Yearbook of Chinese Theology (2021) (Yearbook of Chinese Theology, 7) [Bilingual ed.] 9004469435, 9789004469433

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Yearbook of Chinese Theology (2021)

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Yearbook of Chinese Theology Editor-in-Chief Paulos Z. Huang (University of Helsinki / International Journal of Sino-Western Studies) Editorial Board Abraham Chen (Nanjing Theological Seminary, China) Johanna Kettunen-Huang (Helsinki, Finland) Lauren Pfister (Baptist University of Hong Kong) Xiangchen Sun (Fudan University, Shanghai, China) Philip L. Wickeri (Graduate Theological Union, Berkely, CA, USA) Huilin Yang (Renmin University of China) Zhigang Zhang (Peking University, Beijing, China) Xinping Zhuo (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China)

volume 7

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/yct

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Yearbook of Chinese Theology (2021) Edited by

Paulos Z. Huang Guest Editor for This Volume

Bin YOU

LEIDEN | BOSTON

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The yearbook has been indexed in Book Citation Index (BCI). The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at https://catalog.loc.gov LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2015204140

Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 2352-7684 ISBN 978-90-04-46943-3 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-46944-0 (e-book) Copyright 2022 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Hotei, Brill Schöningh, Brill Fink, Brill mentis, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Böhlau Verlag and V&R Unipress. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Requests for re-use and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV via brill.com or copyright.com. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.

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Contents List of Tables vii Notes on Contributors viii

Editorial: Is the Hebrew Bible Literature, a Humanistic Document, the Word of God, or a Record of God–Human Interaction? A Dialogue on Biblical Studies between Paulos Huang and Archie Lee 1 Paulos Z. Huang and Archie Lee

part 1 Systematic Theology and Chinese Humanities 1

Building a Discipline of the Bible with a Chinese Contextual Awareness 33 Bin You

2

A Commentary History of the Old Testament in Modern China 47 Jian Cao

part 2 Practical Theology in Chinese Context 3

Exploring a Theology of Relationships from a Biblical Perspective in the Context of China 69 Lina Rong

4

Knowledge and Reception of the Chinese Translations of the Bible: Evidence from the Christians of Nanjing City 85 Zhenhua Meng, Yanyan Xiong and Peiquan Lin

part 3 Church History in China 5

The Paradox between the Universality and the Westernization of Christianity in the Thought of Protestant Missionaries in 19th-Century China 113 Yexiang Qiu - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Contents

God Speaks in Chinese: The Reception and Translation of the Bible in China 127 Hui Liang

part 4 Biblical and Scriptural Studies 7

New Testament Studies in Mainland China: A Retrospect and Prospect 147 Minhua Jing

8

The Early Indigenized Strategies Applied to the Chinese Bible Translation by Catholic Missionaries Jean Basset and Louis A. de Poirot 159 Xiaochun Hong

part 5 Comparative Religious and Cultural Studies 9

Theoretical Insights into Chinese Bible Translation 181 Dongsheng Ren

10

The Great Commission: The Greek Text and Its Translations 195 Changping Zha (查常平)

part 6 A Review and Academic Report 11

News Report on the Seminar on Quest of the Missing Martin Luther in the Intellectual History, Held by the Sino-European Center at Shanghai University 207 Thuomas Qinghe XIAO



Index 213

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Tables 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 4.19 4.20 4.21 4.22 4.23 8.1 8.2

Age distribution 89 Age of baptism 90 Year of baptism 90 Education level 91 First year to read the Bible 92 Age when they started reading the Bible 92 Respondents’ impressions of the most frequently used translations in Church 93 Respondents’ impression of the second most frequently used translations in Church 94 Respondents’ most frequently used Chinese translation for personal reading 94 Other Chinese translation(s) in respondents’ personal reading (multiple choice) 95 Acceptance of the coexistence of multiple Bible translations 96 Attitude toward multiple Chinese translations among respondents with no knowledge of Biblical translations 96 Acceptance of the coexistence of multiple Bible translations among respondents who read only one translation 96 Respondents’ attitudes toward the need to revise the CUV 97 Respondents’ attitudes toward the need to revise the CUV among respondents who read the CUV exclusively 97 Respondents who have heard about the RCUV 97 Initial source of information regarding the RCUV 98 Situation of the respondents reading the RCUV 98 Ownership of printed RCUV 99 Means of obtaining printed RCUV 99 Attitude toward the price of RCUV 99 Respondents’ assessment of RCUV 100 OLS estimates 105 Translations of important theological terms 171 Translations of proper nouns 172

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Notes on Contributors Jian CAO is Professor at in the Philosophy Department at Sun Yat-sen University, China. He completed Ph.D. in biblical studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2009). His research focuses on the Hebrew Bible and its encounters with modern intellectuals. He is in the Editorial Committees of Logos & Pneuma: Chinese Journal of Theology and Journal for the Study of Biblical Literature. He is also the author of Chinese Biblical Anthropology (Eugene 2019). Xiaochun HONG is Associate Researcher of the Department of Chinese (Zhuhai), Sun Yat-sen University. She obtained her Ph.D. from the Division of Religious Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include New Testament study, Chinese Bible translation and the relation between Christianity and Chinese Culture. She has published some journal articles about topics within these three areas, and is carrying out relevant research projects. Paulos Z. HUANG Ph.D. (1996, Univ. of Helsinki) and Th.D. (2006, Univ. of Helsinki), Post-Doctoral Researcher (2000, Univ. of Tokyo), is Distinguished Professor in Shanghai University, and Chief editor of International Journal of Sino-Western Studies (www.SinoWesternStudies.com) and Brill Yearbook of Chinese Theology (www .brill.com/yct), and Guest Professor in over ten universities in China. He is the author of Confronting Confucian Understanding of Christian Doctrine of Salvation (Brill, 2009), and Chinese academic monographies on Sino-Christian Academic Theology, Biblical Theology, Dialogical Theology between Christianity and Chinese Culture, the Daguoxue (National Studies). Presently Paulos is concentrating on the study of Martin Luther and translating his ten works into Chinese. Archie LEE Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and Literature from Edinburg University (1980), is Emeritus Professor, Director of Department of Religions and Cultures, Dean from School of Humanities at Chinese University of Hong Kong. Since December 2013, he worked as the University Distinguished Professor in Shandong University and supervisor of Ph.D. students in Hebrew Biblical Studies. He is the founder and founding chairman of the Society of Asian Biblical Studies and served as Board member of Society of Biblical Literature.

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From 1998 to 2001, Archie worked as the director for Asian Christianity Research Project at the invitation of Cambridge University (UK), and he was also involved as editor and reviewer for Global Bible Commentary, Journal of Biblical Literature, Biblical Interpretation and Journal of World Christianity. He has many publications in Hebrew Biblical Studies, for example, Archie Lee and Bin You, Life Discourse and Community Identification: A Study on the Hebrew Megilloth (Beijing: Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Press, 2006). As a teacher, Lee supervised over twelve Ph.D. scholars from China in Hebrew Biblical Studies at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Minhua JING is lecturer at the Institute of Comparative Literature and World Literature Beijing Normal University, China. Hui LIANG is research professor of Institute of Christianity and Cross-cultural Studies, Zhejiang University and the director of Chinese Studies Program, Regent College. Her main research areas are Chinese biblical reading and crossscriptural hermeneutics. Most of her recent publications focus on the methodological exploration of Chinese biblical studies from the perspective of comparative scriptural studies. She serves as the chief editor of Regent Review of Christian Thoughts, an advisory board member of Journal for the Study of Biblical Literature and as academic committee member of Institute of Sino-Christian Studies, Hong Kong. Peiquan LIN is an Associate Professor of the Old Testament and Biblical Hebrew at Nanjing Union Theological Seminary. He is the author of A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew. Zhenhua MENG is Professor at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Nanjing University. His research interests include biblical studies and Jewish studies. He is the author of The Society of Yehud and the Redaction of the Bible in the Persian Period, and (co)editor of The Basic Concepts of Judaism and Understanding God in the 21st Century. Lina RONG is a religious sister, a member of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Hope, P.R. China. She obtained her Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from the Catholic University of America in 2012. She started teaching Old Testament courses

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in Catholic Major seminaries after graduation, mainly in Hebei, Beijing and Jilin. She has also been engaging in dialogue with Protestant Christians since 2018, teaching biblical courses in Protestant theological institutes, and giving retreats to Protestant Christians. She is the author of Forgotten and Forsaken by God (Lam 5:19–20): the Community in Pain in Lamentations and Related Old Testament Text (2013); Lament Tradition in the Hebrew Bible (2019). She is also co-author of When Suffering Meets Love: the Christian Way of Understanding and Confronting Suffering (2020). She is a proof reader of the translation series of New Collegeville Bible commentaries. Yexiang QIU is Professor at Henan University. His recent scholarship covers missionaries’ Chinese Christian literature and Bible commentaries. Dongsheng REN is Professor of Translation Studies at Ocean University of China, where he directs the Institute of Translation Studies, and presides over two nationallevel projects concerning issues on State Translation Program and its history. His scholarship covers history of religious translation, and Chinese Bible translation in particular. He authored a monograph Study on the Tradition of Bible Translation into Chinese (2007), and compiled a two-volume textbook entitled An Introductory Course of Bible Culture (2012). His recent include “Incarnation and Bible Translation”, “Translation Institutionalization and Institutionalized Translation”, “State Translation Program as a New Concept”. Thomas Qinghe XIAO is Professor and Director, Center for the Study of Religion and Chinese Society, Department of History, Shanghai University. Yanyan XIONG is a ZJU100 Young Professor in School of Economics, Zhejiang University. She has been a Research Fellow at Center of Social Welfare and Governance, Zhejiang University since 2018, and a Research Fellow (Honorary) at the Lau Chor Tak Institute of Global Economics and Finance, The Chinese University of Hong Kong since 2021. Her research interests are in labor and development economics. Her studies focus on solving problems from the real world using econometric methods.

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Bin YOU is Professor of Religions at Minzu University of China, where he directs the Academy of Religions, and leads a research project of Comparative Scripture and Interreligious Dialogue. He is actively involved in the interreligious dialogues in China. He is the founding editor of Journal of Comparative Scripture, and the author of Introduction to the Hebrew Bible, Social Memory and Ethnic Construction of the Ancient Israel. He authored a series of Four Catechisms on the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, Ten Commandments, and Christian Liturgy recently. Changping ZHA (查常平) is a Professor of New Testament studies, contemporary Chinese art, philosophy at Institute of Daoism and Religious Culture’s Center for Christianity Studies of Sichuan University in Chengdu, PRC. His research areas include biblical studies, art criticism, and world-picture-logic. He is the author of The Logic of Japanese History (1995), History and Logic: A Religious Philosophy of Logichistory, The Cultural Logic of Humanitology: A Comparison Between Metaphysics, Art, Religion, and Aesthetics (2007), The Humane Thinking of Contemporary Arts (2 vols., 2008), Introduction to the Logic of World-picture of the New Testament (2011), and A History of Ideas in Pioneering Contemporary Chinese Art (2 vols., 2017), Humanist Criticism of Contemporary Art (2019), Ecological Art in Humanist Criticism (2021).

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editorial

Is the Hebrew Bible Literature, a Humanistic Document, the Word of God, or a Record of God–Human Interaction?

A Dialogue on Biblical Studies between Paulos Huang and Archie Lee Paulos Z. Huang and Archie Lee Paul Huang: Today is August 2nd, 2018, at the University of Helsinki. I’m very pleased to have this conversation with Professor Lee. Professor Lee, welcome. Archie Lee: Thank you. This is a rare opportunity. Huang: Yes, we come and meet in Finland. Lee: In a wonderful country. Huang: So now that you’re at the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) conference, I wonder if you could briefly talk to us about three questions? 1

What were the events in your personal life and education that have influenced your academic path, including the career you are engaged in, and the formation of your world of thought?

Lee: Ok. I will start with this meeting I am having in Finland. It is the annual international conference of the Society of Biblical Literature that I am invited to attend. The Society was founded in 1880 and is the oldest and largest research society in the field of biblical studies having been in existence for 138 years and with over 8,000 members at present. It is a worldwide organization with the mission in fostering biblical scholarship. It has been publishing a very important and academic journal called the Journal of Biblical Literature. It holds the annual meeting once a year in the United States, an international conference in Europe, and every now or then meetings are held in Asia, Africa, and South America. I attended this meeting mainly because I want to connect and interact with scholars in my field of interest, namely critical biblical studies. I have been doing research on the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament). The

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004469440_002

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Hebrew Bible presents a lot of interesting questions, and it is an interdisciplinary subject of study. Let me talk a little bit about my background. Huang: What year were you born? Briefly introduce your education and life experience. Lee: I was born in 1949 in Foshan, Guangdong, China. Huang: I thought you were from Hong Kong. Lee: Since I am from the southern part of China, I speak Mandarin with a Cantonese accent. I came to Hong Kong when I was about 8 years old. I received my education in Hong Kong from elementary school, to university, and to graduate school. I studied at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in the Department of Religion and Philosophy. How did you develop a religious sentiment? Can you reflect on your experience of memorizing Bible verses? Huang: How did you acquire a sense of religious sentiment? When did you come to the faith in Jesus? Can I use that word? Lee: Actually, I would say that it was a historical accident with divine providence. When I was young, my family chose first to live in a Buddhist temple in Guangzhou and then later on in a Church compound in Foshan. Huang: Lived next to the temple and close to the Church? Lee: Actually, inside the religious institutions. I remember my parent first rented a couple of rooms within the premise of the Buddhist Temple Hualin (华林寺) in Guangzhou and then later moved to live in the Christian Church building of Shengping Church (昇平堂) in Foshan. Both buildings are still in existence. Huang: Then you are destined to be religious. Lee: I was taught with other kids in Shengping Church the Christmas stories of the Gospel of Mathew and the Gospel of Luke and we recited the two narratives with the Nativity Scene as background on Christmas Eve and in the Christmas Day Service. Huang: You recited the story at the age of 8? Lee: Yes, I still remember all the verses. I am of the opinion that it is important to recite the Bible chapter by chapter. Many of my students are amazed that I could memorize many Bible verses and passages. Huang: Kind of like the traditional Chinese memorization of the Four Books and Five Classics, you memorized the Bible. Lee: Church Sunday School is the greatest institution for Christian religious education to nurture children in the Christian faith and to initiate them to Christian ethical living. Huang: How did your family become Christian? 1.1

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Lee: One day in Foshan, a Bible Woman visited my family and said to my mother that if she became a Christian, she did not have to perform the daily family household ritual of burning joss sticks and feeding the ancestors. My mother as the first daughter-in-law of the family, who has to take up all the tedious work of caring for the ancestral shrine, was delighted to learn of the easy way to get rid of all the so-called pagan practices and immediately declared to accept the conversion to Christianity. Huang: Later on, when you arrived in Hong Kong, did you attend any religious activities before you went to university? Lee: Yes, my mother required her children to go to Sunday School or attend Sunday services every week. Huang: Did Sunday School ask you to memorize Bible verses? Lee: Yes, one passage of a couple verses every week. I attended Sunday School for 10 years. Huang: This formed the foundation for your future as a scholar of the Bible. Lee: Rather as a diligent student of the Bible. The Scriptures have since become an essential part of my life. Huang: What do you think about the Bible as the Word of God? Lee: I am open on this doctrine. To some very faithful fundamental believers, the Bible is no doubt the Word of God. I will go along with a more liberal view of the Bible as containing the Word of God. Huang: The difference is between “is” and “contains”. 1.2 The Influence of Dr. Richard Deutsch Huang: Who influenced you most when you studied at the Department of Philosophy and Religion, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)? Lee: There was an excellent program of Christian theology and religious studies at CUHK and the Hebrew Bible Professor, Dr. Richard Deutsch, a Jewish Christian who survived the Holocaust in World War II, influenced me most in the development of my deep interest in biblical studies. Huang: A survivor of the Holocaust! Lee: He survived because a Christian pastor protected him and he grew up in a Christian background. He went on to study theology and specialized in the research of the Hebrew Bible in Basel (Switzerland). He taught me Hebrew and encouraged me to further my study in the pursuit of research on the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament) which he was convinced plays a very important role in the understanding Judaism and Christianity. He has also assisted me in applying for scholarship to study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and to stay at the Ecumenical Institute of Tantur which is on a small hill situated between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

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Huang: Does the name “Ecumenical Institute” imply any connection with the Christian ecumenical movement and Church unity? Lee: Rightly so. It has an important historical origin. First of all, at the Second Vatican Council in 1962–65, the Catholic Church invited some non-Catholic church leaders and theologians from the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, and Protestant Churches to attend as observers, totaling 63 non-Catholics. After the meeting, some of them met up with the Pope and expressed their desire and hope that the dialogues and conversation between the different traditions of the Christianity should continue in certain form. Through the concerted efforts and ecumenical partnership of the Orthodox, Protestant, and Catholic Churches, the Tantur Ecumenical Institute for Advanced Theological Studies in Jerusalem was established in 1972. Huang: In which year did you stay at Tantur? Lee: It was in 1976 to 1977 and during this period I enrolled to study the Hebrew language, a course on archaeology of the Holy Land and another course on the Hebrew Bible at the Hebrew University. I was also very fortunate to meet Professor David Flusser who admitted me to the Ph.D. program in Comparative Religious Studies Department under his supervision in 1977. 1.3 Influence of the Famous Scholar Professor David Flusser Huang: Can you brief me on the specialty of Professor David Flusser? Lee: Surely. Professor David Flusser was an orthodox Jew and yet his research was on early Christianity and the New Testament, including some important work on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Judeo-Christianity of the Second Temple period. He wrote quite a few significant books that were translated into several languages. One of them is quite well known under a very simple title: Jesus. Huang: A simple and short title for a book on an important topic. Lee: I agree. Professor Flusser believed that one cannot really understand New Testament Christianity without a well-informed appreciation of the Hebrew Bible and vice-versa. He suggested that I should study the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus from the perspectives of the Hebrew Bible and Jewish rabbinical traditions. Professor Flusser was also kind to help me to secure a national scholarship, but my two former professors of CUHK wanted me to do my research at a university with a strong theological tradition and advised me to give up on Hebrew University and enter the University of Edinburgh in Scotland for my Ph.D. Huang: The University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Lee: Right. I had actually been accepted to the University of Edinburgh one year before, but Professor Deutsch wanted me to consider the impact of the - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Jerusalem experience on my academic development. He was rethinking his own Christian identity and Jewish roots then when he was teaching and studying the Bible at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Huang: His Jewish roots as his bloodline? Lee: He was in the middle of a transition, rethinking of his Jewishness and the root of Judaism, his Christian identity and Christianity. When reading the Bible, one needs to know that Jesus, the disciples, and the early Christians were all Jews. The Holy Land of Canaan is of great importance to Christianity and Judaism and early Christianity is historically inseparable from Judaism. Should I do my Ph.D. in Israel or in Scotland? Should I be trained more in the Jewish tradition or more in the Christian perspective and theology? The weighting of these two aspects has impacted on my biblical studies up till today. Huang: You decided in favor of biblical studies at the University of Edinburgh and started your research there in 1977. 1.4 Hebrew Biblical Studies at the University of Edinburgh Lee: I was extremely fortunate to have excellent professors at the University of Edinburgh. I studied the Old Testament and early Judaism with Professor G.W. Anderson, Professor G. Auld, Professor John Gibson, and Professor Hayman. Huang: You consider yourself a textual scholar? Lee: Yes, I concentrated on the biblical text and covered all aspects of it in regard to the literature, philology, archaeology, and history. I was interested in the Bible as religious classics, its world, its history of ideas, etc. Huang: Did you return to Hong Kong after completing your Ph.D. dissertation? Lee: Yes, I served at CUHK from 1980 to my retirement in 2014. Huang: What was the major issue during those 34 years? Lee: The major issue was of Hong Kong’s return to China. For many people, after China’s resumption of the sovereignty and governance over Hong Kong in 1997, they had to consider whether to stay in Hong Kong or to develop overseas. At that time, I actually did not have much of a struggle, and although I had some offers from overseas universities, I stayed at CUHK till retirement. 2

Core Issues in Academic Research

2.1 The Problem between Theology and Religious Studies Huang: Were there any other issues that have shaped your academic path? Lee: One of them is the question between theology, religious studies and philosophy because CUHK has put the three disciplines together in one academic department during my undergraduate studies. Students and faculty - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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were sensitive to the interaction and engagement of the three academic fields. Huang: Do you think it is good to study these disciplines in parallel? Lee: I think so. It was an educational and instructive arrangement that helped to reflect on the pluralism and multiplicity of theological and religious studies. We were open to the critical methods and interdisciplinary approaches to philosophical, theological and religious issue. But there is the pitfall of approaching religious studies mainly from theological and philosophical interpretations at the expense of the historical, social, and political dimensions. I believe that to really understand a religion, one cannot simply view it from a system of thoughts alone. Religion involves the whole human existence with cosmic, cultural, socio-political and spiritual perspectives. It is in this regard that the notion of “text and context” is of significance in theological and religious studies. 2.2 Contextual Reading and Presupposition Huang: I understand that you are much concerned with the conceptual pair of “text and context”. In what way does this affect your biblical scholarship? Lee: Contextual biblical interpretation (圣经的处境阐释) has become a widely accepted mode of practice in the current scholarship. Context applies to the ancient context of Israel in the creation of the biblical text, the sociopolitical history of its transmission and the contemporary context of the reader. The Bible contains no longer just abstract theological ideas and concepts, but also concrete experience of communities in cultural and religious “setting-in-life”. Huang: You look at a biblical passage from multi-dimensional perspectives. Lee: Yes, so, this has had the greatest impact on me. When I read scriptures now, I don’t read at only the surface level of the text, I read what’s really happening behind it, what problems its author had faced, what it expresses inside the texts; that’s the response. Huang: I want to interject a little bit here. Like in my study of bibliology at the University of Helsinki, traditionally we say exegetics is the explanation of what the Hebrew Bible or the Greek Bible means in the original text and hermeneutics is to look at what a passage means to me as a reader in today’s context. In your interpretation, do you combine these two concepts? Lee: In fact, the two cannot be absolutely divided and separated. They are inter-related and closely connected. We cannot even characterize one as objective investigation into the original meaning and the other is subjective interpolation and interpretation.

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Huang: Who is doing the reading and from which perspective make a difference. Lee: Identity of the reader matters a great deal. The concern and presupposition of a Jewish believer will not be the same as a Christian believer and will be different from a non-believer and atheist. Huang: Truly, what we generally call objective, is not objective enough. Lee: People usually equate “being objective” as “being scientific”. As modern readers, we are often shaped by traditions and the history of interpretation. We cannot simply adopt interpretations from previous readers who have contexts not similar to ours. Huang: You don’t want to follow the interpretation from your predecessors but just advocating your own. Lee: No, we cannot be totally free from the past nor can we categorically ignore the history and tradition of interpretation of the Bible. Every reading has its presupposition and every reader is situated in context. Huang: Readers wear colored glasses and embody some personal foresights. Lee: I agree. One of the basic issues in reading the Bible as a religious text is the question of Christian faith. Christians usually bring along their beliefs in the understanding of the Bible and assume that doctrines are derived from and based on the Bible. They seldom realize that some of the fundamental doctrines have been formulated first and only later on that biblical proof-text was found in the Bible to support their legitimacy. A good case in point is the doctrines on Christology as being outlined in the Nicene Creed from the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325 CE). The Bible was only canonized in the Council of Constantinople in 381 CE. This brings us to the relationship between “Jing” and “Jiao”. 2.3 The Relationship between “Jing” and “Jiao” Huang: Can you expound further on the relationship between “Jing” and “Jiao”? Lee: The notion of “Jing” refers to the “text” to be interpreted and in our context the Christian Bible is a text to be understood. “Jiao” refers to the “teaching” or the “doctrine” as being passed on from the history of interpretation in Christian traditions treasured and preserved by the Church. When reading the Bible, Christians usually do not give enough attention to what is to be said in the text itself as there are pre-conceived ideas attached to certain passages. More often than not, Christians are shaped and framed by the doctrine (“Jiao”) associated with a biblical text (“Jing”). Huang: Reading the Scripture through doctrines is only to conform what the traditional teaching of the Church.

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Lee: The clearest example of the supremacy of “Jiao” over “Jing” is the Christian interpretation of the Old Testament from the New Testament. At the time of the Reformation, Martin Luther preached that the whole Bible should be read from the doctrine of justification by faith in Pauline theology in the New Testament. Huang: The Old Testament becomes the witness to Jesus Christ. Lee: It is taking a “part” for the “whole” (以偏盖全). The Old Testament is regarded only as a prediction or a prophecy with the final fulfillment in the New Testament. The title of one of the books by Clause Westermann, A Thousand Years and A Day, bespeaks the reductionism adopted by Christian doctrine, though Westermann does not intend to convey such a simple understanding of the Bible. The Easter Day of the New Testament is of primal and critical significance than the long history of the Old Testament. In fact, the rich and profound religious experiences of the people of God in their diverse encounter with God in the OT is being ignored. Huang: Yes, the independent meaning of the OT is not being recognized. Lee: There are different levels of meaning of OT and they should be articulated again. Huang: What should be done then to remedy the undesirable situation? Lee: In reading the “Jing”, we have to put aside the “Jiao” first in order to listen to what is being said by the “Jing”. Each passage has to be read anew and afresh as though we are to read it the first time independently of the doctrine assigned ecclesiastically to the text by tradition. Critical biblical scholarship may be an effective tool to unlock the different dimensions of the textual world. 2.4 Reading the Hebrew Bible with the Chinese Classics Huang: We should turn to the third question now on how to develop biblical studies in the context of Chinese culture. If Chinese Christianity is to have its future, it is not enough to just follow the whole Western tradition of Christianity. The Chinese Church is to be Sinicizing. But how do we proceed? I know that you have advocated the idea of Asian Christians having “two texts”, the “Asian text” (Text A) from their religio-cultural world and the “Biblical text” (Text B) from the Christian tradition. Lee: I am still in search for the appropriate way to relate the “two texts”. Methodologically, both texts should be treated with equal significance and be on equal footing. Christians will find this difficult to accept as Text B should be superior with absolute authority for our faith. But once we harbor such a gradation of the two texts, Text A would only be a tool to be used for

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a better understanding of Text B and there is no genuine cross-textual interpretation in the reading process. Huang: It is only a tool to convey Western Christian thoughts in Chinese garment. Lee: In such a way, Text A only serve a “subsidiary” role with nothing from it to contribute to Asian/Chinese Christianity. Huang: We are now to address the question at the core of your research. Lee: Right. 3

Is your research dominated by your own humanistic “presupposition”?

How do you deal with your own “presupposition” when you put “Jiao” aside in reading the Bible? Huang: My feeling here is that you will encounter the challenge of your presupposition. As you said, you put aside the Jiao in reading the Jing. How can you be objective in your reading? Is it divine revelation, or is it humanistic concern? If it is neither, is it your own unique personal “teaching” based on your own humanistic approach? Lee: You presuppose that there should be an “authority” outside the text of the Bible in order to give the text meaning and that “authority” is rooted in the interpretation of the Bible in the doctrines of Western Christianity, claiming authority based on the divine revelation in the Bible. Some of these doctrines do not have strong biblical foundation. Huang: Do you mean the Trinity, the duality of the human and divine nature of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary and the miraculous birth which form the core of the Apostles’ Creed? Biblical interpretation should comply with them. Otherwise, it is heretical. Lee: This is very strange that doctrinal convictions of the Creed of the Church should have higher authority that overrides the biblical witnesses. Huang: Do you not accept these Church teachings? Lee: No, what I am trying to say is that when reading the Bible these “teachings” (Jiao) should not dictate biblical interpretation and confine the multiplicity of the meanings of the text (Jing). Huang: “Jing” is therefore richer and broader than “Jiao”. Lee: And the Word (Dao) of God must be richer and broader than both. Huang: That’s good, yeah. That should be the case.

3.1

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Will you be preaching a Gospel different from the one preached by Apostle Paul? Huang: In that case, like Paul said, if someone preaches something different from that of mine you should not believe it. We are to preach the same Gospel, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Lee: The problem raised by Paul indicates that Peter, John and other disciples each preached differently. What Paul intended to say is simply: “Listen to me instead of to other people.” As a scholar, I am critical of the claims of the different parts of the Bible and their contexts. I respect the process of canonization and the traditions that have been attached to the canonized text. Huang: You are open to another interpretation of the text than what has been received. Lee: Who can eliminate the possibility of a divine revelation we would get in one’s reading and studying of the Bible in our time and context? Huang: Yes, it is possible that everyone will be inspired by God. Lee: You know we have so often taken the freedom from God and limited God’s word and deed. Huang: We’ve limited God’s freedom, right? Yeah, that’s right.

3.2

3.3 Do you lean toward relativism or nihilism? Huang: But what you’re doing is just a process of exploration. You are in the process of constructing but have not built it up yet. Now, there is a danger that this approach of yours will create a situation that I will call relativism or nihilism. For example, what exactly is the belief of Christianity? Are you doubtful of the original sin of human beings and that salvation only comes from belief in the Lord with Jesus rising from the dead? Lee: I want to emphasize that it is dangerous for anyone to claim absolutism for any construction which, as mentioned above, is in reality contextual and limited by time and space. When we are exploring our faith genuinely and seriously there is little concern for nihilism. Existential quest for the meaning of life and death is essentially a concrete and adventurous endeavor. Huang: If everyone is given the freedom to construct one’s faith, there will be no more “Jiao” as everyone redefines it. Are we then having the same Protestantism we believed in? How will you solve this problem? And I would also ask you: What is your authority? Do you believe that God also reveals to you, Archie Lee? Lee: First of all, I want to say that in doing my study and research I do not claim to do biblical studies for Protestants exclusively nor do I have any intention of doing interpretation for Catholics or Orthodox Christians. I am concerned only with the quest for the construction of meaning of the Bible in its historical context. Critical biblical criticism and other intellectual - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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approaches are tools that will assist me in my research. I have no special authority over other serious and critical scholars. Secondly, I do believe that if revelation came to Luther in his reading of the Scriptures, some sort of revelatory insights will come to me, perhaps in a mysterious way beyond my understanding. Huang: It is okay for you to read the Bible in a different way. But the problem is that you put aside the traditional teaching (“Jiao”), the orthodox doctrine as we call it. Certainly, you cannot come to the text “empty” (空的). What comes to take the place of what you have put away? Is God’s special revelation to Archie Lee that will come in or is it your ability to reason? How do you solve these two questions? Lee: We all know that not only the number of books (66 in Protestantism, 73 in Catholicism and 82 in major Orthodox traditions), but also order and arrangement of books are different in the three “Scriptures” of Christianity. It must also be noted that interpretations in their traditions are not exactly similar. Huang: I see myself as a bit ecumenical and I think that all three, Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Protestantism, are broadly acceptable forms of Christianity. Lee: That is recommendable, but then, in a real sense, the Christian Canon in general is open. Huang: Yes, I am also a little bit open on this point. However, I do insist on two aspects of my “Jiao”, namely “the Trinity” and “the duality of the human and divine nature of Christ”. Lee: I want to go back to my position: I do “biblical studies”, but not “doctrinal studies”. According to the latter, there are relatively fixed interpretations assigned to each of the biblical books. Some doctrinal impositions are assigned to the books. In the history of interpretation of the Book of Job, the doctrine of the suffering of the innocent is normally accepted as the major theme and one is not expected to superimpose the doctrine of the Trinity in the reading of Job. Huang: Yes, the doctrine of the suffering of the innocent is a legitimate theme applicable to the Book of Job and Job, a man of patience. Lee: This understanding is clearly expressed in the narrative framework of the Book (the first chapters, 1–2 and the last chapter, 42). But when we come to the poetic portion from Ch. 3 to Ch. 37, we see a highly rebellious and impatient Job who challenges God and his friends all the way to the end (Ch. 28 is a wisdom poem and Chs. 32–37 are dialogues between Job and Elihu). Only after the encounter with God who responded and spoke twice (Chs. 38–39 and 40–41) did Job seem to admit the limitation of humanity and the mystery of the divine (Ch. 42). Huang: Readers do not usually pay attention to the middle part of Job. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Lee: In this case, you see the difference between the doctrine derived from Job and the textual reality in the book. Which one should be given the authority? It is therefore essential to recognize the various levels of meaning in the “texts” (“Jing”) and the theological formulation of “doctrines” (“Jiao”). As a Bible scholar, I make a distinction between the two and lay aside the doctrinal interpretation when reading the Bible. If not, I am not reading the Bible at all as I only impose Church doctrines on the text. Huang: Yes, this will close the Bible off and an act of limiting the scope of the reading process. Deconstruction First, Then Construction, without Worrying about Deviating from the Classics Lee: So, back to the question, “authority” of which I am often very suspicious as authority will imply Western authority. If this path is followed, Chinese theology will hardly be developed. There should be an element of risk-taking in interpretation in order to have new discovery in unpacking the dimension of meaning in text. Without risk-taking, you are a “traditionalist” in the sense of merely following what has been said previously. This is why I propose, a well-intended critical scholar who wants to build up biblical scholarship in China, to put aside the issue of authority of historical interpretation in order to start to construct and rebuild in Chinese biblical scholarship. Huang: Tearing down first, then building up. Lee: If you do not demolish the superimposed authority you cannot actually build up again. Huang: First deconstruction, then construction. Lee: So, I am not so much worried about deviating from orthodoxy. I am prepared to swim in the wide and open sea with the aim to reach the shore. Huang: Swimming in the open sea? Lee: Metaphorically! One may not survive the sea. Huang: Need to take the risk. Lee: Even if Archie fails and dies. Huang: There will be another scholar who will keep going. Lee: That is the present tough situation in China in respect to the biblical studies project. Huang: I understand and I respect your dedication and vision on biblical studies in China. In addition to your intellectual training, you have the passion, the desire and the dream. Do you also believe that there is divine revelation from above? Lee: If you believe that God is the sovereign of the universe and that all of our lives comes from God, then you also believe that our intellect is from God and connected with God. 3.4

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Huang: Our intelligence is related to God, and our intelligence is given by God. Lee: In studying the history of Christian thoughts and the development of Christian traditions, one will be amazed that in every generation something new set in and something old is being got rid of. Huang: Reformers are to be born in every era in history. Lee: I have no intention to take up the role of a reformer. 4

Cultivation of Talent and Faculty Development for the Chinese Academia

Huang: You said above that you did not want to be a reformer. Lee: But I am pleased to lay the foundation for others to build in biblical studies in China. Huang: Laying the groundwork for others. Lee: Training young scholars in biblical studies in China has been my hope and I started to design a program in 2003 at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 10 years since then, I have trained 12 Ph.D. graduates from Mainland China. I am delighted that most of them are very active in teaching and research in biblical studies in China. 5

Sino-Christian Academic Biblical Studies and an Encounter between God and Humanity

Huang: I wrote a book in 2012 called Sino-Christian Academic Biblical Studies in the Context of National Studies in which I presented a systematic organization of biblical studies. The Bible can be studied in three aspects: As “the word of God”, as “literature” and as “humanistic classics” (with its history, culture, politics, and sociology). It seems to me that in the academic community in Mainland China, the Bible is mostly studied as literature and also as humanist classics. I think that the main reason why the Bible is the Bible because it is the “Word of God”. These three areas are important and together they represent a more comprehensive view of the Bible. How do you assess your approach? Lee: Outside of those three. Do you know why? Huang: Why? I used to include you in the scope of “humanistic classics”. Lee: First of all, the Bible is an human articulation of the human experiences in a historical context. It captures the encounter between God and human beings and witnesses a very deep religious sentiment in the engagement with the divine. The text is therefore not only a literary text, not only - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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humanistic, not only the word of God, but also the expression of the religious sentiment of humans in response to the “encounter between God and humanity”. It represents a faith stance that recognizes that God’s word in human words. Even the cursing of God is “God’s word” that invites an interactive response from God. Huang: With an interactive God. Lee: All human complains to God presuppose and take place in the context of “the encounter between God and man”. Huang: Looking at the religious sentiment in this interaction is your position on the Bible. I mostly agree with that, please go on. Lee: God cannot be God without human beings in interactive relationship. It is from this perspective that the Bible cannot be purely God’s Word or simply human words. It is a great misunderstanding if we make absolutization or polarization. Huang: To polarize matters into black and white. Lee: Right. The three parts you mentioned (God’s words, humanistic classics, literary/artistic works) are all found in the Bible. However, there is another intrinsic dimension referred to as the “numinous” by the great German scholar, Rudolf Otto, in influential book, The Idea of the Holy (German, 1917 and English in 1923): Otto is convinced that the numinous is most strongly expressed in the Bible and he characterizes the three elements of human experiences of the numinous as “mysterium”, “tremendum” and “fascinans”. Huang: The first experience is that of mysteriousness. Lee: Yes, there is the mystery of life that we spend all our life to understand but will never come to the full comprehension of it or fathom the depth and vastness of reality. Huang: We also cannot go beyond the level of transcendence. Lee: Yes, reality is both inside and outside us and a humble attitude of fear and trembling is the proper stance we should take towards our limitation and the “beyond”. Huang: It is covered by metaphysics and understood also as the spiritual other-worldliness. Lee: The third aspect of the holy rests on the feeling of fascination. Huang: The experienced of being surprised. Lee: One caught up by an unresolved and unsurpassed enchantment. Engaging the Bible and the Chines Classics in a life-claiming commitment will enrich one’s whole being. I must admit that the endeavor attracted and lured me to further devote my full attention and deep passion. The Bible has become the Word of God that has opened a path to a relationship in the human-divine encounter.

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Huang: It is the Word of God. Being the Word of God it has an impact on human life and gives life meaning. Lee: If the Bible has nothing to do with your life, it does not mean anything whether you believe in it as God’s word and in the doctrines that are said to be based on it. But if it “touches” your life, the Bible is really the Word (Dao). Prophet Ezekiel’s experience of eating the “Word of God” which he declared that it is sweet in taste. This is symbolic of incorporating God’s Words into his life. The embodiment of the Word of God is far more significant than simply believing in the doctrine on the Bible. Huang: Yes, Jesus said that he who hears and does accordingly is truly faithful. This is what I find interesting. 6

The Impact of Your Scholarship on Biblical Studies in Terms of Approaches and Reshaping of the Christian Doctrines

Huang: There are further issues I would like to discuss with you. I understand that you have been engaging with the Bible as a whole in general and the individual books of the Bible in particular. What have you found which subvert the traditional doctrines? For example, have you overturned the Trinity or the human and divine nature of Jesus Christ? Have you revoked the question of original sin? Does human beings have an eternal soul? The second is on your approach to biblical studies. What new method of research you have found in the particular context of China?1 6.1 Cross-Textual Reading and Inter-Religious or Comparative Religions Lee: I want to respond to the second question first, which can be seen in the particular history of the arrival of the Bible to China. The Protestant Bible came from the Western Church during the colonial era of the early Nineteenth Century to China where there have been multiple scriptural texts (“Jing”) in use for thousands of years. Huang: Four Books and Five Classics, Thirteen Classics. Lee: Not to forget the Daoist and the Buddhist Scriptures. The first problem is translation of the Bible in the context of these multiple “texts”, that

1 You, X., and Huang, P., “The Contemporary Transformation of Educational Mechanism for Knowledge Innovation-Dialogue on Finland’s Education and China’s General Education”, International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 20, 2021, pp. 1–22. DOI: https://doi.org/ 10.37819/ijsws.20.106.

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inevitably involved complicated issues of interpretation. I propose back in 1993 an approach of cross-textual reading. Huang: Cross-textual interpretation. Lee: Crossing back and forth from Text A to Text B in an interactive mode in order that new meanings are to engender in the process. I must emphasize that it is not a method of comparation. Huang: An important attempt in methodology. This is what David Ford called “scripture reasoning” which we have been working on for the last few years. Lee: “Scriptural reasoning” was first proposed in 1998 by David Ford and Peter Oak. I was at Cambridge at the time, and David was very interested in his scripture reasoning and I have continued to talk with him for a while subsequently in a few occasions in Hong Kong and Beijing. Huang: Is his scripture reasoning different from yours? Lee: There are quite a few differences. Ford’s method deals mainly with the three monotheistic classics: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam with the aim to discover and understand how the various Scriptures reasoned vis-à-vis the others. Although the scriptural traditions of the three monotheistic were formulated and canonized in different historical periods, they are interrelated religious texts, each developed in its own complicated processes and interacted with one another in the history of reception. Huang: But your approach seems to be different from what we call comparative theology or inter-religious dialogue. My emphasis is on intra-religious. Your colleague, Professor P.C. Lai also engages in similar concerns. In what ways are the others different from yours? I want to first let you know my position. In meeting a religious tradition, I intend to understand it without passing any pre-conceived judgment. I want to listen to other’s understanding of me. Mine is not exclusivism, nor inclusivism, nor pluralism, but “particularism”. I am Christian and act accordingly. So, the purpose of my dialogue with you is to understand who you are, and then I want to understand how you me. When what you see is not the real me, I will reflect on the reasons why the discrepancy. Either that I have not articulated myself clearly or that you misunderstood me. I will try to understand you from your perspective and I also expect you to understand me from my perspective. Is my “particularism” similar to your cross-textual reading/interpretation? I think there are similarities, am I right? Lee: It is possible that there are similarities. In respect to my approach to the Bible I am concerned with both the plurality of texts within the Bible and the multi-scriptural Asian context in which it is to be read. Huang: You mean that the Bible is also multi-layered? Lee: Yes, there are many “textual” traditions behind the biblical text itself.

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Huang: They are hidden underneath, layer by layer. Is there a Biblical basis for the doctrines of the Trinity, original sin, etc.? Lee: Now, going back to the first question on Western theology that came to China with the doctrines of original sin and the Trinity, etc. Generally, the Christian doctrine of original is assumed to be derived from the reading of Genesis 2 and 3. I start with the end of Gen 3 that God decided to cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. What was the reason for that? Of course, it was sin, depravity, and disobedience to God. But God gave a different reason for driving them out, but modern readers do not pay attention to what God said. Huang: Ignore that God’s reason given in the paragraph. Lee: Right. God said, “Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” (Gen 3:22). God address the man that he has eaten the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and “is become as one of us”. This statement does not say that the man has sinned. God’s concern is with the fact of him being like one of us. Notice the plural “us”. God’s words refer back to a previous claim of the serpent to the woman: “in the day you eat the fruit, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5). Huang: Did God really use “us”? Lee: Very interesting text! Not only the plurality of divinity (Trinity?), but also humanity having similar divine knowledge is acknowledged. Huang: Rebellion is usually regarded as the reason for being expelled? Lee: There is another part of the cause for expulsion: That the man is “to work the ground from which he had been taken” (3:23). We often assume that expulsion is an act of punishment for the sin of rebellion and God’s plan was for humanity to live inside the Garden of Eden if Adam and Eve have not sinned. But I wonder why the creation of the world after all. I would not feel the comfort of all of humanity staying and being locked up in the little Garden of Eden with a much larger world outside of it. Huang: And there would be no need for the world to be created and no one to cultivate the ground. Lee: No need indeed! The Garden would be too crowded. Huang: How do you then interpret the Garden Story? Lee: First, the text mentions two trees in the Garden: The tree of life and the tree of knowledge (2:9) and the latter one is the “forbidden fruit” (2:17). But in the conversation between Eve and the serpent the tree concerned is the 6.2

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one in the midst of the garden. The identity of the forbidden fruit is not specified. But the consequence of taking the fruit of the tree was that Adam and Eve gained the knowledge of “good and evil”, implying the did not eat the fruit of the tree of life. The two trees are symbolic in articulating the similarity and dissimilarity between human beings and God? Humans are like God with the knowledge of discrimination. But we cannot be God having everlasting life. “Good and evil” does not apply to only moral decision. It is a way in Hebrew to imply “everything”. Huang: There are similarities and differences between the divine and the human. Lee: Right. The perception of “who I am” as a human being and the religious quest for the divine is great significance for theological construction which can never be left out. Huang: This is also the main concern in my study of Luther’s anthropology. After listening to what you just said my interest in the issue intensified. Lee: But if one read the narrative of Gen 2–3 from the perspective of “Original Sin”, the above discourse on the divine and the human will be dropped. Huang: Without knowledge then, human beings cannot become real human beings? Lee: The text does not refer only pure and abstract knowledge, but the ability to make differentiation and to examinate life as Socrates appropriately states: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Huang: If Adam and Eve did not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge we would not have the ability and potential to be fully human? Lee: Right. That is in essence the meaning of the story. As human beings, we are not to eat the tree of life to become God. Huang: If you do not the tree of knowledge, you are not a human being; if you eat the other tree, you’re not human either. Lee: A very important story, the meaning of which has not been brought out in our theological education because the theme of original sin turns it into a story of the Fall. As a matter of fact, the theme of immortality is not a strange one in Chinese literature. Huang: The Chinese Classics are much concerned with the theme of eternity and the quest for immortality. Lee: This theme is common in both the Bible and the Chinese Classics. I do not mean to undermine the issue of original sin does. But there are other dimensions in the text that I do not want to give up too. Huang: I agree with you on this interpretation, but when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge they gained knowledge which is not the true and absolute knowledge, the Logos as God is the truth itself and human

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beings only have reflection and temporary epistemology. We have to admit that we are being created and there is no possibility of surpassing God. Lee: I have no problem with that. Huang: No problem? The problem is with human beings having wisdom. As Lao Tzu said: When there is too much wisdom the world will start to fight. If you have wisdom, and I have wisdom, then we fight. Lee: But without wisdom we do not become fully human. 6.3 The Ambiguity and Transcendence of the Bible2 Lee: The problem with traditional interpretation of the Garden of Eden is turning a basically narrative into a philosophical and theological text. Huang: With our imagination. Lee: Hebrew narrative is sometimes characterized by its being “ironic”. Huang: Being satirical or humorous. Lee: It is ironic when God warned Adam and Eve that on the day the eat the forbidden fruit they will surely die. Huang: It turned out to be just an irony. Lee: Christian traditions interpreted this death spiritually. This leads to another characteristics of Hebrew narrative and that is ambiguity. Huang: Vagueness, arbitrariness. Lee: Space is open up by ambiguity in some of the biblical passages. They allow possibilities of interpretation and therefore scholars come out with different schools of thought. The third characteristic is the interest in etiology with the effort to tell stories of the origin. Huang: Origins of a certain practices and phenomena? Lee: Some of the areas are: Why do we wear clothes? Why are there men and women? Why do men and women get married? Why do we have children? Why do men have to work so hard in the fields? Why is it so painful to have a child? Huang: Why do you need emotion? Lee: Why do people die? It was not because people did not die before there was this story. People have experienced death all along and explanatory narratives were told subsequently. Why do human beings come to be like God? The Garden story adopts the theme of knowledge and wisdom for explanation. There is a wide range of the conception of knowledge which includes sexual intercourse between male and female. Gen 4:1 is a clear example of 2 Liang, H., “How Do Modern Chinese Christian Intellectuals Read the Bible? Wu Leichuan and Zhao Zichen’s Principles and Methodologies for the Interpretation of the Bible”, Yearbook of Chinese Theology, Vol. 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2020), pp. 130–146.

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this very knowledge: “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain” (KJV). This is not the knowledge of good and evil. When the concepts of the two extremes are put together, it denotes “all” and covers the whole extent: “east and west”, “north and south”, “good and bad”, etc. Huang: Yes, the knowledge here in the text is what I call epistemology or knowledge of the truth. Lee: The tree of knowledge would enable humans to become like God while the tree of life signifies the unbridgeable gulf between God and the created humans in terms of divine immortality and human mortality. The two trees together narrate the self-understanding and identity of humanity. This is a classic example of the departure of critical scholarship from traditional doctrines. Huang: The doctrine of original sin is fundamental to Christianity. This is really a big issue. Is there a verse in the Old Testament that says that “God is omniscient”? Lee: And, also, do we think that God is omniscient and omnipotent? Reservation has been raised on the doctrine of God’s. Huang: Is not God omniscient? Lee: This issue cannot be conceived independently of human freedom. If God knows and plans every happening with no human participation, there is no place in talking of ethics and moral. It is not appropriate to say that all my actions have been decided by God in eternity. In the Old Testament God is constantly changing according to what human beings act and perform. Huang: God also “regrets”. The Old Testament used this word, which is a different concept. Lee: Yes. The Old Testament God is a personal God portrayed in the image of a loving father who gives the best for God’s children and hope they listen to him. The reality is that children are not always in the control and follow the plan designed by their parents. Prophet Hosea uses the image of God as a caring father who gives birth to his son, raises him up, and “holds him” in his arms. But then the child rebels and sins. The most important issue for Hosea is whether the saddened and disappointing father should give up and dessert his son. The classical situation of internal struggle of the father is thus written: “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? My heart recoils within me” (Hos 11:8). Thus, you see a hurting and desperate God who suffers and does know what to do. Huang: Is there a verse in the Old Testament that says, “God is all-knowing and all-powerful”? 6.4

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Lee: I only remember that God knows, but as far as understand there is no word “all” attached to God’s knowing. Huang: This is different from the Supreme God that we imagine. Does it then say in the New Testament that God is the present, the past, and the eternal Almighty God? I think we should read the New Testament and the Old Testament together. Lee: We come back to the view of the independent identity of the Hebrew Bible and issue of submitting the Old Testament to the New in biblical interpretation. 7

What is the basis for your own doctrine, the “Jiao”?

Do you interpret the Scripture, the “Jing” with your own understanding instead of the “doctrine” (“Jiao”)? Huang: I understand this. I think this is very meaningful, but you will encounter big challenges. You have put aside this “Jiao”, and you now use a set of “your own theories” to replace the “doctrine”. This “Jiao” is your “teaching”. Lee: Not exactly, I am using the critical historical method in reading the biblical text and I do not claim any teaching of my own. Huang: When you summarize the scriptures, did you select the theme and meaning out objectively? You did not say you were objective either. Lee: I did not say that I was objective. Contextual reading would not be objective. If you want to be objective, you cannot really do Chinese theology. Huang: Right, and I understand. Lee: Though there are academic tools and critical methods in guiding how Chinese theology can be done, it would not be fully objective. Huang: Yes, this is done from a Chinese perspective in the Chinese context. Lee: Not only that it cannot be objective it is not be universal and ecumenical as well. Some have expressed their criticism: “Your Chinese theology is remarkable. But it is only a particular theology.” Huang: I realize this, but I think you also have a challenge on the issue of authority. Where do you get the authority from? Does your interpretation come from your subjective preconceptions or anywhere else? Lee: It is fair for people to point out that my interpretation is not a correct reading. I read from a certain perspective and context and therefore I am open to criticism. Huang: You interpret from your perspective and your context. Lee: You cannot use an authority or universal doctrine to judge my reading or can you? 7.1

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Huang: Right. Thus, your interpretation of the two trees in Genesis represents “your doctrine”, this is your “Jiao”. Lee: I only want to start doing Chinese interpretation of the Bible and the construction of Chinese theology (Hong Kong has returned to China after 1997). Huang: Right. But this doctrine of yours is just like the doctrine of original sin. Lee: It’s not the same. Huang: I know that. When I said “the same” I meant that by definition you have another set of “doctrines”. Lee: There is no need for other people to follow me. They can cast doubts on my reading and I welcome genuine criticism. Huang: Right. May I go back to the question of the “omnipotence and omniscience” of God. If you say that God is not omnipotent, this is of course a reversal of the traditional concept of Western theology. I think you are catering too much and gradually suiting your interest to serve Chinese culture at the expense of giving up the union with God. Lee: I think the relationship between God and man is interactive in the course of history and an interactive God is not in full control of human action. Huang: God does not control people completely? Lee: Although he has the ability, he does not exercise full control. Huang: I think your conclusion means that because God loves people and gives them freedom, but God does not control people completely. This idea is similar to how you talk about the Old Testament book of Jeremiah (Jer. 18). God does not intend to make a human being a robot because out of love God gives him free will. This coincides with the traditional European theology and it is not necessary for you to invent a new doctrine. Lee: If God really gives me freedom, what I am going to do will not be known to God. If on the other hand God predestinates my decision my freedom is not really freedom at all, right? Huang: But the “omniscience” we are talking about is a transcendence. For example, I know and say, “Mr. Lee, God knows you and knows what you will do in your life.” This is a belief I have. But I do not know if God knows what you will do. That is still a mystery. For example, after our conversation what will you do? You may go for another meeting. I do not know exactly, but God knows. You may go halfway and you think: “I’m too tired, and I go back to the hotel to rest, not to the meeting.” This change of mind may happen. But my “knowing” is like a belief. Lee: Unpredictability. I do not expect to predict what God will do and vis-versa. Huang: There are flexibility and unpredictability. Lee: It is not mystery if it can be predicted.

