umeiko/Chinese-English-Translation-Challenge

Chinese–English Translation Challenge

中文说明

A cross-domain evaluation collection for English–Chinese translation, specialist terminology and Classical Chinese comprehension. Reference translations are retained from the credited source editions; no machine-generated replacement references are introduced.

Contents

Collection	Retained directional records	Distribution
TICO-19: medical and public health	1,707	Full text and references
Four Books and Five Classics	164	Full text and James Legge references
HardMTBench: 12 knowledge-intensive domains	636	Upstream locators and text hashes
MITRA-zh-eval: Buddhist Chinese	72	Upstream locators and text hashes
PoetMT: Tang and Song poetry	16	Upstream locators and text hashes
Total	2,595	1,871 full-text records + 724 indexed records

The initial selection contains 3,600 records; the classics extension screens 190 additional passages. Exclusions cover reference defects, uncertain context, duplicate families and detected overlap with supplied training corpora. A bidirectional HardMTBench pair counts as two directional records but one paired family. Directions and domains must be reported separately.

Four Books and Five Classics

All nine works are covered. The Analects is counted once, within the Four Books. The Book of Rites excludes its duplicated Great Learning and Doctrine of the Mean chapters.

Work	Retained Chinese → English passages
论语	38
孟子	11
大学	9
中庸	19
诗经	20
尚书	15
周易	17
礼记	15
春秋	20

Read the parallel passages. These are complete aligned passages or poetic stanzas, rather than arbitrary equal-length cuts. Chinese keeps its source-edition traditional characters; English keeps Legge's historical wording and names. Modern commentary is omitted. Editions, dates and page-level provenance are in classics sources and the upstream Sources and Editions.

The 2026-11-11 reference audit checks all 164 classics passages against independent Legge editions/transcriptions. It corrects two scan-confirmed transcription defects and adds a translator, edition, passage locator and evidence record for every item. The existing wording is substantially human-translated; it was not established to be machine translation. This is AI source checking, with professional human review still pending.

Load and evaluate

from datasets import load_dataset
ds = load_dataset("umeiko/Chinese-English-Translation-Challenge", "core")
print(ds["devtest"][0])

pip install -r scripts/requirements.txt
python scripts/make_inputs.py --data data/core/devtest.jsonl --direction zh-en --output inputs.zh-en.jsonl
# Translate each input using the same predeclared prompt and decoding settings.
# Save one {"id": "...", "prediction": "..."} object per line.
python scripts/score.py --data data/core/devtest.jsonl --direction zh-en --predictions predictions.zh-en.jsonl --output scores.zh-en.json

The primary metric is FLORES-style chrF++, with spBLEU using the fixed FLORES-200 SentencePiece model. Supplementary BLEU uses zh for Chinese targets and 13a for English targets. Exact versions, tokenizer hash, ID validation, paired comparisons and length rules are in EVALUATION.md. Publish scores per direction, corpus, domain and language register. The public full-text core and reconstructed full collection have different composition and must be named separately.

Upstream-indexed collections

For HardMTBench, MITRA and PoetMT, an explicit redistribution license was not found in the inspected source releases. This repository therefore publishes only selection IDs, row locators, split assignments and source/reference hashes for those 724 records. No source or reference excerpts from them are republished. Obtain original files from the URLs in upstream_files.json, observe their terms, and reconstruct locally:

python scripts/restore_upstream.py --index indices/upstream/devtest.jsonl --raw-dir /path/to/upstream-files --output upstream.devtest.local.jsonl

All restored text is checked against its recorded SHA-256. The original repositories remain the sources of those texts.

Quality and use

Every retained classics passage has independent Luna and Terra screening. The original collections retain their recorded review coverage, including single-review candidates. AI screening and pending professional human review are distinguished per record; a two-reviewer/adjudicator review form is supplied. No new professional human translation or expert sign-off is claimed.

