A Translating Decision-Making Process Study of Newly Discovered Chinese Translation On the Exercise of Judgementin Literature by Yan Fu from Translation Sociological Framework

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.