Introduction
1. Research Background
Xi Xiang Ji, created by Wang Shifu of the Yuan Dynasty, is one of the most popular classical Chinese dramas. It’s about the love story between a young scholar Zhang Sheng and Cui Yingying. It has attracted a great many readers both at home and abroad. Having been translated into different English versions, many scholars have been doing researches on them. However, few comprehensive and systematic studies have been made on the translation of Xi Xiang Ji from the perspective of the adaptation theory. This thesis tries to make investigations on the integration of the adaptation theory and English rendition of Xi Xiang Ji. Xi Xiang Ji has eight different English renditions. S. I. Hsiung is the first Chinese scholar who translated Xi Xiang Ji into English version with the title of The Romance of the Western Chamber published in 1935 through the Methuen .Ltd in London. In 1936, Henry H. Hart, an American sinologist, translated Xi Xiang Ji into The West Chamber, a medieval dream published by Stanford University Press. Henry W. Wells is a Columbia University professor and he translated Xi Xiang Ji into The West Chamber in Four Classical Asian Plays in 1972. In 1973, T. C. Lai, together with Ed Gamarekian translated the works into English named The Romance of the Western Chamber and had it published by Hong Kong Heinemann Educational Books Ltd. In 1984, Dolby William, an English sinologist, translated all the acts with the title of West Wing and published it through Cale-donian Publishing Company. In 1991, University of California Press issued The Moon and the Zither: Wang Shifu’s Story of the Western Wing translated by Stephen H. West and Wilt L. Idema. In 1995, this rendition was republished as The Story of the Western Wing. Stephen H. West and Wilt L.Idema gave this full-length version a 110-page introduction. In 1992, Xu Yuanchong did the translation of this play and published it by the Foreign Languages Press with the first four acts. Till 1998, he finished all the acts and issued his second version as Romance of the Western Bower by Hunan People’s Publishing House. Among all the versions, the author chooses Xu
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2. The Significance of the Thesis
The studies on English translation of Xi Xiang Ji are numerous. Researches are done from a variety of perspectives such as the translator’s subjectivity, aesthetics, functional equivalence, intertextuality, etc. However, the nature of the language and the translation hasn’t attracted enough attention. Language is dynamic rather than static and the translation is a process of using language. During the last decade, there is only one researcher who has connected the adaptation theory with the analysis translation of Xi Xiang Ji based on CNKI. This thesis is the first to make a detailed comparative study of two English versions of Xi Xiang Ji from the perspective of the adaptation theory by utilizing qualitative and quantitative analysis methods. It draws on AntConc 3.2.1 and ICTCLAS to (1) show how each translator from different cultural &
