1、Translation history in China,Introduction,an over three thousand-year-old history of translation The earliest historical documents recording sporadic translation activities in China can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty（1100 B. C.） xiangxu(象胥)or sheren（舌人） “The Song of Yue Nationality”（越人歌）;the fir

2、st poem translated in ancient China,Three peaks of translation before the May 4th Movement （1919）.,The First Peak-The Translation of Buddhist Classics,in the Six Dynasties（232-589）when Buddhist monks set about translating classics of Buddhism into Chinese The translation of Buddhist classics began i

3、n the late Eastern Han Dynasty and lasted more than 1,000 years till the Tang（618-907）and Northern Song Dynasties（960-1127）,Several important figures,Zhi Qian（支謙） “Preface to Fa Ju Jing”（法句經(jīng)序） “follow the original intention of the author without any embroidery”(因循本旨，不加文飾),Dao An（道安） the earliest sta

4、te translation school yichang（譯場） “translate according to the original without any addition and deduction”(案本而傳，不令有損言游字),Kumargjiva(鳩摩羅什) he applied a free translation approach to transfer the essence of the Sanskrit sutras. he firstly suggested that translators should sign their names in translated

5、 works.,Xuan Zang（玄奘） the most eminent figure of the first peak in translation history Xuan Zang developed his epoch-making criteria that translation “must be truthful and intelligible to the populace”（既須求真，又須喻俗）.,He summed up five cases dependant on transliteration, namely, dont translate（a）what is

6、 mysterious（秘密故）,（b）what is multi-semantic（多義故）,（c） what is too alien to be reproduced(此無故)，（d） what is hereditary（順古故）and（e） what is philanthropic（生善故）. Records of the Western Regions under the Reign of the Great Tang（大唐西域記）,The Second Peak: The Translation of Books on Science and Tech nology,the l

7、ate Ming and early Qing Dynasties around the 17th century the arrival of Jesuit missionaries from Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Poland more than 300 works in total，120 concerned science and technology ranging from astronomy, mathematics, physics and metallurgy to

8、anatomy, biology and cartography,Xu Guanqi(徐光啟) Xu cooperated with the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci（利瑪竇）in translating the 13 volumes of Euclids Elements of Geometry（幾何原本） working with Sabbathinus de Ursis（熊三拔）, an Italian missionary, he completed a six-volume adapted translation on hydrology and res

9、ervoirs entitled Water Conservation and Irrigation Methods in the West（泰西水法）,Li Zhizao(李之藻) In the preface to its Chinese version known as Hun Gai Tong Xian Tu Shuo（渾蓋通憲圖說），he stated clearly that the earth is round and in motion. Tong Wen Suan Zi（同文算指）,The Third Peak: The Translation of Western Clas

10、sics,The Opium War（1840-1842）and the signing of the first unequal Treaty of Nanjing from the mid 19th century to the eve of the May 4th Movement,Lin Zexu(林則徐) “the first Chinese who opened his eyes to look at the outside world” “must learn from the fortes of its foreign enemies in order to eventuall

11、y conquer them” Gazetteer of the Four Continents（四洲志）,Li Shaman（李善蘭） translating the remaining volumes of Euclids Elements of Geometry from 1852 to 1856, with the help of the British missionary Alexander Wylie. Dai Shu Xue（代數(shù)學）from Elements of Algebra by the British mathematician Augustus de Morgan,

12、 Dai Wei Ji Shi Ji（代微積拾級）from Elements of Analytical Geometry and of Differential and Integral Calculus by the American scholar Elias Loomis and Zhong Xue（重學）, the most influential physics work at that time, from An Elementary Treatise on mechanics by the British physicist William Whewell.,Lin Shu（林

13、紓） the pioneer of literary translation in China Ivanhoe（撒克劫后英雄略）, La Dame aux Camelias（巴黎茶花女遺事）, Uncle Toms Cabin,（黑奴吁天錄）, Old Curiosity Shop（孝女耐兒傳）, David Cooperfield（塊肉余生述）and Oliver Twist（賊史）,YanFu (嚴復(fù)) profoundly shocked by the humiliating Treaty of Shimonoseki（馬關(guān)條約） The 1898 translation of Thom

14、as Henry Huxleys Evolution and Ethics（天演論）established his reputation throughout the country,“natural selection and survival of the fittest” into物競天擇，適者生存 His list of translations includes: On Liberty（群幾權(quán)界說）and System of Logic（穆勒名學）by John Stuart Mill, Study of Sociology（群學肆言）by Herbert Spenser, Inqu

15、iry into the Nature and cause of the Wealth of Nations（原富）by Adam Smith, Spirit of Law（法意）by C. D. S. Montesquieu, History of Politics（社會通詮）by E. Jenks, and Logic（名學淺說）by W. S. Jevons.,In the preface to the translated Evolution and Ethics Yan Fu set down the triple translation criteria, namely,“fait

16、hfulness（信）, expressiveness（達）and elegance(雅)”,Translation in China between 1919-1949,the first Chinese translation of the full text of the Communist Manifesto（Marx and Engels，1848）by Chen Wangdao（陳望道，1890-1977） the domain of translation witnessed a focus on the introduction of Karl Marxs（1818-1883）

17、and Lenins（1870-1924）classical works on socialist and communist theories Lenins Nations and Revolution; Marxs monumental work Capital,Classical Chinese in translation was gradually replaced by a more simplified and easily-understood vernacular Chinese baihua（白話） Lu Xun（魯迅，1881-1936）, Qu Qiubai（瞿秋白，1

18、899-1935）, Mao Dun（茅盾，1896-1981） and Lin Yutang（林語堂，1895-1976）,Translation in Present-day China,Translation in China has stepped into a new era since the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. National and regional organizations for translators scientific and technical works quality and

19、quantity of translations,“Great Cultural Revolution”,Chinas adoption of the policy of reform and opening-up,a number of scholars in China introduced various translation principles in view of new discoveries in such branches as semiotics, social-linguistics, intercultural communication，etc translation theories have witnessed dramatic changes in many areas like notions of equivalence, fa