Translation ethics in the light of the Chinese ecological model of translation

Li Tszyasin Postgraduate Student at the Higher School of Translation and Interpretation, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119415, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Udaltsova str., 16, sq. 90 dlljx999@gmail.com

ethics is one of the basic guiding principles of human behavior and one of the most important requirements of translation. Ethics is the study of moral problems, systematization and theorizing of moral thoughts and views. The study of translation ethics helps to clarify the essence of translation activity and establish the values of translation, which fundamentally determines the desire of translators and the implementation of translation. The beginning of the study of translation ethics is considered to be the end of the twentieth century, when Antoine Berman, a well-known French translation theorist, officially introduced the issue of ethics into the field of translation studies, suggesting that one of the fundamental tasks of modern research in the field of translation theory is to give a clear definition of translation ethics so that translators can go beyond the closed circle of language, literature and ideology and proceed to a broader and deeper test of the "alien" ^{[6, p. 75]}. The emergence of the ethics of translation opened a new theoretical breakthrough in the long-standing dualistic debates about fidelity and re-creation, someone else's and one's own, free and literal translation, etc., and also expanded theoretical horizons and research paths in the science of translation. After Berman, the ethics of translation became one of the main issues of modern translation studies, both in terms of the quantity and quality of research results, and in terms of the impact of these results in the academic world.

If we are talking about China, then the ethical view of translation was reflected already in ancient China. For example, at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, there was a boom in scientific and technical translation in China, and some ethical concepts accompanied translation activities during that period. For example, Xu Guangqi sadly felt that Chinese science was lagging behind the science of other countries, and therefore sought to translate Western scientific and technical literature in the hope of using the fruits of Western science and technology for his country and strengthen it. This sense of mission for the nation reveals the value of his translation work and reflects the ethical concept of the translator - to use translated books for the development of the nation.

Despite this ethical concept, there was no research on translation ethics in China at that time. According to Chinese scholar Yang Zhenyuan, the term "Translation Ethics" in China first appeared in the article "Introduction to New Books in Foreign Translation" in the journal "Chinese Translation", No. 1, 1998. This article discusses Andrew Chesterman's book "Memes of Translation. Dissemination of Ideas in Translation Theory" ("Memes of Translation"), as well as Chesterman's discussion on translation ethics in this book ^{[17, p. 206]}. Then Chinese scientists gradually began to investigate the issue of translation ethics.

In 2005, Van Dazhi was the first to propose a formal study of the ethics of translation ^{[14, p. 47]}. He further argued that in any translation, the translator's task is to coordinate two related cultures, two languages, various subjects of translation and various ethical relations underlying them, which are of a pronounced historical, social and practical nature ^{[15, p. 63]}. Then Lu Jun also suggested that "the purpose of translation ethics is to establish a code of conduct for intercultural interaction. This concept is aimed at establishing virtuous intercultural interaction based on the recognition of cultural differences, and respect for other cultures, and on the principle of equal dialogue" ^{[10, p. 63]}

In the process of studying translation ethics, Chinese scientists are mainly influenced by the ethical thoughts of translators Berman, Venuti, Chesterman, Pym and others.

Chinese scholar Ouyang Dongfeng summarized and evaluated the ethical thinking of these foreign scientists in the following way: "considering the development of translation ethics research from Schleiermacher's dualism to Berman's first sentence about "testing by strangers", from Venuti's propaganda of "resistance of translators to domestication and invisibility" to undermine cultural hegemony to Chesterman's integration of ethics and the science of translation and the development of a research model the ethics of translation ... Berman relies on literary studies and philosophy, focusing on literature and the transmission of philosophical meaning, and Venuti - on the cultural studies of the postcolonial trend. Despite the fact that the subject of their research is ethical attitudes in translation, their research perspectives are different, and the goals of research are far from each other. However, at a higher level, they both bridge the gap between cultural studies and philosophical research in order to de-internalize their native language and strive for a "new", "foreign" translation. Chesterman, on the other hand, resorts to the ethical model of translation in the structure of ethics, forming an operational basis for the study of translation ethics from contractualism, utilitarianism and the theory of values, restoring the original relations of ethics and translating this study from metaphysical ideological discussion into a concrete study about translators and texts, and clients, and readers of the target language, and cultural norms, and professional ethics" ^{[11, p. 89]}.

