The Definition Of Core Disease And Syndrome Terms In "The Synopsis Of The Golden Chamber" And The Study Of Its English Translation

Background and ObjectivesNowadays,with the unique theoretical system and therapeutic efficacy,traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)has been playing an increasingly significant role in protecting the physical and mental’ health of people all over the world.English translation of TCM is crucial to its modernization and internationalization.High-level TCM.English translation practice and research can not only help introduce the theoretical and clinical knowledge of TCM to the whole world in a more comprehensive and accurate way,but also promote the development of TCM within China.Ancient books and records of TCM,which have the dual value of medicine and literature,are the important achievements summarized and created by the Chinese people in the their long-term medical practice;they have also witnessed the Chinese civilization lasting for thousands of years,Therefore,the translation practice and research of ancient books and records of TCM is a critical part of the translation of TCM.Synopsis of Golden Chamber(Jin Kui Yao Lue,金匮要略)(abbreviated as JKYL)is regarded as the source of the internal medicine of TCM and of great clinical value.Together with Treatise On Cold Damage.(Shang Han Lun,伤寒论),the book has been honored as the ancestor of the medical prescription.Therefore,it is of theoretical and practical significance to focus on the translation practice of this book and the related translation research.However,compared with Huangdi’s Internal Classic(Huang Di Nei Jing,黄帝内经)and Treatise.On Cold Damage,the translation versions and researches of JKYL are still scanty,which means they need to be further consolidated and strengthened.Especially pathological terms(including both disease and pattern names)are the premises of understanding JKYL’s approaches to principle,method,prescription and medicinals of disease treatment,the keys to application JKYL’s theories into practices and featured TCM culture-loaded terms.As the key terms of JKYL translation,pathological terms warrant further study.ContentsThe study mainly consists of two parts:(1)determining the core pathological terms in JKYL;(2)studying the English translation of core pathological terms in JKYL.MethodsThe study extracted TCM core pathological terms based on corpus technology and literature reports and used expert validation of the core pathological terms via surveying.Approaches to English translation of th ese core pathological terms under faithfulness principle and optimal approximation criteria were also used based on literature studies.Determination of the core pathological terms of TCM in JKYL:based on the construction of the Chinese-English parallel corpus of JKYL,the high-frequency words in JKYL were extracted and screened.By searching the literatures related to the study of pathological terms in JKYL using the CNKI online database,the pathological terms of JKYL in the current literature materials were extracted.Based on the corpus term extraction and literature term extraction,JKYL core pathological term selection results were further obtained.Experts of TCM,especially on JKYL,were approached to complete an online survey to evaluate the importance of these extracted pathological terms and thus finalize the core pathological terms of JKYL.Translation study of the core pathological terms in JKYL:this study listed the core pathological terms and its English translations of five versions.By analyzing the original concept of these core pathological terms,these English translations were compared,analyzed and summarized.English translation of these core pathological terms were approached and suggested under the translation principle of "faithfulness" and standard of "optimal approximation",ResultsConstruction of the Chinese-English bilingual corpus of JKYL was accomplished,which contains about 200,000-word counts.High-frequency terms in the Chinese edition were extracted with corpus technology and the extraction results were divided into 3 categories:single-character terms,double-character terms and multi-character terms.These terms were screened to filter out those with low frequency and those that cannot conform to the concepts of TCM terminology,and a total of 134 high-frequency terms(including 91 high-frequency terms with single or double characters and 43 high-frequency terms with multiple characters)were obtained.Published books and papers were then searched with a total of 86 entries of"potential" pathological terms further selected.The inclusion criteria for the core pathological terms of JKYL were made by referring to the literature,which means the term has to be deemed important and unique in the book,with high frequency and be widely recognized by the experts and can be generalized.According to the inclusion criteria,expert opinions were consulted through questionnaires.10 TCM core pathological terms of JKYL were eventually determined,which are,1)百合,2)狐惑,3)血痹,4)肺胀,5)胸痹,6)痰饮,7)悬饮,8)溢饮,9)支饮and 10)脏躁.Taking the 10 core TCM terms as examples,this paper elaborated the translation path in detail,and preliminarily demonstrated how this path work under the translation principle of"faithfulness" and the translation standard is "optimal approximation".This study proposes the following translated versions for the terms mentioned above:1)lily disorder;2)throat-anus-genital syndrome;3)blood impediment;4)lung distention;5)chest impediment;6)phlegm-fluid retention;7)pleural fluid retention;8)subcutaneous fluid retention;9)thoracic fluid retention;10)hysteria.ConclusionsThis study has demonstrated the feasibility of extracting and identifying TCM core pathological terms based on high-frequency terms,literature documents and expert validation.With these combined methods in sequence,10 core pathological terms were determined,all of which are disease terms.This study also demonstrated the application of faithfulness principle and optimal approximation criteria in the English translation approaches of JKYL core pathological terms.When translating the JKYL core pathological terms,.the translator should first fully consider the connotation of the original term and the relation between each word of the term,so as to make the translation words reach the "faithfulness" or "optimal approximation" of the original term in the connotation.If the connotation of the "faithfulness" or "optimal approximation" cannot be fully reached,translators should try their best to achieve the literal"faithfulness" or "optimal approximation" between the selected words and the original terms,and then utilize further elaboration and interpretation to better serve the audience.