The Study Of Gu Zhengkun’s English Translation Of The Book Of Tao And Teh From A Perspective Of Receptive Aesthetics

The Book of Tao and Teh, an ancient Chinese classical literature works, iswell-known for its profound connotation and beautiful verses. Currently, mostscholars have made commentary comparative studies of the works’ English versionsin terms of its linguistic features and semantic representation from the perspective oflanguage, culture and genre. However, the studies from the perspectives alone are notof much help for translators to produce versions well received by target readers in thecourse of disseminating Chinese culture to the west. Thus, the author of this thesismakes a study of Gu Zhengkun’s English version with the aesthetic reception theoryfor the fact that his version enjoys a large circulation in the west and has been used asa textbook in institutions of high education, like, Yale University. Reception aestheticsis a literature critic theory developed on the basis of phenomenology andhermeneutics, with Jauss and Iser as its leading theorists who focus on readership intheir studies. The introduction of reception aesthetics into the studies of translationtheories manifests that flexible translation strategies should be adopted by a translatoraccording to the acceptability of target readers.In this thesis, the author makes a descriptive study of the Book of Tao and Tehtranslated by Gu Zhengkun with the focus on “horizon expectation” and “spots ofindeterminacy” in reception theory or reception aesthetics in terms of the followingaspects: On the level of culture: explanation of the translation of culture-loaded words;On the level of rhetoric: induction and illustration of Gu Zhengkun’s translationstrategy through rhetoric analysis, such as, antithesis, parallelism, palindrome,metaphor; translation of philosophical terms; translators’ subjectivity exerted inadoption of translation strategies.Through the descriptive studies of Gu Zhengkun’s English version of the Bookof Tao and Teh with the focus on both horizon of expectation and spots ofindeterminacy in aesthetic theory, the author draws the conclusion as follows:1）On the level of culture: Gu Zhengkun mainly adopts the strategy of alienation and free translation with annotations added in parentheses. As toculture-loaded expressions, Gu renders them in line with target readers’ horizon ofexpectations while spreading Chinese culture in the west.2) On the level of rhetoric: To retain the rhetoric characteristics of the originalworks, Gu Zhengkun produces a translation version in the style of English poems bymeans of both literal translation and free translation as well as flexible strategies withboth fidelity to the original works’ poetic style and exact conveyance of the ideas soas to meet target readers’horizon of expectations.3）On the level of translation of philosophical terms: Gu Zhengkun translatesthe terms by means of combination of foreignization and domestication(transliteration+annotation) in an effort to show Chinese characteristics to westerners,which fills out the spots of indeterminacy in the original text for easier comprehensionand acceptance in the target culture.4）As to the choice between foreignization and domestication, Gu Zhengkunadopts the latter as his main translation strategy with others as assistance in a bid tohelp introduce the brilliant and sophisticated Chinese culture to the west. For this, Gutranslates the Book of Tao and Teh by means of combined translation strategies,advocating application of domestication to translation of alienated culture so as toreach target readers.Through the analytical studies of the Book of Tao and Teh with receptionaesthetics, the author of the thesis motivates readers to further tap into Gu Zhengkun’sversion and in the meantime, triggers off reflection and discussion among translatorson English translation of ancient Chinese literature works. While translating ancientChinese literature works, a translator should keep a balance between Chinese cultureand western readership in an effort to represent original works in both language andcontents, which demands combined translation strategies.