A Study On C-E Translation Of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Terminology From The Perspective Of Memetics

With the internationalization of the traditional Chinese medicine(TCM), much more importance has been attached to the CE translation of TCM terms. In the course of disseminating the TCM culture towards western countries, the phenomena, such as seriously wrong translation, inappropriate translation, pretermission in cultural connotations and even random translation, etc. are common. Therefore, how to retain the nationality, accuracy, completeness and technicality without losing the naturality, acceptability, conciseness and conventionality has become a major challenge in the CE translation of TCM both theoretically and practically. In view of this, this thesis focuses on exploring the problems in CE translation of TCM terms, the cross-cultural process of meme replication and transmission as well as translation principles and methods by the means of comparative analysis, case analysis, quantitative and qualitative analysis from the memetic perspective.Memetics is a new theory for interpreting cultural evolution on the basis of Darwinian evolutionary theory, which offers unique insights of the complicated relationship between culture and the meme. From the memetic perspective, memes, in a certain case, can plant one culture into another one via translation. Firstly, this thesis analyzes the problems in the CE translation of TCM terms from the aspects of both language and culture with the application of memetics. The linguistic problems consist of over-strained meta-phrase and lack of complete equivalents in semanteme; while the cultural ones contain pretermission and inconsistency in cultural memes. Then it explores the influential factors of TCM term memes and the four-fold essential stages of meme replication and transmission, including assimilation(identifying and decoding), retention(screening and filtering), expression(coding) and transmission(modulating). Lastly, on the basis of traditional translation principles, this thesis establishes four integrated principles, which includes the integration of nationality and naturality, completeness and conciseness, accuracy and acceptability as well as technicality and conventionality. Guided by the four principles, this thesis finally puts forward two strategies from the two aspects of language and culture.This thesis concentrates on the combination of memetics and translation activities, aiming at further promoting the development of the CE translation of TCM terms in both theory and practice. On balance, the explanatory power of memetics to the CE translation of TCM terms can mainly be reflected in the following three aspects. In the first place, unlike traditional translation theories, memetics is no longer restricted to the contrast between the source text(ST) and the target text(TT) but focuses on the feature of cross-cultural transmission, namely the copying-fidelity, longevity and fecundity, taking both the cultural connotation of TCM terms and target readers' acceptability into account. Furthermore, memetics provides a research tool for the problems in TCM term translation and introduces an mode of information replication as well. On the basis of the characteristics of the TCM term itself, they will be classified and translated with a term class in a stylized way. Finally, memetics offers inspiration for translators in terms of translation principles and strategies in TCM terms. This thesis attempts to integrate traditional principles to make the TL memes have identically semantic and cultural effect on target readers as far as possible through replicating the SL memes via the language-oriented and culture-oriented strategies.