Poetics,Ideology And Patronage:Translation As Rewriting In Yan Fu’s Tiānyǎn Lùn

Since the 1980s,a large number of translation studies from a cultural perspective have emerged in both the East and West.The cultural translation studies have shifted their focus from the technical aspects of translation or linguistic equivalencies to a myriad of sociocultural factors that manipulate translation.From the viewpoint of cultural turn,this study investigates the phenomena of "translation as rewriting" in Yan Fu’s Tiānyǎn Lùn as compared to the original book Evolution and Ethics under Andre Lefevere’s rewriting framework of poetics,ideology and patronage.This study has discovered that Yan Fu,who was greatly influenced by the Tongcheng literary school,did not adhere to the same literary style as the original text.Instead,he opted to adopt the style and syntax of the pre-Qin dynasty.Additionally,he utilized flexible translation strategies such as amplification and deletion to rewrite the original text.At the ideological level,this study points out that due to the different social backgrounds of the author and the translator,Yan’s focus in Tiānyǎn Lùn slightly deviated from its original meaning.Nevertheless,the central idea expressed in Yan’s book is not fundamentally contradictory to Huxley’s anti-social Darwinist ideology.Finally,this study also analyzes the positive contribution of patrons to Yan Fu’s translation.This empirical study enhances Lefevere’s theory of rewriting to a certain degree and provides valuable research experience for subsequent studies in this field.