Livestream: Grace Hui Liang – Reading the Bible in Late Qing China, 1807 – 1911

Our free summer Evening Public Lectures feature a wide range of professors, both guests and Regent regulars. Enjoy delving deep into a pressing issue with a wise guide; then brave the mic to ask your burning question. Better (and cheaper) than a night at the movies.

Due to closure of the College related to Covid-19, all of our Summer 2020 lectures will be streamed online.

Please Note: this lecture will be given in Mandarin.

Lecture Description: China’s long literary traditions and rich classical texts produced a pluralistic religious world. How is the Christian Bible read and received within this context? Through case studies, this lecture introduces Chinese biblical writings and commentary made by western Protestant missionaries and Chinese Christians. The period covered is Late-Qing, which starts from the arrival of Robert Morrison in mainland China in 1807 to the end of Qing Dynasty in 1911. By investigating readings of Christian Scriptures largely collected in rare Chinese books in the West, this lecture will portray a forgotten history of modern Chinese biblical interpretation. It offers “dialogical hermeneutics” as an open and dynamic interpretative approach for reading the Bible in China today.

在一个包含悠久的文本传统、拥有丰富的经典所构成的“多元宗教世界
”，基督教《圣经》是如何在中国被接受和阅读的？借助对近代中国代表性汉
语释经作品的引介，本讲座介绍由西方新教传教士和中国本土基督徒在晚清所
写作的中文圣经导读和解经著作，时间跨度为自1807年马礼逊抵华至1911年清
帝国结束。本讲座通过对这些收藏于西方的汉语珍稀圣经解读出版物的研究，

将为读者呈现一个被遗忘的近代中文圣经解经史，并倡导以“对话的诠释”作
为当代汉语圣经解读的一种开放和富有活力的阅读模式。

Grace Hui Liang is Director of the Chinese Studies Program and Associate Professor of Chinese Christian Studies at Regent College. She was born in Zhejiang Province, P. R. China. Before coming to Regent College, she was a senior research fellow of the Key Institute of Christianity and Cross-cultural Studies, Zhejiang University, Ministry of Education of the PRC. She served for many years as Associate Professor and Supervisor of Doctoral Students in Biblical Studies at Zhejiang University’s School of Humanities. Dr. Liang was appointed Director of the Chinese Studies Program and Associate Professor of Chinese Christian studies at Regent in 2018.

Grace’s main research interests are in the areas of Old Testament studies, Chinese biblical interpretation, and early Protestant missionary writings in China. She has published over 50 papers and several monographs on biblical studies, focusing much of her work on Chinese approaches to Christian Scripture. She is the chief editor of The Biblical Library series and serves on the editorial committee of Regent Review of Christian Thought, Biblical Literature Studies, Review of Religions, and “The Textbook of the Hebrew Bible” Series. She is a member of the editorial advisory board of International Journal of Harmony and of the academic committee at the Institute of Sino-Christian Studies in Hong Kong. She served as the contact person for the Society of Asian Biblical Studies in China when it was founded in 2006. Playing an important role in Chinese biblical studies, she has been invited to read papers and delivered many lectures on Chinese biblical interpretation across North America, Europe, and Asia.

Please submit questions by emailing [email protected] during the lecture.