The Translation of the Bible into Chinese: some observations and

The Translation of the Bible into Chinese: some observations and reflections

William Lo, SJ

I am grateful to the organizing committee of this conference for the kind invitation to speak on the topic, the Bible in China. In preparing for this paper I had the opportunity to go into an area with which I am not familiar. This opens up new horizons for me. My observations and reflections are at a preliminary stage and I would certainly benefit from your comments and insights.

The first part of this paper will begin with a short history on the translation of the

Bible into Chinese in the past four centuries. It will conclude with a brief description of the impact of the Bible in China since the 1920’s. The second part of the paper will look at some of the issues involved in the translation by both

Protestants and Catholics and their implications on what may be done in the translation of the Bible into Chinese.

The History of translation of the Bible into Chinese

The first attempt to translate the Bible into Chinese

The Nestorians first brought Christianity to China in 635 AD. In 781 AD their bishop made a stele that first states their beliefs and then records their history in China.

The stele was rediscovered in 1626 AD. It is now kept in Xian, China 1 .

In stating its belief, the stele says that they have 24 volumes for the Old

Testament and 27 volumes for the New Testament 2 . Moreover, in the part on its history in China, it mentions that with imperial consent they could move into the hall of translation, apparently for the translation of the Bible.

In 1907 and 1908 some Nestorian documents were discovered in the caves of

Dunhuang. One of these documents, Zunjing (the Venerable Books) mentions some of the books that had been translated. These have been identified as books of the

Bible 3 . In another document, the Discourse on the One God, there is a short chapter on almsgiving. This chapter or discourse is a paraphrase of parts of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6-7. However, no actual translation of the Bible, or part of it, has been found 4 .

The translation of the Bible into Chinese in the 13 th Century

Christian missionaries came to China again in 1294 when Pope Nicolas IV sent Fr.

John of Montecorvino, O.F.M. as his legate to the Mongol emperor in Beijing. He

The translation of the Bible into Chinese page 1 of 18

was given permission to stay in the capital. In 1307 Pope Clement V appointed him as the Archbishop of Beijing. In one of his letters he said that he had translated the

Psalms and the New Testament into Tartar. However this translation has since been lost and so we do not know anything about the Biblical text used for the translation.

With the fall of the Mongol Empire, the work of the Franciscan missionaries also came to an end 5

The translation of the Bible into Chinese in the 16 th and 17 th Century

After the death of St. Francis Xavier on an island off the coast of South China in

1552, other Jesuit missionaries followed in his footsteps. In 1615 Pope Paul V gave permission for the Chinese clergy to use Chinese for the liturgy and Roman Breviary.

He also gave permission to translate the Bible into Chinese in the language of the scholars. However, the Jesuit superior in China at that time was against translating the Bible into Chinese. Moreover, the missionaries in China concentrated on translating, not the Bible, but the Roman Missal, breviary and works on science, philosophy and theology. Later on more emphasis was placed on the teaching of catechism and catholic doctrine to the faithful during Sunday Mass. So the translation of the Bible ceased to be a priority. In 1673 permission was not granted to Missions Etrangeres de Paris that requested it to translate the Bible. Nevertheless, translation of parts of the Bible appeared in the lectionaries, the life of Christ, the commentaries on the scriptural readings in Mass and in books of catechism and of

Christian doctrine 6 .

Although they were not published, there were two translations by missionaries from the Vulgate in the seventeenth century. Fr. J. Basset, M.E.P. translated the four

Gospels and some of the epistles. In 1739 a copy of this translation was found in

Guanzhou and this became part of the Sloan Manuscript in the British Museum.

This became an important reference for the Protestant missionary Robert Morrison who translated the Bible into Chinese in the early nineteenth century 7 . Fr. G. M.

Allegra, O.F.M. also got a copy of this translation when he began translating the Bible in the early 1940’s 8 .

Louis de Poirot, S.J. also translated the Old Testament and parts of the New

Testament from the Vulgate around 1803. Fr. Allegra also consulted this translation as he took photos of the manuscript of this translation, which was kept in the

Cathedral of Beijing 9 .

The translation of the Bible in the 19 th Century


Translation of the Bible into Chinese by Protestant missionaries began exactly two hundred years ago with the arrival of Robert Morrison from England to China 10 .

