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The Diffused Story of the Footwashing in John 13
A Textual Study of Bible Reception in Late Imperial China
by Yanrong Chen
Foreword by Nicolas Standaert
Series: Contrapuntal Readings of the Bible in World Christianity
Imprint: Pickwick Publications
The first Catholic missionaries of the early modern period arrived in mainland China in 1582, but the first Catholic Bible did not appear until 1968, long after Protestant missionaries already had published several versions. The mystery behind the four-hundred-year gap is not a why question but instead involves many how questions--primarily, how did communication of the Bible take place in the Chinese context without a written text in the Chinese language? This book uncovers narrative forms of biblical stories and explores the ways they were delivered to Chinese audiences. Relying on textual evidence, it presents a diversified exploration of a specific biblical story from the Latin Vulgate Bible--the footwashing in John 13--and its translation into various Chinese texts. In different religious milieus, the biblical narrative provided Chinese audiences a core source of faith, connected them with the most commonly accepted beliefs, and fostered their religiosity across communities in China from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. The interdisciplinary approach adopted herein sheds new light on the history of the Bible in China and paves the way for further studies on the abundance of Chinese biblical stories and texts.
Yanrong Chen studies communication between Europe and Asia, with a focus on Christianity in China. She has published major research on Chinese biblical texts. As a writer, translator, and educator, she also seeks to take studies in the humanities beyond the circle of academia to serve communities. Having been educated in different systems across mainland China, Hong Kong, Europe, and the United States, she is committed to furthering understanding between different communities, traditions, and cultures.
“This book provides an interdisciplinary perspective on how the biblical text of footwashing in John 13 was perceived by the Chinese Christian textual communities in the seventeenth century. The diffused story, as investigated by Yanrong, not only contributes a groundbreaking scholarly work for readers but also offers a constructive lens for those who are challenged in the pursuit of theological contextualization.”
—Fuk Tsang Ying, Divinity School of Chung Chi College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
“Chen Yanrong’s exquisite study of a single moment in the Gospel narrative—Jesus’ washing of his disciples’ feet—in twenty-six texts from the Ming and Qing dispels the myth of the missing Roman Catholic Bible. Chen’s meticulous analysis shows how Bible stories were transmitted in paraphrase, in catechisms and pedagogical texts, though poetry, commentary and art—and how these interpretations of Christ recalibrate our understanding of the contextualization of Christianity in China.”
—Chloë Starr, Professor of Asian Theology and Christianity, Yale Divinity School
“Scholars have long been puzzled on how the Chinese Catholic community was able to transmit biblical stories, especially the ones related to Jesus, in the absence of a Bible in the Chinese language. This excellent study by Dr. Chen Yanrong gives us an important answer. She methodically reconstructs how the washing of the feet in the Gospel of John was transmitted over and over through Chinese texts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, progressively building a textual community which identifies itself in various ways with the figures of Peter and the other disciples.”
—Thierry Meynard, SJ, Professor of Philosophy, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
“The author is highlighting how the biblical narrative of the foot-washing was received by readers in late Ming and Qing dynasties through various genres which ranged from traditional (Western) books to follow the readings given at Mass to catechetical literature to spiritual exercises, and which addressed both Chinese Catholics and outsiders. The author develops the innovative insight that the biblical narratives were already available to Chinese readers, centuries before a complete (Catholic) Bible translation appeared.”
—Wim François, Professor of Early Modern Church and Theology, KU Leuven, Belgium
“With her meticulous analysis of the many ways missionaries and their local converts in China translated the biblical story of Jesus washing the feet of his apostles, Yanrong Chen excavates the history of Christianity in East Asia from a new, and enlightening, angle. By showing how much a translation is influenced by the audience it is translated for, she also enhances our understanding of translations as cross-cultural interactions everywhere they occur.”
—Donald Leslie Baker, Professor of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia
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