A Comparative Study On Two English Version Of Tao Te Ching From The Perspective Of “Three Beauties”

Tao Te Ching is a treasure of Chinese classic literature,covering the profound and rich philosophical culture between the lines.It has been spread in western countries in very early age.Westerners regard the book of Tao Te Ching as a cultural treasure of China.It is generally circulated in western countries as the bible in China.Up to now,Tao Te Ching has been published a large number of English versions,and that is the cultural value of this book.By reading the related literatures of Tao Te Ching,so far,there is no domestic scholars to do the comparative study about the English versions of Tao Te Ching which translated by Xu Yuanchong and sinologist Moss Roberts.The paper will choose the two English versions as a source of corpus,with the theoretical direction of “three beauties”,comparing the two English versions in the word selection,the rhyme and the form.By doing this study,we hope to find the similarities and differences in the two English versions consist in “beauty in sense”,“beauty in sound” and “beauty in form”,and summarize the matters of translation and spread about Tao Te Ching.It is found that the theory of “three beauties” can guide the translation of Tao Te Ching from Chinese to English.Under the guidance of “three beauties theory”,the translation of Tao Te Ching can not only reflect the beauty of connotation and meaning in Chinese literary works,but also the beauty of the rhythm and form.There are differences and similarities between Xu Yuanchong and Moss Roberts in the process of the three beauties: As for word choice,Xu Yuanchong is simpler than Moss Roberts,Moss Roberts like to use compound words and unfamiliar words,so in Xu Yuanchong's translation,the communication of sense is more straightforward and easy to understand,while the translation of Moss Roberts is more abstruse.As for the rhyme,both of the two English versions are more frequently presented the end rhymein translation,which reflects the characteristics that Chinese characters love to use the rhyme.In terms of the processing of translation form,both of them show the characteristics of the original text,such as the neat and balanced form,the structure symmetry and the rich rhetoric devices,but Moss Roberts is more concise in the process of sentence length and word number.There have some key reasons for why the the two English versions have so many similarities and differences?Firstly,since the different cultural backgrounds of the translators,the understanding of the original text is different,so the translation is different.Secondly,based on the subjectivity of translator,different translators have their own translation methods for the original text,and they have their own styles when translate the original text.The third reason is that there are significant differences between English and Chinese in character,word meaning and syntax.In addition,the different text processing in word choice,syntactic application and style arrangement,lead to the different beauty in sense,sound and form.