English Translation Of Rhymes In "NEIJING"

Rhyme, a linguistic feature and a unique symbol of style, widely exists in Huang Di Nei Jing (hereinafter referred to as Nei Jing), the most important classics in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The language in Nei Jing reflects thoroughly the significant feature of TCM that "features of literary works and medical studies coexist and add luster to each other". Therefore, treating those rhymes in Nei Jing properly in English translation is an important subject in studies on the literature of TCM, the ancient Chinese civilization and the translation of TCM.This study aims to find a balance between rhetoric and medical science in English translation of Nei Jing. Based on the previous studies on the literature of TCM, the author integrated both quantitative and qualitative analyses, using the corpus analysis software (WordSmith Tools 4.0), trying to explain the different translation techniques of rhymes in the four English versions of Nei Jing from the perspective of aesthetics.Firstly, the original text, featuring the mixed styles of verse and prose, consists of six basic rhyming schemes in its verse, including OAOA, AAOA, AA, in-depth AA, ABAB and AABB. In contrast, the rhyme sites are relatively monotonous, with only two categories - metrical foot and particle foot.Secondly, the target texts, affected by translator's subjectivity, target audience, purpose of translation and publishing institution, are largely different mainly in terms of discourse, sentence and vocabulary. At the same time, the effects of various methods used in translating rhymes turn out to be negative.Last but not least, since the principle of a good translation of Nei Jing is "meaning fist, style second", the best way to translate verse is verse, meter in lieu of rhyme is the second choice; and prose is the last resort if keeping the style may cause misunderstanding. In a word, English translation of Nei Jing should allow for both scientific and literary points of view to present itsvivid style so as to spread the dual-value of both TCM knowledge and Chinese culture.