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.

In terms of the appreciation of The Story of the Stone, different people hold different perspectives. Niu Fang ＆ Miao Jun(2012) expresses their own view on this theme. Their paper focuses on the domestication strategy that David Hawkes adapts. On the other hand, Wang Chunxiang (2010) summarizes in her paper An Analysis of Hawkes#8217;s The Story of the Stone from the Perspective of Translation Aesthetics that two aspects, i.e., literary beauty and scence beauty adopted in David Hawkes#8217; version are the perfect example of aesthetic representation in literary work. She gives many examples to approve her opinions, which makes her article easy to understand.

Some articles on the translation of humble figures in Hawkes#8217; version in Mainland China were published in some Journals. Wang You-qin (2012) On the different translation strategy of grannie Liu#8217;s language in Hongloumeng describes his views on the translation effect of Hawkes#8217; version. His discussion shows that the choice of translation skills is affected by translator#8217;s purpose, in other words, personal ideology.

In spite of appreciating the translation of humble figures in Hawkes#8217; version, many scholars, experts and academics make more efforts in studying how to translate humble characters suitably. When it comes to the literary translation, the distinguished linguist Eugene A. Nida (1969) pointed out in his masterpiece the Theory and Practice of Translation: ”Translation consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning, and secondly in terms of style. ” This is only a general principle of translation, but there are still detailed methods with respect to the analysis of translating skills.

In On Translation of the World of the mid-and aged maid servants in David Hawkes#8217; version of The Story of the Stone (2002), Shao Chunxiao concludes that those lower-class people are divided into three types, they are a) the decision management, responsible for domestic affairs ; b) a special group who enjoy distinctive positions because of their various functional sources; c) domestic maids who can exchange emotions with their masters. The intertwined relationships reflect the oriental family ethics in Qing dynasty, which is hardly interpreted by theory of class struggle or theory of human liberation. This is the difficult point when this part is translated by David Hawkes.

A great number of books and articles on the study of news can be found in Chinese; however, analysis of the translation of humble figures by David Hawkes, as one might expect, are not so many. This, generally speaking, is due to the uneven and little distribution of the description of these minor characters. Therefore both Chinese and foreign scholars who may be interested in this field are important because they will provide different point of views on the translation of the description of humble figures in David Hawkes#8217; version and may shed light on the study of this paper.