A very interesting letter'to Professor Max Miller, with his answer, which we reptodace in another page, appeared in the Times for 80th December last. Our readers must all be familiar with the Term controversy, a dispute which has agitated the minds of the teachers of Obrist iby- in" Ohina for years, we might almost'say forcenta: The question is as to the proper tra lution into the Chinese language of the term "God." It appears to be an insoluble one, and: on' that: account now generally left alone at Missionary meetings, but it has: been appareutlf unwittingly re-opened by Professor Max Muller. In the sories of treatises on and translations of the Sacred Books of the East," which the Professor is engaged in editing, the books attributed to Confucius naturally find a place, adopted these, Shang-ti, which is one of the terms in dispute, though it is, we believe,' the most generally accepted rendering, is translated God, and it is this trani tion that hae igners of the letter. The signatories, more than twenty in all, include two bishops, Burdon and Sohereschowsky, Dean Butcher, Canon McClatebie, Dre. Yates and Nelson, and several other missionaries - whose -vames and good works are well known in China. Their letter begins with drawing attention to the prefatory statement affixed to Mr, Max Miiller's sories; that much their value and the absence of from theory 'o1 ' They fully agree with this statement, and they cohesive that the Professor has departed from this principle, in allowing the term Shang.tito be translated " God"-in the volume on the Chinese religion. They point out thatthe equivalence of the two terms is a matter of unsettled controversy, and has been for early 300 years, from the days of the ently Jesuit missionaries, Matteo Ricci on one side and Longobardi on the other, and that while Drs. Medhurst, Edkins and Chalmers support Di Legge in his rendering, men equally both as missionaries and 1
Bishop Boone, Dr, Bridgman, Dr.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.