A Study Of James Legge’s English Version Of The Inner Chapters Of Zhuangzi: From The Perspective Of Cultural Translation Theory

Zhuangzi(《庄子》), also known as The Holy Canon of Nanhua, is a Taoist classicwritten by philosopher Zhuangzi(庄子) and his students in the Warring StatesPeriod. The book is composed of33chapters, including7Inner Chapters,15OuterChapters, and11Miscellaneous Chapters. As a masterpiece of ancient Chinesephilosophy, it has been translated into many languages and at least26translations inEnglish.In light of Susan Bassnett’s cultural translation theory, this thesis takes theEnglish translation of James Legge (a missionary of the late19th century) as the mainresearch object, probing into the embodiment of cultural translation in the Englishtranslation of Zhuangzi (《庄子》)from the view of language and culture.Since the emergence of cultural turn in translation studies, translation is nolonger regarded as merely a linguistic translation, but a cultural communicationessentially. More and more scholars have begun their researches from theperspective of culture, thus forming the cultural translation theory. Among thosescholars, the most outstanding one is Susan Bassnett who holds that translation isthe communication within culture and between cultures. Therefore, translation is nota pure behavior of language but deeply rooted in the culture of that language. Thecultural translation theory provides a brand-new way for translation studies which isof great significance.Following the principle of “faithfulness and preciseness”, Legge’s translations ofChinese classics have always been regarded as the most authoritative ones. Bystudying the cultural background of James Legge and analyzing the translation ofcultural-specific concepts, the translation of figures of speech and the style oflanguage used under the guidance of cultural translation theory, this thesis aims tostudy the English translations of Zhuangzi from a cultural view. Despite certainmistakes on the translation of cultural concepts, Legge’s translation of Zhuangzi is stilla good example for the translation of Chinese classics.