On the true meaning of the word Shin, as exhibited in the quotations adduced under that word in the Chinese imperial thesaurus, called the Pei-wan-yun-foo.

Translated by W.H. Medhurst. Shanghae : Printed at the Mission Press, 1849. Octavo, original printed yellow wrappers (the brittle paper with chipped edges, some loss to lower wrapper), pp 88; a very good copy; housed in a clam shell box of half morocco over marbled papered boards.

Scarce Shanghai imprint.

A largely theological investigation of the Chinese word shen 神 (spirit; god, deity; spiritual, supernatural; awareness, consciousness, etc.), through a vast array of quotations in the eighteenth century thesaurus, P’ei-wen yün-fu. The work examines the way in which the word is used and understood in neo-Confucianist philosophy and popular religion.

Walter Henry Medhurst (1796-1857), an English Congregational missionary, was one of the first translators of the Bible into Chinese. During 25 years of service with the London Missionary Society in Malacca, Penang and Batavia from 1816 onwards, Medhurst became proficient in several Chinese dialects as well as Malay. In 1842 he was sent to Shanghai, where, with William Lockhart, he founded the London Missionary Society Press. He remained in Shanghai until 1856.

Medhurst was a prolific writer and translator. Notably, he produced several linguistic works aimed at improving the accessibility of the Chinese language for an anglophone readership. His other works included a series of Chinese-English and English-Chinese dictionaries, as well as his Chinese Dialogues, which was specifically designed to provide the anglophone user with the language resources required to conduct transactions in Chinese.

Cordier, Sinica, 1283; Lust 960