English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies ISSN 2640-9836 (Print) ISSN 2640-9844 (Online) Vol. 6, No. 4, 2024 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls 147 Original Paper A Formal Equivalence Perspective Study on Yuan Za-ju Textual Translation Guangtao Cao1 & Dong Wang2 1 School of International Studies, Guangdong University of Education, Guangzhou 510303, China 2 English Department, Foshan University, Foshan Guangdong 528000, China Received: May 17, 2024 Accepted: July 09, 2024 Online Published: July 29, 2024 doi:10.22158/eltls.v6n4p147 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/eltls.v6n4p147 Abstract Adopting a functional linguistic approach to translation studies and implementing the model of translation quality assessment, we make an analysis and evaluation of Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang’s translation of Selected Plays of Guan Hanqing from the textual meta-function perspective. It is both for the textual assessment of Yang & Gladys’ English version of Yuan za-ju and the verification of the role textual function plays in the translation quality assessment. Based on the theory of text types and translation assessment, the aesthetic form is the main textual purpose of the expressive Yuan za-ju plays, which leads to identifying method adopting perspective ST author. Yang & Gladys’ English version does not conform to the ST in overt textual features owing to its application of domestication strategy in translation. It implies that the specific textual meta-function perspective should take an important role in translation quality assessment without which the overt textual deviations will not be found. Keywords textual meta-function, translation quality assessment, Yuan za-ju 1. Introduction The conceptual meaning and interpersonal meaning that people use language to express must be presented in text or discourse form through the connection and organization of linguistic textual meaning in order to be used in communication (Halliday, 1994, pp. 33-36). Therefore, textual meaning is also very important in functional linguistics. However, in the evaluation of translation quality, researchers usually pay more attention to the examination of conceptual meaning and interpersonal meaning, and textual meaning is often regarded as dispensable. As one of the three metafunctions of language, textual meaning plays an important role in translation quality assessment. We attempts to examine the quality of Chinese traditional opera and its translation from the perspective of systemic www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 6, No. 4, 2024 Published by SCHOLINK INC. 148 functional linguistics, this paper describes, analyzes and evaluates the quality of the English versions of Yang Xianyi's and Gladys Yang's translation of The selected plays of Guan Hanqing, which include eight plays: Injustice to Dou E, Lu Zhailang, Butterfly Dream, Rescuing the Courtesan, Wangjiang Pavilion, Jade Mirror Stand, Solo Sword Party, Lamenting Cunxiao. 2. Functional Discourse and Translation Quality Assessment Translation refers to the substitution of textual components of one language (SL) by equivalent components in another language (TL) (Catford, 1965, p. 20). This equivalent transformation includes two categories: "formal correspondent" and "textual equivalent". The former refers to the correspondence of the translation in language categories (units, categories, structural components, etc.) to those of the source text, while the latter refers to the equivalence of the entire translation or parts of it to the entire source text or corresponding parts. Overall, both emphasize the form of language. Form is the embodiment of meaning. Different forms express different meanings and, of course, convey different information to the audience. Therefore, "formal equivalence" can be used to measure the suitability of a translation (Huang, 2003, pp. 21-23). Translation should seek the same meaning and the same function of the discourse of the two languages in the same overall situational context. A good translation must seek the equivalence of the discourse meaning of the two languages in terms of expression media, channels, rhetorical methods, etc. (Hu, 1989, p. 188). All language choices are indicatively and intertextually meaningful. The entire social space provides a framework for every speech and every discourse. Every society or sub-society constructs meaning by linking the discourse with other discourses, discourse types, and fixed patterns of culture. It is these things that give the discourse a