The Chinese government at that time did not allow Christian missionaries, both

Catholic and Protestant, to preach the Gospel. It also strictly forbade its citizens to teach foreigners Chinese. Hence Morrison concentrated on the translation of the

Bible into Chinese. In 1822 the Chinese Bible was published in Malacca. Based on the Textus Receptus and the Authorized Version, the translation followed mainly the line of formal correspondence. In certain parts of the Bible it also shows some similarities with the translation of Basset, a copy of which he had obtained from the

British Museum.

11 Later a team of four revised this translation. The New

Testament was published in 1837 and the Old Testament in 1840 12 .

With the signing of the treaty of Nanking and the cession of Hong Kong to

Britain in 1841, missionaries were allowed first into some sea-ports in China and then later to other parts of the country. In 1843 Protestant missionaries from different countries gathered in Hong Kong and decided to translate the Bible into Chinese with standardized terminologies for the names and terms in the Bible. This version is therefore known as the Delegates Version with the New Testament published in 1852 and the Old Testament in 1854. However, as there was a dispute on the translation of the word, God, among delegates, the translation was published in two editions, with one using s hangti (supreme ruler or emperor) and the other s hen (god, spirit) for

God. This translation has been praised for its elegant and clear Chinese style and it does not follow strictly the approach of formal correspondence 13 .

Translations up to this stage were in the literary style of the government officials and scholars. More missionaries came to China as the country was forced to open itself to foreigners as a consequence of its defeat in its wars with foreign powers.

These missionaries brought the Gospel to more areas in China than before. So they felt the need to translate the Bible into the language (or colloquial style) of the ordinary people. Several translations were published along these lines and these were in use up to 1919 when the Union Version of the Bible was published 14 .

On the Catholic side, apparently very little was done. In 1892 Fr. J. Dejean,

M.E.P. published his translation of the Gospel and in 1897 Fr. Li Wun Yu, S.J. his translation of the New Testament. Translated from the Vulgate, both were considered to be elegant in style but not too faithful to the original text 15


Translation of the Bible in the twentieth Century

The Protestant Churches published some major translations that are still in use today. Two of these are the Union Version and the Today’s Chinese Version. The

Catholic Church also saw the publication of the whole Bible in Chinese in 1968 16 .

We will give a brief account of each of these here.

As more Protestant missionaries came to China in the second half of the nineteenth Century, they went to many regions of China that missionaries had never been to before. Hence they felt the need to have one version with the same translation for the names of persons, places and technical or theological terms. In a meeting in Shanghai in 1890 it was decided to have one Bible in three versions, with two versions based on the classical style of the officials and of the ancient classics and the other the vernacular style of the common people 17 . Based on the Textus

Receptus and the Revised Version, the translation mainly followed the principle of formal correspondence. The translation also left open the translation of the word

God. Consequently up to the present moment, two editions have been published, with one using shangdi (supreme ruler) and the other shen (god or spirit) for God 18 .

In the course of the translation it was decided to combine the two classical

Chinese translations into one version. As a result when the work was published in

1919, there were only two versions, the classical and the mandarin or quoyu 19 .

The year 1919, when this translation first appeared, saw the May the Fourth movement in China. This movement led to, among other things, the use of the vernacular in writing in place of the classical literary style. This vernacular style of writing is known as mandarin or quoyu 20 . With this historical background it rapidly became the most commonly used Bible in the Protestant churches as the use of the classical style was gradually phased out in daily life. It also helped facilitate communications among Christians of different denominations in different parts of the country as they were now using the same biblical text using the same theological terms like salvation, righteousness, sin, mercy etc.

The May the Fourth Movement not only brought into use mandarin as the common language, it also gave rise to an interest in the science and literature of the west and of Japan. So the Union Version was seen as an exemplar of mandarin and it was read by the educated, if not as a religious text, then at least as foreign literature.

Some of the biblical stories, themes, motifs and images were incorporated into the writings of some famous authors in the first half of the twentieth century 21 .


Sixty years after the appearance of the Union Version, the Today’s Chinese

Version of the Bible was published in 1979. Similar to the Today’s English Version

( The Good News Bible ) and other translation projects of the United Bible Societies, its principles of translation are clearly well defined and well known to all. The translators were assisted by a review committee, which included three Roman

Catholic scholars for the New Testament section. This is noteworthy as this would be the first attempt at ecumenical co-operation in the history of the translation of the

Bible into Chinese. Based on the Greek and Hebrew texts of the United Bible

Society, the translation is lucid as it employed the principle of functional equivalence; making explicit whatever is implicit in the text.

