Generative AI Empowerment and the Cross-Cultural Re-Canonization of Chinese Literary Essay Classics: A Comparative Study of Zhang Peiji's and DeepSeek's English Translations of Zhu Ziqing'sTheSight of Father's BackandTransient Days
Abstract
This study adopts a descriptive research method, taking Zhang Peiji's and DeepSeek's English translations of the Chinese literary essay classicsThe Sight of Father's BackandTransient Daysas research objects, to evaluate the feasibility of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) empowering the cross-cultural re-canonization of essay classics. The study finds that GenAI can be applied to the cross-cultural re-canonization of essay classics, with satisfactory performance at the semantic and grammatical levels. However, regarding GenAI's deficiencies in reproducing the author's style, emotional diction, and tonal rhythm, it is proposed to establish a human-machine collaboration matrix to reshape "canonicity" through three stages: pre-translation text analysis, in-translation instruction adjustment, and post-translation optimization and quality evaluation. This study can provide references for the translation of Chinese essays in cross-cultural re-canonization.
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