Studies On Gu Zhizhong's Translation Of Feng Shen Yan Yi

Allegedly written by Taoist Xu Zhonglin(许仲琳)of the Ming Dynasty(明朝),Feng Shen Yan Yi(封神演义), also called Feng Shen Bang(封神榜),is the treasure of mythical novels, well known for its rich content and the writer's fantastic imagination. And it has been translated into many languages.This thesis is a study of the English translation of Feng Shen Yan Yi by Gu Zhizhong (顾执中)mainly from linguistic and cultural perspectives in the light of Skopos theory, communicative translation, and theories concerning foreignization and domestication. The first chapter introduces the history and historical importance of the book Feng Shen Yan Yi, its linguistic and cultural characteristics and the dissemination of the book abroad. This chapter also briefly introduces the experiences of the author of the book and the translator, the theoretical basis, purpose, importance and methods of study. The second chapter is a linguistic analysis of the translated book, illustrating lexical and syntactic mistakes of translation while evaluating the features of the translation. The third chapter is a cultural study of translations related with idioms, customs, weapons, names, the thoughts of "three cardinal guides"(三纲)and fatalistic ideas. The fourth chapter is a conclusion, summarizing the advantages and disadvantages of different translating strategies. Through literal translation, the translator can preserve the flavor of the original language and enable the foreigners to have a better understanding of its characteristics; however, the use of literal translation can sometimes result in miscommunications. Through paraphrasing, the translator can show the cultural differences in languages, religions, physical world and societies and can thus better present the SL culture as it is, but this strategy may at times cause the loss of the flavor of the original language.