A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF THE METAPHOR

TRANSLATIONS OF “REN” IN ENGLISH VERSIONS OF

THE ANALECTS BY JAMES LEGGE AND KU HUNG-MING

FROM THE PERSPETIVE OF RELEVANCE THEORY

by

Lv Mengfei

A Thesis

Submitted to the Graduate School

of Xi‟an International Studies University

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

in

Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

Xi‟an, China

2015

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 This thesis, by Lv Mengfei with Professor Wei Zaijiang as the

academic adviser, is accepted in the present form by the Graduate School

of Xi‟an International Studies University as satisfying the thesis

requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the academic field of

literature.

Academic Advisor

Chair of the Defense Committee

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 ORIGINALITY RESEARCH STATEMENT

In light of the university‟s academic morals and ethics, I hereby

declare that this thesis represents the original research effort that I have

made on the advice of my academic supervisor. To the best of my

knowledge, no portion of this thesis has been copyrighted previously

unless properly referenced, and whoever has contributed to this study is

explicitly identified and appreciated in the Acknowledgements section of

this thesis. If there is a breach of the copyright law, I indemnify Xi‟an

International Studies University and hold it harmless for any legal actions

that might arise.

Signature

Date May 23,2015

II

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 独创性声明

秉承学校严谨的学风与优良的科学道德，我声明所呈交的论文是

我本人在导师指导下进行的研究工作所取得的成果。尽我所知，除了

文中特别加以标注和致谢的地方外，论文中不包含其他人已经发表或

撰写的研究成果，不包含本人或他人已申请学位或其他用途使用过的

成果。他人对本研究所做的任何贡献均已在论文中作了明确的说明并

表示了致谢。

申请学位论文与资料若有不实之处，本人承担一切相关责任。

作者签名：

日 期：2015 年 5 月 23 日

III

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 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY STATEMENT

I hereby declare that I fully understand the rules and regulations of

Xi‟an International Studies University on intellectual property rights,

stipulating that the intellectual property of the graduate student‟s MA

degree thesis shall reside exclusively with the university. I pledge that

Xi‟an International Studies University will be represented as ever if this

thesis is entirely or partially published in the forthcoming five years as of

the date of my graduation. The university is granted the right to keep the

photocopy and disk file of this thesis for reference and borrowing, publish

the thesis wholly or partially and store it in any form by any means,

including photocopying or photomechanical printing in original or

reduced format.

Signature
Date May 23, 2015

IV

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 知识产权声明

本人完全了解西安外国语大学有关知识产权的规定，即：研究生

在校攻读硕士学位期间论文工作的知识产权单位属西安外国语大学。

本人保证毕业离校后 5 年以内（自办理离校手续之日起），发表论文

或使用论文工作成果时署名单位仍然为西安外国语大学。学校有权保

留送交论文的复印件和磁盘文件，允许论文被查阅和借阅；学校可以

公布论文的全部或部分内容，可以采用影印、缩印或其他复制手段保

存论文。

作者签名：

日 期： 2015 年 5 月 23 日

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Firstly, I would like to offer my sincerest gratitude to my

supervisor, Wei Zaijiang, who has supported me throughout my thesis
V

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 with his patience and knowledge, whilst allowing me the room to
work in my own way. Without his encouragement and effort, this
thesis would not have been completed or written.

Besides, I would also like to give my gratitude to all the

professors from the English School of Xi‟an International Studies
University who provided me with much support.

Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their support to my

studies and for providing me an opportunity to complete my thesis.

VI

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 ABSTRACT

Since the late 19th century, there have been more than forty English

versions of The Analects, among which James Legge‟s version (1861) and

Ku Hung-ming‟s version (1898) are highly acclaimed and profoundly

influential. Shu Dingfang and Tang Benqing hold that “almost every key

concept in a culture is a metaphor, like a tip of the iceberg in the ocean,

through which we could explore the whole cultural conceptual system

hiding underneath. In Chinese culture, „ren‟( 仁 ), „dao‟( 道 ) and

„Tianzi‟(天子) are examples of such concepts.” So in this thesis the

author chooses to study the key concept -“ren”.

Lakoff and Johnson argued that metaphor is a means of cognition and

a way of thinking. Etymologically, the Chinese character “ren” itself is a

kind of metaphor rhetorically, and there are a lot of ontological metaphors

on “ren” in The Analects. Besides, as one of the key concepts in

Confucianism, “ren” in different contexts, expresses various metaphoric

meanings. Hence, it is necessary to conduct a study of “ren.”

Based on the Relevance Theory, the study aims at comparing the

metaphors of “ren” in the English versions by James Legge and Ku

Hung-ming. The study also attempts to find the reasons lying behind the

differences. The results of the study show that both Legge and Ku

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 adopted the indirect method to translate “ren” though they chose totally

different English words to express its metaphoric meanings. It is also

discovered that different cultural and social backgrounds of the original

writer, translator‟s intentions and the intended readers‟ cognitive

backgrounds, needs and expectations all contribute to the differences of

“ren” in the two versions.

“Ren”, as a heavy culturally-loaded concept, is a very abstract

concept. It brings much difficulty for the scholars when it comes to offer

a definition for “ren”. They all found that “the connotation of „ren‟ in The

Analects is extremely complex and makes people frustrated”, on which

the author of this thesis cannot agree more!

Key Words: The Analects；Ren；

Relevance Theory；Metaphoric meaning；

Contrastive translation study

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 摘要

19 世纪末至今，
《论语》已有 40 多部英译本，其中理雅各（1861）

和辜鸿铭（1898）的英译本广受好评，影响深远。束定芳与汤本庆认

为“每个文化中都有一些关键词是隐喻，它们就像浮在水面上的冰山

一角，通过它们我们可以发现隐藏在下面的该文化整个概念系统，如

中国文化中的‘仁’
、‘道’、
‘天子’等等。”在该论文中，作者选取

《论语》中的关键字“仁”作为研究对象。

根据莱考夫和约翰逊的概念隐喻理论，隐喻是一种认知手段、一

种思维方式。对“仁”而言，在词源学上，汉字“仁”作为象形文字

本身构成一个隐喻词汇；修辞方面，《论语》中的“仁”作为抽象概

念，有大量关于其的实体隐喻。除此之外，从认知和思维角度出发，

“仁”作为儒家思想的核心，在原文不同的语境下显现出极其丰富的

隐喻意义。因此，对关键字“仁”进行隐喻翻译对比研究，显得十分

必要。

本研究基于关联翻译理论对比分析理雅各和辜鸿铭两个英译本

中 “仁”的隐喻意义之异同以及造成这些差异的原因。

研究结果显示：在进行“仁”的隐喻翻译时，理雅各和辜鸿铭均

采用间接翻译法，但二者在表达原文“仁”的隐喻意义时，所选用与

之对应的英语词汇大有不同。研究还进一步发现：原作者的不同社会

文化背景、译者的不同翻译目的和具有不同认知背景的读者，是导致

他们在翻译同一经典作品中同一词汇时倾向使用不同英语词汇的原

因。
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 “仁”作为一个文化负载力极强的词汇，具有浓重的抽象意义，

国内外学者均难以给“仁”一个明确的定义，因此，研究者们感到“《论

语》中的‘仁’显得复杂之极，令人气馁”
，本文作者亦有同感！

关键词：论语；仁；关联理论；隐喻意义；对比翻译研究

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 CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION ........................................................................ 1

1.1 Purpose of This Study ....................................................................................... 1
1.2 Significance of This Study ................................................................................ 1
1.3 Research Methodology and Issues .................................................................... 2
1.4 Structure of the Thesis ...................................................................................... 3
CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................. 4
2.1 A Brief Introduction to The Analects ................................................................ 4
2.2 English Translations of The Analects ............................................................... 5
2.3 Previous Studies on the English Versions of The Analects ............................ 11
2.3.1 Previous Studies at Home .......................................................................... 11
2.3.2 Previous Studies Abroad ............................................................................ 13
2.3.3 Previous Studies from the Perspective of Relevance Theory .................... 14
2.4 Summary ......................................................................................................... 15
CHAPTER THREE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .............................................. 16
3.1 A Brief Introduction to Relevance Theory ..................................................... 16
3.1.1 Definition of Relevance Theory................................................................. 16
3.1.2 Two Principles of Relevance Theory ......................................................... 17
3.2 The Process of Translation in the Framework of Relevance Theory.............. 18
3.3 The Role of the Translator from the Perspective of Relevance Theory ......... 19
3.4 Translation Strategies in the Frame of Relevance Theory .............................. 20
3.5 Summary ......................................................................................................... 21
CHAPTER FOUR COMPARATIVE STUDIES ON METAPHOR TRANSLATIONS
OF “REN” FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF RELEVANCE THEORY .................... 22
4.1 Cognitive Metaphors on “Ren” in The Analects ............................................. 22
4.1.1 Cognitive Metaphor and Metaphor Translations in Terms of Relevance
Theory.............................................................................................................. 23
4.1.2 Cognitive Metaphors on “Ren” in The Analects ........................................ 25

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 4.1.3 Metaphoric Meanings of “Ren” in the Original Text ................................ 27
4.2 The Translators and Their Metaphor Translations of “Ren” in the Two
Versions ................................................................................................................ 32
4.2.1 Reasons for Selecting the Two Versions ................................................... 33
4.2.2 Comparative Analysis of the Two Translators and Their Intended Readers
......................................................................................................................... 33
4.2.3 Contrastive Analysis of the Metaphoric Translations of “Ren” in the Two
Versions ........................................................................................................... 36
4.3 Summary ......................................................................................................... 44
CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................ 45
5.1 A Brief Summary ............................................................................................ 45
5.2 Major Findings ................................................................................................ 46
5.3 Implications of the Findings ........................................................................... 47
5.4 Limitations ...................................................................................................... 48
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 49

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 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

As the most important classic of Confucianism, The Analects is of great historical

and cultural value. So, it is very necessary to study about the English versions of The
Analects. This is the first part of this thesis, giving a brief introduction to the purpose,
significance, research methodology and the structure of this thesis.

