Translation And Ideology:A Study Of Lin Zexu’s Translation Activities

Lin Zexu (1785-1850) was an outstanding statesman, thinker and poet in China during the Qing Dynasty. He was known as a ’national hero’ during the Opium War period (1838-1841) for his anti-opium campaign and anti-invasion endeavours in China. He was referred to as the first person in modern China to’open his eyes to observe the world’ as he advocated Western learning and organised Western learning translation. As a patron of translation, Lin organised a series of translation activities from 1838 to 1840 in his role as High Imperial Commissioner of the Qing Court under Emperor Daoguang. This included newspaper translation, book translation, and diplomatic correspondence translation, covering the opium trade, Western geography and laws, etc. These activities had a far-reaching impact on the late Qing society.A number of studies both at home and abroad have been conducted by history scholars on the historical figure of Lin Zexu, covering nearly every aspect of his life and career. However, only a few studies on his translation activities have been conducted by translation scholars. A number of historical facts in relation to Lin’s translation activities have been discovered and analysed, however, textual studies of both source texts and translated texts under Lin’s patronage have been rarely conducted.This research aims to study Lin Zexu’s translation activities from the perspective of ideology, in particular, patron’s ideology. It addresses the holistic issue of how Lin exerted his ideological influence upon various links in the translational chain:selection of translators, selection of source texts, translation quality control, translation strategies, and target text examination. It attempts to conduct a parallel comparative study on both available source texts and target texts pertinent to Lin’s translation activities with a view to uncovering the ideological issues reflected in the translated texts.This research shows that Lin achieved his translation purposes by exerting his ideology as a patron over various links in the translational chain. Lin’s selection criteria for translators conformed to his definition of ’talent’, which prioritised political and ideological reliability. His selection of source texts demonstrated his pragmatism in that they all served the following objectives:1) to gain knowledge for his anti-opium campaign, and 2) to seek intelligence for his fight against British invasion. In order to exert ideological manipulation over translation quality, Lin employed the methods of back-translation, re-translation, and target text examination. Via his ideological interpellation or subjectification of his translators, Lin injected his ideologies into the minds of his translators who, in turn, applied these ideologies to the actual translation process. To achieve Lin’s ideological objectives, his translators employed strategies of sinolisation, uglification, dwarfing, and defamiliarisation, all of which revealed Lin’s ethnocentrism and feudalism.A study of Lin’s translation activities sheds light on how patrons exert their ideological influence on various aspects of translation, and provides insights into selection of translators, selection of source texts, translation quality control, selection of translation strategies, and translator and interpreter training.