Adaptable-translation, pseudotranslation, and translation from the perspective of Buddhist sutra translations in early medieval China

This article provides an early medieval Chinese perspective to further the discussion of adaptation, pseudotranslation, and translation. During the first to the fifth centuries CE, Chinese translation of Buddhist sutras included some unconventional practices. Translators either rendered source texts that were incomplete or partially rendered the complete source texts in their possession. The works were accepted as faithful translations of genuine sources from India and helped disseminate Buddhism, though theoretically, believers would only accept literal translations of sutras. Based on Bastin’s conceptualization of adaptation and the features of Buddhist translations, I have labeled it as “adaptable-translation” and argue that in early medieval China, there were adaptable-translations with pseudotranslation elements and adaptable-translations with the nature of pseudotranslation. Detailed analysis and case studies of five specific modes of “adaptable-translation” will show how they differ from “adaptation” of Bastin and “pseudotranslation” of Toury or Bassnett. Based on the analysis, I argue that a judgment of the nature of a text as a “translation” can be both qualitative and quantitative.

Chiwu shenzhen jing Scrutinized: An Early Form of the Ebb-Flow Therapy from Dunhuang in Early Medieval China

Written in Dunhuang, Chiwu shenzhen jing (赤烏神針經) is a long lost medical work and its contents remain unknown. Based on Dunhuang manuscripts and Japanese collections of ancient Chinese medical classics, this research argues that Chiwu shenzhen jing concerns temporally sensitive needling treatment, which forms an early practice of the midnight-noon ebb-flow (the commonly-used translation of Ziwu liuzhu 子 午流注) therapy, in fact, as early as the 3rd century CE. At the very end of this article, this research emphasizes the role of Dunhuang as a vehicle for promoting the ebb-flow theory through the Sino-Indian medical exchanges.

War Captives, Left-Behind Wives, and Buddhist Nuns: Female Migrants in Early Medieval China (4th–6th Century CE)

Using received texts and excavated funerary epitaphs, this article examines the intricacies of gender and migration in early medieval China by exploring women's long-distance mobility from the fourth century to the sixth century, when what is now known as China was divided by the Northern Wei and a succession of four southern states—the Eastern Jin, Liu-Song, Southern Qi, and Liang. I focus on three types of migration in which women participated during this period: war-induced migration, family reunification, and religious journeys. Based on this analysis, I propose answers to two important questions: the connection between migration and the state, and textual representations of migrants. Though the texts under consideration are usually written in an anecdotal manner, the references to women, I argue, both reveals nuances in perceptions of womanhood at the time and elucidates the contexts within—and through—which long-distance travel became possible for women.

Introduction to a Forum on Migration in Early Medieval China

How do we think about migration? This question was the topic of the first installment of the 2019 Tanner Lectures on Human Values, given by the exiled Russian journalist Masha Gessen, at Harvard University. Gessen, who had reported on immigrants, began with a story of a Montenegro man whose family fled to the United States when he was five. Then they told a second story, then a third, followed by fifty-four more stories of individuals’ sorrows, despair, and dreams. Gessen's intent was to bring to life individual migrants, underscoring their diverse experiences. Individuality and complexity matter, because too often, people on the move are reduced to numbers in the news and in the eyes of governments.