A Neo-deconstructionist Exploration Of The Three English Translations Of Yi Jing

Deconstructionist translation theory has brought massive impact on the traditional translation theories ever since its birth in the1960s. With Derrida and Venuti as the pioneering representatives, deconstructionist translation theorists believe the meaning of the source text is indeterminate, and thus there is no need for the translator to rigidly adhere to the source text, so the purpose of translation should be focused on the pursuit of "difference" rather than "sameness". However, the theory cannot endure the test of practice. Solely obeying the guidance of the deconstructionist translation theory, the translator who seeks after an absolute "foreignness" in the target text may fall into a dilemma. On one hand, one cannot regard the source text as a reference to examine his translation. On the other hand, the hard work seems inconsistent with the deconstructionist view that the meaning of the source text can never be re-presented by the translator. The deconstructionist translation theorists lay the emphasis on "deconstruction" at the price of neglecting the importance of "reconstruction", which makes it easier for us to catch the fatal disadvantage of the theory. In other words, the deconstructionist translation theory is divorced from the reality. Besides, strictly speaking, the deconstructionist translation theory cannot be viewed as a systematic theory since it just embodies the statements concerning translation studies of the deconstructionist scholars, thus displaying a loose theoretical framework. Which attitude should people hold towards the deconstructionist translation theory, uncritical acceptance or blind criticism?Taking Marxist natural dialectics as the tool to re-deconstruct Lawrence Venuti’s deconstructionist theory, the author tentatively shapes a neo-deconstructionist theoretical framework, highly combining the contemporaneity, practicality and instructiveness, hoping to include the advantages of the deconstructionist translation theory and eliminate the disadvantages. Adopting the neo-deconstructionist translation theoretical framework, the author then makes a comparative analysis of three translations of Yi Jing, i.e. James Legge’s Book of Changes, Richard Wilhelm’s I Ching or Book of Changes, and Wang Rongpei’s Book of Change. According to the findings of this thesis, the author firstly points out that the meaning of the source text objectively exists in the combinative form of eternal motion and relative stableness, indicating that the translator has the potential to re-present the stable side of meaning through various practices, which is the foundation of the neo-deconstructionist theory. When it comes to the status of the translator, one should pursue a balanced visibility rather than an absolute invisibility or visibility, mainly decided by his translation practical ability and influenced by various extrinsic factors like supportive participants of translation. Then, in terms of the translation strategy, both foreignization and domestication have the synchronic limits and diachronic changes of the application, so the translator should pursue a dynamic combination of the two strategies to better serve the translation purpose. Last but not least, to better analyze the translation ethics, both the macro factors in economy, politics and cultures and the micro factors that may make a difference to the course of translation should be taken into full account, especially under the background of globalization and the rise of the developing countries, so the "ethics of location" should be perfected as the "ethics of situation". The findings in the thesis not only can be seen as a development of the deconstructionist translation theory in the new period, but also enriches the study of the translation of Yi Jing by adopting a neo-deconstructionist view.