Contents keywords: Beginnings of Protestant Bible translation--Catholic heritage--Translation: Morrison, Milne, Chinese assistants, publication and revision--Marshman, Lassar, Catholic assistance--roots of conflict between Baptists and other Protestant denominations in China--Second generation of Bible translators, New Testament translation, Medhurst, Gutzlaff, Bridgman, rejection by Bible Society, Old Testament and revisions, translation and the Taiping Rebellion, Union Version, translation principles, Term Question, London Mission Version, Bridgman and Culbertson--Baptist withdrawal from Delegates' Version Committee, American Baptists, Goddard, Lord, Dean, British Baptists, Hudson--Translations by Chinese, Feng Yasheng, He Jinshan, Yan Fu, Translations by Western missionaries, Gaillard, Nevius, Turner, Dodd, Wulie--Russian Orthodox efforts, Gury--Mandarin New Testament, Nanking Version, Peking Version, Schereschewsky's Mandarin Old Testament, lower classical literary language, Griffith John's Mandarin translation, Greek text, 1890 General Conference, Easy Wenli Committee, High Wenli, 1907 General Conference, combination of classical Union versions, Sydenstricker, Biblie Societies, Wang Yuande, Zhu Baohui.

"Contingent companion with the Cantonese : uncovering a hidden history of written Cantonese Christian literature in the late nineteenth century" / Christina Wai-Yin Wong.

Religions 15 (2024).

This article belongs to the Special Issue Expressions of Chinese Christianity in Texts and Contexts: In Memory of Our Mentor Professor R. G. Tiedemann (1941–2019).

Abstract:

This paper aims to uncover a hidden history of Cantonese Christian literature. Written Cantonese has been present since the late Ming dynasty in parallel to the emergence of a distinct Cantonese identity. Western missionaries, for the sake of evangelism, facilitated the development of written Cantonese in South China since the mid-nineteenth century. At that time, missionaries put a lot of effort into translating religious leaflets and booklets, the Bible, the book of prayers, and even Cantonese–English dictionaries. These works contributed to standardizing written Cantonese and indirectly helped to develop Cantonese identity. I will critically examine how Cantonese Christian literature declined for the sake of nationalism, as the first publication of Heheben 和合本 (Mandarin Union Version) in Protestant Christianity in 1919 represented the unification of the Church by using written Mandarin. After elaborating on the unintentional alliance of missionaries with Cantonese in the nineteenth century, in conclusion, I will make a brief comparison of Hong Kong Church in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, which is inactive in the continuous written Cantonese movement in Hong Kong.

Local access dig.pdf [Wong-Contingent Companion with the Cantonese.pdf]

Acknowledgments -- List of figures and tables -- List of abbreviations -- Conventions -- Introduction -- The emergence of the Mandarin Protestant Bible and the idea of Tongxing Mandarin in Chinese Protestant Bible translation -- Mandarin : the Lingua Franca of the officials or the common language? -- Was there a standard Mandarin? -- The emergence of the Mandarin Protestant Bible -- Towards a Tongxing Mandarin : a prelude to Mandarin as the national language of China -- Institutional patronage and the Mandarin Bible as the Tongxing Bible in China -- The British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) -- The BFBS in China -- How did the BFBS promote Mandarin Bible translation and circulation? -- Financial sponsorship -- Honorary roll -- Colportage system -- The BFBS'S ideological control over Mandarin Bible translation -- The Greek text of the Mandarin Union version -- The 'Without note or comment' principle and the BFBS'S translational helps for the Mandarin Bible -- The use of the Mandarin Bible and the promotion of Mandarin as Guoyu -- The Mandarin Bible, the building of a biblical and literate Chinese church, and the promotion of Mandarin as Guoyu -- How did the Mandarin Bible as a text promote the use of Mandarin as Guoyu? -- In Church-related settings -- Outside the Church -- Biblical Mandarin and modern Chinese lexicon -- Fandui 反對 -- Shijie 世界. -- Xiaoxi 消息 -- Yijian 意見 -- Ziyou 自由 -- Biblical Mandarin and modern Chinese grammar -- The transposition of yinwei 因為 subordinate clause -- The expanded uses of the bei 被 passive construction -- The increasing use of yi 一 as a marker of indefiniteness -- The expanded uses of zai 在 -- Conclusion -- Appendix -- Bibliography -- Index of biblical verses -- General index.

This book represents the first monograph-length study of the relationship between Protestant Bible translation and the development of Mandarin from a lingua franca into the national language of China. Drawing on both published and unpublished sources, this book looks into the translation, publication, circulation and use of the Mandarin Bible in late Qing and Republican China, and sets out how the Mandarin Bible contributed to the standardization and enrichment of Mandarin. It also illustrates that the Mandarin Union Version, published in 1919, was involved in promoting Mandarin as not only the standard medium of communication but also a marker of national identity among the Chinese people, thus playing a role in the nation-building of modern China. – publisher note.

Local access dig.pdf. [Mak-Protestant Bible translation.pdf]