A Translation Report Of The Comparative Study On The Shang And Zhou Dynasties Cultures (the Section Two In Chapter Four)

With the development of China’s economy and society and the improvement of its international status, it’s imperative to introduce the Chinese culture to the world. Under the circumstances, the Chinese Academic Translation Project, which is established by the National Social Science Fund and aims at expanding the academic exchanges between China and the foreign countries and encouraging China’s philosophy and social science to go out, has emerged at the right moment. The translation of The Comparative Study on the Shang and Zhou Dynasties Cultures, written by Professor Wang Hui from the School of History and Culture of Shaanxi Normal University, was one of the Chinese academic translation projects in 2013. The translator was responsible for the section two and the section three of the chapter four. With the comparatively full discussion on the cultures of the Shang and Zhou dynasties from several aspects, the book has great academic significance. Since the cultures of the Shang and Zhou dynasties play an important role in the traditional Chinese culture, the translation of this book pushes the Chinese culture out and can help the foreign people understand the Chinese culture better.In Newmark’s view, the translation activity is the translation about the text, so researching translation cannot get off the text. According to the contents and the literary style, he classifies texts into the expressive text, the informative text and the vocative text. As an academic work about the culture of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the source text is mixed with the expressive type and the informative type. The translator tried her best to be faithful to the contents and the language style of the source text. During the whole translation process, the translator made a full preparation before the translation and made a full use of the possible resources to make the translation better, such as finding the parallel text, looking up to the relevant documents, consulting the tutor and the postgraduates researching the culture of the pre-Qin history, searching the Internet and so on. After that, the translator proofread the translation carefully. Finally, the translation task was finished.This translation practice report is based on the section two of the chapter four, The Comparison of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties in Patriarchal Clan System and Succession Law. The report is consisted of five parts. The first chapter mainly introduces the translation project, including the background, the contents and the entrusting party’s requirements. Chapter two describes the translation process, including the preparation before translation, the while-translation and the proofreading after translation. Chapter three discusses the difficult points of the translation and gives examples as case analysis. Chapter four mainly introduces the translation strategies, theoretically analyzing the translation strategies such as semantic translation and communicative translation through combining Newmark’s text-typology. It also summarizes the specific translation methods that the translator used in the translation practice. Chapter five draws lessons from the translation practice and puts forward the problems to be solved.