2。 Literature Review

2。1 Review of Research on the Two Versions of "Of Studies”

2。1。1 Wang Zuoliang’s Version

So far, a substantial number of researches have been done on the appreciation of different versions of “Of Studies”, or analyze a version of translation from a particular perspective。 And some, researching further, try to find out what influences translators’ translations。 In order to show how the Chinese versions of “Of Studies” have been variously studied, I classify these different researches into three groups which, in my view, can show the directions of today’s studies on “Of Studies”。 To begin with, I will first introduce the studies on appreciation and comparison between different versions of translations, then those on analysis from a particular perspective。 Finally, there will be some researches of the trend to dig out the reasons deep inside of the differences between different versions。

Guangli(2015), makes appreciation and criticism on the linguistic features such as semantics, sentence patterns and stylistics of Wang Zuoliang’s and Shui Tiantong’s translations。 And then analyzes the influences from the perspective of non-linguistic factors, pointing out that when translation critics appreciate translations, they should pay attention to the linguistic factors as well as the non-linguistic factors such as translator’s personality and era background。 Ji Jiaying(2016) compares and studies three Chinese versions of “Of Studies” under Nida’s dynamic equivalence trying to break the thinking set of concentrating on the relation between the origin work and the translation work only, turning to the reactions of readers to promote the quality of the translations and deepen the studies on translation。 

Furthermore, some scholars analyze a version of translation from a particular perspective。 Rong Lang(2010) interprets the translation from the view of cognitive stylistics revealing the relation between cognition and language choosing。 He tries to analyses Wang Zuoliang’s version of “Of Studies” through cognitive stylistics and points out the importance of cognitive stylistics in language choosing, in which parts of speech, syntax and rhetoric included, to provide new perspective to English literature translation。 Mei Kui(2015) , by studying and summarizing the hidden phenomena in Wang Zuoliang’s version of translation, classifies them into hidden English logical relations, hidden personal pronouns and totalization of words and analyze the causes from the perspective of English and Chinese language differences and relevance theory to give guidance for translation practice。论文网

2。1。2 Cao Minglun’s Version

Jing Yiwen(2016) compares the origin work and Cao Minglun’s version of translation from the perspective of Reiss’s text typology theory and arrives to the conclusion that Cao’s translation of “Of Studies” unfolds in all the beauty of content, form and rhythm of the origin work by its solemn and elegant diction and flexible use of parallel structures。

It is also a critical perspective from the point of translators’ influence on their translations。 Fang Gan and Gu Feirong(2011) , for instance, assert that translators, as inpiduals, show their subjectivity and subjective initiative as they decide what strategies they are going to implement。 And analyze how a translator’s experience, education, personality, language skills and other subjective factors influence his translations。 Li 

Zhang Shujuan(2010), compares and appreciates two Chinese versions of “Of Studies” by Bacon under the translation criteria of faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance。 She analyzes how the translators deal with the language barrier and the gap between cultures to achieve the unity of form and content, showing the brilliant translating techniques and rigorous attitude towards translating of the translators of the older generation to give a further guidance for translating practice。 Wu Ping(2011) compares and analyses two Chinese versions of “Of Studies” under the frame of skopos theory, explaining the features and significances of each。 And then he proves the active use of skopos theory from the translating objectives, coherence and faithfulness with the help of the two versions。