International Journal of Sino-Western Studies

A Thomistic argumentation on creationism in Late Ming China: First juan of the Explanation on the Great Being (Huanyou quan), 1628

2022-05-05T18:27:44+06:00

Creationism is an important feature of Christianity but seems very foreign to Chinese philosophy. This paper examines an early attempt of introducing a metaphysical account of creationism in Huanyou quan (1628) by the Portuguese Jesuit Francisco Furtado and the Chinese scholar Li Zhizao. It investigates the sources drawn from the works of Thomas Aquinas and reconstructs the choices made by the two authors in their translation. Finally, it suggests that Thomistic creationism bears similarities with Chinese philosophy.

John Gerson and the Foundations of Mystical Theology

2022-05-05T20:54:33+06:00

Among other contributions, Jean Gerson (1363-1429) has played a decisive role in establishing spiritual theology as an experimental science, the foundation and process of which are independent from the ones of dogmatic theology, even if their results need to eventually coincide. Based, as all works in the field, on Pseudo-Dionysius, Gerson’s De theologia mystica (written between 1402 and 1423) developed an epistemology of mystical knowledge, itself grounded upon an anthropology describing how humankind’s cognitive and affective powers operate together. Gerson’s work played a major role in the development of French, and more largely, modern approach to mysticism.

Throughout History, Taking Book of Changes As The Path: Jean-Joseph-Marie Amiot’s studies on Book of Changes

2022-05-05T21:25:05+06:00

As an early French Jesuit who came to China, Jean-Joseph-Marie Amiot was praised as "the last sinologist among the Jesuits who entered China". He is knowledgeable and profound, has studied Manchu and Chinese characters, and has made remarkable achievements in poetics, music, history, art of war, translation and other aspects. This article focuses on his concern for Book of Changes, he returned back to history and analysis of the characters of Book of Changes , he took studies on Book of Changes as the basis of music theory, and worte De la musique moderne des Chinois. His studies on Book of Changes not only the basis for his use of European language systems to study Chinese music, but also provided a possibility for the exchange of Chinese and Western culture

Domingo Fernández de Navarrete's Views on Chinese Religion, a Spanish Dominican to China

2022-05-05T21:18:04+06:00

As a famous Spanish missionary and humanist in China in the seventeenth century, Domingo Fernández de Navarrete paid special attention to the religious and ideological issues of the Chinese Empire. In his book Tratados históricos, políticos, éticos y religiosos de la monarquía de China, Volumes II, III and IV specialized research and commentary on various forms of religion in China. In particular, he not only annotated and translated Confucian classics, but also translated from Latin the unpublished manuscript Respvesta Breve, written by the Jesuit priest Niccolo Longobardi., into spanish, and was also included in the Tratados, becoming the fifth volume of the book. Based on the contents of these four volumes, this article attempts to show Domingo Fernández de Navarrete 's cognition of Chinese religious thought as much as possible, in order to further explore Domingo Fernández de Navarrete's Sinology thought.

On the Much-Debated Remarriage Case of Li Qingzhao

2022-05-05T22:28:48+06:00

This article examines Li Qingzhao’s much-debated remarriage case. Rumor had it that the preeminent female Ci lyric writer once remarried to a corrupt minor official Zhang Ruzhou after her husband’s death. However, by closely studying Li’s biographical records and evidence unearthed by Qing textual researchers, we argue that Qingzhao was attacked primarily because of her satirical literary criticism; she was simply ill-tolerated by a male-dominant society.

On the Jewish Havruta Learning Method

2022-05-05T22:13:34+06:00

China pays attention to test-oriented education and emphasizes the role of a teacher as a knowledge distributor. Thus, the classroom teaching is mainly based on the injection of knowledge, while our public education is lacking in setting general education courses for Arts and Humanities. Taking competitive advancement as the core, our students complete the independent learning model in the traditionally competitive way and emphasize the accumulation of personal knowledge to increase personal competitiveness. This article studies the Jewish learning method, that is, the Havruta learning method theory. This article starts from investigating the initial application scope of the Havruta learning method. Then it gives the definition, constituent elements, deployment and implementation of the Havruta learning method. Meanwhile, it demonstrates how to set in the process of teaching to make use of the teaching method. According to the research, we suggest that it is rather necessary for us to introduce the Havruta learning method in order to promote the students' moral education, cultivate their wisdom, and establish the way of critical thinking, especially under the current test-oriented education for schools that uses competitive individual learning as a means of entering a higher education, extracurricular tutoring classes that focus on strengthening test-oriented classroom knowledge, and utilitarian families that blindly pursue scores.

