Image Conversion Of Timothy Richard’s Translation Of Xi You Ji From The Perspective Of Image-G Actualization

As one of Chinese four major classical novels, there are many English versions of Xi You Ji, among which Timothy’s translation is the earliest with complete chapters. However, because of Christianized language of the image conversion and translator’s identity of missionary, this translation has been neglected for a long time as a misreading of the literary value of original work. It’s considered to be a Christianized religious work with little connection with the original work.Based on the theory of gestalt image actualization, as artistic object, literary text has the relatively independent integrality, which is the gestalt quality. Literary translation is the process of conversion of gestalt images and delivery of gestalt qualities, rather than the mere conversion of the meanings of words and sentences. Gestalt quality is connected with many factors and is beyond the simple combination of linguistic components. There exist situations that image translations fail the correspondence between different languages, or different images in different languages possess the same gestalt qualities. Besides, considering translator’s sinology background, this thesis attempts to study if the image conversions of Timothy’s translation changed the gestalt qualities of the original images, and to analyze if Christianized linguistic expressions in the translation would necessarily lead to the Christianization of the original gestalt qualities.Through contrasting the gestalt qualities of the original work and Timothy’s translation, this thesis finds out that most image conversions in the translation do change the gestalt qualities of the original images, but the changes consist of different types more than mere Christianization. It’s also proved that Christianized linguistic expressions do not necessarily lead to the Christianization of gestalt qualities. As a result, it cannot be taken as the criterion to tell the Christianization of the translation. This study may contribute to re-evaluate Timothy’s translation and deepen the understanding of images in the original work of Xi You Ji. Besides, the employment of the theory of gestalt image actualization shows the practical implication to analyze and evaluate translation from the perspective of gestalt qualities.