On The English Translation Of Chinese Classics Based On The Bibliography By Wang Ermin

During the 400 years since the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty,the western world published a large number of sinology works and English translations of Chinese Classics.According to the publication time of related bibliography,there are three primary bibliographies,that is,the five-volume edition of Bibliotheca Sinica(1878-1921)by Henri Cordier,China in Western Literature(1958)by Yuan Tongli and A Bibliography of Western Translations of Chinese Works(1975)by Wang Ermin.Wang Ermin’s bibliography is the earliest of its type after that by Yuan Tongli in Chinese academic circles which systematically collects information of Chinese Classics translated into the western world.This book provides comprehensive textual information of Chinese ancient documents translated into Western languages,which is helpful for researchers to understand the relevant information of English translation of Chinese classics in an all-round way.At present,the study of English translation of Chinese classics at home mainly focuses on the internal aspects and on the transference of language units.Descriptive translation is a new perspective developed from the West in the 1970 s,which broadens the scope of translation studies and shifts the focus from the internal elements of the text to the purpose and cultural background of translation.From the perspective of descriptive translation theory,this paper uses statistical methods and historical literature methods to explore the translation purposes and cultural backgrounds of Chinese classics in the bibliography.Through corpus collection and research preparation,totally 1042 translations of Chinese classics were finally obtained from Wang Ermin’s bibliography.Multidimensional statistics on certain translation phenomena in a particular historical period mainly includes six statistical dimensions: the type of original works,the year of publication of original works,the author of original works,the period of publication of English translation,the translator and the translator’s country.On the basis of data statistics,this paper observes the general trend of translation phenomena and gives a general description.Through a comparative analysis and the descriptions of the translated texts,the paper observes the translator’s cultural standpoint,translation strategies,and then explores the purpose of translation and the influence of history and culture on the translated texts.It is found in this study:(1)among all the 1042 translated texts collected from the bibliography,classics of literature,philosophy and history account for 48.75%,16.31% and 15.74%,respectively;(2)the average annual publication of English-translated works reached the highest level(36.95%)during the period of 1912-1948;(3)translators mainly come from Britain,China and the United States,reaching 30.82%,14.79% and 14.59% respectively;(4)the above data can help to observe the trends of classics translation: since the outbreak of the Opium War,the number of English translations of Chinese classics increased gradually;by the time of the Republic of China,the translation of classics into English reached the highest level in history;classics translations into English by British translators reached a peak in the 17 years from the May 4th Movement to the War against Japanese Invasion;American translators paid more attention to reality and focused on the translation of historical books;compared with Western translators,Chinese translators came later to translate Chinese classics independently.(5)the influence of different purposes on the translation styles is investigated by comparing the translations of the same original works in different languages and cultures.The history and culture of the target language are not only the direct motive for translation activities,but also affect the translation strategies and translation purposes as well as the style of Chinese classics translation.