Chinese Retranslation Of The Bible And The Evolution Of Contemporary Chinese Christian Discourse

The Bible, a great western classic, has many values such as theology, historiography andliterature. However, from the first introduction of the Bible into China during the Tangdynasty to the late Qing and early Republic of China, the Chinese translation of the Bible ledby the western missionaries coming to China is mainly aimed at preaching the religious ideas,thus the Chinese bible text places emphasis on theology to a large extent, while ignoring theother non-theological properties such as historiography, literature et c. Therefore, the earlyChristian discourse which originates from the Chinese translation of the Bible also showstypical theological features, while the literariness is greatly limited. However, this situationhas been gradually improved ever since Wang Xuanchen, the very first Chinese translator whoindependently finished the retranslation of the New Testament in1933, which gradually makesthe Chinese Bible translation more and more literariness-oriented. Feng Xiang, anon-Christian translator of the Bible, is prominent in leading Chinese biblical translation intothe literary translation period. Against this background, the Chinese Christian discourse hasbeen undergoing gradual evolution. In this thesis, based on Feng Xiang’s version of John,together with several Chinese versions of the other three Gospel books, a comparative studyof the Four Gospels in CUV, Wang Xuanchen’s and Feng Xiang’s version is conducted,thereby the evolution mode of the contemporary Chinese Christian discourse is explored andthe various causes are revealed.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one gives a brief introduction of thebackground, purpose, significance, methodology and structure of the thesis as well. Chaptertwo is the literature review, which detailedly introduces the research background of theChinese biblical translation at home and abroad, the formation and development of the Chinese Christian discourse system and the dynamic research situation of the contemporaryChinese Christian discourse as well. In the third chapter, with a thorough combing of theChinese retranslation of the Bible and based on a comparative study of the Four Gospels inCUV, Wang Xuanchen’s and Feng Xiang’s version from a diachronic perspective, theevolution mode of the modern Chinese Christian discourse is explored. Chapter four analyzesthe causes behind the evolution based on a comparative analysis of the John in differentversions such as CUV, Wang Hanchuan’s Four Gospels, and Feng Xiang’s New Testament.Chapter five draws the conclusion and points out the weaknesses of this study, and attempts toput forward some open questions for further research.In this thesis, it is found that, Chinese retranslation of the Bible pushes the evolution ofthe contemporary Chinese Christian discourse, which, with the core Christian ideas beingscrupulously honored, is breaking the exclusive status of the theology of the bible text andpaying more attention to its literariness. This is due to various elements such as the Christiantradition, the Chinese biblical translation ideas, translator’s identity, readers et c.