A Study On The Translation Of Chinese Classical Artistic Essays From The Aesthetic Perspective

Chinese classical works are essences of Chinese culture that should be translated into other languages. Chinese classical artistic essays (CCAE) are defined as not absolutely rhymed, polished and expressive Chinese classical essays. They are carriers of intellectuals'ambitions and emotions, and display spirits of ancient intellectuals which are strongly affected by Chinese Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. This paper takes the translation of CCAE as its object and aims at describing translation rules and strategies of CCAE.Aesthetics of China is elaborated to explain the beauty of CCAE and aesthetic key points of the translation. Then reception aesthetics is analyzed to show importance of target readers and their acceptance of target texts. Translation principles and rules are proposed according to the above studies.20 typical CCAE and their translated versions by different translators are collected as samples, and the majority of them are from the Tang and Song Dynasties. Furthermore, translation strategies are suggested based on the theories of domestication and foreignization. The main results are listed as follows:1. The key point of translating CCAE is the beauty of non-formal system.2. Target readers are crucial for the translation of CCAE, and they will dialectically read the target texts. Thus absolute domestication can not satisfy their curiosity, while complete foreignization will produce reading fatigue.3. Translation rules of CCAE are proposed as:a. the translated versions must be in fluent modern English; b. Transmitting the contents of the original works firstly; c. Translating the form of the source texts secondly.4. The formal system of CCAE should be mainly domesticated with the assistance of foreignization; while the non-formal system should be foreignized with the assistance of domestication.