A Comparative Study Of Three Chinese Versions Of Bacon’s Essays

Essays is the most famous literature work of Francis Bacon (1561-1626). The book covers a wide range of topics, including philosophy, ethics, aesthetics, royal courtesy, strategies of being officials, etc. The terse language written in the book is elegant and meaningful, which embodies Bacon’s unique writing style. The writing mode of this book has been adopted by plenty of writers and regarded as an official writing mode. So far, Essays has been translated into a great number of languages and helps the spreading of Bacon’s thoughts throughout the world. In the meantime, it establishes the foundation of being as one of the world literature classics.In China, the translation of Essays prospered in modern times. Many writers and translators have translated this work into Chinese. The three versions chosen in this thesis are translated by Gao Jian (高健), Cao Minglun (曹明伦) and Pu Long (�'�隆). The publishing times of the versions are relatively close. Therefore, they are suitable for the synchronic study of Chinese translation of Essays.Gao Jian’s translation is the oldest of all and full of archaism. Cao Minglun’s version is featured by Chinese four-character expressions. Some parts of it break away from the limitations of source text (ST). Pu Long’s translation is the closest one to vernacular Chinese, which is more suitable for common readers. This thesis attempts to analyze Francis Bacon’s Essays thoroughly from a synchronic view by pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of each translation and search for the reasons for the differences in style among the three translations. Meanwhile, based on that, this paper tries to reveal the translation concept of each version in order to sum up the translation strategies for the translation of Essays and the same kind.