Zen Philosophy In The Classic Of Tea And The Compensation Method In Its Translation

The Classic of Tea was written by Lu Yu in the Tang Dynasty, which is considered as the first tea treatise in the world. It does not only boast high literature excellence but also significant religious merits. It looks as if The Classic of Tea writes nothing except tea, as the name suggested, but the depicting of a series tea activities (eg:tea-picking; tea-brewing; tea-drinking etc) implied there are something ideological lies within the text. Lu Yu’s hoped that the descriptions would grant the readers with a passage leading to inner peace and tranquility that lying behind the delusion of the earthly matters. However, these connotations culturally hinder the comprehension of its translation for the target readers and therefore cause "cultural default".The term "default" refers to the omitting of the shared, taken-for-granted background knowledge that has been stored in the memories (as a result of long-term education) of both ends of a communication for a economical purpose. When the default is related with the necessary cultural background without which the text cannot be comprehended, then the case can be defined as a "cultural default". Due to the discrepancies between cultures and languages, what seems transparent and understandable appears to be vague and intricate to foreign readers.From the functionalist point of view, only when the information received by the target reader is consistent with their environment, can the communication be called successful. For English readers, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism often seem too exotic to be understood. Therefore, in the translation of The Classic of Tea, the translator is expected to shoulder the responsibility of manifesting the omitted religious background knowledge by employing corresponding compensation methods. The dissertation concludes the Zen philosophy contained. By employing the previous compensation methods, the dissertation analyze how the translator applied these methods in the translation of The Classic of Tea to manifest the original cultural connotations, in order to make contribution to the dissemination of tea culture.