Hist Trans EN 4

Chapter4 The Brief History of Bible's Chinese Translation

圣经中译版简史 王镇隆Wang Zhenlong, Hunan Normal University, China

Hist_Trans_EN_4

Abstract

Bible is the only Christian classic. Many Bible translation versions in the territory of China, including the Chinese characters and the languages of ethnic minorities, are not only the important events and modern history publication with the largest circulation, translated versions of books in the modern translation history, but also the close relationship with the modern transformation of Chinese characters and the creation of minority languages. Three aspects of Bible translation history, information, research and outlook are described in this paper.

摘要

圣经是基督教的唯一经典，圣经翻译则是中国近代翻译史上的重要事件。当时的中国境内，出现了包括汉语汉字和少数民族语言文字的众多圣经译本，这不仅使圣经成为中国近代史上出版发行量最大、翻译版本最多的书籍，而且对中国的汉语汉字的近代转型和少数民族文字创制产生了重要影响。本文从 3 个方面对圣经中译的历史、资料、研究及展望进行了叙述。

Key Words

History of the Bible translation；Research review;Academic outlook

关键词

圣经中译史；研究回顾；学术展望

The Overall Introduction of Bible Translation

“Bible” translation has a pivotal position in the history of Western translation. From the beginning of the era to today, the translation of the “Bible” has never stopped. The range of languages involved, the number of translations, and the frequency of use of translations,etc., are unmatched by the translation of any other work. A birds-eye view of the history of “Bible” translation has the following important milestones: the first is the “Seventy Sons Greek Text” before the Era, the second is the “Popular Latin Text Bible” from the 4th to 5th centuries, and the later the national languages of the early Middle Ages. The ancient texts (such as Old German, Old French translations), modern texts since the 16th century Reformation Movement (such as the Lutheran version of Germany, the King James version, etc.) and various modern texts. All these translations have made indelible contributions to the spread and development of Christianity in the West, as well as the prosperity and development of the languages and cultures of various nations.(Gu Changsheng,1991)

The “Bible” is the holy book of Christianity, including the “Old Testament” and “New Testament.” The Old Testament was written in BC. It is a classic of Judaism. It was inherited by Christianity from Judaism. The original text was in Hebrew. The New Testament was written in the second half of the first to second centuries, and the original text is in Greek. Throughout human history, language translation is almost as old as the language itself. Therefore, from the beginning of the era to today, the translation of the “Bible” has never stopped. The range of languages involved, the number of translations, and the frequency of use of the translations, etc., are unmatched by the translation of any other work. The translation of the "Bible" is mainly to spread the doctrine, so that people are influenced and accepted by the views. According to the “New Testament Acts” Chapter Two, Section One: The saints gathered on Pentecost, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the words of other countries according to the eloquence given by the Holy Spirit. However, the translation at that time was mainly “interprete” or “interpretation.” Among them, St. Paul himself is a multilingual believer. He preached in Jerusalem, Athens and Rome in Hebrew, Greek and Italian respectively. The Bible was first translated from Hebrew into Greek, then into Latin, and then into Romanian, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Walloon (wal-lon), German, French, Romance languages. English was then translated into various languages in the world, and the translations of its various texts were repeatedly revised by experts in the translation of the classics, which lasted more than ten centuries.

