A Comparative Study Of James Legge's And Ku Hung-ming's English Versions Of Lunyu From The Perspective Of Manipulation Theory

With the further development of the Belt and Road Initiative,Lunyu,a beautiful name card of Chinese civilization,brings a profound and far-reaching impact on the globe in the new era.English versions of Lunyu translated by Ku Hung-ming and by James Legge have attracted much attention.Numerous studies have analyzed the two English versions,but comparative studies in terms of the two versions need advanced exploration.In building the discipline over the course of hundreds of years,translation studies not only concern the linguistic aspects of translation,but also keep an eye on non-linguistic aspects.In the twentieth century,Cultural Turn happened in translation studies.Scholars led by Andre Lefevere put forth Manipulation Theory to probe into social and cultural factors that dominate translators and their translation.They also figure out that the core factors that manipulating translators and translation come from ideology,poetics and patronage.Therefore,Manipulation Theory has captured attention of the academic community.This thesis analyzes both texts under the guidance of Manipulation Theory.It probes into the manipulative factors behind the two English versions of Lunyu and then makes a comparison between the two versions to explore the similarities and differences.The findings involve three aspects.In the ideology aspect,Ku is influenced by Romanticism.Legge is under the influence of Christianity.Both Ku and Legge regard Confucianism as a religion,but Ku seeks the common grounds between Confucianism and Christianity in his translation,while Legge expresses his disagreement on Confucius in his annotation;In the poetics aspect,Ku is influenced by Romanticism poetics,while Legge is influenced the Biblical annotation style and the Latin language.Both Ku and Legge are impacted by the Victorian writing style.However,affected byRomanticism,Ku prefers to use a simple,natural but vivid language style and to quote from the Western literati especially the romanticists in his annotations,while Legge takes a direct and plain language style under the impacts of Neo-classicism and the archaism in Scotland.His literal translation and detailed annotations cited from authoritative references are reflections to his admiration for the authenticity based on rational level;In the patronage aspect,Chang Chih-tung is the economic and ideological patronage of Ku.Jardine Brothers are the economic patronage of Legge,and London Missionary Society is the ideological one.Ku's economic patronage and Legge's economic patronage impact the publication of the translation,while Ku's ideological patronage and Legge's ideological patronage impact the translated texts.