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Huang: I also think this is the difference between human and machine. I specifically talked to the expert who engaged in AI (artificial intelligence) and whether machines can replace people. The unexpectedness is problematic to and for machines. Lee: So, even God cannot have unexpectedness. If God can predict human behavior …… How do you understand Luther’s “sola scriptura”? Do you believe that God has revealed something to you beyond your humanistic reason? Huang: There’s another question, you are a Bible scholar, Luther was also a Bible scholar, Luther was a Biblical professor, he was not a systematic theologian. Luther proposes “sola scriptura” (the Bible alone) in addition to “sola fide” (faith alone) and “sola gratia” (grace alone). Lee: There is a possibility of contradictions between the three appearances of “sola” (“alone”). Huang: Yes, they are contradicting. On “sola scriptura”, there were different understandings of the role and authority of the text before and after the Nicene Creed. And then, Luther said only the Bible, so how do you understand this? Lee: Luther’s claim cannot be seen independently of the history of the canonical text. First, I note that “sola scriptura” was proposed with the purpose of Luther’s rebellion against the “tradition” of the Roman Catholic Church, and look in this way …… Huang: He was against a lot of traditions and resolutions of the ecumenical meetings, and so on. Lee: Yes, it is also the problem of “doctrine” (“Jiao”) that I have been talking about. Huang: He was actually against the Roman Catholic “doctrine” of his time. Lee: Right. Huang: Luther’s call to go back to the scriptures is similar to your work. Lee: His call to go back to the “Jing” was not a return to the Canon of the Church then. For the Old Testament, he did not like some of the books of the Greek and Latin Bible and wanted to return to the Jewish Bible. He did rearrange the order of the books as I have now in our Protestant Old Testament. I have no intention nor the power to do the same. Huang: Right. And for the New Testament he doubted whether the Book of James and the Book of Hebrews should be included in the canon and they are questionable. Lee: The seven books that were used by the Catholic Church in support of the indulgence were being eliminated from the Canon. The scripture he wanted 7.2

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to return to is a selected. His return to the Bible was in direct confrontation with the authority of the tradition. Protestants are still bounded by his Reformation today. Huang: He was using a part of the “Jing” to oppose the authority of tradition. Lee: Furthermore, he also had the question you raised: asked me just now: Where is his “authority”? Huang: He said it was revelation, that is, “God spoke to him.” Lee: He only claimed that his own reading coincided with the divine revelation. Huang: Yes, that is my question I put to you in regard to whether you take your own “reason” as “revelation”. Lee: I know. On reading his Commentary on Psalms, I see Luther’s own interpretation. Huang: His subjective interpretation? Lee: Definitely, his context was very different from ours. His era was what we referred to as the “pre-critical studies era”. Huang: There was not yet biblical criticism. Lee: There was no historical critical biblical studies as we know it today, biblical archaeology has not developed, much that now know of the Bible was not known to him, including the many manuscripts we are using for our research. Huang: Many ancient manuscripts have not been discovered yet, right? Lee: Yes, we are much better off than he was in terms of the richness of manuscripts and resources which we do not make full use most of the time when we read the Bible. Again, he was trying to rebel against tradition and the ecclesiastical authority in order to establish his and I am not concerned about the issue of my authority. Huang: You do not care about yours, but he built his. You go along with your feelings. Lee: I am interested in reading the Bible and gaining its meaning in connection with my life. It is enough when an interpretation makes sense to Archie Lee even in the case that it does not make sense to you and the world. In reading the Bible, the I as the reader am at the center. Huang: Only yourself? Lee: No. In actual life context, I care about other’s life, but I cannot live without my own. Huang: Right. Lee: If the scripture makes sense to me I believe that it will also make some sense to at least a few other people as well. Huang: Wait a minute! I want to raise a very important on with regard to II Cor. 3:6 that we should read the Bible not of the letter but of the Spirit,

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for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. What you just said seems to me to pay attention to the letters and so on. There are issues involved. Firstly, there is the question of the relationship between the “letter” and the “spirit”. In literal exegesis, we look for meaning through ancient versions of the Bible in Greek, in Hebrew, in the literary form, in the wording, and so on. Secondly, there is the problem of the relationship between “doctrine” and “text” and between the subjective reason and revelation. Luther, as I understand, believed in God’s revelation. I respect your reading in your capacity as a scholar, but we are limited by our doing theology studies. I take the Bible as “the Word of God” which gives life meaning. The Bible is not just the word about God but the Word of God. If your deconstruction does away the authority of the “Jing” what then is the foundation of Christian faith? Does the foundation rest on the ecumenical councils? Can we hold also hold a meeting with just a few of us? Lee: My concern is mainly academic approach to biblical studies and these issues of authority of the Bible, Christian doctrines and Christian faith system will not come into the scene of my biblical studies. Huang: True, but your scholarship is a big shock to the fundamental beliefs of Christianity. Lee: This is not my problem for now in my research. Huang: I would say you are reaching relativism and nihilism. Where is the basis for religious belief? You have no basis! Look at the Canons – Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant – the number of books and order of them are not the same. Though the Canons may not be similar their general theme is the same. Another issue is that in our discussion we rely on rationality which is just a “gift” to human from God who is much higher than our reason. Lee: Surely, God is beyond us and all of our construction of God is inevitably characterized as “relativism” and may even be “nihilism” as we cannot grasp the absolute mystery. We can only start with the “Jing” handed down to us from tradition. In reading the Bible, we may only start from the letters and quest the “spirit”. Huang: That’s certainly true, but we should not be limited by the letters. Lee: You will not be satisfied with the letters and sincerely hope to go beyond them to get hold of the “spirit”. Is that right? Huang: Right. If the Holy Spirit moves us we will be able to understand both the “letters” and the “spirit”. Lee: We often assume that “spirit” can be understood by everyone as it is monolithic for Christianity, Judaism and non-religious readers. In general, the naming of the text as Old Testament (for Christianity) or the Tanach

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(for Judaism) or the Hebrew Bible (for academics) has implication for interpretation. Huang: Yes, I understand. Lee: The meaning of a passage varies depending on the sects and traditions of Christianity and Judaism. We also have to be aware of the fact that the books in the Hebrew Bible have been more or less written down before the institutional religion of these religions. Huang: Good, I think, it makes a lot of sense for you to study the text in this perspective. My position is that one can combine academic pursuit with one’s faith. Lee: Interpretation from your own faith in Christianity? Huang: I do contextualization from the Christian context, but I do not deny Judaism has its context. Lee: I will not claim Christian context for my research. Huang: The context of Archie Lee becomes an important background for your revelation. Right? Lee: I will not use the word revelation. Huang: You are comfortable with “inspiration”? Lee: Nor do I use that. If I must adopt a word I would rather like “enlightenment”. Huang: I know, “enlightenment” in Buddhism. Lee: Insight. Huang: I still think you are “humanistic” with the quality of humanities (人文学性质的). Lee: Yes, I will not give up the “human” orientation, but I do not stop at the stage of concern for the “human” and I will endeavor to safeguard the religious dimension of “Jing”. Huang: Very good, I understand your thoughts more clearly now. I find that what you have done is very valuable. However, there are still quite a few differences between us. Lee: Yes, there are differences. Huang: I use reason in analyzing my faith but I also realize the limitation of it as a method. Lee: The same apply to Bin You, my good friend, with whom I co-author a book. He values his faith and give it an important place in life. I told him that did not belittle the importance of faith, but I do not employ the perspective of faith in my study of the Bible. I have not asked my students whether they were Christians or not. Perhaps most of them were not. When it comes to interpretation of the Bible I would not ask them to do it from Judaism, Christianity or other religious traditions. What I am to do is to establish biblical studies as an academic discipline in university.

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Prospect of the Future Development of Biblical Studies in Chinese Academia3

Huang: Let us then look at the future development of Biblical studies in Chinese academia. Lee: First, let me make it clear that I am not against doctrinal interpretation from Jewish, Christian, or Catholic, or any other perspectives. It will continue to a legitimate approach in faith communities in China. Huang: One of many approaches. Lee: Second, I am interested in understanding how the Israelites deal with life in the long suffering of the people and the nation, how they endeavor to explore the meaning of existence humanity, how they conceive the God-human relationship and what images and perceptions they have had for their religion. In brief, how the people of Israel dealt with these issues and have had their experiences engraved in the text of the Bible. If their ways in approaching these issues were meaningful to them it would also shed some light on how we should come to terms with our life today. The shared experience then will enable the Bible to be a religious tradition of Chinese context. The text embodies human experience and is not to be treated merely as a religious system. Huang: There should develop in China multiple approaches which can coexist and as the saying goes, “let a hundred flowers bloom.” Lee: On the question of the future of biblical studies within the Chinese academia in the setting of the university, I am concerned with beating new paths for the special national context of China in taking the Chinese Classics on board for the biblical studies. Huang: Yes, learning from the Classics for reference and reflection. Lee: I think the method of cross-textual reading is appropriate. The Chinese Classics (“Jing”) and the Bible are to be read interactively and mutually enriched. I have been asked to develop the method in detail, but I think it should be done collaboratively and not individually. Huang: Is it an open system? Lee: I will leave the task for others to finish in the future. The time will come when the discipline of biblical hermeneutics is introduced and found to be inadequate.

3 Paulos Huang and Xinping Zhuo, “A Dialogue on the Overall Situation of Religious Studies in Contemporary China”, in International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 19, 2020, pp. 1–29 (www.SinoWesternStudies.com/latest-volumes/vol-19-2020).

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Huang: There is not yet a systematic presentation of the biblical studies discipline in China. Lee: I am engaging in the task of establishing a firmed foundation first by developing next generation of faculty and researchers. Running annual Biblical Seminars together with scholars and their students is an initial step. Hopefully, a strong academic community will be formed and in the near future new approaches will be developed. Huang: You do not want to set down limits for those who come after. Lee: I have no authority in prescribing any theoretical framework and action plans for others to follow up. I appreciate creativity and imagination. 9

The Question of the Absoluteness of “Jing” (the “Classics”)

Huang: The last question I want to discuss is on “scriptural studies” (“经 学”) which exists in the Jewish, the Catholic, the Orthodox as well as the Protestant traditions. From the Protestant perspective, the “Jing” seems to have an absolute standard. Do the Hebrew people view their Bible as an absolute standard for their faith? Lee: Since the beginning of the Jewish Diaspora, Judaism has also been separated into different schools, sects and movements. There are also geographical and regional divisions. The major denominations are the orthodox, conservative, reform, etc. Huang: The issue of the absolute is still at its root and the Orthodox believe that the Hebrew Bible is absolute. Lee: Orthodox Jews in Rabbinic Judaism firmly accept the absolute authority of the Written Torah and the Oral Law, equally if not more so than Christians in Protestantism. Huang: The Muslims also see the Qurʾan in the same way. In Catholicism and Orthodoxy, do they look at the text absolutely? Their views seem to be slightly weaker, right? Lee: Though it may not be fair to make superficial statement, the most absolute view is actually the one that has emerged in recent times, in the evangelical revival movement in the United States. I think Luther did not see the Bible in the same way, but his “sola scriptura” has been turned into a closed and rigid doctrine. Huang: I have published an article in Haihua Tian’s Journal of Religious Studies at the Institute of Religion, Sichuan University on Luther’s concept of inspiration.

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The notion of “Jing” in Buddhism is too open and in Confucianism as well. I think that the “Jing” in Confucianism lack a bit of “absoluteness”. Although it also talks about the Dao of Heaven, it does not seem to be as absolute as that in Christianity and Judaism. Lee: In Buddhism, there is official accepted “process of canonization”. Huang: Yes, it scriptures are not regarded as revelatory. The emperors organized the meeting and made the decision in setting the canon. No matter how it was said and what the Ecumenical Councils resolved, Christianity believes in the revelation of God. Lee: There were also emperors who were behind the Ecumenical Councils in the history of the Church. Huang: Yes, there were also people behind, such as Emperor Constantine, etc. But, at the very least …… Lee: The Councils were commissioned. Huang: Yes, but theoretically it was not the emperor, it was God. I think this difference is of great significance and very meaningful. Lee: In fact, the Chinese Confucian Classics has no explicit and clear dimension of the transcendent or the religious or the divine. It does not mean that China does not have the same feelings. Such a feeling is always related to the life experience of the people. The problem with Chinese Classics has been with their status as the textbook of the examination because a fixed theory of interpretation has been since attached to the text. Huang: Chu His’s interpretation has been regarded as orthodoxy. Lee: This explanation is restricted to what is outlined in the Book of Rites: “Cultivating the self, ordering the family, governing the state and pacifying the world” (修身、齐家、治国、平天下). In the formulation but it lacks the dimension of “having compassion for all living creatures” (爱苍生) in the care for the whole creation. Huang: This dimension is not represented. Lee: There should also be another important dimension in the middle of the formulae. Huang: What dimension? Lee: I am thinking of the “society” (社会) or “community” (社群) in between “the family” and “the state”. Huang: The “society” is absent. Lee: There is no “society”, no community and no neighborhood and without this there is no “civil society” (公民社会), the sense of community. Huang: “Community” (共同体) should exist between “family” and “state”. “Civil society” is a sensitive term in China.

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Lee: Though it may be regarded as reactionary, it is the driving force for social development. Furthermore, it is the Dao of Heaven which is behind the notion of community is dangerous as well. Huang: The Dao of Heaven is too high and too far away. Lee: To complete the wide spectrum of the notion of extension from the self I want to add two aspects “关社” (caring for the community) and “爱苍生” (Having compassion for all creatures). Christianity has dimension articulated explicitly in its text and theology. Huang: Thank you very much, Archie. I will sort it out to send over to you for revision. Lee: I am very happy to talk with you. Huang: It was very interesting. We have spent a total of two hours. (Conversation drafted by Paulos Huang, including all headings, subheadings, subparagraphs, etc.; then revised by Prof. Lee; and finally unified by Paulos Huang. 22 Dec. 2018 at the resort center of Gran Canaria, Spain [Monte Feliz, Gran Canaria, Spain], Good Friday 2020, finalized for 2021 March 1st.)

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part 1 Systematic Theology and Chinese Humanities

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chapter 1

Building a Discipline of the Bible with a Chinese Contextual Awareness Bin You As a term describing an area of academic research, “biblical studies” is a modern designation. Beginning in the late fourth century, when Christianity first gained a position of dominance in the Roman world, the study and interpretation of the Bible came to be overlapped with all learnings. Creeds, ethical teachings, and ecclesial statutes were all established on the basis of biblical research and commentaries. With the onset of the Protestant Reformation, the interrogation of the original biblical text became the safeguard of true faith. Politically, the principle of cuius region, eius religio (“whose realm, his religion”) was established. Many centuries later, with the advance of rationalism and the Enlightenment movement, the Bible gradually forfeited its authoritative role and became the scripture of a religious community, a text otherwise subject to historical, literary and rational scrutiny. Consequently, biblical studies as a field of scholarly inquiry came into being.1 Over the past 200 years, the field of biblical studies has continued to innovate its approaches and develop its outstanding potential in conversation with various intellectual and social movements. To this day, biblical studies has incorporated the views and reflections of a wide range of Christian denominations and promoted dialogue with Judaism, Islam, and other scriptural traditions, exerting significant influence on society.2 1 To take the publication of Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels (Berlin, 1882; 3rd ed., 1886; Eng. trans., Edinburgh, 1883, 1891; 5th German edition, 1899) as its landmark, its English version, see Prolegomena to the History of Ancient Israel (London: Forgotten Books, 2008). To investigate the general history of Biblical studies, see Yvonne Sherwood and Stephen D. Moore, The Invention of the Biblical Scholar: A Critical Manifesto (Philadelphia: Fortress, 2011). Paulos Huang and Xinping Zhuo, “A Dialogue on the Overall Situation of Religious Studies in Contemporary China”, in International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 19, 2020, pp. 1–29 (www.SinoWesternStudies.com/latest-volumes/vol-19-2020). You, X., and Huang, P., “The Contemporary Transformation of Educational Mechanism for Knowledge InnovationDialogue on Finland’s Education and China’s General Education”, International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 20, 2021, pp. 1–22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37819/ijsws.20.106. 2 To use the Roman Catholic Church as a case study, its views on the Bible had tremendous influences on its theology and relations with other religions and society. For example,

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004469440_003

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Against the general multi-religious background in China, the discipline of the Bible – as the holy scriptures of the Christian faith – should secure a position for itself among other disciplines in the Chinese humanities. Biblical studies in China should draw on the methodologies and research gains of international biblical studies while also developing into a discipline in its own right being inspired by its Chinese resources and awareness. In other words, it ought to develop into “a discipline of the Bible with a Chinese awareness”. To this end, the present paper will address the following questions: What are the essential differences between “research on the Bible” (sheng jing yan jiu) and “the discipline of the Bible” (sheng jing xue)? The two terms appear to be quite similar, so why is there a need to transition from one to the other? What is the Chinese awareness in doing biblical studies, and why does this awareness exist? What kind of intellectual resources can the discipline of the Bible absorb from contemporary international research on the Bible? Further, what should be the core or foundation of the discipline of the Bible in China? It is hoped that discussing these issues will not only contribute to a Sino-Christian scriptural study, but also enhance the mutual appreciation of Chinese traditional culture and the Christian faith. 1

From “Research on the Bible” to “Discipline of the Bible”

Undeniably, the choice of the term “research on the Bible” to designate the academic study of the Bible does have its justification. But to render it as “a discipline of the Bible” is not merely to insist on a new term. On one hand, the change aims at new ways of understanding the Bible and biblical traditions in the context of Chinese cultures; on the other hand, it anticipates the academic study of the Bible interacting with studies of humanities and other religious traditions. In China, the term “jing xue” (meaning, roughly, “study of the classics or scriptures”) has profound cultural and intellectual connotations. In ancient Chinese culture, jingxue lay at the heart of scholarship and culture. In pre-Qin (221–207 BCE) times, jingxue had referred to all schools of learning. Pope Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus, 1893, Pope Benedict XV, Spiritus Paraclitus, 1920, Pope Pius VII, Divino Afflante Spiritu, 1943, Dei Verbum, 1965, Pope Benedict XVI, Verbum Domini, 2008, etc., for a general review and comment on them, see Zhao Dunhua, “Luo Ma Jiao Ting Hui Ying Sheng Jing Pi Ping Yun Dong De Qi Da Wen Xian [The Vatican’s Seven Documents to Respond the Biblical Criticism]”, Shi Jie Zong Jiao Yan Jiu [Studies in World Religions], No. 6, 2012, pp. 98–106. Liang, H., “How Do Modern Chinese Christian Intellectuals Read the Bible? Wu Leichuan and Zhao Zichen’s Principles and Methodologies for the Interpretation of the Bible”, Yearbook of Chinese Theology, Vol. 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2020), pp. 130–146. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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But when during the Han Dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE) other intellectual streams were ousted in favor of elevating the “Six Classics” alongside other efforts to systemically unify the cultural realm by the Han court, classical learning became virtually synonymous with Confucian, or Ruist, learning. With the tremendous changes in Chinese political and cultural life, Confucian classics and learning on one hand gained the distinction of ideological authoritativeness; on the other hand, jingxue played an important role in comprehensive cultural integration as Confucian thought, rituals, and ethics were all derived from the study of the ancient classics. The basic significance attributed to jingxue in the Chinese system meant that the religions which were spread, believed, and practiced in China – whether those native to China such as Daoism or foreign religions such as Islam – used the term “jing” (“scriptures”) when referring to their own sacred writings. Moreover, each of these religions in turn established its own system of jingxue. Among the most remarkable examples of this phenomenon are the “Thirteen Buddhist scriptures” compiled in the late Qing period (1644–1911) and selected to accord with the number of the Ruist classics.3 In this sense, the designation “biblical studies” – sheng jing x̲ u̲e̲ in Chinese – for the discipline of biblical studies also points to the implied parallel between Christian scriptural tradition and Chinese religious, including Confucian, traditions. In the Chinese context, it is important to distinguish between biblical studies in the narrow and in the broader senses. Biblical studies in the narrow sense refers to the various historical and literary critical approaches to the Bible that have emerged with modern thought, namely, so-called Biblical criticism. Meanwhile, Biblical studies in the wider sense covers a much broader range of interpretive approaches within the Judeo-Christian tradition from antiquity through the Middle Ages and to modern times. The former treats the Bible as a text among others, a body of literature belonging to the ancient Israelites or to the early Christian community; researching this text requires adherence to the principles of historical and literary critical inquiry. The latter approach situates the study and interpretation of the scriptures within the intellectual traditions of Judaism and Christianity with deeper layers of meaning. Taking this distinction into consideration, the discipline of the Bible in China, namely, sheng jing xue, cannot remain isolated. Instead, it must absorb the intellectual and academic resources of biblical studies in both the narrow and the wider sense. With regard to its research themes, “the discipline of the Bible” (sheng jing xue) ought to place particular emphasis on the interrelationships between scripture and the Judeo-Christian traditions. Although a specific set of texts 3 See Thirteen Buddhist Scriptures [Fo jiao shi san jing] (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2010), especially its introduction, 1. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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constitutes the starting point and research basis, in addition to this, biblical studies should also address the historical relationships between these texts and the faith communities they belong to (the Jewish people in the case of the Old Testament, and the Christian church in the case of the New Testament). The biblical texts cannot be separated from the traditions formed within faith communities. That is to say, the meanings of the biblical scriptures cannot be ascertained by literary and textual criticism alone since these meanings were shaped by living faith communities in hermeneutic processes over many centuries. More precisely, the discipline of the Bible is not merely the study of texts; rather, it is the study of “texts within tradition”. This tradition dates back to the original faith communities who created and used these texts, and it extends throughout the interpretive practices developed after the establishment of the Christian church. In regard to its primary concerns, the discipline of the Bible locates the scriptures and their interpretive meanings within the holistic intellectual and life practices of the faith communities. What distinguishes the Bible from other works of literature is that it constitutes the foundation of a socio-cultural system, permeating every aspect of the spiritual and social fabrics of a faith community. The biblical texts took shape within the context of the day-to-day life of the ancient Jewish people and early Christians. In other words, the meaning of the biblical texts was formed through the interactions of theological, liturgical, ethical, and spiritual spheres of the faith communities. The Biblical texts constitute the foundation or core of the faith community’s theological ideas; in this way, scriptural studies and theology could be understood as manifestations of each other. In Christian intellectual history, the emergence of a theological denomination or school has often been sparked by the new interpretation of short verses, a crucial passage, or a particular book within the Scripture. The Bible as such is neither just the work of one or several authors, nor was it written in the isolated comfort of a scholar’s study. The Scriptures were and are read publicly, explained, and understood in the context of the worship and liturgical life; therefore, the discipline of the Bible must pay attention to the liturgical dimension of the faith community. The meaning of the biblical texts is revealed within the liturgical cycle and the public space of worship celebrated by the faith community. In this sense, it is impossible to separate the discipline of the Bible from the context of worship. The discipline of the Bible should highlight the multi-faceted nature of the biblical texts, and develop a healthy balance between the scripture and the general theology in order that theology in its entirety should conform to, be inspired by the scriptures, and the scriptures should sustain, accompany, and empower all theological works. In terms of its end, the discipline of the Bible is to establishes the biblical particularity in the context of multiculturalism by way of a constructive - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Building a Discipline of the Bible

approach. biblical criticism as established since the Enlightenment mainly follows the trend of deconstruction. This tendency manifests itself in two ways: on one hand, it detaches theological significance from the processes of biblical interpretation; on the other hand, it situates the scriptures in their concrete historical and cultural settings, rather than in the tradition of faith community. While this approach does have its merits and would shed much light on the identity-building of a biblical discipline, a holistic understanding of the Scripture needs to exceed the socio-historical significance of the texts within their immediate historical setting and incorporates the interpretive traditions of Christian churches over the past two millennia. It is only in this way that the discipline of the Bible can hope to transcend the limits of biblical criticism and develop its potential for an in-depth and mutually constructive dialogue with other cultural traditions such as Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Essentially, the cultural identity of the Bible and Christianity are established in the construction rather than the deconstruction of the theological and cultural significance of the Scripture, in avoiding the danger of submerging its unique identity into the cultural ocean of various modern and Chinese indigenous cultures. We can thus see the intellectual resources that the discipline of the Bible in China should engage. First of all, it should cultivate a comprehensive understanding and absorb the fruits of modern biblical criticism. And then it would go beyond this in locating itself within the Judeo-Christian scriptural tradition. This requires that we take modern biblical criticism and its achievements as our starting point, but in a further step pursue a more comprehensive approach that allows for constructive dialogue with Chinese cultural traditions so as to develop distinctive characteristics of a Chinese discipline of the Bible. 2

Close Reading, In-Depth Interpretation: The Gift of Biblical Criticism

The discipline of the Bible will inevitably engage and assimilate the academic accomplishments of modern biblical criticism. One might even say that a proper understanding and incorporation of biblical criticism constitutes the foundation and starting point for the discipline of the Bible. The phrase “close reading and in-depth interpretation” summarizes the most important contributions of different modes of biblical criticism to contemporary biblical research. So-called “close reading” refers to the practice of “differentiation” in applying the various approaches of textual criticism. It makes use of different contemporary academic methods in seeking the biblical text’s “original form”, helping contemporary readers to overcome two great barriers of doing biblical - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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interpretation: first, interpreting the Bible only in light of its final form; and secondly, understanding the scriptures only in accordance with the doctrines and theology of some contemporary church authority. Instead of asserting that “the Holy Spirit is the author of the Bible,” it helps the readers to understand that the Holy Spirit authored the Bible through historical persons who utilizes their abilities, talents, and convictions to write the Bible in the form of human literary and intellectual output within a particular historical and cultural milieu. Through the work of “close reading”, the reader can begin to perceive the multiple historical and literary dimensions of the biblical texts and approach them from different aspects. Close reading teaches us to apprehend the impossibility of understanding the entire Bible via a single reading lens and instead to approach the biblical texts as separate, smaller historical and literary units of meaning. At the same time, close reading frees us from the “positivistic” constraints that have been projected onto the order of and relationships between these smaller Biblical units. For instance, the order in which the biblical texts have traditionally been compiled does not necessarily correspond to actual chronological order. With the aid of “close reading”, the various layers of meaning of the biblical texts can be unpacked. The stage is then set for the next task, which is that of “in-depth interpretation”. So-called “in-depth interpretation” refers to the resituating of the previously smaller units of biblical text within a holistic historical and cultural milieu to unearth the deeper meanings and inter-connections between the texts and the related communities of faith. There are two contextual aspects to this: the study of the complex ancient Near East or Mediterranean societies and the importance of multifaceted ideological and cultural systems represented in the Bible. Although we associate the Old Testament chiefly with the ancient Israelites and the New Testament with the early Christians, surrounding these two groups is a vast socio-historical setting of different cultures and societies with which the biblical texts interact. The Israelite people inhabited the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Palestinian regions, while the early Christians told the story of Jesus Christ, on the basis of a culture established around the Hebrew Bible, to Greeks and other peoples influenced by Hellenistic cultures residing on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, then part of the Roman Empire. These were all “complex societies” in the true sense of the term. The other aspect is the importance of the multi-faceted ideological and cultural systems represented in the biblical texts. The Bible and the faith communities not only conveyed a deep understanding of God, the world, and human nature, they also established rules for people’s lives, social structure and ritual, as well as specific guidelines for expressions of worship. The Bible does not constitute a literary work in a general sense; it is rather the carrier of the religious life

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of the ancient Israelite people and early Christians. Understanding the deep cultural meanings of these two contextual aspects provides a path of access to the biblical meaning that examines the interconnections between the smaller units of meaning highlighted in “close reading” analysis and in-depth interpretation. In order to develop the scholarly tools of “close reading and in-depth interpretation” in biblical scholarship, the discipline of the Bible should integrate at least three academic practices from modern biblical criticism. The first approach is that of comparative research between the biblical scriptures and other ancient texts.4 Recent archaeological discoveries in the Near East have provided impetus for the study of paleography and given contemporary scholars of the Bible profound insights into the history and cultural contexts associated with the Scriptures. The excavation and interpretation of hundreds of thousands of ancient Near Eastern documents in places such as Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, among others, has led to the accumulation of a massive library of ancient documents apart from the Bible. If the Bible is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg in the discovery of ancient scriptures, then these other texts represent the vast expanse of ancient findings beneath the surface. Further, the biblical texts are not a distinct genre, but are closely related to other Near Eastern literature. The ancient Near East not only comprised the cultural backdrop for the biblical narrative, but also played an important role in its formation. Much of the Old Testament, for example, corresponds to recurrent themes in other ancient Near Eastern literature, such as Genesis I and Enuma Elish, Noah and flood myths, the Hebrew Psalms and Ugaritic poetry, the stories of the birth of Moses and the life of King Sargon, accounts of a covenant at Sinai and the law documents across the ancient Near East, and Solomon’s famous prayer and the Gudea Temple Cylinder inscriptions.5 By comparing the biblical passages with passages from other ancient Near Eastern texts, alternative “original meanings” of the scriptures can be understood more clearly, and readers can explore how the biblical authors drew on and creatively transformed the intellectual and cultural textual resources of ancient Near Eastern literary works. 4 To see a comprehensive overview, Ephraim Stern, The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society & Carta; New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993–2008), a general review about the relationship between archaeology and the Bible, see William G. Dever, “Archaeology and the Bible: Understanding their special relationship”, in Biblical Archaeology Review, Vol. 16, No. 3, May/June 1990. 5 Mark W. Chavalas, Mesopotamia and the Bible: Comparative Explorations (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), for the comparative case of temple building, see Victor Hurowitz, I Have Built You An Exalted House: Temple Building in the Bible in the Light of Mesopotamian and North-West Semitic Writings (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1992).

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Secondly, biblical researchers must delve into the study of the Sitz im Leben (“setting in life”) in which the texts originated. In 1906, Hermann Gunkel first introduced the notion that biblical scriptures should be studied in the context of their “Sitz im Volksleben” (“setting in the life of a people”), a phrase he later on, in 1918, abbreviated to “Sitz im Leben.”6 The original meaning of this concept was to draw up a comprehensive overview of the literary types of biblical texts and thereby explore the social, ethnic, and cultural settings of their time. It explores the sociological contexts of the scriptures and calls for sociological analysis of a particular passage of scripture, examining what kinds of social groups wrote any given text, on what sort of social occasion – whether for times of liturgical celebration, war, or festivals – for what purpose – such as political resistance or to shape the community’s collective memory – and who the addressees were. The study of the Sitz im Leben of the text, that is, its sociological significance, is often related to different types of biblical literature such as the lament, narrative, prophecy, parables, or historiography, which provide deep insight into the study of the Bible. Poetry, for example, is used for a variety of different purposes, such as in collective prayer, for the individual performances of religious elites or as a tool of resistance against oppressive power structures. This extends the discipline of the Bible to a wide range of social and cultural spheres, highlighting the complex socio-cultural meanings of the biblical texts. For the Chinese discipline of the Bible, the connotations of the Sitz im Leben can be taken one step further. This is because for societies with ancient histories and long-standing cultural traditions, the Sitz im Leben not only refers to the interplay of political powers, but also points to the impact of various cultural ideologies. The Sitz im Leben should not be confined to sociological aspects alone but be extended to religious and cultural traditions, and furthermore, the study of the interaction between the biblical texts and present-day life situations needs to extend to the “re-contextualizing” of the scriptures in China.7 Finally, the Chinese discipline of the Bible would learn to be sensitive to the ideological significance of the biblical texts. In recent years, the proliferation of multi-culturalism and equal rights movements have raised awareness of the religious and cultural pluralism in the communities that constituted 6 For a critical introduction, see Gene M. Tucker, Form Criticism of Old Testament (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 2000). 7 An excellent case study, see Archie Lee (LI Chichang), “Ai jiang nan fu yu sheng jing ai ge kua wen ben yue du zhi li zheng [An Illustration of the Cross-Text Reading of Lament for the South and the Lamentations]”, Zong Jiao Yan Jiu [Religions Studies] (Beijing: China Renmin University Press, 2003), Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 196–207, and “Returning to China: Biblical Interpretation in Postcolonial Hong Kong”, Biblical Interpretation 7, 1999, pp. 156–173.

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the backdrop for the formation of the scriptures, groups whose various ideologies are reflected in the writings and compilations of the biblical texts over long periods in history. In the case of the Old Testament, this history reflects the religious understandings and self-identification of different groups in ancient Israel throughout the course of its extensive history, including relations between Israel and other ancient Near Eastern kingdoms, as well as the domestic political power and ideological struggles between the Israelites and Canaanites and the contest for religious legitimacy between the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel. In the New Testament, we encounter theological differences among the various early Christian groups, as well as ideological resistance to the Greek colonial and Roman imperial cultures. Thus, unearthing the ideological biases within the biblical texts reminds us of the need to expose the dominant ideologies represented in the text while trying to detect voices that have been silenced or suppressed.8 On another level, with regard to its religious uses and theological interpretations, the Scripture forms a kind of “ideological contestation ground” onto which different groups in society project their ideological aspirations when, for example, interpreting the meaning of one and the same verse. In conjunction with the methods of historical and literary criticism outline above, close scrutiny of the ideological background and biases in the biblical texts helps readers discern the ideological inclinations of biblical writers and compilers, thus advancing a deeper understanding of the scriptures. Chinese discipline of the Bible must familiarize itself with and draw inspiration from all forms of these contemporary biblical criticism, especially the various contemporary approaches such as post-colonial, feminist, and ecological criticism. 3

Integrated Innovation and Three Pillars for the Chinese Discipline of the Bible

With the strategy of “close reading and in-depth interpretation” of the Bible, the scholarly framework of Chinese discipline of the Bible would be established. But, if the discipline wants to build an independent intellectual identity within the multi-religious and culturally pluralistic setting of contemporary Chinese society, it needs to develop one step further, that is, with the academic inspiration from the Biblical criticism, and in strong interaction with the Judeo-Christian tradition, it needs to integrate all of these intellectual 8 Sonja Foss, Rhetorical Criticism: Exploration and Practice (Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press, 2004), pp. 295–296.

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resources towards a Chinese discipline of the Bible that is unique (distinctive), integrated (comprehensive) and systematic. Owing to its multi-scriptural context, the distinctiveness of the discipline of the Bible would form its foundation and starting point in the Chinese setting. Chinese traditional culture itself was developed on the basis of its systematic study and interpretation of its classics ( jingxue). Thus, when the Abrahamic religions were later introduced into China, they would be constructed on the basis of in-depth dialogue and exchange with the Chinese classics and their interpretations. Given its context, this method of “dialogue” is certainly an apt approach for dealing with the relationship between the discipline of the Bible and the Chinese tradition of jingxue. Dialogue is not just about “speaking” and “listening”; it is also about better understanding oneself by encountering the other. In the multi-religious Chinese context, dialogue is a form of boundarycrossing and interactive learning, an activity of discovery and self-cultivation. As a result, participants increasingly understand that religious dialogue is not simply about comparing and contrasting similarities and differences. Nor is it just about finding common ground. The basis and aim of religious dialogue or comparative research should point to the particularity of the various religious traditions through dialogue, self-reflection, and mutual learning, as well as strengthening our awareness of what constitutes the distinctive character of each tradition.9 The awareness of the distinctiveness of the Bible against the Chinese cultural context has a deep meaning from the perspective of world civilizations. A work of the ancient Israelites, the Bible was composed within the cultural matrix of the ancient Near East. Broadly speaking, the origins of Near Eastern culture trace back to Mesopotamian civilization, which developed around the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Mesopotamian civilization was not only the source of Egyptian civilization, but also the predecessor of Greek civilization. The Old and New Testaments, which originated in Mesopotamian civilization, were adapted to and transformed by Greco-Roman culture before they were shaped and influenced by western culture over a history of nearly two thousand years. In terms of their significance to the history of human civilization, the Bible and the Judeo-Christian tradition derived from it have helped ensure the continuity of western civilization for five to six thousand years, from early Mesopotamia (in Chinese, literally, “two rivers”) to modern Euro-America. It 9 For the methodology of comparative dialogue between religions, see Francis Clooney, Comparative Theology: Deep Learning Across Religious Borders (New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), and for a comparative study acrossing the scriptural borders, see Ford, David F. and Chad Pecknold, The Promise of Scriptural Reasoning (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006).

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is difficult to form a clear understanding of its distinctive identity as developed in the context of Western civilization over so many centuries. When the Bible enters the context of Chinese civilization, however, the distinct characteristics of the discipline of the Bible stand out through their comparison with Chinese culture. The “Six Classics” have always been the core of Chinese classical learning, the quintessence of Chinese civilization since the Shang and Zhou Dynasties (16th to 6th century BCE), and the continuous carrier of civilizational development over subsequent generations. In this sense, the Six Scriptures (or the expanded “Thirteen Scriptures”) represent the Chinese version of the “two-river civilization”, namely, Chinese civilization as it stretched across the vast region from the Yellow River to the Yangtze River, spanning a history of roughly five thousand years.10 From a wider historical perspective, these are the two most ancient original civilizations: The West Asian and East Asian “two-river basin” civilizations, which meet in the field of Chinese discipline of the Bible, to enter into dialogue and exchange.11 To emphasize the distinction of the Biblical tradition against its Chinese dialogical partners is not necessarily at odds with the polyphony of the Bible or the ancient Near Eastern context of the biblical texts. Distinctiveness is not the same as singularity or homogeneity. There is a complex interplay of diversity not only between the Old Testament and the New Testament, but also between different Jewish groups or sects in the case of the Old Testament and different Christian groups or factions in the case of the New Testament. Different communities developed their own theological positions and kept their own historical memories. On one hand, Chinese discipline of the Bible needs to be aware of these diverse voices and positions; on the other hand, it is important to see these as belonging to a wider tradition, which, when brought together, form an even larger whole. Viewed from an inside perspective, people can distinguish diverse biblical groups and traditions. However, when we look at the Judeo-Christian tradition from the outside, from the perspective of Chinese civilization in cross-cultural dialogue, the fact that all these groups belong to the larger Judeo-Christian tradition clearly stands out. Hence, the notorious issues of Biblical studies, such as the supposition of the unity of the Old and New Testaments or the continuity between the Jewish and Christian traditions, will gain new insight in the process of in-depth mutual learning with 10 11

To develop this comparative understanding of China and Western cultural comparison, see XU Hong, Earliest China (Zui Zao De Zhong Guo) (Beijing: Science Press, 2009), pp. 20–29. Paulos Huang and Archie Lee, “Wenxue zuopin, renwen jingdian, Shen de huayu, haishi Shen yu ren jiaopeng de jilu?”, International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 18, 2020, pp. 187–218 (www.SinoWesternStudies.com/latest-volumes/vol-18-2020-1).

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the tradition of Chinese scriptural studies ( jingxue). To adhere to the principle of distinctiveness, Chinese discipline of the Bible, after thoroughly mastering the methods of modern biblical criticism, must commit to a path of integrated innovation. “Integrated” here means a comprehensive grasp of the polyphony of the Bible and of the biblical ancient Near East, as well as an in-depth understanding of the textual traditions and ideologies that developed in different historical situations. “Innovation” as explained here refers to the construction of a holistic system of meaning centered on the distinctiveness of the Bible, in its dialogical contrast with the Chinese civilizations. All this then leads to an important question: Upon what foundations can the distinctiveness of Chinese discipline of the Bible be established? Generally speaking, the distinctiveness of the Chinese discipline of the Bible would be based on two topics, namely, Jesus Christ and the church. Historically, Jesus was a figure who lived in the first century CE. From the point of view of faith, he is the Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Bible, the incarnate Word who God revealed in word and deed. With regard to the continuation of cultural tradition, the life of Jesus belongs to the long-standing Jewish cultural tradition. On the basis of their intimate familiarity with the Hebrew Scriptures, the New Testament authors explained the life of Jesus and its significance in terms of God’s salvific engagement with the world, history and humankind. Thus it is plausible to look at the depiction and interpretation of Jesus Christ presented by the New Testament authors as a creative transformation of the Jewish religious tradition. The early consensus of the church fathers that “the New Testament is hidden in the Old Testament, and the Old Testament is visible in the New Testament” is not merely a theological tenet of faith, but can also be convincingly demonstrated from the perspective of cultural transmission, the Hebrew origins within the New Testament. From the perspective of the continuity between the Old and New Testaments and the ways in which they illuminate each other, Jesus Christ can be understood as the focal point at the heart of the Bible.12 As to the other focal point, the church, this needs to be understood in a broad sense. In the most basic sense, the faith community is one that has been called by God and with whom God has established His covenant. In the case of the Old Testament, this faith community is the Jewish people: in the case of the New Testament, it is the early Christian church. The interaction between the people, or faith community, and the scriptures was essential: without the 12

Pope Benedict XVI, Verbum Domini, 2010, p. 13. http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict -xvi/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20100930_verbum-domini .html, log on August 9, 2019.

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“community”, there would have been no “scriptures”; without the “scriptures”, there would have been no “community”. The essence of the Bible can only be fully understood from the point of view of the profound interaction between the biblical texts and the people who formed and were formed by them. The Bible is neither just a historical document, although it is largely organized as a historical narrative, nor simply a work of literature, although it certainly displays literary features. The Bible introduces the words and actions of God as recurring in history and in liturgies; it combines the past, present and future, establishing the identity of a faith community based upon its cosmology and eschatology.13 It is for this reason that Chinese discipline of the Bible cannot neglect the sociological dimension. The historical and literary units of the Bible originated within the worship life of the ancient Jewish people and early Christian church. When these stories or works were honored by the respective faith communities as “the word of God”, the basic connotation of “scripture” in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and used in public worship, they established and shaped the life of the faith community. Based on this understanding of the Bible, the “church” as a community of faith generally transcends a simple sociological meaning and is of human or even cosmological significance.14 Conversely, it is only interpreted from a perspective of this “universal” faith community that the deeper layers of meaning of the Bible can be revealed in the Chinese context. Then, we can see the three pillars for the Chinese discipline of the Bible: one person, Jesus Christ; one people, the church, as the faith community; and one book, the Bible. While they all have both historical and cultural attributes and manifestations, each of these also possesses a transcendent meaning. The person is not only a historical figure, but Jesus Christ, the incarnated word who unites the divine and the human. The faith community is not only the visible church that is situated in the socio-cultural context but also a community that includes all saints in heaven and on earth. The Bible is the product and carrier of civilizational history in the Judeo-Christian tradition, as well as the words or breath of the Holy Spirit through human beings. Upon these three pillars, the distinctiveness of Chinese discipline of the Bible can thus be established in the Chinese context of religious pluralism.

13 14

A classical work on this, see Sigmund Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel’ s Worship (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004). To understand the cosmological aspect of the church, see Catechism of the Catholic Church (New York: Doubleday, 1992), no. 751–776, and World Council of Churches, The Church: Towards A Common Vision (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 2013), pp. 7–36.

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Acknowledging the distinctiveness of the Bible as the starting point and basis of Chinese discipline of the Bible goes hand in hand with emphasizing its integrative and systematic approach.15 The so-called integrative approach refers to the synthesis and internal consistency of Christian scholarship in the Chinese context. When encountering the deep riches of Chinese culture, Christian scholarship should not restrict itself to intellectual or philosophical arguments, but should represent as a living cultural system that fuses both knowledge and practice, individual as well as communal. The long-standing Christian tradition not only encompasses doctrine, but also includes the sacraments, applied ethics, devotional life, and other elements. These can be rephrased in traditional Chinese terminology, namely Christian teachings or dogma ( jiao li xue), ritual (li yi xue), ethics (lun li xue), and heart-mind cultivation (xin xing xue). Chinese discipline of the Bible should orient itself towards and model itself after these disciplines and integrate itself into them to the point of taking on a pivotal or formative role within the whole. In fact, in retrospect of the living tradition of Christianity, biblical studies have always closely interacted with the theological arguments, liturgical performance, and devotional life of faith community. It is only by way of such an integrated, or comprehensive, approach that Chinese discipline of the Bible can be established and, once being integrated into the disciplines of doctrine, sacraments, ethics, and heart-mind cultivation, display its own distinctiveness within the Chinese context of religious and scriptural pluralism. To conclude, to building a Chinese discipline of the Bible must go hand in hand with an awareness of the contextual backdrop of China’s religious and scriptural pluralism. The clearer our understanding of the plurality of Chinese culture, the more we can appreciate the need for and value of developing the distinctive, integrative and systematic attributes of the discipline of the Bible. Thus, having incorporated the resources of modern biblical criticism, by strengthening its capacity for close reading and in-depth interpretation, as well as integrating this capacity into the development of a distinctive biblical intellectual tradition upon the three pillars as mentioned above, this discipline can bring the Bible and its Judeo-Christian tradition into meaningful dialogue with the Chinese contextual cultures, thereby providing a positive impetus for the indigenization of Christianity in China. 15

Bin You, “Calling for A Greater Theology in the Indigenization of Christianity in China [ Ji Du Jiao Zhong Guo Hua Hu Huan Da Shen Xue Yi Shi]”, in Tian Feng [Heavenly Wind], 2018 (5), pp. 34–35.

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chapter 2

A Commentary History of the Old Testament in Modern China Jian Cao In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,1 the introduction of the Bible, and the Chinese literary and intellectual reception and appropriation of it, are matters of great importance. When Christian missionaries arrived in China, they were met by a highly literate civilization. The prevalence of Chinese literary responses to the Bible has grown remarkably since the 1860s as Christians and non-Christians incorporated biblical motifs and themes into their works. These responses demonstrate how nineteenth- and twentieth-century intellectuals have tried to understand the traumatic events of their time by resorting to and interpreting biblical messages. Interpreting Old Testament (OT) ideas and persons poses several basic problems. First, there is the question of selection. For what an interpreter will choose is invariably related to specific values, concerns, and even goals of his own period. Second, the interpreter’s ideological, philosophical, or political point of view is bound to influence the choices he makes. And third, when interpreting a literature with whose language he is not familiar – thus using a secondary language – an interpreter’s word selection is in fact already preselected. Notions gained and views developed regarding other peoples – on the basis of interpretations – are, therefore, sometimes distorted. Similarities may be seen where none exist, and differences may be glossed over because they are not properly understood.2 1 This chapter is a revised preface to Cao, Chinese Biblical Anthropology, 2019. This is a phase outcome of the project “Research on the Historical Consciousness of Modern Jews” (18YJA730001) supported by China’s Ministry of Education. You, X., and Huang, P., “The Contemporary Transformation of Educational Mechanism for Knowledge InnovationDialogue on Finland’s Education and China’s General Education”, International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 20, 2021, pp. 1–22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37819/ijsws.20.106. 2 Eber et al., “Translation Literature in Modern China”, 291–311. Paulos Huang and Archie Lee, “Wenxue zuopin, renwen jingdian, Shen de huayu, haishi Shen yu ren jiaopeng de jilu?”, in International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 18, 2020, pp. 187–218 (www .SinoWesternStudies.com/latest-volumes/vol-18-2020-1). Liang, G., “The Bible and the Construction of Western Literary Theories”, Yearbook of Chinese Theology, Vol. 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2020), pp. 119–129. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004469440_004

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Cao

Before the 1970s, the study of Christianity in China often reflected a missioncentered approach,3 but scholars gradually recognized that they could not study “Christianity in China” without saying anything about the Chinese context and Chinese converts. A “China-centered” approach is advocated by Paul Cohen when he explains what is happening in modern China. Cohen’s point of view is significant because he argues that concrete historical data comprise not historical events but the personal experiences of individuals, including their thoughts, feelings, and motivations. As a result, Chinese converts too became an important subject. Why did they accept Christianity? Did they respond to missionary preaching? How did they maintain a balance between Chinese culture and Christian ideas? And, how did they justify their faith in the face of anti-foreign, revolutionary tides in China?4 In this writing, these questions are posed also in studying the Chinese encounter with the OT. In the field of Sino-Western cultural exchange, “The Bible in China” has in the past four decades attracted increasing attention among scholars. Problems concerning introduction, reception, and appropriation of the Bible in China have inspired scholars to raise many questions. Book-long efforts have been made in studying Chinese Bible versions and their literary impact.5 There are still many questions and the need for rethinking. For example, one result of the prevalent interest in the New Testament (NT) and converts is that the role and impact of the NT or Christian culture often is exaggerated. The lack of research regarding the OT, non-converts, and Hebrew/Jewish culture in China has been an obstacle to our understanding the history of the Bible and Christianity in China. Not all impact can be attributed to Christianity and the Christian Bible.6 3 The mission-centered approach is obvious in such works as Latourette, History of Christian Missions, 1929; D’Elia, Catholic Missions in China, 1941; Cary-Elwes, China and the Cross, 1957, to name just a few. 4 Wang, “Moving toward a Mature, Balanced Stage”, 22. 5 Some major works on the Chinese Bible versions include Zhao, Yijing suyuan [Tracing the Origin of Bible Translating], 1993; Zetzsche, Bible in China, 1999; Xing, Shengjing guanhua heheben jufa yanjiu [Syntactic Studies on the Chinese Mandarin Version], 2012; Xu, Gudai shengjing hanyi [Chinese Bible Translating in History], 2014; Liu, Yuyan de shehuishi [The Social History of Language], 2015; and Zhao, Yuwai ziyuan yu wanqing yuyan yundong [Foreign sources and the vernacular movement in late Qing dynasty], 2019. The impact of the Bible on modern Chinese literature was first studied in Robinson, Double-edged Sword, 1986. Some other works are Kinkley, Odyssey of Shen Congwen, 1987; Yang, Kuangye de husheng [Crying in the Wilderness], 1998; Guo, Wusi nvxing zuojia [The Bible and Women Writers during the May Fourth Period], 2013 and Mak, Protestant Bible Translation and Mandarin, 2017. There also are collections of papers such as Eber et al., Bible in Modern China, 1999 and Gálik, Influence, Translation and Parallels, 2004. 6 For example, Hu Shi (1891–1962) had very close contact with some Jews, including professors and students in America; see Hu, Hushi koushu zizhuan [Oral Autobiography of Hu Shi],

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This work aims to provide a broad picture of the modern history of the OT from the nineteenth century to the twentieth century, showing the ways in which the OT encountered Chinese culture through one of the most difficult, exciting, and confusing periods in China’s long history. My major interest is twofold: to study a number of persons and ideas in the Hebrew Bible and to understand how they change when transposed onto another cultural context. This raises the question of which OT persons and ideas were important to educated Chinese? What made them appealing? How were those OT persons and ideas reinterpreted? In what way did they inspire interested readers? By answering these and other questions, I hope to contribute to a more comprehensive picture of the Bible in modern China. This research is based primarily on the actual writings in history. Claims are linked to a wide range of historical and cultural materials produced by both foreign and indigenous missionaries and intellectuals in English and different kinds of Chinese. Both well-known and more obscure Chinese figures were important to this research, regardless of their ideologies. As far as their interpretations of OT motifs are concerned, the focus is naturally on the changes the interpreters made of the original OT text. Those differences are significant, because they illustrate more clearly the contextualization of OT persons and ideas in modern China and the meeting points of OT traditions with Chinese culture. The growth of a commentary tradition is closely connected with an increasing interest in the OT. The OT in modern Chinese thought can be divided into three major periods reflecting the growth of a commentary tradition. The first period, from the arrival of the Protestants in 1807 to the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, represents the beginning of the OT in China. At this time, foreign missionaries played a decisive role in introducing the OT to Chinese literati. Discussions among both converts and a small number of official scholars ensued as a more broadly-based readership of the OT appeared. The second period, from 1895 to the 1910s, when the Qing court was replaced by the Republic, was a transitional period. For the first time, diversities and controversies among non-converts appeared. Various perspectives on interpreting the OT became obvious. But due to lack of sufficient knowledge of OT literature, commentary efforts were made only by a small number of interpreters and limited to a very small number of OT motifs.

33. Pan Zhao, “Unchangeable and Changeable: Chen Chonggui’s Biblical Interpretation and Chinese Society”, in International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 18, 2020, pp. 113–123, (www.SinoWesternStudies.com/latest-volumes/vol-18-2020-1).

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The third period, dating from the May Fourth Movement to the eve of the establishment of the People’s Republic, is a period of the appropriation of OT persons and ideas. Thanks to the successes with vernacular translations and OT education facilitated by missionaries in previous years, OT commentaries were now much more diverse and extensive using different methods and ideologies. They also covered many more OT persons and ideas, some of these being allusions in the language of the intellectuals despite the non-existence of the referent and reference in the Chinese language.7 Translation of the OT and OT studies is considered the first step in the introduction of the OT. The second step concerns its reception, by which I mean the comments by Chinese readers on the OT that represented initial attempts to understand and interpret a text in which new and different ideas were expressed. It is this reception that led in time to the third step, that of appropriation, when writers and intellectuals integrated OT images, metaphors, symbols, and the like into non-religious texts – although the line between reception and appropriation is not always clearly drawn. The three periods and three steps form the five main chapters of the work. 1 Chapter One is entitled “The Old Testament in Chinese Culture: Slow Beginnings in Turbulent Times.” The Bible, in various ways, has been present in China since at least the seventh century but has witnessed its golden age only in the last two hundred years. In the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), part of the NT and the Psalms were translated into Mongolian, rather than Chinese, but disappeared as did other vestiges of the Catholic Church introduced by the Franciscan friars. Neither the Jesuits nor Russian Orthodox succeeded in translating the Scriptures despite their encounter with Chinese literati or their uninterrupted presence in the capital.8 However, when British and American 7 An allusion is a direct or indirect reference to a person, place, event, or character, usually well-known in history, literature, legend, mythology, or books like the Bible. In dealing with allusions, we should ask particularly if an allusion adds anything to the meaning or effect of a work. Allusions are deeply rooted in the soil of a particular culture and cannot be easily transplanted into a foreign land and bear the same fruit. Hwang, “Allusions”, 14–15. 8 Nestorian Christians came to China in the seventh century and almost disappeared in the anti-Buddhist sweep between 841 and 845, but they reappeared briefly at the Mongol court centuries later. In 1289, Franciscan friars from Europe initiated mission work in China, which disappeared from 1368, as the Ming dynasty set out to eject foreign influences. In 1582, Jesuits once again instated mission work inside China, but they were finally expelled after 1721 due to a long-running controversy over Chinese customs and names for God. Russian Orthodoxy

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Protestants came to China in the early nineteenth century, it was a different story. They were active in most parts of China – aided by gunboats, merchants, China’s weakness, social unrest, and the pervasive evangelism their home churches carried out in China. Their achievement in translating the Bible and introducing it to larger segments of the Chinese population, particularly the educated, is remarkable. The missionaries along with their Chinese co-workers repeatedly and continuously rendered the Bible into different levels, plain or deep, and different styles, literal or idiomatic, of literary or mandarin Chinese language, so that the Chinese Bible could achieve the utmost readability. Readability is a major prerequisite for reception and appropriation. It is the stage in which Chinese translations made their contributions. Two prime examples are the Delegates’ Bible in classical Chinese and Schereschewsky’s Mandarin translation which, until the appearance of the 1919 Union Bible, was the most widely read version of the Bible. Readability is not only clarity of language for understanding the ideas expressed in the text, but also the power to evoke a response, be it a creative act, like writing poetry, or a philosophical inquiry.9 Reception and appropriation are the very responses evoked by the readability of the Chinese Bible. If reception was primarily a function of the new Christian audience, appropriation included non-Christians as well. The OT as more a story book than the NT was particularly involved in the slow beginnings. Considering the various translations of the Chinese Bible, none can be considered a literal translation; they can be described only as more or less successful transpositions. The missionary translators and authors also adopted dominant literary devices and styles as well as familiar concepts and paradigms taken from the Chinese Classics. As a result, OT persons and ideas indeed aroused interest in the OT and discussions on its motifs among some educated Chinese, first of all, among educated converts. However, Chinese Christians did not simply follow their missionary leaders, but produced a discourse aimed at forming new terminologies and new theories of understanding biblical doctrines. Although they, like the missionaries, often invoked the Chinese classics to prove a point, most of their essays were explanatory rather than polemical. One example was the attempt to understand the Ten Commandments and to explain them in vocabulary akin to Chinese moral, was introduced in 1715, and Protestants began entering in 1807. For details about Christian groups in China, see Bays, A New History. 9 Eber et al., “Introduction”, 13–26. Initiated by Irene Eber, some most original efforts have been made in studying the Chinese translation by Schereschewsky; see particularly Eber, Jewish Bishop, 1999; Yariv-Laor, “Linguistic Aspects”, 101–120; and Cao, “Chinese Mandarin Bible”, 122–138. For the study on the 1919 Union Bible, see Zetzsche, Bible in China.

