An Analysis of the English Translations of The Inscription of the Humble Chamber from the Perspective of Three Beauties Theory

The Inscription of the Humble Chamber is a masterpiece of Liu Yuxi, a famous Chinese poet in Tang dynasty. It is the crystallization of the wisdom of Chinese culture and represents the spirit and integrity of the Chinese nation. This paper aims to compare and analyze the three English translations of the poem by Luo Jingguo, Xu Jingcheng and Stephen Owen from the perspective of Xu Yuanchong’s “Three Beauties Theory”: “beauty of form”, “beauty of Sound” and “beauty of sense”. The comparison reveals that the three translations have their own strengths and weaknesses. By analyzing the three translations from the perspective of the “Three Beauties Theory”, this paper manages to explore the effective inspiration for the translation practice of Chinese cultural texts.