The concrete methods of literal translation of ancient Chinese mainly include translation, transfer translation, addition translation, deletion translation and reservation.

1. Translation

Translation is word-for-word translation according to the original word order. This is the most basic method and the first step of literal translation. For sentences with the same word order and syntactic structure in ancient and modern Chinese, it is not necessary to change the word order of the original sentence when translating today, as long as the words in the original sentence are selected from modern Chinese.

The advantage of translation is word for word, which can avoid missing translation, which is a common problem for beginners in learning. Because there are many similarities between the sentence structures of ancient Chinese and modern Chinese, we should translate them as much as possible. Only when the translation is difficult, or the meaning expression after translation is not clear enough, and the sentences are not fluent, can appropriate adjustments be made by means of tone shifting and tone adding.

transfer

Shifting means that some word orders and expressions in ancient Chinese are different from those in modern Chinese, and words should be moved according to the expression habits in modern Chinese when translating.

add

Supplement refers to the places that were omitted or expressed too simply in ancient Chinese, and should be supplemented when translating today.

Be careful when adding words, and cherish words like gold. Only when the original meaning of a word cannot be clearly expressed can words be added.

delete

Contrary to "supplement", deletion means that individual words in the original text can be deleted without translation. Some expressions and function words in classical Chinese are no longer used in modern Chinese, and there are no similar syntactic structures and corresponding function words. In this case, as long as the meaning of the original text has been clearly expressed in the translation, individual words can not be translated.

5. Reservations

Reservation means that some words in the original text can be retained directly in the translation without translation.

All words with the same meaning in ancient and modern times, especially many basic words, such as people, cattle, mountains, grass and so on. Of course, you can keep it from being translated; Words that represent ancient things that have disappeared, such as names of people, countries, historical place names, country names and official numbers, year numbers, posthumous title, proper names, specialized academic terms and even professional terms, can generally not be translated.

Among the above five specific methods, translation is the most basic, and others are adjusted according to the specific situation on the basis of translation. Modern translation should use various methods flexibly in order to accurately translate the original content, write smoothly and conform to the grammatical norms and expression habits of modern Chinese.