1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述包含参考文献）

when it comes to the translation theory of literature works, one can never ignore the important person who brought the translation theory of english news into china. the book language, culture and translation (1981) by american linguist and translation theorist eugene a. nida, has stated that the highest level of equivalence is to enable targeted readers and original readers to understand and appreciate the text in the same way, which is also called the idea realm of translation. he also sets forth the functional equivalence in dealing with alienation and adaptation.

discussions about literature translation can also be found in chapters of the book on translation studies. the chinese scholar zhang jin (1988) integrates overall translation principles, which ranges from the essence of literary translation to features and skills of translation methods.

these articles are inspiring sparks for following researchers and enable them to carry out their studies in a more systematic way. as time goes on, people make further study on the analysis of hawkes#8217; version of the story of the stone, such as the study on wang xi-fung#8217;s image. many scholars, experts, linguists have carried out their research on hawkes#8217; english version. some try to explore the study the translating style of his version; some have been attempting to find a better way to analyze the character personalities in david hawkes#8217; version; others show their interest in the analysis of rhetoric appeared in hawkes#8217; the story of the stone. some researches and articles are related to this kind of study. some of them are listed as followed.

2. 研究的基本内容、问题解决措施及方案

the following research methods are used in this paper:

1. sample analysis, or case study in other words, which are adapted from the story of the stone by david hawkes is used to analyze the description of humble figures. examples make the analysis more direct and easy to understand. i will try my best to provide abundant examples to support my arguments and make my thesis more reliable.

2. some works, articles, journals and books on this subject have been read before my starting this paper, which can be found in the library and on the internet. in this way, i intend to introduce the mind state and behaviors of concubine zhao and nanny li and then give brief introduction to translating methods used to translate the description of humble figures.