【Guangming Shushu】
Author:Jiang Tong (Professor, Capital Normal University)
The word "translation", commonly used in modern Chinese, is a polysemantic word, both as a verb and as a noun, covering different translation activities and different translation methods, indicating both interpretation and translation, indicating translation positions and translators. Many of the meanings of "translation" have gradually arisen in the history of our country for more than two thousand years, and this history itself has formed a translation culture that deserves our attention. The two modern interpretations of the word "translation" have given rise to more of its meanings. This is the "translation" of the compound meaning.
Information picture of "The Testament of the Lady of Paris La Traviata" translated by Lin Shu
One
In the Qing Dynasty, Huang Benji's "List of Officials of the Past Dynasties, The Ministry of Rites and the Four Translation Halls" records that the government of the Three Dynasties of Xia and Shang all set up the post of "Xiangxu". Looking at the "Zhou Li" written in the Qin and Han Dynasties, there is the following record in its "QiuGuan Sikou": "The general name of the present elephant, Zhou Zhide first went to the south. Xiang Xu , the envoy of the kingdom of The Barbarians, Yi, Min, Raccoon, Rong, and Di , who is in charge of the king's words and sayings, in order to make peace with them. The word "elephant" here means "similar", indicating that the Central Plains dialect is similar to the Southern dialect. In the Zhou Dynasty, the Central Plains traded with the south, and the Zhou people valued artifacts made of elephant bones. Trade requires the ability to understand the southern language, which is called "elephant" by translators, which is a metaphor for its great role. In this way, Xiangxu became a general term for the Zhou Dynasty translators. According to the Book of Rites and the Imperial System, which is basically contemporaneous with the Zhou Li, the translation officials in charge of different directions have different titles: "The people of the five directions have different speeches and different desires." Daqizhi, Tongqi desire, Eastern Yue, Southern Yuexiang, Western Di Yan, Northern Yue Translation. "Kong Yingda of the Tang Dynasty gave the following interpretations of these four official positions: sender, sending words to send external and internal speech; elephant person, imitating the words outside and inside; Di Yan, Zhi Ye, said to pass through the language of Yi Di, known with China; translation, Chen Ye, said Chen said the words outside and inside.
Since the fall of the Western Han Dynasty, there have been frequent conflicts between ethnic minorities in the north and Han China, and the things of "translation" officials have begun to increase, and the word "translation" has also begun to become popular and used. Officials in the other three directions, southeastern, and western, because there are no or few ethnic conflicts, there are naturally fewer language conversions. After the translation and translation of characters and translators became popular in the early Han Dynasty and Hanzhong, they no longer used their names according to the four directions of southeast, southwest, and northwest, and the three words "Xiangxu", "Di Yan" and "Send" gradually disappeared into history, and they never returned.
Fortunately, the position of "translator" and the language conversion it refers to has continued. No matter how the historical context of the dynasties has changed, the change and popularity from "Xiangxu" to "Translation" is directly related to intergovernmental diplomatic activities. Unfortunately, although the official position (personnel) of translation has existed for three thousand years, its status has always been low. For example, from the translation chiefs, official orders, and nine translation orders of the Han Dynasty, the translation orders and translation history of the Northern Dynasty, the translators and translation histories of the Tang Dynasty, the translations of the Song Dynasty, the general affairs and translation history of the Jin Dynasty, the translation history of the Yuan Dynasty, the general affairs of the Ming Dynasty, the general officials, translators, general affairs, and translation officials of the Qing Dynasty, it can be seen that translators and translation activities, although the official rank is not high, are mostly "not in the flow." Only the Qing Dynasty's "Tongyi Official" had a slightly higher status, with the rank of five or six pin officials and four pins of Feng Lu. But that doesn't stop translators from taking their place in foreign affairs and participating in building the dominant culture.
