Text / Liu Yan, Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences
In 1960, I entered the Department of Astronomy of Nanjing University, and had the privilege of listening to Mr. Dai Wensai's wonderful courses, and since the 1990s, I have the honor to participate in the work of the Astronomical Terminology Approval Committee, and gradually feel the importance of the astronomical terminology approval work, and then learned of Mr. Dai's outstanding contribution to the standardization of modern astronomical Chinese terminology. Later, I learned that in the 1950s and 1970s, several "Astronomical Terms" published in the first period after the founding of the People's Republic of China were originally compiled and approved by Mr. Dai Wensai.
Here, based on some information I have learned over the years, I would like to make a brief introduction to these "Astronomical Terms" compiled and approved by Mr. Dai.
In 1922, at the beginning of the establishment of the Chinese Astronomical Society, the astronomers of the previous generations had taken the compilation, standardization and approval of astronomical terms as a permanent task. In 1933, the Ministry of Education and the National Compilation Hall established the Astronomical Terminology Review Committee. In 1934, a compilation of astronomical terms promulgated by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China government was published: "Astronomical Terms". This is the first modern astronomical terms promulgated by an official professional organization in the mainland, and it contains 1312 vocabularies.
Since then, the Astronomical Terminology Compilation Committee has discussed the addition and revision of astronomical terms many times, but has never been able to compile a new edition of the collection.
It was not until the founding of the People's Republic of China that a number of important astronomical terms were published successively.
1952 edition of Astronomical Terms
In 1941, after returning from his studies in England, Mr. Dai was hired to work at the Institute of Astronomy in Kunming. According to Mr. Li Jing's recollection, he had already participated "spontaneously and actively" in the revision and approval of the Astronomical Terminology Compilation Committee. In fact, Mr. Dai has long been keenly aware of the importance of astronomical terminology work, and has long begun to collect his astronomical terms, and compiled many cards: the front is Chinese, the reverse is English, and the source of the information is written. Mr. Dai was also worried about the current status of astronomical terms: because many of the existing Chinese translations were not standardized enough, and the new English terms were even more to be named. He believes that a new edition of Astronomical Terms should be published.
In November 1950, the "Astronomical Terminology Review Group of the Natural Science Group" of the Compilation Bureau of the Chinese Academy of Sciences compiled and published a new edition of "Astronomical Terms", which was published and published by the "Working Committee for the Unification of Academic Terms of the Cultural and Educational Committee of the Central People's Government Council" (Mr. Dai was one of the main members of the Committee) in June 1952. This is the first English-Chinese reference to the Astronomical Terms [ ] after the founding of the People's Republic of China. The vocabulary included has been expanded to around 1900.
According to Mr. Li Jing's recollection, the compilation of this term was based on the 1934 edition and the work of predecessors, and was actually mainly re-compiled and approved by Mr. Dai Wensai. In this compilation, Mr. Dai injected a lot of hard work and hard work. It was thanks to his unremitting efforts for more than a decade and the accumulation of a large number of research results that a new edition of "Astronomical Terms" was published in 1952.
After the publication of the 1952 edition of Astronomical Terms, the Former Compilation Bureau of the Chinese Academy of Sciences commissioned Mr. Zhang Yuzhe to organize the compilation of a new dictionary of Astronomical Terms between Russia and China. Under the leadership of Mr. Zhang Yuzhe, the specific work at that time was actually compiled and compiled by Li Jing and Shen Liangzhao, two staff members of the Purple Mountain Observatory under the guidance of Mr. Dai Wensai.
In February 1957, the Chinese Astronomical Society held the first member congress after the founding of the People's Republic of China in Nanjing, at which there was an important decision: to compile the second dictionary of astronomical terms in New China in the name of the Astronomical Society, which should be completed within two years. A new astronomical terminology approval committee was formed, with Mr. Devonsay as its director. In fact, Mr. Dai continued to implement [ ][ ] under the guidance of Mr. Dai, and the dictionary to be compiled was expanded into three books.
By the end of 1959, the three Russian-English-Chinese editions of Astronomical Terms were finally published by The Science Press as scheduled [ ]:
Terminology in Astronomy (Russian-English-Chinese Comparative Trial Edition), 1958.9
Astronomical Terms (English-Russian-Chinese Comparative Trial Edition), 1959.1
Astronomical Terms (Chinese-Russian-English Comparative Trial Edition), 1959.12
The three "Astronomical Terms" contain about 4,000 Russian, English and Chinese terms each, all published in the name of the Terminology Editing Office of the Compilation and Publication Committee of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Until the mid-1970s, these editions were several major dictionaries of domestic astronomical term translations.
Among them, the English-Russian-Chinese version was later adapted by American astronomers into the English-Chinese contrast of Astronomical Terms, published by Harvard University.
