Chinese Union Version
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| Chinese Union Version | |
|---|---|
| Full name: | Chinese Union Version |
| Other names: | 和合本 |
| Abbreviation: | CUV |
| Language: | Chinese |
| Complete Bible published: | 1919 |
| Derived from: | English Revised Version |
| Publisher: | Hong Kong Bible Society (current) |
| Copyright status: | Public domain (copyright expired) |
| Religious Affiliation: | Protestant |
The Chinese Union Version (CUV) (和合本; pinyin: héhé běn; literally “harmonized/united version”) is the predominant Chinese language translation of the Bible used by Chinese Protestants. It is considered by many to be the Chinese Protestant’s Bible.
The CUV was translated by a panel with members from many different Protestant denominations, using the English Revised Version as a basis and original manuscripts for crosschecking. Work on the CUV began in 1890 and originally, three versions of the CUV were planned—two classical Chinese versions and a vernacular Mandarin version. The CUV was completed in 1919, with one amalgamated classical Chinese translation and one vernacular Mandarin translation. With the onset of May Fourth Movement , and the associated New Culture Movement, the CUV is the first translated work to be published in Vernacular Chinese.
The CUV in use today is the vernacular Mandarin version, published in two slightly different editions (called the Shen Edition and the Shangti Edition), differing in the way the word “God” is translated.
The vernacular Chinese language has changed a lot since 1919. Indeed, CUV’s language sounds stilted to modern readers. Furthermore, a lot of Chinese characters used in the CUV have fallen into disuse and cannot be found in commonly-available dictionaries today. As a result, work is underway to modernize the CUV.
The CUV is published by the Hong Kong Bible Society, a bible society affiliated with the United Bible Societies. However, the text of the CUV has fallen into the public domain.
The CUV is currently available in both traditional and simplified Chinese.
Contents |
[edit] Typography of the Chinese Union Version
Text in the Chinese Union Version is typeset generally vertically from right to left, with some captions for illustrations typeset horizontally from left to right. The typography is unusual, with many archaisms and some ad-hoc typographic devices.
The CUV employs old-style punctuation, setting most punctuation marks as if they were ruby. It uses the standard proper name mark only for personal names, but an ad-hoc punctuation mark that can be described as a “double proper name mark” is used for geographical names; both of these are typeset on the right-hand side, instead of the currently-standard left. The book title mark is not used, and book titles are not marked in the CUV in any way. Chapter and section headings are typeset in sans serif type.
Verse numbers are typeset on the right-hand side of the first word of each verse as ruby. They are also repeated in the margins.
New paragraphs start after chapter and section headings. Within each section, however, paragraph breaks are indicated by the traditional Chinese pilcrow, a thin, sans-serif circle about the size of a Chinese character.
In the Shen Edition of the CUV, a full-width space is added before each word “God” so that the paging between the Shen and Shangti editions are identical; this extra space is interpreted as the traditional honorific marker.
Comments and notes are typeset as warichu. Additionally, an ad-hoc punctuation mark that looks like a dashed underline is used to mark editorially-inserted words; like the two varieties of the proper name mark, this mark is also typeset on the right-hand side.
Typesetting the proper name mark on the right would have caused clashes with verse numbers and most punctuation marks. However, when clashes occur, the proper name and similar punctuation marks that cause the clash are partially truncated to avoid omitting any punctuation marks.
[edit] Derivatives of the Chinese Union Version
[edit] Chinese Union Version with New Punctuation
Because of the old-style and ad-hoc punctuation used, the punctuation of the CUV thus looks both archaic and somewhat strange to the modern reader.
The result of updating the CUV’s punctuation in line with modern usage is the Chinese Union Version with New Punctuation (CUVNP) (新標點和合本, pinyin: xīn-biāodiǎn héhé-běn, jyutping: san1 biu1 dim2 wo4 hap6 bun2). Work on the CUVNP has completed and the CUVNP has already been published.
[edit] Revised Chinese Union Version
Work on the Revised Chinese Union Version (RCUV) (和合本修訂版, pinyin: héhé-běn xiūdìng-bǎn, jyutping: wo4 hap6 bun2 sau1 ding6 baan2) is also underway to update the language of the CUV while keeping the original CUV translation as intact as possible.
[edit] Other derivatives
After the text of the CUV has fallen into public domain, publishers began publishing slight variations of the CUV without identifying that these are different versions.
[edit] Online versions
The CUV is readily available online, due to its public domain status. The text in the online versions, however, is slightly different because Big5 does not contain all the characters needed to typeset the CUV.
[edit] References
- Hong Kong Bible Society — official publisher of the CUV; detailed history of the CUV can be found there
- « 聖經 : 香港聖經公會印發 » (The Holy Bible : Printed and published by the Hong Kong Bible Society)
[edit] See also
- Chinese Bible Translations
- New Chinese Version
- Studium Biblicum Version
- Today's Chinese Version
- List of Bible translations
[edit] External links
- O-Bible: - Has the CUV in GB and Big5 encoding along with the English Authorized and Basic translations
- Logos Bible Software: Offers a downloadable version of both the Shen and Shangti Editions with new punctuation for the Libronix Digital Library System, its Unicode-based reader client.