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particularly Neo-Confucian, maxims. In interpreting the Decalogue, instead of stern prohibitions, these initial interpreters chose not only a gentler form such as poetry for conveying OT messages, but attempted also to show that these messages differed little, if at all, from what the Chinese themselves had known and practiced since earlier times. Chinese non-Christians, especially Confucian literati like reformist thinkers Xu Jiyu 徐继畲 (1795–1873) and Song Yuren 宋育仁 (1857–1931), read the missionary publications and showed an interest in OT motifs. At the time, Protestant missionaries were especially influential in the littoral regions of China, where most of these reformers were from. While among them the interest was increasingly stimulated, pressure to preserve or redefine their Chinese identities mounted, underscoring the problem of racial difference and Western prejudice. Thus Confucianism, which was after all Chinese, acquired for most of them a new importance and became something to hold onto in their interpretation of OT persons and ideas. However, once the reformers took control in the littoral, they found themselves in a strategic position to break out of traditional patterns and establish new ones. Through their writings, they transformed what had once been totally strange into something a little less foreign, gradually accustoming people to the novelty of the new, making it less conspicuous, more palatable. Broader acceptance was given to ideas that a short time before had been acceptable by only a few. Hinterland change was facilitated by these littoral intellectuals. The reformers before the 1890s were among the first generation of modern Chinese who began the transition to nationalism; therefore, their writings about OT persons and ideas were particularly meaningful.10 Upon arriving in China in the scientific era of the nineteenth century, Protestant missionaries from the West soon adapted to the developments of Christian theology and the challenge of the Chinese language context in introducing the Bible as an essential and organic part of Western learning to the educated Chinese. The Bible should not be neglected in the eastward transmission of Western learning. Not only are biblical books shown compatible with modern sciences, they also reveals universal truths of human history. Appreciation of narration and unfolding of the narration’s purpose is deeply rooted in the mentality of Protestant missionaries, which made it easy for them to accept ideas of change and development. In introducing the Bible, unlike Catholics, Protestants refer more to story than to dogma, concentrating more on biblical narrative than on creedal formulation.11 The Bible as story points 10 11

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out the specific nature of the biblical presentation of past events: the Bible is more of a narrated history than a cause-and-effect reconstruction of the exact course of historical events. It does not primarily reconstruct, but rather interprets.12 The OT revealed a tragedy, for example, through a story and a figure’s life rather than the imitation of actions. Unfolding of the crisis is a presentation of a process. The reason for presentational representation lies both in OT’s emphasis on the meaning of history and in its numerous historical narratives and life stories.13 In other words, all historical narratives in the Bible are presented under the dominant inquiry for the meaning of history.14 Historical literature of the OT, especially the later books of Ruth, Esther, Job, and Jonah, is self-identical to the people of ancient Israel. Therefore, with the focus on the OT, Chapter One demonstrates how motifs of the Hebrew culture, especially the history and image of ancient Israelites as “the other,” were reshaped and narrated in a challenged era under both Christian and Confucian exegetic limitations and imaginations. Remarkably, these reshapings and narrations anticipate the historical and self-identical consciousness of the educated Chinese through the end of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. 2 Chapter Two “The Old Testament and New Concerns at the End of the Nineteenth and the Beginning of the Twentieth Centuries” discusses the transfer and change from the first to the second period of Biblical exegesis, of the OT in particular, in the Chinese context. In the first period, from the arrival of Robert Morrison in China to the eve of the 1894 Sino-Japanese War, biblical exegesis among Chinese readers was in its initial stage. The material produced was mono-basic. However, China’s loss in the Sino-Japanese War brought about new interests and poly-basic approaches. More non-Christian intellectuals – including orthodox and conservative Confucians, reformists, and revolutionaries – were stimulated by the OT and the Jews. Their active engagement with the OT, often with fierce arguments, became a feature of the second period of Biblical exegesis, then paved the way to the third period, from the appearance of the Union Version of the Bible to the Communist era beginning in 1949. After the defeat of China in the 1894 Sino-Japanese War, the response of non-Christians to the OT became increasingly more active and pronounced. 12 13 14

Mascarenhas, “Bible as a Book”, 412–413. Gardner, Religion and Literature, 74. Schneidau, Sacred Discontent, 212. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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With the growing interest in the OT came new interpretative tendencies among educated Chinese like Shan Shili 单士厘 (1858–1945), Tang Caichang 唐才常 (1867–1900), and Kang Youwei 康有为 (1858–1927). These were joined with various political ideals at a time of national crisis. A major phenomenon was the awareness of the Jewish diaspora. The Jews “culturally constructed/ reconstructed” as “other” remained a distant mirror in the construction of the “self” among various social groups in modern China. Thus, the definition of “Jew” had both a religious and secular meaning. On the one hand it symbolized tradition, and on the other it invoked modernity. The Jewish problem became relevant to many of China’s revolutionary nationalists, to whom statelessness was the cause of the Jewish tragedy and signaled a powerful warning. Since they saw that money could not save the stateless Jews, their criticism was also directed toward the modernizing reformers who hoped that the nation’s acquisition of wealth might be a solution. By demonstrating that the past glory of the Jews did not save them from their present suffering, revolutionary nationalists were also against the reformist idea of preserving Confucianism and the emperor. To avoid being like the stateless Jews, China must promote nationalism first.15 During this transitional period, Liang Qichao 梁启超 (1873–1929) showed a keen interest in the OT story of Exodus and figure of Moses in many of his writings. Liang, therefore, is discussed in more detail with a focus on his creative portrait of a new Moses in accordance with his call for “new citizens” and heroes. Through description and analysis of Liang’s published comments on Jews and OT motifs over two important periods of his life, the years of his exile in Japan (1898–1912) and the years after he returned to China (1912–1929), Chapter Two demonstrates how western ideas exerted impacts by way of OT and Jewish cultures on this dominant political and intellectual figure in modern Chinese history. Ye Dehui 叶德辉 (1864–1927), the main opponent of Liang among orthodox Confucians, and others revealed the impact of both the OT motifs and Liang’s discussions in their writings. Liang’s foremost concern in the Japanese exile was unity among the Chinese both nationally and politically. The Jews were winners because of their national unity and strong national identity, which was brought about by their strong religious consciousness. The Jews were also losers because they lacked political unity. Again, the reason for the lack of political unity was their steadfast religious passion. National unity made the Jews a whole nation despite the long exile while the lack of political unity made them suffer oppression from others. Both facts can teach the Chinese a valuable lesson. 15

Zhou, Chinese Perceptions, 2, 4, and 52.

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In his use of Moses, Liang projected onto him Western values, which Liang thought were necessary for national survival in the international conflict among states. The re-interpretation of Moses consisted in Liang’s call for heroes. This was a call for the new citizen or the renovation of the Chinese people. By using ambiguous terms like great man, hero, and sage, Liang was also calling for great historical figures in the transitional period to lead the people out of crisis to a new world. Liang’s heroic Moses reflects both his deterministic and voluntarist thoughts. On the one hand, the Chinese have to follow the natural law of evolution in the world of states, on the other, they can survive the national crisis by their own efforts. In the light of that, Liang transformed the role of the sage from a prophet in Chinese tradition to a hero in his Darwinist nationalism. Liang rethought Chinese and Western cultures after World War I. When denouncing Western ideas, here Jewish ideas, Liang searched at the same time for Chinese parallels and precedents. When Liang paid tribute to Moses, he demonstrated his utilitarian and non-sentimental adoption of any measure which may affect a change for the better. When he re-embraced his own cultural tradition in later years, it revealed his proud faith in the existence of a national essence. Here was a new syncretism: the Mosaic or Western style in searching for material wealth and power was insufficient. By combining this style with the spirit of Chinese culture, an efficient instrument could be created. In doing so, Liang also found a solution to the conflict between shame and pride, which had constantly bothered Liang’s inner need of personal identity. In interpreting OT persons and ideas, instead of using either Jewish or Christian commentary sources, Liang consulted Chinese classics and contemporary Western ideas such as Darwinism and statism. Liang’s OT interpretations, together with many others by his contemporaries, demonstrate that after the 1898 Reform Movement, a cultural interaction on a significant scale was established between Western and traditional Chinese culture. New problems, concerns, and ideas were forged out of the intellectual interaction, and they became part of the national cultural transformation that continued well into the following decades. Liang’s discussions furthermore reveal that, if Chinese tradition is characteristic of inclusive rather than exclusive thinking,16 the formation of the OT commentary tradition in modern China took a similar course.

16

Even Christian intellectuals, such as Li Rongfang, Yuan Ding’an, Guo Bendao, Zhu Weizhi 朱维之, and others, were not working with an overriding faith in God, but attempted to relate their interpretations to the problems of their times, as discussed in Chapter Four.

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3 Chapter Three is about “The Vernacular Old Testament, Education and the New Literature.” From a special perspective and by extensive use of primary sources, particularly the Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal (1868–1941), the initial part of the chapter argues that teaching as well as translating of the OT (as well as the NT, which is mentioned but not the focus) manifestly anticipated several dimensions of the vernacular movement which ultimately developed into the New Culture Movement during the May Fourth Movement. Pioneering efforts and original contributions were made by both foreign missionaries and indigenous Chinese Christian pastors, teachers, intellectuals, and other collaborators. Without ignoring other reasons for the increased emphasis on the use of vernacular, clearly Protestant missionaries played a unique and pioneering role in the vernacular movement by means of their constant efforts to produce a unified version of the Chinese Bible and study aids like commentaries and textbooks for Chinese readers. Vernacularizing Bible translation and reading tremendously enhanced the ever-growing distribution of the OT in China. The sale of the Bible grew fast, even in 1923 and 1924 despite and perhaps because of the Anti-Christian Movement.17 The great number of Scriptures that circulated in China year after year were not without their influence. However, it must be remembered that OT education, together with vernacular Bible translation, augmented the vernacular movement or were part of it. During the transitional period, the vernacular movement of Bible translating and the missionary movement of OT education popularized and modernized the reading and study of OT literature among both educated adults and the youth at missionary schools. In translating, teaching, and making the Bible available to read in vernacular Chinese, Western Protestant missionaries granted the Bible an original place in the Vernacular Movement in modern China. Their controversy about linguistic styles of Bible translation, the propaganda for the use of vernacular, one speech for one nation, and vernacular literature, paved the way for the Vernacular Movement. The long process of making the Union Version is particularly important to the Vernacular Movement in achieving a pure universal Mandarin free of both pedantry in traditional Confucianist scholastic style and localisms of particular dialects. The updating process of revising the text rendered the transition less sudden and less clumsy, which finally made possible 17

For statistical evidence, see Latourette, History of Christian Missions, 648 and 788. Also see China Mission Year Book, 1923, 116; and 1925, 369–373.

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the speedy and wide acceptance of the Union Version. Also, in line with the Vernacular Movement, the missionaries launched Bible education at Christian schools and applied modern educational methods to promote Bible learning. The missionaries not only highlighted the importance of teaching Mandarin, but also promoted the use of a national phonetic system. Missionary schools emerged with the rise of the Yangwu (Foreign Affairs) Movement in the second half of the nineteenth century when the Chinese intellectuals’ attitude toward the West changed. These schools flourished after the Boxer Rebellion, when the interest in Christianity grew, and with the establishment of the Republic, which initiated a new epoch for evangelical Christianity in China. During this period, the abolition of the civil service examinations in 1905 and the end of the Chinese imperial house in 1911 saw the breakdown of the highly integrated traditional political, social, cultural, and moral orders. Administration of the missionary schools was in the hands of the foreign missionaries, and much emphasis was given to Bible study. Courses on OT books were taught at all levels in vernacular. As a result of the joint impact of modern science, Protestant liberal theology, higher criticism in biblical studies, the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, the awareness of the Chinese context, and the ambition to take a lead in Chinese reforms, these schools approached OT persons and ideas from not only a theological perspective but also from historical, political, and literary perspectives. OT education run by missionaries left its mark even on Chinese students abroad. In fact, most students returning to China had been enrolled in Bible classes at some period in their college careers.18 The Chinese Students’ Christian Association was organized in every country where considerable number of students were present. Bible classes were provided for them. In America, for example, students’ summer conferences where Chinese students were brought in groups to spend ten days with several hundred selected American students in Bible study, were considered by Arthur Ruth as “the most effective single method of work” for Chinese students.19 The introduction and reception of the OT through vernacular Bible reading and school OT education were the major building blocks that facilitated the later entry of OT ideas and imagery into China’s wider theological and literary discourse. One immediate result of modern Bible reading and OT education was the interest among Christian intellectuals in the literary significance of the OT, which is the topic of the latter part of Chapter Three. OT images and 18 19

Mei, “Returned Student in China”, 173. Ruth, “Chinese Students Abroad”, 156–157.

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imagery often were creatively transformed in these literary works. Although long ignored by scholars, the many discussions by intellectuals on the literary art of the Chinese OT deserve a position in modern Chinese literature. The Chinese OT was a convenient and important source of inspiration to many Chinese authors. Research concerning Chinese Christian intellectuals and Bible translations are developing independently of one another. Here, the OT in Chinese translations will be discussed with regard to Chinese Christian readers in order to understand more clearly the effects of OT reading. The literary issues insufficiently acknowledged by scholars, as far as Christian intellectuals are concerned, will be emphasized. The survey takes 1919 as the starting point because of the May Fourth Incident in that year and ends with 1937 due to the undeclared war launched by Japan, which, for all practical purposes, disrupted and terminated the intellectual developments set in motion years earlier. Between 1919 and 1937 Christian intellectuals, who in this chapter are mainly baptized Protestants, were profoundly influenced by new concerns. Many Chinese Protestant intellectuals regarded the OT both as a literary and a religious document. Three principal reasons account for the Protestant intellectuals’ interest in the literary aspects of the books from the OT: literary beauty, application to NT and Christian theology20 and relevance to the needs of modern China. These three dimensions were seldom separated from one another. OT translation into the vernacular, OT education, and literary writings made possible the entrance of OT ideas and imagery into a wider discourse. Even if later theologians, writers, or intellectuals during the following period of the New Culture Movement were not aware of or had not read these early works, ideas, once expressed, tended to assume a life and dynamic of their own. They were transformed into new, or different and more developed, forms by others in another place and at another time. Perhaps they were not a mighty stream, but they were not a mere trickle either. If these can be taken as signs of the 20

A non-Christian intellectual might see it rather differently. For example, Qian Xuantong viewed the OT as a historical and literary document of the ancient Israelites that has not much to do with Christ, just as the Six Classics in China do not have much to do with Confucius. See Qian Xuantong, “Xinwenhua zhong jiwei xuezhe duiyu jidujiao de taidu [The attitude of some scholars to Christianity in the New Culture]”, Shengming 2.8 (April 1922), 1–4. According to Raoul David Findeisen, the literary assessment of the OT in China was originally developed for apologetic purposes and was a way to defend part of the canon. This is because some OT readers lived in an intellectual environment not very favorable to Christianity in general and the OT in particular. Communication of October 11, 2005.

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OT text becoming part of the larger cultural context, then we should again remind ourselves that it began with the Bible’s readability, progressing from there to interpretability. 4 Following the transitional period, discussions of OT persons and ideas became abundant and diverse among Chinese intellectuals in an era in which there was a prevalent concern with scientism, Western philosophy, the fate of Chinese culture, and nationalism. The focus of Chapter Four “Monotheism and Chinese Intellectuals in the New Culture Movement” is the OT idea of one God as widely discussed by people of different ideologies. The assumption is that the ideas of God and monotheism, when interpreted in light of scientism, Western philosophy, and traditional Chinese culture, are closely related to the interpreters’ ideals of individual and social perfection at the time of suffering and crisis. These three topics, how the Chinese OT and its idea of God were anthropologically interpreted by Chinese intellectuals in light of modern scientism, Euro-American philosophy, and Chinese traditional culture; how the idea of one God was utilized by Chinese intellectuals in their efforts to explain human nature and promote individual morality; and how universal love, which was of special importance in the context of monotheism, was interpreted by Chinese intellectuals, point to a common interest of the time: building up a society of human perfection. The controversy between science and religion in 1921, as well as that between science and life in 1923, were most influential.21 Christian intellectuals tried hard to reconcile their faith in God with modern science. For those who believed in national salvation as a religious problem of morality, national salvation must start from individual reform, which surely leads to social reforms. Meanwhile, non-Christian intellectuals were occupied equally by the search for a way to perfect personality and a morally ideal world. To counter the monism of scientism, some non-Christian traditionalists argued for a value system that originated not in science but in religion, ethics, and aesthetics.22 There were those who suggested that the contribution of science to national salvation comes neither from blind faith in its omnipotence nor from the extreme views of scientism but from the scientific spirit, which is 21 22

Lam, Zhonghua shenxue wushi nian [Fifty Years of Chinese Theology], 206. Kwok, Zhongguo xiandai sixiang zhong de wei kexue zhuyi [Scientism in Modern Chinese Thought], 112.

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similar to religious spirit. With a common belief in the aesthetic function of empathy as the key to uniting people, some leading intellectuals like Wang Guowei 王国维 (1877–1927) and Cai Yuanpei 蔡元培 (1868–1940) resorted to aesthetic education. Aesthetics to them refers to more than mere art but to a more general appreciation of beauty, harmony, and idealization, to which monotheistic sentiment was believed to be particularly helpful.23 In their search for justification in a scriptural text, both theologians and non-Christian intellectuals found the OT a rich and promising source, arguing for the value of Hebrew culture, especially the monotheistic idea of God, at times of cultural and national life crises. Preoccupation with social injustice led Chinese interpreters to search for OT persons and ideas that would describe the universality of suffering and oppression. Chinese liberal Christians considered suffering and oppression as God’s punishment but emphasized that punishment was a necessary condition and was rewarded. This is in agreement with authentic Jewish exegesis. According to the latter, eating the forbidden fruit for example is punished, but rewarded too, as knowing good and evil is the essential human ability for moral judgment, which is gained in the same event. This story sets distance or separation between God and man as punishment and as the motive to enable life and progress. Punishment in the human world is thus established as a necessary motivation for action and progress.24 This agrees well with classical Confucian thought represented by Confucius 孔子 (551–479 BCE) and Mencius 孟子 (371–289 BCE).25 As a result of their faith in such an agreement, many Chinese Christian intellectuals believed that both the follower of Confucian dao 道 (the Way) and the follower of God aim for a morally ideal world. In this way, they provided a moral foundation for nationalism and universalism. Since the basic setting of the current anti-Christianity movement was anti-imperialist nationalism, they claimed that nationalism in a broad sense agrees with the principles of monotheism, and monotheism helps accomplish nationalism. Although universalism is the ultimate goal as advocated by the OT prophets, nationalism is the only path one must follow to realize universalism. The gap between Jewish monotheism and Confucian non-theistic view is obvious. In Judaism, the halakha is given by God and cannot accept human beings as equal creators. The inclination to separation and disharmony is the 23 24 25

Lee, “ ‘Aesthetic Education’ ”, 19. Patt-Shamir, “Confucianism and Judaism”, 61–64. For relevant discussions of classical Confucian thought, see Lin, “Reflections”, 74–99 and Tu, “Rooted in Humanity”, 60–65.

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primary motivation for action. The exemplary personality is tested by God and can only follow the Way by passing the test. Judaism takes the perspective that human nature had flaw in it (yetzer hara), and defines human nature in a dualistic way, as a compound of conflicting tendencies formed in creation. At great odds is the Confucian vision that stresses the continuity of being between human and cosmic existence. In Confucianism, the general inclination is toward a partnership of the human and dao. It signifies the shared work of co-creation of human beings, earth, and heaven. Hence, unification and harmony are essential motivations for action. The exemplary personality is the full realization of this harmony by means of self-reflection. Early Confucian thought basically defined human nature in a monistic way as a single-minded entity, either in the Mencian case as the good nature to preserve and improve, or, as according to Xunzi, as a heaven-endowed nature given to us for the work of improvement.26 What matters, however, is the fact that despite that obvious gap between the OT and the Confucian views, Chinese intellectuals were still attracted by OT persons and ideas. Even more significantly, they were able to transform them in the new context and made use of them for the purpose of their own agendas. In the process, accommodation was the most fruitful way of action, not only as a strategic method, but as a cultural imperative. 5 Modern Chinese intellectuals, whether Christian or not, perceive themselves naturally as the moral, social, and political leaders of their country. The dominant literature of twentieth-century China has therefore been strongly concerned with the problems of intellectuals in China’s modernizing society. The terminology and concepts with which writers defined their role in society in the early decades of the twentieth century were derived from Western models.27 Many Chinese intellectuals typically turned to prophets in ancient Israel and created idealized images of them in their interpretive efforts to set ideal examples.28 26 27 28

Patt-Shamir, “Confucianism and Judaism”, 61–64. McDougall and Louie, Literature of China, 4–7. Almost all the interpretations of OT prophets were positive. Cai Yuanpei nevertheless noted that OT prophets were superstitious and irrational. See Guo Zhanbo, “caiyuanpei de shidai he tade sixiang [Cai Yuanpei’s times and his thoughts]”, in caiyuanpei xiansheng quanji [all works by Mr. Cai Yuanpei], ed. Sun Changwei (Taipei: Commercial Press, 1968), 1633. Cai’s attitude to the OT is basically negative due to his opposition to religious

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More than ever before, the period of the May Fourth and New Culture witnessed a remarkable interest in OT prophets among Chinese intellectuals. But first, to understand this interest, the meaning of the word “prophet” must be clarified. As mentioned in Chapter Five “Moses, Prophets and Chinese Intellectuals”, the intonation and connotation of “prophet” in modern Chinese is very different from those of the word in the OT. It introduced a new image, which combined the features of a Chinese sage and prophet, though the combination was dependent on the author’s ideology. Thus, the image of a prophet was very often adjusted to contemporary needs. Furthermore, the modern outlook on OT prophets by Chinese intellectuals and the significance of OT prophets within current ideas of patriotism, nationalism, and universalism must be explored. Some prophets, such as Amos and Jeremiah, were more important than others among them. Moses and these classical prophets were discussed as religious or political leaders or simply as ideal human beings by converts like Yuan Ding’an 袁定 安29 and Li Rongfang 李荣芳 (1887–1965) but also by others like Sun Yat-sen 孙逸仙 (1866–1925) and Lu Xun 鲁迅 (1881–1936). Take Moses as an example, Chapter Five will first discuss a number of changes that the biblical image of Moses among Chinese intellectuals underwent in the 1920s and 1930s. Then, the chapter will demonstrate that in the 1930s, Moses was regarded mainly as an ideal leader, then was later analyzed by Chinese intellectuals for his role as a religious leader. Finally, Moses’ relevance to nationalism in the 1930s and 1940s is addressed. Through the discussion of Moses’ changing image, the chapter attempts to display how the OT became a continuous and important source of inspiration to modern Chinese intellectuals in their fight for China’s revival and national rebuilding. So long as the missionaries supervised the translation and distribution of the Chinese OT and adapted their message to Confucian ideology, Christianity remained largely an alien body and failed to take root in Chinese soil. The missionaries could not avoid the bias regarding the superiority of Christian religion and Western philosophy. However, when a Chinese OT commentary tradition developed and when Chinese intellectuals selected, adapted, and integrated the new ideas into the Chinese context, both the OT and the foreign creed became a part of Chinese tradition.

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measure of value and that the value of the OT to Cai lies only in its limited and replaceable relevance to aesthetic education. Bio dates are unknown.

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Therefore, when observing the cultural encounter between Jewish, Christian, and Confucian traditions and the uses of OT persons and ideas in Chinese intellectual history, it is significant to understand the new meanings added to OT motifs. The OT was part of contemporary intellectual concerns and ideas from one culture interacting with those of another. How those ideas were transposed into the receptor culture is of special interest. Contextualization demands pluralism, and intercultural thinking indicates emancipation from all kinds of unitary explanations. With both failures and successes, Chinese OT commentary demonstrates that neither the hermeneutics of total identity, which reduces the other to an echo of oneself and repeats its self-understanding in the name of understanding the other, nor that of radical difference that makes the understanding of the other impossible is correct. Truth should not be defined in terms of one particular tradition. To put one particular framework in an absolute position is methodologically wrong.30 Bibliography Bays, Daniel H. A New History of Christianity in China. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. Cao, Jian. “The Chinese Mandarin Bible: Exegesis and Bible Translating.” The Bible Translator 57 (July 2006): 122–138. Cao, Jian. Chinese Biblical Anthropology: Persons and Ideas of the Old Testament in Modern Chinese Literature. Eugene OR: Wipf & Stock, 2019. Cary-Elwes, Columba. China and the Cross: A Survey of Missionary History. New York: P.J. Kennedy & Sons, 1957. Cohen, Paul A. “Littoral and Hinterland in Nineteenth Century China: The ‘Christian’ Reformers.” In The Missionary Enterprise in China and America, edited by John K. Fairbank, 197–225. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974. D’Elia, Pasquale M. The Catholic Missions in China: A Short Sketch of the Catholic Church in China from the Earliest Records to Our Own Days. Shanghai: Commercial, 1941. Eber, Irene. The Jewish Bishop and the Chinese Bible: S.I.J. Schereschewsky (1831–1906). Leiden: Brill, 1999. Eber, Irene, et al., eds. Bible in Modern China: The Literary and Intellectual Impact. Sankt Augustin: Monumenta Serica Institute, 1999. Eber, Irene. “Introduction.” In Bible in Modern China: The Literary and Intellectual Impact, edited by Irene Eber, et al., 13–26. Sankt Augustin: Monumenta Serica Institute, 1999. 30

Zürcher, “Aliens and Respected Guests,” 91–92.

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Eber, Irene. “Translation Literature in Modern China: The Yiddish Author and His Tale.” Journal of Asian and African Studies 8.3 (1972): 291–311. Gálik, Marián. Influence, Translation and Parallels: Selected Studies on the Bible in China. Sankt Augustin: Monumenta Serica Institute, 2004. Gardner, Helen. Religion and Literature. London: Faber, 1971. Guo, Xiaoxia. Wusi nvxing zuojia he shengjing [The Bible and Women Writers During the May Fourth Period]. Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Chubanshe, 2013. 郭晓霞: 《五四女作家和圣经》. Guo, Zhanbo. “Caiyuanpei de shidai he tade sixiang [Cai Yuanpei’s Times and his Thoughts].” First published in 1965. In Cai Yuanpei xiansheng quanji [A complete collection of Cai Yuanpei’s works], edited by Sun Changwei, 1604–1650. Taipei: Commercial, 1968. 郭湛波:“蔡元培的时代和他的思想”，《蔡元培先生全集》. Hu, Shi. Hushi koushu zizhuan [Oral autobiography of Hu Shi], edited by Tang Degang. Beijing: Wenhua, 1989. 胡适:《胡适口述自传》，唐德刚编. Hwang, Mei-shu. “Allusions.” In An Encyclopedia of Translation, edited by Chan Sin-wai and David Pollard, 14–21. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 1995. Kinkley, J.C. The Odyssey of Shen Congwen. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987. Kwok, D.W.Y. (Guo Yingyi). Zhongguo xiandai sixiang zhong de wei kexue zhuyi, 1900– 1950 [Scientism in Modern Chinese Thought, 1900–1950], translated by Lei Yi. Nanjing: Jiangsu Renmin Chubanshe, 1989. 郭颍颐:《中国现代思想中的唯科学主 义:1900–1950》，雷颐译. Lam, Wing Hung. Zhonghua shenxue wushi nian 1900–1949 [Fifty Years of Chinese Theology 1900–1949]. Hong Kong: China Graduate School of Theology, 1998. 林荣 洪:《中华神学五十年1900–1949》. Latourette, Kenneth S. A History of Christian Missions in China. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1929. Lee, Mei-Yen. “An ‘Aesthetic Education’: the Role of ‘Sentiments’ in the Transition from Traditional Confucianism to Modern Aesthetics.” IIAS Newsletter 47 (Spring 2008): 19–22. Lin, Yü-sheng. “The Morality of Mind and Immorality of Politics: Reflections on Lu Xun, the Intellectual.” In Lu Xun and His Legacy, edited by Leo Ou-fan Lee, 107–128. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985. Lin, Yü-sheng. “Reflections on the ‘Creative Transformation of Chinese Tradition.’ ” In Chinese Thought in a Global Context: A Dialogue Between Chinese and Western Philosophical Approaches, edited by Karl-Heinz Pohl, 74–99. Leiden: Brill, 1999. Liu, Yun. Yuyan de shehuishi: jindai shengjing hanyi zhong de yuyan xuanze [The Social History of Language: Language Styles in Modern Chinese Bibles]. Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, 2015. 刘云:《语言的社会史:近代圣经汉译中的语言 选择 1822–1919》.

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Mak, George Kam Wah. Protestant Bible Translation and Mandarin as the National Language of China. Leiden: Brill, 2017. Marty, Martin E. “Protestantism.” In The Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade, 12:23b–38a. New York: Macmillan, 1987. Mascarenhas, Sidney J. “The Bible as a Book of Memory.” Antonianum LXXIX (2004): 412–413. McDougall, Bonnie S., and Kam Louie. The Literature of China in the Twentieth Century. London: Hurst & Company, 1997. Mei, Hua-Chuen. “The Returned Student in China.” Chinese Recorder 48 (March 1917): 158–175. Patt-Shamir, Galia. “Confucianism and Judaism: a Dialogue in Spite of Differences.” In The Jewish-Chinese Nexus: A Meeting of Civilizations, edited by M. Avrum Ehrlich, 61–64. London: Routledge, 2008. Qian, Xuantong, et al. “Xinwenhua zhong jiwei xuezhe duiyu jidujiao de taidu [The Attitude of Some Scholars to Christianity in the New Culture].” Shengming 2.8 (April 1922): 1–4. 钱玄同等:“新文化中几位学者对于基督教的态度”，《生命》. Rawlinson, F., ed. China Mission Year Book. Shanghai: Christian Literature Society for China, 1923. Robinson, Lewis S. Double-edged Sword: Christianity and 20th Century Chinese Fiction. Hong Kong: Tao Fong Shan Ecumenical Centre, 1986. Ruth, Arthur. “Chinese Students Abroad.” Chinese Recorder 48 (March 1917): 156–157. Schneidau, Herbert N. Sacred Discontent: The Bible and Western Tradition. Baton Rough: Louisiana State University Press, 1976. Tu, Weiming. “Rooted in Humanity, Extended to Heaven.” Harvard Divinity Bulletin (Spring 2008): 60–65. Wang, Chen-mian. “Moving toward a Mature, Balanced Stage of Studying Christianity in China.” International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) Newsletter 27 (March 2002): 22. Xing, Mei. Shengjing guanhua heheben jufa yanjiu [Syntactic Studies on the Chinese Mandarin Version]. MA thesis. Shanghai: Fudan University, 2012. 邢梅:《圣经官话 和合本句法研究》. Xu, Ruomeng. Gudai shengjing hanyi yu zhongxi wenhua jiaoliu [Chinese Bible Translating in History and Sino-Western Cultural Exchanges]. Beijing: Zhongguo Wenshi Chubanshe, 2014. 徐若梦:《古代圣经汉译与中西文化交流》. Yang, Jianlong. Kuangye de husheng: zhongguo xiandai zuojia yu jidujiao wenhua [Crying in the Wilderness: Contemporary Chinese Writers and Christian Culture]. Shanghai: Jiaoyu Chubanshe, 1998. 杨剑龙:《狂野的呼声:中国现代作家与基督教文 化》. Yariv-Laor, Lihi. “Linguistic Aspects of Translating the Bible into Chinese.” In Bible in Modern China: The Literary and Intellectual Impact, edited by Irene Eber, et al., 101– 120. Sankt Augustin: Monumenta Serica Institute, 1999. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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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, 1999. Zhao, Weiben. Yijing suyuan – xiandai wuda zhongwen shengjing fanyi shi [Tracing the Origin of Bible Translating – History of the Production of the Five Major Chinese Bible Versions]. Hong Kong: Zhongguo Shenxue Yuanjiuyuan, 1993. 赵维本:《译经 溯源－－现代五大中文圣经翻译史》. Zhao, Xiaoyang. Yuwai ziyuan yu wanqing yuyan yundong [Foreign sources and the vernacular movement in late Qing dynasty]. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press, 2019. 赵晓阳，《域外资源与晚清语言运动:以中文圣经为中心》. Zhou, Xun. Chinese Perceptions of the “Jews” and Judaism: A History of the Youtai. Richmond: Curzon, 2001.

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part 2 Practical Theology in Chinese Context

∵

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chapter 3

Exploring a Theology of Relationships from a Biblical Perspective in the Context of China Lina Rong 0

Introduction

0.1 What Is a Theology of Relationships? The relationship we are talking about here is not functional, based on need or benefit as the word “relationship” would usually imply, but an “I–You” relationship explained by Marin Buber as a real encounter between free and independent persons.1 In a personal relation, one subject, I, confronts another subject, You, rather than a subject confronting an object, It. The characteristic of this “I–You” relationship is the encounter between the two subjects. When an I meets an Other, the Other cannot be appropriated, calculated, treated as a thing, or taken as means for a purpose. When an I meets a You, the You is not bound by the I. Yet, even when a You is confronted, it may still diminish to an It. However, there is one You that never becomes an It, that is the eternal You– God. Based on I–You or I–It relationships, human persons live either in community or in mere organization; the former is based on relationships between persons, the latter is a connection between things. The Bible confirms that God is love (1 John 4:7–21). Love is the vital energy at the center of the universe. Love is relational; God is relational. The content of this love is laid out through the experience of historical Israel based on Israel’s encounter with God while they were at the most miserable situations in their lives. There are two historical periods that are essential for Israel’s encounter with God: when they were slaves in Egypt and when they were exiles in Babylon. They cried out in their misery, and God heard their cry (Exodus 2:23–25; 3:7–10; 6:3–5). Israel’s building up a relationship with God happened when they were down in a pit (Psalm 130:1), when they were hopeless, miserable, and desperate. Israel experienced that God reached out to them and lifted them out of the pit. It was as if they were dead, but they came to life again (Ezekiel 37). 1 Cf. Martin Buber, I and Thou (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1958), 3–34. Liang, H., “How Do Modern Chinese Christian Intellectuals Read the Bible? Wu Leichuan and Zhao Zichen’s Principles and Methodologies for the Interpretation of the Bible”, Yearbook of Chinese Theology, Vol. 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2020), pp. 130–146. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004469440_005

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Through their own death and resurrection, Israel experienced the ultimate victory of the God of life, they then knew the content of God’s love: compassion and mercy toward the downcast and marginalized, which also means building up a righteous and just social structure. God is determined to His compassion and mercy no matter how many obstacles may be present (Exodus 3–14). God stands up firmly against systematic evil and sin. Salvation must be understood as a corporate and social reality. Thus, God sets up a vision for all human society. God treats each and every person as God’s image and likeness, so all human beings are equal. God would not accept any oppressive or exploitive relationships or situations; God would always stand by those who were powerless and downtrodden. This covenant vision of God is proclaimed relentlessly by the prophets and Jesus. The prophets affirm that the solid foundation for any human community or society is to be rooted in righteousness, justice, compassion, and mercy (Amos 5:24; Hosea 2:19; Isa. 1:10–20).2 What does God require of us “but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8)? The one who loves God, knows God, and has a relationship with God would surely love his or her neighbor and reach out willingly to those in need (Matthew 22:36–40; Luke 10:25–37; John 15:12–14, 17; 1 John 4:7–8). The love for God and neighbor must immerge into one, that is also the real love for self. Biblical theology in China has to stimulate and strive for the integration of belief and daily life, knowing and doing are to be unified. Christians are identified not just by their religious activities, e.g. prayer and attending liturgical services, but through their value systems, how they work, live, and relate to others. Chinese Christians have to find ways to give effective public social witness, to become responsible citizens, to live out the covenant vision of God through actions. In this era of widespread turmoil, uncertainty, and indifference, we need – more than ever – righteousness, justice, compassion, and mercy.3 This paper has four parts: the first part focuses mainly on the image of God presented in the Bible, which is centered on God is love, and love is relational, so God is relational. The content of God’s love is compassion, mercy, righteousness, and justice. This sets a sharp contrast between monotheism and 2 Cf. Barbara E. Bowe, Biblical Foundations of Spirituality: Touching a Finger to the Flame (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003), 179. 3 Paulos Huang and Xinping Zhuo, “A Dialogue on the Overall Situation of Religious Studies in Contemporary China”, in International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 19, 2020, pp. 1–29 (www.SinoWesternStudies.com/latest-volumes/vol-19-2020). Paulos Huang and Archie Lee, “Wenxue zuopin, renwen jingdian, Shen de huayu, haishi Shen yu ren jiaopeng de jilu?”, in International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 18, 2020, pp. 187–218 (www.SinoWesternStudies.com/latest-volumes/vol-18-2020-1). You, X., and Huang, P., “The Contemporary Transformation of Educational Mechanism for Knowledge InnovationDialogue on Finland’s Education and China’s General Education”, International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 20, 2021, pp. 1–22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37819/ijsws.20.106. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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idol worship. The second part explores how human beings, as images of God, live out the covenant vision of God to build up a more just world. The third part connects the theology of relationships with the theology of suffering; being faithful to relationships means the willingness to suffer. Meanwhile, any theology that derives from the native land of China has to be, in some form, theology of suffering. The fourth part analyzes the implications of a theology of relationships, in connection with a theology of suffering, with the hope of shedding some light on how to live and act as authentic Christians in real life situations in the context of China. 1

God Is Love; Love Is Relational; God Is Relational

The central passage of the Old Testament that reveals the characteristics of God is Exod. 34:6–7, which states “the thirteen attributes of God” in the Jewish tradition.4 1.1

The Thirteen Attributes of God (Exod. 34:6–7) The LORD passed before him, and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” Exod. 34:6–7 NRS

The thirteen attributes are listed as the following: (1) & (2) ‫יְ הוָ ה יְ הוָ ה‬, YHWH, YHWH, the repetition of the Tetragrammaton, the four-letter-name of the Lord. (3) ‫ ֵאל‬, El, God, YHWH is God of the whole universe, God of all peoples. (4) ‫ ַר ֖חּום‬, raḥȗm, merciful, its root in Hebrew means “womb”, the womb love of God. (5) ‫ ַחּנ֑ ּון‬, ḥannȗn, gracious, the grace of God is unconditional and unreserved. (6) ‫ ֶ ֥א ֶרְך ַא ַ ּ֖פיִ ם‬, ʾerek ʾapayim, slow to anger, the literal meaning of the Hebrew is “long nose”. (7) ‫ב־ח ֶסד‬ ֥ ֶ ‫ ַר‬, rab-ḥesed, abounding in steadfast love. (8) ‫ ֱא ֶ ֽמת‬, ʾĕmet, faithfulness, this word often go together with ḥesed.

4 Walter Brueggemann (Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocate [Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997], 215) calls Exodus 34:6–7 “a Credo of adjectives”. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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(9) ‫נ ֵ ֹ֥צר ֶ֙ח ֶס ֙ד ָל ֲא ָל ֔ ִפים‬, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, ḥesed is repeated here. (10), (11) & (12) ‫נ ֵ ֹׂ֥שא ָעֹו֛ ן וָ ֶ ֖פ ַׁשע וְ ַח ָּט ָ ֑אה‬, lifting up (nāśāʾ) iniquity, transgression and sin. (13) ‫נַ ֵּק ֙ה ֣ל ֹא יְ נַ ֶ ּ֔קה‬, yet by no means clearing the guilty; the Hebrew does not have an adjective; ‫ל־ר ֵּב ִ ֽעים‬ ִ ‫ל־ׁש ֵּל ִ ׁ֖שים וְ ַע‬ ִ ‫ל־ּב ֵנ֣י ָב ִ֔נים ַע‬ ְ ‫ל־ּבנִ ֙ים וְ ַע‬ ָ ‫ּפ ֵ ֹ֣קד׀ ֲעֹו֣ ן ָא ֗בֹות ַע‬

but visiting (poqed) the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation. First, it is important to take into consideration that this profound description of God is given in the context of the golden calf (Exod. 32–34), when the people of Israel betrayed God by making Him an image, by putting God into a visible form (cf. Exod. 20:3–5). This implies that the people were unable to relate to God in openness and vitality, they can only treat God as an idol, an “it,” an object to be controlled, not a subject to be related to. Second, the timing of the golden calf is notable as the people of Israel had just proclaimed that “All the words that the Lord has spoken, we will do [we will listen/be obedient]” (Exod. 19:8; 24:3, 7).5 Moses was still up in the mountain with God, he did not return yet. The people already made a golden calf in replacement of Moses since “Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him” (Exod. 32:1). The people had taken Moses as the one who brought them out of Egypt, and it seems that their idolatry started long before the golden calf appeared, as if they had never left Egypt. The people of Israel turned away from God too quickly. Avivah Zornberg points out that the essential question is of the possibility of teshuva, turning aside from the old ways and then turn toward God, of inner change and transformation.6 Are the people of Israel capable of teshuva, to build up a real relationship with God? Are they willing to seek their future with this God who cannot be sought or controlled by any forms or images? Is it possible for them to start anew as envisioned by God?

5 The order of words of Exod. 24:7 in the Hebrew Bible is “‫”נַ ֲע ֶ ׂ֥שה וְ נִ ְׁש ָ ֽמע‬, “we will do and we will listen/be obedient,” doing is set before listening. 6 The root of the Hebrew word “teshuva” is “shuv”, which means “to turn”. Teshuva is the Hebrew word for “repentance”. See Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Particulars of Rapture: Reflections on Exodus (New York: Doubleday, 2001), 412–413.

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It is in this context of Israel’s stiff-necked stubbornness, betrayal, and incapability of conversion and renewal that God revealed Himself more profoundly to Israel. The thirteen attributes start with the two-fold proclamation of the name YHWH (‫הו֣ה‬ ָ ְ‫)י‬, which according to Jewish tradition, emphasizes more on God’s mercy than His justice.7 The repetition of the Lord’s name implies that the Lord is merciful both before and after the human person fell into sin. The Lord YHWH that Israel knows is God (‫) ֵ ֥אל‬, the God of all peoples, which is considered as the third attribute. The fourth one is merciful (‫ ;) ַר ֖חּום‬its Hebrew root means “womb”. YHWH is depicted as a pregnant mother, nourishing and providing, but never possesses or controls. The fifth is “gracious” (‫) ַחּנ֑ ּון‬, which means God gives freely and unconditionally, the grace of God is a gift, precious and priceless that cannot be earned or measured. The sixth attribute “slow to anger” (‫ ) ֶ ֥א ֶרְך ַא ַ ּ֖פיִ ם‬is conveyed through a vivid image of God as having long nostrils. The nostrils themselves represent God’s anger as it is often described as God’s nose or face burning hot (‫הוה‬ ֜ ָ ְ‫ר־אף י‬ ַ֙ ‫)וַ ִ ּֽי ַח‬. The long nostrils allow for a corridor to cool down, demonstrating that it would take longer time for God’s anger to reach out, and when it finally does, God’s anger had already cooled off. The seventh attribute is “abounding in steadfast love” (‫ב־ח ֶסד‬ ֥ ֶ ‫) ַר‬. The Hebrew word ḥesed contains almost all of the positive aspects of God’s character, which can be translated as “compassion, steadfast love, faithfulness, loyalty, goodness”, etc. The term is often used in connection with the eighth attribute “faithfulness” (‫) ֱא ֶ ֽמת‬, the root meaning of which is “truth”. YHWH is truth, thus firm and reliable. The ninth attribute is “keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation” (‫רח ֶס ֙ד ָל ֲא ָל ֔ ִפים‬ ֶ֙ ‫)נ ֵ ֹ֥צ‬, the word ḥesed is repeated here for the second time, to highlight that YHWH’s ḥesed is lasting and forever. The tenth to the twelfth attributes emphasize God’s forgiveness of iniquity, transgression and sin (‫נ ֵ ֹׂ֥שא‬ ‫) ָעֹו֛ ן וָ ֶ ֖פ ַׁשע וְ ַח ָּט ָ ֑אה‬. The root meaning of the word “forgiving” here is “to lift up.” God lifts the burden of all sin. The three words for sin are often used together in the Hebrew Bible (e.g. Lev. 16:21; Jer. 33:8; Eze. 21:24 [Hebrew Bible v. 29]; Dan. 9:24; Job 13:23; 14:16–17; Psa. 32:1–2; 51:3, 5; 59:3–4). The first word, “iniquity, guilt” (‫) ָעֹון‬, is often used in the context of moral issues and appears 231 times in the OT. The second word, 7 There are two most important names of God in the Hebrew Bible, Elohim and YHWH. Elohim is taken as the God who created the universe, which represents the transcendent dimension of God; YHWH is the God of Israel, who started a personal relationship with them, which represents the imminent dimension of God. See Norman Lamm, The Shema: Spirituality and Law in Judaism (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2000), 23–24.

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“transgression” (‫) ֱּפ ַׁשע‬, is often used in the context of the covenant relationship between God and Israel to depict how Israel broke their covenant with God and appears 136 times in the OT. The third word, “to miss a mark, a goal or way, to go astray” (‫) ַח ָּטא‬, has a wide range of meaning; it is the most frequently used word for sin and occurs 593 times in the OT. God’s compassion and steadfast love is toward the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty. It is the last of the thirteen attributes that is the only negative one. The structure of the Hebrew phrase “by no means clearing the guilty” (‫ )נַ ֵּק ֙ה ֣ל ֹא יְ נַ ֶ ּ֔קה‬is the repetition of the same verb without an object. God surely does not clear but visits the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generations (Exod. 34:7). Would God forgive or not? The Hebrew clearly sets it in contrasts. On the one hand, God forgives unconditionally and lifts up the burden of sin. On the other hand, God does not forgive or clear but visits (‫ )ּפ ֵ ֹ֣קד‬the consequences of sin that could be realized upon the third and fourth generation. The tension between opposites should be kept. God’s compassion and mercy always go together with justice and righteousness. God’s grace goes freely, but not cheaply. God cannot be manipulated or controlled. The one who longs for and treasures God’s forgiveness receives it freely, but those who manipulate it will not be able to experience His forgiveness at all. Moses asked God for mercy and forgiveness, he did not ask God to “lift up” or “clear”, the two verbs appeared before, but he used a new verb and petitioned God to “pardon (‫ ) ָס ַלח‬our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance” (Exod. 34:9).8 God then made a covenant before the people: “I hereby make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform marvels, such as have not been performed in all the earth or in any nation; and all the people among whom you live shall see the work of the LORD; for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you” (Exod. 34:10 NRS). The covenant relationship between God and Israel was finally not cut off by the people’s turning away from God. 8 It is worthwhile to notice that the pronoun Moses used changed subtly after the Lord’s selfrevelation, “your” and “their” changed into “us” and “our”: ‘On the next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. But now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin; they have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will only forgive their sin – but if not, blot me out of the book that you have written” (Exod. 32:30–32). He said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance” (Exod. 34:9).’

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God had never thought of destroying the people in this episode of the golden calf (Exod. 33:3). The people’s sluggishness and stubbornness only stimulated more profound self-revelation of YHWH. Crisis was turned into an opportunity for the people to know God more deeply, it also became an occasion for Moses to identify with the people from within, which made him a more suitable leader for Israel. 1.2 The Essential Difference between Monotheism and Idol Worship What is the essential difference between monotheism and idol worship? What is the main distinction between the one God and other so-called gods? Israel’s way from polytheism or idol worship to monotheism lasted for centuries. Or put more accurately, it had been very difficult for Israel to relate to God who cannot be represented through any images or forms, the people of Israel or anyone else would just do the same, that is, to reduce God to an idol, as in the episode of the golden calf in Exodus chapters 32–34. That is also what northern Israel did after the division of the united kingdom (1 Kings 12:25–30). The exodus from Egypt is Israel’s foundational experience of God, which confirms that God always goes down to the bottom of the pyramid of social structure and stands in solidarity with the powerless. Israel became the representative of all those who were at the bottom of any power structure. God brought Israel out of Egypt, made covenant with them in the wilderness, took them to the promise land so that they may live in accordance with the covenant. The core of the covenant is rather simple, that is to love God and neighbor, especially the widow, orphan, and alien. Israel is chosen to live out what God envisioned for all humanity – loving relationships without oppression or exploitation. The covenant law stresses explicitly that Israel shall always remember that they were slaves in Egypt and the LORD God redeemed them from there (Deut. 24:17–18). Israel shall not oppress or exploit a resident alien but treat him or her as a citizen, love the alien as oneself, for they themselves were aliens in the land of Egypt (Lev. 19:34). They should not abuse any widow or orphan since God will surely heed their cry just as God had heard the cry of Israel in Egypt (Exod. 22:21–22). If one takes his or her neighbor’s cloak in pawn, one shall restore it before the sun goes down as it may be the poor person’s only clothing to use as cover. If the poor person cries out to God, God will surely listen (Exod. 22:23–27). Israel shall not deprive a resident alien or an orphan of justice; they shall not take a widow’s garment in pledge. When they reap their harvest in the field, or beat their olive trees, or gather their grapes in the vineyard, they shall not go back to get what is left behind; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow (Leviticus 19:10; 23:22; Deut. 24:19–22).

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The people of Israel shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy laborers, they shall pay them their wages daily before sunset because their livelihood depends on it (Deut. 24:14–15). Israel is required to think on behalf of the less privileged and protect them. The prophets emphasized the same in the prophetic books. They repeated again and again that only way to keep God’s commandment is to put righteousness, justice, compassion and mercy into action. God does not need sacrifices or offerings, praises or hymns; religious services alone could not move God. God cannot be bribed or flattered by lip services (Amos 5:21–24; Mic. 6:6–8; Isa. 1:11–20). The Lord desires “steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hos. 6:6). This could be seen as the essential difference between YHWH and idols. The Lord of Israel has clear moral requirements for all humanity. Only those who put love into action in helping those in need are considered authentic believers in God. The love of God is not based on self-interest or benefit but motivates a believer to make God’s presence tangible in real situations. Thus, all believers are commissioned to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow (Isa. 1:17), to sow for righteousness, and reap steadfast love (Hos. 10:12a), then we will know that the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever (Isa. 32:17). God has a vision for all humanity that relationships can be based on love, social structures can be righteous and just. Whether humanity has a future or not depends on if we strive to make this a reality. 1.3 The Trinitarian God Christians believe in a Trinitarian God, which affirms that Godself is relational. God is love, and He manifests Godself through creation, salvation, and sanctification in loving relationships with the whole universe. The 12th-century mystic Richard of St. Victor (1123–1173 CE) wrote about the Trinity as a mutually loving companionship of friends – a community. Richard Rohr summarizes Victor’s thinking as the following: For God to be good, God can be one. For God to be loving, God has to be two, because love is always a relationship. But for God to share “excellent joy” and “delight”, God has to be three, because supreme happiness is when two persons share their common delight in a third something – together.9

9 See Richard of St. Victor: The Twelve Patriarchs; The Mystical Ark; Book Three of the Trinity, trans. Grover A. Zinn (Paulist Press: 1979), 387–389; Richard Rohr with Mike Morrell, The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (Whitaker House: 2016), 39–47, 96–99.

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God lives in absolute relatedness and shows what community should be like. The love of God is always experienced through a person’s relationship with Him. It is both unconditional and conditional, full of compassion and mercy, and at the same time righteous and just. The steadfast love of God is always balanced with God’s righteousness and justice, this balance is not weighed out like on a scale but always dynamic, in a process. We are intrinsically alike to the Trinity, living in relatedness and mutual interdependence. No one is an island, we are grounded in our relationships with God, self, others, and the world. We come to know more fully who we are through our encounter with others; our identity is strengthened by life-enhancing relationships. The Understanding of Salvation and Sin as Both Relational and Social If God is relational, salvation and sin can both be understood as relational. Salvation is the ability and willingness to stay in lasting and nurturing relationships with God and others. The Hebrew word for righteousness, ‫צדק‬ ֵ , points out a proper relationship with both God and other people. Meanwhile, all of those actions and attitudes that could hurt or destroy relationships are to be considered as sin, such as being sluggish or indifferent, which could cause alienation or division; snobbish or hypocritical; false or inconsistent; etc. Rohr stresses that both sin and salvation are, first, corporate and social realities.10 Injustice results from systems, structures, and institutions more than individual choices and actions. Rohr understands Paul’s teaching on sin not as primarily individual fault but the negative matrix out of which both evil and enlightenment arise (Ephesians 2:1–2). We cannot equate small, easily forgivable faults with evil, trivializing the real notion of evil. Evil is often disguised as “culturally agreed-upon, admired, and deemed necessary”.11 Evil is present in an already criminal and sinful culture, social system as illusions and deceit have become the very air we breathe, and most of us cannot even see this evil. Rohr sharply points out that we call murder bad but war good and necessary; personal vanity is bad, but national or corporate pride is good. Individuals should not tell lies, but lying and cover-ups are helpful for protecting the whole, the institutional church or the nation.12 This is a foundational moral confusion all people are facing today. 1.4

10 11 12

Richard Rohr, What Do We Do with Evil? The World, the Flesh, and the Devil (CAC Publishing: 2019), 8–13. Rohr, What Do We Do with Evil?, Daily Meditations on Oct. 11, 2020. Rohr, What Do We Do with Evil?, 48–51.

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Jesus’ whole life was a quiet refusal to participate in any power structures or dominate systems. He maintained a very simple lifestyle, constantly reached out to those in need, always forgiving individual sinners, standing up to the unjust system, and condemning corporate evil (Matthew 11:21–23; 23:1–39; Luke 11:37–54; 13:34–35). Jesus’ final action against the money changers in the temple made him an enemy of the system and caused his death (see Matthew 21:12–13; Mark 11:15–17; Luke 19:45–46). The mystery of the incarnation shows that Jesus fully enters the human reality, accepts it, and transforms it from within. The social systems we are a part of may be foundationally unjust and filled with unresolvable evils, but salvation can still come when we choose the way of the cross, to live in forgiving love, to allow light to shine through darkness, and for life to overcome death. 2

Living Out the Covenant Vision of God

The covenant vision of God is that all human beings live in solidarity through leading a life that is righteous and just and full of compassion and mercy. The love of God becomes reality though the loving acts of a neighbor, which is the way to integrate faith into daily life. Shaping the World from the Margins – Be a Good Neighbor to Those in Need The central message of the Bible is simple and clear, that is to love the Lord God with all of your heart, to love with all of your soul (the Hebrew original nephesh means the “whole person”), to love with all of your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27). Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan illustrates this central message in four ways (Luke 10:29–37). First, the lawyer tests Jesus by focusing on “eternal life” when asking, “what must I do to inherit eternal life (ζωὴν αἰώνιον)?” Jesus answers him “do this, and you shall live (ζήσῃ).” Jesus focuses on the present as faith starts from the here and now. Second, the wounded person is not identified; he is simply “a certain man” (ἄνθρωπός τις). R. Alan Culpepper points out that he is not characterized by race, religion, region, or trade. Since he is going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, Jesus’ audience may imagine him as Jewish, but Luke’s audience may have assumed he was a Gentile.13 The point is that he is only identified by what 2.1

13

R. Alan Culpepper, “The Gospel of Luke: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections”, in The New Interpreter’s Bible, IX (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), 229.

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happened to him – he fell into the hands of robbers, then was stripped, beaten, and left on the road half dead. This wounded person could be anyone. Third, it is a Samaritan who “was moved with pity” (Luke 10:30) and becomes the hero of Jesus’ parable and the model of mercy. Both the priest and Levite “saw” the wounded man, but they both passed by on the other side, their “seeing” the man renders them culpable. The next person appears to be an ordinary Israelite who would do what the religious leaders were not willing to do. However, Jesus shatters the expectations of his audience and brings a Samaritan to center stage. It is a Samaritan, whom the people of Israel may despise, who carries out acts of compassion. Fourth, Jesus finally asks the lawyer “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers” (Lk. 10:36)? Jesus reverses the lawyer’s question “who is my neighbor” and asks from the perspective of the wounded man, the one in need, then moves a step further by telling the lawyer “Go and do likewise” (Lk. 10:37). The question of “who is my neighbor” thus shifts focus to “how can I be a good neighbor” to those in need. “Go and do likewise” is a commission. One is called to cross various barriers like nationality, region, religion, skin color, and political camps, to be a good neighbor to all people in need. If we all act like the good Samaritan, the world would surely be a better place for all to live in. 2.2 Committed to Unconditional Actions A Jewish saying goes that the world is created for those who make choices. When God makes His covenant with Israel in Exod. 19:1–9 and 24:3–8, the people of Israel reply three times that “Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do” (Exod. 19:8; 24:3, 7), then adds “we will listen” at the third time in Exod. 24:7. To do as the Lord has spoken is primary in one’s relationship with God. If a person does not try to put God’s word into action, s/he will not be able to truly understand. Martin Buber affirms that the oriental people are committed to actions. For the Jewish people, actions are more important than awareness as the inner destiny of the world depends to a great extent on the actions of doers.14 Human beings participate in God’s ongoing creation through actions while experiencing freedom and strength in the process. Unconditional actions are not results-oriented and creative. Human beings make God tangible in the world through actions. Buber further declares that God remains unknowable and beyond reach for those who are lazy, indecisive, 14

Martin Buber, On Judaism, 60–61.

