无题
课题名称 Style of James Legge's Translation
of the Great Learning
学 院 外国语学院
专 业 英语(翻译)
学生姓名 李海欣
完成日期 2016年5月8日
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Abstract in Chinese
Abstract in English.........................................................................................................1
1. Introduction................................................................................................................1
1.1 Purpose of the Study................................................................................................1
1.2 Significance of the Study.........................................................................................2
2. A Comparison of the Style of the Great Learning and Legge's Translation.............3
2.1 Style of the Great Learning and Legge's Translation..............................................3
2.1.1 Style of the Great Learning..................................................................................3
2.1.1.1 Concise Style.....................................................................................................3
2.1.1.2 Elegant Style......................................................................................................5
2.1.1.3 Plain Style..........................................................................................................6
2.1.2 Style of James Legge's Translation.......................................................................7
2.1.2.1 Elegant Style......................................................................................................7
2.1.2.2 Plain Style..........................................................................................................9
2.1.2.3 Clarity...............................................................................................................11
2.2 Similarities of the Style of the Great Learning and Legge's Translation...............12
2.2.1 Elegant Style.......................................................................................................12
2.2.1.1 Elegance of Words...........................................................................................12
2.2.1.2 Elegance of Sentences......................................................................................13
2.2.2 Plain Style...........................................................................................................13
2.2.2.1 Lucidity of Expressions...................................................................................13
2.2.2.2 Lucidity of Text Layout...................................................................................14
2.3 Differences of the Style of the Great Learning and Legge's Translation..............14
2.3.1 Conciseness and Clarity......................................................................................14
2.3.1.1 Conciseness and Clarity of Words...................................................................14
2.3.1.2 Conciseness and Clarity of Sentences..............................................................15
3. Reasons for the Similarities and Differences of Style..............................................15
3.1 Reasons for Similarities of Style............................................................................15
3.1.1 Convenience for His Mission..............................................................................15
3.1.2 Legge's Attitude towards Translation..................................................................16
3.2 Reasons for Differences of Style............................................................................16
3.2.1 Language Differences.........................................................................................16
3.2.2 Cultural Differences............................................................................................16
4. Legge's Translation Strategies..................................................................................17
4.1 Strategies for Translating the Similar Style...........................................................17
4.1.1 Literal Translation...............................................................................................17
4.1.2 Conversion..........................................................................................................18
4.2 Strategies for Translating the Different Style........................................................18
4.2.1 Liberal Translation..............................................................................................18
4.2.2 Foreignization.....................................................................................................19
4.2.3Amplification.......................................................................................................19
5. Conclusion ...............................................................................................................20
5.1 Major Findings.......................................................................................................20
5.2 The Value of Legge's Translation..........................................................................20
References....................................................................................................................21
Acknowledgements
This thesis would not have been completed without the support and encouragement from many people. To all of them, I would like to express my gratitude.
First and foremost, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor Professor Lu Daofu, for he has helped me work out my outline of the paper and given me valuable suggestions on organizing the ideas. Without his patient guidance, and invaluable advices, it would have been impossible for me to accomplish the thesis.
Secondly, I am also indebted to some teachers, especially Associate Professor Qin Honghuai and Associate Professor Fang Lan who have instructed me knowledge in my thesis writing.
Last but not least, my gratitude also goes to my classmates who have so generously spent their time reading my thesis and giving me some advices on improvement.
理雅各《大学》英译本的文体风格研究
摘要 理雅各是西方完整翻译《四书》《五经》的第一人，他的译本至今仍被西方奉为标准译本。本文通过研究理雅各《大学》英译本，试图归纳总结其译本的文体风格以及翻译策略。
本文首先将《大学》的文体风格与理雅各的文体风格进行分析对比，发现理雅各的译本与《大学》都有庄重，明快的文体风格。但与原文简约的文体风格相比，理雅各的译本更趋向于清晰的文体风格。文章进而挖掘导致这些风格异同的原因，及其采取的翻译策略。本文最后总结理雅各的译文基本能忠实再现原文文体风格，因此能让传教士更好地了解中国，为当时的传教事业作出了很大的贡献。而在现代，理雅各的译文仍是西方人了解中国思想的途径之一。
关键词 《大学》；理雅各；文体风格；翻译策略
Style of James Legge's Translation
of the Great Learning
广州大学外国语学院2012级英语（翻译）专业5班
李海欣 1218100115
指导教师：陆道夫
Abstract James Legge is the first westerner who has translated The Four Books and The Five Classics and his translations are regarded as standard translations. This thesis, therefore, is to study his translation of the Great Learning, summarizing its style and translation strategies.
This thesis first compares the style of the Great Learning with that of James Legge's translation to find out that they are both elegant and plain. However, the Great Learning is so concise that Legge's translation needs clarity. Therefore, Legge's clarity style is different from the concise style of the Great Learning. And then the thesis proceeds to explore the reasons for the similarities and differences of their styles and summarize Legge's translation strategies. At last, the thesis concludes that Legge's translation conforms to the style of the Great Learning, helping missionaries understand Chinese philosophy better, and thus, making a great contribution to Christian missionary activities then. And nowadays, his translation still remains an important access to the philosophy of China.
Key Words The Great Learning; James Legge; Style; Translation Strategies
1. Introduction
1.1 Purpose of the Study
As one of the most important Chinese classics, the Great Learning is renowned for not only its profundity of philosophy, but also its elegance of style. And James Legge's translation, as one of its C-E versions, has such a good reputation that no other versions could exceed. Therefore, the thesis is to gain a better understanding of Legge translation through his style and his translation strategies.
This thesis will first make a comparison on the style of the Great Learning and Legge’s translation to summarize the similarities and differences in their styles. And then, further explanation will be made on the reasons for those similarities and differences. At last, the thesis will summarize the translation strategies employed in translating those similarities and differences of style, and conclude with the value of Legge's translation.
1.2 Significance of the Study
There are at least four C-E versions of the Great Learning, three of which are translated by Chinese—Gu Hongming(辜鸿铭), Lin Yutang(林语堂) and He Zuokang(何祚康) and one is by a British James Legge.
According to the research of Yuan Xiaoliang, only a few studies have been made on James Legge's translation: (袁晓亮，2015:45)
One study was conducted by Lu Xiaoyan in 2013 titled A Study of Legge's Translation of The Great Learning from the Perspective of Translation as Adaptation and Selection. In her thesis, She probed into Legges' translation from the angle of translation as adaptation and selection and concluded that translation was not just a language activity, but also the translator's selective activity adapting to the translational eco-environment. (Lu Xiaoyan，2013:Ⅳ)
The other one was conducted by Yang Cuicui in 2014 titled On the Use of Thick Translation by James Legge in His Rendering of Da Xue. She analyzed Legge's translation from the angle of thick translation and tried to demonstrate the feasibility of thick translation in translating the Chinese classics. (Yang Cuicui，2014:Ⅰ)
And none focused on the style of Legge's translation. Therefore, Theoretically, the significance of the study is to understand Legge's translation through his style.
Practically, by study on the style of Legge's translation of the Great Learning, the thesis will summarize his style, and explore the reasons that influence his style and his translation strategies so that it may provide guidance for the future study of Legge's translation of other Chinese classics.
2. A Comparison of the Style of the Great Learning and Legge's Translation
2.1 Style of the Great Learning and Legge's Translation
As a missionary that comes to china in the 19th, James Legge faces resistance from the disciples of Confucius, thus, instead of defaming Confucius classics, he chooses to translate them faithfully to help his missionary activity.
Therefore, to understand his translation style better, analysis should be first conducted on the style of the Great Learning.
2.1.1 Style of the Great Learning
The Great Learning is written in ancient Chinese, the fashion of which is the economy of expressions. Therefore, the first style is concise.
The Great Learning is written by Zeng Zi mainly for people in high positions on “his thought in political conceptions, filial piety and self cultivation.”(陆道夫、粟孝君，2014:16) Therefore, its readers are mostly well-educated and its theme is serious. Writing in a formal and elegant style is appropriate.
Moreover, in Warring States Period, disciples of Confucius have to travel around to carry forward and develop Confucianism among rulers and ordinary people. A plain and lucid style of the Great Learning makes it easy for its readers to understand.
In general, the style of the Great Learning is concise, elegant and plain.
2.1.1.1 Concise Style
Concise style refers to the manner that the writer uses an economical expression for a concept that is rich in meaning. In the Great Learning, Conciseness is showed in two aspects.
The first aspect is the economy of words. In THE TEXT OF CONFUCIUS, Zeng Zi begins with the concept “明明德”that merely consists of 3 words, but is rich in meaning. The first“明”is a verb which means “enlighten”, and the second“明”is an adjective which means “illustrious”. “德” is “the moral power of our nature”. These three words combines into the meaning of this: Man is born to be virtuous. However, he may be blinded by sensual temptations and dims the illustrious moral power of his own nature. Therefore, the Great Learning is to help him bring out the illustrious virtue within himself. Rich the meaning of the concept may be, Zeng Zi merely uses 3 words in expressing them. This is what makes these 3 words concise in form, but profound in meaning.
