Manipulation Of Translation Of Buddhist Scriptures By Ideology

Exchange of culture is a vital impelling force for the development ofthe society, and it is usually done by the aid of translation. Successfultranslation means successful exchange of culture. Translation of Buddhistscriptures is for the first time a successful exchange of culture on a largescale in Chinese history, which is a common view. But research into therole played by translators in it is far from enough. Contemporarytranslation studies show that translation is an activity of cultural exchangein a given historical context and translations are by no means made invacuum. Taking the basis on the theoretical frame of AndréLefevere'stranslation theory, this paper analyzes the maniptilation of translation ofBuddhist scriptures by ideology, and then the role translators played andthe strategy they applied in translation of Buddhist scriptures, mainlythrough the Chinese translated Buddhist scriptures from the angle of themacro-historical context.The ideologies that manipulated translation of Buddhist scripturescame from the patrons, the readers and the translators besides the ideologyof the source text authors. Therefore, the analysis on ideological manipulation of translation of Buddhist scriptures and the translators'strategy in dealing with such manipulation starts from the ideologicalmanipulation of the patrons, the readers and the translators. It shows that atranslated text is a product of the harmonizing of different ideologies andthe translator plays a dual role: as a manipulating subject and a mediator.The success of translation of Buddhist scriptures lies in that the translatorshad coordinated ideologies of different subjects as far as the translators areconcerned, that is, the translator let the other subjects' ideology manipulatethe translated text to a different degree according to the degree ofideological conflicts at the time when it was being produced so that it couldbe acceptable to a large audience during the initial and developing periodsof culture exchange and thus it could be secured that the conveyance of thesource text author's ideology could be done as faithfully as possibleeventually. Viewed as a successful case of exchange of culture,Buddhist-scripture translation proved the significance of translators'allowing the realization of different subjects' ideologies in manipulatingtranslations. For example, only with the manipulation of the patron's,especially the patron of an undifferentiated patronage's ideology realized,can it be possible for the translated text to reach a large audience. Hence,the conclusion the author has come to is that only when all the ideological factors, that is, ideologies of all the subjects in terms of this theory aretaken into consideration, can translation or exchange of culture be donesuccessfully. In addition, the Manipulation Theory can not only offer apersuasive explanation to translation of Buddhist scriptures as well asdeepen our understanding of the Chinese translated canons but also guideus in our future translation practice.