1.1 Purpose of This Study

Relevance Theory takes communication (verbal and nonverbal) as a cognitive
activity. Since Gutt applied it to translation, Relevance Theory has become a new
theory of translation with immense power for the explanation of translation in the
aspect of cognition. According to the Relevance Theory of Translation, translation is
an ostensive-inferential activity which interprets the original language and it is a
special kind of nonverbal communication. The translator‟s responsibility is to make
the informative intention of the original author to meet with the target readers. Since
the abstract key word “ren” in The Analects is of rich metaphoric meanings in the
background of Chinese culture, which brings a huge difficulty in its English
translation. It seems very useful and meaningful to conduct this study from the
perspective of Relevance Theory.
In accordance with Relevance Theory, this thesis will firstly examine and note the
similarities and differences of metaphor translations of “ren” in the two English
versions of The Analects by the foreign translators James Legge and the native
translator Ku Hung-ming, and then attempt to explore the reasons that led to the
differences.

1.2 Significance of This Study

The Analects is one of the distinguished classics of China and has enjoyed a high
reputation around the world. It is well-known for its terse and lively language,
and also has had a great influence on China‟s political ethics and social

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 ethics. Although the studies on the translation of The Analects have covered a broad
range, few of them are studied from the perspective of Relevance Theory, which can
provide a new insight into the cognitive study on the translation of The Analects,
especially the translations of key words in it.
According to Relevance Theory, this thesis makes a contrastive study on the two
translators and their intended readers, analyses different ways of the translations of
“ren” in the two English versions, researches the metaphoric meanings of “ren” in the
original text, and then attempts to find the reasons that caused these differences.

1.3 Research Methodology and Issues

According to the cognitive metaphor theory, the Chinese character “ren” in The
Analects itself is a kind of cognitive metaphor and as a culturally-loaded abstract
word, it has been endowed with rich metaphoric meanings in Chinese culture. So to
discuss the metaphor translations of “ren” in The Analects, the thesis needs to gather
all examples of “ren” in the Chinese classic The Analects and the corresponding parts
in the English versions of Legge (1861) and Ku Hung-ming (1898), and then conduct
a contrastive analysis about these translations according to Relevance Theory.
The method of data collection and analysis will be applied through the reading
and exploration of the original text and the two different English versions. There are a
total of 109 examples selected from the original and their corresponding English
versions. The original text that the author chooses is the edition published by Zhong
Hua Press in 1980 which is annotated by Yang Bojun. As to some background
information and materials needed for the analysis, the author turns to the media of the
laboratory and the internet to collect materials. The author uses contrastive study to
analyze this thesis so that the research could be done mirror for mirror.
Since the purpose of this research is to discuss the differences between the
metaphor translations of “ren” in the two English versions and then look for what led
to the differences. So this thesis intends to answer the following questions:
(1) What are the similarities and differences between the metaphor translations of
“ren” in the two English versions of The Analects?

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 (2) What are the reasons for these differences?

1.4 Structure of the Thesis

This thesis is divided into five chapters as follows:
Chapter One is a brief introduction to the purpose, significance, research
methodology and the structure of this thesis.
Chapter Two is the literature review, involving a brief introduction to The
Analects, English translations of The Analects and the previous studies on the English
versions of The Analects.
Chapter Three provides the theoretical framework of this thesis, involving the
brief introduction to the Relevance Theory, the process of translation in the
framework of Relevance Theory, the role of the translator from the perspective of
Relevance Theory, and translation strategies in the frame of Relevance Theory.
Chapter Four, the main and most difficult part in this thesis, under the guidance of
Relevance Theory and conceptual metaphor theory, analyzes the metaphoric meanings
of “ren” in The Analects, elaborates the reasons for selecting the two versions, makes
a contrastive study on the two translators, intended readers and their translations
strategies.
Chapter Five, the final part of this thesis, makes a brief summary about the major
findings and implications of the findings. It also points out some limitations of the
research.

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 CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW

The Analects, a well-known Chinese classic, has been translated into different
languages. At the same time, many scholars have conducted their own studies on the
translations of The Analects. This chapter involves a brief introduction to The
Analects, English translations of The Analects and the previous studies on the English
versions of The Analects.

2.1 A Brief Introduction to The Analects

Confucius (551-479 B.C.), the founder of Confucianism, is a great thinker and
educator in ancient China. As a symbol of Chinese culture, his influence on Chinese
culture can be said to be equivalent to that of Socrates‟ influence on western culture.
He taught students from every social class and everywhere in his private school which
was also the first private school in China. Among the 3000 students of Confucius, 72
people are in the list of very famous scholars. His teaching subjects were extensive,
including Manners(礼), Music(乐), Archery(射), Riding(御), Literature(书) and
Mathematics(数).
The Analects, recording the sayings and deeds of both Confucius and his main
disciples, was compiled and completed by his disciples in the early Warring states
period (475-221 B.C.). In Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.), the folk society was
with three different versions of The Analects, on the basis of which Zheng Xuan
compiled a new version with adding some annotations in it at the end of the Han
Dynasty. Nowadays, the widely accepted version of The Analects contains twenty
chapters. Each chapter consists of several sections, and each section records one thing
or a few words (Yang Bojun, 2006). Since the contents of chapters and sections are all
arranged in disorder and irrelevant to each other, it brings enormous difficulties in
summarizing the content of each chapter. The general contents of the book covers
multiple areas, like education, philosophy, politics, economics, literature, music,
ethics and so on. Its vivid and concise words and expressions contain

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 rich metaphoric meanings, and there is no exception for the abstract concept “ren”. It
is very obvious that from the beginning to the end, The Analects embodies the core
concept of Confucianism-“ren”(仁).
The Analects, regarded as the Bible of China and one of bright pearls in the
human cultural heritages, is worthy of all mankind‟s attention. With more than two
thousand years of history, The Analects has been inscribed with traces of history and
deeply influence our traditional culture. Many words and sentences in The
Analects have become the idioms and proverbs widely used in our daily life. In the
modern times, our right attitude towards The Analects should be
discarding the dross and selecting the essence as well.

2.2 English Translations of The Analects

The English translation of The Analects is more than two hundred years old. The
Analects of Confucius-The works of Confucius, the first direct English version of The
Analects by Jesuit missionary Joshua Marshman in 1809, is an abridged translation.
And the latest version is Getting to Know Confucius-A New translation of The
Analects is the latest version by Lin Wusun in 2010. In the part below, the author will
present a table listing English translations of The Analects by foreign and Chinese
translators in chronological order, covering the full translation, selected translation,
abridged translation and so forth. The information of the table mainly based on the the
essay-English Translations and the Evaluation of The Analects by Yang Ping and
some of the author‟s own new acquisitions.
Table 1: English translations of The Analects
Translations by Foreign Translators Translations by Chinese Translators

Number Time Author Title Time Author Title

1 1691 F. The Morals of 1898 Ku The Discourses
Fayram Confucius Hung-ming and Sayings of
Confucius

2 1809 Joshua The Works of 1898 Man Yu Ton The Four Books

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 Marsha Confucius on the Chinese
n Classics in
English Compiled
from the Best
Previous Works
3 1828 David The Chinese 1938 Lin Yutang The Wisdom of
Collie Classical Confucius
Works
Commonly
Called the Four
Books
4 1835 R ． F The Morals of 1948 Zheng The Four Books,
． Intor Confucius Confucian
cetta & Classics
Couplet

5 1855 L ． E Moral Sayings 1979 D.C.Lau Confucius: The

． Bam of Confucius Analects
ard
6 1861 James The Chinese 1991 Li Tianchen The Analects of
Legge Classics Vol. I Confucius

7 1869 T. F. The Lun Yu, 1992 Lao An The Analects of

Wade being Confucius
utterances of
Kung Tzu,
known to the
Western World
as Confucius

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 8 1875 P. G. A Systematical 1993 Pan Fu‟en & The Analects of
Von Digest of the Wen Shaoxia Confucius
Moelle Doctrines of
ndorff Confucius,
according to
the Analects,
Great Learning
and Doctrine of
the Mean, with
an introduction
on the
Authorities
upon
Confucius and
Confucianism
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9 1887 C. F. R. Some of the 1994 Lai Bo & Xia The Analects of
Allen Analects of Yuhe Confucius
Confucius
10 1895 Willia The Confucian 1997 Wang Fulin The Analects of
m Analects, A Confucius
Jenning translation with
s Annotation and
Introduction

11 1907 Lionel The Sayings of 1997 Chichuang The Analects of

Giles Confucius, Huang Confucius: A
introduction Literal
and notes Translation with
an Introduction
and Notes

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 12 1910 Willia The Analects, 1997 Khu, John B. The Confucian
m or, the et al Bible Book 1-
Edward Conversation Analects
Soothill of Confucius
with His
Disciples and
Certain others
13 1915 Miles The Ethics of 1999 David H. Li The Analects of
Menan Confucius Confucius, A
der New-Millennium
Dawso Translation
n
14 1925 Leonar The Sayings of 1999 Ding 100 Sayings of
d A. Confucius (2nd Wangdao Confucius
Lyall edition)
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15 1937 Ezra Digest of the 2003 Tze Yau Pang Lun Yu of
Pound Analects Confucius
16 1938 Arthur The Analects 2004 Tom Te-wu Confucius Said
Waley of Confucius Ma
17 1940 Alfred The Living 2005 Xu The Analects
Doebli Thoughts of Yuanchong
n Confucius
18 1942 Miles The Conduct of 2005 Pan Fu‟en & Analects of
Menan Life; the basic Wen Shaoxia Confucius
der teaching of Chinese-English
Dawso Confucius bilingual edition
n arranged for
easy reading

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 19 1944 Arthur Selections from 2006 Hong Translation of the
Lindsa the Confucian Qingjiao Analects of
y Texts Confucius
Sadler
20 1946 E.A. The Sayings of 2007 Hong Kong The Analects: A
Cox Confucius Yaozhong Modern
Education Translation and
institution Contemporary
and culture Interpretation 140
commission items
21 1949 Duncan The Gospel of 2008 Hou Xinjie &
Greenle China, “love Kong
ss virtue, and then Hongyan
the people will
be virtuous”
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22 1950 James The Best of 2010 Lin Wusun Getting to Know
R. ware Confucius Confucius-A New
translation of The
Analects
23 1952 Eza Confucian
Pound Analects
24 1955 James The Sayings of
R. ware Confucius; the
Teaching of
China's
Greatest Sage
25 1956 Ezra Confucian
Pound Analects

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 26 1956 Geoffre Confucius
y
Bowna
s
27 1988 David The Analects
Hinton
28 1992 Thoma The Essential
s F. Confucius
Cleary

29 1993 Raymo Confucius: The

nd Analects
Dawso
n
30 1997 Simon The Analects
Leys of Confucius
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31 1998 E. The Original
Bruce Analects:
Brooks Sayings of
m & A. Confucius and
Taeko His Successor
Brooks
32 1998 Roger The Analects
T. of Confucius:
Ames A
& Philosophical
Henry Translation
Rosem
ont Jr.

