A Comparative Study On The Two English Versions Of Huang Di Nei Jing From The Perspective Of Skopostheorie

With the development of therapies and health care culture of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), more and more international TCM physicians, health care enthusiasts and sinologists expect to understand Traditional Chinese Medicine more thoroughly, so high quality TCM translated texts are of urgent needs. TCM classic Huang Di Nei Jing (HDNJ) has profound medical, philosophical, literary and philological values as the essential and fundamental texts for international TCM universities. The studies of English translated texts of the TCM classic Huang Di Nei Jing not only promote TCM clinical treatment, but also build a bridge of cultural communication between China and the world.The author takes two translated texts of distinguished overseas TCM physicians, Wu Liansheng, Wu Qi and Ni Maoshing. They are all bilinguals who have advantages in medical knowledge, cultural background, working condition and language environment. The two translated texts are influential among American TCM scholars. Though the professional knowledge structure and traditional cultural background of Wu and Ni are similar, the two translated texts have obvious difference in terms of overall arrangement and language style due to their difference in translation purpose, publishing institution and major readers, which influence their translation strategies.Within the theoretical framework of Skopostheorie, the author compares the purposes of translated texts, translation strategies and readers’acception in order to give some advice for translators to solve the special challenges of TCM translation. Skopostheorie emphasizes that the translator adopts suitable translation strategies according to different translation purposes, and it has direct guiding role of studying the translated texts of HDNJ of two overseas Chinese TCM physicians. Apart from analyzing the standard and method of TCM translation, the author studies the future translation practice and training of translators from the Skopostheorie perspective, focusing on topics like how to translate TCM terminologies in contexts of different functions, and how to train TCM translators under the guidelines of Skopostheorie in order that translators will play a greater role in future TCM clinical treatment, international medical education and cross-cultural exchange.Wu’s translated text not only standardizes TCM terminologies, but also adds a large number of notes, so it exceeds the length of the source text by far. In comparison, Ni’s translated text summarizes the Yin-Yang theory and traditional health care method in HDNJ, and re-arranges the paragraphs and sentences to allow western readers to understand basic Taoist thinking in the cultural background of English-speaking countries. Apart from verbal translation, Ni adds diagrams to clarify the theory of Yin-Yang and five elements, and demonstrates the views of universe and health care of Taoism vividly. Ni’s translated text summarizes the fundamental ideas of Taoist thinking and explains the corresponding relationship of five elements (metal, wood, water, fire, earth) and organs. In short, Wu’s translated text mainly adopts amplification and annotation, while Ni’s translation mainly adopts summarization and forms. The two translated texts receive satisfactory results in their respective readers and improve the influence of TCM therapies and health care culture.Through the comparison of translated texts of HDNJ of overseas Chinese physicians, the author offers some advice on TCM translation strategies from the perspective of Skopostheorie. In terms of terminological translation, translators should standardize medical terminologies first, and then annotates or draws forms to explain the words with cultural elements. In terms of sentence arrangement, translators should consider readers’ expectation in English-speaking countries and take translation purpose into consideration. In terms of discourse translation, translators should emphasize the essential meaning of the source text and adopts flexible translation strategies to achieve satisfactory effects, so that Taoist thinking and other traditional Chinese cultural elements in the source text will be introduced to readers of various cultural backgrounds. In conclusion, TCM translation studies from the perspective of Skopostherie can hopefully offer a new vision for academic exchange, health care and cultural exchange.