Effect Of Translators' Factors On English Translation Of Shijing From The Perspective Of Skopostheorie

Shijing,as the top of Five Classics,is not only the demonstration of Chinese classical culture but also apart of the culture heritage of the world.For its special historical status,Shijing has been the focus of translation since the beginning of Chinese-western communication and has been translated into different languages by Sinologists in West.Until now,the history of English translation of Shijing has been over 100 years and various English translations of Shijinghave appeared under different translation strategies and motives,among which,the non-rhymed English version of Shijing finished by foreign translator James Legge in 1871 and the rhymed English version finished by Chinese translator Xu Yuchong in 1993 are the most representative,and some scholars have done the comparative studies of the two English versions under the perspectives as manipulation theory,adaptation theory,cultural reappearance theory and so on to explore the two translators' translation Skopos and strategies.However,the translation problem that mainly about the analysis of the effect of translators' factors on translation Skopos and translation strategies under Skopostheorie is relatively weak,meanwhile there is also no special subject to talk about the problem.In this thesis,the writer compared James legge's non-rhymed English translation of Shijing with Xu Yuanchong's rhymed version by the methods as literal review and case study to study how do translators'historical environment,their cognition on source language culture,their attitudes to English translation of Shijing as well as their intended readers affect their determination of translation Skopos,which therefore could further affect their choosing of translation strategies.The differences in translation Skopos to some extend are affected by translations'historical environment,their cognition on source language culture,their attitudes to the English translation of source text as well as their intended readers.Skopostheorie is the core theory of German functionalist school,and this theory believes that the action to translate source texts and the birth of any versions are out of certain Skopos,and it is theSkopos that decides translator's translating process as well as the choosing of strategies.Meanwhile,this theory gets rid of the restraint of equivalent translation and begins to take translators' factors into consideration.In the thesis,through the analysis of the two translators' historical environment,their cognition on source language culture,their attitudes to English translation of Shijing as well as their intended readers and then through the case study of poems in Shijing,the writer would come to the conclusion that the two translators' historical environment decided their translation Skopos,and their cognition on source language culture,their attitudes to English translation of Shijing as well as their intended readers decided that Legge mainly used the method as literal translation with detailed annotations to translate Shijing,and Mr.Xu mainly used the methods as adaptation,amplification and free translation to translate Shijing.The research significance of this thesis is that Skopostheorie highlights the role and influence of participants especially those sponsors that engaged in the whole translation activity and raises translators' active participation.Meanwhile,Skopostheorie shows a more tolerant attitude to different English version of the same source text and provides a more flexible evaluation standard for them.In addition,Shijing,as one of the representatives of China's traditional cultural,the comparative study of its different versions under Skopostheorie could to some extend offer the translation or the retranslation of other Confucianism Classics some references.Meanwhile the translation ofChina's outstanding traditional culture is an important way to carry out Xi Jinping's instruction as "giving great impetus to the export of Chinese culture to the world",and it is also an insurance for the realization of concepts as "connecting China with the world","the telling well of Chinese stories" and "the transmission of Chinese voice".The comparative studies of English translations of Classics as Shijing have great value for the retranslation of other classical works,and are of great importance for the promotion of Chinese culture in the world.