According to records of the Bible Society in China, more than 300 million copies of the Bible in Chinese have been published and distributed since 1823.

The spread of the Bible in China has gone through five stages.

Prior to 1840. The government of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) strictly prohibited the printing and circulation of the Bible. The Chinese version of the Bible, translated by British missionary and linguist Robert Morrison, was secretly transported into China after being printed abroad.

Bible Societies from the United Kingdom and the United States donated generously to the venture of circulating the Bible in China’s seaboard provinces. For example, between 1834 and 1836, the U.S. Bible Society donated $230,000 to missionaries in China by mail, which accumulated from small donations from the Christians in the United States.

1840-60. In 1844, German Protestant missionary Charles Gutzlaff recruited 20 Chinese in Hong Kong to circulate copies of the Bible and the Gospel on the mainland. The number of people involved rose to 1,000 in 1848, including 100 missionaries. They distributed the books in 12 provinces. Later, Charles Gutzlaff discovered that most of his recruits were unemployed and some were opium addicts. Instead of spreading the books to the communities, some of his volunteers were distributing a small number of copies to their neighbors and selling the rest as scrap paper by weight. The money they received was usually used to buy opium.

During this period, other missionaries were also circulating Bibles and the Gospel in Hong Kong and five other mainland port cities forced to open to foreign trade as a result of the Opium War (1840-42). Due to the government’s ban on missionaries’ journeying inland, they gave away a total of 30,000 copies of the Christian literature during this period.

1860-1900. During this period, missionaries were able to travel inland according to new treaties signed between China and Western countries. Bible Societies from the United States, the United Kingdom and Scotland began to send their missionaries to spread the word in China.

1900-49. The period between 1912 and 1937 was considered the “golden era” in terms of dissemination of the Bible in China. According to figures of 1921, the three Bible Societies sold over 6.8 million copies of the Bible in China, including 45,000 copies of the complete translated version, 15,000 copies of the New Testament and large volumes of the Gospel. Despite the advent of anti-Christian movements flourishing between 1922 and 1925, the sales volume of the Bible soared.

1949 to the present. The last foreign Bible Society withdrew from China’s mainland in 1953 and the Chinese Bible Society was dissolved in 1954. However, between 1949 and 1955, some 212,000 copies of the complete translation of the Bible, 138,000 copies of the New Testament and 3 million copies of the Gospel were distributed.

During the Cultural Revolution’ (1966-76), the Bible and other religious books owned by the churches and worshippers were targeted as books to be banned and burnt.

Between 1979 and 1986, the Chinese Government allowed the Bible to be circulated among Christians on the mainland and designated factories for printing. A total of 5 million copies were sold during these six years.

In 1985, the government ratified a foundation to print the Bible, with funds, paper and technology provided by Bible Societies in the United States, Japan, Hong Kong and European and other Asian countries. Contracts were signed and at least 700,000 copies of the Bible in Chinese were printed every year in designated printing houses.

In the years since 1987, around 20 million copies of the Bible in Chinese and some ethnic minority languages have been printed on China’s mainland. These books, financed by donations from overseas, can only be sold by churches.