| Yan Fu is regarded as the first-level competent translator at Late Qing Dynasty,with his eight celebrated translations exerting profound influence on intellectuals at that time.Therefore,researchers in the circles of thought,history,and translation studies concentrate on his translations,and representative achievements are reached in analyzing ideological content and their characteristics,but these researches are still lack of profound explorations in Yan Fu’s selection and translation of those celebrated works from the perspective of academic history.Actually,Yan Fu was not the first translator that translated J.S.Mill’s On Liberty and A System of Logic,Ratiocinative and Inductive,E.Jenks’ s A History of Politics,Montesquieu’s The Spirit of Laws,W.S.Jevons’ s Logic,for Ma Junwu,John Fryer,Walsh(Wo Ershi),Zhang Xiangwen and Joseph Edkins had translated these works into Chinese versions and published them respectively prior to Yan Fu.As cultural memories of a translation are constructed by a translator under certain translation context,here come the research questions of this thesis: How does Yan Fu construct cultural memories of his translation works? Based on former question,what is the essence of Yan Fu’s translation process? In order to answer these two questions,firstly,the author selects Tianyan Lun,Yuanfu,Qunji Quanjie Lun and Qunxue Yiyan as case studies for the following reasons: from1895 to 1903,this is the most frequent time that Yan Fu discussed with other scholars of Late Qing Dynasty on translations and specific problems of translation works,and it also witnesses translation boom at Late Qing Dynasty with transitions from natural science to social science,from learning from the west to learning from Japan,so cultural memories of Yan Fu’s translations embody his pragmatically theoretical feature in this period indeed.Secondly,this thesis attempts to consider Yan Fu’s selection and translating of his translations from the perspective of cultural memory theory,which proposed by Jan & Aleida Assmann.As this theory focuses on the process of human memory and its significance,key concepts of cultural memory theory,such as communicative memory and cultural memory,functional memory and storage memory,and cannon can be applied in translation studies.In order to explore Yan Fu’s translations in-depth,the author combines concepts of cultural memory with translation memory to propose a conceptual system of translational cultural memory,namely functional cultural memory,historical cultural memory,present cultural memory and interactive cultural memory.Translational cultural memory refers to a cognitive system in which a translator in a certain historical context selects,inherits and gradually constructs a similar theme as the source text through translation activities.Therefore,this cognitive system originates from translation activities and coordinates their cultural memories,which can be further divided into functional cultural memory,historical cultural memory,present cultural memory and interactive cultural memory.Functional cultural memory refers to the cognitive process of a translator and a group of translators in a certain historical context select the original and its related contents according to certain norms,and then selectively construct them in translation to meet target readers’ needs and to indicate the direction of target culture’s development as well.Historical cultural memory refers to the cognitive system that a translator and a group of translators in a certain historical context build according to existing themes or texts.Present cultural memory is the cognitive system constructed by a translator and a group of translators with reference to historical traditions and needs of a certain era.Interactive cultural memory is the cognitive system that a translator and a group of translators construct certain scheme of target culture from values of relevant texts in source and target cultures.Because these perspectives aims at analyzing different characteristics of Yan Fu’s translations,so they can depict cultural memories of Yan Fu’s selection and translation from different perspectives.Thirdly,this thesis applies cultural memory theory(from historical dimension)in analyzing Tianyan Lun.Based on first-hand historical data,formation and connotation of “Xin,Da,Ya” are reinterpreted,for “Xin,Da,Ya” is the beginning and destination of cultural memories in Tianyan Lun to a large extent.“Xin,Da,Ya” was not accomplished by Yan Fu alone in one step,but evolved from Yan Fu’s proposal of “Da” in his Preface(Yili)to Tianyan Lun’s manuscript,to his addition of “Xin” and “Ya” with the enlightenment of Wu Rulun’s patronage and Lyu Zengxiang’s revision(shujian),and finally to “Xin,Da,Ya” in his Preface to Tianyan Lun as a summary of his experience of “shu” in his translation practice.Therefore,“Xin,Da,Ya”,as a result of interaction between Yan,Wu and Lyu,is a crystallization of their collective wisdom,in which Yan’s contribution,however,is definitely the most decisive.In other words,“Xin,Da,Ya” has a multiple connotation which was accumulated through a series of dynamical evolutions: “Da” evolved from stressing the author’s intention to emphasizing the translator’s;“Xin” evolved from implying “Zong”(origin)to referring to“Cheng”(trust)and constructed a trust in translation both in content