A Study On The Translation Of Taoist Gods' Apellations

Taoist gods are an important part of Taoist culture. With the expansion and development of Taoist culture at home and abroad, the translation of Taoist gods'appellations needs to be attached improtance to. However, the fact is that more and more Taoist classics have been translated and books about Taoist culture have been translated and written, while few is known or studied in the aspect of the translation of Taoist gods'appellations. As the translation of the gods' appellations, to a certain extent, affects readers'understanding of Taoist culture, it is all necessary to make studies on the issues existing in the process of translation. That would improve the transmission of Taoist culture and communication between people of different cultural backgrounds. This thesis took the appellations of Taoist gods from two English versions(the version by W.J.F. Jenner and the version by Anthony C. Yu) of the Chinese classic novel Xi You Ji as objects, in order to study the cultural misreading appearing in the translation of appellations and what translation strategies to take during the process.The author analyzes, from the angle of modern hermeneutics and Aesthetic of reception, the two issues which cause cultural misreading in literary translation:the translator and the reader, with the former given much more care and analysis. The cultural misreading caused by translator can be divided into three types:cultural misreading inadvertently caused, cultural misreading intentionally caused and cultural misreading kept as it is in the SL text, and each type has its own cause of formation. Readers cause cultural misreading because of their individual diversties, however, the prediction of the readers'horizon of expectations by the translator helps to reduce cultural misreading. An analysis and induction of the translation of the appellations shows that the two translators all adopt foreignization as the primary strategy with domestication as the auxiliary one, and then the author elaborates, through a comparison of the system and appellations of gods in Taoism and those in the western religion and mythology, that the cultural heterogeneity of the Taoist gods'appellations both in meaning and form, and the purpose of preserving the heterogeneity make it necessary to adopt the strategy. The focus is put on the case studies of the translation of the appellations afflicted with cultural misreading, in which all the improper translation is improved in the light of foreignization, and it is pointed out in this part that the translator is the main cause of cultural misreading in literary translation and thus the translator plays a key role in reducing it.