On Lu Xun’s Literature Translation from the Perspective of Translation as Adaptation and Selection

YANG Cuifen

Shandong Institute of Petroleum and Chemical Technology, Dongying, China

Email: 2225291721@qq.com

[Abstract] This thesis presents research on Lu Xun’s literature translation from the perspective of Translation as Adaptation and Selection and the enlightenment of the research on translation for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. From this perspective, translation is a translator’s adaptation and selection activity in a translational eco-environment. Lu Xun lived in a time when China was weak and China’s progressive intellectuals engaged into searching for the road of saving China by learning from the West to move China to modernization. Lu Xun adapted to this national situation to translate the literature works of the small peoples of East-European countries and Russia to awaken Chinese rebellious spirit to change the old country. Therefore, Lu Xun put “faithfuness” in the first place, insisting on “literal translation” for introduction of new ideas and modernization of Chinese language. Lu Xun‘s adaptation and selection in translation for the modernization of China give translators significant enlightenment: As translators of the new era of China, we need to adapt to translation for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation, and select proper translation strategies for this purpose.

[Keywords] the translational eco-environment; adaptation; selection; literal translation; faithfulness; Chinese Rejuvenation

Hu Gengshen, Professor of Tsinghua University, thinks that within a theoretical framework of translation as adaptation and selection, the process of translation is a production of target texts in which the translator adapts to the translational eco-environment and the translator selects the final form of the target text influenced by the degree of his or her adaptation to the translational eco-environment (Hu, 2004). This approach to translation highlights a translator’s adaptation and selection and his translational eco-environment as aspects of translational activities which reflect a translator’s degree of adaptation to his culture and society, so it is a better way to perceive a translator’s social and culture value.

Lu Xun is a great translator as well as a great literary man. Research at home and broad on Lu Xun’s translation has increased both in quantity and quality since the 21st century. Lu Xun is a national hero which was also reflected in his translation thought. Therefore it is important to study Lu Xun who translated foreign culture into China to modernize China from a macro perspective. Here I discuss Lu Xun’s literature translation from the perspective of translation as adaptation and selection to probe that Lu Xun was a translator who made wise adaptation and selection in his translational eco-environment and has made great contributions for the needs of his nation and people, which would better guide translators in the new era for achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation.

This essay aims to do the research from the following aspects: (i) Briefly introducing Professor Hu Gengshen’s translation theory An Approach to Translation as Adaptation and Selection. (ii) Examining Lu Xun’s translational eco-environment. (iii) Perceiving Lu Xun’s adaptation and selection of translation works. (iv) Studying Xu Xun’s selection of translation strategies. (v) Stating the enlightenment of the research on translation for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation.

Translation as a Translator’s Adaptation and Selection

Professor HU Gengshen of Tsinghua University, discusses translation “as a translator’s adaptation and selection activities in a translational eco-environment” in his book An Approach to Translation as Adaptation and Selection (Hu, 2004, p. 219). This approach to translation highlights a translator’s subjectivity and the objectivity in his translational eco-environment.

Adaptation, Selection, and the Translational eco-environment

It’s well-known that when translators translate, they adapt and select. Adaptations, selections, and decision makings runs through the whole translational activity. And an approach comprising them all may lead to better and more conscious translation practice. A translator who knows how to adapt may become better at selecting and making decisions.

A ‘translational eco-environment’ refers to the worlds of the source text and the source and target languages, comprising the linguistic, communicative, cultural, and social aspects of translation, as well as the author, client, and readers. The“translational eco-environment”here comprises both the source-language and the target language systems. Focusing on the activity of translation, especially in terms of the‘translational eco-environment’, Professor Hu defined translation as‘a selection activity of the translator’s adaptation to fit the translational eco-environment’.

So, Professor Hu Gengshen argues adaptation and selection could be viewed as the translator’s instinct as well as the essence of translation: In the process of translation, the translator must both adapt and select. The translator’s adaptation is selective, and at the same time, the selection is also adaptive. The translator must adapt to the translational eco-environment in order to be able to select the specific target texts.

