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Translation and Foreign Language Learning

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ArticleInterdisciplinary Studies of Translation http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/tfll.2025.10.018

A Corpus-based Graded Reading Framework for the Dissemination of Confucian Classics: A Case Study of Zhouyi Translations

Ting Bi

College of Humanities, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an 625014, Sichuan, China.

*Corresponding author: Ting Bi

Supported by: Provincial College Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program (Project Number: S202410626061)
Published: October 31, 2025

Article history: Updated on June 26, 2026

Abstract

Confucian classics are important for spreading traditional Chinese culture to the world, yet this process is often limited by the gap between translation complexity and readers’ cognitive ability. To bridge the gap, this study combines corpus linguistics with graded reading theory, taking the Zhouyi as an example. Based on a bilingual parallel corpus of 12 representative English translations, this study ap-plies four quantitative metrics: Standardized Type-Token Ratio, Lexical Density, Average Sentence Length, and Sentence Length Standard Deviation and develops a three-level graded reading framework (Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced) to match diverse linguistic proficiencies, thereby enhancing text accessibility for international audiences and trying to resolve the dilemma of a “cultural monologue.”

Keyword

Zhouyi; Cultural Transmission; Corpus Linguistics; Graded Reading; Textual Accessibility

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Copyright

© 2025 by the author(s).
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not modified or adapted.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

How to cite this paper

A Corpus-based Graded Reading Framework for the Dissemination of Confucian Classics: A Case Study of Zhouyi Translations

How to cite this paper: Ting Bi. (2025). A Corpus-based Graded Reading Framework for the Dissemination of Confucian Classics: A Case Study of Zhouyi Translations. Translation and Foreign Language Learning1(3), 502-510.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/tfll.2025.10.018