Classical Chinese Translator Skill
Overview
Professional skill for translating Classical Chinese texts to modern vernacular Chinese with high-quality standards (98.5+ points). Supports EPUB/AZW3/MOBI electronic book format conversion, preservation of original structure, and specialized terminology handling for philosophical, medical, and cultivation texts.
Features
- High-Quality Translation: Sentence-by-sentence accurate translation with 98.5+ quality standard
- Format Preservation: Maintains original EPUB/HTML structure while replacing content
- Specialized Terminology: Handles Daoist, Buddhist, Confucian, and medical terminology with proper explanations
- Batch Processing: Processes chapters in batches for quality control
- Validation: Built-in XML/EPUB validation to prevent formatting errors
- Custom Rules: Configurable translation rules for different text types
Requirements
- Python 3.6+
- ebooklib library (
pip install ebooklib) - lxml library (
pip install lxml) - Optional: mobi tools for AZW3 conversion
Usage Examples
Basic Translation
classical-chinese-translator --input book.epub --output translated_book.epub --quality-standard 98.5
With Custom Terminology Dictionary
classical-chinese-translator --input text.xhtml --output translated.xhtml --terminology-dict daoist_terms.json
Batch Processing
classical-chinese-translator --input-dir chapters/ --output-dir translated/ --batch-size 3
Format Conversion + Translation
classical-chinese-translator --convert azw3 --input book.azw3 --output book_translated.epub
Configuration Options
Quality Standards
--quality-standard 98.5: Enforce high-quality translation rules--modern-syntax-only: Force completely modern sentence structures--explain-terms: Automatically explain specialized terminology in parentheses
Format Handling
--preserve-original: Keep original files as backup--validate-xml: Validate XML/HTML structure before and after processing--epub-check: Run epubcheck validation on output
Special Cases
--exclude-patterns: Exclude specific patterns from translation (e.g., "按：此书旧无作者姓氏.*")--custom-rules: Apply custom translation rules for specific text types
Security Considerations
- Input sanitization for XML/HTML content
- Safe file path handling to prevent directory traversal
- Memory limits for large file processing
- No external network calls during processing
Error Handling
- Detailed error reporting for XML/HTML parsing issues
- Graceful degradation for malformed input files
- Automatic backup creation before processing
- Validation failure rollback
Performance
- Optimized for large electronic books (1000+ pages)
- Memory-efficient processing for resource-constrained environments
- Parallel processing support for batch operations
Compatibility
- EPUB 2.0/3.0
- AZW3 (via mobi-tools conversion)
- MOBI (via mobi-tools conversion)
- Plain XHTML/HTML files
- UTF-8 encoded text files
Quality Assurance
All translations follow the 98.5-point quality standard:
- Complete vernacular modernization (no classical syntax)
- Comprehensive terminology explanation
- Sentence-by-sentence accuracy (not summary/paraphrase)
- Natural modern Chinese expression
- Proper handling of cultural and philosophical concepts
Installation
This skill is compatible with OpenClaw skillhub and can be installed via:
openclaw skill install classical-chinese-translator
Or manually by copying the skill directory to ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/