Abstract: British historian and sinologist Harold Acton is an important figure in the history of cultural exchanges between China and the West in the 20th century. His translation of Feng Menglong's "San yan" novels into Four Cautionary Tales was his first Sinology work, which enbodied his ideal of Chinese literature. The translation of Four Cautionary Tales is elegant and vulgar, magnificent and vivid, and is known as "Decameron in the East". Acton cited a large number of Sinological classics to annotate the book with a rigorous historical research attitude, presenting English readers with a collection of "Chinese stories" from the perspective of "the Other" in Western culture. Through domestication translation of the prologue, Acton also displays the ethical color of the popular novel "San yan", and promotes the admonishing significance of the translated version. Acton's selection and arrangement of translated articles form polyphony among different chapters, which is consistent with Feng Menglong's creative motivation and blends with Acton's expectation for Chinese popular novels, thus merging the literary ideals of Chinese and Western literati.

Key words: Feng Menglong, Harold Acton, Four Cautionary Tales, translation, China story