Chinese Translations of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress

• Published in: Bunyan studies no. 22; pp. 114 - 141
• Main Authors: Jiapeng, Xie, Yuxiao, Su
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Newcastle Upon Tyne Northumbria University, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences 01.01.2018
• Subjects: 19th century; 20th century; Allegory; Allusion; Bible; Biographies; British & Irish literature; Bunyan, John (1628-1688); Chinese languages; Christianity; Colloquial language; English literature; Ideology; Interpreters; Language acquisition; Literary characters; Literary devices; Literary influences; Literary translation; Literature; Missionaries; Modern literature; Publishing; Publishing industry; Readers; Translations; Translators; China
• ISSN: 0954-0970

In a series of scholarly publications, including a monograph (in Chinese) entitled The Afterlife of a Classic: A Critical Study of the Late-Qing Chinese Translations of The Pilgrim's Progress (2012) as well as a number of articles, John Lai has provided a detailed historical account and in-depth analysis of major Chinese versions of The Pilgrim's Progress.2 Our study draws upon his invaluable research, but adds to it a focus on important changes in the purposes and approaches of the translators and publishers of Bunyan's work in China, while also bringing the story up to the present. TRANSLATION The work of translating Bunyan's books into Chinese commenced in the middle years of the nineteenth century, when the 'door' of China was forced open due to the Opium Wars.4 It continued to thrive to meet the various local needs of European and American missions, and kept pace with Chinese language development from classical to modern vernacular during the first three decades of the twentieth century. With the re-opening of China's 'door' to the rest of the world since 1978, and the re-opening of the doors of Christian churches after nearly thirty years, there has been an accelerated development of translation of The Pilgrim's Progress.5 The open church doors led to an unexpected soaring in the number of new Christian converts, and hence an unprecedented increase in the number of readers of the Christian Bible as well as Bible-related literature such as The Pilgrim's Progress. Muirhead had co-founded the London Missionary Society Press in Shanghai, and his abridged translation (only thirteen pages on double leaves), with the title (Hing kih king leih chuen, literally 'The Story of a Traveller's Journey'), was published by this press, with a print run of 2,000 copies.