In the history of the translation of the Bible, it has gone through several milestone stages: the first is the “Seventy Sons Greek Text” before the era, the second is the “Popular Latin Text Bible” from the 4th to 5th centuries, and later it is the national languages of the early Middle Ages. Ancient texts (such as Old German, Old French translations), modern texts since the 16th century Reformation Movement (such as Luther, Casio Dorobin in Spain, King James Version in English, Nikon in Russia) and All kinds of modern texts (such as “American Standard Text” in English, “New English Bible” and “English Today”, etc.). “The Bible Old Testament” is the first important and earliest translation in ancient times in the West, and it was translated into Greek. The Old Testament was originally the official classic of Judaism, originally in Hebrew. The Jews have been scattered around for a long time and drifted overseas. Over time, they have forgotten the language of their ancestors and spoke foreign languages such as Arabic and Greek. Among them, Greek speakers accounted for the majority. In ancient times, the city of Alexandria in Egypt was the cultural and trade center of the eastern Mediterranean. The Jews living here accounted for two-fifths of the city’s total population. In the third century BC, in order to meet the increasingly urgent needs of these Greek-speaking Jews, the church decided to translate the Hebrew text of the Old Testament into a Greek text. In the second century BC, an unknown Jew once wrote an epistle article, which was later named “Letter of Aristeas” (“Letter of Aristeas”), which records that in the third century BC, Jerusalem At the request of Egyptian King Ptolemy II Feiradelphis (308-246 BC), Bishop Elizar sent translators to Alexandria to undertake the translation of the Old Testament. In this way, according to Ptolemy II's will, between 285 and 249 BC, 72 “noble” Jewish scholars gathered in the Library of Alexandria, Egypt, to perform this translation. According to legend, the 72 scholars came from 12 different Israeli tribes, with 6 from each tribe. After they came to the Library of Alexandria, they worked in pairs in 36 locations and translated them into 36 translations that were very similar to each other. Finally, 72 translators gathered together to compare and check the 36 translation manuscripts, and reached a consensus on the wording of the final version, and called it the “Seventy Son Text” or “Seventy Magi Translation”, that is, “Septuagint” (“Septuagint”), has since opened a precedent for collective translation in the history of translation. Soon after the translation of the “Seventy Sons”, the priests held a joint meeting with the Jewish leaders and pointed out: “This translation is well translated, pious, and very accurate. (Marshall Broomhall,1934,P.2)

Therefore, it must be kept as it is and cannot be changed.” We also regarded it as the classic translation. In fact, this Greek translation became the “second original”, and sometimes even replaced the Hebrew text and ascended to the throne of the “first original”. Many of the translations of the Bible in languages such as ancient Latin, Slavic, and Arabic are not based on the original Hebrew but on the Greek translation.

Multilingualism in the Chinese version of the Bible

According to the report of the World Union Bible Association in 2006, the new and Old Testament of the Bible has been translated into 301 different languages. If regional dialects and partial translations are included, the translated languages of the Bible have exceeded 2287 different languages. The Bible is the most widely circulated and translated book in the world.

If someone says that in Chinese history, the Bible has the largest number of translated versions, the largest number of Chinese language forms, both vernacular and classical Chinese, and the largest number of Chinese dialect forms. It has not only created nearly 10 ethnic minority languages, but also nearly 20 ethnic minority language translation books, but also the largest publication and circulation in modern history, There must be many people who don't believe it.(William Canton,1904,1910)

But this is the fact of history. The Chinese version of the Bible does have many historical “best”, which is related to the super pronunciation and super dialect nature of Chinese language and characters, the reform and cultural transformation of Chinese language and culture in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, and the fact that most ethnic minorities in Southwest China have only language but no words. The period of the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, that is, the 1860s to the 1930s, was the period of the most drastic changes in Chinese language and characters, the period of the transformation of ancient Chinese and its culture into vernacular, the period of the widespread voice and hard practice of Chinese Latinization, the most active period of language and character reform, and the transformation and reform of Chinese language and characters, A variety of transitional writing methods have emerged due to text reform and stylistic changes. However, the reform and expression methods of multiple languages and characters in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, some of which are even very short-lived transitional writing methods. The Bible has published translated versions in this text form. This can be best confirmed by many translations of the Bible, such as classical Chinese, half written and half spoken, vernacular, dialect Chinese characters, dialect church Roman characters, Wang Zhao Mandarin phonetic alphabets, Mandarin phonetic alphabets, Mandarin Roman characters, weituoma Pinyin, kuaizi, a variety of ethnic minority characters, blind characters and so on.(Li Kuanshu,1998)

The large-scale cultural exchange and interaction between China and the west is an important historical phenomenon in the modern world. This cultural relationship has not only changed the cultural and political pattern all over the world, but also greatly affected the development of Chinese culture and society. Language contact is not only an important part of cultural relations, but also an important prerequisite for all other exchanges. The large-scale and multilingual cross-cultural in-depth language and cultural exchange is a modern cultural phenomenon gradually formed all over the world after the great discovery of geography. It is also a prominent manifestation in the history of China's modern foreign cultural relations, which is particularly different from previous dynasties.