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dozing off, trapped in self-design, and egocentric, but God is alive and close to those who are decisive and pursuing their goals diligently and persistently. Teilhard de Chardin confirms that God and the world are knit together through human endeavor and action. He writes that God is inexhaustibly attainable in the totality of our action as no human activity happens outside the divine milieu, so God’s activity and human activities are always merging.15 Unconditional actions gradually renew and transform the world. 3

Being Faithful to Relationships and the Willingness to Suffer

If we take relationships with God and our fellow human persons seriously, the theology of relationships must go hand in hand with the theology of suffering. Life has its ups and downs as do our relationships. When life is hard, our willingness to suffer and not turn away or to escape while facing obstacles could carry us on. The Bible depicts God as one who takes the divine–human relationship seriously. He knows sorrows and is acquainted with grief, grieves when the relationship is broken, is present when the people are suffering, and is willing to immerse Godself in the depth of the people’s troubles in order to make deliverance possible and give them new life.16 God loves the human person to the very end. This love bridges the enormous gap of inequality between creator and created, making the relationship possible. It is more appropriate then to speak of this God in the categories of fidelity than of immutability; for when fidelity displaces immutability, our notion of God’s sovereignty and our image of God are fundamentally changed.17 The heartache of God is the beginning of theology. God is trustworthy and remains faithful to his covenant relationship with Israel, which allows Israel and the person to choose God even in suffering. 3.1 Holding onto God in Despair and Suffering Israel sealed their covenant relationship with God in the exilic period when they lost their temple, land, nation, and freedom. Exile became the most crucial phase for the awakening of Israel’s self-conscious. Israel experienced more 15 16 17

Louis M. Savary, Teilhard de Chardin The Divine Milieu Explained: A Spirituality for the 21st Century (New York: Paulist Press, 2007), 78–79. Cf. Terence E. Fretheim, The Suffering of God: An Old Testament Perspective (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), 107–148. Walter Brueggemann, Message of the Psalms (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1984), 52.

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of God’s absence than presence and weakness than power, but they did not turn away from God, instead holding onto Him more firmly. How could they still choose God? The most important reason might be that they could neither justify nor eternalize their being enslaved. Nor could they accept simply that their destruction was caused by sin. There must be something more profound and life enhancing than sin and punishment in the human–God relationship. The exilic experience drove Israel to the heart of God. They chose to believe in God who brought their ancestors out of slavery and out of the land of Egypt, who is compassionate and merciful and righteous and just. God would not stand by while they suffered, so they chose to believe that God would act again and lead them back to their homeland. Their faith in God prevented them from giving up or compromising and encouraged them to hope for a brighter future not just for themselves and all of humanity. 3.2 Willingness to Suffer While Choosing Life Israel had not assimilated or lost their identity as God’s chosen people during the nearly fifty years of exile (587–538 BCE) and the following years of diaspora. Israel became God’s witness to all nations through their death and resurrection (Ezekiel 37); they laid the foundation of monotheism and thus became a blessing to all peoples. Despair and suffering did not break the tie between Israel and God but strengthened it. Once Israel held their relationship with God at the core of their being, they interpreted their suffering no longer as punishment for sin but a means for a much bigger purpose and broader future. The most eloquent passages to illustrate this are the four servant songs in Isaiah II (Isa. 42:1–4; 49:1–6; 50:4–9; 52:13–53:12). The servant, understood as a collective noun, represents both the suffering individual and the nation of Israel as a whole. The servant was given by God as a light to the nations, so God’s salvation may reach to the ends of the earth (Isa. 49:6). The servant was righteous, yet he was oppressed and afflicted, and it was the will of God to crush him. He bore the sin of many and carried their iniquities; he suffered in silence and made intercession for the transgressors. He would make many righteous by going through suffering willingly (Isa. 53:6–12). The servant image challenges the traditional understanding of sin and suffering. His suffering has no connection with sin or punishment. He suffers willingly, not toward death but toward life after and beyond death. The suffering of the servant connects him with God, others, and the universe. Thus, suffering for the sake of righteousness becomes a driving force for the three-dimensional integration of God, humans, and the universe.

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Toward a Theology of Relationships in the Context of China

Who is a real believer? The one who seeks benefits based on self-interests to enter heaven or gain some form of reward, or the one who seeks God with one’s whole heart and being? Is it possible for a human person to love God for God’s own sake, experiencing the authentic “I–You” relationships with God and fellow humans in the context of China? First, a theology of relationships affirms the Biblical image of God who is faithful to his covenant relationship, especially those who are downtrodden and suffering. The covenant-keeping characteristic of God can be summarized as compassionate, merciful, righteous, and just. God always hears the cries of the desperate and acts on their behalf. God cannot be bribed or flattered with hymn songs or sacrifices; God wants compassion and justice to come down and flourish in human communities and societies. Second, an authentic God-lover is the one who treats other people with righteousness, justice, compassion, and mercy. It is always a struggle to carry one’s cross and follow in Christ’s way. Third, if one loves God, then they will treat others of God’s people with the same affection. If one is authentic before God, one can remain true to the other. The love of God keeps one authentic and true, which is the foundation for lasting and nourishing relationships. 4.1 Be Authentic in the Presence of God, Remain True to Other Persons Christians in China must find effective ways to integrate faith into peoples’ daily lives, encouraging them to give witness based on the Christian value system, not just through religious activities such as how one lives one’s life or relates to others. Being authentic in the presence of God implies that one can never be perfect but always tries to do good and grow. Being authentic before God gives one the security and courage to be true to others. Authenticity and trust are the fruits of faith, which are much needed in China. 4.2 Conflicts and Suffering Are Not to Destroy but to Transform Each person is unique. Individuals in a group would surely hold various opinions, making conflicts unavoidable. People usually think that if there is love, there will be no conflicts or contradictions, and they will consider conflicts destructive. However, Erich Fromm remarks that real conflicts, which are candid expressions of inner reality, not meant to conceal or project, are not destructive. They create clarification and purification, and there lies the foundation of authentic relationships. Both personal and communal conflicts and suffering are not to destroy but to transform. If one is willing to go through the process, with candid awareness

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of where we are and what the problems are, then they will participate in such a transformation. Cover ups and deceit can only hinder the necessary process to grow and transform. 4.3 Engaging in Unconditional Actions How do we see the world through the eyes of God? How do we discern the signs of our time and respond to its needs with wholehearted love? Christian orthodoxy is not about right belief, but orthopraxy, right practice. First, one has to be rooted in prayer and discernment in order to engage in unconditional actions. There is a vast tendency to “work for God” rather than “do God’s work.” One must be a very prayerful person, sensitive to God’s will to be able to distinguish between the two. Prayer and discernment make this possible. Samuel Balentine wrote that the Church has no higher calling than to realize its commission to become a house of prayer. Prayer is of itself an act of ministry that ties together God and humanity.18 Prayer is not “just a preparatory ritual antecedent to real ministry. It is one of the principle means by which the Church participates concretely as a co-worker with God in accomplishing the divine will for the world.”19 Once a faith community is rooted in God, it is continually shaped by His reality. This is possible in China and may shape a new reality. Discernment grows from the soil of personal and communal prayer, and this is of vital importance for Chinese faith communities. One must learn to follow one’s inner voice and follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit in discernment, remaining open to the unknown and various possibilities. Second, Christian communities of different traditions have to become bridge-builders, engage in dialogue, connect, not exclude, be open-minded, and not become closed off. Dialogue is an attitude of life; it requires openness, honesty, and a humble realization that one is not holding the whole truth. Christian communities can have dialogue on the topics of dogma and cooperate to provide social services in response to the needs of Chinese society. Authentic faith changes one’s inner being and transforms one’s consciousness. Who we are is always more essential than what we do. Yet, who we are is expressed through our actions. Unconditional actions derive from our state of being, which calls the right person to do the right thing, at the right time, in the right context.

18 19

Cf. Samuel E. Balentine, Prayer in the Hebrew Bible: The Drama of Divine-Human Dialogue (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993), 272–288. Ibid., p. 272.

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Conclusion

A theology of relationships is based on the firm declaration in the Bible that God is love. God’s love is experienced in concrete situations. God always supports the oppressed and marginalized, making salvation and sin both corporate and communal realities. The one who loves God would surely do likewise and strives for righteousness, justice, compassion, and mercy. These are to be realized through systems and social realities. The way Christians in China integrate faith and daily life is to adhere to Christian value systems, even when it is going against the mainstream, to live in honesty as responsible citizens. Living such a life also means the willingness to suffer, die, arise in God, and be transformed.

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chapter 4

Knowledge and Reception of the Chinese Translations of the Bible: Evidence from the Christians of Nanjing City Zhenhua Meng, Yanyan Xiong and Peiquan Lin 1 Introduction1 In China, the history of Bible translation has spanned more than one thousand years, during which time a variety of translation have emerged. An excellent Chinese version of the Bible should not only be able to convey the essence of the original text accurately and effectively, but also should be applicable to the local language, cultural traditions, and living situation of China. These characteristics allow a Bible translation to be more easily accepted by the reader. The issue with Chinese translation of the Bible has attracted wide attention from academia. Focusing on this matter, a series of books, translations, and numerous dissertations and articles have been published.2 Two such pieces are Bible 1 This paper is based on the English version of an article published in Chinese in Journal for the Study of Biblical Literature 18 (2019), with revisions. 2 Cf. 海恩波：《道在神州：圣经在中国的翻译与流传》，蔡锦图译，香港：国际圣 经协会，2000 [Marshall Broomhall. Dao zai Shenzhou: Shengjing zai Zhongguo de fanyi yu liuchuan (The Bible in China), trans. Cai Jintu (Hong Kong: International Bible Society, 2000)]; 庄柔玉：《基督教圣经中文译本权威现象研究》，香港：国际圣经协 会，2000 [Chong Yau-yuk. Jidujiao Shengjing zhongwen yiben quanwei xianxiang yanjiu (Study of the Phenomenon of Authoritativeness in the Chinese Translations of the Protestant Bible). (Hong Kong: International Bible Society, 2000)]; 尤思德：《和合本与中文圣 经翻译》，蔡锦图译，香港：国际圣经协会，2002 [Jost Oliver Zetzsche, Heheben yu zhongwen shengjing fanyi (The Bible in China: The History of the Union Version or the Culmination of Protestant Missionary Bible Translation in China), trans. Cai Jintu (Hong Kong: International Bible Society, 2002)]; 任东升：《圣经汉译文化研究》，武汉：湖北教育 出版社，2007年 [Ren Dongsheng, Shengjing hanyi wenhua yanjiu (Studies of the Culture of the Chinese Translations of the Bible). (Wuhan: Hubei Education Press, 2007)]; 麦金 华：《大英圣书公会与官话〈和合本〉圣经翻译》，香港：基督教中国宗教文化研 究社，2010 [George K.W. Mak, Daying shengshu gonghui yu guanhua Heheben Shengjing fanyi (British and Foreign Bible Society and the Translation of the Mandarin Chinese Union Version). (Hong Kong: Christian Study Center on Chinese Religion and Culture, 2010)]; 程 小娟：《新教传教士〈圣经〉汉译讨论的处境化启示》，《基督教文化学刊》2016年第 2期， 139–161 [Cheng Xiaojuan. “Xinjiao chuanjiaoshi shengjing hanyi taolun de chujinghua qishi” (The Inspiration for Contextualization from Protestant Missionaries’ Discussions on

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004469440_006

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in Modern China3 and Ever Since God Speaks Chinese: The 90th Anniversary of the Chinese Union Version Bible,4 both of which contain outstanding essays on this topic. While the disciplines involved in these studies include religion, history, literature, and translation, scholars mainly focus on the history of Bible translation in China, the translation strategies of specific translations or translators and related controversies, and Bible translation as an example of Chinese translations of classics. However, research from the perspective of readers is rare. If any, such works focus on and are limited to the writings of intellectuals with high degrees of education. As a result, the general public is barely taken into consideration. On the study of Bible translation, the Chinese Union Version (CUV) undoubtedly catches the most attention given its unparalleled influence. Chong Yau-yuk (庄柔玉) gave a detailed analysis on CUV’s authority in her monograph A Study of the Phenomenon of Authoritativeness in the Chinese Translations of the Protestant Bible.5 Like other academic writings, Chong focuses on the translation of the CUV itself and the history of its proliferation. As for “authority”, she mainly refers to the comments of scholars and literati as well as the printing of the CUV in different historical periods. But, how many believers and readers view the CUV as the most frequently used version among various translations? How many readers solely rely on the CUV? These are questions that need to be answered through reliable first-hand data obtained from the readers themselves. Given that many other Chinese translations have been promoted and new versions have emerged, can the CUV maintain its dominance? Will the CUV find itself confronting a challenger? the Chinese Bible Translation). Journal for the Study of Christian Culture 36 (2016): 139–161.]; 邱业祥：《经文辨读与理雅各对“God”和“上帝”互译的经学及神学基础》，《圣经 文学研究》2016年第13辑，200–217 [Qiu Yexiang, “Jingwen biandu yu Liyage dui ‘God’ he ‘shangdi’ huyi de jingxue ji shenxue jichu” (Theological Foundations of the Scriptural Reasoning & Classical Studies for the Mutual Translation between ‘God’ & ‘Shang Te’). Journal for the Study of Biblical Literature 13 (2016): 200–217]; Paulos Huang and Archie Lee, “Wenxue zuopin, renwen jingdian, Shen de huayu, haishi Shen yu ren jiaopeng de jilu?”, in International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 18, 2020, pp. 187–218 (www.SinoWesternStudies .com/latest-volumes/vol-18-2020-1); along with some essays in this volume. 3 Irene Eber, Sze-kar Wan and Knut Walf, eds., Bible in Modern China: The Literary and Intellectual Impact (Sankt Augustin, Germany: Institut Monumenta Serica, 1999). 4 谢品然、曾庆豹编：《自上帝说汉语以来 –“和合本”圣经九十年》，香港：研道社 有限公司，2010年 [Philip P. Chia, and Chin Ken-pa, eds. Zi Shangdi shuo hanyu yilai – “Heheben” Shengjing jiushinian (Ever Since God Speaks Chinese: The 90th Anniversary of the Chinese Union Version Bible). (Hong Kong: Research Institute Ltd., 2010)]. You, X., and Huang, P., “The Contemporary Transformation of Educational Mechanism for Knowledge Innovation-Dialogue on Finland’s Education and China’s General Education”, International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 20, 2021, pp. 1–22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37819/ijsws .20.106. 5 Chong Yau-yuk, Jidujiao Shengjing zhongwen yiben quanwei xianxiang yanjiu. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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In contrast, very few academic studies exist on the Revised Chinese Union Version (RCUV), which was published in 2010 with the expectation of replacing the CUV of the United Bible Societies. The few relative works that are currently available are limited to a brief introduction of the RCUV’s translation cause, principles, and specific revisions.6 Moreover, controversies are infrequently involved.7 Though this version appeared relatively late, several questions are equally worth asking. Has the RCUV grown in popularity in the past several years? Do believers accept this new version? How has it been received by readers? As Chin Ken-pa pointed out, “Due to the seeming irreplaceability of the CUV, it will take some more time to see whether the RCUV will also be ignored as other previous versions by ‘too sincere’ believers.”8 Furthermore, first-hand information must be obtained from the readers. Are readers aware of the RCUV? How is it accepted? How would the readers rate it? What factors influence these issues? To answer the questions raised above, it became necessary to organize and participate in fieldwork in two churches in Nanjing City in the autumn of 2016: Mochou Lu Church (莫愁路堂) and Church of the Holy Word (圣训堂). Both churches have unique characteristics that together make them a good representative body. The former has been famous around Nanjing since its construction some 80 years ago. It attracts over 4,000 believers, most of whom 6 Cf. 周联华：《中文圣经〈和合本修订版〉之缘起和过程》 [Zhou Lianhua. “Zhongwen Shengjing (Heheben xiudingban) zhi yuanqi he guocheng” (The Cause and Process of the Chinese RCUV)], in Ever Since God Speaks Chinese, 17–19; 苏以葆：《圣道常新 – 和合本 圣经的延续》，《天风》2010年第12期，48 [Su Yibao. “Shengdao changxin – Heheben Shengjing de yanxu” (The Divine Logos Is Always New). Tianfeng 12 (2010): 48]; 香港圣经公 会：《专访参与修订〈和合本〉的中国圣经学者──林培泉牧师》（上）（下）， 《教牧亮光》2012年5–6月号 [Hong Kong Bible Society. “Zhuanfang canyu xiuding Heheben de Zhongguo Shengjing xuezhe – Lin Peiquan Mushi” (1) & (2) (An Interview of Rev. Lin Peiquan, a Chinese Biblical Scholar Participating in the Revision of the Union Version 1 & 2). Jiaomu Liangguang May and June, 2012], http://www.ccctspm.org/newsinfo/2866; http:// www.ccctspm.org/newsinfo/2966; 刘美纯：《经典的延续 – 〈和合本修订版圣经〉介 绍》，载雷雨田、万兆元主编：《宗教经典汉译研究》，北京：社会科学文献出版 社，2013年，79–95 [Liu Meichun. “Jingdian de yanxu – Heheben xiudingban Shengjing jieshao” (The Continuity of the Scripture – An Introduction to the RCUV). In Zongjiao jingdian hanyi yanjiu (Studies on the Chinese Translations of Religious Scriptures), edited by Lei Yutian and Wan Zhaoyuan. (Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press (China), 2013), 79–95]. 7 Cf. 殷颖：《和合本圣经的特色与修订浅见》，《天风》2010年第10期，28–29 [YIN Ying. “Heheben Shengjing de tese yu xiuding qianjian” (On the Characteristics and Revisions of the CUV). Tianfeng no. 10 (2010): 28–29]. The feedback: 香港圣经公会：《回应“和合本圣 经的特色与修订浅见”一文》，《天风》2010年第12期，58–60 [Hong Kong Bible Society. “Huiying ‘Heheben Shengjing de tese yu xiuding qianjian’ yiwen” (A Response to ‘On the Characteristics and Revisions of the CUV’). Tianfeng 12 (2010), 58–60]. Huang, P., and Xiao, T., “The Dialogue between Chinese Great Guoxue and the Western Studies in the Light of Globalization”, Yearbook of Chinese Theology, Vol. 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2020), pp. 1–15. 8 Chin Ken-pa, “Xuyan”, in Zi Shangdi shuo hanyu yilai, xiii. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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are middle age and elderly people who attend one of the nine services offered every week. The latter church, which was completed in 2013, is the largest church in Nanjing City. By contrast, it has been attracting younger Christians to its services. The leader of the two churches, Reverend Li Lancheng (李兰成), strongly supports the survey and has ensured a high response rate. This study first analyzes the survey data and discusses the demographic characteristics, the respondents’ habit of reading the Bible, the choice among various Chinese Bible translations, and acceptance and evaluation of the RCUV. Then, the factors influencing the survey results are discussed, including the readers’ attitudes toward the coexistence of multiple Chinese translations of the Bible and the RCUV through econometric analysis. 2

Sample Data and General Statistical Analysis

In this survey, 882 questionnaires were distributed after church worship, and 696 (78.9%) were collected. The demographic characteristics of the sample and the basic information about reading the Bible were analyzed first. 2.1 Demographic Characteristics of the Samples Among the 696 respondents, males accounted for 25%, and females comprised 75%. This distribution is not far from the population data gathered in the 2010 National Christian survey, which stated that the sex ratio of Chinese Christians was approximately 3:7 (30.1% were males, and 69.9% were females).9 The average age of the respondents was 50.4 years old. Table 1 shows the age distribution. The first column presents the different age groups. The second and third columns indicate the number and percentage of each age group in the sample. In addition, the fourth column reports the statistical results of the National Christian Survey mentioned above. Through comparison, it is noticeable that 9 中国社会科学院世界宗教研究所课题组：《中国基督教入户问卷调查报告》， 李华伟编：《三十年来中国基督教现状研究论著选》，北京：社会科学文献出版 社，2016，3–25 [Research Group of the Institute of World Religions, CASS. “Zhongguo Jidujiao ruhu wenjuan diaocha baogao” (In-house Questionnaire Survey on Protestantism in China). In Sanshinian lai Zhongguo Jidujiao xianzhuang yanjiu lunzhuxuan (Essays on the Current Situation of Chinese Christianity in the Recent Three Decades), edited by Li Huawei. (Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press (China), 2016), 3–25]. Paulos Huang and Xinping Zhuo, “A Dialogue on the Overall Situation of Religious Studies in Contemporary China”, in International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 19, 2020, pp. 1–29 (www.SinoWesternStudies. com/latest-volumes/vol-19-2020).

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the proportions of people aged 24 and below, 35–44, and 45–54 in this sample are roughly the same as those of the same age group in the National Christian Survey sample. The proportion of young people aged 25–34 was higher, whereas the proportion of elderly people over 55, especially those over 65, was lower. These dissimilarities may be due to the difference in methods and duration between this survey and the National Christian Survey.10 On the whole, the age distribution of this survey sample was quite reasonable. table 4.1 Age distribution

Age

Number

Percentage (%)

Reference percentage (%)

24 and below 25–34 35–44 45–54 55–64 65 and above Undisclosed Total

25 97 104 188 137 124 21 696

3.6 13.9 14.9 27.0 19.7 17.8 3.0 100.0

3.7 5.9 16.1 23.4 24.6 25.7

Note: “Reference percentage” refers to the results of the 2010 National Survey on Christianity.

Regarding the information on baptism, 549 respondents indicated that they had been baptized, accounting for 78.9% of the total number of participants. The average baptism age of all participants who indicated that they had been baptized was 39.7 years old (see Table 4.2). The average duration from baptism was 11.9 years, with a median of eight years. Among them, one-third of the respondents were baptized after 2010, that is, after the publication of the RCUV (see Table 4.3).

10

Compared to the national indoor survey, this survey was conducted after church meetings on weekends. During the weekend, young people aged 25–34 were more likely to attend church gatherings. Therefore, they were able to participate in the survey. For elders over 55 years old, they might have been unable to go to church due to physical reasons, or had difficulty understanding and filling out the questionnaire. Thus, they were less likely to participate in this survey.

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table 4.2 Age of baptism

Age of baptism

Number

Percentage (%)

24 and below 25–34 35–44 45–54 55–64 65 and above Unbaptized Undisclosed Total

91 127 123 111 72 25 46 101 696

13.0 18.2 17.7 15.9 10.3 3.6 6.6 14.5 100.0

Year of baptism

Number

Percentage (%)

Before 1949 1949–1965 1966–1981 1982–1992 1993–2002 2003–2009 2010–2016 Unbaptized Undisclosed Total

4 12 5 45 126 131 230 46 97 696

0.6 1.7 0.7 6.5 18.1 18.8 33.0 6.6 13.9 100.0

table 4.3 Year of baptism

The education level of the respondents (see Table 4.4) in this sample was significantly higher than that of the 2010 National Survey conducted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). Specifically, 33.3% of this sample had a college degree or above, while only 2.6% of the national sample had such a degree; 24.8% of the sample received high school (or technical high school) education, while only 10.1% of the national sample did. In addition, less than half of the total respondents only had junior high school education or below, while as much as 87.3% of the national survey sample received such education.

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The percentages might have been dissimilar because the Nanjing survey was conducted in a city with a developed economy and culture. It might also be related to the rapid development of higher education in China in recent years. To explore the problem of relatively high education levels in this sample, it is necessary to further compare the data of this survey with that of the city as a whole. According to the official data released by Nanjing City for 2015, 35.4% of its people received college education, 18.5% had high school education, and 37.4% only had junior high school education or below.11 This demonstrates that the education level of the respondents from the two church assemblies was slightly lower than the overall level in Nanjing. This result is consistent with those of previous studies on the distribution characteristics of Christian education level in China. table 4.4 Education level

Highest degree

Number Percentage (%) Reference percentage (%)

Ph.D. Master’s Bachelor’s Junior College Senior High School Secondary School Junior High School Primary School Below Primary School Undisclosed Total

9 30 88 105 122 51 172 75 33 11 696

1.3 4.3 12.6 15.1 17.5 7.3 24.7 10.8 4.7 1.6 100

2.6

10.1 32.7 54.6

2.2 Starting Year and Age of Bible Reading of the Respondents Over four-fifths of the valid questionnaires of the respondents revealed the exact year when they started reading the Bible (Table 4.5). A rough normal distribution of the starting age can be seen (Table 4.6). The average age at which one began reading the Bible was 37.3 years old. At the time of the survey, the 11

南京市统计局：《南京市2015年1%人口抽样调查主要数据公报》。 [Nanjing Statistics Bureau, “Main Data Bulletin of Nanjing 1% Population Sample Survey in 2015.”] http://tjj.nanjing.gov.cn/njstjj/201810/t20181021_527406.html.

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respondents had been reading the Bible for an average of 12 years (median of 9). Notably, more than one third of respondents started reading the Bible after 2010, the year the RCUV was published. This group made up nearly 40% of the total valid data. This information implies that the RCUV might have been the first translation they ever read. table 4.5 First year to read the Bible

Year

Number

Percentage (%)

Before 1949 1949–1965 1966–1981 1982–1992 1993–2002 2003–2009 2010–2016 Undisclosed Total

1 9 14 40 148 133 233 118 696

0.1 1.3 2.0 5.7 21.3 19.1 33.5 17.0 100.0

table 4.6 Age when they started reading the Bible

Starting age

Number

Percentage (%)

14 and below 15–24 25–34 35–44 45–54 55–64 65 and above Undisclosed Total

38 88 124 125 120 70 15 116 696

5.5 12.6 17.8 18.0 17.2 10.1 2.2 16.7 100.0

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2.3 Respondents’ Choice of Translation Versions The CUV remains the most frequently used version among respondents during church services and for their personal daily reading. However, the RCUV is the most frequently used version among readers who would like to read more than one translation. When asked about the most frequently used translation in their churches, nearly a quarter of the respondents said they had no idea (Table 4.7), indicating that either they were not concerned about the different versions of the Bible, or that they were not able to distinguish the difference. Among those who intentionally chose a specific version, the CUV remained the most popular choice. As for other translations, the proportion of readers of Today’s Chinese Version (TCV) was relatively higher than other versions. The percentage of other versions was less than 5%. Although the CUV still held a relatively dominant position, it did not have “absolute dominion”. Less than half of the participants indicated that their most frequently used version in church was the CUV. Meanwhile, all of the other versions received less than 4% in the survey question regarding the most often used alternative translation in church (Table 4.8). Moreover, as many as three quarters of the respondents stated that their churches did not use other translations at all. table 4.7 Respondents’ impressions of the most frequently used translations in Church

Translation

Number

Percentage (%)

CUV (和合本) TCV (现代中文译本) NCV (新译本) CSV (标准译本) RCUV (和合本修订版) Sigao version (思高本) Other No idea Not participating Undisclosed Total

337 73 25 27 31 0 2 170 14 17 696

48.4 10.5 3.6 3.9 4.5 0.0 0.3 24.4 2.0 2.4 100.0

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table 4.8 Respondents’ impression of the second most frequently used translations in Church

Using other translations: CUV TCV NCV CSV RCUV Sigao version Other No idea Do not use other translations Not participating Undisclosed Total

Number

Percentage (%)

25 27 11 11 25 2 5 38 523 14 15 696

3.6 3.9 1.6 1.6 3.6 0.3 0.7 5.5 75.1 2.0 2.2 100.0

As for the questions regarding the most frequently used Chinese translation in personal reading, more than a quarter of the respondents had no idea (Table 4.9), and the proportion of the users of the CUV was still no more than a half. TCV remained the second most popular version. Meanwhile, none of the other versions reached 5%. When asked about the other Chinese translations used for personal reading, almost three quarters of the church respondents claimed that they did not use other translations at all (Table 4.10). The RCUV was the most frequently selected version among the translations that did not reach 5%. table 4.9 Respondents’ most frequently used Chinese translation for personal reading

Number CUV TCV NCV CSV

306 78 20 31

Percentage (%) 44.0 11.2 2.9 4.5

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table 4.9 Respondents’ most frequently used Chinese translation for personal (cont.)

RCUV Sigao version Other No idea Not reading Undisclosed Total

Number

Percentage (%)

34 1 3 187 16 20 696

4.9 0.1 0.4 26.9 2.3 2.9 100.0

table 4.10 Other Chinese translation(s) in respondents’ personal reading (multiple choice)

Using other translations: CUV TCV NCV SCV RCUV Sigao version Other No idea Not using other versions

Number

Percentage (%)

23 25 18 14 54 2 5 33 512

3.3 3.6 2.6 2.0 7.8 0.3 0.7 4.7 73.6

There were 409 respondents (58.8% of the total) answering the optional question, “Could various translations coexist?” (Table 4.11). More than half of them held a positive attitude, whereas approximately a quarter disagreed. Notably, those who had no idea about the version used by their church and themselves and those who read exclusively one translation had similar attitudes (Tables 4.12 and 4.13). Although many readers did not have sufficient knowledge of or a keen interest in Bible translations, they were still quite open toward the coexistence issue.

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table 4.11 Acceptance of the coexistence of multiple Bible translations

Agree Intermediate Disagree Total

Percentage (%)

Number

236 65 108 409

57.7 15.9 26.4 100.0

table 4.12 Attitude toward multiple Chinese translations among respondents with no knowledge of Biblical translations

Agree Intermediate Disagree Total

Number

Percentage (%)

39 11 20 70

55.7 15.7 28.6 100.0

table 4.13 Acceptance of the coexistence of multiple Bible translations among respondents who read only one translation

Agree Intermediate Disagree Total

Number

Percentage (%)

166 44 86 296

56.1 14.9 29.1 100.0

There were 217 respondents (31.2% of the total) answering the question of whether the CUV needed revising. More than half of them agreed that the CUV does need revising, whereas less than one fifth disagreed (Table 4.14). Even the respondents who read the CUV exclusively had an attitude similar to the total proportion (Table 4.15). In other words, most people did not oppose the revision of the CUV. In any case, the necessity of revising the translation of the CUV achieved widespread support among all kinds of readers.

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table 4.14 Respondents’ attitudes toward the need to revise the CUV

Agree Intermediate Disagree Total

Number

Percentage (%)

115 55 47 217

53.0 25.3 21.7 100.0

table 4.15 Respondents’ attitudes toward the need to revise the CUV among respondents who read the CUV exclusively

Agree Intermediate Disagree Total

Number

Percentage (%)

104 50 40 142

54.2 24.6 21.1 100.0

2.4 Respondents’ Familiarity with the RCUV Approximately 40% of the respondents admitted to having heard of the RCUV (Table 4.16), more than 60% of whom indicated that their knowledge of the RCUV originally came from clergy members (Table 4.17). Another popular information source for information about the RCUV was “relatives and friends”, which accounted for more than 20%. Among respondents with knowledge of the RCUV, 16.1% claimed that they had completed reading the whole translation (Table 4.18). However, more than a third of the respondents had not read it. table 4.16 Respondents who have heard about the RCUV

Yes No Undisclosed Total

Number

Percentage (%)

280 407 9 696

40.2 58.5 1.3 100.0

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table 4.17 Initial source of information regarding the RCUV

Clergy Internet Relatives/friends Gift from UBS Others Undisclosed Total

Number

Percentage (%)

170 21 61 – 20 8 280

60.7 7.5 21.8 – 7.1 2.9 100.0

table 4.18 Situation of the respondents reading the RCUV

Number

Have read the entire version Have read a part Have not read Undisclosed Total

Percentage among those who are aware of the RCUV (%)

Total percentage (%)

45

16.1

6.5

127 102 6 280

45.4 36.4 2.1 100.0

18.3 40.2

Nearly a quarter of the respondents owned a printed edition of the RCUV, accounting for 58.2% of those who had heard of it (Table 4.19). In addition, 60% of the respondents had bought this version from a church (Table 4.20). At the time of the survey, the printed RCUV cost 45 RMB (approximately 6–7 US dollars) per copy. Among the 502 respondents who answered the question about this price, nearly 86% deemed it moderate, whereas approximately 14% believed it was too expensive (Table 4.21).

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table 4.19 Ownership of printed RCUV

Yes No Unrevealed

Number

Percentage among those who know it (%)

Total percentage (%)

163 107 10

58.2 38.2 3.6

23.4

table 4.20 Means of obtaining printed RCUV

Buying from bookstores Buying online Gift from UBS Gift from relatives Others

Number

Percentage (%)

101 6 34 34 0

62.0 3.7 20.9 20.9 0

table 4.21 Attitude toward the price of RCUV

Too expensive Moderate Too cheap Total

Number

Percentage (%)

69 429 4 502

13.7 85.5 0.8 100.0

Further analysis shows that among the 69 respondents who considered the RCUV too expensive, 13 of them (18.8%) owned the printed version, seven of whom had bought the Bible on their own. Among the 429 respondents who considered the price moderate, 136 (31.7%) possessed the printed version, 91 of whom had bought it on their own. Of the four respondents who thought the RCUV was too cheap, two possessed the printed edition, both of whom had bought it on their own. The attitude toward the price of the printed RCUV may have, to a certain extent, affected the readers’ decision to purchase.

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2.5 Respondents’ Assessment of the RCUV In this survey, most readers who had read either the entire RCUV or a part of it gave a high rating of the translation. Approximately three quarters of the respondents thought the RCUV could help them understand the message of the biblical text better and praised the language of the translation (Table 4.22). More than four fifths appreciated the introduction to every book and the reference aids (maps, tables, etc.). Additionally, the majority of the respondents agreed that the language of the RCUV maintained the style of the CUV. table 4.22 Respondents’ assessment of RCUV

Answer The RCUV can help me understand the message better.

Agree Neutral Disagree Total The language of the RCUV is Agree closer to modern Chinese. Neutral Disagree Total The language of the RCUV Agree maintains the style of the CUV. Neutral Disagree Total Introductions to the books, maps, Agree and tables attached to the RCUV Neutral help the readers a lot. Disagree Total

Number

Percentage (%)

85 18 9 112 90 13 10 113 86 15 8 109 87 14 6 107

75.9 16.1 8.0 100.0 79.6 11.5 8.8 100.0 78.9 13.8 7.3 100.0 81.3 13.1 5.6 100.0

Observations on the General Statistical Analysis 2.6 From the statistics and analysis above, the following conclusions can be drawn. 1) Judging from the choice of Bible translation(s), the CUV is still the most influential Chinese version of the Bible in mainland China, nearly 100 years after its publishing. The feedback data reflect several aspects. a. The CUV is the most frequently used translation for both the church and personal reading of believers. It has an overwhelming advantage over other versions considering its market share.

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2)



12

101

b. Although a number of respondents were not concerned about different translations or were not aware of which specific versions they were using in church and at home, they were most likely reading the CUV. Other Chinese translations usually show the name of the version on covers or title pages, whereas many CUV editions do not. In fact, the insensitivity and ignorance about the translations among Chinese Christians is a result of the authority and popularity of the CUV. c. Currently, no other Chinese translations of the Bible can replace or challenge the status of the CUV. Although more Chinese translations have been released in the past 50 years, few readers choose them as their primary version to read. Some respondents who selected “TCV” or “Standard Version” in this survey might actually be referring to the CUV. As Wu Shengwu concluded in the early 1990s, “in the mind of ordinary (Chinese) Christians, the CUV is a unique Chinese Bible. Everyone calls it ‘the Chinese Bible’ instead of ‘the Union Version,’ but ordinary Christians do not know that it is indeed the CUV.”12 This phenomenon also happened in our survey. d. More than half of the readers of the CUV were in favor of the revision of this translation, regardless of whether they had read other translations or had compared different versions. Among those who read the CUV exclusively, this rate was even higher. The promotion of the RCUV has achieved some results since its publication and distribution in mainland China in 2010. a. Among the respondents, more than 40% had heard of the RCUV, and more than half of them had read at least part of it. b. The percentage of using the RCUV as the primary or reference translation in church and personal readings surpassed that of many previous translations. To some extent, it became the second most popular secondary translation used after the CUV. c. More than a quarter of the respondents possessed a printed edition of the RCUV. Most of them used it as their primary or reference version to read. d. Most respondents initially learned about the RCUV from clergy. This outcome is evidence of the great influence of clergy’s recommendations have on believers. The low proportion of respondents knowing

吴绳武：《认识圣经》，香港：宗教教育中心，1993年，87页 [WU Shengwu. Renshi Shengjing (Acknowledging the Bible). (Hong Kong: Religious Education Resource Centre, 1993), 87].

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the RCUV through the Internet might be due to its limited online publicity. Readers who were aware of the RCUV and had read at least some parts it gave a high evaluation of the translation. The basic revision principles of the RCUV include being faithful to the original text, making as few changes as possible to maintain the original style of the CUV, and striving to conform to the usage and expressions of contemporary Chinese language.13 Although ordinary readers might have difficulty judging whether the translation is faithful to the original text, most respondents believed that the RCUV could help them better understand the message of the Bible. The language and expressions of the RCUV were also accepted by the respondents, and the RCUV was widely believed to maintain the style of the CUV. Judging from the evaluation of ordinary readers, the translation goal of the RCUV was achieved. Although some materials, such as the introductions to every book, charts, and maps in the RCUV, are not part of the translation or exclusively unique to this version, they are appreciated by readers and may also promote the recognition of the RCUV. This survey offers quantitative data that support qualitative problems discussed in previous studies. For example, Chong Yau-yuk once pointed out, “Chinese Christians have a slightly different view on the issue of authority. Some believe that the CUV cannot be replaced; if it has to be revised, the fewer the revisions are made, the better it would be … another view is that on the one hand, the CUV is recognized as the authoritative translation of Chinese Christians. On the other hand, it is not considered a perfect translation, let alone the exclusively unique one used by believers.”14 However, Chong did not indicate the percentage of the individuals to whom she was referring in the statement. Meanwhile, the survey in this study demonstrates that the respondents are highly tolerant of the coexistence of different Chinese translations of the Bible. Among the respondents, 57.7% supported coexistence of translations. Even among the people who read the CUV exclusively or were unfamiliar with the translation issues, the proportion remained at the same level. Before this survey, some clergymen worried that the relatively higher price of the RCUV than that of the CUV might prevent many Christians from

Cf. “The Foreword of the RCUV” and LIU Meichun, “Jingdian de yanxu”, 82. Chong Yau-yuk, Jidujiao Shengjing zhongwen yiben quanwei xianxiang yanjiu, 21–22. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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buying the former. However, according to the respondents’ feedback, less than 15% of them thought the revised version was too expensive. The data analysis above indicates that once the respondents were aware of the RCUV and had read it, they were more likely to accept it and read it as the main Chinese version of the Bible. Econometric Analyses on Readers’ Choice, Reception, and Assessment of the Translations

This section uses econometric method to analyze the factors that affect Christians’ choices of Bible translations and the reception to and comments on the RCUV. We estimate the following equation for each respondent i: yi = α + xiβ + εi, (1); where the dependent variable y denotes respondent i’s choice of Bible translations and the reception to and assessment of the RCUV. It is a vector that represents the following five variables. (1) The statement “Do not use any other Chinese translations of the Bible” is a binary variable to which the value of 1 is assigned if the answer is “yes”, otherwise 0. (2) The “Degree of approval of a variety of versions of Chinese translations of the Bible” ranges from 1 to 5. Here, 1 indicates “disagree very much”, and 5 indicates “totally agree”. (3) For the binary variable “RCUV as the most frequently used version”, 1 denotes the RCUV and 0 indicates other versions. (4) For “Extent of reading RCUV”, the value of 1 means “never read the RCUV”, 2 denotes “read part of the RCUV”, and 3 indicates “read the whole version of the RCUV”. (5) The value for “Assessment of the RCUV” is a weighted average of four questions. The value of each response is taken from 1 to 5. The value of 1 denotes “disagree very much”, and 5 represents “totally agree”. The statements for response are as follows. a) “The RCUV can help me understand the biblical text better.” b) “The words and expressions in the RCUV are closer to modern/contemporary Chinese.” c) “The words maintain the language style of CUV.” d) “The introductions of biblical books, maps, tables, and figures are very helpful to readers.” x is a vector of independent variables, including gender, age, years of schooling, years since baptism, years of reading the Bible, familiarity with the RCUV, ownership of a hard copy of the RCUV, comments on the RCUV, and extent of reading of the RCUV. β, the vector of estimated coefficients, is the primary interest of this study. If it is positive and significant, then the corresponding independent variable has a positive effect on the dependent variable. However, if it is negative and significant, then the independent variable has a negative effect on the dependent variable. An insignificant β denotes no statistical correlation between independent and dependent variables. ε is the error term, - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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including measurement errors for each variable, misspecification, and omitted variables that might affect the dependent variable. This study examines the correlations between the dependent variable and independent variables using the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation. Table 4.23 reports the OLS results when examining the determinants of whether of the respondent uses other Chinese translations in addition to the one they most frequently use. Estimates in Column 1 show that the coefficients of age is positive. It is significant at the 5% significance level. These values denote that older people are more likely to use a single Chinese translation. More specifically, a 10-year increase in age raises the probability of using just one Chinese translation by 4%. Meanwhile, gender and years of reading the Bible do not affect the behaviors of church respondents in choosing different versions of Chinese translations. This study does not control for other exogenous factors, such as the influence of clergy and the effects of the marketing of other translations. However, the current results demonstrate that the main factors affecting the choice of translation version by Chinese Christians are age. Younger readers have a higher probability of utilizing additional translations to their primary choice. Column 2 estimates the degree of reception to and attitude about the coexistence of different Chinese translations of the Bible. The coefficient of the pricing of the RCUV variable is negative and is significant at the 1% level. This coefficient indicates that Christians tend to disagree with the coexistence of various versions of translations when the price of the RCUV is high. Furthermore, the demographic characteristics, years since baptism, and years of reading the Bible do not have any effect on one’s reception to and attitude regarding the coexistence of many Chinese version of the Bible. As discussed in Section 2, most Christians accept the current price of the RCUV. However, the high price does not facilitate its widespread acceptance. Moreover, Christians are unlikely to agree with the coexistence of various versions. Column 3 examines the determinants of an individual’s choice of the RCUV as their frequently used translation. The results show that an individual who has spent more years reading the Bible has a lower probability of using the RCUV as their primary version. This estimate echoes the statistical analyses in the last section. Other independent variables, including gender, age, education, and years since baptism, do not affect an individual choice of primary version.

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Knowledge and Reception of the Chinese Translations Table 4.23 OLS estimates

Dependent Variable

Gender (Male = 1) Age Years of schooling

Years since baptism

Extensions of reading the RCUV

Assessment of the RCUV

(1)

RCUV as Degree of the most approval of multiple frequently used version versions of Chinese translations of the Bible (2) (3)

(4)

(5)

−0.055 (0.053) 0.004** (0.002) −0.003

−0.014 (0.206) 0.007 (0.007) 0.015

−0.027 (0.022) −0.001 (0.001) −0.000

0.073 (0.098) 0.004 (0.003) 0.012

0.095 (0.191) −0.002 (0.011) −0.057**

(0.005) 0.001 (0.002) −0.001 (0.002)

(0.024) 0.006 (0.013) −0.004 (0.012) −0.992*** (0.262)

(0.003) −0.001 (0.000) −0.001** (0.001)

(0.010) −0.001 (0.004) 0.000 (0.004)

(0.023) −0.011 (0.016) 0.018 (0.017)

Do not use any other Chinese translations of the Bible

Years of reading the Bible Pricing of the RCUV Ownership of printed copies of the RCUV Reading contents of the RCUV Constant 0.600*** (0.113) Sample size 470 R-squared 0.017

0.939*** (0.074)

5.205*** (0.734) 261 0.043

0.111** (0.055) 478 0.007

0.887*** (0.221) 217 0.441

0.453** (0.204) 3.907*** (0.668) 78 0.021

Notes: Robust standard errors are in parentheses. * significant at 10%, ** significant at 5%, *** significant at 1%.

Column 4 analyzes the factors that determine the extent to which one has read the RCUV. The results reveal that the number of Christians who read the RCUV does not depend on the demographics and the years of reading the Bible. However, the positive and significant coefficient of the variable on the ownership of the printed edition of the RCUV implies that having a hard copy - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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increases the quantity of the RCUV text read by the user. Specifically, if one has a printed copy, he/she will read almost double the initial amount of text as compared to someone who does not own a printed copy. The fitness of this estimation is good, over 44%, suggesting that the possession of a hard copy can explain almost a half of the users’ extent of reading of the RCUV. The last column explores the determinants of the comments on the RCUV. The results indicate that Christians with higher education tend to make more negative comments on revised version. Individuals with higher education have more rigorous standards and much higher expectations of the RCUV than those with lower levels of education. Interestingly, Christians give the RCUV a better assessment as the amount of text they read increases, suggesting that a lengthy period is required in promoting the RCUV. Christians need to know the RCUV and read it extensively, then they may slowly trust and praise it in time. 4

Concluding Remarks

This essay discusses the choice of biblical translation(s) by Christian readers and their understanding, acceptance, and evaluation of the RCUV using a field survey of individuals who participate in church worship in Nanjing City. Further exploration of the reasons behind Christians’ decision to use the RCUV was conducted through quantitative analysis. The basic findings of the study include the following. 1) The CUV is still the most influential Chinese version of the Bible. However, younger readers are highly likely to read more versions. In other words, younger generations are more open to various translations of the same classical text. In the future, other Chinese translations of the Bible may emerge, each with unique characteristics. 2) The RCUV has been accepted to some extent, which is no less than the other versions except the CUV. Readers with shorter years of reading the Bible more easily accept the RCUV. Therefore, if the RCUV is introduced, distributed, and/or sold to younger readers or new believers, the circulation of the version may increase. 3) Readers of the RCUV give a high overall evaluation to the translation. Moreover, readers who have delved more deeply into the RCUV give a higher evaluation to the translation. In other words, the RCUV has been proven to be an acceptable and good version.

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This survey is a preliminary attempt, and the selected samples are limited due to the constraints of time, energy, and funds. In the future, surveys can be extended to other churches in Nanjing, including churches in rural and suburban areas, other areas of Jiangsu Province, and other provinces and cities. It is worth noting that Nanjing is the home of the Amity Foundation, which has the exclusive authority to print Bibles in mainland China. Therefore, this research needs more data to test whether the urban Christians’ choice of Bible translation(s) is representative throughout the country. Bibliography Eber, Irene Sze-kar Wan, and Knut Walf, eds., Bible in Modern China: The Literary and Intellectual Impact (Sankt Augustin, Germany: Institut Monumenta Serica, 1999). 程小娟:《新教传教士〈圣经〉汉译讨论的处境化启示》，《基督教文化学刊》2016年第2 期，139–161 [Cheng Xiaojuan. “Xinjiao chuanjiaoshi shengjing hanyi taolun de chujinghua qishi” (The Inspiration for Contextualization from Protestant Missionaries’ Discussions on the Chinese Bible Translation). Journal for the Study of Christian Culture 36 (2016): 139–161]. 海恩波:《 道在神州:圣经在中国的翻译与流传》 ，蔡锦图译，香港:国际圣经协 会，2000 [Marshall Broomhall. Dao zai Shenzhou: Shengjing zai Zhongguo de fanyi

yu liuchuan (The Bible in China). Translated by Cai Jintu. Hong Kong: International Bible Society, 2000]. 刘美纯:《经典的延续 – 〈和合本修订版圣经〉介绍》，载雷雨田、万兆元主编:《宗 教经典汉译研究》，北京:社会科学文献出版社，2013，79–95 [Liu Meichun. “Jingdian de yanxu – Heheben xiudingban Shengjing jieshao” (The Continuity of the Scripture – An Introduction to the RCUV). In Zongjiao jingdian hanyi yanjiu (Studies on the Chinese Translations of Religious Scriptures), edited by Lei Yutian and Wan Zhaoyuan. (Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press (China), 2013), 79–95]. 麦金华:《大英圣书公会与官话〈和合本〉圣经翻译》，香港:基督教中国宗教文化研 究社，2010 [George K.W. Mak, Daying shengshu gonghui yu guanhua Heheben

Shengjing fanyi (British and Foreign Bible Society and the Translation of the Mandarin Chinese Union Version). (Hong Kong: Christian Study Center on Chinese Religion and Culture, 2010).] 南京市统计局:《南京市2015年1%人口抽样调查主要数据公报》 [Nanjing Statistics Bureau. “Main Data Bulletin of Nanjing 1% Population Sample Survey in 2015”]. http://tjj.nanjing.gov.cn/njstjj/201810/t20181021_527406.html. 邱业祥:《经文辨读与理雅各对 “God”和 “上帝 ”互译的经学及神学基础》，《圣经文学 研究》2016年第13辑，200–217 [Qiu Yexiang. “Jingwen biandu yu Liyage dui ‘God’

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he “shangdi” huyi de jingxue ji shenxue jichu” (Theological Foundations of the Scriptural Reasoning & Classical Studies for the Mutual Translation between ‘God’ & ‘Shang Te’). Journal for the Study of Biblical Literature 13 (2016): 200–217]. 任东升:《圣经汉译文化研究》，武汉:湖北教育出版社， 2007年  [Ren Dongsheng. Shengjing hanyi wenhua yanjiu (Studies of the Culture of the Chinese Translations of the Bible). (Wuhan: Hubei Education Press, 2007)]. 苏以葆:《圣道常新 – 和合本圣经的延续》，《天风》2010年第12期，48 [Su Yibao. “Shengdao changxin – Heheben Shengjing de yanxu” (The Divine Logos Is Always New). Tianfeng 12 (2010): 48]. 吴绳武:《认识圣经》，香港:宗教教育中心，1993 [WU Shengwu. Renshi Shengjing (Acknowledging the Bible). (Hong Kong: Religious Education Resource Centre, 1993)]. 香港圣经公会:《回应 “ 和合本圣经的特色与修订浅见 ” 一文》，《天风》 2010 年第 12 期，58–60 [Hong Kong Bible Society. “Huiying ‘Heheben Shengjing de tese yu xiuding qianjian’ yiwen” (A Response to ‘On the Characteristics and Revisions of the CUV’) Tianfeng 12 (2010), 58–60]. 香港圣经公会:《专访参与修订〈和合本〉的中国圣经学者  –  林培泉牧师》（上） （下），《教牧亮光》2012年5–6月号 [Hong Kong Bible Society. “Zhuanfang canyu xiuding Heheben de Zhongguo Shengjing xuezhe – Lin Peiquan Mushi” (1) & (2) (An Interview of Rev. Lin Peiquan, a Chinese Biblical Scholar Participating in the Revision of the Union Version 1 & 2). Jiaomu Liangguang May and June, 2012]. http://www.ccctspm.org/newsinfo/2866; http://www.ccctspm.org/newsinfo/2966. 谢品然、曾庆豹编:《自上帝说汉语以来  – “ 和合本 ” 圣经九十年》，香港:研道社 有限公司，2010 [Chia, Philip P. and Chin Ken-pa, eds. Zi Shangdi shuo hanyu yilai – “Heheben” Shengjing jiushinian (Ever Since God Speaks Chinese: The 90th Anniversary of the Chinese Union Version Bible). (Hong Kong: Research Institute Ltd., 2010)]. 殷颖:《和合本圣经的特色与修订浅见》，《天风》 2010年第 10期， 28–29 [YIN Ying. “Heheben Shengjing de tese yu xiuding qianjian” (On the Characteristics and Revisions of the CUV). Tianfeng no. 10 (2010): 28–29]. 尤思德:《和合本与中文圣经翻译》，蔡锦图译，香港:国际圣经协会， 2002 [ Jost Oliver Zetzsche. Heheben yu zhongwen shengjing fanyi (The Bible in China: The History of the Union Version or the Culmination of Protestant Missionary Bible Translation in China). Translated by Cai Jintu. (Hong Kong: International Bible Society, 2002)]. 中国社会科学院世界宗教研究所课题组:《中国基督教入户问卷调查报告》，李华伟 编:《三十年来中国基督教现状研究论著选》，北京:社会科学文献出版社，2016，

3–25 [Research Group of the Institute of World Religions, CASS. “Zhongguo Jidujiao ruhu wenjuan diaocha baogao” (In-house Questionnaire Survey on Protestantism in

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China). In Sanshinian lai Zhongguo Jidujiao xianzhuang yanjiu lunzhuxuan (Essays on the Current Situation of Chinese Christianity in the Recent Three Decades), edited by Li Huawei. (Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press (China), 2016), 3–25]. 庄柔玉:《基督教圣经中文译本权威现象研究》，香港:国际圣经协会，2000 [Chong Yau-yuk. Jidujiao Shengjing zhongwen yiben quanwei xianxiang yanjiu (Study of the Phenomenon of Authoritativeness in the Chinese Translations of the Protestant Bible). (Hong Kong: International Bible Society, 2000)].

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part 3 Church History in China

∵

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chapter 5

The Paradox between the Universality and the Westernization of Christianity in the Thought of Protestant Missionaries in 19th-Century China Yexiang Qiu The 19th-century missionaries believed they had received the great mission from Christ and tried to spread the Gospel to every corner of the world. They took it for granted that the Gospel is holy and universal, for it is the truth “from heaven”. As evangelists, they also thought that they could transcend their worldly regional and cultural identities. But they were, after all, born in and came from the West. When they were with Chinese people, they couldn’t change their regional identity anyway. For example, Matteo Ricci, who became friends with many Chinese scholars, was known as the “Western Confucian”. Regional identity, in the eyes of the Chinese who focus on regional identity and the difference between China and foreign countries, is closely concentrated and infinitely amplified. Given this context, what the Christianity missionaries were preached was naturally considered to come from the “Western countries”, and thus was labeled as “foreign religion”, rather than natural and universal. On the one hand, the missionaries tried to clarify the universality and nonWesternization forces of Christian belief. And on the other hand, they tried to demonstrate the effectiveness of Christian belief by the victory of modern Western civilization. As a result, Christianity was rebranded as Western. 1

Two Approaches for Addressing the Universality of Christianity for 19th-Century Protestant Missionaries

How to firmly and clearly highlight the universality rather than the Westernizing force of Christianity was the task of the missionaries who came to China in the 19th century were concerned with. Karl F.A. Gützlaff (1803–1851) paid great attention to clarify that Jesus Christ was not a Westernizing force. That is, He did not exist only to save the West, nor was He from the West. In his Life of Christ the Savior, Gützlaff writes, “Don’t take Jesus as the Savior just for the West. Jesus is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. Both the West and

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004469440_007

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the East should fall into HIM.”1 In Nativity of Christ, he once again declares, “It is said that Jesus is the Savior of the West. It’s so ridiculous. Jesus ruled all the nations forever and ever.”2 About 30 years later, Justus Doolittle (1824–1880) continued to emphasize the universality of Christ in his Dialogue between a Native and a Foreigner stating, Should we Chinese people worship Jesus who is from your place? Answer: Jesus is not an earth-god or a Bodhisattva of the Western, nor is he founded by man. He is the master of all the characters in the world and he is the natural God. Come down from heaven, take human nature as a man and suffer death for man. Therefore, the atonement he makes for is the sins of all nations. He also enables people who worship him to go to heaven after death and enjoy happiness in the world till many generations. Those who do not worship will go to hell and be rewarded with sin and evil. Therefore, no one in the world will not believe that he is the Savior. Please never say that Jesus has nothing to do with Chinese people.3 Therefore, the Christian faith is not a special thing from the West but a universal thing from heaven. The relationship between Chinese and Christian belief is not the horizontal relationship between China and the West (region, culture, etc.), but the vertical relationship between individual Chinese person and God/Jesus Christ. As how to deal with the relationship between the universal Christian faith and the special situation in China, there are two approaches for missionaries to adopt. The first approach holds it is precisely because of the universality of Christian belief that it is bound to have a relationship with any special situation, and vice versa. By virtue of its rich particularity, the universality of Christian belief can be fully reflected. Gützlaff is a typical representative of this approach. He staunchly advocated for the localization of Christianity, which included not only relying on the Chinese people to spread Christianity to other Chinese people, but also widely using Chinese classics, borrowing Chinese literary genres, and setting the time 1 Karl F.A. Gützlaff, Life of Christ the Savior (Singapore: Jianxia College, 1834), p. 1. Pan Zhao, “Unchangeable and Changeable: Chen Chonggui’s Biblical Interpretation and Chinese Society”, International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 18, 2020, pp. 113–123, (www. SinoWesternStudies.com/latest-volumes/vol-18-2020-1). 2 Karl F.A. Gützlaff, Nativity of Christ (Singapore: Jianxia College, 1836), p. 1. Huang, P., and Xiao, T., “The Dialogue between Chinese Great Guoxue and the Western Studies in the Light of Globalization”, Yearbook of Chinese Theology, Vol. 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2020), pp. 1–11. 3 Justus Doolittle, Dialogue between a Native and a Foreigner (ABCFM, 1856), p. 1.

