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A Contrastive Study on the English Translation of Religious Terms in Hongloumeng from the Perspective of Directionality: A Corpus-Based Analysis of the Yang Xianyi and David Hawkes Versions

Author(s)

Ziyi Wang

Affiliation(s)

School of Linguistics, Northeastern University, Shenyang, Liaoning, China

Abstract

Against the backdrop of China’s “culture going global” initiative, this study investigates how translation directionality shapes religious term translation in Hongloumeng. Through a parallel corpus of 218 terms from the first 40 chapters, it compares Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang’s inverse translation with David Hawkes’ direct translation across strategies, cultural retention, and length. Results reveal systematic differences: the Yangs’ version exhibits a “strategy-deterministic” pattern where foreignization yields 97.0% high retention through concise renderings (mean 2.78 words). In contrast, Hawkes’ version, dominated by domestication (56.0%), achieves moderate retention (22.5%) via explanatory compensation, resulting in significantly longer translations (mean 3.55 words). Analysis of 56 lengthened cases confirms explanatory compensation as the primary driver (69%), centered on cultural category analogy (59%). The study demonstrates how “translating out” and “translating in” shape translators’ cultural stances, offering empirical insights for translating Chinese classics.

Keywords

Hongloumeng; Religious Terms; Directionality; Self-Built Corpus

References

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