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kèchéng

kèchéng+ (kè·chéng lessons · procedure → [course; curriculum] 课程 課程) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

[Notes: Tap/click on a Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to reveal its “flashcard”; tap/click on a “flashcard” or its Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音) expression to hide the “flashcard”. 📖 📄 ➕ icons mean 📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and ➕ Reveal + Symbols re all the “flashcards” in the heading, paragraph, etc. that they are placed at the beginning of.]

As covered in the recent MEotW post on “āijiā‐āihù+ ((āi·jiā {one after another} · households 挨家)‐(āi·hù {one after another} · doors 挨户 挨戶) → [door[-/ ]to[-/ ]door; house[-/ ]to[-/ ]house])”, on September 1, we Jehovah’s Witnesses resumed house-to-house preaching. It is appropriate, then, that as of this writing, jw.org is featuring the article “What Is the Bible Study Course Offered by Jehovah’s Witnesses?”. The Mandarin version of this article makes use of the expression “kèchéng (kè·chéng lessons · procedure → [course; curriculum] 课程 課程)”, perhaps preceded by “Shèngjīng+ (Shèng·jīng Holy · Scriptures → [Bible] 圣经 聖經)”, to correspond with the English expressions “Bible study course”, “Bible study program”, “Bible study”, “study”, “course”, “Bible course”, “Bible lessons” (from the title of the referenced Enjoy Life Forever!—Introductory Bible Lessons brochure), “study course”, “Bible study lessons”, and “lessons”.

Interestingly, “[Shèngjīng (Shèng·jīng Holy · Scriptures → [Bible] 圣经 聖經)] yánjiū (yán·jiū {grinding → [studying]} · {studying carefully} → [study] 研究)”, an expression that has long been used in the past to mean “[Bible] study”, does not appear at all in the above-mentioned article.

Related Expressions

The “kè+ (subject; course; class | lesson 课 課)” in “kèchéng (kè·chéng lessons · procedure → [course; curriculum] 课程 課程)” may be familiar to those who have used the Mandarin versions of publications like the Good News brochure and the Enjoy Life Forever! brochure/book, since that is the Mandarin word used to correspond with the English word “lesson”. For example, “Lesson 10” is “Dì‐10 ((Dì [pref to form ordinal numbers] 第)‐(Shí Ten 10) → [10th]) Kè+ (Lesson 课 課)”.

Besides “kèchéng (kè·chéng lessons · procedure → [course; curriculum] 课程 課程)”, another word that “kè (subject; course; class | lesson 课 課)” appears in is “kèběn+ (kè·běn {course | lessons} · {root or stem → [mw for books, etc.]} → [textbook; coursebook] 课本 課本)”, which the above-mentioned article uses in reference to the Enjoy Life Forever! book that is now officially recommended for use on Bible studies. (Interestingly, the English version of the article does not use the word “textbook”, which is the main dictionary definition for “kèběn (kè·běn {course | lessons} · {root or stem → [mw for books, etc.]} → [textbook; coursebook] 课本 課本)”. It does, though, refer to the Enjoy Life Forever! book as an “interactive Bible course”. So, “coursebook” may be a better match for “kèběn (kè·běn {course | lessons} · {root or stem → [mw for books, etc.]} → [textbook; coursebook] 课本 課本)” in this case.)

As for the second morpheme in “kèchéng (kè·chéng lessons · procedure → [course; curriculum] 课程 課程)”, it is also used, perhaps unexpectedly, in “gōngchéng+ (gōng·chéng work · {procedure → [journey]} → [engineering | [engineering/work] project] 工程)” and in “gōngchéngshī+ (gōng·chéng·shī {work · {procedures → [journeys]} → [engineering]} · {master → [skilled person; expert; specialist]} → [engineer] 工程师 工程師)”.

Usage Examples

Here are a couple of examples of “kèchéng (kè·chéng lessons · procedure → [course; curriculum] 课程 課程)” in use, taken from the above-mentioned article:

English:

Our Bible study program can help you to:

  • Have a happy life
  • Become God’s friend
  • Learn what the Bible promises for the future

Mandarin:

📖 📄 ➕ Wǒmen de ((Wǒ·men us · [pl] 我们 我們) (de ’s 的) → [our]) Shèngjīng (Shèng·jīng Holy · Scriptures → [Bible] 圣经 聖經) kèchéng (kè·chéng lessons · procedure → [course] 课程 課程) kěyǐ (kě·yǐ can · [suf] 可以) bāngzhù (help 帮助 幫助) nǐ (you 你):

  • 📖 📄 ➕ Guò ({to pass} 过 過) kuàilè (happy 快乐 快樂) de (’s 的) shēnghuó (shēng·huó life · living 生活)

  • 📖 📄 ➕ Gēn (with 跟) Shàngdì (Shàng·dì Above’s · {Emperor → [God]} → [God] 上帝) jiànlì (jiàn·lì {to build} · {to make to stand} → [to establish] 建立) yǒuyì+ (yǒu·yì friendly · friendship → [friendship] 友谊 友誼)

  • 📖 📄 ➕ Liǎojiě+ (Liǎo·jiě {to understand} · {to untie → [to solve]} → [to understand] 了解 了/瞭解) Shèngjīng (Shèng·jīng (the) Holy · Scriptures → [the Bible] 圣经 聖經) gěi (gives 给 給) rén (people 人) de (’s 的) xīwàng (xī·wàng hoping · {gazing (into the distance) → [hoping]} → [hope] 希望)

English:

These interactive lessons answer some of life’s most important questions.

