Principle Of Harmony Combined With Diversity And Mission Of Translation

Since 1980s, many scholars have begun to study translation from the perspective of cultural studies. Mary Snell-Hornby proposes that translation scholars abandon their "scientific" attitude, move from "text" to "culture" as a translation unit and incorporate cultural studies into translation theory studies. Bassnett and Lefevere argue that translation studies are taking a historic "Cultural Turn". The significance of "Cultural Turn" lies in the fact that it enables translation scholars to realize that translation studies should be conducted in a broader cultural context and to examine the position of culture in translation and translation's contribution to cultural transmission and prosperity as well as social development.From a cultural perspective, translation is in nature cross-cultural communication and its mission is to promote cultural diversity through proper transmission of source language culture in a way that is acceptable for target language culture. However, the encounter of cultures inevitably leads to clashes. Then how can we avoid catastrophic conflicts and at the same time make this encounter beneficial to both sides so as to promote cultural diversity? The author of this thesis proposes that the principle of "harmony combined with diversity" from traditional Chinese culture provides great enlightenment for facilitating cross-cultural communication and fulfilling translation's mission as promoting cultural diversity.This principle holds that "differences"(差异) are the fundamental factor that constitute things and lead to development. In the process of comparison and competition, different things obtain the driving force contributing to their development while indiscriminate pursuit of "sameness"(同) goes against the law of development and only reduces things to standstill and extinction. But, it is not enough merely recognizing differences, because though things are different, they are not unrelated and isolate; there must be a kind of "he"(和) between them. The core of "he"(和) is "moderation" through which optimal integration of differences is realized. Tolerating differences and seeking harmony on this basis is the right way to deal with the relations between people and things. So this principle's unceasing openness and spirit of pursuing harmony and development based on moderation provides endless source for the coexistence of cultures.Translation involves two sets of language and cultural system; one belongs to a source language society, the other target language society. To promote cultural diversity, on one hand, the translator should preserve the characteristics of the source language culture, making the translated version contain something different from the target language culture; on the other, the translator should take the target reader's understanding into consideration, making the translated version moderately adapt to the target language culture. It should be noted that the two aspects are interrelated, and both are selective so as to achieve the effect of optimal integration. Since culture is too all-encompassing to be presented in the translated version, the translator can select the most fundamental features typical of one culture and properly convey them to the target reader; at the same time, he can adapt those difficult and less important source language cultural expressions to the target language culture. The result will be a "harmonious" version containing source language cultural flavor yet intelligible and acceptable to the target language reader. Based on the principle of harmony combined with diversity from Chinese traditional culture, this thesis discusses the issue of translation's mission as promoting cultural diversity. And it chooses Six Chapters of a Floating Life translated by Lin Yutang as the subject of case study, aiming to demonstrate that this principle provides great enlightenment for translation to fulfill its mission as promoting cultural diversity.