position in the meaningful social space (Lemke, 1992, p. 85). The discourse analysis model constructed by Halliday and the functional linguistics translation quality assessment model constructed by House based on it (House, 1997, p. 108; Munday, 2001, pp. 90-92), as well as the script system (Genre) and discourse characteristics of traditional Chinese opera, provide a good operational entry point for assessing the translation quality of opera translations. Yuan Zaju has its own distinct morphological features and external signs rich in national characteristics. In translation, the script system and discourse form of Yuan Zaju should themselves be an important explicit "content". Therefore, if the translation text of Yuan Zaju is to achieve equivalence to the source text, it must maintain equivalence in the organization at the text level, that is, in the discourse meaning. According to the theory of language function and text type (typology) and its translation methods (Buhler, 1934/65; Reiss, 1977/1989, pp. 105-115; Munday, 2001, p. 74; Nord, 2005, pp. 42-43), we believe that dramatic literature has three functions: informative, expressive, and vocative, with the expressive function being the most prominent. The discourse function and purpose of the expressive text are to express the author's attitude. The core elements are text aesthetics and language form, and the key task of translation is to convey its aesthetic form. The translation strategy is based on being faithful to the text genre and the author's stylistic style (see Table 2.1). In this regard, Yuan Zaju, as one of the text types www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 6, No. 4, 2024 Published by SCHOLINK INC. 149 with the most expressive functions, pays more attention to form. In translation, more emphasis should seemingly be placed on the conveyance of its text form and aesthetic sense. Table 2.1 The Correlation between Text Types, Functions and Translation Methods (Munday, 2010:74; Reiss, 1977/1989, p. 105) Text type Informative: report; biography; reference work; lecture; operating instructions; tourist brochure; official speech; satire… Expressive: poem; play… Operative: sermon; electoral speech; advertisement; public notice… Language function Informative (representing objects and facts) Expressive (expressing sender’s attitude) Appellative (making an appeal to text receiver) Language dimension Logical Aesthetic Dialogic Text focus Content-focused Form-focused Appellative-focused TT should Transmit referential content Transmit aesthetic form Elicit desired response Translation method ‘Plain prose’, explicitation as required ‘Identifying’ method, adopt perspective of ST author ‘Adaptive’, equivalent effect 3. The Deviation of the English Translation from the Discourse at the Micro level of Yuan Zaju The SFL discourse function has both micro and macro levels. The discourse meaning at the micro level mainly concerns the information organization function of the discourse for conceptual meaning and interpersonal meaning. According to Halliday and Hasan's discourse cohesion model (Bell, 1991, p. 15), discourse mainly refers to the characteristics of three semantic systems: discourse cohesion, thematic structure and information structure. Discourse cohesion includes reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion. Reference can be divided into exophoric reference, endophoric reference, cataphoric reference/superordinate reference or anaphoric reference/subordinate reference. Lexical cohesion includes repetition, collocation, synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, etc. The micro level of discourse focuses on how to present the information to be given and the language style of the discourse. In the translation of "Solo Sword Party", Yang's translation has the following kinds of micro-level discourse deviations: (1) 承管待，承管待。多承谢，多承谢。I thank you for your hospitality, /We are much obliged to you. The use of repetitive lines occasionally occurs in Yuan Zaju. "承管待" and "多承谢" are repeated once respectively as clauses. Guan Yu repeatedly expresses his gratitude loudly to Lu Su. It seems low-key www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 6, No. 4, 2024 Published by SCHOLINK INC. 150 but is actually humorous. The translation fails to render this repetitive line. (2) 人人开弓并蹬弩，个个贯甲与披袍，旌旗闪闪龙蛇动。Let all prepare bows and arrows,/ Put on armor and battle-dress;/ Flags shall wave like writhing dragons. (3) 齐臻臻枪刀如流水，密匝匝人似朔风疾。直杀的苦淹淹尸骸遍郊野，哭啼啼父子两分离。恁 时节喜孜孜鞭敲金蹬响，笑吟吟齐和凯歌回。Let lances and swords surge forward like a river,/ And troops charge swift as the wind./Till unhappy corpses cover the whole plain/ And, torn apart, the sons and fathers weep./ Then with gay whips beating our gilded stirrups,/ Laughing and singing, we shall ride back in triumph. The use of reduplicated words and rhyming words is quite common in the lyrics of Yuan Zaju, which are explicit external marks for emphasis and acoustic effect. This is the case with several examples in "Solo Sword Party" mentioned above. In "Solo Sword Party", in addition to the AA-type reduplicated words such as "人人", "个个", "闪闪" mentioned above, there are also some others like: "暗暗", "紧紧 ", "浩浩", "沉沉", "铮铮", "谨谨", etc. And the ABB-type reduplicated words and rhyming words, in addition to the above-mentioned "齐臻臻", "密匝匝", "苦淹淹", "哭啼啼", "喜孜孜", "笑吟吟", there are also: "赤力力", "雄赳赳", "威凛凛", "古剌剌", "扑冬冬", "闹炒炒", "急飐飐", "昏惨惨", "冷飕飕 ", etc. In "Butterfly Dream", there is "马咬马咬, 马踢马踢, 马合马合" (I’ll let my horse kick and trample him.). Yang's translation avoids lexical reduplication and fails to convey the rhythm and language style of the reduplicated expressions in the original work. (4) 带鞍带辔烧死马，有袍有铠死尸骸。Steeds smouldered in their harness,/ And corpses lay in their battle-dresses and helmets. (5) 昏惨惨晚霞收，冷飕飕江风起。Dark evening clouds are gathering,/ The wind on the river is chill. (6) 曹操英雄智略高，削平偺窃篡刘朝。永安宫里擒刘备，铜雀宫中锁二乔。Cao Cao is a mighty warrior and a shrewd one. He overthrew his rivals and seized the throne. He may imprison Liu Bei in Yongan Palace and hold both your daughters in the Tower of Bronze Sparrows. The parallel and antithetical sentence patterns generally have the same thematic-rhematic structure or known information/new information structure. Their use plays an important role in creating an atmosphere, depicting scenes and character images, and also has the symmetrical and harmonious beauty in form. "Solo Sword Party" is a historical eulogy drama depicting the magnificent war situation during the Three Kingdoms period, and it is particularly good at using this technique. In example (4), the translation also uses approximate parallel minor sentences in sentence patterns and information structure but is not tidy enough. Due to the use of the cataphoric reference "harness" and the anaphoric reference "battle-dresses" in discourse reference, helmets that do not exist in the original text are added, making the second minor sentence too long. The thematic formal structure of the two minor sentences in example (5) is not symmetrical. In example (6), the original text is four rhymed lines of dialogue, but the translation is three unrhymed lines of dialogue. The metrical form is an obvious deviation in the translation of this drama. Yuan Zaju is based on the qu (a type of verse for singing to certain tunes), adopting the form of a series of qu tunes. Each qu tune www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 6, No. 4, 2024 Published by SCHOLINK INC. 151 belongs to a different mode and has its own syntactic, lexical and modal patterns and markers of the use, such as fixed sentence patterns, word patterns, and metrical rhymes. The playwright fills in the words according to the qu tunes, and the lyrics of the qu are often the most beautiful and wonderful part. Although Yang's translation of the lyrics of this drama also adopts the form of translating poetry with poetry, it does not adopt the sentence pattern and rhyme of the original metrical form but translates Yuan qu into English free verse, failing to reflect the characteristics of Yuan qu that emphasizes the end rhymes, and is quite different from the original text in terms of rhyme, sentence pattern and word pattern. To sum up, the deviations of the translation from the original text in the micro-discourse meaning include four types: minor sentence repetition, rhyming reduplicated words, parallel and antithetical sentences, and the metrical form of the lyrics. 4. The Deviation of the English Translation from the Macro-discourse Meaning of Yuan Zaju The macro level of discourse refers to the textual function and the discourse genre (generic purpose) oriented by the sociocultural environment. In Munday's "The Relationship Model of Discourse Genre, Register and Language" (Munday 2001, p. 108) and House's "Analysis and Comparison Model of the Source Text and the Target Text" (House, 1997, p. 108), the counterpart of the macro level of discourse is discourse genre (Genre). House proposed the two concepts of overt translation and covert translation, and believed that overt translation strives to maintain the form and function of the source text completely. The higher the degree of correspondence between