The second aspect is the economy of sentences. Sentences in the Great Learning are mostly short, with the average sentence length of 19 words. Economy of words is one reason for their shortness; another one is the use of ellipsis. Ellipsis is“the omission from a sentence of words needed to complete a construction.”(Wang Shouyuan，2006:161). Omission of subject is most commonly seen in the Great Learning. One example is the beginning sentence of the text of Confucius:
原文: 大学之道，在明明德，在亲民，在止于至善。
译文: What the Great Learning teaches is to illustrate illustrious virtue; to renovate the people; to rest in the highest excellence.
This sentence is concise with 16 words but rich in meaning: the Great Learning is to help men bring out the moral power of his nature so that he may cultivate himself and influence others to do the same. And only then can he rest in the ultimate perfection and the society be anew.
“大学之道(what the Great Learning teaches is)”is not only the subject of “在明明德(to illustrate illustrious virtue)”, but also that of“在亲民(to renovate the people)”and“在止于至善(to rest in the highest excellence)”. Had the sentence not employed ellipsis on the subject, the sentence would have been “What the Great Learning teaches is to illustrate illustrious virtue; what the Great Learning teaches is to renovate the people; what the Great Learning teaches is to rest in the highest excellence”, In this case, the sentence would have become superfluous and cumbersome. In addition, the repetition would have added force to the separation and emphasis the equal significance of each sentence rather than them as a whole. And the progression of thought of this sentence is broken. Therefore, by employing ellipsis, the sentence is made concise and coherent.
2.1.1.2 Elegant Style
Elegant style is the manner that the writer employs relatively formal expressions to achieve elegance and formality of a discourse. Liu Xie in his work Wenxin Diaolong summarizes the style of Confucius classics,“典雅者，熔式经诰，方轨儒门者也。(刘勰, qtd. in 蓝纯，2010: 60)(Modeled on the classics, the elegant style is Confucian)（刘勰、杨国斌、周振甫， 2003: 391）”.
Elegance of the Great Learning is showed in two aspects:
The first aspect is the elegance of words. As a formal written discourse, words in the Great Learning are not only concise, but also formal and elegant. One example is“峻德”.“峻” is of the same meaning as“明” that is illustrious. However,“峻”is mostly employed to describe the loftiness of a mountain. With this word, the image of a tall mountain emerges in our head, and impresses on us the loftiness and forcefulness of the moral power of our nature; therefore the weight of this word is fully expressed by this formal expression.
Words such as “即”，“哀矜”，“諠”，“忿懥”，“敖惰”，“赤子” and“忒”are more formal than their equivalent “近”，“哀怜”，“忘”，“忿怒”，“傲慢怠惰”，“婴儿”and“变更”.
The second aspect is the elegance of sentence.“In elegant style of writing, sentences are coherent, long and closely connected with cohesive devices.” (the author’s translation) (黎运汗，2000: 285)
Sentences in the Great Learning are closely connected by logical connectors, conjunctions and ellipsis; therefore, the Great Learning appears coherent and logical. In addition, Zeng Zi also employs many long sentences to express his complicated ideas, with the longest one of 64 words. In the following sentence
为人君，止于仁；为人臣，止于敬；为人子，止于孝；为人父，止于慈； 与国人交，止于信。
the coherence is achieved by semi-colon and parallelism. The author employs this long sentence to put forward his thought: there are more than one role for a man in the society, and for each role, there is a different end. The five roles combined is a man as a whole, and therefore, these roles should be closely connected with each other. Zeng Zi, by the use of semi-colon, indicates that close relationship. As for parallelism, Zeng Zi repeats the marker “为...止于...”so that he can arrange each role and its respective end in the same place of each sentence. This shows clearly the focus of role in each sentence and the connection between them.
2.1.1.3 Plain Style
Plain style is the manner that the writer expresses his thought in a clear and straightforward manner. This means the writer should employ less unnecessary and vague expressions. In addition, a plain style of writing should be well constructed. (黎运汗，2000: 260-263)
Figures of speech such as metaphor, metonymy are employed where a writer tries to avoid expressing his thought in a direct way. In the Great Learning, however, metaphor as well as metonymy is only employed for once or twice.
Zeng Zi expresses his thought in a straightforward manner. One example is the beginning sentence of Chapter 6 “所谓诚其意者，毋自欺也。” In this sentence, Zeng Zi puts forward his thought of how to“make the thoughts sincere”directly. Quite the contrary to the deduction pattern of English writing that is a pattern that conclusion is proposed before giving supporting details, Chinese writing prefers induction pattern which is a pattern that conclusion follows many supporting details. The induction pattern can be difficult for readers to grasp the idea until he reaches the end or even worse, readers may lose patience before they come to the conclusion. However, by putting forward his point at the beginning sentence of Chapter 6, Zeng Zi not only makes his point lucid, but also catches the attention of his readers.
2.1.2 Style of James Legge's Translation
As mentioned, James Legge comes to china in 19th century to carry forward Christianity missionary activity. Although he wants Jesus to replace Confucius, he realizes defaming Confucius classics is not a viable option; he then turns to make advantage of it to resist the repulse of the Confucius followers and makes Chinese people accept him and Christianity more easily. Therefore the style of his translation is mostly similar to that of the Great Learning, which is elegant and plain. However, due to language differences as well as cultural differences, his translation style cannot conform to the conciseness of the Great Learning, and clarity is another style of his translation.
2.1.2.2 Elegant Style
As mentioned, Legge's main purpose of translating the Great Learning is for missionaries to understand the people they are to preach better. By conforming to the elegant style of the Great Learning, he shows his readers that elegance is at the core of Chinese. Elegance of his translation is showed in two aspects.
The first aspect is the elegance of words, which is marked by formal words and words of Latinate or French origin. In his translation of this sentence
原文: 大学之道，在明明德，在亲民，在止于至善。
译文: What the Great Learning teaches is to illustrate illustrious virtue; to renovate the people; and to rest in the highest excellence.
Legge employs the archaic words “illustrate” and “illustrious” for “bring out” and “good” and the Latinate word ‘renovate’ for “make new and better”. The sentence is made elegant and formal with these words, thus, adding force to the tone. This sentence is also the theme of the Great Learning; the elegant style can add force of emphasis to the seriousness of the theme.
Words such as “deportment”, “benevolence”, “deem”, “instruct”, “proceed”, “dwell” are more formal than “manner”, “kindness”, “see”, “teach”, “continue” and “live”.
The second aspect is the elegance of sentences marked by the employment of long sentences with the longest one of 119 words. Out of the 183 sentences, 55 sentences consist of more than 20 words, 11 sentences more than 40 words and 2 sentences more than 100 words. Moreover, the sentence structures of these long sentences are complicated. One example is the following:
原文:《秦誓》曰：“若有一介臣，断断兮无他技，其心休休焉，其如有容焉。人之有技，若己有之；人之彦圣，其心好之，不啻若自其口出。实能容之，以能保我子孙黎民，尚亦有利哉！
译文: In the Declaration of the Prince of Qin, it is said, // 'Let me have but one minister, // plain and sincere, not pretending to other abilities, /but/ with a simple, upright, mind; /and/ possessed of generosity// regarding the talents of others /as though/ he himself possessed them, // and, /where he finds accomplished and perspicacious men, / loving them in his heart more than his mouth expresses, // and /really showing himself able to bear them and employ them/:// such a minister will be able to preserve my sons and grandsons, and black-haired people //and/ benefits likewise to the kingdom may well be looked for from him. (103 words)
This sentence consists of 103 words with a complicated sentence structure. The sentence first begins with a subject clause "it is said ", in which “it” refers to the quotation.
The quotation begins with an imperative sentence and then several absolute constructions (from “plain and sincere”to“generosity”) linked by conjunctions “but” and “and”.
From “regarding” to “employ them”, there are three present participle clauses respectively beginning with “regarding...”, “loving...” and “really showing...” to describe what is “generosity”. Between these three clauses, there are conjunctions “and”, a complex subordinator "as though" and an adverbial clause “where...”.
After the three clauses, the translator employs a colon for cohesion and a conclusion. The conclusion begins from “such” and ends with “him”; the conjunction “and” combines the last two sentence.
Although this complicated sentence may give readers a strenuous reading experience, the profundity of the perception gains more depth in this way. And the formality and elegance of style of this sentence helps convince readers of the authority of and add force to this quotation.
2.1.2.2 Plain Style
Plain style, as mentioned, is of lucid and to-the-point expressions. Moreover, a plain style is well constructed. The plain style of Legge's translation is also showed in these two aspects.
Legge's translation is first of lucid expressions. In the Great Learning where Zeng Zi uses metaphor to express his idea, Legge chooses to speak out the connotative meaning than copy the use of the same rhetoric device. One example is the following:
原文: 其所厚者薄，而其所薄者厚，未之有也。
译文: It never has been the case that what was of great importance has been slightly cared for, and, at the same time, that what was of slight importance has been greatly cared for.
