Research on English Translation of Chinese Literary Terms from the Perspective of International Communication: Interpretation and Standardization

Peng Yanghua

Chengdu College of Arts & Sciences

Yao Lianbing＊

University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Abstract: Literary terms are the crystallization of Chinese ideology and wisdom. Translation and communication function as an important link in the construction of the discourse system with Chinese characteristics.Standardized translation of literary terms is an important way to help the world understand China and promote international communication of Chinese culture, which is conducive to the inheritance and interpretation of fine traditional Chinese culture. From the perspective of the “going global” strategy of Chinese culture in the new era, and the existing asymmetry of English translation of Chinese literary terms in international cultural communication, we analyzed the divergence, variation and imposed interpretation of the translations of Chinese literary terms and put forward some suggestions for their standardization. We believe that the translation of Chinese literary terms should adhere to the principle of “l(fā)ocalization” in cultural communication and focus on the transmission of Chinese cultural connotation to correct the imposed interpretations of Chinese literature in the West. Standardizing the translations of literary terms will facilitate the communication of “Chinese knowledge” to the world.The paper is expected to provide reference for research on construction and enhancement of discourse system for global communication with Chinese characteristics.

Keywords: Chinese literary terms, translation and communication, variation and hermeneutic study, standardization

Introduction

The “Belt and Road” Initiative and the national strategies of “Chinese culture going global”increasingly facilitate the Chinese translation projects which have enhanced the translation of Chinese literature, and the successful promotion of literary works to other countries, which cannot be separated from the guiding role of literary criticism and literary discourse. Literary terms function as the core of literary criticism and discourse, so the standardization of their translation is not only of great significance to the construction of literary disciplines, but also an important premise for the effective development of literary exchanges (Qiu, 2017). However, the translation of literary terms is often irregular and vague, and there are frequent misinterpretations, mistranslations and disunity even for the same Chinese literary terms in the field of literary research, which not only affects people’s correct understanding of literary works, but also has a lagging effect on literary translations. The uncertainty of translation of literary terms is not conducive to the positive development of Chinese and foreign literature research and criticism, and it will hinder the communication and transmission of Chinese literature and culture. Therefore, the translation of and research on Chinese literary terms becomes an important issue in the fields of literature and translation.

To get a better understanding of the current research on literary terminology translation in China, we conducted data retrievals by searching for the key words and items of “l(fā)iterary translation,” “terminology translation,” “l(fā)iterary terminology” and “l(fā)iterary terminology translation”with the assistance of China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). We found that the researches on terminology translation were mainly related to science and technology. It seems that the translation of literary terms has been neglected as there are no in-depth theoretical analyses of this subject. Chen Zhigan and Wang Yufeng (2013) clearly pointed out that domestic academic researchers had made some achievements in terms of terminology translation, but the research on literary terms translation was weak; Fu Huisheng (2011) claimed that there was not much research and few achievements in the English translation of Chinese literary terms. This is detrimental to the current goal of communicating China’s culture to the world. In view of this, we decided to analyze the divergence, variation and imposed interpretation of the translation of Chinese literary terms and probe the important value of the standardization of English translation of Chinese literary terms (CLT)to facilitate international communication of “Chinese knowledge” to the world and provide reference for research on construction and enhancement of discourse system for global communication with Chinese characteristics.

Variation and Hermeneutic Study of Chinese Literary Terms

Issues of Terminology

Terminology is a special term used to express the meaning of strict regulations in various disciplines. There is a set of ideas, a system, and even a tradition in terms which are closely related to culture. The professional, scientific, systematic, and unitary characteristics of terminology determine that it is important to distinguish different disciplines, and also represent the historical development, present levels, and status quo of this discipline to a certain extent (Zhuang, 2018). As terminology is the product of the development of science and culture, the development of cultural exchange promotes the spread of terminology, together with new discoveries and concepts.People of all ethnic groups absorb information into their own cultural systems through various ways, self-made and borrowed (Fu, 2011). In the report delivered at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping emphasized the importance of strengthening cultural exchanges between China and other countries to “improve our capacity for engaging in international communication so as to tell China’s stories well, present a true, multi-dimensional,and panoramic view of China, and enhance our country’s cultural soft power.” How to make terminologies serve cultural communication effectively is a major problem in the historical and cultural arenas (Zhou, 1992).

