Translation is a really acient activity wherever in China or the west. In fact, the translation of language is almost as the same old as the langulage throughout the whole human history. The Translation in the west can divided into six parts.
The history of western translation begins at 3rd B.C. And the next climax is from later stage of Roman empire to early middle ages which is religious. The main sign of the translation history is translate the <Bible> form Greek and Hebrew to Latin, which also called <Popular Latin texts of the Bible>. During the middle of the Middle Ages, from 11-12 century, the western translators came to Toledo, Spain and translated a large number of works from Arabic to Latin.
The Renaissance during 14-16 century is a large movement of thoughts and the revolution of the literary, it is also the large improvement of the history of weatern translation.
After Renaissance, form late 17 to the first half of 20 century, the western translation movement contiune improve. the sixth part is showed after the World War II. In 1946, The UK-US scholar first discusses to use a computer to translate. (P88-92 "The translation" Zaixin Tan)