A Study On Annotation In Kuhungming’s Translation Of Lun Yu From Postcolonial Perspective

Postcolonial Translation study, originated during 1980 s, reveals the power differential and dispels the cultural hegemony exerted on subordinate culture, by taking into consideration translation activity in a certain historical, cultural and political context. It plays an important role in establishing cultural identity. Domestication is a translation method usually applied when introducing weak culture into hegemonic culture, when the translator tends to weaken or even diminish the culture differences of the original text. Therefore, it is usually regarded as a tool of cultural hegemony.Ku Hungming was a famous scholar and translator in the beginning of the 20 th century and was regarded as “the spokesman of Oriental culture.” At his time, China was a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society, struggling from the political, economic and cultural oppression from Western countries and had no power of discourse. With a sense of superiority the Western missionaries and sinologists portrayed China as a backward nation and caused misunderstanding among Western public. In order to address his dissatisfaction towards these translations, especially James Legge’s version of Lun Yu, and to correct the distorted image of China by Western public, Ku decided to re-translate this book and some other Chinese Classics to introduce Chinese culture to Western society since he believed the Confucian morality could save the Western civilization from bankruptcy. The most prominent feature of his version, compared with those of others, was that it adopted many annotations, in which he quoted Western celebrities to explain Confucian philosophy, generalized unnecessary information, adopted Geyi between Chinese and Western images, as well as provided background information from Chinese culture and history.This paper will, based on postcolonial translation theories, study the annotation in Ku’s English translation of Lun Yu. Firstly, it will discuss the translator’s motivation and translation strategy under the certain historical, cultural and political background. Then, through careful discerning of all annotation in the text, the author shall try to study the categorization and purpose of the annotation. Finally, by analyzing specific examples, or comparing with those of Legge’s version, it shall probe into the effect of annotation and significance the translation has on target readers. The author hopes to prove that, under certain historical circumstances, domestication does not equal to submission to hegemony culture. On the contrary, it can present obscure images and images of the source culture in a way familiar to target readers and arouse their interest, thus making them look into the source culture and gradually appreciate its value. In this way, it will help to establish positive national image and cultural identity for the subordinate culture.