Abstract:

Xiangtu culture is local knowledge deeply embedded in geographical, historical, and dialectal contexts. Its meaning depends on its original context, and is therefore more liable to loss in cross-lingual communication than disciplinary knowledge. Under the framework of Transknowletology, this paper examines the English translation of “cooking smoke” (chuiyan) imagery in classical Chinese poetry along three dimensions: seeking truth, attaining virtue, and pursuing beauty. Seeking truth lies in restoring the original connotations; attaining virtue, in calibrating the audience's cognition; and pursuing beauty, in reconstructing the poetic conception or conveying it through multimodal means. Extending from “cooking smoke” to the broader question of how xiangtu culture goes global, the paper holds that the three dimensions are often in mutual tension at each stage, calling for context-sensitive adjustment and the collaboration of multiple agents. It ultimately argues that the global communication of xiangtu culture rests not merely on the choice of words, but on whether xiangtu knowledge can be truly recognized through translation, thus moving from “going out” to “going in”.

Key words: xiangtu culture, “cooking smoke” imagery, Transknowletology, global communication