A Report On E-C Translation Of The Five "Confucian" Classics (Excerpt)

The source text excerpted from the first chapter,Introduction,of The Five “Confucian”Classics,published by the Yale University Press and written by Michael Nylan,a leading American Sinologist.The book explores the social background of the formation and flourishing of the five classics in early history and the major problems during development.The author aims to enlighten the scholarly community to explore the professional study of Han studies,especially pre-Qin Confucianism.The source text is an academic text characterized by high profession and standardization.Translating such texts should follow the target language readers’ reading habits and reading purposes.Based on the contextual adaptation dimension of the Adaptation Theory.This translation practice analyzes the critical role of contextual adaptation in translating academic texts from two dimensions,namely,communicative context and linguistic context,with case studies.Communicative contextual adaptation is mainly applied to translate texts related to social and cultural backgrounds to improve the readability of the translation.In contrast,linguistic contextual adaptation achieves semantic articulation through discourse articulation to enhance the logic of the translation.This translation practice proves that the of Adaptation Theory can effectively guide the translation of academic texts in Sinology and has specific implications for the subsequent translation practice of such texts in the future.The author hopes this report can give a little to the academic exploration and research of Han studies translation in China.