HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Bible translations into Chinese include translations of the whole or parts of
the Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
into any of the levels and varieties of the
Chinese language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the wor ...
. The first translations may have been made as early as the 7th century AD, but the first printed translations appeared only in the nineteenth century. Progress on a modern translation was encumbered by denominational rivalries, theological clashes, linguistic disputes, and practical challenges at least until the publication of the Protestant
Chinese Union Version The ''Chinese Union Version'' (CUV) () is the predominant translation of the Bible into Chinese used by Chinese Protestants, first published in 1919. The text is now available online. The CUV is currently available in both traditional and simpl ...
in 1919, which became the basis of standard versions in use today. Although the motive for making translations was to spread the Gospel, there were further consequences. Access to the Bible in their own language made it easier for Chinese to develop forms of Christianity not dependent on missionaries and foreign churches. Translations designed to be read aloud were significant not only for Christian believers, but for Chinese who wanted models for writing in the vernacular. Since regional languages or dialects could not be adequately written using
Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...
, phonetic systems and type faces had to be invented; Christian texts were often the first works to be printed in those languages. The task of translation motivated missionaries to study Chinese closely, contributing to the development of
Sinology Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to th ...
. The Bible, especially the
Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
, also offered Chinese revolutionaries such as the leaders of the nineteenth-century
Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion and civil war that was waged in China between the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Han, Hakka-led Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It lasted fr ...
an apocalyptic vision of social justice on which to base their claims.


Nestorian translation

Christianity was introduced to China by the
Church of the East The Church of the East ( syc, ܥܕܬܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ, ''ʿĒḏtā d-Maḏenḥā'') or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church or the Nestorian C ...
, also called the Nestorian Church, in the 7th century and they appear to have begun translating the Bible immediately. The
Xi'an Stele The Xi'an Stele or the Jingjiao Stele ( zh, c=景教碑, p= Jǐngjiào bēi), sometimes translated as the "Nestorian Stele," is a Tang Chinese stele erected in 781 that documents 150 years of early Christianity in China. It is a limestone block ...
, erected by the Nestorians in 781, refers to "the translation of the Scriptures" ( , '' jīng'') without specifying what they were. Another Christian Chinese document from
Dunhuang Dunhuang () is a county-level city in Northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Dunhuang was a major ...
, ''Zūnjīng'' (尊經), lists several books of the Bible by Chinese title: the Book of Moses, Zechariah, the Epistles of Saint Paul and Revelation. Despite Nestorian efforts to translate or paraphrase parts of the Bible into Chinese, there has been little evidence to suggest that complete translations of any book of the Bible was undertaken.


