Comparative Study On Two Chinese Versions Of The Wealth Of Nations From The Perspective Of Chesterman’s Models Of Translation Ethics

Within recent several decades, translation study has made great development and progress. And the translation and relevant researches of classic academic works have always been the focus since they are crystallization of human wisdom that influences the development of modern social economy, science and technology and humanities for a long period of time. However, it is a pity that being affected by various kinds of factors, although translated and re-translated editions of those works spring up in number, they are of varying quality, which directly leads to confusion for readers to choose a suitable edition and to understand the meaning and intention of the source text and the author. Consequently, it is urgent for scholars to commit themselves to make profound researches on classic academic works‘ translation on a practical basis.Based on it, this thesis makes a research on translation activities by using translation ethics as the theoretical support. Ethics is a discipline whose research objects are the standards and norms of interpersonal relationships in a certain society. It involves almost all the human activities. And translation, as a cross-cultural interaction activity, is also an ethical behavior, which determines its demands of ethical guidance. This thesis systematically introduces the historical development of translation ethics, as well as its present research status and its connotation. What‘s more, by comparing two Chinese versions of The Wealth of Nations from the perspective of translation ethics, this thesis suggests Chesterman‘s four ethical models have respective effects on translating classic academic works. And only if the translator takes comprehensive consideration of all elements related to translation activity and is restrained by translation ethical models, can he presents an apt translation work to target readers. Moreover, the writer is in the hope of opening a new and broader viewpoint for translation studies and providing practical support for the theoretical development of translation ethics.