"Thick Translation" In James Legge’s Rendering Of Shangshu

The term "thick translation" was put forward by American scholar Kwame Anthony Appiah in his article Thick Translation in 1993. He defines it as the translation that "seeks with its annotations and its accompanying glosses to locate the text in a rich cultural and linguistic context." This study, based on the specific analysis of the annotations in the text of "Hongfan" in James Legge’s rendering of Shangshu, aims to dig into the deep thoughts of James Legge’s "thick translation".James Legge’s rendering of Shangshu, although regarded as the most authoritative version in China, does not get enough attention by scholars, especially the annotations in it. As one of the most important texts in Shangshu, "Hongfan" covers a wide range of thoughts of ancient China, including philosophy, politics, economics, culture, calendar and so on, but the studies on it are very few. This study, conducted on the basis of the analysis of the annotations in "Hongfan", aims to dig into how James Legge’s "thick translation" managed to expound on the rich and deep cultural thoughts in it.Employing the methodology of descriptive studies, the author analyzes "thick translation" in James Legge’s rendering of Shangshu from the perspective of form and content. To be specific, in the perspective of form, Legge’s "thick translation" adopts the following methods:first, literal translation with annotations; second, quotations of Chinese texts and French texts; third, explanation in the form of distinctive fonts and font sizes; fourth, addition of sequential markers in the source text and annotations in order to facilitate the readers’ reading; fifth, addition of explanatory diagrams to make abstract terms more specific. In the perspective of content, Legge’s "thick translation" can be analyzed from the following aspects:first, explaining the title, analyzing the textural structure and introducing the main content; second, explaining the recondite linguistic phenomena; third, explaining the philosophical and cultural terms of ancient China; fourth, commenting on previous annotations; fifth, putting forward to his new idea about certain philosophy and culture of ancient China.Then the author further discusses the merits and demerits of Legge’s "thick translation". Specifically, on the one hand, "thick translation" can provide rich background information for target readers, facilitate the readers’understanding of the source text, expound on the cultural and philosophical elements in the source text and give light to future studies in related areas. On the other hand, the possible demerits of "thick translation" mainly lie on the fact that it may make the readers feel daunted to read the text and also blur the distinguish between the major and minor points.The whole thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One is introduction which includes the background, the purpose and the significance of the research as well as the overall structure of this thesis. Chapter Two is literature review which gives a brief introduction to the concept of "thick translation" followed by a review of previous studies on "thick translation", Legge’s rendering of Shangshu and "Hongfan" at home and abroad. Chapter Three and Chapter Four are the body part of this thesis. In Chapter Three, the author analyzes the categories of "thick translation" in Legge’s Shangshu from the perspective of form and content; In Chapter Four, the author further discusses the merits and demerits of Legge’s "thick translation". Chapter Five is a conclusion of the whole thesis.