Abstract: Liu Bannong's translation of Lord Macartney's journal to China used to be a popular reader influenced by literary translation norms during the early period of Republic of China, and it now has become a significant historical document for relevant studies.The change of its functions can be interpreted from the perspective of translation criticism.This article examines how translation criticism describes and constructs the past and present functions of Liu Bannong's translation of Macartney's journal, and, based on the theory of evaluation which is a branch of axiology, analyzes the harmony and tension between attributes of the object and purposes of the subject in translation criticism.This article concludes that the present misuse of Liu Bannong's translation is mainly the product of deficient translation criticism.