그리피스 존 『德慧入門』의 판본 변화

초록

The Gate of Virtue and Wisdom (德慧入門) is a book on Protestantism written for Confucian readers by Griffith John (1831-1912), a member of the London Missionary Society who served in central China. The book was widely distributed in both China and Korea, and often mentioned in history of the early Protestant churches in both countries. Although study has been conducted on this work, comparative analysis of its diverse editions, which is prerequisite for bibliographic research, has not yet done properly. Thus this study focused on bibliographical analysis of various editions available. Since the first edition was published in 1879, the book has been continuously reprinted up to the 1920s and there is a huge difference in content between the first and later editions. For example. the first edition originally consisted of 17 chapters, but in the 1882 edition, one chapter was added to make it 18 chapters, with detailed explanation on the workings of the universe. In the 1887 edition, the term for the Christian God was changed to Zhenshen (眞神) and Ling (靈) and the chapter detailing the Bible was greatly reinforced. Since then, many editions were produced and distributed. The contents of later editions are the same as those of the 1887 edition, but the terms for God varied ranging from Shangdi, Shen, Zhenshen, to Tianzhu, reflecting the book’s wide usage by diverse denominations. This research can help researchers who study the Gate of Virtue and Wisdom select a proper edition in their study of Griffith John's thoughts and his works. Furthermore, it will serve as a useful reference for studying the Korean translation of this work.

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