Author(s)

Xiao Yiqi ¹, Liu Yushan ², Peng Yanghua ²

Affiliation(s)

¹ School of Foreign Languages, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, China
² School of Foreign Languages, Chengdu College of Arts and Sciences, Chengdu, China

Corresponding Author

Liu Yushan

ABSTRACT

Based on the Pre-Qin Enfeoffment System, Zhou Kinship System, and the Five Ranks of Nobility, this paper conducted literature studies to select 43 titles of rulers in The Bestowed Realm. Conceptual analyses and comparative analyses were utilized on grounds of the interpretation of ancient Chinese text. In doing so, three distinct characteristics of the original text were identified, i.e. demotic expression, contradictory reference, and cultural parataxis. To this end, this paper, with a special focus on the variant of translation, hopes to provide new insights and references for translation studies of historical terminology. Variational translation theory (VTT) was applied in the English translation of the titles of rulers in the Ba-Shu political system. The results indicate that centering on VTT-moderated alteration, addition, and deletion may help approach semantic equivalence while ensuring readability, clear referentiality, and cultural relevance, thereby delineating the political and cultural nuances of Ba-Shu.

KEYWORDS

Variational translation theory, The Bestowed Realm, titles of rulers, English Translation of Historical Terminology

CITE THIS PAPER

Xiao Yiqi, Liu Yushan, Peng Yanghua, Variational Translation of the Titles of Rulers in Ba and Shu: An English Translation Study on the Bestowed Realm. Lecture Notes on Language and Literature (2024) Vol. 7: 59-65. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/langl.2024.070409.

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