Macau, Macau

Symposium

Main Themes

  • Christianity Missionaries & their Encounter with China and Japan
  • The Challenges of Religious Translation: Creating a Native East Asian Christian Literature
  • Living the New Faith I: Christian Liturgy & Rituals
  • Japanese & Chinese Christians: Native Faith Communities and Organizations
  • Living the New Faith II: Christian Art and its Various Expressions
  • The Politics of the Encounter: Japanese and Chinese Attitudes Towards Christianity and Christians
  • Macao at the Crossroads of Europe and East Asia

Date:

  • 30 November to 2 December, 2006

Location:

  • Inspiration Building, Institute For Tourism Studies

Languages:

  • English

Introduction

The present symposium aims to bring together leading Sinologists and Japanologists from around the world engaged in research on the history of Christianity in Japan and in China . It takes as its point of departure the 400 th anniversary of the death of Alessandro Valignano, S.J. (1539–1606), one of the first Europeans to articulate a clear policy of religious and cultural engagement with the civilizations of China and Japan .

This symposium aims to foster a comparative and interdisciplinary approach by adopting a format that includes both short formal papers and interactive panel discussions. This will allow scholars not only to present their own research but also to explore jointly with other specialists the similarities and differences between newly emerging models of Christianity among the Japanese and the Chinese. Each panel will focus on a specific theme that illustrates and compares the elaboration and development of new expressions of Christian culture in the two countries.

More specifically, scholars will concentrate on early Christian texts in translation, works of art, the development of new forms of Christian ritual, local community organization, etc ., in late Ming China and Warring States / early Tokugawa Japan ( ca . 1543–1644). Such modes of interaction with local cultures, while originally relying on European models, were adapted over time by the missionaries and prominent local Christians to and transformed by the East Asian cultural matrix. How these processes evolved historically in Japan and in China will be the main focus of the symposium. A number of scholars will also explore the unique role played by Macau, the port-city that was at the diplomatic, economic, and religious crossroads between East Asia and Europe and that facilitated these encounters between faith and culture. The official languages of the symposium will be English, (Mandarin) Chinese, and Japanese. Simultaneous translation will be provided. Please check this website periodically for further detailed information and updates.

Organising Institutions

  • Ricci eInstitute (USF Center for the Pacific Rim)
  • Jesuit Historical Institute in Rome
  • MACAU RICCI INSTITUTE
 

夏伯嘉 Ronnie Po-chia HSIA

The Jesuit Encounter with Buddhism in Ming China

The encounter between Buddhism and the Jesuit mission will be the theme of my presentation. In this paper, I shall limit my discussion to the period between 1580 and 1595, the years when Michele Ruggieri initially visited Guangzhou and when his successor, Matteo Ricci, abandoned the persona of the Buddhist cleric to adopt that of the Confucian literatus, the crucial step in his ascent to fame and success. There are two parts to this presentation. One, I shall analyze the adaptations to Buddhism by the first Jesuit missionaries, adaptations which were imposed on the Jesuit missionaries by Chinese expectations. Drawing on Ricci's well-known journal as well as on Ruggieri's neglected memoirs, I shall demonstrate the divergent attitudes of the first two Jesuits in China to this Buddhist accommodation and suggest a possible tension between the two men and the two missionary strategies they represented, a tension which was resolved when the Visitor Alessandro Valignano sent Ruggieri back to Rome on 20 November, 1588, in order to plead for a papal delegate to China . In the second part, I shall describe the relationship between the Chinese elites and Buddhism in the late Ming, in order to provide a broader context for understanding the interactions between the first Jesuits and their various patrons and converts. I shall argue that the two central components of the earliest Jesuit adaptation: lay religious patronage and accommodation to Confucianism represented the dominant currents of Buddhist revival in the late Ming period, and that Chinese perceptions of the Jesuit mission, and Ricci's subsequent polemic with Buddhism, must be understood within this context.

