Abstract:

Currently, considerable scholarly attention has been directed to the “eastward dissemination of western medicine”,with a particular emphasis on how western medical terminologies were translated and explained in the Chinese medical domain. This article aims to unravel the complexity and interdisciplinarity of historical research concerning the Chinese translation of western medical terminologies.It employs a blend of established methodologies,including history of lexicography,historical lexicology, and history of concepts,to propose an innovative approach for revisiting and reconstructing such translation processes. The study reveals that such processes involve not only term translation,but also conceptual interpretation and knowledge construction,thereby demonstrating a tripartite research paradigm characterized by the congruent and co-emergent facets of words, concepts, and knowledge. A comprehensive examination of these three facets contributes to sketching the authentic historical landscape of translating western medical terminologies in China.

Key words: western medical terminology, history of Chinese translation, word, concept, knowledge