C-E Translation Report On The Emergence Of China(Excerpts) From The Perspective Of Three-Dimensional Transformations

The Emergence of China is the first book in the series Chinese History to All authored by Yang Zhao,a writer and literary critic in Taiwan of China.The book examines the historical trajectory of China from the Neolithic age to the Qing Dynasty from an archaeological perspective and unfolds the picture of Chinese history to readers in plain language.With the “Chinese Culture Going Global” strategy advanced,traditional Chinese culture has become progressively known to the world.The long-lasting Chinese culture is inextricably linked to the profound history of China.Therefore,the translation and dissemination of Chinese history to foreign countries is of great significance to their re-acquaintance with China and the promotion of traditional Chinese culture.The report is about the C-E translation project of the first two chapters of The Emergence of China.These chapters highlight the reasons for re-conceptualizing Chinese history and ways to re-conceptualize it from an archaeological perspective.Examples from the translation practice are analyzed from the perspective of three-dimensional transformations,namely,linguistic dimension,cultural dimension,and communicative dimension,proposed by professor Hu Gengshen,and the adaptive selections made in the translating process are concluded.More specifically,the translation methods and techniques applied at the lexical,syntactic,discoursal,or rhetorical level are summarized,to enrich the translation practice and study of historical texts.From the translation practice,it is found that the translation of historical texts can be guided by three-dimensional transformations.In the linguistic dimension,translation techniques including addition and omission as well as cohesive devices like reference,substitution,and ellipsis are adopted to reduce the comprehension barriers caused by language differences.In the cultural dimension,literal translation,free translation,and transliteration with annotations are employed to address culture-loaded words,classic quotations,and allusions,thereby building a bridge for target readers.In communicative dimension,translation methods like zero translation with annotations,and translation techniques including omission and shift are mainly adopted to cope with the glyph of Chinese characters,puns,and parallelism,in order to convey the communicative intention of the source-language message and achieve the expected communicative effect.In a word,it is necessary to take these three dimensions into consideration in translation practice.In this way,the target text can be more adaptive and receivable.Hopefully,this report can serve as a reference for further study of historical text translation.