Progress, Problems, and Prospects: A Systematic Review of the English Translation of Culture-loaded Words in Traditional Chinese Medicine

Abstract

Culture-loaded words in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) convey not only medical knowledge but also traditional Chinese philosophy, cognitive patterns, and cultural wisdom. Their accurate translation facilitates the global acceptance and sustainable development of TCM. To identify research trends and characteristics in the English rendering of culture-loaded words in TCM, the study selected 50 journal articles from five electronic databases, guided by the PRISMA framework, with a restriction to full-text journal articles. The analysis shows a significant rise in research after 2015, with most studies published in TCM-focused journals, and Huangdi Neijing is the most studied, followed by Shanghan Lun and Jinkui Yaolüe. Scholars have made contributions to the definition, classification, theoretical frameworks, and translation methods. Progress has been made, including a relatively comprehensive research scope, diverse perspectives, and multiple translation strategies and methods proposed, which has promoted the international dissemination of TCM. However, certain problems remain unresolved, such as the lack of a unified standard for defining and categorizing culture-loaded words in TCM, inadequate theoretical and empirical support, inconsistent standards, unclear classification of translation strategies and methods, and the absence of standardized evaluation criteria. The study suggests that future research should conduct in-depth explorations of culture-loaded words in TCM, strengthen theoretical inquiry, construct translation evaluation models for culture-loaded words in TCM, enhance empirical research through the use of corpora and digital tools, and promote multilingual translation studies of classical TCM text.