Ideological Manipulation In Translations Of Dao De Jing In Late Qing Dynasty

Dao De Jing, also called Laozi, is the classic work of Taoism. Tradition has itthat it was written by Lao Dan from Kingdom of Chu in the late Spring and AutumnPeriod. It is a collection of Lao Zi’s philosophical thinking. It systematically describesLao Zi’s world outlook, political view and epistemology. It plays a prominent role inthe Chinese, even the world’s history of philosophy, literature and culture.Its English translations were indispensable for the development and spread ofDao De Jing in the world. And the earliest English translation was translated by amissionary. From the perspective of Andre Lefevere’s ideology theory, this thesisanalyzes the interpretations from translators with Christian background. The authortakes three typical translations as examples: the translation of Missionary JohnChalmers, who with a political purpose of preaching; the translation of philosopherPaul Carus, a true believer of Christianity and the translation of James Legge, asinologist who used to be a missionary. The thesis discusses profoundly thetranslators’ history background; motivations of their translating work, what kinds ofideology were generated, and followed by what kinds of understanding andexplanation to Dao De Jing. It comprehensively associates the translations with thetranslators’ ideological characteristics and historical background features, andanalyzes how ideology manipulates the translators’ translations.At last, the thesis comes to the conclusion: because of the difference betweenChinese and western culture and different translators’ special identities and motivations, their translations would be with Christian culture flavor in differentdegrees automatically. It fully illustrates that social ideology and the translator’sideology can influence the translation accordingly.