Insider vs. Outsider: A Contrastive Corpus Analysis of Two Italian Translations of the Huangdi Neijing

Abstract

The cross-cultural transmission of foundational texts in TCM (i.e., Traditional Chinese Medicine) like the Huangdi Neijing (“Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon”) presents significant translation challenges. This study posits that the effectiveness of such translations hinges on a crucial, often implicit, choice regarding the target audience: are we translating for a cultural “insider” or an “outsider”? This paper conducts a contrastive analysis of the two most influential Italian translations of the Neijing—the Ledvinka (1976) version and the Cantoni et al. (1994) version—utilizing a custom-built Chinese-Italian parallel corpus. Through a multi-level analysis of lexicometric, syntactic, and terminological features, the study reveals two starkly contrasting strategies. The Ledvinka translation consistently adopts a domesticating approach, reframing the text’s concepts to align with the cognitive world of a Western “outsider” reader. In contrast, the Cantoni et al. version employs a foreignizing strategy, preserving the source text’s conceptual integrity and cultural specificity for an “insider” audience of practitioners and cultural enthusiasts. The findings demonstrate that these divergent strategies are not accidental but represent coherent, audience-driven choices, highlighting the critical importance of audience segmentation in the effective translation and dissemination of complex cultural heritage.