A Comparative Study On The Translation Of The Culture-loaded Words In Two English Versions Of The Art Of War

The Art of War is the earliest and the best preserved military treatise whichinfluences the later development of Chinese military theory. Its philosophic thinkingconstitutes an integral part of the ancient Chinese culture. Nowadays The Art of Warhas been applied widely in both commercial and political domains. Having beentranslated into 17 languages since 18thcentury, The Art of War also draws continuousinterest from the translation field.Traditionally, the study on translation theory is confined to the linguistic field.During the increasing international interactions after the Second World War,translation theorists gradually turn their attention to the significance of the culturalfactors in translation process: culture and translation are two inseparable concepts.Culture determines the development of language; language serves as the carrier ofculture and reflects culture correspondingly. The cultural differences betweenlanguages are directly represented by lexis. The culture-loaded words which containabundant social and cultural messages are the condensed reflection of culture inlexical level.This paper chooses two prominent English versions of The Art of War by LionelGiles and by Yuan Shibin for case study. Firstly, this paper introduces the relationbetween culture, language and translation, and then classifies the culture-loadedwords in The Art of War according to Eugene Nida’s translation theory, making acomparative analysis on the translation of the culture-loaded words as well as the prosand cons of the strategies adopted in the chosen versions for the purpose of drawingsome conclusion on this issue.The author hopes this paper could inspire future study on the translation of theculture-loaded words in classical Chinese literature works and thus prompt thecross-cultural communication between home and abroad.