the translation and the source text, and the fewer the asymmetries (mismatches) or deviations (errors), the better the translation quality (House 1977, p. 189, p. 194). Asymmetries or deviations in discourse genre (in terms of referential or target systems) are overt deviations, while asymmetries and mistranslations in the context (micro level) are covert deviations. Through analysis, Yang's translation has the following discourse deviations at the macro level. (7) 冲末鲁肃上 Enter Lu Su, Huang Wen and Soldiers; 正末乔公上 Enter Qiao Gong;正旦扮窦娥上 Enter Dou E; 孤冲上 Enter Bao Zheng; 冲末净扮白姑姑上 Enter Abbess Bai; 付末上 Enter the Bailiff; 正末引贴旦上 Enter Zhang Gui, leading his wife; 丑扮官人引祗侯上 Enter the Prefect with an Attendant. In the scripts of Yuan Zaju, the identity types of the characters entering the stage - the stock characters - are marked, mainly to facilitate the actors to grasp the characteristics of the characters in the play during makeup and performance. Wang Jide of the Ming Dynasty said in "Qu Lü": "In Yuan Zaju, the names and types are different. For the role of mo 末 , there are 正末 zhengmo, 副末 fumo, 冲末 chongmo (that is, 副末 fumo), and 小末 xiaomo. For the role of 旦 dan, there are 正旦 zhengdan, 副 旦 fudan, 贴旦 tiandan (that is, 副旦 fudan), 茶旦 chadan,外旦 waidan, 小旦 xiaodan, dan'er (that is, 小旦 xiaodan), 卜旦 budan (also called 卜儿 bu'er, that is, 老旦 laodan)." There are also some temporary miscellaneous characters who cannot be assigned to a role and are directly called by their www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 6, No. 4, 2024 Published by SCHOLINK INC. 152 names. The names of the stock characters in the play "Solo Sword Party" mainly include 正末 zhengmo (末 mo) and 冲末 chongmo. Other characters are named by their names. In the other seven plays, the names of the stock characters that appear include 外wai, 卜儿 bu'er (卜 bu), 孛老 belao, 付 净 fujing (净 jing), 正旦 zhengdan (旦 dan), 魂旦 hundan, 丑 chou, 旦儿 dan'er, 贴旦 tiandan, 孤 gu, 付末 fumo, w外旦 aidan, 张末 Zhangmo，张旦 Zhangdan, 李末 Limo，李旦 Lidan, 三末 Sanmo (王 大 Wang Da, 王 二 Wang Er, 王 三 Wang San), etc. There are also some common names for miscellaneous roles, such as老夫人 old madam (夫人madam), 梅香Meixiang, 媒人matchmaker (媒 mei), 院公 Yuangong, 亲随 Qinsui, 张千 Zhang Qian, 解子 Jiezi, 祗侯 Zhihou (祗从 Zhicong), 众 人 everyone, 徕儿 Laier, 店小二 Waiter (小二 Xiao'er), 赛卢医 Sai Lu Yi (卢 Lu), 杨衙内 Yang Ya Nei (衙内Ya Nei), P府尹 refectural Governor, 张梢 Zhang Shao, 番卒子 Fan Zuzi (卒子Zuzi), 小番 Xiao Fan, etc., all of which represent typical characters. The stock characters are a major ethnic feature of Yuan Zaju and the entire traditional Chinese opera, belonging to a typical explicit text marker. Yang's translation abandons all the names of the stock characters and does not translate them, and the ethnic characteristics of the original work disappear completely. (8) (甲士拥上科) (Enter Lu Su’s troops.); (见道童科) (He catches sight of the Boy.); (旦虚下) (Dou E goes out); (衙内做意儿科) (admiring her) "科 Ke" is a common and important theatrical term in the scripts of Yuan Zaju, generally referring to the performing actions or expressions of the actors. Xu Wei's "Nanci Xulu": "Such actions as meeting, making bows, making salutes, dancing, sitting and kneeling, and all that the body does, are all called 'Ke'." "The soldiers rush onto the stage 'Ke'" requires the actors to rush onto the stage and form the corresponding battle array in a series of actions. "Meet the Taoist boy 'Ke'" requires the actors to meet and bow and exchange greetings in a series of actions. "Make an expression" requires the actors to deliberately make a certain expression, posture or action, serving as a cue for the character's expression. "Exit feigning" means pretending to exit. Exit feigning is not a real exit. "Exit" indicates that the character exits the stage, while "Exit feigning" is to hide and observe the development of the plot, and then re-enter the stage. Yang's translation of "Ke" is overly simplified or even wrong, not reflecting the systematic engineering process, thus filtering out the expressions and stage effects of the acting actions. In terms of overt translation, although the translation has the discourse markers of actions, its connotation deviates greatly. Singing is the main component of Yuan Zaju, sung in the form of a surrogate by the main singing role. Any parts of the script marked with tunes such as [点绛唇Dian Jiang Chun], [混江龙Hun Jiang Long], etc., are all singing parts, which can express emotions, narrate, discuss, describe, and reply. In the scripts of Yuan Zaju, the name of the 宫调 mode is marked before the first tune of each act, and the name of the 曲牌 song title