TCM translation

September 29, 2004

Could anyone tell me some information about TCM translation which is from

Chinese to English.Beside that,I am also interested in

translaters who are famous for TCM translation.

Thanks a lot.

October 2, 2004

Hi

There are many different translation of TCM into english how ever they have

certainly become more uniform now. I recently pasted about a book a read which

I believe is the best translation or interpratation that I have seen into

english. The book was called " Unification of Western Medicine & Traditional

" . The reason I believe it is the best is because unlike many of

the current translations that use very mystical or conflicting words this book

has totally manged to avoid that. Iit costs $280 New Zealand so you may want to

et it from your library, its bloody brilliant I know you will be impressed.

regards

Manu

lingzhi xu <lingzhi_xu wrote:

Could anyone tell me some information about TCM translation which is from

Chinese to English.Beside that,I am also interested in

translaters who are famous for TCM translation.

Thanks a lot.

October 2, 2004

<snip>

> The book was called " Unification of

> Western Medicine & Traditional Chinese

> Medicine " . The reason I believe it is

> the best is because unlike many of the

> current translations that use very

> mystical or conflicting words this book

> has totally manged to avoid that.

Manu,

could you look in your copy and see what the concept of Western

detoxification is interpreted to in TCM vocabulary?

Penel

October 2, 2004

On 02/10/2004, at 8:48 PM, manu hamlin wrote:

> I recently pasted about a book a read which I believe is the best

> translation or interpratation that I have seen into english. The book

> was called " Unification of Western Medicine & Traditional Chinese

> Medicine " . The reason I believe it is the best is because unlike many

> of the current translations that use very mystical or conflicting

> words this book has totally manged to avoid that.

> Manu

>

Hi Manu,

I have not read this book as yet, but is its topic really a translation

at all?

From what you have posted previously; IMO it would be unsuitable for

translating TCM from Chinese to English as was the original question. I

thought the original poster was after information about translating TCM

into English thus allowing the communication of TCM ideas to native

English speakers......not trying to reconcile TCM with WM or joining

the two. IMO, translating TCM from Chinese to English has nothing to do

with WM; English is a language.....WM is a medical system.

The avoiding of " mystical or conflicting " words of TCM is

interpretation, filtering and to a large degree " censorship " ; such

practices are not suitable for translating TCM from Chinese to English.

TCM and WM are currently very different animals and the approach of the

text you recommend has merit for the future of medicine, but I doubt it

has any place in translating material into English,

Best Wishes,

Steve

October 2, 2004

LingZhi,

I think the book skip recommended may be helpful for your papers, and

will be especially helpful for communicating with English speakers

about TCM whose education's may have used different English

terminology's. If you intend to become a clinical translator this book

will be invaluable for you.

On 02/10/2004, at 5:17 PM, skip8080 wrote:

>

> Lingzhi , and all;

> I picked up a great book, in Nanjing.

>

> On The Srandard Nomenclature of Traditional

> by Prof.XieZhufan

> Foreign Languages press . Beijing

>

> IMO, it is The Book on standardized TCM terminology

>

> Skip... in Fuzhou

This text considers the most common English translations for each TCM

term and suggests a standard for future translations. The logic behind

the authors choices is very inconsistent and often hypocritical,

varying from " the most common " , to the actual meanings of the terms

depending on what only seems to be his preference.......not a very

helpful approach in my opinion and this leaves no authority on his

final term choice at times.

The author also has a preference for choosing western medical disease

names over TCM ones, this approach is fine when the two are the

same......however, he often stretches the relationship so that the

depth and significance of the original TCM term is lost e.g.. wind-fire

eye = acute conjunctivitis. To my mind there are two issues here:

1) TCM practitioners in the west generally can not make a WM diagnosis

(we are not WM doctors in general)

2) Acute conjunctivitis breaks the flow of TCM logic of aetiology and

pathology and thus treatment that is evident in the term " wind-fire

eye " and is completely lost by choosing a WM term.

Personally, I found this book very helpful in cross-referencing the

different terms used by different authors currently publishing in

English.

Perhaps the PRC approach to translation is based too much upon teaching

WM doctors TCM, than teaching TCM to those that will be TCM

practitioners; hence the penchant for choosing the closest WM idea when

possible to avoid complications for those without thorough TCM

training. IMO this is a mistake, as the intended audience is generally

people who want to practice TCM, not WM with some TCM extras. As such,

these students require access to the theories, logic and varied

practices of .....things that are lost when

substituting WM terms.

However, for the most useful and accurate resources and terminology I

am definitely leaning towards the Wiseman terminology. My education

used the standard PRC approach but this is very simplified and simply

doesn't mention many TCM terms in the standard texts. The longer I

study and more I learn....the less I like the older and generally

over-simplified translations and lean more towards the consistency and

ability to trace a term using Wiseman terminology.

To gain access to the Wiseman system of translational standards you

will need :-

English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary of by Nigel

Wiseman is a good reference but is NOT a dictionary; it is a glossary

of English, pinyin and Chinese for terminology (not

just modern TCM).

A Practical Dictionary of by Nigel Wiseman and Feng Ye

is a dictionary and an amazingly useful reference for understanding the

actual meaning of terms.

For a Chinese translator, the first text allows one to find the

relevant English term via Chinese or pinyin.....the second text then

gives the definition for the term and discusses related concepts etc.

Both these texts should be available from bookshop at nanjing zhong yi

da xue (I actually got mine there:P)

If you plan to write texts in English in the future, Wiseman should be

your first choice I think. Most of the big publishing houses in the

West and a rapidly growing number of Chinese authors have and are

adopting the standard.

I hope this is of some assistance to you.

Best Wishes,

Steve

October 3, 2004

Hello manu,

First thanks for your information.However, I don't think I can find this

book in the library because I am in China .Such book is really hard to

be found.If I found it ,usually that is in a foreign lauguage book store I can't

afford it.

Best wishes,

lingzhi

manu hamlin <manuhamlin wrote: