Cover not available
Article published In:
Translation and Interpreting Studies
Vol. 13:2 (2018) ► pp.317–336
Thematic cluster: Understanding Chinese culture through key concepts

The historical development of jiao 教 in Chinese and its impact on the concept of ‘religion’ in English scholarship

| The Chinese University of Hong Kong

This article contends that the traditional Chinese concept of jiao (teaching) has, through translation, greatly influenced the conceptual development of ‘religion’ in English-language scholarship. The article first demonstrates how the historical development of jiao in Chinese reveals numerous previously neglected patterns of Chinese spirituality. Using Friedrich Schleiermacher’s and Max Müller’s viewpoints, the article suggests the significance of translation in redefining a concept via the particularity of foreign culture. It then examines how James Legge, Jan Jakob Maria de Groot, William Edward Soothill, Bertrand Russell, and Ernest Richard Hughes and K. Hughes redefine religion in their translations of jiao. Highlighting jiao and religion as fluid categories via scholars’ translations and debates, my article challenges simplistic assumptions about Western supremacy in Sino-Western acculturation. It affirms the traditions and translations of jiao as powerful agents for shaping and enriching the meanings and phenomena of religion in the globalizing dynamics of human cultural interactions.

Keywords: jiao , history of Chinese traditions, Chinese spirituality, translation, conception of religion, Sino-Western acculturation
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Jiao 教: Rediscovering spiritual teachings in Chinese history
  • The impact of jiao on the concept ‘religion’: A history of translation and conceptual development from Legge to the Hughes
    • Redefining religion via “extensive contact with the foreign”: Theory of translation and comparative study of language and religion in the nineteenth century
    • Conceptualizing and developing religion via translating jiao: The scholarship from Legge to the Hughes
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 12 October 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.00018.che
References (62)

Note on references to early and dynastic Chinese sources:

References to the texts below are drawn from the database of Chinese Text Project 中國哲學書電子化計劃. 2006–present. Available at: ctext​.org​/zh.

