A report on the Faithful Feature of James Legge's Translation of the Chinese Classics

【Abstract】James Legge was the first person to research and translate Chinese literary classics systematically. His translations have been regarded as authoritative version since they were published. This paper talked about a feature of his translation： being faithful.

【Key words】James Legge； Chinese Classics； faithful

【作者簡(jiǎn)介】王玉，山東財(cái)經(jīng)大學(xué)東方學(xué)院。

James Legge was a famous British sinologist in the 19th century. He was the first person to research and translate Chinese literary classics systematically. As a man who understood Confucianism， Buddhism and Taoism very well， from 1861 to 1886， he had translated Confucian Analects， The Great Learning， The Doctrine of the Mean， The works of Mencius， The Book of Historical， The Book of Poetry， The Ch’un Ts’ew， Tao Teh King， Chuang-Tzu and many other Chinese classics. His accomplishment was regarded as a milestone in the process of sinological study.

By reading and researching pieces of James Legge’s translation works， I have drawn a conclusion about the features of his translation， that is being precise through literal translation.

In the preface of The Chinese Classics volume IV -- The Shi King， or The Book of Poetry， James Legge said：“ The author hopes that the Work which he now offers will be deemed by competent scholars a reliable translation of the original poems. He has certainly spared no labour on the translation， or on the accompanying notes and the prolegomena， to make it as perfect as he could attain to”.

James Legge was rigorous in his translation， he researched almost every character and phrase in the original， and we can realize it from the following picture：

He was responsible for every word he wrote down and made a good effort to catch the true ideas of the author without omitting any details. His rigorous academic attitude was admirable and well worth learning for every translators.

A passage in Chuang-Tzu goes like this：“……是非之彰也，道之所以虧也。道之所以虧，愛(ài)之所以成。果且有成與虧乎哉？果且無(wú)成與虧乎哉？……”. As words to describe the doctrine of Tao which is very abstract and mysterious， the original was difficult to be understand even for the native language speakers. James Legge’s translation showed the great efforts he had made for offering a reliable version and his serious attitude to his undertaking. He translated it as：“It was through the definite expression of different opinions about it that there ensured injury to （the doctrine of ） the Tio. It was this injury to the （doctrine of the） Tio which led to the formation of （partial） preferences. Was it indeed after such preferences were formed that the injury came？ Or did the injury precede the rise of such preferences？”.

First， he translated “是非” into “ different opinions” instead of “ right and wrong”， because the “是非” here meant much more that right and wrong， it referred to the argues and different aspects of different things. In my opinion， “different opinions” were a pretty good understanding of this phrase. Then， “果且有成與虧乎哉？果且無(wú)成與虧乎哉？”， this two sentences had little differences in form in Chinese. But as philosophy concept， their meaning was difficult to be understood by just translating on the basis of the denotation. James Legge’ s intention of translating the Chinese classics was to introduce Chinese culture and civilization to western people， he must reveal the substance of these obscure expressions and offer systematical and coherent ideas to make it possible for the readers to understand them. Therefore， he presented a specific and clear internal logical relationship of these two sentences. The liberal translation here was not unfaithful， but a proof of his preciseness and carefulness.

Not every translator would go so far as he did. Besides， James Legge always translated more than one time of every classic he took over. He would translate once again several years after his first version was finished. By doing all of the above， the style features of his translation was abundantly clear.

Summary

James legge’s translation of Chinese classics was a valuable resource left to present people. His meticulosity， perseverance and profound knowledge about Chinese culture deserved the admiration. He spent the most good time of his life on his translation which was of high quality.

References：

[1]James Legge.The Book of Poetry[M].臺(tái)灣：南天書局有限公司， 1991：p292，19-20.

[2]James Legge.Chuang-Tzu[M].臺(tái)灣：南天書局有限公司，1991.