A Comparative Study Of Five English Translations Of Zhouyi

As the root of Chinese traditional culture, Zhouyi is given first priority to by both Confucianism and Daoism. There have been numerous scholars at home and abroad studying it since ancient times. At present, it has been translated into many languages and widely circulated.Based on the translation theories related with Hermeneutics, Domestication and Foreignization, and Styles, this thesis analyzes five English versions of different times of one of the oldest Chinese classics, Zhouyi from linguistic and cultural perspectives. On the linguistic level, phonetic, lexical, and syntactic features of the translated versions are analyzed. It is found out that mistranslations are due to difficulties caused by special Chinese characters, Chinese semantical structures such as paratacitc structures, and the differences between the ancient Chinese and modern Chinese characters. On the cultural level, researches have been done in the aspects related with animals, colors and numbers. The analysis shows us that the translators’ misunderstandings are often caused by their unfamiliarity to the Chinese culture, religion and history. The thesis proposes a balanced use of the approaches of doemestication and foreignization in translating Chinese culture-loaded terms.