Translating Baihua Grammatical Elements in a Fifteenth-Century Korean Buddhist Text: Linguistic and Cultural Notes on the Mongsan hwasang pŏbŏ yangnok ŏnhae

This article examines the fifteenth-century Korean 諺解 exegesis of the 蒙山和尙法語略錄 to determine the translation strategies used to render so-called or vernacular Sinitic in vernacular Korean. In particular, the article aims first to clarify the linguistic features of the materials from the late Southern Song period found in this text, and then to clarify the comprehension and translation abilities of a fifteenth-century Buddhist intellectual who was not a trained specialist in spoken Chinese. It finds that, because Korean Buddhist temples were no longer bilingual Korean-Chinese spaces by early Chosŏn, and Korean Buddhist monks no longer had exposure to spoken Chinese, the Korean translator approached the materials as if they were written in orthodox Literary Sinitic. As a result, he made a number of errors and mistranslations, especially when it came to translating vernacular Sinitic tense-aspect particles in vernacular Korean. The article concludes by briefly comparing and contrasting glossing strategies in Japan and Korea.