Early nineteenth-century Protestant translations

Protestant missionaries pioneered the translation into local and regional languages, as well as the printing, and distribution of Bibles. In the nineteenth century, missionaries translated the Bible and taught it in churches and colleges, providing a resource to spread knowledge of the Christian religion. By the twentieth century, Chinese scholars and preachers studied and quoted the Bible, contributing to distinctive forms of Chinese Christianity. The early Protestant translations were made by individuals, sometimes in consultation with others or using manuscript translations from earlier workers. The first Protestant effort was made around 1800 by William Willis Moseley, of Daventry, in Northamptonshire, England. He found, in the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, a manuscript translation in Chinese of a Harmony of the four Gospels, the
Acts The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message ...
, and all of
Paul's Epistles The Pauline epistles, also known as Epistles of Paul or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen books of the New Testament attributed to Paul the Apostle, although the authorship of some is in dispute. Among these epistles are some of the earliest ext ...
. He then published “A Memoir on the Importance and Practicability of Translating and Printing the Holy Scriptures in the Chinese Language; and of circulating them in that vast Empire”. Alexander Wylie, "The Bible in China: A Record of Various Translations of the Holy Scriptures," in Arnold Foster, ''Christian Progress in China: Gleanings from the Writings and Speeches of Many Workers'' (London: Religious Tract Society, 1889)
pp. 29-46
/ref> The
Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
recommended that the
Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) is a UK-based Christian charity. Founded in 1698 by Thomas Bray, it has worked for over 300 years to increase awareness of the Christian faith in the UK and across the world. The SPCK is th ...
print the Chinese Bible; but, after four years deliberation, the project was abandoned. Then, two independent and almost simultaneous efforts were made. The Anglo-Hindoo College, of Fort William, in
Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
, established in 1800, created a department devoted to the translation of the Scriptures into Asian languages, mainly the Indian vernaculars, but including Chinese. Professor Hovhannes Ghazarian (Lassar), an
Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...
, born and educated in
Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...
, began by translating the Gospel of St. Matthew, which he finished in 1807. Ghazarian then moved to
Serampore Serampore (also called ''Serampur'', ''Srirampur'', ''Srirampore'', ''Shreerampur'', ''Shreerampore'', ''Shrirampur'' or ''Shrirampore'') is a city of Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarter of the Srirampor ...
, where the work was continued under the care of
Joshua Marshman Joshua Marshman (20 April 1768 – 6 December 1837) was a British Christian missionary in Bengal, India. His mission involved social reforms and intellectual debates with educated Hindus such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Origins Joshua Marshman was b ...
. The
British and Foreign Bible Society The British and Foreign Bible Society, often known in England and Wales as simply the Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status whose purpose is to make the Bible available throughout the world. The Soc ...
published The New Testament in 1813, and the whole Bible in 1822. This was the first known entire printed version of the Scriptures in Chinese. While Marshman's work was progressing at Serampore, Robert Morrison pursued the same project in Canton. Morrison, sponsored by the
London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational miss ...
, had arrived in 1807 as the first Protestant missionary to China. The translation of the Scriptures became his primary task because public preaching of the Gospel in the
Chinese Empire The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the ''Book of Documents'' (early chapter ...
was prohibited. Before leaving England he had made a copy of the manuscript Harmony of the Gospels referred to above, which he used as the basis of his translation of the New Testament, completed in 1813. He was joined by William Milne, but a few days after his arrival in Macau he was compelled to leave and go to
Malacca Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site si ...
. Though separated, the two friends co-operated in translating the Old Testament; Milne translated the historical books and the
Book of Job The Book of Job (; hbo, אִיּוֹב, ʾIyyōḇ), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), and is the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Scholars ar ...
; the other books were translated by Morrison. The task was finished in November, 1819, and was then revised by Morrison. It was printed from wood blocks and published, in 21 volumes, in 1823. The
British and Foreign Bible Society The British and Foreign Bible Society, often known in England and Wales as simply the Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status whose purpose is to make the Bible available throughout the world. The Soc ...
contributed more than 10,000 pounds for the translation, production, and circulation of this and successive editions. Marshman remarked that he and Robert Morrison profited greatly by each other's labors; the translation would be brought to as great perfection in twenty years as they might have been in the hand of one for the space of fifty. Yet they were never able meet face to face and compare and revise their work. Morrison's version, like that of Marshman, was intended to be a faithful, literal translation, not an elegant or literary one. Morrison himself made preparation for a revision. In a letter to the Bible Society, he wrote: "I make it my daily study to correct the Chinese version of the Scriptures; and my brethren of the Ultra-Ganges Mission are requested to note down whatever may occur to them as an error or imperfection in the translation. These are sent to the college and preserved, or immediately employed, as may appear best." He hoped that his son,
John Robert Morrison John Robert Morrison (; 17 April 1814 – 29 August 1843) was a British interpreter and colonial official in China. Born in Macau, his father was Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary in China. After his father's death in 1834, Morri ...
, would at some future time revise Morrison and Milne's translation. The death of Morrison frustrated the plan, for the son, having succeeded to his father's office as Government translator, did not have time to devote to the work. The next translation was made by
Walter Henry Medhurst Walter Henry Medhurst (29 April 179624 January 1857), was an English Congregationalist missionary to China, born in London and educated at St Paul's School. He was one of the early translators of the Bible into Chinese-language editions. Earl ...
,
Karl Gutzlaff Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austria ...
, and
Elijah Coleman Bridgman Elijah Coleman Bridgman (April22, 1801November2, 1861) was the first American Protestant Christian missionary appointed to China. He served with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. One of the first few Protestant missionarie ...
. John R. Morrison devoted what time he could spare from his official duties. These men completed the New Testament in 1835; it became the chief version used in the next ten or twelve years by Protestant groups. Although nominally the work of the above-named committee, Medhurst did the lion's share, and he did a final revision in 1836. He also took part in the translation of the Old Testament published by Gutzlaff in 1840. In addition to translating the Old Testament, Gutzlaff modified the version of the New Testament which he and Medhurst had prepared jointly; and he revised and printed some twelve editions of it. The American Baptist Board of Foreign Missions requested Josiah Goddard, one of their missionaries, revise Marshman's translation. He published the revised version of the New Testament in 1853, fourteen years after his arrival in China. At his death it was found that he had made only a little progress with the Old Testament, and his work was continued b
William Dean
of the same mission, residing at
Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...
. A further revision of Marshman's New Testament was made by an English Baptist missionary, T. H. Hudson, and published in 1867.


