Yan Fu’s Xin, Da, and Ya: A Foucauldian Reading

• Main Authors: CHANG Huan-tang, 張煥堂
• Other Authors: LI Sher-shiueh
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/11327882571188322450

碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 翻譯學研究所在職專班 === 97 === Yan Fu began his translation of Thomas H. Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics at the end of the Sino-Japanese War in 1895 and published the work in 1898. In a brief introduction to his translation, Yan Fu expresses his ideals for translation—xin, da, and ya, or faithfulness, intelligibility and elegance of style, which have been profoundly influencing Chinese translation ever since. Based on Michel Foucault’s “The Order of Discourse,” this thesis, in five chapters, re-evaluates the three translational norms. The first chapter discusses the origins of xin, da, ya and the backdrop against which Yan Fu developed his career as a translator. Discourse in Foucault’s definition is adopted as the methodology for this thesis where “xin, da, ya” is considered as one of various discourses in the history of translation in China. The second chapter applies Foucault’s concept of the “will to truth” to xin and concludes that the will to translational faithfulness does not guarantee the translation to be faithful to the original. The translator’s ideology is responsible for the unavoidable discrepancies between his intention and his work. The third chapter focuses on the issue of language and how the disparities between the signifier and the signified as well as those between different languages are ironed out as a result of our obstinate will to knowledge and power, which helps to shape our idea of da. The fourth chapter approaches ya from the concept of Foucault’s épistémè and finds that the mainstream style of a period is all but decided by the structure of thought unique to it. Far from being fixed, the connotation of ya changes with the transformation of the épistémè this character belongs to. Having respectively examined xin, da and ya as separate discourses, the final chapter considers the three ideas a combined discourse. In addition to tracing the birth and development of the discourse, this chapter discloses how the discourse may suppress the Chinese translation in both theory and practice. Before bringing this thesis to a close, the author argues that the concept of cheng (commitment), rather than xin, da, and ya, only is what deeply influences Yan Fu as a translator.