Using both published sources (Ricci's Journal, the correspondence of Ruggieri and Ricci) and Ruggieri's neglected manuscript memoirs, I have demonstrated the ways in which Ruggieri accommodated himself to Chinese expectations. As a "barbarian monk" (Fan zheng), Ruggieri's religious doctrines and practices were understood by his mandarin patrons and first converts in the context of Buddhism. I have analyzed this patronage of the early Jesuits both from the perspective of their mandarin patrons, especially Wang Pan, as well as from Ruggieri's memoirs, composed after his return to Italy. As the senior missionary in the field, Ruggieri's strategy directed the earliest Jesuit missionary effort, one shared by Ricci until Ruggieri's departure from China in 1588.

After Ricci was forced to leave Zhaoqing for Shaozhou, he met the most important convert of his early career, the scholar Qu Rukui (Taisu). Qu Rukui soon came under the spell of western science and mathematics, and formally declared himself Ricci's disciple. Ricci was already acquiring a different label: he was no longer a xizheng (西僧, western Buddhist monk), fanzheng (番僧, barbarian monk) or Tianchu zheng (天竺僧, Buddhist monk from India), but a daoren (道人, master of the way), a term that the Chinese understood as those with special powers that could not be classified as Buddhist monks, Daoist priests, or Confucian scholars. With his knowledge of mathematics and astronomy, and with his western scientific instruments, Ricci acquired the persona of the qiren (奇人)or yiren (異人), (Curious or Remarkable Person) the former term he would adopt for one of his Chinese publications, the Qiren shipian (畸人十篇). It was this new persona, the qiren or daoren, that opened more doors to higher places for Ricci.

Once he escaped from the Chinese expectation of Buddhist monkhood, Ricci could consider adopting the persona of a western Confucian scholar, a xishi (西士)or xiru(西儒), on the advice of Qu Rukui. Intellectually and linguistically, Ricci was making advances in the Confucian Canon far beyond where Ruggieri had reached; without these objective achievements, Ricci's self-fashioning would not have been accepted by the Chinese literati. In November 1594, Ricci visited Valignano in Macao to seek permission for the change of Jesuit identity in the China Mission, a decision that he had obviously come to for some time. With the blessing of the Visitor, Ricci and his companion Cattaneo donned the long robes and the tall four-cornered hats of the Confucian scholars; they also let their hair grow and by the end of August 1595, they had beards up to their belts.

On 10 June, 1625, Li Zhizao(李之藻), Dr. Leo in the Jesuit sources, published a rubbing of a Tang dynasty Nestorian stele that was recently discovered in Xian. Li also wrote a postscript, Du Jingjiao bei shuhou (讀景教碑書後), in which he comments on the Nestorians using the name of zeng, Buddhist monk:

"The reason for this being that in their country there was no distinction between the clergy and the laity. Their laity did not grow their long; and the men wore their hair close cropped. Thus the Chinese insisted they were Buddhist monks, and they could not explain the difference. Similarly, when Ricci first entered Guangdong province, he also wandered different paths. Later, he met Qu Taisu and distinguished that he was not a Buddhist monk, after which he grew his hair and called himself ru, a Confucian scholar."

These succinct lines by Li Zhizao captured the essence of the early Jesuit accommodation to Buddhism, a strategy imposed upon them by Chinese expectations, and especially by the matrix of Mandarin-Gentry patronage of Buddhism of the Late Ming. The Chinese catechism composed by Ruggieri, the Tianzhu shilu, was deeply imfluenced by this accommodation to Buddhism, as was the missionary strategy of Ruggieri. This paper has tried to demonstrate the different aspects of this missionary accommodation, from both Jesuit and Chinese perspectives. It argues for the emergence of a tension between Ruggieri and Ricci, the latter arguing for an alternative missionary strategy of using science and mathematics as aid for doctrinal persuasion. My paper has also documented the departure of Ruggieri from the China Mission, and the subsequent rupture between Buddhist accommodation and Jesuit missionary strategy under the direction of Ricci, one that turned to Confucian learning and western science as the templates for enculturation and religious persuasion.