There is a Catholic edition of the New Testament. It is exactly the same as the

Protestant edition, except that tianzhu , shangshen and shanzhu take the place of shangdi and shangling for God and the Holy Spirit 22 . There is no Catholic edition for the Old Testament as the Deutero-canonical books were not included in the translation 23 .

This first attempt at ecumenical translation of the Bible into Chinese did lead to a proposed project of ecumenical translation of the Bible from the original languages.

The aim is to produce a version that is not intended to replace the existing Protestant and Catholic versions but to be used in functions when Protestant and Catholic come together. Of course it also aims at the wider non-Christian population. In February

1987 a group of Protestant and Catholic biblical scholars met and agreed on the principles involved in the translation. They also proposed new translations for the names of persons and places when the Protestant and Catholic terminologies were not the same. But above all, they agreed to use shangdi , instead of tianzhu (the Lord of the Heavens), for God and shangshen , instead of shangling , for Holy Spirit. In other words, the Protestant term for God and the Catholic term for Holy Spirit were adopted for the new translation. The Catholic hierarchy in Taiwan was reluctant to accept the use of the Protestant term for God. In Chinese, Catholicism is known as the religion of tianzhu.

This would be one of the reasons why the project was not completed, although a few books of the New Testament have already been translated 24 .

The first complete Catholic Chinese Bible translated from the original languages was published in December 1968. The translation was done by a group of

Franciscans under the direction of the Venerable Fr. Gabrielle M. Allegra, O.F.M.


As far back as 1924, the Chinese Synod held in Shanghai decided to have the

Bible translated into Chinese. But for the lack of suitable personnel, the decision was not carried out. During the celebration of the Sixth Centenary of the death of

John of Montecorvino in the Antonianum in 1928, Fr. Allegra, at the age of 21, decided to devote himself to translating the Bible from the original languages into

Chinese. A year and a half later he learnt from a Chinese Franciscan priest who came to study in the Antonianum that the translations of Montecorvino had been lost and that the decision of the Synod in 1924 had not been carried out. He was therefore even more determined to go to China to translate the Bible 25 . He arrived in

China in 1931. After working in a minor seminary and studying Chinese for four years he began translating the Old Testament on his own in 1935. Apart from a break of two years from 1939 to 1941 in Italy and in the Holy Land for a rest and study, he finished the work in 1944. It was significant that when he returned to

Beijing in 1941 he got permission from the Apostolic Delegate to translate the Old

Testament all on his own. The Synod in 1924 had decided that a commission of scholars should do the work 26 . It was also amazing that he could finish the work, as these were the years of the war with Japan. He must have been working under very difficult situations.

When he finished the translation of the Old Testament he thought of revising and polishing it. At first he thought that one person helping him would be enough. But later on he realized that he had to form a group of friars who were trained in biblical studies. The Studium Biblicum was therefore set up on 2 August 1945 in Beijing.

Among its members were four young Chinese priests who were graduates of the

Catholic University in Beijing 27 . With the changes in the political situation in China, the Studium Biblicum moved to Hong Kong in 1948 28 .

On 15 September 1946, the book of Psalms (translation, notes and commentary) was published. This was followed by the Wisdom books (in 1947) and the

Pentateuch (in 1948). The translation of the other books in the Old Testament was subsequently published in Hong Kong. When the whole project was completed in

1954, eight volumes with translation and commentaries on the Old Testament were published.

Fr. Allegra and his four Chinese companions then went to the Holy Land for a year of study at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem. They returned to

Hong Kong and the translation of the New Testament was completed in 1961. It was


published in three volumes, including notes and commentaries.

The Studium Biblicum then revised these translations and a one volume Bible with the revised translation and short notes were published in 1968 29 .

Based on the original text, the translation follows closely the approach of formal correspondence. Fr. Allergra prefers to follow, as far as possible, the Semitism in the original 30 . The translation has been praised for its faithfulness to the original text.

But of course, this faithfulness would at times be at the expense of elegance in style 31 .

Fr. Allegra would put fidelity to the original text as a top priority 32 .

As the first complete Catholic Bible in Chinese, its appearance in 1968 came at an opportune time with the proclamation of Dei Verbum , the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation of the Second Vatican Council in 1965. From then on,

Catholics had a Chinese Bible that they could use in liturgies, prayer meetings, bible sharing groups and personal study and prayer. Members of the Studium Biblicum also promoted the Biblical-pastoral ministry among the Catholic communities in

Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and South East Asia as Catholic Biblical Associations were set up in these areas. Catechumens would be introduced to reading the Bible at the beginning of their catechumenate and Catholics become interested in taking courses on the Bible 33 . When Mainland China began to open itself to the outsider world in the early 1980’s, permission was also given for printing the Studium

Biblicum Bible there 34 .

