Yidao Of Sutra Translaton In Ancient China:Its Genealogy And Present-day Interpretation

With a history of over one thousand years, the ancient Chinese sutra translation is a huge cultural project, which has brought us not only a rich and nutritious culture from a foreign land but also a Yidao (Way of Translation or Translation Poetics) which has been touched upon over the past few years. This Yidao, the result of expansion by Wendao(Way of Literature or Poetics) into the field of sutra translation, is an important part of traditional Chinese culture. As times are changing and translation studies is going forward, more value of this Yidao has been found, more use of it has been discovered and more significance of it has been detected. The reason why we say so is that the Yidaoof ancient Chinese sutra translatioin displays outstanding characteristics of traditional Chinese culture, demonstrates the universal grammar of human translation activities and entails the spiritual realm of the ancient Chinese sutra translators. It is its universal grammar of human translation that closely connects Chinese poetics of translation with foreign poetics of translation and it is its outstanding characteristics of traditional Chinese culture that distinguishes itself from the foreign translation theories.Since the beginning of China’s reform and opening up to the outside world, Chinese academic research has witnessed a shift from the traditional type to the present-day kind and the Chinese translation studies has also followed suit. With this turn in academic research, we have introduced into our translation research field many western translation theories such as linguistic approaches, functionalist approaches and cultural turn in translation studies. All these western translation theories are so colorful and attractive in the eye of the Chinese translation researchers that they begin to get lost in these foreign theories and forget their ancestors who once made great contributions to the development of translation theories through sutra translation. Some of these Chinese translation researchers even begin to deny or overlook the translation theories developed by their ancestors. Consequently, today’s Chinese translation forum can not hear any voice of Chinese discourse on translation theories. To improve this embarrassing situation, this dissertation attempts to make a comprehensive study on the Chinese Yidao of sutra translation, verifying its genealogy, re-interpreting its theoretical system and digging out its useful essentials so as to bring them into full play in the construction of today’s translatology and make the past serve the present. And it also argues that such a study can help the Chinese people pick up their courage and confidence in the destroy of the western logosism in translation studies, struggle for equality in the dialogue on the construction of today’s translatology and give hints and inspirations to our today’s translation of Chinese culture to the outside world. In this sense, such a study is indispensable and quite necessaryGuided by such principles as giving priority to history, mutual self-independence and internal consistency, this dissertation, from a perspective of genealogy, attempts to make a dynamic study on the Chinese Yidao of sutra translation with the help of such historical documents as A Collection of Records on the Emanation of the Chinese Tripitaka, Biographies of Eminent Monks, A Continuation of the Biographies of Eminent Monks, The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions, and The Song Version of the Biographies of Eminent Monks. It is aimed to offer a dynamic historical description of the genealogy of Chinese Yidao of sutra translation, outlining the main thread of "Good Intergration of Wen and Zhi" which goes through the whole framework of Yidao, justifying the possibility of utilization of Yidao in today’s translation disciplinary construction as well as demonstrating its universal grammar, national characteristics and inspirations for China’s present-day introduction of its culture to the outside world. Used as a key term throughout the whole dissertation is Yidao instead of other terms such as translation theory, translation studies, translatology and poetics of translation, for Yidao is more Chinese in culture, denotation and connotation and categorization. However, this does not mean that the other terms will never appear in the paper. Instead, they will appear when necessary for the clarification of some concepts related to the topic in the discussion.As Rome was not built in one day, so the Chinese Yidao of sutra translation was not shaped in 24 hours. It was formed during the long process of sutra translation, benefited a lot from the work of thousands of eminent monk sutra translators and finally attained its shape as a genealogy of Yidao of sutra translation in the Chinese history of translation. This genealogy, universal in grammar and open in contact with other cultures, has outstanding Chinese characteristics both in the external cultural system and in the internal structure. With regard to the former, we mean that Yidao was born in the Chinese cultural soil, benefiting from the reference system of the Chinese culture. This system, hierarchical in structure, consists of the three levels:the top (Culture), the intermediate (Wenlun, Wendao and Poetics) and the low(Translation Theory, Yidao and Poetics of Translation). In terms of the ontological structure, Yidao is composed of four parts, namely:theory on target text, theory on source text, theory on translator and theory on translation methods. In terms of the cultural structure, Yidao is of a three-level type consisting of the top level(ideal realm), the intermediate level(social realm) and the low level (reality realm). The low level is ontological in nature, dealing with theoretical issues such as What is translation?, Why to translate? and How to translate?; the intermediate level is social in nature, addressing the question of the social standard of translation in ancient China; and the top level ideal in nature, talking about how a noble sutra translatorshould be shaped in accordance with the ethical norms and through sutra translation. When it comes to "universal grammar and openness" of the Yidao, we actually mean that the Yidao of sutra translation can be both interpreted from a present-day perspective and blended in with the contemporary translatology and it can also give hints and inspirations to today’s translators who hope to succeed in the introduction of Chinese culture to foreign countries. As far as Yidao itself is centered around man, it can be actually said that Yidao is a theory about man in nature, quite different from the current theories on translation. This is why Yidao cannot be tailored according to the framework of the western theories on translation, nor can it be viewed through the colored glasses of the western discourse on translation for fear that it might be enslaved by the western discourse on translatology..This dissertation is expected to attain its originality in the following ways:first, it will introduce the concept of genealogy as a new perspective from which Yidao of sutra translation will be studied and re-interpreted culturally for the purpose of finding its unique national characteristics and universality in translation studies. Second, it will give an overall description of the Chinese Yidao of sutra translation, making clear what behind it is as well as the attractiveness and tension of it so as to help the Chinese Yidao blend in with the contemporary translation theories and win equality in the discourse on world translation studies. Third, it will help enlarge people’s understanding of the Chinese Yidao of sutra translation. And fourth, it will help cast a reflection on the study on the ancient Chinese sutra translation as well as submit some hints to the consideration of introducing Chinese culture to the outside world.In order to display the originality of the study, this dissertation is organized as one consisting of seven parts. The first part is the introduction, ushering in the reader to understand the cause, theme, objectives and significance of the study, the research principle and methods as well as the contributions it will make and the structure of the whole dissertation. Following the introduction is Literature Review, which offers a good review of the studies on ancient Chinese sutra translation in such forms as books, collections of papers and academic research papers, highliting their merits and demerits in the further study of ancient Chinese sutra translation. The third part addresses the issue of clarifying such terms as Yilun (translation theories), Yixue (translatology), Yidao(the way of translating) and Wendao(literary theories), presenting a figure showing the location of Yidao in the reference system of Chinese culture. The fourth part describes the genealogy of Yidao, unraveling its process of shaping through the detailed discussion of four important subsystems such as theory on target text, theory on source text, theory on translator and theory on translation mannersand how they were actualized in sutra translation practice.The fifth part gives an interpretation of both the national characteristics and the "universal grammar" of the Chinese Yidao of sutran translation in terms of the three levels, namely, reality realm, social realm and ideal realm. And the sixth part focuses on the reflections on the Chinese Yidao of sutra translation and the hints the study can give to the introduction of Chinese culture to the outside world. Finally, the seventh part offers a concluding remark on the whole dissertation, summarizing what have been achieved through this study, what limitations it has and what can be done in this field in the future.