A Study of Conceptual Metaphor in Chinese Classical Poetry Translation-Exemplified with Xu Yuangchong’s Version of 300 Tang Poems 概念隐喻理论在中国古典诗歌翻译中的应用研究-以许渊冲《唐诗三百首》译本为例开题报告

1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述包含参考文献）

1. introductionthis chapter is served as an introduction to the whole thesis, which contains research background, purpose and significance, and the structure of this thesis.1.1 research backgroundcihai (2021) definespoetry as one of the earliest literary genres, written in certain syllables, tones and rhythms. poets express the social life and their own spiritual world through concise expressions, complicated feelings and rich imagination. prestigious as the land of poetry, china poetry has gone through a long history. originating in pre-qin period (2100-221bc), chinese poetry has unaccountable classics, such as the book of songs and chuci. the tang dynasty is an all-round prosperous period in politics, economics, and culture. the transformation of society contributes to the flourishment and development of poetry. reaching its peak in the tang dynasty (618-907 ad), poems created in tang dynasty are referred as tang poetry. the collection, 300 tang poems including 310 songs in total, is edited in qing dynasty (1764). the poets almost come from every social class, from emperors, officials and bureaucrats to peasants, monks, and taoists. through poems, poets ridicule politics, express political ideals, appreciate landscapes and reflect hardships of the lower-class. tang poetry has ancient verse, quatrain and metrical verse as its main categories, which could be subdivided into five-character ancient verse, seven-character ancient verse, five-character quatrain, seven-character octave, five-character metrical verse and seven-character metrical verse. tang poetry is regarded as the most precious cultural heritages of chinese nation, as well as a bright pearl in the world cultural treasure. tang poetry has a great influence on the culture development of our neighboring countries and nations, such as japan, korea, vietnam and so on (ni, zhang, s translation, in china, translators focus on the translation of literary works from other countries, ignoring the translation and spread of chinese classical poems. its until the reform and opening up that more and more scholars engage in the translation and theoretical research of tang poetry. cai tinggan, turner, and other representatives publish rhymed translation of tang poetry. around 2000, quite a few scholars translates tang poetry, such as xu zhongjie, sun daiyu, yang xianyi,and dai naidie, while almost of their works are published in home (zhang, 2011). xu yuanchong, the famous professor in peking university and translator, translated over 60 works, among which the translation of tang poetry includes 300 tang poems, 150 tang poems and selected poems of li bai. he points out three beauties in translation, that is, beauty in sense, beauty in form and beauty in sound. scholars pay much attention to the translation works of xu yuanchong. based on the data on the internet, thousands of articles and essays refers to the translation practices and theories of xu yuanchong. in recent years, research about xu yuanchong mainly focuses on three aspects, xu yuanchong, his translation theories and practices, and the comparison between him and other translators. therere a great number of accurate and innovative writings. however, few scholars focus on the use and translation skills of metaphors in 300 tang poems of xu yuanchong. metaphor theory is a branch of cognitive linguistics, and it is defined asunderstanding one concept in terms of another(lakoff johnson, 1980: 5). metaphor is not only a rhetorical device, but also shows human thoughts, considered as one important part in peoples daily life and communication. tang poetry, as one of the chinese classical poetries, usually contains abundant metaphors, which seems a little difficult to understand for readers and to deal with for translators. while, the usage of metaphor adds the beauty of poetry and shows poets inner world in an implicit way, which makes readers try hard to have a deep and overall understanding of these connotations and poets innermost thoughts. metaphor plays an indispensable role both in chinese and english. in virtue of metaphor, poets use the concrete to express the abstract, the tangible to intangible, and the emotional language to rational thinking in poems (qiu, 2015: 30). in this case, poetry creates an aesthetic world in which readers could make their own interpretations. its a pity that not so many scholars probe into this field. to enrich the research in this field, this thesis focuses on the translation of tang poetry from the perspective of conceptual metaphor theory. 