The Re-narrated Chinese Myth:Comparison of Three Abridgments of Journey to the West on Paratextual Analysis1

Yuan TAO

Dalian University of Technology

Chonglong GU2

University of Liverpool

Abstract:Over the past century,the hundred-chaptered Chinese classic Xiyou ji (Journey to the West) has been abridged into English many a time,with the three most influential versions translated by Timothy Richard (Wu,1913),Arthur Waley (Wu,1942),and Anthony Yu (Wu,2006),respectively.On the basis of paratextual analysis and the narrative theory,this article explores the diachronic reframing of the three English abridgments of the Chinese classic.It is found that the three versions keep the basic structure of the ST,presenting the monkey as the dominant hero of the book.However,the translators reposition the genre:Richard takes the classic as an epic and allegory,Waley as a folk tale,and Yu as an allegory and religious syncretism.Accordingly,the narrative is reframed under different paratextual elements.Richard reframes the novel as a Christian counterpart of the mission to heaven,Waley a folk tale compounded with religious,historical,and sarcastic elements,and Yu the karma and redemption of the monkey and the monk.Furthermore,the three versions also help construct the book’s narrative accrual in the West,popularizing the Chinese religious fantasy with a monkey’s story.The stereoscopic reading of the abridgments illustrates that the renarration helps popularize Chinese mythology,religion and culture to the Western readers.Thus,the narrative accrual of a religious allegory is constructed in the West,which is conducive to enhance the status of Chinese novel.

Keywords:paratext; narrative reframing; selective appropriation; narrative accrual; Xiyou ji; Journey to the West

1.Introduction

In recent years,researchers have shown an increased interest in narrative in translation studies (Aljahdali,2016; Harding,2012).Translation is never a romantic representation of a bridge-builder,but the “selective representations of reality” (Baker,2008,p.27).Narrative theory provides a dynamic and subjective viewpoint since no one can be totally objective in the process of re-narration when the translators reframe the narratives with their selection of translated texts,change of titles and many other manipulative devices.Grounded on the narrative theory framework,this paper seeks to represent the diachronic narrative reframing of the three English abridgments ofXiyou ji西游記 (Journey to the West,hereafter XYJ)through paratextual analysis.

Narrative can be simply defined as a story with the structure,time,and perspective.It is “the shape of knowledge as we first apprehend it” (Fisher,1987,p.193),which is prevalent in all the text types.Briggs claims that narratives “constitute crucial means of generating,sustaining,mediating and representing conflict at all levels of social organization” (1996,p.3).Narrative discussed in this article is viewed from the sociological viewpoint.Different from classic narrative,literary studies and linguistics,social theory tends to take narrative as a mode of experiencing the world.Somers (1992,1997) categorized four basic narrative typologies:ontological,public,conceptual and meta-narratives.Ontological narrative is a personal account of the event.Public narrative is the story circulating among social and institutional formations.Conceptual narrative is the concept and explanation that we construct as social researchers.Meta-narrative is narrative “in which we are embedded as contemporary actors in history” (Somers,1992,p.605).The four narratives,interrelated at different levels,influence each other as both interpersonal and interdependent elements.Mona Baker (2006) applied the narrative theory into translation based on the quadripartite classification of Somers (1992) and the features by Bruner (1991).Translation is a public narrative through which the translated version is spread across the borderline to a wider audience (Baker,2006,p.38).Therefore,translators represent and construct a story through different viewpoints as the narrators of the story.The core concept of narrative theory in translation is story reframing.

Most studies of XYJ have focused on the classic narrative,religion and the allegories in the novel.A number of researchers have revealed its internal structure from the conceptual models in classic narrative or the narrative tradition of Chinese fiction (Plaks,1996; Gu,2006).Some studies have reported the ideological analysis from Confucianism,Buddhism and Taoism (Shao,2006),the allegorical meaning of the Buddhism interpretation,the empty scriptures of the last chapters,and the alchemical self-cultivation in the novel (Bantly,1989; Hui,2015; Wang & Xu,2016).More recently,Hao Ji (2016) compares the textual feature and the protagonist between Waley and Yu’s abridgments.Nonetheless,few writers have drawn on the research into the narrative reframing of the three abridgments.

Recently researchers have examined the effects of paratext on narrative.Kim (2017) applies paratext to the narrative reframing of WWII translation.Qi (2016) conducts paratextual analysis of agency,habitus,and capital in the translation ofJin Ping Mei(The Golden Lotus).The three abridgments of XYJ vary greatly in the paratextual materials of the title,subtitle,intertitle and selection of episodes because of the translators’different historical backgrounds and individual identities.This paper seeks to analyze the dynamic narrative reframing and the narrative accrual through a paratextual analysis of the three abridgments.Narrative accrual was proposed by Bruner as the stories cobbled together “to make them into a whole of some sort”(Bruner,1991,p.18).Mona Baker redefines it “more broadly as the outcome of repeated exposure to a set of related narratives,ultimately leading to the shaping of a culture,tradition,or history” (Baker,2006,p.101).The ontological and public narratives help construct the narrative accrual which shapes the cultural,ideological and historical metanarrative as the result of repeated and diachronic narratives.

