Study On English Translation Of Jin Shengtan Theory

Jin Shengtan was a writer and literary critic in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.The main contribution of Jin’s literary theory lies in his narrative theory,which further developed the theoretical system of Chinese narrative theory and made the highest achievement of Chinese novel aesthetics in the Qing Dynasty.This paper takes the results of English translation and mediation of Jin’s literary theory to explore the translation and dissemination of Jin’s literary theory in the English world.The dissemination of Jin’s literary theory is closely related to the spread of the novel All Men Are Brothers in the English world.Therefore,this paper will study the translation and interpretation of Jin’s theory in English,analyzes the meaning of the translation,and compare the differences in every different translation,in order to get out of the difficulties of Chinese literary theory’s overseas communication.This paper is mainly divided into three parts with five chapters.The first chapter is the first part of this paper,studying on the translation of the core theory proposition in the English-speaking world.According to the author’s summary,the core content of Jin’s theory includes two aspects:his important theoretical propositions,and his "fifteen techniques" theoretical terms.The study of the important theoretical propositions of Jin Shengtan is the main content of the first chapter.From the perspective of the translation in the English-speaking world,overseas sinologists are the main translators and researchers of Jin’s theory.Between 1953 and 1990,many scholars have translated and interpreted his literary theory.In general,the translation results of his important theoretical propositions are less,and the theoretical interpretation is also more simple.Among the few translations,translators generally choose "words" and "events" to discuss the propositions "i-wen yun-shih " and " yinwen sheng-shih ",and translated " yinyuan sheng fa " with descriptive long sentences.The second part includes three chapters on the translation of "fifteen techniques"in Jin’s theory.There are four main English translations of "fifteen techniques":Richard Gregg Irwin’s partial translation in 1953,Wang John Ching-yu’s translation in 1972,Ellen.Widmer’s translation in 1987 and Wang John Ching-yu’s retranslation in 1990.The first section mainly studies the translation of "tao-ch’afa","chia-hsu fa","ts’ao-she hui-hsien fa" and "ta lo-mofa" in the English-speaking world.The second section contains the translation of-"mienchen ni-tz’u fa","peimien p’u-fen fa","nung-yin fa"and "t’a-wei fa".Section three discusses the remaining seven techniques,including"cheng-fan fa" and "lüeh-fan fa","chi pushing fa" and "chi-sheng fa","yü-ho ku-tsung fa","heng-yun tuan-shan fa" and "luan-chiao hsu-hsien fa".The third part of this paper,includes chapter five,analyzing and summarizing the problems presented in the English translation of the propositions and terms.The first section of this chapter mainly analyzes the translation strategy of the translators from the perspective of "translator subjectivity".The author analyzes the translation motivation and principles of different translators based on the specific translation of different translators.In 1953,Richard Gregg Irwin translated part of the fifteen techniques.As the first person to translate the theory of Jin Shengtan in the Englishspeaking world,he adopted the strategy of "communication-type translation" to achieve the purpose of spreading new ideas and new terms quickly and widely.He used literal translation and paraphrase as well.This choice of translation methods and strategies also sets a certain benchmark for later translators.Wang John Ching-yu has translated"fifteen techniques”twice.In 1972,Wang John Ching-yu translated Jin Shengtann’s"fifteen techniques" and other important theoretical propositions.In this translation,the translation strategy of Jin Shengtan theory proposition also belongs to the"communication-type translation".The translation of the "fifteen techniques" in the book belongs to the " corrigendum translation".In addition,Wang John Ching-yu linked the techniques proposed by Jin Shengtan with the modern western critical terms,which reflects the trend of the development of the translation to paraphrase,and also reflects the attempt of the English-speaking world to conduct interactive interpretation of Chinese and Western narrative theories.In 1987,Ellen.Widmer translated the "fifteen techniques" again in the book The Margin of Utopia:Shui-hu hou-chuan and the Literature of Ming Loyalism,and further revised and improved the translation of grammar with the strategy of "corrigendum translation".Ellen.Widmer’s English translation of "fifteen techniques" includes three aspects:literal translation,paraphrase,and transliteration all together.Since then,the translation of terms has had a relatively complete and rigorous format,which is a beneficial translation attempt.In 1990,In How to Read Chinese Novels,Wang John Ching-yu completely translated Jin Shengtan’s Fifth Book Reading,and also retranslated Jin Shengtan’s "ti-wu ts’ai-tzu shu tu-fa".In this time,Wang John Ching-yu added the narrative attribute in translation,which actually highlighted the theoretical pursuit of these terms.The third section of this chapter summarizes the problems unique to the translation of literary terms in the English.In terms of linguistics aspect,the problems exposed are the lack of certain norms;the neglect of the particularity of terms;the neglect of the systematic characteristics of terms and the circumlocution of translation.These problems are not only the dilemma of Jin’s theory,but also the common problems of Chinese literary theory in English.The fourth section of this chapter discusses the influence of the Chinese and Western narrative tradition on the English translation of Jin’s theory,China and the English-speaking world have different narrative traditions of time and space.In the process of translation of literary theories,translators have unconsciously misread and changed the origin meaning.On the one hand,the western narrative tradition emphasizes "timeliness",which often leads the translator to add the expression of Linear time and plot continuity in the translation,although these meanings are not consistent with the original text.On the other hand,influenced by the Western narrative tradition,translators will add time coordinates for terms that do not emphasize time during translation.In contrast,the spatial characteristics of the Chinese narrative tradition are often ignored or even misread by the English translators in the process of translation.In addition,because of the translators’ defects in their understanding of "antithesis " in Chinese,the antithesis elements in Jin’s theory caused obstacles in the English translation process.The analysis of the English translation of Jin’s theory shows that the research breadth and interpretation depth of the theory and even the traditional Chinese novel theory have been expanding and deepening in the process of continuous translation and retranslation.At the same time,the obstacles of cross-context communication of literary theory come from two aspects,the collision of two language systems in cross-context communication,and the the dilemma caused by the complexity and systematic characteristics of literary theory itself.Only by the continuous exchange and interpretation of Chinese and Western theories and accumulating the results of translation and research can help us establish the norms of translation,and,at last,truly promote the external output of Chinese novel theories.