Strategies for Translating Chengyu

By Independent Contributor: Jim Jones

Photo by Cristina Gottardi on Unsplash

There are four types of formulaic expressions (熟语) in Chinese: collocations (惯用语), two-part allegorical sayings (歇后语), proverbs (谚语), and chengyu (成语). Numbering between 5,000 and over 20,000 depending on the dictionary, the chengyu are interesting and useful Chinese idiomatic expressions that encapsulate a rich tapestry of culture and history.

Exploring this form across different languages reveals similarities and variations. Yojijukugo (四字熟语) is the similar chengyu form in Japanese. The Korean equivalent is called Sajaseong-eo (四字成语). Many of the Japanese yojijukugo were adopted from the Chinese. The Japanese term koji seigo (故事成语) refers to an idiom that comes from a specific text as the source, mostly historical accounts written in Classical Chinese. A particular Chinese chengyu does not necessarily mean the same thing as that same particular form in Japanese or Korean.

Commonly, many chengyu are from Classical Chinese and were created by succinctly paraphrasing or summarizing the original text. Translators can find chengyu to be packed with information, which itself poses unique challenges when rendering them into English. For example, should a translator use just a few words to reference the original meaning or elaborate across lines to explain thoroughly? It’s a tradeoff, and the translator will need to make that decision based on the context. Sometimes the historical event is an integral part of the meaning, but sometimes it is only incidental to the meaning.

LOOKING UP CHENGYU

Just as with individual words and expressions, a translator has several sources for chengyu meanings: online (such as mdbg.net and iciba.com), printed, and human expertise. Usage in history, or how the item has been translated in the past, will often give good clues as to the current meaning.

However, the accuracy of a found definition is important. Printed resources can err too, but people do tend to trust them more. How can it be verified that the meaning as explained by someone seemingly experienced is correct and the one you found online is not? What do you do if you find out that the way a particular chengyu has been translated for hundreds of years does not fit your context? My answer: as with other items (individual words), and as with translation work in general, this issue depends on the judgment and experience of the translator.

CATEGORIZATION CAN HELP

When first encountering a chengyu in a text, classifying it into one of several categories will help the translator make the word choices that are necessary for putting it into appropriate English. Three possible categories that chengyu are in are:

• Chengyu containing references to specific things (like 白发苍苍, a description of a person),
• Chengyu containing references to manners of doing things (like 亡羊补牢, trying too late to fix something), and
• Chengyu containing references to events (like 完璧归赵, the return of something that is valuable).

Using some kind of categorization schema can help translators and interpreters keep track, mentally, of critical semantic distinctions, especially if it’s anticipated that many chengyu will be encountered in the workplace. This keeping track of relatively large distinctions will make it easier to notice finer semantic distinctions.

EXAMPLES OF TRANSLATING CHENGYU

破釜沉舟

Literally meaning “break the pots and sink the ships,” this chengyu is based on a historical event. The general Xiang Yu ordered his troops to destroy all cooking utensils and boats after crossing a river into enemy territory to win the battle. In other words, it means “to make an all-out effort to achieve success by the deliberate removal of recourse or backup.” Related phrases are “burning one’s boats,” “burning the bridges,” “point of no return,” and “crossing the Rubicon.”

An explicit translation to English would be “he threw all of his remaining emergency funds into the business venture.”

An implicit translation could be “The landing team sunk their boat after getting to the bay because they wanted to avoid detection, and the members of the team anticipated success in their mission.”

刀山火海

Literally meaning “mountain of knives and sea of fire,” this chengyu means to face a situation of ever-increasing danger.

An explicit translation to English would be “she had thrown all of her remaining emergency funds into the business venture that failed, leaving her close to the perilous situation of having to declare personal bankruptcy.”

An implicit translation could be “the rusty old car barreled down the mountain road at high speed, and the unknown status of the vehicle’s long-problematic braking system was now the topic of a lively, heated conversation between the driver and the passenger.”

抛砖引玉

Literally meaning “casting (throwing out) a brick in order to get jade,” it means “to get the ball rolling by starting with something of average value.”

An explicit translation to English would be “In order to get the ball rolling at the sales event roundtable discussion, she mentioned that her company was starting a new initiative.”

An implicit translation of a text containing this chengyu could be “The manager opened the discussion with an anecdote describing the need.”

SUMMARY

Chengyu are often packed with information, are not always obvious in meaning, and occasionally can be hard to find in reference sources. We should also bear in mind the accuracy of those resources. The context in the text can sometimes provide useful clues too.

Classifying newly encountered chengyu will make the task of remembering them easier and will allow the translator to make finer semantic distinctions. A small percentage of chengyu have more than one meaning. And the chengyu that contain numbers are not usually referring to those actual numbers specifically. Chengyu that are used metaphorically might be associated with a situation incorrectly, accidentally, by the translator.

Chinese is a language that is highly context dependent. By analyzing the context of a chengyu in its narrative, and by using various categories as one translates a chengyu to English, further contextualizing it, a translator can handle this challenge.

Jim Jones began learning Mandarin in college at the University of Chicago in the early 1980s and is a freelance translator, editor, and tutorial writer based in Chicago. His YouTube Shorts Channel, ChineseZHPlus, has 200 very short instructional videos that model language phenomena, such as the tones of Mandarin, for beginning learners. He helped establish the ATA Chinese to English certification program and served as the program’s first Language Chair until May of 2023. His LinkedIn page is linkedin.com/in/jimxlat. His X (Twitter) page is @han4yu3. Jim has an AB and an MA in Linguistics. His second MA (English Composition) is nearly complete.

Edited by Sijin Xian.