Comments on Nigel Wiseman’sA Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine (II) —On the use of Western medical terms to express the concepts of traditional Chinese medicine
Back to article page
BookReview|Updated:2021-08-27
|
Comments on Nigel Wiseman’sA Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine (II) —On the use of Western medical terms to express the concepts of traditional Chinese medicine
Comments on Nigel Wiseman’sA Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine (II) —On the use of Western medical terms to express the concepts of traditional Chinese medicine
中国结合医学杂志(英文版)2006年12卷第1期 页码:61-65
Affiliations:
Institute of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine at the First Hospital, Peking University,Beijing
Author bio:
Funds:
The paper was written on the basis of an e-mailing discussion with the participation of FANG Ting-yu (Beijing Traditional Chinese Medical University), LIU Gan-zhong (Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital), LU Wei-bo (China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine). WANG Kui (World Association of Traditional Chinese Medical Societies), WANG Tai (Medical College, Qinghai University), and ZHANG Qing-rong (Liaoning Traditional Chinese Medical College)
Zhu-fan, X., White, P. Comments on Nigel Wiseman’sA Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine (II) —On the use of Western medical terms to express the concepts of traditional Chinese medicine., Chin. J. Integr. Med. 12, 61–65 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02857435
Xie Zhu-fan, Paul White. Comments on Nigel Wiseman’sA Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine (II) —On the use of Western medical terms to express the concepts of traditional Chinese medicine[J]. Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine, 2006,12(1):61-65.
Zhu-fan, X., White, P. Comments on Nigel Wiseman’sA Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine (II) —On the use of Western medical terms to express the concepts of traditional Chinese medicine., Chin. J. Integr. Med. 12, 61–65 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02857435DOI:
Xie Zhu-fan, Paul White. Comments on Nigel Wiseman’sA Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine (II) —On the use of Western medical terms to express the concepts of traditional Chinese medicine[J]. Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine, 2006,12(1):61-65. DOI: 10.1007/BF02857435.
Comments on Nigel Wiseman’sA Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine (II) —On the use of Western medical terms to express the concepts of traditional Chinese medicine
摘要
Mr. Wiseman believes that Western medical terms chosen as equivalents of Chinese medical terms should be the words known to all speakers and not requiring any specialist knowledge or instrumentation to understand or identify
and strictly technical Western medical terms should be avoided regardless of their conceptual conformity to the Chinese terms. Accordingly
many inappropriate Western medical terms are selected as English equivalents by the authors of the Dictionary
and on the other hand
many ready-made appropriate Western medical terms are replaced by loan English terms with the Chinese style of word formation. The experience gained in solving the problems of translating Western medical terms into Chinese when Western medicine was first introduced to China is helpful for translating Chinese medical terms into English. However
the authors of the Dictionary adhere to their own opinions
ignoring others’ experience. The English terms thus created do not reflect the genuine meaning of the Chinese terms
but make the English glossary in chaos. The so-called true face of traditional Chinese revealed by such terms is merely the Chinese custom of word formation and metaphoric rhetoric. In other words
traditional Chinese medicine is not regarded as a system of medicine but merely some Oriental folklore.
Abstract
Mr. Wiseman believes that Western medical terms chosen as equivalents of Chinese medical terms should be the words known to all speakers and not requiring any specialist knowledge or instrumentation to understand or identify
and strictly technical Western medical terms should be avoided regardless of their conceptual conformity to the Chinese terms. Accordingly
many inappropriate Western medical terms are selected as English equivalents by the authors of the Dictionary
and on the other hand
many ready-made appropriate Western medical terms are replaced by loan English terms with the Chinese style of word formation. The experience gained in solving the problems of translating Western medical terms into Chinese when Western medicine was first introduced to China is helpful for translating Chinese medical terms into English. However
the authors of the Dictionary adhere to their own opinions
ignoring others’ experience. The English terms thus created do not reflect the genuine meaning of the Chinese terms
but make the English glossary in chaos. The so-called true face of traditional Chinese revealed by such terms is merely the Chinese custom of word formation and metaphoric rhetoric. In other words
traditional Chinese medicine is not regarded as a system of medicine but merely some Oriental folklore.
关键词
Nigel WisemanA Practical Dictionary of Chinese MedicineEnglish terminology of Chinese medicineWestern medical term
Keywords
Nigel WisemanA Practical Dictionary of Chinese MedicineEnglish terminology of Chinese medicineWestern medical term
references
Nigel Wiseman: English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary of Chinese Medicine. Hunan Science and Technology Press, 1996: 67–68.