1.2 research purpose and significancethe study is aimed at finding out the usage of metaphors in 300 tang poems, and then analyzing the translation skills and principles used by dr. xu to offer some help for english majors when doing some translation work of chinese classical poems. the purpose and significance of the study could be illustrated from three aspects.firstly, from perspective of cultural diffusion, the thesis aims to appeal for everyone, especially youngsters to pay attention to, cherish and carry forward our splendid traditional culture. tang poetry, the representative of chinese traditional culture, is an invaluable treasure for chinese nation and all over the world. through the study of tang poetry and dr. xus 300 tang poems, readers could get a chance to see the grandiosity of tang dynasty and the spiritual outlook of tang citizens. in addition, based on the touching description in tang poems, readers may be shocked by the beauty of landscape and the diversity of chinese culture. in recent years, youngsters are fond of pop cultures in japan and korea, lacking the confidence of chinese culture (liu, 2020). this thesis promotes the transmission of chinese traditional culture and leads to the youth enhance the sense of identity and self-confidence of chinese culture. secondly, from the perspective of academic search, this thesis may help students attach importance to the use of conceptual metaphor theory in translation and facilitate academic research in future. metaphor is not only a figure of speech, but also a way of thinking, existing in our daily life and communication. poetry is metaphorical, whether its about scenery or narration. metaphor is a poetic characteristic of poetry due to the similar identity of metaphor and poetry. if theres no metaphor, poetry will lose its spiritual essence and be reduced to heartless words which are just simply piled up (qiu, 2015: 63). therefore, compared with other literary styles, poetry has poetic metaphor as a key factor. in poetry translation, having a thorough understanding and comprehension of metaphor images is of great importance. before translation, translators should figure out the relationship between the signified and the signifier. enlightened by this thesis, english majors might have deeper understanding about the inseparable connection between metaphor and translation, which contributes to their further study and translation work.last but not least, in practical use, this thesis will analyze dr. xus translation skills of images in tang poetry, such as substitution, supplement, paraphrase, annotation and omission. this thesis to some extent servers as inspiration for english majors and those interested in poems translation. so the current thesis is aimed at providing specific translation tactics and strategies of images in poetry metaphor for english majors.1.3 thesis structurethis thesis contains six chapters. chapter one serves as the introduction part, including the research background, research purpose and significance, and thesis structure. the review of the study of conceptual metaphor theory, relevant studies at home and abroad and a summary of previous studies on metaphor translation in tang poetry are presented in chapter two. chapter three could be divided into four parts, containing the definition of metaphor, the production of metaphor, reasons for differences in different cultures of metaphor and the classification of metaphor. chapter four mainly talks about the usage of metaphors in 300 tang poems, covering the definition of images, features of images, and main metaphor images in 300 tang poems. chapter five mainly introduces the translatability of tang poems, the gap of translation, as well as dr. xus principles and methods in 300 tang poems translation. chapter six is the conclusion of this thesis, summing up major findings and research limitations, and purposing some valid suggestions for further study of tang poetry translation and research.2. literature reviewin this chapter, the review of conceptual metaphor theory, previous studies at home and abroad, and a summary of related studies will be talked about.2.1 overview of conceptual metaphor theorythe study of metaphor could trace back to aristotle 2000 years ago. aristotle regards metaphor as a way of figure of speech. influenced by aristotlianism, metaphor research has been considering as an interdisciplinary subject. traditionally, metaphor was always confined to rhetoric and viewed as ornamentation of language; scholars didnt think about the cognitive feature of metaphor. its not until the 19th century that platonism proposes that metaphor reflects the internal