A Study Of The English Version Of The Great Ming Code Based On Descriptive Translation Studies

As one of the most influential codes in Chinese history,The Great Ming Code(Da Ming Lü)regulated some major aspects of social affairs,especially the political,economic,military,familial,ritual,international,and legal relations in Ming dynasty.This Code was rendered into English in 2005.Although translation studies scholars have done numerous researches on the translation of Chinese classics over the years,the English version of The Great Ming Code(Da Ming Lü)is largely ignored and left intact,let alone conduct research based on Descriptive Translation Studies.Scholars mostly dwell on the lexical translation,artistic nature of the literary classics,or comparative or contrastive study between different versions.As to the English version of Chinese legal classics,studies are mainly conducted from the perspective of cultural interaction,while retrospective and descriptive analysis is rather seldom involved.So,the present study,in an attempt to throw light on the cause of English translation of The Great Ming Code(Da Ming Lü)as well as other Chinese classics,conducted a descriptive-theoretic analysis of the English version of The Great Ming Code(Da Ming Lü).Based on the English version of The Great Ming Code(Da Ming Lü),this thesis conducted a theory-driven qualitative research.It explored how the translator employed various translation strategies to foster the realization of translation goals,how the adopted translation strategies were influenced by power discourse,and whether Jiang Yonglin's version of The Great Ming Code(Da Ming Lü)was well embraced by the target readers.After analyzing the translation of The Great Ming Code(Da Ming Lü)based on Descriptive Translation Studies,this study showed that Jiang's version was both adequate and acceptable: On the one hand,Jiang Yonglin was inclined to collude with the status quo and produce fluent translations,i.e.,a subscription to norms in the target culture,which determined the translation's acceptability.On the other hand,Jiang Yonglin opposed a particular hegemony and employed foreignizing strategies to import new and unfamiliar terms to the receiving culture,and thus an adherence to the source text determined the translation's adequacy.It also demonstrated that the translation strategies employed by the translator,more often than not,reflected the translation goals that dictated the translation process.Further the effectiveness of translation strategies adopted by the translator was evidenced by the popularity of its version in the receiving culture,that is,the social context.It demonstrated that the strategies adopted by translators and the textual-linguistic make-up and translation would surely exert influences on the position of the end product in the recipient system.In the meantime,translation strategies,in turn,would inevitably facilitate its translation purpose.The current research,at theoretical level,attempted to provide a new method of descriptive-theoretic analysis of the English version of The Great Ming Code(Da Ming Lü).By putting the translation of The Great Ming Code(Da Ming Lü)under certain social atmosphere,this study was expected to expand the scope of Descriptive Translation Studies.Practically,by resorting to power discourse,this study aimed to find out the interactive relationship between translation goals and translation strategies,and to describe the main translation strategies that translators could use during the translation process.Hopefully,the results of this study would make theoretical contribution to researches on the translation of Chinese legal classics,and provide practical references for translation practice of Chinese legal classics.