<p>I have a complex feeling about Chinese <em>trashy-novel</em> "fever" in the West...<br>
OK, time for the answer.<br>
Translating literature is far beyond correctness. I'm not an expert, so I'd just bring you some suggestions.<br>
<strong>For the title:</strong><br>
<em>Thousand Miles To Become A God</em><br>
Although a thousand is ten hundreds, the meaning of this title is not away from the original one.<br>
<strong>For name of the book:</strong><br>
I don't know if the book appears more than once in this novel, but if it doesn't, it will still be fine even if we just name it by our instinct. By my observation, most authors of this kind of novels don't really care about proper names.<br>
<em>On Heavenly Principles</em><br>
宪 has the meaning of "principle" as in 宪法 (constitution). </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-27T07:41:38.707Z
2018-06-27T07:41:38.707Z
Winfred Huang
<p>I caught this phrase in a Chinese novel. Based on my understanding, the literal translation would be "The law of asking and discussing Heaven", which sounds really clumsy and lengthy. Is there any comfortable translation for this?</p>

<p>Thanks to <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/users/6065/user6065">user6065</a> commenting below, I decided to go with "Principles of Heaven", which sounds best imo. Feel free to reply if you have a better one.</p>

<p>Edit: This was just a name taken from a novel. The full paragraph is:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>“这本《<strong>天论问宪</strong>》我花了一个月时间才看完，其中道理讲的都好，可唯独‘以德报怨’这四个字，我万万不能苟同！”罗征轻声低语，看着豆丁大的灯焰，脸上透出哀伤的神色：“若不是父亲宅心仁厚，信了这四个字，我长房一脉也不会落到如此下场，父亲更加不会死去……”</p>
</blockquote>

<p>which I translated as:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>“A month reading this <strong>‘Principles of Heaven’</strong>, all of the principles are great. But only these four words – ‘repay cruelty with kindness’ – I absolutely cannot agree with!” Luo Zheng whispered softly to himself. Staring at the bean-sized flame of the lamp, his face revealed a sad expression: “Had my father not been kind, not believed those words, how could I, the main house’s direct bloodline, have fallen into such a situation? And he – he wouldn’t have died...”</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The novel name is <strong>百炼成神</strong>. I'm trying to make an English translation that is comfortable to the native. How is the translation? Is it fluent, correct to the meaning or something else? I would be really thankful if someone could make a nice title out of this. As of now I was planning to name it "Refining to God", which lacks a lot of meanings imo, but sounds rather nice.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-23T17:09:03.867Z
bkrs： 天论 I论天，论述天道。
II犹天理。
baike:《论语》是孔子及其弟子的言行记录，其中第十四篇《宪问》就是孔子的弟子原宪与孔子的对话。
user6065
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-23T17:13:33.507Z
Ugh, could you write these in English? Thanks in advance.
Hiếu
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-23T17:26:29.210Z
bkrs： 天论 I论天，论述天道。discussing natural law，
heavenly law
II犹天理。 esp。 heavenly principles; moral principles∶
baike:《论语》是孔子及其弟子的言行记录，其中第十四篇《宪问》就是孔子的弟子原宪与孔子的对话。《论语》 is a record of (records) words and deeds of  孔子 and his followers, of which article 14 《宪问》 is  the dialogue between 孔子  and his disciple 原宪 (see web)
user6065
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-24T11:45:16.823Z
You have no answers. Obviously, what you posted is insufficient. Write at least the whole sentence, better the paragraph. The meaning will then become decipherable.
Pedroski
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-24T22:14:04.263Z
web search with 罗征轻声低语:
百炼成神 One hundred tempered gods 
 https://yuedu.baidu.com/ebook/fbbee96d26d3240c844769eae009581b6bd9bd85?fr=booklist ,（恩赐解脱所著玄幻类网络小说） 
  https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%99%BE%E7%82%BC%E6%88%90%E7%A5%9E/18474803
user6065
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-24T22:36:52.543Z
Yeah but "One hundred tempered gods" or "One hundred refining into God" sounds kinda weird for me.
Hiếu
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-24T23:03:59.533Z
"One hundred tempered gods" supplied by iciba, to some users does not sound like a machine translation and seems ok as far as an English title is concerned, of course users may wonder whether it correctly reflects the contents of the novel,"The refined into god" seems 
to belong to another novel https://baike.so.com/doc/7570814-7844908.html
user6065
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-25T13:40:02.380Z
don't the two novels just have the same name? As they are both 百炼成神
Hiếu
<translation>
How is 天论问宪 translated in English?
# How is 天论问宪 translated in English?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-11-23)

I caught this phrase in a Chinese novel. Based on my understanding, the literal translation would be "The law of asking and discussing Heaven", which sounds really clumsy and lengthy. Is there any comfortable translation for this?