The language and cultural exchange in modern China began with the arrival of Christian missionaries in China. As the only classic of Christian religion, the Bible inevitably involves the problems of how to translate into China’s local language, how to adapt to and influence the local ideology and culture in the historical process of Christian communication and translation.

The earliest translation of the Bible in China can be extended to the Tang Dynasty, which has a long history of thousands of years. Although the Bible translation activities have been interrupted, they continue to this day. In Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Bible translation is still not over.

Bible Translation from Different Perspectives

From the perspective of language, Bible translation can be divided into Chinese language and minority language. In addition to the Chinese translation (the Chinese translation is described in detail below), in the process of Bible translation, the missionaries took advantage of the Pinyin advantages of their Latin mother tongue and combined with the pronunciation of local minority languages to create Pinyin characters in the form of Latin letters for those southwest minorities who only have spoken language but no words, that is, bagri Miao Language (old Miao Language) in Northeast Yunnan Frame format: East Lisu, Funeng Renxi Lisu (old Lisu), Jingpo, Zawa, Lahu, Buyi, WA, etc. It also borrowed Chinese phonetic alphabets and modified and created Hu Zhizhong’s Miao language. They translated and published the complete Scriptures or section translations of Jingpo language, Zaiwa language, East Lisu language, West Lisu language, Yi language, Nuosu language and Gepo language, Lahu language, WA language, Naxi language, Dehong Dai language, Xishuangbanna Dai language, Huayao Dai language, Huamiao language, Chuanmiao language, heimiao language, Buyi language and other languages. Among them, Jingpo, Funeng Renxi Lisu and bagri Miao are still widely used in society, and Hu Zhizhong Miao is still used among religious believers in Kaili, Guizhou. These characters not only ended the history of these nationalities without characters, but also provided great reference and Enlightenment for the large-scale creation of characters for ethnic minorities in New China. In the northern minority languages, the missionaries also translated and published Bible translations in Mongolian (karmec Mongolian, kalka Mongolian, Buryat Mongolian), Tibetan (Tibetan Classical Chinese, Tibetan Ladakh dialect, Tibetan Lahore dialect), Manchu, Kazakh and Korean. In Taiwan, missionaries and today’s Taiwan Christian Church have also created Pinyin characters in the form of Latin letters for the Paiwan, Taiya, AMI, Taroko, Yamei, Bunun, Lukai, Dawu and other indigenous peoples, translated and published biblical translations, which are still in use today.(Wang Zhixin,2004)

From the perspective of Chinese style, Chinese versions of the Bible can be divided into three categories:

1. Classical Chinese translation, that is, the translation of deep arts and Sciences: in history, there have been yangmano's direct interpretation of the Bible, daysun's translation, masman's translation, Morrison's translation, Guo Shili's translation, commissioned translation (or representative translation), bizhiwen / kebicun translation, Gaode translation, the printed version of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, lianweiren translation, and Heshen's translation of Arts and Sciences.

2. Half written and half white translation, i.e. shallow liberal arts translation: in history, there have been Yang Ge's non shallow liberal arts translation, Shi Joseph's shallow liberal arts translation, Bao John / Ke Bicun translation and hehe shallow liberal arts translation.

3. Vernacular translation: China is a country with many dialects. Six of China's seven dialects have Bible translations. Among them, nine branches of five dialects, including Wu, min, Guangdong, Hakka and Mandarin, have biblical Chinese characters. They are Nanjing dialect translation, Beijing dialect translation, Hankou dialect translation, Tianjin dialect translation, Shanghai dialect translation, Ningbo Dialect translation, Suzhou dialect translation, Hangzhou dialect translation, Fuzhou dialect translation, Xiamen dialect translation, Shantou dialect translation, Guangzhou dialect translation, Hakka dialect translation Hakka Sanjiang dialect translation. In 1919, the vernacular intensive cost and official script appeared, which is the Bible translation used by the Christian Church of China.

