Translation and Proselytization: James Legge’s Novelizations of Biblical Narratives

Qian, Tony D.

doi:10.15792/clsyn..92.202304.331

Translation and Proselytization: James Legge’s Novelizations of Biblical Narratives

Journal of Chinese Language and Literature
2023, (92), pp.331-365
DOI : 10.15792/clsyn..92.202304.331
Publisher : Chinese Literary Society Of Yeong Nam
Research Area : Humanities > Chinese Language and Literature
Received : March 10, 2023
Accepted : April 14, 2023
Published : April 30, 2023

Qian, Tony D. ¹

¹the Seoul National University Asia Center (SNUAC)

Accredited

ABSTRACT

James Legge(1815~1897), best known for his translations of the Chinese Confucian and Daoist classics, spent thirty years as a missionary at Malacca and Hong Kong before assuming the first professorship of Chinese at Oxford. Some of his lesser-known works published in Hong Kong include two “brief accounts”(jilüe 紀畧) of the biblical stories of Joseph(Yuese jilüe, 1852) and Abraham(Yabolahan jilüe, 1857), which rewrite the original narratives in the style of Chinese fiction. Ostensibly meant to broaden scripture’s appeal to Chinese readers, Legge’s “novelizations” nevertheless hew so closely to the biblical text that they are largely translations, albeit with some additions and omissions. This paper analyzes these two works in the context of Protestant missionary debates in the mid- to late nineteenth century on how to proselytize the Chinese. It shows how the works are written to appeal to both learned and popular audiences, and how they extract the biblical stories from their original narrative arcs in order to underscore their socio-ethical teachings while downplaying their theological implications.

KEYWORDS

James Legge, Bible translations, fiction, nineteenth-century Protestant missions, literature and religion, Christian and Confucian ethics

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* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

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Translation and Proselytization: James Legge’s Novelizations of Biblical Narratives

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* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

Journal of Chinese Language and Literature 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.28

Translation and Proselytization: James Legge’s Novelizations of Biblical Narratives

ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS

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* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.