The impact of the Bible in China since 1920’s

There were two periods of two decades each in the twentieth century when China was particularly open to Western ideas and culture, viz. the 1920’s and 1930’s after the May the Fourth Movement in 1919 and the 1980’s and 1990’s after the Cultural

Revolution 35 . In fact, interest in Christianity has continued to flourish up to today.

It is not surprising that after the tumultuous era of the fall of the Qing Dynasty and the early years of the Republic in the 1910’s and the Cultural Revolution people became interested in new ideas from other cultures. This would give them new perspectives to look at their own situation and reflect on their concerns.

Poets incorporated the images from the Bible into their poems, as this was evident among the Cresent Moon ( Xin Xue ) Society of poets, an influential group of poets who published their works from 1928-1937. Writers would take the themes and figures from the Bible in their works, often for allegorical or satirical purposes to


bring about change in China, e.g. against traditional customs, imperialism and promoting patriotism etc. In a novel by Mao Dun, a famous writer, Samson in the book of Judges was a figure for China. Though humiliated and blind, Samson brought the house down on his enemies. By borrowing themes from the Bible it does not mean that they wanted to become believers or extol the virtues of

Christianity 36 . In fact, at that time many Chinese were more interested in science and philosophy from the West. They would see science ultimately replacing religion because it was based on reason and objectivity.

After the Cultural Revolution there has been a lot of interest in the study of

Christianity by Chinese scholars. As the country opens itself to the outside world, people look for ways to bring about the modernization of China. They realize the limitations of rationalism and science on the one hand and traditional Chinese culture on the other. So they look to other cultures and religions for inspiration for China today. As a lot of them are interested in the culture of the west, they begin to realize that in order to understand properly western culture they must study Christianity.

Despite their atheistic or secular background, they also begin to realize that there are more areas of compatibility between traditional Chinese culture and Christianity than have been admitted in the past. As in the years after the May the Fourth movement, many of the scholars are not professing Christians who belong to a church, although they may privately draw satisfaction from Christianity on a personal and spiritual level 37 . They approach Christianity as an academic subject, studying it from the perspective of literature, art, history etc. As China begins to play a more important role, both economically and politically, in the world, interest in western culture would continue to flourish and so will the study of Christianity 38 .

Interest in the Bible can be seen in the many publications, both on the popular and academic level in the years after 1976. Selected stories, songs, poems from the

Bible have been published as Biblical stories or Hebrew folktales etc for the public.

These books help to bring the Bible to a larger audience which would not normally go to a shop to buy a Bible. There are also introductions to and dictionaries on the Bible, some of them produced by serious scholars. On the academic level there are studies on specific topics in the Bible, e.g. Hebrew poetry, creation myths, apocalyptic literature and the characters in the Bible. Then there are also the comparative studies, comparing the Bible with world literature and with Chinese literature. These studies also demonstrate that the Bible has influenced many of the novelists in the three decades after May the Fourth movement 39 . A recent search for articles published in

China in the past 6 years on an e-journal data-base yields more than forty entries on


the Bible, from the history of translations of different versions, translations principles to studies on different topics like Hebrew poetry. These were published in different universities all over the country 40 .

As these scholars look at the Bible from the standpoint of Chinese culture they bring in new perspectives on the study of the Bible. However, most of them would rely on the translations of the Bible into Chinese or English, rather than on the original languages. Finally more contact with biblical studies outside China would be fruitful 41 .


Some issues involved in the translation

We shall look at some of the issues involved in the translation and see whether we can learn anything from the experience of the past.

Using the literary style or the vernacular in the translation

Before the colloquial style or vernacular replaced the classical style of writing used by scholars in the 1920’s, translations of the Bible were mainly in the classical style. One problem encountered in the translations into classical Chinese is the use of traditional terms in Chinese literature. Many of them have connotations in

Confucianism and Buddhism. There was concern that their use might hinder the

Chinese from fully understanding the Christian meaning of the Bible 42 . We will look further into this issue in the next section. In using the vernacular the problem was how to avoid slang or local terms that might not be understood by people all over the country 43 . But now the vernacular or mandarin has been used for many years with practical no one using the classical style except on very formal occasions.

