| Tao Te Ching is an ancient Chinese classic, as a vital source of Taoist philosophy. With merely 5,000 Chinese characters, it is profound and inclusive, and considered as the first complete philosophical work in the Chinese history. According to the statistics of UNESCO, Tao Te Ching is the second most translated book in world literature, only behind the Bible. As early as in the 16th century, it had been transmitted to Europe, noticed and accepted by western scholars and general public, with a far-reaching influence.Previous studies on Tao Te Ching English translations usually focused on equivalence to the original text and were obsessed with weighing words. However, this thesis is to take a functionalist approach to explain the diversity of translations.Translators of Tao Te Ching English versions come from various socio-cultural backgrounds and expect different functions of their productions; therefore, their versions are highly diverse. The functionalist translation theory breaks with the traditional idea of equivalence and puts forward that the translation Skopos determines the translation process, and that the expected functions of the target text determine the translation strategy. Influenced by different communication environments, the functions of the target text may be the same as or identical with the source text, or may be totally deviant. The functionalist theory provides a well-grounded explanation to the diversity of Tao Te Ching English translations.Since the criterion for translation assessment should be"adequacy"which measures whether the translation has fulfilled its expected functions in the target-language culture, and the expected functions of a translation keep changing with times and society, there can't be one single best translation. The diversity of Tao Te Ching English translations will definitely continue, thus providing richer research materials and a better transmission environment for cross-cultural communication. |
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