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Presently, global politics tend to apply Confucian philosophy, whose idea of xiao (filial piety) found in The Analects has been primary in uniting the Chinese citizens as a nation. This study investigates the English translation of The Analects by James Legge, focusing on how the idea of xiao (filial piety) has been interpreted. Employing the framework of Eco-translatology, a translation theory that describes the ecological adaptation and selection choices of a translator, the study qualitatively evaluates the linguistic, cultural, and communicative dimensions Legge adaptively selected for translation. The data was collected by identifying and selecting discussions of xiao in The Analects in Chinese as the source text and in the translated version of Legge in English as the target text. The analysis found that the Legge version provides low semantic variation and high contextual variation that demarcates it from the source text, which helps the non-Chinese readers to reflect upon the teachings and apply them to their societal functions. Thus, the study has future implications for the translated text to be a reliable source for guiding the application of Confucian teachings appropriately into the different systems of Western society.
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