The Jesuits had already been aware of the difficulties in translating Christian terminology into Chinese. This controversy over terminology was reignited in the middle of the 19th century by the Protestant Bishop Boone (1811-1864), resulting in a series of linguistic and theological arguments involving Medhurst and Legge. Favourites included tianzhu (‘Heavenly Ruler’) and shen (‘Spirit’) shangdi (‘Supreme Emperor’), and tian (‘Heaven’).
“Drs. Morrison, Milne and Marshman used Shin to render Elohim and Theos in all cases. Dr. Medhurst and Mr. Gutzlaff used Shang Ti to render these words, when the true God was referred to, and Sin when the reference was to a false god… I think it is right to state that, during the whole time of this discussion, I have laboured under a severe affection of the nervous system, rendering all mental effort extremely painful, and that nothing but an imperative sense of duty could have induced me , under these circumstances, to have taken any public part in this discussion.” (p. v-vi).
Boone summed up his arguments as follows: He described the Chinese as essentially polytheists, and in consequence one can only make a choice between “The name of the chief god of the Chinese, and the name by which the whole class of gods is know in their language”. As a result of this alternative he advises the term shin (pinyin shen) be used to describe ‘God’. Rare.