Culture Prison: The Redemption Within Two Walls: An Interpretation of Ashi’s Duor

2022-05-09T22:17:42+06:00

Based on the gender metaphor of man-woman difference, the cultural concepts of “home-country isomorphism” and “the unity of male and female” have produced one hidden trend and one manifest trend that have overlapped and formed a piece of political, cultural and educational fabric. In this way, an unsurpassable culture prison is established. The gender metaphor of man-woman difference exterminates the spiritual and emotional elements within conjugal union, namely, the “rare” in “How rare it is that human is different from beasts”， thus makes the political, cultural and educational system an inhuman and oppressive system, which has caused human sufferings full of tears and blood. Due to the double closedness of this system, it is impossible to transcend it once being placed in it. The transcending force can only come from outside the fabric: first, it comes from the constant influence of enlightenment to awaken the consciousness of humanity and subjectivity within human persons; second, more fundamentally, it comes from the listening to the holy voice from heaven, which is the final source of spirit and freedom. The short novel “Duor” by Ashi is like an epic, which heavily, peacefully and shockingly describes the cruelty within the culture prison, narrates the agony of the ones unfortunately have fallen in it. Sadly but solemnly and holily, this novel reveals that suffering comes from the love for spirit and freedom, and suffering is the way human persons defeat suffering, obtain redemption and finally reach the heaven of love.

The Imperial Astronomical Bureau and the Official Catholics Community during the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties

2022-05-05T21:10:43+06:00

During the late Ming Dynasty, with the establishment of the Calendar Bureau (历局) by Xu Guangqi (1562-1633) and the recommendation of missionaries and Catholics to take part in the revision of the calendar, the Imperial Astronomical Bureau (钦天监) became an important institution for missionaries to stay in China and played an important role in the dissemination and development of Catholicism. Until the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Imperial Astronomical Bureau became a government office with the most official Catholics. Missionaries were not only in charge of the calendar revision, but also converted the officials and astrology students into Catholics through active preaching. The missionaries of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau provided protection for missionaries all over the country, and retired officials returned to their homes to continue spreading Catholicism. Even during the prohibition period, missionaries still stayed and worked in the Imperial Astronomical Bureau. The formation of the community of official Catholics in the Imperial Astronomical Bureau could be regarded as the embodiment of the Catholic preaching through sciences during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. There are many studies on Adam von Bell (1591-1666) and Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688), but less on the official Catholics in the Imperial Astronomical Bureau. This article tried to illustrate the basic situation of the official Catholics during the late Ming and early Qing, by discussing the relationship between the Bureau and Catholicism, and analyzes the historical influences of preaching through the Bureau and the sciences.

Documents from Ming and Qing Western Studies and Chinese Books in the Vatican Library

2022-05-05T21:02:15+06:00

In the research on the history of cultural exchanges between China and the West during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the collection and arrangement of Chinese literature in Western studies is a basic academic work. In recent years, Chinese books of Ming and Qing Dynasties have been published successively in the Jesuit Library, the National Library of Paris, and the Xujiahui Library. The Vatican Library is currently the library with the largest collection of Chinese literature in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. This paper studies the sources of Chinese books of Western learning in the Vatican Library, and preliminarily shows the basic characteristics of the Chinese books of Western learning in the Ming and Qing Dynasties stored in the Vatican Library.