岸野久 KISHINO Hisashi

From "Dainichi" to Deus – The Early Christian Missionaries' Discovery and Understanding of Buddhism

It is common knowledge that Francis Xavier, who visited Japan in August 1549, first addressed the Christian God Deus as "Dainichi" (abbreviation of the founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism, Dainichi Nyorai), and during the majority of his stay in Japan preached of "Dainichi." Then after having realized that "Dainichi" was not Deus (God), replaced his teaching of God with Deus (phonetically pronounced "Deusu"). In existing research, the addressing of God as "Dainichi" (Deus = "Dainichi") is regarded as Xavier's greatest mistake, and it is held that the ignorance of Japanese religion by the Japanese Anjiro who provided Xavier with information on Japan was the cause of this, after which there has been no further argument beyond these points until this day. However, the problem of Deus = "Dainichi," is an interesting contemporary theme, as one may well speak of its pros and cons, responsibility, and so on and so forth, but the contact between Christianity and Buddhism, two of the world's great religions, and the understanding of foreign cultures are also interesting points worth considering.

By having met with the Japanese Anjiro in Malacca in 1547, Xavier got interested in Japan and before long decided on Japan's propagation. How to portray the Christian God Deus in Japan would likely have had Xavier racking his brains the most during the stage of preparation. After carefully examining the information on Japanese religion that was offered from Anjiro, Xavier found out common characteristics between God and "Dainichi," who, like the sun, was unique and had an absolute nature, and as such, Xavier decided to address Deus as "Dainichi." However, when Xavier was translating Christian doctrine for propagation in India, he used Portuguese without translating into the local Tamil dialect major doctrinal terminology beginning with Deus. This tended to avoid confusion between Christianity and the local religion of Hinduism. Therefore, it can be said that the adoption of "Dainichi" was an exceptional thing.

Why was it that Xavier addressed God as "Dainichi" and used "Dainichi"? It is necessary to consider how this was caused to be connected with Xavier's future plans, which should be referred to as his "design for the propagation of East Asia," which included Japan and China. Before coming to Japan, Xavier already had the intention of going to China, considered staying in Japan for a little over two years, and, as his concrete goals of operation, was to go and investigate (1) Japan's religious situation, (2) whether or not the propagation of Christianity happened in Japan in the past, (3) and the possibility and future prospects of the propagation of Christianity in Japan. Moreover, Xavier made showing his juniors the objective from here on out, as pioneers in the propagation of Japan, was a task of the greatest magnitude. In order to draw a tentative conclusion on this subject at more than two years, as far as using Deus from the original language, communicating with the Japanese takes time, and since the beginning of the missionaries' arrival in Japan, there was a danger of not being able to operate. For that reason, it is thought that although there was some degree of confusion and danger done in preparation, making use of "Dainichi" as a familiar concept to the Japanese, with "Dainichi" as a keyword, attempted to elucidate Japan's religious situation.

Xavier preached of "Dainichi" for a period of two years from August 1549 until August 1551. As a result, Christianity was regarded as a school of Buddhism through an "Indian sect" and about 200 believers of "Dainichi" were born. Although this was a minus from the standpoint of this kind of propagation, Xavier, the missionaries, and Christianity, without receiving great resistance in Japanese society, were accepted relatively smoothly, and received an audience in Kagoshima with the feudal lord Takahisa Shimazu, and in Yamaguchi with the feudal lord Yoshitaka Ōuchi; and by their relationship with them, were able to make contact with leaders in the Buddhist world.

In Yamaguchi, at one point when there was a dialogue with a priest of the Shingon sect of Buddhism, the missionaries noticed a difference between Deus and "Dainichi," and furthermore discovered that "Dainichi" had a special language for expressing female genitalia, and thus immediately stopped the use of "Dainichi," switching to "Deus" in its original language (henceforth in Japan original language became used for major doctrinal terminology). Taking advantage of this opportunity, full-blown religious debates between missionaries and Buddhist monks were commenced, and Xavier and his fellows began to open the door on the Buddhist world.