From the above example we can see that every English word has its Chinese equivalent so that words are neither superfluous nor not to the point.
The general idea of the Chinese sentence is this: it has never been the case that a family is not regulated, but the state is orderly governed, thus, the regulating of the family is of great importance.
Judging from the meaning of the Chinese sentence, it is clear that metaphor is employed.“厚者”literally refers to a substance that is thick and“薄者”means a substance that is thin. Zeng Zi compares the regulating of family to “厚者” and the governing the state to “薄者”, hence, making the abstract idea concrete and vivid but not plain. In Legge's translation, he translates “厚者”into “what is of great importance”and “薄者” into “what is of slight importance”. Although he does not translate the metaphor, his expression is plain and lucid. Had the translator retained the metaphor with words“thin”and “thick”, the sentence would have been “It never has been the case that what was thick has been thinly cared for, and, at the same time, that what was thin has been thickly cared for.”; then the sentence is inaccessible and the metaphor is lost as well. However, by the use of “great” and “slight”, not only the meaning, but also the word formation of the original sentence is well expressed.
The second aspect is the lucidity of text layout. At the end of THE TEXT OF CONFUCIUS, in Legge's own commentary, he says he has rearranged the whole text of the Great Learning; therefore, the lucidity of his text layout can show his plain style of translation and his thoughtfulness for his readers.
He begins with his commentary on the importance of the Great Learning for those who are to enter into virtue. Then he separates words of Confucius with the commentary of philosopher Zeng and puts those words into a chapter titled THE TEXT OF CONFUCIUS. In this chapter the most important concepts of the Great Learning are put forward: “illustrating illustrious virtue”,“renovating people”,“resting in the highest excellence”,“investigating things”,“completing knowledge”,“make thought sincere”,“rectifying heart”,“cultivating persons”,“regulating family”,“governing the states”“make the whole empire tranquil and happy”.
After this chapter, he rearranges the commentary of Zeng Zi into ten chapters, with each one explaining one of the concepts accordingly.
This rearrangement of the text is well constructed. Legge makes THE TEXT OF CONFUCIUS the list of contents and THE COMMENTARY OF PHILOSOPHER ZENG the chapters; therefore, readers can easily choose which chapter to read without confusion. And from THE TEXT OF CONFUCIUS, readers can understand better how Zeng Zi proceeds his thought in his commentary.
2.1.2.3 Clarity
Although Legge's translation is not concise, clarity, instead, is one of the advantages of his translation style. He clarifies the meaning of the concise words by explanation and by addition of reference, especially personal pronouns, he helps readers follow the trend of thought of the Great Learning better.
The translator uses explanation for clarity of words. Words are concise in the Great Learning, for example , in this sentence“殷之未丧师，克配上帝” Zeng Zi uses “殷” for “殷商” which is“Yin dynasty”. However, “Yin dynasty” is merely the literal meaning of this word and its connotation refers to “the sovereigns of the Yin dynasty”. Had Legge merely translated this word into“Yin”rather than explained it as“the sovereigns of Yin dynasty”, his readers would have assumed it to be a name of a common person and could not know the force of this sentence. And for those who know“Yin”as a place but not the name of a dynasty may have misinterpreted the meaning of the sentence and the culture behind it.
From the above example, we can see that those concise words have many connotations and culture behind. And if Legge does not explain them clearly, it would be difficult for readers to understand fully the Great Learning.
The translator uses reference for clarity of sentences. Reference, especially personal pronoun, is what we focus on. In ancient Chinese, there is no appropriate third personal pronoun to use；writers merely just omit it. (何新波，2005:152)But for English readers, the omission of personal pronouns may create confusion. One example is the following:
原文:《康诰》曰：“克明德。”
译文:In the Announcement to Kang, it is said, “He was able to make his virtue illustrious.”
In this sentence, Zeng Zi uses 6 words to express the idea of illustrating illustrious virtue. Chinese readers, who are accustomed to the use of ellipsis on subject for coherence, find no difficulty in understanding the subject of this sentence—the King Kang. But for English readers to understand it, cohesive device such as personal pronouns should be employed, because English is a language achieves cohesion by hypotaxis that is a cohesive device that links sentences with explicit expressions, such as reference. In this case, had the sentence been translated in this way: In the Announcement to Kang, it is said, “be able to make virtue illustrious”, readers of target language would have assumed it to be a request for the King Kang rather than a commendation of him. Therefore, the translator had to add personal pronoun "he" and "his" to show clearly the connection of this two sentences so that readers would not misinterpret it.
Therefore, we can see addition of reference is crucial to clarify the meaning and help reader follow Zeng Zi's trend of thought.
2.2 Similarities of the Styles of the Great Learning and Legge's Translation
2.2.1 Elegant Style
Elegance is at the core of the Confucius philosophy and the elegant style of writing is a reflection of it. Legge's translation is to acquaint missionaries with the culture of the people they are to preach; it is necessary to reproduce faithfully not only the meaning, but also the style of the Great Learning. Therefore, both of their styles are elegant.
2.2.1.1 Elegance of Words
Zeng Zi has employed many formal and elegant words in the Great Learning. To conform to the elegance of words in the Great Learning, Legge also employs many formal words in his translation. Out of 5780 words of Legge's translation, 340 words are hard words and many more of Latinate or French origin; hard word consists of at least three syllables, not counting inflection and compounding. (Dong Qiming，2008:68) The formal use of words reflects Legge's effort to show formality and elegance in his style.
2.2.1.2 Elegance of Sentences
Zeng Zi employs long sentences to express his complicated ideas and those sentences are made coherent and closely connected by cohesive devices such as semi-colon and ellipsis. And in Legge's translation，he also employs long sentences with complicated sentence structure, good connection and coherence. Out of the 183 sentences, 68 sentences consist of more than 20 words, and the longest sentence contains 119 words with a complicated sentence structure: absolute constitution, attributive clause, imperative sentence and cohesive device such as punctuation are employed in one sentence. The complexity of sentence structure reflects the complexity of the philosophy of Zeng Zi, therefore, the profundity of it is fully showed.
In general, the styles of the Great Learning and Legge's translation are both elegant.
2.2.2 Plain Style
Zeng Zi is the representative of Confucianism, and his writing the Great Learning is to carry forward and develop it. Although people in the high positions are the main targets of Zeng Zi, the ordinary people are also his focus. Therefore, lucidity is crucial to make common people understand directly the philosophy of Confucius. And because Legge's effort to conforms to the style of the Great Learning, plainness of style also reflects in his translation.
2.2.2.1 Lucidity of Expressions
In the Great Learning, Zeng Zi states his opinion in a plain, direct manner; he seldom uses rhetoric devices such as metaphor, metonymy to express his idea, because different readers may have different interpretations. To make his idea lucid and to the point, Zeng Zi adopts the plain style. Expressions in Legge's translation are as plain and lucid as the Great Learning; even where Zeng Zi employs those rhetorical devices, Legge simply just speaks out the implicit meaning.
2.2.2.2 Lucidity of Text Layout
Text layouts in the Great Learning and Legge's translation are well constructed. The Great Learning we see today, as in Legge's own words, is rearranged by him. (Zeng & Legge, 2014:8) In his rearrangement, he first makes a comment on the importance of the Great Learning, and then in THE TEXT OF CONFUCIUS, he puts the words of Confucius together which introduces the concepts of“三纲”，“八目”and explains in every chapter one concepts. The structure of the text layout, therefore, is clear.
In general, the styles of the Great Learning and Legge's translation are both plain.
2.3 Differences of the Style of the Great Learning and Legge's Translation
2.3.1 Conciseness and Clarity
The Great Learning is made concise by the economy of words and ellipsis. To make clarified those words, Legge needs to use more words to explain. To complete a sentence that some of the elements are omitted with ellipsis, Legge needs to add reference or other cohesive devices to it. Therefore, conciseness is sacrificed for clarity.
2.3.1.1 Conciseness and Clarity of Words
In the Great Learning, words are concise but rich in meaning. To clarify those meaning, Legge has to use more words to explain. One example is the following:
原文: 故好而知其恶，恶而知其美者，天下鲜矣！
译文: Thus it is that there are few men in the world, who love, and at the same time know the bad qualities of the object of their love, or who hate, and yet know the excellences of the object of their hatred.
The word “其”appears two times in this sentence; the first“其”refers to“the objects of their love”while the second “其” indicates “the objects of their hatred”. The use of“其”makes the sentence concise. However, had the translator translated it as this: Thus it is that there are few men in the world, who love, and at the same time know its bad qualities, or who hate, and yet know its excellences, the indication of “its” would have not been clarified in English and the sentence would have been inaccessible.
2.3.1.2 Conciseness and Clarity of Sentences
Chinese achieves coherence mostly by parataxis that is a cohesive device that achieves coherence with the logical order of ideas and events and English achieves cohesion mainly by hypotaxis.
