| Ever since its spreading from ancient India to mainland China in Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD), Buddhism has gradually become an important part of Chinese culture. The typical representative of the indigenization of ancient Indian Buddhism in China is Chinese Chan. From the time of Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), Chan, particularly the southern school of Chan founded by Hui Neng, became the synonym of Buddhism in China and influenced nearly every aspect of Chinese culture. As the only work written by Chinese that was venerated as a"sutra", Tan Jing enjoys special honor in the history of Chinese Buddhism. It contains the most important ideas of the southern school of Chan and is one of the few well-known Chinese Buddhist texts in the west as a result of the work of many researchers and translators. Up to now, there are more than ten English versions of Tan Jing, and translations are also found in other languages, such as Japanese, Korean, German, French, and Spanish.The first one to translate the book into English was Chinese scholar Huang Mao-lin, whose translation Sutra Spoken by the Sixth Patriarch, Wei Lang1, on the High Seat of the Gem of Law was published in 1930. Just two years later, Dwight Goddard, once a Christian missionary to China, produced another version of Tan Jing entitled Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch based on the book of Huang, which was included in his collection A Buddhist Bible. Being simple and reader-friendly, Goddard's work has helped introduce many Americans to Chan and he himself was regarded as"Father of Beat Zen". Goddard's translation, however, as many scholars have noted, is not strictly faithful to the original. In fact, it is considered a typical work in the process of"Americanizing"Buddhism/Chan.The theoretical foundation of the thesis is made up of the principle of fusion of horizons put forward by Hans-Georg Gadamer and our improvements on it. According to Gadamer, the process of understanding is a process of fusion of horizons in which the interpreter fuses his own horizon with that of the text through dialogue. The agreement achieved is the meaning, or interpretation of the text. Yet it is felt that the theory is not enough to explain all translation phenomena and is liable to accusation of neglecting socio-historical conditions. Therefore, we put forward a model of fusion of horizons to show that in the process of fusion of horizons, there are actually two kinds of agreement achieved. One is the agreement between the shared prejudices of the translator and the original text. The other is the pseudo-agreement between the clashing prejudices. The first kind of agreement will lead to faithful transmission of the original ideas in translation while the second kind to creative treason. The proportion of shared and clashing prejudices in the final new horizon is determined by both socio-historical and personal factors functioning in the process of translation. Four steps in applying this model to translation criticism are also provided.According to these steps, Goddard's Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch is analyzed. Comparison between Goddard's translation and Huang's text helps us determine the faithful transmission and creative treason which are embodiments of the shared and clashing prejudices between the translator's and original text's horizons respectively. The fact that there is more creative treason than faithful transmission indicates that it is the clashing prejudices that are dominant in the final new horizon. Further study on the life and experience of Goddard, the tradition of Buddhism interpretation in Goddard's time, and the influence of Christianity and Japanese Chan provides us with explanations for this phenomenon. The dominance of western culture in the beginning of 20th century, the Romantic tradition of Buddhism interpretation, and the influence of Japanese Chan masters like Suzuki all contributed to Goddard's free handling of the original text. Goddard was not a Buddhist missionary, but a westerner who saw the problems of his own culture and religion and tried to solve them through borrowing ideas from other (Asian) traditions. The work of Goddard is a product of the time and culture he lived in and an exhibition of his creativity in trying to introduce a new and inspiring religion to his countrymen. The value of the study lies in both its theoretical innovation and pioneering work in the analyses of Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch—one of the most influential translations of Tan Jing. It is hoped that the present study, though may be unsatisfactory as a whole, can serve as the beginning of a series of studies on the translation and introduction of Chan scriptures into the western world in the field of translation studies.
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