From the perspective of Chinese text form, Bible translation can be basically divided into seven categories:

1. Chinese Character Edition: in history, there were classical Chinese character edition and vernacular Chinese Character Edition (including dialect Chinese Character Edition);

2. Roman script of church Dialect: missionaries spell the words of local dialects according to the Latin alphabet. There are 15 branches of the six dialects, including Nanjing dialect translation, Beijing dialect translation, Shandong dialect translation, Shanghai dialect translation, Ningbo Dialect translation, Hangzhou dialect translation, Wenzhou dialect translation, Jinhua dialect translation, Taizhou dialect translation, Fuzhou dialect translation Bible translations of Xiamen dialect, Shantou dialect, Xinghua dialect, Jianyang dialect, Shaowu dialect, Hainan dialect, Guangzhou dialect, Hakka Guangdong and Taiwan dialect, Hakka Wujingfu dialect, Hakka Tingzhou dialect and Hakka Jianning dialect;

3. Wang Zhao Mandarin phonetic alphabet: the Bible is spelled with Wang Zhao Mandarin phonetic alphabet. There have been Bible translations of Tianjin dialect, Hankou dialect, Hebei dialect and Jiaodong dialect;

4. Mandarin phonetic alphabet: there have been Bible translations of Fuzhou dialect and Jiaodong dialect;

5. Braille script；

6. Quick script: that is, the Bible translation of early sketch;

7. Weituoma Pinyin book.

In terms of publication forms, there are many kinds of publications, such as Chinese character edition, Chinese character and foreign language comparison edition, Chinese character and Mandarin phonetic alphabet comparison edition, Chinese character and Wang Zhao Mandarin phonetic alphabet comparison edition, Chinese character and church Roman character comparison edition, church Roman character and Mandarin phonetic alphabet comparison edition, etc. As far as the editions are concerned, there are single volume edition, multi volume edition, the New Testament, the Old Testament, the New Testament with psalms, the new and Old Testament, etc., with a total number of more than 1000. Based on the American Bible Society, the British Bible Society and the Scottish Bible Society, which had the greatest influence in old China and published and sold various versions of the Bible, a total of 225 million copies were sold from 1814 to 1934; From 1814 to 1950, 279351752 copies were sold.(Chen Yugang,1992) After the founding of new China, the Chinese Christian Church basically took the heheguan vernacular Version (later called hehehe vernacular version, hereinafter referred to as hehe version) as the Bible translation dedicated to the church, and no other Chinese classical Chinese or dialect versions of the Bible were published. As of December 2007, the Christian Church of China has printed and distributed 50 million copies of Hehe vernacular books. China has become one of the countries with the largest number of printed Bibles in the world.

Writings and Work Records of Biblical Translators

As the only classic of Christian religion, the meaning of the Bible is different. Since the Christian foreign missionaries came to China in the 19th century, they have been translating the Bible continuously, and published many documents and works at the same time. Most of these archives and works are the reports and introductions of Christian sects to publicize and introduce their own work achievements, which are limited to the publicity of their own sects without academic and serious research.

The earliest works related to the translation and recording of Bible translation were written by personnel and institutions related to Christian religion. The first documentary about the Chinese Bible translation is the Bible in China by Alexander Wylie, a missionary who once served as the director of the British Bible Society. This article records the earliest Bible translation in China, which is the work report of Alexander Wylie.

Among the records of missionaries on Bible translation, the Bible in China written by Marshall Broomhall, a missionary of the mainland church, is the most concentrated and representative. Hainbo is the director general of the headquarters of the mainland Association in London and is responsible for editing China's million, the most important publication of the mainland Association, for 20 years.

Another book about Bible translation is the Chinese versions of the Bible (1934) written by A. J. Garnier, a missionary of the British Baptist Church. His book is more often seen in its Chinese translation, which is compiled by George Milligan.

History of the spread of the New Testament (Guangzhou society, 1934). These two books are not long, about 100000 words. They describe the general situation of Bible translation from ancient times to now. They are basically the working records and introduction of Bible translation. The recording time is up to the three combined versions of the main translations of missionaries in 1919. The early Catholic translation, the Christian minority language translation in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, and the Chinese dialect translation are too vague and too brief to cover, including the Chinese translation and the Catholic sigo translation. They can not be called academic research works. The Bible translation of missionaries is mostly missionary encouragement and publicity, which belongs to the missionary works of the church.(Yang Senfu,1968)

