A Comparative Study of Two English Versions of Tao Te Ching from the Perspective of Toury's Theory of Translation Norms

Abstract

Tao Te Ching is a Chinese classic literature about Taoism which is hugely popular with readers and scholars inside and outside. But there are few studies on the translation of Tao Te Ching based on Toury's Theory of Translation Norms. With two English versions of Tao Te Ching as the research texts, this paper has a descriptive study from the prospective of Toury's theory. The paper, with preliminary norms, initial norms and operational norms as its bases, analyzes James Legge and Din Cheuk Lau's translations of Taoist culture and compares the differences of the style of these two versions, thus finding out historical and cultural reasons. It's found that there are several factors that have a impact on the translation of Tao Te Ching, which are targeted readers, translator's ideology, historical background and social development. James emphasizes acceptability while Lau pays attention to the combination of acceptability and adequacy. James is good at dealing with culture-loaded words while Lau is skilled in handling readability.