The great debate in the 1990s about the Chinese translation of Red and black has brought profound and lasting influence to Chinese translation field. Today, it still leaves us lots of thoughts and inspirations. This article reviews the contributions to the moral criticism of translation, the combination of theory and practice in literary translation, the deepening of understanding with regard to literary translation and literary translation criticism, the widening of forms of literary translation criticism, the necessary qualities of translation critics and the construction of translation theorie in the debate. Also, it illustrates the active effects of the debate in the sense and the construction of literary translation theoryie as well as its significance in guiding the development of Chinese literary translation and literary translation criticism.