Chinese Christian Converts' Writings of Ancestral Rites in Late Ming and Early Qing

Ying-Hua Liu

《Fu Jen International Religious Studies》 5卷1期 (2011/06) Pp. 43-71

https://doi.org/10.29448/FJIRS.201106.0003

並列摘要

Focusing on the writings of Chinese Christian converts and their views with regard to the three debated points of the Chinese rites controversy, the present article is answering crucial yet never asked questions: whether there existed a native perspective in the debate, what it held to be crucial, how it was formulated and how it was received.Customarily, explorations on the role played by Chinese people in the rites controversy spots the high-ranking personalities of the Chinese bureaucracy. The focus here is on the writings and testimony by Catholic converts, who during the late Ming and early Qing provided their own perspectives. The individuals identified as Chinese Christian converts constituted a handful of about 15 people, all second and third generation Christians. They came from different corners of China and wrote either upon the request of their respective missionaries or in response to a felt obligation to offer their own assessment of the facts. They produced over 30 texts, the contents of which, explained further clarifications availed in a collective letter to the papacy. Using lexicology and referring to their history, they explained in an apologetic way that Confucius was honored as a teacher not as a deity; that ancestor rites were in line with filial piety and that though Chinese language had different names for the Supreme Being, the one adopted by Christians was the closest to the biblical notion of God. The writings did not fail to foretell the jeopardy of persecution of Chinese Christians would their explanations not be taken into consideration.Though these writings go back to the 17(superscript th) and early 18(superscript th) centuries, they remained unnoticed or were treated as non-existent for centuries. Made available to the public by Nicolas Standaert, their first public discussion occurred only in 2010, in the context of the Conference organized by Fu Jen Academia Catholica, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the death of Matteo Ricci.

並列關鍵字

Chinese Christian converts' writings ； Chinese ancestor rites ； rite controversy