Xu Proud-＂A trusted subordinate, a good friend＂： Mao Xuan’s English translation.
Qian Zhongshu, a great scholar, had no contact with the revolutionary Xu Yongqiang, because in the English translation of Selected Works of Mao Zedong, "He (Qian Zhongshu) worked under the leadership of Comrade Xu Yongqiang for many years and became good friends from trusted subordinates".(Yang Jiang: "The Three of us", Sanlian Bookstore, page 124).
Selected Works of Mao Zedong, a four-volume edition, People’s Publishing House, Beijing, was first published in 1951, 52, 53 and 60 (all the materials in this paper are the author’s collection except the special explanation with pictures and Notes on Selected Poems of Song Dynasty).
In order to comprehensively sum up the experience of China revolution, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China put the formal editing and publishing of Selected Works of Mao Zedong on the agenda. In May 1950, the "Mao Zedong Selected Works Publishing Committee" was established, with Liu Shaoqi as the director and Chen Boda, Tian Jiaying and Hu Qiaomu as the main members, and Mao Zedong himself edited and examined the contents. However, in many selected books published before, important articles may be omitted, the text may be wrong, and the editing style may not be reasonable. There is no doubt that the new version is more authoritative.
Xu Yongxuan, the host of Mao Xuan’s English translation, is one of the founders of the Central China Bureau in communist party, USA. He has led the left-wing movement of overseas Chinese in the United States for nearly 20 years, and is also known as one of the best "two and a half people" in China English by Zhou Enlai. In 1945, he was entrusted by Dong Biwu to organize the translation of Mao Zedong’s works. In May, 1950, he was appointed as the director of the Mao Xuan Committee for English Translation of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee (later renamed the English Translation Room of Selected Works of Mao Zedong). In August of the same year, Qian Zhongshu was transferred from Tsinghua University to the English-Chinese Mao Xuan Committee, and since then, he has worked with Xu Yongxuan for more than ten years.
Xu Yongxuan’s manuscript "Important Situation after Joining the Party", recalling the English translation of Mao Xuan, was written in 1954.
The First Three Volumes of Mao Zedong’s Selected Works/Two Legendary Stories of Qian Zhongshu
The translation of Mao Xuan into English started with the first three volumes, which lasted from May 1950 to the end of 1953, almost in sync with the publication of the Chinese version. The office is located in the courtyard of No.17 Tangzi Hutong, Xicheng, Beijing. Many scholars with profound knowledge in both Chinese and English are gathered among the members, including Huang Zitong, Jin Yuelin, Qian Zhongshu, Chen Kui, Hu Yi, Yang Qingkun, Chen Zhenhan, Wang Zuoliang, Huang Yushi, Zheng Rulun and Yuan Kejia.
Zhang Shuzhi, an observer, recalled an English translation collating meeting:
The meeting was held in a big house, with a long table and a circle of people, with Xu Yongxuan sitting at one end and a foreigner sitting beside him. The people here are older, and the so-called big is only thirty or forty years old. It’s young over there. They are all next to the table. I’ll sit in the back and listen How do they translate it? Boy, in a word, a person turned it over and turned around, and finally came to Xu Yongxuan, and he finalized it. They seem to have a format, as if they were "right" one by one.("Zhang Shuzhi’s dictation", "Chronology of Xu Yongyan", 251 pages)
Xu Yongqiang, an old party member who joined the Party in 1927, is highly political. In 1945, he had the experience of organizing the translation and examination of Mao Zedong’s works, and he paid more attention to the political connotation of the text. At the same time, he also advocated that the original content is profound and requires a highly precise and accurate translation. The translation has been revised for more than a dozen times, so that it is not too much.
For more than ten years, there has been a debate in the working group about the method of literal translation or free translation, and sometimes it even gets red in the face. Ejdero, a foreign expert, called it the Sword-point confrontation method.
For example, the word "paper tiger" was translated into paper tiger by Mao Zedong himself. Some translators worry that literal translation may confuse foreigners. Xu Yongzheng explained: the paper will break when you poke it. The tiger is a symbol of fierceness and invincibility, which can be understood by anyone, so you choose literal translation. In the 1950s, when translating the phrase "strive for the upper reaches", Xu Yongzheng was in favor of free translation and borrowed the English phrase aim high.(Xu Qingzhu: "Two-word Commemoration", "A Hundred Years of Forever", 236 pages)
Qian Zhongshu is a scholar who has participated in the English translation of Mao Zedong’s Selected Works for the longest time. However, it is hard to test which articles and sentences he has translated, but there are two legendary stories.
