Zhang Lisheng 章力生 (1904-96): A Chinese Theologian for Today

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His Life

Daniel T. Chan, “Quest for Certainty: The Life and Though of Lit-sen Chang.” PhD diss, Boston University, 2000. A full biography of Zhang Lisheng by Daniel Chan has been published in Chinese.

Early life: Zhang Lisheng was born into a traditional Chinese family. His mother was a devout Buddhist and taught him Buddhist literature when he was young. His father had given up his business pursuits in order to concentrate on Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, and became a religious master in their region.

Education

After excelling in primary and secondary schools, Zhang studied at Shanghai Baptist University until, disgusted with the compulsory chapel, he transferred to Fudan University, from which he graduated. He identified Christianity with Western culture and imperialism and was swept up into the anti-Christian movement in the 1920s.

From 1925–32, he was a “legalist, believing that better laws would create a better Nation, to maintain peace and order, and to safeguard righteousness and justice” (Chang, Strategy of Missions in the Orient, 220). Chang thus went to France for advanced studies in Law at the University of Paris, and on to further research on political and legal sciences in Belgium, England (London, Oxford, and Cambridge), Germany, and Switzerland from 1927–29. Upon his return, he taught law at the National Central University of Law in Nanjing.

 From 1932–37, he taught at Suzhou University, Fazheng University, and Jinan University (all these schools are in East China) devoting himself to the study of Confucian and Neo-Confucian thought. He lectured widely to promote “‘the unity of knowledge and action’ of the Neo-Confucian philosopher Wang Yangming, and a spirit of self-determination” (James H. Taylor III, foreword to Lit-sen Chang, Asia’s Religions, xxii). Beginning around 1932, he realized that an effective legal system had to be built on a moral foundation.

 After the nation’s humiliation at the hands of Japan’s military forces in 1931 and 1932, he saw that “the root cause of our national humiliation was not external but rather internal, i.e., our moral degeneration.” He became a Confucianist, seeking moral perfection both for himself and for “national regeneration” (Chang, Strategy of Missions in the Orient, 221).

In 1937, he married Ling Nie, the daughter of a former tutor to the last Emperor. She soon bore him two sons, Chang Qi (John Key) and Chang De.

During the Anti-Japanese War, he served with the Nationalist Government in Chongqing. In 1937 he turned to Daoism, then in 1941 to Zen Buddhism.

After the war (1945 Chang was elected as a member of the convention; he became a signatory of the final document. After a long period of deep introspection and re-thinking, however, he came to the conclusion that the human problem did not lie in politics, but in the heart of man, so he gave up politics, resisting repeated requests to join the cabinet. He was “intoxicated” with Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, as were many other Chinese scholars who had not given their sympathies to the Communists. Returning to his childhood village of Taihu, he became the founding President of Jiangnan (Kiang Nan) University, which was to be the center of a resurgence movement of Asian religions and culture. His purpose was “to revive Asian religions and to destroy Christianity” (Chang, Asia’s Religions, 290). He was forty-five years old.

Conversion

In 1949, he was invited by a university in India founded by the Indian philosopher Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) to give a series of special lectures on “Asia’s Destiny.” He accepted, aiming to persuade the religious leaders of India to join him in launching his religious renaissance movement. Unable to obtain a visa to India, he found himself stranded in Java, Indonesia, where his family moved into a house just beside a church that was under construction.

Chang and his family often took a walk together after supper. One evening in 1951, they heard beautiful music coming from within the church, so the children suggested that they find out what was going on inside. A deacon of the church came out to talk with them, and invited them to attend the building dedication service on the coming Sunday, knowing that Chang was not a Christian and would not want to go to a regular worship service. Out of curiosity, however, Chang decided to attend the special ceremony. To his amazement, during prayers he was “deeply touched by the Holy Spirit; and from that time on, [he] could not stop going to church, and was eager to search the truth and to read the Bible avidly, often with tears of repentance and joy” (Chang, Asia’s Religions, 291).

In 1956, after two years of teaching at several seminaries and Bible colleges in Asia, he entered  Gordon Seminary. When he graduated summa cum laude in 1959, he was immediately invited to join the faculty. For twenty years, he lectured on missions and comparative religions.

Writing

During these years, he endeavored to write as many words promoting and defending Christianity as he had attacking it and promoting Asian religions. He succeeded, composing volumes that came to five million words.

His works

Chinese

Pre-conversion: Fifty works on law

Post-conversion

Systematic Theology. 系統神學

  • Eight volumes. Reprinted as two volumes by Singapore Every Home Crusade, 2011-2012. This book is being read in the mainland today.

Comprehensive Apologetics. 總體辯道學

  • In four volumes: 1. Fundamentals. 2. Philosophical. 3. Religious. 4. Cultural.

  • The New Bible Commentary (co-translator)

  • The Folly of Ancestor Worship

  • Two dozen other works, some of which were incorporated into Systematic Theology and Comprehensive Apologetics.

Translated into English

  • What Is Apologetics? Translated by Samuel Ling. P&R Publishing, 1999.

  • Asia’s Religions: Christianity’s Momentous Encounter with Paganism, translated by Samuel Ling. P&R Publishing, 1999. An analysis and Christian critique of Asian religions.

  • Critique of Indigenous Theology, translated by G. Wright Doyle, and Critique of Humanism, translated by Samuel Ling, in Wise Man from the East: Lit-sen Chang (Zhang Lisheng

English

His thought

Biblical

 Chang begins with the Scriptures as fully inspired by God and both ultimately and uniquely authoritative for all mankind, including Christians. Rather than starting with culture, religion, or philosophy, he tries to build his theology on the foundation of Scripture. The thought forms and even the words of the Bible are the lens through which he views and evaluates all human systems. His works are replete with quotations from the Bible.

