Li Wenyu, i gesuiti cinesi e le traduzioni del Nuovo Testamento

Among many important European missionaries, some Chinese Jesuits also played a relevant role in the new mission established in Shanghai in 1842. Li Wenyu 李問漁 (1840-1911) entered the Society in 1862 and became a priest in 1872. He received both a Confucian traditional education and a Western Catholic education, becoming proficient in Latin and French languages. In those years, new attention was being given to the publication of periodicals, and Li eventually became the first Chinese editor of a Chinese newspaper: the Yiwen lu 益聞錄 which he established in 1878. The periodical was addressed to non-Christian Chinese people and aimed at spreading general news. Li was also chief editor of the Shengxin bao 聖心報 where he addressed Chinese unlearned Catholics, presenting specific notions on Christianity. The focus of this paper is to analyse the activity of the Chinese Jesuit Li Wenyu and present the features of another important work by him: the publication of the first volume of the Catholic Bible in the Chinese language. It was the Zongtu dashi lu 宗徒大事录 (Acts of the Apostles) printed in 1887 and followed by the publication of the Gospels in 1897. The biblical texts were translated from the Latin Vulgate into literary Chinese and represent an important element in the complex scenery of the Catholic translation of the Bible.