The classic Chinese novel Hong Lou Meng has been introduced into many different cultures through an important medium: translation. Over one dozen of English versions have been published so far, and have been studied by so many researchers. In those translated works, a variety of translation strategies are adopted for translating characters’ names. Name translation is a small field of studies on translating Hong Lou Meng , However this topic is not only interesting but also important. This study examines how characters’ names in Hong Lou Meng are translated in the various versions of the novel’s English translation, and investigates the reasons behind the name-translation strategies. More specifically, this paper focused on the four English versions of Hong Lou Meng published in the 1920s and 1970s. Different translation strategies and associated underpinning reasons are revealed. Specifically, translators in 1920s (e.g. Wang Chi-Chen, 1929) tackled the task of translating names in Hong Lou Meng by word-to-word translation and pin-yin transcription, placing an emphasis on seeking an equivalence at the lexical level. Hawkes (1973) and Yangs (1978), on the other hand, made more efforts to determine the functions of the character names in the source text and attempted to find methods that would more adequately render the functions in the translated work. Through examining the prevailing theories for translating Chinese texts into foreign languages during those two periods, together with name-translation by different translators, the study reveals that the changes in translators’ strategy in the name-translation indicates a shift from seeking lexical equivalence to maintaining communicative function.
As a classic with an eternal appeal in its own country, the Chinese novel Hong Lou Meng has 975 characters, 732 of which have individualized names. The novel has been introduced into many different cultures through an important medium: translation. Over one dozen of English versions have been published so far. In those translated works, a variety of translation strategies are adopted for translating characters’ names. All these strategies form a history of translating characters’ names in Hong Lou Meng. As a study of translation history, this study not only examines how characters’ names in Hong Lou Meng are translated in the various versions of the novel’s English translation, but also investigates the reasons behind the name-translation strategies.
History of translation is one of the four areas of translation studies, as well as a component of literary history [
Hong Long Meng was originally written by Cao Xueqin. The novel has been passed down since its first manuscript of sixteen chapters was found in 1754. The following chapters were uncovered throughout the following years and there are in total eighty chapters written by Cao himself, and another forty chapters written by his successor Gao, E., whose identity hasn’t been acknowledged by many researchers. Due to its long history of hand-copying and editing done by writers in the later generations, Hong Lou Meng has many slightly different versions with the same characters. But this didn’t stop the effort of translating this classic novel. All the three ways of interpreting a verbal sign, namely Intralingual, Interlingual, and Intersemiotic translation [
There are many English versions of Hong Lou Meng. Some of them have only several chapters, some of them are adaptations, and some of them are completed versions. Four important English publications based on Hong Lou Meng prior to the 20th century are Chinese Poetry by John Davis (1830), Dream of Red Chamber by Robert Tom (1846), Dream of Red Chamber by Edward Charles Bowra (1868), and Dream of Red Chamber by Bencraft Joly (1892).
This study focuses on publications around the two high points of modern Chinese translation, especially in the field of literature: 1920s and 1970s [
Both oriental and western writers fancy endowing characters’ names with special meanings. For instance, Mr. Worldly Wiseman in The Pilgrim’s Progress, Murderstone in David Copperfield, and Mr. Allworthy in The History of Tom Jones. Names in Hong Lou Meng are similarly endowed with special meanings. The majority of names in this novel contain words referring to different types of germs or flowers, and at the same time, many characters’ names are suggestive of the destiny or personality of the characters.
To illustrate, characters Lin Daiyu’s and Xue Baochai’s family names both have implied meanings. The family name “Lin” is a simile of wood, trees or forests while the family name “Xue” is a metaphor for snow. The first name Daiyu is a piece of black jade, and the first name Baochai is a precious hairpin. In the novel, there is a painting indicating the fate of the two ladies. Their family names Lin and Xue were represented by the image of two trees and a pile of snow, and their given names by “a jade belt” and “a golden hairpin”. So the overall portrait were “a jade belt hanging on the tree” and “a golden hairpin buried in a pile of snow”. Their names are suggestive of the fragile, sensitive and secluded personality of Lin Daiyou and the quality of Xue Baochai as a hidden treasure respectively, which is made vivid with the help of the portrait. If the implied meanings of their names were lost in the English version, readers would not understand what the painting is referring to, and as a result, they cannot appreciate the choreographed scenarios. Therefore although name translation hasn’t been the focus of the majority of translation tasks and studies, it is of great significance in translating this novel. There is a difference between name translation achieved on the level of lexical equivalence and on the functional equivalence. A lexical equivalence between the original names and the translated versions refers to the transfer on the lexical level through simple transcription or word-to-word literal translation; a functional equivalence, on the other hand, could be achieved through other translation strategies to maintain the hidden implication and the communicative function of the names.
