Translating The Three-character Chinese Medical Terminology

Three-character TCM terms take a considerable proportion in TCMterminologies, whose English translations are of great significance to thestandardization and globalization of TCM. This paper screens the three-characterTCM terms from WHO International Standard Terminology on Traditional Medicinein the Western Pacific Region, and analyzes their English translations based on OuMing’s Chinese-English Dictionary of Traditional Chinese Medicine (1986), NigelWiseman’s English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary of Chinese Medicine (1996),and Li Zhaoguo’s A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary of Chinese Medicine(2002). This paper, guided by the theory of Translation as Adaptation and Selectionadvocated by Prof．Hu Gengshen, explores the appropriate English equivalents of thechosen terms by seeking the factors conditioning and affecting different translatingstrategies adopted by different translators in various translational eco-environments.The paper, from an ecological point of view, highlights the multi-dimensionaltranslational adaptation and selection process and hopes to provide a more rationaland standardized perspective to study TCM.