On English Translation of Culture-Specific Items in the Ancient Chinese Official System: A Descriptive and Comparative Study on Hawkes’ and Yangs’ English Translated Cases of Hong Lou Meng

The English translation of the ancient Chinese official system culture from Hong Lou Meng is a significant difficulty in cross-cultural language interpretation, however, it has not been sufficient to cause the academic attention. Therefore, based on the "culture-specific items" theory proposed by Aixela and combined with the category framework revised by Professor ZHANG Nanfeng in accordance with E-C translation , this paper explores the best way which will realize the accurate complete transmission between the target language readers and the referential meaning of the source language through descriptive and comparative analysis of their specific translation strategies and effective performance in Hawkesʹ and Yangsʹ English translated versions, to reflect the unique national cultural characteristics of the Ancient Chinese official system culture