Comparative Study Of "Cai Gen Tan" Three English Versions Of Ecological TRANSLATING

Over the last few decades, translation studies have experienced the linguistic turn and thecultural turn, and now they are turning to ecology. In recent years, people have been more andmore likely to pursue the “organic food”,“environmental housing”,“ecological travelling”and “green project”. In the meantime,“ecological consciousness” has also been more andmore valued in academic circles. Kerridge (1998:5) points out that “environmentalism hasalready surpassed the category of natural science, geographical location as well as socialscience and entered “the humanities””. Domestic scholar Xiao Peigeng also believes that“returning to nature” of many disciplines’ research has become an international ideologicalthought and tendency(萧培根，2002:4). This trend of thought provides beneficialenlightenment for translation studies: Translation should also return to its particulartranslational eco-environment, we should ponder over translation problems and assess thestrength and weakness of different translations from the ecological perspective.Eco-translatology emerges as the times require. In2008, it was further proposed bydomestic scholar Hu Gengshen on the basis of his own monograph called Approach toTranslation as Adaptation and Selection. It is defined as an ecological approach to translationstudies or translation researches from an ecological perspective. As a new translation theory inthe new century, eco-translatology refers to the “adaptation and selection” of Darwin’s Theoryof Evolution as philosophical basis, interprets the essence, process, principle, method andtranslation assessment criteria of translation activities, and provides a new theoretical basisand perspective for producing the appropriate translation versions and translation practice.Cai Gen Tan is a bright pearl of China’s treasury vault of ancient classics. It is a famousmasterpiece of accumulated aphorisms written by Hong Yingming who was born in the Wanliperiod （1573~1620）of the Ming Dynasty（1368~1644）. He chooses “Cai Gen Tan” whichliterally means “vegetable roots talk” for the title of this book. Cai Gen Tan literally means“talks by a man who lives on vegetable roots”. In fact, he believes that the “vegetable rootstalk” is a result of being familiar with life’s bitterness. He also indicates that a man’s wits andself-cultivation can be achieved only through hard training. Just as the famous saying goes“anyone who enjoys chewing vegetable roots will find nothing is difficult”. The treasure,which is full of wisdom and philosophies, includes the crystallization of truth of the ThreeTeachings (namely, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism) and teachings handed down fromancient times. It has incredible, subtle, and influential power to cultivate one’s mind and morality. It is important to note that Cai Gen Tan was not only widely read during the MingDynasty（1368~1644）, but it also remained popular today. Especially in the last two decades,“a Cai Gen Tan Craze” has unexpectedly made a huge difference in business circles of China,Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asian countries including Singapore. Up till now, there arequite a number of different English versions of Cai Gen Tan, but the researches on the Englishversions of Cai Gen Tan are rare, the researches on the English versions of Cai Gen Tan fromthe comparative perspective are even rarer. So far, there is no scholar who has ever exploredthe comparative research on the English versions of Cai Gen Tan from the perspective ofeco-translatology.Based on the explanatory power and applicability of eco-translatology theory, this thesistries to apply eco-translatology to the comparative research on the different English versionsof Cai Gen Tan. The author attempts to verify the following two hypotheses:1.Theinterdisciplinary eco-translatology, as a new research perspective, can be applied to translationresearch field of Cai Gen Tan and then the author deductively proves that it has its generalexplanatory power, effectiveness and maneuverability.2. The translation assessment criteriaof eco-translatology theory, comprising the three aspects of degree of multi-dimensionaltransformations, reader’s response and translator quality, can be fully applicable to thecomparison and appreciation of the three English versions of Cai Gen Tan. Through theliterature review, exemplifying method, comprehensive analysis, deductive argumentation,and comparative research, this article fully discusses and comprehensively elaborates theabove two hypotheses and then draws relevant conclusions.The whole thesis is divided into six parts:The first part is the introduction. The author summarizes the background, objectives,structure, significance, methodology, and originality of the research.The second part is the brief introduction to Cai Gen Tan and its English versions. Theauthor briefly introduces the author of Cai Gen Tan, depicts the explanations of the bookname, analyzes the historic status and literary characteristics of Cai Gen Tan, finally presentsand evaluates different English versions of Cai Gen Tan.The third part is the literature review. The author reviews the previous translationresearch situations of Cai Gen Tan at home and abroad, summarizes the development processand the previous researches on Eco-translatology, and makes some relevant commentariesabout it.The fourth part is the theoretical framework. The author comprehensively andsystematically interprets the definition of Eco-translatology, the basic focuses and the feasibility of eco-translatological comparison to English versions of Cai Gen Tan, and thispart establishes the theoretical framework.The fifth part tries to make a comparative research of the three English versions of CaiGen Tan from the perspective of eco-translatology. By exemplifying, the authorcomprehensively compares and analyzes the strength and weakness of the versions by PaulWhite, Jiang Jiansong and Zhou Wenbiao from degree of multi-dimensional transformations,reader’s response and translator quality and comes to relevant conclusions.The sixth part is the conclusion. In this part, the author not only analyzes the limitationsof this thesis and suggests the future potential research directions, but also comes to therelevant research conclusions of the comparative research on the three English versions of CaiGen Tan.1. Eco-translatology provides effective theoretical guidance for the comparativestudy of the three English versions of Cai Gen Tan.2. Three translators make differentadaptations and selections, and produce different translation versions under the restrictionsand influence of their particular translational eco-environments.3. Any translator who canstand up to the criticism and assessment from the three aspects of degree of multi-dimensionaltransformations, reader’s response, and translator quality is the most ideal translator selectedby his or her particular translational eco-environment, thus his or her translation is the mostideal one. As a whole, each of the three English versions of Cai Gen tan has its own strengthand weakness. Seen from the perspective of degree of multi-dimensional transformations,Jiang’s version is the best one in transformations of linguistic dimension, cultural dimensionand communicative dimension, Zhou’s version falls in between Jiang’s version and White’sversion. Seen from the viewpoint of reader’s response, Jiang’s translation is best accepted byreaders at home and abroad. White’s version is widely accepted by TL readers. White’sversion is among the middle of the three versions. Zhou’s translation has acquired the leastresponse. Seen from the perspective of translator quality, Jiang serves as the most idealtranslator selected by the particular translational eco-environment. As a result, Jiang’s versionis the best translation with the highest degree of holistic adaptation and selection. Jiang’sversion is best accepted by readers at home and abroad. Jiang serves as the most idealtranslator selected by the particular translational eco-environment. Thus, his English versionis the most ideal one.The values of this thesis consist in the following three aspects: First and foremost, thetopic is comparatively novel on account of the application of the new interdisciplinaryeco-translatology theory as the guiding theory. In the second place, it also has someinnovation due to the creative application of a newly emerging theory to the specific comparative research on different English versions of ancient Chinese classics. Last but notthe least, it provides some scientific evidence for comparison research on English versions ofancient Chinese classics from eco-translatological perspective owing to the application oftranslation assessment criteria of eco-translatology (namely, degree of multi-dimensionaltransformations, reader’s response, translator quality) to the empirical research.