Translation Of Traditional Chinese Medicine-From The Cultural Perspective

Traditional Chinese Medicine is one of the greatest cultural heritages of China. During thousands of years' practice, it has developed into a comprehensive and unique medical system. With remarkable effective functions and few side effects, Traditional Chinese Medicine has aroused curiosity and interest in the whole world. The spread of Traditional Chinese Medicine dates back to ancient times and the upward tendency still keeps going.Despite the rapid growth in popularity of Traditional Chinese Medicine over recent decades, the westward spread of it continues to be hampered by a number of problems such as politics and translation. Along with the vigorous development of foreign exchanges in the medical field and the uprising enthusiasm for Traditional Chinese Medicine, the English translation of it is becoming more and more important. However, the unique theoretical system and abstruse language cause big difficulties in Traditional Chinese Medicine translation.This paper mainly approaches Traditional Chinese Medicine translation from two translation strategies, that is, domestication and foreignization. They have long been the point at issue in the field of translation theory. Nida is the representative of domestication and Venuti is the representative of foreignization. Domestication is target language-culture oriented, stressing natural and fluent expression in the target language, while foreignization is source language-culture oriented, emphasizing the retention of the exotic cultural flavor of the source language in the target language. In Traditional Chinese Medicine translation, translators should make a concrete analysis of specific cases, before choosing domestication, foreignization or both.This paper consists of seven parts plus an introduction and a conclusion. Chapter One is a brief introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine and a brief history of its English translation. Chapter Two explores the relationship between language, culture and translation. Language is part of culture and is the carrier of culture, and culture without language is unthinkable. Translation is the tie and bridge between different cultures. Translation, therefore, is not only interlingual communication but also intercultural communication. A good translator should be bilingually and biculturally competent. In Chapter Three, the author gives a general analysis of the characteristics of Traditional Chinese Medicine translation, which endow Traditional Chinese Medicine its unique cultural flavors, but at the same time give rise to difficulties in translation. In Chapters Four to Seven, the author talks about the current situation of Traditional Chinese Medicine translation, which is marked with vigorous development and lots of problems such as lack of standards and redundant translation, and comes forward with useful translation methods including literal translation, free translation, borrowed words, transliteration and integrated translation under four basic principles, that is, a) Information transfer is the ultimate goal of translation; b) Nationality, that is, the uniqueness of Traditional Chinese Medicine should be preserved when possible; c) Simplicity plays an important role in popular medical readings; d) Readers' acceptance should be given more emphasis.Rooted deeply in Chinese culture and philosophy, the translation of Traditional Chinese Medicine is no easy job. Not only the language, beautiful and rhythmic, but also the content, full of unique traditional Chinese medical theories and concepts, make the cultural perspective in translation a must and best choice.The author concludes that domestication and foreignization have their respective characteristics and practical value in Traditional Chinese Medicine translation. When doing translation, the translator should take many factors into consideration, such as the purpose of translation, the type of the source text, readers' acceptance and the translator's cultural attitude, and then decides which strategy should be taken: domestication, foreignization or both. We should treat domestication and foreignization from the dialectical point of view and it is one-sided to overemphasize one of them. It is of benefit to the further development of translation studies if we treat the issue dialectically.