One is "A fall into the pit, a gain in your wit" in "On Practice", which was immediately translated by Qian Zhongshu.(Selected Works of Mao Zedong, English Version Volume I)Jin Yuelin was greatly admired.
"Learning from one’s mistakes", On Practice, Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Volume I, foreign languages press, 1964, Beijing.
The other is that Qian Zhongshu pointed out that the Monkey Sun in the original text never got into Niu Mowang’s belly. After confirmation by Tian Jiaying and Mao Zedong, the original text was revised. This article is an extremely important policy in the third volume of Mao Xuan.
An Extremely Important Policy, Liberation Daily, September 7, 1942, Anti-Japanese War Literature Data Platform.
"Proud" and "Depressed" Qian Zhongshu
Qian Zhongshu, before the end of the first three volumes of Mao Xuan’s English translation, seemed arrogant to others. As Yang Jiang said, "Although there is nothing wrong with Zhong Shu, he is also arrogant enough. Comrade Qiao Mu once criticized him for being "old-fashioned in clothes" without naming him, because he still wore robes because of his books. "(Yang Jiang, The Three of us, page 157).
Li Ke and Li Youan, Americans who once taught in the Department of Foreign Languages in Tsinghua University, wrote in a letter to their teacher Professor Bude on December 1, 1949:
We made some acquaintance with Chinese in Tsinghua. Qian Zhongshu of the well-known Book Forest Quarterly teaches in the Foreign Languages Department here, and we have become unwilling. He is the most conceited person I have ever seen, but he is also a rare genius.(quoted from Xie Yong: "An Experience in Qian Zhongshu", "An Examination of Qian Zhongshu’s Friendship", translation 185 pages, letter attached figure 195 pages)
Qian Zhongshu knew that this job was not easy, and it was by no means a "walk in the south study", and he must have consciously converged his edge. However, his humor and "infatuation" will still be inadvertently revealed, which may be arrogance in the circumstances at that time. Imagine that during the serious and tense political work, he can always joke with Lvyuan, who just met him, in Hubei dialect. In the evening, I visited the old bookstore with my colleagues and boasted that I had read all the thread-bound books in the "two or three rooms" in the store. As for the old-fashioned clothes, it was not in line with the times atmosphere of people’s clothes at that time.
On the night of receiving the task of the English Translation Committee, Qian Zhongshu said to Yang Jiang in fear: "This thing is not easy to do, not asking for merit, but asking for nothing." In the same year, Qian Zhongshu wrote a poem "Answering Uncle" to his most congenial friend, Mao Xiaolu, from which we can get a glimpse of his feelings at that time: a sick horse is tired of chasing ten drivers, but he is still afraid of touching Qian Fan when sinking his boat. The article was filled with empty vomiting by mistake, and it was silent when it came to attendance.
Why were the first three volumes of Mao Xuan retranslated?
In early 1954, Xu Yongzheng was transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and was still responsible for the finalization of the English version of the anthology. After the English translation of the first three volumes of Mao Xuan was completed, it was published in Lawrence & Wishart Publishing House, the publishing agency of the British Communist Party. Lvyuan thinks that the translated pen is really not bad, and it has achieved "faithfulness" and "expressiveness" and is almost "elegance". However, Springhall, one of the founders of the British communist party, the editor-in-chief of the Workers’ Daily, the organ newspaper of the British Communist Party, and the foreign consultant of the Foreign Languages Bureau, criticized the translation: "The translation is so elegant that we London dockers can’t read it!" Therefore, Qian Zhongshu, Xu Yongzheng and others continued to revise it until it was completed around 1960.(Press: Another important reason for retranslation may be that in the early days of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the translator’s understanding of the strategy of the Chinese Communist Party’s struggle was limited. See page 291 of Hundred Years of Forever.).
After the summer of 1961, during his illness, Xu Yongzheng wrote an article summarizing the experience of translating Mao Xuan into English:
The translation should be popular and not vulgar and vague. The readers of Mao Zedong’s English translation are revolutionary intellectuals in non-English-speaking countries, probably at the university level. In English-speaking countries, advanced workers account for an important part, generally at the secondary school level. Therefore, the translation should be based on the understanding of revolutionary intellectuals with middle school level in English-speaking countries, and should be as simple and popular as possible to avoid unnecessary difficulties in reading. Never use non-English words (such as Greek, Latin, French) where English words can convey their meaning properly. Where common English words can convey their meaning properly, never use classical and remote words.(Xu Yongqiang, Some Common Understanding of Translation, lost draft, about 1961)
Xu Yongqiang’s Notes on the Lost Draft of Some Common Understanding in Translation, Beijing, around 1961, provided by Fang Debing.