It can be seen that from the very beginning, the word "translation" contains the meaning of both the translation staff and the translation behavior, and the two meanings are in the table, in no particular order. "Translation" is used as a verb in its original context, and in modern Chinese, "translation" and "translation" are also used as verbs. The continuity of the use of Chinese parts of speech can be seen here.
Chen Li of the Qing Dynasty said: "There are translations in the distance of the land, and there are exegesis in the distance." If there is a translation, it can make other countries like a hometown, and if there is a precept, it can make the ancient and modern as the twilight. "Di yuan, speaking of space, that is, the translation between different languages; shi yuan, speaking of time, that is, the translation of Chinese languages in different eras, is called "exegesis". The translation in these two senses is to introduce the ancient and modern Chinese and foreign ideas and cultures to each other, heterogeneous and homogeneous, similar and similar, and mutually reinforcing. In 382 A.D., Dao'an said: "Translating Hu as Qin, just by not hearing different words, he will pass on the order to inform the ear." To this day, this is still the best statement about the nature of translation.
Two
Qian Zhongshu and Xu Yuanchong's modern interpretation of the word "translation" derives more meanings and enriches the connotation and extension of "translation". Qian Zhongshu's "Translation of Lin Shu" is straight to the point, pointing out that "'囮', translation also." From the mouth to the sound. The person who leads the bird is the bird since the birth of the bird, the name is '囮', read as '譌'. Since the Southern Tang Dynasty, novelists have said that 'translation' means 'passing on the words of siyi and birds and beasts', just like the 'bird medium' on birds and birds to induce 'temptation', '譌', 'blackmail', 'hua' and '囮' are the same word. The meanings of 'translation', 'seduction', 'media', 'blackmail', and 'transformation' are all connected and echo each other, which constitute the people who study the language of poetry, the so-called 'imaginary meaning', and the role that translation can play, the unavoidable problems, and the highest realm of longing, as if to reveal them one by one. This passage discusses "translation" and its many synonyms, and then explains the three meanings of the word "translation": that is, the role, faults, and highest realms of "translation". First, translation plays an important role in cultural exchanges, the translator is an intermediary or liaison, introducing everyone to understand foreign works, leading everyone to love foreign literature, as if acting as a matchmaker, so that countries can conclude "literary causes"; second, some aspects, a certain degree of "false" errors, is inevitable; third, the work from one language to another, not only can not be due to differences in language habits and show traces of hard and far-fetched, but also can completely preserve the original flavor, into the "realm of transformation".
Xu Yuanchong's modern interpretation of the word "translation" is as follows: First, the translator is also the translator, the translation should be consistent with the original text at the level of words, sentences, chapters and culture, and the Western translation theory emphasizes "the same", which is also the meaning; second, the translator is also yiye, the translation can only be based on the original text sentence; third, the translator is different, the translation needs to be innovative and different, so that the translation will always be different from the original; fourth, the translator is easy, the translation should be transformed into a language form; fifth, the translator's intention is also, the translator should convey the feelings, including the feelings within the words. Sixth, the translator's art, literary translation is art, not science; seventh, the translator's benefit, translation work, open volume is beneficial; eighth, the translator Yiye, literary translation should be able to transfer sexual pleasure, so that people "good, happy." With this line of thinking, two modern interpretations of the word "translation" can be added. The ninth, the translator Yiye, the translation work is interspersed between two or even more languages, like the "Yi" horse between the "Yi" stations; the tenth, the translator Also, the translation behavior is the interpretation and deduction of the original work, coincidentally, there are similar views in Western translation theory.
Here, the ten modern interpretations of the word "translation" extend the word "translation" from linguistic transformation to glyph transformation, because the two have the consistency of internal logic. The original meaning of translation refers to the act of language conversion, which is abstracted here to state things other than language. In this way, the word "translation", in the thick historical accumulation and wise modern interpretation, derives a variety of meanings with deep connotations and distant extensions, and has become a veritable polysemantic word.
Guangming Daily (11/11/2021)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily