A Modern Interpretation To Translators' Responsibility In The Traditional Chinese Translation Studies

Translation is not simply a product, but a complex process. In the process of translating, the functions of the translator take a leading part. The culture turn enlarges the domain of translation studies, endows the translator with more freedom to show his creativity, and personality redefines the role of the translator and puts the translator in an active and decisive role in translation process.China possesses thousands of years of translation history. The translators have been occupying an unshakable position in Chinese history. Chinese translators have made great contributions to social development and traditional Chinese translation studies. Chinese translators have gained rich and valuable translation thoughts and viewpoints that can be interpreted through modern translation theories. This thesis aims at exploring the theoretical values of the traditional Chinese translation studies as well as finding the contents of the translators'responsibility reflected in the traditional Chinese translation studies by analyzing them from the perspective of modern translation theories, and thus to widen the research on the translators'responsibility and improve the development of Chinese translation studies.The whole thesis is composed of three chapters. The first chapter addresses the studies on translators'responsibility in western translation theories. The author draws a line between the western translation theories, naming the studies on translators'responsibility before and after the culture turn. The main translation theories are represented in this chapter, such as functional approach and its Skopostheorie, Polysystem and Deconstruction approach, etc. In the second chapter, the author summarizes the main representative views in traditional Chinese translation studies- translation of Buddhist scripture in Han and Tang dynasties, translation studies from the Yuan and Ming dynasties to the May 4th Movement and literary translation from the May 4th Movement to 1949. In addition, the contemporary translation studies are mentioned in this chapter. Chapter Three is the main part of this thesis, which gives a modern interpretation to the responsibility of translator in traditional Chinese translation studies. Based on the analysis in Chapter One and Chapter Two, a modern interpretation of the responsibility in traditional Chinese translation studies is made. Chapter Three is composed of four parts: having a strong work ethic, being responsible for the target readers, bearing in mind his translating target and being a bicultural holder, etc.