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Conference Paper: From the Lord of Heaven to the Savior of the World: Catholic and Protestant Narratives of Jesus’ Life in Late Imperial China

TitleFrom the Lord of Heaven to the Savior of the World: Catholic and Protestant Narratives of Jesus’ Life in Late Imperial China
Authors
Issue Date30-Sep-2023
Abstract

This paper explores the hidden links between two Chinese Christian works on the life of Jesus in late imperial China. One is Tianzhu jiangsheng yanxing jilüe 天主降生言行紀畧 (A Brief Record on the Words and Deeds of the Incarnated Lord of Heaven), the first Chinese biography of Jesus by the Catholic missionary Giulio Aleni (1582-1649) in 1635. The other work, titled Jiushizhu Yesu Jidu xinglun zhi yaolüe zhuan 救世主耶穌基督行論之要畧傳 (A Brief Account on the Deeds and Teachings of the Savior Jesus Christ), was made by the Protestant missionary Karl F. A. Gützlaff (1803-1851) in 1834. A detailed comparison of the two works shows similar or even verbatim passages. They further resemble each other in structural, lexical, and exegetical aspects. The remarkable intertextuality suggests that Aleni’s biography, a popular Catholic work with numerous later adaptations through the 17th and the 18th centuries, was tacitly adopted by Gützlaff as a source of his work in the nascent years of Protestant missions in China. This study offers a vivid example among many that can verify the overlaps between Catholic and Protestant biblical narratives in the 19th century. This group of overlapping texts, largely neglected in recent scholarship, bring to light the Catholic strategy of transwrting in biblical translations. They also facilitate a re-evaluation of the complex formation of Chinese biblical literature in the pre-modern era.


Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/338493

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorSong, Gang-
dc.date.accessioned2024-03-11T10:29:19Z-
dc.date.available2024-03-11T10:29:19Z-
dc.date.issued2023-09-30-
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/338493-
dc.description.abstract<p>This paper explores the hidden links between two Chinese Christian works on the life of Jesus in late imperial China. One is <em>Tianzhu jiangsheng yanxing jilüe</em> 天主降生言行紀畧 (A Brief Record on the Words and Deeds of the Incarnated Lord of Heaven), the first Chinese biography of Jesus by the Catholic missionary Giulio Aleni (1582-1649) in 1635. The other work, titled <em>Jiushizhu Yesu Jidu xinglun zhi yaolüe zhuan</em> 救世主耶穌基督行論之要畧傳 (A Brief Account on the Deeds and Teachings of the Savior Jesus Christ), was made by the Protestant missionary Karl F. A. Gützlaff (1803-1851) in 1834. A detailed comparison of the two works shows similar or even verbatim passages. They further resemble each other in structural, lexical, and exegetical aspects. The remarkable intertextuality suggests that Aleni’s biography, a popular Catholic work with numerous later adaptations through the 17<sup>th</sup> and the 18<sup>th</sup> centuries, was tacitly adopted by Gützlaff as a source of his work in the nascent years of Protestant missions in China. This study offers a vivid example among many that can verify the overlaps between Catholic and Protestant biblical narratives in the 19<sup>th</sup> century. This group of overlapping texts, largely neglected in recent scholarship, bring to light the Catholic strategy of transwrting in biblical translations. They also facilitate a re-evaluation of the complex formation of Chinese biblical literature in the pre-modern era.</p>-
dc.languageeng-
dc.relation.ispartof72nd Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs (MCAA) 2023 (29/09/2023-01/10/2023, Urbana Champaign, Illinois)-
dc.titleFrom the Lord of Heaven to the Savior of the World: Catholic and Protestant Narratives of Jesus’ Life in Late Imperial China-
dc.typeConference_Paper-

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