Confucianism and Christianity: The First Encounter, Volume 1This is a pioneer study of the Christian missionaries in late Ming and early Ch'ing China - in the sense that it draws upon source-materials hitherto neglected to give an entirely new perspective on the history of the first meeting between East and West. The book centres around a major theme: the first 'confrontation' between the Supreme Ultimate (or T'ien) of the Confucian cosmological order and the Christian anthropomorphic God as conveyed to the Chinese literati by the Western missionaries. This encounter, which is of an historical as well as metaphysical nature, also involves a conflict between two diametrically opposed value systems of human socio-ethical obligations. This study begins by examining the genesis of the Jesuit policy of accommodation and how the missionaries developed their particular approach. But the author probes beyond traditional scholarship and argues that Matteo Ricci was successful in convincing some Confucianists, notably Hsü Kuang-ch'i, of the universality of Christianity; On the other hand, the majority of the literati felt threatened by the 'heterodox' teaching and argued against it. Finally, the K'ang-hsi Emperor had to mediate, and the result was the end of the first phase of Western activities in the Middle Kingdom. Throughout, the major emphasis is on how one idea-namely, the idea of GOd-was viewed by the 'barbarians' from the West and by the Confucian I iterati. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 9 | |
Matteo Riccis Original Confucianism | 25 |
III | 33 |
The Kanghsi Emperor and Christianity | 109 |
Towards an EastWest Dialogue | 125 |
70 | 130 |
91 | 136 |
Bibliography | 149 |
Glossary | 167 |
Common terms and phrases
According actually Adam Schall antiforeign believed Buddhism Buglio calendar century Ch'en ch'i Ch'ing chap Chiao Chiao Hung Chinese Philosophy Christian doctrines Christianity in China chuan Chung-kuo classics Confucianists Confucius converts created cultural deBary deity earth edict ethics faith Ferdinand Verbiest foreign Francis Xavier heaven hell heterodoxy honour Hsü Kuang-ch'i Hsü's human Ibid idea Imperial Astronomical Bureau intellectual Japan Japanese Jesuit fathers Jesuits Jesus Jonathan Spence Joseph Levenson K'ang-hsi K'ang-hsi Emperor Kuang-hsien late Ming learning Li-ma-tou Liang Ch'i-ch'ao Lord-on-High Louis Buglio Manchu Master-of-T'ien mathematics Matteo Ricci Millennial Kingdom Ming dynasty moral Nanking Neo-Confucian Neo-Confucianists officials one's Original Confucianism P'o-hsieh Peking person principles problem PTIP Pu-te-i religion religious Rites Controversy sages scholars shang-chuan Shang-ti Shen shih Shih-lu society soul Supreme Ultimate T'ien T'ien-chu shih-i T'ien-chu-chiao T'ien-hsueh Taoism TCSI teachings things tradition Verbiest West worship writings wrote Yang's Yuan
Popular passages
Page v - Lu asked about serving the spirits of the dead. The Master said, 'While you are not able to serve men, how can you serve their spirits?' Chi Lu added, 'I venture to ask about death?' He was answered, 'While you do not know life, how can you know about death?
Page 11 - The megalomaniac view of oneself as the elect, wholly good, abominably persecuted yet assured of ultimate triumph; the attribution of gigantic and demonic powers to the adversary; the refusal to accept the ineluctable limitations and imperfections of human existence, such as transience, dissension, conflict, fallibility...
Page 14 - As soon as I arrived in any heathen village where they had sent for me to give baptism, I gave orders for all, men, women, and children, to be collected in one place. Then, beginning with the first elements of the Christian faith, I taught them there is one God...
Page 19 - For they grieve over the fate of their departed children, of their parents and relatives, and they often show their grief by their tears. So they ask us if there is any hope, any way to free them by prayer from that eternal misery, and I am obliged to answer that there is absolutely none. Their grief at this affects and torments them wonderfully ; they almost pine away with sorrow.
Page 20 - Opposite to Japan lies China, an immense empire, enjoying profound peace, and which, as the Portuguese merchants tell us, is superior to all Christian states in the practice of justice and equity. The Chinese whom I have seen in Japan and elsewhere, and whom I got to know, are white in colour, like the Japanese, are acute, and eager to learn. In intellect they are superior even to the Japanese. Their country abounds in plenty of all things, and very many cities of great extent cover its surface....
Page 11 - Jerome showed the way of it to the holy lady. The emperor of Cathay, some time since, sent for wise men to instruct him in the faith of Christ. Who will offer himself for this work? If Our Lord bring me back to Spain, I pledge myself, in the name of God, to bring him there in safety.
Page 11 - Joachin said that he was to come from Spain. St. Jerome showed the way of it to the holy lady. The emperor of Cathay, some time since, sent for wise men to instruct him in the faith of Christ. Who will offer himself for this work? If Our Lord bring me back to Spain, I pledge myself, in the name of...
Page 126 - The Jesuits' approach to their enterprise of propagating Christianity in China was so different and so promising in itself, and is so much to the point today, that our discussion of the Asian peoples...
Page 32 - When Heaven rejected and made an end of the decree in favour of the great dynasty of Yin, there were many of its former wise kings in heaven.* The king, however, who had succeeded to them, the last of his race, from the time of his entering into their appointment, proceeded in such a way as at last to keep the wise in obscurity and the vicious in office. The poor people...