Use this collection for evaluation, not supervised training or reference-based prompt tuning. dev is for development; devtest is for a predeclared final comparison. TICO's original test remains in devtest. Whole documents, bidirectional counterparts and detected shared classical passages remain in one split. No student-model outputs were used for selection. Public classics may occur in pretraining; supplied-corpus overlap checks do not establish pretraining novelty.

Files and rights

• readmecn.md: matching Chinese documentation.
• EVALUATION.md / EVALUATION_CN.md: scoring and study protocol.
• SOURCES.md: source attribution and upstream papers.
• statistics.json: exact counts and screening coverage.
• LICENSE.md: per-source terms; original source licenses remain attached to TICO records.
• SHA256SUMS: content checksums.

Haidass and SmolLM2 now use the original SFT instruction 请将以下简体中文翻译成英文。 for all Chinese-to-English inputs. Corrected results are published. Haidass was fully rerun in CUDA FP32 (previously Ascend BF16); SmolLM2 replaces 252 affected outputs and retains 2,343 unchanged-prompt outputs. Correction and runtime record.

中文 · Dataset and protocol

All evaluated models: devtest leaderboard

Ranked by the equal-weight mean of directional corpus-level chrF++ on the complete reconstructed devtest: 1,965 en→zh and 466 zh→en records.

Added 2026-11-13: MobileLLM's frozen Stage3 checkpoint completed all 2,595 records and 40 separate diagnostics, using BF16, its original SFT prompt and greedy decoding with 1,024 output tokens. The seven prior model runs are preserved. Run report.

Rank	Model	Mean chrF++ ↑	en→zh	zh→en	Report
1	Qwen3.8-27B	47.4674	33.5528	61.3821	↗
2	HY-MT1.5-7B	42.3986	28.5087	56.2884	↗
3	Qwen3.5-0.8B	39.7951	31.8231	47.7672	↗
4	HY-MT1.5-1.8B	38.2610	27.7832	48.7389	↗
5	Qwen3-0.6B	34.9931	24.7283	45.2580	↗
6	MobileLLM-R1-140M-Translate (Stage3)	27.1636	24.5309	29.7963	↗
7	Haidass-Translate-143M	23.8177	19.6589	27.9765	↗
8	SmolLM2-135M-Translate	21.5932	20.2054	22.9809	↗

Updated 2026-11-12: all seven models are scored against the audited references. One transcription correction each in the Classic of Changes and Book of Rites leaves sources, splits and inference inputs unchanged; saved predictions were rescored. The corrected SFT-prompt outputs for Haidass and SmolLM2 are retained. Reference audit · Rescoring verification.

Translation comparisons by subset

The original five examples retain their complete sources, references and recorded model outputs, with subsequently evaluated models added. Sources and references appear above a two-column model/translation table, in leaderboard order.

1. TICO-19 · public-health communication

tico:Wikipedia_handpicked_1:1511

Source

We're being told to try and get this messaging out in any way possible, including press conferences and television appearances."Outlets such as Politico, Foreign Policy, and Bloomberg have claimed that China's efforts to send aid to virus-stricken countries is part of a propaganda push for global influence.

Reference

我们被告知以任何方式，包括新闻发布会和电视露面，尽可能将这一信息传播出去”。《政客》、《外交政策》和彭博社等媒体声称，中国向疫情国家提供援助是为了宣扬其全球影响力。

