On Translation Of The Terminologies Of Acupuncture And Moxibustion From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

Diagrams of Acupuncture Manipulations, a first Chinese-English book on the manipulations of needles, is rich in content, demonstrating the importance and necessity of the needling techniques. The appropriate application of translation methods (literal translation, free translation, transliteration, combination of transliteration and free translation and borrowed words from modern medicine) selected for the book not only makes language vivid, but also fully embodies TCM cultural unique style of "compatible of medicine and literature" in acupuncture culture.Skopos Theory gets rid of the bondage of Nida’s "equivalence theory", and redefines and expands the scope of translation, which provides a reference for translators to adopt the best translating strategies and methods. And "The three main principles" fully refects the relationship between all elements involved in translation, playing important role in guiding translation practice.The manipulations were analyzed by following methods:1. Retrieving the257manipulations and their translation by hands;2. Randomly selecting samples from literal translation and combination of transliteration and free translation;3. Analyzing the selected samples under the guidance of Skopos Theory and mentioning corresponding translation strategies.Under the guidance of Skopos Theory and the evaluation standard of the "three major principles", this study analyzed the selected samples and found that some problems existed in the English translation of the acupuncture manipulation terms in this target textbook such as the non-standard application of the translation methods, diversified translation results, tedious translation, misuse of the transliteration. By analyzing the "three major principles" of Skopos Theory, it is believed that:in terms of the acupuncture manipulation terms, liberal translation should be given the top priority, and then literal translation; in terms of the Shu-acupoint-related terms which need transliterating originally, the combination of liberal translation and transliteration is advisable; besides, the possible use of corresponding words in western medicine that could fully express the manipulations in TCM should be taken into consideration; for all acupuncture manipulation terms, transliteration was not advisable except the standardized ones. The purpose of this study is to search an appropriate way for translating manipulations, providing basis for translation of traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture and moxibustion.