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Jesus the Proletarian
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Wikipedia article
'Wuchan zhe yesu zhuan' , translated into English as 'Jesus the Proletarian', is a Chinese historical novel based on the life of Jesus. It was written by biblical scholar Zhu Weizhi and published in 1950.
Contents
Zhu remarks in the preface that he wrote 'Jesus the Proletarian' to dispel all "undignified misinterpretations of Jesus which have accumulated over the years and to reveal the real Jesus: a man of humble origins born into a working class family." Marxist terminology features prominently in 'Jesus the Proletarian'; for instance, the term "proletariat" appears 55 times while "exploitation" appears 23 times.
Publication history
In a 1935 essay, Zhu Weizhiboth a pious Protestant and a fervent nationalistwrote that "Jesus was a leader of great integrity who led the proletarian masses in the struggle against Roman imperialism." In 1948, two years before the publication of the book, Zhu had already written a biography of Jesus simply titled 'Yesu jidu' or 'Jesus Christ'. However, having regretted his not presenting Jesus from a "proletarian viewpoint" in his earlier work, he decided to write another novel on Jesus, this time with Marxist undertones.
In writing 'Wuchan zhe yesu zhuan' or 'Jesus the Proletarian', Zhu was greatly influenced by "On the History of Early Christianity" by Friedrich Engels and 'Foundations of Christianity' by Karl Kautsky. He also found inspiration in texts like 'The Proletarian Gospel of Galilee' by F. Hebert Stead; 'The Days of His Flesh' by Magee College theologian David Smith; 'The Call of the Carpenter' by Bouck White; and 'Musansha Iesu' by Japanese socialist and Congregationalist minister Naozo Yonezawa. Moreover, the collapse of the Kuomintang and the rise of the Chinese Communist Party allegedly enabled Zhu to "see more clearly" that Jesus was a proletarian.
Critical reception
Chin Ken Pa describes 'Jesus the Proletarian' as "one of the two main works on Christian socialism in China", together with 'The Revolutionary Carpenter' by Zhang Shizhang .
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Category:Novelistic portrayals of Jesus
Category:1950 novels
Category:Chinese historical novels
Category:Christian socialism
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