1.2 Significance of the Study
Hong Lou Meng, a masterpiece of Chinese ancient literature, has always been considered to be the summit of classic novels. The author, Cao, employed a great number of literature forms in this novel, including Ci, Song, Fu and poets, which are interesting but hard to appreciate. As for Jinling Prophecies, there are 14 poems in this part which covers various rhetorical devices. Its colorful content and close relation with characters in this book make it one of the most important parts of this book. To translate it well is no easy thing. Its abundant writing devices make it hard to tackle. Many researches have been done to the translation of rhetorical devices, yet due to its unique characteristics, it still needs to be further studied. Many people still hold the view that they can’t be translated. In this thesis, the author wants to explain the feasibility of translating rhetorical devices. And by comparing different versions from the functional equivalence theory, the author attempts to give some suggestions to translators.
1.3 The Structure of the thesis
  The thesis consists of five chapters---introduction, literature review, the theoretical basis, comparison of the translation of rhetorical devices in Jinling Prophecies and the conclusion.
Chapter one deals with the background information, the significance of the study, and the structure of the thesis.
Chapter two is the literature review. It mainly discusses the previous studies on the translation of Jinling Prophecies from different translation theories and other papers focused on functional equivalence theory both at home and abroad.
Chapter three gives a rough idea of rhetorical devices in Jinling Prophecies,including metaphor, allusion, pun and rebus. Besides, the functional equivalence theory is also introduced.
Chapter four, the major part of the thesis, compares the translation of rhetorical devices in Jinling Prophecies with many examples. The author also concludes two respective translation methods, the formal equivalence and the functional equivalence. In addition, some strategies and methods of Jinling translations are also proposed.
Chapter five is the conclusion. The author presents some major findings, limitations and suggestions for future research. 功能对等理论《红楼梦》金陵判词翻译研究(3):http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_33521.html