Translation Of The Taoist Cultural Concepts In Three English Translations Of Hongloumeng From The Perspective Of Conceptual Mapping Theory

As a classic of Chinese literature,Hongloumeng has a profound Chinese traditional Taoism culture.Since the 20 th century,there have been many English translations,among which,translations by Yang Xianyi & Gladys Yang,David Hawkes & John Minford(hereinafter H&M),and the Rev.B.S.Bonsall are particularly outstanding.The Yangs’ version,one of the first published full-length English versions,together with H&M’s,is called the classic in terms of the translation of Chinese work.Rev.B.S.Bonsall’s English translation,completed in the 1950 s,is the first full-length(120-chapter)English version in the world and has a special status in the history of Hongloumeng translations.Conceptual mapping theory put forward by Dr.He Yuanjian postulates that via cognitive translation strategies,indigenous concepts that cannot be completely recognized and represented in the translator’s conceptual-intentional system,gain encoding.This thesis,based on Dr.He Yuanjian’s conceptual mapping theory,chooses the above-mentioned versions as the research objects,then does some statistical analysis of the translation strategy of Taoist cultural concepts in the versions,and summarizes their translating patterns.It aims to explore the loss and representation of Taoist culture concepts in the three English versions.First of all,three types of Taoist cultural concepts(Taoist immortals and priests,Taoist rituals,and Taoist beliefs)in Hongloumeng are classified.Then,the thesis analyzes the translation strategy of these types of Taoist cultural concepts in the self-built database.Moreover,according to Dr.He Yuanjian’s strategies of translating indigenous concepts including cultural transplantation,substitution,paraphrasing,and deletion,it tries to explore translation patterns of Bonsall,the Yangs and H&M,and a comparative study is carried out to figure out the loss and representation of the Taoist cultural concepts in three translations.Through exploring the Taoist cultural concepts in these three English translations by B.S.Bonsall,the Yangs,and David Hawkes & John Minford,this thesis aims,to some extent,to shed light on the translation of Hongloumeng and other classics.