[abstract]the analects, as the most important confucian classic recording, whose translation has long been of immense importance to cultural exchange between the east and the west. so it is meaningful to study on which kind of method used in the process of cultural translation is much better in transmitting chinese culture to western society, to let foreigners learn and understand the inner value of confucianism.
[key words]cultural translation; communicative translation; semantic translation; the analects
1. brief introduction to the analects
lun yu, the most influential and enduring chinese classic, is also known as the analects, the analects of confucius, or the confucian analects, which shows its splendor as early as 2,400 years ago between the spring and autumn and the warring states periods. covering a wide scope of subjects from politics, philosophy, literature, and art to education and moral cultivation, the analects is the earliest and most reliable source on the life and teachings of the sage, the analects, is regarded by the chinese as the basic scripture of confucianism. compiled by his disciples, the analects recorded the saying and deeds of the great sage and his disciples.
2. about communicative and semantic translation theory
in order to narrow the disparity between literal translation and free translation, peter newmark put forward two modes of translation, which were named as communicative translation and semantic translation. the former combines the advantages of adaptation, free translation, and idiomatic translation, while the latter contains the merits of word for word translation, literary translation, and faithful translation.
according to communicative translation theory, translation is a process of communication, which requires the translator do his best to transfer the source language culture into target language culture. when transplanting a passage on another cultural background, great effort should be made to get the target reader understand and share the same thinking world of the original author. generally, a communicative translation is likely to be smoother, simpler, clearer, more direct, more conventional, conforming to a particular register of language, tending to undertranslate, i.e. to use more generic, hold-all terms in difficult passages.
however, for semantic translation, it attempts to render, as closely as the semantic and syntactic structures of the second language allow the exact contextual meaning of the original. a semantic translation tends to be more complex, more awkward, more detailed, more concentrated, and pursues the thought-processes rather than the intention of the transmitter. it tends to overtranslate, to be more specific than the original, to include more meanings in its search for one nuance of meaning.
3. analysis of the translation of culture-loaded terms in the analects
translation is not only a kind of linguistic activity but also a kind of cultural interaction, and thus cultural differences exert great influence on translation, eugine nida(2001:82)said, “the master of the two cultures is much more important than that of the languages.” almost every part of life reflects the culture of a nation because every country has its own history in the development of social institution cultures, religion brief and customs. thus every culture has its vocabulary and that is the culture-loaded vocabulary. the analects of confucius is not only a philosophical work, but also a literary work that reflects the social and historical facts of confucius’ times and thus the audiences are rained upon with many specific things.
3.1 translation of proper name
‘proper names refer to persons, living creatures, places, institutions, objects or processes that are peculiar to a single cultural community. in most cases they have singular references.’ (newmark) in this part the study on the cultural translation of names appears in the analects of confucius will be dealt with in two different ways: names of person and names of philosophical meaning.
3.1.1 name of confucius
because the analects is in the form of conversation, it is of great importance to clarify different people’s name to make out which sentence is said by which person. throughout the whole passage, the ideas presented by confucius consists most of the work. therefore, the proper translation of the most frequent expression in the analects, that is, ‘子曰’ takes the priority to other names. a glimpse at the various rending of ‘子曰’ will reveal how different translation methods influence the target text.
eg1: 子曰：“学而时习之，不亦悦乎？”
version1：confucius said: “isn’t it a pleasure for one to learn and then constantly review and practice what he has already learned?”
version2: the master said: “is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application?”
in ancient china, people called the males they respected as “子”, which usually followed the family name, such as “孔子”. chinese people knows that“子”here is “孔子”, but its interpretations are still various: “confucius” and “the master”. to call “孔子” as “confucius” accords with the western tradition where people are called by their names without any title. the first version follows communicative translation theory, rendering “孔子” into confucius obviously for the sake of western readers. on the contrary, chinese do not call “孔子” directly, but just use one word “子” in order to show respect to him. this is also a kind of chinese culture. the second version followed semantic translation rule, rendering “子” into ‘the master’ in order to express the relationship between “孔子” and his students to show chinese culture to the target readers. although this kind of semantic translation is unfamiliar to western readers, it could help them to have a better understanding of the content, style, and intention of the original author.
