Comparative Study Of Two English Versions Of Shi Jing From The Perspective Of Skopostheorie

As the first collection of poetry in China, Shi Jing can be called the original classicof Chinese culture. Due to its unique historical and cultural, artistic and literary, andlinguistic values, Shi Jing has been translated into different languages. And there are somany versions about it. Besides, there are also many comparative studies about differentversions. However, the study from the perspective of Skopos Theory is relatively few.Skopos Theory is the core of German functionalist approach. It holds the view thateach translation is produced for a given purpose. In Skopos Theory, the purpose of atranslator determines his or her translation process and strategies. Besides, it putsemphasis on the target text and the target language readers. According to it, anytranslation that is adequate in terms of the purpose of translation is said to be faithful.James Legge and Xu Yuanchong produce different versions according to their differentpurposes, which to some extent coincides with the viewpoint of Skopos Theory, namely,the end justifies the means.Therefore, on the basis of former studies, this thesis will conduct a comparativestudy about two authoritative English versions of Shi Jing——James Legge’s version in1870s and Xu Yuanchong’s version in1990s——by means of literature review approachand quality analysis. It aims to find out what kinds of strategies these two translatorsadopted in their translating and find out the reasons behind their strategies. Meanwhile, ittries to test the validity of Skopos Theory in literary translation.This thesis is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter is introduction whichgeneralizes the research background and significances, methods and objectives, questionsand research structures. The second chapter is literature review which gives a detailedintroduction to the studies of Shi Jing and Skopos Theory both at home and abroad. Chapter three is the theoretical framework. It focuses on three rules of this theory and itsapplication to literary translation. Under this theoretical framework, the following threechapters make a comparative analysis that how these two translators use differentstrategies to realize their expected purposes under the guidance of three rules. The lastchapter is conclusion which includes research findings, limitations and suggestions forfuture studies as well.Through the text analysis, it can be concluded that due to the different purposes andlimitations in cultural background, translators may choose different strategies in differentsocial and historical backgrounds to achieve the intended purposes. Thus, in assessing atranslation, we cannot just count in the source text but also some other factors such as thesocial conditions, the initiator’s purpose, the translator’s adjustment, and the targetreaders’ response as well. To the theorists in this school, any translation that fulfils itsintended purpose is adequate.