Legge Chinese Classics Translation Studies

With reference to Bakhtin’s and Foucault’s conceptions of discourse,A Discursive Approach to James Legge’s Translation of Chinese Classics establishes a translator’s discourse system,which classifies the translator’s discourses as general discourse,translation discourse and translation as discourse.Under this system,it analyses James Legge’s translation of Chinese Classics from the angles of his discourse on fidelity,equivalence,paraphrase and retranslation.The aim of this study is to reveal how James Legge engaged in discursive practice through translation.In other words,it is to show how James Legge integrated ideology and power into his translation of and commentary on Chinese classics,and how he made use of his general discourse,translation discourse and translation as discourse to promote the intercultural communication between China and the West,and finally how he was translated by Chinese culture during the process of his translation.The dissertation consists of the following parts.First,James Legge’s life is examined according to his general discourse.Within the historical framework of 19th-century British missionary activities in China,British sinology and translation,a social-cultural network is constructed in terms of “books” and “persons”,which are the two main factors that influenced James Legge’s translation of Chinese Classics.Second,both James Legge’s translation as discourse and translation discourse are analyzed comprehensively.James Legge’s translation include Chinese re-writing of English works,“Chinese Classics”,“Sacred Books of China” and Chinese polite literature.James Legge’s early Chinese rewriting of English works can be regarded as one part of his missionary work.Yet,it interacts with Chinese culture,and represents James Legge’s accomodationist missionary strategy and comparative apologetics.James Legge’s “Chinese Classics” are still regarded as the benchmark of the translation of Chinese Classics,which can be evidenced from the process,features and influence of the translation.Yet,such issues as James Legge’s arrangement of the order of these classics and the different versions of his translation,reflect his subjective consciousness.James Legge’s “Sacred Books of China” sanctified the Chinese classics in the perspective of comparative religion,which invented Chinese religion in the West in the name of “sacred books”.James Legge’s translation of Chinese polite literature is an interaction with his “Chinese Classics”,and to a certain extent mirrored his emotion and attitude toward Chinese culture at his later years.Based on the above discussion,James Legge’s view on translation is summarized.Third,with an introduction of the history of the concepts of fidelity,equivalence,proper translation and paraphrase,James Legge’s translation discourse is put in a historical framework of translation,and is regarded as a discursive strategy.His translations of xing shan,Shang Di,Tao are taken as examples to illustrate how he integrated ideology and power into his translation of and commentary on Chinese classics.James Legge translated Mencius’ s “xing shan”(the goodness of man’s nature)as “the tendency of man’s nature to good”.It shows James Legge’s intention to mediate the conflict between Confucianism and Christianity in their arguments on man’s nature;and on the other hand,it indicates that James Legge resorted to Mencius’ s arguments to illustrate his religious position as a non-conformist and his postmillennialist evangelical theology.This translation practice is contrary to his statement on fidelity.“God” seems to be an equivalent to Shang Di.But it is a discursive practice,and a forced construction in James Legge’s translation.With this construction,James Legge not only solved the “Term Question” in the academic field,but invented Confucianism in the West.As for the concept of Tao in Confucian classics,James Legge diversified his choice of words to express its rich meanings in morality,politics and metaphysics.However,for the Taoistic Tao,James Legge chose to transfer it directly into English,in order to show its ambiguity in semantic meaning and mystery in thinking.This is paraphrase in translation practice,which is against his discourse on proper translation.Fourth,James Legge’s revision of The Confucian Analects and his retranslation of The Doctrine of the Mean are examined against the discourse on retranslation.The revision and retranslation embody James Legge’s revisionist spirit,especially his re-evaluation of Confucius and the reinterpretation and retranslation of the concepts of Zhong Yong and Cheng.The foundation for such revisionist spirit is James Legge’s identification with Chinese traditional culture due to his long-term immersion in Chinese classics and interaction with Chinese people.Thus,James Legge’s translation is not simply a transfer of meaning from one language into another,but implies the reproduction of meaning and the representation of culture.Rereading his translation today,we should understand its value in intellectual history and its significance to the intercultural communication between China and the West.