A Study On Thomas Cleary’s Subjectivity In His Translation Of The Art Of War

In the history of translation both in Western countries and in China, translator’s status has always been the bone of contention. Before the 20th century, most translation theorists regarded the translator as being inferior to the original author and the translation works which processed less value than the source text. With the "culture turn" in the translation studies, the subjective role of translator has been discovered and highlighted. As a creative subject, the translator always makes choices among a great amount of options to bring out his values, cultural orientation, specific interpretation and translation purpose into his translation practice. Thus, the selection of source text, the interpretation of source text and special treatments on target text can all reveal translator’s subjectivity.As the earliest and most valuable Chinese extant treatise on military science, The Art of War, emphasizing on precautionary measures and intelligence strategy, has been studied and applied for more than 2000 years. Thomas Cleary (托马斯·克利里，1949-), one of the most prolific American translators of classical spiritual texts, published his translation The Art of war in 1988 and redefined this military treatise by linking it to Taoist thoughts found in classics like the I Ching and Tao Te Ching. He purposefully highlighted "a profound undercurrent of humanism" to the often misunderstood book on warfare. Thomas Cleary has greatly conducted his translator’s subjectivity, since he regards The Art of War as an indispensable Taoism classic and relates his translation to famous Taoists’thoughts. Therefore, this thesis, taking Thomas Cleary’s translation of The Art of War as a case of the study, attempts to explore translator’s subjectivity by employing the methods of qualitative study in a bottom-up way.Based on the theoretical framework of translator’s subjectivity, the author of this thesis explored Thomas Cleary’s subjectivity revealed in his translation of The Art of War from two aspects:one is the subjectivity reflected in the acceptance and interpretation of the source text. Thomas Cleary’s translation of The Art of War is based on Notes on Sunzi by Eleven Scholars in Sung dynasty, exerting his understanding of Taoism-Winning without fighting; Requirements on leadership,Emptiness and fullness-in his translation. The other is the subjectivity reflected in the aesthetic composition of the target text. The author of this thesis discovers Thomas Cleary’s subjectivity by his special choice of military words and religious words, and his omission of the source text and his change of the order of the annotators.This thesis conducts such tentative study on the translator’s subjectivity in Thomas Cleary’s translation of The Art of War, aiming at enriching the studies on The Art of War from the perspective of Taoism. It is also hoped that this thesis would be of some help in learning more about Thomas Cleary’s specific insights and his possible translation strategies while dealing with basic concepts and text organization of the source text, and be of some help in enriching the approaches to the translation and studies Chinese classics, and therefore shed lights on the worldwide transmission of Chinese culture.