Adaptation and Selection in the Process of Translation

Professor Hu thinks the process of translation comprises two stages: (1) The translational eco-environment ‘selects’ the translator; and (2) the translator (who stands for the translational eco-environment) selects or decides on the form of the final target text.

He illustrated these two stages of translation in Figure1.

Fig. 1 Two stages of adaptation and selection in translation

In the first stage, the source text ‘selects’ the translator in the eco-environment, and this reversible selection could also be regarded as the translator’s adaptation to the source text. In this stage, the translator is not a priori part of the translational eco-environment

In the second stage, the translator is the central figure, as he or she ‘selects’ and makes decisions about the form of the final target text in the translational eco-environment. In other words, the translator is active in carrying out a selection leading to the production of a translation.

In conclusion, the translator has a dual identity or function in translation: a selectee and selector who adapts, selects, and makes decisions.

Lu Xun’s Translational Eco-environment

Lu Xun (1881-1936), lives in an era when China’s progressive intellectuals searched for national modernization through translation introducing new thought and culture, so national development, the upsurging translation and Lu Xun’s early learning experiences mainly formed Lu Xun’s translational eco-environment.

Chinese Modernization

In the early of 19th century, with the development of capitalism and the colonial expansion, the peripheral countries of Western Europe had become colonies. The oppression and exploitation caused the rebellion of these countries. After the two Opium Wars, China also became a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country. Since then, China’s progressive intellectuals engaged into searching for the road of saving China by learning from the West to move China to modernization.

From 1860’s to 1890’s, the “westernization faction” launched the movement “striving to improve China through studying westerner’s science and technology.” It started the of Chinese modernization.

Gradually, the“westernization faction”expanded the scope of Western culture, extending from the military technology to the general technology, and then from the general technology to the basic scientific theories. Later, the westernization faction originated new style schools, and dispatched students abroad to study, which produced new intellectuals.

The new intellectuals launched the New Culture Movement from 1915, which brought the modern thought, the modern literature, and the modern language to the Chinese. The May Fourth Movement in 1919 symbolized the peak of the New Culture Movement. It highly raised the flag of patriotism, expanded the spirit of democracy, science and promoted the dissemination of Marxism in China.

After the May Forth Movement, the progressive intellectuals established publication in succession, editing books, organizing progressive groups to spread Marxism and Leninism. Under the instruction of Marxism, the worker’s movement in China also developed quickly. Then the progressive intellectuals of China began to observe national destiny from the views of proletariats.

The Upsurging of Translation

Modernization could not be baseless. Innovators could not but transplant external new culture and input external new thought. Translation is the bridge to input new thought and culture. And translation is also the most effective method to transplant and cultivate new ideas.

Modernization movement in later Qing dynasty initiated translation heat. The westernization faction, the reform faction, and the New Culture advocators liked translating and recommending books from the West. But because their translation goals of seeking modernization were different, their choices of the Western cultures were also different. The westernization faction focused on the translation of works of natural sciences and technologies. The reform faction moved from the technical domain to the social scientific domain, and then to novel and play translation. The New Culture Movement sought the literature modernization and the language modernization.

During the Chinese modernization, translators also pay much attention to translation strategy and method. Before the New Culture Movement, literal translation had no status. Edited translation and adaptation translation were popular in the late Qing Dynasty. Most translators had no idea “to be loyal to the original”.

Some public figures of the Reform Movement had already realized the importance of literal translation. Yan Fu presented translation Criterion of “Faithfulness, Expressiveness and Elegance”. He put “Faithfulness” at the first place. Liang Qichao advocated sincerely the literal translation. He realized the advantages of the foreign culture and hoped the translators could introduce the original to the Chinese without any intentional modification.

Translating books with the vernacular had become the tendency of the New Culture Movement. The readers whom the translators expected were no longer the former aristocrats, but the common people.

