A Study Of The Translation And Introduction Of The Bible In The Late Ming Dynasty

In this dissertation,from the perspective of the Biblical Chinese translation,some of Jesuits'Chinese writings in late Ming Dynasty are chosen for case studies,such as Tianzhu Shiyi,Pangzi Yiquan,Shengjin zhijie,Tianzhu Jiangsheng Yanxingjilue,and Tianzhu Shengjiao Sizijingwen and so on,in order to explore how the Bible was translated in this period.In those writings the Bible was not completely translated or conveyed,and even some of those writings like Tianzhu Shiyi and Pangzi Yiquan were written without the intention to translate the Bible,but it is a fact that in those writings some key words and passages in the Bible were translated before the whole Bible was translated.My studies indicate that with the aim of preaching such Biblical translations were embodied in the conceptual interpretations,retellings,selections and adaptations of the Bible.As a result,some contents in the Bible,mainly the contents of Genesis and Gospels to be exact,were“refracted”as well as many key Biblical words had their Chinese equivalents,which lays good foundations for latter Biblical Chinese translations including today's commonly-used Chinese Bibles.For example,quite a few key words in today's commonly-used Chinese Bibles originate just from those writings in late Ming,such as“??”,“??”,“??”,“??”,“??”,“?”,“??”and so on.For another,those translations also promote Chinese people to learn about the Catholic beliefs,social history and moral principles in the Bible,which,in fact,lays a necessary foundation for the further translation and spread of the Bible with rich contents and cultural implications in China.Translation and culture are interactive.At a macro level,a translation always results from a cultural exchange and in turn a translation will result in cultural dialogues,clashes and understandings.At a micro level,any translation doesn't happen at a vacuum,and they are certainly subject to various cultural constraints.So translators' specific translation strategies always reflect how they deal with those relevant cultural constraints.The basic structure and main contents of this dissertation just correspond to the above two levels of the interactive relationship between translation and culture.First,the first and last chapters are at the macro levels,dealing with the mutual relationship between the Biblical Chinese translation in late Ming and the Sino-western cultural exchange.The first chapter demonstrates that the Biblical Chinese translation in late Ming was started just because the Jesuits launched their missionary activities in China,and discusses the features of their Biblical translations from the view of the traditional use of the Bible in the Catholic culture and their cultural cognitive structure.The last chapter shows how the Chinese people in the late Ming react to the religious contents in the Bible,i.e.,the dialogues,understandings and clashes between the late-Ming Confucianism-Buddhism-Taoism mixed Chinese culture and Catholic culture.Then,the other four chapters are at the micro level,dealing with the relationship between the Jesuits' specific translation strategies--like word choices,content selections and text-form choices--and their cultural factors such as their cultural identity,value orientation and the cultural context they translated in.In those four chapters some case studies are carried out,analyzing how each of their translations was influenced mainly by a certain cultural factor.For example,in the second chapter Tianzhu Shiyi is taken as a case study,analyzing Matteo Ricci's translation of some Biblical words was largely influenced by his cultural identity of “xiru”(western Confucian).As a “western Confucian”,he chose or created Chinese equivalents mostly by analogy with Confucian words and aimed to manifest Catholic uniqueness.In this chapter,the relationship between translations and translators' cultural identity is discussed.In the third chapter Pangzi Yiquan is taken as a case study,analyzing that Diego de Pantoja's retelling-style translation of the Bible was mainly attributed to his mission of spreading Catholicism.His goal was to interpret and spread Apostles' Creed.In this chapter,the relationship between translations and translators' faith-spreading mission was discussed.With Shengjing Zhijie as a case study,the fourth chapter reveals that Emmanuel Diaz selectively translated and interpreted the Gospels in order to satisfy the need of Catholic rites in China,and that his translation and interpretation reflect his value orientation of “Catholic centralism”.In this chapter,the relationship between translations and translators' cultural value orientation is discussed.The fifth chapter focuses on the relationship between translations and the social cultural context.Taking Giulio Alenio's several writings as case studies,this chapter analyzes that Giulio Alenio was constrained by both Chinese and western social cultures when translating the Gospels.As a missionary,he abided by Western Catholic cultural traditions and policies,and moderately conformed to Chinese traditional culture in late Ming as well,but his aim was to manifest and spread the Catholic faith in the Gospels.