（古文) Is ‘attract’ for 援 in 人所援也 acceptable? 許慎 writes for 媛：美女也。人所援也。

I am inclined to translate 人所援也 as ‘someone who attracts people’, but I might be mislead by English ‘attractive’. It sounds so modern. (Being a beginner with CC, I also wonder: did I get 所 right?)

許慎 himself defines 援 as 引也 (to pull). Kroll (A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese) has (I) (1) pull up, pull on (a) take in hand, take by hand; draw toward one; e.g. 援筆 take up the writing-brush (2) pull along, lead on, guide (a) cite, adduce (b) recommend; appoint (3) resort to .... (II) (1) aid, assist ... (p. 576).
媛=belle
人所援也= whom people pull close
非漢所望也 means : not what Han is hoping for
A faithful translation to the original text would be :

媛: 美女也, 人所援也
The word &quot;belle&quot; means: &quot;a beautiful woman, whom people (men) want to pull close to himself.&quot;

&quot;媛&quot; is the topic, &quot;美女也, 人所援也&quot; is the comment. It is a common [topic + comment/opinion] sentence structure.
The word &quot;所&quot; in &quot;美女也, 人所援也&quot; functions as a pronoun (e.g. what; whom) for the object. Which the subject (人) (n) is acting on.
In this case, it is  &quot;pull close&quot;(援)(v)

The phrase 非漢所望也 also has an active voice, therefore : &quot;not what Han is hoping for&quot; is a pretty accurate translation to the original text.