is marked before each singing lyric, such as the first tunes of each act in this play, [仙吕点绛唇 Xianlü Dian Jiang Chun], [正宫端正好 Zhenggong Duan Zheng Hao], [中吕粉 蝶儿 Zhonglü Fen Die Er], [双调新水令 Shuangdiao Xin Shui Ling]. "仙吕 Xianlü", "正宫 Zhenggong", "中吕 Zhonglü", "双调 Shuangdiao" are the names of the modes, and their usage is www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 6, No. 4, 2024 Published by SCHOLINK INC. 153 somewhat similar to modern song tunes. Each mode has its own large number of songs. The order of the song titles also roughly follows certain customs. The commonly used modes in Yuan Zaju include five modes and four tones, and each mode set of songs commonly uses one or twenty song titles. Yuan Zaju takes singing as the main body, and the position of the songs is very important. The earliest existing "Thirty Kinds of Yuan Edition Zaju" (including the zaju of Guan Hanqing) only have the singing lyrics and the entrances and exits of the roles, but have few or no spoken lines. Playwrights are very particular about the phonology and word choice of the singing lyrics, so later generations often call Yuan Zaju "Yuan Qu". The zaju of Guan Hanqing is generally more lyrical than dramatic, making full use of the singing lyrics to express emotions, and most of them belong to typical singing plays. The ideological content is the soul of the drama, and the tunes endow the zaju with appearance, making it have both form and spirit and be passed down to this day. Therefore, the mode and song title of Yuan Zaju are undoubtedly the most important discourse features of Yuan Zaju in terms of form and function, with both expressive and vocative functions. Aesthetics and morphological beauty are their explicit marks, and in translation strategies, emphasis should be placed on the transmission of its form and aesthetic artistic conception. Yang's translation simply deleted these unique forms of Yuan Zaju, causing the original discourse to lose its cultural identity. The usage of modes and song titles in the eight plays of "Selected Zaju of Guan Hanqing" is shown in Table 4.1: Table 4.1 Statistical Table of the Data on the Use of Modes, Song Titles, Wedges, and Titles and Epigraphs in 8 Plays from "Selected Zaju of Guan Hanqing" Play Title Injustice to Dou E Lu Zhai Lang Butterfly Dream Rescuing the Courtesan Wangjiang Pavilion Jade Mirror Stand Solo Sword Party Lamenting Cunxiao Tot al Number of Modes 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 32 Number of Song Titles 41 44 52 44 34 56 42 39 352 Number of Wedges 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 Number of Lines of Title and Epigraph 2 2 4 2 2 2 4 0 18 Yang's translation completely deleted and did not translate the 32 mode names (including those with the same name) such as [仙吕 Xianlü], [南吕 Nanlü], [中吕 Zhonglü], [双调 Shuangdiao], [正宫 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 6, No. 4, 2024 Published by SCHOLINK INC. 154 Zhenggong], [商调 Shangdiao], [越调 Yuediao], etc. and 352 song title names (including those with the same name) that appeared in the eight zaju of Guan Hanqing. As a result, there were plays but no songs, and the play survived but the songs perished. Yuan Zaju is generally sung throughout the whole play by zhengmo or zhengdan. The play sung throughout by zhengmo is called "末本 mo ben", and the play sung throughout by zhengdan is called " 旦本dan ben". "一人主唱Solo singing by one person" is the most important functional means for Yuan Zaju to successfully depict the personalities of the main characters, and it is also the greatest stylistic feature that distinguishes it from Chinese Southern Opera and Legend. Yang's translation marked the singing lyrics of zhengmo or zhengdan and the rhymed lines of other roles in the play in the lyrics and spoken lines with poetic lines, further obscuring this important feature of Yuan Zaju. At the same time, the translation combines the singing lyrics of different song titles in the original work, and combines the rhymed lines with the singing lyrics in the song titles, resulting in the disappearance of the unique mode changes and rhythms of the opera. Moreover, it reduces the original three literary styles and corresponding functions - the singing lyrics under the song titles (singing), rhymed lines (reciting), and unrhymed lines (speaking) to two in the translation: rhymed lines (reciting) and unrhymed lines (speaking). Thus, it is completely assimilated into the Western poetic drama style, causing the original work to lose its true appearance. (9) 欢来不似今朝，喜来那逢今日. There can be no day as happy as today. (10) 三尺龙泉万卷书，皇天生我意何如？