A Contrastive Study Of Philosophy Of Life In English And Chinese Proverbs

Language is a social phenomenon,and carries all kinds of social-cultural factors.Proverbs,as a form reflecting language,are greatly connected with culture.Philosophy of life,one of the most important values,is attitudes and principles in dealing with others in social activities.The differences between English and Chinese proverbs in philosophy of life can be reflected in Chinese and English proverbs.The study of proverb mainly focuses on the collection,culture,translation,rhetoric,and the contrastive study of Chinese proverbs and English proverbs.The research showed the current status of the development of proverb.Nevertheless,there is rarely studying proverbs from the perspective of philosophy of life.This research will also deepen a further understanding about the philosophy of life behind proverbs due to its unique cultural perspective.The author selected the theme to discover its inherent characteristics and reveals the cause.The author analyzes the differences between English and Chinese proverbs in philosophy of life based on text analysis and contrastive analysis and explored the rea sons based on the Hofstede’s Value Dimensions and Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s Value Orientations.The method of text analysis has been applied,and the proverbs come from A Dictionary of English Proverbs by Xu Zhusheng and A Dictionary of Chinese Proverbs by Wen Duanzheng which have been clearly sorted out and classified as philosophy of life in Rule of the Game by Rosemary Adang.Chinese and Western proverbs mirror the different views about philosophy of life,which are respectively reflected in equality versus hierarchy,self-concerned versus respectful to others,individual-oriented versus group-oriented,doing versus being-in-becoming and enjoying the present versus looking forward.The reasons for the different philosophy of life in China and the West are mainly in the view of philosophy,geographical environment,the religious belief and other aspects.