Translation is commonly understood as a communicative practice that mediates between linguistic and cultural traditions. Chinese contributions to the hermeneutics of translation, however, remain underappreciated. The Chinese concept of ‘translation,’ or yi 譯, later combined with fan 翻 (to turn over), means not simply to transfer, but to exchange, to change, to misrepresent, to seduce, and to transform. The Chinese concept of fanyi 翻譯thus foregrounds productive, interventionist possibilities of translation that both challenge and enrich contemporary translation theory.