Moreover, with the prevailing influence of the mass media, the vernacular is more open to the use of foreign terms and sentence patterns. So this issue is not a problem for the translator today.

The use of traditional Chinese religious or philosophy terms

Christianity has been present in China since the sixteenth century and so there are some established terms available to express the Christian faith. Apart from these terms, translators of the Bible in the past had to decide to what extent they could use terms from Chinese philosophical or religious texts to express the Christian terms or ideas in the Bible.

If the answer is yes, what period should it be? Scholars in later years interpreted the ancient classics of Confucius according to their situation. Very often these interpretations would place more emphasis on moral or virtuous living. Would these terms hinder the readers from knowing a God who does not just give commands on morality but who is also a merciful God who created the world and saves and cares for his creation?

The principle adopted by the Studium Biblicum deserves our attention in dealing with this issue. After studying the text of Matthew 5:1-12 of this translation,

Strandenaes comes to this conclusion: “If it comes to a choice between a term which adequately describes the sensus literalis sive historicus of the Greek or preserves an interpretation which is doctrinally acceptable to the Studium Biblicum translators and


a term or expression which is poignant with Chinese traditional religio-philosophical meaning, the former is chosen.” He then quotes Fr. Allegra who stresses the need for notes or commentaries to clarify the meaning 44 . However, all the terms in the

Bible have been in use for some time. So a non-Christian today would know that these terms are Christian. He may not know exactly what they mean but would be very unlikely interpret them solely in the traditional way.

Translation of the word, God, in Chinese

Associated with the use of religious or philosophical terms is the word in

Chinese for God. When missionaries came to China, they had to find a suitable

Chinese term for God that would convey the Christian understanding of a monotheistic, self-existing Supreme Being who created and saved the world. There are two possibilities: to create a new term or to find an existing term in Chinese literature. If one is to follow the second approach, then one has to ask the following questions. Is Chinese religion monotheistic or polytheistic? In Chinese religion is there a god similar to the Christian God? If there is such a god, what is its name in

Chinese? If this name were used for God, would a Chinese understand it in the

Christian sense? One could also ask whether this name is a generic name for gods or a proper name for this god? If there is a generic name for gods, then, as in the case of Elohim in the Massorretic Text, can this name be used for God 45 ?

To answer these questions one could go to the dictionaries, classics and religious texts. For religious texts there are those from the official court ceremonies and those from popular and traditional practices. One could then ask: which one would be more authoritative and more familiar to the people than the others? As one goes deeper into these texts the issue could become more complicated.

For Catholics the issue was resolved during the “rites controversy” in the seventeenth century when the Church decided on the use of tianzhu (the Lord of the heaven) as the term for God. For Protestants it became a heated issue in the nineteenth century when they translated the Bible. One group preferred to use shen as it is considered as a generic name for God and turned down the use of shangdi (the supreme emperor or ruler), as it would imply polytheism. Another group preferred to use shangdi , seeing it as a generic term while considering the word shen to be a very vague term as it can also refer to spirits that are not deities 46 .

Consequently Protestant Chinese Bibles would use either one of these names for

God. The Union Version, the most widely used Protestant Chinese version today,


appears in two different editions with each one using one of the names for God.

The dispute on this issue in the past, as we have pointed out, was based on the translators’ understanding of the meaning of these terms as used in the Chinese texts.

These terms for God have been in use for many years. So Christians would have an affection and preference for the term that their church has been using for many years.

It would be very difficult for them to switch to the use of another term for God.

With this background one could sympathize with the Catholic bishops in Taiwan who were reluctant to give permission to use the term, shangdi , instead of tianzhu , for the ecumenical project for the translation of the Bible 47 .

What is the way ahead? Could we have one common translation in three different editions, with each one using one of the three names for God? How should

Christians of different background address God in Chinese when they come together 48 ?

Certainly we would hope that the choice of the name of God in Chinese would not be an obstacle to an ecumenical translation of the Bible.

This hope is not without basis. When Morrison translated the Bible into

Chinese in the early nineteenth century he referred to the Basset’s translation, a copy of which he had obtained from the British Museum, for traditional Christian terminology in Chinese 49 . In his journal he admitted that for the translation of parts of the New Testament he had used the translation of Basset 50 . The Studium

Biblicum translation is also open to Chinese Protestant expressions in the Union

Version when these are not in conflict with Catholic theology 51 . Both Protestant and

Catholic translations, while remaining faithful to their own traditions, do show signs of openness to ecumenical concerns 52 . We have to remember these were the days before Vatican II.

