Jesuit missions in China
The history of the missions of the Jesuits in China is part of the history of
The first attempt by the Jesuits to reach China was made in 1552 by
According to research by
Jesuits in China
The arrival of Jesuits
Contacts between Europe and the East already dated back hundreds of years, especially between the
Fairly soon after the establishment of the direct European maritime contact with China (1513) and the creation of the
the only place in China where Europeans were allowed to stay at the time, albeit only for seasonal trade.A few years after Xavier's death, the Portuguese were allowed to establish Macau, a semi-permanent settlement on the mainland which was about 100 km closer to the Pearl River Delta than Shangchuan Island. A number of Jesuits visited the place (as well as the main Chinese port in the region, Guangzhou) on occasion, and in 1563 the Order permanently established its settlement in the small Portuguese colony. However, the early Macau Jesuits did not learn Chinese, and their missionary work could reach only the very small number of Chinese people in Macau who spoke Portuguese.[6]
A new regional manager ("Visitor") of the order,
Ricci's policy of accommodation
Both Ricci and Ruggieri were determined to adapt to the religious qualities of the Chinese: Ruggieri to the common people, in whom
The Jesuits saw China as equally sophisticated and generally treated China as equals with Europeans in both theory and practice.
Just as Ricci spent his life in China, others of his followers did the same. This level of commitment was necessitated by logistical reasons: Travel from Europe to China took many months, sometimes years; and learning the country's language and culture was even more time-consuming. When a Jesuit from China did travel back to Europe, he typically did it as a representative ("procurator") of the China Mission, entrusted with the task of recruiting more Jesuit priests to come to China, ensuring continued support for the Mission from the Church's central authorities, and creating favorable publicity for the Mission and its policies by publishing both scholarly and popular literature about China and Jesuits.[11] One time the Chongzhen Emperor was nearly converted to Christianity and broke his idols.[12]
Dynastic change
The fall of the
During the several years of war between the Qing and the Southern Ming dynasties, it was not uncommon for some Jesuits to find themselves on different sides of the front lines: while Adam Schall was an important counselor of the Qing Shunzhi Emperor in Beijing, Michał Boym travelled from the jungles of south-western China to Rome, carrying the plea of help from the court of the Yongli Emperor of the Southern Ming, and returned with the Pope's response that promised prayer, after some military assistance from Macau.[16][17][18] There were many Christians in the court of the polygamist emperor.
French Jesuits
In 1685, the French king
French Jesuits played a crucial role in disseminating accurate information about China in Europe.[20] A part of the French Jesuit mission in China lingered on for several years after the suppression of the Society of Jesus until it was taken over by a group of Lazarists in 1785.[21]
Travel of Chinese Christians to Europe
Prior to the Jesuits, there had already been Chinese pilgrims who had made the journey westward, with two notable examples being
While few 17th-century Jesuits returned from China to Europe, it was not uncommon for those who did to be accompanied by young Chinese Christians.
Better known is the European trip of
Scientific exchange
Telling China about Europe
The Jesuits introduced to China Western science and mathematics which was undergoing its own revolution. "Jesuits were accepted in late Ming court circles as foreign literati, regarded as impressive especially for their knowledge of astronomy, calendar-making, mathematics, hydraulics, and geography."
[The Jesuits] made efforts to translate western mathematical and astronomical works into Chinese and aroused the interest of Chinese scholars in these sciences. They made very extensive astronomical observation and carried out the first modern cartographic work in China. They also learned to appreciate the scientific achievements of this ancient culture and made them known in Europe. Through their correspondence European scientists first learned about the Chinese science and culture.[29]
Jan Mikołaj Smogulecki (1610–1656) is credited with introducing logarithms to China, while Sabatino de Ursis (1575–1620) worked with Matteo Ricci on the Chinese translation of Euclid's Elements, published books in Chinese on Western hydraulics, and by predicting an eclipse which Chinese astronomers had not anticipated, opened the door to the reworking of the Chinese calendar using Western calculation techniques.