This judgment of Xu Yongxuan benefits from his rich experience in working abroad. In the 1920s and 1930s, he went deep into Chinatown in the United States to carry out mass work and mingled with overseas Chinese workers. Xu Yongxuan has a great talent for language. According to Gong Pusheng, a diplomat, Xu Yongxuan is the only leader of the Central Bureau of the Communist Party of America who can talk to overseas Chinese workers in various dialects.
The Translation of Volume IV of Mao Xuan/Xu Yongzheng’s "trueness" and Professor Qian’s "incompatibility"
The fourth volume of Mao Xuan, published in September 1960, contains 70 important works written by Mao Zedong during the war of liberation. In the spring and summer of that year, Xu Yongzheng presided over the English translation of the volume, and completed the first draft in the autumn, and was forced to rest for physical reasons. The Central Committee reassigned Zhang Hanfu, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, to organize the examination and approval. Because of his busy work, Zhang was entrusted to Meng Yongqian, director of the Institute of International Relations. The English version of Volume IV was published in May of the following year.
Or in order to improve the understanding of political principles in translation, the participants in this English translation have been greatly adjusted, and the witnesses Li Dunbai and Cheng Zhenqiu have left precious records.
Li Dunbai, a foreign expert deeply involved in the history of China, wrote the book "Foreigners Behind the Red Curtain: Memoirs of Li Dunbai", which is accurate, detailed and vivid in details, and can be described as a leader in first-hand information. Unfortunately, the transliteration of individual names failed to attract enough attention. The original text is extremely long. The following is an excerpt from the relevant content. The names of people have been corrected, and the words in brackets have been added by the author-
I work in No.15 Hotel, Dongjiaomin Lane. Our lineup can be described as elite: including the most outstanding scholars, economists and English talents in China. There are 14 people in the group, including 9 Chinese and 5 foreigners. The leader of the group is Meng Yongqian. The second Chinese team member was Tang Mingzhao, followed by the legendary Ji Zhaoding, whose half-brother was Ji Chaozhu, the best English translator in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and later joined the team. Other China members include Xu Yunying (Yong Tang), Wu Wentao, Qian Zhongshu, Qiu Kean, Chen Hansheng and Cheng Zhenqiu (Zhenqiu). Besides me, foreigners include Frank Coe, Adler, Shapiro and Epstein.
We worked together for nearly two years, six days a week, eight hours a day (from 2 pm to 10 pm), and translated nearly 500 pages of Selected Works of Mao Zedong. (The English version of Volume IV of Mao Xuan is 459 pages in total) We are not initial translators, but there is another China team responsible for translating the first draft. Our task (the final draft team) is to correct the mistakes (the translation of the first draft). During the discussion, we first worked in pairs to review the English version translated by team member China word for word, and picked out some problematic parts. Cheng Zhenqiu was responsible for recording the contents of our discussion. After the group discussion, each group reported the results of the group discussion to all the staff. After the report, all the staff will repeat the above discussion word for word and debate the problems found by each other. In this way, if we can finish half a page of discussion in one day, we will think that the progress is good. But if you meet with Mao Zedong’s philosophical writing, you can only finish two lines in one day.
We also often get into arguments. Part of the reason for the argument is the difference in English education background. Scholars from Oxford University (Qian Zhongshu, Qiu Ke ‘an, Cheng Zhenqiu) accept British usage, for example, they are more accurate than us in the use of subjunctive mood, but they are not as fluent as us in indirect quotation.
In other aspects, we are often divided into two camps: literal translation school and free translation school. For example, Ji Zhaoding, as the best propagandist among us, is a free translation school, emphasizing how to make the translated English feel fluent, catchy and convincing to western readers. Tang Mingzhao and Xu Yongqiang paid less attention to the style, but paid more attention to the political connotation. Xu Yongzheng often argues with people over a word or phrase. When running a newspaper in the United States, Xu Yongzheng often got the newspaper out of the printing machine because of the controversy of political theory.
