 on to the cloud. So, okay, so welcome everybody to this session which is the third one this year for the, this academic term in the CWC seminar, lunchtime seminar series, of course, we deal with Christianity in the world. So it's a very fitting location that we actually find ourselves in the eastern parts of Eurasia right now because we have been in Africa, we have been in Central Asia, we have been in South Africa by default, yes. And then also we have other lectures lined up which will take us to China, but this one is actually a very special occasion where we will find out more about the East Siberian and Chinese, North Chinese connection. The speaker is more illustrious than he thinks, it's very modest, but Alexander Trenko has actually a history which takes us, which a personal history, which takes himself from Latvia, it's native Latvia to China and in the end to the University of Hong Kong where he accomplished his PhD city university of Hong Kong and that's only, I think three days, three years ago, no? It's, yeah, four years, four years, time flies, but before COVID in any case, the second year before COVID, yes. And it's, his research interests are very much focused on the Christianity in China and of the Russian Orthodox Church, but then also on Bible translations. And of course, we know from the Manchu context that there is a special link to Bible translations, but the importance is of course rests on the permanent Russian Orthodox mission in Beijing, so in China. At the moment, he has worked as a postdoc in Heidelberg University and I understand that this is also your position now. The academic research, in terms of academic research, there's also a link with the University in Boston, which some of us also share, but we will be cooperating on a number of levels with Boston and with institutions where Alexander will be at home, I'm sure, because this is of course a link which is there for life because we are all working on the same material, research material and regions, right? So I don't want to say much more because much more intelligent things you will be able to hear from our speaker, Alexander Dimitrienko, who will be talking about New Testament translation projects as conducted by the Orthodox missions in China. So my word to the speaker and you are free to share any kind of presentation from your end as well. Thank you. Thank you very much, Lars. I want to short a mark for myself. I was a postdoc at Heidelberg University but the project was for three years, so now it's over and now I have only affiliation to the Boston University as the visiting researcher. So now I will share my screen. Okay, can you see my screen now? I can see something white. Okay, so that's what we need. And just a moment. Screen, okay. Now you can see my presentation, right? Yes, yes, yes. Great. So first of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Romina Estrati and to Dr. Lars Laman for inviting me to give this talk. And where we begin, I must say like few words about the history of the Russian-resistant mission in China. So as you can see, it existed from 1715 to 1954. Nonetheless, there is a history even beyond 1715 because originally it came from this Russian Cossacks who were captured by the Tsingh army and were brought to Peking in 1685. And for that reason, the missionaries themselves regarded that the very beginning of the mission is in 1685. And besides those Cossacks who were originally defending the Russian focus on the Amur River, among them there was a Russian priest whose name was Maxim Leoncev. Nonetheless, some of historians indicate that there are data which indicate that Maxim Leoncev's actual surname was Tolstoyukov and Leon C was his father's name. So through his father's name, he became so to say famous as Maxim Leoncev. Nevertheless, so in any case, he was the first Russian Orthodox priest in Peking. So around 1711, 1712, he passed away and hence there was agreement between the Tsingh China and Russian Empire that the first Russian ecclesiastical mission would come to China. And they came to China in 1715 to Peking. And originally their purpose was to respond to the religious needs of this small group of Russian Cossacks who were later named Albazinians due to this name of the fortress. The name of it was Albazin, so they were called Albazinians. So in 1715, the first Russian ecclesiastical mission came to China and all together there were 20. So as you can see the history of this Orthodox mission in China spends for more than 200 years. And it was officially abandoned in 1954. And nonetheless, till 1956, there were some formalities to be done and the last head of the mission was still in China till 1956, so he departed to the Soviet Union in 1956. So that's just the reason why sometimes you can see different years or different dates for the Russian ecclesiastical mission in China. So the very first translator of the Chinese Orthodox translator of the Chinese New Testament was Kury Karpov. Archimandre Kury Karpov is famous as the head of the 14th mission in Beijing and the first Orthodox Chinese New Testament translator. He was born in a family of priests and his secular name was Grigori, so Gregory. In 1836, he graduated the Tsar of Theological Seminary and the next year he entered the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. Since 1838, he was a monk and what's interesting about him, he was a member of two missions. So the very first