| In the early years of twentieth century, Zhonghua Book Company has been growing very rapidly to be the second largest publishing enterprise due to its main advantages on the publication of new textbook and its business expanding to the humanities, social sciences, academic books, reference books, ancient books and magazines. Although the translation publishing of foreign literature starts late, the growing rate is very fast. Not only the number and scale but also the quality and the influence of the translations deserve attention. The macroscopic overview and the microscopic characteristics of the translation publishing of foreign literature in Zhonghua Book Company from1914to1949,will be investigated comprehensively in this thesis from the literature and publication point of views.First, the translation publication of the foreign literature is divided into three periods, i.e. probing period (1914～1918), developing period (1919～1937), and the declining period (1938～1949). The detective stories and romantic fictions are the major business in the early probing period. Drama, poetry, and essay these new literature types emerging in the second developing phase open the new era of the translation of modern literature. However, the publishing business of Zhonghua Book Company experiences seriously deflation in the last declining period due to the Anti-Japanese War and the main service in this phase is translation of fairy tale. More than eighty percent of the translations of new books have been collected in the book series, in which the Fiction Transactions and Modern Literature Collections are the most important. Besides, republication and retranslation also deserve attentions. Fiction, drama and fairy tale own the highest frequency of republication, while the classical masterpiece is the major preference in the retranslation.Next, the effect from the translator who directly determines the textures of the translations is also analyzed in this thesis, in order to give an overall research to the authors, translation works, publishing company and translator of the books. The translators can be classified into "old school" and "new school". The " Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School" is the main component of the "old school". Nearly all the "new school" translators have an abroad experience, and they expose to the foreign literature works and the theories feasibly. A large number of specialists who are specialized on the literature of one country or one type, emerge in this period. Also the effects from the woman-translator cannot be ignored. The selection motivation of the translation have been transferred from the market orientated to the independent literature aesthetics orientated gradually.Once more, this research topic is investigated in a microscopic way from four different views, i.e. country of the works, literature genre, translation methods and type of writing. The works from United Kingdom, France, Russia and United States is the first major of Zhonghua Book Company, while translation of the Japanese and German literature is in the second place. Also breakthroughs happen in the translation of "small country literature". Zhonghua Book Company plays a leading role in the publication of Shakespeare’s dramas and essay poetry. The methods of translation in Zhonghua Book Company experience literal translation and interpretation translation in the early years, and direct translation in the middle-later period and still associate with indirect, adaptation and abridged translation phenomena. The classical Chinese translation style is replaced by the vernacular Chinese style gradually.Finally, although this period has passed more than half a century, an upsurge of publication is brought about by the "first print of the work" in Zhonghua Book Company. Also Zhonghua Book Company greatly promots the creation of literature from the authors, and deeply contributes to the literature construction of the short fiction, fairy tale and so on. The phenomena and experiences emerge in this period, such as "interactive model" between the "famous writers" and "fresh men", construction of translating platform and the close relationship with the literature groups, will still shed light on the publishing industry nowadays. |
