A Study Of The Language Used In Zhou Zuoren’s Literary Translations In The Late Qing Dynasty

Literary translation prospered in the late Qing Dynasty.In the meanwhile,language used in translating literature also changed a lot.This dissertation tries to study the literary language used in Zhou Zuoren’s literary translations in the late Qing Dynasty,Using four texts including Ali Baba and the forty thieves,The golden bug,The world’s desire and yuwai xiaoshuoji(A collection of foreign stories).Several questions should be answered.What were the characteristics of the language used in these texts? Why did Zhou use certain variants of Chinese? What was the relationship between Zhou’s choices and the social backgrounds?The dissertation can be divided into three chapters which discuss the questions proposed above.The first chapter studies the reasons why Zhou used classical Chinese rather than vernacular Chinese to translate Ali Baba and the forty thieves and The golden bug.When Zhou was receiving his education in Nanjing,he was heavily influenced by Liang Qichao’ s literary views.Liang believed the novels should be written and translated to express the political views of the writer(or the translator)to the masses,so vernacular Chinese,which can attract most people(even some of them are ignorant),should be used.However,Liang’s literary translations in vernacular Chinese proved to be a failure.Only classical Chinese can express Liang’s political ideas thoroughly,because words and expressions relating to politics only exist in classical Chinese.Moreover,Zhou was taught to use literal translation method at school.As a result,he cannot follow Liang’s footsteps to change the original narratives and use the style of zhanghuiti xiaoshuo(chapter-titled novel),which is closely linked to vernacular Chinese.Zhou believed Ali Baba and the forty thieves can be taken as the English counterpart of chuanqi(Chinese Romance)which is written in classical Chinese and The golden bug,a detective story.In the late Qing Dynasty,detective stories were usually written in classical Chinese as well.Therefore,Zhou chose classical Chinese to translate these two works.The second chapter studies how Zhou’s criticism of a Chinese translation of Bible indicates his preference for classical Chinese.In Tokyo,Zhou criticized that the classical Chinese used in almost all Chinese versions of Bible was not classical enough.It is concluded that the particular version Zhou criticized was the Delegates’ Version.The classical Chinese used in this version was too delicate.Zhou preferred a more plain variant of classical Chinese rather than a refined one.In chapter three,different variants of classical Chinese were discussed.Zhou said he imitated Lin Shu when he was translating The world’s desire in Tokyo.Zhou used a similar genre used by Lin Shu,but this choice was actually influenced by Andrew Lang.in Yuwai Xiaoshuoji,Zhou used many classical Chinese letters.This preference was connected with Zhang Taiyan’s literary and linguistic views.Zhang believed classical Chinese letters can show the psychologic,religious and social conditions of the people in ancient times.This idea was adopted by Zhou as well.Zhou believed people from both China and foreign countries had similar hearts.Therefore,classical Chinese letters which can show the hearts of the Chinese people were the best media to translate the foreign literature and the hearts of the foreign people.