Li Dunbai’s "I am an American in China: Oral History of Li Dunbai";
I worked with Qian Zhongshu in the final group of Mao Xuan, but I was not impressed with him. I know that he is a very important cultural figure in contemporary China. When I saw the report about him, I was still a little confused: Is this the Qian Zhongshu I know? He knows old English, speaks like an old pedant, doesn’t fit in with others, and seems to be an outsider. At that time, we often satirized him behind his back. He must be aware of this incompatibility himself. His opinions are not taken seriously. We feel that he has no understanding of politics, and his linguistic genius is useless in translating political works. We all call him "Professor Qian", as if we have no personal contact with him. He didn’t take part in some activities, such as going out to Shanghai and Guangdong, and going to Chairman Mao’s place. At that time, I looked down on people for political reasons. Now, of course, it is very wrong to know, and this is obviously not his shame.
Qian Zhongshu’s style has changed a lot during this period. According to Wu Ningkun, a translator, when attending the translation of the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China in September, 1956, Qian Zhongshu invited Fan Cunzhong, vice president of Nanjing University, to have dinner, invited Wu to accompany him, and told him not to tell anyone. When finalizing the document for the English translation conference, in an office with only Qian Zhongshu, Wang Zuoliang and Wu Ningkun, when the youthful Wu Ningkun complained that the text of a speech was cumbersome and inflexible, Qian Zhongshu "immediately put a finger on his lips and hissed". At that time, it was the time when "a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend". Seeing that Qian Zhongshu was so cautious, Wu Ningkun was very disapproving. After many years, he felt that he had failed Qian Zhongshu’s love.
Qian Zhongshu’s political consciousness is poor.
In Cheng Zhenqiu’s article, Yang Chengfang, Chen Long, Wu Jingrong, Fang Moment-cheng, Yu Baodi, Zheng Ruyun, Zhao Yihe and others participated in the English translation of Volume IV, and Ma Niya and Kefran also polished the translation, who worked in 18 guest houses of the International Liaison Department of Wanshou Road. The list of finalized experts is roughly the same as Li Dunbai’s memory. Although Qian Zhongshu’s name did not appear, Cheng Zhenqiu immediately wrote: "(Qian Zhongshu) also polished the English version of the fourth volume of Mao Xuan." After the fourth volume was finalized, the first three volumes were revised. From 1964 to 1965, foreign languages press published the English versions of the first three volumes of Mao Xuan. The work of the English translation team should be completed before publication.
Xu Yongzheng has only participated in several discussions due to illness, but he has always been concerned about English translation. In March 1962, he wrote to Meng Yongqian and transferred to Zhang Hanfu, suggesting the slow progress of English translation.
I suggest that Cheng Zhenqiu, SOL (Ejdero) and Qian Zhongshu form an advisory group to sort out all previous revision suggestions, and compare them with the first edition (Lawrence & Wishart edition) and the old revised draft (unpublished from 1954 to 1960 with the participation of Qian Zhongshu, Xu Yongqiang and others), and put forward suggestions for potential comrades to consider.
The selection of the advisory group is based on the principle of the integration of red specialties. In recent years, Comrade Zhenqiu is actually a political and technical assistant to Comrade Qian, and also leads the work arrangement of the translation team and the peer review team. He is familiar with the manuscript. After establishing the policy and strengthening the concentration, he became familiar with it and could further play the role of political and technical assistant. SOL’s political level is very high, and English is second to none among foreign comrades, but he doesn’t understand Chinese. Qian Zhongshu’s political consciousness is poor, but both Chinese and English are very good, especially he always and comprehensively participated in the first edition and the old revision. The Institute of Literature now lets him work in the translation team for two days a week. He can only take part in the proofreading of some manuscripts. Because it is limited to meetings, it can’t play a comprehensive and thoughtful role. If the work arrangement is improved and his mood is improved, it may be possible to win him an extra day and a half. If we put these three people together and take a comprehensive and meticulous measurement work, we can get the effect of combining politics and technology, English and Chinese, old people and trust.
While Xu Yongzheng was not in the position, he still tried his best to recommend Qian Zhongshu as an important post in translation work, and made more efforts for translation work, but at the same time he bluntly pointed out the lack of money.
