A Study On The Translation And Dissemination Of Wen Fu In The English World

At present,under the requirements of the “Belt and Road” initiative and the era of “Chinese culture going abroad”,as an important pole in culture,the translation of Chinese literary theory plays an extremely important role in displaying the unique charm of Chinese culture and shaping the international image of a major country.As the first important work in the history of literary theory criticism in China to systematically discuss the theory of literary creation,Wen Fu has had a significant impact on literary creation and literary criticism in later generations.In Wen Fu,Lu Ji made a comprehensive and systematic discussion on the nature of literature,the source of creation,the style of the work,the creative conception and the aesthetic standards,which played an important role in the history of Chinese literary criticism.With the increasing attention to“Chinese classics” at home and abroad,Wen Fu,as a classic of Chinese literary theory,has increasingly become an important proposition for overseas scholars to study Chinese literary theory by virtue of its own unique theoretical value.At present,there is still room for expansion in terms of scale and depth of research on the translation and introduction of Wen Fu at home and abroad.First of all,the genealogy of the translation of the Wen Fu at home and abroad has failed to comprehensively examine all the existing English translations in the English world,and most of them have remained in the introduction and transmission of information of the translations,failing to dig deeper into the historical background of the translations,which cannot diachronically and systematically reflect the translation process of the Wen Fu in the English world.Secondly,most of the domestic and foreign studies on the translations of Wen Fu are scattered,or they only focus on a single translation,failing to exhaust all the English translations,and it is difficult to make an in-depth analysis of the translation characteristics of multiple translations.Thirdly,as far as the data collected so far,there are few studies on the acceptance of the Wen Fu in the English world at home and abroad,and there is a lack of collection and analysis of relevant data,as well as a failure to understand the evaluation of readers in the English world in a holistic manner,which cannot reflect the full picture of its translation in the English world.In view of this,from the perspective of hermeneutics,this study first carefully sorts out the translation process and characteristics of Wen Fu in the English world,and analyzes the characteristics and patterns of translation and dissemination Wen Fu in the English world at various stages.On this basis,we then analyze the English translations of the title,categories,metaphors,and allusions of the Wen Fu by various translators,and explore their translation purposes and strategies as well as the theoretical reasons behind them.Finally,we examine the dissemination and acceptance of the English translations of the Wen Fu in the English world through a big data survey,using World Cat,the world’s largest online database,Goodreads,the world’s largest online reading community,and Amazon.com,as well as other related book reviews,to clarify the current state of translation and acceptance of the Wen Fu in the English world.Through a meticulous review of the genealogy of translations of the Wen Fu in the English world,an in-depth case study of typical translations,and an examination of the dissemination and acceptance of the translation in the English world,we find that: The history of the translation of Wen Fu,which spans half a century,can be roughly divided into three stages,experiencing a tortuous journey from the surface to the inside,from the shallow to the deep.The translation of the Wen Fu in the English-speaking world has evolved from a scholarly translation that strives to restore the original work to the greatest extent possible,to a popular translation that focuses on readability,and finally to a translation that pursues a dual interpretation of Chinese and Western poetics.Influenced by social and cultural backgrounds,translators at different stages have different translation concepts and adopt different translation strategies.Translators in the first stage mostly strive to restore the original text to the greatest extent and pursue the adequacy of the translation,with many in-text annotations.The translators in the second stage pay more attention to the acceptability of the translation among the Western readership,and the translation is authentic and fluent,with flexible and vivid diction.The translators in the third stage pay more attention to the dual interpretation between Chinese and Western literary theory,and use the method of simultaneous translation and interpretation to interpret the core concepts and central propositions of the text in a close-reading manner.The English translations of the title of Wen Fu are various.For example,Shih-Hsiang Chen creatively translated it as “Literature as Light against Darkness”,expressing his ideal pursuit of light and truth in the context of the composition of Wen Fu.For the English translations of categories,metaphors and allusions,the translators tend to adopt the corresponding words and retain the imagery in the original work.In the process of English translation,the translator is influenced by the “prejudice”,which sometimes leads to a certain degree of variation or even mistranslation.The method of compensating by adding Pinyin or annotations after the translation is an effective way to make a better dialogue between Chinese and Western literary theory.Most of the existing collections of translations by the eight translators of the English world(Shih-Hsiang Chen,E.R.Hughes,Achilles Fang,Siu-kit Wong,Sam Hamill,Stephen Owen,David R.Knechtges,Tony Barnston& Chou Ping)are concentrated in North America,while the vast majority are concentrated in the United States,with fewer collections in other continents.The study found that most of the English translations of the Wen Fu are in a state of “marginalization” and have not really entered the mainstream vision of Western readers,and the degree of acceptance of different translations is polarized.Through the analysis of the data,it is found that the global collection of Achilles Fang’s translations ranks first,but the acceptance is not satisfactory.This is because his translation,which strives to be faithful to the original text and piles up large and complicated annotations,is difficult to be accepted by mass readers.Sam Hamill’s translation is easy to understand and close to the reading habits of English readers,thus gaining a large number of“fans”.However,Hamill’s translation will inevitably lose the poetic connotation of the original work while pursuing the acceptability of the translation too much.Therefore,a single-minded pursuit of fidelity to the original text or a focus on the acceptability of the translation is one-sided.In the context of globalization,the overseas translation and dissemination of Chinese literary theory should respect the original work and face up to the complexity of translation,the diversity of interpretation and the acceptance of readers.It is necessary to restore the modern aesthetic values contained in the original work,but also to pay reasonable attention to the acceptability of the translation,taking into account the cultural background and reading habits of different audiences.We should take into account and balance the relationship between “original work” and “acceptance”,learn from the successful experience of Barnston and Chou Ping’s joint translation,and cooperate with foreign translators to break the dichotomy of Chinese and Western literary theory,get out of the aphasia dilemma of Chinese literary theory,and promote further interaction and integration between Chinese and world literary theory.