Ideological Manipulation in Translation in a Chinese Context:
Su Manshu's Translation of Les Misérables
By Li Li, Ph.D.
Translation Department, the Chinese University of Hong Kong
hklili@hotmail.com
http://www.accurapid.com/journal/32ideology.htm
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1. Introduction:
Su Manshu and his translation of Les
Misérables
Su Manshu (1884-1918), whose original
name was Xuanying and his Buddhist name Manshu, was
born in Yokohama, Japan, of a Cantonese merchant and
a Japanese woman. At the age of six, he was sent back
to Xiangshan, Guangdong Province, China, the birthplace
of his father. He was a poet, writer, painter, translator,
dictionary and Sanskrit grammar book compiler, anthologist
and Buddhist monk.
In 1903 Su Manshu translated Victor
Hugo's Les Misérables, a long novel
consisting of 5 volumes (9 books). The translated
version was presented in 14 chapters with 2 lines
of titles at the beginning of each chapter to tell
readers about the main content. He started with Book
II, that is to say, omitted the entire Book, and reorganized
the original chapters according to the major plots
of Book II. He also created a hero named Ming Nande
within his translation, whose heroic actions took
place from the latter part of Chapter 7 to Chapter
13.
In China Su Manshu was mainly remembered
as a pioneer of poetry translation, yet when it came
to his translation of Les Misérables,
the comments always centered on its unfaithfulness.
No substantial study has ever been made to probe into
the reasons behind such a practice. The research by
such scholars as André Lefevere (1992, 1995)
and Susan Bassnett (1995) on ideological manipulation
of translation gives us some insight to rethink Su
Manshu's translation of Les Misérables
from the ideological perspective.
2. Ideologies Influencing
Su Manshu's Translation Decision
The concept of ideology has been
broadening and its introduction to Translation Studies
has enabled researchers to probe into some translational
phenomena, which might have been neglected otherwise.
Translation, according to André Lefevere (1992)
and Jiri Levy (2000), is one important form of rewritings
and a decision process, which is not done in a vacuum,
but rather influenced by certain linguistic, ideological
and poetic factors.
The ideological manipulation in translation
could refer to "any interference with the text,
be it cultural, religious, political or otherwise,
imposing modifications that are not textual constraints,
for the purpose of indoctrination" (Nitsa 2000:
43). The ideologies I am going to adopt here to analyze
Su Manshu's translation of Les Misérables
include the following three ones.
2.1 Buddhism in Su Manshu
Su Manshu shaved his head and
became a monk three times in his thirty-five years
of short life. The first time was when he was only
12 years old in 1895, the second in 1899 and the last
in 1903. He wrote some articles about Buddhism and
he went to India, Java and other Buddhist countries
to learn more about Buddhism. Here Buddhism is mainly
used to analyze Su Manshu's hostility towards Christianity,
which resulted in a changed image of the character
in the original work.
2.2 Dominant Ideology of Qing
Dynasty
Su Manshu lived most of his life
at the end of the last feudal society under the Qing
Dynasty. The ruling class of the Qing Monarchy used
all means to preserve their reign as long as possible.
Its ideology is the most traditional one from the
political viewpoint, which refers to "ideas which
help to legitimize a dominant political power"
(Eagleton 1991:1).
2.3 Confucianism
Since the West Han Dynasty,
Confucianism had been in a dominant cultural and political
position in Chinese feudal society for thousands of
years. Confucianism advocated benevolence and morality.
There were a set of rules governing relationships
between ruler (king) and his public servants, between
father and son, and between husband and wife. This
determined the hierarchy of male-dominated feudal
China, in which women and children were greatly discriminated
against and neglected.
3. Analysis of Ideological Manipulation
in Su Manshu's Translation of Les Misérables
3.1 A distorted image of
Bishop Myriel
Bishop Myriel under the pen of Victor
Hugo is righteous and benevolent. The following few
paragraphs from the last chapter (Chapter XIV) of
Book First describe Bishop Myriel:
That which enlightened this man
was his heart. His wisdom was made of the light which
comes from there.1
...
He inclined towards all that groans
and all that expiates. The universe appeared to him
like an immense malady; everywhere he felt fever,
everything he heard the sound of suffering, and, without
seeking to solve the enigma, he strove to dress the
wound. The terrible spectacle of created things developed
tenderness in him; he was occupied only in finding
for himself, and in inspiring others with the best
way to compassionate and relieve. That which exists
was for this good and rare priest a permanent subject
of sadness which sought consolation.2
There are men who toil at extracting
gold; he toiled at the extraction of pity. Universal
misery was his mine. The sadness which reigned everywhere
was but an excuse for unfailing kindness. Love each
other; he declared this to be complete, desired nothing
further, and that was the whole of his doctrine.3
From these quotations it can be clearly
seen that the author is very positive towards Bishop
Myriel. Yet Su Manshu, in his translation, changed
Bishop Myriel into a greedy and hypocritical monk.