山东宰相山西将，彼丈夫兮我丈夫。Three feet of steel, ten thousand books/ /For what an I destined by Heaven?// Statesmen of the east, generals of the west// What were they?// I am the equal of them all. (11) 龙楼凤阁九重城，新筑沙堤宰相行。我贵我荣君莫羡，十年前是一书生。In this lofty Capital// With dragon and phoenix pavilion,// A new sanded avenue// Is built for the minister.// But do not envy// My high estate and splendor;// Ten years ago// I was still a mere civilian. (12) 道可道，非常道。名可名，非常名。The law that can be told is not the invariable law; // The names that can be named are not invariable names. When a character in Yuan Zaju enters the stage, they usually recite four lines of poetry, which is called the entrance poem 上场诗 . At the end of an act, before a character exits the stage, they usually also recite four lines of poetry, which is called the exit poem 下场诗 . However, not all characters recite entrance or exit poems. The content of the entrance poem is determined by the identity, age, and occupation of the entering character, and has the characteristics of being stereotyped and formulaic. The content of the exit poem is more related to the plot. In modern performances of traditional plays, the habit of entrance and exit poems is still followed, but in some cases, the four lines have been changed into two lines. Entrance and exit poems originated from storytelling literature such as storytellers' scripts and have become a tradition of Chinese opera. In example (9), the two-line entrance poem in the original text is combined into one line in the translation. In example (10), the four-line entrance poem in the original text is divided into five lines in the translation. In example (11), the www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 6, No. 4, 2024 Published by SCHOLINK INC. 155 four-line entrance poem in the original text is divided into eight lines in the translation. In example (12), the four lines in the original text are combined into two lines in the translation. Overall, Yang's translation is relatively faithful to the entrance and exit poems, and there are not many such individual cases of deviation in the number of lines. The wedge 楔子 is a shorter independent paragraph added to Yuan Zaju outside the four acts. It is one of the components of the script structure of Yuan Zaju: four acts and one wedge. Most of the wedges are used before the first act as the beginning of the plot, equivalent to the prologue. Some are used between acts to connect the plot, equivalent to an interlude. For example, the wedge of Guan Hanqing's zaju "Pei Du Returns the Belt" is between the third and fourth acts. Some have no wedges, and individual plays have two wedges. Among the eight plays selected in "Selected Zaju of Guan Hanqing", three have wedges (see Table 4.1). Yang's translation did not translate the wedges independently but included all three wedges in the first act. As a result, the selected eight plays all seemed to have no wedges, and the form of the wedge in Yuan Zaju completely disappeared. (13)题目 孙仲谋独占江东地 请乔公言定三条计 正名 鲁子敬设宴索荆州 关大王独赴单刀会 (14)题目 三不知同会云台观 正名 包待制智斩鲁斋郎 The title 题目 and the name 正名 are one of the writing styles or conventions of Yuan Zaju. Generally, at the end of the Yuan Zaju script, title and name is marked - two or four couplet sentences. The title and name summarize the content of the entire play and use several representative words in the last sentence as the abbreviation of the play. The title and name are recited by the actors when the play is over and the audience is leaving. Therefore, the habit of performance is also retained in the script and written at the end of the entire play. The marked format is that the first one or two sentences are the "title", and the last one or two sentences are the "name". But some only mark the "title", and some only mark the "name". Among the eight plays selected in "Selected Zaju of Guan Hanqing", seven have the title and name. Some are two lines in one couplet, and some are four lines in two couplets, totaling 18 lines. Only the play "Lamenting Cunxiao" has no title and name (see Table 4.1). The title and name and their verses are the explicit stylistic discourse features of Yuan Zaju. However, Yang's translation deleted and did not translate the marking of the title and name of Guan Hanqing's zaju and the following 18 couplets. The form of the title and name of Yuan Zaju was eliminated because it did not conform to the Western drama style. In the scripts of Yuan Zaju, whenever "某某云 So-and-so says" is marked, it indicates the dialogue of the characters. "云 Says" here means "白 speaks", and it is an artistic means for