D.C. Lau : translating Lao Tzu as a non-mystical work = Lun Liu Dianjue dui Laozi zuo wei fei shen mi zhu yi zuo pin zhi fan yi

Abstract

D. C. Lau established his reputation both at home and abroad as a distinguished scholar and translator of ancient Chinese classics. Although Lau did not try to formulate a complete set of theories about translation, his renderings invariably featured particular regard for the target audience and scrupulous selection of equivalents. Lau’s English versions of Lao Tzu not only enjoyed immense popularity with the general reader, but also gained an influential position in the academic community. Unlike many previous translators who had treated Lao Tzu as a mystical text, Lau held it to be a practical philosophy whose overriding object was just to survive both physically and politically the dreadful Warring States Period. He perceived the work as a Taoist florilegium by a number of compilers instead of a logical whole ascribed to the fictitious Lao Tzu. The present study attempts to discover the relationship between Lau’s non-mystical thinking on Lao Tzu and his actual translation of it.

Chapter One discusses Lau’s endeavours mainly in the introduction and the appendices to his first translation to demystify the form as well as the content of Lao Tzu, including the refutation of the evidence concerning mysticism and the presentation of proof that the book should be seen as a rather disorganized compilation addressing the problem of survival. Chapter Two compares Lau’s translation with John Wu’s and Arthur Waley’s in order to make obvious the influence of Lau’s above opinions of Lao Tzu upon his translational language. Chapter Three commences with an analysis of Lau’s intensified efforts to thin down the mystique surrounding Lao Tzu in his second translation. Attention then is transferred to where Lau objectively preserved the mystical quality of the original and the inner contradiction of his non-mystical view. The reasons for the coexistence of realistic and mysterious elements in Lau’s two renditions of Lao Tzu are explored with the aid of André Lefevere’s concept of rewriting. A tentative suggestion of reading Lao Tzu in a middle way between demystification and mystification is made at the end of the thesis.