Abstract

This study examines the appearance of two-syllable Chinese characters based on the target audience of the translated version of King Yeongjo’s Yeseo held by Jangseogak. Among the translated books, 『Eojesanghuneonhae 』 and 『Eojegyejuyuneum (Eonhae)』, which have different target audiences, were examined for two-syllable Chinese characters in the Eoje text. Chinese characters in Chinese texts are incorporated into the Korean lexical system via disyllabic Chinese characters in translations. To examine how Chinese characters in Chinese text were Koreanized into dichotomous Chinese characters, they were categorized into “words identical to the original text,” “words supplementing the original text,” and “words not identical to the original text” based on their relevance to the Chinese text. The translator created the translated text using the three types of Chinese characters mentioned above while considering the target readers’ level of Chinesecharacter understanding. 『Eojesanghuneonhae 』, which was translated for educational purposes for later kings, such as the crown prince and crown grandson, had a high proportion of “original text identical words” because the Chinese characters in the Chinese text were directly exposed when writing the interpretation. Meanwhile, in 『Eojegyejuyuneum (Eonhae)』, which was translated for the general public, the proportion of “supplementary words to the original text” and “words that do not match the original text,” which were Chinese characters that had been nationalized at the time, is high. “Supplemental words to the original text” and “words that do not match the original text” are Chinese characters incorporated into the Korean vocabulary at the time; hence, they appear with a high proportion in translations of Yun-eum written for the general public.