





































Education, Language and Sociology Research 

ISSN 2690-3644 (Print) ISSN 2690-3652 (Online) 

Vol. 5, No. 3, 2024 

www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/elsr 

54 
 

Original Paper 

An Exploration of the English Translation Strategy  

Baowei Liu1 

1 Chongqing Jiaotong University, Chongqing, China 

 

Received: June 17, 2024          Accepted: July 1, 2024        Online Published: July 19, 2024 

doi:10.22158/elsr.v5n3p54          URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/elsr.v5n3p54 

 

Abstract 

In translation studies, the role of the translator is becoming more and more conspicuous. Despite the fact 

that translation is a transfer from one language to another, especially a semantic one, the role of the 

translator is, on no account, a simple proxy of technological communication or a passive transcultural 

mediator. During recent years, scholars have conducted an array of researches on translation process, 

from the perspective of linguistics, cognitive psychology, psychological linguistics, etc. As for translation 

process, it is imperative that the translator take various questions into consideration, such as the 

characteristics of the target language, the cultural factors of the target language, the perception of the 

original text, the translator’s habits, etc. The English translation of Yuewei Caotang Biji by Yi Izzy Yu 

and John Yu Branscum has been conceived of as popular in the English world, and has achieved superb 

effect of transcultural communication. This translated work’s strategy of translating as editing has 

substantial effects in its’ success, which renders this book easily available to readers in the target culture. 

Keywords 

English translation of Yuewei Caotang Biji, translating as editing, transcultural communication 

 

1. Introduction 

Yuewei Caotang Biji is a masterpiece of biji (笔记) novel of China, which was written by Ji Yun in late 

eighteenth century. In the past century, only Yuewei Caotang Biji is fluent in writing, articulate in 

analyzing, and can be complimented as a masterpiece (Lu, 2020). Among the biji novels in Ji Yun’s era, 

the most representative and influential one is Yuewei Caotang Biji (Hu, 2013). The language style of his 

book is explicit, fluent and readily accessible, but the author achieved an effect of sharpness in thought 

out of such plain writing style; its arguments are accurate and precise (Qi, 2015). 

Regardless of this book’s influence and significance in Chinese literature, no complete English 

translation of it has emerged, and the current small amounts of its translated versions are limited in terms 

of influence. In 2021, Empress Wu Books published The Shadow Book of Ji Yun: The Chinese Classic of 

Weird True Tales, Horror Stories, and Occult Knowledge, a partial English translation of Yuewei Caotang 



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Biji. This translation was finished by Yi Izzy Yu and her husband John Yu Branscum. Once published, 

this translation has received a substantial amount of praise among English readers. In Goodreads, a 

renowned book review website, there are hundreds of comments and reviews for this translation, most 

of them scoring four points and above out of total five. In Amazon, an influential shopping website, this 

translation has been received with ovation, too. According to Worldcat, the world’s famous online library 

collection search tool, nine libraries in the U.S. have stored this translation into their preservation. It is 

conceivable that this translation of Yuewei Caotang Biji has emerged as a project worthy of academic 

research. However, so far, only one paper has made a brief introduction to this translation, pointing out 

that the translators of this translation have conducted bold reforms in translating and editing the original 

text (Liu & Zhong, 2022). Nevertheless, no further specific details and in-depth analysis for the 

translators’ measures have been unveiled.  

There is a research gap in terms of the translation of Yuewei Caotang Biji by Yi Izzy Yu and John Yu 

Branscum. It is necessary that research on this translation’s strategies of translating and editing be 

conducted.  

 

2. The Reason for Their Strategy of Translating as Editing 

Translating as editing here denotes a procedure of editing during the translation process. In other words, 

it means a variation translation activity in which translating comes after the processing the original 

material (Wang & Tao, 2019). Translation is deemed an intervention, in which translators involve 

themselves in the translation process, integrating their knowledge and belief into the handling of the 

original text (Qin & Zhang, 2020). That being said, Yi Izzy Yu and John Yu Branscum also clearly 

articulated their translation thoughts in their translation of Yuewei Caotang Biji: “We balanced fidelity to 

Ji Yun’s original texts with explicitness about many otherwise implicit matters of cultural subtext and 

meaning. In this, we privileged conveying the meaning, nuance, and aesthetic effects of a source text 

over word-for-word transcription, following the Yan Fu method of translation—which allows for the 

insertion of additional background information to communicate in new languages and to new audiences. 

