翻译古代称“译”,开始专指北方的翻译人员.《礼记·王制》说:“中国,夷,蛮,戎,狄,……五方之民,言语不通,嗜欲不同,达其志,通其欲,东方曰寄,南方曰象,西方曰狄鞮,北方曰译.”孔颖达疏:“通传北方语官谓之曰译者.译,陈也,谓陈说外内之言.”古代的翻译人员除北方称“译”外,还有称“寄”、“象”、“狄”者.上面孔颖达所说的译“谓陈说外内之言”,也涉及到翻译的本义.他所说的“外内之言”,大约即指周代边境外的夷、蛮、戎、狄等部落的语言和境内华族的语言.唐代的大经学家、语言学家贾公彦又进一步地诠释为:“译即易,调换易言语使相解也.”这便在一定程度上揭示出翻译乃是把一种语言转换成另一种语言.这一见解出现在一千多年之前,很值得我们珍视. The translation of ancient saying “translation”, began specifically refers to the translators of the North. “Book of Rites” said: “China, Yi, quite, Rong, Di, ... ... five people, speech barrier, different desires, Its desire, the East sent, the South said like, the West said Di 鞮, the North said translation. ”Kong Yingda Shu:“ pass the northern language official said the translator. ”Translation, Chen also said that Chen said the word outside. In addition to Northern translation of ancient “translators”, there are also those who call “send”, “image”, “Di.” The above Kong Yingda said translation of “predicate Chen said outside the words,” but also related to translation Of the original meaning of what he meant by “outside words”, about the week that the border outside the barbarians, barbarians, tribes, Di and other tribal language and the language of the Chinese nation.Dangjing dynasty, linguist Jia It is further explained as follows: "Translation is easy, and easy words are exchanged, so that to a certain extent, translation is translated from one language to another. Many years ago, it deserves our treasures.