On Translation Of Culture-loaded Words In Traditional Chinese Classics

Numerous volumes of literature have been left in the long process of worldcivilization. The translation and spread of these volumes are main ways oftransmitting human civilization. However, traditional literary works often containnumbers of culture-loaded words, and the translation of them is one of the mostdifficult points and major barriers in translation practice.This thesis focuses on translation from the cultural perspective and narrowsdown the large topic to the most basic language unit that influences culture:vocabulary. Language is one of the most fundamental factors of culture. It has thefunction of storing, describing, expressing and spreading cultural information.Vocabulary as the most sensitive part of language can reflect culture directly.Culture-loaded words refer to those words, phrases and idioms that symbolizeunique things of a certain culture system and they directly reflect the specificpractical activities of a nation accumulated through the long historical process.The Art of War is the earliest and most valuable Chinese treatise on militaryscience. So it can be studied as a perfect example of the translation of culture-loadedterms.This thesis adopts the method of comparative studies on different Englishversions, which is important to translation criticism and translation studies.This thesis makes a comparative study of the translation of some culture-loadedwords in two English versions of The Art of War, respectively translated by LionelGiles and Lin Wusun. Based on concrete data analysis, the following conclusion canbe drawn: the existence of culture-loaded words is an important part of a nation’swhole culture system. The accuracy of their interpretation will directly affect thequality of translation. The common methods used for translating culture-loadedwords are “transliteration”,“literal translation (transliteration)+comments”,“literaltranslation+free translation”, and “culture substitution”, etc. In dealing with thetranslation of culture-loaded words, Lin Wusun pays more attention to the translation of them. He provides adequate explanatory notes and uses substitutions to conveythe original meaning of culture-loaded words in source language text in order topromote traditional Chinese culture and let more foreign readers understand theessence of Sunzi: The Art of War.