Literature is not only a language art but also an important social ideology. It reflects social traditions, local conditions and customs, national dialogue, and people’s feelings. Literary terms are the definition and refinement of literary practice theory. Due to the different historical developments and social practices between China and Western countries, there are differences in social consciousness. These differences exist in literature, in literary research, and even in the meaning and application of commonly used terms in literary theory. Gu Zhengkun (1998) holds that terms are the starting point of academic research and theoretical construction, and that if the starting point is wrong, it is difficult to expect the research direction to be correct. Terminology translation, as a translation activity that communicates expertise between languages, plays an important role in the process of international academic exchanges. The English translation of Chinese literary terms is the conversion of terms between two different language systems and two different ideological systems.

Variation of Chinese Literary Terms

In the practical introduction and translation of Chinese literature, especially Chinese literary terms, there is divergence, variation, and imposed interpretation in the English world. For example, literary texts are usually divided into four categories: Shige, Sanwen, Xiaoshuo, and Xiju in Chinese Pinyin on the basis of the quartering method, which is a classification of Chinese literature according to the structure, system and language use of the works. In most cases, the corresponding English translation is “poetry, prose, fiction, and drama,” which is not completely consistent with the original concepts in Chinese. Chinese Shige and Sanwen in Chinese Pinyin have a long history, and their meanings and significance are dissimilar to poetry and prose in both their contents and their forms in English. For another example, the commonly used Chinese literary terms such as “emotional,” “l(fā)yrical,” “typical plot” and “clear theme,” do not appear frequently in English commentaries on essays. These terms do not communicate good inclinations to English readers although they are used to express positive emotions in Chinese.It is not derogatory to express the author’s true feelings in Chinese, but the corresponding translation “sentimental” may make people feel bad or be even misunderstood as satire or ridicule.The understanding, thinking and evaluation of literary terms in Chinese and Western cultures are partially overlapping, partially modified and sometimes even completely absent due to the different social environments of literary practice.

From collections of Chinese literary works, the history of Chinese literature and the English versions of Chinese-English dictionaries, it is easy to see that the English translation of Chinese literary terms has undergone the following four methods. In the first, the method of English translation of Chinese literary terms was to adopt transliteration completely. Because Wade Giles romanization is similar to English pronunciation and spelling, it was used widely in the English versions of most of the books in earlier literary history. For example, Victor H. Mair (1994), an influential American Sinologist, adopted the Wechsler Pinyin system in The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature. Subsequently, Kang-I Sun Chang from Yale University and Stephen Owen from Harvard University adopted the modern Chinese Pinyin system in The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, which truly constructs the history of Chinese literature from the characteristics of the source language, rather than phoneticizing Chinese terms with English pronunciation. The exclusive application of Pinyin is conducive to maintaining the characteristics of Chinese literary terms and highlighting the cultural independence of the target language. However, additional explanations or annotations are needed to convey its inherent meaning and to achieve a pragmatic effect. Sinologist Stephen Owen (2003) claimed that those translations were good for nothing without additional explanations, which indicated the importance of additional explanations or annotations in the English translation of Chinese literary terms.

In the second, the method of Chinese Pinyin together with additional explanations is employed in the English translation of Chinese literary terms. Examples can be found in the English translation of the basic terms of Chinese Shige in Pinyin “Ya, Fu, Ci, Qu” in the New Oxford Dictionary of English. For example, “Ci” is translated as “Ci, lyric meters, poems in irregular meters, lyric;” Yuefu Shi is translated as “Yuefu Shi, Music Bureau poems.” These English translations can make up for the defects of complete transliteration, but it is difficult to express them clearly in a few words if the connotations of the literary terms are complex. As for the Chinese literary term “Ya” in Pinyin, many people translate it as “ode” corresponding to English literary term. In fact, there is a big difference between the two words “Ya” in Chinese and “ode” in English. Also, the meanings vary greatly from language to language. From the literal meaning of words, it is better to borrow the English word “graces” than the word “ode” to translate the Chinese word “Ya.” Absurdly, the Chinese literary terms “Daya” and “Xiaoya” have been translated into “l(fā)ess odes” and “greater odes” respectively, which is a farfetched illustration.Therefore, when translating Chinese literary terms into English, we should creatively use the English word “graces” as a term to highlight the uniqueness of the classification of Chinese literary styles rather than using the English literary term “ode” used by Westerners in the past.