This influence spread to
The Jesuits also endeavoured to build churches and demonstrate Western architectural styles. In 1605, they established the
Telling Europe about China
The Jesuits were also very active in transmitting Chinese knowledge to Europe, such as translating Confucius's works into European languages. Several historians have highlighted the impact that Jesuit accounts of Chinese knowledge had on European scholarly debates in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.[40][41][42][43][44]
Ricci in his
Since the mid-17th century, detailed Jesuit accounts of the
Chinese linguistics, sciences, and technologies were also reported to the West by Jesuits. Polish
To disseminate information about devotional, educational and scientific subjects, several missions in China established printing presses: for example, the Imprimerie de la Mission Catholique (Sienhsien), established in 1874.
Chinese Rites controversy
In the early 18th century, a dispute within the Catholic Church arose over whether Chinese folk religion rituals and offerings to the emperor constituted paganism or idolatry. This tension led to what became known as the "Rites Controversy," a bitter struggle that broke out after Ricci's death and lasted for over a hundred years.
At first the focal point of dissension was the Jesuit contention that the ceremonial rites of Confucianism and ancestor veneration were primarily social and political in nature and could be practiced by converts. Spanish Dominicans and Franciscans, however, charged that the practices were idolatrous, meaning that all acts of respect to the sage and one's ancestors were nothing less than the worship of demons. Eventually they persuaded Pope Clement XI that the Jesuits were making dangerous accommodations to Chinese sensibilities. In 1704 Rome decided against the ancient use of the words Shang Di (supreme emperor) and Tian (heaven) for God, and forbade the practice of sacrifices to Confucius and ancestors. Rome's decision was taken by the papal legate to the Kangxi Emperor, who rejected the decision and required missionaries to declare their adherence to "the rules of Matteo Ricci". In 1724, the Yongzheng Emperor expelled all missionaries who failed to support the Jesuit position.[49]
Among the last Jesuits to work at the Chinese court were Louis Antoine de Poirot (1735–1813) and Giuseppe Panzi (1734-before 1812) who worked for the Qianlong Emperor as painters and translators.[50][failed verification][51] From the 19th century, the role of the Jesuits in China was largely taken over by the Paris Foreign Missions Society.
See also
- Protestant missions in China
- Ruins of Saint Paul's, Macau
- Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Hangzhou)
- China and the Christian Impact, translation of Jacques Gernet's Chine et christianisme of 1982
- Cornelius Wessels
- Figurism
- China–France relations
- History of the Jews in China
- List of Catholic missionaries to China
- Medical missions in China
- Catholic Church in China
- List of Protestant theological seminaries in China
- Three Pillars of Chinese Catholicism
References
Citations
- ^ Wigal (2000), p. 202.
- ^ Mungello (2005), p. 37. Since Italians, Spaniards, Germans, Belgians, and Poles participated in missions too, the total of 920 probably only counts European Jesuits, and does not include Chinese members of the Society of Jesus.
- ^ Kenneth Scott, Christian Missions in China, p.83.
- ^ Article on the Jesuit cemetery in Beijing by journalist Ron Gluckman
- ^ Ruggieri & Ricci (2001), p. 151
- ^ a b Ruggieri & Ricci (2001), p. 153
- ISBN 978-0-19-092498-0.
- ^ George H. Dunne, Generation of Giants, p.28
- ISBN 978-1136171611.
- ISBN 978-1135959982.
- ^ Mungello (1989), p. 49.
- ^ "泰山"九莲菩萨"和"智上菩萨"考". Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2010-08-10.
- ^ Mungello (1989), pp. 106–107.
- ^ 清代中叶四川天主教传播方式之认识[permanent dead link]
- ^ Mungello (1989), p. 91.
- ^ 南明永曆朝廷與天主教
- ^ 中西文化交流与西方早期汉学的兴起
- ^ Mungello (1989), p. 139.
- ^ Eastern Magnificence and European Ingenuity: Clocks of Late Imperial China – Page 182 by Catherine Pagani (2001) Google Books
- S2CID 144224740.
- ^ "Yearbook of the Society of Jesus 2014" (PDF), Jesuits, p. 14
- ^ Rouleau, Francis A. (1 January 1959). "The First Chinese Priest of the Society of Jesus: Emmanuel de Siqueira, 1633-1673, Cheng-ma-no Wei-hsin 鄭瑪諾維信". Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu. 28: 3–50.
