A Study On Chinese Translation Of The Sinological Historical Work Emperor Qianlong From The Perspective Of Translation Norms

The study on overseas sinology has gradually become a hot topic in the academic field in recent years.It plays an significant role in strengthening academic exchanges at home and abroad,displaying academic achievements and expanding our academic influence.Emperor Qianlong: Son of Heaven,Man of the World is one of the important historical works of Professor Mark C.Elliott,a revered leading figure of the New Qing History in America.The work not only contains the faithful historical documents and academic depth to discuss,but also the vivid narration and ingenious arrangement of structure to analyze.It was largely praised and widely recognized by western scholars after its publication in 2009.The Chinese translation of Emperor Qianlong was selected for translation by the Institute of Qing History in Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and was published by Social Sciences Academic Press in 2014,which aroused great repercussions and swept through the Chinese academia.The current study is a descriptive observation of the Chinese translation of Emperor Qianlong based on preliminary norms,initial norms and operational norms classified by Gideon Toury,which aims to examine its thinking,strategies and characteristics in different stages of translation.A thorough examination of the Chinese translation of Emperor Qianlong not only gives us a clue to understand the translation strategies and the canonized journey of its translation but also a great insight to the target-language-dominant-model and the evaluation of acceptability of overseas sinological academic works.Specifically,the preliminary norms throw some light on the thinking direction and selection of its Chinese translation.In terms of translation strategies,initial norms and operational norms are reconstructed in the process of translation.Its classical status established in the process of acceptability and circulation are evaluated.The study holds that:(1)the social-cultural context is dominant with the crucial factors of translators‘ interests and the author‘s intention in selecting the original text;(2)observation of initial norms leads to a combination of adequacy and acceptability in the Chinese translation of Emperor Qianlong,and different translation strategies might be justified by cultural factors,source texts and the target readership to achieve the purpose of cultural communication;(3)the Chinese translation has got its popularity in the circulation due to the significant support from the Chinese publishing house,its sales design and marketing,and academic readers,who jointly help to disseminate and canonize Emperor Qianlong in the target culture.