The Cultural Translation In The Three Translated Versions Of The Analects-With The Guidance Of Tenor Theory

The Analects is basically a record of Confucius'teachings and his dialogues and exchanges with his disciples,which covers almost all topics that are the distillation of Confucius'thoughts and ideas.And because of its important position occupied by The Analects in Chinese traditional culture,it began to be translated into western languages as early as at the end of 16~thh century.And many translated versions have gradually come to the world.Scholars continually study its translated versions from the perspectives of cultural colonization and linguistics theory.Many domestic journals have published articles on English translation of The Analects from the perspective of linguistics theory,mainly through the application of relevant theories in the specific analysis of English translation to make comparison of different translated versions or to illustrate the feasibility to apply linguistics theories to analyze the translated versions of classical works.In addition,there are also scholars who study the English translations of The Analects which has been translated with domestication or alienation strategy from the perspective of colonization with the hope to achieve a fair position of China in cultural communications with the mighty western countries.Of all the translated versions of The Analects,three versions translated by James Legge,Arther Waley and Gu Hongming are comparatively well-known and widespread.As a Western missionary,Legge's translation intention is to better preach missions in China.Waley,a sinologist,was crazy about plenty of Chinese classical poetry,which attracted him too much to have the desire to introduce Chinese classic works to English readers.Suffered from the unfairness in the foreign affairs with the European countries,Gu Hongming translated The Analects in order to spread justice in the way acceptable and understandable to the westerners.Meanwhile,it is believed that the tenor element is related to the purpose of translation–because when facing different people or readers,we must first consider what kind of effect that the original author and the translators are trying to achieve when conducting such a dialogue and exchange with them.Hence,it is very important to fully consider the purpose of conversations and the aesthetic expectations of the target readers in translation.Therefore,in this thesis,the author chooses them as study objects for detailed analysis.Guided by tenor theory of systematic functional grammar,the author takes the English translations of Gu Hongming,Legge and Waley as the research objects.First,the translations are placed back in the historical,cultural and political environment to find out translator's translation purpose,target reader selection and translation strategy;secondly,through a large number of case studies and translation comparisons,the author tries to analyze the meaning loss in the translations;finally,with the guidance of tenor theory,translation quality assessment is made.It is concluded that,as a missionary,legge's special identity made him remember his missionary mission when he was translating The Analects–trying to replace Confucius with Jesus in China,so he merged this idea into his translation.It can be seen that the translation of Legge is colonialistic,trying to assimilate Confucianism with westernology in order to strengthen its western Christian philosophy.Waley criticized the Christian position expressed by Legge in his translation.Based on the Confusianism,Waley tried to use Chinese Confucian classics to support his understanding towards The Analects.The sinologist translators represented by Waley abandoned the Christian religious ideology when dealing with Chinese literature and culture,and began to study Confucianism from an academic standpoint which enables overseas readers to examine Chinese culture more objectively.In order to eliminate the image of China's differences,Gu Hongming tried to show China to the western public in a familiar way,bringing China closer to the western world,because only if western readers could recognize and accept Chinese works,can they be inspired and attracted to study Chinese culture in depth,thereby establishing respect and admiration for Chinese civilization.,thereby establishing respect and admiration for Chinese civilization.In short,domestication is not always an appendage to cultural hegemony.In some specific historical and cultural environments,which certain subordinate culture is introduced to the hegemony culture,it helps to establish a positive culture identity for the dominate culture and to gain the understanding and respect among the English-speaking countries.Under certain historical conditions,choosing domestication strategy to translate does not necessarily represent the surrender to Western culture–through the use of familiar concepts and images,the interest of the readers is aroused,thus,a deeper understanding of Chinese culture is gained.To a certain extent,it establishes a positive image for Chinese civilization and helps to shape a positive cultural identity.