A Study Of Fang Mengzhi’s Thoughts Of Translation Studies

As a prominent contemporary Chinese translation theorist,Fang Mengzhi has been making excellent ground-breaking work in fields such as science and technology translation,creating and editing the translation periodicals,and compilation of translation dictionaries.Especially,his in-depth and expansive systematic studies of pragmatic translation is of pioneering significance at home and abroad.This study summarizes Fang Mengzhi’s unique achievements in constructing the macro-meso-microscopic research paradigm.On macroscopic level it describes“attaining aims,following norms and having readability” as three translation principles,and “one body with three rings” present space-time development of translatology.On mesoscopic level,it takes a triangular schematic diagram of strategies as an example.On microscopic level,the study focuses on the three disciplines,namely grammar,rhetoric and logic to research translation techniques.The study focuses on the relationship between Fang Mengzhi’s trichotomy approach,namely,“one dividing into three”,and his pragmatic translation studies theories and viewpoints.On this basis,the enlightenment significance of the methodology to the current translation theory and translation practice is expounded.In contrast with the plentiful literary translation research,the pragmatic translation started later.Specifically,driven by domestic discipline leaders such as Fang Mengzhi,pragmatic translation studies has experienced the development process from scratch,and has gone out of the difficult period of theoretical construction.With the rapid development of the direction of epistemology,pedagogy,methodology,discipline system,technology,etc.,pragmatic translation studies has become an unattached and developing discipline.Many of these research achievements have been at the forefront of the world,but domestic academic circles have not yet carried out systematic research on this.One of the values of this dissertation is to perfect this important link in the translation theory studies’ history.In Fang Mengzhi’s academic research,the trichotomy approach is proposed to overcome the deficiencies of the the dichotomy,by inheriting the ancient literarytheories and drawing on the western translation theories,and advocate the overall,dynamic,stratified,and evolutionary thinking modes.In the dissertation,the author consciously reveals the uniqueness,rationality and modernity of this method,and tries hard to improve the universality of this method in translation studies.Therefore,the“one dividing into three” approach is the key point of Fang Mengzhi’s translation theory and translation activities,and also the highly concentrated method of Fang Mengzhi’s overall translation thought.Therefore,there are three main innovation points in this dissertation.(1)This program is the first domestic systematic research on the translation theory of Fang Mengzhi,contributing a lot to the richness of the historical materials for translators and related pragmatic translation studies.(2)The study promotes discipline development exemplified by the leading representative of Fang Mengzhi.(3)From the perspective of methodology,the“one divides into three” philosophy serves as the essential thought in understanding Fang Mengzhi’s translation theory and activities,and also has the tendency to boost the philosophical enlightenment for the meta-theory development of translation studies.There will be altogether eight chapters,with the trichotomy methodology as the main line,with Fang Mengzhi’s ontological research on the macro,meso and micro theories of pragmatic translation as the main body,and the relevant translation theory of the east and west at the same period for reference,the internal relationship between Fang Mengzhi’s translation theory and translation academic activities(founding journals,hosting meetings,compiling dictionaries,etc.)as the echo.The macro,medium and micro theories complement each other and form the ontology part,the same with the translation theory exploration and the translation activity practice.All these reveal and highlight the potential of the trichotomy paradigm.The first chapter is an introduction of Fang Mengzhi’s academic achievements,and evaluation of academic thoughts.Also,the research origin,theoretical value and practical significance of this research are proposed.Then comes to the overview of methodology — “one dividing into three”,which has the pivotal significance of connecting the two parts of theory and demonstration,as the philosophical concept.The following three chapters will deal with Fang Mengzhi’s macro,meso and micro research ideas in the construction of the pragmatic translation theory system.On macroscopic level,it describes the system structure,the basic elements and the general principles.For the other two angles,it perceives translation strategies mesoscopically;takes grammar,rhetoric,and logic as a whole microscopically.All in all,the three-dimensional perspective is conductive to the promotion of translation practice to translation theory.Based on the relevant translation concept,the case study of Fang Mengzhi’s academic activities will be employed — the founding of the Shanghai Journal of Translators and the compilation of translation dictionary.This part is not only a summary of the academic activities,but also a reflection of the construction of pragmatic translation study,and a continuing validation of the trichotomy methodology.Finally,the features concerning Fang Mengzhi’s academic achievements,his three-dimensional translation methodology will be listed,and the limitations of this study and the development potential for further research will also be concluded in the last chapter.In a word,under the background of the “Belt & Road” initiative and the national strategy of “going out” of Chinese culture,it is of great practical significance to explore the integration of methodology of “one dividing into three” methodology with Chinese philosophy and the research of pragmatic translation studies.