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Article published In:
Babel
Vol. 68:5 (2022) ► pp.723–741

A war triggered by translation

From Bible translation to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in nineteenth-century China

| Sun Yat-sen University

This article studies the impact of Chinese biblical translation on the Taiping Rebellion in China in the nineteenth century. The rebellion built its ideology based on a unique interpretation of the Bible, aiming at overthrowing the Qing government and building a kingdom of heaven in China. The Bible that had inspired the rebellion was later altered, annotated, and became the Taiping Bible, which integrated the political agenda of the rebellion. This research traces such an event of the Chinese translation of the Bible in the nineteenth century, investigates its connection with the rise of the rebellion and analyzes the Taiping Bible. By examining the discrepancies between the Chinese translation of the Bible and the Taiping Bible, this paper explores the role that translation plays in triggering the rebellion and demonstrates the interplay between translation and the socio-cultural environment in China during that period.

Keywords: biblical translation, China, the Taiping Rebellion, reception
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.From God to shangdi
  • 3.Translation retranslated: The Taiping Bible
    • 3.1Selection of biblical books
    • 3.2Trinity and kingdom of heaven
  • 4.Translation and social turmoil
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 27 September 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00290.wan
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