A Translation Quality Assessment Of Shiji Based On The House Model

In ancient China,each dynasty compiled history books to record the historic events of its own and previous dynasties.These books are collectively known as"Twenty-Four Histories"(二十四史).Shiji,the first of them,records more than 3,000 years of history from the time of the Yellow Emperor(黄帝)to the reign of Emperor Wu of the western Han dynasty(汉武帝).For scholars,students and amateurs of history,Shiji is a valuable source of learning.If it can be translated into English,more foreign readers can learn about China’s past.In recent decades,several English translations were published,the most famous ones being Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang’s Selections from Records of the Historian,Burton Watson’s Records of the Grand Historian and William H.Nienhauser,Jr.’s The Grand Scribe’s Records.However,due to the limitations of available references and background knowledge at the time of translation,the three translations differ in quality.Which translation is of the highest quality and most accessible to English-speaking readers?This thesis assesses the translation quality of five biographies in Shiji,namely,Qinshihuang Benji(秦始皇本纪),Cike Liezhuan(刺客列传),Shangjun Liezhuan滴君列传),Fan Ju Cai Ze Liezhuan(范雎蔡泽列传)and Lu Buwei Liezhuan(吕不韦列传),which appear in all three translations.The tool used is an improved version of the House model,which is the most comprehensive and influential one among Translation Quality Assessment(TQA)frameworks put forward by scholars at home and abroad.Through evaluation,it is found that the source text and the three translations generally have a high degree of matching.In Field,the three translators reproduce most information of the source text,apart from some inaccurate transliterations;In Tenor,most of the content is reproduced,but the Yangs’ and Nienhauser’s translations contain certain inaccuracies.In Mode,the source text and the translations match in terms of Medium and Connectivity,but in some places the logic of the source text is disrupted.According to House’s classification of overt translation and covert translation,Nienhauser’s translation is covert,while the Yangs’ and Watson’s translations are overt.