ABSTRACT
This chapter details the pioneering early attempts at translating Naxi manuscripts by French explorers and orientalists in the period 1898–1913. These are fragmentary translations that nevertheless provided a blueprint for the more complete translations that were to come. Starting with Charles Eudes-Bonin, we see the first attempt at translating a Naxi ritual text, although he did not supply a source manuscript. Bonin did however provide a fascinating exegesis that paved the way for future areas if Naxiological study, namely the connection between pre-Buddhist Tibetan religion and the Naxi ritual texts. His contemporary was the prince Henri d’Orleans, who for the first time published a Naxi manuscript alongside a purported translation. Around a dozen years later, Jacques Bacot developed this method of parallel translation into what would become known as “four-way comparison” (the presentation of the original manuscript and a phonetic reading alongside both literal and free translations) which has now become a staple of ethnographic translation work in China.
