Fusion of Horizons: a Comparative Study of Two Chinese Versions of Moment in Peking

Philosophical hermeneutics is increasingly showing its practical significance intranslation studies. Hermeneutics takes translation, especially literary translation as an art.Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) epitomizes previous studies of hermeneutics, and putsforward the principle of fusion of horizons to expound the essence of literary translation.Philosophical hermeneutics emphasizes that no one can get rid of his/her horizon toconstruct and interpret the text. In literary translation, fusion of horizons means that thetranslator should make the original text and the author’s intention expressed in the targetlanguage properly so that the target readers could resonate with them through translation.Therefore, fusion of horizons involves two dimensions. The first is the translation’stallying with the original text, and the second the translation’s relationship with the targetreaders’ situations. Because the horizons vary from person to person, there inevitably existdifferent degrees of fusion of horizons. Different horizons of the translators lead to thediversity of the translated versions. In the translating process, the translator should take theoriginal author’s horizon and the target readers’ horizons into consideration attempting toreach the higher degree of fusion of horizons.Moment in Peking is the most famous novel written by Lin Yutang in English. Itcontains rich cultural and emotional information, which gives the translators enough spacefor understanding and interpreting. Therefore, it has a high feasibility to make acomparative study of the Chinese versions of Moment in Peking from the perspective offusion of horizons. Few scholars have so far done deep and comprehensive research on theChinese versions of Moment in Peking from the perspective of fusion of horizons. Thisthesis aims to compare Zhang Zhenyu’s Jinghua Yanyun (《京华烟云》) with Yu Fei’sShunxi Jinghua 《(瞬息京华》) to analyze the differences between the two Chinese versions,to explore the reasons behind the differences, and to compare the degrees of fusion ofhorizons in the two Chinese versions for testifying the value and important guidingsignificance of fusion of horizons in literary translation.Through a detailed comparison between the two Chinese versions, this thesis arguesthat the contents of Moment in Peking need to be interpreted both at the cultural level and at the linguistic level. The two translators’ different personal experiences, translationpurposes and translation thoughts affect the formation of their different horizonsmanifested in the two Chinese versions. At the cultural level, their different horizons aremainly manifested in folk customs, religions, language expressions, quotations and poems,proper names and other traditional terms. Comparatively speaking, Yu Fei’s translationconveys more accurately the cultural flavor of the original and shows his deeperunderstanding about the traditional Chinese culture. Therefore, Yu’s version reaches thehigher degree of fusion of horizons with both the original text and the target readers. At thelinguistic level, Yu Fei’s language is quite plain and his expression presents translationeseto a certain extent with literal translation as his strategy. While Zhang Zhenyu’s language isproper, humorous and his Chinese expression is idiomatic with free translation as hisstrategy. For this reason, Zhang’s version reaches the higher degree of fusion of horizonswith both the original text and the target readers. Literary translation is both a process ofinterpretation and a process of fusion of horizons. The higher the degree of fusion ofhorizons is, the more perfect the translated version is.