A Study Of The Translation Of Military Terms In San Guo Yan Yi From The Perspective Of Skopos Theory

San Guo Yan Yi is widely acknowledged as the first full-length romance novel of history that ever appeared in China and one of the "Four Great Chinese Classics".Other than its birthplace China,it has also won great popularity abroad,as the first of the major traditional Chinese novels fully translated into English.As a historical narrative set in one of the most turbulent years in Chinese history,San Guo Yan Yi has its finest parts lying in the depiction of wars,and one who wants to perfectly reproduce the war scenes in another language has to firstly deal with its featured military terms.However,deeply rooted in traditional Chinese culture,those terms are likely to give rise to obstacles in translating,especially for translators whose cultural background differs greatly from what the novel is set.For this reason,the research chooses the two complete English versions of San Guo Yan Yi,one by Charles Henry Brewitt-Taylor and the other by Moss Roberts,as research materials,and explores the patterns or general strategies of translating military terms of ancient China as references for future translation practices of the same kind.From the perspective of skopos theory,this study makes a comparison between the strategies used by the two translators in translating the military terms,aiming to explore the deep reasons behind their strategy preferences.The conclusion is as follows:governed by the skopos rules,the two translators make different choices between the fidelity rule and the coherence rule.Roberts’ version,as a product of scholar project,is more foreignized by staying closer to the original from form and content,which reflects the fidelity rule in a nearly perfect way.While Brewitt-Taylor’s version is somewhat domesticated in order to make the rendition smooth and natural,as requested by the coherence rule.As a typical example of scholarly translation,Roberts’ version attaches considerable notes to his translation to offer rich background knowledge for his target readers and acquaint foreign readers with Chinese culture;Brewitt-Taylor’s tends to simplify or shorten the original information by means of omission or free translation,so as to achieve smooth reading experience for his target readers and increase the degree of acceptability among readers.Both versions have provided invaluable references for the translation of ancient Chinese military terms.Future translators should draw on experience from the two versions and apply,on the basis of skopos theory,appropriate strategies to either retain the original flavors to the maximum,or attach greater importance to the receptivity of overseas readers,or both,so as to produce translation works to respond to the national policy of the "Overseas Promotion of Chinese Culture"and fulfill the goal of effective exportation of Chinese culture.