Translation of Daodejing in English: its place and time

Abstract

Daodejing, one of the Chinese Classics, has the second largest translated versions in the world, second to the Bibles. Since the 1st English version translated by John Chalmers in 1868, there are different retranslations in western countries, typically in the US and the UK. Daodejing gets its “rebirth” or “rewriting” in different places through different times. Different time and places constitute different historical, social and cultural context. This paper focuses on the translation and retranslation of Daodejing by James Legge in the nineteenth century, Arthur Waley in the twentieth century and Roger Ames and David Hall in the twenty-first century, which context is respectively featured by Christian background, western culture centralism and the co-existence of multi-cultures. This paper reveals the differences of the interpretation and translation of Daodejing by the above mentioned translators. Some key vocabularies such as “Dao”, “De”, “Tian”, “Wu Wei” etc. are analyzed, meanwhile their different translations are illustrated in terms of vocabulary. In the meantime, the contemporary retranslation of Daodejing by Roger Ames and David Hall will be shed light on. They interpret the traditional Chinese natural cosmology via the focus and field theory. In this philosophical translation of Daodejing, the gerund and “language cluster” are applied in accordance with the Chinese vocabularies in the original text of Daodejing to illustrate a holistic, dynamic Daoist cosmology. As an open text, Daodejing has been rooted in the alien places and has gained its niche in the delineation of translated texts in different periods of time. The after-life of the original text of Daodejing therefore, bridges the dialogue and cooperation between the east and the west based on the pursuit of harmonious development for the mankind via the translated works of the Chinese classics.