On The English Translation Of Ancient Chinese Works

This paper defines ancient Chinese works as all valuable character information in ancient China, including ancient Chinese prose and ancient Chinese verse. Ancient Chinese works are a precious part of the Chinese culture. Westerners have great interest in the Chinese culture and some are even fascinated by ancient Chinese works.However, many scholars hold a conventional view that the English translation of ancient Chinese works is impractical and unworthy because of the linguistic and cultural differences between the two languages and the particularities of ancient Chinese works. This has greatly impeded the transmission of ancient Chinese cultures. Another unfavourable situation of translating ancient Chinese works is that more importance is attached to meaning than to form and less emphasis is laid on culture than on language.Considering the status quo of translating ancient Chinese works into English and based on the translatability of ancient Chinese works and three translation theories - Chomsky's theory on deep structure and surface structure, Sun Zhili's theory on facsimile of culture and Han Zhonghua's double-channel transmission of message, this paper puts forward four basic strategies for the English translation of ancient Chinese works: 1. Being faithful to the original meaning; 2. Attaching importance to the original form; 3. Transplanting the original cultures; 4. Attending to linguistic rules of the receptor language. The four strategies are integrated by the relationship between language and culture: language is the carrier of culture and transplanting culture is the purpose of translating.Chapter Four deals with the practical requirements for the English translation of ancient Chinese works. This chapter recommends that priority should be given to literal translation in...