| Tao Te Ching is the first great philosophical work in Chinese history. It is fine, subtle and enigmatic, covering subjects comprehensively ranging from society, history, ethics, politics, military affairs etc. During the long historical course, the spiritual essence of Tao Te Ching has gradually evolved into an integral part of the splendid Chinese culture. Since its first appearance, different litterateurs and scholars from various academic schools have made dissimilar explanations on Tao Te Ching. With the passage of time and the communication between the Chinese culture and the alien ones, Tao Te Ching has gradually been introduced into the foreign countries. Nowadays, Tao Te Ching has become one of the most frequently translated Chinese classics; as a result, more than 1100 different versions in 28 foreign languages have been published. The circulation and translation frequency of Tao Te Ching have greatly surpassed that of the Analects, and its circulation in the English world is only less than the Bible and the Bhagavad-Gita.Under the theoretical framework of Lawrence Venuti's domestication and foreignization strategies, this thesis takes four English versions of Tao Te Ching as the research subjects, and the translation strategies used in them are carefully investigated and researched. Based on such efforts, a new way of research on Tao Te Ching's English translation is established.The author of this thesis carefully compares and analyzes the translation strategies used by the four translators in translating the religious factors, traditional Chinese cultural factors and the changes of images between the Chinese expressions and their English counterparts. At last, the author concludes that the translator should make a perfect union of domestication and foreignization strategies, so that the traditional Chinese culture can be carried forward; meanwhile, the reading of such translated versions by the target text readers can be facilitated.
|
PDF Full Text Request