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Unraveling the Discursive Spaces around Fanyi: An Investigation into Conceptualizations of Translation in Modern China, 1890s-1920s Yumiao Bao PhD The University of Edinburgh 2018 Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis has been composed solely by myself and that it has not been submitted, in whole or in part, in any previous application for a degree. Except where states otherwise by reference or acknowledgment, the work presented is entirely my own. 29/4/2018 Abstract In the existing scholarship on Chinese translation history, the shifting conceptualizations of translation from the 1890s to the 1920s have been presented as a teleological evolution from ‘traditional’, target-oriented translation norms to ‘modern’, source-oriented norms. In response to this virtually unchallenged grand narrative, the dissertation presents a more nuanced and complex picture of the changing conceptualizations of translation in China during this period. Using New Historicism to engage with Roland Barthes’s theory of intertextuality and Gérard Genette’s framework of paratextuality, the study builds an integrated theoretical framework for examining how the conceptual relationships between translating, writing, commenting, and editing (among a variety of other textual activities) changed during this period. Adopting Microhistory principles, the dissertation conducts three case studies of marginalized figures—Zhong Junwen (1865-1908), Zhou Shoujuan (1895-1968), and Wu Mi (1894-1978)—from Chinese translation history: by analyzing their translations and/or writings about translation in a range of textual forms such as translation reviews, prefaces, diaries, and pingdian commentaries, the dissertation reveals how these cultural actors blurred the boundaries between translating, writing, commenting, and editing within China’s rapidly evolving publishing context and how their conceptualizations of translation were deeply grounded in the traditional Chinese notions of authorship. The results of the three case studies demonstrate how the conceptual boundaries between various textual activities were in flux during these four decades and that the shifts in the conceptualizations of translation were not a simple, linear development from ‘traditional’ to ‘modern’. Apart from contributing to a better knowledge of Chinese conceptualizations of translation in a key period of Chinese translation history, the dissertation challenges the validity of adopting the theoretical models of intertextuality and paratextuality as universally applicable frameworks in translation studies. Key words: Chinese translation history; conceptualization of translation; New Historicism; intertextuality; paratext; Microhistory i Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgement ...................................................................................................... v Chapter I. Introduction ............................................................................................. 1 1.1 Prolegomena .................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Shifts in practices and perceptions of translation in Chinese translation history .. 6 1.2.1 Pre-20th-century Chinese practices and perceptions of translation ......................... 8 1.2.1.1 Collaborative translation ............................................................................................... 8 1.2.1.2 Relay translation .......................................................................................................... 10 1.2.2 The transformational period in Chinese translation history .................................. 12 1.3 Intellectual Background ............................................................................................. 18 1.3.1 Translation history ................................................................................................ 18 1.3.2 The emerging interest in reconceptualizing translation and call for the de- westernization of translation studies .............................................................................. 21 1.4 Rationale ...................................................................................................................... 30 1.4.1 Previous scholarship on Chinese translation history from the late 19th to early 20th centuries ......................................................................................................................... 30 1.4.2 The ‘May Fourth paradigm’ in Chinese translation historiography ...................... 33 1.4.3 The grand narrative of progression from ‘traditional’ to ‘modern’ periods of Chinese translation history ............................................................................................. 37 1.5 Dissertation outline ..................................................................................................... 43 Chapter II Theoretical Framework, Methodology, and Research Methods ...... 46 2.1 Intertextuality and Translation Studies ................................................................... 49 2.1.1 The protean concept of intertextuality .................................................................. 49 2.1.2 Previous applications of theories of intertextuality in translation studies ............. 51 2.2 The conceptual framework of paratextuality in translation studies ...................... 60 2.2.1 Genette’s conceptual framework for paratextuality .............................................. 60 2.2.2 Paratextuality in translation studies ...................................................................... 62 2.3 New Historicism: A social and historical model for intertextual reading ............. 66 2.4 Triangulating intertextuality, paratextuality, and New Historicism ..................... 69 2.5 Research method: Multiple-case study ..................................................................... 78 2.5.1 Choosing the method of case study ....................................................................... 79 2.5.2 Case study and the issue of generalization in translation studies .......................... 80 ii 2.5.3 Remodeling the case study method in light of Microhistory ................................ 83 Chapter III. The Indistinct Identity of the ‘Translator’ in the Heterogeneous Discursive Space around Fanyi in Late Qing (1840-1911) ................................... 91 3.1 The literary translation wave in late Qing ............................................................... 93 3.1.1 The socio-political backdrop ................................................................................. 93 3.1.2 Previous scholarship on Chinese thinking about translation in late Qing ............. 97 3.2 Conceptualizing translation in ‘non-discussions’ about translation and the periodical press in late Qing .......................................................................................... 102 3.2.1 The medium for ‘non-discussions’ about fanyi and an emerging public discursive space ............................................................................................................................. 108 3.2.2 A generalist view about fanyi .............................................................................. 119 3.2.3 On the blurred conceptual boundaries between specific textual activities ......... 128 3.3 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 136 Chapter IV. Conceptualizations of translation in early Republican China (1912- 1917): Challenging the linear ‘traditional’ to ‘modern’ paradigm ................... 140 4.1 The ‘Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School’ in early Republican China ............ 141 4.2 Zhou Shoujuan and his Collection of Short Stories by Famous European and American Writers ............................................................................................................. 147 4.3 Conceptualizations of translation in the forewords to the Collection .................. 152 4.3.1 (Self-)Identification as a ‘master of fiction’ instead of a ‘fiction translator’ ...... 153 4.3.2 The misfortune of being a master of fiction who translates ................................ 157 4.3.3 Translating as acting ........................................................................................... 162 4.4 The immediate paratexts, from first publications to the Collection iterations ... 171 4.5 Lu Xun’s review of the Collection ..........................................................................