Baihu tongde lun
白虎通德論 [Debates at the White Tiger Pavilion] Accessed February 25, 2017. Available at: [URL].
Daodejing
道德經. Accessed March 6, 2017. Available at: [URL].
Guangyun
廣韻 [Broad Rimes]. Accessed February 25, 2017. Available at: [URL].
Kangxi zidian
康熙字典 [Kangxi Dictionary]. Accessed February 25, 2017. Available at: [URL].
Liji
禮記 [Book of Rites]. Accessed February 25, 2017. Available at: [URL].
Lunyu
論語 [Analects]. Accessed February 25, 2017. Available at: [URL].
Shangshu
尚書 [Book of Documents]. Accessed February 26, 2017. Available at: [URL].
Shuowen jiezi
說文解字 [On Characters]. Accessed February 25, 2017. Available at: [URL].
Taiping Yulan
太平御覽 [Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era]. Accessed February 25, 2017. Available at: [URL].
Xiaojing
孝經 [Classic of Filial Piety]. Accessed February 25, 2017. Available at: [URL].
Xunzi
荀子. Accessed February 26, 2017. Available at: [URL].
Yijing 易經 (Zhouyi 周易)
Book of Changes]. Accessed February 25, 2017. Available at: [URL].
Zhonglun
中論 [Balanced Discourses]. Accessed February 26, 2017. Available at: [URL].
Zhongyong
中庸 [Doctrine of the Mean], in the Liji [Book of Rites]. Accessed February 26, 2017. Available at: [URL].
Zhuangzi
莊子. Accessed March 6, 2017. Available at: [URL]
Reference to Kong Anguo 孔安國 and Kong Yingda 孔穎達 is drawn from their Shangshu zhengyi 尚書正義
[Shangshu, with Rectified Commentaries], collected in the Wuyingdian Shisanjing zhushu 武英殿十三經注疏 [Thirteen Classics, with Commentaries and Sub-commentaries: The Wuying Palace Hall Edition] 1739 Reprinted in 1871 Accessed February 25, 2017. Available at: [URL].
Reference to the Beishi 北史
[Histories of the Northern Dynasties] by Li Dashi 李大師 and Li Yanshou 李延壽 (643–659) is drawn from 國學網 [Web of Chinese Studies] 2003 Accessed February 26, 2017. Available at: [URL].
Barrett, Tim H. and Francesca Tarocco
2012 “Terminology and Religious Identity: Buddhism and the Genealogy of the Term Zongjiao .” In Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe, ed. by Volkhard Krech and Marion Steinicke, 307–319. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Campany, Robert Ford
2012 “Chinese History and Writing about ‘Religion(s)’: Reflections at a Crossroad.” In Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe, ed. by Volkhard Krech and Marion Steinicke, 273–294. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chou, Po-kan 周伯戡
1998 〈佛教初傳流佈中國考〉 [“Investigating the Initial Spread of Buddhism in China”]. 國立台灣大學文史哲學報 [Humanitas Taiwanica] 471: 289–319. Available at: [URL].
De Groot, Jan Jakob Maria
1912 Religion in China. Universism: A Key to the Study of Taoism and Confucianism. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons.Google Scholar
Elman, Benjamin A.
2009 “One Classic and Two Classical Traditions: The Recovery and Transmission of a Lost Edition of the Analects .” Monumenta Nipponica 64 (1): 53–82. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Giles, Herbert A.
1915 Confucianism and Its Rivals. London: Williams and Norgate.Google Scholar
Girardot, Norman
2002 The Victorian Translation of China: James Legge’s Oriental Pilgrimage. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
2015 Review of The Modern Spirit of Asia: The Spiritual and the Secular in China and India, by Peter van der Veer. The Journal of Asian Studies 74 (2): 456–458. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hölscher, Lucian
2012 “Religion to the Power of Three.” In Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe, ed. by Volkhard Krech and Marion Steinicke, 243–253. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Huang Ko-wu 黃克武
2005 〈魂归何处？──梁启超与儒教中国及其现代命运的再思考〉 [“Where Does the Soul Return? —Rethinking Liang Qichao in Relation to Ruist China and Its Modern Destiny”]. In 思想家与近代中国思想 [Thinkers and Thoughts in Modern China], ed. by Zheng Dahua 鄭大華 and Zou Xiaozhan 鄒小站, 91–114. Beijing: shehuikexue wenxian chubanshe.Google Scholar
Hughes, Ernest Richard and K. Hughes
1950 Religion in China. London: Hutchinson’s University Library.Google Scholar
Jin Xueqin 金学勤
2009 《论语》英译之跨文化阐释──以理雅各、辜鸿铭为例 [A Cross-cultural Interpretation of Translating Confucian Analects, with Special Reference to James Legge and Ku Hung-ming]. Chengdu: Sichuan University Press.Google Scholar
Legge, James
1852 The Notions of the Chinese concerning God and Spirits with an Examination of the Defense of an Essay, on the Proper Rendering of the Words Elohim and Theos, into the Chinese Language, by William J. Boone, D.D., Missionary Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States to China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Register Office.Google Scholar
1861 Confucian Analects; The Great Learning; and The Doctrine of the Mean. Vol. 11 of The Chinese Classics: with a Translation, Critical and Exegetical Notes, Prolegomena, and Copious Indexes. Hong Kong: At the Author’s, and London: Trübner.Google Scholar
1879 The Sacred Books of China, Vol. 1 of 6. The Texts of Confucianism, Part II. The Shû king. The Religions Portions of the Shih King. The Hsiâo King. In The Sacred Books of the East, ed. by Max Müller, vol. 31. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
