| Since the cultural turn in translation studies, translation has been more and more considered to be not only a conversion between SL and TL, but also a communication between different cultures. While it is important to study the cultural factors that manipulate translation, we should also realize translation is a social event as much as a cultural one. At present, not many studies have approached translation from the social-historical context, still fewer diachronic ones that consider the different translations of one text from different historical periods.The Lao-tzu, a gem of Chinese culture, has been translated into28languages with over1,000editions in the world. Since its first complete English translation came out in1868, more than140English versions have appeared. These multitudinous English translations of the Lao-tzu spanning almost150years are precious cases for translation studies, especially for examining typical translations from different social-historical contexts to describe their characteristics and find out their connections with their social backgrounds.By using theories of philosophical hermeneutics, aesthetics of reception, and audience study, and using a research model of "social-historical context+translation\translator+reader", this dissertation examines five representative translations of the Laozi rendered respectively by James Legge, Arthur Waley, D. C. Lau, Robert Henricks and Stephen Mitchell.This study suggests that translation is a sub-system of the general social system, and that translation is closely related to and restricted by the nature and functions of the general social system. Hence, translation will change when the social system changes. During the150years of the translation of the Laozi, the general human social system has undergone huge changes and formed some widely different social-historical contexts which restricted and regulated the translation of the Laozi. That’s why translations of the Laozi show different features in different social-historical contexts.The early period of the Laozi translation coincided with western powers’colonization in the east, and the Christian priests’translation of the Laozi was part of the act of colonization. James Legge is typical of those translations. On the one hand, he tried to show the cultural neterogeny in the Laozi to make other priests understand China better in the interest of colonization; one the other, he mixed his Christian ideas into his translation through annotation and interpretation to reconstruct the Laozi. What he did in his translation was to perform his duty as a colonial Christian priest. In the middle period of the Laozi translation, the two world wars impacted the world greatly. Some perfective western scholars saw the western society was sick, while some eastern countries won national independence and liberation. Such is the social-historical context in which Arthur Waley translated many Chinese classics including the Laozi. He wanted to use Chinese wisdom to throw light on the sick English society and that was why he advocated historical and philological translation to recover Laozi’s original meaning in great accuracy. D. C. Lau, on the other hand, to break away from western cultural colonialism and maintain the authenticity of Chinese culture, criticized former western translators for their religious zeal in seeking eastern mysticism in the Laozi and tried to recover the book’s philosophical meaning through accurate and discreet translation. The Laozi translation of the latest period is carried out in a multipolar world. With the deepening of the communication between the west and the east and the rapid growth of China’s economy, more and more people in the west want to know the real China. It is under these circumstances that Robert Henricks translates to offer the latest knowledge of the Laozi for popular readers. The world multipolarization has to face the hindrance from western cultural hegemony and cultural industry, and this also bears on the translation of the Laozi. Stephen Mitchell manipulates the source-language culture in various ways and reshapes the Laozi with western popular culture in his translation. In a word, the five versions reveal the profound connections between the Laozi translation and its social-historical context, and also show the social nature of translation."Translation changing with context" is the result of the social-historical context’s constraints on the translator. The constraints are indirect, as the social-historical context affects translation through constructing the translator’s horizon, which, personally unique and socially unified, is finally fused in the translated works, echoing with its time.Through studying the translations of the Laozi in the general social system, it is found that the150-year translation of the Laozi was closely related to the corresponding historical periods of the human society. Different social-historical contexts influenced the translators differently, and made them have different motives, purposes, ideas and principles of translation, finally leading to the appearance of different translations of the Laozi. To discover the connection between the social-historical context and the translator’s translation can help to gain a broader and more comprehensive perspective and overcome the limitation of only studying the translated text as such, and can help to recognize the social-historical nature of translation. |
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