At the moment the names of persons and places in the Bible are rendered differently in Protestant and Catholic Bibles. To have the same translation for these names may be a first step in working together.

Formal correspondence or functional equivalence

This is not the place to discuss the merits of each of these approaches in translation. But I would like to point out that the Union Version and the Studium

Biblicum versions, the most widely used translations, basically follow the formal correspondence approach, although they may not use these terms when they state their principles of translation. The experience of the Studium Biblicum translation may


offer some helpful reflection on this approach. We shall list some of them here.

One reservation on the use of formal correspondence is that it would at times lead to long sentences in Chinese. However, the study of Strandenaes shows that the

Studium Biblicum translation was able to overcome this problem in the case of

Colossians 1. The relationship between the different parts of the long sentences is clearly indicated by different words or particles or by varied sentence patterns. So the translation is in contemporary Chinese intelligible to most educated readers 53 .

A formal correspondence approach would mean rendering the Semitisms, the figurative expressions, metaphors and images in a literal way. This would mean that ways of speaking in the original text that would lead to offence should be kept 54 .

Ambiguity in the original would be retained as far as possible in the translation. The divine passive would be rendered as passive in the translation, although the use of the passive in Chinese is not common 55 . At times the result is not satisfactory.

However, the use of notes may help the readers to enter more fully into the culture of the Biblical world. This in term may help the reader to comprehend more fully the

Word of God.

Besides the use of the diachronic approach, today there is also the use of the synchronic approach. Would a more literal rendering of the original text help the readers in identifying the use of the key words, motifs etc.? This may imply that the translator would use the same Chinese word to translate the words in the original texts that have the same meaning 56 . In the Gospels he or she would translate the same

Greek text in the same way so that the parallel texts in the Gospels would become more apparent 57 .

Finally, in translating the Bible Studium Biblicum also prepared notes and commentaries on the Bible, something that Vatican II has asked us to do. If there were an ecumenical translation of the Bible, would it be better to adopt the formal correspondence approach? Following this approach would the need to interpret the text be reduced? Christians from different background could then prepare notes and commentaries according to the scientific methods of exegesis and to their Church background or tradition. Could we do this since a translation would imply an interpretation of the text? I do not have the experience and knowledge to answer these questions. I will certainly learn from your comments and insights.


Conclusion

This presentation is not a systematic treatment on the principles of translation of the Bible. The observations and reflections here illustrate some of the issues involved as Christianity is presented to another culture and expressed in the language of this culture. The experience in the past may be helpful in translating the Bible into Chinese in the future and in our explanation of Scripture today, as we understand better the origin of some of the terms and sentences in the Chinese versions.

The Chinese people, especially those in Mainland China, are really interested in the Bible, as we have seen in the number of scholars devoted to the study of the Bible and of Christianity and in the number of publications produced. They may be approaching the Bible with different motivation, looking at it as a literary rather than a religious text. There are also many obstacles in their way: difference in culture, mentality, language, … The efforts of the translators in the past have prepared the scriptural text for them. Just like the Ethiopian on the way to Gaza, they are waiting for Philip to explain Scripture to them (Acts 8:2-39).


Notes In the transliteration of Chinese names (those without Christian names), the surnames appear in capital letters.

1

2

A copy of the stele is also kept in the Lateran Museum.

Benjamin. Leong, O.F.M., “Chinese Versions,” in Dictionary of the Bible , ed.

Studium Biblicum (Hong Kong: Studium Biblicum, 1975), 45-46 (in Chinese).

Wai-Boon CHIU, Tracing Bible Translation—A History of the Translation of Five

Modern Chinese Versions of the Bible (Hong Kong: China Graduate School of

3

Theology 1993), 8-10 (in Chinese).

These are the Psalms, the Gospels, Genesis, Acts of the Apostles, Paul’s Epistles,

Zechariah, Exodus, Letter to the Ephesians, Revelation and Hosea in the order these titles appear in the text. Cf. Marshall Broomhall, The Bible in China.

Trans.

Daniel K.T. Choi. (Hong Kong: International Bible Society (HK) Ltd.), 14-16. I regret that I did not have access to the English original at the time of preparing this paper.

