1. Research Purpose

"Tianjing Sha #183; autumn thinking" by Ma Zhiyuan is a masterpiece in the Yuan Dynasty, which is full of emotion in scene, known as the "ancestor of autumn thought." The author expressed tired homesickness by a kind of concise style and desolate atmosphere, and depicted a poetic picture. So this poem has been universally acclaimed and widely read. It is by no means easy to translate such a highly concise and meaningful poem into English and to preserve or reproduce the original artistic conception and charm to the utmost.

2. Research background

2.1 Imagery and Artistic Conception

Specifically speaking, Yi xiang (imagery) is a product combined by the individual image of object with the subjective emotions and thoughts while yi jing (artistic conception) is a fusion of artistic interest, artistic atmosphere and a variety of artistic imaginations and associations they might intrigue. The similarities between these two concepts lie in that they both require a unity of feeling and scene, a unity of "subjectivity" and "objectivity". However, as their names suggest, yi xiang is a unity of yi (thought) and xiang (image of object), while yi jing is a unity of yi (thought) and jing (conception or atmosphere): image is the important organic component of artistic conception, and artistic conception is of a higher-level category than image.