Delegates' Version

In August 1843, a meeting of missionaries was held in
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
to discuss the question of whether another revision of the Bible should be produced. A plan was adopted by which the services of every missionary capable of rendering aid were enlisted, and at five stations local committees were formed, to each of which a share of the work of revision was given. From these local committees, delegates were appointed to form a general committee of revision, by which the translations of the local committees were to be compared, and the version finally determined by the votes of the delegates. The first meeting of the delegates was held in June 1847, consisting of British and American Protestant missionaries, and was aided by Chinese scholars such as Wang Tao). The translation of the New Testament was finished in July 1850 and was published with the approval of the delegates, and became known as '' Delegates' Version''. As the translation of the Old Testament commenced, there was division in the committee, resulting in two versions. One was completed in 1853 by the English missionaries Medhurst, Stronach, and Milne, and has been called the '' Delegates' Version''. The American missionaries
Elijah Coleman Bridgman Elijah Coleman Bridgman (April22, 1801November2, 1861) was the first American Protestant Christian missionary appointed to China. He served with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. One of the first few Protestant missionarie ...
and
Michael Simpson Culbertson Michael Simpson Culbertson (January 18, 1819 – August 25, 1862) was an American Presbyterian clergyman, missionary to China, academic and author. Early life Michael Simpson Culbertson was born in 1819 in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. He entered ...
withdrew from the committee of delegates and prepared a separate final version.


The Taiping Bible

In the late 1840s,
Hong Xiuquan Hong Xiuquan (1 January 1814 – 1 June 1864), born Hong Huoxiu and with the courtesy name Renkun, was a Chinese revolutionary who was the leader of the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing dynasty. He established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdo ...
, a Hakka Chinese who had converted to Christianity, started the
Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion and civil war that was waged in China between the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Han, Hakka-led Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It lasted fr ...
which came close to replacing the
Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
with a Christian Kingdom of Heavenly Peace (Taiping Tianguo). Hong had trained in the Chinese classics but failed the
examinations An examination (exam or evaluation) or test is an educational assessment intended to measure a test-taker's knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in many other topics (e.g., beliefs). A test may be administered verb ...
to gain government office. Hong had read parts of the Bible in a tract by Gutzlaff's assistant,
Liang Fa Liang Fa (1789–1855), also known by other names, was the second Chinese Protestant convert and the first Chinese Protestant minister and evangelist. He was ordained by Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary in the Qing Empire. ...
, but these selections did not give any basis for iconoclasm or rebellion against the Manchu government. Hong then studied the Old and New Testament “long and carefully” under the tutelage of an American Baptist missionary in Hong Kong in 1847. When he returned home, he used Gutzlaff's Bible as the basis of his "Authorized Taiping Version of the Bible” which was the religious foundation of his movement. Some of his revisions and additions were minor, such as correcting wrongly printed characters and clarifying or improving the style. Hong altered other passages to fit his own theological and moral teachings and enhance the moral authority of the scriptures for his Chinese audience. In the Taiping Bible, for instance, at Genesis 27:25 God's favored people did not drink wine. The daughters of
Lot Lot or LOT or The Lot or ''similar'' may refer to: Common meanings Areas * Land lot, an area of land * Parking lot, for automobiles *Backlot, in movie production Sets of items *Lot number, in batch production *Lot, a set of goods for sale togethe ...
did not intoxicate him and have sexual relations with him in order to continue their family line, as in Genesis 38:16-26.Thomas H. Reilly. ''The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom: Rebellion and the Blasphemy of Empire.''(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004).
74-79
/ref> The Taiping Bible, argues historian Thomas Reilly, had a political as well as religious impact. The Gutzlaff Bible, especially the Old Testament, showed a deity who punished nations that did evil and rewarded those that did good. This deity paid close attention to cultural practices as well, including music, food, and marriage customs. The doctrines in the Taiping Bible were accepted by poor and powerless members of mid-century China because they were presented as a restoration of the authentic Chinese religion of classical antiquity, a religion which the emperors and the Confucian imperial system had destroyed.


