Yan Fu put forward his own translation criteria, namely faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance. Finally, elegance is put forward, which should be combined with the background of Yan Fu's time. Yan Fu lived in 1853- 192 1 and was in the reform period in the late Qing Dynasty. At that time, vernacular Chinese had not been popularized in society, and ancient Chinese was regarded as elegant. Besides, Yan Fu's translated works are not ordinary novels, but works of far-reaching significance. Before translating, he should consider whether his works are of translation value, so that China people can understand the new western ideas. Moreover, the readers of his translated works are not ordinary people, but literati with literary level. So the translation language should be elegant.