Reconstruction of Traditional Chinese Medicine Discourse in Cross-Cultural Translation: A Case Study of English Translation of Cultural Loaded-Terms in Jushuo Xinglin: Microfilm of TCM History
Abstract
Focusing on the English translation of Jushuo Xinglin: Microfilm of TCM History, this study investigates the translation strategies for culture-loaded terms—the core elements of the TCM discourse system—and their impact on the reconstruction of TCM discourse in cross-cultural contexts. Through illustrative case analysis, it applies Functional Equivalence Theory to assess terminology standardization, the Cultural Translation Perspective to analyze cultural imagery preservation, and Skopos Theory to guide strategy selection, systematically evaluating the translation's communicative efficacy. The findings indicate that while the translation achieves notable success in terminology standardization and cultural imagery preservation, it also reveals issues such as metaphorical loss and insufficient annotation. Based on these findings, the study proposes a three-tier "Terminology-Imagery-Discourse" optimization strategy, which entails enhancing the alignment between international terminology standards and cultural contexts, supplementing semantic network annotations for metaphors, and reconstructing the cross-cultural narrative logic of TCM discourse, thereby providing theoretical insights and practical references for constructing the discourse system in the international dissemination of TCM culture.
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