TITLE:
A Translating Decision-Making Process Study of Newly Discovered Chinese Translation On the Exercise of Judgementin Literature by Yan Fu from Translation Sociological Framework
AUTHORS:
Jinyu Liu
KEYWORDS:
On the Exercise of Judgement in Literature, English Master Copy, Translation, Fine Arts, Literary Criticism, Artistic Conception
JOURNAL NAME:
Chinese Studies,
Vol.11 No.2,
March
31,
2022
ABSTRACT: The English master copy of On the Exercise of Judgement in Literature, a book by W.
Basil Worsfold, a British aesthetician, and its Chinese version translated by
Yan Fu, have been revealed. As the only general aesthetic translation in the late
Qing Dynasty, the book has not received the attention of academic circles so
far, mostly because the translation is incomplete and has not been published.
How Worsfold’s ideas were presented to the Chinese audience is an interesting
case study in intellectual diffusion. The newly discovered unfinished manual scripts on
the margins of the original text by Yan are additions to a text with the
intention of providing greater clarity for specific interpretive decisions. The
paper reassesses Yan’s agenda and position in translating and constructing
literary esthetic modernity by scrutinizing how manual scripts interacted with
the source text. It also argues specifically the use of manuscript material to
investigate the various stages in the construction of the translation
product—translated esthetic thoughts, literary criticism, artistic conception
into China. The paper holds the value of this research material which has been
drastically under-exploited in translation studies to date in investigating the
mind-processing and decision-making of the translator and how it might
complement and interact with other sources.