The Art of (Tested) Translation: Manchu Exams in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

CHINA HUMANITIES

SPEAKER: Nathan Vedal, University of Toronto

This talk, introducing a forthcoming monograph (Translation, Emulation, and Manchu Literary Culture), will consider the institution of a civil service translation examination during the Qing dynasty, as well as the Manchu translation program in the elite Hanlin Academy. The civil service translation exams, administered for members of the Eight Banners, required rigorous literary, classical, and linguistic training, as well as composition of original essays in the Manchu language, highlighting the critical role of Chinese models in the generation of Manchu literature. Some contemporaneous literati at the Hanlin Academy, a training ground for officials and court scholars who passed the Chinese civil service exam at the highest level, underwent a three-year program of Manchu study culminating in a final translation exam. Knowledge of Manchu gained at the Hanlin Academy is evident in the deployment of multilingual literary effects in Chinese compositions. Within Qing literary-intellectual culture, the juxtaposition of Chinese and Manchu, through acts of translation and direct imitation, yielded a productive venue for literary creation and self-fashioning.

Co-sponsored by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations.