A Study On The Strategies Of Translating Huangdi’s Cannon Of Internal Medicine From The Perspective Of The Adaptation Theory Through Contrastive Analysis Of Three Versions

The Adaptation Theory, put forth by Belgian pragmatist Jef. Verschueren, elaborates that language is a choosing process to adapt to the contexts and communication. Through development of the theory, the thesis holds that the Adaptation Theory guides the mutual translation process from Chinese into English. At the same time, the Adaptation Theory could make translators strike a balance between the sauce text and the target text, and guide the translator choose proper words, sentences or paragraphs to translate the sauce text. In this way, TCM could disseminate in original way and be accepted in the target culture.The thesis applied practical means to study the following two aspects. Firstly, the thesis applied material analysis study. The thesis chose three English versions of Huangdi’s Cannon of Internal Medicine, the translators being Veith, Mao Shingni and Li Zhaoguo respectively. Some representative phrases and sentences were chosen to value the quality of three English versions and to sum up translation strategies. Secondly, the thesis used questionnaire to argue that the differentiation of readers’satisfaction and acceptance for English versions could be an effective measurement to choose English strategies, because comments of readers on English versions provide precious reference for the development and strategies-choosing of TCM. Therefore, the thesis is persuasive, realistic and practical since it studied different levels such as the correctness of English versions and the satisfaction with three English versions.Based on exemplifications, the questionnaire and the Adaptation Theory, the thesis has drawn the following conclusions. Firstly, in terms of material analysis, the versions of Mao Shingni and Li Zhaoguo were superior to Veith version in cultural transmission. The former two versions convey correct information of the sauce text while Veith’s version is full of obscure expressions. Secondly, the questionnaire revealed that the readers had different satisfaction towards the three versions in the following sequence:Mao Shingni edition>Li Zhaoguo edition> Veith edition. As a result, Mao Shingni’s version is most popular among the readers. Meanwhile, the thesis has demonstrated that the Adaptation Theory was reasonable and applicable in guiding translation works.Last but not least, the versions of Mao Shingni and Li Zhaoguo could provide prototype for TCM translation strategies. However, strategy-choosing should be in a state of changing rather than static state, otherwise, TCM translation would never be improve. Moreover, the static choice of strategies doesn’t accord with the requirement of Adaptation Theory. The Adaptation Theory is a holistic guiding principle that requires translators constantly adjust translation strategies and adapt to variable translation contexts such as original text, readers’cognitive expectation and cultural environment. Only in this way, can the choice of strategies accord with adaptation.All in all, this thesis attempts to apply the Adaptation Theory to guide translation practice to justify that the Adaptation Theory is scientific and feasible. The purpose of the thesis is to encourage translators to broaden minds and get rid of the restrictions when choosing relevant theories so as to explore new theories from other perspectives to apply them in TCM translation. Besides, the thesis tries to establish a selective, adaptive and dynamic translation model to guide TCM translation so as to enhance TCM translation quality, enrich TCM translation strategies and promote the worldwide dissemination of TCM.