Lu Xun’s Early Experiences

Lu Xun was born in Shaoxing in 1881. In his childhood, he lived for long periods in the countryside, where he made friends with peasant boys and learnt a lot about peasant life.

In 1898, he went to study in South China Naval Academy (江南水师学堂) which was one of the few modern schools. The next year, he was accepted at Mining and Railways School (矿务铁路学堂). There he studied the knowledge of modern western natural science, and began to know of “science” and “democracy” and Darwin’s theory of evolution. Here, Lu Xun also studied German besides Japanese.

In 1902, Lu Xun was permitted to study in Japan at public expense by his outstanding grades. In 1904, he transferred in Sendai medicine school to study medicine specially. He studied German and Russian there. But Lu Xun quitted studying at the Medical College of Sendai because he realized “If the Chinese people were not conscious in mind, even though they were strong physically, they could only be targets of beheading, or act as numb audience.” (Wang，2004, p. 112). In 1906, He abandoned medicine to study literature and started his long literature creation and translation career.

Under the translational eco-environment mentioned above, Lu Xun started his translations. He was interested in works full of spirit of rebellion and so he selected to translate works of small countries of Eastern Europe.

Lu Xun’s Adaptation and Selection of Translation Works

Lu Xun translated many foreign works in his life. He translated more than 200 works of 14 nations such as Russia, England, Spain, Holland, Austria, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Japan and so on. Lu Xun’s introduction and translation of foreign literature were closely related to the respective current social and cultural situation of China.

Translations of Science Fictions

Lu Xun started his translation during his studying in Japan. In 1903 to 1905, he translated The Spirit of the Sparta (《斯巴达之魂》), Lamenting the Dust (《哀尘》, On Radium《说鈤》, From the Earth to the Moon (《月界旅行》), Journey to the centre of the Earth (《地底旅行》), An Expedition to the North Pole (《北极探险记》and The Art of Making Men (《造人术》).

In his introduction to From the Earth to the Moon, Lu Xun gave his motives for his translation, that is, his expected readers were ordinary people and he wanted to borrow the force of fiction to penetrate people’s minds with reasons and abstract talks without tiring them. Lu Xun was eager to lead the Chinese people toward progress and realize national salvation.

Translations of Short Stories of Eastern Europe

Lu Xun’s earlier translations had been interesting but not original. gradually he started to go on his own way. He looked for new countries, where conditions were similar to China. He became interested in the national and democratic fictions of Eastern Europe. There he found conditions of national and social oppression which were similar to his own country, conditions described with a psychological insight by writers who possessed a democratic and humanistic pathos.

In 1909, Foreign short stories（《域外小说集》）was first published in Japan. The selection of Foreign Short Stories is original and independent. Here for the first time, modern and contemporary writers were introduced—some famous, other rather unknown—from small and peripheral countries, representing the modern literary trends of realism and symbolism.

In Foreign Short Stories he shows a distinctive style of his own in translation. In these translations, the faithfulness which was later to become a hallmark of his was already developed here. He tried to keep the word and sentence order of the original, although it sometimes became awkward.

Translations of Children’s Literature

Lu Xun had paid attention to education of children since he was in Japan and related it to the work of nationalistic transformation.

In 1913, Lu Xu’s translations Education in Artistic Appreciation (《艺术玩赏之教育》), Social Education and Taste (《社会教育与趣味》), Children’s curiosity （《儿童之好奇心》）were published. From 1923 to 926, he translated To the small ones(《与幼小者》) and Osue’s Death（《阿末的死》）, the Face of a Sleeping Child (《小儿的睡相》). Those translations from Japan emphasized the educational strength of arts on children from the perspective of psychology, so those were books read by adults.

