"Tai Chi Lun" Translation Research

Taijiquan,as the quintessence of Chinese culture and the representative of Chinese traditional martial arts,is becoming more and more popular in a lot of countries.However,due to the intricacies of traditional Chinese culture and philosophy contained in Taijiquan and some translators' own reasons,the translation of Taijiquan works still has quite a few difficulties,which does not look very promising,thus posing the four following problems:(1)Quite a few different translation names of professional terms are not conducive to the sound development of Taijiquan translation.(2)The word-for-word translation and mistranslation of Taijiquan concepts mislead foreign practitioners to a large extent.(3)Improper handling of cultural default hinders the growth of Taijiquan culture overseas.(4)Most of the translations are dull,lacking literariness and artistry of the original text,therefore cannot make the readers feel the sense of beauty.In view of the above,this paper chooses Taijiquan's most classic treatise On Taijiquan as the research subject,and studies the difficulties of text interpretation,translation strategy selection,translation method selection and translator's creative writing in the translation process,in order to address the four following issues:(1)How should translators interpret the original text accurately to define Taijiquan professional terms and standardize the translation names of them.(2)How to comprehensively use various strategies and methods to translateTaijiquan concepts accurately and naturally.(3)How to properly deal with cultural default,ensuring that the translation of On Taijiquan reproduces cultural images of the original text.(4)How to keep the sense of beauty in the original text and make the translation rich both in literariness and artistry.This paper uses the methods of literature review,logical approach and case study,interprets the original text of On Taijiquan from the vocabulary level,sentence level and text level,and based on its text type,adopts a variety of translation strategies and methods to complete its translation,in order to make the translated text equivalent to the original text in form and function.According to the research,there are 4 conclusions:(1)On Taijiquan is both a martial arts verse and a literary work,which belongs to expressive texts,therefore,it is necessary to choose expressive words and sentences for translation.(2)it is necessary to choose highly concise and visualized words,in order to appropriately reproduce Taijiquan images in the original text.(3)it is necessary to make the translation neat in form and harmonious in sound,so as to fit the verse style of the original text.(4)There are three common ways of poetry expression in the original text: analogy,exaggeration and metonymy,which should be shown in the translation as well,in order to meet readers' aesthetic needs.In the two sections "vocabulary translation in On Taijiquan" and "sentence translation in On Taijiquan",in order to translate words and sentences expressively,this paper mainly uses the following translation strategies and methods: transliteration and free translation,deepening and simplification,adding and omitting,sentence splitting,sentence reconstruction,inversion,combination,direct and reverse translation.In the section “the effects of text translation in On Taijiquan”,under the guidance of "Three-beauty Theory",“Creation Theory” and Text Type Theory,this pater discusses how to achieve “the beauty of sound”,“the beauty of meaning” and “the beauty of form”,in order to make the translation vivid in image,harmonious in tone and neat in form.In contrast with the previous translations of On Taijiquan,this study,from the perspective of verse translation,fulfills the task of translating Taijiquan concepts naturally and smoothly,and completes a fine translation with both literary and artistic features,which can provide certain reference and consultant value for the translation of other Chinese traditional martial arts texts,especially of martial arts verses.And besides,based on the translation studies on On Taijiquan,the paper points out the direction for future study on the translation of traditional martial arts texts,and there are three problems worth exploring more deeply: the retention or abandonment of correct grammar in the translation of verses,the creation of images in deepening the original text,and the reservation or weakening of obscurity in the original text.In the last section of the paper,as for the translation of martial arts literature works,translators' qualities are recommended as follows:(1)Translators should master professional skills of translation and professional knowledge on martial arts.(2)Translators should have rich literary qualities and high creativity.(3)Translators should be able to deal with different styles of original texts.(4)Translators should have a strong aesthetic and artistic sense.