(Yu & Branscum, 2021)” 

Through such a declaration, it is explicit that the two translators have adopted the strategy of translating 

as editing. Factually, certain clues on the reason for such a strategy are overt in the translation work itself: 

“In 2011, Yi Izzy Yu left Northern China for the US, with nothing but $500 in her pocket and a love of 

traditional Chinese stories that she’d inherited from her grandmother. Living in a rented room in the small 

Pennsylvania town of Indiana, late at night she would comfort her homesickness by eating shrimp chips 

and reading Ji Yun’s stories in their original Classical Chinese. It was in these moments that the thought 

first came to her that it would be cool to do a popular-culture English translation of Ji Yun’s work that 

focused on its contribution to speculative fiction and nonfiction. (Yu & Branscum, 2021)” It can be 

concluded that in the first place, Yi Izzy Yu believed that it is indispensable to render  this novel in 

popular culture, given that it is of contribution to speculative fiction and nonfiction.  



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In light of the volume of Yuewei Caotang Biji, which adds up to some 1,200 pieces of stories with 400,000 

Chinese characters, it is natural that some kind of adaptation in its translating be inevitable. This can be 

partially verified by the fact that no complete English translation of it has sprouted so far. All the current 

English translations of this book appear to be partial. It should also be pointed out that each of these 

translations reflects its translator’s unique thoughts on translation. As far as Yu and Branscum’s 

translation is concerned, the translators pointed out, in the preface, that the pieces of stories selected in 

their translation are the most striking and memorable ones. Though the translators did not explicitly 

signify that they had adopted the translation strategy of translating as editing, their translation method 

corresponds to that of it, which caters to the target-culture readers, selects the appropriate parts in the 

original text, and conveys the original text’s information in an accurate, fluent, flexible manner, so as to 

achieve the best effect of transcultural communication (Wu, 2015).  

The reason for translating a book consists in part in the prevalence of the source-language culture 

(Paloposki, 2021). With the establishment of international links and interactions, cultures in different 

hemispheres meet and integrate in an unprecedented pace. The Zhiguai (志怪) or mystery stories in 

Yuewei Caotang Biji attract the western readers dramatically. Therefore, the two translators, Yi Izzy Yu 

and John Yu Branscum, selected one hundred or so mystery stories into their translation work. And, in 

accordance with the themes, these stories are divided into three parts: Strange Nonfictions, Fables and 

Philosophies, and The End of Things. 

The following is an example of the way the translators conduct their translation. 

Original text: “No one knows where Hu Gongshan, a doctor, comes from. Some say that his surname is 

actually Jin, not Hu, and served Wu Sangui as a spy. In the wake of Wu’s collapse, he had to tamper with 

his name. Nevertheless, for lack of evidence, it is difficult to elucidate his identity. I met him when I was 

six or seven. He was already in his eighties at that time, but acted swiftly and briskly like a monkey, and 

owned superior wrestling techniques. Once when he was in a boat for travel, he came upon a group of 

bandits, but had nothing to fight back in his hand but a smoke pipe. Staggeringly he used this very tool 

and defeated all the members of the gang. By contrast, he is most afraid of ghosts, and dares not go to 

bed alone. He said that he had chanced upon a zombie when he was a teenager. Using his fists to punch 

the zombie, it felt as if he had hit woods and stones, and he was almost caught by the zombie. Luckily, 

he jumped to the peak of a high tree. Afterwards, the zombie jumped, circling the tree, and it was not 

until daylight that it stopped moving and hugged the tree. He did not dare watch downwards until a group 

of merchants who had fastened bells under their horses’ heads passed by. He saw that the zombie had 

white furs throughout the body; its eyes were staggeringly red; its fingers were like curved hooks, and 

its teeth protruded outside its mouth, like sharp knives. He was almost terrified to death by such scenes. 