After that, although Dainichi disappeared from the field of propagation, in the field of Buddhist studies at the beginning of the 1560s, scholastic materia prima (matter) was laid down, and the missionaries' understanding of Buddhism contributed greatly as a major key in the analysis of Buddhism.

李奭學 LI Sher-shiueh

Translating Dreams: Giulio Aleni's "Shengmengge" in the Context of Sino-Western Literary Exchanges

In four sections, this paper discusses four related aspects of the Shengmengge 聖夢歌, a debate poem translated into Chinese by Giulio Aleni in cooperation with Zhang Gen 張賡 in Fujian in 1637. The first section focuses on the formation of the antecedents of the Shengmengge and how they were later transformed into the Royal Debate in Britain, from which were taken the Latin original of the Shengmengge, generally known as the Visio Sancti Bernardi, written by a British priest at the turn of the thirteenth century, and its counterpart in Medieval English. In addition to this investigation into the genealogy of the Shengmengge, this section also examines the literary form of the translated song in light of Robert Chan's observation that its rhyme pattern, qigu 七古, resembles tanci 彈詞.

The second section deals with the problem of translation in its explication of the translated song. Aleni mentions in one preface that the Chinese rendition of Shengmengge is "roughly done" or cushu 粗述. The present paper explores the translated text against the Visio Sancti Bernardi and finds that Aleni does put it "roughly" primarily due to the limitations of Chinese prosody. But where he and Zhang can exercise their poetic talent, they never miss a line of the original. The Visio Sancti Bernardi is generally supposed to be the most popular debate poem between the body and soul in Medieval Europe, and the Shengmengge can be taken as the first translated poem from England. Together with its prefaces and epilogues, this translated song was printed in a single volume since 1637. Because of this unusual format, I suggest that Shengmengge occupies an important position in the history of Chinese print culture; no single poem in Chinese history had previously been published as its own book.

The third section considers the reception of the Shengmengge in China and focuses on Chinese Christians' response to the translated poem as expressed in their prefaces and epilogues. The Christians' initial response to this poem are highly influenced by traditional Chinese attitudes toward dreaming (e.g. Zhuangzi 莊子and Liezi列子). Thus the Chinese topos of "life as a dream" is echoed in those readings of the Shengmengge. This notwithstanding, as Christian readers interpret more closely the translated song, their views change to more closely approximate Western understandings of the Visio Sancti Bernardi: The poem was composed primarily to reflect the Christian fear of the last judgment.

The final section returns to the British development of the poetic debate between body and soul. In addition to simply comparing Chinese and Western dream literature, this paper relocates the Visio Sancti Bernardi in the context of English metaphysical poetry in the seventeenth century, since no debate poems other than the Shengmengge can be found in traditional China. A simple look at such descendents of the Visio Sancti Bernardi as Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" shows that the traditional tone of ubi sunt in the verse debate has been altered into a carpe diem, a Horacian view of life that undercuts Aleni's intentions for his translation of the Visio Sancti Bernardi into the Shengmengge.

William FARGE, S.J.

The Japanese Translations of the Jesuit Mission Press

The story of the Jesuit mission press of Japan began in India in 1575 when the first Provincial Congregation of the Society of Jesus (19-28 December, in Chorão, Goa) gave official sanction for the production of "religious literature in the native languages."1 Everard Mercurian, general superior of the Jesuits, expressed his support for the creation of a Japanese devotional literature in his responses to the congregation's proposals. He cautioned, however, that care was to be exercised and any books published would have to be sent to Rome for examination. Alessandro Valignano (1539-1606), as official visitor representing the superior general of the Society throughout the sphere of Portuguese influence in Asia from 1574 to 1606, had the authority to determine mission policy concerning the creation of native Catholic literature. He recommended that the Jesuit missionaries should place greater emphasis on the study of the Japanese language and adapt themselves to Japanese customs and etiquette.2 Francisco Cabral (1529-1609), the mission superior in Japan from 1570 to 1581, opposed this policy fearing it would have a detrimental effect on Jesuit life. As a result, the Jesuits of the mission press struggled to determine just how far they could or should go in altering the language of Catholic spirituality and doctrine in order to accommodate Christian beliefs to the Japanese.

