What does translator mean? Chinese calendar
Translation is the process of transforming a relatively unfamiliar expression into a relatively familiar expression. Its content includes the translation of language, words, graphics, and symbols. Among them, "translation" refers to the language conversion of conversation, and "translation" refers to the language conversion of one-way statements.
The Book of Rites and the Royal System records this: "The people of the five parties have different languages and different desires. To reach their aspirations and communicate their desires, the east is said to send, the south is said to be like, the west is said to be like Di, and the north is said to translate." Among them, Ji, Xiang, Di, and Yi are all other names for the work of translation. Later, the translators of Buddhist scriptures added translation before the translation, becoming the word "translation", which has been passed down to this day. So why not say translating, translating, and translating? That's because the greatest threat in ancient China came from the nomadic people in the north, and the "translation" at that time was dedicated to translating the languages of the northern ethnic groups. Therefore, the ancient people paid significantly more attention to translation than Ji, Xiang, and Di. It is not surprising to call it translation.
However, the status of the translator is not very high. In the Han Dynasty, there were translator orders and nine translation orders, which belonged to Dahonglu, one of the Nine Qing Dynasties. In the Han Dynasty, the county officials were called Taishou, and the county officials were called orders. The status of the translator orders and nine translation orders is not very high. Why is it called nine translation orders? There are many ethnic groups in the north, and sometimes they have to go through many translations when communicating, and the nine translation is a lot of words. In the Book of Later Han Dynasty, there was a country in the south of Jiaozhi called Yueshang. Probably in southern Vietnam today, it was necessary to pay tribute to the Zhou Dynasty and "re-translate the white pheasant". And the biography of Shangshu records: "When King Cheng of Zhou, the Yueshang family translated the nine times and paid tribute to the white pheas It was about sending a translator to translate the Yueshang language into other languages before translating it into Chinese. It was similar to the process of "Yueshang language - Cantonese - Hunan dialect - Hubei dialect - Henan dialect... Zhou Dynasty Mandarin" before the translation was successful. To commemorate this, Duke Zhou also wrote a song "Yueshang Practice".
There is a story called "Li Zhexian's Drunk Grass Scare Barbarian Book" in "Warning the World", which tells the story of the Bohai Kingdom sending a letter to the Great Tang Dynasty, which no one in the dynasty could recognize. Li Bai not only read the letter of the state, but also wrote a letter of reply to publicize the national prestige and the Bohai Kingdom expressed surrender. This is the words of a novelist, not based on it. In fact, ancient translators were not as popular as Li Bai. Zhang Qian of the Western Han Dynasty went to the Western Regions, and there was a Gan Fu in his entourage, who was doing translation. Gan Fu was a Xiongnu, captured by the Han Dynasty, and later appointed by Emperor Wu of Han as the guide and translator of Zhang Qian's team. Gan Fu lived up to his mission and helped Zhang Qian achieve his great career in the Western Regions. When Zheng He went to the West, there was also such a translator who worked with Ma Huan. Ma Huan wrote Yingya Shenglan, which is recognized as one of the most important original documents on Zheng He.
Xu Guangqi of the Ming Dynasty was an official, but not a translator. He engaged in translation purely out of interest. He collaborated with Matteo Ricci and other missionaries to translate books such as "Principles of Geometry", which can be called the first person in ancient China to read the West.
Heshen, the great corrupt official of the Qing Dynasty, was a talented translator. He was fluent in Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian and Tibetan languages, and handled diplomatic matters such as the visit of the British envoy Macartney. Some people say that Heshen was favored by Qianlong only because of his handsome appearance. It seems inaccurate, but Heshen is still quite talented.
After the Second Opium War, the Qing Dynasty established the Tongwen Museum to train translators in English, French, Russian and other languages. Only then did China's translation industry really get on the right track.
