Taoist Canon Translation And Gadamer’s Philosophical Hermeneutics

The English missionary Spurgeon Medhurst’s Translation of Tao Teh King is fluent and concise, and has its particular understanding. Although it has gone through more than a century, it still stands out among many other versions of Tao Teh King. Even today, Medhurst’s version, together with the prominent sinologist James Legge and Arthur Waley’s versions, is republished in the presence of the readers at home and abroad. This undoubtedly reveals the success of Medhurst’s version. Tao Teh King, as one of the most famous classic works, still has it own charm. It has been attracting many scholars to study at home and abroad, and it contributes a lot to the communication between the east and west. The language style in Tao Teh King is mystic, hard, full of paradox, even obscure. It makes a lot puzzle for its translators. And this is also the key point that this thesis is going to talk about.Someone say that the20th century is the century of translation. In history, translation gradually born from Linguistic and Comparative Literature, has become an independent theory. As a study about understanding and explanation, Hermeneutics, under the effort of many scholars, gradually prevailed in the later20th century. Especially after the publish of German philosopher Gadamer’s Truth and Method, its influence almost spread allover the social science and natural science. Translation study and Hermeneutics have the natural connection. Both of them are the subject about understanding and interpretation. Hermeneutics can supply its theoretical support for translation studies. This thesis is going to connect translation study with Hermeneutics, and analyze Medhurst’s English version of Tao Teh King with principles such as "fusion of horizon","effective history", and "pre-understanding" in Gadamer’s philosophical Hermeneutics. At the same time, the author would also link other translators’versions in the process of analyze, and probe into questions such as re-translation, mistranslation, and culture blank.Chapter one aims to analyze the basic style of Tao Teh King. Then the previous studies on Tao Teh King at home and abroad will be introduced. And the author will also introduce Medhurst’s version briefly.Chapter two is a brief introduction to the history and development of Hermeneutics. It includes different schools in different time. The Representative people in Hermeneutics will be introduced. And the emphasis is on Gadamer’s philosophical Hermeneutics and its influence on translation studies.Chapter three will analyze some key words in Tao Teh King such as“道”,“德”,“天下”, ”自然”and so on. The author will deploy this process from a philosophical Hermeneutic perspective. And then the author will try to analyze the gain and loss of Medhurst’s version.Chapter four aims to analyze the difficult problems appear in Tao Teh King with the principles of "effective history" and "fusion of horizon". And by comparing Medhurst’s version with the versions of Legge, Ling Yutang, and Arthur Waley, we would have a better understanding about Medhurst’s merits and demerits.The last chapter is the conclusion. In this chapter the author mainly talks about the gain and loss of Medhurst’s version, and tries to get some enlightenment from philosophical Hermeneutics for translation studies.