“官窑”术语英译探讨

A Discussion on the Translation of “官窑” into English

"官窑"术语在各种专业文献和非专业文献中频频出现,由于该词很少被各种汉英词典所收录,其英译出现一词多译、译名混乱的现象。本文试图从官窑的渊源入手,通过考证和比对,追溯其原意,尝试提出自己的英译,与同行共同切磋探讨,为有效翻译更多与官窑相关的术语抛砖引玉。

The term “官窑” appears often in various professional and non-professional literature, but its English equivalent is rarely included in many popular Chinese-English dictionaries, which leads to chaotic translation of it into English. This paper traces the origin of “官窑”, and proposes a tentative rendition for “官窑”, namely Guan Kiln, court porcelain kiln of the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties in China, through textual research and comparison. This study is expected to be useful in translating other terms concerning “官窑” in a proper way.