In modern Chinese history, foreign institutions or individuals have many publishing and sales institutions in China, among which the Bible has a certain nature of exclusive translation, monopoly and sales. The Chinese translation of the Bible is basically undertaken by the Bible Societies of various countries in China. Among the Foreign Bible Societies in China, the American Bible Society, the British Bible Society and the Scottish bible society are mainly responsible for the dissemination of the Chinese Bible, including the organization and arrangement of Bible translation, financial support, the formulation of translation principles, the selection and determination of translators, the publication and reprint of the Bible, the sales of the Bible, and almost all the leading work of Bible translation. The most detailed work on the history of the British bible society so far is a history of the British and Foreign Bible Society written by William Canton, which introduces the work of the British Bible Society in the 19th century. The more important work in recent years is the cheap Bibles: Nineteen Century Publishing and the British and Foreign Bible Society written by Leslie Howsam, but its history and content are still dominated by the 19th century. For the history of the British Bible Society in the first half of the 20th century, please refer to a history of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 1900-1954 written by James M. roe. As for the historical works of the American Bible Society, what is important is the centennial history of the American Bible Society written by Henry O. Dwight, which introduces the work progress of the American Bible Society around the world in the 19th century. Chinese Bible translation is only a small part of it. In the same year, translations of the scripts into the languages of China and her dependencies [10], written by John R. hykes, director general of the American Bible Society in China, specifically described the Bible translation work of the American Bible Society in China. These monographs introduced the missionary work of various Bible Societies in China, especially the printing and distribution of the Bible.(Chloe Starr,2008)

In the Chinese recorder edited by missionaries, there are scattered information about the translation and publication of various versions of Bible translation written by missionaries in different times, or missionaries' discussions on various affairs and research of Bible translation. Educational administration magazine is an English magazine sponsored by missionaries in China for more than 100 years.

Catalogue of Biblical Editions

In addition to the reports of the Bible guild and missionaries, there are some catalogues of Biblical translations that can be viewed as data. Alexander Wylie, a British missionary, has been acting for the British Bible Association since 1863. He catalogued all kinds of Christian books and periodicals published at that time and published the biographies and works of missionaries who came to China in 1867 （Memorials of Protestant Missionaries to the Chinese Given a List of Their Publications and Obituary Notices of the Deceased, with Copious Indexes） The book records the life stories, catalogues and abstracts of early missionaries in China, and is the most complete bibliography of religious translation in the period of the Republic of China. However, according to the author's comparative verification of the original Bible translations collected by the National Library, it is found that the catalogue misjudges some of the Bible translations, or some translations do not judge the translations, so it is necessary to judge them according to each library Up to now, the catalogue of Chinese versions of the Bible published abroad is more detailed than the collection, introduction and description of the collection information and records of the mainland edition catalogue.

Academic Research: Western Part

Thor strandenaes graduated from Uppsala University in Sweden in 1987. His doctoral thesis principles of Chinese Bible translation is the earliest doctoral thesis focusing on the Chinese Bible. He is particularly inclined to compare different Chinese versions of the Bible. From the perspective of translatology and Christian theological interpretation, he analyzes the translation principles of five Bible versions, including Morrison's version of Shen Wenli, the Commission's version of Shen Wenli, the vernacular hehe version, the Catholic SIKO Bible version and the modern Chinese version of Taiwan. He believes that Bible translation has strong inheritance and mutual influence, But at the same time, Catholicism and Christianity have formed their own translation style and vocabulary system. Shi Fulai is a priest, so his research especially emphasizes the theological factors and influence of Bible translation . Jost zetzsche graduated from the University of Hamburg, Germany, in 1999. His doctoral dissertation the Bible in China: the history of the union version or the cultivation of Bible missionary Bible translation in China is a masterpiece in recent years. From the perspective of Christian theological theory and church use, he also discussed the Bible and the combined version, which has the greatest influence, the largest circulation and is still used by the Christian Church, and came to the conclusion that the combined version is the greatest achievement of Bible translation. Both English Monographs discuss the attitude and evolution of missionaries towards Bible translation, the role of Bible translation in the spread of Christianity in China, the scale of Bible distribution, the evolution of Bible translation and sales institutions from the perspective of church position and theology. The paper has a certain historical overview of various early versions, especially the deep arts and science versions, but it does not involve the dialect Bible versions and ethnic minority Bible versions, nor does it discuss the significance and role of the Bible as a Christian classic. (Eugene A.Nida,1972)

This paper studies one of dozens of translations of the Bible - the translation of different stylistic versions of heheben, as well as the theological basis and theological disputes of the translated Heben. Both of these doctoral theses give full play to the author's expertise in Western mother tongue, and focus on one aspect with the archives of the Christian missionary church, including work reports and letters, work records and the archives of the Bible Association as the main data sources.

