The present research studies indirect translation from the socio-cultural perspective．Indirect translation as atranslational phenomenon exists both in China and abroad．If its studied just from the traditional perspective (i.efaithfulness)，its obviously not faithful．However．the "cultural turn" in translation studies in 1970s has changedresearchers notion towards translation．Since then．translation has been regarded as cultural facts in the targetculture．and the researchers began to study various translations within the socio-culture．From the perspective,the researches on indirect translation are culturally significant．This thesis thus explores indirect translation inliterary system from 1898 to 1919 within the socio-culture in this period，trying to provide the overall situationof indirect translation in the period，the choice of mediating language(s)，the interaction between indirecttranslation and socio-cultural system，and the interaction between indirect translation and literary system． This study，by adopting an integrated model of Polysystem theory and translation norms as its theoreticalframework．discusses indirect translation in the period．Inspired by the stratification of Polysystem，the presentresearch conceived socio-culture as a system one of whose sub-systems is indirect translation．The relationalinstincts among systems provided a new perspective for the present study-there are interactions betweenindirect translation and socio-cultural system and its other sub-systems．Translation norms laid a theoreticalfoundation to investigate norms of socio-culture beneath indirect translation．The research conclusions are asfollows：(1)Influenced by socio-cultural awareness of "learning from the West" and "enlightening Chinese people",the translators chose acceptability as initial norm,which justifies the existence of indirect translation in thisperiod．The number of people learning in Japan and the Japanese learners kept rising．Besides，abundant westernbooks were translated into Japan in Meiji period．So the tolerance of indirect translation with Japanese as apreferred mediating language is preliminary norm of the period; (2)Indirect translation plays an important role in enriching the socio-cultural system．The Romanticismwas brought into China．which influenced many Chinese intellectuals in the period．The borrowed words fromJapanese came to modern Chinese because of indirect translation．which not only enrich modern Chinesevocabulary，but promote the development of modern vernacular Chinese movement as well; (3)The turning point of literary system leads to abundant indirect translations．The indirect translation alsoinfluences literary system，which is reflected in the import of new novel types and expansion of literaturehorizons; (4)Indirect translation as a translation type is complementary to direct translation.