Based on the memories of Yang Jiang, Li Dunbai and Cheng Zhenqiu, Qian Zhongshu also participated in the revision of the first three volumes of Mao Xuan: "In July 1963, Qian Zhongshu finalized the four volumes of Mao Xuan. (Qian Zhongshu is a member of the Finalization Group). "("Yang Jiang’s Life Events in His Later Years", "The Paper", May 25, 2016)
Qian Zhongshu has never been interested in politics. According to Li Dunbai, an observant revolutionary, Qian Zhongshu at this time was out of place with others and didn’t take part in activities, as if he were an outsider. Qian Zhongshu himself often said that he was a Miser of time. Yang Jiang recalled: "Zhong Shu always obeyed the leader very docile in his work; It is also very useful that he can cooperate with his colleagues, and he is willing to help. Zhong Shu only wants to do his job well and steal time to read his books. He works efficiently and can steal a lot of time, which is what he cherishes most. "
Qian Zhongshu talks about reading photos for the first time, Beijing, 1990 s, authorized by Mi Qiu.
In 2002, during the Spring Festival before the publication of A Hundred Years of Eternal Tang, Xu Yongtang’s family visited Yang Jiang as usual. "When asked how to treat Xu Yongzheng’s statement that Qian Zhongshu’s political consciousness is poor, Yang Jiang smiled and replied: This is the truth. Qian Zhongshu’s political consciousness is really not high. However, he is very serious about translating Mao Xuan, unlike what some media have said in recent years, which seems reluctant. Money is less close to the boss, but with Xu Yongxuan is an exception. At that time, Xu often asked about money. Is this thing ready? Is that thing ready? And joked that money was his Office Wife. One day, Mr. and Mrs. Xu Yongxuan went to Qian’s house for dinner, and Xu talked about Office Wife again. Shuyi also blames him for not speaking lightly.’ Mr. Yang said. "("A Hundred Years of Eternity", page 295)
close friend
Qian Zhongshu is also the member of Mao Xuan who has worked with Xu Yongxuan for the longest time. Xu Qingdong, the eldest son of Xu Yongxuan, wrote an article called "My Father’s Memories", and the excerpt is as follows-
My father is hospitable and has many good friends. Among them, Mr Qian Zhongshu impressed me the most.
Uncle Qian’s house is not far from my house, across an alley. He often comes to my house to talk with his father. It takes a day to talk, and sometimes even lunch is eaten in the study.
Their conversation is very rich, and they are far apart. I remember once, they talked about the poem "Spring Breeze and Green Jiang Nanan" written by Wang Anshi, a poet in the Song Dynasty. Father said that Wang Anshi was not the first person to use the word "green" as a verb. Someone used it like this before. Uncle Qian was very impressed, so he went back and checked, and added this meaning in his annotation of Selected Poems of Song Dynasty (Note).
Father and uncle Qian are very involved in the conversation, often to the point of forgetting myself.
Once, Uncle Qian came home to chat with his father for a day. It was getting late, so he got up and went home. My father and mother saw him off. In the process of going out, the two talked nonstop. It was snowing heavily that day, and they just stood in the snow and talked, as if they had endless words. Seeing that it was almost time for dinner, mother ran home and took a cabbage to uncle Qian (Chinese cabbage is a fine dish in difficult times). Qian put the cabbage under his arm and left. An hour later, Aunt Yang Jiang called and asked if her mother had given Qian Zhongshu a cabbage. It turned out that after Uncle Qian came home, Aunt Yang found the cabbage he was holding, asked where it came from, and replied that she didn’t know. Aunt Yang was worried that he had taken the cabbage from Hutongkou Vegetable Station home, so she quickly called to verify it. Uncle Qian has been thinking about the problems discussed with his father, and has long forgotten about cabbage.("A Hundred Years of Eternity", page 232)
"Hundred Years of Eternal Tang" and "Xu Yong Tang Ji Nian"
Mrs. Xu Yongzheng, Zhang Shuyi, visited Qian Zhongshu and Yang Jiang. In 1993, she took photos in Xu Qingdong. In September 2019, the author took a remake from Xu Qinglai’s home.
Like Qian Zhongshu, Xu Yongzheng is also from Tsinghua, with a good knowledge of Chinese, and has published a lot of articles in Tsinghua Weekly. Xu Yongxuan also has rich experience in studying abroad. He studied law, history and philosophy at the University of Chicago, and economics at the University of Wisconsin and Stanford University. Neither of them attaches importance to getting a degree. The difference is that Qian Zhongshu went abroad for learning, while Xu Yongzheng wanted to gain more knowledge and better serve the revolutionary cause.
