Communications in Humanities Research
- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences
Communications in Humanities Research
Vol. 19, 07 December 2023
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How Translations of Ancient Texts Enables or Prevents Understanding: A Case Study of Translations of Daodejing
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Abstract
Given that the vast majority of readers cannot read an ancient text in its original language, translations may be their only source of understanding the meanings of the texts. While letting readers steal glances at the beauty of ancient knowledge, sometimes translations in fact prevent readers from interpreting the text correctly. This paper discusses a case of three different translations of Daodejing in detail. Based on a theoretical framework of the “correct” or “proper” interpretation of the text, the translations are evaluated accordingly. Two conclusions are drawn from a detailed etymological study that give rise to the best translation of the three. Firstly, interpreting the text in its original cultural context automatically prefers some modern interpretations over the others. Secondly, the problem is not limited to Daodejing. Many similar situations have been documented, and a potential systematic solution has recently been found.
Keywords
Daodejing, translation, recontexualization
References
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Data Availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
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- Volume Title
- Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies
- ISBN (Print)
- 978-1-83558-181-0
- ISBN (Online)
- 978-1-83558-182-7
- Published Date
- 07 December 2023
- Series
- Communications in Humanities Research
- ISSN (Print)
- 2753-7064
- ISSN (Online)
- 2753-7072
- DOI
- 10.54254/2753-7064/19/20231196
- Copyright
- 07 December 2023
- Open Access
- This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited