Module One

Chinese Translation Theories

Buddhist Scripture Chapter 1 Translation Theory

1 Introduction

Talking about theory, first and foremost, we have to make sure what a theory is. Derived from Greek word “θεωρία” or “theoria” in its Latinized form, “theory” originally means viewing and contemplation. Now it generally has two broad sets of meanings, one used in the empirical sciences (both natural and social) and the other used in philosophy, mathematics, logic, and across other fields in the humanities. There is a considerable difference and even dispute across academic disciplines as to the proper usages of the term. What follows is an attempt to describe how the term is used, not to try to say how it should be used. A theory, in the scientific sense of the word, is an analytic structure designed to explain a set of empirical observations. A scientific theory does two things: 1) it identifies this set of distinct observations as a class of phenomena, and 2) makes assertions about the underlying reality that brings about or affects this class. According to The Oxford English Dictionary, “theory” refers to “a systematic statement of the general principles or laws of some branch of mathematics; a set of theorems forming a connected system: as the theory of equations, theory of functions, theory of numbers, theory of probabilities.” Faced with this multitude of definitions, we believe that the last probably best fits in our context. Besides, we need to clarify the relationship between theory and practice, and as such, we have to get some ideas of relevant activities and the origins of the theory. Generally speaking, a human activity, as it moves on, would bring out some corresponding theory with it, and the theory in turn sets forth, reacts to, complements and in a sense, guides the practice, so we can safely conclude that practice antedates theory, and the translation theory is no exception.

3 中西翻译理论简明教程（英文版） A Coursebook of Chinese and Western Translation Theories

Whenever we mention translation theory, we have already in our mind assumed that there must be something called translation practice which belongs to a certain theory, or from which the theory is drawn. It is impossible to avoid this implication when we talk about the theory of translation, just as it is impossible to talk about poetry theory without ever talking about poetry. Likewise, translation theory is so closely connected to or bound up with translation practice itself that it is logical to conduct a brief review of influential translation activities in China first so that the origin and development of Chinese translation theory can be probed, examined and studied in its historical context. Chinese translation theory was born out of contact with vassal states during the Zhou Dynasty. It developed through translations of Buddhist scriptures into the . It is a response to the universals of the experience of translation and to the specifics of the experience of translating from specific source languages into Chinese. It developed in the context of Chinese literary and intellectual tradition. The modern standard mandarin word fanyi (翻译) “translate, translation” compounds fan “turn over, cross over, translate” and yi “translate, interpret”. Some related synonyms are tongyi (通译) “interpret, translate”, chuanyi (传译) “interpret, translate”, and zhuanyi (转译) “translate, retranslate”. The Chinese classics contain various words meaning “interpreter, translator”, for instance, sheren (舌人) and fanshe (反舌). The Book of Rites (《礼记》) records four regional words: ji (寄) for Dongyi (东夷, Eastern Yi barbarians), xiang (象) for Nanman (南蛮, Southern barbarians), didi (狄鞮) for Xirong (西戎, Western Rong barbarians), and yi (译) for Beidi (北狄, Northern Di barbarians). China has always been a country with a multitude of ethnic groups speaking various dialects and languages and it is reasonable to assume that mutual commu- nication and cultural exchange then in China were impossible without the involve- ment of interpreting or translating. Even people among what we now call the Han nationality (the Chinese Majority) do not speak the same dialect and Southerners and Northerners nd it dif cult to communicate with each other at least in terms of speech. Language came into being a long time ago, and people of different regional origins could only communicate with the help of the so-called translators or inter-

4 Chapter 1 Buddhist Scripture Translation Theory preters. Translation activities could be traced back to ten thousand years ago, but our description and study of translation theory could only be con ned to historical records. According to the Book of Rites, the of ces speci cally designed for of cial interpreters or translators were set up no later than under the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046 B.C–771 B.C.)

