For the convenience of fellow students of classical Chinese we have provided the following books with line-by-line (一讀一行) translations produced by generative AI systems in TLS. All such AI translations are marked with a light pinkish background as mechanical output of an imperfect AI app that is still very much under development. Everybody can see that this needs to be consulted and compared with extreme care and critical alertness.
When so used, AI translations will be found helpful in research and even in advanced teaching. Critical comparison with the leading translations by sinologists East and West is particularly sobering and rewarding. The AI output translations invite a critical conversation between human and machine translation.
In this way TLS is all set to enable advanced analytic and scientific use of some technological facilities offered by the best of modern AI technology. So far, I have found Google Gemini best among its competitors in translating from classical Chinese. Others may follow. And it is hoped that everybody will feel encouraged to add his own faourite AI translations into the database.
Here is the current list of texts with a substantial amount translated.
Here is more information about translation, Translation files. There are now also two ways to get AI based translations:
- Create a new translation file and select “AI” as described in Translation draft from AI
- Request a complete translation for a text.