The third method is the literal translation of Chinese literary terms. An example is the literal translation of the Chinese literary term “Dao,” found in the ancient literary theory monograph The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons written by Liu Xie, a literary theorist in the Southern Dynasties (420-589) of China. James L. Y. Liu, a famous Chinese American scholar of comparative poetics, translated “Dao” into “natural principle” while Stephen Owen translated it as “the way.” Though their translations of the same Chinese literary term were different,both employed the same method of literal translation. More examples of literal translations are illustrated in the poems and songs centered on palace life which were recited at the eastern palace in the Southern Dynasties and translated into “palace-style poetry.” Poems describing landscapes were translated into “mountain and stream school of art,” which originated from poet Xie Lingyun in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420). The literal translation of the Chinese literary term“Bianwen” into “transformation text” still can be seen. To a certain extent, the literal translation method can help English readers understand the general meaning of terms from time to time, but it is not necessarily better, and can even cause the characteristics of the original term to be lost.

The fourth method of translation is to apply Western literary terms to Chinese literary terms completely. For instance, the translation of the Chinese literary term “Ci” has been translated into“l(fā)yric,” “Xiaoshuo” into “novel” or “fiction,” “Fu” into “rhapsody,” and “magic realism” into “magic reality.” Authoritative dictionaries tell us that there are differences between the English word “l(fā)yric”and the Chinese “Ci.” The connotation and scope of the Chinese word “Ci” is much wider than that of the English word “l(fā)yric.” There is a semantic intersection between them, but most of the characteristics of the Chinese word “Ci” are not included in the English word “l(fā)yric.” This kind of translation of Chinese literary terms with meaningful overlapping English terms is conducive to the understanding and acceptance of readers in the English world and is helpful to cultural communication in the short term. However, in the long run, replacing Chinese literary terms with the literary terms of other countries is in fact an imposed interpretation of Chinese literature in the Western discourse mode by using Western terms, which fundamentally jeopardizes the spreading of Chinese literature in international communication.

Hermeneutic Study of Chinese Literary Terms

The translation of Chinese literary terms with Western literary terms mentioned above has attracted the attention of scholars at home and abroad. Terms are loaded with a complex history and rooted in the shared conditions of history, which is an important part of one civilization.The interpretation of Chinese literature through Western ways of thinking and logic modes will completely replace the complexity of historical conditions carried by the terms themselves. Cao Shunqing (1999) pointed out that we would lose our way of knowledge in this overall switch between Chinese and Western knowledge, which put Chinese literary terms in the situation of“aphasia” in the other cultural context. This often implies the potential of Western centralism, and if we are not careful, we will fall into the trap of the superiority of Western literature.

Following Cao Shunqing’s “aphasia” interpretation of Chinese literary theory in the context of Western literary theory discourse, Zhang Jiang (2015) put forward the theory of “imposed interpretation.” In his opinion, imposed interpretation refers to the deviation from the textual discourse and dispelling literary indications by interpreting the text and literature in accordance with the subjective intentions and conclusions of the theorists in the past position and mode, which is mainly characterized by external expropriation, subjective presupposition, and an illogically cognitive path of chaos. Both “aphasia” and “imposed interpretation” mentioned here not only exist in the mutual elucidation between Chinese and Western literary theories, but also reflect the current situation of the translation of traditional Chinese literary terms which, to a certain extent,provide inspiration for the translation of Chinese literary terms. The examination and judgment of Chinese literature from the perspective of the other instead of their own viewpoint make the Chinese literary terms inevitably fall into the situation of “aphasia” in the cultural context of the other, and the corresponding translation is bound to be “imposed translation” accordingly.