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 33 2003 Edward Confucius
Slingerl Analects
and
From table 1, we clearly get that there are 33 foreign translators and 22 Chinese
translators who have translated The Analects into English. According to the time order,
in the nineteenth century, there are 10 versions by foreign translators and 2 by
Chinese people. In the twentieth century, there are 22 versions by foreign scholars and
12 by Chinese. In the twenty-first century, 1 is by foreign translator and 8 by Chinese
translators.
Overall, there are a larger number of foreign translators of The Analects than
Chinese translators, from which it can be clearly seen that The Analects has an
enormous influence on the whole world, and foreign people crave to get some
knowledge from The Analects and bring Confucius‟ brilliant thoughts into their own
world.

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2.3 Previous Studies on the English Versions of the Analects
Through the research of English translations of The Analects above, it shows that
The Analects is of great value in the history and has received a large
number of attentions both from famous domestic and foreign scholars. In the part of
2.3, the author will introduce the previous studies on the English versions of The
Analects.

2.3.1 Previous Studies at Home

Studies on The Analects in China derived the origin from the 1990s. At first, they
primarily focused on the aspect of translation and then expanded to more fields like
art, linguistics, philosophy, science of thinking, education, history and so on.
In the field of translation, Wang Yong researched forty-three academic articles
about the domestic translations of The Analects in detail in 2006, revealing that these
articles can be divided into five groups in the terms of the study themes: translators,
translation versions, translation proofreading, publication words and spreading history

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 and its renderings of key words. Wang Yong attempts to summarize the research
themes in his article. (Wang Yong, 2010:70)
In terms of the perspectives, many studies mainly focused on linguistic level and
emphasized the realization of equivalence, containing some appreciation and
comments (such as Liu Chongde, 2001; He Gangqiang, 2005, etc.), and systematic
conclusion of some translation methods and strategies about applying some theories
to analyze The Analects (Li Shuang, 2004). Besides, it‟s hard to translate the main
concept words in The Analects because each of them has many deep meanings. So the
translation of key idea is one of the research fields (such as Wang Hui, 2001; Yang
Ping, 2008a, etc.). Wang Hui (2001) suggested that the translator should translate the
original meanings of the main concept words to make it close to the original meaning.
At the same time, he should try to keep the translation uniformity of the same concept.
Yang Ping (2008a), by analyzing several translation methods about the main idea
“ren”, thought to transfer Confucius‟ philosophic mind in a faithful and
comprehensive way. So it should use the method of transliteration to translate the
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word “ren”.
With many studies on the development of translation, the focus began to be in the
cultural level, and factors beyond linguistic text began to be taken into consideration.
Some researchers began to study The Analects in terms of outside factors (Wang Hui,
2004, 2007; Wang Fang, 2006; Lei Zhimei, 2011 etc.). Wang Hui (2004, 2007) put
much focus on the Christian ideology shown in the missionary translations. Wang
Fang (2006) and Lei Zhimei (2011), who adopt the fusion of horizons theory in
hermeneutics, analyzed the English versions of The Analects. In terms of the
introduction to the translations, Gu Ben (1999) made a complete conclusion of the
translated versions in various western languages and Yang Ping (2008) made a
summary about the English versions of The Analects, whose authors include
missionaries, sinologists, Chinese etc. Li Ying‟s thesis (2002), which is about the
translation influence of The Analects, has made the translation versions of James
Legge, Arthur Welay and D. C. Lau an example and analyzed The Analects‟ affect on
western culture.

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 2.3.2 Previous Studies Abroad
The research on the translation of The Analects abroad has a long history. And
these studies mainly focused on sinology which can be reflected in various translation
prefaces, comments and some academic papers. Each translator tended to make some
comments in his preface or appendix. And most of them belonged to the impression
evaluations. Taking Ku Hung-ming‟s English version for an example, the author used
the words like “cumbersome” and “stiffness” to comment on James Legge‟s
translation. At present, these preface and appendix evaluations are provided with
strong academic nature. For example, in the previous translation versions, the preface
and appendix in Roger T. Ames & Henry Rosemont‟s English version started from
the analysis of the philosophical characteristics of Chinese language and thinking to
summary of the western culture centralism inclination. (Wang Yan, 2010: 71)
Book reviews, which are a special study on the English versions of The Analects,
are mainly published on some sinological and philosophical journals, such as,
CLEAR (Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews), The Journal of Asian Studies
and Philosophy East and West, etc. Many of these book reviews were about
introductions to English versions‟ publication. However, recent years‟ reviews began
to involve more aspects, and they were often from various perspectives with more
detailed analyses. (Wang Yan, 2010: 71)
David Schaberg is said to have analyzed most of the English versions, and he
owned the most typical reviews which involve many fields, such as language, style,
philosophy and history, etc., pointing out that the new translation versions were
provided with the feature of diversity. At the same time, he stated that most versions
were in the base of standard annotations and only Roger T. Ames & Henry
Rosemont‟s and E. Bruce Brooks & A. Taeko Brooks‟ versions have their own
innovations about annotation. Alice W. Cheang made some comparative studies on
four English versions of The Analects and he believed that the annotations in English
versions were just the translators‟ personal interpretations, so Confucius‟ original
meanings had not been transferred faithfully. Stephen W. Durrant analyzed D. C.
Lau‟s version in a systematical way, which involved many aspects, such as academic

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 value of the preface, the translations of some concrete words etc. At the same time,
the translator should notice some issues and take translation process of the Chinese
philosophical classics into consideration, such as latest research achievements, the
original text style and diction, etc. Jonathan Spence‟s book review is on Simon Leys‟
English version that first introduces Philippe Couplet‟s Latin version and the
historical background and text features of Legge‟s version, and then analyzed the
differences between Ley‟s version and the two versions that we have discussed above.
He said that Ley aimed to focus on The Analects‟ influence on the modern society.
What's more, there are a lot of articles which talked about the research on the
translations of the main concept words in The Analects. (Wang Yan, 2010: 71)

2.3.3 Previous Studies from the Perspective of Relevance Theory

Until now, there are only five articles about The Analects focusing in the terms of
Relevance Theory (RT), as far as the author knows. They are On the Translations of
The Analects from the Perspective of Relevance Theory written by Ge Yafen in 2009,
A Comparative Study on the Four English Versions of The Analects of Confucius by Li
Zongzheng in 2010, A Translation Exploration of The Analects from the Perspective
of Relevance Theory by Zhang Baike in 2011, A Contrastive Study of Two English
Versions of Lun Yu from the Perspective of Relevance Theory of Translation by Kang
Yanyan in 2013 and Comparative Studies on the English Versions of The Analects
from the Perspective of Relevance Theory by Jia Tianzheng in 2014, among which
only the third article is a Chinese article, the other four are all academic thesises. Ge
Yafen, who studies from the aspects of words, sentences and paragraphs, states that
different translation methods in different versions exist are mainly caused by the
changes of social contexts, such as historical and cultural backgrounds, translation
purposes, personal cultural attainments and life experiences, etc. (Ge Yafen, 2009).
Mainly comparing from two large aspects of language and culture, Li Zongzheng
points out the causes of the translation diversity, listing the major factors related to the
translator‟s subjectivity (Li Zongzheng, 2010). Comparing to the first two thesis,
Zhang Baike‟s article is rather simple, just applying RT to analyze the fifth section in

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 the fourth chapter in detail (Zhang Baike, 2011). Kang Yanyan mainly applies the
Relevance Theory to compare the two versions of Lun Yu by Ku Hungming and D.C.
Lau at the lexical, syntactic and cultural level and reaches to the point that the two
translators‟ strategies are suitable for the translation of Lunyu (Kang Yanyan, 2013).
Jia Tianzheng studies three English version of The Analects by Legge, Ku Hungming
and D.C. Lau from the aspects of language, culture and modes of thinking, pointing
out that the translator and English modes of thinking are two important factors for a
successful translation activity (Jia Tianzheng, 2014). Even though the number of
relative articles is relatively small, they all can give some enlightenment for the
author‟s study.

2.4 Summary
Through the previous studies on The Analects, we can see that as a symbol of our
Chinese traditional culture, The Analects has drawn much attention from scholars both
in China and abroad. Despite there are a lot of scholars have studied The Analects
from many different aspects and got their own accomplishments, rare of them have
explored the English versions of The Analects from the perspective of Relevance
Theory, especially in the study on the key word in The Analects. For this reason, the
author attempts to carry out a tentative research from the perspective of Relevance
Theory on the metaphor translations of “ren”, the most important concept word of The
Analects, in the two English versions by Legge and Ku Hung-ming.

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 CHAPTER THREE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

This chapter will provide theoretical basis for the whole thesis, involving the brief
introduction to the Relevance Theory, the process of translation in the framework of
Relevance Theory, the role of the translator from the perspective of Relevance Theory,
and translation strategies in the frame of Relevance Theory, which it can be divided
into direct translation and indirect translation.

3.1 A Brief Introduction to Relevance Theory

With the cognitive science being introduced to linguistics field, cognitive
pragmatics springs up. In the development of cognitive pragmatics, the Relevance
Theory plays a vital role, whose essential idea is about the explanation of
communication in terms of cognition.

3.1.1 Definition of Relevance Theory

In 1986, Sperber and Wilson firstly put forward that the Relevance Theory is an
integrated theory of cognitive pragmatics, concerning on the explanation of human
communication in their book Relevance: Communication and Cognition. In the book,
the two scholars aimed to answer the following two questions by adopting the
Relevance Theory. The first one is about the essence of communication, and the
second is about how the process of human interpretation is conducted. They argued
that utterance interpretation is one of cognitive activities and verbal communication is
an activity including the ostensive and inferential processing. The authors also
suggested that human cognitive process has a consistent object: humans only pay
attention to the information seemly relevant to themselves. So human communication
can be viewed to state their attention and then hint that the information conveyed
through communication is relevant. Thus, humans‟ communication and cognitive
mechanism are run by the study of Relevance.
In 1986, Sperber and Wilson (1986:46) proposed that relevance, as the most vital

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 principle in our communication, is of great essence in human cognition. In
communication, every utterance has different understandings of which only the one
that best satisfies his or her expectation of relevance is chosen by the audience. The
relevance ensures that the audiences make a reasonable inference to understand what
has been said correctly. In their book, Sperber and Wilson defined Relevance by two
extent conditions:
Extent condition 1: an assumption is relevant in a context to the extent that its
contextual effects in this context are large.
Extent condition 2: an assumption is relevant in a context to the extent that the
effort required to process it in this context is small. (Sperber & Wilson, 1995:125)
Therefore, for an individual, the relevance of an input had two factors needed to
be depended on: contextual effect and processing effort. The former factor results
from interactivity between a newly-appeared stimulus and a sub-class of the
assumptions existing in a cognitive system. Sperber and Wilson held that individuals
would get contextual effects when emerging stimulus interacts with a context of
established assumption in one of the three as following approaches: (a) Strengthening
an already established assumption by providing more clues, (b) Contradicting and
terminating an already established assumption by providing decisively contradictory
evidence, (c) Producing a contextual implication by associating with an already
established assumption. The latter factor is the effort a cognitive system must make
the effort to product a satisfactory understanding of any incoming information
processed. Hence relevance is a matter of degree: other things being equal, the greater
the contextual effects, the greater the relevance (2001:119); other things being equal,
the greater the processing effort expended, the lower the relevance. (2001:124) In
short, the notion of relevance with comparability is not quantitative. Alternatively, the
definition of relevance can also be formulated as: Relevance=Contextual Effect/
Processing Effect.

3.1.2 Two Principles of Relevance Theory

Apart from the main concept “relevance”, RT also includes two major principles

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 of relevance. One is about cognition and the other is about communication.
“(1) Human communication tends to be geared to the maximization of relevance.
(2) Every act of ostensive communication communicates a presumption of its
own optimal relevance.” (Sperber and Wilson, 2001: 260)
The First Principle of Relevance is called Cognitive Principle of Relevance which
refers to (1). The Second Principle of Relevance is also called Communicative
Principle of Relevance which refers to (2). They are both the major contents of
Relevance Theory, and the term “Principle of Relevance” mainly refers to the
Communicative Principle. (Sperber and Wilson, 2001: 261)
From the perspective of (Cognitive) Principle of Relevance, Sperber and
Wilson‟s view means that cognitive resources tend to be allocated to the process of
most relevant inputs available, either from internal or external sources, namely human
cognition is used to be considered as the maximization of the cumulative relevance of
the inputs in its process (Sperber and Wilson, 2001: 261).
The Communicative Principle of Relevance is based on the First Principle which
is the central part of Relevance Theory. It holds the idea that the presumption of
optimal relevance can be defined from the two aspects as follows:
“(a) The ostensive stimulus is relevant enough for it to be worth the addressee‟s
effort to process it.
(b) The ostensive stimulus is the most relevant one compatible with the
communicator‟s abilities and preferences.” (Sperber and Wilson, 2001: 270)

3.2 The Process of Translation in the Framework of Relevance Theory

The application of Relevance Theory suggests that translation is considered as
part of communication. It has two ostensive-inferential processes that can be clearly
shown by the following graphic (Zhang Xinhong and He Ziran, 2001: 289):

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 It can be seen in the graph that the translator should understand the original
meaning in an accurate and clear way in order to translate the work. So the first step
of translation concerns more about the source text and the translator himself. During
the second translating process the translator has two roles. Firstly, he is the
constructor of the source text and then he is the creator of the target text. The
translator plays a major role in receiving and translating. So in the part 3.3 and
chapter 4 of the thesis, the author will make a detailed illustration about the
translators.

3.3 The Role of the Translator from the Perspective of Relevance Theory
As to Relevance Theory, translation is the communication between the translator
and the target audience. The translator goes through a text first and gets a good
understanding of the intended interpretation of the original meaning of the work,
containing both denotative and connotative meanings.The translator has to process the
target language utterance and then select its properties of the target language which
will make an interpretation of the original text which is closely enough to make it in
accord with the Principle of Relevance for the intended audience. (Gutt, 2003:233)
When translating a text, the translator is actually interpreting with the thoughts of the
original author. As a communicator to the target readers, the translator is in fact
dealing with the task to make it resemble with the original text. The following
diagram which is based on the translation activity under the Relevance-Theoretic
framework may help to declare the role of the translator from the perspective of
Relevance Theory (Gutt, 2004: 214):

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 3.4 Translation Strategies in the Frame of Relevance Theory
Gutt declared that Relevance Theory is just like an account of both direct
translation and indirect translation. Both direct translation and indirect translation
are examples of inter-lingual interpretive use. So in despite of the first appearance is
different, direct translation is still has some similarities with indirect translation (Gutt,
2004: 171). He describes direct translation like this: “A receptor language utterance is
a direct translation if and only if its aim is to explain the original completely in the
context designed for the original” (Gutt, 2004: 171). Regarding the difference

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 between direct translation and indirect translation, he said that “the assumption
is natural that interpretive resemblance is a graded notion which has complete
resemblance as its limiting case: indirect translation is more coherent, while direct
translation only picks out the limiting case” (Gutt, 2004: 172). Translation strategies
play a very important role in translating process. Direct translation is faithful to the
original works, and it relies on resemblance in linguistic properties. While indirect
translation focuses more on the target readers and it depends on resemblance in
cognitive effects. They focus on different aspects.
Gutt suggests that since the process of translation can be explained by this general
theory of ostensive-inferential communication, it is unnecessary to develop a separate
theory of translation (Gutt, 2004; 199). Even if Relevance Theory of Translation is
still at its beginning stage and needs more research and explorations, it provides the
most powerful explanation for translation up to now. It can be found that the better
our insight into human communication becomes, the better we shall be aware of
translation problems. So Relevance Theory of Translation offers a new perspective for
the study of translation. In chapter 4, this theory will be used in comparing the
metaphor translations of “ren” in two English versions of The Analects.

3.5 Summary
Relevance Theory is a relatively new perspective to study translation, viewing
translation as two processes of ostensive-inferential communication. The success or
failure of translations depends causally on consistency with the principle of relevance.
(Ernst-August Gutt, 2004:199) This chapter has given a brief introduction to
Relevance Theory and the application of Relevance Theory into translation. In the
next chapter, the author will analyze two English versions of The Analects from the
perspective of Relevance Theory.

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 CHAPTER FOUR COMPARATIVE STUDIES ON
METAPHOR TRANSLATIONS OF “REN” FROM THE
PERSPECTIVE OF RELEVANCE THEORY

The Analects frequently talks about moral terms, which can not even be easily
understood by Chinese people and Asian people who are also familiar with the
traditional culture of China. As for westerners, these moral terms will seem unfamiliar
to them who have obeyed the western ethical tradition for centuries and have no
acquaintance with these terms. Therefore, the exact comprehension of the implied
meaning of the key metaphorical Confucian concept “ren”, which is the most key
concept in The Analects, seems necessary to the translation of the entire text under the
perspective of Relevance Theory. D. C. Lau (1989:115), a famous translator of The
Analects has put it clearly: “the difficulty lies in the different concepts of Chinese and
English languages and the corresponding English words cannot be found on many
occasions. The difficulty may become even greater when coming across a concept
which does not exist in the West.”
So according to the Relevance Theory, it is very necessary to make an analysis
about the metaphoric meanings of “ren” in the original text.

4.1 Cognitive Metaphors on “Ren” in The Analects

Although the author only deals with the metaphor of “ren” as a linguistic
phenomenon in this thesis, according the Relevance Theory, analyzing this
phenomenon could effectively show the original text‟s implication, and is also a
necessary first step for the further contrasting the translation methods in the two
different versions. Thus, in this part, we need a brief introduction about the theory of
cognitive metaphor and a detailed analysis about the metaphoric features of “ren” in
The Analects.

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 4.1.1 Cognitive Metaphor and Metaphor Translations in Terms of Relevance
Theory
4.1.1.1 Cognitive Metaphor
Traditionally, metaphors are always treated as a figure of speech. Since the
conceptual metaphor was first put forward by Lakoff and Johnson in 1980,
studies into metaphor have permeated into the field of humans‟ cognition. F. Ungerer
and H.J. Schmid hold that, “the metaphor is a powerful cognitive tool for our
conceptualization of abstract categories” (F. Ungerer and H.J. Schmid, 2001:114).
“Metaphors are not only conceptual phenomena, but also structure our way of
thinking through the language we use. That‟s to say, metaphors are not just a way of
expressing ideas by means of language, but a way of thinking about things. They help
us understand the complicated world, especially the scientific, political and social
issues.” (F. Ungerer and H.J. Schmid, 2001:118)
In 1980, Lakoff and Johnson proposed that the essence of metaphor is to
understand and experience a kind of thing in terms of another. It is not merely in the
words we use. (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980:5) Metaphors are systematic structure
mapping from one domain of experience to another. Thus, language and thought is
virtually metaphorical. (Richard, 1967:90)
Also, the semantics of the metaphor may be influenced by the contexts-language
context, situational context, cultural context, background context and subjective
context. Among these diverse contexts, although language context is the key to
understanding the meaning of metaphor, the other contexts also influence the
understanding of a metaphor greatly. (Li Changzhong, 2002:31-32) And also for
metaphor is not only a rhetorical method, but also a concept system and a tool of
cognition, which is a particular phenomenon in the construction of lexis and semantic
system, to understand the metaphoric meanings of the metaphorical words in contexts
seems very important.
4.1.1.2 The Metaphor Translation in Terms of Relevance Theory
With the research of metaphor turning from the traditional rhetorical level to the
cognitive level, during the same era, the cognitive pragmatic experts Sperber and

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 Wilson proposed Relevance Theory to explain the essence of communication. They
proposed that metaphor is a kind of communication, and explained the comprehensive
process of metaphor in communication from the aspect of pragmatics. They thought
communication is a cognitive activity, which is an ostensive-inferential process under
the control of the Relevance Theory. During the process of communication, the
understanding of metaphor is a process of pursuing the optimal relevance between the
cognitive context of the source domain and that of the target domain by readers. At
the same time, in the aspect of translation, the Relevance Theory expert Gutt thought
that translation is a communicative activity, which is two ostensive-inferential
processes, involving the original author, the translator and the target reader. It not only
involves decoding, but also inferring based on the dynamic context. The success of
translation is determined by whether the translation can reach the optimal relevance.
In the metaphorical translation process, translators are very important in the two
phases.
In the first phase, initially playing a role of reader, the translator should make an
inference about all the metaphors of the original text on the basis of the context and
their own knowledge in the aspect of cognition. Next, translators would make an
inference about things that the original writer does not express directly according to
their complete understanding about these metaphors from all aspects of linguistics,
such as phonology, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics. After thinking about the
implied meaning of the metaphor and the original writer‟s implicit intention carefully,
the translator makes an assumption about the understanding of the original metaphor,
including the implicature and the explicature.
In the second phase, the translator should firstly be a communicator who needs to
completely understand the target readers‟ background knowledge about the original
text and their cognitive ability so that he could convey the information of the original
metaphor successfully. Then the translator should select a more suitable and
appropriate strategy to translate certain metaphor in order to make the target readers
achieve optimal relevance.

