《古文观止》中的文化缺省及其翻译策略研究

Cultural Default in Gu Wen Guan Zhiand Its Translation Strategies《古文观止》中的文化缺省及其翻译策略庄秉权摘要：《古文观止》是中国民间流传最广,影响较大,为初学古文者所常用的一本书。

所集纳的文章,大部分思想性、艺术性较高,千百年来一直脍炙人口,是中华民族优秀文化遗产的一部分。

阅读《古文观止》可以使人们提高文学修养、写作能力和表达能力,还可以得到美的艺术享受。

初学文言文的读者,从《古文观止》入手,可以取得事半功倍的效果。

作品中出现大量文化缺省，对作品的翻译产生较大阻碍，对这些文化缺省的翻译将很大程度上影响国外读者对这部作品的理解。

本文在参照现有的对其他作品中的文化缺省的研究的基础上，进行归纳和创新研究，总结出了包括归化、省略、加注、重组、意译等翻译策略，并对每个策略结合《古文观止》中的例子进行阐述，说明这些翻译策略各自适用的范围以及优劣之处。

关键词：文化缺省；《古文观止》；翻译策略Cultural Default in Gu Wen Guan Zhiand Its Translation strategiesZhuang BingquanAbstract：Gu Wen Guan Zhi has been one of the most popular of its kind among readers for a long time.As a collection of ancient Chinese prose works,Gu Wen Guan Zhi contains the most representative and well-known masterpieces which are good choices for beginners of ancient Chinese literature. This paper focuses on different cultural defaults in Gu Wen Guan Zhi and their respective translation strategies.In this paper, strategies like domestication,omission, annotation, paraphrase, contextual explanation and free translation are introduced with respective examples from the translation of Gu Wen Guan Zhi which help illustrate the appropriate situation each strategy is applicable.Key words:cultural default;Gu Wen Guan Zhi;translation strategy1.IntroductionAs a collection of masterpieces of ancient Chinese literary works,Gu Wen Guan Zhi helps foreign readers get familiar with ancient Chinese literature. However, there are many cultural defaults in this book, which make it difficult for translators to makethe translation easy to understand and at the same time lose the least of its cultural contents.This paper studies cultural default in the translation of Gu Wen Guan Zhi. In the first part, this paper gives an introduction to Gu Wen Guan Zhi,its cultural significance and previous study of cultural defaults in the book; in the second part,the paper introduces different types and elements of cultural default in Gu Wen Guan Zhi; in the third part,sentences from different articles in Gu Wen Guan Zhi are drawn as examples for analyzing and concluding the methods and strategies of translating and compensating the cultural defaults in the translation of the book.2.Significance of Gu Wen Guan Zhi and Previous Studies2.1 Significance of Gu Wen Guan ZhiGu Wen Guan Zhi has been one of the most popular of its kind among readers for a long time as a collection of ancient Chinese prose works. The words “Guan Zhi” were originally used in 8 AD by Ji Zha who finished listening to the musical performance by the Zhou Dynasty, which means it was unnecessary for him to listen to any other music performance because it had been and would be the best music he had ever heard. Likewise, the book was named in the light of Ji Zha’s remarks and it literarily means that this book is the best collection of ancient Chinese literary works(Zhen Fu, 1979).Gu Wen Guan Zhi was compiled by Wu Chucai and Wu Diaohou. The two compilers chose from the numerous ancient masterpieces 222 works and compiled the 12-volume Gu Wen Guan Zhi.The collection of Gu Wen Guan Zhi dates from Qin Dynasty to late Ming Dynasty and it contains works of various schools without prejudice. It has been one of the most read and influencing book which is a must for beginners of ancient Chinese literary works. The works which were chosen are generally full of wisdom and artistic beauty and they have been deeply studied into and gone through the examination of the time. They contribute an indispensible part to the Chinese literary heritage and are among the best prose of ancient Chinese works.As an enlightening book for beginners of ancient Chinese literature, Gu Wen Guan Zhi contains the essence of ancient prose works, which are the most representative and well-known masterpieces, which contains the most worth reading and massively culture-loaded contents. By reading Gu Wen Guan Zhi, the readers can improve their literary accomplishment and enhance their writing and reading capability in ancient Chinese literature(Zhang Lixia, 2006).Gu Wen Guan Zhi has been translated into modern Chinese language long ago and is well known among the Chinese people. Such an important work is a necessity not only to the domestic readers but also to the foreign readers who want to have a look at ancient Chinese literature. The translation of this book into English can well contribute to the introduction of ancient Chinese literature to foreign countries and thus calls for a precise and appropriate translation. However, the translating of Gu Wen Guan Zhi almost hasn’t b een touched by any of the Chinese translators, not to mention foreign scholars. In 1912, a small book of 98 pages was written by JiangFengwei, which contains the translation of a few prose in Gu Wen Guan Zhi,was published. After that, no translation was done until in 2005, Professor Luo Jingguo Published a version called “A Selection of Classical Chinese Essays from Gu Wen Guan Zhi”.