4 One recent study on these Nestorian documents comes to the conclusion that the

New Testament is referred to more often than the Old Testament as these texts are trying to present their religion as a way of life for the Chinese. C.f. Matteo

Nicolini-Zani, “Tang “Nestorian” documents as the first Chinese Christian Literature

(Open Lectures 2006),” (Hong Kong: Studium Biblicum), http://www.sbofmhk.org/eng/Research/Nestorian/nestorian-0001.html

(accessed 16

April 2007).

5 Arnulf Camps, OFM, “Father Gabrielle M. Allegra, O.F.M. (1907-1976) and the

Studium Biblicum Franciscanum The First Complete Chinese Catholic Translation of the Bible,” in Bible in Modern China The Literary and Intellectual Impact, ed. Irene

Eber, Sze-Kar Wan and Knut Walf, Sankt Augustin: Institut Momumenta Serica,

1999), 55. Footnote one on this page lists out the references for John of

Montecorvino.

6 Nicolas Standaert, “The Bible in Early Seventeenth-Century China,” in Bible in

7

Modern China, 31-54.

8

Standaert, 31-32. CHIU, 13-14 (in Chinese)..

Gabriele M. Allegra, O.F.M., “Memorie” Autobiogrfiche del P. Gabriele M. Allegra

O.F.M.,missionario in Cina , a cura del P. Serafino M. Gozzo, O.F.M. (Roma, 1986),

9

91-92.

10

Standaert 31-32, Allegra, “Memorie” , 91-93.

Before Robert Morrison began translating the Bible in China, Joshua Marshman from the Baptist Missionary Society of England translated the Bible into Chinese in

India. His work was published in 1822 in India. As the work was done in India, rather than in China, it was not considered to be the first Protestant Bible in Chinese.

C.f. CHIU, 17-18.

11 CHIU, 15-17. Thor Strandenaes has analyzed the translation of Mt 5:1-12 and 1

Col of five Chinese versions. For his study of the principles adopted in this translation please c.f. Thor Strandenaes, Principles of Chinese Bible Translation as

Expressed in Five Selected Versions of the New Testament and Exemplified by Mt

5:1-12 and Col 1 (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1987), 22-46.

12 CHIU, 18-20.

13 CHIU, 20-21. For a study on the principles adopted in this translation please see


Strandenaes, 48-75.

14 CHIU, 22-25. There were also translations into local dialects, c.f. Strandenaes,

77-80. Here he also gave a brief description of the political situation in China in the second half of the 19

15 th Century.

Leong., 46-47 (in Chinese).

16 It may be of interest to point out that Fr. Joseph Xiao, S.J. was the first one in the

Catholic Church to translate the entire New Testament into Chinese from the Greek original. This was published in 1922 and since then was widely used among

Catholics in China. C.f. Leong, 46-47 (in Chinese); Camps, 56-57.

17 These styles are known as High Wenli , Easy Wenli and Mandarin with the first two being the classical style used by scholars.

18 Cf. CHIU 32-37; Strandenaes 76-80 and also 80-99 on the analysis of the translation.

19 The translation was done at a time of turmoil in China, the Taiping Rebellion, the

Boxer Revolution, the collapse of the Qing Dynasty and World War I. The long time required for the translation was also due partly to the lack of suitable personnel and the difference in translation principles and theological perspective, c.f. Jost

Zetzsche, “The Work of Lifetimes: Why the Union Version Took Nearly Three

Decades to Complete,” in Bible in Modern China , 76-99.

20 Europeans originally used the word, mandarin, for the government officials in the

Qing Dynasty. It also referred to the literary style of writing used by them.

Individual Chinese characters convey the meaning but not the sound. So different dialects would pronounce them differently. In 1924 it was decided that the Beijing dialect would be adopted as the pronunciation of the written words in China. Most of the dialects in north China are similar to the Beijing dialect. So from this time on mandarin would refer to this style of writing and speaking. Mandarin would be similar to the Putonghua that is used for the language of the Han people in China today. Please see Strandenaes, 15, note 27 and the reference there.

21 CHIU, 43-45.

22 CHIU, 96-115, also gives the details of the principles guiding the translation. For an analysis of the translation please see Strandenaes, 124-141.

23 It is said that some people have reservations on the explanation of terms that appear as an appendix for they do not reflect Catholic theology. Fr. Mark Fang, S.J. one of the revisers of the New Testament, has some minor reservations on the explanatory notes. But he does not consider these to be a hindrance for Catholics to use this translation, c.f. Mark Fang, About Differences and Similarities in Catholic and

Protestant Bibles (Tainan, 1987), 87 (in Chinese).

