‘In the beginning was the Wha-a-a-at?’

In about 1640 (existing sources give different dates), Manuel Dias Jr., a Jesuit, published a book of Chinese translations from the Bible.[1] It contained the Gospel readings prescribed by the Catholic Church for use on Sundays and feast days. Though it was not a full translation of the Bible or even of the New Testament, for many Chinese it must have been their first introduction to parts of the Scriptures. Dias’ book became well known and was reprinted many times, even into the twentieth century.

Like most philosophical texts in those days, Dias’ translations were not couched in spoken Chinese but in the classical archaic Chinese written language. Contemporary readers could not fully understand that language without special study. This is one of the reasons why Dias’ version of the Gospels must have been pretty tough reading for his Chinese audience. Another was, of course, the strangeness of the Christian concepts. Yet another had to do with problems of mission policy within the Roman Catholic Church. The Jesuit translators were confronted with Christian terms which had no exact equivalent in their ‘target language,’ Chinese. Often there was either no really similar Chinese word, or a word that would have been a good translation but was already in use as a standard concept, with non-Christian connotations, in Buddhism or Taoism.

Probably the most troublesome of all was the Latin verbum, the divine ‘Word’ with which, in European translations of the Bible, the Gospel of John began. The early Jesuits in China[2] were aware of the possibility of using the native Chinese word Dao for this. Starting in the nineteenth century, Protestant translators would indeed use Dao for ‘the Word,’ and in the twentieth, some Catholic translators followed their example. But in Dias’ day, ‘Rome’ would not yet have approved. ‘Verbum’ had to remain untranslated; its sound could be transliterated into Chinese characters, but without trying to convey the meaning directly.

The result was the remarkable combination wu-er-peng (i.e., v-er-bum), written with the three characters 物爾朋 . In Chinese this was a curious new expression, to say the least. If it meant anything to uninitiated Chinese readers, I think it would have been more or less ‘Something That Is Your Friend.’

        Strange it was, but I think it was also a brilliant and elegant solution. Meditating further on wu-er-peng and re-reading Dias’ classical Chinese translation (which also contains extensive explanations), I have come up with the following rendering of the first passage of the Gospel of John: a retranslation of Dias in the light of what I read his Chinese text to be saying. (I have omitted a few lines for stylistic reasons.)

When it was just beginning

Something That’s Your Friend was there already.

This Something That’s Your Friend

was truly present to the Heavenly Lord,

was Heavenly Lord.

It was present to the Heavenly Lord

at the beginningless beginning.

The Ten Thousand Things were made by this;

not a thing was not.

All that has been made is with him from of old

in unity of Life.

This Life is the light of humans,

casting light on darkness,

not recognized by darkness.

The true Light shines on all who come into the world,

dwells in the world, makes the world –

none in the world know it.

It comes to its own country; its own people do not receive it.

To all who have welcomed its name in faith

is granted to become children

of a Heavenly Lord.

Something That’s Your Friend

is here already, is human,

dwells among us.

--Lloyd Haft

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[1] Chinese title: Shengjing zhijie聖經直解, ‘The Bible Clearly Explained.’ The original, now public domain, is available starting on page 95 at http://zh.scribd.com/doc/75374428/%E9%99%BD%E7%91%AA%E8%AB%BE-%E8%AD%AF-1636%EF%BC%9F%E6%98%8E%E5%88%BB%E6%9C%AC-%E8%81%96%E7%B6%93%E7%9B%B4%E8%A7%A3-%E5%8D%B76-10

[2] There is an extensive literature on the fascinating story of the Jesuits and other missionaries who were active in China in the 16^th century and thereafter. I will name just a few titles: A Vision Betrayed: The Jesuits in Japan and China, 1542-1742 by Andrew C. Ross; Generation of Giants: The Story of the Jesuits in China in the Last Decades of the Ming Dynasty by George H. Dunne; Yang Tingyun, Confucian and Christian in late Ming China: his life and thought by Nicolas Standaert.