A Comparative Study Of The English Translations Of Cultural Words In Lun Yu From The Perspective Of Cultural Filter

As one of the most representative ancient classical works of China,Lun Yu has been playing a very important part in cultural communication both at home and abroad,so has its English versions.So far,many researches and scholars have been done a lot of studies on the English versions of Lun Yu.However,few of them study Lun Yu from the perspective of cultural filter on two translators Ku hung-ming and Xu Yuanchong.These two translators’ English versions both made great contributions to spread Chinese culture.But in the processing of translation,Ku and Xu use different translation methods which make the different versions have different features.This thesis makes a comparative study between Ku’s version The Discourses and Sayings of Confucius and Xu’s version Thus Spoke the Master from the perspective of cultural filter to analyse the cultural words and the characteristics of the two English versions.It is hoped that this thesis may make contribution to the future research.Therefore,this thesis chooses three kinds cultural words: material cultural words,social cultural words and official title words,which based on Eugene Nida’s classification of culture and combines the characteristics of related cultural concept in Lun Yu.These 3 kinds of cultural words like measurement unit,traditional etiquette and custom,and official title don’t have words one to one correspondence between English and Chinese will be analyzed from the perspective of cultural filter.Because of few study compare Ku and Xu’s English versions of Lun Yu from the perspective of cultural filter,this study mainly focuses on three issues about the contents they filter in their versions,the translation methods they use in their versions and the factors influence their choice of translation method.Through the analysis,this thesis finds that from the source language,to better spread their own culture,they may filter some thoughts and doctrine,ethics,literature and arts,customs and habits,etc.in their own culture,so that their excellent culture can be spread out,and they can communicate and complement other cultures.The translators’ life experience,academic background and translation purpose influencetheir choice of translation methods.