Later nineteenth century: controversy and development

In 1865 a committee was appointed in the Chinese capital to translate the New Testament into Beijing Mandarin. The members of the committee were John Shaw Burdon, of the
Church Missionary Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British mission society working with the Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission ...
;
Joseph Edkins Joseph Edkins (19 December 1823 – 23 April 1905) was a British Protestant missionary who spent 57 years in China, 30 of them in Beijing. As a Sinologue, he specialised in Chinese religions. He was also a linguist, a translator, and a philolo ...
, of the London Missionary Society;
Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky (pronounced skĕr-ĕs-kūs'kĭ ; 6 May 1831 – 15 October 1906), also known as Joseph Schereschewsky, was the Anglican Bishop of Shanghai, China, from 1877 to 1884. He founded St. John's University, Shanghai, ...
, of the
American Episcopal Church The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces. The presiding bishop of ...
;
William Alexander Parsons Martin William Alexander Parsons Martin (April 10, 1827 – December 18, 1916), also known as Dīng Wěiliáng Lydia H. Liu, ''The Clash of Empires: The invention of China in modern world making'', Harvard University Press, 2004, pp. 113–139 (), was an ...
, of the American Presbyterian Mission ; and
Henry Blodget Henry McKelvey Blodget (born 1966) is an American businessman, investor and journalist. He is notable for his former career as an equity research analyst who was senior Internet analyst for CIBC Oppenheimer and the head of the global Internet ...
, of the American Board of Foreign Missions. Their task took six years. Schereschewsky, the Episcopal bishop of Shanghai, had the benefit of training in Hebrew as a Jewish youth in Europe before his conversion and American seminary study. His explanations for the translations of controversial terms influenced later versions. The National Bible Society of Scotland sponsored a translation of the New Testament by
Griffith John Griffith John ( zh, t=楊格非, p=Yáng Géfēi; 14 December 1831 – 25 July 1912) was a Welsh Christian missionary and translator in China. A member of the Congregational church, he was a pioneer evangelist with the London Missionary Society ...
of
Hankou Hankou, alternately romanized as Hankow (), was one of the three towns (the other two were Wuchang and Hanyang) merged to become modern-day Wuhan city, the capital of the Hubei province, China. It stands north of the Han and Yangtze Rivers wher ...
. The Delegates version, while attractively literary, was considered too learned to be understood by ordinary Chinese. On the other hand, the Mandarin colloquial version was not in a style which Chinese think should be employed in writing on a sacred subject. John's translation aimed to strike a happy medium between the two. In the midst of these controversies, H. L. Mackenzie, a medical missionary who was stationed at the English Presbyterian Church's Swatow Mission in China, was actively translating the scriptures into the Swatow dialect. Mackenzie, who worked alongside other missionaries such as George Smith and J.C. Gibson, specifically undertook the task of translating the Epistles of John and Jude from the New Testament.


