This paper studies how the pragmatic differences between English and Chinese affect the four available English versions of Biancheng, a Chinese literary classic by Shen Congwen. It finds that pragmatically speaking, the translations as a whole tend to be more result-oriented than the original text, and that compared with their native English-speaking counterparts, native Chinese-speaking translators are more likely to be influenced by the pragmatic characteristics of Chinese and hence are more process- rather than result-oriented. However, excessive result-orientation might lead to undue abstractness and to a loss of literariness in the translation. Result-orientation hence does not necessarily guarantee a good rendition.