Studies On Translator's Subjectivity In Minford's English Version Of I Ching From The Perspective Of Bourdieu's Sociological Theory

I Ching is a masterpiece of ancient Chinese philosophy,natural sciences and social sciences,politics,and art.It is one of the oldest scriptures in China,canonized as “first among the Six Classics” by Confucianists.It has been translated into English,French,German,Italian and other languages since its first introduction to Europe in Latin in the 17 th century.Among them,the number of the English versions of I Ching is the greatest.The latest English version,I Ching: the essential Translation of the ancient Chinese Oracle and Book of Wisdom(hereinafter referred to as I Ching for short),is translated by the famous British sinologist and literary translator,Minford,published by Viking Penguin Press in 2014.Once published,Minford's English version has been well received and even was awarded the Australian “Excellent Translation Award” in 2016.It has been evaluated as: “A translation that is of great significance for the early scriptures of China.” Minford's English version has aroused the great concern of I Ching enthusiasts and translation researchers at home and abroad,and the value of its translation research is self-evident.Bourdieu's sociological theory argues that language is the intermediary of people's practical activities,and the practicality of language is determined by the field,capital and habitus of people in practice.The translation is a social practice of communication between two languages.The translator is the actor in translation practice.And the translator's subjectivity has a significant influence on the process and the result of translation.The translator's subjectivity mainly refers to the subjective initiative of the translator in the translation activities based on the objective environment to reflect the translator's conscious cultural awareness,humanistic character and aesthetic creativity.The translator's subjectivity is mainly characterized by passivity,initiative and intentionality.Minford has always considered his translation to be “free”.After studying his English version of I Ching,the author has found that his so-called “freedom” is the embodiment of his full play of the translator's subjectivity.In the process of sociological turn in translation studies,the translator's subjective role has gradually become prominent.Therefore,the study of translator's subjectivity has become an essential concern of translation studies.Based on Bourdieu's sociological theory,this thesis uses the core ideas of the theory—“field”,“capital” and “habitus” to study Minford's translator's subjectivity displayed in his English version of I Ching.This paper mainly studies how the translator overcomes the passivity,gives full play to the initiative and realizes the intentionality in the process of translating this masterpiece,aiming to provide a new perspective for the English translation of I Ching.Under Bourdieu's sociological theory,translation activities are actually social practices of translators with different capitals based on personal habitus in the social field of translation.The translators are based on realistic objective conditions and meanwhile limited by them,but they creatively overcome the passivity by giving full play to their subjective initiatives.Through a detailed analysis,the author has made the following conclusions: Minford has given full play to the translator's subjectivity when translating I Ching,making his translation more “subjective” and achieving his goal of producing a translated version with more “Chinese characteristics”.The specific details go as follows: First,although the translator is limited by the translation field of many existing English versions of I Ching,he has overcome these limitations and the translator's passivity by the following approaches,namely,the combination of Wade-Giles spelling and modern Chinese Pinyin,the selective translation of contemporary Yi Studies work,and self-divination and self-interpretation.Second,capital is the material guarantee for translators to carry out translation activities,which is a necessary condition for translators to exert their initiative.The translator avails himself of affluent economic capital to choose the desired work to translate;takes advantage of rich social capital to achieve an excellent translated version;and makes full use of the sufficient cultural capital to employ proper translation strategies and methods flexibly,giving full play to the translator's subjective initiative.Third,the translator relies on his habitus to realize the translator's intentionality by referring to multiple Chinese base texts of I Ching,signaling his exclusive commentaries with the initials JM,adding Chinese characters and borrowing Latin words.The translator mobilizes various abilities and adopts different methods to solve various difficulties in translation,successfully rendering a new translated version with academic and practical values,which keeps pace with the times and possesses “Chinese characteristics”.As a sinologist,Minford uses I Ching as a medium to spread Chinese philosophy and culture to English readers objectively and to promote Chinese culture “going out”.Linguistic and social features are the two most significant characteristics of translation activities.This paper studies the English translation of I Ching from the perspective of sociological theory,breaking the limitations of language and taking into account the social characteristic of the translation activity.It can promote the dialectical and dynamic development of translation research,reflecting the inevitable sociological turn of translation studies.