mission for him was the 12th mission, which was from 1840 till 1849. And already during that time, he started some translation work, some parts of the Bible, some catechisms and so on and so forth. But during the 14th mission where he was the head of this mission, he actually completed this first Chinese New Testament translation. It was initiated in 1859 and this was done after he received an instruction from the Holy Synod stating that after the Treaty of Tianjin had been signed, missionaries were allowed to preach not only Orthodox faith but Christianity in general among Chinese people. So as you might know, the Treaty of Tianjin was not only signed between Russia and China, but also by other countries, England, France and also United States. And what is important to say, although he received this instruction from the Holy Synod, it was his own individual project to do this translation and the whole work of translation took six years altogether. Here you can see the photocopy of the original translation from 1864. The textual basis for this translation was the New Testament in Slavonic, meaning Church Slavonic and Russian languages published with the blessing of the Holy Synod by the Bible Society in 1822. He also consulted the Greek and Latin New Testament edition by a German biblical scholar, Konstantin von Tischendorf. Nonetheless, he was consulting it only in the case if there were some unclear parts, some difficult parts to translate. What is interesting about this Tischendorf's edition that it was chosen due to its similarity to the Russian edition and other missionaries have also indicated that they used for the same reason they used this edition by Tischendorf to translate some parts from the Old Testament and for liturgical books or service books. Yeah, that's something which is important to say. It is also important to say that he was not unaware of other Chinese New Testament translations. In the report of the Holy Synod, the following translations, Protestant translations are mentioned. The first one is Robert Morrison's New Testament translation. Then the Old and New Testament translations completed by the Protestant Missionary Society as it is stated, published in 1854. So obviously the delegates version and the delegates version published by the American missionaries in 1859. He have heard or he knew these translations from newspapers, but he could not obtain them until the October 1860. And once he could obtain them and could read them, he came to conclusions that he must continue his translation, which he has started in 1859. And he mentioned some reasons for that. First of all, he says Protestant translators followed their own personal understanding of the text they translated. You might ask, so what's the problem in that? So for Orthodox Christians or Orthodox missionaries rely on the interpretation of the understanding of the understanding by church fathers or holy fathers. So that's one reason for him. And the second reason he says, they saw Protestants rejected the Christian terminology introduced by the Jesuits, which is used in China for more than 200 years. And this easily understood by the local people changing it to the new terminology, which is not any better than the formula. So I have mixed up this slide. So I wanted to say that about his criticism from Archimandric Avakum Chesnoy, who was a referee of his translation for his translation. Avakum Chesnoy, who was also a member of the Russian Orthodox mission in China, stated that this translation was the closest to the translation done by the English missionary, Walter Henry Methurst from 1836. And she also states that Gury Karpov had detected and fixed parts that were incorrectly translated by the English translator, while the correctly translated parts Archimandric Gury has included into his own translation without any changes. If that's really the case, I would say a whole study could be done on that, comparing two texts and identifying which parts could be similar or which parts were included without any changes, which is again kind of striking because that contradicts with the statement done by Gury Karpov, who talks about his translation as an autonomous translation, which we will see later. So there was criticism and reception and criticism of this translation. According to Adarasky, who was, Nikolai Adarasky was another mission member and historian and scholar who wrote several articles on the history of the Russian Ecosiastical Mission in China. He states that Karpov had rendered the texts of the gospel not close to the original and the language he used was too complicated. That is why his translation was criticized by his referee, Archimandric Avakum. Nonetheless, Archimandric Avakum Chesnoy in his review states that the rendering of the New Testament from Russian into Chinese must be justly acknowledged as the best of all contemporary translations. On the basis of remarks made by Chesnoy, the translation was revised and published in 1865. So it was the second edition. Gury Karpov has responded to this criticism and has described the translation process. He stated, the Chinese were witnesses of the fact that for a revision of my translation, I have invited a whole committee of scholars and was doing this revision for two years. No one would believe that Father Avakum would have a better knowledge of Chinese than a Chinese person with an academic background. And he describes the