A Study Of Shijing Cultural Translation Based On Skopos Theory

Based on the skopos theory, this thesis makes a study of Shijing translation for the first purpose of spreading traditional Chinese culture. The existing Shijing translation studies mainly focus on the level of form and language. In fact, as one of the Confucian classics, Shijing occupies a pivotal position in the development of Chinese culture. The book has rich cultural images and connotations, carrying a large amount of cultural information. Particularly, as the ancient Chinese working people’s wisdom crystallization, the plant and animal images in the poems have a profound influence on the later cultural development.This paper makes a collection of5influential existing English versions of Shijing to do a comparative analysis of some living examples. It tries to find out each version’s achievements and defects in terms of the cultural transference. Because Shijing is very rich in content, the paper focuses on the study of plant and animal images, trying to reveal the cultural connotation in them and to explore how to play the function of cultural transference accurately and effectively. At the same time, it illustrates the importance of cultural translation purpose.