…The people living in the five regions spoke different languages and had different customs, likings and preferences. In order to make accessible what was in the minds of different peoples, and in order to make their likings and preferences understood, there were functionaries for the job. Those in charge of the regions in the east were called ji [the entrusted; transmitters]; in the south, xiang [likeness- renderers]; in the west, didi [who know the Di tribes]; and in the north, yi [translators; interpreters…]1 Those from the central country (the Central Plains), yi ( those from the east), man (those from the south), rong (those from the west), and di (those from the north)…people from the five directions do not communicate in the same language nor share the same culture. [Officials in charge of] conveying ideas and exchanging cultures with the east are called ji, with the south xiang, with the west didi, and with the north yi.2

So from this we learn that at that time ji, xiang, didi, yi were names or official titles for interpreters or translators. The Rites of the Zhou Dynasty (《周记》), an early Chinese classic which provides a detailed description of the functions of the offices and personnel of various departments and branches of the Zhou Dynasty government, also contains the record of the official position for interpreters or translators. There were xiangxu3, officials or interpreting functionaries, who were responsible for receiving the envoys of the various tribes beyond the central regions

1 《礼记·王制》上记载：中国、夷、蛮、戎、狄……五方之民，言语不通，嗜欲不同。达其志，通其欲： 东方曰寄，南方曰象，西方曰狄鞮，北方曰译。(Martha P. Y. Cheung. An Anthology of Chinese Discourse on Translation. Volume 1. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing, 2006: 46.) 2 Yan Yang. A Brief History of Chinese Translation Theory. Austin: University of Texas, 1992: 2. 3 象胥：官名，古代接待四方使者的官员，亦用以指翻译人员。

5 中西翻译理论简明教程（英文版） A Coursebook of Chinese and Western Translation Theories

and for conveying the meanings of the emperors to those envoys and in a word, one of their duties was to interpret or translate so that exchange might be conducted smoothly, goodwill might be felt and good relationships might be well maintained. A Western Han work attributes a dialogue about translation to Confucius, who advises a ruler that wishes to learn foreign languages not to bother, and instead to focus on governance and let the translators handle communications. The earliest bit of translation theory may be the phrase “names should follow their bearers, while things should follow China.”4 In other words, names should be transliterated, while things should be translated by meaning. In the subsequent years, as we can assert, there did exist traces of translation activities, but detailed historical records were rather sporadic or trivial till the Eastern Han Dynasty when Buddhist scriptures were introduced into China, which is normally referred to in translation circles as the first high tide of translation that took place in Chinese history. One interesting thing worth noticing in Chinese translation history is that before original Buddhist scriptures were available in the 3rd and 4th centuries, Buddhist scriptures were translated in such a way that the procedure took two or three steps: 1) interpreting-scribing, oral transmission or retelling from memory (口授) ; 2) interpreting into Chinese (言传); 3) scribing, putting the interpretation down in Chinese characters (笔受). Usually, the first activity was undertaken by a foreign missionary with little or no knowledge of Chinese, and the second one by a foreign missionary with some knowledge of Chinese, and the third by a native Chinese without much knowledge of Central Asian or Indic languages. While translation from oral instruction instead of from a written text certainly casts doubt on the reliability of the scriptures and the authenticity of the Chinese version, the method itself, which was practiced for a long time, was also quite problematic, for unless the person in charge of interpretation and the person in charge of scribing had a good command of both the source language and the target language, misinterpretation and mistranslation were inevitable.

4 “名从主人，物从中国”，这也被认为是我国最早有关音译的说法。

6 Chapter 1 Buddhist Scripture Translation Theory

2 Important Figures

2.1 An Shigao5: The Initiator of Buddhist Scripture Translation

An Shigao’s family name was taken from the name of Kingdom of Anxi (Parthian Empire, ancient Iran), his courtesy name as a monk was Shigao, and his given name Qing. He was a filial prince and was bright and eager to learn, and he had a broad spectrum of knowledge. One year after he took his throne, he renounced his claim and became a monk, and then traveled along the Silk Road and made his way to , the then Chinese capital in 148 A.D. and learned Chinese not long afterward. From 148 A.D. to 173 A.D., An Shigao is said to have translated 35 Buddhist scriptures of 41 fascicles into Chinese, introducing the basic Abhidharmic doctrine (higher doctrine)6 and the meditative method of the school of . Hinayana is a and Pāli term literally means “the low vehicle”, “the inferior vehicle”, “the deficient vehicle” or, “the lesser vehicle”. It later evolved into the study of present- day . Mingdu Wushijiaoji Jing,7 the earliest verifiable and datable translation of Buddhist scriptures has been ascribed to him. His contribution was manifest and therefore, he was honored as the initiator of Buddhist scripture translation and the first ever to translate Hinayana into Chinese. His translation was lucid in argumentation, and precise in the choice of words, and the language was eloquent without being flowery, and unhewn without being coarse. (From Biographies of Eminent Monks by Liang Huijiao.)8

