中國禮儀之爭：從利瑪竇談起

The Chinese Rites Controversy: Discussion Starting from Matteo Ricci

梅謙立(Thierry Meynard)

《天主教研究學報》 15期 (2024/12) Pp. 119-136

摘要

中國禮儀之爭是天主教在華傳教史上的一個分水嶺。本文將探討利瑪竇遠在這場爭議爆發之前，他對中國禮儀的理解是如何產生的，並根據新近出版有關利瑪竇晚年在北京生活的文獻，分析他在這個問題上的思想演變。這篇論文解釋他是如何最終決定對禮儀的性質採取一個寬鬆的解釋。然而，隨著方濟會和道明會會士於1630年代扺華，中國禮儀成為爭論焦點，利瑪竇對中國禮儀的寬鬆解釋終於在他逝世一百年後被否決。

並列摘要

The Chinese Rites controversy constitutes a watershed in the history of the Catholic mission in China. This paper investigates how Matteo Ricci developed his understanding on the Chinese Rites long before the controversy erupted, and it analyzes the evolution of his thought on the matter, based on newly published documents of Ricci at the end of his life in Beijing. This paper explains how he finally decided for a generous interpretation on the nature of the Rites. The second part discusses how Niccolò Longobardo, Ricci's successor as head of the Jesuit China mission, criticized Confucianism as materialistic and atheistic, suggesting already a problem for Catholics in accepting the Confucian rites. However, as explained in the third part, with the arrival of the Franciscan and Dominican friars in China in the 1630s, the Chinese Rites became the focus of a controversy, and the generous interpretation of Ricci on the Chinese Rites was finally rejected one hundred years after his death.