A Study On The English Translations Of The Philosophic Images In Xiaoyao You

Zhuangzi, also called Nan Hua Jing, is reputed as one of the classical Taoist works for marvelous but grotesque imaginations, diverse and variable writing, romantic and poetic language as well as profound and meticulous thoughts, ranking as the gem of illustrative essays before Qin Dynasty and exerting great influence in the history of Chinese Philosophy. As for the philosophy of Zhuangzi, Feng Yu-lan once summarized into the following words:Wandering in absolute spiritual freedom; discussing the transformation of things; outreaching the range of reality; gaining from the uselessness.(Deng Lianhe,2010:preface) Looking back to Feng Yu-lan’s comments, we can infer that in Feng Yu-lan’s mind "Xiao Yao" is much closer to the core of Zhuangzi’s philosophy and just because of this Xiaoyao You has been bestowed higher significance which thus becomes the inevitable subject for the researchers.The author of this thesis clarifies the philosophic images in Xiaoyao You into four categories, i.e. natural entities, living creatures, historical figures and mythical characters, through the close reading and precise comparison among the English translations, and then analyzes their Chinese annotations and compares their English translations, in the hope of finding out the essence of the philosophy of Zhuangzi and the translation strategies of the philosophic images of Xiaoyao You.The author of this thesis also sorts out the main theories of English translation of Chinese Classics with an emphasis on Wang Rongpei’s "Conveying the Meaning in its Full Flavor" and thus induces five English translation strategies by looking into the English translations of the philosophic images of Xiaoyao You:Transliteration plus Footnote, Transliteration plus Explanation in Text, Free Translation plus Footnote, Free Translation plus Explanation in Text and last but not least Image Equivalence Translation, in order to reach the goal of publicizing Chinese culture as well as conveying fully to the readers.In conclusion, during the English translation of Chinese Classics, it is necessary to apply different translation strategies according to different philosophic images of Xiaoyao You, which contain both surface meaning and deep meaning. Firstly, some historical figures like“宋荣子”and "列子" should be transliterated with footnotes for their rich background information and denotations, so as to deliver better understanding to the readers. Secondly, some natural entities such as“《齐谐》”and“姑射山”are ought to be transliterated with explanations in text, with the consideration on their name properties with minor denotations. In this way, the readers don’t need to stop but go on through the explanations in text, which, in some degree, has the function of publicizing Chinese culture. Thirdly, some historical figures such as“庖人”and“尸祝”are supposed to be interpreted by finding out the matched words in English with footnotes, although they have slight differences in the meaning in the eye of western people and eastern people, so that the readers can sense the cultural differences between the western world and eastern world. Fourthly, some natural entities including“北冥”,“南冥”and’‘天池”can be freely translated with explanations in text, for as much as that they only function as place names. However, more importantly, some living creatures like“蜩”,“学鸠”,“朝菌”,“蟪蛄”,“鹪鹩”and“偃鼠”are more suitable to be converted into English by finding out the equivalent images in the western culture, which is named as Image Equivalence Translation by the author of this thesis, aiming at arousing the resonance of the readers and thus delivering the denotations the author of the original text intended to convey.