A Study on Scholar-Translators’ Translation Ethics —Exemplified by James Legge’s Translation of Confucian Analects

Abstract

Since 1980s, there has been an “ethical turn” in translation research, translation ethics research has not only focused on specific translation strategies and techniques, but also shifted its attention to the ethics behind the choices of translators. Unlike professional translators, scholar-translators are responsible for studying the original works, authors, and even the source language and culture, so their ethics behind their translation choices are more complex than professional translators’. Therefore, this study intends to analyze the translation strategies adopted by James Legge, a scholar-translator, at the linguistic and cultural levels, and to explore the ethical models of translation followed by him when he translated Confucian Analects. According to the analysis on Legge’s version of Confucian Analects, it can be concluded that “Faith” is the foundation of a scholar-translator’s translation ethics.