Abstract:Tao Te Ching mainly reflects the philosophical thought of Taoism; it is the spiritual essence of Chinese culture as well as classics of ancient Chinese works. Tao Te Ching has long enjoyed a higher reputation in the occidental world. The number of its translated versions is just a bit smaller than that of the Bible. The occidental world has translated Tao Te Ching since a long time ago. There has been three climaxes of the translation of Tao Te Ching since the 16th century; the first climax was from 1868 to 1905, the most popular version was translated by Legge; the second climax was from 1934 to 1963, started with The Way and Its Power: Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching and Its Place in Chinese Thought by Arthur David Waley; and the third climax was from 1973 to 2004, started from the trend of researching Laozi that originated from the 1973 discovery of Tao Te Ching on silk from the Han mausoleum Mawangdui in Changsha, Hunan province. [1] At present, there are more than one hundred different English versions of Tao Te Ching. As the occidental world deepens their understanding of Chinese culture, the number of English versions would continue an increase. Tao Te Ching has surpassed the sphere of literature. It mostly focuses on the philosophy of Taoism between the lines when Dao Te Ching is referred; as a result, the culture vacancy is inevitable during translation. The purpose of this thesis is to research the difference in thinking paradigm between the translated version and the original version of Tao Te Ching based on the inter-relationship between language and thinking, and theoretical interpretation of language philosophy. And this paper tries to discuss and develop a better way of translation compensation to remain the original thinking paradigm in translation of Tao Te Ching by probing the cause of culture default so as to suggest the translation methodology of Chinese classics.

Keywords: culture; language; thinking; Tao Te Ching; Translation Compensation

Contents

中文摘要

Abstract

Chapter 1 Introduction-1

Chapter 2 Literature review-3

2.1 Introduction of Lao Zi and Tao Te Ching.-3

2.2 English Translation of Tao Te Ching and Its Transmission in Western Countries-3

2.3 Studies of English Version of Tao Te Ching-4

Chapter 3 Theoretical Framework-7

3.1  Language and Thinking-7

3.1.1 Linguistic Theory of Humboldt-8

3.1.2 Sapir - Whorf hypothesis-8

3.1.3 Summary-8

3.2 Culture, Thinking and Language-9

3.2.1 Integrative Thinking vs Analytical thinking-9

Chapter 4 Cross-Culture Transmission-11

4.1 Cultural Disparity and Translation Compensation-11

4.2 Disparity of Thinking and Language and Translation Compensation-12

4.2.1 Thinking Mold-13

4.3 Summary-15

Chapter 5 Conclusion-17

References-19

Acknowledgements-20