A Study On The Translation Of Four-Character Idioms In Shadick’s The Trayels Of Lao Ts’an From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Four-character idioms are the essence of Chinese language and the deposit of Chinese history and culture. Because of their conciseness in form and richness in meaning, four-character idioms have been widely used by Chinese people in daily life and literary works. As one of the most excellent Chinese classical novels, Lao Can You Ji abounds in four-character idioms. These idioms not only enhance the pleasure of reading, but also demonstrate the profound cultural heritage and rich literary tradition of the nation in the novel. However, the idioms bring great difficulties for the target language readers who have little understanding of Chinese culture.Because four-character idioms come into being against Chinese unique culture tradition, as far as the translation of four-character idioms are concerned, its key and difficult point lies in how to correctly translate them and appropriately convey their cultural connotation.Skopos theory provides us with a new perspective toward the translation of four-character idioms. This theory persists that translation is a purposeful action as well as a kind of human activity and that the translation Skopos determines and justifies the whole translation procedure. The term "adequacy" is taken as the criterion whether a target text is a good translation or not. The thesis just aims to do the research on the translation of four-character idioms and illustrates abundant examples from Shadick’s version of Lao Can You Ji. The author believes that the translation of four-character idioms is also a purposeful action and that the ultimate realization of "adequacy" of the translation purpose is to be vivid and faithful as far as possible.In conclusion, this thesis analyzes the translation of four-character idioms by making use of Skopos theory, not only expanding the practical application of Skopos theory, but also providing a new perspective to solve a difficulty on the translation of four-character idioms. It is a useful complement to and development of the current research results.