The Golden Mean In External Beauty Reproduction Of Classical Chinese Poetry Translation

Confucianism is the core of traditional Chinese culture while Zhongyong is the core of Confucianism. Zhongyong is not only a kind of moral ethics based on the theory of human nature, but also a mode of thinking. Generally speaking, it asks people to start from their inner desire and basic value to seek the "Golden Mean" in the external environment. That is to say, we should combine our inner desire with the present external environment to find an appropriate way instead of being "over-done" or "under-done". Such a mode of thinking has helped to form the steady and sound character of Chinese nation, and has also exerted a far-reaching influence on the several-thousand-year civilization of China.Shi-king is a gem of classical Chinese culture as well as a pearl of the world literature treasurehouse. Ever since the 18 century, it has been translated into western languages. From 19th century on, its English versions have come out one after another including complete ones and selected ones. These versions, prose or verse in form, play an active role in western readers' understanding of Chinese culture and poetry. However, in terms of external beauty reproduction, many of them are not fully up to our expectations. As far as the form is concerned, it is impossible that the version can keep accordance with the original poem in the number of stanza, the length of line, rhythm and rhyme or it can take the form of English poetry. The Book of Poetry published by Liaoning Education Press in 1995 is such an excellent example in that it is a good combination of classical Chinese poetry and English poetry in form. The book, which was co-translated by Professor Wang Rongpei and Ren Xiuhua, is also a model for the integration of poetry translation and the principle of Golden Mean, a methodology of Confucianism. As a principle of handling affairs, the advocators of Golden Mean advise people not to go to extremes while dealing with problems. Similar to reproduction of external poetic beauty, the translator should not be limited by the form and sound of classical Chinese poetry, nor by those of English poetry. The translation should be done according to the actual situation, that is, to keep the external features to Chinese poetry to retain the "flavor" or to borrow the form of English poetry to avoid "translationese" accordingly. When the above two ways do not work, the translator can even create a new form to make the version vivid and incisive. This can be regarded as a source of reference to the translation of classical Chinese poetry. In general, the translation of Chinese poetry cannot go to extreme to imitate the form and sound effect of the original poetry nor to follow the form of English poetry. To choose a golden mean point between the two is of great importance.Having analysed Shi-king and its English versions and made a comparison between classical Chinese poetry and English poetry, the present author promotes a principle of reproducing the external beauty of Chinese poetry, that is, the Golden Mean. We make a detailed discussion about the embodiment of the Golden Mean in Wang and Ren's The Book of Poetry, which further strengthens our point.