On the basis of the three abridgments of XYJ from 1913 to 2006,this study tries to address the following three research questions:(1) How do the three translators reframe the story through their paratextual materials? (2) As the translators abridge the three English versions in different historical periods,what is the diachronic narrative reframing of the abridgments in almost a century? (3) All the three abridgments have been reprinted many a time by the influential publishers such as Penguin,Tuttle Publishing,and University of Chicago Press even in the 21st century.What is the narrative accrual of the Chinese classic in the West?

The article begins with the theoretical concerns related to narrative framing in paratextual materials.Then it elaborates the dynamic narrative reframing by labeling,the selective appropriation of textual materials,the reposition of the main figures and the temporal and spatial reframing on the basis of the paratextual elements of the title,intertitles,and notes,etc.Furthermore,it explores the dynamic narrative reframing and narrative accrual of the Chinese classic in spite of the paratextual variances in the three abridgments.Through the stereoscopic reading (Rose,2007,p.90) between the source text and three abridgments,it is expected to provide a hermeneutic understanding in the interlinear space.

2.Narrative framed on paratextual elements

Gerard Genette proposes the term “paratext” for the first time in 1987 as supplementary information and“the threshold and an undefined zone” between the inside and the outside (1987/2001,p.2).Analyzing paratext from the five dimensions of location,time,categories,addresser and addressee,and function,he classifies the paratexts into various categories.Two broad types of peratext and epitext are based on the location in relation to the text.The former is situated in the same volume,including the title,preface,notes,etc.,and the latter is extratextual like interviews and advertisements.What’s more,the classification of authorial,publisher’s and allographic paratext indicate the message and status from various senders.Basically,the peritext is more from the authorial view of the text and the epitext is from the comments from the other critics or publishers (Genette,1987/2001,pp.5-9).The detailed classification of paratext from various viewpoints reveals the interpretation of the text by the various participants in the book’s publication,such as the author,translator,publisher,and press.

Since the translators’ paratext is manipulative,it can be taken as a participant in the narrative reframing of the story.Paratext exerts the illocutionary force1The term “illocutionary force” was initially proposed by British philosopher J.L.Austin in 1962.It stresses the performative or imperative of an utterance.of the interpretation,commentary and narrative of the text as Munday argues that it is “material additions to a text which comment on,evaluate,or otherwise frame it” (2009,p.214).First,the title,which is usually brief and attractive,reveals the subject of the text as a way of narrative reframing.Being either thematic or symbolic,the title gives readers the first impression,while the subtitle reveals the genre and the story type.Second,the chapter’s intertitles reveal the framework of narrative,presenting the main idea of the book.In traditional Chinese novels,the intertitles provide the story’s outline with poetic couplets summarizing each chapter.A glance at the intertitles can offer the readers the beginning,middle,and end of the whole text.Last but not least,the other paratextual materials of the preface and notes help present the supplementary narratives as well.For example,the authorial paratext illustrates the author’s intention,interpretation,or purpose.The footnotes,“subdivided into original,later,and delayed” (Genette,1987/2001,pp.324-325),are interspersed in the text as explanation or an alternative version of narrative.The paratextual elements,though dependent on the text,navigate or help reframe the narrative.

3.Narrative reframing of XYJ on paratextual analysis

Based onThe Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions,an autobiography of the eminent monk Xuan Zang (Tripitaka),XYJ was written in the 16th Century Ming Dynasty.It presents the mythological trials of Tripitaka,who fetched Buddhism scriptures from India to China during Tang Dynasty with the assistance of four disciples,namely,the monkey,Pigsy,Sandy and the horse.Despite the weakness and karma of each member,the party defeated numerous demons coveting the monk’s flesh oryang陽 (bright or masculine) for longevity,overcame the temptation and their personal desires and attained their goal.The fiction is labeled as one of the four Chinese masterworks alongside withHongloumeng紅樓夢 (Dream of the Red Mansion),Sanguo yanyi三國演義 (Romance of the Three Kingdoms) andShuihu zhuan水滸傳(Outlaws of the Marsh).The myth is full of imagination and has been spread home and abroad in various artistic forms such as movies,TV series,Peking Opera,musicals,manga,comics,and games.