①With the growth of China’s cultural influence in the world, there is a more and more desperate need for more studies in the translation of this masterpiece.2.2 Previous Studies on Cultural Default in Gu Wen Guan Zhi In order to get a general knowledge about the research on cultural default in Gu Wen Guan Zhi, the author has conducted a brief research on the former study of cultural default.However, among all the thesis on CNKI, only one is related to the study of the translation of Gu Wen Guan Zhi, which studies the translation of six texts from the book from the perspective of relevance theory，They are “The First Memorial to the King Before Setting off for War” by Zhuge Liang (前出师表，诸葛亮),“Going Home”by Tao Yuanming (归去来辞，陶渊明),“A Tribute to King Teng’s Tower by Wang Bo (腾王阁序,王勃),“The Life of Camel Guo,the Tree Planter”by Liu Zhongyuan (种树郭橐驼传,柳宗元),and “The Stone Bell Mountain”by Su Shi (石钟山记,苏轼).The last one is“The First Ode on the Red Cliff”by Su Shi (前赤壁赋,苏轼).From this number we can see the necessity of a further study on the translation of Gu Wen Guan Zhi, and cultural default in the translation of Gu Wen Guan Zhi is a study-worthy topic which has hardly been touched before, which reveals the value and necessity of this paper.3.Cultural Default in Gu Wen Guan ZhiThe author of this paper intends to study cultural default in the translation of Gu Wen Guan Zhi,and adopted A Selection of Classical Chinese Essays from Gu Wen Guan Zhi by Luo Jingguo which was published in 2005.The author of this paper selected examples from the book after carefully reading the book and making much comparison between the original and translated edition.3.1 Definition of Cultural DefaultCultural default, a linguistic phenomenon in communication, is frequently reflected in literary works. The term is first mentioned by Wang Dongfeng in 1997.Cultural default refers to the absence of the cultural background knowledge shared by an author and his intended readers(Wang Junping,2006).As a matter of fact, the writer always leaves many semantic vacancies in his writing for economy’s sake. On the other hand, he creates opportunities for intended readers to actively participate and appreciate the aesthetic value in his work. On the reader’s part, the relevant cultural background knowledge is activated to fill in the vacancies left by the author. As for ①来源：/search?channel=search&gtag=&sw=%B9%C5%CE%C4%B9%B9&Field=all&adminidthe target readers of translation, they are not the intended readers of the original writer，so they cannot obtain coherent understanding. In this case, cultural default is regarded as a great challenge to translators (Zhang Hui, 2009).3.2 Types of Cultural DefaultIn Gu Wen Guan Zhi, cultural default can be generally classified into three categories, and these categories mainly concern their individual treatment of translation: compensable cultural default, translatable default and omissible default. 3.2.1 Compensable Cultural DefaultCompensable cultural default refers to the cultural default in the original works that can bring comprehensive barriers to the target language readers if the translator interprets it directly into the target language without any compensation;at the same time, if the translator omits that cultural default, the significant cultural connotation which that cultural default derives from will no longer exist.For example, “舅夺母志”is compensated by “my mother was forced by her brother to remarry”. In this sentence, “志”means“not to marry”, and “夺志” means“to force somebody to marry”.“虽无丝竹管弦”is compensated by“though lacking musical accompaniment”. Here“丝竹管弦” is compensated by musical accompaniment in order to make sure the readers know what it means without the knowledge of the ancient Chinese musical instrument. “黄发垂髫” is compensated by “young and old”, here “黄发” is compensated by “young”and “垂髫” is compensated by “old” because the hair of young children are not black or dark and looks yellow and “垂髫” refers to those adults whose hair is long and droops.3.2.2 Translatable Cultural DefaultTranslatable cultural default refers to the cultural default in the original works that can be transferred to the target language when translated without any compensation and omission.For example,and“形影相吊”is