A Study On Balfour’s English Translation Of Zhuangzi: From The Perspective Of Functionalist Translation Theory

As a significant classic in Chinese Taoism, Zhuangzi possesses enormous research values in the history of philosophy and literature, so it has been attracting numerous scholars at home and abroad. The English translations of Chinese Taoist classics have begun since the beginning of19th century, and the first complete English version of Zhuangzi came into being in the year1881by Frederic Henry Balfour, comprehensively demonstrating Zhuangzi for foreign readers for the first time, laying a solid foundation for the translators and the translations of Zhuangzi, and thus boosting the dissemination of Zhuangzi together with Chinese culture.Functionalist translation theory has been established in the1970s in Germany and developed through four phases. Function category is introduced into translation by Katharina Reiss and text function is considered as the standard in translation criticism. Hans J. Vermeer’s skopos theory regards the translation purpose as the decisive factor in translation process. Justa Holz-Manttari’s theory of translational action attaches attention to the participators and conditions of translation. Chirstiane Nord’s function plus loyalty remedy the "the end justifies the means" thus improving functionalist translation theory. In general, functionalist translation theory has shifted translation studies away from equivalence, regarded skopos as principle, and put translation into the framework of action theory and intercultural communication, thus turning over a new page in the translation study.The present thesis aims to probe into Balfour’s English version of Zhuangzi under the guidance of functionalist translation theory, targeting at analyzing Balfour’s purposes firstly, then studying how his purposes exert influence on his translation strategies, whether his purposes are realized, whether his translations convey the connotation of the source texts by researching translations of four key notions (Dao, Tian, Xin, Zi Ran) in Taoism and the proper names in Zhuangzi, and finally finding out influences Balfour’s version exerts on Herbert Giles and James Legge.After thorough studies, it can be concluded that Balfour’s purpose is to explore Chinese people’s attitudes towards religion so as to pave way for evangelism. Substitution is the principal translation strategy for the four key notions, and the translations for them are related to western religions which facilitates to realize translator’s purpose but the original significance is lost to some extent. Transliteration is the main approach to the translation of proper names, and flexibly combined with paraphrase, amplification and notes, etc. to reproduce the source text and make target text lucid as much as possible. Balfour’s English version of Zhuangzi provides solid foundation for Giles’ and Legge’s versions. Giles made some correction of mistranslations in Balfour’s version and Legge made reference to it, which makes their translations more accurate.The present study elevates readers’understanding of Balfour’s translation of Zhuangzi and enriches the translation studies of Zhuangzi, thus being of some help to the spread of Zhuangzi and enhancing cultural communication between the East and the West.