A Study Of Dong Qiusi's Translation Thoughts

Dong Qiusi is a famous translation thinker in China.His translation thoughts had very rich contents and a wide range coverage,and they had great contributions to the development of the translation studies in the mid-20th century in China.However,until now,they have not got due attention either from the research of translation history or from that of translation theory.The relevant researches are mostly either outlined or sporadic.Therefore,this dissertation selects Dong's translation thoughts as the research object,focusing on three aspects:1)his reflection on traditional Chinese translation thoughts;2)his innovation on Chinese traditional translation thoughts,namely the construction of translation studies;3)guiding significance of his translation thoughts.Dong had some in-depth reflection on quite a few basic issues in translation field from the later half of 1940s to the early years of 1950s.This dissertation focuses its discussion on six of his most representative thoughts.The study found that as a native Chinese translator,he inevitably inherited some ideas from Chinese traditional translation thoughts.For example,in terms of whether selecting translation materials"for life" or "for art",he supported the former one,showing his inheritance of the practical view of Chinese traditional translation thoughts.As to the heated debate on indirect translation,he borrowed the concept of the cultivation of translator from the Chinese traditional translation thoughts as one term to integrate other translators'sporadic views,and used it as a key criterion for the measurement of the quality of an indirect translation.The study also found that he also brought up some creative viewpionts.For example,based on the practice that text typology was always ignored in the discussion of translation criteria,he proposed to distinguish text types in translation criteria.Namely,literary works should use "faithfulness" as their translaion standard,while non-literary ones should use "faithfulness" and"expressiveness" as their standards.This view was similar to Newmark's semantic translation and communicative translation theories,but over 40 years earlier than Newmark's.Also,while Guo Moruo and the like thought that translation was"creation",Dong deemed translation as "re-creation"."Re-creation" not only affirmed the creativity of the translator(s)but also emphasized that it was based on the original work,that is to say,a translator should not exert his creation freely.Dong's"re-creation" properly expressed the dialectical unity of faithfulness and creation.He also put forward that the nature of translation is a science.It was an important breakthrough for the Chinese traditional translation studies in the mid of 20th century,marking the beginning of the modern era of Chinese translation studies.This study also found that Dong reflected on the traditional translation thoughts in order to find turnkey solutions and provide a correct direction and principles for the translation studies after the new China was established.The construction of translation studies is the brightest pearl in Dong's translation thoughts.This study found out that he had important pioneering contribution in this area.He firstly separated translation criticism from the traditional translation theory study and then made a detailed study of each.He also introduced translation history into the reseach field.Thus he established a framework of translation studies which consisted of translation criticism,translation theory and translation history.Dong's theory already had the characteristics of translation studies as a discipline in the modern sense from the perspective of disciplinary nature and methodology,research tasks and objects,etc.In comparison to Tan zaixi,Holmes and several other influential scholars at the beginning of the translations studies,we found that he is a true pioneer of the translation studies construction in China and also the rest of the world.However,his thoughts were barely known and understood in the translation world till now.Dong Qiusi passed away and left translation field almost half a century ago.This study found out that some of his translation thoughts are still of great practical significance.Considering the present translation issues of wide conern in China,this dissertation selected his three major views for discussion,namely,building translation studies with Chinese characteristics,building constructive translation criticism,translation needs theory and theory should be closely integrated with practice,trying to clarify the truth that Dong's translation thoughts are still significant for the construction and development of modern translation studies in China.