John Wu Ching-hsiung (1899-1986) was a native of Ningbo, Zhejiang, a renowned jurist who studied in Europe and the United States, and served as a professor of law at Soochow University, as a judge and the Acting President of the Shanghai Provisional Court, and as the Vice President of the Commission for the Drafting of the Constitution of the Republic of China, before becoming the Minister of the Republic of China to the Holy See. Wu has written extensively, not only on law but also on Chinese philosophy, and has also written his autobiography, Beyond East and West, in English. Wu was a devout Catholic and had a personal relationship with Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975). Wu began translating the the Psalms in 1938, and was encouraged by Chiang to translate the entire New Testament, which he corrected in his own handwriting. (…) John Wu Ching-hsiung’s translation of the Psalms (first draft in 1946, revised in 1975) was translated into Literary Chinese in the form of poetic rhyme, with attention paid to the style of writing. According to the content and mood of the different chapters of the original psalm, Wu chose Chinese poetic forms such as tetrameter, pentameter, heptameter [4, 5 or 7 syllables/Chinese characters per stanza], and the [less formal] Sao style, and sometimes more than two poetic forms were used in a single poem. (Source: Simon Wong)
John Wu Ching-hsiung himself talks about his celebrated and much-admired (though difficult-to-understand) translation in his aforementioned autobiography: (Click or tap here to see)
“Nothing could have been farther from my mind than to translate the Bible or any parts of it with a view to publishing it as an authorized version. I had rendered some of the Psalms into Chinese verse, but that was done as a part of my private devotion and as a literary hobby. When I was in Hongkong in 1938, I had come to know Madame H. H. Kung [Soong Ai-ling], and as she was deeply interested in the Bible, I gave her about a dozen pieces of my amateurish work just for her own enjoyment. What was my surprise when, the next time I saw her, she told me, “My sister [Soong Mei-ling] has written to say that the Generalissimo [Chiang Kai-shek] likes your translation of the Psalms very much, especially the first, the fifteenth, and the twenty-third, the Psalm of the Good Shepherd!”
“In the Autumn of 1940, when I was in Chungking, the Generalissimo invited me several times to lunch with him and expressed his appreciation of the few pieces that he had read. So I sent him some more. A few days later I received a letter from Madame Chiang [Soong Mei-ling], dated September 21, 1940, in which she said that they both liked my translation of the few Psalms I had sent them. ‘For many years,’ she wrote, ‘the Generalissimo has been wanting to have a really adequate and readable Wen-li (literary) translation of the Bible. He has never been able to find anyone who could undertake the matter.’ The letter ends up by saying that I should take up the job and that ‘the Generalissimo would gladly finance the undertaking of this work.’
“After some preliminary study of the commentaries, I started my work with the Psalms on January 6, 1943, the Feast of the Epiphany.
“I had three thousand years of Chinese literature to draw upon. The Chinese vocabulary for describing the beauties of nature is so rich that I seldom failed to find a word, a phrase, and sometimes even a whole line to fit the scene. But what makes such Psalms so unique is that they bring an intimate knowledge of the Creator to bear upon a loving observation of things of nature. I think one of the reasons why my translation is so well received by the Chinese scholars is that I have made the Psalms read like native poems written by a Chinese, who happens to be a Christian. Thus to my countrymen they are at once familiar and new — not so familiar as to be jejune, and not so new as to be bizarre. I did not publish it as a literal translation, but only as a paraphrase.
“To my greatest surprise, [my translation of the Psalms] sold like hot dogs. The popularity of that work was beyond my fondest dreams. Numberless papers and periodicals, irrespective of religion, published reviews too good to be true. I was very much tickled when I saw the opening verse of the first Psalm used as a headline on the front page of one of the non-religious dailies.”
A contemporary researcher (Lindblom 2021) mentions this about Wu’s translation: “Wu created a unique and personal work of sacred art that bears the imprint of his own admitted love and devotion, a landmark achievement comparable to Antoni Gaudi’s Basilica of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain. Although its use is still somewhat limited today, it continues to attract readers for the aforementioned qualities, and continues to be used in prayers and music by those who desire beauty and an authentic Chinese-sounding text that draws from China’s ancient traditions.”
The translation of Psalm 12 from the 1946 edition is in pentameter (the 1946 edition did not have verse numbers either):
世風歎
仁義成絕響。忠信已泯沒。 交友無誠意。口蜜心詭譎。 求主矯浮薄。復使反樸拙。懲罰巧言者。剪截誇誕舌。 此輩炫利口。自謂世無敵。脣舌我自主。誰得相干涉。
雅瑋聞此語。焉能長默默。已見弱者苦。已聞貧人泣。我今將興起。一慰長太息。務使貧與弱。各得其所適。 至誠惟天主。聖道何純質。白銀經七煉。未能方其潔。 主必濟窮民。莫隨斯世溺。 惡逆如橫行。賢良無寧日。
Transcription into Roman alphabet:
shì fēng tàn
rén yì chéng jué xiǎng 。 zhōng xìn yǐ mǐn méi 。 jiāo yǒu wú chéng yì 。 kǒu mì xīn guǐ jué 。 qiú zhǔ jiǎo fú báo 。 fù shǐ fǎn pǔ zhuō 。 chěng fá qiǎo yán zhě 。 jiǎn jié kuā dàn shé 。 cǐ bèi xuàn lì kǒu 。 zì wèi shì wú dí 。 chún shé wǒ zì zhǔ 。 shuí dé xiāng gān shè 。
yǎ wěi wén cǐ yǔ 。 yān néng cháng mò mò 。 yǐ jiàn ruò zhě kǔ 。 yǐ wén pín rén qì 。 wǒ jīn jiāng xīng qǐ 。 yī wèi cháng tài xī 。 wù shǐ pín yǔ ruò 。 gè dé qí suǒ shì 。 zhì chéng wéi tiān zhǔ 。 shèng dào hé chún zhì 。 bái yín jīng qī liàn 。 wèi néng fāng qí jié 。 zhǔ bì jì qióng mín 。 mò suí sī shì nì 。 è nì rú héng xíng 。 xián liáng wú níng rì 。
With thanks to Simon Wong.