The English translation of XYJ began in the 19th century after Samuel I.Woodbridge (1895),Herbert Allen Giles (1901),James Ware (1905),and Richard Wilhelm (1921),translated excerpts of the novel as an introduction of China’s myths.Later on,the English abridgments by Timothy Richard (Wu,1913),Arthur Waley (Wu,1942) and Anthony Yu (Wu,2006) have been the most influential ones even to the present day in terms of style,structure and readability.Richard’s version adapted in the early 20th century was reprinted many a time in 2008,2015 and 2017.Waley’s abridgment during WWII was the most popular with scores of reprintings and Yu published his abridgment on paperback and ebook in 2006,2012 and 2014 based on his complete version from 1977 to 1983.Table 1 illustrates the paratextual materials of the three books:

Table 1.Paratexts of the three versions of XYJ

As presented in Table 1,the three abridgments vary a lot on paratextual elements of title,subtitles,chapters selection,publication time,and press; thus each abridgment reframes its narrative accordingly.This article will analyze the narrative devices used in those three abridgments on the basis of paratextual materials,namely,labeling,selective appropriation,reposition of figures,and temporal and spatial framing.

3.1 Labeling

Labeling is “a lexical item,term or phrase to identify a person,place,group,event or any other key element in a narrative” (Baker,2006,p.122).Labeling identifies the term for protagonists,places,and title,which helps interpretation and narrative reframing since the title may indicate the subject while the naming system reflects the writers’ stance and their implied message.Richard adopts the labeling with a Christian connotation.Waley’s labeling is easy to remember with the monkey as the protagonist.Yu restores the Chinese,especially Buddhist,religious connotations,in the names of the protagonists.Under the guidance of the labeling,the content and the other paratextual elements may be adjusted correspondingly.

3.1.1 Labeling by title

Richard’s titleA Mission to Heaven:A Great Chinese Epic and Allegoryreflects his Christian interpretation as it is likely to remind the reader ofThe Pilgrim’s Progressby John Bunyan.Educated at Haverfordwest Baptist College,Richard was a Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) missionary and applied to go to China in 1869.While studying the Buddhist works,he found similarities between XYJ’s Mahayana theme and Christianity ones,namely people’s salvation.In his autobiography,Richard recalled that “it was evident to me that the book was constructed on profound Christian philosophy” (1916,p.343).Moreover,the subtitle categorizes the book as an epic,presenting a profound allegory “of a Christian who sought to evangelize China” rather than a myth (ibid.,p.344).The change of the title suggests that the novel is reframed as a Christian expedition.

Waley retitles the book asMonkey,suggesting a light-hearted popular fiction.In the introduction,Waley claims that the book is humorous folklore with religious conflict and satire.This is in agreement with Dr.Hu Shi’s forward to his translation,“Monkey is simply a book of good humor,profound nonsense,good-natured satire,and delightful entertainment”(Hu,2007,p.5).Furthermore,the title reveals his reframing of the imagined monkey as the protagonist instead of the monk.The front cover of the George Allen& Unwin edition (Wu,1942) also places monkey in the center,highlighting its position in the book.The title in Waley’s edition presents the imagined monkey as the protagonist of popular folklore.

Yu takes both the monkey and the monk as the protagonists with the titleThe Monkey and the Monk:A Revised Abridgment ofThe Journey to the West.Different from the previous versions,he enhances the monk’s status greatly by placing his name in the title for the first time.He also emphasizes the relationship between the protagonists of the monkey and the monk.What’s more,Yu is the only one who introduces XYJ in the subtitle among the three translators,indicating his respect for the ST.Yu tries to reframe the abridgment as close to the ST as possible by laying emphasis on the karma and the struggles of the two protagonists,the monkey and the monk,along the journey.

Figure 1.The front cover and the spine of the A Mission to Heaven:A Great Chinese Epic and Allegory(Wu,1940)

Figure 2.The front cover of Monkey (Wu,1942)

Figure 3.The front cover of The Monkey and the Monk (Wu,2006)

3.1.2 Labeling by the naming system

As a religious allegory mixed with the features of the folklore,XYJ describes a number of real places,imagined lands,gods,spirits and demons labelled with a naming system full of puns,riddles,Buddhist,and Taoist connotations.The translation of the naming system can offer a clue for the implied meanings of the theme in the classic.

Though the protagonists Sun Wukong 孫悟空 and Tang Sanzang 唐三藏 are often referred to as the Monkey and the Master in the three abridgments,their names of religious connotations have rarely been addressed.Wukongliterally means “awareness-of-emptiness” and the wordkong空 (emptiness),orsunyain Sanskrit,exists in everything.The name “awareness-of-emptiness” suggests high standard of individual reflecting the basic concept of Mahayana Buddhism.Sanzang,with the literal meaning of “Three Baskets”,refers to the collection of three main categories of the texts of the Mahayana sutras:the Sutta Pitaka,the Vinaya Pitaka and the Abhidhamma Pitaka.The names of the monkey and the monk imply their interrelationship in Mahayana.

