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Exploring Ruist Influences of Moral Self-Cultivation on the Mandarin Union Version of the Chinese Bible (CUV)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2020
Abstract
The influences of Chinese traditional culture, especially the traditional Three Teachings and folk religion, on the Mandarin Union Version of the Chinese Bible (first edition, 1919) and the resulting complications are explicit in some contexts but implicit and subtle in other contexts. Some influences are helpful for Chinese people's proper understanding of biblical truth and theology in a Chinese context, but other influences can be misleading. In this paper, I will examine three translated Chinese phrases in the Mandarin Union Version that show evidence of Ruist influences: (1) “xūxīn de rén” “虛心的人”, in Matthew 5:3, (2) “tiānguó shì nǔlì jìnrù de﹐nǔlì de rén jiù dézháole” “天國是努力進入的﹐努力的人就得著了”, Matthew 11:12, and (3) “lǎoliàn” “老練”in Romans 5:4. Ruist influences is explicit in the first two cases but implicit in the third case, I will first analyze the verses and argue that they reflect the dominant Ruist ideology of moral self-cultivation instead of the biblical vision of transformation by “gracious moral cultivation”. Then I will demonstrate how Chinese readers might respond based on the context of each verse: Some Chinese readers might detect the inconsistenices between the Ruist emphasis on moral self-cultivation and a more general biblical theology, especially in an intertextual context of other Bible passages that explicitly teach the total depravity of human beings (e.g. Romans), as well as reconciliation and redemption by the free gift of Christ's grace for salvation and sanctification (e.g. Ephesians). Other Chinese readers might be misled by Ruist suggestions that they pursue sanctification and transformation only by means of moral self-cultivation that relies solely on their willpower. I will conclude by arguing how mistranslating and misinterpreting these verses can cause possible complications, especially negatively masking behaviour, in the personal and interpersonal spiritual transformation and ecclesiological development among Chinese Christians.
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- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2020
References
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6 Ruification in the context of Chinese Protestant Christians means that the believer lives more in a Ruist way than in a Christian way. For example, the sermons delievered focus more on moral teachings and admontition. Various forms of Ruism even influenced the developments of Chinese Buddhism {H. Yang 楊惠南, ‘ “Rénjiān Fójiào” de Jīngdiǎn Quánshì ─ Shì “Yuán Rú Rù Fó” huòshì Huíguī Yìndù? (人間佛教‘的經典詮釋 ─ 是’‘援儒入佛’或是回歸印度？) (Scriptural Interpretation of ‘Buddhism for this World’: Is It ‘Applying Confucianism into Buddhism’ or Returning to Indian Buddhism?)’ Zhōnghuá Fóxué Xuébào (中華佛學學報) (Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal) 13 (2000), pp. 479–504}, Chinese folk religious practices, and other religions, such as Daoism, Islam, and Christianity, W. Xie 謝文郁, ‘Rújiā Fùxīng hé Shàngdì Róngyào (儒家復興和上帝榮耀) [Revival of Confucian Teachings vs. the Glory of God]’ Jǔmù (舉目) (Behold) 50 (2011), pp. 18f]. See also S. Huang 黃詩茹, ‘Zhànhòu [Taiwan] Fójiào Sēngsú Guānxì de Zhuǎnbiàn Jí Yìhán: Yóu [Taichung] Liánshè, Dàzhuān Qīngnián Zhāijièhuì, Xiāngguāng Nísēngtuán Kǎochá (戰後台灣佛教僧俗關係的轉變及意涵：由台中蓮社、大專青年齋戒會、香光尼僧團考察)’ (The Professional Choice: The Changing Relation between Buddhist Clergy and Lay People in Postwar Taiwan) MA Thesis, (Taipei, 2008), pp. 121f.
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66 L. Yang, ibid., p. 291, emphasis original.
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70 T. Hwang, ibid. (2018), Chapters One and Two.
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74 Ibid.
75 Ibid.
76 Ibid.
77 Ibid. Alison Young, a criminologist, recognises semblance and substance as “two orders of being” that should remain distinct; otherwise, a “misidentification of appearance and reality” happens. See Young, A., Imagining Crime: Textual Outlaws and Criminal Conversations (Thousand Oaks, CA, 1995), p. 112Google Scholar.
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