Interpreters in Early Imperial China

Interpreters in Early Imperial China
Editorial page
Title page
LCC data
Table of contents
Preface
Introduction
Acknowledgments
Chronology
1. Perceptions of translating / interpreting in first-century China
	Earliest records of labels for interpreters
	Frontier stories of China: Han and non-Han Chinese
	Southwestern barbarians in Latter Han China
	Interpreting encounters with frontier tribes
	Presentation of the three sung poems
	Zhu Fu’s perception of Yi
	Tian Gong’s perception of Yi
	The emperor’s perception of Yi
	Implications
2. Bridging language barriers in encounters with China in sixth-century Asia
	Commercial interests in tribute journeys
	The Hephthalites
	The Tuyuhun: “Interpreters” on the Silk Road
	Silla
	Homogeneous translators or foreign translators?
	Chinese learning sphere
	Scripting of state letters for China: Stakes and strategies
	Implications
3. Türkish diplomatic correspondence to Sui China (581-618): Was it translated?
	Studies on ancient diplomatic correspondence
	The Türk and its relations with Sui China
	The linguistic argument
	The historical argument
4. Translation officials in Tang China (618-907)
	Foreign relations and translation officials in Tang China
	Foreigners in Tang China
	Central government offices dealing with foreigners
	Duties of the Court translators
	Duties of translators in the Secretariat
	Distinctions between the two kinds of translation officials
	Contingency measures
	Implications
5. Interpreters and archival records of foreign contacts of imperial China
	History of interpreting from national archives
	Pioneers in the early documentation of interpreters
	Interpreters as historians
	Interpreting events and their records in history
	Implications
6. Interpreters and the writing of histories about interlingual encounters
	Links between interview reports and historical records
	Implications
7. Interpreters as consultants in historiography in eighth-century China
	Historical dimension of Translation Studies
	Historical interpreting: Real or fictitious
	Ancient China’s initiatives to explore exotic places
	Ge Jiayun
	Jia Dan
	Implications
8. Interpreters and the making of the Kirghiz Memoir  and Kirghiz accounts
	Interpreters and historiography
	Historiography and the archives on foreign countries and peoples
	Interpreters and the making of the Kirghiz Memoir:  Circumstantial evidence
	Interpreting traces in the archived Kirghiz accounts
	Implications
9. Oral translators in outbound diplomatic correspondence
	Diplomatic interaction and interpreting
	An envoy-cum-interpreter tradition in imperial China
	The survey
	Outbound correspondence
	Identity of Shi Jiezhi
	Identity of Liu Mian
	The exceptions
	Comprehension problems in reading Chinese letters
	Implications
10. Sogdian interpreters in Tang China: An issue of loyalty
	Cosmopolitan mindsets of Tang China and the recruitment of Sogdian translators
	Evidence 1: Deploying a Chinese envoy of Sogdian ethnicity
	China’s dilemma in the deployment of a Sogdian envoy
	Evidence 2: Soliciting Türkic-speaking translators not affiliated to the Uighürs
	Implications
Conclusion
	From the archived to the non-archived
	On interpreters
Appendix: The thirteen letters and the two exceptions
Bibliographies
Index