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and space of China’s situation in the creation of Chinese Christian literature.4 In such novels as The Doctrine of Redemption, The Doctrine of Eternal Life, and Instructive Details, Gützlaff tries his best to create a Chinese situation. The life, lifestyle and cultural concept are strictly set as Chinese. Almost all the characters in the novel are Chinese, and most of them live in the Ming or Qing Dynasty. Many of them have official status, high Confucian accomplishment, and moral cultivation. If they are lower class people, they are often infected with some common moral and life vices, such as opium smoking, whoring, gambling, etc. These Chinese peoples’ belief comes from their individual life experience and reflection on the ultimate meaning of death and soul. Under the work of the Holy Spirit, these experiences and reflections will lead to the acceptance of the Christian faith.5 The second approach holds that the universality of the “from heaven” Christian faith means that it transcends any special situation and exists forever. It comes arbitrarily in the form of truth and will not be trapped in any special situation. It does not even need to express itself with the help of any special situation. Even if the faith is in a special situation, that situation does not prevent Christianity from also being effective and powerful for other special situations. This is the basic reason why missionaries translate biblical texts. Therefore, since the Christian faith can apply to many unique situations at once, it is the duty of missionaries in China to spread the faith all over the country without considering the special situation of people. The mission of spreading Christian truth can be accomplished by completely breaking away from any unique context, including China’s, or by placing it in a special situation other than China’s. In this respect, many translated works, whose original works have nothing to do with China’s situation, metaphorical stories, and other texts and stories can be regarded as the fruits of this concept. During the Southeast Asian period (1817–1843), Walter Henry Medhurst (1796–1857) translated and compiled short stories with metaphorical features, some of which adopted this non-Chinese situation approach, such as Poor Joseph and Death of Altamont, which were originally in English and published by the Anglican Book Society. First, it must be clear that, in terms of content, the translated text has been limited by the original text, and its plot and character setting have nothing to do with the translated context, forming a natural “gap”. This is the fundamental reason 4 Jessie G. Lutz, “Karl F.A. Gützlaff: Missionary Entrepreneur”, in Suzanne Wilson Barnett and John King Fairbank, eds., Christianity in China: Early Protestant Missionary Writings (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 1985), 61–88. 5 See Qiu Yexiang, “Chinese Christians as Presented in the Chinese Christian fictions of Karl Gützlaff”, Logos & Pneuma, 52 (2020), pp. 165–194.

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why Gützlaff seldom translated literary works and paid more attention to the original works.6 Both Medhurst and Gützlaff naturally regarded Christianity as universal and “from heaven”. However, Medhurst’s emphasis on the translated texts means that he focused on the universality rather than the contextualization of Christianity in China. Poor Joseph tells the story of a poor man in London who took the initiative to enter a church to listen to the preaching of the priest. The priest emphasized “this is the truth”: Jesus was born to save the world, regardless of the rich and the poor. If one confesses, he or she will be saved by Jesus. Joseph realized that he was a guilty man. When he became critically ill, he felt full of remorse. The priest was invited to pray for Joseph. Joseph took out his life savings and gave it to the priest. He asked him to use them to help the poor, then Joseph died.7 Although the scene of this story is set in London, it is not necessarily related to London itself. It is just to relate the story to the Christian world. This is very similar to other short stories with non-Chinese contexts written by Medhurst. Medhurst tries to diversify the story scenes just for the sake of richness and convenience of writing. However, these scenes only have symbolic meaning because they are not related to the unique history, politics, culture, and language of a location, and the latter is neither described as the basic premise of accepting Christian belief, nor described as the basic reason of rejecting Christian belief. Whether the characters in the story believe in Christianity or not only depends on their cognition of Christian doctrines and their repentance based on their inner experience. Therefore, some of the stories with Western scenes are not to emphasize the Westernizing power of Christian belief, but to weaken it and highlight its universality. Overall, in 19th-century missionary literature, whether it is either the setting of a specific and special Chinese situation or the setting of non-situational, ambiguous time, space, and plot. The missionaries firmly believe in and spread the universality of Christian belief. The problem was that, logically speaking, universality does not necessarily demonstrate validity. Missionaries often focus on individual spiritual renewal and eschatological salvation to prove the validity of Christian belief, but such arguments are too personal and mysterious, and even more external arguments are needed to provide support. Another important argument borrowed by the missionaries in China in the 19th century was the superiority of the modern Western civilization baptized by Christianity. 6 The American Tract Society ed., The thirteenth Annual report of the American Tract Society (New York, 1838), pp. 133–134. 7 W.H. Medhurst, Death of the Good and Bad (Malacca: The Anglo-Chinese College, 1829), p. 1.

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The Harmony between the East and the West and the Superiority of Western Civilization

In the Christian faith, all nations and peoples can be traced back to God’s creation of the world in six days. The history of the East and the West corresponds to the orientation of parts of the world in regard to the common origin of God’s creation and the common destination of Christianity, Mesopotamia. In this way, the Western world and China are placed on the same level of correlation. This not only breaks down China’s concept of Chinese centralism but also compares the advantages and disadvantages of Western civilization and Chinese civilization so as to show the superiority of the former. In the history of Christian missionary in China, the Jesuits of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties were the initiators of bringing Chinese history into the historical context of Christianity. Since Diego de Pantoja (1571–1618), Jesuits have been concerned about how to reconcile Chinese chronicles with traditional Western chronicles based on the Bible. Missionaries such as Martino Martini (1614–1661) and Philippe Couplet (1623–1693) tried to integrate Chinese history into biblical chronicles, though they had different views on the beginning of Chinese history. For example, Martino Martini calculated that the great flood recorded in the Bible occurred in 2951 BC based on Septuagint, while Chinese history recorded it around 3000 BC, which proves that Chinese history just began in the great flood era recorded in the Bible. That is to say, Chinese people and Chinese history were originally a division of the history recorded in the Bible rather than of independent origin. Philippe Couplet seems to be the first to clearly point out that the ancestors of the Chinese people are Noah’s descendants scattered in Asia. Jean Baptiste Du Halde (1674– 1743) referred to this in Description Géographique, Historique, Chronologique, Politique et Physique de L’empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie Chinoise saying, “Noah’s descendants travelled to East Asia, and about 200 years after the great flood, their descendants entered China.”8 This idea was deeply rooted in the hearts of Protestant missionaries after they entered China. Medhurst combined Chinese history with Western history in his Comparative History, regarding both Chinese history and Western history as the products of God’s creation and domination. Therefore, Chinese 8 See Zhang Guogang, From the First Contact between China and the West to the Chinese Rites Controversy (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2003), p. 301. Paulos Huang and Archie Lee, “Wenxue zuopin, renwen jingdian, Shen de huayu, haishi Shen yu ren jiaopeng de jilu?”, International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 18, 2020, pp. 187–218 (www .SinoWesternStudies.com/latest-volumes/vol-18-2020-1).

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history and religion as a whole follow the general rules set by God. They are consistent in origin, process, and final outcome. “God governs the whole world, just as the sun shines, the universe unites. All human beings and all things are under His rule and High Heaven supervises all directions.”9 In addition, works such as Brief Geographical History of the United State of America by Elijah Coleman Bridgman (1801–1861) and Universal History by Gützlaff, combine Chinese and Western history and world history on the concept of harmony in accordance with God’s creation and its transcendence.10 Therefore, the missionaries brought China, which had long held an isolated and self-centered attitude in itself, into the world family. This marked the beginning of China’s move toward the world and modernization. In conclusion, the main purpose of the missionaries’ reconciling the East and the West was to prove the universality of Christian belief, especially the historical view of Christianity. Furthermore, in order to prove the validity of Christian belief, Protestant missionaries highlighted the superiority of Western civilization shaped by Christianity over Chinese civilization. Gützlaff intended to “destroy the wall between Chinese and foreign people.” The publication “Eastern Western Monthly Magazine”, founded in Guangzhou in 1833, is one of the attempts to realize this idea. Gützlaff did not abandon the important task of preaching Christianity and elucidating doctrines but focused on preaching Western secular civilization, trying to change the blind arrogance and hostile attitude of Chinese people, proving the superiority of Western civilization over Chinese civilization. Therefore, the most important and largest part of the magazine is about secular knowledge such as western history, geography, literature, astronomy, meteorology, science, and technology. Comparative History (Medhurst, 1833.6–1834.5, 1835.5) and Train (Gützlaff, 1835.6) are among these articles. As a whole, the Western civilization understood and portrayed in Eastern Western Monthly Magazine had its limitations. It mainly focuses on “tool” rather than “Tao”. That is, it paid attention to secular practical knowledge but not yet to laws and regulations. However, Gützlaff did not fail to notice the importance of the latter. He wrote many works about Western civilization, especially British civilization, such as the dialogic novels History of England (1834) and Correction of 9

10

Karl F.A. Gützlaff, ed., Eastern Western Monthly Magazine, 1833, p. 4. You, X., and Huang, P., “The Contemporary Transformation of Educational Mechanism for Knowledge Innovation-Dialogue on Finland’s Education and China’s General Education”, International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 20, 2021, pp. 1–22. DOI: https://doi. org/10.37819/ijsws.20.106. See Zou Zhenhuan, Western Missionaries and the Introduction of Western History to the East in the Late Qing Dynasty (Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2007). - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Erroneous Impressions (1835), which introduce the general situation of British politics, religion, law, education, medical treatment, economy, military, folk customs and so on, and focus on the legal system behind it, highlighting its spirit of ruling of law, democracy, and freedom so as to create the image of a “civilized West” for Chinese people. In Gützlaff’s Chronicles of Great Britain, the protagonist Ye Duhua lives in Britain for many years. After returning home, many of his relatives and friends flock to greet him. One of his friends, Li Quande, is curious about the situation in the foreign country, so he asked Ye Duhua, “Men with red hair are barbarians. I wonder if there is a king in the country. I’ve heard that the barbarians are still animals, and they don’t know and observe the five cardinal relationships. They go as birds flying and beasts walking; they dig their holes to live in and eat grass and grain at will. When men and women copulate in disorder, there is no God above and no monarch below.”11 This kind of query typically reflects the psychology and cultural concept of the close-minded and arrogant Chinese people. It is obvious that Gützlaff intends to use Li Quande as a target for criticizing the Chinese people and Chinese civilization. Ye Duhua’s explanation is not only intended to highlight the falsehood of these ideas, but also further imply that British civilization (Gützlaff tends to regard British civilization as the glorious symbol of Western civilization) is not wild and backward but more developed and goodness-inclined than Chinese civilization. For example, when it comes to the check and balance of the executive power by the parliament (Gützlaff called it the “gong hui”), he says, There are more than 400 people in the parliament, some of whom are also in charge. Except the Prime Minster, the others can’t manage it by themselves. They must pay attention to the praise and criticism of the people. At that time, renting, requisitioning, servitude and taxing should follow the will of the guild. Otherwise, money and grain should not be collected, which is to rectify the foundation of the country governed by man. When there are conflicting ideas, the two guilds must be called together to decide whether to collect money and grain. If it is not permitted, even the Prime Minster can’t follow his own intentions.12 This passage demonstrates a criticism of the autocratic monarchy and bureaucracy in China at that time. The high praise of the success of Western modern civilization and the corresponding failure of Chinese civilization is the degradation of Chinese

11 12

Karl F.A. Gützlaff, History of England (publisher unidentified, 1834), p. 7. Karl F.A. Gützlaff, History of England (publisher unidentified, 1834), p. 7. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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civilization. Moreover, the root cause of success and failure is further attributed to the existence and absence of Christian belief. In response to Li Quande, Ye Duhua firstly emphasizes that Britain is not a vassal country, “not obeying the orders of foreign countries, not following the instructions of other nations”, but an independent state. Then, he talks about the Christian faith in Britain and regards it as the fundamental reason for the prosperity of Britain, “Only obeying the Sovereign-God, the Lord of all things, and the Lord of all nations”. He also introduces that when the Great British emperors were ascending the throne, they had to hold the Bible and swear, “by the favor of the Sovereign-God”. After hearing this, everyone was both curious and surprised. Then he explained, “there is a Sovereign-God in heaven, who knows everything and can do everything. In the very beginning of the world, he created all things in heaven and earth and protected all things. Therefore, the Great British emperor, relying on his blessing, did not dare to exercise his power at will. He only prayed for the Sovereign-God’s grace and made every intention follow.”13 After the Boxer Rebellion (1900), in order to make the Chinese people, especially the Chinese government, further understand the benefits of Christianity and the good wishes of missionaries, Young John Allen (1836–1907), Griffith John (1831–1912), Timothy Richard (1845–1919), and other missionaries in China compiled History of Christianity in China. It discusses in detail the renewal and remodeling of Western Civilization by Christianity. Recently, the European and American countries are not as ignorant as they used to be, when they all know nothing about the truth of the holy religion clearly. Now they are all well aware of the honest customs, the fair government, and the peaceful life of the common people. There is nothing but Jesus Christ and the holy religion that can make people so. It teaches people to revere and fear the Lord, and to be peaceful and loving in their life. Today, compared with the past, the political ideas of the western countries are more lenient, the family morality more generous, the knowledge more extensive, the criminal law more mitigated, the people less suffered, the slaves much relieved, the harm of cruelty gradually eliminated, the disaster of famine and war gradually rare, all of which are due to the influence of the holy religion. In addition, there are many good ways to ease the suffering in the holy religion. For example, the special hospitals built in various countries give medicine to benefit the patients. Teach the deaf and the blind so as to pity the disabled, adopt the insane to avoid losing their homes. This is also the effect of the holy religion to 13

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love others as yourself. Today, although the holy religion has been spread to China for a short time, its effect can also be verified.14 3

A Western Civilized Christianity?

As mentioned above, when the missionaries needed to emphasize the universality of Christian belief, they claimed that Christian belief did not come from the West but from Heaven, which is the so-called “doctrines from heaven and principles on the earth”; however, in order to prove the only truth of Christianity and its great practical significance to bring new life to China, they did not hesitate to emphasize that it is Christianity that brings civilization and prosperity to the West, so that it appears that Christianity and Western civilization are mutual representations, mutual perfection, and even two sides of one. Although the missionaries never felt contradictory when they were talking about the two, the internal conflicts did exist. Duan Huaiqing states that, the historical view of “harmony” argued in Eastern Western Monthly Magazine in the context of world history and the view of “harmony” extended to the field of literature and culture were not without contradiction or even conflict with the uniqueness and supremacy of Christian thought.15 However, he did not point out the specific contradictions and conflicts. And, there were implied conflicts not only between the historical and cultural harmony of missionaries and the only truth and universality of Christianity but also between the missionaries’ relying on Western civilization to expound Christianity and the holiness and universality of Christianity. The development of modern Western civilization, especially political civilization, is indeed intrinsically related to Christianity. For example, it is from Protestantism that the initial concept of equality was bred, such as the limitation of man taught by Christianity to people including the monarch. However, it must be noted that, the rule of law, democracy and freedom in modern Western countries are to a large extent realized on the basis of criticizing and shaking off Christianity.16 Therefore, the missionaries, including Gützlaff and 14

15 16

Young John Allen, et al., eds., History of Christianity in China (publisher unidentified, 1895), p. 18. Liu Yan, “Culture Reproduction or Value Conflict? The Morally Fraught Experience of Chinese Christians in Virtual Communities”, International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 20, 2021, pp. 43–60. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37819/ijsws.20.108. Duan Huaiqing, “Protestant Missionaries’ Discovery of Literary China and Their ‘Harmony’ Thought”, Journal of Xuzhou Normal University, no. 2, 2012, p. 99. Leo Strauss, “The Three Waves of Modernity,” in Hilail Gildin, ed., An Introduction to Political Philosophy: Ten Essays by Leo Strauss (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1989), pp. 81–98. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Young John Allen, attributed modern western civilization to the influence of Christianity, which was exaggerated and biased. No matter what the relationship between Christianity and modern western civilization is, the related problem that emerges here is that the universality and superiority of Christianity claimed by missionaries can only be proven with the help of Western civilization’s particularity; or more accurately, it must be limited to the existing pattern of western civilization. Thus, Christianization is described and promised as Western civilization, which means that the universality of Christianity is rebranded with Western characteristics. This problem can also be considered from the perspective of theology. Missionaries preached Christianity and theologically promised the salvation of the soul after death and the eschatological heaven. After Robert Morrison (1782–1834) came to China, he wrote the first theological pamphlet named A True and Summary Statement of the Divine Doctrine (1811), which clearly declared: “Jesus came down from heaven to earth, teaching that this life is temporary, and the next life will never be. At the end of this world, all people will rise from the dead and be judged according to righteousness before God. The good will enter into eternal life, and the bad will suffer forever.”17 In 1893, Devello Zelotos Sheffield (1841–1913) wrote Discourse on Theology, in the preface of which he said, “We should know that the only origin of the book is the Bible. Jesus, as the son of God, comes to the world to save people from eternal death and get eternal life. Taking repentance and faith in Jesus is the door to the eternal life, and the blessing of the next life is the grace given by God because he is the Savior.”18 Almost all of these pamphlets are based on Christian fundamentalism, reflecting the spiritual otherworld tendencies of spiritual reawakening emphasized by the Evangelical Revival Movement. The essence of spirituality and other world in Christianity determines the fundamental indifference to the present world. Paul’s idea of “living but not belonging to the world” is the basic way for Christians to look at the relationship between themselves and the secular world. This is also highlighted in the missionaries’ pamphlets on Christian doctrine, in which there is little talk about the renewal of the secular world by Christianity except for the moral renewal they are concerned about. If there need to express views on this world, including the Western world, the more Christian attitude should be criticism rather than praise because worldly

17 18

Robert Morrison, A True and Summary Statement of the Divine Doctrine (Canton, 1811), pp. 1–2. Devello Zelotos Sheffield, “Preface”, Discourse on Theology (Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1910).

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things are always lower than heavenly things, and earthly things are always sinful to God.19 William Milne (1785–1822) was deeply aware of this. In A Retrospect of the First Ten Years of the Protestant Mission to China, he did not hesitate to put China and the West on the same level, highlighting the transcendence of Christianity and sinfulness of this world. Christianity claims the world as the sphere of its operations: it knows no other locality. It commands the nations to give up nothing but what is injurious for them to retain; and proposes nothing for their acceptance but what they are miserable without. It casts no slight on any one country, by exalting the virtues and glory of another. It represents ‘all peoples and nations’ as on a level in the eyes of God – as equally offenders against him – equally subject to the decisions of his awful justice – and equally welcome to the benefits of his abundant mercy. Its moral and positive duties are equally blinding of all to whom the gospel is made know-its tremendous sanctions will be executed on all who reject or abuse it, without partiality, and without the probability of appeal or escape.20 However, when the missionaries introduced the advancement of Western civilization and tried to elucidate the significance of Christianity to China and its civilization, Christianity not only eased the criticism of earthly things including Western civilization to a certain extent but also declined to the secular world from the perspective of spirituality and that world. These tendencies are in line with the gradual progress of Western theology towards liberal theology and social evangelical theology throughout the 19th century. Theologically speaking, this is a degradation of Christian status. Although it can enrich Christian theology, it is also regarded as a dangerous tendency, such as Karl Barth’s severe criticism of liberal theology. The missionaries did not clearly address how the development and advancement of worldly thing, including the prosperity of the country and the happiness of the people, mean that there is no need to concern the soul and the world. They also did not explore how such developments and advancements should be placed. Maybe they didn’t realize it at all. In the 1920s, facing the non-Christian movement, a group of Chinese Christian thinkers proposed the 19 20

See Karl Barth, Der Römerbrief, trans. Wei Yuqing (Shanghai: East China Normal University Press, 2005). William Milne, A Retrospect of the First Ten Years of the Protestant Mission to China (Malacca: Anglo-Chinese Press, 1820), p. 3.

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integration of Christianity with Chinese culture and the Chinese nation, after which this issue began to be considered.21 Of course, if one leaves the perspective of Christian fundamentalism and look at it from a more open perspective, Christianity does not come to the world from heaven in a pure and fixed form so that it will never change in different regions and cultural traditions of the world. The changes during the process not only come from the more and more diverse cognition and experience of Christian belief but also from the different cultures and realistic situations behind the cognitivists and believers. In other words, many doctrines and principles can actually be regarded as products of the West, as their personal understanding of the truth, rather than the truth itself claimed by them. For example, over the so-called sacrament, there is a great dispute between Catholicism and Protestantism, even within the Protestantism itself. But they all tend to go from their own understanding, regarding it as truth, and regard all other understandings as fallacy and heresy. Of course, they also regard some other rituals as non-Christian, such as ancestor worship and Confucius worship. However, when a certain concept and thought is transferred to another space, its historical connotation will not be copied but will have a fierce collision with the cultural elements in the new space, and its ideological connotation will also be changed and varied. 4

Conclusion

The 19th-century Protestant missionaries strongly believe in the universality and non-westernizing force of Christian belief. However, some of them insist the necessity and possibility of integrating any particularity in any different context for realizing the universality of Christian belief, while some others hold that Christian belief can transcend any special situation in any context, and there is no need to be indigenized or contextualized with different contexts. These two kinds of understanding of the universality of Christian belief leads to two main approaches for 19th-century Protestant missionaries preaching Christian belief to Chinese people, either contextualization or non-contextualization. In spite of this, as for demonstrating the effectiveness of Christian belief, both sides of them tend to introduce the advanced modern Western civilization which is supposed to have been shaped by Christian belief. Consequently, the universality and non-westernizing force of Christian belief is actually degraded and limited as the Western civilization, which is still 21

E.g., Xie Fuya, “Protestant Trend of Thought and The Fundamental Thought of Chinese Nation,” Association Progress, no. 82 (1925), pp. 1–15.

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earthly thing essentially and should always be exposed to the criticism from the heavenly Christian belief. But now the criticism from heavenly Christian belief on earthly things has been weakened as a result. Another related problem is that, since the Christian doctrines and principles understood by missionaries have their own western experience, it is natural for them to allow and even pursue Christian understanding based on Chinese experience. But, for the missionaries, they either criticize or reject or even negate the Chinese experience and Chinese tradition, or they just seek compatibility to some extent, so there are few missionaries who really pursue communication and construct Christian theology or Chinese Christian theology based on Chinese experience. Bibliography Allen, Young John, et al., eds. History of Christianity in China. Publisher unidentified, 1895. Barth, Karl. Der Römerbrief. Translated by Wei Yuqing. Shanghai: East China Normal University Press, 2005. Bridgman, Elijah Coleman. Brief Geographical History of the United State of America. Hongkong, 1844. Doolittle, Justus. Dialogue between a Native and a Foreigner. ABCFM, 1856. Duan, Huaiqing. “Protestant Missionaries’ Discovery of Literary China and Their ‘Harmony’ Thought.” Journal of Xuzhou Normal University, no. 2 (2012): 94–101. Gützlaff, Karl F.A. Life of Christ the Savior. Singapore: Jianxia College, 1834. Gützlaff, Karl F.A. History of England. Publisher unidentified, 1834. Gützlaff, Karl F.A. The Doctrine of Redemption. Publisher unidentified, 1834. Gützlaff, Karl F.A. The Doctrine of Eternal life. Singapore: Jianxia College, 1834. Gützlaff, Karl F.A. Correction of Erroneous Impressions. Malacca, 1835. Gützlaff, Karl F.A. Nativity of Christ. Singapore: Jianxia College, 1836. Gützlaff, Karl F.A., ed. Eastern Western Monthly Magazine. 4 volumes. Canton and Singapore, 1833–1837. Gützlaff, Karl F.A. Universal History. Singapore: Jianxia College, 1838. Lutz, Jessie G. “Karl F.A. Gützlaff: Missionary Entrepreneur.” In Christianity in China: Early Protestant Missionary Writings, edited by Suzanne Wilson Barnett and John King Fairbank, 61–88. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985. Medhurst, W.H. Death of the Good and Bad. Malacca: The Anglo-Chinese College, 1829. Medhurst, W.H. Comparative Chronology. Batavia, 1829. Milne, William. A Retrospect of the First Ten Years of the Protestant Mission to China. Malacca: Anglo-Chinese Press, 1820.

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Morrison, Robert. A True and Summary Statement of the Divine Doctrine. Canton, 1811. Qiu, Yexiang. “Chinese Christians as Presented in the Chinese Christian fictions of Karl Gützlaff.” Logos & Pneuma, 52 (2020): 165–194. Sheffield, Devello Zelotos. Preface of Discourse on Theology. Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission. Press, 1910. Strauss, Leo. “The Three Waves of Modernity.” In An Introduction to Political Philosophy: Ten Essays by Leo Strauss, edited by Hilail Gildin, 81–98. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1989. The American Tract Society, ed. The thirteenth Annual report of the American Tract Society. New York, 1838. Xie, Fuya. “Protestant Trend of Thought and The Fundamental Thought of Chinese Nation.” Association Progress, no. 82 (1925): 1–15. Zhang, Guogang. From the First Contact between China and the West to the Chinese Rites Controversy. Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2003. Zou, Zhenhuan. Western Missionaries and the Introduction of Western History to the East in the Late Qing. Dynasty. Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 2007.

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chapter 6

God Speaks in Chinese: The Reception and Translation of the Bible in China Hui Liang In contrast to the history of Christianity in China starting from the seventh century when the Syriac Church of the East established its mission at Chang’an (the present Xi’an) in the Tang Dynasty,1,2 the translation and publication of the complete Christian Bible in Chinese was a late comer initiated by the Protestant missionaries in the early nineteenth century. Meanwhile, when looking back at the reception and translation history of the Bible in China, the pioneering work done by the Nestorian and Jesuit missionaries is worthy of remembrance. 1

The Arrival of the Christian Scriptures during the Tang Dynasty: The Records of Jingjiao Documents

The earliest translation and interpretation of the Bible in China are recorded in the Jingjiao manuscripts and newly discovered steles.3 The stone of the remarkable Nestorian Monument of Xi’an mentions a Syrian bishop Aluoben 1 This paper is supported by “Ho Tsun-Sheen’s Christian Writings’ Collection and Hermeneutical Studies (1817–1871)”, General Project of National Fund for Philosophy and Social Sciences of the PRC (Project Number: 17BZJ007). 2 For the arrival time of Christians in China, there are some indirect indications that Christianity might have entered China already before the Tang dynasty. See Vladimír Liščák, “The Early Christianity in Tang China and its Scriptures in Chinese”, in Trade, Journeys, Inter- and Intracultural Communication in East and West (up to 1250): Papers Presented at the International Workshop (Humboldt-Kolleg), editd by Marián Gálik and Tatiana Štefanovičová (Bratislava: Institute of Oriental Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences, 2006), 160–181. Huang, P., and Xiao, T., “The Dialogue between Chinese Great Guoxue and the Western Studies in the Light of Globalization”, Yearbook of Chinese Theology, Vol. 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 1–15. 3 In Chinese sources, Syriac Oriental Church (Church of the East) is named as Jingjiao 景 教 (Luminous Religion) when it reached at the Tang Empire in 635. For the recent collections and annotations of Jingjiao manuscripts and steles from Tang times, see XU Xiaohong, Tangdai jingjiao wenxian yu beiming shiyi 唐代景教文献与碑铭释义 [Explication of Jingjiao Documents and Steles in the Tang Dynasty] (Beijing: China Religious Culture Publisher, 2020).

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004469440_008

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阿罗本 (Alopen) as “the kingdom of Daqin’s Great Virtue”,4 documenting his leading a mission from Persia “with carts loaded with zhenjing 真经 (the true scriptures)” and images and coming to present them at Chang’an, the capital during the Tang Empire. Received by Emperor Taizong in 635 CE, they began to translate the Christian scriptures into Chinese and built monasteries in the local areas (翻经建寺). The Nestorian Monument also mentions that “fulfilling the twenty-four sages that hold the discourses of jiufa 旧法 (the Old Law)”, the Jing-Honored Mishihe 景尊弥诗诃 (Christ, the Messiah) “brought order to families and to states by His Great Principles”.5 It also records that Christ left behind twenty-seven volumes of jingliu 经留二十七部 (27 books of scriptures) after His Ascension to Heaven.6 This is perhaps the first time that the Holy Scripture (both the Old and New Testament) is mentioned in Chinese history, including its earliest existing record of the Bible translation in China. On Zunjing 尊经 (Honored Persons and Sacred Books),7 one of the Jingjiao manuscripts found in Dunhuang scrolls, a cache of important religious and 4 The monument was erected in 781 but not unearthed until 1625, which is formally called Daqin jingjiao liuxing zhongguo bei song bing xu 大秦景教流行中国碑颂并序 [Monument (with preface) on the Spreading of the Luminous Religion of Daqin in the Middle Kingdom]. Daqin 大秦 (Great Qin) was the Chinese term for the eastern parts of former Roman Empire, “referring to the region of ancient Syria and its neighbourhood, which we call the Middle and the Near East – i.e. parts of today’s Turky, Syria, Iraq.” see Vladimír Liščák, “The Early Christianity in Tang China and its Scriptures in Chinese”, 166. 5 The Jing-Honored 景尊 is the respectable title that jingjiao believers addressed Christ in the Tang dynasty. Mishihe 弥诗诃 is a transliteration of the Syriac form of Messiah, which sounds like mešîḥāʾ. Jiufa 旧法 (the Old Law) refers to the Hebrew Bible canon, which contains twenty-four books. “Fulfilling the twenty-four sages” also indicates jiufa accords with the books of the Peshitta Old Testament, a Syriac translation based on the Hebrew scriptures which dates probably from the second century AD. The above original text in Chinese documented in the Nestorian Monument of Xi’an is: “圆甘四圣有说之旧法，理家国于 大猷。” For the translation, see Kenneth T. Morrow, Negotiating Belonging: The Church of the East’s Contested Identity in Tang China, Ph.D. thesis, University of Texas at Dallas, 2019. 6 The scriptures of twenty-seven books 经留二十七部 refer to the Peshitta New Testament, which was translated from the Greek text. It is recorded in the Nestorian Monument of Xi’an: “能事斯毕，亭午升真。经留二十七部，张元化以发灵关。” (He [the Messiah] carried out deliverance and when done ascended to immortality in daylight. He left 27 books of scriptures, revealed the workings of the Origin and gave the method of purification by water.) See “Rise and Fall of the Church of the East in China/Translations of the Sutras by Eva Wong, Li Rong and Martin Palmer”, http://www.syriacstudies.com/2013/11/07/rise-and-fall -of-the-church-of-the-east-in-chinatranlsations-of-the-sutras-by-eva-wong-li-rong-rong -and-martin-palmer/. 7 Here the article adopts TANG Li’s English translation of the original title of Zunjing 尊 经 as Honored Persons and Sacred Books. See TANG Li, A Study of the History of Nestorian Christianity in China and Its Literature in Chinese: Together with a New English Translation of the Dunhuang Nestorian Documents, 2nd rev. ed. (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2004), 116 (essay), 184–188 (translation + notes). - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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secular documents dating from the late fourth to early eleventh centuries discovered by Paul Pelliot (1878–1945), a French sinologist and orientalist, in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China, it is written that “there were 530 Christian texts altogether of Daqin Religion (daqin benjiao 大秦本教),”8 “Jingjing, monk of Great Virtue of this Religion was summoned (to the Court) and the abovementioned thirty books were translated (by him).”9 Although Zunjing lists thirty-five scriptures that were translated into Chinese, there are only eight Jingjiao documents found today.10 Among the remaining seven texts and the stone sutra,11 most of the manuscripts could be considered explanations of Christian doctrines, rewritings of canonical texts, and selected renderings of biblical passages instead of direct translation of the books of the Peshitta Old and New Testament. Through the existing Jingjiao manuscripts and steles from Tang times, we can see how Syrian bishops and missionaries made great efforts to express God’s revelation, Christology, and the thought of salvation in the context of China’s golden age with the adoption of the terminologies of Buddhism and Taoism to do the translation and interpretation of Christian doctrines and biblical texts. 2

Bible Translation in the Yuan Dynasty: Earliest Latin Catholic Mission in Medieval China

In 845 CE, affected by the anti-Buddha policies made by Emperor Wuzong, Jingjiao was mistaken for a branch of Buddhism and became the target of persecution. By the end of the Tang Dynasty in 907 CE, with the decline of Syriac 8

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The amount of 530 Christian texts of Daqin Religion 大秦教 ( Jingjiao 景教) could be considered as an exaggeration of the biblical canons of Syriac Oriental Church since the Old Testament of the Peshitta was translated from Hebrew probably in the 2nd century AD while the New Testament of the Peshitta is estimated to have been translated from Greek to Syriac between the late 1st century to the early 3rd century AD. The above original text in Chinese documented in Zunjing 尊经 is: “大秦本教经都五 百卅部……后召本教大德僧景净，译得已上卅部卷。” This article adopts Saeki Yoshiro’s translation of this passage, see P.Y. SAEKI (Saeki Yoshiro 佐伯好朗), Nestorian Documents and Relics in China (Tokyo: The Maruzen Co., 1937), 276. see XU Xiaohong, Tangdai jingjiao wenxian yu beiming shiyi 唐代景教文献与碑铭释 义 [Explication of Jingjiao Documents and Steles in the Tang Dynasty] (Beijing: China Religious Culture Publisher, 2020). Martin Palmer translated “Daqin jingjiao liuxing zhongguo bei song bing xu 大秦景 教流行中国碑颂并序” as “The Stone Sutra (The Record of the Transmission of the Religion of Light of the West in China)”, see Martin Palmer (in association with Eva Wong, Tjalling Halbertsma, Zhao Xiaomin, Li Rongrong, and James Palmer), The Jesus Sutras. Rediscovering the Lost Scroll of Taoist Christianity (New York, Ballantine Wellspring: The Ballantine Publishing Group, 2001), 206–224 (essay), 224–232 (translation). - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Oriental Church in China, the incomplete translations and explanations of the Bible were lost in history. In the middle of thirteenth century, the Franciscan friars began mission work in China. They came to Mongol China and found Jingjiao believers still there but not active in the mission or Bible study. In 1289 CE, with the second wave of Western Christianity spreading through China, John of Montecorvino (1247–1328 CE), later the first Chinese Catholic archbishop, traveled the arduous land route between Europe and China and arrived at the city of Cambaluc (Peking), the capital of the Yuan dynasty in 1294 CE. One of his contributions was starting the Bible translation. On January 8, 1305 CE, he sent a letter to the Pope saying, “I have completely translated the New Testament and Psalms into Chinese, which were also copied out in the most beautiful calligraphy.”12 But, those translated texts did not spread across China. 3

Producing Christian Literature in the Late Ming Dynasty: Jesuit Missionaries’ Selected Biblical Translation and Interpretation

It was not until the late Ming Dynasty that Christianity began to make a visible impact on Chinese culture. This time, the Jesuit mission tried to use all the resources of Western learning and science to convert the Chinese. They won over some significant converts from the Confucian elite. Although the Roman Catholic authorities did not encourage systematic translation of the Bible, it is clear that the Jesuit missionaries made great efforts in translating selected biblical texts and rendering the Gospels in Chinese through their publication of theological catechisms, prayer books, commentarial works, biblical quotations, and introductions. Among those Christian writings, in 1636, Father Emmanuel Diaz Junior 阳 玛诺 (YANG Manuo, 1574–1659), a Portuguese Jesuit missionary produced a series of 14-volume commentaries on the Sunday Gospel readings (Lectionary) entitled Shengjing Zhijie 圣经直解 (Direct Interpretation/Literal Explanation of the Holy Scripture), which translated almost a third of the Four Gospels into Chinese. As the earliest and largest existing work of Chinese biblical translation, this publication made a great impact on later Western missionaries’ translations of the Bible into Chinese. And, it was also the first time that

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Some scholars think that John of Montecorvino translated Psalms and the entire New Testament into Mongolian. This article adopts the statement of the Catholic Encyclopedia that he translated them into Chinese, see http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08474a .htm. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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the commonly used term for the Bible in Chinese, Shengjing 圣经 that directly translates to “Holy Scripture” was used by Emmanuel Diaz Jr. to denote the Christian Bible.13 The Shengjing Zhijie’s translation of the Gospels provides a preparatory work for later Jesuits’ translations of the Bible in China in the early eighteenth century. For the rendering of the life of Christ in late-Ming China, Giulio Aleni 艾儒略 (AI Rulüe; Julius Alenius, 1582–1649), an Italian Jesuit missionary and scholar, published an eight-volume work entitled Tianzhu Jiangsheng Yanxing Jilüe 天主 降生言行纪畧 (A Brief Record of the Words and Deeds of the Incarnated Lord of Heaven) in China in 1635. The work contains a harmony of the Gospels that could be considered the first Chinese biography of Jesus based on the translation of the Four Gospels.14 In 1637, Aleni produced Tianzhu Jiangsheng Chu xiang Jingjie 天主降生出像经解 (Illustrated Explanation of the Incarnation and Life of the Heavenly Lord), an illustrated version of his Tianzhu Jiangsheng Yanxing Jilüe. In 1640, he published Tianzhu Jiangsheng Yinyi 天主降生引义 (Theological Implications of the Incarnated Lord of Heaven), a Christian apologetic writing to expound the incarnation and salvation of Christ and answer perplexing questions from the standpoint of Christianity. These three works integrate biblical texts, illustrations, and theological explanations into a whole while presenting the Gospel stories of Jesus’ life in a localized and popularized way in accordance with the Chinese context. Beside the translation and interpretation of the Jesus stories in the Four Gospels, the Jesuit missionaries made some commentarial works and catechetical writings on the Ten Commandments. The representative works include Michele Ruggieri’s 罗明坚 (LUO Mingjian; Pompillio Ruggieri, 1543–1607) “Tianzhu shijie zhang 天主十诫章 (Explication of the Ten Commandments)”; a single page in his Chinese catechism, Xin bian Xizhu guo Tianzhu shilu 新编 西竺国天主实录 (Veritable Records of Catholic Saints, 1584);15 Matteo Ricci’s

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In ancient China, “the term jing denotes Scripture, as used for Buddhist sutras and Daoist texts, but also signifies a classic, and is used primarily for the Confucian classics,” see Chloe Starr, “Introduction”, in Reading Christian Scriptures in China, edited by Chloe Starr (London: T&T Clark, 2008), 2. Liu Yan, “Culture Reproduction or Value Conflict? The Morally Fraught Experience of Chinese Christians in Virtual Communities”, International Journal of Sino-Western Studies 20 (2021): 43–60. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37819/ijsws.20.108. Some scholar thought this work was based on a brief translation of the shortening version of Ludolphus de Saxonia (ca. 1295–1378) ’s Vita Christi (1474), see Nicolas Standaert, “The Bible in Early Seventeenth-Century China”, in Bible in Modern China: The Literary and Intellectual Impact, edited by Irene Eber, Sze-kar Wan, Knut Walf, and Roman Malek (Sankt Augustin: Institut Monumenta Serica, 1999), 31–54. Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), an Italian Jesuit priest, one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China Missions cooperated with Ruggieri in publishing the book. It was later revised as - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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利玛窦 (LI Madou, 1552–1610) new translation of the Ten Commandments in his Tianzhu Jiaoyao 天主教要 (Christian Doctrine, 1605), a Chinese Catechism printed in Peking;16 Alfonso S.J. Vagnone’s 高一志 (GAO Yizhi; 王丰肃 WANG Fengsu; 王一元 WANG Yiyuan, 1566–1640) Tianxue shijie jielüe 天学十诫解 略 (Brief Interpretation of the Decalogue) in his two-volume work Jiaoyao Jielüe 教要解略 (Brief Explanations of the Teaching, 1615), a commentary of Matteo Ricci’s Tianzhu Jiaoyao;17 and Emmanuel Diaz Jr.’s 阳玛诺 Tianzhu shengjiao shijie zhiquan 天主圣教十诫直诠 (Direct Interpretation of The Ten Commandments, 1642). In summary, the Jesuits’ various Chinese translations and interpretations of biblical passages are significant in the history of Bible translation in China.

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Early Chinese Bible Translation in Emperial Qing:18 Basset-Su/Xu Version and Guxin Shengjing

Since the translation and distribution of the Bible did not occupy an important role in European evangelism, there had been very little systematic effort put into the Chinese translation of the Bible before the nineteenth century. In 1707, Jean Basset 白日升 (or 巴设, 1662–1707), a French Catholic missionary, finished the translation of the Four Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, the Pauline epistles, and first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Basset’s work was based on the Latin Vulgate.19 These translated works were later discovered by John Hodgson (1672–1755) in Guangzhou in 1737. Hodgson took a copy of the manuscript to England in 1739 and gave it to Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), who donated it to the British Museum. Also known as the Sloane Manuscript (Sloane MS #3599), it served as a basis for Robert Morrison’s translation of the New Testament in

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Tianzhu shengjiao shilu 天主圣教实录 (Veritable Records of Catholic Saints, posthumously, ca. 1640). The Chinese translation of the Decalogue in Shengjing Yue Lu 圣经约录 is the same as Tianzhu Jiaoyao 天主教要, which is a new discovered writing edited by Matteo Ricci and others and stored at the Roman Archives of the Society of Jesus ARSI (Archivum Romanum Societas Iesu, Rome). You, X., and Huang, P., “The Contemporary Transformation of Educational Mechanism for Knowledge Innovation-Dialogue on Finland’s Education and China’s General Education”, International Journal of Sino-Western Studies 20 (2021): 1–22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37819/ijsws.20.106. The Chinese translation of the section on the Ten Commandment, Tianxue shijie jielüe 天 学十诫解略 included in Alfonso Vagnone’s Jiaoyao Jielüe 教要解略 is the same as the Chinese texts of the Decalogue in Matteo Ricci’s Tianzhu Jiaoyao 天主教要, which was also printed separately in late-Ming China. It refers to the period from the early eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century. Bernhard H. Willeke, “The Chinese Bible Manuscript in the British Museum”, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 7(4): 451. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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China after he copied it with the help of a Cantonese assistant Yong Sam-tak 杨善达 (or translated as 容三德) in England in 1804.20 Joshua Marshman also studied Basset’s manuscript and relied on it for his translation work when he got a copy from Robert Morrison in 1810. Both Morrison and Marshman translated God as “Shen” 神, instead of “Shang’di” 上帝, which was based by Basset’s translation.21 Today some historians are suspicious of the translation authority claimed by Jean Basset and consider his manuscript a co-translation that he carried out with the help of his Chinese assistant Johan Su 徐若翰 (?–1734) from 1704 to the end of 1707. It is also called the “Basset-Su/Xu Version.”22 In the early nineteenth century, during the Jiaqing 嘉庆 Period of the Qing Dynasty, Louis Antoine de Poirot 贺清泰 (HE Qingtai, 1735–1814), a French Jesuit missionary, translated most of the Old Testament and all of the New Testament from Latin into Chinese. It was the first nearly complete Chinese version of the Bible. Entitled Guxin Shengjing 古新圣经 (Old and New Holy Scripture), it also included annotations accounting for approximately 20 percent of the content. The order of the biblical books in this Chinese version is different from that in the Latin Vulgate. Although the Vatican officially declined the publishing of Poirot’s translated work, as the earliest Chinese translation of the Bible made in vernacular Chinese (Mandarin) instead of Classical Chinese (the traditional wenyan 文言), it had a profound influence on the syntax and terminology of later Mandarin translations. Poirot’s manuscript was kept at the library of Xishiku Church 西什库天主堂 (Beitang 北堂, Church of the Saviour) until it was burnt in 1958. Fortunately, two copies of the translation were preserved,

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See MA Min, “Joshua Marshman and the First Chinese Book Printed with Movable Metal Type,” Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia 2015 (6), 8–9. Pan Zhao, “Unchangeable and Changeable: Chen Chonggui’s Biblical Interpretation and Chinese Society”, in International Journal of Sino-Western Studies 18 (2020): 113–123 (www.SinoWestern Studies.com/latest-volumes/vol-18-2020-1). For contemporary scholars’ research on Jean Basset’s manuscript’s impact on early Protestant translations of the New Testament (the Marshman’s Version and the Morrison’s Version), see MA Min 马敏, “Niujin cang Mashiman wenxian jiqi xiangguan xueshu yanjiu shulun 牛津藏马士曼文献及其相关学术研究述论 [A Review of Joshua Marshman’s Archives Collected by Oxford and Related Academic Research]”, Aomen ligong xuebao 澳 门理工学报 (Journal of Macao Polytechnic Institute) 2019 (1), 9–10. See ZHOU Yong, “Cong ‘Bai-Xu Yiben’ dao ‘Er’ma Yiben’: Jianlun Bai-Xu xinyue yiben de yuanqi, liuchuan ji yingxiang 从“白、徐译本”到“二马译本”：简论白、徐《新约》译本 的缘起、流传及影响 [From Basset and Xu to Marshman and Morrison: Origin, Diffusion and Influence of Basset‐Xu’s New Testament Translation]”, Tianzhujiao yanjiu xuebao 天 主教研究学报 (Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies) 2011 (2), 261–308; SONG Gang, “Xiao renwu de da lishi: Qingchu Sichuan Tianzhu jiaotu Xu Ruohan ge’an yanjiu de qishi 小人物的大历史：清初四川天主教徒徐若翰个案研究的启示 [Small Figure, Big History: A Study on Johan Su, an Early Qing Sichuan Catholic Convert]”, Guoji hanxue 国 际汉学 (International Sinology) 10 (2017), 30–57. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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one at Shanghai Xujiahui Library 上海徐家汇图书馆 (Zikawei Library) and another at Studium Biblicum Franciscanum Hong Kong.23 5

Protestant Bible Translation in the Late Qing (19th-Century): From the High Wenli Version to the Mandarin Chinese Version

In the early nineteenth century, Protestant missions became more prominent in Manchu China, especially in the coastal cities. Compared to the past three waves of Christian missions in imperial China, due to the prohibition policy of spreading Christianity among Han Chinese and Manchus made in the eighteenth century, the middle period of Qing Dynasty, Protestant missionaries regarded biblical translation and introduction as a top priority of their evangelical work in nineteenth-century China. They not only invested much energy into translating and publishing the Chinese Bible in different styles and dialects but also into translating and publishing written and printed Chinese biblical annotations and introductory works.24 The first complete Bible in Chinese is attributed to Joshua Marshman (1768–1837), a British Baptist missionary who spread Christianity in India. With the assistance of Joannes Lassar, an Armenian born in Macao, he published the Chinese translation of Gospel of Matthew in 1810,25 Gospel of Mark in 1811, and Gospel of John in 1813. This Chinese translation draft of the New Testament was completed in 1811 and was gradually submitted to print in 1815. The Old Testament was completely published in 1821. In 1822, a complete Bible in Chinese was printed in Serampore, India, called the Marshman-Lassar’s Version. Another early pioneer in this area was Robert Morrison (1782–1834), a Scottish Presbyterian preacher who landed in Canton (Guangzhou), China, on September 7, 1807. As the first Protestant missionary in mainland China, he 23

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National Library of China has also collected some parts of the copy of Poirot’s Guxin Shengjing. In 2011, a copy of this manuscript was found in Shanghai Xujiahui Library. An annotated edition of Poirot’s Chinese Bible translation entitled Guxin shengjing cangao 古新圣经残稿 was published in 2014, see HE Qingtai 贺清泰 trans. (with annotation), Guxin shengjing cangao (9 Vols.), edited by LI Shixue 李奭学 and ZHENG Haijuan 郑海 娟 (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2014). For these parts of Chinese biblical publications produced in late-Qing China including other para-biblical texts such as “narrative works, educational primers, biographies of saints, catechisms, and liturgical books such as prayer books and hymn books,” see Chloë Starr, ed., “Reading Christian Scriptures: The Nineteenth-Century Context”, in Reading Christian Scriptures in China (London: T&T Clark, 2008), 32–48. It is the earliest single book of the Chinese Bible translated by Protestant missionaries.

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began the translation work under the guidance of the London Mission Society. In 1813, he finished the translation of the New Testament and published it in Guangzhou in 1814. During that time, another Scottish missionary, William Milne (1785–1822), the second Protestant minister sent to China by the London Mission Society arrived in Guangzhou. Together they started a collaboration toward the translation of the Old Testament, which they completed on November 25, 1819. In 1823, the translated Bible in Chinese named Shentian Shengshu 神天圣书 was published in Malacca. It has a total of twenty-one volumes and is also called the Morrison-Milne’s Version. Due to the classification of Chinese styles in modern China, historians named the two translations as the High Wenli 深文理 versions because the Bible was translated into classical Chinese.26 The Two-M’s Versions are famous in the history of Protestant missions in China. As mentioned, Morrison and Marshman used the Catholic Jean Basset’s translated work as references but carried out the translation in their own styles. Both of them translated the word “God” into “Shen” 神 and “Holy Spirit” into “Shengfeng” 圣风.27 A key difference is that Marshman translated “baptize” as “zhan” 蘸 (to dip in), while Morrison rendered it as “xi” 洗 (to wash). In terms of their influences, the latter was more popular and referenced by Western missionaries as Morrison himself had a stronger position in the mission history of Protestantism in China.28 Marshman’s version was mainly accepted and used by the Baptist missionaries. 26

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The translation of the Bible in China could be classified into Chinese translation and ethnic language translation. In terms of stylistics, there are three categories of Chinese translation of the Bible: First is the classical Chinese translation (the High Wenli 深文理 version); Second is the half written and half oral Chinese translation (the Easy Wenli 浅 文理 version); Third is the oral Chinese translation, including the Mandarin Chinese version [the Guanhua 官话 (today’s guoyü or kuoyü 国语) version] and the Dialectal version (the Tubai 土白 version). Robert Morrison also translated the word “Holy Spirit” into “Shengshenfeng” 圣神风. For a long period, the Morrison-Milne’s Version won a higher reputation than the Marshman-Lassar’s Version in the Bible translation history in China. One of the most crucial reasons is that Morrison and his partners carried out their work in Chinese contexts while Marshman and Lassar completed their Chinese translation in India. Both of their translations of the Bible into Chinese employed the literary language, which is the classical/written language used by the educated Chinese. Compared with the Marshman’s Version, the Morrison’s Version has been considered as a better translation by the Bible Societies at that time and later. In the recent years, Chinese scholars found that Marshman and Milne’s translation is more fluent, whose expressions are more in line with idiomatic Chinese. See ZHOU Yong, “Cong ‘Bai-Xu Yiben’ dao ‘Er’ma Yiben’: Jianlun Bai-Xu xinyue yiben de yuanqi, liuchuan ji yingxiang 从“白、徐译本”到“二马译本”：简论白、徐《新 约》译本的缘起、流传及影响 (From Basset and Xu to Marshman and Morrison: Origin, Diffusion and Influence of Basset-Xu’s New Testament Translation)”, Tianzhujiao yanjiu xuebao 天主教研究学报 (Hong Kong Journal of Catholic Studies) 2011 (2), 296.

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In the past few years, with the discovery of J. Marshman’s papers, correspondence, and Chinese publications reserved by the Baptist Missionary Society Archives, 1736–1939 at Oxford, more new research has highlighted the great achievement that the Marshman-Lassar’s Version has made to Chinese Bible translation and revealed the inner relationship between the Two-M versions and the Basset-Su/Xu Version, which can be traced back to the impact of Emmanuel Diaz Jr.’s Shengjing Zhijie in 1636. As two monumental translated works, the Two-M’s versions paved the foundation for subsequent translation activities in modern China. For the later High Wenli (literary) versions, the Medhurst-Gützlaff-Bridgman-Morrison’s Version is one of the representative translated works, which was based on the revision of Morrison’s Version.29 It made significant contributions to the production and publication of the Taiping Bible when Hong Xiuquan 洪秀全 (1814–1864), the leader of the Taiping Rebellion, and his followers found the Heavenly Kingdom or Heavenly Dynasty of Great Peace 太平天国 between 1851 and 1864.30 The Delegates’ Version 委办译本 is another influential classical Chinese 29

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In 1834, Walter Henry Medhurst 麦都思 (1796–1857; London Mission Society), Karl Friedrich Gützlaff 郭实腊 (1803–1851; sent by Netherlands Missionary Society to Java, Indonesia and later became an independent missionary), Elijah Coleman Bridgman 裨 治文 (1801–1861; American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions) and Robert Morrison’s son, John Robert Morrison 马儒翰 (1814–1843) formed a revision team to revise the Morrison-Milne Version. The revised Chinese translation of the New Testament mostly carried by Medhurst was printed in Batavia in 1837 entitled Xin yizhao shu 新遗诏 书 while the revised translated work of the Old Testament called Jiu yizhao shu 旧遗诏 书 was also published in Batavia in 1838. And the whole revised edition of the Morrison’s Version was published in 1840. K.F. Gützlaff did most of the Old Testament revision after Medhurst’s withdrawal of the translation work and later also revised Xin yizhao shu 新遗 诏书 for a few times and renamed it as Jiushizhu yesu xin yizhao shu 救世主耶稣新遗诏 书 (the New Testament of Jesus, the Saviour), which was printed in Singapore in 1839. For a long period, historians discussed about which early Chinese translation of the Bible provided the basic edition for the revision and publication of the Taiping Bible. There are two viewpoints, one side considers the Morrison’s Version as the basis while another side claims that Karl F. Gützlaff’s revised work based on the Medhurst-Gützlaf f-Bridgman-Morrison’s Version was adopted by Hong Xiuquan as the Chinese bible edition of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom entitled Jiu yizhao shengshu 旧遗诏圣书 and Xin yizhao shengshu 新遗诏圣书 (The Old and New Testament of the Holy Bible), which was published in 1853. In 1860, the OT and NT of the Taiping Bible were renamed by Hong as Qinding qian yizhao shengshu 钦定前遗诏圣书 and Qinding jiu yizhao shengshu 钦 定旧遗诏圣书 after he revised and deleted some biblical texts. Zhao Xiaoyang 赵晓阳 concluded that the second view is more convincing through the further textual comparison between the Gützlaff’s Version and the Taiping Bible published heavily in 1853 and 1860, see Zhao’s article, “Taiping tianguo kanyin shengjing diben yuanliu kaoxi 太平天 国刊印圣经底本源流考析 [The Origin of the Taiping Bible]”, Qingshi Yanjiu 清史研究 (The Qing History Journal) 2010 (3), 75–82. Based on the Gützlaff’s translated work, Hong

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translation version of the Bible, which was recognized as “having an elegant and neat style”31 and as the first union version of the Bible in Chinese in the history of Protestant mission in China.32 Meanwhile as a standard Bible in literary Chinese, although it got high respects from Chinese literati in the nineteenthcentury, its classical style was not easy for Chinese commoners to understand. Afterward, Protestant missionaries made great efforts to produce the half written and half oral Chinese translations (the Easy Wenli 浅文理 versions) and the Mandarin Chinese versions (the Guanhua 官话 versions). Since the middle of the 19th-century, Mandarin was used by the government officials in most areas of China. How to spread God’s divine word to Chinese masses became an urgent task for the missionary translators. In 1856, a Chinese Bible translation based on Nanjing Mandarin 南京官话,33 the Nanking Version was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Two translation committee members of the Delegates’ Version also worked on the Nanking Version. Walter H. Medhurst translated the Old Testament, and John Stronach translated the New Testament. As the first Chinese Bible translation not based on

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Xiuquan also made his annotations to the revised (‘Authorized’) Taiping Bible, which was published around 1861, see Carl S. Kilcourse, “The Biblical Annotations of Hong Xiuquan,” https://communitiesofprint.wordpress.com/2019/03/19/the-biblical-annotations-ofhong-xiuquan/. If looking from a broader scope, whether the Heavenly Kingdom adopted the revised edition of the Gützlaff’s Version or the Morrison’s Version, the Taiping Bible belongs to the Chinese bible translation system of the Morrison’s. As a standard Bible in literary Chinese, the elegant style of the Delegates’ Version was primarily pursued by Walter H. Medhurst, one of the most important British missionaries sent by London Mission Society to Asia after Morrison and Milne that served as a member of the general committee of revision and also a key translator of this revised translation version. As Medhurst’s translation assistant, WANG Tao 王韬 (1828–1897), a famous Chinese scholar and publisher of late-Qing also played a remarkable role in aiming their translation work at Chinese intellectual elite, which made the Delegates’ Version have a high reputation among most missionaries in China and Chinese well-educated readers. If in a strict sense, the title of the Delegates’ Version could be only given to the translation of the New Testament which was published in 1852 with the approval of the delegates. For the translation of the Old Testament, owing to a division among the committee members, it came out two versions. One was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1854 when the English missionaries Walter Henry Medhurst 麦都思 (1796–1857), John Stronach (1810–1888) and William Charles Milne 美魏茶 (1815–1863) completed the OT translation. Another was carried by the American missionaries Elijah Coleman Bridgman 裨治文 (1801–1861) and Michael Simpson Culbertson 克陛存 (1819–1862) after they left the delegates’ committee and published a separate final version by the American Bible Society in 1863. Nanjing Mandarin is a dialect of Mandarin Chinese spoken in Nanjing, China, which is also known as Lower Yangtze Mandarin or Jiang–Huai Mandarin 江淮官话 and named after the Yangtze (Jiang) and Huai Rivers.