5 安世高（约二世纪），本名为清，字世高，是西域安息国的王太子。安世高小时候就因为其孝行而著名，而 且他聪慧好学，知识面很宽广。安世高继承王位一年后就放弃了，出家为僧，大致在汉桓帝146至167年前 后，到达中土洛阳。来华不久，安世高就掌握了汉语，译出了早期的一批汉译佛经，包括印度小乘佛教禅类 的经典等。 6 (Sanskrit) or Abhidhamma（Pāli）阿毗达磨、阿毗昙，意译为“论藏”，佛教三藏之一，指佛以自 问答的方式论辩法相为经，佛弟子及诸菩萨又据此解释经义﹑论辩法相的有关著作。 7 《明度五十校记经》，Fifty Schemes of the Perfection of Wisdom。 8 梁慧皎《高僧传》评安世高的译文“义理明晰，文字允正，辩而不华，质而不野”。（马祖毅. 中国翻译简 史.北京：中国对外翻译出版公司，1998：23.）

7 中西翻译理论简明教程（英文版） A Coursebook of Chinese and Western Translation Theories

However, it was a shame that nothing about translation theory was found from him and he even did not write anything about discourse on translation theory.

2.2 Zhi Loujiachen: Accurately Captured the Original Meaning; with Not a Touch of Embellishment in the Style

Zhi Loujiachen9 ( of Lokaksema, who is also called Lokaraksa) got his family name Zhi from the name of the Kingdom of . Zhi Loujiachen was his sinicized name. He came to the then Chinese capital Luoyang after 147 A.D., and stayed there for about forty years. He was well versed in Chinese and translated Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. He was one of the three Yuezhi scholars (the other two being Zhi Liang and Zhi Qian10). These three were renowned for their Buddhist scholarship. Zhi Loujiachen’s translated works are mostly of the Mahayana school of thought11. Dao An commented on his works as “accurately capturing the original meaning; with not a touch of embellishment in the style; and the work of a great preacher good at explicating the Buddhist in all its essence.”12

2.3 Zhi Qian and His “Preface to the Translation of the ”

Zhi Qian’s courtesy name was Gongming (恭明), and he was a Chinese of Scythian origin and the first to translate Buddhist scriptures in the South of China instead of Luoyang. Though he was born in a member of Yuezhi tribes at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, his family moved into Han territory and he grew up in the Chinese language and culture. Zhi Qian was exceptionally bright and competent in six different languages and was revered as a “wise man”. He was a well-known translator and collected various written texts of Buddhist scriptures in Central Asian or Indic languages and available Chinese translations, and worked on

9 支娄迦谶，中国东汉僧人，佛经译师，简称支谶，本是月氏国人（敦煌、祁连之间）。 10 支亮和支谦。支亮受业于支娄迦谶，而支谦则受业于支亮，世称“天下博知，不出三支”。（马祖毅. 中国翻译 简史.北京：中国对外翻译出版公司，1998：27.） 11 Mahayana (Sanskrit, literally means “great vehicle”)，大乘佛教。佛教中用马车来比喻度众生的工具，大乘是 “大的车乘”之意，指能将无量众生度到彼岸。 12 “贵尚实中，不存文饰。”（马祖毅. 中国翻译简史.北京：中国对外翻译出版公司，1998：23.）

8 Chapter 1 Buddhist Scripture Translation Theory translating fascicles of those scriptures which had not yet been done before. Besides, he retranslated earlier Chinese translations that he reckoned too simplistic or blurred or obscure. From 222 A.D. to 252 A.D., he translated 88 and among these works, Vimalakirti Nirdesha Sutra13 and Maha-prajna-paramitasutra14, which earlier had been translated by Zhi Loujiachen, were Zhi Qian’s most important revisions or retranslations. Zhi Qian was referred to as a fervent advocator of wen15 school for the simple reason that he was against translating in an unhewn and straightforward manner. In his translation, he omitted the frequent repetitions in the source sutra which he felt unnecessary, and used transliterations as little as possible. Zhi Qian’s another important contribution to Chinese translation theory was his “Preface to the Translation of the Dhammapada”16. Many scholars in Chinese translation circles view that this very preface contains the first, or the earliest, to be exact, theoretical discourse on translation in the Chinese translation history.17