For example, the subtitle of the fifth chapter of
his translation is "贪和尚慷慨留客
苦华贱委婉陈情",
which can be roughly translated into English as "Greedy
Monk Generously Offers Stay, Poor Valjean Indirectly
Tells Story".
Su Manshu's negative attitude towards
Bishop Myriel could also be traced by his comments
added in his translation. To name just one example,
......说罢，歇了半刻，华贱忽然现出一种希奇的样子，两只手捏了拳头，睁了一双凶狠狠的眼睛，对主教道："哎呀！现在你留我住下，还离你这样近吗？"刚说到这里，就停住了，忽然又哈哈一笑。
主教看见这样情形，心里倒有些惊慌。（PEI：142）
This part was translated from the fifth chapter of
Book II with the original title of "Tranquillity",
which suggested the state of mind of Bishop Myriel
when facing Jean Valjean. The first few lines of Su
Manshu's translation quoted here were actually quite
faithful to the original. Yet he added a sentence
of his own to describe Bishop's state of mind (underlined
Chinese sentence), which could be roughly translated
like this: The bishop feels a kind of panic. Obviously
this added sentence was not in conformity with the
title of this chapter. As a matter of fact, this added
sentence gave the reader a negative image of Bishop
Myriel.
Another point deserving our attention is that Victor
Hugo's Les Misérables is a long novel
consisting of 5 volumes (9 books). Su Manshu's translation
started with Volume I, Book Second, and it covered
the main content of Book Second, that's to say, the
whole Book First was omitted.
According to his personal ars poetica, Su
Manshu was opposed to casual omissions and additions
in translation. He once criticized Lin Shu's4
translation for its unfaithfulness. Why did he translate
in such a way which was quite contrary to his own
philosophy? In order to figure out the reasons, we
should first of all look at the main content of what
was omitted. Book First of Vitor Hugo's Les Misérables
with the title of "A Just Man" consists
of 14 chapters and it is actually a brief introduction
to and a positive description of Bishop Myriel.
Su Manshu was a Buddhist monk. Buddhism and Christianity
are two different religions advocating fundamentally
different doctrines. It is no wonder that Su Manshu,
being a Buddhist, took a hostile attitude towards
Christianity. His hostility could be traced in his
own novel Duanhong Lingyan Ji （Lonely
Swan, where he described the Reverend Lopez, a Spanish
missionary then in Hong Kong, like this: "I admire
his peace and seclusion. He is an extraordinary person
among the Nestorianists, who has no malicious intentions
against the country other than his own."
Another piece of evidence to prove Su Manshu's hostility
towards Christianity can be found in what Ming Nande
says about God. Ming Nande is a hero Su Manshu created
in his translation of Vitor Hugo's Les Misérables.
People in this world talk of God every day. Do you
think there really exists a God? In the ancient barbarian
age, many people were ignorant and they would do any
mischief, so some clear-minded people thought of something
that they respected to avoid the mischief of the ignorant.
So God doesn't exist at all. When I was very small,
I went to the church together with my father one Sabbath,
I heard the Bishop saying: "If you respect God,
you should bring some money from time to time and
put it into the iron box in the church. Then the soul
of your parents would go up to the heaven after their
death." I didn't quite believe such ridiculous
talk5.
(PEI 1982:170)
So now it is easy for us to understand
why he changed a just and benevolent bishop into a
greedy monk, added some negative comments and omitted
the whole Book First, which is a positive description
of Bishop Myriel.
3.2 A created hero—Ming
Nande
The translation of Victor Hugo's
Les Misérables by Su Manshu contained
major plots of Book Second and at the same time he
created another hero named Ming Nande, whose heroic
events took place from the latter part of Chapter
7 to Chapter 13 where he killed himself with a gun
after a failed attempt to assassinate Napoleon.
Why did Su Manshu used so many chapters
creating such a figure in the form of translation
other than creation? It might have been easier for
him to create a novel around this subject. If we didn't
compare the original text with the translated one,
we could hardly notice that most of this part was
a creation, because of the close relationship of this
character with the protagonist Jean Valjean, changing
Jean Valjean's fate upon escaping from prison completely.
Also, the events and descriptions such as Napoleon
and Jacobins were set in France.