Lu Xun also translated some fairy tales to China which included Tales by Vasilij Erosenko (《爱罗先珂童话集》), a Ukrainian writer Vasilij Erosenko’s thirteen tales; The Peach-colored Cloud（《桃色的云》），Erosenko’s fairy tale and play; Little Johannes (《小约翰》)，Dutch writer Frederik Van Eeden’s (F. 望·蔼覃)long fairy tale; Little Peter,（《小彼得》）, Hungarian writer Hermynia Zur Muehlen’s (至尔·妙伦) fairy tale which includes six fairy tales; The Watch (《表》, Soviet Union writer L. Panteleev’s (班台莱耶夫) medium-length fairy tale; Russian Fairy Tales (《俄罗斯的童话》).

In Translator’s Words of the Watch, Lu Xun expressed his purpose for the translation of the fairy tales. Firstly, he wanted to introduce this kind of new children’s story in China as a reference for the parents and teachers of children as well as educationalists and writers of children’s stories; Secondly, he tried to use easy words so that children around ten would be able to read them.

Translations of Marxist Literary Theory and Soviet Revolutionary Literature

The translation of works on Marxist literary theory was a very important part of Lu Xun’s works during the late twenties. The works mainly includes: Policies on Literature and Art (文艺政策), On Art (《艺术论》), Literature, Art and Criticism (《文艺批评》) by Anatolij Lunacarskij’s (卢那卡尔斯基), Lu Xun translated more from Lunacharsky than from any other Russian or Soviet critics. In Lunacharsky’s view, literature and art influenced man’s consciousness and world view in a fundamental way, so it could be used to create the new man and“organize” the new class consciousness.

Lu Xun also translated quite a few Soviet short stories from 1928 to 1932 as counter-pieces to his translations of literary theory. Most of these stories were collected into two volumes: The Harp (《竖琴》) and A Day’s Work（《一天的工作》）. Through his translation, Lu Xun expected to build a new society through remolding the intellectuals and narrowing the gaps between the intellectual and manual labor.

In the 1930s, Lu Xun translated two soviet novels: Aleksandr Jakovlev’s （雅各武来夫）October（《十月》）and Aleksandr Fadeev’s（法捷耶夫） The Rout (《毁灭》). They are both about the revolution.

October was about the battle in the streets in October, 1917. The Rout is a story of how a revolution is waged by ordinary people—poor and uncivilized, with faults and shortcomings but urged on by common ambition towards a better life, an ambition for which they would make great sacrifices. So, The Rout also deals with the problem of common man’s awakening, of human and social progress.

Lu Xun came to believe that a social revolution was possible and that ordinary people were the ones who were to carry it through.

Lu Xun’s Selection of Translation Strategy and Methods

Lu Xun wrote some articles on translational theories to explain his own selection on translation strategy and methods. His selections were closely connected with his motives of translation.

On Translating Strategy and Method — Literal Translation

Which approach should a translator follow in his translation in order to arrive at a translation which accords with his ambition?

Lu Xun explained the reason he insisted on literal translation in his essay Notes without Titles 2 《“题未定”草.二》 in 1935:

Before translation, one first has to solve one question: should it be transformed as much as possible or the foreign atmosphere be kept to the greatest possible extent? .... Actually, there cannot be a translation in the world which transforms completely. .... Every translation must take both sides into consideration. Both strive towards being easily understood and preserving the charm of the original but the preservation often comes into conflict with the easiness because people are unaccustomed. However, the work is, after all, a foreign devil to which no body is accustomed and in order to make him a little more pleasing to the eyes one can only change his clothes but should not cut a bit off his nose or gouge his eyes out. I am not in favor of cutting noses or gouging eyes, so in some places I still prefer translating ruggedly. (Wang, 2004, p. 118-119)

From the statement above, we draw a conclusion that Lu Xun was a staunch advocate of foreignization. Then why did Lu Xun prefer foreignization to domestication? We had had the answer from Lu Xun’s translation practices examined above. At the earlier period of his translation, he adapted to Lin Shu Approach. Later, Lu Xun regretted having adapted to translate his early science fictions with the extreme domestication approach, because in this way his readers would not learn from the foreign culture full of rebellious spirit .