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 4.1.2 Cognitive Metaphors on “Ren” in The Analects
Shu Dingfang and Tang Benqing believed that almost every key concept in one
culture is a metaphor, like one tip of the iceberg over the ocean, through exploring
which we could dig out the whole cultural conceptual system hiding in it, like in
Chinese culture, the “Dao”(道), “Tian Zi”(天子), “Zhong Yang”(中央) and so on. In
this thesis, “ren” is such a heavy culturally-loaded concept. To help the readers
comprehend more easily, when Confucius introduced the abstract concept of “ren” in
The Analects, he changed it into diverse images of our common experiences.
Therefore, in the part 4.1.3, we are going to explore some conceptual clues implied in
the original context and consider its meanings in certain contexts.
From the view of etymology, the explanation of the Chinese character “ren” gives
us some clues that the Chinese character “ren” itself is a kind of metaphor.
“Ren”, as a focus of Confucius‟ moral ethics, arouses many scholars‟ interests. It
occurs 109 times in The Analects. According to Shuo Wen Jie Zi (《说文解字》), the
left part of the character “仁” in Chinese represents a person, while the right part
means the number “two”. Combining the two parts together, the character “仁”
metaphors the relationship between two persons. Lin Yutang agreed with it, and said
that “ren” in The Analects can be interchangeable with the Chinese character “ren”
(人) referring to a person (Lin Yutang, 2006:10). And since the Chinese character
“ren” (ren) and “ren” (人) are the same in sound, “ren” (仁) always metaphors “ren”
(人). In other words, the Chinese character “ren” itself is a kind of cognitive metaphor.
So we can say that the 109 “ren” appearing in The Analects are all metaphors.
Except this, there are a lot of metaphoric expressions of “ren” in The Analects.
According to the book Metaphors-We Live By, ontological metaphor is the
metaphor in which an abstract concept is recognized as a concrete object, which can
be expressed as: ABSTRACT OBJECT IS CONCRETE OBJECT. The author will
choose two typical examples in the Analects to make a brief illustration：
Sample 1. 子曰：“仁远乎哉？ 我欲仁，斯仁至矣。”《论语·述尔篇》
The Master said, „Is virtue a thing remote? I wish to be virtuous, and virtue is at
hand.‟ (Legge)

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 “Ren”, the most important concept in the Analects, is obviously an abstract
concept, here receiving a more definite description through the ontological metaphors.
In sample 1, even though “ren” is very far away, it will arrive if people want it. Here,
“ren” is regarded as a concrete object.
In this type of ontological metaphor, “ren” is not only compare to a concrete
entity, but also personified. Personification is the metaphor where
the nonhuman entities are deeply specified as being a person. Lakoff and Johnson
identified that personification probably is the most obvious ontological metaphor
because it allowed people to comprehend inanimate entities from the perspective of
human motivations, characteristics, and activities. (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980:34)
Sample 2. 子日：
“智者乐水，仁者乐山。智者动，仁者静；智者乐，仁者寿。”
《论语·雍也篇》
The Master said, „The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in
hills. The wise are active; the virtuous are tranquil. The wise are joyful; the virtuous
are long-lived.‟ (Legge)
The sample probably is one of the most famous metaphors in the history of
Chinese culture. For “ren zhe yue shan (仁者乐山), Zhu Xi explicated in The Book of
Rites: “仁者安于理而厚重不迁，有似于山，故乐山”. From this, we can know that
mountain possesses the feature of being magnificent, which will not be shaken by
external things, and a moral man is steady and calm, tolerant and kind, so both of
them have great similarities. Here, the phrase is used to describe people with great
morality.
In 1981, Hegel said: “the scope and variety of forms of metaphor is infinite.” In
the metaphor model PEOPLE ARE MOUNTAIN, we can see that the similarities
between mountain and people can not be totally expounded by Confucian scholars, as
mountain is the shadow of all the morals advocated by Confucius. In the source
domain, MOUNTRAIN is among the timeless landscapes of the world. And as for the
target domain PEOPLE with the characteristics of “ren”, an indispensable quality of
people, wish to live a long and happy life.
People in the target domain are corresponding to the mountain in the source

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 domain. This image schema contains an experience structure which comes from the
daily experience. With this internal structure, it can be modified through the metaphor
to help readers understand more about the abstract concepts. Colin Murray Turbayne
claimed that an effective metaphor was invented by a genius, and thus generated the
entire theory extending to other areas. (Colin Murray Turbayne, 1991:3) In this
metaphor model, the mapping from the source domain mountain to the target domain
people is open. With the deep understanding of the property of mountain, people can
understand their lives, ethics and other characters more deeply.

4.1.3 Metaphoric Meanings of “Ren” in the Original Text

As for the metaphor word “ren” in Chinese cultural context, many Chinese
scholars have illustrated their own personal opinions about the metaphoric meanings
of “ren”:
Nan Huaijin (2007:3)：The metaphorical meaning of “ren” in The Analects is how
a person lives with himself or herself and with others; to live with one can improve
one‟s moral principles, and to live with others means how to deal with the relationship
with others.
Zhu Xi (1994: 44,119): Ren is the principle of love and the virtue of the heart or
the perfect virtue of the heart.
Qian Mu (2002:6): Ren is the way of getting along with other people.
Also in 2005, Meng Yuanpei explains “ren” in The Analects by studying the
relationships between “ren” and “zhi”, between “ren” and “li”, between “ren” and
“zhong” plus “xiao”, and between “ren” and ecology. (2005: 62-68)
From these definitions above, we can find that “ren” doesn‟t refer to any specific
type of virtue. And according to different scholars‟ background and their own
perception, they have different understandings about “ren”. With the development of
society and humans‟ cognition, “ren” has been endowed with much
richer metaphoric meanings. In the following part, the author will elaborate the
metaphoric meanings of “ren” in the original text-The Analects.

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 As for understanding the original writer‟s implication, the original writer‟s own
background is an inseparable part in the analyzing.
Confucius was said to be born in a declining noble family but grew up in a poor
family. Therefore, he went through a hard and unfortunate childhood. He said that “I
set my heart on learning at fifteen” (D.C. LAU, 1979:9). He studied until he was
thirty and was quite apt at the whole “six arts”, including rites, archery, music, reading
and writing, charioteering and arithmetic. When he was 55 years old, he and some
of his followers left the state of Lu and went to the other states such as Wei, Song,
Chen, and Chu to spread his ideas. He hoped that his teaching ideas could be accepted
and put into practice by the rulers of the states. However, he was disappointed that his
ideas were not accepted for one reason or another. When he was 68 years old, he went
to the State of Lu to teach his disciples. When he became older, Confucius suffered
from the death of Yan Hui who was his favorite disciple, and Zi Lu who was his
closest disciple as well as his wife and son. Such blows caused his sickness. He died
at the age of 73.
This miserable life experience provided Confucius a profound point of view
about the society and policy then, and also showed readers a clue about his
implication of “ren” in The Analects.
Confucius lived in the late Spring and Autumn Period with characteristics of
disunity and chaos. At the time, Confucius‟ ideal, or his political view was to create an
ideal state by obeying the ritual priorities. Due to some failures in his own state,
Confucius went to other states, he hoped the rulers could accept his political ideas and
put them into practice. It was unfortunate that nearly none of the rulers could accept
his ideas and few rulers let Confucius teach in their state, while almost none
succeeded. The most important part of Confucius thoughts is the emphasis on the
person. For every social person, he needs to obey the ritual priorities to be a “perfect
man” and to socialize with others. He also needs to obey the ritual priorities when he
is dealing with others, such as his monarch, his father, his brother, and other relatives.
If everyone could act obeying the ritual priorities, then an ideal society could be
established.

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 The Chinese character “ren” is said to have appeared in Shang dynasty in the
inscription of oracle bones. As early as it comes into forth, the use of “ren” and its
unclear meaning makes it be less used before Confucius. During Confucius period,
“ren” gradually came into use, which is suggested in the great classics Zuo Zhuan.
When Confucius began to promote his conception of “ren”, its basic meaning was not
clear, which can be reflected in many questions of Confucius‟ disciples (Wang Enlai,
2005: 2-4) and will be elaborated in the following part. The Chinese meaning of “ren”
in the The Analects is still in the stage of discussing and exploring, let alone its
English equivalent. Both translators hope to discover the connotative metaphorical
meaning of “ren” in The Analects.
In the original text, the remoteness and conciseness of The Analects makes the
metaphoric meanings of “ren” rather enigmatic. It is hard to tap into its profound
meaning in Chinese or to find out corresponding words in English to express its
implied meaning. However, we still have some tips to trace back to the original text.
In The Analects, many disciples of Confucius asked about “ren” in a direct way. See
the following examples:
Sample 3. 颜渊问仁。子曰：“克己复礼为仁。一日克己复礼，天下归仁焉。
为仁由己，而由人乎哉？”
Yan Yuan asked about perfect virtue. The Master said, “To subdue one‟s self and
return to propriety, is perfect virtue. If a man can for one day subdue himself and
return to propriety, all under heaven will ascribe perfect virtue to him. Is the practice
of perfect virtue from a man himself, or is it from others?” (Legge)
Sample 4. 仲弓问仁。子曰：
“出门如见大宾，使民如承大祭。己所不欲，勿
施于人。在邦无怨，在家无怨。”
Zhong Gong [Chung-kung] asked about perfect virtue. The Master said, “It is,
when you go abroad, to behave to every one as if you were receiving a great guest; to
employ the people as if you were assisting at a great sacrifice; not to do to others as
you would not wish done to yourself; to have no murmuring against you in the
country, and none in the family.” (Legge)

