On the Significance of Chinese Eco-translatology to Translation Studies

Abstract

Since the founding of People's Republic of China, Chinese translation theories have been enriched and improved continuously. The reform and opening up has provided an important opportunity for the development of translation theories and the derivation of domestic translation theories such as translation variation theory put forward by Professor Huang Zhonglian, eco-translatology put forward by Professor Hu Gengshen, which have provided a new way of thinking for Chinese translation theories. The concept of ecological translatology coincides with the traditional ecological culture of China and contains great ecological wisdom of Chinese people. Ecological transliteration makes an in-depth study of translation from a new ecological perspective, establishes a theoretical discourse system of ecological transliteration with Chinese characteristics, and provides a new way of thinking for disseminating Chinese culture and strengthening international exchanges. In the meantime, the author also wishes this paper will make its contribution if it can be regarded as a reference to the other people who also attempt to further study eco-translatology.

Headnote

Abstract

Since the founding of People's Republic of China, Chinese translation theories have been enriched and improved continuously. The reform and opening up has provided an important opportunity for the development of translation theories and the derivation of domestic translation theories such as translation variation theory put forward by Professor Huang Zhonglian, eco-translatology put forward by Professor Hu Gengshen, which have provided a new way of thinking for Chinese translation theories. The concept of ecological translatology coincides with the traditional ecological culture of China and contains great ecological wisdom of Chinese people. Ecological transliteration makes an in-depth study of translation from a new ecological perspective, establishes a theoretical discourse system of ecological transliteration with Chinese characteristics, and provides a new way of thinking for disseminating Chinese culture and strengthening international exchanges. In the meantime, the author also wishes this paper will make its contribution if it can be regarded as a reference to the other people who also attempt to further study eco-translatology.

Keywords

Eco-translatology, Translation theory, International Development

1.Theoretical Innovation Basis of Eco-translatology

Eco-translatology is an original translation theory set out by Chinese scholars at Professor Hu Gengshen at its core, and Oriental ecological wisdom is one of its important philosophical justifications. This definition is based on the theory of translation as adapation and selection, which comes from the book Theory of Translation as Adaptation and Selection written by Professor Hu Gnegshen, who is an authority in the field of eco-translatology (Bo, 2014). Eco-translatology began to take shape in 2001. After several years of slow development, it experienced a temporary prosperity in 2009, and it received some national and international attention in 2010 (Jiang, 2015). Eco-translatology puts forward three major ideas: "translation is adaptation, translation is text transplantation, and translation is ecological balance". It has refined a relatively complete system of terms with distinctive characteristics, and built a translation theory building of three dimensions. Eco-translatology is a brand-new translation theory with Chinese characteristics and adapted to the needs of the Times.

1.1The New Ecological View of Translation

Ecological translatology has ushered in a new opportunity in the 21st century. It has been developing and improving under the background of ecological civilization construction, and has put forward a new ecological translation view. As a new concept of contemporary ecological transliteration, the new ecology-oriented translation concept combined with ecological civilization is conducive to the sustainable development of translation and cross-cultural communication.

Eco-translatology tries to interpret and examine translation from eco-holism, rather than from the perspectives of linguistics, literature, culturology, communication, Skopos, feminism, ideology, etc. (Hu & Tao, 2016). Guided by Neo-Ecologism and with the core concept of the elements of the development of ecological civilization and humanity (mainly including balance, harmony, etc.), neo-ecologism interpreters have world view and methodology significance for the construction and development of ecological translation system and reflect the ecological wisdom of the Chinese nation. It contains rich Chinese traditional culture and philosophical thinking such as "harmony between nature and man", "harmonious coexistence" and "immortal life", which is also the unique value of ecological translation. As a domestic translation theory, eco-translatology's core concept reflects China's harmonious thinking, fits China's ecological civilization thought and contains China's philosophical wisdom. Therefore, ecological translatology is a study from the perspective of neo-ecologism, exploring how to combine translatology and ecology to establish a sustainable and diversified system of translatology.

1.2 Adaptive-Selection in Translation and Three-dimensional Transformation

The biologist Charles Darwin set out the theory of evolution in 1859 by the process of natural selection in the theory of biological evolution. Hu Gengshen introduced this theory into translation studies and formed a theoretical system of translation with distinct ecological characteristics. "Natural Selection" in translation means that the translator or the target should adapt to and accept the translation ecological environment. Therefore, translation is a selection activity for translators to adapt to the translation ecological environment and transplant the text. In the process of translation, translators need not only to adapt to the ecological environment of translation, but also to make a choice of translation. Based on the theory of translation adaptation and selection, ecological translatology uses the law of survival of the fittest in ecology to study the relevance and ecology of translation environments. In translation, multi-dimensional adaptive transformation is adopted, which mainly uses "three-dimensional transformation" to make adaptive selection from three dimensions: language dimension, culture dimension and communication dimension. "Adaptive selection of language dimensions" refers to the translator's adaptive conversion of language forms in the process of translation.

Eco-translatology forms its own approach to studying translation by researching the translation process from a macroscopic way (Ma, 2014). "Adaptive selection transformation of cultural dimension" means that translators should pay attention to the transmission and interpretation of bilingual cultural connotations in the process of translation. "Adaptive selective transformation of communicative dimension" refers to the translator's adaptive selective transformation of bilingual communicative intention in the translation process.

