On The Translation And Reception Of Francis Bacon's The Essays In China

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), a distinguished philosopher and statesman in Britain during the Renaissance, is regarded as the inaugurator of British essays, whose work, The Essays, has not only become his main representative of literary creation, but also won him enduring literary fame. The book cost him nearly thirty years, covering aspects like ethnics, philosophical ideas, strategies of being officials, methods of conducting oneself, suggestions to particular issues and appreciation of art and nature. Toward such topics, the essayist contributed his unique opinions in elegant and terse language, apothegms scattering without ornateness, whose clear and concise style did influence the writing mode of scientists in the Royal Society. So far, the book has been reprinted many times and translated into many languages, acclaimed worldwide as an epoch-making classic. Although its initial edition was published in 1597, it did not come into the vision of Chinese for closed-doorism prevailed during Ming(1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty(1644-1911). With the articles by Yan Fu(严复), Liang Qichao(梁启超), Lu Xun(鲁迅) and others, Bacon came into China as a sage and scholar. In the 1930s, the introduction of western philosophy stimulated intellectuals' interest in reading originals. In consequence, the first Chinese version for The Essays was produced, which was completed by Wu Shoupeng (吴寿彭), then published in 1935 under a Chinese title Pei Gen Wen Ji (《培根文集》). The second and third were respectively compiled by Chen Deming (陈德明) and Zhang Yintong(张荫桐) in the 1940s. The fourth version or the first entire version in strict sense, was finished in 1939 by Shui Tiantong (水天同), but published by the Commercial Press in 1950 due to the wars. It has been the first widely spread version, which has a great effect on later translations. Moreover, the book has been selected into Chinese Versionof World Academic Classics (《汉译世界学术名著丛书》), even going overseas. In the 1960s, Wang Zuoliang rendered three pieces from the book, all of which have been considered as top models of prose translation. It was until the early 1980s when China entered a new era of reform and opening up that the retranslation started with the new versions presented by Gao Jian (高健, selected version) and He Xin (何新). In the 1990s, essays enjoyed a good market, so new versions were produced, among which Cao Minglun's(曹明伦) version was considered better. After it came into the 21st century, Mr.Shui, Mr. He, and Mr.Cao's versions survived, coexisting with more new translations, among which typical ones were Wang Yiguo's (王义国) Shi Shi Zhen Yan(《世事箴言》) ,2000),Gao Jian's Pei Gen hurt Shuo Wen Ji(《培根论说文集》 ,2001) and Zhang Yi's (张毅) Pei Gen Lun Ren Sheng(《培根论说文集》 ,2002). The trend was mainly characterized by total translation, as well as Mr. He and Mr. Zhang's new bilingual editions. The thesis attempts to conduct a systematic study on the translation of The Essays from diachronic and synchronic views, and probe into the reception of the book in China, with an objective of breaking away from the pure version comparison and discovering the translation thoughts in various versions. Based on a series of analysis, a conclusion will be drawn that a classical text can be appreciated by the public through different translations; as a result, the understanding of the text as the part of readers can be accepted. Apart from introduction and conclusion, the thesis is divided into four chapters.The introduction briefs the theme of the paper.Chapter One introduces The Essays from four aspects: a brief account of the author and the book, major characteristics of the text and its achievement and influence.Chapter Two has a retrospect of its translation in China. First, a diachronic study will be carried out, accompanied by summing up features at different periods; then four versions will be chosen as samples to be analyzed synchronically.Chapter Three is a comparative study of three versions. New criticism will be applied...