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 Sample 5. 司马牛问仁。子曰:“仁者其言也讱。”曰:“其言也讱，斯谓之仁
已乎？”子曰：“为之难，言之得无讱乎？”
Sima Niu [Sze-ma Niu] asked about perfect virtue. The Master said, “The man of
perfect virtue is cautious and slow in his speech.” Cautious and slow in his speech!”
said Niu;- “is this what is meant by perfect virtue?” The Master said, “When a man
feels the difficulty of doing, can he be other than cautious and slow in speaking?”
(Legge)
Sample 6. 樊迟问仁。子曰:“爱人。” 问知。子曰:“知人。”
Fan Chi asked about benevolence. The Master said, “It is to love all men.” He
asked about knowledge. The Master said, “It is to know all men.” (Legge)
Sample 7. 樊迟问仁。子曰: “居处恭，执事敬，与人忠。虽之夷狄，不可
弃也。
”
Fan Chi asked about perfect virtue. The Master said, “It is, in retirement, to be
sedately grave; in the management of business, to be reverently attentive; in
intercourse with others, to be strictly sincere. Though a man goes among rude,
uncultivated tribes, these qualities may not be neglected.” (Legge)
Sample 8. 子贡问为仁。子曰: “工欲善其事，必先利其器。居是邦也，事其
大夫之贤者，友其士之仁者。”
Zigong asked about the practice of virtue. The Master said, “The mechanic, who
wishes to do his work well, must first sharpen his tools. When you are living in any
state, take service with the most worthy among its great officers, and make friends of
the most virtuous among its scholars.” (Legge)
Sample 9. 子张问仁于孔子。孔子：“能行五者于天下，为仁矣。”请问之。
曰：“恭、宽、信、敏、惠。”
Zizhang asked Confucius about perfect virtue. Confucius said, “To be able to
practise five things everywhere under heaven constitutes perfect virtue.” He begged to
ask what they were, and was told, “Gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness,
and kindness.” (Legge)
Sample 10.（樊迟）问仁。子曰：“仁者先难而后获，可谓仁矣。”
He asked about perfect virtue. The Master said, “The man of virtue makes the

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 difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent
consideration; -- this may be called perfect virtue.” (Legge)
In the above examples, when the disciples asked Confucius about what was the
abstract concept of “ren”, Confucius answered them by making a list of concrete
behaviors a person of “ren”, and showing them clearly the specific meaning of “ren”
towards different person, and then he made the students understand
the specified meaning of “ren”. The method that Confucius applied in the explanation
is obviously a kind of metaphorical language. In other words, Confucius preferred to
explain by using different familiar behaviors that are based on daily experiences to
provide clear explanations under different contexts.
Example 3, 5, 9 and 10 is in the same category, whose focus is mainly on the
qualities that the person of “ren” possesses. Example 4, 6, 7 and 8 form the other
group, whose emphasizes is on the social interactions with others, such as how to
communicate with others in the principles of “ren”. These are Confucius‟ answers to
the questions in terms of “ren”. “to subdue one‟s self and return to propriety”,
“cautious and slow in his speech”, “Gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness,
and kindness”, “makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business”, these four
may be the qualities one should possess to become “ren”. All these centers on the
qualities when socializing with others: “when you go abroad, to behave to every one
as if you were receiving a great guest; to employ the people as if you were assisting at
a great sacrifice; not to do to others as you would not wish done to yourself”, “love all
men”, “in retirement, to be sedately grave; in the management of business, to be
reverently attentive; in intercourse with others, to be strictly sincere” and “When you
are living in any state, take service with the most worthy among its great officers, and
make friends of the most virtuous among its scholars.” Based upon the above analysis,
the author may safely conclude that within the original text, “ren”, in Confucius‟ eyes,
generally consists of two parts: one is the personal qualities that one possesses, the
other is the attitudes or qualities one treats others.
Except these samples above, Confucius once said, “The determined scholar and
the man of virtue will not seek to live at the expense of injuring their virtue. They will

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 even “sacrifice their lives to preserve their virtue complete.” (志士仁人, 无求生以害
仁, 有杀身以成仁) Here, “ren” had become the highest principle of morality. People
could even “sacrifice” their own life to preserve “ren”, from which we can see that in
the emotional range, the metaphoric meanings of “ren” had been expanded from one
family to the whole society. And at the same time, the moral connotation and moral
status of “ren” had got a further enrichment and improvement, which helped to lay the
foundation for “ren” being the most important element of the Chinese traditional
virtues. By integrating the whole moral norms together, Confucius was the first one
who constructed a system of ethic thoughts which was on the core of “ren” and also
had xiao(孝), ti(悌), zhong(忠), shu(恕), li(礼), zhi(知), yong(勇), gong(恭), kuan(宽),
xin(信), min(敏), hui(惠) and so on.

4.2 The Translators and Their Metaphor Translations of “Ren” in the Two
Versions
These two versions are produced in different times and different contexts, which
influenced the translators in their translating processes. The analysis of the
backgrounds of two translators and their intended readers will be helpful for this
study.
Specifically, according to Relevance Theory, the author has analyzed the
implication of the “ren” (always equals to the metaphoric meanings of “ren” in The
Analects) in the above part 4.1, which is the most important thing in the first ostensive
and inferential process. In the second ostensive-inferential process, the translators and
their intended readers are two inseparable factors during the communication process.
As the constructor of the source text, the translator not only conveys the author‟s
intention, but also integrates his own intention into the writer‟s. And then as the
creator of the target text, the translator should do his best to make assumptions about
the target readers‟ cognitive environment in order for them to get manifestation and
achieve the optimal relevance. The target readers‟ cognitive environment includes
their cognitive abilities, needs and expectations. So the translators‟ experiences, their
translation intentions, the target readers‟ cognitive abilities, needs and expectations all

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 have great influence on the translation. This part is chiefly concerned with the
backgrounds of the translators (James Legge and Ku Hung-ming), their intentions, the
intended readers and the two versions.

4.2.1 Reasons for Selecting the Two Versions

Researching from the very perspective of the metaphor translation “ren” in The
Analects, this thesis selects two English versions for comparison, in which one was
translated by a westerner-James Legge (1861) and the other by a Chinese scholar-Ku
Hung-ming (1898). Why would the author decide to make such a selection? In 1861,
James Legge, a famous Christian missioner, published The Chinese Classics which
was considered to be the first authorized English version of The Analects by a foreign
translator. Also from the previous table 1, we can clearly see that Ku Hung-ming‟s
version in 1898 is the first full translation by a Chinese, carrying a significant
influence in the history. In the short preface to The Discourse And Saying Of
Confucius (1898), Ku stated that his purpose of translating was to “render this book
accessible to the general English reader” and “make Confucius and his disciples speak
in the same way as an educated Englishman would speak had he to express the same
thoughts which the Chinese worthies had to express” (Ku, 1898: vii).
The two translators live in different periods of time. And such different cultural
and cognitive backgrounds also endow them with different perceptions of The
Analects and “ren” in The Analects. Considering all these factors, the author hopes
this thesis could make a relatively profound comparison between the two versions of
The Analects.
In a word, the two versions chosen by the author have their own unique features,
and the two are somewhat related, which will be illustrated in detail in the part 4.2.2.
So this choice could reduce the degree of difficulty in comparing.

4.2.2 Comparative Analysis of the Two Translators and Their Intended Readers
James Legge‟s and Ku Hung-ming‟s personal backgrounds, intentions of
translation and their intended readers‟ cognitive abilities, needs and expectations will

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 be analyzed separately in this part.
4.2.2.1 James Legge and the Intended Readers
James Legge, a Jesuit missionary, was interested in Chinese culture and translated
many Chinese books on culture, such as Four Books and Five Classics totaling 28
volumes. His translation of The Analects is tinged with a sense of theologized
explanation (Yang Ping, 2008: 133). He made his great efforts to translate the Chinese
classics The Analects. When he translated some books, he dealt with not only the
translation, but also other background materials such as detailed preface, introduction,
annotations etc.
Legge‟s aim of translating the Chinese classic-The Analects was to lay the
groundwork for preaching his religion in China. He translated for those who knew
little about China and interested in learning more about Chinese culture. The
purpose of Legge of translating The Analects was to ensure the missionary work can
go on smoothly and to receive good results. So he studied the Analects and translated
it in order to benefit the missionary work in China, which determined his adoption of
indirect translation strategy in the translation process of “ren”, because there was no
need for him to help the westerners to comprehensibly understand Confucian
thoughts.
4.2.2.2 Ku Hung-ming and the Intended Readers
Forty years later than James Legge‟s translation, Ku Hung-ming published his
translation-The Chinese Classics, Vol.I. He is the first Chinese translator who
translated The Analects independently and offered his own understanding of The
Analects. He criticized James Legge‟s translation and corrected his misunderstandings
in order to present the true images of China and the Chinese people to the western
readers, especially the educated western readers, through the translation of The
Analects. He had studied in foreign countries and cultures for fourteen
years especially in England and German, which made him learn more about the
western culture. After returning from abroad, he spent twenty years translating
Chinese classic works. Thus, he plays a significant role in transmitting Chinese
culture. At that period of his time, there was a widely circulated claim, “If you have a

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 chance to come to China, you must visit the Forbidden City and the famous
Chinese-Ku Hong-ming”. Following this experience, Ku gained an acute sense of
cultures and linguistic features both at home and abroad. When he attempted to
introduce Chinese classic works to the western people, he concerned more about
showing the educated western readers the true images of China and Chinese
people. Then the translation work of the Discourses and Sayings of Confucius: A New
Special Translation, Illustrated with Quotations from Goethe and Other Writers came
out. As a native Chinese speaker, he could get a relatively thorough understanding
about the metaphoric meanings of the abstract metaphorical concept “ren”, and the
experience abroad helped him to convey these messages in a way which was much
more easily acceptable for western readers.
In Ku‟s preface to his translation-The Discourse and Sayings of Confucius: A New
Special Translation, Illustrated with Quotations from Goethe and Other Writers,
he evaluated James Legge as “a pundit with a very learned but dead knowledge of
Chinese books” and Legge‟s translation as “strange and grotesque” for “his raw
literary training” and “the utter want of critical insight” (Ku, 1898: vii-viii). In his
translation, Ku conducted translating skills, like eliminating “all the Chinese proper
names” and adding quotations from well know European authors” (ku, 1898: viii), for
the reason that he wanted to “gives to the China men his intellectual and moral outfit,
accessible to the general English reader”. In the end, he hoped to make the “educated
and thinking Englishmen” “reconsider their hitherto foregone conceptions of the
Chinese people” and then “change the attitude of their personal and national relations
with the Chinese as individuals and as a nation”. Taking all the things mentioned
above account, we can safely come to the conclusion that Ku took the indirect
translation on the frame of Relevance Theory.
In conclusion, Ku‟s purpose was intended to make it easy for the target readers to
understand Confucian thoughts, which determined his adoption of the indirect
translation strategy. Ku totally replaced Chinese names and places with what
Westerners were familiar with.

