Research Purpose amp; Significance

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms as the representative of Chinese classic culture, it uses classical Chinese which is relatively easy to understand. The language of this novel is fluent and lucid, but its style is full of changes. Besides, through applying different translation strategies, the complex events and the complicated relationship between the characters in around one hundred years are closely and completely organized. And the narrative of the novel echoes and relates to each other among chapters. The application of parallel structure is a highlighted feature in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Whether the translation of parallel structure in this novel is appropriate or not has become an important factor relating to a better interpretation of the translation. Therefore, to discuss the application of translation strategies in the translation of parallel structure in this novel has realistic necessity and referential significance for other traditional classic’s translation. And the paper will analyze the effects and reasons of different translation strategies in the translation of parallel structure through the comparison of literal translation and free translation.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is the earliest historical novel with captions for each chapter in China, which represents the highest achievement of ancient historical novels. The novel describes the contradictions and struggles between the three political and military groups. In a broad social and historical background, it shows the sharp and complex political and military conflicts in that era, which has a profound impact on later generations in terms of politics and military strategy. As one of the four famous classics of Chinese classical novels, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms has its unique research significance and cultural value under the background of the continuous improvement of Chinese cultural influence, with the spread of Chinese culture and the promotion of Chinese classic works.

Research Background

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms at present has two recognized English translation versions-C.H. Brewitt-Taylor’s translation and Moss Roberts’ translation, respectively. The two versions are separated by 66 years, as the historical background and social context have changed greatly, so these two versions in the application of translation strategies are different to a great extent. C.H. Brewitt-Taylor is the first translator of this novel, whose translation is divided into two volumes. In 1925, his translation was released by Kellyamp;Walsh Ltd. Decades later, Tuttle Press in 1995 published his translation again and reprinted in 2002. C.H. Brewitt-Taylor’s translation is only English version of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms for nearly 70 years. On the Encyclopedia American and Encyclopedia Britannica, people still can find the records of his translation of this novel. His translation also won his an important position in the contemporary sinologists. In 1992, a famous sinologist, professor of New York University Department of East Asian languages, Moss Roberts completed the full English version of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. And Moss’s translation version finally joint released by University of California press and China foreign press. So far, his translation version is considered to be the most outstanding one in Chinese and foreign academic fields .

The reasons for the emergence of different versions of the same work are very complicated. A new version appears in different era or decades later often due to the great changes in the social context and the literary environment with the reading expectation of the target readers greatly changes. Although the translations of Brewitt-Taylor and moss Roberts have achieved success in their own era. But only by constantly renewing the translation can the literary classics keep their literary value at the present time. The new translation usually can better satisfy people's expectation of reading in the contemporary society. So by comparison, the paper will use Moss Roberts’ translation as basis to discuss the application of translation strategy in the translation of parallel structure.

Although many scholars have studied and made comparison between those two versions or discussed the translation strategies and skills focusing on one version, there were relatively few studies on the translation of parallel structure separately. So this paper will discuss translation strategies used in the translation of parallel structure through example illustration and analyze effects as well as reasons of different translation strategies, which has practical significance for translation of other classics.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

Research Contents