Hymn Translation In Early Twentieth-Century China

Hymns, which are only second in importance to the Bible, are indispensable in Christians' religious life throughout the world. The promulgating of Christianity naturally entails hymn translating. Hymn translation in China has always played a vital role since the very beginning. The initial translators were foreign missionaries who, with their less polished Chinese, did it out of necessity. However, it was in early 20th century when Chinese scholar-translators took over that hymn translating reached its zenith. China had never before seen hymns so beautiful turned out in such great volumes and it is hymn translation of this era that makes the central topic of this paper.For all its glory and boom, studies on hymn translation in the early 20th century have been rare. Combing through the precious historical debris that has long been forgotten, this paper intends to make a rediscovery along the "untrodden path" and to reinstate early 20th-century hymn translation to its rightful place in Chinese translation history. Also, as new hymns are created on a daily basis around the globe, China has a right to share the cultural wealth through translation. Furthermore, normally a hymnal needs to be updated every 10 years or so; unfortunately, the status quo of contemporary hymn translation in China is far from satisfactory. Since the 1980s onward, Chinese Christians have officially been using one hymnal; a supplement to it only appeared in 2009. The reasons behind the situation are manifold, but the major culprits are poor translation skills and the lack of proper translation management. In both regards, a renewal of study on early 20th century hymn translation can provide profound inspiration. This is another end this paper expects to achieve.Chapter One is a brief chronicle on hymns, hymn singing and hymn translation including the history of hymn translation in China. Chapter Two explores some of the translation ideas and principles as found in various journals and translators'diaries. Since hymns were meant to be sung, translators paid special attention to such aspects as force, sense unit and rhyming in order to make their verses "singable". Also, to solve the dilemma of "high" or "low" language to cater to audiences with drastically different educational backgrounds, translators adopted ingenious strategies similar to those advocated by contemporary Western translation theories. Hymn translation in the 20th century featured high quality and large quantity; Chapter Three analyzes its reasons:1) a shift of translators from missionaries to Chinese scholars who were familiar with both foreign languages and Chinese; 2) a change from individual translation activities to close-knit organization as represented by the compilation of the pivotal Hymns of Universal Praise (《普天颂赞》,1936); 3) the thriving of hymn translation studies. Chapter Four dissects the significance of 20th-century hymn translation into three dimensions:the religious, the musical and the literary.Through the rediscovery and analysis of historical evidence, it is concluded that hymn translation in the early 20th century is so important that it deserves a fair status in China's translation history; and as hymn translation is an ongoing process, these hymn translators' ideas and principles, together with the effective translation management of this period provide valuable insights for future hymn translation activities.