A Study Of The History Of English Translation Of Huangdi Neijing Suwen

Huangdi Neijing, the essence of traditional Chinese culture, is the earliest and the most ancient collection of traditional medicine and has long been regarded as the fundamental doctrinal masterpiece. Compiled roughly two thousand years ago, this great work is composed of two texts, Suwen and Lingshu, each consisting of eighty-one chapters structured in a conversation format. The first text, Suwen, which covers the theoretical foundation of traditional Chinese medicine and its diagnostic methods, is the more influential of the two. With its profound academic thoughts and unparalleled achievements in medicine, Suwen has not only enlightened generations of medical masters and saints in the history of TCM, but also attracted attention worldwide.The history of English translation of Suwen can be traced back to 1925 when P. M. Dawson published his well-known paper “Suwen, the basis of Chinese medicine” on the Annals of Medical History. Up to now, there are altogether eleven English versions of Suwen. These eleven versions have, each in their own unique way, made great contributions in offering English language readership an entry into this seminal text of ancient Chinese medicine. Recognizing translators as social beings and translations as cultural facts, this thesis attempts to conduct a study on the history of English translation of Suwen from a cultural perspective, hoping to answer the following questions: who are the translators? In what context, for what purpose, and in what way did they choose to translate Suwen? What is their attitude toward Suwen? How and how much do their translation strategies differ? What factors contribute to the differences? What is the main characteristics of the course of English translation of Suwen? With these questions in mind, this thesis sets out to conduct a study on the history of English translation of Suwen from a cultural perspective, hoping to contextualize and compare the eleven versions on a historical basis, find out the interaction between culture and translation and discover the general map of Suwen’s travelling in the English world.This thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter one, the introduction part, presents the research background, research questions, research method, and research significance of this thesis. Chapter two gives a brief overview of Suwen and outlines the development of its English translation in the budding, developing and thriving periods. Chapters three, four and five, the main part of this thesis, undertake to make a thorough study on the translations of each of three periods, analyze the feature of each period from four aspects: translation scope, translation aim, translator’s identity, representative translation strategies, and explore the general map of Suwen’s travelling in the English world. Through careful comparative analysis, this thesis finds that the budding period is a period of partial translations, during which most translators are European medical historians, and most of the translation efforts are made only to introduce the historical value of Suwen; the developing period is a period of full translation, during which most of the translators are medical professionals with Chinese background, and most of the translation efforts are made to introduce the medical value of Suwen; the thriving period is a period of comprehensive translation, during which medical professionals cooperate with TCM English professionals, and most of the translation efforts are made to introduce the historical, medical and cultural values of Suwen. Chapter six draws a conclusion, and points out the limitations of this thesis.