Abstract: Target text is penetrated with a translator's rhetorical cognition. The translator, the reader of the original as well as the addresser in target language, shows consciously his own comprehension of the original text in the target language and reshapes, meanwhile, the target text appealing to target readers. With the comparative analysis of three translated passages of sexual description from Hong Lou Meng by David Hawks and Yang Xianyi respectively, the paper finds that translator's rhetorical cognition plays a significant role in reshaping the stylistic effect of both the original text and the target text.