Xiaoxing Cai

Xiaoxing Cai

Oct. 30, 2026

Xu Yuanchong’s Three Beauties Theory, Beauty in meaning, Beauty in sound, Beauty in form, C-E translation of GuanJu.

As a famous contemporary Chinese translator, Xu Yuanchong has had his translations and theories studied by many scholars, especially his classical poetry translation. However, research on the English translation of Guan Ju remains insufficient. As the opening poem of The Book of Songs, Guan Ju is a brilliant pearl in Chinese poetry, with profound and implicit language, precise expression, rich rhythm, and profound artistic conception. It embodies beauty in meaning, sound, and form, and deserves thorough exploration. Inspired by Xu Yuanchong’s Three Beauties Theory, this paper comparatively analyzes three English versions of Guan Ju by Xu Yuanchong, James Legge, and Arthur Waley from the perspectives of beauty in meaning, sound, and form. Although The Book of Songs has been translated into English for centuries, systematic and profound research remains lacking, manifesting in insufficient study of specific poems and the absence of comprehensive understanding from certain translation theories. Further systematic research is therefore urgent and necessary. Based on the Three Beauties Theory, this paper compares the three versions in meaning, sound, and form. The analysis shows that the original poem gains a second life through different rhetorical devices in translation. Translators employ diverse strategies and techniques to help target readers understand the uniqueness and diversity of Chinese culture. In translation, personification, metonymy, and pun are used to achieve beauty in meaning; rhyme, rhythm, and repetition to preserve beauty in sound; and parallelism, antithesis, and alliteration to realize beauty in form. This study verifies that certain viewpoints of Xu Yuanchong’s Three Beauties Theory have explanatory power and practical significance in poetic translation.

© 2026, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

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