Retranslation is a rather complex issue that has become an interesting subject of research in recent years. Topics such as motives of retranslation, retranslation hypothesis, and approaches to analyzing retranslations are generating controversial debates among scholars. Current studies on retranslation, though insightful and fruitful, is still limited within isolated cases, fragmentary and far from satisfactory. This study aims to investigate the theoretical issues of Retranslation Hypothesis (RH), an argument formulated first by Berman (1990), Bensimon (1990) and later expanded by Gambier (1994) and Chesterman (2000). The main argument of RH is that initial translations are always lacking, flawed and targetoriented, while later retranslations are more accurate and closer to the original, and source- oriented. RH has been proven by some scholars, but challenged by others. Consequently, the existing RH seems unsuccessful in generalizing the driving force behind the diverse activities behind retranslations. The RH initiated by Berman (1990) and the subsequent discussions about retranslation focuses on the lacking, deficiency or flaw of the initial translation. In my opinion, however, a new perspective to examine the universal assumption about retranslation can be rewarding. We need a turn to the merit, goodness and the value of retranslation, which may generate a new version of RH. The new RH proposed draws on the value analysis or value engineering in economics. In further details, a framework is suggested to explain the motives and functions of retranslations by drawing on theories and concepts from disciplines of linguistics, sociology and economics. This study address retranslation of classics with specific reference to English and Chinese military texts. A set of corpora will be established consisting of source texts, initial translations and retranslations of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, Alfred Mahan’s sea power series, and Mao Tsetung’s On Guerrilla Warfare. The study is expected to reveal how retranslations contribute to the worldwide canonization of local or national military classics. It is hoped to shed some new light on the role of (re)translations in the communication between eastern and western strategic culture.
