A Study Of The English Translation Of Jin Ping Mei Under The Vision Of "One Divides Into Three"

As a popular thinking pattern,"one divides into two"theory is also a dominating one in the field of translation. It certainly has its merits, but as time goes on and researches move forward, it is becoming an increasingly annoying barrier to translation studies. The way out lies in the changing of people's thinking mode. The introduction of"one divides into three"theory into translation studies has produced a breakthrough in this area. Many terms like"the third state of affairs","the third road"and"the third language"sprung up like mushrooms in recent years. But the attempts of integration of this theory with practice have been few, this thesis is making such an attempt.The text for analysis is Clement Egerton's translation of the Chinese classic novel Jin Ping Mei. Discussions are made at both the linguistic and cultural levels. Linguistically, the style of the text like the characteristics of Chinese serial novel, the style of vernacular languages in the novel and several different narrative techniques employed by the novel are the main topics for discussion. The criteria for a successful"third road"translation in this aspect are the transferring of meaning and image, structure and form of the original text.Culturally, the analysis was in two parts with each part consisting of several sub-divisions. Common topics like addressing culture, social networking cultures, festivals and celebrations, weddings and funerals and religious culture are all covered in the thesis. The translation was approached from a cultural perspective which stresses the well balance of the readability of the target language and the preservation of the cultural otherness of the original. Examples are in extensive use for discussions.The author concludes from detailed discussions that Egerton's translation The Golden Lotus is a successful"third road"translation. In the process of analyzing the translation using the"one divides into three"theory, the author grows increasingly addicted to the theory itself, especially its application in translation studies. So as a reflection, he draws a graph showing his understanding of the theory by suggesting that a good"third road"translation is a harmonious coalition of three different aspects: the sovereignty of the source text, the subjectivity of the translator and the proactivity of the readers.