An Eco-Translatology Approach To The Translation Of Jingluo And Acupuncture Terms In Two English Versions Of Huangdi Neijing Lingshu

Huangdi Neijing consists of Su Wen (Plain Conversation《素问》)and Ling Shu (Spiritual Pivot《灵枢》).It has laid the foundation for Traditional Chinese Medicine (hereafter TCM). After more than two thousands of years, it is still regarded as one of the most Chinese authoritative medical classics. TCM terms in Hunagdi Neijing contain a lot of Chinese medical philosophy. How to translate them into English becomes one of the major concerns in the field of translation studies.Twelve translated English versions of Huangdi Neijing were published from1925to2011. Many studies on the translations of the great book have been done. In the existing literature, most research focus is on the English translation of Suwen. Translation studies on Lingshu are relatively inadequate, especially on the translation of Jingluo and acupuncture terms. In terms of studies on the translation of TCM terms, most academic attention is paid to translation standard, accurate understanding of the content especially the basic ideas, concepts, and suggesting the translation principles and methods, with perspectives employed in these studies range from rhetoric, translator’s subjectivity, linguistics, hermeneutics, functional equivalence to Skopostheory.Taking eco-translatology proposed by domestic professor Hu Gengshen in the recent years as the theoretic foundation, which regards translating process as translators’adaptation to eco-environment thus selecting their translation, the thesis focuses on the English translation of Jingluo and Acupuncture terms in Huangdi Neijing Lingshu, and chooses two recent influential English versions as the analytic texts translated by Wu Liansheng&Wu Qi (吴连胜、吴奇,1997) and Li Zhaoguo (李照国,2008) respectively. The purpose of the study is to investigate the translation features and regularities on Jingluo and Acupuncture terms, and compare the translation styles and differences of the translators in linguistic, cultural and communicative dimensions.This thesis employs qualitatively-based descriptive analytic method, which regards the translation as the "settled facts". Through case analysis, the author of the thesis explains the translator’s adaptation and selection in translating process, explores their adaptation to the eco-environment (source text, source/target languages, source/target cultures, etc), and how the eco-environment influences the translators’selection of translating principles, methods and the finial translation to achieve their translation intentions.The results of the study show that the translators’times, their social-cultural backgrounds and their translation intentions have caused the differences of their knowledge structures and translation styles. Specifically, the present study finds that:(1) In the linguistic dimension, Wus prefer to use more paraphrasing in their translation of the concepts and terms of Jinglu and acupuncture, sometimes use Pinyin transliteration. They take main consideration into target readers’acceptability. Li mainly adopts literal translation or Pinyin plus note translation to keep the flavor of TCM culture and meanwhile to help the understanding of the target language readers. Li occasionally uses free translation. He pays special attention to brevity and naturalness, making the selection of his translation aim at preserving the source language style and cultural traits.(2) In cultural dimension:Wus prefer domestication to help target readers’understanding of the connotation of TCM Jingluo and acupuncture terms in order to achieve cultural transformation. Their translation has higher readability to the target language reader but enjoys poor back-translation and less Chinese flavor. Li prefers to use more foreignization to interpret the Jingluo and acupuncture terms through literal translation and Pinyin plus note translation, making his translation localized through Pinyin. At the same time TCM philosophy and concepts are integrated into the note. Li’s version enjoys good back-translation and has successful cultural transformation.(3) In communicative dimension, Wus’ translations are more target-language/culture-oriented, aiming at the transmission of TCM to western culture. They take great effort to achieve the translation intention of disseminating TCM knowledge in English speaking countries. Li’s translations are more source-language-oriented. He tries to achieve his translation intention of worldwide spreading of the TCM classic. The trend in translating TCM classical works is towards brevity in language, adequacy in content, readability for target readers, and back translatability for international communication. The study also shows although Wus and Li are in different eco-environments, they have realized their translation intentions by adapting to the eco-environment they are in and selecting their translation strategies.The result of the study shows that eco-translatology has a good explanatory power for the translation of TCM terms in Huangdi Neijing. The Eco-translation principle of "multiple-adaptation and adaptive selection" can give reasonable description and explanation to those translated works which have high degree of holistic adaptation and selection.