A Comparative Study On The Two English Versions Of Shi Ji

Written by Sima Qian of the Western Han Dynasty, Shi Ji was the first general history in the form of a series of biographies to appear in China. It records the history in China from the most remote past, the era of the legendary founder of the Chinese nation Huangdi (Yellow Emperor) in prehistoric China to the region of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. It is embedded with Chinese traditional culture, marked the start of biographical literature in China. In the 2,000 years since its appearance, Shi Ji has been wildly and affectionately read not only by educated Chinese but by men of learning in Korea and Japan, as well. It has been translated into many languages and exerts a significant influence in the field of world literature. The translated texts by the couple-Yang Xianyi and Gladys as well as Burton Watson are considered to be the most popular ones among all versions concerned.According to the rewriting theory put forward by AndréLefevere, translation is the rewriting of the source text by the translator. Translation can not take place in a vacuum. Inevitably it will be influenced by many factors such as ideology, poetics and patronage, etc.Based on AndréLefevere's rewriting theory, this thesis gives a detailed analysis about the ideology and poetics concerned, including individual ones of the two translators and social ones; also, about how patrons influence their translation activities during the translation of Selections from the Records of the Historian and Records of the Grand Historian respectively. To further analyze the influence of the three constraints of ideology, poetics and patronage, this paper focuses upon the translators'text selection of the original text, consideration of the readers. In doing so, the author probes into the reasons why the two translators have adopted different translation strategies. Finally, the author gives a comprehensive comparison of two English versions. Examples related to feudatorial official titles, technical measure systems and poetry emerged in Shi Ji from the two versions are compared to demonstrate the couple-Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang as well as Burton Watson's different translation strategies, which further testifies the influence of ideology, poetics and patronage upon translators.