A Contrastive Study Of Two English Versions Of Dao De Jing From The Perspective Of Postcolonial Translation Theory

Post-colonialism is mainly concerned about the unequal culture relations between the developed countries (dominant countries) and the developing countries (dominated countries). It holds that the relation between the strong culture of the developed countries and the weak culture of the developing countries is still imbalanced, namely the dominating vs. the dominated, the controller vs. the controlee. According to the postcolonial translation theory, translation in many ways has become the tool of colonization. It has been used as a tool of cultural hegemony by the strong culture; but at the same time, translation has been used, also should be used to subvert the colonial domination, fight against the colonial power. Translation can also become the powerful weapon in disseminating national culture and fighting against cultural hegemony. It is clear that Chinese culture is a kind of non-dominant culture from the current cultural exchange between China and the West. And the western culture represents the strong culture. Unequal cultural exchanges exist between them. This phenomenon of inequality has been fully demonstrated in the translation of Chinese classics.Dao De Jing is one of the ancient Chinese poetic philosophical classics which has produced a certain effect on the culture and philosophy both at home and abroad. In the contemporary material-oriented world filled with fierce competition, many opinions of Dao De Jing have attracted more and more people to resonate, such as the view on being simple and tranquil, on opposing extravagance and extreme, on opposing war, etc. These widespread classical thoughts have long been regarded as a model. Just for this reason, the translation of Dao De Jing is numerous both at home and abroad from ancient to modern time. At present, more than300kinds of translations have produced, just ranking behind the Christian classic ’The Bible". The correct and faithful translation of Dao De Jing has inestimable significance in spreading Chinese culture and promoting the cultural exchange between China and foreign countries. The English translation of Dao De Jing is the transformation from weak culture to strong culture, and this is just what postcolonial translation concerns. However, few scholars have studied the English translation and its transmission effect of DDJ from the perspective of postcolonial translation theory.This thesis chooses to compare the two versions of DDJ by Waley and Gu Zhengkun from the perspective of postcolonial translation theory, with an effort to explore the similarities and differences, the translation effect and the influencing factors between the two versions. Through the contrastive analysis of the linguistic, cultural and stylistic interpretation with32examples, this thesis has drawn the following conclusions: (1) In terms of translation strategy, Waley tends to adopt domestication which leads to some culture losses of DDJ to some extent. While Gu Zhengkun chooses foreignization to faithfully deliver the original features and flavor of DDJ. The foreignization strategy adopted by Gu Zhengkun better preserved the sound, form and meaning of DDJ.(2) There are mainly three factors influencing translators’choice of translation strategy, namely, power differentials in culture and politics; power differentials between the dominant readers and the translators and the differences of translators’motivation and intention.(3) Domesticating and foreignizing translation strategies cannot be defined as a tool of colonization or decolonization arbitrarily. Whether it is a tool of colonization or decolonization depends on the social background of translation and the translator’s motivation.(4) The translation of DDJ, or some other literary classics, should be dominated by foreignization supplemented by domestication."Seeking harmony while reserving differences" should be the cultural translation standards of translators in the cultural exchange. Through the contrastive analysis above we can find that even though the translators do not aim to propogate cultural hegemony, the extensive use of domestication may lead to culture losses and it is not conducive to the spread of culture and the establishment of an equal dialogue between China and the West.To conclude, when translating the text with strong cultural flavor especially classics, from the weak culture to the strong culture, the resistant translation strategy, namely foreignzation, can help to preserve the cultural features of the source text and resist the cultural hegemony and cultural imperialism. It is meaningless just blindly finding the shadow of weak culture in strong cultures. Finally, the author puts forward some suggestions to the translation of Chinese classics. In order to better realize the effect of translation in outputting Chinese culture, the translation strategy of literary classic should be dominated by foreignization and supplemented by domestication. These two methods complement each other. During translation, translators should try to convey the original exotic culture, the different language form of the original text and the author’s abnormal writing techniques.The whole thesis consists of six chapters:Chapter One serves as introduction to the origin of research, the motivation and significance of the research, as well as the organization of the thesis.Chapter Two is the literature review of the present study. It mainly consists of three sections:First is the review of post-colonialism studies both at home and abroad, which includes the definition and development of postcolonial theory, some representatives and their works. Then is the review of postcolonial translation studies in the west and China. Here the author summarized the main theorists who have contributed to the study of postcolonial translation and their masterpieces. In addition, the relation between this theory and Chinese culture is referred to and discussed. Finally is the review of the studies of English versions of DDJboth at home and abroad.Chapter Three is the data collection and research methodology of this thesis. Brief introduction has been made to the research materials. And the method of quantitative and qualitative study, contrastive analysis and inductive conclusion are combined to investigate the selected examples in the two translation versions of DDJ.Chapter Four makes an all-round comparison between Ku’s and Waley’s translation from linguistic, cultural, and stylistic levels with32examples in these two versions.Chapter Five is the contrastive analysis of the two translators’ translation skills and strategies. Here the reasons of their similarities and differences and the evaluation of these two versions will also be discussed from postcolonial translation perspective.Chapter Six draws a natural conclusion of this thesis. The author summarized the major findings, implications and limitations of this study.