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classical Chinese, the Nanking Version not only began the process of translation of the Bible into Mandarin but also indicated its close relationships with Louis de Poirot’s Guxin Shengjing, the earliest Chinese translation of Bible made in vernacular Chinese and later representative Mandarin Bible versions such as the Peking (Beijing) Version 北京官话译本 (1878) and Mandarin (Chinese) Union Version 官话和合译本 (1919).34 6

The Birth of the Mandarin/Chinese Union Version: A Milestone of Bible Translation in China

When the Protestant missionaries overcame the obstacles to translate the Bible into Mandarin, they noticed a dialect shift that occurred in the Qing-court from a Nanjing-based standard to a more local Beijing-based spoken language. Nanjing Mandarin was chiefly used by the royal officials of the Ming and early Qing dynasties until at least the late eighteenth century, while the Beijing Mandarin was eventually adopted as the common language both by the Chinese officials and masses through the late-Qing Dynasty in the nineteenth century. Some Mandarin Bible versions based on the Beijing dialect were translated and published in the period from 1860s to 1910s.35 The publication of the Mandarin Chinese Union Version Bible (CUV) in 1919 marked the climax of Chinese Bible translation activities by the Western missionaries since the arrival of the Syriac Oriental Church in imperial Tang. As the largest Bible translation project in the history of the Protestant missions in 34

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As we discussed before, although Louis de Poirot’s Guxin Shengjing is not a complete Bible in Chinese, the Mandarin he used to do the translation was based on the Peking (Beijing) dialect in the Qing times ruled by Emperor Qianlong 乾隆 and Jiaqing 嘉庆. And when he translated the Latin Vulgate into the Beijing Mandarin, many of which are “Latin vernacular.” It could be considered as the forerunner of today’s “European Chinese”. Before the birth of the Chinese Union Version, the main Mandarin version based on Beijing dialect is the Peking (Beijing) Version. In 1864, five American and British missionaries formed into a committee to translate the New Testament into the Beijing Mandarin. With the leading of Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky 施约瑟 (1831–1906; American Episcopal Church), John Shaw Burdon 包约翰 (1827–1907; Church Missionary Society), Joseph Edkins 艾约瑟 (1823–1905; London Missionary Society), Henry Blodget 白汉 理 (1825–1903; American Board of Foreign Missions) and William Alexander Parsons Martin 丁韪良 (1827–1916; American Presbyterian Mission) took six years for their translation work. The completed NT was published in 1872. The OT was translated alone by S.I.J. Schereschewsky, a Christian Jew appointed as the Episcopal bishop of Shanghai directly from Hebrew into Chinese, which was published in 1874. The entire Bible was printed together in one volume in 1878.

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China, it took almost three decades to translate and publish what became the most popular version in Chinese churches. The birth of the CUV can be traced to a strong desire among missionaries serving in late-Qing to “translate a unified version of the Bible accepted by all Protestant denominations for a more effective nurturing of Chinese Christians and for the spreading of the gospel” in China.36 In 1890, the second General Conference of the Protestant Missionaries in China was held in Shanghai. American and European missionaries approved the translation of “the Union Version of the Chinese Bible into three forms of the Chinese language” (High Wenli, Easy Wenli and Mandarin) to meet the needs of different target audiences in China. According to the translation proposal of “One Bible in Three Versions 圣经唯一、译本则三”, three different committees were founded to carry out these respective translations. The New Testament translation of the Easy Wenli Union Version was finished in 1900 and published in 1902, but the Old Testament translated work was delayed. The New Testaments of the High Wenli Union Version and Mandarin Union Version were both finished in 1906 and printed in 1907. In 1919, the High Wenli and Mandarin Union Versions were published.37 Although the Protestant missionaries dedicated their hard work to publishing three forms of the Union Version of the Chinese Bible, two classical Chinese versions and a vernacular Mandarin Chinese version, due to the language shift in China from 1910s to 1920s, the Mandarin Chinese Union Version became the most popular. Coinciding with the May Fourth New Culture Movement,38 the 36 37 38

See “Giving the Very Best Version of the Bible to China”, (Story: Cynthia Oh; Edit: Angela Teo), January 15, 2019, published by United Bible Societies China Partnership, https:// www.ubscp.org/giving-the-very-best-version-of-the-bible-to-china/. The Mandarin Union Version 官话和合本 was published in April, 1919 which was also called the Chinese Union Version. In 1939, it was renamed as Kuoyü Union Version 国语 和合本. The New Culture Movement (Xin wenhua yundong 新文化运动, 1915–1921/1923) was a movement launched in China from the 1910s to the early 1920s by Chen Duxiu 陈独秀, Li Dazhao 李大钊, Lu Xun 鲁迅, Hu Shi 胡适, Cai Yuanpei 蔡元培, Qian Xuantong 钱玄同 and others who had received western education and led a revolt against Confucianism. As an ideological and cultural innovation and literary revolutionary movement, it criticized classical Chinese ideas and promoted a new Chinese culture based upon western ideals like democracy and science. During the New Culture Movement, the May Fourth Movement occurred on 4 May, 1919 which was a student patriotic movement that grew out of their protests in Beijing for the transfer of German rights over Jiaozhou Bay to Imperial Japan rather than China at the Paris Peace Conference. Under the pressure of this anti-imperialist and anti-feudal movement, the Chinese delegation refused to sign the Versailles Treaty. Although the New Culture Movement was the progenitor of the May Fourth Movement, it was transformed from a cultural movement into a political one

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Mandarin-based Chinese language replaced classical Chinese and various dialects as the unified spoken and written language in China. Influenced by the changes in the Chinese language, the Easy Wenli Union Version never published the Old Testament. Because it was mostly accepted by Chinese believers from the southern areas of China, such as Fujian and Guangdong and overseas countries that preferred to read classical Chinese since their dialects were very different from Mandarin. The High Wenli Union Version revised the New Testament between 1920 and 1923, but it was no longer printed after the publication of the final edition in 1934. Translated in Mandarin Chinese based on Beijing dialect, a vernacular Chinese that became the Standard Mandarin in the Republic of China in the 1930s,39 the Mandarin Chinese Union Version (CUV) not only became a model for vernacular Baihua 白话文 (plain vernacular Chinese)40 translations after the publication of the entire Bible of the Peking Version 北京官话译本, an early complete Bible in Beijing Mandarin in 1878, but also made significant contribution to the popularization and development of Chinese vernacular in modern China. As an essay entitled “A Brief Summary of the Why, How and Impact of the Chinese Union Version Bible 和合本圣经 at Its 100th Anniversary” indicates, “it was amazing that CUV played a part not just in spreading and standardizing Mandarin as national language but also in forging a one-nation identity for Republican China as the country entered a new era.”41 With the rise of Xin wenxue yundong 新文学运动 (the New Literature Movement) in the late 1910s, which was closely related to the New Culture Movement and the May

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when the two movements joined and came together in 1919. The New Culture Movement was thus also called the May Fourth Cultural Movement. The Standard Mandarin is also called Putonghua 普通话 (the common language), which is based on Beijing-dialect Mandarin. The term of Putonghua had appeared in lateQing. In 1909, the Qing Dynasty named Beijing Mandarin as kuoyü 国语 (the national language). The Ministry of Education of the Republic of China issued a legislation and affirmed Beijing-dialect Mandarin as the national language standard in 1932. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Putonghua was established as the national common language in 1955. Baihua 白话 means colloquial language, which is the vernacular style of Chinese. There are mainly four types of vernacular Chinese: Mandarin Chinese 官话白话 ( Jing bai 京 白, Beijing baihua), Wu vernacular 吴语白话 (Su bai 苏白, Suzhou baihua), Cantonese vernacular 粤语白话 (Guang bai 广白, Guangzhou baihua) and Yun bai 韵白 [Ming Mandarin 明代官话; Zhongzhou-dialect baihua 中州韵白话 (Zhongzhou refers to the areas of Henan 河南)]. In today’s context, baihuawen 白话文 refers to the vernacular literary language based on Beijing Mandarin as opposed to wenyanwen 文言文, the Classical literary language. See “Giving the Very Best Version of the Bible to China”, https://www.ubscp.org/ giving-the-very-best-version-of-the-bible-to-china/.

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Fourth Movement and aimed to introduce the vernacular literary language as opposed to the classical literary language, the CUV was considered the earliest translation work using the most appropriate vernacular, Baihua, and provided a model of vernacular writing for the development of Chinese modern literature. 7

Conclusion: A Never-Ending Journey toward God’s Word

Looking at the reception and translation history of the Bible in China, there have been some significant theological implications that must be highlighted since the centennial birth of the CUV. First, the publication of the CUV in the early twentieth century represents the climax of the Bible’s journeys to China. As a Holy Scripture from the foreign land, when the Christian Bible was translated into the native Chinese language, acceptable to both Chinese masses and educators, it embodies that the Word of God 上帝之言 has been expressed as the Tao of Huaxia 华夏之道,42 which will be firmly rooted in the soil of China and sow the seeds of the Gospel in the hearts of Chinese people. Second, the three-decade-long translation process of “the Union Version of the Chinese Bible in Three Versions” formed a Chinese biblical theology that today can be considered “the Union Theology” (Hehe shenxue 和合神学).43 This is revealed in three ways: Firstly, as one uniform and standard version of the whole Bible in Chinese, the publication of the CUV represents the greatest achievement of Chinese Bible translation since the arrival of the Christian mission in the Tang. It not only brought together the translation work carried 42

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Huaxia 华夏 is an ancient name for China. “Tao” (Dao 道) is a traditional Chinese word signifying the “way”, “path”, “route” and “road”, which is similar to the connotation of the Hebrew word “derek” in the Wisdom Literature of the Hebrew Bible. It is also a fundamental concept in East Asian philosophy and religions. In Taoism, it denotes to the natural order of the universe, the substance of the existence, the principle of human’s life and etc. In the Mandarin Chinese Union Version, Protestant missionaries used “Tao” 道 to translate the Greek word, “logos” (the Word) in the Gospel of John while some other Chinese Bible versions render it as “Yan” 言. Paulos Huang and Xinping Zhuo, “A Dialogue on the Overall Situation of Religious Studies in Contemporary China”, in International Journal of Sino-Western Studies 19 (2020): 1–29 (www.SinoWesternStudies.com/latest-volumes/ vol-19-2020). Hui Liang, the author of this article put forward the term of “Union Theology” in her keynote speech entitled “ ‘The Union Sacred Book’ and ‘the People of the Holy Scripture’: The Theological and Biblical Hermeneutical Significance of the Centennial Birth of the CUV” at “Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Chinese Union Version Bible” Conference, which was held in Hong Kong, August 23–24, 2019.

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out by the Protestant missionaries in the past one hundred years, but also inherited the line of vernacular Chinese translation and interpretation of the Bible inaugurated by the Jesuit missionaries in the Ming and Qing, such as Guxin shengjing rendered and annotated by Louis de Poirot from the Latin Vulgate into the Mandarin colloquial version. From this perspective, the CUV has united or gathered the Chinese Bible translation scholarship transmitted from Syrian bishops and preachers, the Jesuits, and the Protestant missionaries and embodied a unique Chinese biblical theology that can be addressed as “the Union Theology.” Secondly, the birth of the CUV is a great group work carried together by the missionary Bible translators, local Chinese translators and assistants,44 and the crucial patronage of the three Bible Societies.45 There were sixteen Protestant missionaries of different nationalities, denominations, and mission societies who joined the translation committee of the Mandarin Chinese Union Version during the long translation process.46 With their collective efforts, the CUV became a remarkable success and reached the translation goal of being “the very best version that the united scholarship of the various missions could produce”,47 which was addressed by Dr. William Wright, Editorial Secretary of British and Foreign Bible Society at the General Conference of the Protestant Missionaries of China held at Shanghai on May 8th, 1890. As the most authoritative Bible translation in Chinese churches now, the CUV reveals a “Union Theology” that has fulfilled the vision of “the 44

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The Chinese believers who assisted the translation work of the CUV were Cheng Jingyi 诚静怡, Liu Dacheng 刘大成, Wang Zhixin 王治心, Wang Yuande 王元德 (Wang Xuanchen 王宣忱), Zou Liwen 邹立文, Zhang Xixin 张洗心 and Li Chufan 李春蕃. Some of them later became Chinese church leaders and pastors. The above three Bible Societies are British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS), American Bible Society (ABS) and the National Bible Society of Scotland (known today as the Scottish Bible Society), who covered most of the costs of the translation, publication, printing and distribution of the CUV when this largest Bible translation project in the history of the Christian mission in China started in late Qing. The sixteen Protestant missionaries who had served as the translation committee members of the Mandarin Chinese Union Version were Calvin W. Mateer 狄考文, Henry Blodget 白汉理, George Owen 文书田, John L. Nevius 倪文思, Chauncey Goodrich 富善, Spencer Lewis 鹿依士, Thomas Bramfitt 布蓝非, John Reside Hykes 海格思, Frederick William Baller 鲍康宁, Absalom Sydenstricker 赛兆祥, Edwin E. Aiken 安 德文, Charles W. Allan 林辅华, Samuel R. Clarke 克拉克, Henry M. Woods 林亨理, James W. Lowrie 路崇德 and William H. Rees 瑞思义. The original text: “It was their wish to give to China not ‘a one-man version,’ but the very best version that the united scholarship of the various missions could produce.” See “Discussion [provided by Rev. W. Wright, D.D. (Editorial Secretary of the B. and F.B.S.)],” in W.J. Lewis, W.T.A. Barber and J.R. Hykes (editorial committee), Records of the General Conference of the Protestant Missionaries of China held at Shanghai, May 7–20, 1890 (Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1890), 61.

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production of a version of the Scriptures which should unite the highest intelligence and the best scholarship of the entire missionary body in China”.48 Finally, although the CUV was translated into the vernacular literary language based on Beijing Mandarin, it still contained some elements of wenyanwen (classical Chinese), which made it not only be acceptable to all Protestant denominations, but also well received by both the Chinese elite and common people. When Mandarin Chinese gradually became the national language in the 1930s, as a model of vernacular Chinese, the CUV symbolized the combination of the two Chinese literary languages and implied a “Union Theology” through the modern Chinese rendering of the biblical texts. Third, with the successful spreading of the CUV Bible in China more than one hundred years, it has been God’s living Word for Chinese Christians. Although China is characterized by a long literary tradition and rich classical texts that have constituted a pluralistic religious world, Chinese believers’ devotional reading of the Christian Bible has created a new faith community in China, “the People of the Holy Scripture” 圣书的子民 (or God’s children of the Sacred Book). They will narrate their own stories of Chinese biblical reading and build Chinese biblical theology through the spiritual journey toward God’s Word. This is an adventure that will not end as God walks with the Chinese people through the dark valley and guides them along the right paths. 48

Ibid.

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part 4 Biblical and Scriptural Studies

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chapter 7

New Testament Studies in Mainland China: A Retrospect and Prospect Minhua Jing 1

Review of New Testament Studies in Mainland China

Based on the research history of John Yueh-Han Yieh (2006),1 Changping Zha (2018),2 Xin ping Zhuo (2020),3 and Xiaoyun Zheng (2020),4 I will first delineate the development of New Testament studies in mainland China from 19th century till present. With a concentration on ecclesiastic biblical interpretation in China, John Yueh-Han Yieh divides its development, including the interpretation of the New Testament, from 1807–2004 into four stages: (1) Difficult Infancy (1807– 1860), (2) Traumatic Childhood (1860–1911), (3) Challenging Adolescence (1911–1949), and (4) Growing Pains (1949–2004).5 Gospel sheets or evangelizing pamphlets produced by foreign missionaries and their Chinese assistants are considered by Yieh as the starting forms of Chinese biblical interpretation.6 These gospel sheets contained short biblical quotes supporting basic Christian messages that they wanted to propagate. Though the gospel sheets were often inconspicuous in their message, the one called Quan Shi Liang Yan (“Moral Exhortation to the World”, written by Liang Fa, the first Chinese minister, and an assistant of Robert Morrison) changed 1 John Yueh-Han Yieh, “Chinese Bible Interpretation: History and Issues”, in Ways of Reading: Asian American Biblical Interpretation, ed. Mary F. Foskett, et al. (St. Louis: Chalice, 2006), 19–28. Liu Yan, “Culture Reproduction or Value Conflict? The Morally Fraught Experience of Chinese Christians in Virtual Communities”, International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 20, 2021, pp. 43–60. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37819/ijsws.20.108. 2 Changping Zha, “An Assessment of the Studies in the New Testament in Chinese Academic World”, in A Kaleidoscope of Fields: The Development of Christianity in Contemporary China, ed. Shining Gao (Hongkong: Zongwen, 2018), 710–738. 3 Xinping Zhuo, ed., Contemporary Religious Studies in China: 1949–2019 (Beijing: Chinese Social Science, 2020), 229–232, 257–258. 4 Xiaoyun Zheng, ed., 70 Years of Religious Studies in the People’s Republic China (Beijing: Chinese Social Science, 2020), 293–295, 304–305, 316–317, 331–333. 5 Yieh, “Chinese Bible Interpretation”, 19–28. 6 Yieh, “Chinese Bible Interpretation”, 19.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004469440_009

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Chinese history dramatically.7 After reading this pamphlet, Hong Xiu Quan, who later became the leader of the Taiping Rebellion, founded the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and announced himself as king, leading to conflict with the Qing Dynasty for thirteen years. The second stage of Chinese biblical interpretation (1860–1911) is marked with two characteristics according to Yieh: discussions of how to translate key theological concepts such as theos and logos into Chinese and the acceptance of the theological standpoints and hermeneutic assumptions of missionaryprofessors by native church ministers.8 The debate over a proper translation can be rightly considered a kind of biblical interpretation. In this period, foreign instructors had far-reaching influence. Their influence can be observed not only in well-trained minister like Jia Yung Ming (1880–1964), but also in self-taught preacher Watchman Nee (1903–1972). During this period, they simply accepted the theological views of their foreign masters as the basis for their own biblical interpretation.9 Original principles of biblical interpretation proposed by native Chinese theologians are still on their way. In what Yieh views the third stage (1911–1949), Chinese Christian ministers from different theological standpoints faced challenges from nationalism and scientism. Their various responses to these challenges are reflected in their biblical interpretation.10 As Yieh observes, the challenge of nationalism promoted Christian theologian like Wu Lei Chuan (1870–1944) to indigenize Jesus as a Confucian saint and compare the Holy Spirit to the highest virtue of Confucianism, ren.11 But, Yieh’s observation that, as a response to scientism, Wu adopted a historicalcritical method to analyzing the Bible, thus all the supernatural narratives in the Bible were considered literary expressions of faith experience12 needs reexamining. Wu’s attribution of all the supernatural narratives in the Bible to mere literary expression of faith experience is not due to his adoption of historical-critical method but his evolutionary view of religion. Under this evolutionary view, all of the supernatural narratives in the Bible recorded the 7 8 9

10 11 12

Yieh, “Chinese Bible Interpretation”, 20. Yieh, “Chinese Bible Interpretation”, 21–22. The use of “perfect salvation” as the key principle to biblical interpretation by Jia Yu Ming may be traced back to B.B. Warfield of Princeton Theological Seminary, through the instruction of his missionary-professors from the American Presbyterian Church in Wenhuiguan (Dengzhou, College), Shan Dong; Watchman Nee was deeply influenced by John Nelson Darby through the missionaries from the Exclusive Brethren. Yieh, “Chinese Bible Interpretation”, 22. But later both of them proposed their own method to interpret the Bible. Yieh, “Chinese Bible Interpretation”, 23. Yieh, “Chinese Bible Interpretation”, 23. Yieh, “Chinese Bible Interpretation”, 23. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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unmatured understandings of biblical authors from preliminary society. In his biblical interpretation, Wu was neither interested in nor inquired about the historical background of biblical texts, as scholars who utilized the historicalcritical method do. But he did notice the discrepancy between the portrayal of Jesus in the canonical Gospels and the historical Jesus in a historical-critical sense.13 It was Zhao Zi Chen (1888–1979), an important contemporary of Wu Lei Chuan, who was aware of the value of the historical-critical method. As a Chinese Christian theologian who studied at American University and who was therefore acquainted with the historical-critical method, Zhao emphasized the importance of knowing the historical background of the Bible to better understand biblical texts. Zhao did, however, believe that the historicalcritical method could be an obstacle to Christian faith.14 According to Yieh, the “fundamentalist” minister Wang Ming Dao (1900– 1991) and Watchman Nee were aware of the challenges of nationalism and scientism, but reacted only with an insistence on the spiritual rebirth of Christians. Therefore, the Christian mission was to save souls, not to reform society.15 They developed a kind of spiritual exegesis by emphasizing exploration of the “spiritual character” of biblical texts. According to Wang and Nee, biblical texts are inerrant. Doctrines were used as guideline to interpret the Bible. Meticulous analysis of every word in the text and word association were part of the interpretation, though based on the Chinese translation rather than the original Hebrew or Greek.16 Through this way of interpretation, the “fundamentalist” leaders believed they would promote the spiritual development of individual Christians and eventually save their souls. This was the stage when Chinese theologians and church ministers began to develop their own exegetical methods. The establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 marked the beginning of a new era of biblical interpretation in mainland China. To erase the foreign influence on and control of the Chinese Church, the communist government promoted the Three-Self Patriotic movement,17 establishing Three-Self Churches. The goal of biblical interpretation became to serve the socialist China. Contextual reading of the Bible in the framework of 13 14

15 16 17

Leichuan Wu, Mencius and Jesus (Shanghai: Youth Association, 1940), 80. Zichen Zhao, “About My Spirituality”, in Experiences of Spirituality, ed. Baoqian Xu (Shanghai: Youth Association, 1947), 21. Pan Zhao, “Unchangeable and Changeable: Chen Chonggui’s Biblical Interpretation and Chinese Society”, in International Journal of SinoWestern Studies, No. 18, 2020, pp. 113–123 (www.SinoWesternStudies.com/latest-volumes/ vol-18-2020-1). Yieh, “Chinese Bible Interpretation”, 24–25. Yieh, “Chinese Bible Interpretation”, 25. Three-self means self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Chinese-izing Christianity was encouraged. One famous example was Bishop Ting Guang Xun’s de-emphasizing “justification by faith” but highlighting “justification by love”. Through downplaying faith, Ting wanted to minimize conflict between Christianity and Chinese culture. The true academic study of the New Testament in China began in 1978 with China’s “reform and opening”. The first ten years saw publications looking at stories from the Bible, the poets from the Holy Scripture, an introduction to the Bible, an introduction to the Bible as literature, Jesus stories, etc.18 These publications introducing specific parts of the Bible or the Bible more generally were written by scholars for laymen rather than fellow researchers. In the 1990s, besides introductory books to the Old and the New Testament, the mainstream publications were dictionaries and lexicons of the Bible, including lexicons of biblical characters and lexicons of biblical literature.19 In the first ten years of the 21st century, the scope of biblical publications widened to include non-canonical writings and the Dead Sea Scrolls. This is when their Chinese translation and general introductions were published. The most conspicuous achievement of biblical studies at this time was in the field of Bible and literature, including the Bible as literature and the Bible and world literature.20 Scholars of Western literature realized how important the understanding of the Bible was to help them to understand Western literature. The first journal about biblical studies in China, the Journal for the Study of Biblical Literature was first published in 2007. In the following ten years, there were also in-depth monographies on biblical studies published. Tian Dao (Heavenly Logos) Bible commentary, the first commentary series written by ethnically Chinese scholars was partly published in mainland China by Shang Hai San Lian publishing house.21 The ethnically Chinese New Testament scholar K.K. Yeo promoted cross-cultural reading of the New Testament and published a series of monographies and articles in Chinese.22 He taught as a guest professor at many universities, fostering the students’ interest in New Testament studies. In summary, biblical studies, though it has developed in recent years in China, does not belong to hotspots of Christian studies in China. Chinese 18 19 20 21

22

For the publications in this period see Zheng, “Religious Studies”, 294. For the publications in this period see Zheng, “Religious Studies”, 304–305. For the publications in this period see Zheng, “Religious Studies”, 316–317. For the publications in this period see Zheng, “Religious Studies”, 332–333. Paulos Huang and Xinping Zhuo, “A Dialogue on the Overall Situation of Religious Studies in Contemporary China”, in International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 19, 2020, pp. 1–29 (www.SinoWesternStudies.com/latest-volumes/vol-19-2020). For the full publications of K.K. Yeo see https://www.garrett.edu/sites/default/files/ faculty-cvs/KK%20Yeo%20cv%202017.pdf (accessed January 2, 2021).

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church history, the theology of Christianity, and the dialogue between Christianity and Chinese culture attract more attention than biblical studies. This is because the earlier generations of Chinese scholars of Christian studies were scholars majoring in philosophy and history. It was easier for them to switch from the field of Western philosophy to Christian philosophical and systematic theological studies or from the area of historical discipline to the history of Christianity. Biblical studies, which requires knowledge of more than two ancient languages for research entry, is a field that scholars do not want to try. This is why recent achievements in New Testament studies in mainland China are still predominately made by ethnically Chinese New Testament scholars. They are acquainted with mainstream critical methods, current research trends of New Testament studies and familiar with the Chinese context and interests. There are still up-and-coming native Chinese New Testament scholars, but it is necessary for the field to grow for quickly as a healthy discipline of Christian studies in China cannot be without the contribution of New Testament studies. Giving New Testament studies a proper role in Christian studies will aid in the further development of the discipline as a whole. 2

Difficulties and Opportunities for the Development of New Testament Studies in China

As a new discipline in China, the development of New Testament studies is with obstacles and opportunities. The first obstacle comes from the placement of New Testament studies in Chinese universities. It goes without saying that there is no divinity school in Chinese universities. So, New Testament studies cannot enjoy its status as one of the five subjects within the discipline of theology in China. The major of religious studies is one of the possibilities for housing the study of the New Testament. But, because religious studies is a branch of philosophy in China, and New Testament studies is intimately related to history and literature, many Chinese scholars think the topic should be reckoned with historical or literary studies. It is reasonable to place New Testament studies at the faculty of history or literature. Indeed, the few Chinese New Testament scholars and students were in these three disciplines. And the multiple possibilities for housing the study of the New Testament in China hints at the marginal status of New Testament studies in these three institutional disciplines. With its vague location at Chinese universities the development of New Testament studies in China meets its second obstacle: there is no systematic training. A systematic training of New Testament studies normally contains

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learning ancient languages (Biblical Greek and Hebrew), mastering exegetical methods, and studying important topics or books from the New Testament and its social or literary context, but these topics are merely taught intermittently at universities. We will come back to the topic of exegetical method later. The third obstacle is the few job opportunities in the area of New Testament studies. The marginal status of New Testament studies in academia means that only a few doctoral students of New Testament study will get positions at universities after hard competition with other candidates from dominant disciplines.23 This discourages promising students away from dedicate themselves to New Testament studies. However, opportunities are in the midst of hardship. The lack of place at Chinese universities also allows for the development of New Testament studies in China. One way is to draw resources and to build a cooperation from and with neighboring faculties. The growth of classics studies at many Chinese universities, for example, provides a great opportunity for promising students to learn classic Greek and Greco-Roman literature, the prerequisite and the significant historical and literary background of New Testament studies. The areas of Near East studies or ancient history at some universities offers courses like biblical Hebrew, introduction of ancient Judaism, and introduction to ancient Jewish literature, which are opportunities for students to master the other biblical language, Hebrew, and to become acquainted with the Jewish background of New Testament studies. Introductory course to the New Testament could normally be found at the faculty of philosophy or literature. But, it is worth noting that courses on special topics of New Testament study are seldom found in regular curriculum, mirroring the few publications of indepth research. Special topics in New Testament studies are usually taught by visiting scholars from abroad in the form of guest lecture series or intensive courses. Courses on exegetical method is missing from the curriculum as it requires a basic knowledge of ancient Greek for methodological course, foreign scholars are normally requested to lecture hot research topics rather than basic methodological courses in China, and there is a divergence on which exegetical method is suitable for Chinese New Testament studies.

23

Minzu University (Beijing), Sun Yat-Sen University (Guangdong), Huanan Normal University (Guangdong) and Beijing Normal University are the few universities which have stable researcher for New Testament Study. But all the researchers are fresh recruited, none of them have got tenure yet.

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The Way Forward

3.1 Method Academic biblical studies has been dominated by the historical-critical research method for the past two centuries. To put it in Wayne A. Meeks’s words, historical-critical method is “not a method at all but a family of approaches and habits, a variable set of perspectives, in short a practice”.24 This family of approaches, though with progressive improvement and combination with literary criticism, has been under attack and critique. The fiercest attack came from the postmodernists who questioned the objectivity for which the historical-critical method aims. In addition, feminist, liberationist and postcolonialist interpreters, to name the most prominent, point out blind spots that the historical-critical method fails to observe in its dealing with early Christian literature.25 Therefore, it is worthy to inquire whether, when New Testament Studies is a new discipline in China, it will be necessary to “inherit” and practice the problematic historical-critical method. There are voices in the field of Chinese Christian studies suggesting to ignore the historical-critical method for good reasons. As an outdated exegetical method invented by white males of European descent, its shortcoming is clearly discerned by postmodern, feminist, liberation, and post-colonial interpreters. China is a diverse country, and the Chinese context requires the development of a Chinese exegetical method in order to address Chinese concerns. Furthermore, the fact that the outcomes of the historical-critical method often fail to support traditional beliefs troubles not only ordinary believers but researchers from other fields of Christian studies in China, especially those who research systematic theology. The call for the demise of the historical-critical method is exaggerated. The same is true for the proposal to turn the clock back to the premodern exegetical method. The postmodern context is not simply the premodern revisited. Even for the premodern exegetical method, it is important to keep in mind that the critical biblical exegesis we now practice can be traced back to the Hellenistic school’s textual and authenticity criticisms, the glossing over of archaic or dialectal words, and the awareness of the social and material processes behind the construction of the canon.26 Therefore, it is profitable to continue to use the historical-critical method while being aware of its merits, 24 25 26

Wayne A. Meeks, “Why Study the New Testament”, NTS 51 (2005), 159. Meeks, “New Testament”, 161, 164. Alexander Loveday, “God’s Frozen Word: Canonicity and the Dilemmas of Biblical Studies Today”, Expository Times 117 (2006), 239.

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drawbacks and limitations. The Bible is a text constructed under certain historical and social contexts and heavily conditioned by its own culture. Between this culture and that of the modern Bible reader is a temporal and spatial gap of centuries. Hence one of the goals of exegete should be conveying what the text would have meant, what force it would have had, when read or performed before its intended or original audience. In doing so, one prevents modern readers from too quickly identifying their existential situation with the biblical situation and minimizing the possibility of reading into the text. Additionally, new archaeological discoveries remind of the unfinished endeavour of reconstructing a fair history of the past. The new exegetical perspectives from feminist, post-colonialist, and social historians indicate the blind spots of historical research.27 These new approaches help exegete to do better history. After confirming the position of the historical-critical method in the future of Chinese New Testament studies, it is time to inquire whether other exegetical methods would be needed for biblical interpretation in the Chinese context. To do a better history is not the end of interpretation. Biblical texts will address its Chinese audience. When approaching the New Testament texts, the Chinese do not come from a vacuum. They bring with them their own religious and cultural worldviews shaped by multiple Chinese canons and confront the Bible with their social and political concerns in mind. Taking especially the multi-scriptural context in China into consideration,28 Archie C.C. Lee, an Old Testament scholar from Hong Kong, proposed the cross-textual reading of the Bible and already did so with the Hebrew Bible. The process of a cross-textual reading takes place as follows. When reading the Bible (Text B), the Chinese understand it through their own multi-scriptural texts (Text A) and move from Text A to Text B and from B to A. Only in the genuine interface and interaction of the two textual corpora can the meaning for the Chinese be engendered.29 Lee points out that the Bible does not enjoy a mono-canonical role for Christians in China. The multi-canons from Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism, which have shaped the identity and affect deeply the worldview of the Chinese, will continue to function partially 27

28 29

The feminists have taught us all to read as feminists. The post-colonialists have helped make us all alert to oppressive constructions and uses of history. The Marxists have pushed us to unmask the structures of power cloaked in the interpretations pretending to be fact. The social historians have taught us to probe behind the words of the elite writers of ancient texts for traces the typical life worlds of those unrecorded people who were the first Christians and their neighbors. Meeks, “New Testament”, 161. Archie C.C. Lee, “Scriptural Translations and Hermeneutics”, in Oxford Handbook of Christianity in Asia, ed. Felix Wilfred (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 124. Lee, “Scriptural Translations”, 126.

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or entirely as canons for Chinese Christians. Thus, for Chinese Christians, these texts should not be denied their scriptural position and be condemned as pagan, evil, and idolatrous.30 With this cross-textual reading, the reader can focus on commonalities and differences embedded in both textual worlds. The two texts are subject to critical appraisal by the readers who seek to engage both of them for a renewed configuration of meaning and identity. The aim of such cross-textual reading is life-enriching, transforming one’s life through a process of self-discovery.31 This method can be applied to the New Testament as well. 3.2 Content As for the content of New Testament studies in China, it should consist of two parts: the sharing of research interests with New Testament scholars around the world and the doing research into the uniqueness of the New Testament in the Chinese context. On the one hand, New Testament studies in China will share the research interests with other New Testament scholars in the world. That is, it will continually be reflecting and refining the dominant exegetical methods, developing new exegetical methods through exchange with other disciplines, reconstructing a fairer and more honest picture of the Christian origins through new archaeological discoveries, evaluating the previously unconsidered factors, making new comparisons with relevant Jewish and Greco-Roman literature, and discovering blind spots through new exegetical perspectives.32 On the other hand, New Testament studies in China has its special concerns and particular research field. One of the attractive fields is reading the New Testament along with Chinese multi-canons from Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. The goal of this para-reading could be a comparative study, discerning how New Testament and Chinese Scriptures address the same themes or go beyond comparison to explore how the Chinese sacred texts can enlighten the meaning of the New Testament text, which otherwise is unseen or ignored. Another fascinating field is the utterance of New Testament messages in response to certain social and ethical issues in Chinese society. But, there are two important points to be noted here. First, we need to avoid taking New Testament messages, the “other”, as a direct projection of our own situation 30 31 32

Archie C.C. Lee, “Cross-Textual Biblical Studies in Multiscriptural Contexts”, in Transforming Graduate Biblical Education, Ethos and Discipline, ed. Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza and Kent Harold Richards (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2010), 36. Lee, “Cross-Textual Biblical Studies”, 44. Meeks, “New Testament”, 164.

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and problems. Second, in the New Testament, there is no systematic reflection on the ethical norms proposed. Taking the ethical teachings of Paul as an example, they are ethical teachings addressing concrete ecclesiastical situations. Paul did not give any systematic explanations of them, and sometimes even the underlying motivations are vague. This nature of New Testament ethics requires a careful reading of the Scripture in its historical context. Only an in-depth study will allow the New Testament to offer convincing guidance to problems a Chinese reader is facing today. Concrete approach is describing a behavior and the corresponding instruction given in the New Testament; inquiring as to the reasons and motives behind the behavior; discussing whether the instruction in the New Testament is rooted in early Judaism, in its contemporary popular philosophy, or whether it is a unique New Testament message; investigating the historical and social context and the applicable scope of the instruction; if it is a “borrowed” instruction, analyzing how it transformed from early Judaism or popular philosophy to a Christian instruction (e.g., in connection with the Christ event?); and relating the patterns of instruction provided by the New Testament to actual problems by way of analogical imagery. For this application, it should be noted that the Bible is only a part of the pluralistic value system in China and is the one at the periphery. Given the New Testament together with the Old Testament is a resource available to response the social and ethical issues of Chinese society, how it could be applied in the Chinese context, as a complement, dialogue partner, or critic with other dominant ideological authorities in social discourse, is a question New Testament scholars must contemplate. Finally, there are two further promising research areas to mention. One is the thorough exchange between the scholars who study Chinese classics and the New Testament scholars. The heritage of Chinese sacred texts together with their rich exegetical traditions will give inspiration to New Testament scholars to rethink their critical approach to the biblical texts. In return, scholars of Chinese classics may absorb and transform the Western critical approach to the Bible for the sake of enriching their exegetical method and broadening their way of modernizing the Chinese Scriptures. Another field is the study of the history of the reception to and effects of the New Testament (Wirkungsgeschichte) in China. Meeks rightly points out that Western New Testament scholars have done rather well with the prehistory of the New Testament texts but less with the history of their later receptions and effects. This is a vast field to be explored in depth.33 Similar judgement can be applied to research of the Wirkungsgeschichte of the New Testament in China. 33

Meeks, “New Testament”, 165.

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Some Envisions of the Future New Testament Pedagogy in Mainland China As for the biblical languages, as previously mentioned, with the current increase in interest in the study of Western Classics in China, many mainland universities can offer ancient Greek course from elementary to advanced levels (especially Fudan University and Peking University). These are important academic resources for helping New Testament students to fulfill the language prerequisite for entering the world of New Testament studies. Lecture courses on New Testament texts, however, must be provided for practicing and getting acquainted with the vocabulary and special grammar of the New Testament. The teaching of exegetical method is extremely important for training future New Testament scholars. Practice interpreting the New Testament with different exegetical methods is a way to cultivate independent exegesis while getting a direct understanding of the advantages and limitations of each method. I benefited greatly from my “Proseminar: Einführung in den Methoden der neuen testamentlichen Exegese” during my time as a student at the University of Heidelberg. Through using the methods with the help of dictionaries and lexicons, I found my own primary observations. After this, through comparing my observations of certain New Testament texts to related commentaries and monographs, my primary observations were modified, supplemented, or confirmed, and finally, my standpoint was formed. The fact that New Testament studies is still at the periphery of the institutional system of Chinese universities, means routine offering of the methods courses may not be possible (the same goes for other advanced research courses in New Testament studies). Providing pre-recorded lectures for methods courses on an online university platform with the opportunity to engage with professors is a way to add such courses to the regular curriculum.34 3.3

4

Conclusion

As a new discipline in mainland China, the development of New Testament studies encounters numerus difficulties and challenge. The marginal place of New Testament studies at the faculty of philosophy, history, or literary studies means that there is no specific approach or path of study for solid training and cutting-edge research information for those interested in pursuing New Testament studies. But, thanks to the increased interest in the study of Western 34

Liang, G., “The Bible and the Construction of Western Literary Theories”, Yearbook of Chinese Theology, Vol. 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 119–129.

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classics at Chinese universities and online recorded course, a systematic training in New Testament studies, from learning the ancient languages, to exegetical method and introductory courses, and finally to advanced and cutting-edge course, is possible. Beside sharing the interests with the New Testament scholars of the world, reading the New Testament along with Chinese multi-canons, exploring the utterance of New Testament messages in response to social and ethical issues in Chinese society, the exchange of exegetical methods among Chinese classics and New Testament studies scholars and the research of the reception history of the New Testament will be the promising research topics of New Testament studies in China.

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chapter 8

The Early Indigenized Strategies Applied to the Chinese Bible Translation by Catholic Missionaries Jean Basset and Louis A. de Poirot Xiaochun Hong The oldest known Chinese Bible translation emerged in a few passages of Nestorian literatures dating back to the Tang Dynasty.1 According to some contemporary catalogues, Bible translation had existed during the Yuan Dynasty, but specific documents are yet to be discovered. The first full-length Bible translation did not appear until the early years of Qing Dynasty and included the New Testament translated by Jean Basset (白日昇, 1662–1707), a missionary dispatched by Missions Etrangères de Paris (MEP). During the times of Emperors Qianlong (乾隆, 1736–1796) and Jiaqing (嘉慶, 1796–1820), Louis Antoine de Poirot (賀清泰, 1735–1814), a last-generation Jesuit, finished the complete translation of New Testament and more than half of the Old Testament into Chinese. Compared to other theological works authored by Catholics in Chinese, Bible translation was long coming, due to the conservative stance taken by the Vatican. The undertaking of Basset and Poirot was stimulated by the increasingly difficult circumstances of Catholic missionaries in China. Influenced by the Qing court’s prohibition on Christianity, their evangelizing strategy changed from being “upper-class-focused” to “lower-classfocused” with translating the Bible in the Chinese believers’ own language was their preferred option. Coming from different missionary societies and carrying out evangelical duties in different areas, Basset and Poirot opened up indigenized traditions of Chinese Bible translation from various viewpoints. Starting with reconstruction of the historical backgrounds of these two missionaries, this article will explore their thoughts on, and practice of Bible translation, summarize their respective features by textual alignment, and discuss their relation to some Chinese Bibles produced by later generations.

1 This article has been supported by a youth research project granted by the National Social Science Fund of China 中國國家社科基金青年項目 (Project Ref. No.: 19CZJ020).

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004469440_010

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Bible Translation against the Background of the Prohibition of Christianity

The Qing court’s prohibition of Christianity began from the time of Kangxi (康 熙, 1662–1772), but was not fully implemented until his old age. Johann Adam Schall von Bell (湯若望, 1592–1666), a missionary from Cologne in the Holy Roman Empire, who was trusted by Emperor Shunzhi (順治, 1644–1661), served at the Qing court for adjusting the astronomical calendar and therefore facilitated all the contemporary missionary work in China. Following this practice, Kangxi heavily relied on Ferdinand Verbiest (南懷仁, 1623–1688). In 1692, the “Imperial Edict of Tolerating Christianity” (容教詔令) was announced, legitimizing the missionary work of Catholics and providing a more friendly environment for them.2 However, affected by the second round of Rites Controversy (禮儀之爭, 1693–1707), detailed measures for restricting Catholicism were put in place. Missionaries on mainland China were required by Kangxi to obey the “Rules of Matteo Ricci” (“利瑪竇規矩”) and received official vouchers for permanent residency.3 In his later life, Kangxi even negatively commented that Catholicism was “mostly ridiculous” (“令人可笑者多”) and “can be banned, so as to avoid trouble” (“禁止可也，免得多事”).4 Some of Kangxi’s orders to prohibit Catholicism were not implemented strictly. By contrast, the prohibition directed by Yongzheng (雍正, 1723–1735), after his ascension to the throne, was far more severe. In the first year of his reign, many local officials reported the necessity of supressing Catholicism. The Ministry of Rites (禮部) suggested arresting missionaries, expelling them to Macao, destroying their vouchers for residency, and forcing all of the 2 For the content of this edict, see “Xichao Ding’an” (《熙朝定案》, Verdicts in Kangxi’s Reign), Tianzhujiao Dongchuan Wenxian Xubian (《天主教東傳文獻續編》, A Sequel of Literature on the Eastward Diffusion of Catholics) (Taipei: Student Book Company, 1966), Vol. 3, pp. 1789–1791. Liang Hui, “How Do Modern Chinese Christian Intellectuals Read the Bible? Wu Leichuan and Zhao Zichen’s Principles and Methodologies for the Interpretation of the Bible”, Yearbook of Chinese Theology (Leiden: Brill, 2020), Vol. 6, pp. 130–140. 3 Qing Zhongqianqi Xiyang Tianzhujiao Zaihua Huodong Dang’an Shiliao (《清中前期西洋 天主教在華活動檔案史料》, Archival Historical Materials of Western Catholic Activities in China During the Early-Middle Qing Period) (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 2003), Vol. 1, p. 7. 4 Ibid., p. 45. For in-depth study on Kangxi’s different attitude towards Catholicism and relevant historical backgrounds, see Chen Wei 陳瑋, “Jidujiao Disanci Ruhua Yu Kangxi Monian De Jinjiao” (《基督教第三次入華與康熙末年的禁教》, “The Third Christian Mission To China and Prohibition of Religion in Late Kangxi Era”), Lishi Jiaoxue (History Teaching, 《歷 史教學》), No. 5 (2005), 14–19; Ma Weihua 馬偉華, “Guojia Zhili Yu Junchen Zhi Yi. Kangxi Banbu Rongjiao Zhaoling De Kaoliang” (《國家治理與君臣之誼：康熙頒布容教詔令 的考量》, “National Governon and Monarch-subject Relationship: The Consideration of Kangxi’s Imperial Edict of Tolerating Christianity”), Shijie Zongjiao Yanjiu (《世界宗教研 究》, Studies of World Religions), No. 5 (2015), 148–160. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Chinese Catholic converts to abandon their religious faith.5 All of these suggestions were authorized by Yongzheng. Over that period, only those missionaries supporting the revision of the astrological calendar and daily chores were allowed to stay in the capital city. Churches in all parts of the country were destroyed or adopted for other uses.6 After Qianlong ascended the throne, Giuseppe Castiglione (郎世寧, 1688–1766), an Italian missionary and royal painter, won the Emperor’s trust and convinced him to tolerate Catholicism. Yet, the Manchu people were still not allowed to convert. The missionaries in China resumed their missionary work, resulting in an increasing number of believers. In 1746, Zhou Xuejian (周學健, 1693–1748), the governor of Fujian, reported to the court that Catholic converts were innumerable and accused the Western missionaries of trying to win Chinese peoples’ support by heresy.7 Consequently, several missionaries were sentenced to death, or died of malnutrition in prison, including Pedro Sans y Jordá (白多祿, 1680–1747), a Dominican born in Spain who worked as a missionary in Fuzhou. In 1793, Qianlong received George Macartney’s mission from the United Kingdom, but rejected his request to lift the ban on Christianity.8 The times of the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong were among the most prosperous periods in Qing Dynasty. But, the emperors and officials from the upper class were more and more cautious about the potential threat of foreign thought. Yongzheng said to the missionaries, “I know you request to convert all our Chinese people. But imagine that it happens, who will we become? Your emperor’s common people? It is you who the converts know about. Once 5 See Qing Zhongqianqi Xiyang Tianzhujiao Zaihua Huodong Dang’an Shiliao, Vol. 1, pp. 56–59. Qinghe, X., “New Research on Confucian Christian Liu Ning during early Qing Dynasty”, International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 20 (2021), 95–100. DOI: https://doi.org/ 10.37819/ijsws.20.111. 6 For details, see the letter from Joseph Marie Anne de Moyriac de Mailla (馮秉正) to a Jesuit priest, in Yesu Huishi Zhongguo Shujianji. Zhongguo Huiyilu (《耶穌會士中國書簡集•中國 回憶錄》, Jesuits’ Letters about China. Chinese Memoirs), ed. Jean-Baptiste du Halde, trans. Zheng Dedi (鄭德弟) (Beijing: Daxiang Chubanshe, 2001), Vol. 2, pp. 314–342. Yongzheng’s prohibition on Catholicism was resulted from reasons of several aspects, including ideology, cultural difference and political stability, for more in-depth investigation, see Zheng Qi 鄭 琪, “Qingdai Yongzheng Shiqi Jinjiao Lungang” (《清代雍正時期禁教論綱》, “Outlines of Prohibition on Catholicism in Yongzheng Period of Qing Dynasty”), Chuanshan Xuekan (《船 山學刊》, Chuanshan Journal), No. 1 (2010), 212–215. 7 For the content of Zhou’s report, see Qing Zhongqianqi Xiyang Tianzhujiao Zaihua Huodong Dang’an Shiliao, Vol. 1, pp. 78–82. 8 For relevant discussion, see Tao Feiyang 陶飛亞, “Huaiyi Yuanren. Qing Zhongqianqi De Jinjiao Yuanyou Ji Yingxiang” (《懷疑遠人：清中前期的禁教緣由及影響》, “Suspecting the People from Afar: The Prohibition of Preaching Catholicism in the Early and Mid-Qing Dynasty and Its Influence in the Late Qing”), Fudan Xuebao (Shehui Kexue Ban) (《復旦學報 （社會科學版）》, Fudan Journal [Social Sciences]), No. 4 (2009), 43–52. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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crises happen across national boundaries, all our people will be subject to your orders. Great calamity will come when thousands of warships approach our coastlines, though we don’t have to worry about it at the moment” (“爾等欲 我中國人盡為教徒，此為爾等之要求，朕亦知之；但試思一旦如此，則 我等為如何之人，豈不成為爾等皇帝之百姓？教徒唯認識爾等，一旦邊境 有事，百姓唯爾等之命是從，雖現在不必顧慮及此，然苟千萬戰艦來我海 岸，則禍患大矣。”).9 Extraneous ideology and its underlying ability of social

mobilization caused concern of the emperors. In 1757, the national policy of seclusion was put in full operation, cutting off the progress of Sino-Western exchange. In the early and middle Qing Dynasty, Catholic missionaries lost their freedom of evangelization and their legal residency in mainland China. Their missionary enterprise shifted from focusing on the upper class, the approach established by Ricci and his contemporary Jesuits, to focusing on the lower class, with common and even poor people as the objects of the evangelizing. To avoid the inspection carried out by the Qing court, all kinds of ecclesiastical activities gradually became secretive, leading to another indigenized aspect of Chinese Catholicism – moving closer to folk religions.10 Among the Catholic missionaries who came to China in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty, Jean Basset, whose life, ministry, and thought had not been explored intensively until recent years, was not extraordinarily spectacular. Basset was born in Lyon, France in 1662. He received theological training in Saint-Sulpice (Paris) and became a member of MEP at the age of 22, establishing the ambition to evangelize in the Far East. In 1690, Basset arrived in China and was assigned to manage the parish in Shaozhou (韶州), a northern city in Guangdong Province. Five years later, he was appointed to the Treasury of Guangzhou, and responsible for all the local affairs of his missionary society. It had been two years since Kangxi promulgated the Imperial Edict of Tolerating 9 10

Cited from Gu Changsheng 顧長聲, Chuanjiaoshi Yu Jindai Zhongguo (《傳教士與近代 中國》, Missionaries and Early Modern China) (Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, 1991), p. 16. Feng Erkang 馮爾康, “Yongqian Jinjiao Zhong Tianzhujiao De Chuanbo Yu Xinzhong” (《雍乾禁教中天主教的傳播與信眾》, “The Spread and Converts of Catholicism in the Period of Prohibiting Christianity in the Times of Yongzheng and Qianlong”), Anhui Shixue (《安徽史學》, Historical Research in Anhui), No. 1 (2013), 17–28; Zhang Xianqing 張 先清, “Qingzhongye Tianzhujiao Zaihua De Bentuhua Wenti” (《清中葉天主教在華的 本土化問題》, “Localization of Chinese Catholicism in the Mid-Qing Dynasty”), Xiamen Daxue Xuebao (Zhexue Shehui Kexue Ban) (《廈門大學學報（哲學社會科學版）》, Xiamen University Journal [Philosophy and Social Sciences]), No. 1 (2006), 33–40; Zhang Zhenguo 張振國, “Qingdai Jinjiao Shiqi Tianzhujiao Chuanbo Fangshi De Bentuhua” (《 清代禁教時期天主教傳播方式的本土化》, “Localization of Preaching Catholicism in the Period of Prohibiting Christianity in Qing Dynasty”), Zongjiaoxue Yanjiu (《宗教學研 究》, Religious Studies), No. 3 (2017), 228–237. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Christianity. The missionary environment was advantageous, contributing to Basset’s close connection with various social divisions in Guangzhou. In 1701, Artus de Lionne (梁弘任), the Vicario Apostolico in charge of Sichuan Province, returned to Europe. And Basset continued the missionary work in Sichuan. During the following five years, Basset paid great effort to found churches, attract believers and revive the Sichuan Parish. In 1707, the Rites Controversy broke out. Basset was recalled by MEP to Guangzhou and suddenly died of illness.11 In 1702, Basset had composed his Avis sur la Mission de Chine, concerning the problems of Chinese churches and strategies for improvement, including lengthy review on Chinese Bible translations. Basset’s review began with the “rootless” situation of Chinese believers, who abandoned their belief easily or had little knowledge about its essence, and were trapped by superstition. From his perspective, the Catholic church in China was like “a rootless tree or a house without foundation”.12 His evaluation of “the Three Pillars” of Christian scholars in the late Ming Dynasty – Xu Guangqi (徐光啟, 1562–1633), Li Zhizao (李之藻, 1565–1630) and Yang Tingyun (楊廷筠, 1557–1626) – was not very positive, because they considered the words of Confucius, the emperors, and the sages as holy truth.13 Obviously, as a missionary from MEP, Basset was unsatisfied with the Jesuitical approach of compromising with, or supplementing Confucianism. In his Avis, he aimed to tackle the challenge for Catholic faith to root in China and avoid a disappearance similar to the Nestorians in the Tang Dynasty and “Ye Li Ke Wen Jiao” (也里可溫教, a special name for Catholicism) in the Yuan Dynasty. Undoubtedly, this required indigenized missions, saving Catholicism from being a privileged religion belonging only to Europeans. In Basset’s opinion, indigenization called for sacraments performed in Chinese language, the training of local clergy, and providing a Bible version for Chinese readers.14 At this point, Kangxi’s thorough prohibition of Catholicism was not 11

12 13 14

Basset’s life and missionary work in China had not been known in details until his correspondence published in 2012, i.e., François Barriquand and Joseph Ruellen, Jean Basset (1662–1707), pionnier de l’ Eglise au Sichuan. Correspondance (oct. 1701–0ct. 1707), Avis sur la Mission de Chine (1702) (Paris: Éditions You Feng, 2012). In the Introduction, Jean Charbonnier provides a brief to Basset’s life, along with an assessment of his mission, see idem., pp. 9–28. Research in this area includes Li Huachuan 李華川, “Bairisheng Yu Shiba Shijichu Tianzhujiao Sichuan Chuanjiaoshi” (《白日昇與十八世紀初天主教四川傳教 史》, “Jean Basset and the History of Sichuan Catholic Mission in the Early Eighteenth Century”), Zongjiaoxue Yanjiu (《宗教學研究》, Religious Studies), No. 3 (2014), 225–233. See Barriquand and Ruellen, Jean Basset (1662–1707), pionnier de l’ Eglise au Sichuan, pp. 93–98. Ibid., pp. 98–99. Ibid., pp. 122–183. Some scholars have conducted specific research about this Avis, e.g., Tan Lizhu 譚立柱, “Cong Shengjing De Queli Kan Jidu Xinyang Yu Zhongguo Wenhua De Wenti. Guanyu Faguo Chuanjiaoshi Bairisheng De Zhongguo Fuchuan Jianyishu” - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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yet in place, but Basset’s Avis foresaw the lower-class-focused approach of indigenization that was later adopted by Chinese Catholic churches. The Chinese Bible translation was the cutting-edge tool to excavate this path. The social environment in which Louis A. de Poirot carried out his missionary work was remarkably different from Basset’s. Poirot was born in Lorraine, France, and grew up in Rome. In 1756, he became a Jesuit, studying at the Florence Seminary, and was later dispatched to China in 1770. He served for the royal household as a diplomatic translator and was responsible for translating Chinese classics into Western languages. He was widely known by the royal family for his talent in painting. With special permission from Qianlong, Poirot could preach among the middle and lower class Han people in the capital city, but was not allowed to convert Manchu people or interfere with the political affairs of the court. In 1773, Pope Clement IVX issued an edict to disband the Society of Jesus, so its missionary affairs in China were taken over by the Congregation of the Mission in 1782. At that time, the Society of Jesus in Russia had not been disbanded, so Poirot and some other former Jesuits tried to join, but failed. In 1813, Poirot died in Beijing.15 As a last-generation Jesuit, Poirot witnessed the new situation of Catholic missionary enterprise – that turned underground due to the official prohibition. Poirot’s evangelized ministry was greatly restricted and became isolated without the support of his missionary society. His Bible translation, Guxin Shengjing (《古新聖經》, GS), was completed shortly after 1800.16 At that time, Emperor Jiaqing had just ascended the throne, and measures prohibiting Catholicism were eased, leading to an increased number of believers and a rare chance for missionary work. Poirot translated the Bible into the Beijing colloquial language after finishing another

15

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(《從聖經的確立看基督信仰與中國文化的問題 – 關於法國傳教士白日昇的“中 國福傳建議書”》, “Thinking Christian Faith and Chinese Culture from the Perspective of Establishing the Bible: About French Missionary Jean Basset’s Avis sur la Mission de Chine”), Shijie Zongjiao Yanjiu (《世界宗教研究》, Studies of World Religions), No. 5 (2015), 125–133. Poirot’s life and outline of missionary work in China can be overviewed through Wang Shuofeng 王碩豐, Zaoqi Hanyu Shengjing Duikan Yanjiu (《早期漢語對勘研 究》, Comparative Study on the Early Chinese Bibles) (Beijing: Shehui Kexue Wenxian Chubanshe, 2017), pp. 134–137. Li Shixue 李奭學, who is responsible for the critical edition of GS, tries to speculate the beginning and end of the translating work, and concludes that it probably happened between 1790–1805. See the “Introduction”, in Louis A. de Poirot, Guxin Shengjing Cangao (《古新聖經殘稿》, Extant Manuscripts of Old and New Testaments), eds. Li Shixue 李 奭學 and Zheng Haijuan 鄭海娟 (Beijing: Zhong Hua Book Company, 2014), pp. 20–23.