Of the three translators,Yu is the only one who emphasizes the religious relationship between the names of the monkey and the monk.He elaborates Wukong as “Wake-to-Vacuity”.The name is identical to the concepts of Yogacara school,a subbranch of Mahayana in which Tripitaka believed.In Yu’s version,Tripitaka immediately realized its connotation and the internal relationship between himself and the monkey when Wukong told the Master his religious name,“ ‘(b)ut (sic) I already have a religious name.I’m called Sun Wukong.’‘It exactly fits the emphasis of our denomination,’ said Tripitaka,delighted” (Yu,2006,p.220,emphasis added).Fully aware of the Buddhist connotation,Yu conveys the exact meaning of the ST and suggests the relationship between the monkey and the monk implied in the Buddhist connotation.

Further,Yu also associates the protagonists with the five phases of Taoism as the novel is deeply rooted in Taoism as well.Yu relates the Taoism connotation to the disciples’ religious names in the poems and notes of his translation.Tripitaka is identified with water because he was nicknamed “River Float”since his childhood.The monkey,identified with gold or metal,is alluded as “the squire of gold” or “metal squire” in the poems.Pigsy is “wood mother”,while Sha Monk “the Yellow hag” which refers to the earth.In the chapter of “Flow Sand River” in which Sha Monk is converted to the Master’s disciple,Yu refers to his Taoism connotation explicitly in the footnote that “the secretion of the spleen in internal alchemy is so called (huangpo),and it is considered vital to the nourishment of the other viscera.In the narrative,the term is frequently used to designate Sha Monk” (Wu,2006,p.289).After Sha Monk is converted by Tripitaka,the testimonial poem goes:“The Five Phases well balancedas Heaven’s Truth,/He (Sha Monk)can recognize his former master” (ibid.,p.286,emphasis added).Yu relates the five phases of water,gold,wood,earth and fire in Taoism to the protagonists,which emphasizes the book’s Taoist implication.

Richard explains the meaning of the protagonists,but he seeks to find the relationship between the Chinese classic and the Christian connotation in the naming system.He interprets the monkey’s name as“Discoverer of Secrets,Woo Kung” (Wu,1913,p.15).As he suggests in the preface,the name means the discovery in all arts because he is “the practical man,exceedingly able as a discovery and inventor in all arts,especially as an unconquerable fighter of demons and evil doers,and in defense of his Master,and of truth and righteousness” (ibid.,p.xxxvii).In addition,Richard adopts the Christian terms and naming system in the Bible.For instance,he entitles Milefo,the God of future as Messiah,the Jade Emperor as God,the Taoist Celestial Palace and the Buddhist Paradise as Heaven and Maitreya.“Messengers are angels,Taoism immortals and Buddhistbodhisattvasare all saints,and the Buddhist/Taoist paradise is populated with such Old Testament figures as cherubim and seraphim” (Kane,2008,p.xxii).It appears that he seeks to find counterparts of the Buddhism naming system in Christianity with God,angles and Messiah while keeping many Buddhist terms.

Different from the other two translators,Waley’s naming system is reframed in a more popular way.He strives to adopt a simpler version of naming system such as Monkey,Pigsy and Sandy which is easy for readers to remember and understand.Moreover,he adopts the classifiers to indicate the religious connotations for the Buddhism gods in the novel.For instance,he translates Dipankara (“Lamp bearer”in literal meaning) into Buddha of the past and the Nirvana Sutra into the Book of the Great Disease.The simplified naming system helps the Western readers understand the religious terms,thus popularizing his version.

However,Waley fails to explore the protagonists’ Buddhism connotation further.He mentions the monkey’s name as “Aware-of-Vacuity” (Wu,1961,p.18) twice without further elaboration on its Buddhist connotation.When the monkey tells the master his name for the first time,“I have one already.My name in religion is ‘Aware-of Vacuity.’” ‘Excellent!’ said Tripitaka.“That fits in very wellwith the name of my other disciples” (ibid.,p.146,emphasis added).However,the monkey is his first disciple,so the monk should have no idea of how other disciples will be converted.This misinterpretation seems to be some evidence to indicate that Waley does not recognize the Buddhist relationship between the monkey and the monk.Whereas it is worth mentioning that Waley explains the meaning ofSanzangas “three sections of Great Vehicle teaching,called the Tripitaka or Three Baskets” (ibid.,p.131).So he applies Tripitaka,a name with a Latin prefix and the Sanskrit interpretation,to the master for the first time.The name is widely accepted by Yu in his later versions.

3.2 Selective appropriation of textual material

In XYJ,most karmas encountered by the party are involved with the demons’ desire for the Monk’s flesh orYangto be immortal and the religious conflicts along the journey.Though the three versions are abridged from the same novel,readers might find that their contents are quite different except for the beginning and the end because of the translators’ various selective appropriation.However,their different chapter choice helps reframe narratives as reflected in the paratextual materials such as the internal titles.

