On The Translation Of Mutual Aid In Early20^th-century China From The Perspective Of Travelling Theory——a Comparative Study On Li Shizeng’s Two Translations

The Chinese translation of Mutual Aid had a far-reaching influence on Chinese intellectuals, including Li Dazhao, Yun Daiying, and Mao Zedong, in early20th-century China. However, the previous researchers mainly studied its influence on Chinese revolutionists and its significance from the perspectives of ethics and its relationship with Chinese traditional culture. Less attention has been paid to the study of the translator——Li Shizeng, or his translated version itself. This thesis explores Li Shizeng’s translation motivations, translation strategies, as well as the acceptance of his translated versions of Mutual Aid, so as to reveal why and how this text traveled and relocated in early20th-century China.Traditionally, the research object of translation studies is often placed on whether the target text is faithful to the source text."Loyalty" or "equivalence" becomes the sole criterion to evaluate the quality of translation. Traditional translation studies have achieved a great success in the past hundreds of years; meanwhile, it cannot explain why the target texts are unfaithful to the source ones. Therefore, the prescriptive approach has its own limitations. The descriptive translation studies emerged in the1970s and put more emphasis on the cultural factors of translation, which provides translation studies with a new viewpoint.Said’s travelling theory points out that a theory or concept will inevitably change due to the different social, historical and cultural factors when it travels from person to person, from situation to situation. This theory provides translation studies with a new viewpoint and theoretical basis. As a matter of fact, translation itself is a kind of "travel" from source text to target text, from the author to the translator. This theory is very helpful in analyzing the whole process of translation from the selection of the source text and translation strategies to the acceptance of the target text in target culture.This thesis explores Li Shizeng’s two translations of Mutual Aid:A Factor of Evolution, written by Kropotkin, from the perspective of travelling theory with descriptive approach. The main purposes of this thesis are to investigate Li Shizeng’s translation motivations, translation strategies, and the acceptance of his two translations from social, political and cultural aspects. Moreover, this thesis also discusses the differences of ideas expressed between the source text and the two translations.With a comprehensive study, this thesis finds out that the main reason why Li Shizeng translated Mutual Aid for the first time in1908is that he wants to oppose the foreign invaders and the feudal government of Qing Dynasty by introducing revolutionary ideas in his first translation. As to his second translation in1919, it is a reflection of the World War I. Moreover, Li Shizeng holds that "mutual aid" can enlighten the Chinese people and achieve the dream of "Great Harmony". When it comes to the selection of translation strategies, considering the social, political and cultural factors, the reading habits of Chinese readers in early20-century China, as well as his own specific translation purposes, Li Shizeng adopts corresponding translation strategies, such as adding preface, notes and comments, deleting detailed examples and long sentences, changing the order and tone of the source text, changing the style of layout and language using. As a result of such translation strategies, the target text will be inevitably different from the source one. However, all these changes can be explained by Said’s travelling theory.