A Comparative Study On Legge’s And Xu’s English Versions Of Shijing From The Perspective Of Manipulation Theory

With Andre Lefevere s manipulation theory as its theoretical basis, this thesismakes a comparative study on Legge s and Xu Yuanchong s English version of theChinese Classic Shijing, aiming to explore the powers influencing the translation ofShijing.Shijing, as the origin of Chinese poetry and other genres of literature, is one ofthe earliest anthologies in the world and occupies an important role in Chinese culture.With its unique language expression, natural and simple style, and vivid description ofthe political conditions and folk customs of ancient China, Shijing has won attentionboth at home and abroad. In the past one hundred years, the number of Englishversions of Shijing has amounted to ten, among which Legge s and Xu Yuanchong sversion are two representatives. Based on the manipulation theory proposed byLefevere, this thesis takes these two English versions of Shijing by translators fromdifferent historical periods and with different cultural backgrounds as its study object,attempts to conduct a comparative study on these two versions form the perspectivesof ideology and poetics, hoping to find out how and why they differ from each other,so as to contribute to the development of studies on Shijing all over the world.Lefevere proposes and demonstrates the impact of ideology and poetics on thetranslator s choice of the original text and translation strategies, and holds thattranslation can be regarded as a rewriting of the original text. The translators live indifferent times, which will have different social, historical and cultural contexts. Inorder to cater their readers, the translators would be affected by the dominant ideologyand poetics.This thesis is composed of six chapters. Chapter one is an introduction to theresearch background, objectives, significance and methodology. Chapter two is a briefreview of previous studies of the English translation of Shijing and discusses itsachievements and limitations. Chapter three provides a brief introduction to Andre Lefevere s manipulation theory and explores the relationship of the manipulationelements proposed by Lefevere. Chapter four compares the two English versions ofShijing from a microscopic textual level, attempting to find out the differencesbetween these two highly-rated versions produced in different historical periods fromthe aspects of theme, key words, style and text structure. Chapter five compares thetwo English versions of Shijing from a macroscopic cultural level, trying to trace thecultural causes behind the differences from the aspects of ideology and poetics. Thelast chapter is the conclusion, aiming to point out the influences and manifestations ofideological and poetological manipulation in the translation Shijing, and reveal theinteraction of language, literature and culture. At the end of this thesis, the authorpoints out the shortcomings of this thesis and provides suggestions for furtherresearch.This thesis makes a comparative study to reveal the influence of ideology andpoetics on the translations of Shijing, aiming to enrich and deepen the research on theEnglish translation of Shijing, hoping to make contributions to the research onChinese classical culture.