Chia-hui Huang(黃佳慧)is an Assistant Professor at the Graduate Institute of Cross-Cultural Studies at Fu Jen Catholic University. Her research focuses specifically on Japanese and Chinese Comparative Literature in the Edo Period, especially the translation of Chinese poems into Haikai. In the field of education, she mainly teaches the translation studies of Japanese, Japanese-Chinese translation and interpretation. Published papers include “Cultivation of Translation Skills for Japanese to Chinese Translators in The Rise of AI Translation: Training Post Translation Editing Skills” (2021), “The Beginning of the Chinese Poetry Based Haikai in the Early Edo Period” (2018), and “The Origins of Haiyaku in the Early Edo Period: Chinese Poetry Based Haikai within Echijin’s Shakubikan and Niwakamadoshū” (2015), etc.
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History+
Published
2022-12-10
Issue Date
2025-11-25
Abstract
After being discovered by the famous Edo period classical Japanese scholar Motoori Norinaga, the term Mono no Aware has become a part of the terminology for interpreting literary concepts such as Waka (Japanese poetry) and Monogatari (Japanese tales). As the term Mono no Aware holds meaning more profound than can be described, Chinese translators have used the strategy of calquing, translating it as“an empathy toward things.”For the common readers with no background knowledge regarding traditional Japanese literature, however, it is difficult to understand this term, which makes it harder to pass down cultural heritage and knowledge pertaining to classical literature. Thus, this study aims to reevaluate Mono no Aware from the perspective of paraphrasing and explore the closest semantic equivalences in Chinese when the term is used independently.