translation process as following. I have never called upon anyone for help except God, my Lord. Only a master of literature, the Chinese Lung has helped me as a scribe. Usually I was walking around the room with the New Testament in my hands and dictated while Lung was sitting at the table and wrote down my translation. When the translation was done, which took four years, I have invited for the meeting a teacher, Ivan, from the school for boys, and the teacher, Maria, from the school for girls, Maria's son Nikita, and an Albanian model. So, Albanian, the descendant of those Russian products. All six of us were spending two hours a day for revision of the translation. Two experiences being read and then all guests recount how they have understood what had been read. If I heard not the same idea that is in the original text, then we would seek for a reason for that difference. We had spent two years in doing such a revision. I believe with the help of God, we have done the best we could. A few words regarding its personality of the Chinese assistant Lung Yuan. I must say that Russian sources provide not as much information about this person. In the report of the Holy Synod, he is indicated as a well-educated Chinese who was not at all familiar with Christianity. From the Chinese Herald, which was official periodical by the Russian Ecosistic Commission in China, it is known that he was a teacher of the Archimandric Palasi Kaptarov, who was another famous missionary. And both in Chinese Herald and in the preface to this translation, it is stated that Lung Yuan was a Zhuren, which means he had this degree in there and he was a successful candidate in the Imperial Provincial Examination. From this preface to the New Testament translation, we know that Lung was from the district of Sun Heng and as explained by Baker and other scholar, the term Sun Heng here indicates the sian, so the place located in the region of Beijing, where Lung Yuan obtained his Zhuren degree. Palasi Kaptarov, another missionary, indicated that Lung Yuan was his teacher and he saw Kaptarov and trusted his teacher, Lung Yuan, to bring Mitrophon up who subsequently became a priest and martyr with special care to prepare him later for receiving our donation as a priest. The reason, I mean, the fact that Lung Yuan was entrusted to bring up this person who later became a priest indicates that he was very much respected by other Russian Orthodox missionaries. There is a testimony of Lung Yuan himself also in the preface to this New Testament translation. He stated in the summer of the Ren Shu year, so 1862, he, Karpov, employed me to translate religious books and I began to have the honor of his acquaintance of him. He then took out the New Testament to be revised and corrected. Thus, we studied from down to dusk, laboring tirelessly, not caring for ornate expressions, hoping only to make the meaning detailed and concise. And the other of the language to be correct with no difference from the original texts. This is translation by Timothy Baker from his article. Hence from the testimony of Lung Yuan, he only became acquainted with Greek Karpov in 1862. Another missionary, Archimandry Flavian Gorodzewski, has mentioned that Lung Yuan has served in the mission for around 30 years and I assume he passed away around in the early 80s, so 1880 or 1882. In this case, around 30 years would mean that he was there in the mission since 1850s, which means that exactly by that time, Guru Karpov was not yet or already not in the mission. So it was between these two missions, the 12th and 14th. So it might be true that they got to know each other only in 1862. On the other hand, it contradicts a bit with this testimony by Guru Karpov, because he has stated that Lung Yuan has helped him as a scribe, it's not really clear whether or not it was from the very beginning or probably only since 1862. What's interesting also another testimony from Archimandry Flavian Gorodzewski, he indicated that Lung was teaching him Chinese and was a pagan, but as a teacher, had a profound knowledge and expertise and for many years served by the mission. If he was never baptized, it is even more striking that this man had been compiled, had even compiled some catechetical literature for orthodox Christians. So I would like to say a few words about more about criticism and usage of this text. The permission to use this translation for missionary purposes was only received from the Holy Synod in 1866, when Guru Karpov was already not in China, he came back to Russia. And Vinogradov, Alexei Vinogradov, another member of the mission and scholar, indicates that only educated Chinese could read and understand it. He also indicated that orthodox Chinese used Karpov's translation and he's seen you as untrue, so it's a Peking Bible version from the study of the Bible text. Interestingly enough, Vinogradov also indicates that Flavian Gorodzewski found many unclear and obscure parts in this text, in this translation and decided to republish his four gospel translation together with his own comments. The comments were based partly on his own interpretation but mostly on the comments of the Holy Fathers. This annotated tradition of four gospels was published in 1884. Gorodzewski also indicates that Palazzo Kaparov made substantial changes in the very text of the gospel translating bar by Archbishop Gumi. And here we come to the possible reason why another mission