| Zhuangzi is an ancient Chinese classic of philosophical, literary and religious significance. The extant Zhuangzi can be divided into three parts:inner chapters, outer chapters and miscellaneous chapters. Scholars have been arguing about whether all these three parts are written by Zhuangzi. In spite of the divided opinions, it is generally acknowledged that the inner chapters are written by Zhuangzi himself. Thus, this thesis focuses on the inner chapters in order to accurately understand the thought and the cultural connotation of Zhuangzi.The translation of Zhuangzi into English began at the end of the 19th century and lasts until today. Its translators include the British missionary, the American Sinologists and the native Chinese scholars. This thesis conducts a research on the three English versions of the inner chapters of Zhuangzi, respectively by James Legge, Burton Watson and Wang Rongpei in the light of Descriptive Translation Studies, particularly from the perspective of Gideon Toury’s translation norms. Toury believes that the translation activity is influenced by preliminary norms, initial norms and operational norms. Preliminary norms are factors that govern the choice of texts to be imported through translation into a particular culture at a particular time; initial norms are basic choices the translators made between requirements of the two different cultures; operational norms direct the translator making decisions during the act of translation and decide the final product. This research aims to enrich the study on the translation of Zhuangzi and promote the cultural communication between China and other counties, and it is also hoped that the translation strategies on culture concluded from the three versions will contribute to the translation of other ancient Chinese classics.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One is a general introduction to the research background, the significance of the research, the research methodology and the structure of the thesis. Chapter Two is literature review on Zhuangzi, which contains a brief review on the author and the book, some major English translations of Zhuangzi and especially the three main versions studied in this thesis. Besides, the previous studies on the English translation of Zhuangzi and its research tendency are illustrated. Chapter Three discusses the Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS). The definition, the development of the theory and James Holmes’s basic map of translation studies are presented. Then, Gideon Toury’s theory on DTS and especially his ideas on translation norms are explained in detail. Besides, The DTS in China and the limitations of the theory are also covered. Chapter Four is the focus of the research, which mainly explores the translation norms of the three versions. Firstly, careful reading of the foreword, preface and the introduction part of each version leads to the reconstruction of the preliminary norms. Secondly, the initial norms are explained through the analysis of the translation of chapter titles. Thirdly, examples on translation of five kinds of cultural elements are analyzed and the involved translation strategies are concluded to support the argument on the operational norms. Chapter Five summarizes the major findings of the present research and points out some limitations.According to the analysis, the major findings of the research can be concluded as follows:Firstly, in terms of the preliminary norms, the three translators have different motivations for choosing Zhuangzi to translate. Secondly, in terms of the initial norms, James Legge’s and Wang Rongpei’s translations are closer to the source culture, while Burton Watson’s translation is closer to the target culture. Thirdly, in terms of the operational norms, the strategies that the three translators adopted to translate five kinds of cultural elements include literal translation, free translation, amplification, transliteration and so on. |
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