From the Lord of Heaven to the Savior of the World: Catholic and Protestant Narratives of Jesus’ Life in Late Imperial China

Abstract

<p>This paper explores the hidden links between two Chinese Christian works on the life of Jesus in late imperial China. One is <em>Tianzhu jiangsheng yanxing jilüe</em> 天主降生言行紀畧 (A Brief Record on the Words and Deeds of the Incarnated Lord of Heaven), the first Chinese biography of Jesus by the Catholic missionary Giulio Aleni (1582-1649) in 1635. The other work, titled <em>Jiushizhu Yesu Jidu xinglun zhi yaolüe zhuan</em> 救世主耶穌基督行論之要畧傳 (A Brief Account on the Deeds and Teachings of the Savior Jesus Christ), was made by the Protestant missionary Karl F. A. Gützlaff (1803-1851) in 1834. A detailed comparison of the two works shows similar or even verbatim passages. They further resemble each other in structural, lexical, and exegetical aspects. The remarkable intertextuality suggests that Aleni’s biography, a popular Catholic work with numerous later adaptations through the 17^th and the 18^th centuries, was tacitly adopted by Gützlaff as a source of his work in the nascent years of Protestant missions in China. This study offers a vivid example among many that can verify the overlaps between Catholic and Protestant biblical narratives in the 19^th century. This group of overlapping texts, largely neglected in recent scholarship, bring to light the Catholic strategy of transwrting in biblical translations. They also facilitate a re-evaluation of the complex formation of Chinese biblical literature in the pre-modern era.</p>