Richard presents a rather complete version of the journey from the perspective of “the Evolution of Monkey to Man and the Evolution of Man to the Immortal” (Wu,1913,title page),with the theme of fighting against the demons.He covers almost all the karmas in the journey with brief,encapsulating titles like “Lotus Cave Demon’s Magic”,“Sun Outwits the Demon”,“The Nine-headed Demon” and “The Last Trial” (ibid.,p.ii-iii).Though he translates all the 100 episodes of the ST,the majority of the chapters are merely a summary of the episodes.Except for the first seven and the last three chapters,the rest is mainly the outline of the episodes.In fact,some of the chapters only last a few lines to the point that they “were summarized so drastically and they become incoherent:they are little more than ‘monkey meets demon,monkey fights demon,monkey defeats demon’ ” (Kane,2008,p.xxvi).The story is therefore presented as the party’s fighting with demons who covet the flesh of the monk to be immortal.

In contrast to Richard,Waley tones down the immorality theme and highlights the religious conflicts in his abridgment.He only selects four episodes:the Taoist usurpation in the Kingdom of Crow-Cock,the three Taoist demons in Cart-low Kingdom,the river that leads to heaven and the final calamity caused by the white turtle.Two episodes are about the religious conflict between Buddhism and Taoism.Moreover,to foreground the religious theme,he excludes chapters with irrelevant themes such as the pursuit of immortality and the demons’ sexual temptation of the monk.As he claims,“I have for the most part adopted the opposite principle,omitting many episodes,but translating those that are retained almost in full” (Wu,1961,p.7).With his selective appropriation,Waley reframes a coherent theme of religious conflict through the intriguing story of the monkey.

Yu takes the novel more seriously as an allegory of Chinese religions.He is not satisfied with previous versions,commenting that Richard’s translation is “no more than brief paraphrases and adaptations” and Waley’s is misleading and distorted though it is widely accepted and acclaimed in the West (Wu,2016,p.5).Focusing on the karma for both the monkey and the monk,Yu’s selective appropriation is more involved with the demons’ temptation of the monk and the religious theme.He selects eight episodes:Four Sages Test,Cart Slow Kingdom,Child-and-Mother River,Women Nation,The Female Scorpion,The True and False Monkeys and,etc.The selective appropriation reveals the two protagonists’ redemption after the monkey’s havoc in heaven and the monk’s sleep in the Buddhist lectures.Consequently,Yu reframes the narrative to the allegory of redemption and enlightenment through the arduous journey filled with temptation and trials.

In addition to the theme of redemption,Yu tries to preserve the Buddhist allegory in his abridgment.Intentionally he selects two seemingly repetitive episodes of the monkey’s killing of six bandits twice in chapters 14 and 26.The monkey kills six robbers for the first time after he is rescued by the Tripitaka from the Five-Phases Mountain.Yu translates the title of the chapter as “Mind Monkey returns to the Right;TheSix Robbersvanish from sight”.Six robbers refer to a Buddhist metaphor,representing eye,ear,nose,tongue,body,and spirit,which arouse desires.Yu explains the metaphor in the note,“The six robbers orcaurasrefer to the six senses of the body,which impede enlightenment:hence they appear in this chapter’s allegory as bandits” (ibid.,p.217).In Chapter 26,Yu reiterates the incident of killing six bandits again to illustrate the monkey’s journey to Buddhist enlightenment.

3.3 Reposition of figures

The paratextual materials not only navigate the theme but also present the portrayal of characters with the statement in the preface and the adjustment in the title,subtitle and selective appropriation.In the ST,Tripitaka is a human mortal who cannot identify the disguised monsters while the monkey is portrayed as an invincible hero with superpowers.Nonetheless,the three translators reposition the protagonists in the novel with their paratexts.

Since Richard presents XYJ as an allegory of Christianity,he repositions the master as a Christian image as well as the leader of the party.Firstly,he likens the Master to Jesus as he is “the leader of the expedition […] an allegorical figure of Jesus Christ,and is the helper in all difficulties,and the agent in the conversion of each one of his party” (1916,pp.343-344).Thus,the demons’ coveting the Master’s flesh to seek immortality reminds Richard of Jesus saying that “Whoso eateth my flesh,and drinketh my blood,hath eternal life” (Wu,1913,p.xxxix).Secondly,Richard stresses the Master’s conversion from Primitive Buddhism into the Higher,i.e.“our great religion (Nestorianism)” (ibid.,p.359).Richard argues that the Master “seems to have belonged to Primitive Buddhism originally and despised the Higher,as Paul did the Christian,but was afterward converted and became a leader in the Higher” (ibid.,p.xxxvi).In a nutshell,he asserts that the Master who converts to Mahayana from the Hinayana comes down from Heaven for the tenth time to save all the people as a self-sacrifice like the Christians.