Lu Xun had imitated translations of Lin Shu, Yan Fu and Liang Qichao from content to style, he absorbed their progressive aspects of translations. These important direct experiences and teachings as well as Lu Xun’s abundant knowledge on translation both in China and abroad made him a staunch advocate of literal translation.

On Translation Critera — “Faithfulness rather than Smoothness”

Lu Xun advocated“faithfulness and smoothness”, protesting “smoothness but unfaithfulness”. He expressed this in Letters on Translation 《关于翻译的通信》:

I still prefer“faithfulness”than“smoothness” .... Here comes the question: Why not be completely sinicized to save labors of the readers? ... My answer is: This is also translation. Such translation introduces not only new subject matter, but also new ways of expression. The Chinese language, whether written or spoken, is too imprecise.... To remedy that, we will have to undergo a little ordeal, that is, to bring in bizarre ways of constructing sentences—ancient, outlandish, foreign ways, incorporating them into our language.... （Wang, 2004, p. 121）

We can see from the expression above that “non-smoothness” Lu Xun advocated in translation means introducing new spirit as well as new ways of expression. And a part of the translation will become smooth from its non-smoothness and part of it will be cast away as target readers don not accept them.

Lu Xun regarded introducing Western literature works as a serious thing— it was not only a question of introducing literature, but above all introducing new thoughts, new ways of thinking and new ways of expressing to pave the way for the modernization of China. For this purpose, he had no intention whatsoever of adjusting to the readers or making things easier for them—those who wanted to acquire the new thoughts and the new world outlook would have to do it the hard way.

The Enlightenment of the Research for Achieving the Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation

Lu Xun’s main purpose of translation was to realize the modernization of old China. His adaptation and selection of translation in his translational eco-environment would give translators of the new era of China valuable enlightenment to adapt to the new translational eco-environment and help translators select proper translation strategy and methods in telling good Chinese stories to people abroad.

Firstly, as translators of the new era of China, we need to be aware of the translational eco-environment which is completely different from that of Lu Xun. After decades of reform and opening up, China has made significant progress in all areas, which has captured the World’s attention. More and more foreigners are interested in the Chinese miracle. And at the same time, the international communities have some misunderstanding on China. Nowadays, China is pursuing a cultural policy of going out to let the world know China well.

Therefore, as translators of the new era of China, we need to tell “good Chinese stories” and develop and expand Chinese spirit. Above all, we must follow the guidance of the thought on socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and uphold the CPC’s leadership, adhere to the path of socialism with Chinese Characteristics and hold high the great banner of patriotism and socialism. we need to translate for achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Secondly, as translators of the new era of China, in order to tell “good Chinese Stories”, it’s necessary for us to select proper translation criteria, strategy and methods depending on different cultures of different countries. However, expanding Chinese spirit is the main purpose and Chinese stories are source texts, so keeping Chinese elements still needs us to mainly keep faithfulness and literal translation as the main criteria and strategy in advocating Chinese culture.

Professor Hu Gengshen in his book An Approach to Translation as Adaptation and Selection provides a macro perspective to probe into Lu Xun’s literature translation activities, which would enable translators to see the greatness of Lu Xun’s translation adaptation and selection at a national level. As a translator, Lu Xun was aware of the backwardness of the Chinese Nation of his time and the necessity to awaken the rebellious spirit of common people. So, Lu Xun selected to translate literature works of the small peoples of East-European countries and Russia and adhered to literal translation for this purpose. He selected to devote his life to probing into social transformation and people’s liberation, transporting spirit to inspire the Chinese people, pursuing truth and exploring the road of saving his nation. Therefore, translators of the new era of China should translate for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese People, and expanding Chinese spirit in telling good Chinese stories needs us to mainly keep faithfulness and literal translation as the main criteria and strategy in advocating Chinese Culture to people abroad.