A Theory To Create Art Anew

This thesis is a study of Xu Yuanchong's theory on translating classical Chinese poetry into English. It does not only give a survey of his translation theory, but discusses other translators' responds to his thoughts. The most heated arguments against some of Xu's theories, which are the preservation of the beauty in sense, sound and form; and the theory of advantage and rivalry (which is also called the theory of recreation), may be refuted by comparing the feature of Chinese poetry with that of English poetry. Another comparison of Xu's theory with some Chinese and Western literary translation theories adds evidence to Xu's efforts in both carrying on the brilliance of his predecessors' work and bringing forth challenging new ideas. Thus, hopefully, Xu's theory of poetic translation may be proved creditable and his great contribution to poetry translation can be justified.