The following chapter makes an attempt at comparing Chinese and Western thinking about translation. Obviously, the author is far more familiar with Western approaches than with Chinese thinking on the subject; what is the main interest here, however, is translation itself. Precisely because histories of translation are increasingly being produced, it is now possible to begin to historicise the phenomenon of translation itself. In consequence it is possible to move away from the normative approach that has obstructed the view of translation for so long.