Study On Timothy Richard’s Translation From The Perspective Of Translation Norms

Looking Backward:2000--1887, representative work of Edward Bellamy, gained a worldwide popularity in the nineteenth century after it came out. This book was translated into many different languages. In Late Qing Dynasty, with the aim to reform and develop the country, learning from the west became a tendency in which missionaries played a vital role. Timothy Richard, as a renowned missionary, was the translator of it. Apart from Timothy’s Hui Tou Kan Ji Lue, some other versions also appeared, such as Bai Nian Yi Jiao, co-edited by Timothy Richard and Cai Erkang, Hui Tou Kan by an anonymous translator, and Hui Gu by Lin Tiandou and Zhang Zimou.Descriptive Translation Study plays a very important in translation field, on the basis of which Gideon Toury put forward Translation Norms Theory after plenty of case studies. Translation Norms Theory includes three main elements, that is, initial norms, preliminary norms and operational norms. Initial norms highlight the translator’s inclination to either original culture or target culture; Preliminary norms deal with reasons that affect translator’s election of original texts, and directness of translation; operational norms refer to translator’s manipulation of original on macro and micro level.Under the framework of Toury’s Translation Norms Theory, Chapter Three gives a comparison of three versions by Timothy Richard, the anonymous writer, Lin Tiandou and Zhang Zimou. After a comparison, different methods of coping with the same original text can be obtained, and reasons for this are provided. Timothy’s identity as a missionary forces him to propagandize Christian ideas; working as a politician, he translated the brightness of21st century and methods of reform, and meanwhile, he deleted depiction on psychology and environment. The anonymous writer’s version is very close to people’s daily life, and plenty of colloquial expressions can be found in order to enlighten the common people to save their country. Lin Tiandou and Zhang Zimou’s version came out in1963, fourteen years after the founding of new China, which emphasizes introduction of foreign culture instead of saving the country. The famous American translation theorist Lawrence Venutl put torwara tne laea ol lomestication and foreignizaion in his book The Translator’s Invisibility. In Chapter our, the author summarizes his own opinion on translation styles of Timothy Richard, hat is, to take domestication greater than foreignization. In addition, misreading was main character of Timothy’s translation. Misreading is inevitable, because the ranslation is far from the conversion of words, but cultural exchanges. While analyzing Timothy’s translation, abundant examples were also applied in Chapter Four.