From 1959 to 1962, Qian Zhongshu settled in the new dormitory of the Institute of Literature and Research at No.1 Dongsi Toutiao, which was very close to the dormitory of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at No.35 Baofang Hutong, Dongcheng, where Xu Yongxuan lived. After completing the first draft of the English translation of Volume IV of Mao Xuan, Xu Yongzheng was in a state of semi-recuperation due to illness, and was no longer the work leader in Qian Zhongshu. And Qian Zhongshu is not a "cheapskate of time". It is often a day to come and talk. What are they talking about?
Qian Zhongshu’s Notes on Selected Poems of Song Dynasty was published in 1958, and they should have talked about many Song poems. As for the annotation of "Spring Breeze and Green Jiang Nanan", Qian Zhongshu did add a long content in the reprint. "But the usage of the word’ green’ is common in Tang poetry." The word’ green’ has appeared in the poems of Qiu Wei, Li Bai and Chang Jian. Qian Zhongshu’s humor is back, "Wang Anshi’s repeated revisions are in vain for forgetting the poems of the Tang Dynasty? Or do you know these verses and have a mind to make a difference? Did he choose the word "green" to coincide with the Tang people? Did you finally remember the poems of the Tang Dynasty and happily use them? Or consciously can’t win by surprise, and finally give up to the Tang people? "
Comparison of Annotations between the First Edition (left) and the Second Edition (right) of Boating Guazhou in Selected Notes on Poems of Song Dynasty
Reflection on translation work
In March 1963, Qian Zhongshu was about to finish his English translation of the first four volumes of Mao Zedong’s Selected Works, and he created a representative article "Lin Shu’s Translation" which condensed his translation thoughts;
The highest ideal of literary translation is "culture". Changing a work from one language to another can not only show the traces of forced creation because of the differences in Chinese habits, but also completely preserve the original flavor, which is considered as "transformation." In the 17th century, some people compared this realm to "transmigration of souls", and their bodies were changed, but their mental posture remained the same. In other words, a translation should be so faithful to the original that it doesn’t read like a translation, because a work will never read like a translation in the original.
In the previous two months, Xu Yongzheng published a long article of nearly 20,000 words "On the Contradictory Unity of Translation" in his illness. He pioneered "a comprehensive investigation of translation work from the perspective of unity of contradictions, and found out the practical significance of various standards, opinions and criticisms" in order to "make more achievements in translation work". This is also the last article published by Xu Yongxuan so far.
Xu Yongzheng mentioned two languages in his article: "Translation is not to express the translator’s own thoughts, but to express the thoughts expressed by the original author in another language (the destination language) in one language." "The translator must express the original ideas he learned from the starting language faithfully and perfectly in another language (the destination language), and he must also solve the contradiction between the content expressed in the starting language and the form that the destination language should take. This requires the translator to be proficient in two related languages and to be able to write in the destination language. "
In the first edition of Lin Shu’s Translation, Qian Zhongshu wrote with emotion and wit:
Starting from one script, it is a hard journey to cross these many distances and reach another script safely. It is inevitable that you will lose or suffer some damage when you encounter risks along the way. Therefore, there are always distortions and distortions in the translation, which are contrary to or not fully consistent with the original text in meaning or tone.
Qian Zhongshu made a special remark here. The language of the original is called "the language of departure" and the language of the translation is called "the language of arrival". It has been mentioned in both China and the West, and the Chinese example is the "the language of departure" and "the language of destination" mentioned by Xu Yongzheng.
Xu Yongzheng’s essay talks about translation from the host’s point of view, while Qian Zhongshu’s article starts from the translator’s and reader’s point of view, which is not only a response to Xu Wen, but also contains Qian Zhongshu’s experience and thinking in the grand project of translating Mao Zedong’s works into English, as well as his expectations for translation work. These two articles are probably also the result of mutual reflection after one or more long talks.
On the Unity of Contradictions in Translation by Xu Yongzheng and the First Edition of Lin Shu’s Translation by Qian Zhongshu.
Xu Yongzheng is not only the host of the English translation of Mao Xuan, but also an expert scholar with a strong sense of problems. In the academic collision with Xu Yongxuan, Qian Zhongshu keenly captured the spark of thought, and wrote a famous article, which is a literary story.
As a scholar who has participated in the English translation of Mao Zedong’s Selected Works for the longest time, Qian Zhongshu’s intelligence has been incorporated into the first four volumes. After the end of collective translation, Qian Zhongshu started the personal translation mode. Although specialized translations are extremely rare, his articles and notes are full of "loose money" translated by faithful hands, which can be used by the less advanced students.
Examples of Mr. Qian Zhongshu’s Translation, printed by American Institute of China Academy of Social Sciences, late 1980s.