Thanks to [username_1](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/users/6065/username_1) commenting below, I decided to go with "Principles of Heaven", which sounds best imo. Feel free to reply if you have a better one.

Edit: This was just a name taken from a novel. The full paragraph is:

> “这本《**天论问宪**》我花了一个月时间才看完，其中道理讲的都好，可唯独‘以德报怨’这四个字，我万万不能苟同！”罗征轻声低语，看着豆丁大的灯焰，脸上透出哀伤的神色：“若不是父亲宅心仁厚，信了这四个字，我长房一脉也不会落到如此下场，父亲更加不会死去……”

which I translated as:

> “A month reading this **‘Principles of Heaven’**, all of the principles are great. But only these four words – ‘repay cruelty with kindness’ – I absolutely cannot agree with!” Luo Zheng whispered softly to himself. Staring at the bean-sized flame of the lamp, his face revealed a sad expression: “Had my father not been kind, not believed those words, how could I, the main house’s direct bloodline, have fallen into such a situation? And he – he wouldn’t have died...”

The novel name is **百炼成神**. I'm trying to make an English translation that is comfortable to the native. How is the translation? Is it fluent, correct to the meaning or something else? I would be really thankful if someone could make a nice title out of this. As of now I was planning to name it "Refining to God", which lacks a lot of meanings imo, but sounds rather nice.

**Tags:** translation

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: bkrs： 天论 I论天，论述天道。 II犹天理。 baike:《论语》是孔子及其弟子的言行记录，其中第十四篇《宪问》就是孔子的弟子原宪与孔子的对话。  
> **username_0**: Ugh, could you write these in English? Thanks in advance.  
> **username_1**: bkrs： 天论 I论天，论述天道。discussing natural law， heavenly law II犹天理。 esp。 heavenly principles; moral principles∶ baike:《论语》是孔子及其弟子的言行记录，其中第十四篇《宪问》就是孔子的弟子原宪与孔子的对话。《论语》 is a record of (records) words and deeds of  孔子 and his followers, of which article 14 《宪问》 is  the dialogue between 孔子  and his disciple 原宪 (see web)  
> **username_2**: You have no answers. Obviously, what you posted is insufficient. Write at least the whole sentence, better the paragraph. The meaning will then become decipherable.  
> **username_1**: web search with 罗征轻声低语: 百炼成神 One hundred tempered gods   https://yuedu.baidu.com/ebook/fbbee96d26d3240c844769eae009581b6bd9bd85?fr=booklist ,（恩赐解脱所著玄幻类网络小说）    https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%99%BE%E7%82%BC%E6%88%90%E7%A5%9E/18474803  
> **username_0**: Yeah but "One hundred tempered gods" or "One hundred refining into God" sounds kinda weird for me.  
> **username_1**: "One hundred tempered gods" supplied by iciba, to some users does not sound like a machine translation and seems ok as far as an English title is concerned, of course users may wonder whether it correctly reflects the contents of the novel,"The refined into god" seems  to belong to another novel https://baike.so.com/doc/7570814-7844908.html  
> **username_0**: don't the two novels just have the same name? As they are both 百炼成神  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2018-06-27. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

I have a complex feeling about Chinese *trashy-novel* "fever" in the West...  
OK, time for the answer.  
Translating literature is far beyond correctness. I'm not an expert, so I'd just bring you some suggestions.  
**For the title:**  
*Thousand Miles To Become A God*  
Although a thousand is ten hundreds, the meaning of this title is not away from the original one.  
**For name of the book:**  
I don't know if the book appears more than once in this novel, but if it doesn't, it will still be fine even if we just name it by our instinct. By my observation, most authors of this kind of novels don't really care about proper names.  
*On Heavenly Principles*  
宪 has the meaning of "principle" as in 宪法 (constitution).


---

