This study conducts a systematic stylistic investigation of three seminal English translations of Han Feizi , an important work of Chinese Legalist philosophy. Employing Douglas Biber’s multidimensional analysis (MDA), the research compares the stylistic profiles of W. K. Liao (1939, 1959), Burton Watson (1964), and Joel Sahleen (2003). Results reveal particularly striking differences across four key dimensions: Liao’s translation exhibits high informational density and extreme abstraction, Watson’s version balances narrative clarity with accessibility, while Sahleen’s rendering demonstrates an involved, overtly persuasive, yet rigorously abstract style. These divergences are most salient in the dimensions of Informational vs. Involved Production, Narrative vs. Non-narrative Discourse, Overt Persuasion, and Abstract vs. Non-abstract Information, highlighting how micro-level linguistic choices generate distinct macro-level rhetorical effects that transcend the source text’s inherent heterogeneity. By demonstrating that translators function as visible agents who reframe the source text in ways shaped by specific institutional and pedagogical norms, this study contributes quantitative empirical evidence to debates on translator visibility. It also validates MDA as a robust methodology for comparative translation studies, offering insights into how evolving translational norms reshape the stylistic re-presentation and transmission of Chinese classics in the Anglophone world.
Yin et al. (Thu,) studied this question.