On Translating Culture-loaded Words In Chinese Classics Into English: A Diachronic Perspective

Translation is the most complex activity in the cosmos. It not only involves the exchange of two languages but also the exchange of two cultures. The translation of Chinese classics is the most difficult translation activity because it not only involves the interlingual translation but also the intra-lingual translation between the ancient Chinese and modern Chinese.The translation of classics from one language to another involves dual translation. The understanding of classics is one kind of translation and its reproduction in the target language is another. To use hermeneutic terms, the translator's present horizon is fused with the horizons of the source text in history to make the horizon for translation understanding and then the translated text's historical horizon is fused with the present horizon of the target readers to form the horizon for translation reproduction. Since the horizon for understanding the original and the horizon for reproducing the target version are both historically restricted, so are the understanding and reproduction of them. The diachronical change of language and culture is the main reason of this historicity in translation classics.The author in this paper proposed a new idea for the reproduction of Chinese classics. It is argued that, since the historicity of the translated text has caused a large difference between the things described in these classics and the things in China today. It is necessary for a translator to explicate such differences and changes in his translation. And based on the conclusion of the existing translation strategies of culturally loaded words in Chinese classics the author proposed an amendment for the existing strategies, that is, to provide the information about the diachronical change of the culture loaded words in the note of the translation.Chapter I is an introduction which briefs some basic notions in the dissertation such as culture, culture loaded words, diachronism and Chinese classics and the classification of culture loaded words.Chapter II gives an overview of the previous study with emphasis on the classification of previous study and its limitation.Chapter III is a core chapter in this paper. It explores the specialties of the translation of culture loaded words in Chinese classics. The translation of Chinese classics into English involves double translation and double fusion of horizons.Chapter IV is a re-consideration of strategy for translating culture-loaded words in Chinese classics. Based on the current strategies for translating culture-loaded words it proposes an amendment for improvement.Chapter V is a conclusion part. It discusses some possible doubts about the idea of...