The Comparative Studies On Translated Texts Of Tao Te Ching:Rhetorical Devices-from The Perspective Of Translator's Subjectivity

Translation is not just a process of language shifting.It is a process with culture involvement.Elements that need to be translated are not only words,phrases or sentences,but also the elements of culture.Translation plays a key role in popularizing Chinese culture.But with the vast differences between the Chinese culture and the western culture,two peoples may have totally different feelings towards the same object.Also,rhetorical devices used in Chinese classics form a huge challenge to translation.If too much emphasis is put on format,meaning will be sacrificed;If too much attention is put on conveying meanings,the beauty of these rhetorical devices will be sacrificed.How can we make the balance?We can take Tao Te Ching as an example.Culturally speaking,Tao Te Ching is concise and rhymed in Language with orderly sentences,embodying the beauty of language and rhythm of traditional Chinese literature.Moreover,the language of Tao Te Ching is of artistry and uses a variety of rhetorical devices such as antithesis,parallelism,figure of speech,rhetorical questions and anadiplosis.The translation of rhetorical sentences has an important effect on Tao Te Ching's popularization.So,this thesis compared the translations of these sentences from the perspective of Translator's Subjectivity.Three influential versions selected were translated by Lin Yutang,Arthur Waley and James Legge.Lin Yutang was a famous translator in China with a background which was different from those of Arthur Waley and James Legge.This difference would give us a better way to study the Translator's Subjectivity.Also,when the author read papers relevant to Tao Te Ching,she found that most of the studies and papers were taking the English texts of Arthur Waley and James Legge as their samples.So,the three versions selected were representative.Tao Te Ching annotated by Wang Pi was taken as reference to check the faithfulness of the three versions if necessary.This thesis compared the three English versions and tried to shed light on some research questions such as will the translators' personal experience,translation style or religious relief lead to differences in rhetorical translations? In dealing with these rhetorical devices,which translation strategies have been applied by the three translators? What are the advantages and weaknesses of these translation strategies? Has the true wisdom of Tao Te Ching been distorted? In translation of rhetorical devices,which is more important,the format or meaning?Major findings that can be drawn from this thesis are as follow: the different backgrounds of translators will have an impact on their translations such as their religious belief;Chinese translator Lin Yutang's version was closer to the original format of Tao Te Ching;There were some inaccuracies among the three versions;The three versions all fail to capture the conciseness of Tao Te Ching.