On The Translation Of Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Historical Study

During thousands of years' practice, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has developed into a comprehensive and unique medical system. With remarkable effective functions and few adverse effects, TCM has drawn worldwide attention. TCM English translation plays an important role in TCM popularization.However, TCM English translation is not an easy job. Nigel Wiseman commented that Chinese medicine is difficult to translate, and there are few people able- and even fewer willing to do it. Westerners, brought up in the modern medical science, have difficulty grasping Chinese medicine concepts. As a result, at the beginning of TCM translation, translators did this work only to introduce TCM from a historical point of view. Later, with the popularization of TCM and the participation of Chinese translators, more and more westerners began to realize that TCM could be used to treat disease. From then on, TCM began to be translated as medical documents. But due to the great difference between TCM and modern medicine, to make TCM acceptable by westerners, some apparent irrational concepts were omitted or reformulated in inexact western medical terminology in TCM translation. One can hardly escape the impression that the so-called theoretical foundations of Chinese medicine outlined in these books remain closer to a western mode of thinking than to the Chinese way of understanding health and health care which they purport to convey. At the same time, the representation of Chinese medical concepts with Western medical terms undermines the foreign reader's ability to grasp the traditional concepts to an extent that would be difficult to counter. Nigel Wiseman commented that any successes that Chinese efforts might achieve by promoting Western understanding of Chinese medical ideas by the substitution of Western medical concepts in translation will be achieved at the expense of foreclosing Western access to traditional Chinese medicine in the raw. By now, this question has still been argued heatedly by domestic and foreign translators. As time goes on, people have recognized that besides its medical values, TCM also possesses historical and cultural values. So how to show the three aspects of TCM materials becomes the new topic of TCM translation.In order to practice TCM English translation and make use of former academic achievements to its full extent in TCM translation practice, some knowledge of the development of TCM English translation is useful. Investigating the history of TCM translation, the author aimed to find out the main characteristics in TCM translation; major translation events; representative translators and translation principles in different periods of TCM translation. Dated back to the middle of the 17th century, by now, TCM English translation has experienced more than 300 years. During such a long time, TCM translation has gone through 5 periods. This paper mainly introduces characteristics, translators, purpose of translation, translation materials, major translation events and representative works in the 5 periods of TCM English translation. By comparison, this paper explored the changes in TCM translation in 3 aspects: 1) Translators have shifted from European missionaries; historians, doctors to now TCM translation specialists. 2) The purpose of translation has also changed. 3) Translation materials have been always changing.This paper consists of 4 chapters plus an introduction and a conclusion. Chapter One is a survey on TCM translation; Chapter Two tells the development of TCM translation from the middle of the 17th century to 1989. Chapter Three introduces recent advances in TCM translation. And Chapter Four approaches theoretical study on TCM translation and introduces TCM translation principles and translation standards...