Starting From and Beyond Matteo Ricci

Between 1500 and 1600, the Jesuit Ricci carried out a real process of inculturation of Christianity in China. Subsequently, he operated according to acculturation: a form of colonialism. This process consisted also in the construction of churches, which were built in the neo-Gothic style. In 1926 dom Gresnigt was sent to China with the aim of creating a new Sino-Christian style, supported by Bishop Costantini and the new missionary policy. These attempts at architectural inculturation, however, focused on stylistic issues. We must act according to an intercultural dialogue. Starting from a textual translation of the liturgical books and the ritual action, this dialogue can provide the architect with images of experience that can be implemented as places and movements within the horizon of the sacred. Metaphors must be found, and even better affordances must be constructed to increase the effectiveness of ritual actions, making even those that can only be imagined emotionally perceptible.

Arquitectura, religión y sociedad en las iglesias cristianas de Asia

La relación entre arquitectura, religión y sociedad configura los espacios sagrados del cristianismo y las religiones. Pero los templos cristianos en Oriente han estado marcados por el estilo occidental. La inculturación es un presupuesto fundamental para el anuncio del cristianismo, pero éste ha venido marcado mayormente por la colonización e imposición de la cultura cristiana-europea más que por la inculturación; con las honrosas excepciones de Matteo Ricci y Roberto de Nobili. Gracias al impulso del Concilio Vaticano II, la Iglesia comprendió mejor su misión de llevar el mensaje cristiano a los pueblos de Asia haciéndolo desde dentro de sus formas culturales: internas (pensamiento y espiritualidad) y externas (lengua, ritos, arquitectura). Sin embargo, sigue siendo un reto de la arquitectura cristiana en Asia. Las bases para hacerla están ya puestas, pero el diálogo arquitectura-religión-sociedad en Oriente aún tiene mucho camino por recorrer, dejándose enseñar por sus valores religiosos y culturales.

Some Medieval and Post-Golden Horde’s Towns of the Itil (Volga) and Syr-Darya Basins According to the Arabic and Chinese Maps

Research objectives: The earliest depictions of the towns of the Itil (Volga) and Syr-Darya Basins in medieval cartography are found on the Idrisi map (1154). The post-Golden Horde towns in these areas are found in the Jenkinson map and the Kunyu wanguo quan tu (Map of the Ten Thousand Countries of the Earth, 1602) by Matteo Ricci. In 1772, the Qianlong neifu yutu 乾隆内府舆圖 (Terrestrial Map of the Imperial Repository of Qianlong), which used modern cartographic techniques, enriched the geographic information of Central Asian countries and filled the gaps in contemporary European maps. Research materials: Influenced by the map of Al-Idrīsī’, the geographic gaps and blind spots on the European maps were filled, reconstructed, and connected with the new world geographic knowledge, forming a relatively complete world map. At the end of the Ming and early Qing dynasties, a large amount of overseas geographic knowledge was introduced by Western missionaries who entered China. Results and novelty of the research: The analysis of Arab, European, and Chinese maps made it possible to assess the degree of accuracy of their information about the post-Golden Horde cities of the Itil (Volga) and Syr-Darya basins. The authors managed to determine the geographical ideas of Arab, European, and Chinese geographers about Central Asia. Specifically, this article examined the place names of the Itil Basin (including Western Siberia) and the Qazaq Steppe (including adjacent regions) in the European-Russian imperial maps and in the Qing Chinese maps. Historical maps provide rich resources of knowledge that graphically encode information about the state of a fraction of the real world at a certain point in time.

The Jesuits as Participants in the Late Ming Publishing Boom

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.

EL P. MATTEO RICCI Y EL DEBATE INTERRELIGIOSO DE LOS RITOS CHINOS

La controversia de los ritos representa un punto de inflexión en la historia de las misiones católicas en China. Este artículo investiga cómo el P. Matteo Ricci, S.J. (1552-1610), formó su comprensión de los ritos chinos mucho antes de que surgiera la disputa, y analiza la evolución de su pensamiento sobre el tema. Ricci fijó una interpretación generosa sobre la naturaleza de los ritos, pero esta interpretación fue refutada y finalmente rechazada cien años después de su muerte.

For a Fair(er) Global History

This article is authored by a group of PhD researchers at the European University Institute (EUI) and two teachers as part of the PhD seminar in Global History held in the Fall of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. We consider three topics: ‘The politics of global history’ thinking about global history as a form of activism; ‘Whose global history?’ considering issues of property and sharing; and ‘An open global history’ proposing a utopian future (for a troubled present). We believe that in order for global history to thrive, its practitioners need to be more inclusive and acknowledge imbalances of power across world areas, across genders, and across career stages. Image Caption: Sekisui Nagakubo after Matteo Ricci, Sankai Yochi Zenzu (山海輿地全圖) (Naniwa, 1785). Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C.

Mediating Humanism and Scholasticism in Longobardo's “Resposta breve” and Ricci's Reading of Confucianism

The “Resposta breve” (Brief response, 1623–24) by Niccolò Longobardo was one of the most controversial documents ever penned in the Jesuit China mission. Longobardo criticized the use of indigenous Chinese vocabulary by Matteo Ricci to express Christian concepts as a perilous accommodation to diabolical monism. This article proposes a close reading of how Longobardo employed Scholastic, humanist, and Chinese sources to critique Ricci's disregard for the neo-Confucian interpreters in his reading of ancient Confucianism. It argues that Longobardo's polemic with Ricci was not theological in nature but reflected his distrust of philology in reconstructing the original meaning of ancient texts.

La Chine en partage. Les écrits sinophiles du Père Matteo Ricci

Sans l’extraordinaire capacité d’adaptation et la singulière ouverture d’esprit de Matteo Ricci, la rencontre entre l’Europe et la Chine au XVIe siècle aurait sans doute tourné au fiasco. Elle a au contraire donné lieu à de riches échanges interculturels qui ont notamment dévoilé les Classiques confucéens à l’Europe et Euclide à la Chine. Toutefois, le peu de conversions au christianisme a fini par susciter l’impatience de Rome et la condamnation des méthodes de Ricci a conduit Pékin à expulser les missionnaires. L’hypothèse initiale de ce livre est qu’à l’accommodation culturelle mise en place par Ricci et ses confrères sur le plan de l’action missionnaire correspond un processus d’accommodation textuelle visant à adapter le discours sur la Chine aux attentes des lecteurs européens. Le corpus riccien, examiné ici de sa genèse à sa publication et confronté à la littérature géographique de l’époque, témoigne à lui seul de cet étonnant terrain d’entente qui a poussé les acteurs de cette rencontre à déployer un double mouvement d’accommodation.