Shijing: Rhetorical Devices In 'The Duke's Bride'

Chapter One Introduction

Shijing is the first poetry collection in China. Not only does it have tremendous value to study Chinese culture, but also it has the lofty status and profound influence in the history of Chinese literature. Numerous scholars at home and abroad have paid much attention to Shijing study of all time; Xu Yuanchong is one of them. As the “only person to translate English and French poetry”, his English translation of Shijing is of vital importance for foreign people to understand and study Shijing culture of China.

Rhetorical devices are applied in each poem in Shijing, totaling more than 30 rhetorical devices. These different rhetorical devices have enriched the artistic connotation and enhanced the aesthetic feeling in Shijing. It is a problem for Shijing translation that how to make foreign people know the aesthetics and connotation of Shijing.

The author has chosen five rhetorical devices, including simile, metaphor, hyperbole, repetition and metonymy, supplemented with “Three Beauties” theory of Xu Yuanchong and translation aesthetics. She has aimed to analyze and study the application of these rhetorical devices in Xu Yuanchong’s English translation version of Shijing.

Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Introduction to Shijing and

In The Duke’s Bride (《硕人》), the buxom lady is described with “Like lard congealed her skin is tender, her fingers like soft blades of reed; like larva white her neck is slender, her teeth like rows of melon-seed”. (“手如柔荑，肤如凝脂，领如蝤蛴，齿如瓠犀”) Four similes describe the image of nobleness and beauty of the pretty lady. In The Newly-Wed (《桃夭》), firstly the author praises that the peach flowers are in full bloom: The peach tree beams so red; how brilliant are its flowers! (“桃之夭夭，灼灼其华”) But the later “The maiden’s getting wed, good for the nuptial bowers” (“之子于归，宜其室家”) shows that the peach flower is the maiden. With metaphor, the blooming peach flower means virtuous