Discussion On Tendency And Strategies Of TCM Translation

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) owns one of the great cultural heritages of Chinese nation. During the several thousands years of medical practice, it has developed into a comprehensive and unique scientific system. With remarkable curative effects and few side effects, traditional Chinese medicine has proved to be a useful method to prevent and treat diseases, which has aroused the attention of the world. The spreading of traditional Chinese medicine to other countries dates back to the ancient times and it still keeps uprising. There may be imbalance in the development of traditional Chinese medicine in different countries, but an upward tendency has been witnessed. World Health Organization recommended it as useful experience to the whole world.Despite the growth in popularity of traditional Chinese medicine over recent decades, the westward transmission of it continues to be hampered by a number of problems such as inferior translation documents and mistranslations. As the English translation is the bridge for its traditional Chinese medicine to be transmitted to the word and serve the people's healthcare, it has become more and more important through the communication. However, its long history, unique theoretical system and abstruse language cause difficulties in translating traditional Chinese medicine into English. The present situation of the English translation of traditional Chinese medicine is not satisfied with a variety of problems including different language feature between Chinese and English, culture distance and overuse of the western medical terminology as its terms, thus causing the current translation documents with unbalanced and inferior translation. In recent year, many translators, who engaged in traditional Chinese medicine translation, considered the importance of a translation theory and have explored various ways for the principles and approaches.This paper describes the brief history of the English translation of traditional Chinese medicine, shows its situation with vigorous development, the tendency of standardization of its terminology. It explores the language characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine and the features of its English translation. Then it devotes considerable space to discussing the main translation principles including principle of natural equivalent, national characteristics, back-translation and conciseness, and the approaches that is literal translation, free translation, naturalization and foreignization.In order to expanding the translation methods of traditional Chinese medicine, the paper follows the application of equivalence theory. Through the study of the correspondence between traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine, the justification and restriction for the realization of formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence are listed. The conditioning factors presented mainly include the nature of the message, receptors, the purpose and capability of the translator and his cultural background. Besides their respective influences on the translator in decision-making, the interplay of these factors imposes more difficulties to traditional Chinese medicine translation. From case studies, it can be concluded that the formal equivalence can only work in a limited way in traditional Chinese medicine translation, while the dynamic approach is more constructive and effective, which often provides insight into the author's intention that would not have been conveyed in the former situation and makes it easier for the receptor to correctly understand and appreciate the translated text. At last, the exploration of translation approaches is analyzed through translating the unique basic terms, carefully choosing the word-for-word methods, loan-translating and the method of minimum number of equivalents for one word.This thesis attempts to contribute the application of equivalence theory in traditional Chinese medicine. In reality, the conditioning factors to be taken into consideration by the translator listed here will be helpful to assist the translator to adopt the proper strategies in the process of traditional Chinese medicine translation.