A Study Of The English Translations Of The Laotzu From The Perspective Of Translator’s Subjectivity

As one of the most influential representatives of ancient Chinese works of philosophy, Taoist canon the Laotzu has been translated into twenty-eight different languages(Xin Hongjuan, 2008:79) only surpassed by the Bible for its brilliant philosophical thoughts as well as its polished pithy language. Its earliest European language rendition was said to appear in 1750. Since John Chalmers, a Protestant Christian missionary who served with the London Missionary Society, took the first step to put it into English in the book titled the Speculations on Metaphysics, Polity and Morality of “The Old Philosopher”, Lau-tse in 1868, there have been 182 English versions(Ding Wei, 2013) published in the book market. The existence of so many different translators with their professions ranging from missionaries, sinologists, litterateurs and philosophers, has resulted in certain unbalanced qualities of these translations. A systematic investigation of the translations of the Laotzu will deepen our understanding of this philosophy Taoism and promote an international appreciation of Chinese civilization.The twentieth century has witnessed an extraordinary variety of English translations of the Laotzu. These translations can be classified into three translational phases in which translators adopt different strategies for different purposes. In the first phase a strategy of domestication was frequently used for the purpose of catering to the spread of Christianity. After the First World War, translators mainly adopted a strategy reflecting foreign influence, securing the philosophical maxims directly in order to save western people from their post-war frustration and hopelessness. The third phase occurred in the 1970 s after the discovery of the silk manuscripts in the Mawangdui No. 3 tomb of the Han Dynasty and the bamboo-slips in the Jinmen tombs of the State of Chu. The translators tried to use the integrated strategy of combining the strategies of domestication and foreignization in order to restore the language style as well as the philosophical essence of the source text. Therefore focusing on this century could be a means of achieving clarity in comparing the changes of diverse translated versions.Traditionally the translation was considered to be the reproduction of the original and the translator was considered as the “servant” to two masters—the author and the target reader and the “invisible” person. With the emergence of Cultural Turn in the 1980 s, the translation study has shifted from the simple linguistic transfer to the cross-cultural transfer and from the source-text-oriented studies to the target-text-oriented studies. Thus, the translator’s status has been lifted. Although the researchers of translation have not yet reached a universal definition of the translator’s subjectivity, basically they agree that the translators are translating actively and creatively with special purpose, at the same time the translators are restricted by different inner or outer factors such as their translation principles, the social ideology they are living in and the target reader’s expectation, etc. Therefore the task of translator is to manipulate two various languages to integrate totally different cultures skillfully and creatively so that the source text author’s information and intention could be correctly conveyed.This dissertation adopts the theory of translator’s subjectivity, coupled with other modern translatation theories to depict the translations of the Laotzu in the western cultural context in the 20 th century and compare the two representatives of the translators and the translations in the 20 th century—the translational strategies and the translated versions of Lin Yutang and Arthur Waley, pointing out the long-term popularity of their translations is partially due to the proper application of the translator’s subjectivity. The writer suggests the two translators’ personal background, including their life experience, education experience, and their translation experience influences the application of the translator’s subjectivity. Further more, the writer investigates other factors influencing the application of the translator’s subjectivity, trying to explore how the translator’s subjectivity affected the translations of the Laotzu.As to the high frequency of metaphors on the female in the Laotzu, based on the theory of translator’s subjectivity, the writer makes an attempt to explore the influence of Laocius’ philosophy of femininity on the English translations in the 20 th century, by interpreting the five renditions of the Laotzu translated by five 20th-century translators at home and abroad. The writer of this dissertation also points out the way to convey the Chinese culture to the western world faithfully.Through the exploration of the misinterpretations found in the translations of the Laotzu, the writer believes that a good translator should adapt to the translational environment and subjectively choose the proper translational strategies to produce the comparatively well-accepted translation. Meanwhile, the writer points out that the theory of translator’s subjectivity can be still further developed in terms of the balanced relations among different factors involved in the translation such as the author, the source text, the translator, the target text and the reader so that the restriction factors could be dwindled.This dissertation consists of seven chapters.Chapter one briefly introduces Laocius the man and the Laotzu the book. It also introduces the motivation, objectives, theoretical framework and contents of this study.The second chapter is a general survey of previous research on the translations of the Laotzu in China and abroad.The third chapter is an investigation of the translators, focusing on the different translation strategies employed by two translators of the 20 th century—Lin Yutang and Arthur Waley. Lin Yutang is a well-known litterateur and translator as well as being excellent at the profound knowledge of Chinese Classics and mastering the professional skills of translation. “With numerous works of writing and translation, this productive writer has great influence in the western world”(Ma Zuyi, 2006:123). His greatest contribution is to introduce the recondite Chinese classic culture of Confucianism and Taoism to the western world through common yet proper language easily understandable and accepted. A second translation expert, British sinologist Arthur Waley enjoys a very high prestige in the western translation world and is welcomed by the readers for his fluent interpretation and style loyal to the original intent. “This voluminous translator is well versed in both the source language and the target language who is known as an old China hand without being to China”(Ma Zuyi & Ren Rongzhen, 2007:229). His works greatly enhance the western people’s understanding of Chinese history as well as culture. An investigation of the analysis of the different translation strategies of these two experts can best reflect the translation styles in this period of time.The fourth chapter mainly investigates the translated versions in the 20 th century with a particular focus on Lin Yutang’s and Arthur Waley’s translations, exploring the possible reasons for the popularity of Lin Yutang’s and Arthur Waley’s versions from a perspective of translator’s subjectivity.The fifth chapter mainly explores the English translation of Laocius’ philosophy of femininity reflected in the Laotzu by looking at five 20 th century translators’ versions from the translator’s subjectivity. It is found that all these translators can accept the maternal philosophy of Laocius and have taken initiatives in turning mu(母), ci(雌), and pin(牝) into their target language equivalences, thus achieving the effect of conveying Chinese culture faithfully and arousing echoes of positive response among both Chinese and western audiences.The sixth chapter is an investigation of some misinterpretations in the translations of the Laotzu. The Chinese culture can be distorted somewhat during the process of transmission especially for those translators whose mother tongue is not Chinese, and whose ambiguous understanding of the source text may lead to frequent misrepresentation. The writer attempts to explore specific examples from the aspects of cultural misinterpretation and linguistic misinterpretation as well.The last chapter is the conclusion of the whole dissertation, including the major findings and contributions, limitations, and suggestions for further study.