A Research On The Literature Hermeneutics In James Legge’s English Version Of Mencius

After 1840,a large number of Protestant missionaries came to China and played the role of ambassadors for cultural exchanges between China and the West.Among them,James Legge(1815-1897),a missionary from Scotland,was a Sinologist who vigorously promoted "the spread of Sinology to the Wes".1861,Legge’s English Version of Mencius was published.This English Version of Mencius carries forward the tradition of interpretation of Chinese and Western classics.It can be said that it has multiple perspectives and is all-inclusive,and it is still a model respected by the Western Sinological circles.The main research object of this thesis is the characteristics of literature hermeneutics in Legge’s English Version of Mencius.The first chapter of the thesis mainly introduces the tradition of interpretation of Chinese and Western classics,the translation activities of the missionaries in the late Qing Dynasty,Legge’s life stories and Sinological achievements,and the basic situation of Legge’s English Version of Mencius.The second chapter of the thesis examines Legge’s interpretation of the culture-loaded words in Mencius,Literature is an art with language as its medium.The exegetical interpretation of words is the basis of literature hermeneutics.A large number of culture-loaded words in Mencius are the focus of Legge’s interpretation.The so-called culture-loaded words are those that carry the unique historical and cultural connotations of the Chinese nation.The use of these words makes the prose of Mencius show elegant and noble literary aesthetic effect.Legge adopted flexible and diversified translation strategies for culture-loaded words,such as free translation,literal translation,transliteration,substitution,etc.For important culture-loaded words,Legge made a rigorous and detailed textual research and exegesis in the annotation part;Legge’s interpretation of culture-loaded words reflected the integration of Chinese and Western religious culture.The third chapter of the thesis examines Legge’s interpretation of the language style of Mencius.The language style of the prose of Mencius is mainly eloquent and powerful,while the concrete forms of realization are varied and unconventional.Legge often follows the principle of "foreignizing translation" and adopts various translation methods to reproduce the original prose style.Sometimes,he also takes care of the target readers and adopts the principle of "domesticating translation" to adjust the style of the translation.Generally speaking,Legge’s translation of the language style of Mencius has reached the realm of "formally similar" or "spiritually similar" or even "combination of formally similar and spiritually similar".However,some sentences in the prose of Mencius are untranslatability,which makes Legge’s translation unable to fully interpret the style of the original text.The fourth chapter of of the thesis examines Legge’s inte:rpretation of the characters in Mencius.Mencius depicts many vivid characters,such as Yao,Shun,Yu,Confucius,Yang Zhu,Mo-tse and so on.Legge’s translation and annotations also have a wonderful interpretation of the characters in Mencius.By annotating allusions,Legge helps readers better understand the characters depicted in the original text Legge makes a unique analysis of the characters portrayed in Mencius by means of textual research;and adopts the strategy of "Contrast different classics",which makes the characters in Mencius more vivid and lifelike.Legge’s translations and annotations enable readers to better understand the literary skills of portraying the characters in Mencius.The fifth chapter of the thesis examines Legge’s interpretation of the aesthetic thought of Mencius.Literature is an aesthetic art,and beauty is the essence of literature.The aesthetic thought of Mencius is based on personality aesthetics and extends to literature aesthetics.Legge interprets the aesthetic thoughts of Mencius in the way of combining translation with annotation,and judges the aesthetic thoughts of Mencius in the perspective of cross-cultural comparison.The research focuses on the ambivalent attitude towards the aesthetic thoughts of Mencius and "the creative misunderstanding" in the Legge’s translations and annotations,and reveals the underlying reasons from the perspective of fusion of horizons.In the conclusion part,on the basis of the research in the main part of the thesis,the basic categories,main features,advantages and disadvantages of the literature hermeneutics in Legge’s English Version of Mencius are summarized,as well as the enlightenment for the current study and translation of Mencius.