member, another translator Innocent Fygorovsky has decided to do his own translation. Here, Monk Isaya Polikin, who was also a famous translator in the Russian Cosiastical Mission, has stated that he has read previous translations completed by a Russian orthodox missionaries and came to a conclusion that most of the Chinese orthodox theological terminology came from the Chinese Roman Catholic works. And consequently it needed to be changed in order to see the traditions of the orthodox church. So Bishop Innocent Fygorovsky was another translator. He was born Ivan Apolonovich Fygorovsky in 1863 in a Panovo village in Siberia to the family of a priest. In 1878, he entered the Tonsk Theological Seminary and in 1884 he was ordained as a priest. Nonetheless, unfortunately, both his son and wife passed away in 1885 and as a young priest he decided to leave the village where he was serving at the time and he went to St. Petersburg. So for six years he was studying at St. Petersburg Theological Seminary and Academy. In 1890 he became a monk. In 1894 he became an archimand read and was appointed to be a rector of St. Petersburg Theological Seminary. And in 1896 he was appointed to be the head of the 18th mission. Here I would like to say a few words regarding his attitude towards missionary activities. He believed that the language used for preaching must be simple and clear to everyone rather than literally and abuse. This also can be regarded as his translation principle. He stated that the Permanent Translation Committee must be created for the translation of this year. And he was convinced that the head of mission must learn both Chinese and English. English was important in China at the time as he has indicated, which he himself had done on a regular basis from the very beginning of his time in China. In vain we do not know much regarding the translation process. According to the report of 1908, that the Gospel of Zhang was finished by the Translation Committee and published that year. The new translations of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles after the Second Corinthians were published as well. In the published version of the New Testament from 1910, only Bishop Innocent was indicated as a translator. Nonetheless, there was this Translation Committee, but it's hard to tell to what extent it was involved. I will say a few words later on that. And according to the report of 1906, the Gospel of Matthew had been translated into literary Chinese in new, in accordance with the Greek text. The cover also says that it was translated from the Greek original. The history of Chinese Bible translation is hardly mentioned on the pages of Kitai Ski-Bulgavisniks. So the Chinese Herald, the official periodical of the Russian Cosiastical Mission in China. One article on missionary activities state that elder members of the mission were the closest assistants to Figuerovsky and they performed different tasks, including translation and book publishing. And what we also know that in 1910, the Translation Committee initiated the translation of Bible commentaries and some annotated editions of the Gospels and Genesis were published in 1911. So both articles completed by the mission members on the history of the mission, as well as official periodical, do not provide much information on this translation process. So what I must say that this study must be continued and we need to get more information, if it is possible to get more information about this translation, how it was translated, what were translation principles, what kind of materials were used for this translation and who exactly was the member, who exactly were members of this translation committee. Interestingly enough, missionaries were in a search for a new language. The report of 1913 says the missionaries had discovered a method of translation into a language which is understandable by people and at the same time, not shocking to intelligent people. The following is already translated into this language, part of the liturgy, some chapters of the Gospel and epistols of the apostles. And what is interesting, the Translation Committee was working quite fast because already by December 14, 1913, the Gospel and epistols were read in the new translation in a commonly understood language, which means they have done already another translation of at least Gospels and epistols by December, 1913, after this 1910s translation was completed. A few words about the influence of previous translations. I can say that there is a similarity in structure and vocabulary, especially in the choice of proper names between this and Carpus Translation, translation although not always. People are talking about proper names, some proper names are different from Carpus Translation. And this also follows from the testimony in Chinese Kiblogavistic, so the Chinese Herald, which says that the works of the previous members of the mission have served as the basis for new work. Finally, the reason for the reason why for the reason why the information is so reluctantly shared in the official periodical might be the humbleness of its leader, Innocent Furowski. In one interview he stated, in our missionary work, the Gospel on the translation of which into Chinese metropolitan Flavian of Kiev, so metropolitan Flavian Geradeski, has worked a lot, is of great use to the mission. The Gospel is written in popular Chinese language with commentaries. So here