先探“虚实”,再谈翻译

On the Translation of TCM Terms “xu" and “shi"

"虚实"是中医重要的辨证纲领,在中医典籍中出现频率很高,其英译版本亦繁多,而自《WHO西太平洋地区传统医学名词术语国际标准》和《中医基本名词术语中英对照国际标准》颁布以来,deficiency和excess已然统一了"虚实"的翻译。文章在阐明"虚实"中医含义的基础上,指出"虚证"不仅是正气不足,还有邪气不旺之意;"实证"不仅是邪气亢盛,还有正气不衰之意。从中医的根本意义上讲,solid和empty比deficiency和excess更适合作为"虚"和"实"的翻译。

＂xu＂ and ＂shi＂ are frequently used in the classics of Traditional Chinese Medicine to describe the healthy qi and the pathogenic qi. Due to their rich meanings, there have been many English versions, including the ＂deficiency＂ and the ＂excess＂ accepted by WHO. This paper illustrates all the meanings of ＂xu＂ and ＂shi＂ with focus on in-depth meanings in the sense of TCM, and proposes ＂solid＂ and ＂empty＂ as the English counterparts for ＂shi＂ and ＂xu＂.