Chinese literary terms are the linguistic crystallization of “Chinese knowledge” with Chinese characteristics and distinct particularities. According to the theory of “l(fā)ocal knowledge” put forward by Clifford Geertz (2000), an anthropologist of interpretive anthropology, Chinese literary terms have a strong trait of “l(fā)ocality.” In the process of the practice of cross-cultural communication of terms, this particularity and “l(fā)ocality” are further complicated due to the heterogeneity of another language and culture. Therefore, the translation of cross-context literary terms is always faced with problems and challenges. As Xia Xiu (2015) said, it was the objective for any literary culture with an independent tradition to sustain the heterogeneity of the other culture, and it was absolutely true that the foreign ideas and theoretical resources of the local culture and its artistic traditions are incompatible and there can even be total differences in connotations and denotations of the same concept in different contexts. Different terms of the same thing or concept will be produced because they appear or are discussed in different countries with different historical backgrounds. Even the diversity of things determines the universality of terminology differences. It is the divergence caused by diversity that makes it hard to judge the translation of terminology as good or bad. Therefore the compromise of “convention into custom”needs to be emphasized (Fu, 2011).

Standardizing the English Translation of Literary Terms

With the development of a global economy, the issues of “glocalization of globalization”(Robertson, 1992) become increasingly popular, which truly reflects the common demands of all different ethnic groups to maintain their own cultural diversity. Since the one-dimensional way of thinking in the past practice of human cross-cultural communication has been broken, the interactions between globalization and localization have become a new starting point. Several centuries ago, missionaries in China translated literary terms in the practice of translating Chinese classical literature. However, there were many limitations of “shaping by other” in nature inevitably in the cross-lingual communication of Chinese knowledge dominated by the West.These defects often led to misinterpretations, mistranslations or even misunderstandings, which have brought some negative effects on the acceptance and identification of “Chinese knowledge.”As an origins of world civilization, the uniqueness of Chinese culture needs to be understood by people all over the world by means of effective translation. To solve this historical and realistic problem, it is quite necessary to spread the discourse with Chinese characteristics independently,and the “standardization” of terminology translation with Chinese characteristics is a top priority(Wei, 2019).

Ancient Chinese sage Confucius, in his theory of name rectification, thought if the name was not right then speech would not be in order, and if speech was not in order then nothing would be accomplished, which was inspired with the importance of the correction of names.Practically “name rectification” is the standardization of terms. The definition of the word“standard” usually refers to the uniform regulation of repetitive things and concepts (Chu et al., 2010), or a criterion or principle by which something is judged, or with the help of which a decision is made. The application and transmission of terms are characterized by repetition, so there is a need to lay down unified stipulations for terms. Chinese literary terms originate from different historical periods of the Chinese nation and span a long period with broad ideological and cultural resources. With special complexity the terms cannot be simply imposed but should be gradually standardized. It is impossible for people who are engaged in translation to experience other people’s experience or remold their mental world in translation, hence they can only understand the terms through the concepts and symbols used by others in constructing their own world and interpreting reality. Therefore, it is necessary to follow the translation norms and maintain consistency in international communication to position the standardization of terminology translation. Here it is intended to construct the Term Corpus of Standardization of Translation of Chinese Literary Words by following the sample of the national project work Term Corpus of Standardization of Translation of Chinese Important Political Words from Term Corpus of Standardization of the Translation of Discourse System for Global Communication with Chinese Characteristics. From the perspective of the practical particularity of term translations, translation is a selection process of naming the related concepts across two different languages. This selection is naturally affected by various factors such as the subject of translation and its social ecological environment. The accuracy of the previous translation of Chinese literary terms will directly affect the authenticity and effectiveness of the Chinese cultural image. In view of this, the standardization of terminology translation should focus on rectifying traditional views and taking measures for thorough-going reform.