in 1913, when he has already published, so to say his own translation in 1910, he's talking about the translation completed by Flavian Geradeski in 1884, which is quite striking. And finally, just a few words regarding the future on this New Testament translation. This year, just a few weeks ago, this translation was republished by the Russian State University for the Humanities. And the committee or editorials hope that this translation will be used for the church service by Orthodox Christians since it is the last New Testament translation, Chinese New Testament translation, which was blessed by the Orthodox bishop to be used during the service. And they are convinced that we have a tradition, we have a certain tradition. It is still developing. Of course, there is more than 100 years apart but still in Chinese language, there is this classical language, which is used for different religious denominations. For instance, in Buddhism, they're using classical language, although it is not Putonghua which is used nowadays, but it's not a problem for religious service. And they also have discovered that modern Chinese actually understand this New Testament translation quite well. Although, yeah, because nowadays all Chinese learn Wenyan, so classical language in their schools. So it's quite understandable and it was the product of all these, so to say, hundreds of years or not hundreds of years, but tens of years. So it was the product of this work of different translators and we're coming from, we have a certain tradition. So we should use this New Testament translation during the service, despite the fact that, well, they hope that it will be used and they hope that it will be developed and there will be a future for this translation. And yeah, I also hope that it will be used for to create something new. So that's all from my side. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Alexander. This was very, I mean, interesting, it's not the word, I mean, this provided details which my interest in the topic, which certainly reached those parts of my interest in the topic, which I did not study, which I have not learned. One, yes, but perhaps I just start off with a very simple question before opening it up to the general public and there are two places of publication. One is the Dongzheng Jiao Tsung Hui, that's the Eastern Orthodox, Russian Orthodox congregation, a church, a press. And I just wonder what they were publishing because the location where in Beijing they were established was almost identical with that of the Russian state. Does that also function as a state press? Is there a distinction between spiritual material and maybe political material, diplomatic material, maybe translations that are being produced for the Russian state? And then slightly further back in time, we're in the Beitang, Beitang, Dongzheng One. Of course, they have their own movement, the woodblock press. I just wanted to what extent that was used. Well, first of all, what I know that they were publishing, first of all, yeah, of course, Kedahetical Literature and they were publishing works done by Russian Orthodox missionaries in China. So for instance, works on Buddhism, some translations. So it was not only religious literature, but to my knowledge, it was not used for as a state publishing house. Okay, and to your second question, can you repeat that? Well, it's the woodblock press in essence in the Beitang, which is, the Beitang, which is of course, was set up by Jesuit. So it's the, I just wonder whether they continued with that tradition. As far as I remember, yeah, Innocent Figuerovsky has established his own publishing house. So it was in the mission. Right, so that was his private printing press, more or less because the Russian church takes over that collection for some time, no? Yes. Yes, so that would have been the travels. It goes to Russian territory, I think, yes. And then comes back. So it is a very, the Beitang collection has a very agitated history. And there is more to be discovered, yes. Yes, I'm not saying anything more to that until we've taken more questions. Let's have another question. I have several questions, Alexander. Yes. This was a great talk, for no other reason that it confirmed my grand ignorance of the Orthodox work in China. But I have maybe some basic questions for you that would help me begin to get a handle on some of that you were telling us. I would, just out of curiosity, what was the name of God that the Orthodox were using in their translations since that was such a contested issue among the other groups? And then second, can you also tell us just a little bit about how the Bible was expected to be used? Was it really just for reading in a worship service or was there a hope that Chinese believers were taking this home and studying it at home as well? What was sort of the expected use of these translations? Well, first of all, yes, this question about this, the term question, of course. Yes, there was a change, which is interesting. So as you could see, Guru Karpov has indicated that we should use this terminology created by the Jesuits. So he has used the term Tendru, so the heavenly Lord in his translation, while Innocent Figuerovsky has decided to change that to Shandhi. And the only reason for that, which I could discover in this Chinese herald, this periodical was that Tendru, well, first of all, of course, it is associated with the Catholic