mechanism of language and humanity. since the 1980s, the study of metaphor has been on the rise, during which metaphor is identified as a semantic phenomenon creating new meanings (hu, 2019).in the 1980s, g. lakoff and m. johnson publishes metaphor we live by, signaling the beginning of cognitive linguistics. they break away the traditional research on metaphor from rhetoric perspective. lakoff and johnson point out that metaphor exists all corners, in our language, thoughts and actions as well, which has become an important means to understand and express the world for us. in the following years, many scholars have published their books about metaphor. in 1975, the rule of metaphor, written by paul ricoeur, is published. in 1977, the meeting of metaphor and thought is held in urbana champaign. in 1986, e. cooper published metaphor. in 1989, lakoff and turner publish the book more than cool resaon: a field guide to poetic metaphor. in 1992, b. indurkhya publishes metaphor and cognition. 2.2 previous studies at home and abroadmetaphor translation could be realized because of the commonality of metaphor in language. in the further study of metaphor, conceptual metaphor theory is widely used in translation. alavrz, crofts, koveceses, larson and so on contributes to the development of it. chinese scholars and professors make abundant research as well. in 2004, in his book, translation as adaptation and selection, hu gengshen defines translation as a translators adaptation and selection activity in a traditional eco-environment. other scholars, such as lin shuwu, shu dingfang, zhang yingchun, obtain some research achievements. in 2002, shu dingfang publish the mechanism of metaphor and the study of metaphor, offering some help to beginners. meanwhile, many chinese scholars are interested in this field and publish articles about metaphor translation in chinese poems, such as deng qis thesis a study of metaphor and its translating methods in ancient chinese poetry, yuntaos thesis on the translation of metaphor in chinese classical poetry, ouyang hongxias thesis on metaphor and its translation. wang miaos thesis a study on metaphor translation of tang poetry from cognitive linguistics cognitive linguistic perspective, which discuss the poetry translation from a metaphorical view proposes that the translation of metaphors in poetry is a culture-bound, interpretative, and metaphorical process. whats more, the translation of metaphors in poetry is a complicated psychological and cognitive process which involves the communication of two languages and cultures.xu yuanchong, as the most prestigious translator in chinese poetry, finishes the translation of 300 tang poems in 2007. many scholars research on his translation from different aspects. for instance, in 2003, aesthetic pursuit of poetry translation from translation of 300 tang poems, written by li han show the insuperable value of dr. xus translation. in 2014, hu xiaoyin analyzes vocabulary and wordings in dr. xus translation combining with corpus and spss. lin jiaxiu and luo jiaxiu give detailed explanations of the usage of xu yuanchongs translation theories in their thesis. 2.3 summarybased on previous research, the thesis shows further and deeper analysis of metaphor translation in tang poetry through xu yuanchongs 300 tang poems. specifically, the research discusses the translation tactics of images from cognitive linguistics. the research also discusses the strategies of translating cultural elements from cultural perspective. although the research of metaphor and metaphor translation is uncountable, the research on the usage of metaphors and related translation skills used in 300 tang poems is scarce. therefore, this thesis studies xu yuanchongs translation of metaphors through his 300 tang poems.referencesaristotle. (1954), rhetoric and poetics. new york, ny: the modern library.lakoff, g., johnson, m. (1980). metaphors we live by. chicago and london: university of chicago press.胡文捷（2019），体验哲学视野中英汉心隐喻的对比分析，《重庆第二师范学院学报》。

32（6）；45-48。

刘娟（2020），试论唐诗教育与大学生文化自信的建立，《韶关学院学报教育科学》。

2. 研究的基本内容、问题解决措施及方案

Based on previous research, the thesis shows further and deeper analysis of metaphor translation in Tang Poetry through Xu Yuanchongs 300 Tang Poems. Specifically, the research discusses the translation tactics of images from cognitive linguistics. The research also discusses the strategies of translating cultural elements from cultural perspective. Although the research of metaphor and metaphor translation is uncountable, the research on the usage of metaphors and related translation skills used in 300 Tang Poems is scarce. Therefore, this thesis studies Xu Yuanchongs translation of metaphors through his 300 Tang Poems