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version in the Manchu language.17 Perhaps this was a way for him to confess religious belief and express his hope for reviving evangelization in China. 2

The Philosophy and Practice of Bible Translation of Basset and Poirot

Vernacular Bible translations began to emerge from the late Middle Ages in Europe, leading to reservation and even fear of the Catholic churches in various countries. Though the vernacular translation had not been completely prohibited, its challenge in terms of biblical hermeneutics, doctrinal interpretation, and the authority of ecclesiastical hierarchy led to its failure to obtain recognition from the Vatican.18 Some Jesuit missionaries who came to China before Basset suggested translating the Bible into Chinese, but did not win the approval of their missionary society.19 Basset refuted different kinds of counterviews in his Avis and pointed out that vernacular evangelization emerged in the ages of apostles. In other words, objection to Bible translation was not a tradition from the very beginning.20 More importantly, making a readable Bible version for Chinese believers was necessary to solidify the basis of their faith. Only in this way could it “be rooted in Jesus Christ”. Otherwise, “what they convert to would be the religion of missionaries rather than that of Jesus Christ.”21 Furthermore, Basset made comparison between the Chinese habit of reading scripture, and the study methods taken up by medieval monasteries in Europe, indicating that the former emphasized memorizing by heart and 17

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20 21

For Poirot’s Bible translation in Manchu language, see Erling von Mende, “Problems in Translating the Bible into Manchu: Observations on Louis Poirot’s Old Testament”, in Stephen Batalden, Sowing the Word: The Cultural Impact of the Bible and Foreign Bible Society, 1804–2004 (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2004), pp. 149–168. The Second Volume of The New Cambridge History of the Bible gives survey on Bible versions in different European countries before the Reformation Era, in which various contributors discuss the implication of Bible translation for the Catholic church. See Richard Marsden and E. Ann Matter, The New Cambridge History of the Bible (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 19–306. Some Jesuit Missionaries got the approval from Pope Paul V to translate the Bible into Classical Chinese, but finally hampered by someone responsible for affairs of their missionary society. See Louis A. Pfister 費賴之, Zaihua Yesuhuishi Liezhuan Ji Shumu (《在華 耶穌會士列傳及書目》, Collected Biographies and Bibliographies of Jesuit Missionaries in China), ed. Feng Chengjun 馮承鈞 (Beijing: Zhong Hua Book Company, 1995), p. 117. Barriquand and Ruellen, Jean Basset (1662–1707), pionnier de l’ Eglise au Sichuan, p. 116. Ibid., p. 137.

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receiving authoritative explanation while the latter tended to learn by rational means and scholastic approach.22 Taking this into consideration, Basset argued that Chinese Bible translation was a more suitable way to evangelize Chinese people, with the expectation of “transforming them from the disciples of Confucius to Christians”.23 What Basset rendered were the canonical gospels, the Book of Acts, and the epistles preceding Hebrews, plus the first chapter of Hebrews. Four copies are extant: “Manuscript in Biblioteca Casanatense (Roman Copy)”, “Manuscript in Cambridge University Library”, “Copy in British Library” (“Sloane Copy”), and “Copy in Hong Kong University Library” (“Morrison’s Copy”). Among these copies, only the one reserved in Rome contains four separate gospels, while the other three contain a gospel harmony.24 It was composed by Johan Xu (徐若翰, died in 1734), Basset’s Chinese assistant in Bible translation. Xu had failed imperial examination from Jiading, Shanghai, and sought a livelihood in Chengdu before he encountered Basset. He was baptized by Basset and together they began to translate the Bible around 1705. Two years later, Basset left Sichuan for Guangdong and then passed away, leaving behind an incomplete Chinese Bible version. The separate four gospels were accomplished through the cooperation between Basset and Xu; the gospel harmony was composed by Xu after Basset’s death.25 It is quite possible that the two translators had consulted Shengjing Zhijie (《聖經直解》, Explicit Explanation to the Bible), a compilation of Chinese biblical literature written by Emmanuel Diaz (陽瑪諾, 1574–1659), a Portuguese Jesuit who came to China at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Nonetheless, it contains only a quarter of the New Testament. Taking this into account, Basset and Xu’s New Testament (Basset-Xu NT) measures up to the groundbreaking work of Chinese Bibles.26 Poirot’s GS was the second Chinese Bible succeeding the Basset-Xu NT. It comprises more books, including the whole New Testament and the Old Testament books from Genesis to Ecclesiastes, plus Wisdom of Solomon, Ben Sirach, Isaiah, Daniel, and Jonah. The specific reason why Poirot decided to translate the Bible is still not clear, but we can at least learn from his preface that Poirot admired the everlasting influence of the Bible: “a lot of books written by men of virtue and fame have been neglected while the Bible keeps 22 23 24 25 26

Ibid., pp. 120–121, 172–174. Ibid., p. 137. See Wang Shuofeng 王碩豐, “Bairisheng Xuruohan Hanyu Shengjing Yanjiu” (《白日昇、 徐若翰漢語研究》, “A Study on Jean Basset and Johan Xu’s Chinese Bible”), Shijie Zongjiao Yanjiu (《世界宗教研究》, Studies of World Religions), No. 2 (2017), 122–130. For the cooperation between Basset and Xu in Bible translation, see Barriquand and Ruellen, Jean Basset (1662–1707), pionnier de l’ Eglise au Sichuan, pp. 23–24. Wang Shuofeng, “Bairisheng Xuruohan Hanyu Shengjing Yanjiu”, 126–130. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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popular, withstanding disasters like floods, fires and wars in thousands of years. Not only has the Bible been popular but also evoked the translating intention silently, being rendered into vernaculars” (“雖數千年來，經水火刀 兵之災患，賢人名士書籍具皆埋沒，但聖經常存 。 不但常存，還默引動各 國人心，將本地土語翻譯出來。”).27 GS was the first Bible version in Chinese

colloquial language – the vernacular spoken by common people in Beijing, the main objects of Poirot’s missionary work. Living in the times of Qianlong and Jiaqing, Poirot was probably in touch with some just-published vernacular novels, such as Honglou Meng (《紅樓夢》, A Dream in the Red Mansions) and Rulin Waishi (《儒林外史》, Unofficial History of the Scholars), and Shengyu Guangxun (《聖諭廣訓》, the Written Popularizations of the Sacred Edict), an official document written in colloquial language, with the purpose of being readable for common people. This new literary context might have stimulated Poirot to translate the Bible into a different linguistic style than Classical Chinese. From his perspective, translating the Bible into vernacular language was more suitable for maintaining the “original meaning and expression” of the text, while translations in classical languages were easy to fall into an awkward position of seeking “respect” (“體面”) and “marvelous grammar” (“文法 奇妙”) at the price of the “truth” (“道理”).28 In the “Second Preface” (“再序”) to GS, Poirot further pointed out that the approach of colloquial translation confirms to “the original aim of God” (“天主本意”) – “repeating a thing in vernacular language in order to make it understandable for both the wise and the unenlightened” (“特用俗語說了一件事又重說，要高明的或愚蒙的都能 容易懂得”), and “do not have the heart to hamper thousands of unenlightened people who cannot read books with ingenious expression and leave their souls in darkness, even though we may ignore the taste of several readers who know grammar well” (“為幾個懂文法的人，不忍耽擱了萬萬愚蒙的人不能懂文深 的書，他們的靈魂也不能得受裨益”). Most Catholic Bible translations are based on St. Jerome’s Vulgate, a version translated in vernacular Latin rather than Old Latin with “advanced grammar” (“高文法”) used by some previous writers like Cicero. As seen, what Poirot did was actually following the practice of his original text. He also appropriated a story in which a man accepts books in vernacular language after being whipped by an angel in a dream, to Jerome, for justifying his own linguistic approach in Bible translation.29

27 28 29

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Another noticeable aspect of GS is its annotation.30 First, at the beginning of each book, Poirot introduced its author, historical background, and purpose with a preface, helping readers to master the basics. For example, in “Shengshi Lujia Ji De Wanrilve” (《聖史路加紀的萬日略序》, “the Preface to the Gospel according to St. Luke the Church Historian”), Poirot described Luke as “from Antioch” (“安弟約既亞城人”), “having medical training from his childhood” (“自幼學醫”) and “following St. Paul all the way” (“常隨聖保祿”), while this gospel was written in “some Asiatic place” (“亞細亞地方”) and “in Greek language” (“用格肋西話寫的”). What is also mentioned in the Preface is Luke’s experience “to establish churches in Damascus and Macedonia, converting numerous people” (“往大爾瑪齊亞、瑪舌多尼亞等國開教，勸化人無數”).31 Additionally, Poirot added notes to the main body of the translation via endnotes. Lower criticism in Chinese classics was officially recommended during the Qing Dynasty, including exegetics and textual studies, which might have influenced Poirot, who lived in the palace, and informed him as to how exegesis could affect the interest and understanding of Chinese readers. The notes contained in GS include those explaining the obscurity of the text, while some others explain the transliteration of nouns, e.g., “Bi Tu Mo” (必塗默) is noted as “something sticky and black, coming out of the earth, a kind of graphite.” (“地裡出來的黏黑東西，青灰一類”)32 Poirot adopted endnotes rather than interlinear notes to avoid cutting the biblical text into pieces and making it difficult to read. In addition to lower criticism, Poirot also included some notes of “higher criticism”. For example, he commented on the passage about Lot’s captivity: “God’s intention is kind that he wants the bad guys in Sodom and other cities to correct their evil and lustful behaviors, so let them suffer from this disaster. He involves Lot in it with the purpose of teaching him a lesson that there is no benefit to gain by staying with these unclean people but leaving his spirit and body greatly damaged instead” (“天主仁慈的心，要所多瑪等城的 壞人快改淫邪行實，使他們遭了這個大禍 。 又包含祿德在這大禍的意思， 是要教訓他:同這些髒人一塊兒住，不但不能得什麼便益，反倒靈魂、肉身 免不了大大的受傷”).33 Though the intention of God is difficult to discern, it

30 31 32 33

For specific research, see Zheng Haijuan 鄭海娟, “Xinchuan Yu Xinquan. Guxin Shengjing De Jiejing Zhi Dao” (《薪傳與新詮：的解經之道》, “Annotating the Bible in Mid-Qing China: Poirot’s Efforts”), Cowrie 《文貝》, Vol. 1 (2014), 55–84. Louis A. de Poirot, “Shengshi Lujia Ji De Wanrilue” (《聖史路加紀的萬日略》, “The Preface to the Gospel according to St. Luke the Church Historian”), Guxin Shengjing Cangao, Vol. 8, p. 2819. Poirot, Guxin Shengjing Cangao, Vol. 1, p. 203. Ibid., p. 55.

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seems that the translator can understand it and thus direct the reader to combine scriptural reading and spiritual practice. 3

The Features of Translations in the Basset-Xu NT and GS

Basset and Poirot engaged in translating the Bible before and after the Qing court’s prohibition on Catholicism, on the one hand meeting the demand of evangelization and on the other hand laying important foundations for subsequent Chinese Bibles. Affiliated to MEP, Basset did not agree with the missionary strategy of acculturation as performed by Jesuits. As mentioned above, he suggested presenting the biblical message to Chinese readers in their own language. Upon reading the Basset-Xu NT closely, it is not difficult to observe the translators’ preference to simplicity in rendering important terms and nouns and selecting linguistic style and expression. Their translation is based on the original meaning of the biblical text, using expression as concise as possible and avoiding paraphrases so that Chinese readers could understand the text from their own points of view. Poirot’s Bible translation can be regarded as another indigenized initiative through its integrating theological interpretation and Chinese pragmatics into textual equivalents and syntactic processing. In the following four sections, we will compare the features of these two versions, from the aspects of theological terms, nouns, sentence rendering, and notes. 3.1 Theological Terms One of the most significant contributions made by the Basset-Xu NT was providing Chinese equivalents for some theological terms, including “God,” “Christ,” and “Spirit,” in addition to terms appearing in particular books, such as “Logos,” “truth,” and “Paraclete” in the Gospel of John. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there was a heated debate about Tianxue (天學, “Study on the Heaven”) between Catholic missionaries and Confucian Christians, resulting in Shangdi (上帝) and Tianzhu (天主) as two well-accepted equivalents.34 Due to another round of Rites Controversy breaking out in the time of Kangxi, Tianzhu became the only legitimate equivalent for “God”. Basset happened to translate the New Testament not long before Pope Clement XI’s edict on banning Chinese rites 34

Ji Jianxun 紀建勳, “Mingqing Tianxue Zhi Bian Yu Jidujiao Shenming De Zhongguohua” (《明清“天學”之辯與基督教神名的中國化》, “The Theory of Heavens in Ming and Qing Dynasties and the Indigenization of the Term for God in China”), Guoji Hanxue (《國 際漢學》, International Sinology), No. 2 (2020), 107–116.

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was circulated to all the missionaries in China. It was the first time in Chinese Bible translation history that Shen (神) was used to identify the Supreme Being in Christianity as proposed by Basset, and it was taken over by American missionaries in the next round of debates on the “Term Question” (譯名之爭). Basset preferred the term Shen for two reasons. First, Shangdi is a proper name for God in Chinese context while Shen indicates divinity, which could help Chinese Christians avoid idolatry. Second, he thought Tianzhu denoted a kind of relationship rather than the Deus ontology, and he tended to use intrinsic Chinese terms instead of coining new ones. Since Shen was used to demonstrate Deus, it was not suitable for describing Spiritus.35 Before Basset, Spiritus Sanctus had been rendered as Shengshen (聖神), Jingfeng (淨風, clean wind) and Si Bi Li Duo San Duo (斯比利多三多). The last one is a transliteration, unhelpful for Chinese readers’ understanding, while Feng (風, wind), in Basset’s view, was most proper for denoting Spiritus. He explained that Pneuma had a meaning of wind and denoted a certain kind of unsubstantial material. Plus, in addition to being a noun meaning “flowing air and wind”, Spiritus can relate to a verb, meaning “to breath” and extending to mean a stimulus in one’s heart, all of which conform to the usage of Feng in Chinese context.36 Noticeably, Christus is translated as Jidu (基督) in the Basset-Xu NT rather than keeping with the transliterations adopted by the former missionaries, Qi Li Si Du (契利 斯督), Ji Li Si Du (基利斯督) and Ji Li Si Duo (基利斯多). Jidu is the abbreviation of Ji Li Si Du and implies that Jesus is the basis (基) of belief and the supervisor (督) in life, which can be considered a monumental phrase in the history of Chinese Bible. But in the Gospel Harmony composed by Xu, Christus is rendered as Ji Li Si Du. For some unknown reason the more concise term Jidu was abandoned. Jidu was revisited by Karl Friedrich August Gützlaff (郭實獵, 1803–1851), a German Protestant missionary and Bible translator, and became a fixed term for translating “God” in Chinese Bibles. From the translation of Verbum, we can also see how Basset preferred concise wording based on the basic meaning. He did not employ the transliteration Wu Er Peng (物爾朋) but directly rendered it as Yan (言, Word), keeping pace with the basic meanings of Logos and Verbum. The first two Chinese Bible translations completed by Protestant missionaries, Marshman-Lassar’s version and Morrison-Milne’s version, also adopted the translation Yan. Compared to Basset-Xu’s NT, GS appears moderate in rendering these important theological terms. Deus, Christus and 35

36

Basset explained his reasons for selecting Shen and Feng as the equivalents of Deus and Spiritus, with responses to different challenges in his letter to B.B. da Gemona. See Barriquand and Ruellen, Jean Basset (1662–1707), pionnier de l’ Eglise au Sichuan, pp. 418–481. Ibid., pp. 427–430. - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Spiritus are translated as Tianzhu, Ji Li Si Du, and Shen, all of which were renderings taken by Catholic missionaries after the Rites Controversy. Verbum was rendered as Wu Er Peng (物耳朋) with only one character different (with same pronunciation) from Diaz’s rendering in Shengjing Zhijie. Some other important theological terms, such as veritas, signum, and paraclitus, were translated differently in the Basset-Xu NT and GS as follow. table 8.1 Translations of important theological terms

veritas signum paraclitus

Basset-Xu NT

GS

真、真者、真實者、真理 跡、神跡、異跡、異跡神行 他慰者、慰神風、慰者

真實 聖跡 安慰者

As one can note, Basset and Xu always hesitated on various Chinese terms when translating theological terms, except Deus, Christus and Spiritus. This was reasonable as their translation was a pioneering work accomplished in two years and did not go through enough discussion and revision. By contrast, the renderings in GS are consistent. The renderings of paraclitus were remarkable. In Greek, παράκλητος can mean “comfort,” “accompany”, “to justify”, and “to replace”. It is a concept referring to various ministries carried on by the Holy Spirit in the post-resurrection period, making the Greek word tricky to translate.37 Neither Basset and Xu nor Poirot found a Chinese word that could encapsulate all of these connotations. Ta Wei Zhe (他慰者) was adopted by Basset and Xu, implying “accompany” and “replacement” in addition to “comfort”. Differently, Poirot condensed the original meanings of this concept and summarized them as Anwei Zhe (安慰者, comforter). Poirot always emphasized the implication of biblical terms, expecting the reader to accept. His translation itself contains exegetics and hermeneutics. 3.2 Translation of Nouns Many translations of nouns in the Basset-Xu NT and GS are significant, since the biblical nouns put into Chinese by the previous missionaries were of a relatively smaller number. Many nouns from the New Testament were translated by Basset and Xu for the first time, while Poirot rendered many nouns from the Old Testament. As mentioned above, there are considerable similar 37

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passages existing between the Basset-Xu NT and Shengjing Zhijie, and the latter was probably an important reference for the former. In sight of this, the table below shows renderings of some proper names (personal, ethnic, and geographical) from these three documents for comparison. The Latin originals and their Chinese equivalents from Sigao Bible (思高聖經), the most widelyused Chinese version for Catholics, are also provided. table 8.2 Translations of proper nouns

Latin originals

Sigao Bible

Shengjing Zhijie Basset-Xu NT GS

Abraham Petrus Isaiæ Nicodemus Iacob Elisabeth Simeon Pharisæi Hierusalem Iudæa Galilæa Iordanem Samaritani

亞巴郎 伯多祿 依撒意亞 尼苛德摩 雅各伯 依撒伯爾 西默盎 法利賽 耶路撒冷 猶太 加里肋亞 約旦 撒马黎雅

亞巴郎 伯鐸羅 義撒義亞 尼閣德磨 雅各布伯 依撒伯爾 西默完 法利色義 日路撒冷 如德亞 加德勒亞 若爾當 匝瑪利亞

阿巴郎 伯多羅 依賽言 尼閣德 雅各布 依撒伯 西默翁 法吏叟 柔撒冷 如達 加里辣 若丹（誕） 撒瑪利

亞巴拉哈母 伯多祿 依撒意亞 尼各得睦 亞各伯 依撒伯爾 西默盎 法里塞阿 日露撒冷 加德亞 加里肋亞 若爾當 撒瑪里亞

The above renderings are transliterations. Those from the Basset-Xu NT are normally apocope, resulting in fewer syllables, e.g., the difference between Yi Sa Bo (依撒伯) and Yi Sa Bo Er (依撒伯爾). Additionally, this version focuses more on the meaning of each Chinese character, e.g., “Isaiæ” was rendered as “Yi Sai Yan” (依賽言, Yi means to follow, Yan means words) and “Simeon” as Xi Mo Weng (西默翁, 翁 means an old man), in this way to balance pronunciation with sense. It is a general observation, with a few exceptional cases. For example, the rendering of “Petru” in these three Bible versions were Bo Duo Luo (伯鐸羅, 鐸 means a bell used in court or palace), Bo Duo Luo (伯多羅), and Bo Duo Lu (伯多祿, 祿 means official salary or benefit). The first and the third subtly suggest the high status that St. Peter achieved in church history as the proto bishop. What must also be mentioned is that there are a few personal nouns rendered exactly the same in these three versions, e.g., “Ye Su” (耶穌) for

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Jesus, Ma Li Ya (瑪利亞) for Maria, Bi La Duo (比辣多) for Pilate, Ruo Se (若瑟) for Joseph, and Ruo Han (若翰) for John. Compared to proper nouns, common nouns are more characteristic in the rendering in GS. A typical case is that of the Latin word panis, which is discussed by Li Shixue (李奭學), one of the chief editors of GS, in his introduction. Panis should be translated as Bing (餅) according to the Jewish dietary habit, while Poirot creatively rendered it as Mantou (饅頭, a kind of Chinese bread, more popular in Northern China) or simply Man (饅) for accommodating Chinese dietary habit.38 Another example is the rendering of credulitas (verb form credere). Poirot translated it as Xinde (信德, virtue of being faithful), followed by the Sigao Bible, emphasizing the ethical significance of the faith in Jesus rather than a kind of psychological state. Evidently, when choosing Chinese equivalents, Poirot integrated everyday experiences and cultural contexts more consciously. 3.3 Sentence Rendering As the first two Chinese Bible translations, the initiative of the Basset-Xu NT and GS is more significant in the aspect of sentence, especially when considering that they adopt different linguistic styles. Respectively, they could be valued as the embryo of the Bible in Classical Chinese and that of Bible in colloquial Chinese. In other words, they were two pioneering attempts to convey biblical messages through Chinese language. For displaying their differences in a more intuitive manner, we will focus on a pericope of the Gospel of John. The translations of John 1:1–5 are as follow. Basset-Xu NT: 當始已有言。而言在神懷。且言為神。當始有此于神懷也。萬有以之得 作 。 且凡受作者無不以之而作焉 。 生命已在于其內 。 而生命乃人類之 光。夫光輝耀于暗。而弗識之矣。39

GS: 起初有物耳朋，物耳朋在同天主一塊，物耳朋也是天主，這物耳朋起 初與天主偕。萬物被他受造，無他，所受造的萬物內，一件沒造。他內 有生命，這生命是眾人的光，此光照明黒暗，黒暗不受他亮。40

38 39 40

Li Shixue, “Introduction”, Guxin Shengjing Cangao, pp. 34–35. Jean Basset, Testamentum Novum Sinice (Biblioteca Casanatense), 148. Poirot, Guxin Shengjing Cangao, Vol. 8, p. 2903.

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Besides the divergence in theological terms, these two passages show differences in linguistic style. The language of the Basset-Xu NT is terse, precise, and not too profound for those who only had an elementary education, while the language of GS is more plain and vivid but contains redundant expression, which according to today’s linguistic standard is having errors, e.g., combining “在……一塊” and “同” (both mean being together), “被……造” and “受造” (both mean being created). Li Shixue comments in the Introduction, “many sentences in GS are awkward to read out, mainly because of the pervasive Europeanized usage (caused by Latin grammar) in the translation” (“《古新聖 經》多數的句子，我們讀來拗口夾生，歐化體 – 而且還是因拉丁文法形成的 歐化體 – 遍布經中，當係主因。”).41 Historically, the awkwardness of Poirot’s translation can be explained in two ways. First, the discrepancy between Europeanized colloquial and local colloquial had not been reduced with the development of vernacular Chinese. From another aspect, Poirot’s mastery of vernacular Chinese grammar was not comprehensive enough and was apparently inferior to some vernacular novel writers living in the same period. When reading Poirot’s translation of the Gospel of John closely, one can observe that there are some renderings violating the order of words in the original text, which consequently have an effect on the sense of the translation. Since Poirot had received a Jesuit education that included Latin grammar as a compulsory course, it is unlikely that he changed the order of words by misunderstanding the source language. More possibly, he did it on purpose. Here are two instances: 1 那時如徳亞人從日露撒冷向若翰差𥙊首並副𥙊，問他:「你是誰？」若 翰的見証是如此，直言不瞞，說:「我不是基利斯督。」 (1:19–20)42 2 他來了，責偹世人，發明都有罪，顯出我是至義的。我後要審罰 他們，發明他們都有罪，因沒信我，顯出我是至義的。因回父，從此 你們不能見我。我也要審罰他們，因世界首已受了審判。 (16:8–11)43 In the first instance displayed above, according to the original text of Vulgate, 若翰的見証是如此 (this is the testimony of John) should be placed in front of 那時 (at that time), and two following sentences are the content of John’s testimony. Upon changing the order of words, what John attests is only his relation with Jesus. In the second instance, Poirot extended de peccato, et de justitia, et de judicio and made them rich in signification. Why does the Father convince 41 42 43

Li Shixue, “Introduction”, Guxin Shengjing Cangao, p. 56. Poirot, Guxin Shengjing Cangao, Vol. 8, p. 2904. Ibid., p. 2961.

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the world concerning righteousness is confusing and “quia ad Patrem vado, et jam non videbitis me” (“I go to the Father, and you will see me no more”) does not make it intelligible. Poirot restructured the sentences and connected “convince” and “righteousness”, correlating “sin” and “unbelief”. Looking at these two from all sides, Poirot’s restructuring is an improvement to obscurity in the original text, highlighting its themes. Though Basset and Xu also restructured the original text, for it is inevitable when grammar of the target language (Classical Chinese) is widely different from that of the source language (Latin), this adjustment generally did not change the meaning of the original text but instead takes the advantage of the conciseness intrinsic to Classical Chinese. Second, the awkwardness of Poirot’s translation can be explained by his adding extra content and meaning to translations. For example, in Chapter One of John, the rendering reads as “沒有我時，他就永有了 (Before I came to this world, he had existed for ever), 我不敢解他鞋帶.”44 The first two clauses do not exist in the original text but are additional explanations inserted by the translator concerning the priority of Jesus over John the Baptist. More noticeable are those additions changing the original meaning of the biblical text, e.g., John 4:22c (for salvation is from the Jews) is translated as “因救人靈 的正法是從如德亞人傳的” (for the true law saving human spirits is from the Jews).45 It has been a thorny clause in Johannine exegesis, for it deviates from the negative attitude towards Jews expressed in the whole Gospel. Poirot’s paraphrase is worth attention as he shifted the focus from salvation to law, avoiding the problematic interpretation from the perspective of salvation history and emphasizing a “true law” different from Moses’ law. Another typical case is the translation of John 9:39b,c (NRSV: “that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind”) as “賞瞽因謙得明，罰 智人因傲瞎眼” (“rewarding the blind with sight for his humbleness, punishing the wise by blindness for his being proud”).46 Poirot inserted “humbleness” (謙), “the wise” (智人) and “being proud” (傲) , bringing to light the metaphors of “sight” and “blindness”. The last clause in Chapter 20 is also remarkable in which the translator rendered nomine as “Gong” (功, merit) instead of “Ming” (名, name), since in Chinese context, one of the “three immortal things” (三不 朽) is “doing meritorious service” (立功), depicting what Jesus does on earth.47

44 45 46 47

Ibid., p. 2905. Ibid., p. 2915. Ibid., p. 2939. Ibid., p. 2967.

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3.4 Systems of Notes In the Basset-Xu NT, there are just a few interlinear notes, e.g., a note reads “Yi Shi” (譯師, “translated as teacher”) following “La Bei” (臘被, “rabbi”) in the main body of the translation.48 This is a note existing in the original text. In contrast, there are abundant endnotes in GS, in which the translator not only explained the literal meaning of the scripture but also interpreted its theological implication, presenting Poirot’s indigenized hermeneutics. For instance, he inserted a note as “人雖信我，若不行善，即斫去。因為單信不行是死 信德，故不能救靈魂” (“A man who does not do the good, though believe in me, will be discarded. Because belief without deed is lifeless belief and virtue, which can not save human soul”) after “葡萄有不結實的枝，他斫去” (“every branch of the vine that bears no fruit, he takes away”).49 From the immediate context of the original text, the evangelist does not get in touch with the relation between “belief” and “deed”. It seems that Poirot criticized “justification by faith” from a Catholic standpoint. But for Chinese readers who emphasize “unity of knowing and doing” (知行合一) and “practice in person” (身體力 行), “virtue of being faithful” (信德) combined with “doing the good” (行善) are more appealing. It is the indigenized consideration why Poirot made this interpretation. 4

Deficiency and Influence of Early Catholic Bible Translations

From the above comparison of the translations, one can observe that Poirot did not conform to his principle stated in the “Preface to the Bible” which emphasizes following scholars of the past, and preserving the original text and its meaning of the Bible.50 On the contrary, he frequently deviated from this principle and entrained his own understanding of the scripture, even at the price of distorting the original meaning of the biblical text. As a matter of fact, Poirot revealed another side of his ambivalence in the “Second Preface”; he thought what kind of readers the Bible should satisfy is he/she who “seeks truth with sincerity” (誠心愛求道理) and “only aims at truth” (只要明白出道 理來).51 He valued “truth” (道理) more than “literary grace” (文采) and probably felt compelled to do the hermeneutics. It is because of this compulsion of “transgressing” that the earliest and valuable indigenized attempt of Chinese 48 49 50 51

Basset, Testamentum Novum Sinice, p. 150. Poirot, Guxin Shengjing Cangao, Vol. 8, p. 2960. Louis, “Preface to the Bible”, Guxin Shengjing Cangao, p. 1. Louis, “Second Preface”, Guxin Shengjing Cangao, p. 3.

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Bible translation exists. Furthermore, GS, as almost the earliest and most monumental corpus composed in Europeanized vernacular Chinese, contributed a batch of precious linguistic material to the development of vernacular Chinese. Coincidentally, the translation in the Basset-Xu NT does not correspond to the original text either, but it is mainly manifested in omission, e.g., Mark 16:1–7, 16–19 and John 21:13. Certainly, some deficiency should be allowed for since this version was composed within only two years and during the strenuous efforts of Basset to tend to missionary work in Sichuan. A large number of copies of the Basset-Xu NT were circulated in China, four of which we can still access today. The first two Chinese Bibles translated by Protestant missionaries – Marshman-Lassar’s version and Morrison-Milne’s version – are heavily indebted to the Basset-Xu NT, which has been wellacknowledged by scholars.52 Some even argue that these two Protestant pioneering works should not be named as “translations” but as “revisions” to the Basset-Xu NT.53 GS was not printed until the critical edition, prepared by Li Shixue and Zheng Haijuan, published in 2014. But in 1935, Gabriele Maria Allegra (雷永明, 1907–1976), an Italian Franciscan missionary responsible for the translation of the Sigao Bible, came to the Beijing North Cathedral (北京北 堂) to consult the manuscript of GS and took photos page by page. Moreover, according to the research of Zheng Haijuan (鄭海娟), Robert Morrison had attained a copy of Bible translation in “vernacular Chinese” by “a living missionary who was staying in Beijing”. This Bible translation is undoubtedly GS.54 Hereby, we can at least assure that Morrison had consulted GS before translating the Bible, even though its relation to his version is not as close as it is to the Basset-Xu NT, which can be judged by comparing the two translations.

52

53

54

See, for example, Tan Shulin 譚樹林, “Shengjing Erma Yiben Guanxi Bianxi” (《 “二馬譯本”關係辨析》, “An Analysis on Joshua Marshman’s and Robert Morrison’s Bible Translations”), Shijie Zongjiao Yanjiu (《世界宗教研究》, Studies of World Religions), No. 1 (2000), 109–116. Zhao Xiaoyan 趙曉陽, “Erma Shengjing Yiben Yu Bairisheng Shengjing Yiben Guanxi Kaobian” (《二馬聖經譯本與白日昇聖經譯本關係考辯》, “An Examination of the Relationships between Robert Morrison and Joshua Marshman’s Translations of the Bible and Jean Basset’s Translation”), Jindaishi Yanjiu (《近代史研究》, Modern Chinese History Studies), No. 4 (2009), 41–59. For in-depth discussion, see Hai-juan Zheng 鄭海娟, “Wenben Zhi Gang. Guxin Shengjing Yu Qianhoudai Shengjing Hanyiben Zhi Guanxi” (《文本之綱：與前後代 漢譯本之關係》, “The Relationship between Poirot’s Chinese Bible and Chinese Translations of the Bible Made Before and After It”), Qinghua Zhongwen Xuebao (《清華 中文學報》, Tsing Hua Chinese Journal), No. 11 (June 2014), 261–298.

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5 Conclusion The present article starts from the historical background of the Qing court’s prohibition of Christianity, viewing the political and social contexts of Jean Basset and Louis A. de Poirot, two pioneering missionary translators of Chinese Bibles. These two translators’ thoughts and practices of Bible translation has been investigated and compared. Aspects of theological terms, proper and common nouns in the Bible, sentence rendering, and systems of notes are all included in the textual comparison, with the translation strategies and indigenized efforts taken into consideration. Their missionary backgrounds, points-in-time of stay in China, and environments for translation influenced their work in different ways. As pioneering works for the Classical Chinese Bible and the vernacular Chinese Bible, respectively, both the Basset-Xu NT and GS provided important bases for translators in later generations and reveal to how to sinicize the Bible today.

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part 5 Comparative Religious and Cultural Studies

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chapter 9

Theoretical Insights into Chinese Bible Translation Dongsheng Ren 1

Introduction

The history of Bible translation is both ambitious and enduring. Starting from the 3rd century BCE to the present day, people have never stopped translating the Bible. The Bible was first translated from Hebrew to Greek, then to Latin, and later to German, French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Romanian in Europe, and afterward to the languages of other countries and nations in the world. Since the birth of the Bible, various translations have been revised, discussed, and adjusted. The Bible has been translated into the languages with the most translation versions and highest circulation. It is fair to say that Bible translation is the most standardized and examined translation activity in human history. The tradition of translating the Bible into Chinese language has lasted for nearly 14 centuries, dating back to 635 CE in the Tang Dynasty when the Bible was introduced to the emperor by the Nestorians or “Jingjiao preachers 景教 士” in Chinese. It was even translated into Chinese in the imperial library, and translations are still made today. Some translators, either foreigners or Chinese scholars, have made an effort to work out guidelines for translating the Bible from Western languages into Chinese. In this sense, both the summaries of individual’s translation experiences and thoughts on Chinese Bible translation are components of the body of translation theories, which should be studied not only for translation studies in China but also for further Bible translation practice. From a wider academic point of view, just as the tradition of Chinese Bible translation is one branch of the world-wide river of Bible translation, the theoretical heritage concerning Chinese Bible translation, though comparatively independent from the research on Bible translation in the Western scholarship, should be viewed as part of the theoretical efforts of Bible translation studies (Liang, 2020). China has never been a Christian nation, which means that Chinese Bible translation has been under influence of Chinese-dominating ideologies during different historical phases. The production of different Chinese Bible versions reflects the powers of ideology, whether they are religious politics, ruling class’ cultural policy, Chinese poetics, and Chinese literati’s habit of approaching

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004469440_011

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religious texts. Also, Chinese Bible translators, who were both western missionaries who were mostly Sinologists, and Chinese literary translators who were mostly lettermen themselves, adopted different translation strategies in rendering their own Bible versions, especially in rendering biblical poetry. Finally, the cultural functions of Chinese Bible versions in different styles or in varied presentations also reveal the shift of competing ideologies in China. During the first half of the 20th century, Chinese scholars, translators, and even writers took great interest in Chinese Bible translation and the Bible as literature. 2

The History of Chinese Bible Translations

The history of Chinese Bible translation can be divided roughly into four stages: First stage: introductory translation by Jingjiao Preacher (635 CE–845 CE); Second stage: selected translations by the Jesuits (17th century to the early 19th century); Third stage: complete translation by Christian missionaries (1819–1919); Fourth stage: translations by Chinese scholars (1920 to today). Ren, 2007: 149–150

2.1 Introductory Translation by Jingjiao Preacher (635 CE–845 CE) Around 635 CE, in the Tang Dynasty, the Bible was introduced by the Nestorians or “Jingjiao preachers 景教士” in China to the emperor. The earliest record about Chinese Bible translation is found on a stone stele named “大秦景教流 行中国碑” (Nestorian Tablet) dating back to 781 CE. The stele was excavated in the city of Xi’an in 1625. The stele was erected by the Nestorian Christians, who started to live and develop in China’s capital of Changan (today’s Xi’an) in 635 CE. 1,780 Chinese characters were found on the stele, together with 70 Syriac words. From the stone, it is evident that the New Testament or parts of the Bible was translated into Chinese at that time. Selected Translations by the Jesuits (17th Century to the Early 19th Century) In this period, translations were done based on Jerome’s The Vulgate. The main translated versions contain the Slone Manuscript (#3599) by Jean Basset (1662– 1707), a French priest from Paris, and the Poirot’s version by Louis de Poirot. Jean Basset, a member of the Paris Foreign Mission, translated the Bible into Chinese. This translation is called the Slone Manuscript. It is the first formal Chinese Bible version that includes a harmony of the Gospels, the Acts of the 2.2

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Apostles, the Letters of Paul, and the first chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews. This version later became an important reference for Marshman and Morrison and played a significant role in their translations. At the end of the 18th century, Louis de Poirot, a member of Society of Jesus, translated the Latin Bible into Chinese, which is called Gu Xin Sheng Jing. It is the second formal Chinese version, but the first that is a relatively systematic and complete translation of both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Explanations were added with reference to Cornelius a Lapide S.J.’s Commentary which made the order of the chapters inconsistent with those in the original. Besides, Songs of Solomon and most Prophetic Writings were not translated or missing. This version was never published. The manuscript was preserved in the Beitang (北堂) Library in Beijing until 1949 (You and Huang, 2021). 2.3 Complete Translation by Christian Missionaries (1819–1919) The Chinese versions of the Bible translated by Christian missionaries in this period were based on English Biblical translations such as The Authorized Versions (1611) and The Revised Version (1885). The typical translated versions contain Morrison’s Version by Robert Morrison and William Milne, Delegates’ Version by W.H. Medhurst, J. Stronach, E.C. Bridgman, Schereschewsky’s Version by Samuel I.J. Schereschewsky and the Mandarin Union Version. In 1810, Robert Morrison published The Acts of the Apostles in Guangzhou which had to be printed secretly, because China was so hostile to Christianity at that time. The New Testament came off the press in 1814 with the help of Morrison’s assistant Milne. They finished translating the Old Testament in 1819, but it was not published. In 1823, the Old Testament and the New Testament were printed together under the name of Shen Sheng Tian Shu (Morrison’s Version) (Yao, 2021). In 1843, twelve American and British missionaries, representing various missionary societies and agencies, decided to revise the Bible. This version is called Delegates’ Version. W.H. Medhurst was the original delegate, and he organized and took part in the work from the very beginning, so this translation was also partly considered as his accomplishment. Wang Tao, a well-known Chinese Scholar, was also invited to join the work. He was responsible for polishing the translations by the foreign missionaries so as to make them smooth and idiomatic. The New Testament was finished in 1850 and published in 1851, while The Old Testament was finished in 1853 and printed in 1854. In 1855 the complete Bible was published and it became the Delegates’ Version. Samuel I.J. Schereschewsky graduated from Seminary and then dedicated himself to the translation of the Bible into Chinese. In the 19th century, High

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Wenli was popular in China, but Schereschewsky realized that the Bible should be translated into simple language that can be understood by most ordinary Chinese; thus, he became the first one who advocated translating the Bible in Mandarin. He started with the Old Testament in Mandarin and published it in 1874. Due to paralysis, he started an Easy Wenli Version with one finger of each hand. The complete Bible was published in 1902, and it became known as the “Two-finger Edition”. Mandarin (translated as official language), a spoken language based on the Beijing vernacular, was adopted as the written language as the result of the May Fourth Movement in 1919. As early as May 7th to 20th, 1890, the Second Missionary Conference was held in Shanghai, proposing the translation of the Chinese Union Version for the first time. The general assembly established the translation principle as “One Bible in Three Versions”. Based on this principle, they decided to release three translation versions in different language styles, namely, High Wenli, Easy Wenli, and Mandarin, which is a reflection of the three-dimensional evolution mode of Western Bible translation thoughts. The word “Wenli” was fabricated by Western missionaries coming to China in the 19th century, which was used primarily for classical Chinese, the written language as opposed to vernacular language. Later, the distinction among High Wenli, Easy Wenli, and Mandarin appeared (Ren Dongsheng, 2007: 113). The earliest analysis of High Wenli, Easy Wenli, and Mandarin can be found in the report “A Retrospect of the First Ten Years of the Protestant Mission to China” written by William Milne (1785–1822) (Milne, 2008: 43–45). High Wenli simply means classical Chinese. Easy Wenli is the transition from High Wenli to Mandarin and it refers to the adoption of a kind of “syntax belonging to classical Chinese while vocabulary being more commonly used” (Liu Lixia, 2005: 89). The translators can employ function words and phrases in classical Chinese, but they need to keep the simplicity of the translation version and avoid the words and expressions of Mandarin. Mandarin is also called Vernacular Chinese which is the language of Manchu officials. 2.4 Translations by Chinese Scholars (1920 to Today) After the Mandarin Union Version, Chinese scholars began to translate the Bible by themselves and the responsibility of Chinese Bible translation shifted from foreign missionaries to Chinese scholars. The Chinese Bible translation entered a period of diversification. Lv Zhenzhong’s Version and Today’s Chinese Version are typical representatives. Lv Zhenzhong (Lv Chen-chung) published his version of the New Testament in 1946, based on the Greek text. He began his translation as a scholar at Yanjing University in 1940 and completed the full translation in 1970. Placing too much

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emphasis on the faithfulness to the original text, this translation uses the socalled “literal translation” method, with exact one-to-one correspondences to the original Hebrew, reflecting the original meaning and content of each word and even keeping to the original grammar and structures. His translation became the first and only “one man version” of the complete Bible in Chinese by a Chinese. Under the guidelines of the United Bible Societies, another translation version took the Today’s English Version as its blueprint and was accordingly named Today’s Chinese Version (TCV). TCV was published by the United Bible Societies in 1979. “Dynamic equivalence” was applied as principle for guiding the translation, which tried to convey to the Chinese readers what the Hebrew author originally intended to express to the original Hebrew readers or listeners. In order to achieve this, free translations were used more extensively. 3

The Concept of “Xin, Da, Ya”

“Xin, Da, Ya”, the three-word criteria in the process of translation proposed by Yan Fu in his Evolution and Ethics, was derived from Chinese classical literary theory. “Fa Ju Jing”, the first preface to the translation of Buddhist scriptures, discusses the incisive arguments of Lao Zi and Confucius about “words” and “meaning”, namely language symbols, and implies that “Ya” can be used as one of the indicators for evaluating translation. The author Zhi Qian quotes Lao Zi’s argument that elegant translation cannot be faithful to the original, and faithful translation cannot be elegant, which implies the contradiction between Xin and Ya, and quotes Confucius’ view that there is more what the book wants to express through words but cannot; words do not completely express ideas, which indicates the gap between the signifier and the signified in language. All the translators agreed that “the languages of ethnic minorities should be translated word-by-word” (Luo Xinzhang and Chen Yingnian, 2009: 22). It can be argued that the clues of “faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance” have emerged from the “faithful words”, “word-by-word”, and “beautiful words” (Ren Dongsheng; Li Shuang, 2010: 2). That is to say, in China, “Xin, Da, Ya”, which originated from classical Chinese literary theory, was first associated with translation through Buddhist scriptures. In the process of the dynamic development of Bible translation in the West, the translators hold the belief that “translating Bible is translating the Word of God” (John, 1974: 14), namely, “Bible = God’s Word”. Naturally, “being faithful to the original text”. which refers to the mechanical conveying of the original text is in the central position during translation. According to the Bible, “All scripture is given by inspiration

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of God” (Timothy, 2003: 16). The Bible is the “revelation of God”, the “Word of God”, the “text inspired by God”, and the “sacred original text” of the world on the other side (Ren Dongsheng, 2010: 71). Therefore, Bible is “the sacred text constituted by the holy words”, which has become the text view followed by the Bible translator, which determines that the translation view of “faithfulness” runs through the entire process of Bible translation. In fact, both the translation of religious classics and the translation of general texts regard “faithfulness” as the top priority, but “faithfulness” has religious and even theological value and significance to the former. As the “Word of God”, the Bible was translated into national languages just as God’s Word in Man’s Language (1952) put forward by Eugene A. Nida, the American Bible translation theorist. The irreducibility of “God” and “human beings” lays the basis for the division between “sacred text” and “secular text”, and the former was initially regarded as untranslatable. Therefore, the translation of “sacred text” is unidirectional, which means that the sacred is being “reduced” to the secular while the “secular text” cannot be “upgraded” to the “sacred text” through translation. “Xin” embodies the religious attributes of “sacred text”, while “Da” and “Ya” reflect the secularization of “sacred text” through the process of translation. 4

The Pursuit of “Xin” by Bible Translators

The “Ten Commandments of Moses” recorded in the Bible is a translation event with the meaning of “faith”: the LORD replied, “Go down and bring Aaron up with you. But the priests and the people must not force their way through to come up to the LORD, or he will break out against them.” So, Moses went down to the people and told them. And God spoke all these words: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me” (Bible 1998: 71–72). God’s “Ten Commandments” are given at different levels. Moses and his brother Aaron, who have the statuses of high priest, are the first level, and they can directly “see” or “listen to” God’s Ten Commandments. In general, the priests and the people are at the second level, and they have no direct access to the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments must be translated by a first-level, “translator” in an understandable language before they can be conveyed to ordinary people. This seems to be the prototype of “inspired translation” in the history of Bible translation practice (Schwarz, 1963: 6). In the third century BCE, the translation process of the Seventy Greek Texts, which initiated the organization model of the translation committee, presents such

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an ideal state. The Greek translation is extremely accurate. Philo Judaeus proposed the theory of “inspired translation” (Worth, 1992: 14–17), which means that the translators of the “Bible” must translate the Bible with the help of God and they are nothing more than a “dictation tool” (ibid.), that is, the first-level “translator” as mentioned previously. Augustine also argued that the translation of the “Bible” should be inspired by God, and even Jerome believed that “the order of conjunctions in the Bible has a kind of metaphysical meaning” (Tan Zaixi, 2004: 26), which indicates the important information delivered by God to the believers, so he proposed to use the literal translation method for Bible translation and the free translation principle for literary translation. Dao’an, the translator in the Xijin dynasty, put forward the “wu-shi-ben” principle, which says that changing word order of “Hu Speech” in accordance with Mandarin is the key reason that leads to the loss of meaning. Dao’an’s opinion is essentially the same as his contemporary Jerome whose understanding is that “even word order is full of a kind of metaphysical meaning” (Tan Zaixi, 2004: 26). The stories of two religious translators, namely the tongue of Kumarajiva and the whip of Jerome, can illustrate the importance of “Xin” in the translation of religion. On his deathbed, Kumarajiva, known for his faithful and graceful translation of the Diamond Sutra, vowed that if his translation was perfect, he only wanted his tongue not to burn. Next day, he passed away and was cremated in the Chang’an Xiaoyao Garden where he once hosted the translation studio. As expected, his tongue was never damaged. During the translation of the Bible, Jerome was occasionally negligent and unfaithful. At night, an angel suddenly appeared, holding whips and slapping Jerome heavily on the back as a sign of punishment. The preface to Dhammapada by Zhi Qian and the preface to the first Chinese Bible translation by Louis Poirot both point out the transcendental nature of their translated texts at the beginning of their writing. Both prefaces show a reverence for the “sacred author” of religious texts and a psychology of worship for the religious language, from which the “faithfulness” complex in the translation of religious classics originates. In his preface, Louis Poirot implied that his Bible translation view was in line with the Western theory of “God’s inspiration” and its literal translation tradition. He takes “only to preserve the meaning of the original Bible” as the purpose of translation and supports the traditional practice of “not translating according to the grammar of each translator’s native language” and “translating without adding, subtracting, or changing the original texts” (Ren Dongsheng, Li Shuang, 2010: 3–4). From the perspective of translation practice, this is no doubt a mechanical literal translation or word-for-word translation, but the power behind its behavior is the pursuit of “faithfulness” to the “sacred text”. However, similar to Jerome’s Bible

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translation practice, Louis Poirot also showed considerable flexibility in his translation process. 5

The Pursuit of “Da” by Bible Translators

In the Middle Ages, the Church was opposed to the reading of the Bible by laymen whose ignorance of theology may cause them to misinterpret the sacred text, and develop heretical views. The clergy endeavored to prohibit translations and attacked any new Bible translations in the vernacular. Until the end of the 14th century, with the rise of the Renaissance movement, humanistic Bible translation thoughts came into being that challenged the authority of the church and God’s inspirational principle. During this period, in terms of text selection, Bible translators promoted the respect of the original text and to oppose the authority of theology. They were also strong advocates for using the language of ordinary people. As for translation style, translators needed to explore the potential of national languages and use authentic national language expressions. “Da” means the clarity, fluency and readability of the target language. The history of Bible translation is “the history of moving towards clarity and approaching the people” (Ge Xiaoqin, 2011: 11). The “Geneva Bible”, which was published 50 years before the English “King James Version”, is the crystallization of the collective translation of the “Humble People in Geneva” (Thompson, 1958: 15) of the British Church. In this version, in order to facilitate the communication of reading, the number of sentences was marked for the first time, and instead of the previous bold black Gothic, Roman and italics were used, and comments in line with the Puritan ideas and viewpoints were added. The localization of the Bible translation began with William Tyndale in 1526 and was consolidated in a series of subsequent English translations, culminating in the classic King James version in 1611, which popularized the Bible in England. It can be said that represented by the English translation of the Bible, the translation of the Bible had become secularized (Su Yan, 2017). Desiderius Erasmus, a representative of humanism who translated the high-quality Greek New Testament, believes that “Truth is more worthy of respect than authority” (Schwarz, 1963: 13). The translators of the Bible need to be Grammarians, not theologians (Delisle and Woodsworth, 2012: 42). The preface sets the tone for the translation of the Bible: return to the original, familiarize with the language, literature and rhetoric of the original text, and translate the Bible into all national languages (ibid.: 165–166). Martin Luther, the advocate of “sola scriptura” (the Bible alone), agreed with the inspiration of translators, and he believed that the Bible could explain itself better than any exegesis. In order - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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to restore the Bible as it really is, all exegesis should be removed, and the ordinary reader should read the simple word of God directly. Correspondingly, Protestant translators should turn to Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament instead of regarding Jerome’s Latin Bible as the blueprint or standard “original”. Due to the theological understanding of the texts of the Bible, translators adopt reader-oriented translation strategies, and strive for the smooth and authentic presentation of the characteristics of the national language so as to realize the pursuit of “Da”. In fact, the pursuit of “Da” by Bible translators reflects the transition from the single attribute of “holy text” to the double attribute of “holy” and “secular” in the translation of the Bible. 6

The Pursuit of “Ya” by Bible Translators

The English words for “Ya” are dignity and elegance. The former means solemn and noble style of classical texts, while the latter means decency and elegance in expressions. The King James Version is known for its elegance, and all subsequent versions of the KJV aim to preserve its elegance. In fact, before the King James Version, most Bible translators were concerned about the contradiction between “Xin” and “Da” in translation, and almost no one mentioned “Ya”. This was also the inevitable result of traditional dichotomy thinking. The pursuit of “Ya” is the common goal of literary translation and Bible translation. To achieve this goal, we must break through the dichotomy to think about translation standards. As early as the 19th century, Wang Tao used the words of Confucius to express the idea of “elegance” as “words without elegance cannot circulate widely.” He believes that all missionary work should convey the meaning of the original through elegant expressions (You Bin, 2007: 362). After the treaty of Nanking was signed, Western missionaries began to turn to the elegance of literary style in Bible translation (ibid.: 353). With the rapid development of Christianity in China, the translation of Christianity’s religious texts focused not only on faithfulness and smoothness, but also on higher-level, aesthetic psychological needs. The Chinese translation of Bible in this period has broken through the theological level of “Xin” and turned to the stage of “Ya” through “Da”. Western Bible translators’ exploration of “Ya” focuses on the reproduction of “spirit” and “style”. For example, George Campbell (1719–1796), a British Bible translator and theorist, published A Translation of the Four Gospels with Notes in 1789. In the introduction to the book, he proposes the three principles of Bible translation, including “to give a just representation of the sense of the original; to convey into his version, as much as possible, in consistency with - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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the genius of the language which he writes, the author’s spirit and manner; to take care, that the version has, at least, so far the quality of an original performance, as to appear natural and easy” (Kelly, 1979: 210). These principles mark the development of Bible translation theory that requires that the target text should have both the soul and fluency of the original text and break away from the traditional two-part translation theory of the literal translation method and free translation method. The translation should take the length of both literal translation method and free translation method, and not only accurately convey the meaning of the source language, but also use the natural form of the receptor language. Based on the study of literary translation, Alexander Fraser Tytler (1747– 1814), a professor at the University of Edinburgh, published his Essay on the Principles of Translation (1907), which also proposed three translation principles: “(1) A Translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work; (2) The style and manner of writing should be of the same character as that of the original; (3) A translation should have all the ease of the original composition” (Tytler, 1907: 9). Robert Morrison, who translated the Bible into classical Chinese, also proposed a translation standard similar to “Xin, Da, Ya”. He argued that to express the meaning and spirit of the original, one must be “faithful, informative, authentic and elegant”. In 1908, Yan Fu put forward the concept of “Xin, Da, Ya” and practiced it with his own translation of excerpts from the Bible, using the “words and phrases before the Han Dynasty” in order to achieve a simple and elegant style (Ren Dongsheng, 2011: 26). Judging from the effect of his Bible translation, “The Holy Book Association is basically satisfied with Yan Fu’s translation and hopes that he can continue to translate it” (Yan Fangming, 2017: 16). It can be said that the translation standards of “Xin, Da, Ya” and the Bible translation practice of Yan Fu have achieved an ideal combination of theory and practice. The translation practice of the famous Bible translator Lv Zhenzhong inherits Yan Fu’s translation thoughts, reflecting the translation philosophy and principles that the translator followed directly affect the production of the translation. In the preface to the first draft of the New Testament, Lv Zhenzhong (1946: 3) clearly pointed out that in the Chinese Bible translation, “Xin, Da, Ya must be taken into account so as to reflect the true meaning of the original text.” Lv Zhenzhong tried his best to practice the principle of “Xin, Da, Ya” in Bible translation, injecting new connotations into “Ya”. In the pursuit of balanced beauty, Chinese often realizes the sonorous and forceful rhythm through antithesis, parallelism, and four-character case. Lv Zhenzhong tries his best to make use of this feature in his translation. For example, in his translation of Corinthians, “似乎忧愁，却常是喜乐的；似乎贫穷，却是叫许多人 - 978-90-04-46944-0 Downloaded from Brill.com 03/03/2024 05:47:09PM via University of Wisconsin-Madison

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富足的；似乎一无所有，却是拥有万物的” (sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything), he uses antithesis and parallelism to make the translation more beautiful and catchy. The original meaning of “Ya” is “rightness”. In terms of language, it must be correct, standardized, and conform to the orthodoxy. In fact, this is also the “Ya” pursued by Yan Fu. The “correctness and standardization” pursued by Lv Zhenzhong aims to equip the Bible translation with the characteristics of classics that reflect the status of the Bible. The times are changing, and the “correct” and “normative” language that conforms to the requirements of the times is also changing. Therefore, the Bible translation should keep pace with the times and be in accordance with the characteristics of scripture in a particular era so as to ensure its classic status remains unchanged. Lv Zhenzhong’s translation, combined with the development of the times, endowed the Bible with the characteristics of scripture needed by a classic at his time, which is a manifestation of the translator’s pursuit of “Ya”. In the preface to the NKJV, published in 1992, it was declared that “the translators, guided by the Holy Spirit, are working together towards the goal of ‘Xin, Da, Ya’ ” (KJV, 1992: 1). Huang Shaozheng, a translator of the Bible, who takes “Xin, Da, Ya” as the translation standard, aspired for his translation version to be the first New Testament translation that avoids the ridiculousness and obscureness of all the previous translation versions in the past 200 years on the levels of “Xin, Da, Ya” so as to obtain both the accuracy and literariness for the well-educated contemporary Chinese who regards the Bible as the source of value and aesthetics (Huang Shaozheng, Hua Yun, 2015: 2). Based on such principles of translation, the translator translated the opening of the Gospel of John as: 有道浑成，先天地生 。 道神同一，源出混沌 。 太初之时，道既显，神 亦出 。 神创万物 。 天下万物皆出于上帝之手，如此而已 。 上帝既创万 物，始有生命。人得生命，同光千秋。光耀黑暗，却遭黑暗拒斥。贤士 约翰，受神差遣来到尘世间。所来只为一事:见证神子之光，接引芸芸 众生。约翰所来非为他图。只为神子作证。神子之光普照世人，荣耀众 生。神子降卑人间。人间虽因他而设，却无人识得神子。神子旨归，却 不受人待见 。 但凡待见信从神子者，他必赐福收为天父的子嗣 。 既为 天父嗣者，与血气无沾，并非凡身肉胎，亦与人欲无涉，径直庶出于 神。道成肉身，神子降卑人间，神恩浩荡，神言凿凿。我们见证神子荣 光，正是天父独子荣光。 黄少政、华云, 2015: 180

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The above translation does not stick to the literal meaning of the original text, which shows the great freedom of the translator and reflects Huang Shaozheng’s pursuit from “Xin” to “Ya” in the translation of the Bible. 7

Conclusion

Deriving from Chinese literary theory, the “Xin, Da and Ya” translation standard is of great significance to contemporary Bible translation and the renewal of Chinese Christian discourse. Xin, similar to faithfulness and fidelity in Western translation theories, is the unity of biblical texts based on the nature of the other shore world of the word of God. Da, similar to the so-called “dynamic equivalence” in Western translation theories proposed by Nida, a Bible translation theorist, represents the communicative need of the “Great Mission” of Bible translation in Christianity. Ya, similar to “elegance” as it was called by Robert Morrison, is the ultimate pursuit of the diversity of Biblical texts based on the nature of “man’s language”. The aesthetic meaning of language and cultural psychology conveyed by Xin, Da, and Ya are an important driving force for Bible translators to pursue Chinese Christian discourse in line with Chinese cultural context through new Bible translation. Bibliography Benjamin, W. 2000. “The task of the translator (1923)” [C] // L. Venuti. The Translation Studies Reader, pp. 15–25. London/New York: Routledge. China Christian Council. 1998. Bible [M]. Nanjing: China Christian Council. Chinese Bible New Translation Conference. 1992. Chinese New Version. [M]. Hong Kong: Tien Dao Publishing House Ltd. Daoan. 2009. “Preface to the Mahabharata Paramita scripture” [C] // Luo Xinzhang, Chen Xinnian. The translation on the album (Revised Edition), p. 25. Beijing: The Commercial Press. Delisle, J., and J. Woodsworth. 2012. Translators Through History [M]. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Ge, Xiaoqin. 2011. “The Secularization of Bible Translation” [J]. Foreign Language and Translation (2): 11–16. He, Qingtai. 1949. “The Preface of the Bible” [M] // Xu Zongze. Summary of the translation of the Jesuits in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Shanghai: Zhonghua Book Company: 20–21. Holy Bible (Recovery Version) [M]. 2009. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry.