Orthodox

Chang holds to the orthodox Christian faith, as expressed in the ecumenical Creeds - that is, Nicene Christianity. He sees this faith as central to Christianity and non-negotiable.

Reformed

Chang follows in the theological tradition of Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and their heirs. That means, first, that he sees the Bible as determinative for Christian belief and practice, as we have seen. He does not accept the additions of the Roman Catholic tradition, nor the subtractions of liberal theology, nor the comingling of biblical and cultural concepts as equally valuable resources for theology.

Like the Reformers, he believes that the Bible speaks to all domains of life and culture. Its principles apply to every sector of thought and society, including government, philosophy, art, education, and ethics.

In other words, he reflects the influence of Dutch Neo-Calvinism more than the narrow approach of Cornelius Van Til and some other theologians at Westminster Theological Seminary.

Missional

Thus, in his Strategy of Missions, he criticizes Fundamentalists for being too narrow in their understanding of the Christian faith, as well as criticizing theological liberals for denying central doctrines. On the contrary, he argues for a full-orbed presentation of Christianity that will address questions of philosophy, religion, government, and society. He wants biblical truth to “take root downward and bear fruit upward,” as he often says.

From the scope of his major works, we see his wide-ranging interests and learning. He set out not only to construct a coherent Systematic Theology for the church, but to analyze and evaluate competing worldviews in his Comprehensive Apologetics.

Evangelical

After his dramatic conversion to Christianity from a lifelong commitment to Chinese religions, Zhang Lisheng’s passion was to see his compatriots, especially intellectuals who were still trapped in what he considered the darkness and bondage of paganism or humanism, to find the same freedom of new life in Christ.

His significance for today

A non-Christian scholar with a doctorate in Chinese religions said, “China needs this man, because Christianity still has a foreign flavor to most Chinese people, and Chang is so thoroughly and authentically Chinese; he understands us and can speak to our hearts and our minds.

He sought to reach intellectuals. He also longed for the transformation of Chinese society and culture. He was immersed in Chinese classical works and conversant with current Chinese thought, including Christian writings. His religious background was wide and deep.

He is relevant also to the phenomenon of Sino-Christianity, or Sino-Christian Theology, a movement among Chinese intellectuals that has flourished over the past three decades (see, for example, Lai and Lam, Sino-Christian Theology; and Yang and Yeung, Sino-Christian Studies in China). Some scholars are interacting solely with the Western theological tradition, seeking to “translate” it into “Chinese” words and thought forms. These contemporary thinkers could benefit from Chang’s perceptive analysis of the weaknesses of all liberal theology and humanistic philosophy.

Many others who write on Sino-Christianity Theology directly address the question of how Christianity, traditional Chinese religions, and philosophy can be related to each other in a way that preserves the essence of biblical faith while acknowledging the value of Chinese thought over the millennia.

Clearly, Lit-sen Chang’s burden for a Christianity that would be both faithful to the Scriptures and also fully “Chinese,” is relevant today.

As for his style of writing, Dr. Samuel Ling, translator of Critique of Humanism, says that Chang’s Chinese language was “rich, beautiful, elegant, and clear” (Chan, “Quest for Certainty,” 272). Daniel Chan quotes Calvin Chao (also known as Zhao Junying, a Chinese evangelist in the 1940s and later a prominent overseas Chinese Christian leader), who said that his books had “very high scholarly value,” and they received favorable reviews at the time of publication (Chan, “Quest for Certainty,” 258). I can testify that he constantly employs Chinese idioms and formulaic phrases. He wrote in a semi-literary style, so his books are hard to read and to translate, but they are worth the effort.

I highly commend him to you as a Chinese theologian for today.

Bibliography

Works by Lit-sen Chang (Zhang Lisheng)

Asia’s Religions: Christianity’s Momentous Encounter with Paganism. Samuel Ling, editor. San Gabriel, CA: China Horizon. Distributed by P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg, NJ, 1999 .(Originally  Volume 3 of Comprehensive Apologetics.)

Strategy of Missions in the Orient . For an analysis, see (99+) (DOC) Lit-sen Chang (Zhang Lisheng), Strategy of Missions in the Orient | Wright Doyle - Academia.edu

Transcendental Meditation: A Mystic Cult of Self Intoxication. Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1978.

What Is Apologetics? Translated by Samuel Ling.San Gabriel, CA: China Horizon; distributed by  P & R Publishing, .Phillipsburg, NJ, 1999. (Originally part of the Volume 1 of Comprehensive Apologetics).

Zen-Existentialism: The Spiritual Decline of the West. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2010. Previously published by Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, Phillipsburg, NJ, 1969.

Works about Lit-sen Chang (Zhang Lisheng)

Chan,  [1] Daniel T. “Quest for Certainty: The Life and Thought of Lit-sen Chang.” PhD diss, Boston University, 2000.

______________. 陳德修：《憂國憂民章力生：從唯物 、唯法 、唯釋到唯獨基督》，天道書樓，2017

Doyle, G. Wright. Lit-sen Chang: Evangelist, Apologist, Theologian, Prophet. Lit-sen Chang | China Institute, ReachingChineseWorldwide.org.

______________.  Zhang Lisheng, Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Theology. Zhang Lisheng | BDCC (bdcconline.net)

_______________, editor. Wise Man from the East: Lit-sen Chang (Zhang Lisheng). Critique of Indigenous Theology; Critique of Humanism. Translated by G. Wright Doyle and Samuel Ling.  G. Wright Doyle, editor. Studies in Chinese Christianity (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2013. (Critique of Humanism was originally part of Volume 2 of Comprehensive Apologetics.)

G. Wright Doyle