Neither Xi (洗) Nor Jin (浸), But Fu (袚): Zhang Yijing’s (张亦镜) Translation of Baptism, Viewed from the Perspective of Identity

This paper studies the key issue of how the concept of baptism is translated into Chinese. The primary source material is a series of papers written by Zhang Yijing (张亦镜) and published in True Light during the 1920s. Reviewing Zhang’s work, I argue that translation strategies alone are insufficient to explain the choice of translation used. This conclusion is supported by a text analysis of his translation choices and a survey of the methods used. Building on the theory of identity (the fruits of current scholars whose common roots lead back to Erik Erikson), it is argued that the perspective of identity provides a fuller understanding of the motives behind the translator’s choices.