In the above example, the connection of the Chinese sentence is achieved by the logic of thought, while in English the connection is made by the explicit expression " and at the same time ". From this example, we can see that to make sentence cohesive, more words has to be added.
Parataxis is a coherent device that not conforms to the expression habit of English readers, therefore, to have English readers understand the cohesion of sentences, reference or logical connectors need adding for clarity. Therefore, Legge's translation cannot conform to the concise style of the Great Learning.
3. Reasons for the Similarities and Differences of Style
In Chapter 2, we have summarized that style of Legge's translation is similar to that of the Great Learning, but there is also different style. We have also touched on the reasons why there are similarities and difference in the style of his translation and the Great Learning. And this chapter will proceed to enlarge on those reasons.
3.1 Reasons for Similarities of Style
3.1.1 Convenience for His Mission
The first reason for his conformity to the style of the Great Learning is because on the one hand, he considers a faithful reproduction of the Great Learning a means to present missionaries like himself a paranoid of the philology, politics and morality of Chines people, to which they are to preach; he views this helpful in fulfilling his mission.
On the other, he perceives that both Confucianism and Christianity believe in monotheism; therefore, he can 'make advantage of' this common ground to resist the strong repulse of the Confucians(王辉，2003a:38) and make Chinese people accept him and Christianity easier.
3.1.2 Legge's Attitude towards Translation
The second reason is his attitude towards translation.
First, he believes that liberal translation is for lazy translators. In his own word“A translator always attempts a faithful translation and never an explanation. Explanation is of a lazy person, but not of a scholar.（the author’s translation）” (王辉，2003a: 39)
Second, so as not to let his religious view prejudice his own opinion towards the Chinese classics, he reviews notes from many Chinese scholars to make sure he understand and reproduce the text faithfully. (王辉，2003b:116)
3.2 Reasons for Differences of Style
3.2.1 Language Differences
Language difference is the first reasons for the differences of style. Take the use of personal pronoun for instance. In Warring States Period, there is no appropriate third person pronoun to use; therefore, Zeng Zi just omits it. (何新波，2005:150) But Chinese achieves coherence by parataxis, Chinese readers normally find no difficulty in reading even without the person pronoun. However, English achieves cohesion by hypotaxis, it needs addition of personal pronoun to make clarity.
Therefore, the style of Legge's translation cannot conform to the concise style of the Great Learning.
3.2.2 Cultural Differences
Words in the Great Learning can be concise because the writer and his readers share common cultural knowledge. But for readers of the target language, they have little or no common cultural knowledge with Zeng Zi; therefore, to make those cultural or connotative meaning of a word clarified, the translator has to explain. One example is his translation of the word “弟”.
原文: 弟者，所以事长也
译文: There is fraternal submission: therewith elders and superiors should be served.
“弟” in modern Chinese means "brother", but in ancient Chinese“弟”means “know the order of a family, respecting and serving your elder brother”. In Legge's translation, he adopts the strategy of foreignization and translates “弟” into “fraternal submission” and employs a colon to make the following clause as its explanation. If he had translated “弟”into “brother”, then the culture behind this word is lost and the sentence would be completely misinterpreted.
4. Legge's Translation Strategies
In Chapter 3, we have talked about the reasons why the styles of the Great Learning and Legge's translation are both elegant and plain, but the Great Learning is of concise style while Legge's translation is of clarity style. This chapter will continue to summarize the translation strategies that Legge has employed to conform to the plain and elegant style of the Great Learning and to clarify expressions that are concise but rich in meaning in the Great Learning.
4.1Strategies for Translating the Similar Style
4.1.1 Literal Translation
Literal Translation is a way of translation that conforms to the style, the rhetorical and linguistic features of the original text.
One example is the following:
原文:见不善而不能退，退而不能远，过也。
译文:To see bad men and not be able to remove them; to remove them; but not to do so to a distance: this is weakness.
This sentence shows that Legge tries to conform to the sentence order of the original text. The sentence order of the normal expression of English should be " It is weakness to see bad men and not be able to remove them, and to remove them but not to do so to a distance."
Therefore, from the examples, it is clear that Legge employs literal translation to conform to the style of the Great Learning.
4.1.2 Conversion
The use of noun and noun phrases can make a discourse more concise and formal. In the following example:
原文:与国人交，止于信。
译文: In communication with his subjects, he rested in good faith.
The Chinese sentence consists of three verbs. In translating those three words, Legge turns two of them into nouns. “communication” for “交”and “good faith”for“信”. He could have translated the sentence into: when he communicated with his subjects, he rested in having good faith, but it would become less formal and concise, thus, the force of this sentence is weakened.
4.2 Strategies for Translating the Different Style
4.2.1 Liberal Translation
Due to the economy of words of the Great Learning, many words have its connotative meaning. Therefore, to make those meaning clarified, Legge employed liberal translation. One example is the following:
原文: 德者，本也；财者，末也
译文: Virtue is the root; wealth is the result.
This sentence is a procession of thought from the last sentence“possessing virtue will give him wealth.”therefore, in this sentence wealth is the “result” of the “root” virtue. But the literal meaning of “末” means the “end or tip” of the root. By liberally translating this word into“result”, Legge makes it lucid and easy for readers to understand the connection between this sentence and the last one.
4.2.2 Foreignization
Foreignization means “translation should retain the language and cultural features of the original text in order to present an exotic reading experience to its readers.” (the author's translation)(肖坤学、陆道夫，2012：50) This translation strategy is also for clarity. One example is Legge's translation of the word“君子”. “君子”nowadays refers to gentleman. But in the ancient China, “君子”refers to people stands on the moral high ground. They are, as Legge translated, “superior man” and “future princes”. Had Legge translated it into gentleman, readers of target language may not understand“君子”is regarded highly to such an extent in ancient china.
4.2.3 Amplification
Amplification refers to “the addition of words, phrases and sentences in translation according to the expression habits of the target language”. (Li Chunxiao, 2012：28)
By ellipsis, the language of the Great Learning is concise and compact, but it can also cause confusion for readers of the target language. One example is the following:
原文:心诚求之，虽不中，不远矣。
译文: If a mother is really anxious about it, though she may not hit exactly the wants of her infant, she will not be far from doing so.
The elements italicized are added to the translation to make clarified the sentence. Without them, the sentence is inaccessible, because it is not clear “who”is anxious and “who”may not hit“what” and “who” will be far from “what”. By amplification, the translation clarifies the whole sentence and makes it lucid for his readers to understand.
5. Conclusion
5.1 Major Findings
The thesis has compared the style of the Great Learning and Legge's translation to conclude that their styles are similar; both of them are elegant and plain. One glaring difference, however, is that Legge's translation focus more on clarity than conciseness; therefore, his translation is heavy and laborious compared with the Great Learning.
The style of Legge's translation is mainly determined by his translation purposes. He tries to conform to the style of the Great Learning, because he aims to help missionaries to understand Chinese language and culture better so that they can carry forward their missionary activity easier. In addition, his attitude towards translation also plays an important role in his similar style to the Great Learning. However, ancient Chinese is concise, and the connotative meaning of a Chinese expression has to be explained in English with a few more words for clarity. Therefore, Legge's translation can hardly conform to the conciseness of the Great Learning.
As for his translation strategies, Legge employs literal translation and conversion to conform to the style of the Great Learning, and uses liberal translation, foreignization and amplification for clarity.
5.2 The Value of Legge's Translation
From the above analysis, we can see that style influences the expressions chosen by a translator. Therefore, to understand Legge's translation, it is not enough to merely comprehend the meaning of his expressions, but the style of his translation should also be fully appreciated to understand his choice of expressions better. And this reminds us the importance of style in translation. In our future practice, we should not treat lightly the style of the original text, because its style concerns the expressions we are to choose in our translation. We should pay attention to not only the faithful reproduction of meaning, but also the faithful reproduction of the style.
In addition, style is the man himself. From the style of Legge's translation, we can catch a glimpse of his life at that time and his attitude towards Chinese classics. The above analysis shows that Legge adopts an 'adaptation' strategy towards the Great Learning and his translation style reflects this adaptation. This is why his translation is widely accepted and makes greater contribution to the Christianity missionary activities then. Moreover, his faithful translation presents the western world a whole panorama of China; it is still an important access for the western to understand Chinese nowadays.
References
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[2] Li, Chunxiao. A Study of James Legge's Translation of Mencius from the Perspective of Skopos Theory[MA]. Donghua University, 2012.
[3] Lu, Xiaoyan. A Study of Legge's Translation of The Great Learning from the perspective of Translation as Adaptation and Selection[MA]. Donghua University, 2013.
[4] Yang, Cuicui. On the Use of Thick Translation by James Legge in His Rendering of Da Xue[MA]. Henan University, 2014.
[5] Wang, Shouyuan. Essentials of English Stylistics[M]. Jinan:Shandong University Press, 2006.
[6] Zeng, Zi & James, Legge. The Great Learning[M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2014.
