On The Chinese-English Translation Of Popular TCM Books From The Perspective Of Reception Theory

Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM)not only guards the health of the Chinese nation,but also plays an important role in the prevention and treatment of global diseases.In recent years,the Chinese government has attached great importance to the international development of TCM,and has introduced a series of related initiatives.However,the acceptability of popular TCM books that have been published overseas is not high among readers.TCM has its own unique theoretical system and contains rich Chinese philosophical ideas,most of which cannot find direct equivalence in English,so translation is the key to improving the acceptability of popular TCM books among foreign readers.The current research on the translation of TCM is mainly from the perspective of texts and translators,lacking the consideration of readers.Reception Theory attaches great importance to the initiative and feelings of readers in the reading process,which can be a guideline for improving the acceptance of translated text among readers.TCM from Scratch is a popular science book that introduces the basic concepts of TCM in easy-to-understand and literary language.Taking the first three lessons of the book as the translation material,this study conducted the translation practice,and summarized the three major translation difficulties of popular TCM books,namely medical terms,philosophical ideas,and literary language.Besides,from the perspective of three core concepts of Reception Theory – Horizon of Expectations,Mental Distance in Aesthetic Activity,and Fusion of Horizons,this study analyzed translation cases and summarized the methods of translating popular TCM books.It hopes to improve the acceptance of popular TCM books among overseas readers.The study finds that the following translation methods can be adopted to help the readers to better realize the “Fusion of Horizons”: when translating medical terms,we can combine two translation methods to balance the “Mental Distance in Aesthetic Activity” of the text and the “Horizon of Expectations” of the readers;when translating philosophical ideas,we can choose suitable translation methods according to their meanings in the context,so as to provide sufficient and appropriate “Mental Distance in Aesthetic Activity”,and make the translation easier to enter the readers’ “Horizon of Expectations”;when translating literary language,methods such as borrowing,paraphrasing,and conversion can be used to reduce the unnecessary “Mental Distance in Aesthetic Activity”,so that the translation can enter the readers’ “Horizon of Expectations” to the greatest extent.