A Study on Aesthetic Representation in the Selected Modern Chinese Essays 1 from the Perspective of Three-beauty Principle

Abstract

Hailed as the gem of Eastern and Western culture, essay is one of the four major literary genres. With the further development of the May 4th Movement, a large amount of excellent essays have seen the light of day, among which have been translated into foreign languages. Essays cover a wide range of themes with diversified styles and flexible ways of writing, which are closer to our spoken language and easy to express one’s sentiment and feelings. However, these intrinsic characteristics cause the difficulty of essay translation. As a result, the cause of Chinese essay translation lagged behind other literary genres. Owing to his life experience and special liking for essay translation, Mr. Zhang Peiji is very proficient in translating such a peculiar genre. His master pieces of translation, Selected Modern Chinese Essays have precisely bridged the gap of essay translation in China. This article focuses on the aesthetic representation of Zhang Peiji’s Selected Modern Chinese Essays 1 from the perspective of Xu Yuanchong’s “Three-beauty Principleâ€, namely the beauty of sound, form and sense to explore better strategies in aesthetics representation. Beauty in sound can be demonstrated with onomatopoeia, reduplicated word, alliteration and rhyme. Beauty in form can be conveyed through four-character phrase, parallelism and rhetorical question. The beauty of sense remains top priority among the “Three-beauty Principleâ€, which needs translators to make appropriate wording and context reconstruction as well as properly tackle with fuzzy language by bring into full play their subjectivity. More importantly, the author hope to appeal to more translators and readers to realize the importance of essays and its translation and put into practice. It is our duty bound to introduce Chinese culture to the rest of the world and contribute our own endeavor to the cause of Chinese essay translation.