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[8] 蓝纯. 修辞学:理论与实践[M]. 北京:外语教学与研究出版社，2010.
[9] 黎运汗. 汉语风格学[M]. 广州:广东教育出版社，2000.
[10] 刘勰、杨国斌、周振甫. 文心雕龙[M]. 北京:外语教学研究出版社，2013.
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[12] 王辉. 理雅各与中国翻译[J]. 中国翻译，2003a（2）：37～41.
.理雅各英译儒经的特色与得失[N]. 深圳大学学报（人文社会科学版），2003b（4）：115~120.
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[14] 袁晓亮. 大学英译研究在中国[A]. 语文学刊. 外语教育教学，2015（10）：43~79.
of the Great Learning
学 院 外国语学院
专 业 英语(翻译)
学生姓名 李海欣
完成日期 2016年5月8日
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Abstract in Chinese
Abstract in English.........................................................................................................1
1. Introduction................................................................................................................1
1.1 Purpose of the Study................................................................................................1
1.2 Significance of the Study.........................................................................................2
2. A Comparison of the Style of the Great Learning and Legge's Translation.............3
2.1 Style of the Great Learning and Legge's Translation..............................................3
2.1.1 Style of the Great Learning..................................................................................3
2.1.1.1 Concise Style.....................................................................................................3
2.1.1.2 Elegant Style......................................................................................................5
2.1.1.3 Plain Style..........................................................................................................6
2.1.2 Style of James Legge's Translation.......................................................................7
2.1.2.1 Elegant Style......................................................................................................7
2.1.2.2 Plain Style..........................................................................................................9
2.1.2.3 Clarity...............................................................................................................11
2.2 Similarities of the Style of the Great Learning and Legge's Translation...............12
2.2.1 Elegant Style.......................................................................................................12
2.2.1.1 Elegance of Words...........................................................................................12
2.2.1.2 Elegance of Sentences......................................................................................13
2.2.2 Plain Style...........................................................................................................13
2.2.2.1 Lucidity of Expressions...................................................................................13
2.2.2.2 Lucidity of Text Layout...................................................................................14
2.3 Differences of the Style of the Great Learning and Legge's Translation..............14
2.3.1 Conciseness and Clarity......................................................................................14
2.3.1.1 Conciseness and Clarity of Words...................................................................14
2.3.1.2 Conciseness and Clarity of Sentences..............................................................15
3. Reasons for the Similarities and Differences of Style..............................................15
3.1 Reasons for Similarities of Style............................................................................15
3.1.1 Convenience for His Mission..............................................................................15
3.1.2 Legge's Attitude towards Translation..................................................................16
3.2 Reasons for Differences of Style............................................................................16
3.2.1 Language Differences.........................................................................................16
3.2.2 Cultural Differences............................................................................................16
4. Legge's Translation Strategies..................................................................................17
4.1 Strategies for Translating the Similar Style...........................................................17
4.1.1 Literal Translation...............................................................................................17
4.1.2 Conversion..........................................................................................................18
4.2 Strategies for Translating the Different Style........................................................18
4.2.1 Liberal Translation..............................................................................................18
4.2.2 Foreignization.....................................................................................................19
4.2.3Amplification.......................................................................................................19
5. Conclusion ...............................................................................................................20
5.1 Major Findings.......................................................................................................20
5.2 The Value of Legge's Translation..........................................................................20
References....................................................................................................................21
Acknowledgements
This thesis would not have been completed without the support and encouragement from many people. To all of them, I would like to express my gratitude.
First and foremost, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor Professor Lu Daofu, for he has helped me work out my outline of the paper and given me valuable suggestions on organizing the ideas. Without his patient guidance, and invaluable advices, it would have been impossible for me to accomplish the thesis.
Secondly, I am also indebted to some teachers, especially Associate Professor Qin Honghuai and Associate Professor Fang Lan who have instructed me knowledge in my thesis writing.
Last but not least, my gratitude also goes to my classmates who have so generously spent their time reading my thesis and giving me some advices on improvement.
理雅各《大学》英译本的文体风格研究
摘要 理雅各是西方完整翻译《四书》《五经》的第一人，他的译本至今仍被西方奉为标准译本。本文通过研究理雅各《大学》英译本，试图归纳总结其译本的文体风格以及翻译策略。
本文首先将《大学》的文体风格与理雅各的文体风格进行分析对比，发现理雅各的译本与《大学》都有庄重，明快的文体风格。但与原文简约的文体风格相比，理雅各的译本更趋向于清晰的文体风格。文章进而挖掘导致这些风格异同的原因，及其采取的翻译策略。本文最后总结理雅各的译文基本能忠实再现原文文体风格，因此能让传教士更好地了解中国，为当时的传教事业作出了很大的贡献。而在现代，理雅各的译文仍是西方人了解中国思想的途径之一。
关键词 《大学》；理雅各；文体风格；翻译策略
Style of James Legge's Translation
of the Great Learning
广州大学外国语学院2012级英语（翻译）专业5班
李海欣 1218100115
指导教师：陆道夫
Abstract James Legge is the first westerner who has translated The Four Books and The Five Classics and his translations are regarded as standard translations. This thesis, therefore, is to study his translation of the Great Learning, summarizing its style and translation strategies.
This thesis first compares the style of the Great Learning with that of James Legge's translation to find out that they are both elegant and plain. However, the Great Learning is so concise that Legge's translation needs clarity. Therefore, Legge's clarity style is different from the concise style of the Great Learning. And then the thesis proceeds to explore the reasons for the similarities and differences of their styles and summarize Legge's translation strategies. At last, the thesis concludes that Legge's translation conforms to the style of the Great Learning, helping missionaries understand Chinese philosophy better, and thus, making a great contribution to Christian missionary activities then. And nowadays, his translation still remains an important access to the philosophy of China.
Key Words The Great Learning; James Legge; Style; Translation Strategies
1. Introduction
1.1 Purpose of the Study
As one of the most important Chinese classics, the Great Learning is renowned for not only its profundity of philosophy, but also its elegance of style. And James Legge's translation, as one of its C-E versions, has such a good reputation that no other versions could exceed. Therefore, the thesis is to gain a better understanding of Legge translation through his style and his translation strategies.
This thesis will first make a comparison on the style of the Great Learning and Legge’s translation to summarize the similarities and differences in their styles. And then, further explanation will be made on the reasons for those similarities and differences. At last, the thesis will summarize the translation strategies employed in translating those similarities and differences of style, and conclude with the value of Legge's translation.
1.2 Significance of the Study
There are at least four C-E versions of the Great Learning, three of which are translated by Chinese—Gu Hongming(辜鸿铭), Lin Yutang(林语堂) and He Zuokang(何祚康) and one is by a British James Legge.
According to the research of Yuan Xiaoliang, only a few studies have been made on James Legge's translation: (袁晓亮，2015:45)
One study was conducted by Lu Xiaoyan in 2013 titled A Study of Legge's Translation of The Great Learning from the Perspective of Translation as Adaptation and Selection. In her thesis, She probed into Legges' translation from the angle of translation as adaptation and selection and concluded that translation was not just a language activity, but also the translator's selective activity adapting to the translational eco-environment. (Lu Xiaoyan，2013:Ⅳ)
The other one was conducted by Yang Cuicui in 2014 titled On the Use of Thick Translation by James Legge in His Rendering of Da Xue. She analyzed Legge's translation from the angle of thick translation and tried to demonstrate the feasibility of thick translation in translating the Chinese classics. (Yang Cuicui，2014:Ⅰ)
And none focused on the style of Legge's translation. Therefore, Theoretically, the significance of the study is to understand Legge's translation through his style.
Practically, by study on the style of Legge's translation of the Great Learning, the thesis will summarize his style, and explore the reasons that influence his style and his translation strategies so that it may provide guidance for the future study of Legge's translation of other Chinese classics.
2. A Comparison of the Style of the Great Learning and Legge's Translation
2.1 Style of the Great Learning and Legge's Translation
As a missionary that comes to china in the 19th, James Legge faces resistance from the disciples of Confucius, thus, instead of defaming Confucius classics, he chooses to translate them faithfully to help his missionary activity.
Therefore, to understand his translation style better, analysis should be first conducted on the style of the Great Learning.
2.1.1 Style of the Great Learning
The Great Learning is written in ancient Chinese, the fashion of which is the economy of expressions. Therefore, the first style is concise.
The Great Learning is written by Zeng Zi mainly for people in high positions on “his thought in political conceptions, filial piety and self cultivation.”(陆道夫、粟孝君，2014:16) Therefore, its readers are mostly well-educated and its theme is serious. Writing in a formal and elegant style is appropriate.
Moreover, in Warring States Period, disciples of Confucius have to travel around to carry forward and develop Confucianism among rulers and ordinary people. A plain and lucid style of the Great Learning makes it easy for its readers to understand.
In general, the style of the Great Learning is concise, elegant and plain.