Another time, he lived in an inn in a mountain, and felt something moving in his quilt, which he suspected 

as a snake or rat. A bit later, this thing extended its figure, grew bigger gradually, went outside the quilt 

and put its head on his pillow, sleeping together with him. He found that it was a naked woman. She 

grabbed him with her arms, and he felt as though he had been bound with a thick piece of rope. The 



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woman began to kiss him and breathe out slowly, and meanwhile he sensed a strong smell of blood. He 

was scared into a coma by this. He did not get awake until someone came to his rescue the next day. Ever 

since, he became timid. Confronted with a whirl of wind or the shadow of the moon after dusk, he would 

step back with terror.” 

As for such a short, simple story in the original text, the translators made an innovative adaptation in 

translation. They not only separated this story into two subdivisions (the subtitles are “THE 

MYSTERIOUS DR. HU” and “TWO EPISODES TO CONSIDER” respectively), but also added some 

cohesive sentences in appropriate places, rendering the story more readable. Why did the translators 

behave as such at all? Why should such a concept of translating as editing ever have evolved? 

The Chinese language differentiates from English in part in its brevity and relative lack of logical clues. 

This case is especially in accordance with the ancient Chinese language, with which the author of Yuewei 

Caotang Biji wrote. Generally speaking, there is neither punctuation nor separator in ancient Chinese 

language, making its semantic relations hard to discern. It is usually the modern Chinese scholars who 

assign the task of dividing the ancient Chinese sentences, which sometimes leads to controversies and 

uncertainties. For lack of logical sequences in lexical and grammatical aspects, and due to grammatical 

ambiguity, the ancient Chinese language is hard to translate. Additionally, on account of the disparity of 

social reality between ancient and modern China, between the West and China, it becomes 

overwhelmingly challenging for the translators to make accurate judgments in translation decision. In a 

nutshell, a series of problems cause impediments to the translators’ work. These seemingly irreconcilable 

obstacles make, in a way, the translators’ strategy of translating as editing justified or even imperative.  

The following is another instance for the translators’ strategy of translating as editing. 

The original text: “When I was in the place where I spent my exile, an officer took dozens of official 

papers in front of me, and offered me a brush pen and ink, to let me write some judgmental words on 

them. He said: ‘For those who die in this place but want to get their coffins back to the hometown, they 

must acquire such a passport as a rule. Otherwise, their souls would not be allowed to get through the 

gate by which they must pass.’ Because the passport goes to the underworld, the words on it shouldn’t 

be written in red, and the seal on it is also in black ink. Looking at the sentences on the passport, I felt it 

was ridiculous. It says: ‘This document is for acquiring the passport: this passport proves that somebody, 

at a certain age, died here on a certain day in a certain month in a certain year. At present his or her 

relatives would transport the coffin to the hometown, and this passport is permitted to be given to them. 

Upon seeing the passport, the ghost soldiers along the way back should release the dead person’s spirit 

after checking. Don’t ask for bribe money or delay the schedule, causing inconvenience for the journey.’ 

I said: ‘This is nothing but the lower rank officials’ excuse for asking for bribe money.’ Therefore, I 

notified the general in charge and canceled the rule. After ten days, someone reported that some sound 

of cry had erupted from the tomb field west of downtown, insofar as the dead ones had not got the 

passport, which made their souls unable to be transported to the hometown. Hearing this, I rebuked this 

person for his words’ absurdity. After another ten days, someone reported that the cry sound had been 



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near downtown. And I rebuked him as well. Another ten days later, I heard some ghostly sound outside 

my house’s wall. But I believed it was made purposefully by the lower rank officials. Several days later, 

the sound became outside my window. At the moment, the moonlight was as bright as daylight, and I got 

up to search for the source of sound, but nobody was found. My colleague said: ‘Your idea on the passport 

is justified, and even the general cannot deny your views. Nevertheless, it is now obvious that everyone 

has heard the ghostly cry, and those who had not got the passport would blame you deeply. Why not try 

sending out the passports to keep those who speak ill of you muted? Providing the sound would remain, 

it would even more prove your argument.’ I followed his advice unwillingly, and the sound stopped just 

that very night. Another time, Song Jilu, an official in the army, suddenly fell into a coma in a room. 

