A Study on the Cultural Translation in The Analects(1)

[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。”

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.