ZIZHITONGJIAN is a key historical work that reflects not only political events but also many culture-loaded expressions rooted in traditional Chinese life. These expressions, including official titles, ritual words, and historical references, carry strong cultural meaning that is hard to translate. And these words are often described as culture-loaded words. Previous research on ZIZHITONGJIAN has offered valuable insights into its translation, focusing on general strategies, historical context, or selected passages. However, these discussions often remain broad in scope, lacking systematic comparison across different types of English editions. This study uses Hu Gengshen’s eco-translatology theory to explore how these culture-loaded words are handled in three kinds of English editions by listing out some classical examples. By applying eco-translatology, this study identifies common translation issues across different English editions and offers a methodological reference for future research on classical Chinese texts, especially in handling culture-loaded words with greater cultural and communicative sensitivity.
Junyi Zhu (Wed,) studied this question.