The most common way of translating names from Chinese to English is transcription, which refers to a method that matches the sounds of terms in one language to those in another. In Chinese-to-English translation, names are usually transcribed into Chinese pin-yin, Latin letters that do not possess phonological value for English speakers. Even native Chinese could hardly grab the essence of the names’ connotation carefully shaped by the author through reading pin-yin, let alone foreign readers, whose knowledge, background, or aesthetic value have little association to Chinese pin-yin. As a result, pin-yin could never suffice in helping readers to make any connection between the names and their suggested implication or image. This is the reason why some translators have adopted other strategies in their translation to compensate the loss.
Each components of the language in a story tells something as part of the story or serves a function in the story-telling. This function of a component may or may not be maintained for different groups of readers. Katharina Reiss [
In the twenty-first century, a number of translation studies have been conducted, demonstrating a growing interest in investigating the optimal techniques to translate the great work. Some studies focus on one single translated version (e.g. [
Besides the translation of traditional poetry, special expressions, and title of each chapter, the research related to translating Hong Lou Meng has taken on a new topic: Names in Hong Lou Meng. Some researchers found the task of translating names in Hong Lou Meng both meaningful and challenging and then carried out researches exclusively on name-translation, both non-contrastive (e.g. [
The period from the May Forth Movement in 1919 to the outbreak of World War Two is viewed as “the decisive period in modern Chinese translation history” [
At the same time, translators were seeking formal correspondence between original and target text to achieve fidelity, which was viewed as the first criterion for translation by many translators. There was a similar trend in the Chinese-to-English translation during the period. Although it was doubtful that this effort of seeking lexical equivalence in every aspect of translation was unanimous, this paper suggests that its influence on contemporary translation theories is evident, which can be examined through the way of how individual translators translated the names in Hong Lou Meng.
Translator Wang Chi-Chen’s and Wang Liangzhi struggled to seek lexical equivalence in their own and separate translations of Hong Lou Meng, both of which were under the same name: Dream of the Red Chamber. They adopted a similar strategy for name-translation: some names were translated word by word, while the others were transcribed.
Taking Wang Chi-Chen’s publication [
Another type of translation technique used by these two translators is transcription. Characters whose names have no direct connection with objects such as germs or flowers were all transcribed in accordance with their pronunciations. The equivalence was achieved on the phonological level. However, without further explanations, a pin-yin name in the English versions failed to communicate anything, beyond being a designation of a character.
It has been argued that translators should not approach equivalence by searching for “sameness”, which can rarely be achieved in intralingual translation, let alone in interlingual translation [
Since 1950s, translation study has gradually emerged as a specialized knowledge [
A Dream of Red Mansions translated by Yang Xianyi & Gladys Yang [
Transcription was also used in many cases of name-translation, but not in the same way as it was used by the translators in 1920s. In the earlier period, whether a name was transcribed or literally translated depended on whether this name contains characters referring to objects such as germs, flowers or animals. In 1970s, the attention was shifted from the Chinese characters of the names to the function of names. Characters’ names that do not have implied meanings were transcribed in accordance with their pronunciations. For those names with implied meaning, Hawkes and Yangs resorted to other ways to supplement the transcription.
The Yangs [
David Hawkes [
David Hawkes combined transcription, annotation, and liberal translation in his version of Hong Lou Meng. This translator attached great importance to the communicative function of characters’ names. He also included an appendix explaining the meaning of the characters’ names and their kinship. Here is one specific name for illustrating Hawkes’ liberal translation: Huo Qi, whose homonym means “the beginning of catastrophe” [
Another Hawkes’ strategy is also note-worthy. He domesticated the name “Bu Shi-Ren” by equaling it with “Mr. Hardleigh Hewman” [
Both of two translated versions published in 1970s place an emphasis on communicative function of the character’s names. The translators realized the significance of interpreting names, and acknowledged the difficulty of accomplishing the mission of adhering to the conventions of names in English and maintaining the implied meanings of the Chinese names as relating to the storyline in Hong Lou Meng.
To conclude, it is impossible to guarantee a match between the content of a message in a source language and an expression in the target language [
Name translation is a small field of studies on translating Hong Lou Meng, However this topic is not only interesting but also important. It seems that oriental and western names do not have “mutual translatability” [
Through examining how name-translation was done for Hong Lou Meng in 1920s and 1970s, various translation strategies and associated underpinning reasons are revealed. Specifically, translators in 1920s (e.g. [
Hao Zhou, (2015) Translating Characters’ Names in Hong Lou Meng during the 20 th Century: From Seeking Lexical Equivalence to Maintaining Communicative Function. Open Access Library Journal,02,1-7. doi: 10.4236/oalib.1102028