Interpretations Of The Orphan Of Zhao In Europe From The Perspective Of Fusion Of Horizons

Yuan zaju, The Orphan of Zhao, is the first Chinese play translated into other languages and one of the most popular and influential Chinese plays in the world. It carries the essence of traditional Chinese culture and reflects the spirit of Chinese tragedy. By reciting the tragedy of Family Zhao, it demonstrates the Confucius doctrines of loyalty, humanity and righteousness. For hundreds of years, it has satisfied and moved numerous readers due to its theme of punishing wickedness and encouraging virtues. The Orphan of Zhao evoked worldwide repercussions when it was introduced to Europe in the 18th century and since then appeared numerous versions of translation and adaptation in which translators gave various interpretations of the original play. The thesis analyzes its English and French versions given its great popularity and influence in the two countries and explores interpretations of The Orphan of Zhao in foreign cultures, with the case study on the versions of Joseph de Premare, Voltaire and Arthur Murphy.Fusion of horizons, originating from the philosophic hermeneutics, refers to a profound and comprehensive way of interpreting and understanding the source text by integrating the horizon of the source text and that of the readers. It has been gradually applied to the translation critics and opens up a new road to translation studies. Firstly, the thesis attempts to elaborate the horizons of three translators and looks for factors that effect their reception and adaptation of The Orphan of Zhao, including historical backgrounds, social circumstances, religious doctrines and individual literary attainments. Moreover, it is committed to conducting a comparative study on the three versions in order to seek for features and implications of each one and probe into the inheritance and development between versions, by combining the horizon of the source text and that of the translators. Analysis is made in terms of portrait of characters, theme and artistic characteristics, due to the great disparity between versions, for the purpose of giving them interpretations and explanations from the perspective of fusion of horizons, and meanwhile finding out limitations in each version.As one of the few academic paper which conduct a detailed comparative study on the English and French versions of The Orphan of Zhao, the paper aims at exploring the diversified interpretations of Chinese culture and national spirit in Europe as well as fusions and conflicts during cultural communications between China and the West, and at the same time expects to bring enlightenments to the transmission of Chinese classics to the world in the future.