English Translations Of Tao Te Ching From The Perspective Of Facsimile Of The Cultural Images

Tao Te Ching is of profound significance in the Chinese history. The teachings in this book have great impact on many fields such as philosophy, politics and self-cultivation. Because of its far-reaching influence, it has been translated into many languages. There are over one hundred English versions since 1868, making it the most widely translated text except the Bible. Taking 12 typical English versions of Tao Te Ching as the sample, this thesis tends to find out the strategies the translators should take to achieve the cultural facsimile.Chapter One is a brief introduction of Tao Te Ching and its translations in the world, followed by description of the present research situation on the translation of this classic literary works as well as the significance of the study.Chapter Two reviews the literature. In this part, more detailed introduction of the book Tao Te Ching will be given as a whole, ranging from the perspective of history, content, language features and its influence in China to the spread of its translation studies in western countries. The concept of cultural images and cultural facsimile are also explained in this chapter.Chapter Three is the essential part of the thesis. The author firstly describes the historical development of the translation of Tao Te Ching and a brief introduction of the selected twelve translations. And then, the author makes the comparison of words and sentences with cultural images among the selected translations of Tao Te Ching. After the comparison, the author concludes the requirements toward the translators to achieve the cultural facsimile.Chapter Four is the conclusion. After summarizing the whole thesis, the author also gives her own advice to Chinese translators and the western translators separately and at last, the author points out the limitations of thesis to encourage others to further study...