A Study On The Causes Of The Translation Diversity Of Laotse

As one major source of the Chinese culture, Laotse has been exerting profoundinfluence on the Chinese for more than two thousand years and is becoming increasinglypopular around the world. Consequently, it has been the favorite of numerous translators athome and abroad as both a philosophical text and a religious one. Since the first Englishtranslation of Laotse came into being in1861, there have been nearly200diversifiedtranslations in English alone so far, which means more than one translation each year onthe average and accordingly, makes it the most frequently translated traditional Chineseclassic. And those translations are so different that sometimes one can hardly believe thatthey are rendered from the same source text, if having not known it in advance. It is quiteastonishing for such a short text with no more than five thousand words. Therefore, theauthor of this thesis can not help but wonder what causes the translation diversity ofLaotse.With the application of such core concepts of the philosophical hermeneutics ashistoricity of understanding, pre-understanding or Vorurteil and fusion of horizons, thisthesis endeavors to put forward a logical and comprehensive mode of analysis in terms ofthe choice of the source text, the interpretation of the source text and translation strategiesor methods adopted by various translators.Following the three steps of translation-the choice of the source text, understandingand expression, the thesis elaborates on factors involved in each step that may contribute totranslation diversity.First, the diversity of Laotse editions lays the foundation for the diversity of Englishtranslations, as their translations are necessarily different when translators choose differenteditions as the source text.Second, if translators choose the same original text, different understandings of thesource text take shape, which further promotes the translation diversity of Laotse.Third, even if translators were of the same understanding of the textual meaning, theirsubjectivity shown in the process of expression will inevitably lead to the diversity ofEnglish translations.All these factors mentioned above contribute to the translation diversity of Laotse which is just one of the many traditional Chinese classics that all face a similar situationthat varied English translation coexist and differ from each other. It is hoped that the modeof analysis in the thesis can be used to analyze reasons and necessity for the translationdiversity of all traditional Chinese classic although it is focused on Laotse alone in thethesis. As the mode of analysis may not be complete and more examples are needed injustifying it, there is still room for further exploration.