Some Chinese scholars have also explained their views on the ethics of translation by Anthony Pym, for example, Liu Yunhong summarized that his ethics of translation is not limited to the unit of translation and textual equivalence at the micro level, but rather to the interaction of subjects at a higher level, and the scope of translation ethics goes beyond the traditional notion of fidelity, and the connotation expands from textual relations before social and cultural communication relations ^{[8, p. 22]}.

According to the eco-model, the translator occupies a central place in the translation process, but only during translation; if we are talking about his activities before or after translation, then it cannot be said that the translator occupies a central place. This, of course, coincides with the opinion of some modern Western translation theorists. For example, if we are talking about the status of a translator, then according to N.K. Garbovsky and O.I. Kostikova: "The social model of translation reflects a certain position of the subject – translator – the central figure of the translation process in a multilingual information and communication system, while other actors influence the translation process to varying degrees, predetermine and they direct the activity of the subject by their attitude to him and to the object" ^{[2, p. 31]}.

Since both Chinese and Western scholars agree that the translator occupies a central place in translation, the study of the personality of the translator himself becomes necessary.

Hu Genshen offers the translator the freedom of choice when translating, and at the same time he offers the responsibility of the translator. The translator's responsibility ensures that translators do not abuse the power of choice at their disposal and translate at their discretion.

The responsibility of the translator correlates with the responsibility of others. Basically, this refers to the concept of the translator's full responsibility in the translation process, in the act of translation and in translation activities, which means that the translator has a special responsibility for coordinating the relationships between the translation community (people), the translation environment (environment) and the translation text (text) in order to achieve balance, harmony that meets the requirements ecological holisms to translation through the translator's responsibility for people, environment and text ^{[3, p. 35]}.

In the ecomodel, translators have three main responsibilities, namely: "survival of the fittest", that is, an attempt to maintain a balance between the ecology of the outgoing language and the ecology of the translated language; special attention to the translation community and the harmonization of relations between various aspects; the success of the translator means that translators are obliged to take care of the acceptance and dissemination of their translations ^{[7, p. 99]}.

First, survival of the fittest. According to the definition of translation in the ecomodel, translation is the activity of adaptation and selection of the translator. The relationship between the translator and his translation is very close, which means that in order to survive in the market in the long term, the translator must find excellent translations by selection, and excellent translations are inevitably those that have the best balance between the ecology of the outgoing language and the translated language. Therefore, the translator must try to ensure a balance between these ecologies of these languages, try to transform the linguistic ecology, cultural ecology and communicative ecology of the original text and try to make the transformed text survive in the new linguistic ecology, cultural ecology and communicative ecology.

As Garbovsky wrote in the book, "The first and main reality for a translator is a communication situation (a communicative situation). In this situation, the translator always interacts with two other communication participants — the author of the source text and the recipient of the translation text, providing interlanguage mediation. It is always addressed to the author of the original speech work, no matter how far away in time and space he may be. Even if we are talking about the translation of a work created many centuries ago, the translator forms his ethics of attitude to the author, which is expressed in how carefully he treats the thoughts and feelings of the author, his figurative system and style. Of course, in this case we are talking about an imaginary author rather than a real person. The translator creates an image of the author in his mind, with whom he conducts an internal dialogue" ^{[1, p. 229]}. On the one hand, it is a confirmation of the translator's central position in translation, and on the other - a demonstration of the importance of ethics. The translator is obliged to create in his mind the correct image of the author and conduct a dialogue with him, and this is a requirement for the level of competence of the language of the translator himself. If the translator is not competent enough, then it is difficult for him to create this image correctly. Therefore, translators, based on ethical considerations or responsibility, must also continue to improve themselves and improve their skills in order to survive in the market.