Including the discussion of individual translations or translators. Thor strantenaes's paper anonymous Bible translators: native language and the translation of the Bible into Chinese (1817-1917) discusses the role of Chinese people in Chinese Bible translation. Due to the cultural arrogance of missionaries, The contribution and role of Chinese scholars in Bible translation has been buried. Reading Christian scripts in China, edited by chole Starr, is a collection of multiple papers to explore the translation of the Chinese Bible in the 19th century and its impact on the final synthesizer and integration of the Bible.

Academic Research: Chinese Part

So far, the Chinese world has not carried out in-depth and systematic historical investigation and academic research on the Bible translation. Only in the history of Chinese Christianity, the history of modern Chinese printing and the history of modern Chinese translation can we see some brief introductions, such as Gu Changsheng's missionaries and modern China (page 16); Yang Senfu's history of Christianity in China (12 pages); A brief history of Christianity in China by Li kuanshu (5 pages); Wang Zhixin's outline of the history of Christianity in China (4 pages); Chen Yugang's historical manuscript of Chinese literary translation (5 pages).

The more in-depth discussions basically point to the theoretical discussion of Chinese Bible translation. The most important thing is the discussion on "term question", sometimes called "holy number problem". This problem involves how to use Chinese to call Hebrew "YHWH" and "Elohim", Greek "theos", Latin "Deus" or English "God", and how to translate theological names such as "Holy Spirit", "an - gel" or "baptism". How to translate holy names into Chinese is not only a linguistic and theological problem, but also involves the connotation of Chinese religious beliefs, but also involves how one language and culture is translated into another language and culture of heterogeneous paganism. This is a long-standing and controversial topic on translation in the history of Chinese Christian religion. Until today, there is still no final conclusion within Christianity. Zhao Weiben's "debate on the translation of the Chinese Bible: Shenhu? Dihu" is an early academic paper on the dispute over the translation of the Chinese Bible; Li Chi Chang, editor in chief, compiled more than 60 debates on the translation of "God" and "God" published by Chinese Christians in the communique of nations from 1877 to 1878. It pays close attention to the opinions and responses of Chinese Christians, It is a significant revision of the tendency of many works and historical materials to only pay attention to missionaries and forget the Chinese people. Zhao Xiaoyang's translation and introduction of local culture and foreign religions in regeneration: from the perspective of the Chinese translation of God and God discusses the fierce debate between Catholicism and Christianity on the "translation problem" for 300 years. Under the interpretation of Western religious ideas, the traditional Chinese words "God" and "God" have been gradually Christianized, lost the connotation of their original local religion, and regenerated into new words symbolizing western culture. This paper goes beyond the narrow theological scope of discussing the translation of names within the church in the past, and discusses this cultural problem from a broader perspective. Cheng Xiaojuan's doctoral thesis, discussion and acceptance of "God" in Chinese Bible translation, comprehensively examines the discussion of Western missionaries on the translation of "God" and the history of Chinese acceptance of "God", hoping to form a horizontal investigation of the complete cultural exchange system of "dissemination acceptance", Vertically, it shows their historical changes in different historical situations and cultural exchange stages.(Leslie Howsam,1991)

Cai Jintu's doctoral thesis, the orientation and problems of commissioned Chinese Bible translation, specially discusses one of many deep arts and science translations - commissioned translation, its translatological principles, translation activities, sales, assistance of Chinese assistants, etc., focusing on the theological theory of Bible translation, And the influence of these theological theories on Chinese Bible translation and the development of Christian Church. Ren Dongsheng's doctoral thesis, a study on the culture of Bible Chinese translation, discusses the thematic changes of Bible literature, history and theology from the perspective of translatology.