translated as“body and shadow comforting each other”，“俯仰之间”is translated as“soon”,“觥筹交错”is translated as“the wine cups and gambling chips lay scattered in disarray”.In the translation above, no compensation was made and the reader can relate to the writer with the translation.3.2.3 Omissible Cultural DefaultOmissible cultural default refers to the cultural default that has already lost its original cultural connotation and become a cliché or conventional saying only to show the speakers’ politeness or to be formal.For example,“臣不胜犬马怖惧之情，谨拜表以闻”is translated as“I am trembling all over as I present to Your Majesty this petition”.In this translation,“不胜犬马”is omitted because it is only a cliché to show politeness, and after all, foreign readers may get confused if it is translated as,for example，“being inferior to dogs and horses”.3.3Elements of Cultural DefaultIn the following section, the author of the paper sum up seven elements of cultural default appeared in Gu Wen Guan Zhi,they are ancient stories, history, religion, customs and habits, cultural-specific objects, culture images, and literary quotations.3.3.1 Ancient StoriesAncient Chinese stories have been putting great influence on Chinese culture，and Chinese people are more or less acquainted with most of them.Consequently,in writing,many stories are often treated as cultural default elements with hints to suggest them.For example,“死当结草”is a cultural default in“A Letter To His Majesty”with which“结草”contains an ancient story about a ghost returning a favor to a man who saved his daughter.In the translation of this cultural default, the translator should add footnote or specific explanations in order to help the readers know what this cultural default means.3.3.2 HistoryEvery history is full of incidents that happened in the past from society to economy, from the royal class to ordinary family，from renowned heroes to common citizens.As a result, recording historical events becomes essential for later generations to learn from them lessons which may turn out to be beneficial. Historical events are studied and consistently referred to and some of them are attached with extended meanings as time goes on.They are also mentioned in written texts,either to tell the events themselves or to use their extended meanings.In“A Tribute To King Teng’s Tower”, the sentence“冯唐易老李广难封”contains two historical events which foreign readers may not know. These historical events contain lots of information and convey the writer’s ideas and intentions, if they are omitted, the readers would lack lots of what the cultural default conveys.3.3.3 ReligionReligion is an irreplaceable element of a culture.For example,Taoism and Buddhism played a large part in the development of traditional Chinese culture, and had a great influence on common people’s beliefs and thoughts. They have enormously enlarged the Chinese language and its culture.Many religious stories and beliefs which came forth during the religious evolution have become known to most Chinese people step by step.As a result, in writing, they are usually regarded as cultural default elements which contain certain connotations. In“Going Home”,“乐夫天命复奚疑”contains a cultural default in which“天”represents the heaven. The meaning of“天”is wide in range in Chinese. In order to keep the original flavor of this word, the translator translated it into “heaven” instead of “God” to conform to the Chinese conventionality.3.3.4 Customs and HabitsCustoms and habits are what people in a particular culture performed by following the tradition. Every country has its own customs and habits which are not familiar to the people from other cultures. It is difficult for them to perceive or understand the cultural meaning of the customs and habits of other cultures. As symbol of the social condition,1iterary works often refer to the customs or habits of the author’s own country. The author hardly introduces the comprehensive description of the exact content,which are believed clear and obvious to the source language readers and thus is dealt as cultural default elements.For example,“引以为流觞曲水”is translated as“floating wine vessels”.In the translation, the translator added endnotes and explain to the readers that floating wine vessel is an elegant way in the ancient time to drink; and“慈父见背”is translated as “my father died”,“见背”is a saying to show politeness and is also part of the customs.In this translation, the cultural default is omitted.3.3.5 Cultural-Specific ObjectsEvery country has its unique way of life，and there are various objects used in daily life.A most common object