Abstract: Translation of Chinese terminology is distinguished in different historical periods. From the Western Han Dynasty to the Song and Yuan Dynasties, terminology translation is sporadic. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, a large number of western books were translated into Chinese, and the basic methods of terminology translation were created by Matteo Ricci, Xu Guangqi, Fryer, Xu Shou, Yan Fu, etc. During the same period, a large number of Chinese-translated western terminology were brought into China by Japanese translators. Since 1980s, there have been formed five commonly used methods of terminology translation, that is, semantic translation, transliteration,pictographic translation, combination of transliteration and semantic translation, and coinage of new characters.

Key words: terminology, Chinese translation, change