A Study On Intertextuality In Tea Classics--Based On Self-built Corpus And Intertextuality Computation

China boasts a sophisticated tea culture. The Classic of Tea and Sequel to The Classic of Tea are considered to be "encyclopedia of tea culture". The first works on tea, The Classic of Tea, is written by Lu Yu in the Tang Dynasty. Another great works on tea, Sequel to The Classic of Tea by Lu Tingcan came out in the Qing dynasty. In spite of a thousand years interval, the two tea classics share an amazing bond in chapter titles and contents. Intertextuality within and between these two tea classics is very typical, which may be an important factor in the translation of two tea classics. Translation itself is an intertextual activity, involving not only translational activity between different languages, but also intertextual understanding of texts.Intertextuality has its origin from the sign theory of Saussure and Bakhtin's dialogism, but it was not until 1965 when French scholar Julia Kristeva put forward the term intertextuality for the first time. In her opinion, any text is the absorption and transformation of another, and no text exists alone. Since then, an increasing attention was paid to intertextuality theory. Scholars and theorists, like Roland Barthes and Gerard Genette proposed their understanding of intertextuality theory. The first application of intertextuality can be seen in analysis of literature works. Hatim &Mason introduced intertextuality to translation study in 1990s, when intertextuality sails a new journey to translation field.This study concerns with how to quantify intertextuality between The Classic of Tea and Sequel to The Classic of Tea and within Sequel to The Classic of Tea based on self-built corpus and intertextuality computation, which offer a more scientific and quantitative way to discuss intertextuality. The analysis of intertextuality statistics within and between the two classics may be helpful for accurate translation and future research on tea culture.