A Study Of The English Renditions Of Laozi

Imperceptibly into the blood of Chinese people, Laozi is considered to be the principal canon of Daoism and an important component of Chinese traditional culture. In a highly condensed yet poetic language, Laozi elucidates its philosophical thought with profound connotations. Numerous scholars have researched and interpreted it from different perspectives in all ages. Thus endless researches form a unique "Lao school" in the history of Chinese thought.As early as661AD, Laozi was first translated into Sanskrit by Eminent Monk Xuan Zang and Daoist Cheng Xuanying of the Tang Dynasty. It is the second most frequently translated book in the world after the Bible and the most influential Chinese classics. Since the first English translation of Laozi by John Chalmers came into existence in Trubner, London, in1868, more than160English renditions (see the author's statistics in Appendix I) have followed suit, which inspires numerous research around it. Yet the worldwide impact of Laozi can be closely related to its translation. The proliferation of English versions of Laozi, deriving from the diachronic and synchronic overlapping appearance of these translated texts, provides a massive corpus for the earnest study of the renditions. Laozi translation has become increasingly diversified in terms of translation subjects, translated texts and target readers.As the study of Laozi translation has reached a certain degree of accumulation, there is a need to outline the perspectives of previous research and address the existing problems. In the course of the research, I discover that the previous studies are rather fragmentary, blind, one-sided and unsystematic. Some studies are repetitive, others neglected. Thus if is necessary to conduct a comprehensive, systematic study of the English renditions of Laozi by depicting a clear road map. A Study of the English Renditions of Laozi is an attempt in this direction.On the basis of Newmark's model of comprehensive criticism of a translation, Wang Hongyin's operating procedures for the criticism of literary translation as well as Nida's study of Bible translation, and with consideration for the distinctive features of Laozi translation, this dissertation puts forward a hypothesis about a comprehensive, critical system of Laozi translation. This system consists of a study of the source text, a study of the history of Laozi translation, a comparative study of translated texts, a study of reader reviews on translation, the likely place of Laozi translation in the target culture, and an exploration of the laws of Laozi translation based on the research.The dissertation is designed as a step-by-step embodiment of this comprehensive, critical system. The purpose is to explore the constructive theory of Laozi translation on the basis of the verification of the comprehensive critical system through the abundant practice of Laozi translation and its systematic study. This system provides a framework in which relevant elements can be filled, that is to say, it allows both holistic and selective analysis. Thus we would find out which aspect is left untouched and needs filling the gap, and which aspect is still inadequate and needs to be further perfect in the study of Laozi translation.According to this system, the first procedure is to study the source text, which is the prerequisite to the whole study. It includes the study of the original, language features and the thinking system. Concerning the issue of the original texts of Laozi, generally they refer to the received texts (the Wang Bi and Heshang Gong versions as the representative), the Mawangdui silk manuscripts version and the Guodian bamboo slips version. There are some textual differences among them. Based on the principle of editology, translation is supposed to regard the earliest known text—the Guodian bamboo slips version as the original, while the Guodian bamboo slips version is far less richer than the other two in content, so it is necessary to use the silk manuscripts version and the received texts as the reference source. The discovery of ancient books is dynamic as it cannot rule out the possibility that unearthed or lost version will be discovered or found as a result of archaeological excavation, which provides the possibility of re-examining the extant translations and continuing to produce new translations. Therefore it is impossible to conduct a comprehensive translation criticism without the study of the original.Next comes to the study of the history of the English renditions of Laozi. The research takes the historical and cultural contexts as the point of departure, adopting diachronic and thematic approaches to penetrate the evolution of Laozi translation. Thus the diversified existence of translated texts of Laozi can be summarized from the research. In the meantime, it intends to find out historical reasons for variations among the English renditions, their diachronically phasic features and the constraints in different historical contexts.A selective and representative translation is preferred in the comparative study of several translated texts of Laozi. Combining Martha P.Y. Cheung's method for key-factor analysis in the evaluation of novel translation with the distinct features of Laozi translation, this study mainly focuses on the translation of the title, of key philosophical concepts, and other translation problems. Intralingual translation of Laozi explores the problems caused by different originals, phonetic loan characters, changes of syntax and loss of punctuation marks. Concerning the problems caused by cultural factors, the content, form and style in interlingual translation of Laozi, the author puts forward the translation standard of natural faithfulness after examining Daoist philosophy—"Dao takes what is natural as its law" in Laozi, Zhang Guruo's translation principle of "using idiomatic target language translates idiomatic original text" and Nida's naturalness—"the closest natural equivalent" and so on. After exemplifying and analysing the translations, the author's own translation is offered to justify the preferred solution to the problems.Reader reviews on the English renditions of Laozi are an indispensable link in the comprehensive critical system while the previous study has not touched on the research. That is to say, although there are many English versions of Laozi, we know nothing about the reliable feedback from the target readers; we know nothing about their real comments, their reading experience and how they evaluate the translation after they have read this classical. As a result, lack of the study of reader response undoubtedly affects the perspectives of translation criticism. Owing to the research on the reader reviews involving a lot of unmanageable factors, the recognition in theory has not been verified practically. In fact, the English versions of Laozi have resulted in numerous reader reviews that can be collected on the Internet, which guarantees the operability for the study. This dissertation selects15influential translated texts of Laozi and summarizes the typical reader reviews in terms of ordinary readers and reviews in the form of book reviews in terms of translators and critics, and makes a survey of them and follows an analysis. The study on reader reviews is an important parameter in the evaluation of translation quality. This analytical study of reader feedback plays a directional role in classics translation.The continuous stream of the English renditions explains the pivotal place of Laozi in the target culture. Many examples are listed to show the participation of Daoism in various fields in the West as well as the formation in Western thought and culture.The ultimate aim of this study is attempting to inspire the theory of Laozi translation based on a large amount of practice. As the study of Laozi translation has proved the feasibility of the comprehensive critical system, this study itself possesses the comprehensive, logical and systematic characteristics, which provides the rich resource for constructing the theory of classics translation. Without the comprehensive criticism of Laozi translation, the work would not be completed.