Chapter One Introduction 1

1.1 A dream of Red Mansions’s role in the spread of Chinese classical culture 1

1.2 Wang Xifeng’s important role in A dream of Red Mansions and her language’s role in shaping her image 1

1.3 Purpose and organization of the thesis 2

Chapter Two Eugene Nida’s Dynamic Equivalence Theory 5

2.1 Introduction of Eugene Nida’s translation theory 5

2.2 Concept of dynamic equivalence theory 5

Chapter Three A comparative study between the original and the translation of Wang Xifeng’s art of using language 8

3.1Wang Xifeng’s smart to flattery 8

3.2 Wang Xifeng’s kindness to Granny Liu 10

3.3 Wang Xifeng’s aptness to manage affairs 11

Chapter Four A comparative study between the original and the translation of Wang Xifeng’s abuse of using language 14

4.1 Wang Xifeng’s hypocrisy 14

4.2 Wang Xifeng’s malicious means 15

4.3 Wang Xifeng’s vulgar words 16

Chapter 5 Conclusion 19

5.1 Findings of the thesis 19

5.2 Limitations, suggestions for future studies 20

References 21

A Study on the Translation of Wang Xifeng’s Language in Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang’s Version of A Dream of Red Mansions from the Perspective of Dynamic Equivalence Theory

Chapter One Introduction

1.1 A dream of Red Mansions’s role in the spread of Chinese classical culture

A dream of Red Mansions is the climax of Chinese fiction literature. It has a profound impact not only on Chinese literature, but on world literature as well with rigorous structure, vivid characters, and exquisite language. This book has the very high thought-provking value and the remarkable artistic achievement. It puts the aristocratic society as the center of the picture and describes Chinese feudal society in the eighteenth century in a very real, vivid way, thus, it is also called an epitome and a mirror of that time. 

1.2 Wang Xifeng’s important role in A dream of Red Mansions and her language’s role in shaping her image 

Wang Xifeng is the most vivid, the most realistic and the most lifelike main character in A dream of Red Mansions. It is not a little exaggerated to say that if there is no Wang Xifeng, the charm of A dream of Red Mansions will be reduced by nearly half. She has an extreme complex multi-level, multi lateral personality. She’s a character that makes people love and dislike because sometimes she is calculating and venomous, but, if she were not around, people might miss her. Her personality is both good and cruel. When she is abusive for money, flaunt the prestige, she acts extremely cruelly and mercilessly. But when she helps to manage affairs in the Ning Mansion, her personality is mainly for extraordinary courageous, and not afraid of hard work. She is both kind and evil. For example, she always treats Pinger nicely and she also takes good care of Baoyu, Yingchun, Tanchun, Xichun et al. Wang Xifeng is so anxious to outdo others, strong and easy to be jealous, that she separates love and hate clearly, using destruction to quell hatred and injustice. She continues into a war after another, to satisfy her desires and destroy her enemies.