The history of the translation of the ancient Chinese treatise "catalog of mountains and seas"

Wang Gang, Zhou ShengLian

The article explores the formation of translations of the ancient Chinese treatise « The Classic of Mountains and Seas ». The author focuses on the peculiarities of translations of the treatise by M.E. Yanshina, Anne Birrell, Yuan Ke, Chen Cheng Jin and Wang Hong. In these translations, the authors faced the difficult problem of making a literal translation of the ancient Chinese treatise into Chinese, English, and Russian. The author emphasizes the difficulties of translating plants, animals, geographical and zoological terms. The author concludes that the main explanation for these difficulties is the inconsistency of ancient Chinese nomenclature with the requirements of modern terminology.

Keywords:«The Classic of Mountains and Seas», «Shan Hai Ching», translations, China, Ancient Chinese Treatise.