ACADEMICIAN ALEKSEEV’S THOUGHTS ON “THREE-TIER TRANSLATION” OF CHINESE CLASSIC - A CASE STUDY OF THE ANALECTS OF CONFUCIUS

Abstract

This paper studies the “three-tier translation” approach worked out by Alekseev, a famous Russian sinologist, for translating Chinese classic. The purpose of this paper is to systematically analyze the three-tier translation and to explain Alekseev’s theory practical use by studying the Russian translation of the Chinese Analects of Confucius. Academician Alekseev has constructed a three-tiers system of translation: 1) verbatim translation of the original text, 2) accurate translation of the Chinese commentators’ annotations, 3) detailed explanations by the translator himself. Each tier has its own language characteristics, combined to reproduce the original text style. In the present work, the method of documentary studies, the comparative method, the descriptive-analogous method and the inductive method are used. This paper may be helpful to promote the development of Chinese-Russian translation practice.