and style;and “Ya”evolved from “Yaxun”(elegance)to “Wen”(elegance,style,and literariness),a principle applicable to all levels of translation from terms to the translated literature.Moreover,the evolution of “Xin,Da,Ya” was also the result of translators’ collective appeal at Late Qing Dynasty.In a word,the multiple connotation of Yan Fu’s “Xin,Da,Ya” is the result of the gradual co-construction by Yan Fu,Wu Rulun and some other parties of that time.As cultural memories of Tianyan Lun are not only preserved in “Xin,Da,Ya”,but also affect constructions of other Yan Fu’s translations’ cultural memories.The author explores Yan Fu’s selection and translation of Wealth of Nations from the perspective of functional cultural memory.First,he had already analyzed the theory of “Jixue”(economics)in translating Guo Jixue;Second,his functional cultural memory was formed on the basis of collective imagination of “Fuguo”(national wealth)that depicted by translation works of western economics at Late Qing Dynasty;Third,his cultural memory reached certain degree of balance with collective utilitarian memory represented by Wu Rulun and Liang Qichao of that era in the process of translating Yuanfu,such as the selections of its book title,translation style,and target audiences.Finally,this cultural memory selectively constructed the discipline of Adam Smith’s Jixue.In all,the selective retention by functional cultural memory not only changed final appearance of Yuanfu,but also demonstrated its value of “dayong”(application)and “kuangmiu”(rectification).While analyzing the process of Yan Fu’s selection and translation of Qunxue Yiyan from the perspective of interactive cultural memory,the enlightenment function of “Qunxue”(sociology),the appeal of doctrinal theory of “Qunxue”,and the present fixation of doctrinal theory of “Qunxue” and “Qunxue” research,these three stages were gradually constructed by Yan Fu’s interactive cultural memory,which promoted the connotation of “Qunxue” from original “darenzhixue”(the integration of all things)to be professional “Qunxue” theory and scientific “Qunxue” research.Therefore,interactive cultural memory not only profoundly influenced the connotation that “Qunxue” has in Qunxue Yiyan,but also changed its final appearance of the translation.As for the cultural memories in Qunji Quanjie Lun,Yan Fu’s selection and translation of On Liberty from historical and present cultural memory are explored respectively.First,the historical cultural memory is observed through an analysis of the scholars’ elementary cognition of liberty at Late Qing Dynasty and its great stimulation to Yan Fu’s selection of liberal thoughts;Second,the present cultural memory is studied by analyzing the translation’s continuity and transcendence of other translators’ translations that had been published before Yan’s,such as Ziyou Lunlve and John Miller’s Ziyou Yuanli.Finally,a conclusion is drawn that cultural memory in Late Qing translational context had a direct and realistic influence on Yan Fu’s selection and translation of On Liberty,which changed its final appearance of the translation.After the systematic analyses of Yan Fu’s four translations,the author explores the essence of Yan Fu’s translation process from the perspective of cultural memory,that are Late Qing translational context,translators at Late Qing Dynasty,Yan Fu’s translation process in former two factors,and his celebrated translations.First,Late Qing translational context is the cultural memory field of Yan Fu’s translations for the relationship among Yan Fu’s translations and other translators’ translations reflects inheritance,extension and bearing of cultural memories.So this interactive process of cultural memories not only enhances the ideological content of other translations,but also enriches the connotations of Yan Fu’s translations.Second,through analyzing different translational reflections of Zhong Tianwei,Liang Qichao and Yan Fu on Western Learning’s translations,the author finds that these reflections are different types of cultural memories,namely passive cultural memory,active cultural memory,and creative cultural memory,and these cultural memories directly influence translators’ translational activities to different depths and breadths.While Yan Fu as a translator with creative cultural memory,he systematically initiated translation activities.Third,Yan Fu’s translation process is a process of reconstructing cultural memories,that is,the interweaving of history and reality between cultural memories and translation demands,so translational cultural memory arises from them certainly coordinates cultural memories in his translation process.Therefore,cultural memories’ themes are realized through envision,selection and construction in his translations.Finally,Yan Fu’s translations are the present fixations of cultural memories,for his choices of book titles,interpretations of cultural memories in translations as well as systematic translations are closely correlated.In conclusion,through diachronic and synchronic,macro and micro cultural memory analyses of Yan Fu’s translations,not only his translation process as the travel of cultural memory which bridges new and old,time and space is clarified,but also demonstrates the unique cultural memory value in his translations. |
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