1880 The Religions of China: Confucianism and Tâoism Described and Compared with Christianity. London: Hodder and Stoughton.Google Scholar
1893a Confucian Analects; The Great Learning; and The Doctrine of the Mean. Vol. 11 of The Chinese Classics: with a Translation, Critical and Exegetical Notes, Prolegomena, and Copious Indexes. 2nd ed. Reprinted in 2001 Taibei: SMC.Google Scholar
1893b The Shoo King, or the Book of Historical Documents. Vol. 31 of The Chinese Classics: with a Translation, Critical and Exegetical Notes, Prolegomena, and Copious Indexes. Reprinted in 2001 Taibei: SMC.Google Scholar
Maxey, Trent E.
2014 The “Greatest Problem”: Religion and State Formation in Meiji Japan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Miao Runtian 苗润田 and Chen Yan 陈燕
1999 〈儒学：宗教与非宗教之争──一个学术史的检讨〉 [“Disputes over Whether Ruism is a Religion or Not: a Discussion of an Academic History”]. 中国哲学史 [History of Chinese Philosophy] 31: 23–31.Google Scholar
Müller, F. Max
1861/1885 Lectures on the Science of Language. 21 vols, vol. 11. London: Longmans, Green, and Co.Google Scholar
1873 Introduction to the Science of Religion: Four Lectures Delivered at the Royal Institution, with Two Essays on False Analogies, and the Philosophy of Mythology. London: Longmans, Green.Google Scholar
1879 “Preface to The Sacred Books of the East.” In The Sacred Books of the East, ed. by F. Max Müller, 501 vols, vol. 11, ix–lv. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Mungello, David E.
1985 Curious Land: Jesuit Accommodation and the Origins of Sinology. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.Google Scholar
Paul, Gregor
2013 “China and Religious Diversity: Some Critical Reflections.” In Religious Diversity in Chinese Thought, ed. by Perry Schmidt-Leukel and Joachim Gentz, 39–50. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pfister, Lauren F.
2004 Striving for ‘The Whole Duty of Man’: James Legge and the Scottish Protestant Encounter with China. 21 vols. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Pye, Michael
1971/2004 “Syncretism and Ambiguity.” In Syncretism in Religion: A Reader, ed. by Anita Maria Leopold and Jeppe Sinding Jensen, 59–67. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
Reader, Ian
2000 Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan: The Case of Aum Shinrikyo. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.Google Scholar
Russell, Bertrand
1922 The Problem of China. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Schleiermacher, Friedrich
1813/2012 “On the Different Methods of Translating.” In The Translation Studies Reader, ed. by Lawrence Venuti, 3rd ed., 43–63. Abingdon: RoutledgeGoogle Scholar
1821/1893 On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers. Translated by John Oman. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co.Google Scholar
1799/1996 On Religion: Speeches to Its Cultured Despisers. Translated by Richard Crouter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schmidt-Leukel, Perry and Joachim Gentz
eds. 2013 Religious Diversity in Chinese Thought. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Soothill, William Edward
1913 The Three Religions of China. London: Hodder and Stoughton.Google Scholar
Strenski, Ivan
2006 Thinking about Religion: An Historical Introduction to Theories of Religion. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
St. André, James
2015 “Consequences of the Conflation of 孝 and Filial Piety in English.” Paper presented at The Translation of Key Terms in Traditional and Modern China, Taipei, January 2–3.
Sun, Anna
2013 Confucianism as a World Religion: Contested Histories and Contemporary Realities. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van der Veer, Peter
2014 The Modern Spirit of Asia: The Spiritual and the Secular in China and India. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Vial, Theodore
2016 Modern Religion, Modern Race. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wright, Arthur F.
1957 “Ernest Richard Hughes, 1883–1956.” The Journal of Asian Studies 16 (2): 333.Google Scholar
Yang Mei-Hui Mayfair 楊美惠
ed. 2008 Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Young, W. John
2014 “William E. Soothill (1861–1935): Missionary and Sinologist.” Accessed February 28. Available at: [URL]
Yu, Anthony C.
2005 State and Religion in China: Historical and Textual Perspectives. Chicago: Open Court.Google Scholar
Yu Ying-shih 余英時
2010 现代儒学论 [On Modern Ruism]. 2nd ed. Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Zhou Shenglai 周圣来
2011 〈谈 “宗教” 一词的来源及衍变〉 [“Origin and Evolution of ‘宗教,’ a Word in Chinese”]. 上海师范大学学报（哲学社会科学版） [Journal of Shanghai Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition)] 40 (5): 114–119.Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by 1 other publications

Liu, Rui
2023. Maine's comparative jurisprudence in British Sinology: George Jamieson's interpretation of China's lack of wills. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 33:2 ► pp. 297 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.