Chinese Union Version and other Protestant versions

A new effort was inaugurated in 1890 to provide a translation which was both accurate and appealing. Three versions were planned—two
classical Chinese Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning "literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning "literar ...
versions and a vernacular
Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...
version. The project was completed in 1919. Lu Zhenzhong translated a version in the 1950s. The 1970s saw a number of new Chinese versions:
Today's Chinese Version The Today's Chinese Version (TCV) (Traditional Chinese: 現代中文譯本; Pinyin: Xiàndài Zhōngwén Yìběn) is a recent translation of the Bible into modern Chinese by the United Bible Societies. The New Testament was first published in 1975 ...
(TCV),
Chinese New Version The Chinese New Version (abbreviation:CNV; ) is a Chinese language Bible translation that was completed in 1992 by the Worldwide Bible Society (環球聖經公會 Huanqiu Shengjing Xiehui) with the assistance of the Lockman Foundation. It was form ...
(CNV), Chinese Living Bible (CLB), which was later replaced by the
Chinese Contemporary Bible The Chinese Contemporary Bible (当代圣经 Dangdai Shengjing) is a Bible translation by Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society) of Colorado Springs, Colorado, published in 2012. The CCB is a translation from the Greek and Hebrew, rep ...
(CCB), but of these only the TCV received official approval in the PRC and was printed inside China. The main version in use among Protestants in China remains the Chinese Union Version (CUV). The
China Christian Council The China Christian Council (CCC; ) was founded in 1980 as an umbrella organization for all Protestant churches in the People's Republic of China with Bishop K. H. Ting as its president. It works to provide theological education and the publica ...
approved a revision of the CUV in 2003 (和合本修訂版 Héhé běn xiūdìng bǎn), and the revised CUV New Testament was published by the state owned Amity Press in Nanjing in 2006, and the full Bible in 2010.


Catholic translations

The only approved Chinese Catholic Bible version is Studium Biblicum. The Bible did not play a primary role in Church preaching in sixteenth-century Europe or in the first
Jesuit China missions The history of the missions of the Jesuits in China is part of the history of relations between China and the Western world. The missionary efforts and other work of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, between the 16th and 17th century played a si ...
; translation of the Bible was not a major concern. The Jesuit missionaries in Beijing were granted permission in 1615 to conduct mass in the vernacular and to translate sacred texts, though not into the vernacular but into “erudite language proper to the '' literati''.” Jesuit superiors in Beijing, however, determined that it would be more useful to translate other works than the Bible, though they made translations of the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, a catechism based on the Bible, and a life of Christ. Chinese could therefore have a reasonable knowledge of Biblical matters even though there was no published translation of the book itself. The first translations were not until the eighteenth century and were made by individual priests on their own initiative. Neither of the two known translations was complete and neither was published. The British Museum acquired a manuscript copy of the first translation, which Robert Morrison had copied and used as a reference for his own work. A translation of the New Testament was begun by Jean Basset, but was only completed down to the first chapter of ''Hebrews'' at his death in December 1707. Several manuscripts circulated, one winding up in the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, from where it influence Robert Morrisons's Protestant translation work. Basset's translation was made from the Vulgate and not the original languages. The first Catholic Chinese Bible to be published was started by a young Franciscan friar named
Gabriele Allegra Gabriele Allegra ( zh, 雷永明, 26 December 1907 – 26 January 1976) was a Franciscan Friar and Biblical scholar. He is best known for accomplishing the first complete translation of the Catholic Bible into the Chinese language. His Studium B ...
, who began translating the Old Testament from the original Hebrew and Aramaic languages in 1935, completing the first draft of the Old Testament in 1944. Unsatisfied with this draft, the next year he recruited Friars Solanus Lee, Antonius Lee, Bernardinus Lee, and Ludovicus Liu and established the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Beijing. However, due to the
Chinese civil war The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...
in 1948, the friars were forced to move the Studium Biblicum to
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
. After twenty years of effort, the first Old Testament was published in 1954. In 1968 the New and Old Testaments were published in a single volume. John C. H. Wu, a Catholic convert, who served as the
Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
's minister to the Vatican, also made a translation of the New Testament and the Psalms into
Classical Chinese Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning "literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning "literar ...
in 1946. The translations were not direct and often noted to be florid, and his translation of the Psalms were paraphrases.