- ^ Mungello (1989), pp. 139–140, 167.
- ^ Mungello (1989), p. 167.
- ^ Keevak (2004), p. 38.
- ^ a b "BBC - Radio 4 - Chinese in Britain". www.bbc.co.uk.
- ^ Ebrey (1996), p. 212.
- ^ Ricci roundtable Archived 2011-06-15 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Udías (2003), p. 53; quoted by Woods (2005)
- ^ 第八章 第二次教难前后
- ^ 志二十
- ^ Li (2001), p. 235.
- ISBN 978-0-674-04202-5.
- ISBN 978-0-520-21991-5.
- ISBN 978-1-317-64048-6.
- ISBN 978-3-0343-0040-7.
- ISBN 978-0-674-78129-0.
- ^ Egor Fedorovich Timkovskii (1827). Travels of the Russian mission through Mongolia to China, with corrections and notes by J. von Klaproth [tr. by H.E. Lloyd]. pp. 29–.
- ^ Egor Fedorovich Timkovskiĭ; Hannibal Evans Lloyd; Julius Heinrich Klaproth; Julius von Klaproth (1827). Travels of the Russian mission through Mongolia to China: and residence in Pekin, in the years 1820-1821. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green. pp. 29–.
- S2CID 208811659– via Project MUSE.
- JSTOR 90020957– via JSTOR.
- ISBN 9780244506667.
- S2CID 228824560.
- S2CID 134980355.
- ^ ISBN 0-89073-050-4.
- ISBN 0-521-54724-5.
- ^ See e.g. Martino Martini's detailed account in Martini Martinii Sinicae historiae decas prima : res a gentis origine ad Christum natum in extrema Asia, sive magno Sinarum imperio gestas complexa, 1659, p. 15 sq.
- ^ Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste (1735). Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique et physique de l'empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise. Vol. IV. Paris: P.G. Lemercier. There are numerous later editions as well, in French and English
- ^ Tiedemann 2006, pp. 463–464.
- ^ Swerts & De Ridder (2002), p. 18.
- ^ Batalden, Cann & Dean (2004), p. 151.
Bibliography
- Batalden, Stephen K.; Cann, Kathleen; Dean, John (2004). Sowing the word: the cultural impact of the British and foreign Bible society 1804-2004. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix press. ISBN 9781905048083.
- Ebrey, Patricia Buckley (1996). The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge, New York and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-43519-6.
- Keevak, Michael (2004). The pretended Asian: George Psalmanazar's eighteenth-century Formosan hoax. Detroit, Mich: Wayne State University Press. ISBN 9780814331989.
- Li, Shenwen (2001). Stratégies missionnaires des jésuites français en Nouvelle-France et en Chine au XVIIe siècle. Saint-Nicolas (Québec) Paris: les Presses de l'Université Laval l'Harmattan. ISBN 2-7475-1123-5.
- Mungello, David E. (1989). Curious Land: Jesuit Accommodation and the Origins of Sinology. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1219-0.
- Mungello, David E. (2005). The Great Encounter of China and the West, 1500–1800. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-7425-3815-X.
- Ruggieri, Matteo; Ricci, Michele (2001), Witek, John W. (ed.), Dicionário Português-Chinês : 葡漢詞典 (Pu-Han Cidian) : Portuguese-Chinese dictionary, Biblioteca Nacional, pp. 151–157, ISBN 972-565-298-3(Detailed account of the early years of the mission).
- Swerts, Lorry; De Ridder, Koen (2002). Mon Van Genechten 1903 - 1974, Flemish missionary and Chinese painter: inculturation of Chinese Christian art. Leuven: Leuven University Press. ISBN 9789058672223.
- ISBN 978-0-521-81605-2.
- Udías, Agustín (2003). Searching the Heavens and the Earth: The History of Jesuit Observatories. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 9781402011894.
- Wigal, Donald (2000). Historic Maritime Maps. New York: Parkstone Press. ISBN 1-85995-750-1.
- ISBN 0-89526-038-7.