Research On Livia Kohn's Translation Of Daoist Precepts From The Perspective Of Skopostheorie

Under the circumstance of economic globalization and cultural integration,the translations of Chinese cultural classics contribute to set up a bridge for the dialogue and exchange of different civilizations.Since the late 1970 s,an upsurge of Daoism research has emerged in the international academic,some Daoist classics have been translated into English version.American sinologist and Daoist scholar Livia Kohn composed lots of books about Daoist mysticism,immortal theory and practice of Daoism,edited many comprehensive books introducing Daoism.One of her achievements Cosmos and Community: The Ethical Dimension of Daoism covered her research about organizational management mode of Daoist communities and translation of 11 Daoist precepts appended in the last part of the book.This thesis attempts to discuss the translation strategies and techniques of 11 Daoist precepts in Livia Kohn's translation of 11 Daoist precepts from the perspective of German functionalist translation theory—Skopostheorie.The author considers that as a strict Daoist scholar,Livia Kohn comprehends Chinese and foreign culture differences.Therefore,she pays more attention to avoid the misinterpretation caused by cultural differences in the process of translating Daoist precepts,which is of great significance to instruct Chinese scholars to conduct the overseas dissemination of Daoism and Daoist precepts.This thesis is divided into four chapters.Chapter 1 briefly elucidates the research background of the thesis,introduces and reviews Livia Kohn's academic background and her Daoist books.Chapter 2 introduces the four development stages of Skopostheorie and the three rules of Hans J.Vermeer's Skopostheorie.Combined with linguistic features of legal text,Chapter 3 analyzes several linguistic features of Daoist precepts and illustrates the main translation strategies and techniques adopted by the translator in the text from the perspective of the three rules of Skopostheorie.Chapter 4 is the conclusive part of this thesis.This thesis aims to conduct a systematic analysis of Livia Kohn's translation of Daoist precepts guided by the three rules of Skopostheorie,hoping to help Chinese readers understand the different perspectives of Western Daoism research and pay more attention to the great importance of Chinese classics translation and the realistic significance of overseas dissemination of Chinese culture.