07-006 Chinese Protestant Bible, from the beginning to CUV

07-006
Chinese Protestant Bible, from the beginning to CUV

The most popular Chinese translation of the Protestant Bible is definitely the Chinese Union Version / 和合本 (CUV). This translation was completed for more than a century but is still the most popular version among Chinese Protestant Christians. It is the Bible version that is used by most Chinese churches today. Scriptures being memorized by the devoted, Bible verses showed on church billboards, biblical texts encrypted on Christian decors, are all in this translation.

Chinese Union Version (CUV)

2 Corinthians 5:17 in CUV

3 John 1:2 in CUV

However, CUV is not the first Bible translation into vernacular Chinese. We already have Louis Antoine de Poirot's Version for more than a century. Even for Protestant Bible, there are translations arrived prior to CUV. And one of the translations also covered the whole Bible. Below, I will talk about all the translations of the Protestant Bible in vernacular Chinese and where to find and read them.

1857 - New Testament, Southern Mandarin (南京官話新約譯本) 

Southern Mandarin translation (1857)

In 1857, we see the first Protestant translation of the New Testament into vernacular Chinese. The translation is called Southern Mandarin translation or Nanking Mandarin New Testament. Translation was led by Walter Henry Medhurst and published by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Translation of the Old Testament was also completed in 1876 but never published because of another translation being available 1 year before.

Translation is based on the Classical Chinese Delegates’ Version, which is on top based on the English King James’ Version (KJV) and the Greek Received Text.

It is difficult to find a hard copy of Southern Mandarin translation. However, this translation is available on the Bible app YouVersion. I have read a few of the chapters and found that despite being a work of more than 160 years old, this translation is surprisingly understandable. All the terms and wordings it used are just like modern day Chinese.

1872 - New Testament, Peking Committee (北京官話新約譯本)
1875 - Old Testament, Peking Committee (北京官話舊約譯本) 

Peking Committee translation (1909)

After more than a decade, we have another vernacular Chinese translation of the Protestant Bible, the Peking Committee translation or the Peking Mandarin Version. And this time, it covered both the Old and the New Testament.

Translation was completed in two parts. The translation of the New Testament was completed in 1872 and the Old Testament was completed in 1875. Translation work was carried out by the Peking Committee, led by Joseph Schereschewsky. In 1878, both parts were combined into one book and jointly published by The British and Foreign Bible Society and The American Bible Society.

Translation of the New Testament is based on the English Bible King James’ Version (KJV) and the Greek Received Text and the Old Testament is based on Masoretic Text. Like the Southern Mandarin translation, it is difficult to find a hard copy of Peking Mandarin Version. However, this translation is available on the Bible app YouVersion.

I showed this translation to my 70 years old mum. To my surprise, she can read the whole chapter without any problem. The translation is totally understandable even though it was done some 150 years ago. And my mum even prefers the Peking Mandarin Version to CUV!

1889 - New Testament of Griffith John (楊格非官話譯本) 

New Testament of Griffith John (1889)

A decade later, we have another vernacular translation of the New Testament came to the Chinese society. Also known as the Central Mandarin Version, it was translated by Griffith John and published by the, now, Scottish Bible Society.

Again, it is difficult to find a hard copy of the New Testament of Griffith John. But his translation is available on the Bible app YouVersion. 

1919 - Chinese Union Version CUV (官話和合本) 

Translation committee of CUV

In the early 20^th century, we have another translation of the whole Bible into vernacular Chinese, the Chinese Union Version (CUV). As mentioned earlier, even being published for more than a century, CUV is still the most popular Chinese Bible nowadays. But why this version is called “Chinese Union”? What kind of unity it wanted to achieve?

By the end of the 19^th century, we already have 3 different Bible translations in vernacular Chinese. However, each translation is owned by a different Bible society. Southern Mandarin translation is owned by The British and Foreign Bible Society. Peking Committee translation is jointly owned by The British and Foreign Bible Society and The American Bible Society. And New Testament of Griffith John is owned by the Scottish Bible Society. Evangelists from different places can only agree on using the translation favorited by their church. A united translation was greatly needed and the CUV was the outcome. 

What kind of unity was achieved by the Chinese Union Version?

It is not an easy question to answer. For sure, CUV is the most successful Chinese translation of the Bible and is still widely used by different churches of different denominations. Unarguably, some sorts of unity were achieved here.

However, CUV itself is not an unified translation. It is a combination of 3 different translations. Translations are based on the English Revised Version (ERV). The first CUV translation team translated the ERV into classical Chinese, in favor of the elites. The second team translated the ERV into vernacular Chinese, in favor of the general public. And there was also a third team that translated the ERV into a somewhat “modernized”classical Chinese, in which the texts still retained some forms of classical Chinese, yet all difficult terms are avoided. This version is aimed for people favoring classical Chinese but do not have enough academic knowledge to understand the language.

Only the CUV in vernacular Chinese survived until today. But there are again two slightly different editions circulating — the Shen Edition (神版) and the Shangti Edition (上帝版) — differing in the way the word “God” is translated. Literally, “Shen / 神” means “God” and “Shangti / 上帝” means “Lord”. See? How unify CUV is!

 

The story of Chinese Bible translation does not end here. In the next post, I will talk about those new translations after the CUV. Translation of the Bible into Chinese language seems to be a never ending task. At the time of writing, there are at least 6 different translations undergoing, 4 Protestants and 2 Catholics.

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