Goes back to Confucius's dictum
辞达而已矣 ("words should simply convey meaning, that's all") in 《
论语·
卫灵公》 (Analects 15.41) — a foundational principle of classical Chinese prose. The translator Yan Fu (
严复) later codified the famous trio
信、
达、
雅 ("faithful, expressive, elegant"); the
达 in his triad is exactly this
达意 sense.
