The Aesthetic Representation In Lin Yutang’s Six Chapters Of A Floating Life

Six Chapters of a Floating Life is an autobiography written by Shen Fu who was a scholar in the Qing Dynasty. This autobiographical prose is of high literary and aesthetic value and it narrates Shen Fu’s love story and trivial things in his marriage life with pithiness and vividness. And his personality and his way of life and thinking were embodied between the lines. Lin Yutang appreciated the autobiographical prose very much because it reflects "Hsingling literature(性灵文学)”,which conveys that writing rests on the expression from one’s own nature and character and the description of one’s true feeling. Six Chapters of a Floating Life was such a "friend" to Lin Yutang, for it was the best representation of both his personality and literary style.One of the characteristics in literary translation is displaying its artistic quality, that is aesthetic value. And aesthetic representation in literature works serves as the final aim. Lin Yutang’s translated version Six Chapters of a Floating Life best achieved his aesthetic objectives in translation. This paper attempts to study the aesthetic representation in his masterpiece, which is to be analyzed from the three aspects. First, the three principles of aesthetic representation are discussed; and then Lin Yutang’s aesthetic translation is further illustrated in four ways with examples; at last, Lin Yutang’s Golden Mean philosophy is discussed, which decisively influenced his translation theory and practice. Besides, the history of aesthetic translation both in China and the West is briefly reviewed. And during the research, limitations and reflections of aesthetic representation are tentatively explored. Lin Yutang’s translated version Six Chapters of a Floating Life is regarded as the top achievement of his both in the fields of translation and English creation, it is worth more exploration and meditation in depth.