Study On Adequacy Of Medical Information Embodied In Qin Keqing Medical Case In The Story Of The Stone By David Hawkes

Cao Xueqin's erudition helped him compose the encyclopedic Hong Lou Meng.About 50 thousand characters were spent on the medical description,which is an indispensable part for shaping the characters' images,prompting the development of the story and creating plots.The medical description is also necessary in different translations of Hong Lou Meng.Therefore,the studies on the translation of these medical description should be conducted for their great value.Among the translations of Hong Lou Meng,the Story of the Stone,one of three English complete versions by David Hawkes and John Minford,is the most influential one across the globe.The studies of the medical part in the translation contributes to the overseas studies on Hong Lou Meng and the international communication of traditional Chinese medicine.A few studies have been conducted through the comparison between the source text and the translation,but none examined the translation from the perspective of medical case.The object of the study is the medical description in the 10 th chapter doctor Zhang's diagnosis reveals the origin of a puzzling disease.The author established the complete Qin Keqing medical case by analyzing the medical information and restoring its logic system explicitly.Based on the conclusion,the quality of Hawkes' translation can be evaluated and the factors affecting the medical information adequacy examined.There are four chapters in the study.The first chapter introduces the object,range,questions,perspectives,targets and meanings of the study.Literary review is also contained in the chapter.In chapter two,the medical information is divided into four parts,including diagnosis,etiology and pathogenesis,symptoms and prescriptions and prognosis.The author restored the medical logic in every part and established the complete medical logic system through the combination of the four parts.In addition,the second chapter examines the medical information adequacy of the translation on the levels of concepts,logic and system.The third chapter analyses the factors affecting the medical information adequacy with the assistance of Hawkes' notebooks and manuscripts.The last chapter is the summary of the whole study,drawing conclusions and making suggestions for TCM translation and translation studies.The medical information adequacy of the translation is quiet low,which is due to three reasons.The first one is Hawkes' deprivation of the TCM profession knowledge.The misunderstanding,incomplete explanation and misinterpretation because of literal understanding in his translation can prove it.The second one is the unreasonable adoption of translation strategies.Lastly,the references Hawkes used contradict each other and some are filled with mistakes and obscurities.These books misguided the translator.From The Story of the Stone: A Translator' s Notebooks,Hawkes elaborated the medical information translation by looking up at least 7 books and in-depth thinking.The comparison between the manuscripts and the first published translation and the collator's note to the bilingual edition of the Story of the Stone demonstrate Hawkes' revision of his translation persisted into his last days.The attitude “to translate everything” in the introduction wrote by Hawkes himself is verified by the study.But because of many factors,not every piece of medical information got translated.