Studies On English Translation Of Dao De Jing: A Perspective Of Translation Norm

As a precious legacy left by our ancestors in the Pre-Qin Period, Dao De Jing is not only popular at home but also exerts great influence upon western countries. This can be seen from its numerous English versions in the world. However, compared with its great number of English translations, the research on them has not been found too much, especially the studies from a diachronic and descriptive angle.Based on the previous researches both at home and abroad, the thesis first reviews the history of English translation of Dao De Jing and its related studies. Then it introduces the development of translation norm theory in western countries and its assimilation and application in China. It expounds Toury, the representative of Tel Aviv School and his norm theory which mainly includes the preliminary norm, initial norm and operational norm.With Toury's translation norm theory as the theoretical framework, this thesis makes an analysis of the effect made by culture, religion, politics and other social factors upon the translators'selections of source type, author and commentary edition at different periods of time. Meanwhile, these selections constitute the first stage -- preliminary norm study. In the second stage, this thesis makes a discussion on the influence exerted by the social and historical factors on the translators'macro translating strategy -- the decision whether to adopt an"adequate"translation (foreignization) or to employ an"acceptable"translation (domestication). In the third stage -- operational norm, the present author chooses three English versions of Dao De Jing translated by James Legge, Arthur Waley and Gu Zhengkun respectively as samples, and probes into them from both matrical and linguistic levels.Through a thorough study of the three translating stages of Dao De Jing, the thesis finds out that in the course of the translation activity, or rather, before the activity starts, the external factors have played clout on the translators. Besides, there should be no fixed standard for the assessment of translation since translation is a product of the times and the times is always changing. As a result, we should go beyond the mere relationship between the source text and the target text by taking into account more cultural-social parameters so as to establish a more powerful research pattern. Only in this way can we understand wholly the translation process by means of analyzing the language-culture context itself.