A Report On The English Translation Of Maritime Literature Book Titles In History Of Ancient Chinese Navigation

With the development of world economy, marine resources and marine culture have played a more and more significant role on the world stage. Up to the Ming Dynasty, ancient Chinese shipping industry had been in the leading position. With the frequent communication between China and the outside world, shipping experts abroad and related scholars have showed more and more interest in the studies on ancient Chinese maritime literature. A large number of ancient books are related to ancient Chinese maritime literature, which can be considered as the historical evidence for early marine culture and marine career in China. Moreover, these books have recorded the ship trajectory of Chinese ships and reflected ancient marine culture in China. Thus the translation of these ancient book titles is particularly important.Ancient book titles are related to different dynasties and are in different forms. Some of which have already been widely known in the western world while others are still kept unknown. Therefore, the translation quality of book titles in ancient Chinese maritime literature will have a direct impact on the understanding of ancient Chinese maritime history by foreign readers.Based on the translation of 10,000 words of ancient Chinese maritime literature, the author applied basic translation methods including literal translation, literal translation with annotations and free translation in the classification and translation analysis of different book titles and dealt with these book titles properly in English, In the mean time, this thesis also revealed problems and solutions, which will provide some suggestions for the translation of ancient Chinese maritime literature.