A Survey Of Reasons Behind The Less Popularity Of Buddhist Scriptures Translated By Xuan Zang From The Perspectives Of Poetics, Patronage And Ideology

This thesis, through exploring the reasons behind the less popularity of Xuan Zang’stranslation works from the perspective of poetics, ideology and patronage, aims to testifythe important role played by the professionals in charge of dominant poetics and ideologyin case that the professionals are not in line with patronage in the popularity of translationworks.Based on the research on the rewriting nature of translation, Lefevere offered threevital perspectives for academia to understand the production of translation works byputting forward three concepts named "Poetics","Ideology" and "Patronage", which can beapplied to explain the reasons behind the less popularity of Xuan Zang’s translation works.Xuan Zang is a renowned Buddhist monk who dedicated himself to the translation ofBuddhist sutras in Sanskrit. Legendary pilgrimage to the west region in pursuit of originalBuddhist scriptures, insurmountable erudition of Buddhist tenets, conscientious attitudetowards translation career, marvelous translation skills, well-organized translationassembly, together with the generous assistance from the government, account for theunparalleled quantity and quality of his translation works.However, despite the textual advantage boasted by Xuan Zang’s translation works,they hardly won the popularity among people inside or outside the Buddhist circle largelydue to their heavily-tinged rewriting nature, which can be analyzed with the application ofAndre Lefevere’s theory of "Rewriting".This thesis reveals that, the popularity of translation works can only be hoped with theaffirmative support from the undifferentiated patronage yet can be safely guaranteed withthe approval from the professionals who have a irreplaceable say in the dominant poeticsand ideology in an independent system.