No doubt, Su Manshu based his hope
to achieve revolutionary success resulting in a better
world on such heroes as Ming Nande. What Ming Nande
tried to do was to eradicate the evils and inequalities
in society. The methods he used to achieve his goals,
such as assassination and jail delivery, were definitely
not permissible according to the dominant ideology
of the Qing Monarchy. And the hopes for a better world
through the mouth of the hero were definitely not
what the ruling class desired. For example,
They have stipulated several regulations.
Article 1 The properties of rich people should be
taken away and given to those who fight for freedom
and those who are very poor.
Article 2 Those who are able to work have the right
to live in the houses of and to take possessions of
those who betray freedom.
Article 3 The houses, lands and other properties
that have been sold may be taken back discretionarily.
Article 4 the families of those who have died for
freedom should be taken special care of.
Article 5 The land in France should be the common
property of the French people. Everyone is entitled
to his share and no one is allowed to take more than
his own share.6
(PEI 1982:193-194)
In addition, the comments Su Manshu made on society
and Confucianism through the characters in the novel
were obviously out of the expectations of both the
ruling class and the common people. Being the core
of Chinese feudal culture which had been dominating
China for several thousands of years, Confucianism
advocated benevolence, morality, and devotion to King
/ Ruler.
There were many violent attacks on Confucianism and
feudal social phenomena in the part created by Su
Manshu. For example,
Nande answered quickly: "The slavish indoctrination
of Confucius in China is taken as a golden rule only
by the lowly race there. Should we noble French citizens
accept and listen to the nonsense of Confucius? ..."
(ibid:148)7
...
The girl continued: "...Women there bind their
feet with white cloth, resulting in more difficulty
in walkin. Their originally good feet look
like those of a pig. Isn't that ridiculous?"(ibid:171)8
If Su Manshu had written such a novel containing
the illegal actions and inappropriate comments and
attacks on society and Confucianism, it would have
been confiscated by the ruling class and he himself
would have been prosecuted. He gave some of his own
ideas the form of translation, because "translation
grants some kind of limited immunity to those who
write it (after all, they are not responsible for
what others wrote)" (Lefevere 1995:23) . "[A]s
their context generally belongs to a foreign culture,
the social impact of translated literary works is
thought to be weaker." (ibid:14-28)
While he ruthlessly attacked Confucius and his doctrines
through the mouth of the hero he created, he subconsciously
judged some actions by the standards of some Confucian
doctrines and values. This contradiction shows, from
another angle, that one cannot be totally free of
ideological manipulation.
In feudal China, a distance had to be kept between
a male and a female. According to Confucian rules
of etiquette, man and woman should not touch each
other when giving and receiving something. Intimate
descriptions such as a kiss between man and woman
was certainly out of the expectations of most people.
Let's look at the following description about Ming
Nande's meeting with Kong Meili.
In this moment Nande knew it was the girl that he
was worrying about. Then he affectionately held up
her slim waist and kissed her several times (This
is a western custom, please don't be surprised!)...
(emphasis mine) (PEI 1982:168)9
Please pay special attention to the part in parentheses,
which I have underlined above. This explanation in
parentheses serves at least two functions here. One
is that it reminds the readers that they were reading
a translation, not creation; the other is to lessen
the ideological conflict and ensure a smooth reception.
More examples are given here to show that Confucianism
was regarded as one standard by which to measure what
the characters said and did.
... because he is poor, his relatives and neighbors
are unwilling to help him although they are rich—just
as an old saying says: the rich are not benevolent,
and the benevolent are not rich. Are those beasts
who only care about money not benevolence and virtue
willing to help him?（7） (emphasis
mine) (ibid: 143)10
Benevolence, which is at the core of Confucianism,
is a virtue long cherished by the Chinese people.
She became extremely angry and cursed me with the
old saying: Lack of talent makes a woman virtuous.
(ibid: 172)11
In feudal male-dominated China women
were usually discriminated and neglected. A good lady
was supposed to have no talents.
After hearing Ming Nande read what was said in the
newspaper, Fan Tong said: "... Confucius in China
once said: 'when in poverty, men of honor remain poor,
while the flunky commit misconduct.'..."
(ibid: 147)12
Fan Tong is the son of a rich man in Paris, who is
pampered and spoiled by his parents in the part created
by Su Manshu. He cannot read or write until he's over
20 years old. How could such an illiterate person
in Paris know what Confucius said in China?
Now look at the following sentences uttered by Ming
Nande's father,
If one can do his filial duties,
he is a good person. It is unnecessary to talk
such nonsense as fighting against injustice. (ibid:150)13
In feudal China, filial obedience was regarded as
the most important duty of a child to his parents.
