A Study On G. G. Alexander’s Translation Of Dao De Jing From The Perspective Of Reception Aesthetics

Dao De Jing, a profound and inclusive Daoist classic and crystal of oriental wisdom, covering various aspects ranging from politics, military affairs to ethics, draws widespread attention from home and abroad. Since the 18th century, Dao De Jing has been translated worldwide into almost all the major languages and countries of the world. The circulation and popularity of Dao De Jing are preceded only by the Bible.Reception Aesthetics prioritizes reader’s central position, and highlight their dynamic role, which puts forward such key concepts as "horizon of expectation" and "appealing structure". "Horizon of expectation" means reader’s past reading experience, certain social and historical environment, and the resulting values, which exerts influence on both reader’s understanding and author’s creation of the literary works. "Appealing structure" refers to that the text contains numerous blankness and indeterminate spots, appealing readers’to obtain concretization; thus, they bridge the creation consciousness and that of the reception to constitute the basic structure of literary text. Besides, Reception Theory centers on text reception, thus opening up a new perspective for translation study.From Reception Aesthetics’perspective, this thesis takes G. G. Alexander’s English translation version of Dao De Jing, Lao-tsze, the Great Thinker, as case of the study. G. G. Alexander is both a reader and a recreator during the process of translation. As a reader, he actively participate in constituting the meaning of the literary text, appealed by the text structure. His specific horizon of expectation then fuses with that of the Dao De Jing. Thus, the understanding of the text has been accomplished. As a recreator, he focuses on the reception ability of general readers in the west and endeavors to present translation version, which is concise and brief in language style, close to the western culture and aesthetic standard. Thus, readers’ interest will be intrigued and the brand-new aesthetic experience will be presented.Close reading is adopted when studying G. G. Alexander’s English translation version of Dao De Jing. At lexical level, the translation of these three key concepts, "Dao"(道), "De"(德), and "Zi Ran" (自然) are discussed. Then, at the image level, the image of "Dao", "water" and "Shengren" are expounded. At last, the state-governing principles, unity of opposite and outlook on development are elaborated respectively at the philosophical level. Thus, it’s concluded that during the process of translation, the translation must take into account the readers’"horizon of expectation", their aesthetic tendency, reception ability cultural background, etc., to present the readers Chinese specific aesthetic experience.It is hoped that this study can shed light on more accurate understanding of Dao De Jing and its English translation version. The study on G. G. Alexander’s translation version of Dao De Jing from perspective of Reception of Aesthetics, to a certain degree, has enriched translation studies in the light of Reception Aesthetics. Meanwhile, the author of this thesis hopes it will be of some help for further researches on the translation studies of Dao De Jing and for the dissemination of traditional Chinese classics as well.