The Economic Ethic in Chinese Society: Differences from and Similarities to the Western Economic Ethic from the Perspective of Social Cooperation

2022-05-05T21:55:16+06:00

Using game theory and transaction cost theory, religion or the religious ethic is converted to a system that provides ethical support and interpretation for various types of social cooperation and supports their equilibrium either partially or completely. From the perspective of the social cooperation ethic, the economic ethic of modern society may be viewed as a “partial equilibrium” that comprises the horizontal cooperation ethic (commerce or market) and the vertical cooperation ethic (the internal power in an enterprise). In this regard, Weber strongly interpreted the causes and processes of the differentiation and independence of the modern economic ethic of the West as “partial equilibrium” from “overall equilibrium.” However, the economic ethic in Chinese society has been different and has always maintained a close association with “overall equilibrium,” and its expression and symbolism have undergone a change in process from the local god of Sheji(社稷神，god of state) to local Chenghuang gods(城隍神, city gods) to nationwide popular general gods.

An Analysis of the Multiple-interaction Characteristics of Christian Indigenization in the Ethnic Minority Areas of Southwest China: A Case Study of the Lahu Funeral Ceremony in G County of Southwest Yunnan

2022-05-13T18:56:53+06:00

Christian indigenization in the ethnic minority areas of Southwest China is part of the culture change of the ethnic minorities. There appear in the Lahu funeral culture the changes of cremation and ground burial being practiced in parallel, erecting a cross and at the same time building a tomb and setting up a tombstone of typical Han style. Furthermore, the traditional Lahu concept of “the souls returning to the land of the ancestors” is found being replaced by or mixed with concepts of “the souls going to heaven” and “the souls residing in the tomb”. These changes reflect that Christian indigenization in the ethnic minority areas of Southwest China is not a two-way interaction of Christianity and the culture of a specific ethnic minority, but the multiple interaction and fusion of Christianity, the culture of the ethnic minority and cultures of the surrounding peoples.

The Last Remaining Jesuit in China after Suppression in Europe

2022-05-05T21:33:00+06:00

This paper will attempt to show the Jesuits’ situation in China and Russia through Fr Louis de Poirot (1735–1813 賀清泰)’s life. He was the last remaining Jesuit in China (the new Jesuits returned to mainland China on 11 June 1842), and was a link between the Old Jesuits and New Jesuits.The first section will introduce his life in the Chinese court. He was the last of the Western painters who worked for Qianlong along with Father Giuseppe Panzi. The two painters replaced the more famous fathers Giuseppe Castiglione and Jean-Denis Attiret. He was also in charge of the translation between Latin and Manchu for the diplomatic correspondence between Pekin and Saint Petersburg. He was the first to translate most of the Bible into Chinese and Manchu. The paper will show the attitude of Chinese Emperor and other official’s attitude to the suppression, Did they even care about the suppression of the Jesuits? What’s of any concern to them? The second section will present a precious letter received from Father General Brzozowski written on Sept. 25, 1806 with the help of the Russian ecclesiastical mission. Father General Brzozowski asked whether Fr Louis de Poirot had received Gruber’s permission to rejoin the Society and to enquire about the situation of the other fathers in China and the Chinese church. He also mentioned their attemption to enter China and the Jesuits’ situation all over the world.

The same Origin and different Roads: the old and recent hatred between Catholicism and Protestantism in Modern China

2022-05-05T21:46:30+06:00

In modern China, with the signing of a series of unequal treaties, there were constant disputes between Catholicism and Protestantism in order to fight for missionary authority, missionary regions and discourse power. As a modern Catholic Chinese Jesuit, Li Wenyu（1840-1911） had written many works on the relationship between the two denominations to defend for Catholicism. In the terms of the content, most of the works are the continuation of the sectarian argument triggered by the Reformation, concentrating mainly on the discussion of doctrines, rituals, the Bible and so on. However, few researches are concerned about new missionary issues such as Missionary cases or a type of inseparable connection between missionaries and Western Powers and they are just a kind of passive response to other people's queries. In the way of Apologetics methods, he once used traditional Chinese culture to explain the doctrines of Catholicism whereas it only occupied a little part. On most occasions, he interpreted doctrines through the Bible directly. By reviewing the relevant works of him, it can be seen that the modern Chinese Catholicism represented by Li Wenyu paid more attention to the enmities caused by differences in beliefs or doctrines instead of new problems arose in missionary work.

International Journal of Sino-Western Studies

2022-05-05T22:34:45+06:00

Chinese Christian Texts and the Formation of New Thoughts in Ming and Qing Dynasties

2022-05-05T18:20:13+06:00