24 Chiu, 130-142, gave a very detailed history of the project, including the principles adopted by the working committee. The minutes of the committee (in Chinese) also appeared in Collectanea Theologica Universitatis Fujen 75 (1988): 16, 26, 34, 34,

44.94. For the views of Fr. Mark Fang, S.J. who was in favour of the use of the term shangdi for tianzhu please see About Similarities and Differences , 62-63 (in Chinese) and “Bible Translation and the National Symposium on Evangelization,” Collectanea

Theologica Universitatis Fujen 74 (1987): 534-536 (in Chinese).

25

26

Allegra, “Memorie” , 57-59

27

28

Allegra, “Memorie” , 22-23, 106-108.

Allegra, “Memorie” , 114-117.

29


The principles involved in the revision can be found in Allegra, “Memorie” ,


182-186.

30

31


32

33

CHIU, 84.

Cf. the quotation of Fr. Allegra in Srtandenaes, 113-114.

34

For a summary of what has been done, c.f. Camps, 70-74.

C.f. John Baptist Zhang, “The Promotion of the Bible in Contemporary China and

Evangelization,” Tripod 144 (2007): 24-25. In this article the author also gives an account of two other Catholic Chinese translations which are not from the original in recent years in China and of the printing and distribution of the Bible by both

Protestant and Catholics; c.f. Zhang, 21-34.

35 Dunhua ZHAO, “Recent Progress of Christian Studies made by Chinese

Academics in the Last Twenty Years,” in Sino-Christian Studies in China ,, ed. Huilin

YANG and Daniel H. N. Yeung (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholar Press, 2006), 246.

36 C.f. I. Eber, “Introduction,” in Bible in Modern China , 21-24; Lewis S. Robinson,

“The Bible in Twentieth Century Chinese Fiction,” in Bible in Modern China ,

238-277. I must admit that this topic on the impact of the Bible in China is a new area for me.

37 Some may call them “cultural Christians,” c.f. Camps, 74-75. Others would have reservations on the use of this term.

38

39

ZHAO, 250-251.

Gong LIANG, “Twenty Years of Studies of Biblical Literature in the People’s

Republic of China (1976-1996), in Bible in Modern China , 382-401, Dunhua ZHAO,

246-250.

40 I am grateful to Ms Suet-pik LAM, the Assistant Director of the library in Holy

Spirit Seminary College for doing this search for me. Shortage of time does not allow for a study on these articles.

41

42

LIANG, 406.

This would be one of the reasons why the Union Version finally combined the two classical translations (high wenli and low wenli ) into one version, c.f. Chiu, 36-37.

43 CHIU, 36-37. One example is to find a suitable term for calf, which is not too literary while at the same time understood by all, c.f. Chiu, 41.

44

45

Strandenaes, 116-117.

46

Eber, 135-161.

Veronica Soong, Chinese Expressions for God: An Investigation of the Problems in

Translating theos into Chinese, with Special Reference to Matthew 5:3-10 and 22:37

(Unpublished M.A. Thesis, University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, 1977),

60-74. I am grateful to Miss Soong for letting me read her thesis and for the discussion on this topic. For discussion on the use of the term for God in Morison’s’

Version, Delegates’ Version and the Union Version, c.f. Strandenaes, 38-40, 63-65 and 93-95 respectively.

47

48

Please refer to our earlier discussion on the ecumenical project in the 1980’s.

49

50

One solution is to use zhu or shangzhu , which means the Lord.

Strandenaes, 36.

51

52

The quotation from his journal can be found in Strandenaes, 45.

Strandenaes, 113.

53

54

Strandenaes, 145.

Strandenaes, 106-107, 114-115.

55

One example is Lk 14:26 on hating one’s father and mother.

In Chinese the use of the passive is not common. If it is used the agent is often


stated. C.f. Soong, 115-116.

56 One example is hodos in the Acts of the Apostles. Studium Biblicum has translated the word hodos as the way, the doctrine, and the road in Acts of the

Apostles. Both the Union Version and Today’s Chinese Version use the same word to translate hodos.

57 In Mt 14:19, Mk 6:41 and Lk 9:16 are exactly the same in the Greek original. But

Studium Biblicum rendered them in a slightly different way. I am grateful to Fr.

Lanfranco Fedrigotti, S.D.B., professor of NT in Holy Spirit Seminary College, for pointing out these examples in the Gospel and for the discussion on the Studium

Biblicum translation.


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