By contrast,Waley portrays the Master as an ordinary man with many weaknesses while the monkey is described as a genius.In the preface,he points out his understanding of the protagonists as “it is clear that Tripitaka stands for the ordinary man,blundering anxiously through the difficulties of life while Monkey stands for the restless instability of genius” (1961,pp.8-9).The monk is depicted as a coward who often sheds tears in front of difficulties in the novel,which is a sharp contrast to the powerful and intelligent monkey.As the title indicates,Waley deems that the protagonist in XYJ is Monkey,the humorous and dauntless simian hero.

However,Yu enhances the monk’s status as suggested in the titleThe Monkey and the Monk.He restores the monk’s role in the journey and emphasizes the protagonists’ relationship with the title.On the one hand,though the monk is not the most powerful of the party,he is the team’s spiritual leader.Without his perseverance and self-discipline,the journey would have been aborted.Yu lays emphasis on the eminent monk’s talent of intelligence,eloquence,and erudition before the journey,and the virtues of determination,self-control and loyalty during the journey.On the other hand,as a human mortal,the monk is in need of the assistance from his disciples with unusual power.Therefore,the monk is the pilgrim who must undertake all the karma and the monkey functions as “an animal guardian-attendant”and a devoted disciple (Wu,2006,p.x).Thus,the monk is reframed as a perseverant leader dedicated to the pursuit of Nirvana without any hesitation in front of glory,beauty,or wealth throughout the journey.

3.4 Temporal and spatial framing

Richard abridged the novel in the early 20th century when China was forced to open to the world.Waley translated the novel during WWII and Yu abridged it in the early 21st century.Thus,the three versions reflect the temporal and spatial framing of the translators.

Highly influenced by the Victorian works at the end of the 19th century in England,Timothy Richard tried to infuse morality into his translation.As a Baptist missionary,he came to China in 1868 after the Second Opium War when many missionaries arrived in China for their mission work.The end of the 19th century also witnessed England’s global expansion to colonies all over the world as well as the climax of Industrial Revolution back in Victorian England (1837-1901).In this age of great power,moral values have also become an inseparable part of the Victorian literature.“Victorian formalism was inextricably tied to moral thought […] Key Victorian insights into the theory and practice of narrative came in the guise of morals arguments” (Rosenthal,2017,p.2).With Christian morality in mind,Richard discovered the similarity between Christianity and Mahayana in XYJ and applied the Christian philosophy to the interpretation of Buddhism.Taking the theme of the novel as the monkey’s evolution and search for enlightenment after his sin in heaven,he demonstrated the moral purpose in XYJ as “the imperfect character of converted pilgrims […] being perfected by the varied discipline of life” (Wu,1913,epigraph).The book was published by Christian Literature Society’s Depot in Shanghai.Founded in 1887 by Alexander Williamson,the society grew out of its predecessor,the Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge Among the Chinese.Renamed the Christian Literature Society for China (CLS)five years later,it became the largest Protestant publisher in China.Richard was the general secretary of CLS for 25 years from 1891 to 1916.The press published many influential papers,magazines,and books on Christianity,politics,laws,economy,history,and education,including the influential monthly newspaperWan-kuo Kung-pao萬國公報(bào) (The Review of the Times).

Waley translated the work in 1942 during WWII,the deadliest war in the last century.He seemed to convey heroism and optimism in the novel to the European readers in depression.Waley was most acclaimed for his translation of Chinese and Japanese poetry.Monkeywas the only English translation of Chinese novel among all his translations.His work was completed during air raids when he was assigned to work as a censor for the British Ministry of Information.The humorous ands optimistic rendering of the Chinese classic “might be called a humorous escape from the horrors of war,just as Waley’sTale of Genjiwas ‘a(chǎn) romantic escape in prose from the aftershock’ of the First War (de Gruchy,2003,p.119)” (de Gruchy,2008,pp.252-253).As Edith Sitwell wrote in a letter to Waley,

I don’t really knowMonkeyyet,of course.But it has given me that sense of inevitability,of excitement with peace,that your work always does give me.One comes back to ordinary life (when one has to) feeling at peace […] How strange it is to come back fromMonkeyand realize how hideous people are making the world.(Morris,1970,p.97)

First published by George Allen & Unwin in 1942,the book was an instant success winning him the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in the same year.It was reprinted five times during WWII by the John Day Company and later by publishers like Penguin Books and HarperCollins,reaching more readership in the world.

Anthony Yu (1938-2015) translatedThe Monkey and the Monkin the early 21st century.As the professor of religion and literature at the University of Chicago,he translated the full version of XYJ in four volumes.Though widely known and highly acclaimed,the fully translated texts have been sold only in meager quantity because of “the unwieldy length and impractical size” (Wu,2006,p.xiv).After many years of refusal,he abridged the English version toThe Monkey and the Monkin 31 chapters in 2006 as a popularization of the classic for general readers and the students from a theologian’s viewpoint.Yu’s book is printed by the University of Chicago Press,which mainly publishes academic and serious works whose target audience is scholars and students.He intended to provide “as fully as possible all the textual features of the selected episodes” so that the readers can read the world’s most finely wrought allegories (ibid.,p.xiv).He took his abridgment as an invitation to the full version to the readers.

