Abstract: The term “rewriting” proposed by André Lefevere has been translated into Chinese in two versions “Gaixie (改写)” and “Chongxie (重写)”. An analysis of the theoretical background of the term shows that Lefeveres rewriting theory takes advantage of Russian formalism， reception aesthetics and Marxist literary theories. After tracing the development of Lefeveres theory and conducting a detailed etymological study on the English prefix “re-” as well as the two Chinese characters concerned， it is pointed out that “Chongxie” is a more reasonable translation of “rewriting” in that it can better cover the wide-ranging research objects of Lefeveres theory， reflect the essence of Lefeveres idea about challenging the author-centered and text-centered paradigms， and reveal the philosophical significance of the original term. Meanwhile， some misunderstandings and disputes about “rewriting” partly resulting from the two confusing translations could be clarified.

Key words: André Lefevere, rewriting, Gaixie (改写), Chongxie (重写), author-centered, text-centered