in one society may not exist in another society. Some cultural-specific objects with cultural connotation mentioned in a work do not exist in contemporary other cultures.From another aspect,to the readers of the author’s time, those things were common and thus the relevant background knowledge was not necessary to provide. And since they are objects, their own names just serve as the trigger.For example,“箪瓢屡空”is a cultural default with the cultural-specific objects.Here,“箪瓢”is tool to store rice and food, and this saying suggests that the person it refers to is in lack of food and is poor.3.3.6Culture ImageEvery culture gives certain things their own associative image. The image,as a cultural symbol,is shown in different ways, such as animals，plants and numbers. Chinese culture abounds with culture-loaded images.The cultural associative meanings of these images are culture-specific because of the special cultural experiences of certain language community and its people.However,those linguistic units usually do not refer to their literal meanings,but imply the associative images which are acknowledged by people of the same culture.As a result,in writing,the associative meaning of the language terms are hidden behind the literal meaning,as the writer knows that the readers would have no difficulties in understanding the text. For example,“环堵萧然”is a cultural default with the culture image of“环堵”which means the wall and represents the house.This saying suggests that the house it refers to is shabby and old.3.3.7 Literary QuotationThere are many literary masterpieces in the world. These works bring wisdom and happiness to their readers. The stories, literary figures or beautiful words in them leave impression on people a lot and are often referred to and used again and again by the later generations. In Chinese, there are numerous literary works which contain plentiful cultural information.In daily life and literal composition, people frequently quote from famous literary masterpieces. In written works, the stories, literary figures behind those quotations are quite known to people of the source language culture,so the detailed information about them can be treated as cultural default.For example,“东隅已逝桑榆非晚”is an edited form of the literary quotation“失之东隅收之桑榆”which means that people will gain something after a loss.4.Strategies of Translating Cultural Defaults in Gu Wen Guan ZhiGu Wen Guan Zhi contains many cultural defaults, thus demanding its translators to have a good command of the translation strategies of cultural defaults.4.1DomesticationDomestication is to use the expressions in the target language to represent expressions with unique national distinctions in the source language.Though such a method will make the translated works easier to be understood,the translator may be at the risk of omitting the culture of the source language.Furthermore,it will misguide the readers.However,it is not possible to use footnotes everywhere,which will surely bring a burden to the readers and make them lose interest.As a result,the translator may apply the strategy of domestication sometimes,especially when they can find expressions which are ready in the target language which are about the same with those of the source language.For example,“周公”is translated as Duke of Zhou. Duke is not equal to“公”, but they are very similar to each other, thus the translator use duke as a replacement instead of the transliteration.And“诸侯”is translated as “government official”which is more general and not totally proper, however, this translation avoids too much footnote and thus is considerable.This strategy is applicable to compensable cultural default.4.2OmissionAs is discussed above, omissible cultural defaults can be translated with the strategy of omission.For example,in the translation of“愿陛下矜悯愚诚，听臣微志”,“愚”and“微”are omitted and the sentence is translated as“ I sincerely hope Your Majesty may show mercy on me so that I can fulfill my lifelong wish”.In this sentence,“愚”and“微”are Chinese clichés expressing politeness and low social status of the speaker, thus can be omitted and would cause no obstacle for foreignreaders.However, omission should be used carefully because it leaves out some of the cultural information.This strategy is applicable to omissible cultural default.4.3 AnnotationAnnotation is to translate the contents containing elements of cultural default literally into the target language and at the same time show the defaulted parts with notes, such as footnotes and endnotes.By using annotation,the translator can provide specific cultural knowledge about certain cultural elements of the text. there is no reconstruction in the translation for elements of cultural default in the original works in adopting the method of annotation.For example,“臣本布衣”is translated as “ I was originally a commoner who had to wear clothes made of hemp”(Footnote:In old times commoners were only allowed to wear clothes made of hemp.)