4.Discussion

The study sets out with the aim of assessing the diachronic reframing of the three English abridgments paratextually,as a strong relationship between paratext and narrative reframing has been reported in the literature.The most interesting finding is that the narrative reframing is deeply intertwined with the historical background.Accordingly,another important result is the narrative accrual in terms of the protagonist in the target text,the theme of the source text,and the translators’ interpretation of the theme in nearly a century.

4.1 Dynamic narrative reframing of the three abridgments

As indicated above,the analysis of the paratexual elements shows that the narrative reframing is dynamic in different historical periods.Richard’s version is an abridgment with Christian interpretation; Waley presents in the form of imaginative and popular folklore; and Yu tries to restore the traditional Chinese religious elements in XYJ.The narrative reframing,therefore,lends support to the “retranslation hypothesis”,which claims that the later versions tend to be ST-oriented (Berman,1990).

4.1.1 Richard’s Christian interpretation of XYJ

As a missionary,Richard’s purpose was to spread Christianity among the Chinese.When Jesuit mission arrived in China in the late 16th century,they decided to adopt “the Policy of Cultural Accommodation”,namely,adapt themselves to Chinese culture so that they can introduce Christianity to the Ming Empire(Laven,2011,p.18).In late 19th century,the Protestant missionaries tried to “transplant one fundamental element of Western culture onto an alien cultural soil” (Xu,1997,p.38).Richard’s version is no exception.

With the discovery of numerous Buddhist adherents in China at the end of 19th century,Richard studied Buddhism and translated many Buddhist books such asDacheng Qixin Lun大乘起信論 (The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana) in 1891 andXuanfo Pu選佛譜 (Manual of Buddha Selection) in 1907.He was “greatly struck by the Christian nature of the teaching of the book” during the translation and shared the same opinion with Arthur Lloyd,a Cambridge University author (Richard,1916,p.335).Richard laid emphasis on the Christian interpretation of XYJ,especially Nestorian,the lost branch of Christianity introduced into China during Tang Dynasty.He argues that the novel is grounded on the“momentous discovery” of the evidence of the lost Nestorianism (Wu,1913,p.xxxii).First,he mistakes the writer as Ch’iu Ch’ang Ch’un,one of the religious advisers of Kublai Khan,“A Taoist Gamaliel who became a Nestorian Prophet and Advisor to the Chinese Court” (Wu,1913,cover).The truth,however,was that he “confused Wu Ch’eng-en with another man of the same name,but born several hundred years earlier,who was a religious adviser to Genghis Khan and has related his work to Nestorian Christianity,which was known in China at that date” (Wu,1930,p.16).

In addition,Richard provides evidence that Higher Buddhism is the same as the Nestorian,therefore the Christian,religion (Wu,1913,p.xxxii).He tries to prove that XYJ is a Nestorian work as the book embodies the main teaching of Confucianism and Taoism,of Christianity,especially Nestorianism.He stresses that a prayer is Nestorian in Chapter 88 in the note:

ST:真禪景象不凡同，大道緣由滿太空。(Wu,2013,p.1079)

TT:The true Illustrious Religion★ is not human,

The great Way,whose origin is in all space,

Whose influence pervades the Universe,

Has balm to heal all suffering.

*The Chinese name used here is the same as that used on the Nestorian monument for Christianity.(Wu,1913,p.309,emphasis added)

As a result,Richard reframes XYJ,a classical novel with Buddhism,Taoism,and Confucianism,as a novel with Christian concept with the paratextual materials of the title,the subtitle,the naming system,and the footnotes.By highlighting the morality and the religious enlightenment of the pilgrims,he seeks to convey the moral message of Christianity:the pilgrim struggling against internal and external demons towards enlightenment.

4.1.2 Waley’s folkloric reframing of XYJ

In direct contrast to the Christian version,Arthur Waley’sMonkeyis reframed as a humorous and entertaining Chinese folklore in the depression of WWII.The paratextual elements of the title and the naming system help construct a popular novel.To begin with,Waley retitles the book asMonkeywhich depicts a folktale of imagination.With a title easy to accept and remember,he emphasizes the monkey’s humor,superpower,and optimism,which makes the abridgment an instant success.Furthermore,Waley tries to present a simpler version of naming system for the Western readers.His version is easily understood by Western readers with the popular names of Monkey,Tripitaka,Pigsy,and Sandy,and simplified versions with classifiers denoting the Buddhist and Taoist connotation.Among all abridgments,Waley uses the least notes on religious terms to maintain the reading fluency.The simplified title and naming system,together with few footnotes,help construct the folkloric style,which is conducive to the popularization of the book.

