Original Contributions of Bible Translating and Teaching to Modern Chinese Vernacular Movement

In translating, teaching, and making the Old Testament available to read in vernacular Chinese, western Protestant missionaries granted the Bible an original place in the Vernacular Movement in modern China. Their controversy about linguistic styles of Bible translation, the propaganda for the use of vernacular, one speech for one nation, and vernacular literature, paved the way for the Vernacular Movement. The long process of making the Union Version is particularly important to the Vernacular Movement in achieving a pure universal Mandarin free of both pedantry in traditional Confucianist scholaristic style and localisms of particular dialects. The updating process of revising the text rendered the transition less sudden and less clumsy and finally made possible the speedy and wide acceptance of the Union Version. Also in line with the Vernacular Movement, the missionaries launched Bible education at Christian schools and applied modern educational methods to promote Bible learning. The missionaries not only highlighted the importance of teaching Mandarin, but also promoted the use of a national phonetic system. Without any denial of the significance of the New Testament, this paper has focused on the Old Testament because the influence of the Old Testament in modern China has long been neglected.