Negotiating Religious Gaps

The Enterprise of Translating Christian Tracts by Protestant Missionaries in Nineteenth-Century China

This book constitutes a pioneering and comprehensive text-in-context study of the translation of Christian tracts (from English into Chinese) by Protestant missionaries in nineteenth-century China. It focuses on the large body of hitherto widely neglected Protestant Chinese books and tracts, putting the translated texts into their socio-political, cultural and ideological contexts. This integrated approach proves to be fruitful and insightful in describing and explain¬ing actual practices of translation, or translation norms. The book addresses the central issue of how original texts were selected, translated and presented by Protestant missionaries under the patronage of various missionary institutions in order to achieve their specific agendas.

Based on primary materials and rare archival documents, this extensive survey of the corpus of Chinese Christian literature fills a significant gap in the evaluation of Protestant missions to China, especially with regard to the role of the Religious Tract Society (RTS). Moreover, the contributions of Chinese collaborators are examined in detail to achieve a more balanced view in accessing the role of missionary translators. The book also sheds light on the sophisticated procedures and strategies of cross-cultural translation, particularly on the facet of religious translation in the Chinese translation tradition.

Fields of interest: Religious Studies, Translation Studies, History of Christianity in Modern China.

Contents:

Introduction

Chapter 1: Translation, Protestant Missions, and the Chinese Context

Chapter 2: Institutional Patronage: The Ideological Control of Tract Societies

Chapter 3: Teamwork Translation: The Invisibility of Chinese Collaborators

Chapter 4: Christian Tracts in Chinese Costume: A Critical Survey

Chapter 5: Rewriting the Children’s Message: The Peep of Day

Chapter 6: Domesticating for Chinese Literati: The Anxious Inquirer

Conclusion

Appendices:

Appendix A: Protestant Missionary Publishers and Societies in China

Appendix B: Protestant Missionaries and Chinese Translators

Appendix C: Chinese Translations of Christian Literature, 1812–1907

Appendix D: Most Well-Received Christian Literature in Chinese, 1812–1907

Appendix E: Favell L. Mortimer’s Works in Chinese

Appendix F: William Muirhead’s Works in Chinese

Bibliography

Index

黎子鵬教授於牛津大學取得博士學位,現任宗教研究文學碩士課程主任。研究和教學興趣圍繞宗教、文學與翻譯的範疇。他最近發表的作品包括︰“Institutional Patronage: The Religious Tract Society and the Translation of Christian Tracts in Nineteenth-Century China” in The Translator: Studies in Intercultural Communication (2007) （宋淇翻譯研究論文評判提名獎,香港中文大學翻譯研究中心,2008）; “Christian Literature in Nineteenth-Century China Missions—a Priority? or an Optional Extra?” in International Bulletin of Missionary Research (2008); “Doctrinal Dispute within Interdenominational Missions: The Shanghai Tract Committee in the 1840s”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (2010)。他的中文譯著有霍米克（Joseph Homick）的靈修文學作品《晨光喜露─聖經與生命的反思》（香港︰基督教文藝出版社,2009）（第四屆基督教金書獎「最佳翻譯」（非神學及研經類）入圍作品,2009）。他現正從事「文化協商的策略：晚清基督教書冊漢譯研究（1843-1911 ）」的課題,此項研究由香港研究資助局資助。