Usage patterns of the verbs Yi (interpreting) and Chongyi (relay interpreting) in early Imperial China

Language mirrors the culture of a speech community. Linguistic choices often reflect important cultural ideologies. So it is with the choice between the verbs yi (译 interpreting) and chongyi (重译 relay interpreting) in classical Chinese writings for centuries before 600 AD. To the overwhelming majority of Chinese speakers today, yi means translation, and chongyi retranslation. In ancient China, however, by scholarly consensus, they denoted interpreting and relay interpreting respectively. Yi and chongyi are common in classical diplomatic and ethnographic accounts. I wondered if analysis of the usage of the two terms in these accounts might refine our understanding of their denotations and connotations. Quantitative and qualitative study of 175 texts retrieved from the Chinese Ancient Texts database identified a polarized usage pattern. In this pattern, yi was predominantly used in texts depicting China’s outbound explorations of, and the communicative challenges with, foreign communities, while chongyi was most frequently used in textual description of foreign states’ China-bound visits, in other words relay interpreting within the Sinitic realm. This distinct usage pattern, I argue, implies a discourse that was realized in writing and shaped by Sinocentric ideology. This discourse distinguished Sinitic self from non-Sinitic other. As a keyword in this discourse, chongyi not only implied the necessity of multiple relay interpreters in any distant sojourn to China. In the Sinitic mind-set dating back to Zhou China (1046 BC–256 BC), the further away the envoys came from and the more difficult geographic barriers they had to cross, the greater the respect they paid the host. Therefore, chongyi also carries a subtle symbolic meaning, from a Chinese perspective, suggesting foreign states’ respect for, and eagerness to forge bonds with, the court. This empirical study is original and nuanced. It sheds light on interpreting, classical Chinese semantics, and Sino centrism.