Long afterwards, he got awoke and said his mother had come. Before long, someone handed in a 

document, saying Jilu’s mother had died on the way to see him.” 

Confronted with such a story, the two translators not only adapted the dreary conversation in it into a 

readable form of dialogue, with the words uttered alternately like a popular novel. Besides, the translators 

supplemented something that are not present in the original text, which can be viewed as the translators’ 

addition to the author Ji Yun’s thoughts. All of this serves to fulfill the readers’ expectations. For instance, 

the following are two slices of supplementary evaluative content by the two translators: “Paper creates a 

great many things. Marriages, official positions, educational degrees, residency. All of these states of 

being require documents and indeed are not considered real or valid without them. In fact, civilizations 

owe their existence not just to physical things but to things created by the drawing up of papers. Because 

the people believe it so, these things are as real as physical artifacts. It is interesting that both spirits and 

documents direct the physical realm without themselves being physical.” “The rules that govern our 

world include many that are known but many more that are unknown or only half-understood. While 

people are eager to invent explanations for why the world is the way it is, at best their explanations can 

only account for the visible, physical world for that is the part of the world sensible to human eyes.” 

Simply put, the two translators’ method of translating as editing lies in various reasons. First and foremost, 

due to the huge length of the original book, no full English translation of it has emerged so far, and almost 

all translators of it have translated it partially, selecting the content they deem essential. Secondly, it is 

natural that the translators divide the original text and add some cohesive materials into the translation, 

thanks to the characteristics of ancient Chinese language. Last but not least, the translators are warranted 

the privilege of exerting their influence of thought on translation, and intervention is sometimes 

inevitable in the process of translation, insofar as no rigid, invariable rules exist in literary translation. 

And instead, it is a process of decision for the translators to analyze and conduct their own translation. 

Therefore, it is natural to draw the conclusion that the translators would interpose something they would 

like to express between the lines in their translation.  

 

 

 



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3. Conclusion 

Yuewei Caotang Biji is a masterpiece of biji novel in ancient China, which is of significance in terms of 

passing traditional Chinese culture on. Under this backdrop, the emergence of Yi Izzy Yu and John Yu 

Branscum’s translation have made overseas readers interested in this book in an unprecedented way. All 

of this should prompt the translation critics to examine what translation strategies have been utilized in 

this translation.  

With the acceleration of globalization and the contrastive literature’s “diverse culture turn”, literature 

worldwide are being paid close heed to. And translation plays a constructive, complex and pivotal role 

in this process. The literary genre of Yuewei Caotang Biji is biji, a unique one. Perhaps, due to this reason, 

translation critics have not attached much importance to it and its kind.  

In the process of transcultural communication, there is no doubt that the authentic “taste” of the original 

culture should be preserved. However, it seems almost reasonable that certain kind of creative adaptation 

in translation caters to the needs of foreign readers. In storytelling, it is partially imperative that the story 

be told in a way that can best fit into with the target readers’ cultural context; only in this way can the 

story be best accepted by the audiences (Xie, 2018). 

One of the essential missions of translated literature includes introducing to foreign readers the 

preeminent, extraordinary literature. There is a dominant criterion in evaluating whether a translated 

literary work is superb, i.e. whether it can make noteworthy contributions to the culture of the target 

language country. Taking that point into consideration, there arises a question of concern of whether strict 

literal translation can become excellent, insofar as the translated work ought to make the readers feel a 

kind of beauty, philosophical inspiration and spiritual touch just as the source language readers do.  

In light of this, the strategy of translating as editing Yi Izzy Yu and John Yu Branscum adopt in their 

translation of Yuewei Caotang Biji seems to be a product of natural selection for being welcome in the 

target language culture. 

In translation studies, an array of critical reflections is necessary (Pizarro & Paulo, 2020). And in 

translation, something seems to get invisible (Bámgbóṣé et al., 2023). Only after sufficient, careful 

observations are conducted can an evaluation for certain new phenomena in a translation be made. This 

remains essential in translation criticism. 

 

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Gabriel Bámgbóṣé. The Translator, 29(4), 1-15.  

Hu, Y. M. (2013). Novel history in the Qing Dynasty. Hefei: Hefei University of Technology press. 

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