A Historical View on Translation Theory and Practice in China

杨阳

1. Brief introduction to Chinese translation in a historical view

Chinese translation has a long history with almost 3000 years. Chinese recorded translation history starts in Zhou Dynasty （1100 BC） and it came to its first peak during Han Dynasty （2-3th century） of Buddhist scripture translation from Sanskrit to Chinese， which forms the mainstream of Chinese traditional translation in the following several hundreds years until 9th century. With the entry of western culture， China started technical translation during Ming and Qing Dynasty （17 -19th century）， and was followed by the translation of social science and literature in the late 19 century， which opened a new view of translation practice and theory in Chinese translation history. With the success of Russian October Revolution， China begun to bring the Marxism into China and many Marxism translation were produced at the early 20 century， and at the same time more western works of social science and literature were translated. The translators formed their own translation theory， of which some were the development of Yan Fus three-principle criteria and some disagreed with Yan Fu. After the establishment of Republic of China， Chinese translation theory came to its prosperous time and appeared more theories.

2. Translation Theory and Practice in Ancient China

2.1 Buddhist Scripture Translation

Translation in China started with Monks translation of Sanskrit Sutras originated from India during Han Dynasty. Zhi Qian （3th century）， as one of the famous Buddhist scripture translator， translated many Buddhist books from Sanskrit to Chinese. His translations were strictly literal， so its difficult to understand the translations. At that time， many monks adopted word-to-word translation in order to keep the sanctity of Buddhism. Kumarajiva （350-410）， born in Kashmir， translated many important Buddhist scriptures， which made him an influential translator in Chinese Buddhist translation hisotry. During Tang Dynasty， translation history came to an important Buddhist translator： Xuan Zang （602-664）， as one of most important Buddhist， he studies and translated Buddhism within his whole lifetime. He translated as many as 75 books about Buddhism during his last 19 years of his life. During this period， translation， which focused on Buddhist scripture translation， was a great start of Chinese translation and the theory of literal translation and free translation represented the level of translation development at that time， which also laid an important foundation of translation theory for the following history of translation in China.endprint

2.2 Technical Translation

In the Ming and Qing Dynasty （17-19th century）， translation history saw a prosperous development of technical translation with the leading translator Xu Guangqi.

Since the middle of 16th century， western Christian missionaries came into China. While conducting the religious missions， these missionaries also brought advanced science developed in western world and some of them co-translated some scientific and technological books from their own language into Chinese with Chinese translators.

3. Translation Practice and Theory in Contemporary China

3.1 Translation from the late 19 century to 1920

This period is an important time in the translation history in China. More western works were translated into Chinese and emerged some remarkable translators and their translation theories.

3.1.1 Technical Translation

During the end of Qing Dynasty， the government established specialized colleges to encourage intellectual Chinese to learn advanced theories and techniques brought from foreign countries. In many of these colleges， the courses were given by westerners in foreign languages， like English， French and German. And Translation Bureaus were also established aiming at bringing more western works with wide arranges. It was recorded that about 468 books were translated in Chinese during 1840 to 1919 （Wang， 24）. Among the translators， there are several leading figures， like Li Shanlan， Hua Hengfang， Xu Shou and John Fryer and Alexander Wylie from England. They， as scientist first， translated or co-translated some important western scientific works into Chinese. The most valuable contribution they made for Chinese translation is that they unified the specialized terms in scientific works and some of the technical terms are still used in todays school textbook.

