A Study Of Thick Translation In Lin Yutang‘s The Wisdom Of Laotse

This thesis explores thick translation in Lin Yutang‘s: The Wisdom of Laotse, makes a thorough study on the translation features and explores into an analysis of reasons of thick translation in it to investigate significance of thick translation in translation studies, especially in translation of Chinese classics.The author adopts the methodology of descriptive translation studies to classify and study the phenomenon of thick translation in the The Wisdom of Laotse. In content, by introducing a large amount of background information about Laotse and his thoughts, highlighting main ideas of each book in his own words before the translation, adding theme and title of each chapter, illustrating thought of Laotse by Chuangtse, textual criticism, alternative translation, and giving pronunciation for important terms of Taosim, Lin put readers into a broad culture of source text; in form, mainly by adding preface, general introduction, introductions to each book, appendixes, pinyin and notes, Lin extended structure of the source text and enriched the content of translation at the same time. Then an analysis of the reasons for such phenomenon are made as influence of social ideology, translator‘s ideology, philosophical background of the translator, readership, patronage, all contribute to the birth of the translation of Tao Te Ching, which is by no means a coincidence.Lin Yutang has made great effort to approach and represent the essence of the source text though thick translation, which makes this version a classic example for the study of English translation of Tao Te Ching. The thesis on one side grasps the features of thick translation in The Wisdom of Laotse to demonstrate the phenomena of thick translation in it. On the other side this thesis explores reasons behind the phenomena to prove reasonable existence of thick translation and value of Tao Te Ching as a thick translation. In the end, this thesis investigates positive role of thick translation as an effective translation strategy in translating Chinese literature, especially in translating Chinese classics, and in enhancing the cross-culture communication between Chinese classics and the world.