Mandarin:

📖 📄 ➕ Zhèige (Zhèi·ge this · [mw] 这个 這個) hùdòng+ (hù·dòng {each other} · moving → [interactive] 互动 互動) shì (type 式) Shèngjīng (Shèng·jīng Holy · Scriptures → [Bible] 圣经 聖經) kèchéng (kè·chéng lessons · procedure → [course] 课程 課程) huì (will 会 會) huídá (huí·dá {circle back} · {to answer} 回答) yìxiē (yì·xiē one · {indefinite number of} → [some] 一些) zhòngyào (zhòng·yào weighty · important 重要) wèntí (wèn·tí asking · subjects → [questions] 问题 問題).


For convenience:

The direct link for the Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音)+ resource for the Enjoy Life Forever! brochure is:

The short link for Chinese field language-learning links for the Enjoy Life Forever! brochure is:

Categories
Theocratic

zīyǎng

zīyǎng+ (zī·yǎng grow · support → [nourish] 滋养 滋養) ← Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

With last week’s MEotW being “xīnlíng+ (xīn·líng heart · spirit [→ [spiritual]] 心灵 心靈)”, which the organization is now using as a more understandable translation for “spiritual” compared to “shǔlíng (shǔ·líng {(in the) category (of)} · spirit → [spiritual (nwtsty-CHS Appx. A2 notes change from “shǔlíng” to “xīnlíng”, etc.)] 属灵 屬靈)”, one may wonder how the organization now chooses to translate “spiritual food”, which before was translated as “shǔlíng (shǔ·líng {(in the) category (of)} · spirit → [spiritual (nwtsty-CHS Appx. A2 notes change from “shǔlíng” to “xīnlíng”, etc.)] 属灵 屬靈) shíwù (shí·wù eating · matter → [food] 食物)” or “língliáng (líng·liáng spirit · {grain → [food]} → [spiritual food (old translation, no longer used in nwt-CHS)] 灵粮 靈糧)”.

A bit of digging reveals that the organization now seems to mainly translate “spiritual food” as “zīyǎng+ (zī·yǎng grows · supports → [nourishes] 滋养 滋養) xìnxīn (xìn·xīn believing · heart → [faith] 信心) de (’s 的) shíwù (shí·wù eating · matter → [food] 食物)”.

For example, that is how “spiritual food” is translated in Lesson 54 of the Enjoy Life Forever! book, which is now the main publication officially recommended for use on Bible studies. We can see this when we compare the English and the Mandarin versions of this Lesson:

“spiritual food” in _Enjoy Life Forever!_ bk. Lesson 54 (WOL Eng and CHS+Pinyin)

[Update, 2026-07-25: Pīnyīn (Pīn·yīn {Piecing Together of} · Sounds → [Pinyin] 拼音)+ material for Lesson 54 of the Enjoy Life Forever! book is now available as well.]

The translation “zīyǎng+ (zī·yǎng grows · supports → [nourishes] 滋养 滋養) xìnxīn (xìn·xīn believing · heart → [faith] 信心) de (’s 的) shíwù (shí·wù eating · matter → [food] 食物)” is also used in these recent issues of The Watchtower:

(The Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY’s Synchronization feature can be used to quickly change the language of the currently loaded material, or you may want to open two separate browser windows to see the same material in two different languages side by side.)

Alternately…

Interestingly, “spiritual food” is sometimes now translated in other ways as well. For example, “mǎnzú (mǎn·zú fills · {to be sufficient} → [satisfies] 满足 滿足) xīnlíng (xīn·líng heart · spirit → [spiritual] 心灵 心靈) xūyào ({(things) needed} 需要) de (’s 的) ‘shíwù (shí·wù eating · matter → [food] 食物)’ ” is used in the following issue of The Watchtower:

Also, the current version of the Mandarin New World Translation Bible (nwtsty) uses the expression “Shàngdì (Shàng·dì Above’s · God → [God] 上帝) cìxia (cì·xia gives · down 赐下 賜下) de (’s 的) shíwù (shí·wù eating · matter → [food] 食物)” to translate “spiritual food” at 1 Corinthians 10:3.