the characters in the play to express the plot through speaking besides singing. Ming Dynasty drama theorists called it "宾 白 Binbai". Xu Wei said in "Nanci Xulu": "Singing is the main part, and speaking is the secondary part. Hence it is called Binbai." Binbai is also a very important part in Yuan Zaju because to a large extent, the storyline of the script and the various complex relationships among the characters are mostly expressed through Binbai. In the scripts of Yuan Zaju, the discourse markers of Binbai are mainly www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/eltls English Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies Vol. 6, No. 4, 2024 Published by SCHOLINK INC. 156 marked in the form of stage cues (云 says) or (某某云 So-and-so says). Besides, there are also (背云 says behind) and (带云 says while), etc. The forms are flexible, do not change lines due to different roles, maintaining visual continuity and avoiding the fragmentation of perspectives caused by the frequent turn-taking of Western dramas. Yang's translation changed the stage markers such as (某云 So-and-so says) and (某唱 So-and-so sings) to the form of lines in Western poetic dramas. The specific content of Binbai is in italics to distinguish it from the singing lyrics. Binbai is separated into lines, and singing and speaking are separated. The deviation of the plane printing form makes the explicit discourse feature of the integration of Binbai in Yuan Zaju disappear. The deviations of the translation from the original text in discourse meaning are as follows: The retranslation of the stock character roles, the incomplete translation of the connotation of "Ke", the deletion and non-translation of 32 mode names such as [Xianlü Dian Jiang Chun], [Hun Jiang Long], [You Hu Lu] and 352 song title names which damaged the attribute of the original work based on the songs, the confusion of the singing lyrics and rhymed lines which undermined the solo singing system, the deviation in the number of minor sentences of the entrance poems, the retranslation of the 3 wedges, the deviation of the plane form of the intergrowth of the singing and speaking, and the non-translation of the 18 couplets of the title and name, etc. Altogether, there are 8 major types of deviations in the macro-discourse form. 5. Conclusion Guided by functional linguistics and referring to House's translation quality assessment model, we objectively describes and evaluates the quality of the English translation texts of eight plays in Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang's "Selected Zaju of Guan Hanqing" from the formal equivalence perspective of micro and macro discourse meta-function. Through the evaluation practice of Yuan Zaju translation, it can be seen that discourse function has an irreplaceable important position in textual translation evaluation. Foundation Project This is one of the findings of the 2023 Guangdong social science project “Research on the English Translation of Yuan Zaju—Taking the English Translation of Guan Hanqing's Zaju as an Example” (GD23XWW01). References Bell, R. T. (1991). Translation and Translating: Theory and Practice. London and New York: Longman. Buhler, K. (1965). Sprachtheorie: Die Darstellungsfunktion der Sprache (p. 194). Stuttgart: Custar Fischer. Catford, J. C. (1965). 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London & New York: Pinter. Munday, J. (2001). Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications. London and New York: Routledge. Nord, C. (2005). Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches Explained. Manchester: St Jerome. Reiss, K. (1977). Text Types, Translation Types and Translation Assessment (Translated by A. Chesterman) (ed.). Reading in Translation Theory[C]. Finland: Oy Finn Lectura Ab, 1977/1989. Yang, X. Y., & Gladys, Y. (2006). Lord Guan Goes to the Feast, Selected Plays of Guan Hanqing (Volume 2). Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. Author Information [1] Guangtao, CAO (1971-11), male, Han, Born place: Minquan County, Henan Province, Title: Professor, Doctor of Ancient Chinese Literature, Research Direction: British and American Literature; drama translation. [2] Dong WANG (1969-04), male, Han, Born place: Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, Title: Lecturer, Master of English Language and Literature, Research Direction: British and American Literature; English language. Original Paper A Formal Equivalence Perspective Study on Yuan Za- Abstract Keywords Table 2.1 The Correlation between Text Types, Func Table 4.1 Statistical Table of the Data on the Use