At present, the academic research on the Chinese version of the Bible is still insufficient. So far, only Ma min's mahiman, Rasha and the early Chinese translation of the Bible has achieved a high level of academic research results; Wu Yixiong's the dispute over translation names and the Chinese translation of the early Bible; Zhao Xiaoyang's research on the relationship between the two horse Bible versions and the daysun Bible versions, an analysis of the origin of the printed Bible base in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Chiang Kai Shek and Bible translation during the war of resistance against Japan, and a historical overview of the Centennial Ministry of the American Chinese Bible Society. Based on the discovery of new materials in Chinese and English, these Chinese papers textual research and analyze the basic historical facts of the Bible translation and Foreign Bible Societies, and describe the work contents of Bible translation, personnel changes, Bible sales, version identification and textual research, disputes and focus during translation in each period. These research papers only involve the earliest translation of Christian missionaries or the Bible translation of Chiang Kai Shek, a famous political figure in modern history.(Hubert W.Spillett,1975)

Conclusion

But up to now, due to the differences and opposites between Catholicism and Christianity, there are differences and estrangements among many sects in Christianity; Under the influence of social and political ideology, academic circles have neglected and lacked this field intentionally or unintentionally in the past; The objective difficulties in the study of Chinese versions of the Bible, such as the vast majority of archival materials and various versions are kept abroad, and the majority of foreign materials; There is still no academic research monograph on the historical investigation of the whole Chinese translation of the Bible. The existing in-depth research on Chinese Bible translation is also limited to the most famous versions of the Bible in the history of Chinese Bible translation, such as the marsmian version, the Morrison version, the Guo Shili version, the commissioned version and so on. There is no dialect translation and minority language translation of the Bible, no Roman Bible translation of many churches, and no Chinese translation in the post missionary era. Special studies on the impact, response and reference of Chinese Bible translation on Chinese language, language reform, social culture, new literature and new words, the impact of Chinese Bible translation on the spread and development of Chinese Christian religion, the impact and response of Chinese Bible translation on Chinese traditional ideology and culture, and the impact and significance of Chinese Bible translation on the history of Chinese translation, It is even more rare to pay. The research on the translation and influence of the Bible is a blank spot that needs to be developed. It is worth us to devote ourselves to it and make a difference.(Henry O.Dwight,1916)

References

Marshall Broomhall, The Bible in China, London: British and Foreign Bible Society, 1934, p.2.

William Canton, A History of the British and Foreign Bible Society，London: John Murray, 1904, 1910.

Leslie Howsam, Cheap Bibles: Nineteenth-Century Publishing and the British and Foreign Bible Society,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Henry O. Dwight, The Centennial History of the American Bible Society, New York: Macmillan, 1916.

Hubert W. Spillett, A Catalogue of Scriptures in the Languages of China and the Republic of China, Hong Kong: British and Foreign Bible Society,1975.

Eugene A. Nida, The Book of A Thousand Tongues, New York: United Bible Societies, 1972.

Chloe Starr edit, Reading Christian Scriptures in China,London: T&T Clark, 2008.

Tony 汤因. 中国基督教圣经事业史料简编 A compendium of historical materials on the cause of Chinese Christian Bible [J] 协进 Xie Jin, 1953 (9): 48

Gu Changsheng 顾长声.传教士与近代中国 Missionaries and modern China [M] 上海：上海人民出版社 Shanghai: Shanghai People's publishing house,1991

Yang Senfu 杨森富.中国基督教史 History of Christianity in China [M] 台北：商务印书馆 Taipei: Commercial Press, 1968

Li kuanshu 李宽淑.中国基督教史略 A brief history of Christianity in China [M] 北京：社会科学文献出版社 Beijing: Social Science Literature Press,,1998

Wang Zhixin 王治心.中国基督教史纲 Outline of Chinese Christian history [M] 上海：上海古籍出版社 Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House,2004

Chen Yugang 陈玉刚.中国文学翻译史稿 History of Chinese literary translation [M] 北京：中国对外翻译出版公司，Beijing: China translation and Publishing Corporation, 1992

--Written by Wang Zhenlong--Li Xichang (talk) 06:39, 15 December 2021 (UTC)