Disparities in the translation of even one word can mark a profound difference.
Both Anglican Bishop Charles White (author of "Chinese Jews," 1942, republished in 1966) and scholar Donald Leslie (author of "The Chinese Jewish Community, a Summary," 1971) translated one of the sentences in the 1489 carved stele of the Kaifeng Jews as a comment from the Emperor to the Jewish settlers, "You have come to our China."
Tiberiu Weisz disagrees, stating that the Chinese character "gui" does not mean "come," but rather "to return." This would shift meaning considerably, moving from the historical possibility that the Jews had arrived in China at that particular historic time (in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), to the possibility that they had arrived long before and were now returning. (Page 11).
This is just one of the many interesting annotations in a book intended for scholars that proves equally intriguing to laymen.
The task of translating the 1489, 1512 and 1663 carved inscriptions on the stone steles in Kaifeng, China is daunting. The language is 15th century Chinese vernacular which means no punctuation and obscure references and annotations. The material is often irreconcilable with accounts of missionaries and travelers. Inconsistencies abound. Facts can not be substantiated. Most important, the inscriptions appear to lack any trace of Judaism.
Weisz's background, his fluency in Chinese and Hebrew as well as his college teaching of Hebrew History and Chinese Religion, provides him with a new and unique approach to the subject. According to Weisz, when the Anglican Bishop originally transcribed and translated the steles into English (in the early 20th century) the results were limited by White's lack of a deeper knowledge of Judaism. This also limited the work of those who built their conclusions based on his work.
Weisz notes: "Bishop White's translation highlighted Confucian and, to some extent, Christian concepts, whereas, my version identified biblical references . . . ."
The slim, 119 page book, is divided into two sections,followd by a glossary and bibliography. The first 56 pages deal with the inscriptions themselves, a line by line annotated translation. The second historically fascinating half covers what the inscriptions tell us, with specific sections on Sacrifice and Prayers; Levites and Cohanim; the Temple; History --including Early Encounters, the Han Dynasty and the Song Court -- and ultimate Assimilation. For anyone interested in the Kaifeng Jews, this is a MUST.
----Beverly Friend, Executtive Director, China Judaic Studies Assn. http://www.oakton.edu/~friend/chinajews.html

Having studied the history of the Jews of the Yellow River for 20 years and having visited Kaifeng I now know why the steles had such a tremendous religiosity about them. At last we are able to understand the true meaning of the inscriptions which were saved by the missionaries by their rubbings, and are now properly translated by an incredible scholar of Judaism and Chinese. Thanks Tiberiu.