明末以來,天主教耶穌會大舉入華,形成中西文化交流史上的一大奇景。他們在華留下大量的宗教、人文與科技著譯,時人有目之為洪水猛獸者,也有以外來新知視之而廣為挪用者。凡此種種,前此探究之專論已有不少,不過近年來我們所知又有更勝於前人者。本文不擬追索本世紀之前的前人發現,篇幅大多放在其後的新見,故由張坦翁的《金剛經如是解》一路起述,再經我們最近瞭解益深的吳歷與高一志的《譬學》之間的關係,最後用基督徒徐光啟以佛經解《詩經》畫下句點。全文雖不以單一學門為苑囿,但探討上仍有側重:耶穌會文學性譯著的影響是主力。
The Jesuits' arrival in late Ming China played a significant role in early modern Chinese cultural history, yet the impact of this cultural exchange has not been fully examined. This paper aims to unveil the ways in which Buddhists borrowed Christian cosmology to explore Buddhist geography. It also makes clear the Jesuit influences on literary criticism and creation in the fields of Chinese drama, poetry, fiction, and rhetoric. I argue that through translations and original writings, the Jesuits contributed more to Chinese culture than has been previously acknowledged, and that Chinese cultural history should be rewritten to account for the Jesuits' salient influence. The paper ends by examining the late Ming Christian convert Xu Guangqi's use of Buddhist sutras to gloss the "Shijing". That a high-ranking government official such as Xu would appropriate a canonical Confucian text in this manner reveals the flagrant heterogeneity of late Ming Chinese culture.