The "Three-fold Configuration" In James Legge’s The Ch’un Ts’ew With The Tso Chuen From The Perspective Of Paul Rocoeur’s Theorization On Narrative

Drawing extensively yet not exclusively on Paul Ricoeur’s theorization on narrative in hisTime and Narrative (Temps et récit), this dissertation attempts to conduct a “configurativestudy” on the image of S aou-pih, the Duke Hwan of Ts’e and Ch’ung-urh, the Duke Wǎn ofTsin in The Ch’un Ts’ew with The Tso Chuen translated by James Legge. Under Ricoeur’stheoretical framework, narrative is regarded one of the “natural ways” of exchanging lifeexperience, deemed as the route to the “lifeworld”（Lebenswelt）and is, more and most,believed to be the path to the understanding of the other as well as ourselves. However, onmeticulous examination, it is found in the past and present translation theories that the“abstracting approach” enjoys absolute predominance while the “configurative approach” isgenerally ignored, not to mention one with the narrative perspective. Passing on the humancivilization and facilitating cross-cultural communication, translation, as true today as it everwas, is a human endeavour originated from and thrives in our concrete yet detailed daily life.Therefore, conducting a configurative translation study with narrative perspective seems to beof practical and academic value.This dissertation, taking the above-mentioned topic as its research question, is unfoldedthrough7structurally separated yet logically interlinked chapters.Chapter One，“Introduction”, begins with an introduction to James Legge, his life and histranslation works included, in the hope of highlighting the “narrative” strategy he adopted asrendering the Chinese Classics. It is then followed by an exploration of Paul Ricoeur’stheorization on narrative. The motivation for relying on his thoughts for constructing thetheoretical framework and selecting The Ch’un Ts’ew with The Tso Chuen as the researchtarget are also provided. The research question:“Translation as the cross-cultural narrative” is thus crystallized, and the methodological framework, which frames the research perspectiveof this dissertation, begins to take shape accordingly. A review of the relevant literature athome and abroad is subsequently implemented and with the previous studies analyzed and thedeficiencies of them brought to light, the focus and the presumable innovative points of thisdissertation are thus proposed. Besides, the objectives, methodology, procedure as well as thearrangement of the dissertation are also discussed in this chapter.Chapter Two,“The ‘Three-fold Abstraction’ and the ‘Three-fold Configuration’ inTranslation” could be divided into two parts. The first part “the ‘Two Paths’ and the‘Three-fold Abstraction’: The Necessity for Translation Studies to Return to the Lifeworld”,probes into the linguistic and existentialist, hermeneutic tradition that underpinning Westerntranslation studies. The presence and the operational mechanism of “three-fold abstraction”,namely that of languge，meaning and translation, is therefore revealed. Upon closer examineon the “linguistic path” founded by Eugene A. Nida and Roman Jakobson as well as the“existentialist and hermeneutic path” supported by Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida andWalter Benjamin’s thoughts, we might find that both “paths”, channeled by “scientification”,“essentialization” and “instrumentalization”, stand the risks of the dehumanization oftranslation studies and the isolation of translation from the “lifeworld”.Chapter Three, titled as “Translation Studies under the ‘Narratives’ Context: the‘Three-fold Configuration’ Based on Paul Ricoeur’s Narrative Theorization”, is the secondpart of “The ‘Three-fold Abstraction’ and the ‘Three-fold Configuration’ in Translation”. Thischapter opens with a discussion on the development and academic value of Narratology in theWestern world, and by comparison, profiling the “configurative” feature of Ricoeur’snarrative theory with an analysis of his “three-fold mimesis” hypothesis.“Three-foldConfiguration”, the methodology applicable to translation studies, is then obtained, namelythe “prefiguration”,“configuration” and the “refiguration”, all of which are employed respectively in the following three interlocked chapters as the perspective of this research.Chapter Four,“‘Prefiguration’: the ‘Narrative’ Restoration of the Duke Hwan of Ts’e andthe Duke Wǎn of Tsin’s Epoch in James Legge’s The Ch’un Ts’ew with The Tso Chuen”,emphasizes on James Legge’s “prefigurative” endevour restoring the temporal, geographicalas well as cultural features that Duke Hwan of Ts’e and the Duke Wǎn of Tsin weresurrounded in the Chuen Qiu Period.Chapter Five,“‘Configuration’: the ‘Storyized’ Representation of the Duke Hwan of Ts’eand the Duke Wǎn’s Experiences in James Legge’s The Ch’un Ts’ew with The Tso Chuen”,furthers the discussion by putting the process in which heterogeneous factors are selected，integrated and rearranged so as to be transformed into a structurally completed yet logicallyrelevant “story” under the spotlight. To clarify such thesis, eight chapters are chosen fromJame Legge’s version of The Ch’un Ts’ew with The Tso Chuen, including the8thYear of DukeChwang, the9thYear of Duke Chwang, the1stYear of Duke Min, the4thYear of Duke He, the17thYear of Duke He, the23rdYear of Duke He, the25thYear of Duke He and the32ndYear ofDuke He.Chapter Six,“‘Refiguration’: the ‘Figurative’ Reshaping of Duke Hwan of Ts’e and theDuke Wǎn of Tsin in James Legge’s The Ch’un Ts’ew with The Tso Chuen”, cross-checks thefeatures of S aou-pih, the Duke Hwan of Ts’e and Ch’ung-urh, the Duke of Tsin depicted byJames legge in The Ch’un Ts’ew with The Tso Chuen against that in relevant literature,intending to demonstrate that adopting the “narrative” strategy, James Legge finds his way ofachieving cross-cultural understanding of the Chinese, both the people and the culture, in histranslation exertion.Chapter Seven,“Translation and Narrative: From Details(绪), Order(序) to Configuration(豫)”, brings the whole dissertation to a close by summarizing the “three-fold configuration” with three Chinese characters, namely Details(绪), Order(序) and Configuration(豫), andrecaps the main ideas of its author. The shortcomings of the dissertation and the possibility ofthe longitudinal study this dissertation may lead to are also under our discussion in thischapter.