A Study Of Chinese Translation Of The Law Of Nations In Late Qing Dynasty From The Perspective Of Field Theory

The Law of Nations(1839)is the very first western legal work introduced in modern China.The project was initiated even before the First Opium War by Commissioner Lin Zexu,who was appointed in 1839 to launch the campaign against the opium trade rampant in Guangzhou.He trusted Peter Parker and Yuan Dehui to translate some passages chosen from the original book respectively in order to collect information about western countries as required in preparation for the imminent war.The two translated versions are Hua Da Er Ge Guo Lv Li and Fa Lv Ben Xing Zheng Li Suo Zai,both compiled first in the sixty-volume version of Hai Guo Tu Zhi(1998)and later in one hundred-volume of Hai Guo Tu Zhi(1998).Up till now,the translation studies on The Law of Nations are still a far cry from sufficient to gain any insight.Most researchers would rather focus on the historic significance of Lin Zexu's initiation of the legal project than pay any attention to the political factors therein or make a textual comparison between Parker's and Yuan's translations.Consequently,there is much left to be explored from the perspective of field theory.Early in 1990 s,western scholars began to think of translation as a type of social practice with reference to sociology,so as to scrutinize the role translation played in the society.More and more attention are thus attracted by Pierre Bourdieu's academic thoughts,which dissolve the confrontation between subjectivism and objectivism and stress the relationship between the society and the individual.It is from this perspective of sociology that we will analyze the link between the social background and individual's trajectory in terms of the translation of The Law of Nations.Based on the field theory as well as its three key concepts,field,capital and habitus,this thesis firstly discusses the structure of the power field in the late Qing Dynasty,which exerted influence on Lin Zexu's translation activities.Specifically,The Law of Nations was translated in a financial conflict for the control of foreign trade between China and the Great Britain.Our discussion then turns to how powerfield,capital and generalized habitus constrained Lin Zexu's initiation of The Law of Nations and his selection of the theme and the source text.With a view to the fierce diplomatic disputes,Lin Zexu recruited translators to render into Chinese some paragraphs relevant to the war,embargo and blockade.Meanwhile,we analyze the individual social experience and educational background's influence on translation activities in light of translators' habitus.As agents with specific habitus and capitals struggle in the power field,translators' habitus exerts influence on translation purpose and translation strategy,which can account for translator's process of the source text and his linguistic choice in the translation.Translators' habitus is internalized in specific historical period and the socialization process,and different translators' habitus result in different versions of translation.Under the influence of personalized habitus,Parker was committed to spreading western culture and protecting western interests,and was inclined to adopt abridgment and additional translation.While Yuan Dehui also adopted deletion and addition to achieve Lin Zexu's political purposes.Faced with the unfamiliar legal terms,Yuan replaced them with Chinese traditional cultural terms in view of the target readers' expectations.This thesis holds that the social situations and individual trajectory should be taken into consideration to reexamine the interaction between the translation activity and society in light of the field theory.Our study arrives at the conclusion that both Lin Zexu's initiation of the translation activity and two translators' particular choices result from joint efforts of field,capital and habitus.