Exploring Human–AI Collaborative Generation Mechanisms from the Perspective of Creative Treason

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence, the creative potential of Large Language Models (LLMs) in literary translation has increasingly attracted scholarly attention. The concept of creative treason in translation studies offers a valuable framework for examining the roles and limits of LLMs as emerging translation agents. Using selected chapters from The Story of the Stone as the analytical corpus, this study compares translations generated by ChatGPT with David Hawkes’s English version to explore how creative treason manifests in each translation. The discussion further considers possible pathways for human–AI collaboration, providing insights into enhancing the creativity and acceptability of literary translations produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence.