A Relevance-Theoretic Approach To English Translation Of Classical Chinese Philosophical Texts

With the rise of China, more and more foreigners expect to have a better understanding of it, its splendid traditional culture in particular, which consequently sets higher standards for the English translation of Chinese classics. Taking the translation of classical Chinese philosophical texts as the research subject, this thesis aims to explore the guiding principle in translation through the study of translation strategies and methods, so as to make some contributions to the spread of traditional Chinese culture.Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson’s relevance theory contends that the success of communication depends on whether the audience can get the greatest possible contextual effects for the smallest possible processing effort. Ernst-August Gutt applied this idea to translation and noted that a successful translation should not only offer its target readers adequate contextual effects, but also save them the trouble of unnecessary processing effort. Considering that the difficulty in translating classical Chinese philosophical texts lies in how to make it easy for foreign readers to get to know traditional Chinese culture, relevance theory is bound to be enlightening for such translation. As a matter of fact, via a descriptive study of John Knoblock’s rendering of the Xunzi, the paper discovers that Knoblock’s translation strategies and methods invariably reflect the principle of relevance, which is perhaps the exact reason why his translation achieves huge success in the West.This thesis contains four parts apart from the Introduction and the Conclusion. The Introduction explicates the research subject, research questions and method, significance of study and thesis structure. Chapter One gives a brief account of the translation history of classical Chinese philosophical texts and the status quo of its research. Besides, it also reviews the translation history of the Xunzi and the features of Knoblock’s rendering, the case for this study. Chapter Two introduces relevance theory in a systematic manner, including both the findings of Sperber and Wilson and Gutt’s relevance-theoretic account of translation, with a focus on key concepts such as the principle of relevance, context, contextual effect and processing effort that are closely related to the present research. Chapter Three cites examples from the Xunzi to illustrate difficulties in understanding and rendering classical Chinese philosophical texts, paving the way for the proposal of solutions in Chapter Four. Chapter Four analyzes how Knoblock managed to overcome these difficulties and reveals his translation strategies and methods, and more importantly, the guiding principle behind these strategies and methods, that is, the principle of relevance. The Conclusion points out the remarkable success of Knoblock’s rendering owes much to his observance of the principle of relevance, whether in deciding what to convey or in how to express. This is undoubtedly very instructive for the future translation of classical Chinese philosophical texts.