On Patterns Of Cultural Transmission Through Translation As The Medium

In recent years, the interdisciplinary research of translation, namely, the way to explore various phenomena and the nature of translation with the findings of other disciplines has become a major concern in the field of translation studies. Therefore, this thesis is to make an interdisciplinary research of translation from the angle of cultural geography. To be precise, this thesis aims to find out the patterns of cultural transmission through translation as the medium based on the theory of cultural diffusion in cultural geography and the historical facts of translation activities between China and the rest of the world from the3rd to the19th century.The present author employs in this thesis the descriptive approach with theoretical analyses combined with examples to illustrate the findings of this thesis. The thesis, based upon an analysis of a large amount of relevant historical data, finds that according to three different standards, three major pairs of patterns of cultural transmission through translation as the medium can be classified as follows:in terms of the direction to which the cultural information is transmitted, the suction pattern and the radiation pattern are designated; according to the way in which the cultural information is transmitted, the direct pattern and the indirect pattern identified, and in line with the purpose for which the cultural information is transmitted, the uni-purpose pattern and the multi-purpose pattern defined. This finding of the thesis to some extent opens up the gate of doing a new interdisciplinary research of translation on the basis of cultural geography, fills in the gaps in this research field and points out a possible direction for its future research.