Wu Leichuan's Hermeneutics and View of the Bible

Wu Leichuan's Hermeneutics and View of the Bible

Kwong-pui CHAN

This article examines Wu Leichuan's view on the nature of the Bible and his biblical interpretation. Wu's approach is influenced by Zhu Xi's mode of thought on ethical ontological hermeneutics. Wu refuses the mono-scriptural status of the Bible. This understanding opened a way to a cross-textual hermeneutics between the Bible and the Confucian Classics. Wu also denied the inerrancy of the Bible. He claims that the authority of the Bible is based on the life and teachings of Jesus. Wu believes that readers share common human nature and “universalistic ” truth with Jesus; therefore it is possible for them to be enlightened by Jesus. Through the enlightenment, the readers would recognize the highest ideal—selflessness—as their ontological way of fully expressing their human nature and disclosing the Truth. Though Wu's understanding opens a new hermeneutic of the Bible, his ethical premises suffocates the richness, of the multi-biblical understandings too.