Metamorphosis of a diplomatic interpreting event in ancient China

Abstract

This article discusses how the earliest known interpreting event in Sinitic China was chronicled and recapped in political and literary writings across different dynasties, in an intertextual process comparable with metamorphosis. This event has continued to shapeshift in writings because of its symbolic importance in promoting Sinocentric sentiments and Confucian ideals. This interpreting record was, unusually, from a comparative perspective, elevated to embody ideological functions largely detached from inter-lingual communication. For millennia, this interpreting “legend” has been intertextually alluded to in numerous writings to connote auspiciousness, to extol Sinitic governance and civilisation, and to champion specific cultural values or political philosophies. This article aims at identifying and examining the symbolic and ideological significances of the conceptual link between the alpha interpreting record and complimentary Sinitic governance and virtues, so consciously drawn in theses of some archival texts. It is significant in two regards. First, it initiates an analysis of a classical reference to interpreting, which has escaped research attention in humanities. Second, it explores an unorthodox angle by analysing the discourse of interpreting in ancient China. The results of this analysis could serve as reference points for cross-cultural comparison of conceptualisations of “interpreting.”