For example, in the book "Crime and Punishment" there is such a proposal concerning Russian religious culture:

Everything depends on the orders of Pyotr Petrovich, who, as soon as he looks around in Petersburg, will immediately let us know. He wants, according to some calculations, to hurry up the marriage ceremony as soon as possible and even, if possible, to have a wedding in the present meat-eater, and if it does not succeed, for the shortness of time, then immediately after the warm-up.

Translation of Zhu Moon: 8?15

Russian Russian was not Zhu Lun's specialty, although later he learned Russian himself and revised all his translations, his knowledge of culture is not enough. Here he clearly does not know enough about Orthodox culture to translate the sentence as "To get married during the mistress, and if it fails, for the shortness of time, then after the holiday." But according to tradition, a wedding on the Assumption fast (lady), and even more so a wedding, is considered a great sin. This is a mistake caused by Zhu Lun's misunderstanding of Russian religious culture.

Secondly, Hu considers the "translation community" and harmonizes relations between all aspects in the community.

We can also give an example of Zhu Lung. The famous Chinese writer (Ba Jin) in the middle of the XX century was still a publisher when Zhu Lung wanted to translate Maupassant, and he bought the complete collection of Maupassant in English and even began to translate them. It was Ba Jin who later asked him to switch to Chekhov, and since then a great translator of Russian literature has appeared in China. Until a very old age, he translated 16 volumes of Chekhov's collections, and before his death he continued to translate Dostoevsky's books. In addition, Ba Jin, as a publisher, was very strict about Zhu Long's translations, made numerous corrections to his translations and did not publish a single translation if Ba Jin considered it not good enough. It was the publisher's influence on the translator in the translation community.

In general, a good translator should coordinate relations between various elements of the translation community so that harmonious relations develop between all sides of the community in order to maximize the survival of the translator and the life of the translation text on the market.

Translator's success. This duty has two meanings. On the one hand, translators are engaged in translation activities, guided by the need to meet personal needs, the desire for reputation and wealth, religious beliefs and the desire to learn different types of knowledge in the world ^{[5, p. 247]}. As Zhu Lung said: "When you work in the field of translation, you should not be greedy for fame and fortune; you should be responsible to society and readers. If I can contribute to the cause of Chinese culture and literature, my life will not be lived in vain" ^{[12, p. 28]}. It can be seen that the purpose of Zhu Lung in his translation activity was to educate people.

Many modern translators are guided by the need to earn a living, of course, there are also translators who are guided by the love of translation activities, this is also not a little. However, like an ordinary person, a translator also needs to survive, but if he translates only to earn a living, and he only needs speed, regardless of the quality of translation, then how can such a translator last long in the market?

Currently, unethical translation due to the desire to get the maximum profit from the translation is not uncommon. For example, some publishers once again translate masterpieces, divide the work between different translators, valuing only efficiency and considering profit. For example, it requires that the translation and proofreading of the Brothers Karamazov be completed within a year.

Another example, translator Long Jing translated 23 books in just four years, covering a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, political science, economics, literature, etc.

There are also incorrect translations caused by the lack of responsibility of translators who strive for efficiency, not quality. Professor Wang Qi from the historical faculty of Tsinghua University in his scientific book "academic Study of the history of the Eastern section of the Sino-Russian border: the problem of the Eastern section of the Sino-Russian border from the perspective of Chinese, Russian and Western scientists"() published in 2008 and mistranslated many terms in the English sources. For example, Wang Qi turned to Chiang Kai-shek on (actually it should be , Russian Chiang Kai-shek), CH Tung-tsu on ФактическийJonathan D. Spence on (Настоящий··Chinese name его, Russian Jonathan D. Spence).

The translator's success still has another meaning – the translator is obliged to take care of the acceptance and dissemination of the translation text in society.

Zhu Lung, for example, devoted his life to translations, especially of Russian literature. He believed that a good translator should always think about the reader when translating literature. For example, when Zhu Luna's children translated Antonina Georgievna Golubeva's novella (1899-1989) "The Boy From Urzhum", they took Zhu Luna's translation and asked his opinion, and after reading Zhu Lung said to his children: "Who reads children's works? These are children aged about ten years. The children's literature that we translate should be understandable and interesting to them. There are no readers in your heart. That won't do! Always think about your readers." ^{[7, p. 100]}.

