobiography recorded severalimportant fragments of his vagrant life, and the main stream of the Book is the tragic lovestory between Shen Fu and his wife, Chen Yun. Being influenced by his contemporarywriting style, Shen Fu organized the structure of the Book in a quite unique way. Todayonly four chapters of the Book are surviving, namely, Gui Fang Ji Le (闺房记乐, Delightsof Marriage), Xian Qing Ji Qu (闲情记趣, Charms of Idleness), Kan Ke Ji Chou (坎坷记愁, Sorrows of\hardship) and Lang You Ji Kuai （浪游记快, pleasure of roaming）. Thesefour chapters are characterized of four kinds of emotions in the memoirs of Shen Fu, i.e.,“love”,“idleness”,“sorrow” and “roaming”. The time and events mentioned in eachchapter scattered and staggered with each other, and we find no strictly chronological tracein the narration. Also, although Shen Fu’s language is vivid and realistic, he deliberatelyused classical languages full of allusions and quotations instead of oral languages popularin his era. Therefore, the Book itself, in views of narration structure and language, isdifficult for the western readers to understand and receive; the existence of the culturaldifferences poses a great challenge to the translators.Despite these challenges,"Six Chapters of a Floating Life," is a touching story for itssincere emotion and the Chinese literati taste and attracted many translators who wish toshare their own enjoyment of the Book with Western readers through their translation.Today there are four English translations of the Book, respectively published in the yearsof1935,1960,1980and2011. The translators of the four translations are from differentbackground, or Chinese great linguistic master, or amateur translator, or foreign scholar ofChinese literature. The Four publications cover a great age span, the understanding of thereader and the translator of the original text has undergone significant changes. Althoughthe original text is the same, the translations are of their own characteristics. It’s alsointeresting to notice the coincidence that the Book was re-translated almost every thirty years, which creates valuable material for studying "retranslation" of classics.The studies of the English translation of Fu Sheng Liu Ji are relatively isolated. They mayalone focus on one most popular translation by Lin Yu Tang, or may make comparison ofone to two translation versions from microscopic aspects such as vocabulary, grammar andtranslation skills. There lacks a study of each translation from the angle of culturalexchanges. Therefore, the author of this thesis expects a breakthrough by analyzing themethod of utilization of "domestication" and "foreignization" in the four translationversions. This thesis came to the conclusion that the translation works of this Bookexperienced and “orbit” from foreignization to domestication, and then return back toforeignization in an eighty years time span. Such evolution of translation shows theWestern translator’ gradually improved reception and respect of the Chinese culturalelements while translating Chinese literary works.