The Washington herald., 1914-03-29

only official confirmation Of what China's
friends in America previously believed TO
be the definite policy Of China's Presi-
dent. Yuan has won r splendid reputa-
ton for keeping his word and he has
long been the friend of the foreign
Christian missionary and the Chinese
Christian.
Back in the dark days of the Boxer
troubles. 1t was Yuan Shih-kai, then a
powerful viceroy, who not merely pro-
tected Christians from injury or insult
IN his own province, but who quietly
conveyed the news to Washington. upon
the strength of which the dispatch of
troops TO safeguard the legations was
determined. Since then, he has done
many things for which Christian prop
a gandists are properly grateful. But
his most signal contribution in reten-
ton of the open door, for Christianity
is his manly decision, in face Of Do
htical intrigue, that China shall not re-
vert to the reactionary ranks of nations
shackled by the bonds of state religions.
Confucian Classics and Bible.
The recent formal affirmation Of Con-
fucian!sm as the religion of the Chinese
republic has aroused much interest. First
and last some 100000 volumes of Scrip
ture have been put into circulation in
China. Possibly an impression that the
empire is being flooded with Bibles was
ore reason for an official announcement
In any case this afirmati ton raises the
question in many minds as to which
teaching has the most practical results
One aspect OF the case. II the two books
are TO be compared. is that the writings
Of Confucius are written in the classical
form of Chinese, understood by the edu-
Gated only. On the other hand the Bible
is translated into the classical form and
many simpler forms that the common
people can study for themselves.
The printing o. Bibles for China has
been continuous during one hundred
years. Morrison's New Testament in the
classical form having been printed IN
1874 During a generation the improve
ment ot the classical version was the oo- |
jective OF many missionary !inguists, the |
Bible societies printing the fruit OF this |
lie Dor in many editions. IN 1872 a COM |
Tnittec, Of which DIR. Scnere5chewski wcE
6 member. prepared for he Bible socle-
ties a translation of the New Testament
into Mandarin. This was the first serious
10 give the Bible 10 Chinese who
could read the classical language but in
The Mandarin is the court
understood by some three-fourths
of the population OF China Later DIR.
translated into Mandarin
fo- the American Bible Society. and ut
its expense, the whole Old Testament
This was issued In 1874. and for forty
years has been the version in most COM
mon use in China
Since 1890 two committees chosen by
in general conference have
been engaged, with the cooperation of
the Bible societies, in unifying the varI-
ous versions, one committee working
upon the classical or Wenli and the other
upon the Mandarin version. In 1912 a
new Bible was issued which brought to-
zether the union" Mandarin New Testa-
nent with the Schereschewski version
of the old This vii! be the Bible most
used in China until the Mandarin COM
nittec completes its work about three
cears from now. The union" classical
version will be finished by the other COM
nittee about the same time.
These different versions are printed by
the British and Foreign. the American
and the Scottish National Bible societies
Is needed. The expense for translation, /
the salaries of such mission !,
aries as give their whole time to the 4
work, are divided between the three
Bible societies. Meanwhile the Scriptures
nave been translated for the Bible socie-
les into a number Of local dialects be-