中医药术语英译通则在中医病名翻译中的应用

《国际疾病分类》第11版(ICD-11)传统医学部分的发布,将中医药国际化向前推进了一步。因其囊括的中医疾病术语数量有限,中医病名对外翻译尚有很多工作需要开展。文章概述了中医药术语的英译规范原则与方法;讨论了对应性、同一性、系统性、简洁性、回译性、约定俗成、民族性等翻译原则在病名英译中的使用,并从术语部件的规范、双译法的使用、中西医病名关系的处理等方面细化了各原则在翻译中医疾病时的实现方法。音译法适用于跨学科、含义多且难以找到合适译名的中医疾病术语部件,而双译法可以解决中医术语翻译归化与异化的分歧,同时促进学术、文化及医学技术层面的传播,满足中医临床中西医双诊断以及中医进入西方国家医疗保险体系等现实需求。

Application of “Standardization Principles and Methods for English Translation of TCM Terminology” in Translating Disease Names

The release of the ICD-11-26 Supplementary Chapter Traditional Medicine Conditions promotes the internationalization of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Due to the limited number of the published terms of diseases, the translation of more TCM disease names still has a lot of work to be done. After the general introduction of “standardization principles and methods for English translation of TCM terminology”, we discuss the application of the seven principles in terms of equivalence, semantic identity, systemicness, conciseness, conventional usage, back-translation and preserving cultural features in translating TCM disease names. We also refine the approaches of the principles from the aspects of the standardization of term components, the use of double-method translation, and the relations between TCM and western medicine in the process of translation. Transliteration can be used for the interdisciplinary components in case of polysemy or semantic vacancy in English while double-method can resolve the conflicts between domestication and foreignization in translating TCM terms. Meanwhile, double-method can promote the dissemination of TCM at academic, cultural, and medical technological levels, and meets the needs of the condition of double-method diagnosis in TCM hospitals in China; and meet the needs of TCM entering the medical insurance system of western countries.