BMS Serampore Mission and the Beginning of the Chinese Version of the Bible

Abstract

 Since the second half of 18th century, Britain gradually shifted its focus eastward, relying on the East India Company, with Calcutta becoming a strategic stronghold. Leveraging the appointment of chaplains by the East India Company, evangelical clergy from the Church of England dispatched evangelical chaplains to India. Similarly, Nonconformist ministers, represented by Baptists, formed missionary societies and sent missionaries to India to preach and establish missions. Benefiting from its proximity to Calcutta and close interactions with evangelical chaplains from the Church of England, the Serampore Mission became one of Britain’s most significant overseas missionary stations of Bible translations in the early 19th century. Centered on the Chinese translation of the Bible by the Serampore Mission, this study examines the direct influence of Anglican evangelical pastors and the British and Foreign Bible Society on the Serampore Mission’s Bible translation, as well as the East India Company’s demand for Chinese language resources, such as the publication of an English translation of The Analects. It argues that Anglican evangelical chaplains like Claudius Buchanan, along with the British and Foreign Bible Society and the East India Company, played a crucial role not only in initiating the Serampore Mission's Chinese Bible translation and engaging in Chinese-language publishing, but also in laying the foundation for early 19th-century Protestant Chinese Bible translation and Chinese printing and publishing in the Calcutta region.