19世纪中国人关于基督教God/Spirit汉译问题的讨论

如何用汉语词翻译圣经中的God(Elohim/Theos)和Spirit(ruach/pneuma)?近代以来,就成为讨论的问题,被称为"术语问题"。不过,学界一般认为这只是外籍传教士内部的争论,中国学者并未参与。其实,查阅当时的资料就会发现,中国人对这个问题也一直进行着认真的讨论。19世纪四五十年代,何进善、徐继?、洪秀全等就使用了"上帝"、"神天"、"天父"、"真神"等译名。19世纪70年代末,更多学者参与其中,福州征文活动和《万国公报》起了推波助澜的作用,使讨论达到高潮,这个时期出现了"造化主"、"真宰"等译名。中国学者的主张具有深厚的民族文化底蕴,表现了鲜明的民族特色,对中西文化交流产生重要的推动意义。

Nineteenth Century's Chinese Views on Rendering God (Elohim/Theos) and Spirit (Ruach/Pneuma) of Christianity into Chinese

The Term Question,or how to render the Biblical words God(Elohim/Theos) and Spirit(ruach/pneuma) into Chinese,has long been a controversy ever since the modern times.Nevertheless,it is generally considered by scholars to be an internal controversy among the Protestant missionaries to China without Chinese participations.Such assumption falls to the ground when related resources at that time come to the front.In fact,it has been discussed seriously by Chinese scholars all the time.Words such as Shangdi,Shentian,Tianfu and Zhenshen,had been used or proposed for the translation into Chinese in the late 1840s and 1850s,among others,He Jinshan,Xu Jiyu and Hong Xiuquan.More and more Chinese scholars joined the discussion in the late 1870s,highlighted by the essay competition in Fuzhou and the controversy in Wanguo Gongbao.It was during this period that words such as Zaohuazhu and Zhenzai were added to the list for candidacy.Deeply rooted in national Chinese culture and characterized by Chinese nationality,the solutions proposed by Chinese scholars promoted the cultural exchanges between China and the West greatly.