Church, but secondly, it's kind of Seuss Bailey, when there is such words as Tendru Water Rule, Tendru Water Rule or something, they found it like sometimes it comes together like to close, so they wanted to change it to Shandhi. I'm not sure if it was the only reason or was it only something that Innocent Figuerovsky has decided to do, but the fact is that in that translation from 1910, they used Shandhi or the God. Again, the second question, what was the second question? No, fine. My second question was, how did the translators expect these Bibles to be used? Yes. So as I have mentioned, they were using it for a church service, but also to study the Bible. I do not know for sure if it was like given to believers to read it at home. I do not have this kind of information, but I assume that it was mostly used during the service or during this study of the text. Probably, yeah. We had another question in chat. Lars, can you read that? One second. Oh, it is actually not a question. It's a crutch, you know, saying that he can't stay, but this is this lunchtime hour, which is very busy and so many people can't come, but they rely on the recording. That is why it's important to focus on questions that we can actually pass on to the wider world. So I am wondering, how is this connected to your actual research, your current research? What is it that you're working on? Well, actually, this was part of my dissertation, what I have done before. And yeah, at the moment, as you might know, I'm working for this CHCD, China Historical Christian Database. So I'm working on data cleaning. So now it is not as much directly related to my risk, what I'm doing now, but it is definitely related to this database since I will provide information for on Russian Orthodox missionaries in China for the China Historical Christian Database. Richard Elianot, do you have any questions? You may not be able to answer because in places where you can't speak, you can't write, you know, the right to something into the chat. Can I ask another question then? Darryl, yeah, of course, yes. In terms of that, what are you working on now? Question, Alexander. I know that you are planning a book chapter around sort of a vision of mission or this orthodox understanding of mission in China. Does some of what you talked about today intersect with that? And if so, how would that come together? In that chapter, I would talk more about the involvement of the Chinese into this work. So it's not only or not as much about their involvement in the translation of New Testament, but they are involvement both in translation activities. So most of that of what was done was the translation of church service books. Secondly, Chinese Christians were involved in church service. So they were singing, they were also sometimes they were preaching in a church. So my focus will be more on Chinese Christians and their involvement in mission activities. Yes, Lars, I don't hear you. I'm mute. Oh, Richard, did you want to say anything? Well, no, well, it's all going through my mind. I mean, maybe I haven't got this clear enough. Was a translation done of the Old Testament in this history? And then what was the basis of that translation? Was it the Septuagint or? For the Old Testament, the only Russian missionaries have only translated parts of the Old Testament, which were read during the service, so-called parameas. And yes, as far as I know, they use this Titian Dors edition for, and yeah, I can't say for sure. I don't remember exactly what was the textual basis for such translation, but what I can say for sure is that they did not translate the Old Testament completely, so it was only partly translated. And there were like short histories, translations of the short history of the Old Testament. Thank you. Thank you for the question. What about the Book of Kings? This comes up because one of my students who can't be here at the moment is working on a matri translation and he found out that that had a certain appeal. He's trying to argue in his chapter. I mean, I can't talk for him, but he's trying to argue in his chapter why this might have been important to the Chinese. That's interesting, it will be interesting to know what his discoveries are. We'll find out. But anyway, so it's, yeah, that's the other missing dimension in a way. It's because you have to see that the Russians, of course, are very much interested in China as an empire which is tangential to their own empire. So you have also an interest in minority languages. Manchu is, of course, important because it's the second official language in the empire, in the Chinese empire, but you also get an initial sort of incipient interest in minority languages like Ewenk and so on. This is, I just wonder whether the people who are Bible translators, but they had any interest in Manchu, for example. Do you have any evidence for that or are they solely concentrated on Chinese? Well, I think you have heard about this Liposist translation. Of course, yes, yes. Manchu language. That's right. So it is a challenge to find words. Yes, that's right. Yes, and because you have to, that's what it reminded me of because in Manchu, of course, they have to relate to Manchu culture or Chinese culture through Manchu eyes. And that's, what was it, the daily bread is the Nangidari Mantou. It's the daily mantou, the steamed bun. Yes, and so it's, you know, you have a constant source for inspiration which comes