Specialized authorities for the translation of literary terms have not yet been established.Therefore both researchers and translators paid less attention to the terminological characteristics in the translation of literary terms, and they tended to pay more attention to the principles of translating terms rather than the process of naming the terms, which resulted in the great arbitrariness and the lack of normalization in the translation of literary terms (Qiu, 2017). Given the current situation and problems in the translation of literary terms, the most effective way to standardize the translation of literary terms is that the authority claims the translation of specific terms in a standardized way. On the one hand, national measures should be taken to carry out a more systematic and comprehensive examination and scientific standardized management for the current existing terms. Also, overall plans have to be worked out in the construction of the English translation system of Chinese literary terms and use the English translation system of Chinese literary terms standardly according to the cultural traditions and habits, which is of great significance to the international transmission of Chinese literary terms with their true nature as they are the gene symbols of Chinese culture and way of thinking and behavioral norms.For example, the English translation of terms in the quartering method of Chinese literature translation causes damage and deficiency. In ancient Chinese prose, there was a classification of Wen and Bi in Pinyin, and the overall classification of prose was divided into rhyme and prose,which was not found in the classification of English prose. This phenomenon can be avoided by employing standardized forms to refer to specific terms in translation.

On the other hand, the English translation of Chinese literature is endowed with the mission of spreading culture under the background of Chinese culture’s going global actively. However,the English translators of Chinese literature in the English world are numbered. According to Howard Goldblatt, a famous American Sinologist and arguably the most important translator of Chinese literature in the English-speaking world, there are only two people who are committed to translating Chinese literature in the English-speaking world: one is himself, translating Chinese novels, and the other is John Balcom who is translating Chinese poetry. Other translators are either enthusiastic but inexperienced graduate students with heavy academic work or teachers at colleges and universities who take on translating occasionally with more of their attention attracted in other work (Goldblatt, 2000). Therefore, native translators are duty-bound to change the situation and construct favorable circumstances. The translation of literary terms involves many disciplines of translatology, terminology, stylistics, literary history, semiotics, and linguistics, which is an exact example of an interdisciplinary within the trend of the new liberal arts. There is an urgent need to strive for the disciplinary system of literary terms translation and carry out terminology education for translation majors at colleges and universities hoping to make up for the translation of Chinese literary terms in the field of humanities which has been long neglected. More translators, terminologists, and researchers in the field of literature are expected to participate in academic research on the naming of literary terms. In this way, translators can take the national translation resources of literary terms such as a literary terms dictionary as the standardized translation or translation criteria and combine this with the professional background of terminology as guidance for translating Chinese literary terms in a unified mode. If a newly formed word or uncommon word of literary terms cannot be found in authoritative terminology dictionaries, and there is no ready-made translation name to consult, native translators need to fully mobilize their knowledge resources to trace the concept of the term. While fully grasping its concept connotation, they also need to consider other related concepts in the terminology system to maintain the original cultural characteristics of the term to the maximum and convey its cultural connotation. Because if readers in English-speaking countries do not understand the Chinese literary terms, there is no way for them to understand the thoughts of Chinese literature.Here terms are the scaffold of their thoughts (Gao, 2011).

We attempt to construct Chinese-English by standardizing Chinese literary terms systematically. The bilingual library Chinese-English Library of Chinese Classics (hereinafter referred to as the Library) is the largest translating and publishing project since the publication of Chinese-English translation works began. Many scholars and researchers have spared no efforts to finish the Library for more than ten years. Although the main tasks for the translation of the series of books have been completed, the target language, as the historical task of Chinese-English construction, is far from being completed. The language of the translated English texts in The Chinese-English Library of Chinese Classics should at least have two historical functions:appropriate expression of the thoughts, emotions, and customs of the traditional Chinese classics in the Library to promote the classics of traditional Chinese culture and the construction of the foundation of Chinese English and its independent position in English. Configuration,construction, and consolidation of this foundation entail continuing investigation and research,and furthermore, there is no doubt about its significance to Chinese international exchanges and global familiarization with Chinese culture. An observation and analysis of cases in current Chinese English and a reference of the generation and development of British English, American English, Chinese English, and others, can prove the feasibility of constructing Chinese English with The Chinese-English Library of Chinese Classics as the foundation, and the conduciveness to the establishment of a vocabulary of expressions as a demonstration of the basic characteristics and imagery of traditional Chinese culture. Meanwhile, the Library will provide a new approach to the study and development of theory and practice of Chinese-English translating (Fu, 2012).