诸佛典皆在天竺。天竺言语，与汉异音。云其书为天书，语为天语，名物不同， 传实不易……仆初嫌其为词不雅。维祇难曰：“佛言依其义不用饰，取其法不以严。 其传经者，当令易晓，勿失厥义，是则为善。”座中咸曰：“老氏称‘美言不信，信 言不美’。仲尼亦云‘书不尽言，言不尽意’。明圣人意深邃无极。今传梵义，实宜 径达。”是以自偈受译人口，因循本旨，不加文饰。 The incarnations of the Buddha have taken place only in the Indian subcontinent, where the speech is very different from Chinese, and the script is called “heavenly script” while the spoken language is called “heavenly speech”. As the terms used to denote things are so different in the two languages, translation is indeed difficult… At first I found the translation lacking in elegance, but Vighna said, “the Buddha

13 《维摩诘经》（also called Sutra Spoken by Vimalakirti）, a still extant masterpiece of Buddhist literature which was also very popular with the cultured gentry. 14 《大明度无极经》，又称《大明经》《大明度经》。 15 “文”，有译者翻译成 refined，literariness，free，semantic等，与其相对应的是“质”，多被译成unhewn， straightforward，simple，literal，word-for-word等。 16 《法句经序》(Preface to the Translation of the Dhammapada), collected in Chusanzang Jiji.（《出三藏记集》，A Collection of Records on the Emanation of the Chinese Tripitaka. Fascicle 7.） 17 罗新璋. 翻译论集. 北京：商务印书馆，1984：2.

9 中西翻译理论简明教程（英文版） A Coursebook of Chinese and Western Translation Theories

himself said that one should follow the sense in all its plainness, dispense with embellishment (饰), and transmit the truth without being too strict (严) with the means and method. If a sutra translation is easy to understand and no meaning is lost, then it is a good translation.” The people who were present all agreed to this and said, “Laozi cautioned that ‘beautiful words are not trustworthy and trustworthy words are not beautiful’, and Confucius made a similar remark, ‘Writing cannot fully express what is conveyed by speech; speech cannot fully express ideas’. This shows how fathomless and limitless the thoughts of the saintly sages are. Today when we translate the sutra, we should directly convey the meaning.” I now write down only the words spoken by the presiding translator and I follow the original theme of the sutra without refining it with embellishment.18

2.4 Hui Yuan: Striving to Preserve the Original

Hui Yuan (334–416A.D.) proposed a theory of translation that is middling in a positive sense. It is a synthesis that avoids extremes of elegance (文雅) and plainness (质朴). With elegant translation, the language goes beyond the meaning of the original (文过其意). With plain translation, the thought surpasses the wording (理 胜其辞). For Hui Yuan, the words should not harm the meaning (文不害意). A good translator should strive to preserve the original (务存其本). Realizing the defects in either elegance or plainness, he further stated in his “Da Zhi Lun Chao Xu”19 that to render a sutra that is unhewn into a translation that is refined is to provoke doubt and skepticism; and to render a sutra that is refined into a translation that is unhewn is to invoke the displeasure of most readers.20 His argument might sound eclectic and compromising, and it seemed a step forward if a translator had not taken into account the style of the original.

18 “美言不信，信言不美”“书不尽言，言不尽意”。See also: “Beautiful words are not truthful, and truthful words are not beautiful.” “Writing cannot exhaust speech/word, and speech/word cannot exhaust ideas.” “True words are not embellished, The embellished words are not true.” (Matha, P. Y. Cheung. An Anthology of Chinese Discourse on Translation. Volume 1. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing, 2006: 59.) 19 《大智论钞序》。 20 Martha P. Y. Cheung. An Anthology of Chinese Discourse on Translation. Volume 1. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing, 2006.

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