“All scenery words are emotional words”, by this way, Mr. Wang Guowei reflects in a single sentence on the intimate relationship between images and Chinese poetry. Images are the most basic artistic units of Chinese ancient poetry. If we can use the most basic artistic units as the key points for translation and translation studies,
the entire translation or research will be easier, more accurate, and clearer. If images can be classified according to
Research on categories rather than individuals, the research would be even more effective. Therefore, this article takes the comparative study of Spanish versions of Wang Wei’s Guoxiangjisi by Chen Guojian, Iñaki Preciado Idoeta, and Guillermo Dañino as an example to demonstrate the application of image classification in translation studies. Images will be classified into two levels: the first level divides the images into four categories according to their attributes: landscape, small sceneries, images related to human beings, and Chinese proper nouns; the second level, according to functions, the images are divided into three categories: aesthetics, descriptive, and expressive. After the two-level classification is completed, the two are combined, and the combined double
classification is used as a clue to explore whether the three translators have successfully converted the basic artistic
unit, the images, into the translation.