Adapting Language to Culture: Translation Projects of the Jesuit Missions in Japan and China

Abstract

Francis Xavier (1506–1552) was one of the first Europeans to encounter the difficulties of adapting European religious terminology and translating it into the language and culture of Asia. Shortly after his arrival near Kagoshima, Japan, in 1549, Xavier was shown a representation of the Buddhist bodhisattva Dainichi. It was explained to him that Dainichi had no material human body but was a trinity of heads, each of which had a particular function. Dainichi, or Vairocana, was the universal aspect of the historical Gautama Buddha and the embodiment of the Buddhist concept of shunyata or Emptiness. Xavier began to use this Sino-Japanese Buddhist term, Dainichi, to refer to the Christian concept of God.KeywordsChinese WordChinese TermJapanese TranslationChristian TeachingReligious TermThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.