An Appreciation of Zhang Peiji’s English Translation of Autumn in Peiping from the Perspective of Translation Aesthetics

Abstract

As a major form of writing, prose is both literary and ideological. The translation of prose is not only the conversion of language, but also the transmission of aesthetic value. Zhang Peiji’s English translations of Chinese prose, characterized by precise linguistic ability and ingeniously aesthetic craft, serve as a crucial bridge for introducing Chinese prose to the world. This paper, adopting translation aesthetics as theoretical framework, selects Yu Dafu’s Autumn in Peiping and Zhang Peiji’s English translation as research objects. It analyzes the beauty of artistic conception, language, and culture in the source text, and further explores Zhang Peiji’s strategies for reproducing the original aesthetic qualities, aiming to provide a useful reference for the aesthetic practice in prose translation.