3.1.2 names of confucius’ disciples
it is said that confucius taught while traveling and had more than 3000 disciples in different states. of the some 3000 disciples there are seventy-two disciples recorded to be famous ones. they were of different birth, had different positions and more importantly, were of different virtues. each of them had a unique name, so it is helpful if the audiences can understand them.
those who were mentioned many times in the analects could be very important for confucian school in different ways. in this case, different translators use various methods to translate their names.
eg2: 子曰：“吾与回言终日，不违，如愚……”
曾子曰: “吾日三省吾身。www.11665.COM”
有子曰: “礼之用，和为贵。”
three of confucius’ favorite disciples--- “回”(hui), “曾子”(zengzi), and “有子”(youzi) appeared in these examples.
one method used for rendering confucius’ disciples’ names is to transliterate in pinyin according to their pronunciation. for example, “子夏” as “zixia”. here “回” refers to “颜回”, styled 子渊，so it can be rendered as “yen hui” or “hui”. this kind of communicative translation confirms the tradition of western people, to call others name directly, without consideration of their status. to western reader, it is easier for them to remember and understand.
the disciples ranked with “子” are translated as master yu/you “有子”, and master tseng/zeng “曾子”, in respect who were confucius’ prominent disciples and later became significant teachers in the confucian school after confucius’ death. this semantic translation, which was adopted by many translators, is regarded as the most suitable one. while in some other version, “有子” and “曾子” are translated as “the philosopher you” and “the philosopher zeng”. these two methods more accord with chinese tradition, using semantic strategy to reproduce the polite image of chinese people.
3.2 translation of cultural images
cultural image is an integrative part of culture. all the images connected with social and religious culture such as a special thing, an allusion, an animal etc will challenge translators. a cultural classic such as the analects is abundant with cultural images, so how to transfer them or transfer their meanings is a vital problem. and now, we will discuss from the image of religious culture.
3.2.1 religious cultural images
eg5: 子入太庙，每事问。
version1: the master, when he entered grand temple, asked about every thing.
version2: when confucius first attended the service at the state cathedral (ancestral temple of the reigning prince), he enquired as to what he should do at every stage of the service.
version 1 abided by semantic translation that rendered “taimiao”(太庙) into “grand temple”, which retained literal meaning as well as extended some cultural message to the target audience. while version 2 turned to communicative translation that employed “great cathedral” with strong color of western religion, in which western religion took the place of ancient chinese tradition. “great cathedral” is totally different from “taimiao”, which, in ancient china, is the state temple for the first reigning emperor. this image implies the ancestor of our chinese people. this is one of the most obvious and controversial characteristics of version2, that is, it regards confucianism as a religion, ku said, “confucianism, without being a religion can take the place of religion. therefore, there must be something in confucianism which can give to the mass of mankind the same sense of security and permanence which religion affords them.” (ku hunming, 1998:23) in his opinion, confucianism is of the same value as western religious sayings but not the same nature.
in a sense, the grand temple and the state cathedral, although both refer to religious places, are different because the former in the sacrificial to the ancient people and the latter the christian religion. the use of the latter would not arouse the foreignness of the text but derives readers’ attention to western custom of being loyalty to gods, instead of chinese tradition of showing respect to the ancestors.
3.2.2 social cultural images
eg6: 孟懿子问孝。子曰：“无违。”
version1: meng yi asked what filial piety was. the master said, “it is not being disobedient.”
version2: meng yi asked about the treatment of parents. the master said, “never disobey!”
version1 obeyed semantic translation theory, translating the cultural image xiao（孝）as “filial piety”, while version2 is much simply, just communicatively rendered into “the treatment of parents”. as one aspect of social ritual at that time, xiao is honored by chinese people as a traditional virtue for thousands of years. as an old sayings goes, “filial piety ranks the first of all virtues”, being xiao is not only referring to the behavior of serving the parents, but also implying to piety and respect in ones heart. xiao has been endowed with profound culture and moral meaning, deeply rooting in chinese people’s mind. thus, it is quite accurate to annotate xiao as “filial piety” to review the specific cultural connotation.
version2 dealt with the word in a so simple way that loses part of original meaning. plain words would not catch readers’ eyes to raise their attention. the western readers could not understand the vital importance of this cultural image to the whole passage.