The theory of adaptive selection and three-dimensional transformation can be regarded as the embodiment of the micro operation of ecological translatology. They not only effectively connect the two disciplines of ecology and translation studies, but also provide translators with multiple translation reference perspectives, which help to dialectically view the quality of the translation from a multi-dimensional perspective, so that the translation is more in line with readers' thinking and easier to be accepted.

1.3 A New Era for Eco-translatology

Eco-translatology is an interdisciplinary subject of ecology and transliteration, and its terms have a certain ecological color. On the basis of ecology, metonymy or analogy is used to create corresponding ecological translation terms. First of all, the relevance chain is the theoretical basis of ecological translation and the premise of theoretical innovation. Associative sequence chain is a chain extending the cognitive vision from "translation" to "nature" with internal logical connection, which mainly emphasizes the relevance and interaction between translation activities and nature. The chain successfully connects ecology and translatology, and also provides a platform for humanities and natural sciences to communicate. Secondly, the translation community refers to the "people" involved in translation activities, including translators, readers, authors, sponsors, publishers, commentators, etc. Of course, the translator is the general representative. Translators have different ways of thinking, communication channels and text audiences in their communities, and combined with the differences caused by external environmental factors, translators must flexibly adjust their own state, so as to better adapt to the translation ecosystem. Finally, the dynamic equilibrium is initially used in biology, which can be regarded as the ecological balance in which organisms, organisms and the environment restrict and develop each other. Following the ecological rationality, ecological translation studies focus on the interaction and mutual influence between the subject and object of translation activities and between the subject of translation activities and its external ecological environment to form a dynamic and interdependent system of translation ecology.

2. The International Development Path of Eco-translatology

Since the 21st century, the field of translation has been reflecting on the development of translation studies in the 20th century. On the one hand, the viewpoints of various translation schools have been reinterpreted to meet the requirements of The Times and reality. On the other hand, by exploring the translation ideas contained in traditional Chinese culture, the author tries to find a new perspective for the development of translation studies, especially the ecological translatology, which is rooted in the ecological wisdom of the east in the early 21st century, and provides a methodological direction for contemporary translation studies. Oriental ecological wisdom provides a new development direction for translation theory studies. To some extent, it solves the unease and anxiety of the Chinese translation circle that lacks its representative translation theory. Meanwhile, Oriental ecological wisdom provides nutrients for ecological translation studies and takes a difficult but important step towards translation theory with Oriental characteristics.

The sustainable development of ecological translatology not only calls for the ontological significance of eastern ecological wisdom, but more importantly answers the question "How Eastern ecological wisdom justifies itself as one of the philosophical justifies". Ecological translatology pays attention to and studies Oriental ecological wisdom because it cannot forget or stay away from "ecology" itself and ecological translatology as the driving force of Chinese original translatology theory. The construction of the "holistic organic" translation perspective, the translator's ethics based on "benevolence, justice, courtesy and wisdom" and the green translation perspective based on "disciplined use" are the innovative transformation of eastern ecological wisdom under the theoretical framework of contemporary ecological translation studies, which anchor and extend the meaning field of Eastern ecological wisdom as the philosophical rationale of ecological translation studies.

Ecological transliteration applies discrete Oriental ecological wisdom to translation studies, explores and expands the ideological connotation of Oriental ecological wisdom in a broader context, and tries to get rid of its dependence on Western philosophy. In this sense, after the transformation of linguistics and culture, it is a logical necessity to move towards the ecological translation studies of Oriental ecological wisdom, and the translation view, translator's ethics and green translation view have become one of the inevitable orientations for the cross-integration of translation studies and ecological wisdom. It can be seen that the systematization of the relatively simple ecological wisdom thought in ancient China in the form of the "overall organic" translation perspective, the translator's ethics of "benevolence, righteousness, courtesy and wisdom" and the "green translation perspective of" is not only conducive to the inheritance and development of eastern ecological wisdom in the field of translatology. Moreover, it provides a new way to develop the ecological wisdom thought which fits the localization translation theory. Of course, the exploration of Oriental ecological wisdom still needs to be explored, and the practical implications of green translation need to be deepened, which is also the key field of ecological translatology research in the future.

3. Conclusion

At present, under the situation of ecological deterioration, in-depth exploration of ecological transliteration under the theoretical guidance of neo-ecologism can not only enrich the basic connotation of translation, but also provide a new research direction and feasible approach for the connection between eco-translation and ecological civilization struction. How extract the Chinese discourse system based on the practical problems of contemporary Chinese translation theories and further enhance the international influence and attention of eco-translation studies is still an urgent problem to be faced by the theoretical innovation of contemporary eco-translation studies and a practical problem to be solved by the development of the internationalization of eco-translation studies. Eco-translatology is not only a founder and a creative interlocutor in the "going global" process of contemporary Chinese translation theory, but also a participant and a powerful promoter. Taking the integration of theoretical innovation and international development of eco-translation studies as its starting point, a new discourse system of Chinese translation theories is slowly unfolding and will also present a new international situation. There is no limit to theoretical innovation, and international development is on the way.

Sidebar

How to cite this paper: Qiurong Wang. (2023). On the Significance of Chinese Eco-translatology to Translation Studies. The Educational Review, USA, 7(3), 312-315.

DOI: 10.26855/er.2023.03.004

Received: February 26, 2023

Accepted: March 23, 2023

Published: April 21, 2023

Corresponding author: Qiurong Wang, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China.

References

References

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