Explanation/Translation of parts of a text (mostly modern, some classical Chinese; .doc included)

[Ciferz]

Hello,

I have already requested help with this text a few times in this forum, and now I am almost done, there are just some parts I have problems with. I marked them and commented my issue with them if there is a specific one. just feel free to answer anything you can, it doesn't have to be a great translation, mainly I just want to understand the sentence structure (or mke sure it's meant the way I translated it).

The text is somewhat long, but you don't need to read through all of it to answer my questions, so you can just look at the marked parts and their surrounding sentences.

You can comment next to my comments in the text and re-upload it or just post things here as a reply, however you wish.

Thanks a lot!

Preface.docx

[skylee]

This is not the most interesting thing to read.

Re 4, I think 信而有剧 is wrong. The last word should be 據. (Source documents with typos are bad.) The red part says that the conclusion that the book was not written by one individual is supported by evidence. Then the part in brackets says that nevertheless the book is still attributed to a single writer Wu Cheng'en.

Re 8, yes it means "wrong".

Re 9, in that book there is a preface by the author's friend Dai Biaoyuan.

10, the plot of "throwing into the river" (?) was removed but the title of the chapter was not revised accordingly, thus giving rise to a new loophole (and the author of the article must be happy to find it. )

11, but when listing the officials serving Tang Wang in the same chapter, ... more loopholes, more mistakes ....

[skylee]

Re 5&6, Yes it means Chen Yuan of Nanjing, which was known as 秣陵. At the beginning of the book there is his piece "preface of the 4th day of the 5th month in the summer of the year 壬辰".

13, that book bears the inscription of Yuan Jin, aka 幔亭过客. The book should thus be published later than the 世德堂 version.

[Ciferz]

If there is anything that my be a typo it may also be my fault. The original is written in traditional characters and has some typos, but in this case I put the wrong character there when typing it out in simplified characters.

Also thank you!

But regarding Re 4 "...,可充分证明，上述从文献记载，从《西游记》和《封神演义》若干赞词，韵语的杂双向蹈襲论证《西游记》是世代累积型的集体创作的结论信而有據。", the thing I don't understand is the relation between this part and the previous list of documents. The first part would translate into something like "regarding the <list of names of documents>", then comes the 可充分证明 part which talks about something being fully proven and THEN later comes 论证, again talking about proof. Where does the text stop talking about the documents? Does "从《西游记》和《封神演义》若干赞词 " still refer to another case of repetition found in these documents or is it just a repetition of that earlier conclusion?

Could someone prove a rough translation for just this part? I know it's probably not that hard but I'm stuck on this sentence.

[skylee]

My personal view is that the writing is very clumsy. The writer should learn to write shorter sentences. Consider -

Based on part of the contents of all those books quoted at the start of the sentence, there is ample evidence to show that the/ my aforesaid (see the previous paragraph) conclusion that the two titles are collective works accumulated through several generations, drawn based on written records and the similarities/ overlapping of verses in the two books concerned, is evidence-based. It is just a tradition to attribute the authorship of a journey to the west to a single writer Wu Cheng'en. I am putting my doubts in writing and I hope that this will attract more attention and investigation/ study.

Does this help? If it does, may I have a helpful vote (or more)?

[Ciferz]

Thank you all, I uploaded the updated .doc now, almost done!

The remaining issues are:

可从。 What does this expression mean?

镇江金 and 焦二山 What are these? Is there a common English translation?

「出身命犯落江星，顺水随波逐浪决。海岛金山有大缘，迁安和尚将他养。」 I need help translating this, at least roughly.

一是阐明《西游记》的宗旨，即从心 – 人的内心与外界的交感，来探讨人生处世，并结合社会现实，寻求解脱; I don't know how to translate the part that I marked red.

三是联系作品，抒发忿世嫉俗的感慨。 What does the last part mean exactly? I get the sentence means that the third aim is to make the work coherent and express frustration about the situation at that time, but I can't figure it out exactly.

这些评语曾对注象旭《西游证道书》的评语发生影响，第一回的来评以灵台方寸为心，以「斜月像一勾，三星像三点」，两书皆同，可见它曾流行一时。

来评 What is this? Does 来 even matter here or does it just mean the commentary that is found in this chapter? And what exactly is the 它 referring to? Also, what does 以「斜月像一勾，三星像三点」，两书皆同 mean?

Thanks in advance!

[skylee]

Re 1, I've read the paragraph a few times more. I think it means that Sun Kaidi's conclusion that the year of 壬辰 refers to 1592 (google results seem to show that not everyone agrees with this) is trustworthy and may be followed/adopted.

Re 2, I think it should be 鎮江金、焦二山(punctuation is IMPORTANT), which means the two places 金山 and 焦山 in 鎮江 (Jinshan and Jiaoshan in Zhenjiang). The sentence means that "In this chapter, the famous Jinshan and Jiaoshan of Zhenjiang are relocated to Jiangzhou ..."

Re 3, consider "Destined to fall in rivers, he is taken away by the currents. Met with major fate at the island Jinshan, the monk Qian'An raises him up." "In the 清刊本 the monk Qian'An was renamed Faming."

(PS - according to google it is 逐浪泱, not 逐浪决. )

As I am not interested in the essay (very boring IMHO) I do not want to read it again and again (I might understand more if I read it more). So I am afraid I can't help you with the rest of your questions. I hope the above is helpful and other members (there are many professional interpreters/translators here) may give you the help you need.

[OneEye]

可從 means that the author thinks 孫楷第的考察 is reliable. It's pretty common in textual criticism.