Abstract:

The texts of pre-Qin Chinese classics are usually appended with explanations. In a unidirectional annotative relationship, the explanations are different from the original texts in regard to the use of Chinese characters, different times and purposes, thus there existing some differences between the original texts and their annotated counterparts. A translation of a pre-Qin classical text is usually based on comprehension of its later explanations, and the content difference tends to be blurred in their translated versions. Taking Zhouyi or Zhou Book of Change and its English translation as its research object and adopting such methods as theoretical analysis, comparative analysis of texts, and exemplification, this study explores the problem of unduly reducing the content differences between the original texts of ancient Chinese classics and their explanations in the translated versions and attempts to come up with some possible solutions. As is indicated by analyzing the version of the text and those of its explanations in Richard Lynn’s English translation of Zhouyi, there exists between the two types of texts the problem of undue content homogeneity, resulting in the loss of the original differences to the detriment of conveying well the documentary value of the original text. The advance in studying pre-Qin Chinese classics has made it feasible to distance the translation of the original texts from their explanations and properly reproduce the original difference, which should represent a new direction for contemporary efforts to re-translate pre-Qin Chinese classics.

Keywords: pre-Qin Chinese classics; text; explanations; translation; homogeni-zation; Zhou Book of Change

摘要：

中国先秦古籍多有传注传世,古籍文本和传注之间是单向的注解关系。文字的差异、时代的不同、意图的区别,使二者的理论概念系统之间存在一定差异。因后人对古籍文本的理解多据其传注,在将某古籍本文和传注译为外语时,这种差异往往有被弱化的现象。本文主要以《易经》及其英译本为例,采用理论分析、文本比较、例证分析等研究方法,探讨古籍文本和传注翻译中原有思想内容差异的弱化问题及其解决思路。对林理璋《易经》文本译文和《易传》及传注译文的比较分析表明,二者之间存在思想层面的同质化,对《易经》文本的文献价值在译文中的保持产生了不利影响。基于当今古籍研究的进展,文本的翻译应与传注翻译拉开一定距离,适当再现原有差异,这应是今日古籍外译一个新的努力方向。

关键词: 先秦古籍, 文本, 传注, 翻译, 同质化, 《易经》