2.1.1.1 Concise Style
Concise style refers to the manner that the writer uses an economical expression for a concept that is rich in meaning. In the Great Learning, Conciseness is showed in two aspects.
The first aspect is the economy of words. In THE TEXT OF CONFUCIUS, Zeng Zi begins with the concept “明明德”that merely consists of 3 words, but is rich in meaning. The first“明”is a verb which means “enlighten”, and the second“明”is an adjective which means “illustrious”. “德” is “the moral power of our nature”. These three words combines into the meaning of this: Man is born to be virtuous. However, he may be blinded by sensual temptations and dims the illustrious moral power of his own nature. Therefore, the Great Learning is to help him bring out the illustrious virtue within himself. Rich the meaning of the concept may be, Zeng Zi merely uses 3 words in expressing them. This is what makes these 3 words concise in form, but profound in meaning.
The second aspect is the economy of sentences. Sentences in the Great Learning are mostly short, with the average sentence length of 19 words. Economy of words is one reason for their shortness; another one is the use of ellipsis. Ellipsis is“the omission from a sentence of words needed to complete a construction.”(Wang Shouyuan，2006:161). Omission of subject is most commonly seen in the Great Learning. One example is the beginning sentence of the text of Confucius:
原文: 大学之道，在明明德，在亲民，在止于至善。
译文: What the Great Learning teaches is to illustrate illustrious virtue; to renovate the people; to rest in the highest excellence.
This sentence is concise with 16 words but rich in meaning: the Great Learning is to help men bring out the moral power of his nature so that he may cultivate himself and influence others to do the same. And only then can he rest in the ultimate perfection and the society be anew.
“大学之道(what the Great Learning teaches is)”is not only the subject of “在明明德(to illustrate illustrious virtue)”, but also that of“在亲民(to renovate the people)”and“在止于至善(to rest in the highest excellence)”. Had the sentence not employed ellipsis on the subject, the sentence would have been “What the Great Learning teaches is to illustrate illustrious virtue; what the Great Learning teaches is to renovate the people; what the Great Learning teaches is to rest in the highest excellence”, In this case, the sentence would have become superfluous and cumbersome. In addition, the repetition would have added force to the separation and emphasis the equal significance of each sentence rather than them as a whole. And the progression of thought of this sentence is broken. Therefore, by employing ellipsis, the sentence is made concise and coherent.
2.1.1.2 Elegant Style
Elegant style is the manner that the writer employs relatively formal expressions to achieve elegance and formality of a discourse. Liu Xie in his work Wenxin Diaolong summarizes the style of Confucius classics,“典雅者，熔式经诰，方轨儒门者也。(刘勰, qtd. in 蓝纯，2010: 60)(Modeled on the classics, the elegant style is Confucian)（刘勰、杨国斌、周振甫， 2003: 391）”.
Elegance of the Great Learning is showed in two aspects:
The first aspect is the elegance of words. As a formal written discourse, words in the Great Learning are not only concise, but also formal and elegant. One example is“峻德”.“峻” is of the same meaning as“明” that is illustrious. However,“峻”is mostly employed to describe the loftiness of a mountain. With this word, the image of a tall mountain emerges in our head, and impresses on us the loftiness and forcefulness of the moral power of our nature; therefore the weight of this word is fully expressed by this formal expression.
Words such as “即”，“哀矜”，“諠”，“忿懥”，“敖惰”，“赤子” and“忒”are more formal than their equivalent “近”，“哀怜”，“忘”，“忿怒”，“傲慢怠惰”，“婴儿”and“变更”.
The second aspect is the elegance of sentence.“In elegant style of writing, sentences are coherent, long and closely connected with cohesive devices.” (the author’s translation) (黎运汗，2000: 285)
Sentences in the Great Learning are closely connected by logical connectors, conjunctions and ellipsis; therefore, the Great Learning appears coherent and logical. In addition, Zeng Zi also employs many long sentences to express his complicated ideas, with the longest one of 64 words. In the following sentence
为人君，止于仁；为人臣，止于敬；为人子，止于孝；为人父，止于慈； 与国人交，止于信。
the coherence is achieved by semi-colon and parallelism. The author employs this long sentence to put forward his thought: there are more than one role for a man in the society, and for each role, there is a different end. The five roles combined is a man as a whole, and therefore, these roles should be closely connected with each other. Zeng Zi, by the use of semi-colon, indicates that close relationship. As for parallelism, Zeng Zi repeats the marker “为...止于...”so that he can arrange each role and its respective end in the same place of each sentence. This shows clearly the focus of role in each sentence and the connection between them.
2.1.1.3 Plain Style
Plain style is the manner that the writer expresses his thought in a clear and straightforward manner. This means the writer should employ less unnecessary and vague expressions. In addition, a plain style of writing should be well constructed. (黎运汗，2000: 260-263)
Figures of speech such as metaphor, metonymy are employed where a writer tries to avoid expressing his thought in a direct way. In the Great Learning, however, metaphor as well as metonymy is only employed for once or twice.
Zeng Zi expresses his thought in a straightforward manner. One example is the beginning sentence of Chapter 6 “所谓诚其意者，毋自欺也。” In this sentence, Zeng Zi puts forward his thought of how to“make the thoughts sincere”directly. Quite the contrary to the deduction pattern of English writing that is a pattern that conclusion is proposed before giving supporting details, Chinese writing prefers induction pattern which is a pattern that conclusion follows many supporting details. The induction pattern can be difficult for readers to grasp the idea until he reaches the end or even worse, readers may lose patience before they come to the conclusion. However, by putting forward his point at the beginning sentence of Chapter 6, Zeng Zi not only makes his point lucid, but also catches the attention of his readers.
2.1.2 Style of James Legge's Translation
As mentioned, James Legge comes to china in 19th century to carry forward Christianity missionary activity. Although he wants Jesus to replace Confucius, he realizes defaming Confucius classics is not a viable option; he then turns to make advantage of it to resist the repulse of the Confucius followers and makes Chinese people accept him and Christianity more easily. Therefore the style of his translation is mostly similar to that of the Great Learning, which is elegant and plain. However, due to language differences as well as cultural differences, his translation style cannot conform to the conciseness of the Great Learning, and clarity is another style of his translation.
2.1.2.2 Elegant Style
As mentioned, Legge's main purpose of translating the Great Learning is for missionaries to understand the people they are to preach better. By conforming to the elegant style of the Great Learning, he shows his readers that elegance is at the core of Chinese. Elegance of his translation is showed in two aspects.
The first aspect is the elegance of words, which is marked by formal words and words of Latinate or French origin. In his translation of this sentence
原文: 大学之道，在明明德，在亲民，在止于至善。
译文: What the Great Learning teaches is to illustrate illustrious virtue; to renovate the people; and to rest in the highest excellence.
Legge employs the archaic words “illustrate” and “illustrious” for “bring out” and “good” and the Latinate word ‘renovate’ for “make new and better”. The sentence is made elegant and formal with these words, thus, adding force to the tone. This sentence is also the theme of the Great Learning; the elegant style can add force of emphasis to the seriousness of the theme.
Words such as “deportment”, “benevolence”, “deem”, “instruct”, “proceed”, “dwell” are more formal than “manner”, “kindness”, “see”, “teach”, “continue” and “live”.
The second aspect is the elegance of sentences marked by the employment of long sentences with the longest one of 119 words. Out of the 183 sentences, 55 sentences consist of more than 20 words, 11 sentences more than 40 words and 2 sentences more than 100 words. Moreover, the sentence structures of these long sentences are complicated. One example is the following:
原文:《秦誓》曰：“若有一介臣，断断兮无他技，其心休休焉，其如有容焉。人之有技，若己有之；人之彦圣，其心好之，不啻若自其口出。实能容之，以能保我子孙黎民，尚亦有利哉！
译文: In the Declaration of the Prince of Qin, it is said, // 'Let me have but one minister, // plain and sincere, not pretending to other abilities, /but/ with a simple, upright, mind; /and/ possessed of generosity// regarding the talents of others /as though/ he himself possessed them, // and, /where he finds accomplished and perspicacious men, / loving them in his heart more than his mouth expresses, // and /really showing himself able to bear them and employ them/:// such a minister will be able to preserve my sons and grandsons, and black-haired people //and/ benefits likewise to the kingdom may well be looked for from him. (103 words)
This sentence consists of 103 words with a complicated sentence structure. The sentence first begins with a subject clause "it is said ", in which “it” refers to the quotation.
The quotation begins with an imperative sentence and then several absolute constructions (from “plain and sincere”to“generosity”) linked by conjunctions “but” and “and”.
From “regarding” to “employ them”, there are three present participle clauses respectively beginning with “regarding...”, “loving...” and “really showing...” to describe what is “generosity”. Between these three clauses, there are conjunctions “and”, a complex subordinator "as though" and an adverbial clause “where...”.
After the three clauses, the translator employs a colon for cohesion and a conclusion. The conclusion begins from “such” and ends with “him”; the conjunction “and” combines the last two sentence.
