Christian Sacred Genealogy

Author: Xiaosheng Bian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-01
Features: In Western culture, there are many individuals whose names are preceded by the title "Saint," appearing in various fields such as history, politics, religion, philosophy, literature, and art, becoming an important carrier of Western culture. Due to the prominent unity of Western culture, primarily supported by Christian culture, and the differences in the evolution of various Western ethnic languages, the phenomenon of "the same person with different names in different languages" has emerged. This means that the same person may evolve into different forms and pronunciations in different languages. This poses a serious obstacle for translators and scholars in China engaged in the introduction and research of Western culture, and has already caused remarkable confusion. To date, we have no specialized reference work. The Christian Saints Catalogue—A Multilingual Synonym Dictionary of Western Saints' Names is exactly such a dictionary designed to comprehensively introduce the basic group of Western saints from the perspectives of name, reality, and appearance, aiming to solve three long-standing problems in Chinese academia: the confusion of character translations, the difficulty in tracing their biographies, and the ambiguity of their artistic representations. The Christian Saints Catalogue—A Multilingual Synonym Dictionary of Western Saints' Names includes 290 entries, each cross-referenced with alternative names in six languages (Chinese, English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian), unified under a phonetic Chinese translation of the name—where the Chinese translation follows the principle of "translating according to the original name" and references established translations. Each entry in The Christian Saints Catalogue—A Multilingual Synonym Dictionary of Western Saints' Names provides a brief biography of the person, indicates the origin of related events, and includes annotations for a few symbols, enabling users to grasp the essential information behind the alternative names. The dictionary also features 553 historical Western classical artworks related to this group of saints, helping readers obtain a visual understanding of these figures while deepening their appreciation of the cultural significance of these outstanding works of human heritage.