A Contrastive Analysis Of The Para-texts In English Translation Of Da Xue

As the first work of The Four Books,Da Xue is a classic presentation of Confucianism,and occupies an important position in traditional Chinese classics.At the beginning of the 19 th century,Western sinologists,including Robert Morrison,Joshua Marshman,David Collie,James Legge and other sinologists translated Da Xue in English.Among them,Legge’s English version of Da Xue is regarded as the benchmark work of the Western translation field.In the 20 th century,many translators in China,including Gu Hongming,Lin Yutang,Zheng Lin,and others also translated Da Xue in English.Among them,the English version of Da Xue by Lin Yutang was written in clear and fluent English,and it accurately expressed the connotation of the original text.In the previous studies on the English translation of Da Xue,most of the studies paid attention to the translation or the translators,and few scholars specially focused on the para-texts in the English translation of Da Xue.The author intends to have a contrastive analysis between para-texts in James Legge’s and Lin Yutang’s English versions of Da Xue.With the guidance of thick translation,this thesis makes a contrastive analysis between para-texts in James Legge’s and Lin Yutang’s English versions of Da Xue.Thick Translation was first proposed by the famous American scholar Kwame Anthony Appiah in 1993.The author finds that the annotations,comments and prefaces concerned by thick translation belong to the category of peritext of the para-texts,which have a great academic significance in the field of translation study.Through a contrastive analysis of the prefaces,annotations,subheads and hidden notes by showing some specific examples in James Legge’s and Lin Yutang’s English versions of Da Xue,the author intends to explore:Firstly,what are the main types of the para-texts in James Legge’s and Lin Yutang’s English versions of Da Xue? And What are the respective features of them?Secondly,what are the translation effects obtained by the application of para-texts in James Legge’s and Lin Yutang’s English versions of Da Xue from the perspective of thick translation?Thirdly,what enlightenment can this research bring to the study of the English translation of Da Xue and the translation of Chinese classics?It is found that:Firstly,preface and annotations can be concluded as the main types of para-texts in Legge’s version while preface,subheads and hidden notes can be concluded in Lin’s version.However,these various types of para-texts have their own features and functions.At beginning,Legge and Lin both used prefaces to introduce the background information and the important position of the original text.By comparison,Lin’s preface is more particular.Apart from introducing the background information,it also had a clear overview of the adopted version of Da Xue.By the form of subheads,the translated version was divided into eight parts.Those subheads summarized the main idea of each part and made the inner logical structure clearer and more concise.Moreover,the annotations in Legge’s version supplemented some key information in terms of both language and culture.However,Lin didn’t leave room for annotations,but he chose to use hidden notes to explain some proper nouns and some abstract expressions.Secondly,the application of para-texts in James Legge’s and Lin Yutang’s English versions of Da Xue has achieved remarkable translation effects.The prefaces mainly introduced the origin and the status of Da Xue in ancient China,the Confucian point of view regarding education,and the version of Da Xue adopted,as well as some relative questions of typesetting.The subheads can guide the target readers to quickly grasp the core essence of each part of the whole version.The annotations mainly appeared in Legge’s translated version,which explained some culture-loaded words in the original text,Chu Hsi’s viewpoints and James Legge’s comments.The hidden notes in Lin Yutang’s translated version not only explained some obscure expressions,but also did not affect readers’ reading fluency.Thirdly,this study breaks the traditional model of the study on the English translation of Da Xue,focusing on the para-texts in the English versions.As a concrete practical form of thick translation theory,the para-texts have enhanced readers’ understanding of the original text and cleared obstacles for readers during the reading process.At the same time,the study on para-texts enriches the connotation of thick translation theory,opens up a new perspective for the study on the English translation of Da Xue,enriches the translation strategies of Chinese classics,and also contributes to the promotion and dissemination of Chinese culture to the whole world.