Abstract: The discussion on domesticating & foreignizing attributes of Yan Fu's translation reflects the ongoing process of extending Venuti's translation theories in Chinese translation community. Yan Fu's translation was once conceived of as domesticating and later reckoned as foreignizing, which reflects the prescriptive and unary methods that dominate the translation studies. The descriptive approach to translation studies makes it possible to analyze the working relatedness between Yan Fu's linguistic strategies and his translating function of transforming the structures of the Chinese society, and also to realize the part that "the creative destruction" of translation plays in advancing the progress of any societies. Analysis from three contradictory but interconnected aspects:linguistic perspective/cultural perspective, ethics of fidelity/ethics of difference/ethic of innovation, and the instrumental model/the hermeneutic model would facilitate a more profound understanding of the essence of domesticating and foreignizing translations which are ostensibly opposite but fundamentally interdependent.