Abstract: Chinese discourses on translation during the 20th century forms a great stable tradition full of famous statements by great figures, behind which scene is the existence of a small history composed of diversified but hidden translation discourses. From paratextual perspectives, the present paper proposes that studies on 20th century Chinese translation theory should shift their cognitive frameworks and fully understand the diversified nature of translation discourses. By integrating the discourses on translation collected from translated text's epitext, peritext and the text proper, we will, then, be able to construct a multi-valenced history of translation discourses full of heteroglossia.