“侍中、尚书、长史、参军”is transliterated as “shizhong, shangshu, zhangshi and canjun”with their respective footnotes explaining the function of each official.This strategy is applicable to compensable cultural default.4.4 Contextual ExplanationContextual Explanation is to translate the elements of cultural defaults literally without notes. The notes are actually merged into the text to compensate for the cultural defaults. In other words,in order to complete the meaning, the translator adds necessary words which can compensate what is defaulted in the original works. For example,“投笔”was translated as“serve in the army” instead of“dropping the pen”because“投笔”means to give up literature and devote to the army, and in this way, the translator integrates the note into the translation and do not need to add footnote. This strategy is applicable to translatable cultural default.4.5 ParaphraseParaphrase may be defined as a means to mainly convey the feeling and intention of the original work in the translated version without managing to compensate in detail for the target languag e reader’s cultural default. It focuses on the expression of meaning, rather than the literal translation of the original work,this method is generally used by the translator to illustrate to the target language reader the meaning of cultural elements of the original contents. For example,“臣之进退实为狼狈”was respectively translated as “I am in a dilemma, knowing not what to do.”This paraphrase makes the sentence more fluent for foreign readers and help them better understand the exact meaning of the sentence.This strategy is applicable to translatable cultural default.4.6Free TranslationWhen faced with cultural defaults which explanations and footnotes can not help, free translation can be a choice.For example, in“A Letter To His Majesty”, the translation of“朝不虑夕”adopts the strategy of free translation with the translation “she may die at any moment”.If it is literally translated as“not thinking about the night in the morning”, the readers may be confused.Though in this free translation, some cultural information is lost, it better helps the reader understand and makes the translation more acceptable to foreign readers.This strategy is applicable to translatable cultural default.5.ConclusionThis paper studies the translation of the cultural default in Gu Wen Guan Zhi.Since there is little study done before in this field, the author makes a tentative study on the types and elements of the cultural default in Gu Wen Guan Zhi,and discusses the specific strategy of translation and compensation for different cultural defaults.In the translation practice of the culture default contents, it is important to choose the corresponding and proper strategy in order to make good translation which makes readers get the meaning and at the same time not losing the cultural information.This paper gives a brief introduction on the translation of cultural defaults in Gu Wen Guan Zhi,which on some degree can bring attention to this field and help the further study on it.However, due to the limitation of the knowledge of the author, the paper still lack more detailed information of the translation strategies, which will for sure be further studied by the forthcoming scholars.Bibliography[1]Iser,W.The Act of Reading:A Theory of Aesthetic Response[M].Baltimore:The JohnsHopkins University Press,1978.[2]Luo Jingguo. A Selection of Classical Chinese Essays from Gu Wen Guan Zhi[M]北京：外语教学与研究出版社,2005.[3]Tian Zhiwei.On Translators Paying Attention to The Culture Default[J].Business China, 2010, (8): 214-215.[4]葛珊珊.《阿Q正传》两英译本中文化缺省重构的对比研究[D].上海外国语大学, 2007.[5]靳宁.浅析《红楼梦》中的文化缺省及其翻译[D].南华大学，2007.[6]刘伊俐.文化缺省及其在翻译中的重构[J].福州师专学报.2007,(3):89-92.[7]王东风.文化缺省与翻译中的连贯重构[J].外国语,1997,(6):55-60 .[8]王军平.翻译中的文化缺省研究[J].西安电子科技大学学报，2006, (4):73-75.[9]吴楚材，吴调侯．古文观止[M],哈尔滨：哈尔滨出版社,2006.[10]张卉.关于文化缺省内涵的几点思考[J].云南农业大学学报，2009,(2):102-106.[11]张琍霞.《古文观止》:引领读者进入古典阅读的殿堂[J].江西图书馆学刊2006,(4):125-126.[12]赵菁，粟进英．文化作品中的文化缺省及其研究[J]．益阳师专学报,2001,(4):77-78.[13]赵玉珍．《红楼梦》杨译本对文化缺省的处理[J]．和田师范专科学校学报,2009,(5):135-136.[14]赵玉珍；马茁萌．文化缺省与翻译[J]．安徽文学(下半月),2009,(9):361.[15]振甫.漫谈古文观止[J]．新闻战线,1979,(1): 66-67.[16]郑意长．浅析《儒林外史》英译本中的“文化缺省”[J]．井冈山师范学院学报,2004,(8):55-57.[17]周沪．从关联理论角度试析《古文观止》英译本的得与失[J]．贺州学院学报,2009,(6):80-82.。