Although this complicated sentence may give readers a strenuous reading experience, the profundity of the perception gains more depth in this way. And the formality and elegance of style of this sentence helps convince readers of the authority of and add force to this quotation.
2.1.2.2 Plain Style
Plain style, as mentioned, is of lucid and to-the-point expressions. Moreover, a plain style is well constructed. The plain style of Legge's translation is also showed in these two aspects.
Legge's translation is first of lucid expressions. In the Great Learning where Zeng Zi uses metaphor to express his idea, Legge chooses to speak out the connotative meaning than copy the use of the same rhetoric device. One example is the following:
原文: 其所厚者薄，而其所薄者厚，未之有也。
译文: It never has been the case that what was of great importance has been slightly cared for, and, at the same time, that what was of slight importance has been greatly cared for.
From the above example we can see that every English word has its Chinese equivalent so that words are neither superfluous nor not to the point.
The general idea of the Chinese sentence is this: it has never been the case that a family is not regulated, but the state is orderly governed, thus, the regulating of the family is of great importance.
Judging from the meaning of the Chinese sentence, it is clear that metaphor is employed.“厚者”literally refers to a substance that is thick and“薄者”means a substance that is thin. Zeng Zi compares the regulating of family to “厚者” and the governing the state to “薄者”, hence, making the abstract idea concrete and vivid but not plain. In Legge's translation, he translates “厚者”into “what is of great importance”and “薄者” into “what is of slight importance”. Although he does not translate the metaphor, his expression is plain and lucid. Had the translator retained the metaphor with words“thin”and “thick”, the sentence would have been “It never has been the case that what was thick has been thinly cared for, and, at the same time, that what was thin has been thickly cared for.”; then the sentence is inaccessible and the metaphor is lost as well. However, by the use of “great” and “slight”, not only the meaning, but also the word formation of the original sentence is well expressed.
The second aspect is the lucidity of text layout. At the end of THE TEXT OF CONFUCIUS, in Legge's own commentary, he says he has rearranged the whole text of the Great Learning; therefore, the lucidity of his text layout can show his plain style of translation and his thoughtfulness for his readers.
He begins with his commentary on the importance of the Great Learning for those who are to enter into virtue. Then he separates words of Confucius with the commentary of philosopher Zeng and puts those words into a chapter titled THE TEXT OF CONFUCIUS. In this chapter the most important concepts of the Great Learning are put forward: “illustrating illustrious virtue”,“renovating people”,“resting in the highest excellence”,“investigating things”,“completing knowledge”,“make thought sincere”,“rectifying heart”,“cultivating persons”,“regulating family”,“governing the states”“make the whole empire tranquil and happy”.
After this chapter, he rearranges the commentary of Zeng Zi into ten chapters, with each one explaining one of the concepts accordingly.
This rearrangement of the text is well constructed. Legge makes THE TEXT OF CONFUCIUS the list of contents and THE COMMENTARY OF PHILOSOPHER ZENG the chapters; therefore, readers can easily choose which chapter to read without confusion. And from THE TEXT OF CONFUCIUS, readers can understand better how Zeng Zi proceeds his thought in his commentary.
2.1.2.3 Clarity
Although Legge's translation is not concise, clarity, instead, is one of the advantages of his translation style. He clarifies the meaning of the concise words by explanation and by addition of reference, especially personal pronouns, he helps readers follow the trend of thought of the Great Learning better.
The translator uses explanation for clarity of words. Words are concise in the Great Learning, for example , in this sentence“殷之未丧师，克配上帝” Zeng Zi uses “殷” for “殷商” which is“Yin dynasty”. However, “Yin dynasty” is merely the literal meaning of this word and its connotation refers to “the sovereigns of the Yin dynasty”. Had Legge merely translated this word into“Yin”rather than explained it as“the sovereigns of Yin dynasty”, his readers would have assumed it to be a name of a common person and could not know the force of this sentence. And for those who know“Yin”as a place but not the name of a dynasty may have misinterpreted the meaning of the sentence and the culture behind it.
From the above example, we can see that those concise words have many connotations and culture behind. And if Legge does not explain them clearly, it would be difficult for readers to understand fully the Great Learning.
The translator uses reference for clarity of sentences. Reference, especially personal pronoun, is what we focus on. In ancient Chinese, there is no appropriate third personal pronoun to use；writers merely just omit it. (何新波，2005:152)But for English readers, the omission of personal pronouns may create confusion. One example is the following:
原文:《康诰》曰：“克明德。”
译文:In the Announcement to Kang, it is said, “He was able to make his virtue illustrious.”
In this sentence, Zeng Zi uses 6 words to express the idea of illustrating illustrious virtue. Chinese readers, who are accustomed to the use of ellipsis on subject for coherence, find no difficulty in understanding the subject of this sentence—the King Kang. But for English readers to understand it, cohesive device such as personal pronouns should be employed, because English is a language achieves cohesion by hypotaxis that is a cohesive device that links sentences with explicit expressions, such as reference. In this case, had the sentence been translated in this way: In the Announcement to Kang, it is said, “be able to make virtue illustrious”, readers of target language would have assumed it to be a request for the King Kang rather than a commendation of him. Therefore, the translator had to add personal pronoun "he" and "his" to show clearly the connection of this two sentences so that readers would not misinterpret it.
Therefore, we can see addition of reference is crucial to clarify the meaning and help reader follow Zeng Zi's trend of thought.
2.2 Similarities of the Styles of the Great Learning and Legge's Translation
2.2.1 Elegant Style
Elegance is at the core of the Confucius philosophy and the elegant style of writing is a reflection of it. Legge's translation is to acquaint missionaries with the culture of the people they are to preach; it is necessary to reproduce faithfully not only the meaning, but also the style of the Great Learning. Therefore, both of their styles are elegant.
2.2.1.1 Elegance of Words
Zeng Zi has employed many formal and elegant words in the Great Learning. To conform to the elegance of words in the Great Learning, Legge also employs many formal words in his translation. Out of 5780 words of Legge's translation, 340 words are hard words and many more of Latinate or French origin; hard word consists of at least three syllables, not counting inflection and compounding. (Dong Qiming，2008:68) The formal use of words reflects Legge's effort to show formality and elegance in his style.
2.2.1.2 Elegance of Sentences
Zeng Zi employs long sentences to express his complicated ideas and those sentences are made coherent and closely connected by cohesive devices such as semi-colon and ellipsis. And in Legge's translation，he also employs long sentences with complicated sentence structure, good connection and coherence. Out of the 183 sentences, 68 sentences consist of more than 20 words, and the longest sentence contains 119 words with a complicated sentence structure: absolute constitution, attributive clause, imperative sentence and cohesive device such as punctuation are employed in one sentence. The complexity of sentence structure reflects the complexity of the philosophy of Zeng Zi, therefore, the profundity of it is fully showed.
In general, the styles of the Great Learning and Legge's translation are both elegant.
2.2.2 Plain Style
Zeng Zi is the representative of Confucianism, and his writing the Great Learning is to carry forward and develop it. Although people in the high positions are the main targets of Zeng Zi, the ordinary people are also his focus. Therefore, lucidity is crucial to make common people understand directly the philosophy of Confucius. And because Legge's effort to conforms to the style of the Great Learning, plainness of style also reflects in his translation.
2.2.2.1 Lucidity of Expressions
In the Great Learning, Zeng Zi states his opinion in a plain, direct manner; he seldom uses rhetoric devices such as metaphor, metonymy to express his idea, because different readers may have different interpretations. To make his idea lucid and to the point, Zeng Zi adopts the plain style. Expressions in Legge's translation are as plain and lucid as the Great Learning; even where Zeng Zi employs those rhetorical devices, Legge simply just speaks out the implicit meaning.
2.2.2.2 Lucidity of Text Layout
Text layouts in the Great Learning and Legge's translation are well constructed. The Great Learning we see today, as in Legge's own words, is rearranged by him. (Zeng & Legge, 2014:8) In his rearrangement, he first makes a comment on the importance of the Great Learning, and then in THE TEXT OF CONFUCIUS, he puts the words of Confucius together which introduces the concepts of“三纲”，“八目”and explains in every chapter one concepts. The structure of the text layout, therefore, is clear.
In general, the styles of the Great Learning and Legge's translation are both plain.
2.3 Differences of the Style of the Great Learning and Legge's Translation
2.3.1 Conciseness and Clarity
The Great Learning is made concise by the economy of words and ellipsis. To make clarified those words, Legge needs to use more words to explain. To complete a sentence that some of the elements are omitted with ellipsis, Legge needs to add reference or other cohesive devices to it. Therefore, conciseness is sacrificed for clarity.
2.3.1.1 Conciseness and Clarity of Words
In the Great Learning, words are concise but rich in meaning. To clarify those meaning, Legge has to use more words to explain. One example is the following:
原文: 故好而知其恶，恶而知其美者，天下鲜矣！
译文: Thus it is that there are few men in the world, who love, and at the same time know the bad qualities of the object of their love, or who hate, and yet know the excellences of the object of their hatred.
