| Chinese Union Version | |
|---|---|
| Full name: | Chinese Union Version |
| Other names: | 和合本 |
| Abbreviation: | CUV |
| Language: | Chinese |
| OT published: | 1919 |
| NT published: | 1906 |
| Complete Bible published: | 1919 |
| Author(s): | C.W. Mateer et al. |
| Derived from: | English Revised Version |
| Publisher: | China Christian Council or Hong Kong Bible Society (current) |
| Copyright status: | Public domain (copyright expired) |
| Religious affiliation: | Protestant |
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起初，神创造天地。地是空虚混沌，渊面黑暗；神的灵运行在水面上。神说：“要有光”，就有了光。 |
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神爱世人，甚至将他的独生子赐给他们，叫一切信他的，不至灭亡，反得永生。 |
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The Chinese Union Version (CUV) (Chinese: 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—the Shen Edition (神版) and the Shangti Edition (上帝版)--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 in Hong Kong by the Hong Kong Bible Society, a bible society affiliated with the United Bible Societies, in Taiwan by the Bible Society in Taiwan, also associated with the United Bible Societies, and in mainland China by Amity Printing Co., Ltd., of the Amity Foundation in Nanjing, related to the China Christian Council and also 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 |
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.
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 or CUNP, Chinese: 新標點和合本 or Chinese: 新标点和合本}, pinyin: xīn-biāodiǎn héhé-běn). Work on the CUVNP has been completed and the CUVNP has already been published.
This version with the Chinese characters written horizontally, printed by Amity Printing Company, Nanjing, and published by China Christian Council, Shanghai, constitutes the largest majority of the Bibles available in the present-day China. Some wordings and proper nouns (people's names and place names) have been changed from the original 1919 version, in order to adapt to the modern use of the Chinese language. which is clearly noted in the preface and addendum. A smaller number of copies of a bilingual Chinese-English edition, the Chinese Union Version combined with the New Revised Standard Version, is also published by China Christian Council.
On 2010, work on the Revised Chinese Union Version (RCUV) (和合本修訂版, pinyin: héhé-běn xiūdìng-bǎn) has been completed to update the language of the CUV while keeping the original CUV translation as intact as possible. The revision to the New Testament was completed in 2006, and to the entire Bible in 2010. This version was consecrated on 27 September 2010.
After the text of the CUV had fallen into public domain, publishers began publishing slight variations of the CUV without identifying that these are different 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. The SWORD Project has free modules for the Union Version. It is also available for free reading on their online Bible Study website.
The Chinese Union Version of the Bible, the Chinese New Hymnal, the Lord's Prayer as it is written in the Chinese Union Version and the Apostles' Creed (not the Nicene Creed) are usually used in the Protestant worship in the present-day China.
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