The Translation Of CUV And Its Influence On Chinese

The Bible has exerted great influence upon the western culture and the whole world. The Chinese translation of The Bible has a long history and many Chinese versions appear in China. Among the various Chinese versions of The Bible, the Chinese Union Version (CUV) is the most influential and widespread one. During nearly 90 years after its publication, Chinese language has greatly changed; however, the CUV is still the best choice of Chinese versions for both Christians and non-Christians. Both in religion and in language, the influence of the CUV can match that of the King James Version (KJV) in English, which suggests its special features and unique value.The thesis attempts to illustrate CUV s authoritative role, explore the reasons for its popularity and elaborate on its great influence upon the development of Chinese language and literature with research findings on Descriptive Translation Theory, especially the Poly-system Theory of Itamar Even-Zohar and Andere Lefevere s definition on ideology, poetics and patronage. According to the Poly-system Theory, any change in a poly-system should not be viewed singly, but studied in a macro poly-system with other related cultural systems. Therefore, to explore a translated version s popularity, besides the textual element, many other elements which affect the production of a translation work, such as the cultural environment of source and target languages, social and political environment, etc. should be taken into consideration.The body of the thesis contains three chapters:Chapter One gives a general review of The Bible translation in China, which has a history of more than one thousand years. The reason why the Chinese Bible versions before the CUV was not popular is that, The Bible, as a foreign literature classic and religious canon, was spiritually contradictory to the mainstream poetics in China in history; while the CUV, translated at the turn of the 20th century when the Chinese modern literature was still in its cradle, was, to a large extent, influenced by the changing poetics and ideology.Chapter Two analyses CUV s influence upon the promotion of Mandarin. At the turn of the 20th century, Chinese language was experiencing the transition from classic Chinese to Mandarin Chinese, and the publication of the CUV was a coincidence with the Mandarin Movement advocated by the intellectuals, hence greatly contributing to the popularization of Mandarin.Chapter Three discusses CUV s influence upon Chinese literature in the aspect of poetics and ideology. With its wide spreading, the CUV has exerted great influence in the literary field and changed the values of some Chinese writers and poets. The Bible has been a source of creation for many modern and contemporary Chinese writers and poets. The images, words and expressions from The Bible can be found in many modern literary works.Finally, analyzing and discussing in the light of Even-Zohar s Poly-system Theory, the thesis draws the conclusion as follows: besides its special language features, its influence upon the Chinese poetics and ideology ever since its publication has also contributed greatly to its popularity and authoritative role among different Chinese versions. According to its popularity and the development of Mandarin, the CUV will be the most popular Chinese version of The Bible for a long time. Only when Chinese poetics and ideology change so much that the CUV can not meet the reader s need, will it be taken place of by a new version gradually.