Using three influential physical translations from the mid-19th century as the main materials, 54 groups of 81 physical translations were obtained. These translations are all free translation terms, mainly disyllabic and polysyllabic; there are 19 translations that use traditional terms, 6 translations that use physical terms selected or created during the Ming and Qing dynasty, and 56 newly created terms. Out of 81 translations, 22 were used in the later edition of “Physical Vocabulary” and 39 were used in “Physical Terms”. In addition, 33 newly created terms appeared in “Vocabulary”; there are 21 newly coined terms in “Terms”, and their meanings are more scientific, concise, accurate, and systematic. The features of physical translations in the late Qing Dynasty are distinct, including the frequent occurrence of multiple translations with one meaning, significant differences in term usage, loose structure of some translations, strong systematic nature, and a high proportion of newly created terms.

According to the research, all the translations of Mathematical terms in the Chinese translation of the Ji He Yuan Ben in Ming and Qing Dynasty adopt Liberal translation. Some translation of mathematical terms exists the problem of multiple translations of a word, Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi’s collaborated on the translation of the mathematical terms most in use today. In the purely Liberal translation of the words translated by Matteo Ricci in collaboration with Xu Guangqi, borrowed and transplanted words are the most used today. In Literal translation words, two-syllable Literal translation words are the most used today. This was due to the impact of the principle of naturalization, influence of traditional systems theory thinking and the restriction of Chinese disyllabic law. The Mathematical terms translated by Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi had a significant impact on the choice and creation of mathematical translations for later generations: establishes a predominantly Liberal translation of mathematical terms, pay attention to the combination of traditional Chinese knowledge, according to the need to create three syllables and more than three syllable translation words and lay emphasis on the systematic translation of words, etc.

Translators of chemical translations in the late Qing Dynasty translated element terms in several ways: connected with Chinese natural object nouns and recorded new meanings with the same characters of the nouns, created translated names, used common words, borrowed from inherent Chinese characters, and created new character. Translators use or create characters according to different motivations, and the selected characters may accord with the components of the characters coincidentally, resulting in one character with multiple translations. As different translators translated the foreign names of the same element, different motivations for selecting/creating characters, or the same motivations with different components of the characters, resulting in different characters with the same usage. Because of the influence of the words used in the translation of Hua Xue Jian Yuan and the requirements for the systematic use of words, most of the words used for liberal translation that are related to the natural nouns have been retained, and the other words have been almost eliminated. The reasons for the elimination include: the selection of inherent Chinese characters leads to an imbalance in the Chinese character system, the inconvenience of the recognition/use of borrowed and created characters, the phenomenon of one character with multiple translations and different characters with the same usage, etc.

In the early stage of foreign element words entering the Chinese system, the translator of Huaxue Jianyuan has established the translation principle of element names. It mainly uses monosyllable and phonetic Chinese characters. It determines 48 transliteration elements either by referring to the transliteration of element names in Jinshi Shibie or by self-formulation. 47 out of 48 characters are ligatures, 21 of which are newly-formed, and 26 are borrowed from unfamiliar inherent Chinese characters. It presents the characteristics of high proportion of new characters, strong systematicness and applicability. There are 48 transliterated element names with recorded characters used by translators, 34 of which are still in use today. The transliteration principles established by translators and the selection or creation methods of transliterated element name characters have a great influence on the subsequent element name characters.

During the late Qing Dynasty, the translator of Jinshi Shibie transliterates names with foreign elements into multisyllabic Chinese words. Through this investigation, I found that the translator’s choice of Chinese characters to be used in the transliteration element was mainly based on Xiaoyun of Guangyun. The characters selected with the principles include those easy to write, easy to distinguish, commonly used, and used for systemization. The main reason for different usage of Chinese characters in element transliteration name was mainly the switch of homophones or variant characters.