Twenty -four solar terms in the dictionary of the dictionary

Author:Catti center Time:2022.08.28

Twenty -four verses of qi originated from the law. When it is related to farming, it is an important concept of Chinese traditional culture and a set of nouns that cannot be avoided in the process of cultural exchanges between Chinese and Western. Except for the four points of the spring equinox, summer solstice, autumn equinox, and winter solstice, the other nodes are unique in Chinese. These names have concise expression and rich symbols, and their English translations still have a lot of differences, which brings a lot of inconvenience to the external promotion and dissemination of Chinese culture.

Although Robert Morrison (1782-1834) in London, the London of the United Kingdom in 1815, published the world's first Chinese -English dictionary "Hua Ying Dictionary" in Guangzhou, and later published the second part in 1819. "Five Car Reliance Mansion", but there is no separate appendix or total table for the translation of the twenty -four solar terms and other traditional Chinese culture related nouns. Simple explanation, without independent translation. For example, the "spring equinox" entry is "ch’Un Fun, March 22nd. The Springterm.", And the "Mang" entry is simpler: "mangchung, a term answorking to june 7th.".

With the opening of China's business ports, the number of economic and trade exchanges and mission activities with foreign countries has gradually increased, the demand for Huaying Dictionary is getting greater and better, and the quality of publishing is getting better and better. What has had a significant impact on the mainland translation and dictionary industry was the "Han and English Dictionary" published by the 1978 Commercial Press and written by Wu Jingrong. A set of solar terms also gives a set of solar terms in its appendix. From the translation of the words such as "Shocking Qingming Cream", we can see that this version is mainly based on Ji Fei's system. The individual translation was made based on Zhai Lisi's translation. For example: "Gu Yu" has changed from Corn Rain to Grain Rain, and "Summer" has changed from Stopping of Heat to Limit of Heat ... In general, this version is quite mature and systematic in both words and expressions.

However, the translation of solar terms is not fixed because of this. There are still many different voices within the academic community. For example, in the subsequent "Han and English Dictionary (Revised Edition)" (Foreign Research Society, 1995): "Little Man" has become Lesser Fullness of Grain, the meaning is exact but slightly longer; "Small" all becomes Greater and Lesser, the "Mang" in the revised version is even mistakenly misunderstood as Grain in Beard, and it is changed back to Grain in Ear in the third version. Later, in the "New Era Chinese Dictionary" (Business Press, 2000), "Xiaoman" was translated into Grain Budding, which was close to Lin Yutang. This has not stopped so far.

At the same time, the astronomical community, which has always paid attention to the work of scientific and technological terms, also encountered the translation of ancient Chinese astronomical nouns in the process of regulating the translation of English terms. The Astronomical Noun Committee composed of many astronomical experts and scholars published scientific and technological noun specifications "Astronomical Noun" (Science Press, 1987) in 1987. This book has opened the prelude to the national scientific and technological term review of scientific and technological nouns.

In this specification, the astronomy world put forward a relatively independent translation method from the original meaning of the solar terms. For example, considering that it is not just a "stinged worm" that wakes up in the spring, all hibernation animals are listed here, so the "surprise" is translated to AWAKENING FROM Hibernation. The word "sting" is not dedicated to insects. In "The Book of Changes · System Ci", there is a sentence of "Dragon Snake, with the body". According to the "Seventy -two Once Settlement of Monthly" by Wu Cheng in the Yuan Dynasty, "all things are clean and clear" during the "Qingming". At this time, the weather may not be fine, otherwise there will be no verses of "rainy season in the Qing Dynasty". It uses Fresh Green to represent the early spring season of air humidity and grass and trees. "Summer", which means that "the summer is stopped", represents a time node, not a temperature range, so END is more suitable than Limit. "Frost" translated as FIRST HOAR is the sentence "Ji Qiu's Moon, Cream Beginning" from "Book of Rites · Monthly". However, it seems that the degree of heat, cold, cold, and even small -man, and even small -man using Greater/Lesser to emphasize the degree of relative.

This set of translations was published as a standard term for standard noun (see Table 1) after being approved by the National Science and Technology Review Committee in 1987 (see Table 1), so it is used more in the field of technology translation. Later, the scientific and technological terms and dictionaries published were used in use. For example, in 2001, the "British and Chinese Astronomy Noun" published by Shanghai Science and Technology Education Press and the "Atmospheric Science Noun (Third Edition)" published by Science Press in 2009 This version is adopted.

The evolution of the twenty -four solar terms translation is probably the same, and how to translate is still no conclusion.Determining a series of standard translations is obviously conducive to cultural communication.But the difference between language and culture makes it difficult for us to find a perfect solution.The controversy of the translation is mainly concentrated in the processing of "big/small" and "shocking", "Qingming", "Xiao Man".The existing schemes have been given all, and how to make a revision still need to be carefully considered.It is hoped that such a comparison can attract the concern of the Chinese term and English translation, and to discuss the confusion status of the translation of Chinese nouns through various discussions.Table 1:

- END -

Li Bai went to Jingting Mountain seven times and wrote a small poem, what was the reason?

The era of poetry in the Tang Dynasty is also an era of poetry, and Li Bai is undo...

"Menghua Record" and "Datong Book": Still read more books

Recently, there are many articles to write, but I took the time to watch Menghua R...