3.1.2 Yanfus Translation and his Theory

Yan fu（1853—1921）， as one of first group students who were sent by government to England to study， widely read books on western science： philosophy， social science， politics， religions and culture during his oversea study， which laid a solid foundation for his later translation work. He translated Thomas Henry Huxleys Evolution and Ethics， Adam Smiths Wealth of Nations， Herbert Spensers The Study of Sociology and John Stuart Mills On Liberty， Montesquieus The Spirit of the Law. The selection of books is important part of his success. According him， to make European works of political and social science accessible to Chinese people is the right path. The works selected and translated by Yan Fu really took effects and many intellectual Chinese were encouraged by those books， which made Yan fu popular at the time.endprint

As to his translation theories， his three principles are the essence of his translation theories. Xin（faithfulness）， Da（fluency）， Ya（elegance）. The three principles enjoy high reputation in Chinese translation theory. For a long time， three principles were regarded as the leading theory of translation theory in China. Wang Bingqin defined the meaning of three principles in his book： “they are not just the principles； they are the essence or the core of traditional Chinese translation theory.” （Wang， 65） Translators at this period were mostly influenced by Yan Fus three principles， but it seemed too difficult to realize all the three at the same time， so they concentrated on the elegance of the translation， but certainly ignored accuracy and fluency. The combination of the three is the idealization in translation. However， Yan Fus invention of three principles is remarkable in translation history in China， because the three principles criteria， no matter pragmatic or not， at least tell the some truth of translation， which absolutely possesses Chinese characteristics of language， cultural and ideology.

3.2 Translation from 1920 to 1949

3.2.1 Translation of Communism

As I read Chinese translation history， one of noticeable thing is that almost every translation peak occurred in history is along with the great political or social changes. This time comes Russian Communism. Quantity of works about Marxism and Leninism were translated into Chinese， like Communist Manifesto， Nations and Revolution， Die Heilige Familie （The Holy Family）， Imperialism， Das Kapital （Capital）， Zur Kritik der Politischen ?konomie （Critique of Political Economy）. A specialized translation bureau was established at this time. But most importantly， during this period massive literature works were translated and some brilliant translators made their works and theory prestigious in translation history.

3.2.2 Literary Translation and Theory

Since 1919 （ this year happened nationalist revolution）， a wave of New Culture covered the intellectual field in China， people abandoned old traditions and pursued so-called New Ideas from western world， which reflected seeking democracy in political， fighting against unequal treaties with colonists and language reform in literature. Since then foreign works were translated into vernacular Chinese， a more understandable Chinese language. At this time， there are several issues on translation methods being discussed and argued： 1 faithfulness and smoothness； 2 literal and free translation； 3 foreignazation and domesticalization； 4 retranslation.endprint

Lu Xun （1881-1936）， known as a passionate nationalist writer， wrote many satires， and meanwhile he is an important translator in translation history. The quantity of the works he wrote is almost equal to works he translated. According to Lu Xun， a translator should try to make the translation intelligible and keep it as original in form or in style， but these two things are sometimes contradictory， and then we would rather to keep it exotic even though it is not natural in language. Actually he prefers foreignazation to domesticalizaiton.

Lu Xun is the first person in China who raised the issue of equal position of translation and writing. His theory is remarkable and brings inspiration to later translation theory.

4. Conclusion

Chinese translation theory apparently is closely associated with Chinese traditional culture. It depends much on Chinese language， no matter classical Chinese， vernacular Chinese or modern Chinese language， thus word-to-word translation is not a noticeable issue in China. An enormous part Chinese traditional culture is the classical Chinese philosophy with Confucius as the core. Secondly， literature translation is a single target for translation study. Though there were times of technical translations， few theories were raised on translation. People took translation as a tool for social development， but rarely considered translation as a subject to study. Thirdly， translation was narrowly concentrated on translation itself， totally ignored the translators and readers.

References：

[1]Chan，Tak-Hung Leo.Twentieth Century Chinese Translation Theory：Models，Issues and Debates.Philadelphia.PA.USA： Benjamins Publishing Company.2004.

[2]Liu Miqing.The Comparison Study between Chinese and Western Translation Theories.Beijing：China Translation& Publishing Corporation.2005.

[3]Munday，Jeremy.Introducing Translation Studies：Theories and Applications.Trans.Li Defeng.Routledge.2005.

[4]Zhong，Weihe.An Overview of Translation in China：Practice and Theory Translation Journal 7（2003）.endprint