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 4.2.3 Contrastive Analysis of the Metaphoric Translations of “Ren” in the Two
Versions
In this part, it enters into the comparison of the two English versions of The
Analects by either translator, being centered on the translations of “ren” in both
versions. For comparing easily, Legge‟s translations and Ku‟s are put together in one
table.
Table 2 Comparative Study of “Ren” in the Two Versions
Legge‟s version Ku‟s version

Ren Qty Freq Ren Qty Freq

True/perfect virtue 57 52.3% Moral 46 42.2%

character

Perfectly/truly virtuous 12 11.0% (high) moral 25 22.9%

life
Virtuous 10 9.2% Moral 13 11.9%
man/people
Benevolent/ 9 8.3% Be moral 8 7.3%
actions/benevolence
The man of virtue 8 7.3% To live a 5 4.6%
moral life
The virtuous 7 6.4% Morality 5 4.6%

Pronoun (so) 2 1.8% A (good) man 2 1.8%

The good 1 0.9% Moral 1 0.9%

surrounding
A man 1 0.9% Man of the 1 0.9%
people
Act virtuously 1 0.9% Men of moral 1 0.9%
worth

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 Men of principle 1 0.9% Moral well 1 0.9%
beings
Total 109 100% Total 109 100%

By comparison, from the table above, we can safely make the conclusion that
Legge and Ku both used quite different words and phrases to translate “ren”. The
highest frequency in Legge‟s version is “True/perfect virtue” (52.3%), while in Ku‟s
version “moral character” (42.2%).
Specifically speaking, it is obvious that the translations of “ren” in the two
versions are both diverse, which can better help the translators to express the various
implicatures or metaphoric meanings of “ren” under different cognitive contexts.
Table 2 shows that in James Legge‟s version, he adopted the kind of English
words, like “virtue”, “virtuous”, “virtuously”, “benevolent” and “benevolence”. By
“kind” here, the author means a word with possible modifying components. Legge
also chose a often used translation device in translation: substitution with
pronoun-“so”, addition and omission to express the metaphoric meanings of the
Chinese character “ren”.
In Ku‟s translation, he adopted the kind of words, like “moral” and “morality”.
Like Legge, he also used the translation measures-addition and omission.
Next the thesis will make a detailed and concrete comparison. In this part, the
author will take the sentences with “ren” in chapter 4 of The Analects as examples.
Each example will be accompanied with corresponding translations by the two
translators. Why to choose “ren” in chapter 4? The reason behind it counts. In The
Analects, “ren” appears 109 times, scattered in 14 chapters. However, “ren” appears
18 times only in chapter 4, being the top after comparing with the other chapters.
Except this, “ren” and its translations are underlined for emphasis.
Sample 11. 里仁 [第一章] 子曰：“里仁为美。择不处仁，焉得知？”
The Master said, “It is virtuous manners which constitute the excellence of a
neighborhood. If a man in selecting a residence does not fix on one where such
prevail, how can he be wise?” (Legge)

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 Confucius remarked, “it is the moral life of a neighborhood which constitutes its
excellence. He is not an intelligent man, who, in choosing his residence, does not
select a place with a moral surrounding.” (Ku)
Sample 12. [第二章] 子曰：“不仁者不可以久处约，不可以长处乐。仁者安
仁，知者利仁。”
The Master said, “Those who are without virtue cannot abide long either in a
condition of poverty and hardship, or in a condition of enjoyment．The virtuous rest in
virtue; the wise desire virtue.”(Legge)
Confucius remarked, “A man without moral character cannot long put up with
adversity, nor can he long enjoy prosperity. Men of moral character find themselves at
home in being moral; men of intelligence find it advantageous to be moral.” (Ku )
Sample 13. [第三章] 子曰：“唯仁者能好人，能恶人。”
The Master said, “It is only the truly virtuous man, who can love, or who can
hate, others.” (Legge)
The Master said, “It is only men of moral character who know how to love men
or to hate men.” (Ku)
Sample 14. [第四章] 子曰：“苟志于仁矣，无恶也。”
The Master said, “If the will be set on virtue, there will be no practice of
wickedness.” (Legge)
Confucius remarked, “If you fix our mind upon a moral life, he will be free from
evil.”(Ku)
Sample 15. [第五章] 君子去仁，恶乎成名？君子无终食之间违仁，造次必于
是，颠沛必于是。
“If a superior man abandons virtue, how can he fulfill the requirements of that
name? The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to
virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.”
(Legge)
“A wise man who leaves his moral character is no longer entitled to the name of a
wise man. A wise man never for one single moment in his life loses sight of a moral
life; in moments of haste and hurry, as in moments of danger and peril, he always

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 clings to it.” (Ku)
Sample 16. [第六章] 子曰：
“我未见好仁者，恶不仁者。好仁者，无以尚之；
恶不仁者，其为仁矣，不使不仁者加乎其身。有能一日用其力于仁矣乎？我未见
力不足者。盖有之矣，我未之见也。”
The Master said, “I have not seen a person who loved virtue, or one who hated
what was not virtuous. He who loved virtue, would esteem nothing above it. He who
hated what is not virtuous, would practice virtue in such a way that he would not
allow anything that is not virtuous to approach his person. Is any one able for one day
to apply his strength to virtue? I have not seen the case in which his strength would be
insufficient.” (Legge)
Confucius remarked, “I do not now see a man who really loves a moral life; or
one who really hates an immoral life. One who really loves a moral life would esteem
nothing above it. One who really hates an immoral life would be a moral man who
would not allow anything the least immoral in his life. Nevertheless, if a man were
really to exert himself for one single day to live a moral life, i do not believe he will
find that he has not the strength to do it. At least i have never heard of such a case.”
(Ku)
Sample 17. [第七章] 子曰:“人之过也，各于其党。观过，斯知仁矣。”
The Master said, “The faults of men are characteristic of the class to which they
belong. By observing a man‟s faults, it may be known that he is virtuous.”(Legge)
Confucius remarked, “Men‟s faults are characteristic. By observing a man‟s
failings you can judge of his moral character.” (Ku)
From the above translation examples of “ren”, it can be clearly seen that the two
translators had their own preferences of expressions. James Legge stuck to use the
word “virtuous” to translate “ren”, and in contrast Ku Hung-ming chose the word
“moral” and “moral life”. What led the two translators to make different choices for
translating the key concept “ren” in The Analects and express its metaphoric meanings?
There must be some reasons behind it. The Relevance Theory will provide us a key to
unlock the puzzle, which will get a detailed illustration in the following part.
In Legge‟s version, in example 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, he used the word “virtuous”. In

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 Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary (2004), “virtuous” (adjective)
refers to:
a. A virtuous person behaves in a moral and correct way;
b. If you describe someone as virtuous, you mean that they have done what they
ought to do and feel very pleased with themselves, perhaps too pleased.
In example 12 and 13, Legge used the word “virtue”. According to Oxford
Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary (2004), there are three explanations
for “virtue” (noun), they are:
a. Formal behavior or attitudes that show high moral standards;
b. A particular good quality or habit;
c. An attractive or useful quality.
Legge (1861:29) said in his commentary: “Due to „virtue‟ fulfilled with various
meanings, it can reflect proper implied meanings under different context.” That‟s to
say Legge believed that “virtue”, having general meanings, can be used to reflect the
multiple implied meanings of “ren”.
From the meaning of “virtous”, “virtue” and the metaphoric meanings of “ren” in
The Analects, we could easily find that Legge employed an indirect translation
strategy.
In the preface of Legge‟s version-The Chinese Classics Vol. I: Confucian
Analects, The Great Thinking, And The Doctrine of The Mean, he discussed the
background of Chinese classics, The Analects, disciples of Confucius and something
related to the translation at great length, with no explanation of “ren” involved. Only
in the footnotes, he stated that “We can not give a uniform rendering of this term”
(1861: 3). As shown in table 2, James Legge mainly adopted the words “virtue”,
“benevolence”, “good” and so like to express the metaphoric meanings of “ren” in
Chinese character.
As what the author has mentioned above, Legge‟s purpose of translating The
Analects was to benefit the missionary work in China, so there was no need for him to
help the westerners to understand Confucian thoughts. What he needed to do is to find
a equivalent word that could express some metaphoric meanings of “ren” and make

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 sure that the readers spend less effort to reach a basic understanding of Chinese
culture. So Legge chose the word more familiar to his intended readers in the
Christian culture.
As we all know, in Christian culture, the original sin has existed in the heart of
human when they come to the world, which was brought by Adam and Eve who
were seduced by the serpent to eat the apple and lost the Garden of Eden. Therefore,
in the Bible, there are “The Seven Deadly Sins” (Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy
and Pride) and “The Seven Holy Virtues” (Self-restraint, Vigilance, Integrity,
Composure, Giving and Humbleness). So people need to make the atonement for
themselves. The latency influence of Christian culture gives people some clues for
understanding Legge‟s choices of words in the translations of “ren” in The Analects.
In the eyes of Legge, what “ren” is to The Analects is what virtue to the Bible.
Besides, the mission of the Jesuit missionary at his time was to propagate the
Christian dogmas trough his translation of the great work The Analects.
Except the usage of words in the above examples, Legge also chose the word
“benevolent”. As for “benevolent”, Legge explained that it is not appropriate in all the
contexts to translate “ren” in this way. Therefore, he decided to use “virtue” substitute
for “benevolent”. According to the The Concise Oxford Dictionary (2004), the Latin
root of “benevolent” (kindness, charity) means well-wishing. It seems correspondent
to Chinese word “忠恕” (loyal) which mainly refers to the kind heart, generous and
can not accurately express the true meaning of “ren”. Because Confucius‟ metaphoric
meanings of “ren” do not only stress to show mercy but also highlight the aspect of
conforming to “rites” of the society. Even though the word “benevolent” could not
express all the metaphoric meanings of “ren” in the original text, it fulfilled the
purpose of the translator and the expectations of its intended reader to get a general
and rough idea of this Chinese classic.
In Ku‟s version, from the examples 11 to 17, in Ku‟s point of view, people needed
to gain the “moral character” firstly before they could live a “moral life”, which
provided a developing line for the formation of “ren”, showing one of the metaphoric
meanings of “ren”-a life-long studying and practicing. So, in this aspect, we can say