4.1.3 Yu’s Taoism,Buddhism and reframing of XYJ

In contrast,Yu asserts that XYJ is a serious Taoist and Buddhist allegory rather than a simple myth or folklore.He tries to reframe the narrative closer to the ST in terms of the protagonists’ relationships and the Taoism connotation.First,he enhances the Monk’s status by retitling the book asThe Monkey and the Monk.Yu portrays the determined monk as the pilgrim and the monkey as his disciple and guardian.Meanwhile,Yu emphasizes that the monk and the monkey are closely associated in their Buddhism belief since they belong to the same denomination of Mahayana.

Moreover,Yu keeps the Taoist interpretation by combining traditional Taoism with the characters’names.The analysis of Yu’s abridgment reflects the Taoist connotation as Yu suggests that the master and his four disciples symbolize the well-balanced five phases of water,metal,wood,earth and fire.In the abridgment,he keeps all the intertitles in the book as those in the ST and selects 209 poems illustrating the monologue,scenery description and religious connotation.In a word,Yu tries to retain the twofold religious features of Buddhism and Taoism in the ST to the maximum in his abridgment.

4.2 Narrative accrual of the three abridgments

Bruner describes narrative accrual as the manner in which we “cobble stories together to make them into a whole of some sort” (1991,p.18).Baker broadens the definition as “the outcome of repeated exposure to a set of related narratives,ultimately leading to the shaping of a culture,tradition,or history” (2006,p.101).The three abridgments,translated in different ages,share many similarities which help construct the narrative accrual in the West throughout the century.

Firstly,the monkey is foregrounded as the protagonist in the three abridgments.All the translators keep the first seven chapters,namely,the introduction of the monkey in complete version which accounts for almost a quarter of the abridgment.Meanwhile,the monkey is portrayed prominently throughout the journey as the monk’s most important guardian.To spotlight this status,Waley renames the book toMonkeyand Yu places monkey in the first place in his titleThe Monkey and the Monk,suggesting that the monkey is the distinguished hero of the book.Richard’s version was abridged and reprinted in 2008 by Tuttle Press with a new titleThe Monkey King’s Amazing Adventures:A Journey to the West in Search of Enlightenment,which foregrounds the monkey as the protagonist in the title as well.Most abridgments also illustrate the monkey on the front covers of the book.The title,front cover,and the selective appropriation indicate that the powerful monkey is the protagonist of the book.The abridgments present the shift from “the journey” to “the monkey” in the narrative accrual.

Secondly,the three versions underscore the religious elements in the translation while keeping the theme of the ST—the unity of the three religions.All the translators select the chapters involved with religious conflict in the kingdoms of Crow-Cock and Cart-Slow.Richard pinpoints the religious conflict with the intertitle of “Buddhists and Taoists compete” (Wu,1913,p.ii).Waley focuses his theme on the religious conflict by selecting the religious episodes and omitting the chapters on the other themes.Yu chooses both the themes of religious conflict in Cart-Slow Kingdom and the temptation for the monk.They all preserve the monkey’s suggestion that the king should keep the unity of the three religions in Cart-Slow Kingdom.Religion is the common theme for all the three versions despite the paratextual adjustment.

Thirdly,all the translators take XYJ as an allegory rather than the seemingly mythological journey for the pursuit of Buddhism scripture while they preserve the main storyline of the Chinese novel:the story of the monkey,the introduction of Tripitaka,and the pilgrimage to India.Richard claims XYJ as an allegory with the subtitle “A great Chinese epic and allegory”,Waley views the book as folklore compounded with religious allegory,and Yu takes it as a religious syncretism in the prefaces.All the translators have noticed the evolution and growth of the protagonists along the journey.Though Richard views the journey as a pilgrim to enlightenment,Waley as a satire and Yu as redemption,their interpretation of the Chinese classic is much beyond the version of the superficial myth and humorous folklore.

5.Conclusion

China’s literature has been considered peripheral in Western literature.XYJ,the hundred-chaptered Chinese novel packed with Chinese religious terms,is challenging for Western readers.This article provides evidence that the translators reframe the classic with different labeling systems,selective appropriation,reposition of the figures,and temporal and spatial background.Through the paratextual analysis,we suggest that Richard presented the Chinese myth with Christian interpretation in early 20th century.In World War II,the novel was reframed as a folkloric tale full of imagination and optimism,but the reframing returned to traditional Chinese Taoism in the 21st century.

Meanwhile,the three versions help construct the narrative accrual of the religious allegory with a factious monkey as the introduction,popularizing the Chinese myth,religion and culture to the Western readers.It is hoped that the paper could provide a better understanding of the diachronic narrative reframing through the paratexutal analysis of the three abridged translations of the Chinese classic.One major limitation of the results developed in the paper is that the narrative is analyzed on paratextual level.Further researches can be carried out on the linguistic and cultural levels to explore the individual reframing of the novel in terms of ideology and story construction as well as the translators’ strategies.