The word “其”appears two times in this sentence; the first“其”refers to“the objects of their love”while the second “其” indicates “the objects of their hatred”. The use of“其”makes the sentence concise. However, had the translator translated it as this: Thus it is that there are few men in the world, who love, and at the same time know its bad qualities, or who hate, and yet know its excellences, the indication of “its” would have not been clarified in English and the sentence would have been inaccessible.
2.3.1.2 Conciseness and Clarity of Sentences
Chinese achieves coherence mostly by parataxis that is a cohesive device that achieves coherence with the logical order of ideas and events and English achieves cohesion mainly by hypotaxis.
In the above example, the connection of the Chinese sentence is achieved by the logic of thought, while in English the connection is made by the explicit expression " and at the same time ". From this example, we can see that to make sentence cohesive, more words has to be added.
Parataxis is a coherent device that not conforms to the expression habit of English readers, therefore, to have English readers understand the cohesion of sentences, reference or logical connectors need adding for clarity. Therefore, Legge's translation cannot conform to the concise style of the Great Learning.
3. Reasons for the Similarities and Differences of Style
In Chapter 2, we have summarized that style of Legge's translation is similar to that of the Great Learning, but there is also different style. We have also touched on the reasons why there are similarities and difference in the style of his translation and the Great Learning. And this chapter will proceed to enlarge on those reasons.
3.1 Reasons for Similarities of Style
3.1.1 Convenience for His Mission
The first reason for his conformity to the style of the Great Learning is because on the one hand, he considers a faithful reproduction of the Great Learning a means to present missionaries like himself a paranoid of the philology, politics and morality of Chines people, to which they are to preach; he views this helpful in fulfilling his mission.
On the other, he perceives that both Confucianism and Christianity believe in monotheism; therefore, he can 'make advantage of' this common ground to resist the strong repulse of the Confucians(王辉，2003a:38) and make Chinese people accept him and Christianity easier.
3.1.2 Legge's Attitude towards Translation
The second reason is his attitude towards translation.
First, he believes that liberal translation is for lazy translators. In his own word“A translator always attempts a faithful translation and never an explanation. Explanation is of a lazy person, but not of a scholar.（the author’s translation）” (王辉，2003a: 39)
Second, so as not to let his religious view prejudice his own opinion towards the Chinese classics, he reviews notes from many Chinese scholars to make sure he understand and reproduce the text faithfully. (王辉，2003b:116)
3.2 Reasons for Differences of Style
3.2.1 Language Differences
Language difference is the first reasons for the differences of style. Take the use of personal pronoun for instance. In Warring States Period, there is no appropriate third person pronoun to use; therefore, Zeng Zi just omits it. (何新波，2005:150) But Chinese achieves coherence by parataxis, Chinese readers normally find no difficulty in reading even without the person pronoun. However, English achieves cohesion by hypotaxis, it needs addition of personal pronoun to make clarity.
Therefore, the style of Legge's translation cannot conform to the concise style of the Great Learning.
3.2.2 Cultural Differences
Words in the Great Learning can be concise because the writer and his readers share common cultural knowledge. But for readers of the target language, they have little or no common cultural knowledge with Zeng Zi; therefore, to make those cultural or connotative meaning of a word clarified, the translator has to explain. One example is his translation of the word “弟”.
原文: 弟者，所以事长也
译文: There is fraternal submission: therewith elders and superiors should be served.
“弟” in modern Chinese means "brother", but in ancient Chinese“弟”means “know the order of a family, respecting and serving your elder brother”. In Legge's translation, he adopts the strategy of foreignization and translates “弟” into “fraternal submission” and employs a colon to make the following clause as its explanation. If he had translated “弟”into “brother”, then the culture behind this word is lost and the sentence would be completely misinterpreted.
4. Legge's Translation Strategies
In Chapter 3, we have talked about the reasons why the styles of the Great Learning and Legge's translation are both elegant and plain, but the Great Learning is of concise style while Legge's translation is of clarity style. This chapter will continue to summarize the translation strategies that Legge has employed to conform to the plain and elegant style of the Great Learning and to clarify expressions that are concise but rich in meaning in the Great Learning.
4.1Strategies for Translating the Similar Style
4.1.1 Literal Translation
Literal Translation is a way of translation that conforms to the style, the rhetorical and linguistic features of the original text.
One example is the following:
原文:见不善而不能退，退而不能远，过也。
译文:To see bad men and not be able to remove them; to remove them; but not to do so to a distance: this is weakness.
This sentence shows that Legge tries to conform to the sentence order of the original text. The sentence order of the normal expression of English should be " It is weakness to see bad men and not be able to remove them, and to remove them but not to do so to a distance."
Therefore, from the examples, it is clear that Legge employs literal translation to conform to the style of the Great Learning.
4.1.2 Conversion
The use of noun and noun phrases can make a discourse more concise and formal. In the following example:
原文:与国人交，止于信。
译文: In communication with his subjects, he rested in good faith.
The Chinese sentence consists of three verbs. In translating those three words, Legge turns two of them into nouns. “communication” for “交”and “good faith”for“信”. He could have translated the sentence into: when he communicated with his subjects, he rested in having good faith, but it would become less formal and concise, thus, the force of this sentence is weakened.
4.2 Strategies for Translating the Different Style
4.2.1 Liberal Translation
Due to the economy of words of the Great Learning, many words have its connotative meaning. Therefore, to make those meaning clarified, Legge employed liberal translation. One example is the following:
原文: 德者，本也；财者，末也
译文: Virtue is the root; wealth is the result.
This sentence is a procession of thought from the last sentence“possessing virtue will give him wealth.”therefore, in this sentence wealth is the “result” of the “root” virtue. But the literal meaning of “末” means the “end or tip” of the root. By liberally translating this word into“result”, Legge makes it lucid and easy for readers to understand the connection between this sentence and the last one.
4.2.2 Foreignization
Foreignization means “translation should retain the language and cultural features of the original text in order to present an exotic reading experience to its readers.” (the author's translation)(肖坤学、陆道夫，2012：50) This translation strategy is also for clarity. One example is Legge's translation of the word“君子”. “君子”nowadays refers to gentleman. But in the ancient China, “君子”refers to people stands on the moral high ground. They are, as Legge translated, “superior man” and “future princes”. Had Legge translated it into gentleman, readers of target language may not understand“君子”is regarded highly to such an extent in ancient china.
4.2.3 Amplification
Amplification refers to “the addition of words, phrases and sentences in translation according to the expression habits of the target language”. (Li Chunxiao, 2012：28)
By ellipsis, the language of the Great Learning is concise and compact, but it can also cause confusion for readers of the target language. One example is the following:
原文:心诚求之，虽不中，不远矣。
译文: If a mother is really anxious about it, though she may not hit exactly the wants of her infant, she will not be far from doing so.
The elements italicized are added to the translation to make clarified the sentence. Without them, the sentence is inaccessible, because it is not clear “who”is anxious and “who”may not hit“what” and “who” will be far from “what”. By amplification, the translation clarifies the whole sentence and makes it lucid for his readers to understand.
5. Conclusion
5.1 Major Findings
The thesis has compared the style of the Great Learning and Legge's translation to conclude that their styles are similar; both of them are elegant and plain. One glaring difference, however, is that Legge's translation focus more on clarity than conciseness; therefore, his translation is heavy and laborious compared with the Great Learning.
The style of Legge's translation is mainly determined by his translation purposes. He tries to conform to the style of the Great Learning, because he aims to help missionaries to understand Chinese language and culture better so that they can carry forward their missionary activity easier. In addition, his attitude towards translation also plays an important role in his similar style to the Great Learning. However, ancient Chinese is concise, and the connotative meaning of a Chinese expression has to be explained in English with a few more words for clarity. Therefore, Legge's translation can hardly conform to the conciseness of the Great Learning.
As for his translation strategies, Legge employs literal translation and conversion to conform to the style of the Great Learning, and uses liberal translation, foreignization and amplification for clarity.
5.2 The Value of Legge's Translation
From the above analysis, we can see that style influences the expressions chosen by a translator. Therefore, to understand Legge's translation, it is not enough to merely comprehend the meaning of his expressions, but the style of his translation should also be fully appreciated to understand his choice of expressions better. And this reminds us the importance of style in translation. In our future practice, we should not treat lightly the style of the original text, because its style concerns the expressions we are to choose in our translation. We should pay attention to not only the faithful reproduction of meaning, but also the faithful reproduction of the style.
In addition, style is the man himself. From the style of Legge's translation, we can catch a glimpse of his life at that time and his attitude towards Chinese classics. The above analysis shows that Legge adopts an 'adaptation' strategy towards the Great Learning and his translation style reflects this adaptation. This is why his translation is widely accepted and makes greater contribution to the Christianity missionary activities then. Moreover, his faithful translation presents the western world a whole panorama of China; it is still an important access for the western to understand Chinese nowadays.
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