| Summary: | 碩士 === 輔仁大學 === 跨文化研究所翻譯學碩士在職專班 === 102 === The story of the classic Ming novel Xiyouji (The Journey to the West) which is widely known, is a traditional Buddhist story based on the famous pilgrimage of Xuanzang (596?–664) to India in search of Buddhist scriptures. However, many pre-modern commentators saw this novel consisting Daoist expressions as a manuscript containing miraculous formulations for the golden elixir. Some believed that it is a book on mind cultivation found in the Gate of Zen. Modern scholars led by Hu Shih sternly refuted such argument, while Liu Ts’un-yan later proved that the Shidetang version deliberately introduced Neidan (Internal Alchemy) terms which are closely related to Quanzhen Daoism.
Quanzhen Daoism attaches great importance to Internal Alchemy practices which entail the cultivation of Xing or Nature (性功Xing Gong) and Ming or Life (命功Ming Gong). In actual Ming Gong practices, the interaction between Yin and Yang is the key. In the Shidetang version, Daoist symbols of polar opposites such as Metal and Wood金木, Baby and Fair Girl嬰姹, and Kan and Li坎離 represent yin-yang interaction to describe alchemy practices as well as personify characters in narratives, thereby creating sexual imaginaries in multiple plots. Do these sexual imaginaries complement each other and transform the narrative into a full-blown allegory as characters and plots develop, or are they sparse figurative expressions that barely have anything to do with each other? The novel has been translated respectively by Ota Tatsuo, Anthony C. Yu, and Nakano Miyoko, who are experts in The Journey to the West. These three experts all took notice of the Daoist element in the novel, but had different views of interpretation, which in turn influenced their translation. By looking at the translations regarding wuxing五行, alchemical practices, and hexagram symbols卦象, this paper aims to uncover the nature of translation by discussing the three interpretations, comparing the translations and translation footnotes, and analyzing the reasons for such differences.
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