On Bible Translation From The Perspective Of Toury’s Translation Norms-A Comparative Study Of Two Chinese Bible Versions

As a classic of Christianity, the Bible not only constitutes the core values of the Western culture but also imposes profound influence upon the Chinese culture. Since the Bible first made its way into China some 1500 years ago, various versions were produced. However, for most Chinese, Christians and non-Christians alike, the Chinese Bible is equivalent to the Chinese Union Version. A handful of later produced versions, such as the Today’s Chinese Version (TCV) and the Chinese Living Bible (CLB) etc., were generally overlooked. Though the CUV plays a predominant role among various versions, its guiding principles and translation strategies have not been fully explained and exploited. Besides, the differences between the old, authoritative CUV and the new versions remain largely unknown to many Chinese, including translation scholars.Based on the above-mentioned background, this thesis aims to carry out a comparative study of two Chinese Bible versions, i.e. the CUV and the TCV, from the perspective of Gideon Toury’s theory of translation norms. Israeli translation theorist Gideon Toury first proposed the notion of translation norms, which leads translation studies to a descriptive, functional and multi-dimensional research.Toury classified norms into three categories, i.e. initial norms, preliminary norms and operational norms. Initial norms refer to the translator’s overall choice between inclining to the source language norms and to the target language norms. Preliminary norms, composed of translation policy and directness of translation, are the macro factors affecting translation activities before actual translation happens. Operational norms, composed of matricial norms and textual-linguistic norms, are the micro factors affecting specific translation techniques applied and the composition of the target text.By adopting such a descriptive research method, translation activities can be analyzed from a much more comprehensive and objective angle by scholars.Through the comparison of the two Chinese Bible versions, the author of the present thesis concludes that translation is a norm-governed activity and is affected by various norms at the very beginning. The influence imposed by different norms at different stages of the translation process is the cause of the production of different Bible versions. It is these norms that affect or even constrain the translator in choosing translation techniques, source text and linguistic style etc. Meanwhile, this thesis aims to dig out and explain the specific norms governing the translation of the two Chinese Bible versions and similarities and differences between them in order to explain or assume the developing pattern of Chinese Bible translation.