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 that Ku‟s translation could achieve the optimal relevance.
In general, except the examples above, we can see that Ku explained “ren” from
the perspective of the morality. In Ku‟s version, from the beginning to the end, he
used the kind of word “moral”, like “moral life”, “moral character”, “morality” to
translate “ren”. From the perspective of discourse coherence, the kind of usage is
good to keep the consistency of the full text, making the core meaning stressed. Legge
also tried to make sure the part of speech of every translation of “ren” the same with
that of “ren” in the original text, which is faithful to the original text in the aspect of
part of speech.
He (1998: 121) pointed out in The Spirit of The Chinese People: “the word
„humanity‟ is perhaps the most exact equivalent English word to translate “ren”, but
„humanity‟ must be understood in a sense different from its idiomatic use in the
English language.” However, what makes us confused is that he adopted the
expression of “moral” instead. His translations almost reflect western‟s moral
qualities connected with the main thought “humanity”,and are close to Yang Bojun‟s
interpretation of “ren” (Yang Bojun (1980:3): Ren is the title for Confucius supreme
morality.
According to what we have learned from the former apart, Ku‟s communicative
intention was to spread Chinese culture and improve the image of China. In the
preface to The Discourses and Sayings of Confucius, He remarked that “We try our
best to follow the way that the educated British people would express their thoughts to
translate the conversation between Confucius and his disciples” (Ku, 1898: 346). He
intended to adopt indirect translation with more focus on the ideas of the original in
his The Discourses and Sayings of Confucius. His intended readers were the native
English people who knew little about China. He used the indirect way so that his
intended readers could cost less processing effort to understand the Chinese culture.
So we can say Ku‟s version could reach the optimal relevance.
However, under different contexts, simply using “moral” will bring the readers a
lot of confusion. For example, in the sample 12 above, “ren” has a metaphoric
meaning of “moral cultivation”. But in Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese

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 Dictionary (2004), „„moral” is mainly used as an adjective and refers to: “concerned
with principles of right and wrong behavior”, which can be treated as a judgment
norm. Actually, according to human being‟s subject consciousness, Confucius has
boiled the internal cause of propriety and music culture down to “ren”. And also from
Confucius‟ time, “ren” has become the kernel connotation of human relationships and
civilization of propriety and music, stressing on “love people” (仁者爱人) in the
sample 6 and “subdue one‟s self and return to propriety” (克己复礼为仁）in the
sample 3. So the metaphoric meanings of “ren” not only include the norms of moral
behavior but also the moral cultivation.
In summary, according to Gutt (2004: 195), “for communicative success, the
translator has to ensure that his intentions and the expectations of the audience will be
in line; so he chooses a suitable approach and makes sure that the audience is aware of
and in agreement with his choice.”
James Legge used the kind of word “virtue”, which was more familiar to the
people who had a Christian belief. He also used the kind of word “benevolent” to
express some of the metaphoric meanings of “ren”, like kind, friendly, helpful and so
on.
Ku Hung-ming focused more on right and wrong or good and bad behavior when
translating “ren”. Because according to Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese
Dictionary (2004), „„moral” refers to:
“concerned with principles of right and wrong behavior”.
His communicative intentions and expectations were to make the British people
remove the prejudice against and misunderstanding of China. Since they have a
different cognitive environment about what is wrong or right, Ku Hung-ming used the
kind of word “moral life” to express the metaphoric meanings of “ren” in Confucian
thought.
They both tried to make sure that they could fulfill the intended readers‟
expectations, and also make sure that their audiences could be aware of their choices.
So both versions could achieve the optimal relevance.

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 4.3 Summary
In the framework of Relevance Theory, this chapter has elaborated the reasons for
selecting the two versions, analyzed the metaphoric meanings of “ren” in The
Analects, made a contrastive study on the two translators, intended readers and their
translations strategies. It discovered the two translators adopted the same indirect
translation method. And even though the two translators chose different English
words in the metaphor translations of “ren”, they both could achieve the optimal
relevance.

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 CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSIONS

According to the anthropologist Edward Hall (1977), China is a country of

high-context culture. The speech in China is always veiled, especially the
communicative language in ancient Chinese classics. As one of the most renowned
classics in Spring and Autumn period, The Analects, famous for its refined and
concise language, has numerous metaphors. Nevertheless, until now there are few
scholars to study the metaphor translations of the concepts in this classic work. From
the perspective of Relevance Theory, this thesis has compared and analyzed metaphor
translations of the most important abstract concept “ren” in two English translations
of The Analects by James Legge and Ku Hung-ming individually, looked into the
differences between the two versions and attempted to find the causes.

5.1 A Brief Summary

Up to now, just as what the table 2 above showed, we could draw a clear parallel
between the two metaphor translations of “ren” in The Analects within the theoretical
framework of Relevance Theory. James Legge mainly used the words like “virtue”,
“virtuous” and “benevolent” to translate, while Ku Hong-ming preferred to use the
words like “moral character”, “moral life” and “moral man”. This is what can be
known from textual comparison. In addition, the methods like omissions, additions,
and some substitutions on the micro level are also found. Through analyzing the
statements and backgrounds of both translators, cognitive contextual comparison has
also been conducted. As for the reasons why different translations chose different
English words to translate the metaphoric abstract concept “ren” in The Analects have
been discussed according to the Relevance Theory. By contrastive studies, we can
infer that the intention of translators and the intended readers restraining their
choice-making. It turns out that the translations of Legge and Ku Hung-ming both
could reach the optimal relevance in the translations of metaphoric meanings of “ren”
in The Analects.

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 As for the elaborated part of metaphoric meanings of “ren” in The Analects,
according to the Relevance Theory, the significance of the intention of the original
writer and the influence of the translator‟s cognitive background upon its translating
may be included to make the theory more convincing. As is known to all that it is
rather difficult to translate well without knowing the metaphoric meanings of the
metaphorical concept “ren”. That is the reason why the author adds the part of
metaphoric meanings of “ren” in this thesis.

5.2 Major Findings

Through the research being conducted above, the author got the following
findings:
1. In the metaphor translations of “ren” in The Analects, Legge and Ku
Hung-ming both used the indirect strategy to express the metaphoric meanings of
“ren”. They chose different English words in the metaphor translations of “ren”.
Legge tended to use the kind of words, like “virtue”, “virtuous”, “benevolent” and Ku
Hung-ming tended to use the kind of words, like “moral”, “morality” and so on.
It is impossible to just use one expression for abstract “ren” The Analects due to
its profound metaphoric connotations. Through the diachronic study, we clearly notice
that it is the case that every translator centered on one major kind of English word
with some others for supplementation. The major choice reflected the translators‟
understanding of “ren” in The Analects, which had been manifested clearly in their
preface, introduction, or influenced by their personal background.
2. According to the Relevance Theory, this thesis aims to make an overall study
into the metaphor translations of “ren” in The Analects. From the comparison, this
paper pointed out that Legge translated The Analects with the purpose of making sure
the missionary work was getting along very well and to receive good results. In
another word, he translated the Chinese classic-The Analects was to lay the
groundwork for preaching his religion in China. So there was no need for him to help
the westerners to understand Confucian's idea. While Ku‟s communicative purpose
was to spread Chinese culture and to improve China's image. He translated for those

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 who were not familiar with Chinese culture and prejudiced against China. In the
preface to The Discourses and Sayings of Confucius, he commented that we try to
follow the way that the educated British people would express their ideas to translate
the conversation between Confucius and his disciples (Ku, 1898: 346). He intented to
focus more on the idea of the original version in his The Discourses and Sayings of
Confucius. Both of their translations are fit for the metaphor translations of “ren” in
The Analects. Different choices may lead to different cognitive results and may fit
different intended readers in different contexts. That is the reason what led the
versions of the same work different.
Even though the real case is such a complex one, the author points out that
because of the differences in translating purposes, the needs, expectations and
cognitive abilities of the intended readers, the translators used different translation
strategies and both of the two English versions have achieved the optimal relevance.

5.3 Implications of the Findings

The two findings are of importance for future studies on metaphor translations of
“ren” in The Analects from the following aspects:
1. This thesis may be a guide for later translators of the Analects. At the same
time, the thesis also gives them some hint to the later researchers of “ren” in The
Analect whether they aim to make reference or to polish the translating of “ren” in
The Analects.
2. Apart from the translations of “ren” which were provided by the two translators,
it proves that the capitalized and italicized “ren” may be a correspond word for
replacing the Chinese character “ren” (仁) in the Analects. And when translating the
metaphor important concepts, such as “Li”, “Xiao”, “Zhong” and the like, the
translators might adopt the same method.
The reason here may be simple. China now is powerful enough to attract more
and more people around the world to come to China. Exchanges between China and
the other countries become readily available with increasingly globalization, which is
one of the driving forces of the Chinese culture. It is the same with The Analects

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 which is one of the most important important certres of Confucianism. Peng Ziyou
who is a translator of The Analects first adopts the word “Ren” with the first letter R
capitalized to translate “ren” in The Analects.

5.4 Limitations
After the completion of the thesis, the author thinks that there is much to be
improved.
Firstly, the data of the metaphor translations of The Analects may not be as
complete as possible due to the limited time and energy. Besides, even though the
author had tried her best to search for as many as the materials relevant to the topic, it
is not sure that all the recorded materials can be readily available for the author.
Secondly, much effort had been made by many other professors and researchers
for The Analects, most of whom are Chinese. So the author has to translate these
views into English by herself in order to quote their brilliant opinions. In the further
step, even though their ideas can be found through the author‟s own translation, there
might be some misunderstandings of their ideas.
Thirdly, according to the author‟s own understanding of metaphoric meanings of
“ren” in The Analects and her personal experiences, the metaphoric meanings of such
enigmatic concept could not be imbibed during the short time. All that the author can
do is to try to understand and take in what she had collected to form her own opinions.

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