Children were supposed to have no interest and freedom
of their own.
It could be seen from those examples that it was
impossible for Su Manshu, who grew up in such a Confucianism-soaked
feudal culture, to escape from the very influence
of Confucianism.
4. Conclusion
It is a fact that Su Manshu translated Victor Hugo's
Les Misérables in a rather casual and
unfaithful way in the sense that he gave readers a
distorted image of Bishop Myriel in addition to creating
a hero named Ming Nande. Yet the decisions to translate
in such a way were not always casual, rather they
reflected the translator's ideologies, namely Buddhism,
the dominant ideology of the Qing Dynasty, and Confucianism.
This paper is only a study on Su Manshu's translation
of Les Misérables from the ideological
perspective, aiming to provide some explanations for
the addition, deletion, creation and reshuffling in
the translated work. Of course some other angles may
provide a more comprehensive view of this subject.
Notes
1,2,3
The quoted English version of Les Misérables
was downloaded from http://
www.online-literature.com/victor_hugo.
4
Lin Shu: (1852-1924) the most famous and representative
of literary translator during Late Qing and Early Republican
China. Not knowing any foreign language, he , in cooperation
with others who could read the originals, translated
about 180 works of different countries, 98 writers included.
5
- 13 are my English translations of
the parts created by Su in his translation. The corresponding
Chinese texts are given as end notes here.
5
男德便开口说道："这世上的人，天天说什么'上帝'。你以为真有什么上帝吗？不过因为上古野蛮时代，人人无知无识，无论什么恶事都要去做，所以有些明白的人，就不得已胡乱捡个他们所敬重的东西，说些善恶的果报，来治理他们，免得肆行无忌，哪里真有个上帝的道理呢？我从前幼年的时候，有一礼拜日，跟我的父亲去做礼拜，只听得那主教说道：'凡人倘若敬重上帝，有钱的时时拿些钱来，放在寺院铁箱子里面，将来他父母死后的灵魂，就会上升天堂。'对他那种荒唐的话，那时候我就有些不信。"
6
会中定了几条规矩，便是：
- 取来富户的财产，当分给尽力自由之人以及穷苦的同胞。
- 凡是能做工的人，都有到那背叛自由人的家里居住和占夺他财产的权利。
- 全国的人，凡从前已经卖出去的房屋田地以及各种物件，都可以任意取回。
- 凡是为自由而死的遗族，须要尽心保护。
- 法国的土地，应当为法国的人民的公产，无论何人，都可以随意占有，不准一人多占土地。
7
男德即忙答道："那支那国孔子奴隶教训，只有那班支那贱种奉作金科玉律，难道我们法兰西贵重的国民，也要听他那些狗屁吗？......"
8
那女子又道："......他们女子将那天生的一双好脚，用白布包裹起来，尖耸的好象那猪蹄子一样，连路都不能走了。你说可笑不可笑？"
9
这时，男德才知道是他心里所惦记的美人，急忙亲亲热热地用手一把搂住那美人的细腰，连亲了几个嘴（这是西俗，看官别要见疑）......
10
......因为他家道困穷，他的亲戚和那些左右隔壁的邻居，虽说是很有钱，却是古言道："为富不仁"。那班只知有银钱，不知有仁义的畜生，哪里肯去照顾他呢？
11
他就大怒起来，用'女子无才便是德'的话来骂我。
12
那范桶听罢，便道："......那支那国的孔夫子也曾说道：'君子固穷，小人穷斯滥矣。'......"
13
......世上的人若能尽了这"孝顺"两个字，就是好人，不用讲什么为世不平的邪话。
References: Eagleton, Terry. 1991. Ideology:
An Introduction. London: Verso.
Lefevere, André. 1992. Translation, Rewriting
and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. London
;New York: Routledge.
Levy, Jiri. 2000. "Translation as Decision Process".
Lawrence Venuti (Ed.), The Translation Studies
Reader (148-59). London; New York: Routledge.
Nitsa BEN-ARI. 2000. "Ideological Manipulation
of Translated Texts". Translation Quarterly
16 & 17: 43.
Susan Bassnett & Lefevere, Andre. (Eds.), 1995.
Translation, History and Culture. London: Cassell.
Toury, Gideon.1995. Descriptive Translation Studies
and Beyond. Amsterdam--Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
PEI, Xiaowei.1982.Su Manshu Xiaoshuo Shige Ji [
Seleted Poems and Novels by Su Manshu].Beijing: Zhongguo
Shehui Chubanshe
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