The translation of European books into religious treatises suitable for the Japanese began in earnest in 1590, as soon as Valignano arrived in Japan with the printing press. Three works stand out as being of particularly high literary quality. There were two translations of the spiritual work attributed to Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), De Imitatione Christi (On the imitation of Christ, 1441). A virtually complete translation was published in roman letters at Amakusa in 1596 under the title Contemptvs mundi jenbu (Contempt of the world, complete). Fourteen years later, in 1610, an abridged translation, Kontemutsusu munji, was printed in Japanese syllabary characters (hiragana) in Kyoto by the Catholic layman Antonio Harada. A translation of Luis de Granada's (1504-1588) manual of devotion, Guía de Pecadores (The sinner's guide, 1567) was prepared for publication at Nagasaki in 1599-1600 and printed under the Japanese transliterated title Giya do pekadoru. These three works demonstrated a mastery of Japanese literary style and translation technique as well as the Jesuit mission's desire to adapt Catholic spirituality to Japanese culture.

A close reading of these translations reveals that there was a struggle between Jesuits who wanted to put limits on literary adaptation and those who favored Valignano's more open policy of inculturation. Though the translators did use some Buddhist terminology, much of the religious vocabulary in the texts consisted of transliterated Spanish or Portuguese words. In spite of the official resolve to build up a Japanese Catholic Church and to adapt to the indigenous culture, the translations done by the Jesuits give evidence that the search for suitable religious language was surrounded by controversy.

A major obstacle to communicating the Christian message in Japan through literary translation was the particular type of culturally-biased language in which De Imitatione Christi and Guía de Pecadores had originally been written. It was a religious idiom that, for the most part, was alien to Japan. The translators' challenge was much more complicated than simply finding language equivalents for Latin and Spanish words and then rewriting them in intelligible Japanese. The Jesuits had to first select those parts of the original works that would resonate with the native culture and then highlight or develop them by making culturally appropriate changes or additions.

The translators noted, for example, that the Latin phrase "contemptus mundi" did not simply mean "contempt for the world." The term refered rather to the decrepitude of the world3 or, in the words of Lotario di Segni (1198-1216) who later became Pope Innocent III, "the misery of the human condition." The Japanese translators adapted this concept to that of ukiyo (the transitory world), a sentiment that has been significant throughout the history of Japanese literature and culture. From the Heian period (794-1185), this word had been used to describe the world as a place of sorrow and grief. It expressed a Buddhist view of reality in which human existence is under the control of complex chains of causation. Throughout Muromachi times (1336-1573) the word ukiyo continued to allude to an unsettled feeling of instability in life. The Jesuit mission press identified contemptus mundi with the Japanese native understanding of ukiyo. This is only one example of the many linguistic adaptations that allowed the press to produce a literature of high quality that was based on a solid understanding of Japanese cultural sensibilities.

The Jesuit mission press was intent not only on cultural adaptation but also on preserving orthodoxy and communicating the authentic teachings of the Church. Translators had to find a way to bring the teachings of Christ to a people who had no European cultural or philosophical foundation for understanding Catholicism, and they had to do it in a language that had no specifically Christian religious vocabulary. The theological assumptions of sixteenth-century European Catholicism, its attitudes concerning religious language and dogmatic meaning, and the missionary necessity of presenting an orthodox Christian message to a non-European culture were all problems that ultimately were successfully tackled by the Jesuits of the Japanese mission press.

