The Translation Of Ren In The Analects Of Confucius From The Perspective Of Susan Bassnett's Cultural Translation Theory

With the upsurge of the cultural school in the field of translation studies,the "cultural turn" of translation proposed by Susan Bassnett and Andre Lefevere has gradually become the focus of academic inquiries in the discipline.The essence of cultural translation theory is to take culture as a unit and to translate culture as a whole.Culture is classified into three categories,namely the material,behavioral and mental culture.Mental cultural information reflects cultural cream,of which the translation plays an important role in cultural exchange and dissemination.With cultural translation theory as a guideline,the thesis discusses the translation of Ren(仁),a very important concept with mental cultural information in the Chinese Classics The Analects(《论语》).Ren(仁) is a concept central to Confucian ethical thinking.It is used to refer to one desirable quality in a narrow sense,and an all-encompassing ethical ideal,including all desirable qualities,in a broad sense.Its proper translation can bring out the rich and complex connotation.The thesis probes into its origin,evolution,connotation and translation of Ren(仁).Domestication is a commonly used strategy to deal with Ren(仁).Based on the study of Brooks' version and in light of cultural translation theory,this thesis proposes that the combined use of transliteration and explanatory translation may be a proper way for translating culturally-loaded concepts like Ren(仁).