Translation of Chinese Legal Concept of "qinqin xiangyin"

This paper takes the translation of the Chinese legal concept of "qinqin xiangyin" as an example. "qinqin xiangyin" is an important principle of criminal law in ancient China. Many scholars have expounded upon this concept in China. However, so far, there is no consensus as to the English translation versions of this concept. To assess this legal translation practice, this paper has first examined the historic origin of this concept and then analyzed the various translation versions from the following perspectives: legal culture, lexicon choice and grammatical choice. This paper is not aimed to make final assessment of various translation versions, but attempts to work out the criteria based on which legal translation practice may be assessed. In conclusion, in order to achieve the highest possible degree of equivalence between SL and TL, three steps have to be taken to approach the translation of legal concepts: firstly, having a thorough understanding of the source legal concept in its legal system context; secondly, making a lexicon choice in TL corresponding with the idea of SL; thirdly, ensuring the naturalness of the TL in terms of grammar and style, etc.