Attitude as mediation: peritextual commentary in the translation of the Platform Sutra

As explicit expression of attitude is restrained in translations of canonical texts, the peritext often becomes a place for the translator's attitudinal mediation. Unlike previous studies where the translational peritext is under the name of the translator, this study presents a special case in which the peritext attached to the translation of the Platform Sutra, a religious text, is attributed to the translator's teacher, whose lectures in the source language served as the basis of the peritextual commentary. By adopting the appraisal framework, the study demonstrates how explicit attitudes, especially judgements, are instilled in the commentary to direct the readers to see the protagonist Huineng as a hero and many other characters as villains. Despite the apparent attribution of the commentary to the translator's teacher, the translator plays an active role in reorganizing, translating and sometimes modifying the attitudinal expressions from the original lectures. Putting the commentary under the name of the translator's teacher functions to further enhance the mediating power of the attitude. The specialness of the case study will make it complementary to existing studies on attitude as mediation.