The prevailing belief concerning the conceptualization of “image (yixiang)” has been that the modern evolution of image in China was primarily informed by the Western idea of imagism whereas the latter was in turn inspired by Chinese traditional thought or categorization of image. This paper tries to argue to the contrary. The translation of the Western learning into China initiated the encounter with the traditional Chinese notion of “image”, and the process of translation is key to the modern evolution of “image”, with the influence of the Imagism being one of the tributaries. In the meantime, the modern construction of “image” inevitably involves a similar concept of the “artistic conception (yijing)”, which resulted in their longstanding entanglement. A clarification of their relation may not only help to reveal the process in which the traditional concepts of “image” and “artistic conception” were transformed with  the introduction of Western concepts but also provide reference for us to understand the gains and losses in the modern construction of the two concepts and the current theoretical reconstruction.