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A missionary to Japan, Charles Corwin, made a careful study of the relationship between language meaning and cultural thinking. Corwin's notion of cultural thinking includes the world view and cognitive process as well as the value system. He chooses 224 general thought categories that are determined by a careful examination of Japanese word usage, phraseology, idioms, colloquial expressions, and proverbial sayings. Out of the large number of words and phrases, Corwin selects such core words as love, time, and sin, for careful analysis. He then analyzes the ways in which these words were used over a period of time as reflected in Japanese literature and notes the semantic changes that have occurred. In this way he arrives at the Japanese cultural thinking.

In the same way, many Chinese words may be very different from their equivalents in Greek, Hebrew, or English. Therefore, the missionary source and the Chinese respondent will not think about the same thing unless the missionary has come to understand the cultural meanings associated with certain words. For example, it is not easy to communicate the Biblical concept of sin to the Chinese. Part of the problem is because the Chinese equivalent, jwei, is somewhat misleading. Chinese people, moreover, have different philosophical and religious understandings of human nature. Thus, Christian communicators in China are confronted by a problem that was similar to one faced by early Christian authors. For this reason, it is worthwhile to make a detailed analysis of the concept of sin in the Chinese context so that we can communicate this important concept more precisely and effectively.

Linguistic Usage of Sin in China

The Chinese written language is a picture language. The symbols or pictures are called characters, some of which are simple, while others are compound. Simple characters are the basic building blocks for those that are compound. Concrete objects are easily portrayed in pictures, but when it comes to expressing abstract ideas such as faithfulness, righteousness, or sin, simple pictures are not adequate. The Chinese thus join simple characters to form compound characters.

Sin in the Chinese Bible is translated as jwei. The Japanese Bible also uses the same character, which is pronounced as tsumi.1 Jwei is comprised of two characters: (net) and (criminal). This idea of "trapping the criminal" in the character jwei is still very much a part of the Chinese understanding of sin.

Jwei does not occur in classical literature in the sense of moral wrong or impurity or in the sense of sinning against divinity. Rather, it refers to the fact that the person is found guilty of a crime. That is, the emphasis is on moral defects and their coming to light, upon fault-finding by one person against another. The Chinese word for sin, jwei, is always used in the legalistic sense-a person at fault and proved guilty in a public court becomes a sinner.

Another related word is evil, which in Chinese is translated as e . This word consists of two components: (channel or sluice gate), and (heart).2 This means that when the heart is choked up, ill-feeling results. That which is offensive to human sentiment is intrinsically evil. In Chinese, this word has more to do with essence. On the other hand, this word is also almost synonymous with ugly.

This connotation of sin in Chinese is far from the original meaning conveyed in Greek or Hebrew words in the Bible. Thus, if a Christian wants to talk with Chinese people about an issue such as "all men have sinned," he should be aware of the discrepancy of the words used in Chinese characters.

Chinese Philosophical Thought of Sin

Varying interpretations of human nature are discerned within the history of Chinese philosophical thought. Mencius, the greatest writer of the Confucian school, believed whole-heartedly in the innate goodness of human nature. He said:

The tendency of man's nature to good is like the tendency of water to flow downward. There are none but have this tendency to good, just as all water flows downwards.

Mencius believed that all human beings possessed four natural moral tendencies: the heart of compassion, of shame, of modesty, and of right and wrong. Yet, all individuals, though morally equal in the sense that they are all alike essentially good, are not equal in their moral achievement.

Xun-zi, born shortly before the death of Mencius, rejected this cardinal principle of Mencius. He held that "man is by nature bad; his goodness is only acquired by training." This view led Xun-zi to emphasize, even more than Confucius did, the importance of li, the ceremonies and rules of proper conduct.

The dominant belief of the Chinese, however, contends that human nature is essentially good. That human nature is essentially good is grounded in the belief that Heaven, whose acts are intrinsically good, has imparted to all persons this human nature, assuring human nature's innate goodness.

The Chinese word for human nature is xing, translated as the predestined nature of man, character, nature, disposition. The word xing is comprised of two components: sheng, translated natural life, that inescapable bond that humans share with all other living creatures; and xin, the heart or moral mind, that is, the capacity implanted in the nature of each person by Heaven that enables the person to be more than a creature, to have the potentiality for humane or moral conduct.3

The human person, therefore, is urged to follow the dictates of the heart because the tendencies of the natural heart are good in the same sense in which the command and operations of Heaven are assumed to be good and moral. Confucius wrote,

Man is born with uprightness. . . . By nature, men are alike; by practice, they have become far apart (Analects 6:19; 17:2).

Chinese assert that the human person should look deep within human nature and cultivate these innate moral tendencies. By developing these moral tendencies, the human person can bring harmony both to self and to the world. The relationship between the human person and Ultimate Reality, therefore, is not that of Creator and creature, but one of mutual fidelity since an ontological identity exists between Heaven and the human person.

With the Chinese being highly moralistic and believing in the inherent goodness of human nature, it is difficult to begin with a gospel message that emphasizes original sin. Yet, Chinese people certainly experience in their daily lives the effect of sin in this world. They fully realize that the world in which they live is not one filled with relational harmony. Their core cultural value requires them to relate to another person, but the reality tells them that such a relationship can be dangerous and at times painful.

Chinese Religious Concept of Sin

Buddhism, especially Mahayana Buddhism, has a profound influence on the Chinese worldview. For the Buddhist, sin is the result of ignorance. Sin is neither personal nor impersonal. It is collective.4 Buddhist philosophy denies the duality of good and evil, and by the same token, of sinfulness and blessedness.

The Chinese founders of Buddhist sects have given little attention to expiation of sin and its concomitant action, repentance. Some Buddhists actually hold that it is karma that "forces us" to sin. Repentance is thus merely the awareness and acceptance of one's unfortunate state before coming to grasp the truth or rely on the vow of Amida Buddha for salvation.5 This concept of karma has led Chinese people to the Buddhist version of submission to fate.

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Dr. Chuang Tsu-kung received his Ph.D. in Intercultural Studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. After earning his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University in 1983, he worked for Industrial Technology and Research Institute in Hsinchu for seven years. In 1990 he resigned from his career and went to Trinity. He is an active itinerant evangelist in North America.


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