The Cultural Deficiency And Compensation In The Translation Of Ancient Chinese Legal Terms

Ta Tsing Leu lee is the last feudal code in China,and it is also the collection of ancient Chinese legal classics.With its core values of the Chinese legal tradition and the unique spirit of the Chinese legal system,Ta Tsing Leu lee reflects the unique charm of the ancient Chinese feudal legal system and exerts a considerable influence over the formation and establishment of the legal system with Chinese characteristics.There are two English translations of Ta Tsing Leu Lee,translated by George Thomas Staunton and William Jones respectively,published in 1810 and 1994.From a cultural point of view,the ultimate objective of translation lies in the promotion of understanding between different languages and the intercultural communications.As the essence of legal language,legal terms are more typical in reflecting the cultural characteristics of legal language.Thousands of legal terms conceived in Ta Tsing Leu Lee constitute the ancient legal terms system combining the form and meaning of legal language.Nevertheless,the culture loss caused by the differences between Chinese and Western cultures blocks cross-cultural communication.Moreover,Translation is a form of intercultural communication.Hence,cultural loss necessitates cultural compensation in translation.In this view,this thesis aims to study the cultural loss and the translation compensation in the translation of ancient Chinese legal terms by comparing two English translations mentioned above of Ta Tsing Leu LeeThe author sorts out the studies of scholars at home and abroad on Ta Tsing Leu Lee and legal terms in Ta Tsing Leu Lee,analyses structural and cultural differences between English and Chinese.Accordingly,it was found that cultural loss is inevitable in the translation of ancient legal terms,manifested in the absence of the feature of concise and archaic of legal terms.The cultural deficiency is mainly caused by the inaccuracy of meaning reproduction due to the cultural gap and cultural differences.Meanwhile,the improper handling of translators is also an important factor.Due to the cultural loss reflected in translation of ancient Chinese legal terms,based on the six guiding compensation principles in cultural translation proposed by Xia Tingde,the author tries to propose compensation principles of correspondence in language form and quality in the translation of ancient Chinese legal terms.It is sincerely expected that this thesis will shed light on the legal translation,will enrich the research of translation studiesand translation practice of English translation of Ta Tsing Leu Lee,and will improve the quality of Chinese-English translation of ancient Chinese legal classics,and will develop new way on the translation of ancient Chinese legal classics.