On The Causes Of Translation Diversity Of Tao Te Ching

Tao Te Ching, allegedly written by Lao Tzu, has not only exerted great influence upon the Chinese culture but also attracted intensive attention from the western world. Though simply a little book of five thousand words, it has become a treasure house due to its long history as well as the unique text characteristics. Tao Te Ching has been widely studied, interpreted and translated across the world ever since the 16th century. It is the most frequently translated Chinese classics. In English alone, there are well over a hundred versions. The translations are so diverse that sometimes it is hard to believe that those versions come from the same original text. Therefore, this thesis mainly explores the causes of the translation diversity of Tao Te Ching.The thesis describes the Tao Te Ching text as well as its alleged author Lao Tzu, presenting the historical dispute over the date of the book and its authorship, and introduces historical codices and commentaries as well as its influence. An overview of three English translation stages is also produced and the six selected English versions are listed and commented briefly. While analyzing the objective causes, the author presents the unique characteristics of the Tao Te Ching text from both macro and micro aspects; while analyzing the subjective causes, she first reviews some theories that contribute to the establishment of translator's subjectivity, then explains the translator's subjectivity manifest during the process of both text-receiving and text-producing, and finally explores the translation diversity through a comparative study of the six English versions focusing the translation of key terms, key images, overall philosophical meaning and style.This thesis aims to explore the causes of the translation diversity of Tao Te Ching by studying the Tao Te Ching text as well as the translator's subjectivity, in order to provide some new ideas to the translation criticism and translation studies. Since the author is subject to limitation while selecting sample versions and the analysis in this thesis is far from being thorough, there must be much room for further improvement and exploration.