Abstract: Theory of models of translation ethics constituted by translational ethics of representation,of service,of communication,of norm-based translational ethics and translation ethics of commitment contributes a lot to the development of translation ethics home and abroad.In the circle of translation of China,there comes the voice of formulating universal translation ethics on the basis of this theory.Therefore,this paper deals with the feasibility of the formulation of universal translation ethics on the basis of the theory models of translation ethics.In this paper,the exact referents of the translation agents(mainly including the source,the target culture,the original writer,the client,the translator and the target readership) illustrated in translation ethics of representation,service,communication,norm-based translation ethics and the status of each translation agent conferred by each of the four translation ethics are compared and contrasted.It is discovered that,in the first four models of translation ethics,the referents of all the translation agents except the translator and the status conferred to each of the relevant translation agents except the target readership contradict each other.Translation ethics of commitment,with the purpose of integrating four preceding models of translation ethics does not solve the two problems either.Therefore,the notion of formulating universal translation ethics on the basis of theory models of translational ethics is impractical.