Recovering Translation Lost: Symbiosis and Ambilingual Design in Chinese/Manchu Language Reference Manuals of the Qing Dynasty

Abstract

This chapter examines how the layout of three Chinese/Manchu language reference manuals published in China during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911 CE) reveals how the two featured languages were arranged to serve the purpose of translation reference for specialized vocabulary and set phrases. Analyzing the juxtaposition of these languages suggests that conventional understandings about how users were likely to go from one language to another should be re-examined, as well as the assumption that a person using these texts would have followed the practice of starting from one as source language and the other as target language. This chapter also argues that the primacy of Manchu as the most favored language by Qing rulers and of Chinese as the dominant language of politics, economy, and culture did not matter when the two languages “faced” each other in these texts which served to inform persons who needed to perform standardized translations.