The Three Character Classic can be said to be a Mongolian work that is widely circulated in China and has far-reaching influence. Its author is generally believed to be Yinglin (1223-1296), the Confucian king of the Southern Song Dynasty. But in fact, long before Wang Yinglin, the prototype of the "Three Character Classic" had already appeared. For example, Xiang Anshi of the Song Dynasty once said: "The ancients taught children to use rhymes, such as..."Three Character Classic" and so on." "Xiang Family Theory" Xiang Anshi was born more than a hundred years before Wang Yinglin, so "Three Character Training" can be regarded as the predecessor of "Three Character Classic". In any case, given that the early "Three Character Classic" describes the rise and fall of the past dynasties only in the Song Dynasty, it can be concluded that the earliest draft of the "Three Character Classic" should be in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Therefore, it is not a big mistake to say that the author of "Three Character Classic" is Wang Yinglin of Song Dynasty. The "Three Character Classic" became popular in China after its publication and became a widely used elementary school textbook in China after the Song Dynasty. It can be said that to this day, there are probably very few Han Chinese elementary school students who have not read the "Three Character Classic". As the influence of "Three Character Classic" expands day by day, annotations and enhancements to "Three Character Classic" also continue to appear. Especially since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, not only the annotated version, phonetic version, and illustrated version of "Three Character Classic" have increased day by day, but its content has also increased with the It continued to increase with the changing of dynasties, producing various supplementary editions. Among them, the most widely circulated one should be attributed to the "Commentary Notes on the Three Character Classic" compiled by He Xingsi during the Daoguang period. Therefore, the original text of the "Three Character Classic" chosen by the author is He Xingsi's commentary. Prepare this copy. As the influence of the Three-Character Classic expanded, the translation of the Three-Character Classic also began to gradually unfold. As early as the early Qing Dynasty, in order to facilitate the spread of the "Three Character Classic" among Manchu and Mongolian ethnic groups, the "Three Character Classic" began to be translated into Manchu and Mongolian. Among them, the "Manchu Three Character Classic" translated by Tao Gejing and the "Manchu Three Character Classic" translated by Songyan Fujun The Mongolian-Han Three-Character Classic had a greater influence. In addition, by the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Three Character Classic also began to be translated into foreign languages ??and gradually spread overseas. Among them, those with greater influence include the Latin translation by Wei Francis, the French translation by Rulian, and Pi Zhiwen, Zhai Lisi and Ai Thiel's English translation. Although the above translation was written by Westerners, and its language expression is certainly beyond reproach, the translator's non-Chinese cultural context naturally caused them to lack a sufficient understanding of the true meaning of Xia's traditional culture. Grasping the essence of culture will inevitably involve certain biases caused by cultural barriers. In view of this, in today's era of comprehensive integration of Chinese and Western cultures, a more accurate interpretation and interpretation of the "Three Character Classic" from the perspective of the Chinese cultural context is a necessary and extremely meaningful task. The reason why the "Three Character Classic" has been popular as soon as it was published is because of two reasons: first, it has a catchy rhythm and beauty; second, it has a concise and concise educational function. From a theoretical point of view, the translation of the Three Character Classic should not only convey the rhythmic beauty of the original text, but also convey the educational function of the original text. Only in this way can it be perfect. From the perspective of translation practice, in language conversion in cross-cultural contexts, this kind of perfect translation goal is extremely difficult to achieve, because in order to convey the rhythmic beauty of the original text of "The Three Character Classic", it is natural to translate it in verse. Good, but if you pay too much attention to the rhyme and footwork, there is a real risk of hurting the meaning of the sound. Beauty is beautiful, but it is difficult to perfect it; and if you want to reproduce the educational function of its words and meanings, it is natural to convey the meaning and convey the truth. But if it is urgent We are eager to get to the bottom of the meaning of the words, and we are afraid of harming the rhyme with the meaning. Good things are good, but it is difficult to achieve perfection. When it is difficult to have both goodness and beauty, translators often have no choice but to settle for the second best, or they may enhance their beauty at the expense of their words. Or show the true meaning and let the rhyme go. Now I present it to readers in prose translation, hoping that they can convey the meaning. To put it bluntly, the beauty of translation lies in two minds: one’s own mind and another’s mind. The sincerity is the courageous and enterprising spirit in doing translation work. His heart is considerate of the reader's convenience and discrimination. When the two minds are united, the translation will be perfect. The Thousand-Character Classic was compiled about 1,500 years ago during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty. The editor was the Minister of Sanqi of the Liang Dynasty and Xingsi of Zhou Dynasty. According to the "History of Liang" and other historical records, in order to teach his son to read, Emperor Wu of Liang ordered a literary attendant named Yin Tieshi to copy a thousand unique characters from the handwriting of Wang Xizhi, a great calligrapher of the Jin Dynasty. One word; but so many words were messy and difficult to remember, Emperor Wu of Liang summoned his most trusted literary attendant Zhou Xingsi and ordered him to organize these words into an easy-to-understand enlightenment reading. Zhou Xingsi pondered hard all night and assembled this thousand-word couplet into a four-character rhyme book with exquisite conception and rich connotation. It is said that Zhou Xingsi's beard and hair turned white the next day due to excessive mental exertion. Since then, "The Thousand Character Essay" has become a popular children's literacy book. Each line of "The Thousand Character Classic" has eight characters. Judging from the content, it can be divided into four parts: the first sentence "The sky and the earth are black and yellow, the universe is primitive" to the eighteenth sentence "Transformed into vegetation, relying on all directions" are the first part. ; The 19th sentence "covering this body and hair, the four major and five permanent things" to the 51st sentence "persisting in elegance, being good at self-reliance" is the second part; the 52nd sentence "the capital of China, the two capitals in the east" " to the 81st sentence "The vastness is far away and the mountains are vast, Yanxiu Yaoming is in the dark" is the third part; the 82nd sentence "Treat the root cause is farming, and provide resources for harvesting" to the penultimate sentence "Ignorance and ignorance will disappear" is the third part. Part Four. The last sentence, "The predicate helps, it's so important" has no real meaning and is listed in isolation. The first part outlines the formation of the universe and the evolution of culture; the second part focuses on human cultivation and virtues, which can be seen to be mainly derived from the Confucian educational tradition; the third part describes the luxurious life and cultural governance of those who live in the temple. Martial arts also describes the vast and beautiful land of China; the fourth part is the longest and mainly describes the pastoral life of people living far away from the world and the superb skills of skilled craftsmen. In the process of English translation, the translator adopted a three-fold strategy.
The first is a literal translation, which is basically word for word, with a few exceptions. The purpose is to highlight the function of the original text as a literacy reader. The free translation part reorganizes, transforms and polishes the scattered words in the literal translation part to conform to English grammar and achieve an organic connection with the context. Additional comments provide necessary background knowledge for easier understanding by English-speaking readers. The author hopes that by comparing the literal translation and the free translation, English readers can better grasp the characteristics of the Chinese language. In addition, in order for readers to better learn "The Thousand Character Classic" and appreciate traditional Chinese culture, we have also reproduced Wang Xizhi's authentic calligraphy here. Although over the course of thousands of years, each specific character may not have been chosen by Emperor Wu of Liang. of. The only thing that needs to be explained is that the word "Xuan" in "Heaven and Earth Xuan Huang" has not been found in Wang Xizhi's calligraphy works, so we have to use the synonym "Yuan" instead.