"zhuangzi" Translation Studies

During the cultural turn in the translation studies and the translational turn in the culture studies, it has been a hot point to talk about the complicated relationship between the culture and the translation. The dissertation, by means of a series of close reading of a variety of versions of ChuangTzu, tries to reveal the function of translation bound to the broadcasting of Taoism in the western world, especially in the English-spoken countries.There have been more than ten translations, complete ones and the selective ones altogether, during more than one century from the first version in 1881 till now. The dissertation chooses the most important ones to explore the different outlooks and characteristics of the various versions of ChuangTzu, a most important text of Taoism culture. It aims to explore the track of the elucidation of ChuangTzu in the English versions and the influence of the version upon the its' acceptation in the English world, and the common problems and phenomena in the English translations of ancient Chinese cultural classics as well.The introduction in chapter I tells the previous researches related, the causes, significance, aim and means of the dissertation. Chapter II and ChapterIIIstudies the various version of ChuangTzu as a philosophical book. Chapter II studies the various versions for their descriptions and analysis of upon the historical and philosophical background of pre-Qin, upon the masters and masterpieces of Taoism, and the problems of the text of ChuangTzu, so as to show their knowledge about Taoism as a whole. ChapterIII tries to show the understanding of the translators through their choices for the basic concepts and the function of the term translations in the acceptation of the Taoism thought, and reveals the cultural hegemony in the dictionaries. Chapter IV is interested in the introduction and transforming of ChuangTzu as a literary book in the various versions, and the comments of ChuangTzu in some of the History of Chinese Literature written in English, and as well as Oscar Wild's acceptation of ChuangTzu, and therefore finds how and how much the English world has learned the literature beauty of ChuangTzu. Chapter V, by means of the analysis of three versions from the different translators of different time, nationality, and status, shows the complicated relationship between the characteristic of a version and the translator's status, motivation and strategy, and the cultural environment of the target language. Chapter A/I comes to the conclusion and indicates the further study of the topic in the future.