On Translation Of Adam Smith’s The Wealth Of Nations In China

Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations has been regarded as the sign of which when economics had systematically become a discipline of science (Lin and Hu,2001). It had been translated into various languages and the Chinese version of it could be dated back to1901, when Yen Fuh, one of the most prominent reformers and translators in the Late Qing dynasty, introduced through his translation Yuanfu. Since then, western economics had been gradually introduced into China, and translation, as the major medium of introducing new ideas; greatly further the development of modern economics both in theory and in practice. Throughout the history, translations of economics literature exhibit distinctive features in different periods. The focus of major academic schools of economics, the countries where the source texts come from, etc. would change along with the development of China’s own economy and politics. Since the translation of The Wealth of Nations extends the longest of more110years in the field of the translation of classical economic literatures, it would be meaningful to examine the characteristics of each period through the translation and dissemination process of it.The present study intends to select Yen Fuh’s Yuanfu in1901-1902, Guo Dali and Wang Yanan’s Guofulun in1931and its revised version Guomin Caifu de Xingzhi he Yuanyin de Yanjiu in1972, and Yang Jingnian’s Guofulun in2001, as the research targets, and tries to analyze the different characteristics of each translation from the perspective of Lefevere’s ideology theory, which is one of the mainstream translation theories after the "cultural turn". As the theory claimed, any translation produced in given time and given society was under the manipulation of certain ideology and poetics. The translator’s choice of the source text, the primary motives, the general and specific translation strategies adopted and its publishing situations were out of the manipulation of the "professionals" and the "patrons". Under such theoretical framework, the study develops from these two control factors respectively.Chapter one introduces Adam Smith and his The Wealth of Nations, and makes a literature review on the present topic, on the basis of which indicating the research objectives and research significance of the present study.Succeeding, chapter two would review the translation history of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations from its early introductions before the first complete translation to extensive re-translation stage. Details of publishing situations, general evaluations of the versions were mentioned briefly.The focus of the study lays on chapter three and chapter four, where the specific manipulation of ideology and poetics were described.In chapter three, the analysis starts from the macro level to the micro. General evaluations of the dominant ideology of different periods are presented. After that, the influences imposed by the dominant ideology as well as by individual translators’ideology on the translation motives and translation strategies would be examined. Finally, a look into the power of different types of patronage is provided.Chapter four would develop in the sequence of each translation version. The analysis shows that the dominating poetics of each period exerts significant influence on the choice of either classical Chinese or vernacular Chinese, and the first translation by Yen Fuh would keep influencing further re-translations for a certain periods of time. Strategies on the linguistic level are also examined in each version.The translation study of The Wealth of Nations makes a preliminary attempt in widening the research scope of the study of classical economics literature and providing another perspective in investigating the historical functions of each translation by including ideology and poetic elements into the research, which in the hope of being inspiring for the translation study of other classical works.