Translator’s Cultural Attitudes Reflected From The Evolution Of English Translation Of The Book Title Dao De Jing

As one of the classics that represent the Chinese culture, Dao De Jing, also known as Lao Zi, is intellectually incisive, expressing profound implications with elliptical words. The puzzle of language, thought and culture contained in it provides an immense space for the interpretation of posterity. Dao and De, the two core images being composed of many small ones in this book, are typical rational expressions of poetic living state of "harmony of man with nature". Because of their rich suggestion, symbolism, and fuzziness in expression, readers can make a variety of positive personalized interpretation. Therefore, the interpretations of Dao and De came into being one by one through the centuries. The annotations from different periods are all related to the theoretical and practical issues which the times attempted to solve. Therefore, they mirror the spirit of the times to some extent and are the reflection of ideological trend in Dao De Jing.During the translation history of Dao De Jing which has a span of over one hundred years, different versions followed one after another and each has its own style. The western interpretation of Dao De Jing since18th century can be divided into three historical phases, which are religious interpretation of missionaries in the18th and19th century, instrumental interpretaion of criticizing western thought at the beginning of20th century and scholastic interpretation based on sinology study at the end of20th century. Translators from different times and with different nationalities interpreted Dao De Jing variously based on their own cultural tradition and requirements of times. And in the area of title, a variety of translation with different styles appeared.Within the first translation climax, most of the translators looked down upon Chinese culture. Based on their own prejudice and the requirements of times, they made explanatory translation of the term "Dao de Jing" mainly by means of analogizing Dao and De with Christianity, which forced a change in Chinese thinking to cater to westerners’religious feelings and changed the philosophical connotation of source text. In this period some translators transliterated the term "Dao De Jing" because of their admiration for Chinese culture. However, on the whole, it was explanatory translation that dominated this period. When it came to the second phase, the western rational culture happened to end and industrial civilization collapsed. Out of the worry about their own fate, western translators regarded Lao Zi’s philosophy as the remedy for western crisis. They realized that all interpretation in speech would retrench the abundant philosophical and universal truth contained in the term "Dao De Jing". Therefore, they began to transliterate the title, which was done in the Wade-Giles system, although some translators still transplanted cultural terms of Daoism with a variety of religious words in the translation of "Dao De Jing". Meanwhile, translation by Chinese also appeared. Owing to their intention to propagate Chinese traditional culture, those overseas Chinese scholars born in China and immersed in Confucian and Daoist culture mostly transliterated the term "Dao De Jing", which opened the new chapter of the translation of Dao De Jing’s title. With the increasingly propelling of globalization, the form of cultural communication between the East and West changed. Western scholars began to treat Chinese culture in a fair and objective attitude. Hence transliteration has become the main strategy, but there is no lack of explanatory translation out of cultural filtration.In short, the diachronic evolution of the translation of the term "Dao De Jing" underwent a process from the dominant explanatory translation to explanatory translation co-existing with transliteration in the Wade-Giles system to transliteration in the Pinyin system approved by the United Nations. The translator’s cultural attitudes play an important role in it. This thesis intends to take a translation criticism view on the diachronical evolution of English translation of the term "Dao De Jing". Cultural Translation Theory will be employed to describe the cultural interpretation of English translation of the term "Dao De Jing". The thesis is to look into how culture and translation influence each other, and to ponder the problem of translator’s cultural attitudes.