A Study Of L(U|¨) Shuxiang As A Translator

Lu Shuxiang (1908-1998) is a famous linguist, and also a remarkable translator. In China, most accomplished translators have the double identity of translator and writer, but Lu Shuxiang is a translator and linguist. He presents numerous comments on translation, but all scattered in his treatises or the translator’s prefaces. Although L u Shuxiang is an accomplished linguist and translator, people have paid much attention to his linguistic views and achievements while neglecting his success in translation. As translation studies develop today, more and more scholars pay attention to individual translators and begin to take them as the object of their research. This thesis will study Lu Shuxiang as a translator. Based on the previous studies, the thesis attempts to display to its readers a fuller image of Lii Shuxiang as a translator.Lu Shuxiang’s translation activities can be divided into two stages:the trial stage and the mature stage. The author studies the social background, Lu’s translation activities and his translation works in each period, and tries to reveal whether a translator’s activities are affected by specific social factors, Although Lu Shuxiang does not formulate a systematic theory of translation, he does hold some unique opinions on translation. Lii’s translation is the manifestation of both his personal language views and the product of his time. His translation aims to broaden the national view, to do a comparative study of English and Chinese and to reform the target language. He thinks that he is an amateur translator, so he has enough space to choose the original. And his selection of the original is influenced by two kinds of factors:one is ideology and the other is social background. Lu’s translations are known for faithfulness and fluency. He doesn’t agree to simply describe translation criteria by "literal translation" or "free translation". Lu’s translations are neither famous works nor masterpieces. He states that a good translator must have a correct understanding of the source text, profound knowledge and good adaptive capabilities, and can use the target language in a skilled way. His translation played an important role in Chinese anthropology. The first and primary reason why Lu Shuxiang turns out such good translations is that he has a great bilingual competence, but most importantly, his profound understanding of the Chinese language has greatly facilitated his translating.This thesis contains five chapters. Chapter One is an introduction part. Chapter Two describe Lu Shuxiang’s translation activity. Chapter Three tries to summarize his thoughts on translation. Chapter Four probes into the influence of Lu’s translation. Chapter Five is a conclusion part.