Russian Orthodox translations

Three major Orthodox translations of the New Testament have been produced. The first translation was done by Archimandrite Gury (Karpov), head of the 14th Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing (1858-1864). He commenced translation work from the Slavonic in 1859, completing a draft after four years. This was improved through the participation of several Chinese and ultimately published in the summer of 1864. An updated version of the New Testament was prepared through the work of Archimandrite Flavian (Gorodecky), the head of the 16th Russian Ecclesiastical Mission (1879-1883). Flavian introduced the use of the Chinese language in services and the work to update Gury's translation of the New Testament in 1884. The update included short explanatory notes, particularly connected with the translation of theological terminology. Additionally, it was reported that the update to Gury's translation was partly done with the help of the Protestant translation of the Bible done by
Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky (pronounced skĕr-ĕs-kūs'kĭ ; 6 May 1831 – 15 October 1906), also known as Joseph Schereschewsky, was the Anglican Bishop of Shanghai, China, from 1877 to 1884. He founded St. John's University, Shanghai, ...
. The third major Orthodox translation of the New Testament was done as part of the 18th Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, led by Innokenty (Figurovsky), Bishop of Pereyaslav, later Metropolitan of Beijing and China. Again updating the work of Gury, the translation was published in 1910 including more commentaries and using the language closer to
vernacular Chinese Written vernacular Chinese, also known as Baihua () or Huawen (), is the forms of written Chinese based on the varieties of Chinese spoken throughout China, in contrast to Classical Chinese, the written standard used during imperial China up to ...
.


Regional, minority, and tribal languages

Since regional languages or dialects could not be adequately written using
Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...
, missionaries and church leaders invented systems of phonetic transcription,
syllabaries In the linguistic study of written languages, a syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent the syllables or (more frequently) moras which make up words. A symbol in a syllabary, called a syllabogram, typically represents an (option ...
, or
romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
in order to write and print Christian texts and Bibles. These were in most cases the first works printed in those languages, as in Bible translations into Taiwanese. A similar need led to the invention of several systems for
Braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are Blindness, blind, Deafblindness, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on Paper embossing, embossed paper ...
. Missionaries invented writing systems for tribal and minority peoples. At the beginning of the 20th century, the missionary Samuel Pollard invented a phonetic system for
Miao Miao may refer to: * Miao people, linguistically and culturally related group of people, recognized as such by the government of the People's Republic of China * Miao script or Pollard script, writing system used for Miao languages * Miao (Unicode ...
and other minority languages which is in use over a century later.


Comparison of major versions


See also

*
Bible translations into the languages of China The Bible has been translated into many of the languages of China besides Chinese language, Chinese. These include major minority languages with their own literary history, including Korean language, Korean, Mongolian language, Mongolian, Central T ...
*
List of Bible translations by language The United Bible Societies reported that the Bible, in whole or part, has been translated in more than 3,324 languages (including an increasing number of sign languages), including complete Old or New Testaments in 2,189 languages, and the co ...
*
List of Chinese Bible translations This is list of the Bible translations to Chinese language. Bible translations into Chinese began with translations made by the Church of the East under the Tang Dynasty into Old Chinese. However, no surviving manuscripts exist, and the only survi ...


Notes


References


Internet Archive
*
Internet Archive


Further reading

* * * Eber,Irene, Wan Sze-Kar, Walf Knut. eds., ''Bible in Modern China: The Literary and Intellectual Impact.'' (Sankt Agustin; Nettetal: Institut Monumenta Serica ; Distribution : Steyler, 1999). . * Hanan, Patrick. “The Bible as Chinese Literature: Medhurst, Wang Tao, and the Delegate’s Version.” ''Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies'' 63 (June 2003): 197–239. * Lai, John T. P. ''Negotiating Religious Gaps: The Enterprise of Translating Christian Tracts by Protestant Missionaries in Nineteenth-Century China'' (Institut Monumenta Sérica, 2012). . * Yieh, John H. “The Bible in China: Interpretations and Consequences,” in ''Handbook of Christianity in China''. Volume Two 1800–Present. R.G. Tiedemann, ed., 891–913. Brill, 2010. Essay with background and bibliography. * Zetzsche, Jost Oliver. ''The Bible in China: The History of the Union Version, or, the Culmination of Protestant Missionary Bible Translation in China'' (Sankt Augustin: Monumenta Serica Institute; Monumenta Serica Monograph Series, 45, 1999) .


External links

* * * * - a mobile application
iOSAndroid
containing CUV, RCUV and ESV Bible versions developed for the Chinese market. * *
珍本聖經數位典藏
{{Protestant missions to China Christian missions in China Translators of the Bible into Chinese Chinese literature