Matteo Ricci and the spread of Christianity and western civilization in the late Ming and early Ch'ing dynasties = Limadou yu Ming Qing zhi ji Jidu jiao ji xi xue zhi chuan bo

1966 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan-hin Liu
1944 ◽  
Vol 76 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 52-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bolesław Szcześniak

Western science began to penetrate to the Far East at the end of the sixteenth century, along with the Christian faith spread by Portuguese Jesuits.Astrology was important in both China and Japan. It included not only a limited knowledge of astronomy, but some philosophy and logic. The advent of astronomical knowledge as understood in Europe was the beginning of a new kind of science, which did not affect the East's traditional view of the universe; although at first information from Europe about medicine, physics, and astronomy reached the Far East along with the doctrines of Christianity, as a means of attracting converts to what the Chinese termed a new philosophy of life. An early propagator of Western civilization in China was the Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1553–1610), who taught medicine and astrology together with the principles of Catholicism. Another Jesuit, Francis Xavier, advised his superiors to send a mission consisting not only of the devout but also of the cultured.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-30
Author(s):  
Florin-Stefan Morar

Beginning with the late Ming dynasty, Europeans in China assumed the name of “people from the Great Western Ocean” (Daxiyang ren 大西洋人), often shortened to “Ocean people” (yang ren 洋人) or “Western people” (xi ren 西人). What is the origin of this name? This paper seeks to answer this question by suggesting a new interpretation of the cartography of Matteo Ricci. Much of the scholarly debate about the Ricci world map revolves around the notion that it was a scientific artifact meant to present an accurate image of the world to a willfully ignorant, but otherwise impressive civilization. This paper argues instead that the purpose of Ricci’s cartographic project was to sustain a new identity, that of the Westerner and of the “Great West,” notions created in translation by borrowing and modifying Ming China’s geopolitical vocabulary.


NAN Nü ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Vitiello

AbstractThis essay explores the ideological allegiances between the chivalric (xia) and the romantic (qing) in late Ming fiction and culture. Focusing on notions of friendship and love between men and their role in the formation of the late Ming romantic ideal, it also discusses the discourse on sodomy articulated in two treatises on male friendship by the Jesuit missionaries Matteo Ricci and Martino Martini, and the hypothesis of a late Ming homoerotic fashion.


Author(s):  
Alexander Akin

This chapter takes a Ming-centric approach to the Jesuit cartographic project under Matteo Ricci and his immediate successors, discussing reactions to the missionaries’ maps and their citation in works published by Ming scholars. Of all the empires in which the Jesuits set foot, the Ming was the first in which they encountered an already highly developed cartographic culture, leading to an unusually prominent role for cartography in their proselytization. Examining the issues the Jesuits addressed through maps, as well as their methods of production, distribution, and influence, this chapter argues for an understanding of their publications as part of the late Ming publishing boom.


Author(s):  
Chloë Starr

Chapter One presents three texts from the late sixteenth and early to mid seventeenth centuries to show the evolution from a Chinese language to a Chinese-authored theology. The theology of the early encounters of Chinese with Christianity was naturally strongly influenced by missionaries’ own backgrounds and theological training, tempered over time by their improved grasp of Chinese language and understanding of what was most helpful or acceptable to their audience. As missionaries’ appreciation of Chinese literary texts developed, and as Chinese Christians began writing their own philosophical essays or evangelistic tracts, the form and scope of the dialogue evolved. The three texts discussed in Chapter One (catechisms by Michele Ruggieri and Matteo Ricci and a record of conversations between missionaries and Li Jiubiao and other late Ming scholars) trace the development from missionary to Chinese theology.


Author(s):  
Alan L. Mittleman

This introductory chapter first considers the concept of human nature, raising questions such as how human nature and nature as such are related, and how are both related to person. It then turns to what the Jewish tradition says about human nature. It sets out the book's focus, namely a dialogue between contemporary perspectives and traditional Jewish thoughts on human nature. Both sides have something to gain from the dialogue; both have something to lose from shunning it. Judaism risks intellectual irrelevance by failing to engage with the challenges of contemporary thought. Contemporary thought risks attenuating its moral seriousness if it ignores one of the sources of Western civilization. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.


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