Research On Four English Translations Of Huangdi Neijing Suwen From The Perspective Of Reiss's Text Types And Translation Types Theory

Huangdi Neijing has been the fundamental doctrinal source for Chinese medicine for more than two millennia.This work is composed of two texts.The first text,Suwen,covers the theoretical foundation of Chinese medicine,also values in classic literature,ancient philosophy,technology and science etc.Translators who translate this medical classic into English usually have their particular focus(the book's medical instruction or original linguistic patterns etc.)in their translating tasks,because it is difficult to convey the comprehensive contents during translating.Thus,translations of Suwen vary in typographical design,the form of the translated texts and so on.because different translating purposes dominated.Among the thirteen translations of Suwen,the four by Paul U.Unschuld,Li Zhaoguo,Wu Liansheng and Zhou Chuncai respectively are the typical representaions.These four contemporary translations of the same Suwen are with great contrasts.For example,one page of the translation by Paul U.Unschuld could be composed of 5% translation and 95% notes while Wu Liansheng's translation has no notes.What's more,Zhou Chuncai's unique comic translation only contains around 5% of the original contents of Suwen.Lots of caricature abound in Zhou's version,and they are accompanied with small stories to assist readers in comprehension because this translation is targeted for more general readers who are almost never exposed to Chinese traditional medicine.In this paper,my focus lies in the description and analysis of this translation phenomenon and the different ways of translating in the light of some aspects of Reiss' theory.Further,I brought translation reception investigation into analysis.The conclusion of this paper is that translators' preliminary targeted readers and adapted strategies are necessary for translating and introducing traditional Chinese culture to the West.