Image Transmission In Cross-Language

Ch’eng-shih Mo-yüan is a masterpiece of book written in the Wanli Reign of the late Ming Dynasty(1573-1619).It was published by Cheng Dayue,a famous ink maker in Yanzhen,Huizhou,from Zilantang.There are many exquisite ink-stick pattern designs in the book.It contains four imitations of Western biblical prints,which are called "Treasure Images",namely " " Hsin erh pu-hai"," "Erh-t’u wen-shih”," Yinse hui-ch’i" and " T’ien-chü".Matteo Ricci wrote the Roman Pinyin captions for these four panels,as well as the annotations for the first three images in Chinese and Roman Pinyin." Treasure Images " represents the first collision between traditional Chinese woodcut prints and Western copper prints and is also important evidence of cross-cultural and cross-context exchanges between China and the West.Therefore,this book is important to the history of printing and cultural exchanges.However,neither the " Treasure Images " nor Matteo Ricci’s annotations were made completely according to the original version.This article aims to compare the specific differences in images and words between the " Treasure Images " and the original Western engraving prints,explore the deeper reasons for its "Chineseness"transformation and production progress.The first chapter is to analyze the conditions of inclusion by tracing the background of Cheng Dayue and "Ch’eng-shih Mo-yüan and the origin of the western prints.The second chapter,starting from the perspective of pictorial science,classifies " Treasure Images " and annotations by elements,analyzes their specific differences,the intentions.The third chapter will discuss the differences in the production process of " Treasure Images " and the original prints from the perspective of professional printmaking techniques,as well as the concerns and difficulties in converting images across contexts.