A Study Of Ku Hung-ming’s Translation Of The Discourses And Sayings Of Confucius: A Perspective Of Manipulation Theory

In the late19th century, western powers invaded China in the name of“enlightenment”. Meanwhile, some western sinologists and translators distorted theimage of the Chinese people, because of their national prejudice and superiority. As aresult, the dissemination of translation versions of the Chinese classics and the articleswritten by the western sinologists and translators about the Chinese culture resulted inthe western people’s misunderstanding of China.Ku Hung-ming is known as the maverick genius, distinguished scholar andcelebrated translator during the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. Heintended to present the real Chinese civilization and its value to the west, in order togain their understanding of and respect for the Chinese civilization. Therefore, hehimself was determined to translate Confucianism, which best represented the wisdomof the Chinese people, into English. The year of1898witnessed the publication of hisEnglish translation The Discourses and Sayings of Confucius: A New SpecialTranslation Illustrated by Goethe and Other European Writers by Kelly and Walsh, Ltd.,a Shanghai-based publisher. He hoped that the educated and wise Englishmen couldremove their prejudice against the Chinese people, and change their negative attitudestoward China after reading this translation version. Considering his special positionboth in the contemporary society and in the history of cultural exchange between Chinaand western countries, Ku Hung-ming’s translation of The Discourses and Sayings ofConfucius is well worth researching.This thesis, based on the Manipulation Theory, attempts to analyze the influenceof ideology, poetics and patronage on Ku Hung-ming and his various translationstrategies when he endeavors to realize his translation purpose, by placing histranslation of The Discourses and Sayings of Confucius under the Chinesesocial–cultural background, and elucidate that translators in a given culture and society manipulated by the three factors usually rewrite and manipulate the original text, so asto make it conformable to the mainstream of ideology and poetics.In order to make his translation version better accepted by western readers, KuHung-ming adopted various translation strategies to rewrite the original texts, such asquotations from the great men in Europe, omission of proper names and culturalanalogy between the east and the west when he is translating The Discourses andSayings of Confucius. The thesis concludes that since his translation conforms to themainstream of ideology and poetics in English-speaking countries, it has been wellreceived by the western readers and the western society. To some extent, KuHung-ming’s translation publicized the Chinese culture effectively, and won the powerof speaking for China then whose sovereign rights were under humiliating terms fromthe west.