海洋文化翻译

101.The Four Seas
It is said that if one theory or
viewpoint is right, it could be said as
“it is always truth wherever it is.” When
a group of strangers gather together,
others will regard them as who comes from
everywhere. While those who have personal loyalty always emphasize their most popular catch phrase, “within the four seas all men are brothers.” However, the meaning of “the four seas” is not the same all times. The ancients thought that the sky is round and the earth is square with seas surrounding it. Therefore, “four seas” initially means “all around the country” or “all over the world”. What “the four seas” means in the sentence “It is applicable everywhere (the four seas).” is just the meaning mentioned above. Later, people regarded seas as divisions of the land and thus makes the Chinese coastal areas and territorial seas another name ---“the four seas”. For example, the saying “the four seas united in Shangshu•Yugong means that places outside China are the four seas. Then in the book Liji•Jiyi, it was for the first time to mentioned about the East China Sea, the South China Sea, the West China Sea and the North China Sea. However,
people did not clearly mention the sea areas included in these four seas. Generally, the futurity named the seas surrounding China as “the Four Seas”. And there were different saying of it along times. Accordingly, the North China Sea what the ancients called is probably the Bohai Sea nowadays, the East China Sea is the Yellow Sea now and there is a county named Donghai(named of the East China sea) in Jiangsu Province, the ancient the South China Sea is the East China Sea today and it may be changed with times. And the current the South China Sea, in and after Han Dynasty, is called “Zhanghai”. It is because the islets, as a foil in the island, can let people see a glorious view of the tide.
The ancients were not only in the name of “the Four Seas”geographically, but also in Chinese mythology novel, such as The Legend of Deification and Pilgrimage to the West . What’s more, it also appeared in opera dramas such as Lu Yi Sends His Letters and Zhang Yu Boils the Sea. It is also believed that both the good and the evil in the seas around the different personalities , such as the East China Sea Dragon King Ao Guang, the South China Sea Dragon King Ao Qin, the North Sea Dragon King Ao Shun and the West Sea Dragon king Ao Run,leaped for Jade Emperor of Heaven, helping to manipulate climate on the earth.
101.东南西北话“四海”
常听人说，某一理论或观点正确，叫做“放之四海而皆准”；互不相识的一群人聚集到一起，也常常称他们是来自五湖四海；讲义气、重情感的人，挂在嘴边的口头禅就是“四海之内皆兄弟”。

其实，四海所指的，古今不尽相同。

古人认为，天是圆形的，地是方形的，四周全部被汪洋大海所包围。

所以，最早所说的“四海”既指全国各处，也指世界各地，“放之四海而皆准”的“四海”指的就是这个意思。

后来，人们把海作为区分陆地的疆界，这样中国四周的“海疆”也叫四海，如《尚书·禹贡》中说“四海会同”，就是说中国大地九州之外，就是四海。

到了《礼记·祭义》中则第一次具体明确提到了东海、西海、南海和北海，却没明确指出到底是哪些海域，后人就把环绕中国四周的海笼统地称为四海，并且因时而异,说法很多。

在这个意义上，古人所说的北海大体是指现在的渤海，古时的东海指的是今天的黄海，至今江苏还有东海县。

古时的南海，就是今天的东海，并且因时而异；现在的南海，汉代及汉代以后，称作“涨海”，大概是因为海岛中岛礁对潮汐涨落的衬托放大作用而得名。

古人不仅在地理上有四海的名称，而且在中国的神话小说《封神榜》、《西游记》，戏曲杂剧《柳毅传书》、《张羽煮海》等浩如烟海的古典文学作品中，人们还认为在四海各地都有善恶不同、性格似人的东海龙王敖广、南海龙王敖钦、北海龙王敖顺和西海龙王敖闰在那里替天上的玉皇大帝管理着大海和陆地上的旱涝风雨。