From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
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.