After Berman proposed the concept of translation ethics, foreign scientists developed the concept of translation ethics in four aspects: normativity, translator behavior, translator's relationship with others and the value of translation ^{[13, p. 54]}.

As we have already said, the translator is in the center when translating. The study of translation ethics is a confirmation of this central role. As a result of research in the field of translation ethics, the ethical choice of the translator has become more significant than the traditional status of a slave of the original language or the translation language, and many scientists have begun to study the role of the translator more deeply, which has been downplayed in traditional concepts. When studying the ethics of translation, the translator is responsible, and his ethical position and ethical behavior can have important moral consequences. Xu Jianzhong, the founder of the theory of translation ecology, studied the behavior of translators and noted that the behavior of a translator can include submissive and submissive behavior, affinity behavior, altruistic and aggressive behavior, acts of courtship, acts of self-defense, self-esteem, reflexive introspection, imitation behavior, implication and behavioral infection ^{[16, p. 200]}. We can say that all these types of translator behavior arise under the influence of ethical views and reflect the values of the translator.

In his work, Hu Genshen points out that the ethical view of environmental translation is similar to environmental ethics, and suggests four principles of ethics of environmental translation based on real translation, the object and subject of research of environmental translation, namely: the principles of balance and harmony, multidimensional integration, pluralistic symbiosis (diverse coexistence of different translations) and the responsibility of the translator ^{[5, p. 110]},

Throughout the history of translation research, it is an indisputable fact that the path of translation research has not been haphazard, but has always revolved around a double logic - the fact that there is a translation and the value of what a translation should be. The question "what is translation" has an ontological connotation and is intended to reveal the objectivity and certainty of translation, and the question "what should translation be" has a value form in order to increase awareness and conviction in the value of translation ^{[9, p. 43]}.

In the process of translation, the translator, as a subject of values, has needs, motives, goals and abilities that affect the quality of translation. A translator cannot be value-neutral from the choice of translation to text processing, but will be consciously or unconsciously limited by value perception. Translation values refer to the concepts that translators should adhere to in their work. These concepts may include respect for cultural differences, promotion of intercultural communication, non-discrimination and prejudice, etc.

When choosing materials for translation and choosing a translation strategy, the translator inevitably takes into account different hierarchies of values and performs the translation operation on this basis individually, so that there cannot be two identical translation texts. The choice of the translator's behavior is determined by values, and the translator's values are inextricably linked to all factors of the translation environment, including the original author, sponsor, publisher, reader, etc. It is difficult for a translator to be responsible for all sides at the same time, so the choice is determined by the height of values and the internal hierarchy of the translation environment. It is for this reason that scientist Hu in the ecomodel of translation put forward a criterion for evaluating translation - the degree of integration, selection and adaptation. Hu suggests that the degree of integration, selection and adaptation refers to the synthesis of the degree of "adaptive choice" that the translator chooses and adapts to language, culture, communication and other aspects when performing translation ^{[4, p. 40]}. The best translation is a translation with the highest degree of integration, selection and adaptation. In other words, the translation should strive to meet the needs of the reader, the social environment, the cultural environment of the target country, and the accuracy of the translation should be guaranteed. The degree to which these goals are achieved is "The degree of integration, selection and adaptation."

Translation ethics is closely related to the axiology of the translator, therefore, translation ethics should be based on values, not on duties or rights.

It is not enough to study this issue in the field of the ecomodel of translation only from the point of view of ethical views and four principles. It is also necessary to introduce the study of translation values in order to explain and regulate the behavior of translators from various points of view, including ethics and values. Efforts should be made to create a virtuous cycle of translation ecology. To do this, it is necessary to strengthen the leadership and create the right system of social values so that all participants in the translation ecology, such as translators, publishers and reviewers, can establish and observe the right values and ethical norms.

This is the only way to ensure the quality of translation work and the accuracy of translations, as well as to promote intercultural communication and mutual understanding.