The main purpose of this thesis is comparing of the three different English versions of The Analects of Confucius, all of them dating from 1861 to 1979, to analyze how the three translators deal with the problems, on a hierarchy of levels, in descending order of importance, i.e. from the macro to the micro level, arising in the translation process. In this research the author has found that these translations offer not only a mere version of this complex text, but also other direction. Firstly, there is a general view of translation theory, of the original text and of the three English versions. The author discusses the notion of translation, translatability and the criteria for translation, all the complexities and peculiarities of the original, a record of Confuciusutterances and his immediate disciplesand a presentation of the three English translations under study (Legge1861/1960,Waley1938/1988,Lau1979/1983).Secondly,she has examined the three versions with an integrated approach(Hornby) from multiple perspectives, i.e.the strategies the three translators adopted,poetics as embodied in the original text exerting influence on the process and product of their translation, the methods applied to the translation of those unique metaphors in the original and the problems arising in rendering the key concept words in The Analects. Thirdly, she has analyzed and compared(in its English translations)the strategies and methods the three translators follow from the afore-mentioned perspectives.The analysis shows the knowledge of poetics of the SL text, the intended readers and the translators purpose take an important place both in thd translation process and in the product. The conclusion of thd thesis is that, for translating ancient Chinese philosophical classics including The Analects, the translator should keep culture as the starting point and finality of his or her endeavors.