Lin Shengben


Lin Shengben is a Chinese hymn composer, known for his songs composed with Chinese traditional tunes.

Life

Lin lost his mom and dad at the ages of 8 and 10 respectively. Due to the Sino-Japanese War, his childhood was spent in the forest fleeing the Japanese army. He began his theological education at Alliance Bible Institute at Wuzhou, Guangxi in 1945. Two years later, he was enrolled to Leung Kwong Baptist Seminary and, at the age of 23, he started studying church music at China Baptist Theological Seminary, Shanghai, supervised under Ma Geshun, a professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and one of the most significant choral conductors in twentieth-century China. He then studied theology and sacred music at Nanjing Theological Seminary in 1952 for two years.
He was a pastor of , Shanghai from 1980 until his retirement in 2002.
As one of the four editors of the Chinese New Hymnal, some of his works were compiled to this hymnal, which is still widely used in the Three-Self churches in China. One of his most famous hymns, Winter is Past, was co-written with the Chinese theologian Wang Weifan.

Works