Model	Actual translation
Qwen3.8-27B	我们被要求尽一切可能传播这一信息，包括举行新闻发布会和参加电视访谈。Politico、《外交政策》和彭博社等媒体声称，中国向受病毒影响国家提供援助的努力是其提升全球影响力的宣传行动的一部分。
HY-MT1.5-7B	我们被告知，必须想尽一切办法来传播这些信息，包括通过新闻发布会和电视节目来进行宣传。Politico、Foreign Policy以及Bloomberg等媒体声称，中国向疫情受灾国家提供援助的行为，其实是一种旨在提升自身全球影响力的宣传手段。
Qwen3.5-0.8B	我们被告知，必须尽可能通过各种方式向公众传达这一信息，包括新闻发布会和电视采访。据《 Politico》《外交政策》和《彭博社》等媒体声称，中国向受病毒威胁的国家提供援助的行为，是进行全球影响力的宣传攻势的一部分。
HY-MT1.5-1.8B	我们被要求以各种方式传播这一信息，包括举行新闻发布会、在电视上亮相等。“Politico”、“Foreign Policy”和Bloomberg等媒体声称，中国向受病毒影响的国家提供援助的行为，实际上是其试图扩大全球影响力的宣传手段之一。
Qwen3-0.6B	我们被要求尝试尽可能多地将此信息传达出去，包括记者会和电视采访。诸如《 Politico 》、《外事政策》和《路透社》等媒体声称，中国向受病毒袭击的国家提供援助是全球影响力宣传的一部分。
MobileLLM-R1-140M-Translate (Stage3)	我们被告知，尽可能地通过各种方式来收集信息，包括新闻发布会和电视节目。”《政治》、《外交政策》和《彭博》等行业公司声称，中国向病毒感染国家提供援助的努力是对全球影响力的宣传推动的一部分。
Haidass-Translate-143M	我们被告知，无论采取何种方式来传播这些信息，都必须采取尽可能多的措施，包括举行新闻发布会和电视节目。例如，《政商周刊》、《外交政策》以及《彭博》等媒体都声称，中国正在努力向那些受病毒影响的国家提供援助。
SmolLM2-135M-Translate	我们被告知要尽可能的努力，尽可能的方式将这些信息传递出去，包括举行新闻发布会和电视演出。《政治》、《外交政策》和《彭博》等城市报纸都声称，中国为向病毒病国提供援助是全球影响力的一部分宣传推进。

2. The Analects · people and events

classics:analects:14.46

Source

原壤夷俟。子曰：「幼而不孫弟，長而無述焉，老而不死，是為賊！」以杖叩其脛。

Reference

Yüan Zang was squatting on his heels, and so waited the approach of the Master, who said to him, “In youth not humble as befits a junior; in manhood, doing nothing worthy of being handed down; and living on to old age:—this is to be a pest.” With this he hit him on the shank with his staff.

Model	Actual translation
Qwen3.8-27B	Yuan Rang sat with his legs spread out. The Master said, “In youth, he was neither respectful nor fraternal; in middle age, he had no praiseworthy deeds; in old age, he still did not die—such a person is a scoundrel!” Then he tapped Yuan Rang’s shin with his staff.
HY-MT1.5-7B	Yuan Rang simply stood there, waiting. The Master said, “If one is young and lacks respect for elders, grows up without achieving anything meaningful, and lives to old age without dying—a such person is nothing but a scoundrel!” Then he struck Yuan Rang on the shins with his staff.
Qwen3.5-0.8B	The original earth was waiting. Zuozi said: "A child who is not a son-in-law and a brother-in-law, and a man who is not a son-in-law and a brother-in-law, and an old man who is not dead, is a thief!" He struck the ground with a stick.
HY-MT1.5-1.8B	原壤沉默不语。孔子说：“年轻时就没有子嗣，年老时也没有人继承他的事业，这样的人真是可耻！”“他以杖轻敲自己的小腿。”
Qwen3-0.6B	"Original: The people of the countryside. His words: 'A young man without a brother, and a man who is old without dying, is a criminal.' He struck him with a stick on his knee."
MobileLLM-R1-140M-Translate (Stage3)	The original soil was raked. The son said, “A young one is not a brother, but a brother is not a mortal. A mortal is a thief!”
Haidass-Translate-143M	Originally, the land was cleared and cultivated. The words “young but not young” and “young but not alive” were spoken. Young but not alive were considered to be a type of treasure.
SmolLM2-135M-Translate	The original son was said to be born without any brothers or sisters, but he grew up without any problems. He was said to be born without any defects, but he remained young and healthy. Therefore, he was considered a virgin.

