After a comparative study of the two English versions of Pipaxing by Xu Yuanchong and Yang Xianyi, the thesis explores the gains and losses in the two translations and the application of Three-Beauty Principle in poetic translation and make an evaluation that Xu’s translation is better than Yang’s version。 

2。 Literature Review

2。1 Researches on English translation of Chinese poem

The translation of Chinese poem has gone through a long history。 In England, it was year 1871 that James Legge translated The Chinese Classics (《中国经典》)。 And in 1983, H。 A。 Giles published The Jems of Chinese Literature (《中国文学瑰宝》)。 A。 D。 Waley edited A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (《中国诗歌一百七十首》) in 1918。 While in America, E。 Pound published Cathay (《华夏集》) and A。 Lowel translated Fit Flower Tablets (《松花笺》)。 At the same time, a growing number of Chinese scholars devoted to the translation of classical Chinese poems like Fang Zhong, Wang Rongpei, Weng Xianliang and so on。 Although there are many practical exercises on the translation of Chinese poems, the theoretical researches on it remain in dispute。

During the translation of Chinese poetry, some issues have turned up。 First, the systems of Chinese classical poem and English poem are in total difference, which results in a debate on the translatability of ancient Chinese poem。 Second, who should be the translator, the Chinese scholars or the English scholars? Some believe that Chinese scholars are the appropriate translators, because the English scholars may lack the background knowledge of the Chinese poem and lead to a misunderstanding of the original meaning of the poem。 Some hold that English scholars are better, for their translations are more likely to be accepted by the native readers。 And others think that the English and Chinese scholars should make a cooperation in the translation of ancient Chinese poetry。 Third, the debate on the methods of poetic translation。 There are many imageries in classical Chinese poetry。 They can be the embodiment of a historical story, a fairy tale even of a folk tale。 However, we cannot require the foreign language readers to understand the deep meaning of these imageries just through a few English words。 So there’s a dispute on the use of literal translation and free translation。 Finally, the forms of translation is also in debate。 Classical Chinese poem has many different forms like Chu elegies, rhyme-prose of Han Dynasty and parallel prose and they can usually be translated into fixed form poetry, blank verse and open form poetry。

2。2 Researches on Pipaxing

2。2。1 A brief introduction to Bai Juyi 

Bai Juyi (771-846), the most famous realistic poet in Middle Tang Dynasty。 As one of the three greatest poets in Tang Dynasty (the other two, Li Bai and Du Fu), he owns the courtesy name of Le Tian and Zui Yin, and was referred as the poet of the poets。 In his whole life, he created more than 3,000 pieces of poems。 文献综述

Bai Juyi was born in a medium-sized bureaucratic family。 Unfortunately, when he was born, his hometown had been in war。 As his family was a traditional scholarly one, he was expected to win a good place in the civil service examination。 At a young age of 19, Bai Juyi won the Jinshi Degree (Board of Civil Service Examination)。 Two years later, he met his lifetime friend Yuan Zhen。 Until he was 35, all his official career was smooth。 Then, the year 815 was a turning point; his life was changed into a sadness tone。 He was banished to Jiangzhou。 In the later years, he drifted from place to place and was appointed with different kinds of titles。 Finally, due to his bad health condition, he had to quit his job。 The condition become worse when his lifetime friend Yuan Zhen passed away in 831, which was a heavy blow to Bai Juyi。 After that he spent most of his time in Luoyang and passed away there。