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Huang, Paulos, and Archie Lee, “Wenxue zuopin, renwen jingdian, Shen de huayu, haishi Shen yu ren jiaopeng de jilu?”, in International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 18, 2020, pp. 187–218 (www.SinoWesternStudies.com/latest-volumes/ vol-18-2020-1). Huang, Shaozheng, and Hua Yun. 2015. Bible New Testament [M]. Taipei: Sixing Cultural Communication Company. John, B., and J. Callow. 1974. Translating the Word of God [M]. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. Kelly, L.G. 1979. The True Interpreter: A History of Translation Theory and Practice in the West [M]. Oxford: Blackwell. Liang, G. 2020. “The Bible and the Construction of Western Literary Theories.” Yearbook of Chinese Theology, Vol. 6, pp. 119–129. Leiden: Brill. Lianggong. 2015. “Preface” [M] // Huang Shaozheng, and Hua Yun. 2015. Bible New Testament [M]. Taipei: Sixing Cultural Communication Company. Luo Xinzhang, and Chen Xinnian. The translation on the album (Revised Edition). Beijing: The Commercial Press. Lu Zhen Zhong. 1946. Lu Zhen Zhong Bible Translation [M]. Beiping: Yanjing Theological Seminary. Metzger, B. 1990. “Handling down the Bible through the ages: The role of scribe and translator [J].” Reformed Review (3): 161–170. Nida, E.A. 1952. God’s Word in Man’s Language [M]. New York: Haper & Row. NIV Study Bible [M]. 2002. Grand Rapids: Zondehan. Pan Zhao, “Unchangeable and Changeable: Chen Chonggui’s Biblical Interpretation and Chinese Society”, in International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 18, 2020, pp. 113–123 (www.SinoWesternStudies.com/latest-volumes/vol-18-2020-1). Ren Dongsheng. 2007. Study on the Translation of Bible Translation into Chinese [M]. Wuhan: Hubei Education Press. Ren Dongsheng, and Li Shuang. 2010. “A Study of Religious Translation Thoughts – Comparison between “Fa Ju Jing Xu Preface” and “Biblical Preface Re-preface” [J].” Language and Translation (3): 1–7. Ren Dongsheng. 2011. “On Yan Fu’s Translation of a Section of the Bible [J].” East Journal of Translation (2): 15–26. Schwarz, W. 1963. “The history of principle of Bible translation in the western world [J].” Babel (1–2): 5–22. Shi Sengyou. 1995. Collection of Chusanzang [M]. Chung Hwa Book Company. Strandenaes, T. 1987. Chinese Bible Translation as Expressed in Five Selected Versions of the New Testament and Exemplified by Mt. 5:1–12 and Col. 1 [M]. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International. Suyan. 2017. “The Secularization of the English Bible Translation in the 14th–17th Centuries [J].” Studies in World Religions (2): 157–167.

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Tan Zaixi. 2004. A Short History of Translation in the West (Updated edition). Beijing: The Commercial Press. Thompson, C.R. 1958. The English Bible: 1525–1611 [M]. Amherst: Folger Books. Tytler, A.F. 1907. Essay on the Principles of Translation [M]. London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd. Worth, R. 1992. Bible Translations: A History Through Source Documents [M]. Jefferson, North Carolina; London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Wilt, Timothy (ed.). 2003. Bible Translation Frames of Reference [M]. Manchester, UK; Northampton, MA: St. Jerome Publishing. Yan Fangming, and Qin Qian. 2017. “A Comparative Study of “Xin, Da, Ya” by Yan Fu and Morrison and Bible Translation [J].” Foreign Language and Translation (1): 15–20. Yao, Y. 2021. “Being an Addict and Healing: Narratives and Practices in A Gospel Rehabilitation Center.” International Journal of Sino-Western Studies 20: 63–74. https://doi.org/10.37819/ijsws.20.109. You Bin. 2007. “Wang Tao, Chinese Bible Translation and His Hermeneutical Strategy [J].” Journal for the Study of Biblical Literature (1): 348–368. You, X., and P. Huang. 2021. “The Contemporary Transformation of Educational Mechanism for Knowledge Innovation-Dialogue on Finland’s Education and China’s General Education.” International Journal of Sino-Western Studies 20: 1–22. https://doi.org/10.37819/ijsws.20.106.

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chapter 10

The Great Commission: The Greek Text and Its Translations Changping Zha (查常平) When discussing the functions of the Church, the contemporary evangelical theologian Millard J. Erickson points out that evangelism, the edification of believers, worship, and social concern constitute the four core responsibilities of the Church. Referencing the texts of Matthew 28:19 and Acts 1:8, Erickson sums up the heart of the Great Commission as the “preaching of the gospel”. According to him, Jesus regarded “the preaching of the gospel as the disciples’ life purpose”.1 While his position on the Great Commission may be traceable to his evangelical interpretation, Erickson stresses that a healthy church must seek a careful balance among these four functions. Grudem outlines the purpose of the Church thus: “ministry to God: worship”; “ministry to believers: nurture”; and “ministry to the world: evangelism and mercy”. He likewise thinks that a healthy church must maintain a balance among these three. Nonetheless, he also emphasizes that “the Church’s central task is to make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19), according to Christ’s mandate given to his disciples.2 In other words, the Church’s Great Commission3 is understood by Christians as relating to Jesus’ parting instructions as given in Matthew 28:18–20. 1

The Great Commission in Chinese Translations

The most commonly used translation of the Bible in the Chinese Church today remains the Mandarin Union Version of 1919 (renamed the Chinese 1 Millard J. Erickson, Jīdūjiào shénxué dǎolùn 基督教神学导论 [Introducing Christian Doctrine], translated by Chen Zhigang (Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Press, 2012), 479. 2 Wayne Grudem, Xìtǒng shénxué 系统神学 [Systematic Theology], translated by Zhang Linzhi (Taipei: Christian Renewal Ministries, 2011), 878. 3 The church is the life community formed by the disciples of Jesus. As “the disciples”, not one individual, were the recipients of the Great Commission, it is referred to as the “Church’s Great Commission”. When a person is baptized, he or she becomes a disciple of Jesus and begins to walk in the way of sanctification. Under ordinary circumstances, baptism takes place in the church.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004469440_012

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Union Version in 1939). In the revised version, the Chinese text of the Great Commission in Matthew 28 reads: Shíyī gè méntú wǎng Jiālìlì qù, dàole Yēsū yuēdìng de shānshàng. Tāmen jiànle Yēsū jiù bài tā, rán’ér hái yǒurén yíhuò. Yēsū jìn qián lái, duì tāmen shuō:‘Tiānshàng dìxià suǒyǒu de quánbǐng dōu cì gěi wǒle. Suǒyǐ, nǐmen yào qù, shǐ wànmín zuò wǒ de méntú, fèng Fù, Zi, Shènglíng de míng gěi tāmen shī xǐ. Fán wǒ suǒ fēnfù nǐmen de, dōu jiàoxùn tāmen zūnshǒu, wǒ jiù cháng yǔ nǐmen tóng zài, zhídào shìjiè de mòliǎo’ 十一个门徒往加利利去，到了耶稣约定的山上 。 他们见了耶稣就拜 他，然而还有人疑惑。耶稣进前来，对他们说:‘天上地下所有的权柄 都赐给我了。所以，你们要去，使万民作我的门徒，奉父、子、圣灵的 名给他们施洗。凡我所吩咐你们的，都教训他们遵守，我就常与你们 同在，直到世界的末了’ 。

The eleven disciples set out for Galilee and arrived at the mountain where Jesus had directed them to go. Upon seeing Jesus, they worshipped him, although some still doubted. Jesus came and spoke to them: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, you are to go and make my disciples of all peoples, and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Everything that I have commanded you [you are to] teach them to observe, and I will always be with you, until the end of the world. Matthew 28:16–20

In this version, the reason for the words that Jesus speaks is the doubt that was present among the eleven disciples. What were they doubting? Standing before the risen Jesus, they may have been wondering what they were to do next. Jesus said to them: “All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me. Therefore, you are to go and make my disciples among all peoples … baptize them…. teach …” In the Chinese formulation itself we can identify “to go” and “make … disciples” as actions related to the commission, while “baptize” and “teach” can be understood as ordinary actions. Among the four verbs, there is no recognizable subordination. This being the case, the Great Commission as represented by the disciples encompasses four areas: going to all nations to preach the gospel, discipling the nations, baptizing those disciples, and teaching them. These kinds of Chinese renderings of the Church’s Great Commission can also be found in the Lü Zhenzhong translation (《Lǚ Zhènzhōng yìběn 吕振中译

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本》, New Testament: 1946; Old Testament: 1970), as well as in the New Chinese Version (《Xīn yìběn 新譯本》, 1976/1992) and the 2010 Contemporary Chinese Version (CCV), The New Testament (《Shèngjīng·Xīnyuē quánshū – xīn hànyǔ yìběn 圣经·新约全书 – 新汉语译本》),4 among others. The Lü Zhenzhong version translates the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18–20 as follows:

Yēsū shàng qián lái, duì tāmen jiǎnglùn, shuō: ‘Tiānshàng dìshàng de yīqiè quánbǐng, dōu gěile wǒle. Suǒyǐ nǐmen yào qù, shǐ yīqiè wàiguó rén dōu zuò méntú, gěi tāmen shī xǐ, guīyú fùzǐ shènglíng de míng, jiàoxùn tāmen zūnshǒu wǒ suǒ fēnfù nǐmen de yīqiè shì; kàn ba, yīqiè rìzi, wǒ dōu hé nǐmen tóng zài, zhídào jīnshì de wánjié.’ 耶稣上前来，对他们讲论，说:‘天上地上的一切权柄、都给了我了。 所以你们要去，使一切外国人都做门徒，给他们施洗，归于父子圣灵 的名，教训他们遵守我所吩咐你们的一切事；看吧，一切日子、我都 和你们同在，直到今世的完结’。

Jesus walked up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, you are to go and make disciples of all foreign peoples, and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teach them to keep all the things I commanded you; behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”5 Here, the actions “to go”, “make disciples”, “baptize” and “teach” are parallel in structure. The former two, of course, issuing the commission of Jesus, based on his will, are in the imperative form. The Lü Zhenzhong translation takes the Hebrew and Greek texts as its foundation; moreover, just as the Chinese Union Version, this translation also consulted the English Revised Version of 1881 [Revised Version = RV of the New Testament]. 4 The New Testament Bible (6 in 1 Version) (Xīnyuē Shèngjīng – liùhé yī yìběn 《新约圣经 – 六合 一译本》) (Hong Kong: Found Treasure Publications, 2007), 198–201. Apart from the Union Version, there are also Joseph Hsiao’s 1922 Catholic New Testament (Xīnyuē Shèngjīng 《新约圣 经》), Zhu Baohui’s 1936 Revised Translation of the New Testament (Chóngyì Xīnyuē Shèngjīng 《重译新约圣经》), Heinrich Ruck’s 1958 New Testament (Xīnjiù kù Xīnyuē shèngjīng 《新 旧库新约圣经》) and others. Zhu Baohui had been an assistant to Absalom Sydenstricker (1852–1931), one of the members of the Union Version translation committee. 5 《Shèngjīng Lǚ Zhènzhōng yìběn 圣经吕振中译本》 [Lü Zhenzhong’s translation of the Bible], (Hong Kong: Hong Kong Bible Society, 1970), 61. Yao, Y. “Being an Addict and Healing: Narratives and Practices in A Gospel Rehabilitation Center”, International Journal of SinoWestern Studies, No. 20 (2021), 63–74. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37819/ijsws.20.109.

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The Great Commission in the Original Greek

In the fourth edition of the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament [UBS GNT], the Greek text of Matthew 28:18–20 reads as follows: “18 καὶ προσελθὼν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐλάλησεν αὐτοῖς λέγων, Ἐδόθη μοι πᾶσα ἐξουσία ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ [τῆς] γῆς. 19 πορευθέντες οὖν μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, βαπτίζοντες αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος, 20 διδάσκοντες αὐτοὺς τηρεῖν πάντα ὅσα ἐνετειλάμην ὑμῖν: καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ μεθ’ ὑμῶν εἰμι πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας ἕως τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος.” Apart from the variation of retaining or omitting “amen (αμήν)” following “this age (τοῦ αἰῶνος)”,6 there are very few discrepancies among the different Greek versions of these verses describing the Church’s Great Commission.7 For the most part, the three actions πορευθέντες, βαπτίζοντες8 and διδάσκοντες, are rendered as participles, while the action of the predicate, μαθητεύσατε, is in the imperative. The first, πορευθέντες, is a first aorist participle, while the second and third verbs, βαπτίζοντες and διδάσκοντες, are present participles. Through the use of the participle’s adverbials, the aorist participle stresses the indefinite character of the action: it may already have begun, be continuous, or already completed. It normally occurs before the action of the predicate verb. The present participle stresses that the action is continuous or repetitive. It normally occurs simultaneously with the action of the predicate. The fact that the predicate verb of verses 19 and 20a is not in the indicative mood but rather in the aorist imperative, namely, μαθητεύσατε, increases the difficulty of determining its relationship with the three participles. At the same time, the aorist imperative also expresses the indefiniteness of the action – it can either have begun, be continuous or already have been completed, but there is no definite indicator of tense. One may even say that in the context of the gospels, as it is the resurrected Jesus who seeks out the eleven disciples and opens his discourse by saying: “All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me, therefore…,” here the imperative has the connotation of an unconditional directive, thereby superseding any indication of tense. According to Christian ecclesiology, Jesus’ mandate to “go and make disciples,” bears absolute relevance and 6 The Greek New Testament published in 1550 by the French scholar Robert Etienne (Robertus Stephanus, or Robert Stephens, 1503–59), on which the further editions are based, contains “amen.” In the other three verses there are no differences compared with the fourth edition. 7 See apparatus of UBS GNT, 4th Rev. edition, 116. 8 The apparatus on page 101 of the Novum Testamentum Graece: Nestle-Aland, 28th edition, lists the fourth-century Codex Vaticanus and the fifth century Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus as rendering the present participle βαπτίζοντες in variant form, namely, the first aorist tense, “βαπτίσαντες”.

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validity for any disciple and any church in history. Nevertheless, these two verses still raise the problem of the relationship between the aorist imperative predicate, μαθητεύσατε, and the preceding aorist participle, πορευθέντες, as well as between the predicate and the subsequent present participles βαπτίζοντες and διδάσκοντες. We know that, apart from expressing the temporal relationship with the predicate verb, the participle adverbial can also be used to express the means on which the action of the verb relies. As the imperative itself does not designate tense, when determining the relationship between the three participles and the predicate in verses 19 to 20, we should not examine the issue from the perspective of tense relations, but consider the function of the participles as the means by which the action of the predicate is accomplished. In this way, the actions conveyed in the participles, πορευθέντες, βαπτίζοντες and διδάσκοντες, merely signify how to accomplish the mandate, which is “to go … make disciples (μαθητεύσατε).” Verses 18–20 can then be translated as follows: Jesus came and said unto them: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, by means of having begun to go [author’s note: having begun to evangelize], you are to make disciples of all peoples by baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and by teaching them to keep all I have commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age. Therefore, when Jesus entrusts the eleven disciples with the Great Commission, the key directive is: “you are to make disciples of all peoples.” And “by means of beginning to go [evangelizing], … by baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and by teaching them …” are merely the methods by which the task of making disciples is achieved. Here I have translated the aorist participle πορευθέντες into “by means of having begun to go (having begun to evangelize)”, choosing the connotation of an indefinite “having begun”, because some time before this speech, Jesus had already begun to send out the disciples to share the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven with the unbelieving people of their generation (Matthew 10:5–42). In this way, as Jesus’s disciples built the church, the primary focus was to make disciples among the nations, while preaching the gospel to unbelievers; worshipping, as represented by baptism; and nurturing through instruction: all these are means of mentoring the disciples of Jesus around the world. Protestant evangelicals have stressed the preaching of the gospel; Baptists value immersion baptism; some Reformed believers privilege teaching and learning over other tasks, seeing the church as a study community. In truth, all these approaches substitute

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the means for the goal. Liberal theologians go as far as to guide believers toward singling out works of charity as the main focus, obscuring the church’s original purpose even more. For Jesus, the impetus to “go and make disciples” naturally relates to the authority given him by God, and to the relationship of the disciples with Jesus. If this was the case, the disciples of Jesus would always be able to bear witness and share the fellowship of Jesus. By means of making disciples, the [original] eleven disciples continued the work of the Kingdom of the Heaven that Jesus initiated. “Disciples” “are not only the twelve disciples of the earthly Jesus; Jesus’ discipleship occurs at every place where his power becomes operative among people (v. 18b; cf. 9:8; 10:1) and his commandments are kept (v. 20a). Therefore the mission command of the Risen One is also transparent for the present.”9 However, regarding the relationship between the aorist participle πορευθέντες and the imperative verb μαθητεύσατε, there are other established exegetical traditions we have to consider. This grammatical structure is a typical participle structure followed by conditionals, that is: aorist participle + aorist predicate (either in the indicative or imperative mood).10 In terms of word order or tense relations, the participle precedes the predicate; however, the focus remains on the action represented by the predicate rather than on the participle. Because of this, the aorist participle πορευθέντες is translated into the imperative “go” instead of “going” and is understood as a component of the commission “to make disciples of all peoples.” As to the two present participles βαπτίζοντες and διδάσκοντες, these express the method of making disciples of all peoples. It is true that preaching the gospel to all peoples is the prerequisite for discipling them; in this case, however, should not worship, expressed through baptism, and the teaching of the church then also be considered prerequisites for making disciples? If the participles in verses 19–20 are removed, we can easily decipher Jesus’ primary focus: “All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me. Therefore … you are to make disciples of all peoples … Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age (Ἐδόθη μοι πᾶσα ἐξουσία ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ [τῆς] γῆς …… μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη …… καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ μεθ’ ὑμῶν εἰμι πάσας τὰς ἡμέρας ἕως τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος).” Since there was doubt among the 9 10

Ulrich Luz, Matthew 21–28 A Commentary, translated by James E. Crouch (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005), 625–626. Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 645. On page 644, the author lists the verses of the Great Commission as an example of the exegetical inconclusiveness of this grammatical structure. This is why I think the above-mentioned possibilities should be revisited and discussed.

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eleven disciples, either about who Jesus was, or about what they were supposed to do next, in verse 20 Jesus emphatically assured them of his presence with them to the end of the age. This also echoes the Christology of presence (or Immanuel) in the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew (1:23). Apart from this, believers see “evangelism” as one of the Church’s great mandates; this mission is most directly expressed in the Gospel of Mark 16:15–16. Here Jesus says to the eleven disciples: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned (πορευθέντες εἰς τὸν κόσμον ἅπαντα κηρύξατε τὸ εὐαγγέλιον πάσῃ τῇ κτίσει. ὁ πιστεύσας καὶ βαπτισθεὶς σωθήσεται, ὁ δὲ ἀπιστήσας κατακριθήσεται).” Here, the aorist participle πορευθέντες corresponds to the first aorist imperative second person plural κηρύξατε. This grammatical structure is entirely consistent with “πορευθέντες …… μαθητεύσατε” in Matthew 28:19. Perhaps it is based on such an exegesis that many other versions have translated the aorist participle πορευθέντες into the imperative mood. The indirect scriptural evidence for this interpretation is of course given in Luke 24:46–48 and Acts 1:8.11 3

Other Translations of the Great Commission

As is well-known, the 1919 Mandarin Union Version, which was based on the 1885 English Revised Version, took 27 years to complete. “In other scriptural [translations] that are important to the tradition and the church, the King James Version [KJV], or Authorized Version [AV] is generally consulted.”12 In July of 1870, thirty-two committee members were responsible for revising the 11

Jesus said to them again: “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. (καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς ὅτι οὕτως γέγραπται παθεῖν τὸν χριστὸν καὶ ἀναστῆναι ἐκ νεκρῶν τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ, καὶ κηρυχθῆναι ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ μετάνοιαν εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν εἰς πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, ἀρξάμενοι ἀπὸ Ἰερουσαλήμ· ὑμεῖς μάρτυρες τούτων).” Jesus said to them: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (ἀλλὰ λήμψεσθε δύναμιν ἐπελθόντος τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος ἐφ’ ὑμᾶς, καὶ ἔσεσθέ μου μάρτυρες ἔν τε Ἰερουσαλὴμ καὶ [ἐν] πάσῃ τῇ Ἰουδαίᾳ καὶ Σαμαρείᾳ καὶ ἕως ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆς).” 12 Jost Oliver Zetzsche, 《Héhé běn yǔ zhōngwén shèngjīng fānyì 和合本与中文圣经翻译》 [The Bible in China: The History of the Union Version, or, The Culmination of Protestant Missionary Bible Translation in China], translated by Cai Jintu (Hong Kong: International Bible Society, 2002), 278.

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language of the Authorized Version. The second round of revisions required a ⅔ majority vote in favor of the changes. The committee aimed at faithfulness to the original texts without sacrificing either textual coherence or the rhythmic prose of the Authorized Version. This version became both a reference for scholars and pastors and the version recited by believers during church services. The Authorized Version renders Matthew 20:18–20 thus: 18 And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. The first participle in verse 19 is translated “Go ye”. The New Testament of the 1611/13 Authorized Version is based on the Textus Receptus. The English version is based on the Bishops’ Bible, with reference to Tyndale’s translation, the Great Bible, the Matthew Bible, the Coverdale Bible and the Geneva Bible and emphasizing the idea that the Bible is selfinterpreting. Popularly known in the Colonies as the “King James Version”, it was rivaled in popularity only by the Geneva Bible. The 1560 Geneva Bible was based on the following texts: the Great Bible of 1550, the Pagninus and Münster’s Hebrew Bible, Leo Jud’s (1482–1542) and Sebastian Castellio’s (1515–63) Latin editions and Stephanus’ (1503–59) 1550/51 Greek edition. This first English translation of the Bible, translated entirely from the original languages, was brought to North America by the Puritans on the Mayflower. Its version of the Great Commission reads: 18 And Iesus came, and spake vnto them, saying, All power is giuen vnto me, in heauen, and in earth. 19 Go therefore, and teache all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and the Sonne, and the holy Ghost, 20 Teaching them to obserue all things, whatsoeuer I haue commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, vntill the end of the worlde, Amen. The following is worth noting: both the Geneva Bible and the Authorized Version (KJV) render the predicate verb phrase “make disciples of all nations” as “teach all nations.” This may be due to the Reformed teaching that emphasized the Church’s teaching of the Holy Word at the time, or it may relate to

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a Latin interpretation tradition dating back to Jerome. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate rendered μαθητεύσατε in verse 19 as “are to instruct (docete),” while the participle διδάσκοντες in verse 20 is rendered “instructing (docentes).” This includes teaching the basic truths on the Christian faith, baptism and the Christian life.13 However, in both translations, the first participle in this passage is translated as “[are to] go” in the imperative, while the other two participles retain the original participle form and are translated as “baptizing” and “teaching”. This translation persists long into the 20th century in the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of 1989 and the New American Standard Edition (NASB) of 1995. The latter became the basis for the initial draft of the Chinese New Version (Xīn yìběn 《新译本》) and significantly influenced the translation of the Japanese New Bible (Shin kaiyaku Seisho 新改訳聖書). It was originally revised based on the 1901 American Standard Version (ASV). The translation committee of the Chinese Union Version was guided in its final exegetical and philological decisions based on its reading of this translation.14 The understanding of the structural relationship between the predicate verb and the three participles in the Great Commission passage in which the first participle is interpreted as an “adjunct conditional participle” and the remaining two participles as “instrumental participles” was also the interpretation adopted by the French Louis Segond Bible of 1910 (LSG),15 the Jerusalem Bible of 1956 (FJB),16 and the Revidierte Lutherbibel of 1984 (RLUT).17 All three translate 19a as an imperative rather than a participle.

13 14

15 16 17

Ulrich Luz, Matthew 21–28: A Commentary, translated by James E. Crouch (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005), 625. Jost Oliver Zetzsche, 《Héhé běn yǔ zhōngwén shèngjīng fānyì 和合本与中文圣经翻译》 [The Bible in China: The History of the Union Version, or, The Culmination of Protestant Missionary Bible Translation in China], translated by Cai Jintu (Hong Kong: International Bible Society, 2002), 279. Huang, P., and Xiao, T., “The Dialogue between Chinese Great Guoxue and the Western Studies in the Light of Globalization”, Yearbook of Chinese Theology, Vol. 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 1–15. “19 Allez, faites de toutes les nations des disciples, les baptisant au nom du Père, du Fils et du Saint-Esprit, 20 et enseignez-leur à observer tout ce que je vous ai prescrit. Et voici, je suis avec vous tous les jours, jusqu’à la fin du monde.” “19 Allez donc, de toutes les nations faites des disciples, les baptisant au nom du Père et du fils et du Saint Esprit, 20 et leur apprenant à observer tout ce que je vous ai prescrit. Et voici que je suis avec vous pour toujours jusqu’à la fin du monde.” “19 Darum gehet hin und machet zu Jüngern alle Völker: Taufet sie auf den Namen des Vaters und des Sohnes und des heiligen Geistes 20 und lehret sie halten alles, was ich euch befohlen habe. Und siehe, ich bin bei euch alle Tage bis an der Welt Ende.”

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4 Conclusion No matter how we read the participle πορευθέντες in Matthew 19a, the mandate to “make disciples of all nations” is still the central focus of the Great Commission. On the other hand, with regard to the relationship between this participle and the predicate “you are to make disciples (μαθητεύσατε),” the English translation of the Geneva Bible in the sixteenth century was used as a guide for later versions, and this has influenced the way in which consequent translations have interpreted the Great Commission: today’s churches regard “evangelism”, “worship”, and “teaching” as their given missions, while to some extent neglecting the fundamental responsibility of “making disciples of Jesus of all peoples”. This development accords with the interpretation history of the verse: “Only since the sixteenth century has Matt 28:19a separately become a decisive text for the mission of the church. Only since the beginning of the nineteenth century has the verse, especially in Protestantism, begun its victory march as ‘the great commission’.”18 Translated by Naomi Thurston 18

Ulrich Luz, Matthew 21–28: A Commentary, translated by James E. Crouch (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005), 626.

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part 6 A Review and Academic Report

∵

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chapter 11

News Report on the Seminar on Quest of the Missing Martin Luther in the Intellectual History, Held by the Sino-European Center at Shanghai University Thuomas Qinghe XIAO On December 16, 2020, the Department of History of Shanghai University successfully held the online conference “In Search of Martin Luther, the Missing Man in the History of Intellectuals”, which was co-organized by the Sino-Europe Center at Shanghai University, the School of Philosophy at Fudan University, and the Center for Studies of Jingjiao at Tsinghua University. More than thirty scholars from Tsinghua University, Peking University, Renmin University of China, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Fudan University, Zhejiang University, Nankai University, Wuhan University, Sichuan University, etc., were invited to speak and discuss together online. Additionally, a number of scholars, including Professor Zhuo Xinping from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Professor Yang Huilin from Renmin University of China, provided written contributions to the conference. The conference was held on time at 9:00 am. The opening ceremony was presided over by Professor Paulos Huang, Director of the Sino-European Center at Shanghai University and a Chinese scholar from Finland. In total, more than 350 scholars and participants attended the conference. Journalists from Paper News and China Nation News also attended the conference. At the conference, representative scholars from Chinese academia discussed the themes of Martin Luther’s holistic value, historical and sociological value, philosophical and historical value, intellectual and cultural value, and Luther as the initiator of modernity. The conference covered five sessions. The first session was on the holistic value of Martin Luther, chaired by Prof. Guo Changgang, Director of the Institute of History, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and Prof. Paul

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2022 | doi:10.1163/9789004469440_013

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Huang, Prof. Zhuo Xinping,1 Prof. Huang Yusheng, Prof. Zhao Lin, Prof. You Xilin, and Prof. Yuan Zhaohui gave presentations. The second session, on the historical and sociological value of Martin Luther, was chaired by Prof. Xiao Qinghe, Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Chinese Society, Shanghai University, and was addressed by Prof. Sun Lixin, Prof. Yu Tao, Prof. Luo Henglin, Prof. Qian Jinfei, Prof. Wang Yaping, and Prof. Lin Chunjie. The third session, on the value of Luther’s philosophical thought and history, was moderated by Associate Professor Liu Zhaojing of the China-Europe Center at Shanghai University, and featured presentations by Professors Jiang Yi, Qu Xutong, Zhang Shiying, Xu Fenglin, and Sun Shuai. The fourth session, on the theme of Luther’s philosophical and cultural values, was moderated by Prof. Liu Yi of the China-Europe Center at Shanghai University, and was addressed by Prof. Li Qiu-zer, Prof. Xie Wenyu, Prof. Tian Haihua, Prof. Liu Ping, and Prof. Zhang Lu. The fifth session was chaired by Dr. Wang Hao of the China-Europe Center at Shanghai University, and featured presentations by Professors Sun Xiangchen, Zhai Zhihong, Zeng Shaokai, Zhu Donghua, and Liu Qingping. The closing ceremony of the conference was chaired by Prof. Zhang Yong’an, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Shanghai University, who made a concluding speech and gave a full affirmation of the expected results achieved by this conference. Although the conference was held online, the enthusiasm of scholars for the discussion of the issue was still felt. The brilliant speeches of some scholars got the attention of the online media. The Journal of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences published several conference speeches in its online edition on December 15, 2020. Articles included “The Need for Translation and Publication of Martin Luther’s Works” by Professor Zhuo Xinping, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and former president of the Chinese Religious Society, and “Re-reading ‘Justice’ and ‘Legitimacy’, ‘Righteousness’ and ‘Self-Righteousness’ from Martin Luther” by Professor Yang Huilin, former vice president of Renmin University of China. Professor Paulos Huang, Director of the Sino-European Center at Shanghai University and a Finnish-Chinese scholar, gave a speech at the workshop, with the title of “Translation and Research for the ‘Search of Martin Luther, the 1 Paulos Huang and Xinping Zhuo, “A Dialogue on the Overall Situation of Religious Studies in Contemporary China”, in International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 19, 2020, pp. 1–29 (www.SinoWesternStudies.com/latest-volumes/vol-19-2020).

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Missing Man in the History of Intellectual’ ”, which was published in the online version of the Paper News on December 17, 2020 under the title “Rediscovering Martin Luther: Translation and Research for the Search of a ‘Missing Man’ ”. This in-depth and fruitful discussion will help to further attract the attention of the Chinese academic community to Martin Luther and to fully understand his position, value and significance in the social, political and overall intellectual history. Martin Luther’s Reformation is of extraordinary significance for the transformation of the world and the development of Chinese society today, and we have been able to capture from his writings and thoughts and the sparks of his originality and wisdom, and to ponder the cognitive enlightenment that the Reformation can provide for our development today. Our in-depth study of Martin Luther is not only a review of history, but also a sober examination and understanding of the present, with the aim to build a more mature and better future for humanity. After the meeting, Dean Zhang Yong’an took a group photo with Prof. Paulos Huang, Prof. Yu Tao from the School of Philosophy of Nankai University, Dr. Wang Hao and some conference organizers in Room 306 of the College of Liberal Arts at Shanghai University. 1

Highlights of the Speeches of Experts

Prof. You Xilin: It cannot be generalized that Martin Luther is the missing person in the intellectual history. Martin Luther’s Religious Reformation has always enjoyed a prominent place in the study of social and intellectual history beyond Christianity, and some history books even refer to 1517 as the beginning of the spiritual event of modernity. This is a profound judgment. Of course, Luther’s writings are theological, and why did the debates within theology cause the great historical changes in society? This requires not only the collection and generalization of historical facts from its field of effect in the social sciences, but also a transformative interpretation of the humanistic meaning of theology by the humanities, especially philosophy. The field between social history and the philosophical concept of theology is precisely the history of ideas. The history of ideas connects abstract theosophy with empirical social history, and its special function is to reveal in both directions: both the sociohistorical background or origin of the spiritual ideas of theosophy and the socially influential function of the spiritual ideas of theosophy. Therefore, the study of Martin Luther’s intellectual history should be the focus of modern research on Martin Luther. Some connections are obvious, such as the separation of church administration from individual faith in Luther’s theology and

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the simultaneous promotion of the practice of separation of church and state, which essentially prefigures the separation of church and state in modern society, and the obvious structural correspondence between the two, which together with the construction of national texts promoted by the translation of the Bible are the foundational prerequisites of the modern nation-state. Prof. Yuan Zhaohui: The importance of Martin Luther is self-evident, whether as an individual or as a coordinate of intellectual history or across the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment and even the entire contemporary society. In a word, he is like a pivot across the important nodes of Western civilization. In this sense, the “Search for the Missing Martin Luther in the History of Ideas” is timely, but it also reflects the embarrassment and inadequacy of the Chinese academic community, or it is a lesson we should seriously remedy. “After all, what kind of attitude, what kind of way, and what kind of direction we take will determine what we get, what we lose, what we have, and what we regret.” Prof. Yu Tao: There have been numerous studies on the life and social welfare policies in the Nordic welfare states, but there is a lack of studies on the relationship between religion and society in the Nordic welfare states due to various constraints. In fact, Lutheran Christianity, as the state religion, has played a great supporting role in the implementation of the Nordic welfare state policies, and has a significant role in the study of Nordic welfare policies, which should be given sufficient attention. Prof. Liu Qingping: The “history of ideas” here refers to the top-level history of ideas composed of thinkers who, through their original ideas, have had a lasting impact on people and even changed the course of history. Martin Luther is certainly a thinker on this level, because his concept of “justification by faith”, which he expounded from a unique perspective, not only opened up the Protestant tradition at that time and contributed to the historical transformation from the Middle Ages to the modern era, but also continues to transcend the boundaries and academic circles of Europe and America even today, profoundly changing the life trajectory of many people. It has profoundly changed the course of many lives. Of course, “justification by faith” was not Luther’s invention. But in expounding this central idea, which dates back to the Old Testament book of Genesis, his radical critique of the Catholic claim of justification by works gives it some original depth while continuing the original paradox of the idea. Prof. Xu Fenglin: In 1977, at a theological dialogue between the FinnishLutheran Church and the Russian Orthodox Church in Kiev, the Finnish theologian Mendomar gave a presentation entitled “Salvation as Justification and as Deification”, in which he argued the similarity between Luther’s idea that

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“Christ is in faith itself” and the Orthodox idea of theosis. Mendomar later expanded this thesis into a book, entitled Christ in Faith. From that time on, Mendomar and his students did a great deal of work on Lutheran studies, which led to the formation of the “Finnish school” of Lutheran studies. The purpose of this presentation is not to sort out and explain how Mendomar discusses the similarities between Luther’s thought and Orthodox thought, but rather to present some views on the similarities and differences between Luther and Orthodoxy, based on Mendomar’s thesis and the views of modern Orthodox theologians. Prof. Li Qiuling: If Otto the Great in the 10th century AD represents the rise of the German national spirit, Martin Luther in the 16th century AD represents the rise of the German religious spirit, and Kant in the 18th century represents the rise of the German philosophical spirit. Although Lutheranism, as a result of Luther’s Reformation, was the state religion of Kant’s Prussian kingdom, Kant never mentioned the name of his predecessor in all his writings and letters, nor did he even mention Lutheranism. However, Kant, who after all came from a Lutheran pietistic family and was sent to study at the Friedrich public school organized by pietism from his childhood, could not have been unfamiliar with Lutheran doctrine, so much so that it was clearly an important object of reflection for him in his later years when he was writing his religious works. Prof. Feng Zilian: What is the Finnish School? Compared to Martin Luther, the missing man in the history of thought, I believe most Chinese readers will be more unfamiliar with the Finnish school. Indeed, I had the same feeling when I first came across Mendomar’s writing, for example, he especially emphasized that “Christ is in faith itself” and that “faith is the creator of divinity”, as if man has a part of divinity through faith itself. This is very different from our traditional understanding of justification by faith, that man is only declared righteous, which his sins are forgiven but his nature is not changed. However, if we can understand the context in which the Finnish school arose, we may be able to have a deeper understanding of this change, that is, the new interpretation of Martin Luther by the Finnish school. In fact, since Finland has historically been part of Sweden and King Gustav I of Sweden carried out the Reformation in order to strengthen centralization, Protestantism and Lutheranism have always been a strong religious tradition in Finland. Prof. Yang Huilin: It is probably in this sense that Paul Tillich’s comment on “religious painting” is the same as Martin Luther’s comment on “burning incense, singing, ringing bells” and the “good work” of “kneeling all day in church”: “Religious content does not in itself produce religious paintings”, but many of the paintings you find in church magazines, in the Sunday tabloids of churches, or in the meeting rooms of churches and in the prayer rooms of

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pastors; all have this type of character. In this sense, they lead to the danger of blasphemy. Everyone who understands the contemporary situation must oppose them.2 2 Liang, G., “The Bible and the Construction of Western Literary Theories”, Yearbook of Chinese Theology, Vol. 6 (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 119–129. You, X., and Huang, P. “The Contemporary Transformation of Educational Mechanism for Knowledge Innovation-Dialogue on Finland’s Education and China’s General Education”, International Journal of Sino-Western Studies, No. 20, 2021, pp. 1–22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37819/ijsws.20.106.

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Index A Bible Woman 3 A Chinese awareness 34 Age 2, 50, 88–92, 93, 103–105, 129, 160, 162, 197–201 All-knowing 20 All-powerful 20 Almighty God 21 Amity Foundation 107 Appropriation 47–51 Archaeology 4–5, 24, 39 Artificial intelligence 22 Asian text 8 Assyria 39 Authority 8–12, 21, 23–25, 28, 38, 86, 101–102, 107, 133, 165, 188, 196–200 Babylon 39, 69 Baptism 89–90, 103–106, 195, 199, 203 Biblical basis 17 Biblical discipline 37 Biblical hermeneutics 27, 165 Biblical studies 1, 3, 5, 10–11, 13, 15, 24–25, 27–28, 33–35, 43, 46, 150–151, 153 Biblical text 5–8, 16, 33, 36–38, 40–41, 43, 45, 100, 103, 115, 129–131, 134, 136, 143, 149, 154, 156, 168–169, 175–176, 192 Biblical theology 70, 141–143 Book of Job 11 Book of Rites 29 Buddhism 26, 29, 37, 129, 154–155 Canaanites 41 Canonization 29 China-centered 48 Chinese civilization 43–44, 117–119 Chinese Classics 8, 18, 27, 29, 51 Chinese theology 21–22 Christianity 3–5, 8–11, 16, 20, 25, 26, 29–30, 33, 35, 37, 46–48, 57–58, 60, 62–63, 65, 88–89, 109, 113–118, 120–125, 127–131, 134, 147, 150–151, 154, 159–163, 170, 178, 183, 189, 192, 209–210 Christianization 122 Chronicles 117, 119 Church Sunday School 2

Civil society 29 Clergy 97–98, 101, 104, 163, 188 Close reading 37–39, 41, 46 Coexistence 88, 95–96, 102, 104 Community 13, 28–30, 33, 35–36, 40, 44–46, 70, 76–77, 83, 143, 195, 199, 209–210 Comparative 4, 15–16, 39, 42–43, 117–118, 125, 155, 164, 179, 194 Compassion 29–30, 70, 73–74, 76–79, 82, 84 Confucianism 29, 37, 52, 54, 60–61, 64–65, 139, 148, 154–155, 163 Constructive 36–37 Contextual biblical interpretation 6 Contextual reading 6, 21, 149 Contextualizing 40 Covenant 39, 44, 70–71, 74–75, 78–80, 82 Creed 7, 9, 23, 62 Cross-cultural dialogue 43 Cross-textual reading 15–16, 27, 154–155 Daoism 35, 37, 154–155 Darwinism 55 Dead Sea Scrolls 4, 150 Decalogue 51, 132 Demographic 88, 104 Denomination 36 Despair 80–81 Deterministic 55 Dialogue 1, 16, 27, 33, 37, 42–43, 46, 64–65, 70, 83, 88, 114, 125, 141, 150–151, 156, 208, 210 Differentiation 18, 37 Distinctiveness 42–46 Divine revelation 9–10, 12, 24 Doctrinal interpretation 27 Doctrine 3, 7–8, 11–12, 15, 17, 20–23, 25, 28, 46, 115, 122, 125–126, 132, 195, 211 Easy Wenli 135, 137, 139–140, 184 Ecological criticism 41 Ecumenical Institute 3–4 Effects 58, 104, 156 Egypt 39, 69, 72, 75, 81, 186 Elegance 189, 192 Enlightenment 26, 33, 36, 77, 209, 210

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214 Exchange 42–43, 48, 155–156, 158, 162 Exclusivism 16 Expressiveness 185 Faith communities 27, 35–36, 45, 83 Faithfulness 71, 73, 185–189, 192, 202 Feminist 153 Final form 37 Five Classics 2, 15 Four Books 2, 15, 128 Franciscan 50, 130, 177 Godself 76, 80 Great Commission 195–204 Guanhua 48, 65, 85, 107, 135, 137 Gudea Temple Cylinder 39 Harmony 60–61, 117–118, 121, 125, 131, 166, 170, 182 Hebrew language 4 High Wenli Version 134 Hstoriography 40 Holy Spirit 25, 38, 45, 83, 115, 135, 148, 171, 191, 196–197, 199, 201 Humanistic classics 13–14 Identity-building 37 Idol worship 71, 75 Image 20, 53, 62, 70–71, 72–73, 80–82, 119 Inclusivism 16 In-depth interpretation 37–38, 41, 46 Indulgence 23 Inspiration 26, 28, 41, 58, 62, 85, 107, 156, 185, 187–188 Integrated 41–42, 44, 46, 50, 57, 62, 173 Intellectuals 49–50, 52–53, 55–62, 86, 207 Interdependence 77 Interpretive 35–37, 61 Inter-Religious or Comparative Religions  15–16 Intra-religious 16 Jesuit 127, 130–131, 133, 142, 159, 161, 164–166, 174 Jewishness 5 Jiao 7–12, 21, 23, 34–35, 40, 46, 117, 163

Index Jing 7–9, 12, 15, 21, 23–29, 34–35, 40, 87, 128, 131, 140, 147–148, 150, 152, 154, 156, 158, 183, 185, 193 Jingjiao 127–130, 181–182, 207 Jingxue 34–35, 42, 44, 86, 108 Judaism 3, 5, 16, 25–26, 28–29, 33, 35, 60–61, 65–66, 73, 79, 152, 156 Judeo-Christian tradition 35, 41–43, 45–46 Justice 70, 73–77, 82, 84, 123, 208 Kang Youwei 54 Lament 40 Liang Qichao 54 Logos 18, 87, 108, 115, 126, 141, 148, 150, 169, 170 Love 22, 59, 69–70, 71–78, 80, 82–84, 121, 150 Matrix 42, 77 Matteo Ricci 113, 131–132, 160 May Fourth Movement 49, 56, 139, 141, 184 Mediterranean 38 Mercy 70, 73–74, 76–79, 82, 84, 123, 195 Method 15–16, 21, 26–27, 42, 57, 61, 103–104, 128, 148–149, 152–157, 185, 187, 190, 200 Missionaries 47, 49, 51–52, 56–57, 62, 85, 107, 113–118, 120–127, 129–131, 134–135, 137–139, 141–142, 147–148, 159–163, 165, 169–171, 177, 182–184, 189 Mission-centered 47 Monotheism 59–60, 70, 75, 81 Multiculturalism 36 Muslims 28 Mutual learning 42–43 Mystery 14, 22, 25, 78 Narrative 11, 18–19, 39–40, 45, 52, 134 Nestorian 50, 127–129, 159, 182 New Culture Movement 56, 58–59, 139–140 New Testament 4, 8, 20–21, 23, 36, 38, 41–44, 48, 128–130, 132–140, 147, 149–159, 164, 166, 169, 171, 182–184, 188–191, 193, 197–198, 202 Nihilism 10, 25 Omniscience 22 Oriental Orthodox Churches 4

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Index Original 6, 10, 15, 17–18, 20, 22, 33, 36–37, 39–40, 43, 49, 51, 56, 78, 85, 102, 115–116, 128–129, 142, 148–149, 154, 167, 169, 171, 174, 175–177, 183–191, 198, 200, 202, 210 Original sin 10, 15, 17–18, 20, 22 Parables 40 Particularism 16 Pauline theology 8 Pillars 41, 45–46, 163 Pluralism 6, 16, 40, 45–46, 63 Poetry 39–40, 51, 182 Positivistic 38 Post-colonial 41, 153–154 Pre-critical studies era 24 Prophecy 8, 40 Protestant Churches 4 Qing 35, 48–49, 66, 115, 117–118, 126, 132–134, 136–140, 142, 148, 159–162, 168–169, 178, 192 Qurʾan 28 Rationalism 33 Readability 51, 59, 188 Reception 16, 47–48, 50–51, 57, 85, 87, 89, 91, 93, 95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 104, 105, 107, 109, 127, 141, 156, 158 Relationships 35, 38, 69–71, 73, 75–77, 79–80, 82–84, 138, 177 Relativism 10, 25 Research on the Bible 34 Respondents 88–104 Revised Chinese Union Version 87 Righteousness 70, 76–77, 81–82, 84, 122, 175, 208 Sacrifices 76, 82 Scientism 59, 64, 148–149 Scriptural studies 28, 36, 44 Scripture reasoning 16 Setting-in-life 6 Sheng jing xue 34–35 Sigao version 93–95 Sino-Christian Academic Biblical Studies 13 Sitz im Leben 40 Sola fide 23 Sola gratia 23

215 Sola scriptura 23, 28, 188 Statism 55 Synthesis 46 System 6, 27, 35, 44, 46, 57, 59, 77–78, 82, 119, 137, 156–157 Ten Commandments 51, 131–132, 186 Texts within tradition 36 Textual criticism 36–37 The ancestral shrine 3 The Anglican Book Society 115 The catholic Church 4, 23, 45, 50, 63, 163, 165 The Dao of Heaven 29–30 The discipline of the Bible 36–37 The doctrine of justification by faith 8 The Easter Day 8 The Evangelical Revival Movement 122 The First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea 7 The Garden Story 17, 19 The golden calf 72, 75 The Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament) 1, 3 The Holocaust 3 The Holy Land of Canaan 5 The Jewish Diaspora 28, 54 The Journal of Biblical Literature 1 The Nativity Scene 2 The Nicene Creed 7, 23 The Second Temple 4 The Second Vatican Council 4 The Sermon on the Mount 4 The Tantur Ecumenical Institute for Advanced Theological Studies in Jerusalem 4 The tree of knowledge 17–18, 20 The tree of life 17–18, 20 The Union Theology 141–142 The Word (Dao) of God 9 The Word of God 1, 3, 13–15, 25, 45, 141, 185–186, 192–193 Thirteen Classics 15 Three-self Patriotic movement 149 Traditionalists 59 Transcendence 14, 19, 22, 118, 123 Translation 15, 47–48, 50–51, 56, 58, 62, 64, 65–66, 85–87, 92–96, 100–102, 104, 106–108, 127–139, 141–142, 148–150, 159–160, 164–171, 174–178, 181–197, 201–204, 208–210

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216 Transpositions 51 Trinitarian 76 Trinity 9, 11, 15, 17, 76–77 Ugaritic poetry 39 Unconditional 71, 77, 79–80, 83, 198 Union Version of the Bible 53 Unique 9, 37, 42, 56, 82, 87, 101–102, 106, 115–116, 142, 156, 210 Uniqueness 121, 155 Universal 21, 45, 52, 56, 59, 113–114, 116, 118, 125 Universality 60, 113–119, 121–125 Vernacular Movement 48, 56–57 Vernacular 48–49, 56–58, 133, 138–143, 165, 167, 174, 177–178, 184, 188 Vision 12, 45, 61, 70–71, 76, 78, 142 Voluntarist 55

Index Willingness 71, 77, 84 Western Christian thoughts 9 Westernization 113 Willingness 80–81 Written Torah 28 Work 3–4, 17, 19, 23, 36, 38, 42, 45, 49–50, 57, 61, 70, 74, 83, 115, 127, 130, 131–139, 141–142, 160–161, 163–164, 166, 171, 177–178, 181, 183, 189–190, 200, 210–211 Xunzi 61 Yangwu 57 Ye Dehui 54 Yuan 50, 55, 62, 129–130, 159, 163, 208, 210

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