out of the daily life. Yes. I had another question, but I actually spoke with the microphone switched off and I can't remember the question, but it's, it was not the Manchu's, it was, yeah. Oh, yes. What happens after 1917? Yeah, after 1917, of course, there were many developments. Well, first of all, yeah, first of all, many Russians came to China. So Russian migrants, Russian migration. And due to that reason, missionaries, Russian ecclesiastical mission has focused much on to help those Russian immigrants. Secondly, I think for more than 20 years, Russian ecclesiastical mission became part of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad. If I'm not mistaken, it was from 1922 till 1945. And of course, they, yeah, they focus much on Russian immigrants. Nonetheless, of course, there were, there was also development in this Chinese Orthodox Church. So there were also Chinese priests and Chinese parishes. And as far as I know, there were even conflicts between, so some Chinese Orthodox, so to say we're not happy that the mission is focusing as much on helping Russian, Russian migrants not focusing as much on Chinese. And yeah, since 1945, the Russian ecclesiastical mission became again part of the Russian Orthodox Church and not Russian Orthodox Church abroad. So they were back to the Moscow Patriarchate. And since those, since that time, they started talking about that yeah, mission must be abandoned and then the new autonomous Chinese Orthodox Church must be established. And this was done by 1956. So two Chinese bishops were ordained. And yeah, in 1956, the last head of the, of the last 20s mission in China, Viktor Tsvassim, yeah, came back to the Soviet Union and the autonomous Chinese Orthodox Church continued to exist. Yes. And it exists to nowadays. It exists until today. Yes, I know it's here. Yes. So here we have a question from Elia now. Let me read out. Many thanks for your talk, Alexander. I'm afraid my connection was dropping. Yes, I missed some. That's going to be a recording. Yes. Are there any parts of the translations that are discussed as being difficult to translate into Chinese, either for linguistic or conceptual reasons? Anything particularly problematic, for example, the concept of the Holy Trinity. Well, if we're talking about concepts. Yeah, it was the issues were the same that for the Catholic and Protestants, such, such terms as baptism, Holy Spirit. By the way, the concept of Holy Trinity, well, that such term does not appear in the Bible. So it was not the case for, for the Bible, but the Holy Spirit, of course it was a question of the issue. If we're talking about specific parts, I do not know for sure which, which parts precisely Russian authors, translators found difficult. I remember that, for instance, for the Nicholas of Japan, who was translating New Testament into Japanese, he was, yeah, he was talking about difficulty to translate. I think it was epistle of St. Paul. And, yeah, he was talking, telling us or writing in his diary that I have so many different translation and commentaries in front of me and I still can't understand whether or not this word is related to the Holy Spirit or to the Jesus, or to Jesus. And things like that. So I assume Russian Orthodox translators in China had several issues, similar issues. Richard, did you have a book that you wanted to show? I had my Orthodox study Bible. Oh, okay. Is it not in Matthew and baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit? So the Trinity is the Great Commission. Go therefore make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. I don't think the Holy Trinity is completely missing from the Bible. Well, I mean, the very term, the Holy Trinity, yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course, there are many places where we can identify that the God is the Holy Trinity. Yes, yes. Yes, definitely. Okay, I understand. So the actual term Trinity per se, yeah, yeah. Yes. What you have quoted is the famous verse. Great commission in Matthew, yeah. Yeah. From chapter 28. Yes. Yeah. Again, to show this, yeah. You're republishing of the translation by Innocent Kurovsky. Yeah, as far as I know, it was only reprinted like a few weeks ago. Where is it reprinted? It is in Moscow. The Russian State University for Humanities. Okay. Yeah, and I'm grateful to this editorial committee for sending me. You will look out for it. It's good to have because as you say, it's a religious tradition which continues up to the present day. And this is, it may not be big, but it is very significant. And it contributes to the, you know, the multiplicity, the plurality of traditions that you have in China. So this is very important. I can, yes, okay. It sounds like it will be a good one. Yes, thank you. Now, I think, I think it might be the end. So I would like to thank Dr. Alexander Dimitrenko for this very interesting and thought-provoking lecture, which will certainly continue in terms of research. And we will be in touch with each other. And we will also welcome at any other point in the seminar series, references to this. If there are questions that come up in the context of China, there's at least going to be one other seminar, then I will make sure that I copy you into the list of guests and we'll see what you have to answer to contribute. So, but for the time being, thank you very much. And I wish you all a very nice continuation of the day. Bye-bye. Thank you. Bye-bye.