English-Chinese Astronomical Vocabulary, 1974 edition
After 1959, astronomy has made many rapid and significant progress, with the emergence of many new exotic celestial bodies, such as quasars, pulsars, neutron stars, etc.; many new sub-disciplines, such as space astronomy, infrared astronomy, and high-energy astrophysics. The detection and research of astronomy is also more involved in mathematics, physics, chemistry, geoscience, radio technology and many other disciplines, so that astronomical terms also involve more and more terms and vocabularies.
In this case, the Science Press proposed and commissioned the Department of Astronomy of Nanjing University to supplement and revise the 1959 edition of the "British-Russian-Chinese Comparative Trial Version". To this end, the Department of Astronomy has set up an astronomy vocabulary editing and reviewing team, with members including Dai Wensai, Peng Yunlou, Sun Yixuan, Tang Yuhua, Xu Bangxin, etc., with Mr. Dai as the editor-in-chief.
Under the auspices of Mr. Dai, the book "English-Chinese Astronomical Vocabulary" was published in 1974, and the vocabulary included in the book was expanded by half to 6,000.
Glossary of English-Chinese Astronomy, 1986 (augmented and revised editions)
Shortly after the publication of the 1974 edition of the English-Chinese Astronomical Vocabulary, Mr. Dai considered and began to organize the compilation of new additions and revisions. Unfortunately, in 1979, cancer took Mr. Dai's life prematurely. Until his death, Mr. Dai was presiding over the editing team of astronomers at Nanjing University to prepare the second edition of the English-Chinese Astronomical Vocabulary, but unfortunately he was not able to see the second edition with his own eyes.
The second edition of "English-Chinese Astronomical Vocabulary" was later edited and reviewed by Mr. Dai's successor, Xu Bangxin, Peng Yunlou, Tang Yuhua, Huang Tianyi, Huang Keyi, Zhang Zhenda and others of the editing and review team, and Xu Bang trusted the editor-in-chief. The book's vocabulary expanded to about 16,000 and was published by Science Press in 1986.
English-Chinese Astronomical Vocabulary, 1986
The 1974 and 1986 editions of glossary of English-Chinese Astronomy were later published in Taiwan in traditional Chinese characters.
It was not until after the 1986 edition that the mainland published a variety of newly compiled editions of astronomical terms.
From the above introduction, it can be seen that in the more than forty years after 1934, many editions of the Astronomical Terms published on the mainland were actually compiled and approved by Mr. Dai Wensai. In this important historical stage of the development of modern astronomy, Mr. Dai has been presiding over and leading the standardization and editing of astronomical terms in mainland China.
Mr. Dai Wensai not only presided over the compilation and approval of many editions of astronomical terms, but also cultivated many professionals in astronomical terminology work.
In 1983, the Astronomical Terminology Approval Committee was established, which was then a working committee of the Chinese Astronomical Society. In 1985, the National Committee for the Approval of Natural Science Terms (now the National Committee for the Approval of Scientific and Technological Terms, referred to as the "National Terminology Committee") was established, and the Astronomical Terminology Approval Committee (hereinafter referred to as the "Astronomical Terminology Committee") was established under it. Since then, the work of astronomical terms has been formally incorporated into the national terminology approval system, and the Astronomical Terminology Committee has accepted the dual leadership of the National Terminology Committee and the Chinese Astronomical Society.
At that time, the people who participated in the compilation and review of astronomical terms with Mr. Dai later became almost all the main members of the "Astronomical Terminology Committee". In particular, Xu Bangxin and Li Jing also served as the first deputy directors of the "Astronomical Terminology Committee", as well as the directors of the second term (Xu Bangxin) and the third to fourth (Li Jing). Mr. Dai's professionalism and rigorous style of teaching by example have also been passed down to this day in the Astronomical Terminology Committee.
Mr. Dai has always been extremely concerned about the creation, approval, standardization, unification, publicity and promotion of Chinese astronomical terms, and has a strong sense of responsibility and many insights. His pioneering work on the standardization and unification of Chinese terms in astronomy has also had a great impact on many countries and regions at home and abroad. Mr. Dai's outstanding contribution to the cause of astronomical terms in the mainland will forever be recorded in the annals of history!
Text Reference
[1] Li Jing, Liu Yan: Mr. Dai Wensai and (Oral Recollection), article serial no. 8
[2] Li Jing, "Professor Dai Wensai: Pioneer in Standardizing Modern Astronomy Chinese Terms" (originally published in Chinese Science and Technology Terminology, No. 5, 2008), article serial no. 9
[3] Li Jing: "Approval of Chinese Astronomical Terms under the Guidance of Professor Dai Wensai" (originally published in Astronomy Enthusiasts, No. 1, 2000), Serial No. 4
[4] Xu Bangxin, "Mr. Dai's Contribution to the Examination and Approval of Astronomical Terms", article serial no. 10
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