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A Note on the Translation of Two Technical Terms in ChineseScience: Wu-Hsing and Hsiu

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2015

John S. Major
John S. Major*
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College
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Extract

(A recent conversation between the author and Prof. Nathan Sivin of MIT onthe correct translation of the term hsiu was followedup by a thoughtful letter from Prof. Sivin which is quoted at length below.It seemed appropriate to broaden the discussion to include the term wu-hsing, to provide some lexical-historicalbackground, and to share the sense of the conversation with ourcolleagues.)

Technical terms in any language cannot be understood correctly when renderedin another language unless commonly accepted and precise translations, whichevoke neither more nor less than the meaning of the original term, can beachieved. Yet that is a difficult task, bounded by prior connotations of thetranslations chosen, and by differences in general cultural context that maybe very great. The task is made more difficult still because any scholarlydiscipline that relies heavily on translation as one of its methods is oftenheir to “standard” translations of technical terms. Some of these haveachieved general currency through long use, but might not have been, whenthey were first proposed, well thought out or based on adequate scholarlyunderstanding. Others may be, in some cases, just plain wrong. An example ofa standard translation that is not well thought out is “five elements” for wu-hsing; one that is clearly wrong is “lunarmansion” for hsiu.

Type
Articles
Information
Early China , Volume 2 , Fall 1976 , pp. 1 - 3
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Study of Early China 1976 

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References

FOOTNOTES

1. Needham, Joseph, Science and Civilization in China II:245 (Cambridge, at the University Press, 1956)Google Scholar.

2. Doré, Henri, Researches into Chinese Superstitions III: xiv (Shanghai, 1914; reprint ed., Taipei, 1966)Google Scholar.

3. Ricci, Matteo, Journals (1615)Google Scholar. Translated in Gallagher, Louis J., S. J., , China in the 16th Century (New York, Random House, 1953), pp. 98–99 Google Scholar.

4. Porkert, Manfred, The Theoretical Foundations of Chinese Medicine (Cambridge, MIT Press East Asian Science Series, 1974), pp. 43–45 Google Scholar.

5. Wylie, Alexander, “The Mongol Astronomical Instruments in Peking,” Chinese Researches (Shanghai, 1897; reprint ed., Taipei, 1966), p. 10 Google Scholar.

6. Nathan Sivin, private communication.

7. de Saussure, Léopold, “Le zodiaque lunaire, 1er partie,” T'oung Pao 1922:251–318 Google Scholar; also in de Saussure, , Les origines de l'astronomie chinoise (Paris, 1930; reprint ed., Taipei, 1967), pp. 527–594 Google Scholar.

8. Doré, III:xiv-xviii.

9. Sivin, private communication.

10. Needham, , Science and Civilization in China II:244 Google Scholar. In his review of Porkert, , The Theoretical Foundations of Early Chinese Medicine (Annals of Science 32, no. 5 [09 1975] pp. 491–502)Google Scholar, Needham again argues forcefully against adopting new translations of technical terms to replace those hallowed by tradition.

11. Sivin, private communication.