Finally, it is necessary to promote the “Thick Translation” (Appiah, 2004) and improve the terminology awareness and comprehensive quality of translators. Thick translation, a common method used in translation practice, can be traced back to Thick Description theory of Cultural Anthropology and historical contextualization theory of New Historicism, which was proposed by Ghanaian American scholar Kwame Anthony Appiah in 1993. However, as a strategy or method of translation practice, Chinese translator Yan Fu had applied this to translation practice long ago. The Thick Translation refers to an academic translation, a translation that tries to place the text in a profound linguistic and cultural background with annotations and accompanying footnotes (Appiah, 2004). It happens that there is a similar case. Cao Minglun (2012) mentioned“l(fā)iteral translation annotation” and “supplementary compensation” when he talked about cultural transplantation and information compensation in translation, which are essentially the same as the Thick Translation. Cao (2013) holds that the means of the Thick Translation is to put the text in its linguistic and cultural background, that the purpose of Thick Translation is to make the original text more transparent and that the criteria or standard of Thick Translation is to value the fact and the style of the original works and keep the original meaning. Due to the particularity of the translation of literary terms, translators should be impressed by the need for more professionalism based on historical and cultural literacy and the terminology awareness in the new era of translation. Only in this way can Chinese translators play a better role in the practice of international cross-cultural communication and can Thick Translation become a truly effective translation method. Obviously, translators will be hindered by the lack of historical and cultural literacy and it will be difficult for them to put the translated text in the relevant historical and cultural context if they do not delve deeply into the relevant historical and cultural context.Therefore, it is necessary to set up relevant assessments in China’s MTI (Master of Translation and Interpreting) training programs. Relevant terminology education courses can be offered to students to provide opportunities of terminology translation practice to help cultivate translators’terminology awareness and improve their capability comprehensively.

Conclusion

The standardization of terminology translation with Chinese characteristics is the premise and foundation of effective international communication of discourse with Chinese characteristics.As an important part of the discourse with Chinese characteristics, the interpretation and standardization of Chinese literary terms is beneficial to ensure the standardization and unification of the output of “Chinese knowledge” discourse resources for the global expression of “Chinese knowledge.” Literary terminology is the core element through which we promote the development of cross-language literary communication and literary theory research.However, the weak interlingual commonality and the influence of many objective factors in the history and reality of Chinese literature result in the slow development of translation and communication. Taking the English version of the collection of Chinese literary works, the history of Chinese literature and the translation of literary terms in Chinese English dictionaries as examples, this paper illustrates that the translation of Chinese literary terms has experienced four variation methods; transliteration dominated by Wechsler Pinyin, Pinyin together with additional explanations, literal translation, and the application of Western academic terms.Focusing on the principle of maintaining the independence of native cultures, we put forward four measures for the current translation of Chinese literary terms. We place high hopes for systematically and comprehensively examining and regularizing the translation of literary terms.This research advocates the disciplined establishment of literary terms translation and fully developed terminology education for translation majors at colleges and universities to regularize Chinese literature terms systematically and scientifically based on the Library. Furthermore,the theory of Thick Translation is expected to apply to the practice comprehensively. Finally enhancing translator’s terminology awareness and literary attainments will ensure that native translators will keep the original meaning of the text. All these measures are aimed at solving the practical problems in the translation of literary terms more effectively and promote the process of standardization for the translation of literary terms. We should adhere to the principle of localization of Chinese literary terms and do our best to maintain the independence of Chinese literary terms in a Chinese context in the process of translation across heterogeneous cultures.Meanwhile native translators may break some rules creatively to strive to be true to the nature of Chinese literature and interpret the profound connotations of Chinese culture for the English world, which is conducive to the enhancement of Chinese cultural identity and cultural selfconfidence. For one thing it is helpful for Chinese literature to promote the engagement in international communication positively, and for another it is better for Westerns to understand Chinese thoughts comprehensively to promote the construction and enhancement of the discourse system for global communication with Chinese characteristics innovatively.