3.3 translation of numbers
in the analects, one of the main features is the high frequency of using the numeral words. the total quantity of numeral words appeared in the analects is more than 220, which includes “ 一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 百, 千, 万, 数, 再, 两, 屡”, and “三”is the most widely used on among the seventeen words, appearing nearly 70 times. the meaning and function of these numeral words are not the same throughout the whole passage.
eg7: 三人行， 必有我师焉。
version 1: when i walk along with two others, they serve me as my teachers.
version 2: when three men meet together, on of them who is anxious to learn can always learn something of the other two.
the flexibility of classical chinese could be found here in the numbers. in this case the number ‘三’ does not mean the exact number ‘three’ semantically. it means ‘a couple of ’or ‘some’. therefore both first two versions failed to render it correctly. the faithful translation of three is a formal equivalence instead of functional equivalence. in ancient chinese classics, the meaning of three is various; in most occasions it is not used as an accurate number. while in western culture, such kind of usage is rarely seen, so when dealing with these words, the translator should have a good understanding of the original passage and the customs of language using.
thus, version 1 and version 2 both employ the semantic translation about the translation of ‘三’, but they both lose the true meaning of ‘三’. the communicative translation should be applied in this sentence instead of semantic translation.
i suggest the right translated version should be like this:
when three men or more meet together, on of them who are anxious to learn can always learn something of the others.
eg8: 四海之内，皆兄弟也.
version1: …then all within the four seas will be his brothers.
version2: in that way he will find all men within the corners of the earth are his brothers.
‘四海’ is put faithfully into ‘four seas’ in version1, which is semantically correct, but would cause difficulties in understanding. in the ancient times, chinese believed the four seas nearly covered the world and thus it stood for the world in chinese. semantic translation is used version 1, which keeps ancient chinese limited knowledge, but may cause misinterpretation among the western readers while version2 adopts communicative translation, making it understood for the western readers.
3.4 translation of idioms
the analects is also an abundant fountain to the development of chinese idioms. with condensed structure and profound signification, it conveys a large sum of cultural information. moreover, for this reason, the translation of idiom is worth researching for the sake of culture transmitting.
eg9: 有教无类。
version1: in teaching there should be no distinction of classes.
version2: among really educated men, there is no caste or race-distinction.
‘traditional chinese mode of thinking attaches more importance to intuitive understanding. more often than not, the chinese readers rely on his intuitive grasp of the message rather than strict formal analysis to understand them. he relies on his intuitive grasp of the message rather than strict formal analysis to understand the grammatical relations. intuitive comprehension often leads to excessive vagueness of the language.’(lin miqing, 1992: 326). classical chinese tends to be concise. and it is the tradition to express emotions or make comments in a mild and tactful way.
in this verse confucius intended to say the poor and the rich, the noble and the humble, etc. should have right to be educated. version2 takes the “educated men” as subject, which just carries part of the intended meaning. and the use of word “race” is improper, in confucius’ living period, there was no concept of race, and the only ethnic group was han. only to western people, they paid much attention to the discrimination of various races. thus this idiom should be rendered more semantically than communicatively, and version1 is a better one.
4. conclusion
the above is an attempt to probe into some translation strategies for cultural translation in the analects. with the new tendency of culture-oriented in translation field, a systematic theory for culture transmission is essential. the main translation methods are as follows: semantic translation and communicative translation and the author then analyze some typical examples arising from the analects.
however, there is not a fixed translating rule or regulation for which method to use in cultural translation since it turns out that the combination of two translation methods will achieve more ideal effect sometimes. therefore, a translator should be flexible when doing cultural translation.
chinese classical literature has concise structure and condensed implication, and reflects the wisdom and traditional ideas of ancient chinese people. when dealing with such kind of translation, the translators try to keep literal meaning of original version, and in process of flavor, style, and cultural spirits. hence, when doing cultural translation, they should firstly make clear the meaning of the original text, meanwhile, the comprehension of two culture background should be taken into consideration as well.
【references】
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