The Study And Expectation Of Chinese Bible Translation From The Perspective Of The Multiplicity And Complementary Of Translation Criteria

The Bible is the most widely distributed book in human history. Moreover, in all its forms, the Bible has been enormously influential not only in Judaism but also in Christianity. The literature, art, and western culture, in particular, are deeply indebted to biblical themes and motifs. Translations of the Bible not only influenced literature but also shaped the development of languages.The various Chinese Bible translations reflect differing views of the Bible, and invariably a new translation produces controversy within different translation criteria. It is hard for translators to attempt to capture the accurate words and meaning of the original language in the scriptures which all translations attempt to capture. With so many updates to translations over the years, it is hard to compare the translations for accuracy and ease of understanding. There are many readers, scholars, and Christians who argue the need to pick one translation and use only one translation. However, translations that claim to use only one approach such as the "formal equivalence" and the "dynamic equivalence" can't avoid some sayings translated literally or freely, which will cause misunderstanding or will be misleading. It is important to realize that every translation approach involves highlighting some aspects of the original and ignoring others.This dissertation is based upon the mutual research between the translation theory and Chinese Bible translation case study. The multiplicity and complementarities of translation criteria proposed by Professor Gu Zhengkun in 1980s demonstrate that there may be deficiency in a translation, and to advocate the use of only one translation approach is inappropriate. By advocating the multiplicity and complementary of translation criteria, he has not only broken the stereotype of the monism of traditional translation standard, but also demolished the traditional illusion of establishing a unique translation standard that can evaluate all translated criteria and guide all translation practice.To worship a unitary translation standard is no longer true in current translation studies, and it is regarded as an notion of illusion that a unique translation standard can guide all the translation practice. This criterion is important to Chinese Bible translation studies and practices because it has brought a new idea to Chinese translation theory circle.