Intercultural Communication And Acceptance: A Study On The Translation And Introduction Of <Shangshu> In The English-speaking World Since The 19th Century

Among the Chinese original canons represented by the"Five Classics",the<Shang Shu>has an extremely important position in terms of philological value,historical value or ideological value.Through cross-cultural communication,it not only shows to the West the development and high achievements of Chinese political history,intellectual history,and the history of classic hermeneutics,but also,to a large extent,becomes an indispensable way for westerners to explore the beginning of ancient Chinese history,understand the cultural roots and trace back to the source of thought.Since European missionaries came to China in the 16th century,the intercultural introduction of<Shang Shu>to the West has continued to occur.In this nearly 400years,its spread in the English-speaking world occupies the major part.With the phased development of Western Sinology,western missionaries and scholars have presented diverse views on<Shang Shu>,with many differences in translation motivations,attitudes,tendencies and methods,meanwhile perspectives of the discussion of related issues are even more widely different.Based on a cross-cultural perspective,this thesis examines the spread and acceptance of<Shang Shu>in the English-speaking world,mainly involving five translated works（in English）,which are from:Walter Henry Medhurst（1846）,James Legge（1865）,Walter Gorn Old（1904）,Bernhard Karlgren（1950）and Martin Palmer（2004）;The core issues involve the background of the translators,text translation,interpretation of meaning,discussion of relevant issues,the relationship among the five translated works,the later influence of the translated works and so on.There are three main tasks completed by this thesis:First one is to systematically elicit and outlines the overall appearance of<Shang Shu>entering the western world,especially to clarify its continuous translation and introduction process in the English world,and to makes a macro examination and logical generalization of its historical background,core reason as well as the concrete trajectory entering the English world;Second,through the specific analysis of each translated work,find out the originality or misunderstanding of the text,meaning and content of<Shang Shu>in the translation,interpretation,and discussion by Westerners,so as to reveal and compare the similarities and differences between Chinese and Western classical studies;The third is to take the introduction of<Shang Shu>in the English-speaking world as an example,to seek and think about the paradigm of cross-cultural dissemination of ancient Chinese classics,and to demonstrate the paradigm that is more applicable to the present day.The spread of Chinese ancient books to the West in the form of translation is definitely not only a process of text transformation or language conversion,but also contains the understanding and interpretation of the history,ideology and culture behind those documents.In short,the translation of documents is the translation of"Culture",especially the translation practice of classical ancient books.When discussing the background of<Shang Shu>entering into the English world,the first chapter of this thesis holds that the argument of"God"in“Terminology Controversy”(in 19^th century)is the direct reason for the missionaries who supported"Shang Di（上帝）"to focus on this book and translate it,and this cultural phenomenon does reflects the epitome of the cultural conflict between China and the West;In the second chapter of this thesis,the translation works of Medhurst and Legge are grouped into a category which is"under the influence of missionary consciousness",whether Medhurst strictly follows Cai Chen’s opinions,or Legge refers to the relevant writings of Chinese scholars from various sources,when they interpreted and deconstructed<Shang Shu>from a Western perspective,they do make the Chinese history,culture,and thoughts introduced to the west,though there are some absurd and even naive aspects in their translations,the contribution of the two missionaries in cultural understanding and communication should be affirmed in terms of cultural comparison;The third and fourth chapters of this thesis is the analysis of the translations of Walter Gorn Old,Bernhard Karlgren and Martin Palmer,as for them,whether Bernhard Karlgren starts from the language,and then explores the culture,and finally combine the Chinese and Western academics and thoughts in the cultural comparison,or Walter Gorn Old and Martin Palmer’s translations which are based on more western perspectives,shown more popular and more"paraphrase"appearance,they all deeply expressed a research tendency based on the rich cultural resources of China to serve the Chinese and western academic research.In addition,based on the specific investigations of the five translation works in chapters two to four of this thesis,it is easy to see that the core issue of the continued spread of<Shang Shu>in the English-speaking world is still mainly the relationship between"Initial translation"and"Retranslation":Since Medhurst translated<Shang Shu>into English for the first time,its transmission path in the English-speaking world is relatively clear--Legge and Bernhard Karlgren obviously followed the path of academic research,while Walter Gorn Old and Martin Palmer created and continued the path of mass communication;meanwhile,the gradual evolution of the interpretation that followed was also traceable--Legge further expanded the basis of interpretation to a wider range of Confucian studies,after that,Walter Gorn Old often cited a large number of Western cultural concepts and the text of the<Tao De Jing>as the basis for interpretation,and Bernhard Karlgren independently wrote the<Glosses on the Book of Documents>making an examination and interpretation of the text from the perspective of linguistics and philology,until Martin Palmer adopted the concept of"Translation equals interpretation".In these differences between"foreignization"and"domestication"in translation strategy and"localization"and"diversification"in interpretation tendency,it reflects westerners’utilization,integration and even reconstruction of Chinese cultural resources in different stages.Given all this,on the basis of reviewing the spread of<Shang Shu>in the English-speaking world since the19th century,the final chapter（fifth）gives priority to"the direct connection between the translated works and the original works"and"showing of the original culture of the study of ancient books",and proposes that the intercultural communication of ancient books should adopt the paradigm of"centering on the ancient books themselves".