3. Classic of Poetry · imagery and rhetorical questions

classics:classic-of-poetry:204.1

Source

四月維夏，六月徂暑。先祖匪人？胡寧忍予？

Reference

In the fourth month comes summer, And in the sixth month the heat begins to decrease. Were not my forefathers men? How can they endure that I should be [thus]?

Model	Actual translation
Qwen3.8-27B	In the fourth month, summer arrives; in the sixth, the heat intensifies. Were our ancestors not human? How could they bear to treat me thus?
HY-MT1.5-7B	In April comes the heat of summer, and in June arrives the sweltering heat. Were our ancestors not human beings? How can such things be tolerated by us?
Qwen3.5-0.8B	In the fourth month of the summer, in the sixth month of the summer, the ancestors were not human? Why did you endure me?
HY-MT1.5-1.8B	In April, it's the season of summer; in June, the heat becomes unbearable. Are our ancestors really such villains? How can they bear to leave us behind?
Qwen3-0.6B	In April, the sun was still rising, and in June, the heat was coming. The ancestors were not people, but what is it that you are not willing to let me know?
MobileLLM-R1-140M-Translate (Stage3)	April Vich, June Summer. The ancestors? Hu Lin忍耐?
Haidass-Translate-143M	In April, the summer solstice, and June, the summer heat. The ancestors of the villagers? Hui Yi?
SmolLM2-135M-Translate	April 1st, June 1st, Sunset. The ancestors?

4. Classic of Changes · line designations and imagery

classics:classic-of-changes:1.5

Source

九四：或躍在淵，无咎。

Reference

In the fourth line, undivided, (we see its subject as the dragon looking) as if he were leaping up, but still in the deep. There will be no mistake.

Model	Actual translation
Qwen3.8-27B	Line 9 in the fourth position: One may leap into the abyss; there is no blame.
HY-MT1.5-7B	94: Or one may leap into the abyss, yet there will be no fault.
Qwen3.5-0.8B	Nine-fourth: If one leaps into the deep, there is no blame.
HY-MT1.5-1.8B	九四：或能在渊中跳跃，并无灾祸。
Qwen3-0.6B	Nine Four: Or may one leap into the deep, and there will be a punishment.
MobileLLM-R1-140M-Translate (Stage3)	Nine four: or lie in wait, without a word.
Haidass-Translate-143M	Ninth: If you are not confident in your abilities, you will be in danger.
SmolLM2-135M-Translate	NINE FOUR: or be filled with filth, without any cause.

5. Spring and Autumn Annals · dates and named entities

classics:spring-and-autumn-annals:8.2.9

Source

十有一月，公會楚公子嬰齊于蜀。

Reference

In the eleventh month, the duke had a meeting with the Kung-ts‘e Ying-ts‘e of Ts‘oo in Shuh.

Model	Actual translation
Qwen3.8-27B	In the eleventh month, the Duke of Lu met Prince Yingqi of Chu at Shu.
HY-MT1.5-7B	In the eleventh month, the young lord of Chu from the guild gathered in Shu.
Qwen3.5-0.8B	On the eleventh month, the Congregation of the Chu公子 Yi (Yi) was sent to Sichuan.
HY-MT1.5-1.8B	In the eleventh month, the guild of Chu Gongzi found refuge in Shu.
Qwen3-0.6B	In the eleventh month, the meeting took place at the city of Chu's son, Qin.
MobileLLM-R1-140M-Translate (Stage3)	In October, the public assembly of Chu Zhi was in the process of waging war.
Haidass-Translate-143M	In January, the Council of the Zhou Clan Chu was established in the state of Xiang.
SmolLM2-135M-Translate	Ten months ago, the public prosecutor's son, Chung, visited the city of Hae.

40-item comparison: all eight models