A Study Of John Minford’s Translation Of The Book Of Changes From The Perspective Of Thick Translation

From the perspective of thick translation,the thesis analyzes the application and reasons of thick translation in John Minford’s translation of The Book of Changes and summarizes the significance of thick translation in the translation and dissemination of Chinese Classics.The American translation scholar Kwame Anthony Appiah(1954-)proposed the concept of "thick translation" in 1993,which put the text in a rich source language by adding annotations and accompanying glosses in the cultural and linguistic environment.The translator hopes that thick translation can provide the reader with the background knowledge necessary to understand the source text and make it easier for the target readers to understand,accept,and appreciate the source text.The Book of Changes is a Confucian classic,containing the essence of Chinese culture;moreover,it is also "the source of doctrines",embodying the wisdom of Chinese nation.The rich wisdom and philosophy about changes in this book have penetrated into all fields of Chinese life and exerted a profound influence on Chinese politics,economy,and culture.Many scholars at all times home and abroad have translated and introduced The Book of Changes into western languages,and John Minford is one of them.John Minford is a famous sinologist,and translator,who translated this great work for 12 years and gained the academic recognition.Minford adopted the strategy of thick translation in his work to place readers in a rich source culture and language environment by adding extended preface,annotations,explanations,glossaries,appendices,indexes,etc.,so that the target readers not only understand the complicated ancient Chinese language,but also the philosophical thoughts and cultural information carried by language.By analyzing Minford’s translation of The Book of Changes,the author finds out the reasons why Minford’s translation adopts the strategy of thick translation,including the purpose of translation,text type,readership and the differences between Chinese and English.These factors work together to promote the adoption of thick translation.The successful use of thick translation in Minford’stranslation of the Book of Changes is of great significance to the English translation of Chinese Classics and even to the dissemination of Chinese culture.