Abstract

Due to its own charm to attract Chinese culture and the improvement of Chinese influence, a growing number of Chinese and foreign scholars on the Chinese literary classics translation and research has become increasingly popular. "A dream of red mansions" as one of the four great classics of ancient Chinese, and it has great research value. There are two kinds of authoritative translations: one is Hawks' translation, the other is Yang Xianyi and Dai Naidie couple’s translation.So we aimed at the two translations to do a the discussion of the translation principle of "elegant", On the one hand, it can not only improve the level of translation but also deepen the understanding of the art of translation. On the other hand, most studies of translation  are based on the principle of "faith", but for the translation principle of "elegant"study, there is still lots of gaps.

This article is divided into three chapters. The first chapter introduces the theory of translation aesthetics. The second chapter is mainly A Dream of Red Mansions research value and its position in the history of literature at home and abroad. The third chapter is mainly the comparison of two kinds of translation, the story of the stone is through a paragraph of the statement in analysis and comparison, and theory of translation aesthetics, finally rose to the height of the art of translation for discussion and research.

Key words: Chinese culture; translation aesthetics; translation principle of "elegant";  A dream of Red Mansions