严复( 1853——1921)：triple principle of translation
信(faithfulness)：忠实准确
达(expressive nesS :通顺流畅
雅( eleganc^ ：文字古雅
Yan fu put forward this “ threceharacter guide ” inhis preface to the
tran slati on of T.H.Huxley's book Evoluti on and Ethics and Other Essays
(《天演论》译例言1898)
译事三难信达雅。

求其信已大难矣。

顾信矣不达。

虽译尤不译也。

则达尚
焉。

……易曰修辞立诚。

子曰辞达而已。

又曰言之无文。

行之不远。

三者
乃文章正轨。

亦即为译事楷模。

故信达而外。

求其尔雅。

此不仅期以行远
已耳。

实则精理微言。

用汉以前字法句法。

则为达易。

用近世利俗文字。

则求达雅。

往往抑义就词。

毫厘千里。

审择于斯二者之间。

夫固有所不得
已。

岂钓奇哉。

……
Translation has to do three difficult things：to be faithful，expressive，
and elegant。

It is difficult enough to be faithful to the original ，and yet if
a translation is not expressive，it is tantamount to having no
translation.Hence expressiveness should be required too
The Book Changes says that the first requisite of rhetoric is truthfulness. Confucius
says that expressiveness is all that matters in language。

He adds that if
one's Ianguage lacks grace it won't go far.These three qualities then, are the criteria of good writing and, I believe, of good translation too.He nee besides faithfu In ess and expressive ness, I also aim at eleganee」strive for eleganee not just to make my translations travel far but to express the original writer's ideas better, for I find that subtle thoughts are better expressedin the vocabulary and syntax of pre-Han prose than those of the vulgar writings of today. Using the latter often leads to distortion of meaning, which, however slight, results in vast misunderstanding. Weighing the pros and cons I opted for the former, as a matter of necessity not trying to be different. ...................................................
Yan Fu
(simplified Chin ese:严复;
traditi onal Chinese 嚴復;
pinyin: Ydn F Q
Wade-Giles: Yen Fu;
courtesy n ame Ji Dao, 幾道;
8 Jan uary 1854—27 October 1921)
was a Chinese scholar and translator, most famous for introducing western ideas, in cludi ng Darwin's "n atural selection" to Chi na in the late 19th cen tury.
Life
Yan Fu studied at the Fujian Arsenal Academy （福州船政學堂）in Fuzhou, Fujian Provinee. In 1877 —9 he studied at the Navy Academy in Gree nwich, En gla nd. Upon his return to Chi na, he was un able to pass the
Imperial Civil Service Exam in ati on , while teach ing at the Fujia n Arse nal
Academy and then Beiyang Naval Officers' School （北洋水師學堂）at
It was not until after the Chinese defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War （1894 -95, fought for control of Korea） that Yan Fu became famous. He is celebrated for his translations, including Thomas Huxley's Evolution and Ethics, Adam Smith's Wealth of Natio ns, Joh n Stuart Mill's On Liberty and Herbert Spencers Study of Sociology. Yan critiqued the ideas of Darwin and others, offeri ng his own in terpretati ons.
The ideas of "natural selection" and "survival of the fittest" were in troduced to Chi nese readers through Huxley's work. The former idea was
famously rendered by Yan Fu into Chinese as a nZ天擇）.
He became a respected scholar for his tra nslati ons, and became politically active. In 1895 he was invo Ived in the Gon gche Shang shu moveme ntl n 1912 he became the first principal of National Peking University (now Peking Uni versity).
Tran slati on theory
Yan stated in the preface to his translation of Evolution and Ethics (天演論)that "there are three difficulties in translation: faithfulness, expressiveness, and eleganee陀譯事三難：信達雅).He did not set them as general standards for translation and did not say that they were independent of each other. However, since the publication of that work, the phrase "faithfu In ess, expressive ness, and elega nee" has bee n attributed to Yan Fu as a standard for any good translation and has become a clich 岔Chinese academic circles, giving rise to numerous debates and theses. Some scholars argue that this dictum actually derived from British theoretician of translation, Alexander Fraser Tytler。