A Comparative Study Of Two English Versions Of Biancheng-from The Perspective Of Translation Ethics

After the first proposal of the concept "translation ethics" in1981by the French translator and philosopher Antoine Berman, some scholars both home and abroad such as Anthony Pym, Lawrence Venuti, Lu Jun, etc. have made great contributions to the studies of translation ethics. One of the most influential one is Andrew Chesterman who proposes four models of translation ethics—the ethics of representation, the ethics of service, the ethics of communication and the norm-based ethics based on the theoretical results from previous translation studies. Later the fifth model is added in the form of an "Oath"—the ethics of commitment to make it a systematic theory of five models of translation ethics.The Chinese outstanding contemporary literary works Biancheng has been translated into many different languages, which now enjoys a high reputation among the world. Many researchers have studied its English versions from different translation theoretic perspectives, but hardly anyone from the perspective of translation ethics. Therefore, the author intends to compare the two English versions of Biancheng translated by Gladys Yang and Ching Ti&Robert Payne (the main translator is Ching Ti) respectively within the framework of Chesterman’s five models of translation ethics in the hope of filling the research gap to some extent. It first applies the ethics of representation into evaluation from the aspects of the representation of the aesthetic prospect, the ethnological color, the character images through dialogues, and the cultural specific of the original, based on which the conflict between the ethics of representation and the norm-based ethics at certain linguistic and cultural levels and the mediation by the ethics of service&communication under the guidance of the ethics of professional commitment as a whole are also examined carefully. It’s found that as in literature translation, the ethics of representation is of primary importance, though both are guided by the ethics of representation in translation, with the different professional qualities of the translators plus the conflict of the ethics of representation with other models of ethics, compared with Ching Ti, Gladys Yang tends to conform to the ethics of representation in a more perfect way. What’s more, with the historical character of the concepts of translation ethics, when facing conflict, the two translators would have different ethical orientations in mediation based on their own historical backgrounds, which leads to their adoptions of different translation strategies to make their versions different both in language and style. But through their mediation, both of the translators obey the rule that the conflict at the micro-level will be mediated from the macro-level under the guidance of the ethics of professional commitment as a whole. Thus, Chesterman’s five models of translation ethics help to establish a multi-dimensional ethical perspective and standard for translation study and practice, which can help the translators to make rational choices in translation guided by appropriate translation ethics. The ethics of professional commitment urges the translator to improve themselves to strive for excellence, and at the same time prevents them from abusing their professional power in the mediation of the ethical conflict in translation practice.