Contemptvs mundi jenbu, Kontemutsusu munji, and Giya do pekadoru, have been called the best pieces of any religious literature in Japan, either Christian or non-Christian.4 This paper will examine thoroughly, through examples, the methods of translation and editing used by the mission press in its attempt to produce a native Christian literature as directed by the Jesuit Provincial Congregation of 1575. From this examination a more accurate picture of exactly what cultural adaptation meant for the Jesuit missionaries at the turn of the seventeenth century will emerge.

1. Josef Franz Schütte,SJ, Valignano's Mission Principles For Japan, Part I, trans. John J. Coyne (St. Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1980), p. 250.

2. Ibid., p. 340

3. Jean Delumeau, Sin and Fear: The Emergence of a Western Guilt Culture, 13th-18th Centuries, trans. Eric Nicholson (New York: St Martin's Press, 1990), p. 10.

4. Anesaki Masaharu, ed., Kirishitan shükyô bungaku (Tokyo: Kokusho Kankôkai, 1976), pp. 9-10.

片岡瑠美子 KATAOKA Rumiko

The Adaptation of the Christian Liturgy Sacrament for the First Mission in Japan

The "Folding Screen Painting of the Southern Barbarians" that was estimated to have been drawn sometime around the end of the 16th century to the beginning of the 17th century, depicts situations such as people praying in a sanctuary of authentic Japanese-style construction, a setting for the sacrament of confession that is being performed in another room, and tea being carried to a teacher and student in the middle of a doctrinal catechism in the room of a separate building. The depiction of the "confession", shows that the service regulations were being observed, that "in a church, the setting up of a confessional has a window lattice attached," "to kneel, and with downcast eyes, bow your head and turn in the direction of the priest hearing confession," then, in accordance to the description of the Sakaramenta Teiyō [Manuale ad Sacramenta Ecclesiae ministranda] which was conscious of the preference of the samurai to never separate their two swords from their bodies to "…remove and check your weapons." If one is to include what was thought concerning the sacrament of confession, Francis Xavier already reports that "Japanese very much like confession," with the Jesuit Visitor Valignano also expressing the same thing. Additionally, a great number of reports testify that, when a priest visits a church, "the priest listens to confessions from morning until night." For this very reason, the Japanese bishop Cerqueira, supposing a situation in which, due to the persecutions, the missionaries were to be no more, published Konchiri no Riyaku [The Blessing of Contrition]; and also for a situation in which the sacraments were unable to be received, taught "The Way that Leads to Contrition and the Prayer for Perfect Contrition" as a means to obtain salvation of the soul.

In other records it is said that in these churches Japanese etiquette was adopted, such that also during mass, there was no kneeling or standing in the European-style, rather they participated by remaining in seiza (Japanese style of sitting back in a kneeling position).

The baptism of prominent Christian daimyo Dario Takayama Hida-no-kami Zusho and his son Justo Ukon occurred in 1563 or 1565; and Dario Takayama, at a cost of more than 4000 cruzados, erected within his territory a Japanese-style church, and created a garden that is highly prized at a Japanese Buddhist temple. That example recalls the advice of Valignano that, "in order for the Japanese themselves to contribute to the construction of a church according to their means, a building that is to be built should strive to appear to adapt to the Japanese style."

Moreover, in Takatsuki, in the event that a priest to preside over the mass was not present on the Sabbath or a holiday, Dario Takayama Hida-no-kami, who was the lord of the castle, was able to proceed with the custom of reciting a sermon or devotional to the congregation gathered at the church.

In the churches throughout Japan, on big holidays, a story in the Bible suited to the Catholic liturgy was translated into Japanese verse, dramatized and performed. That was expected to become a better arrangement for participation in the liturgy of the mass which normally was set to be in Latin. In addition, since kyōgen and a Noh plays were introduced into the special holiday liturgy, it was natural that the Japanese music must have been played using Japanese instruments.

Also in the sacrament of baptism and marriage, a pro-active orientation that honored Japanese customs was taken.

Moreover, when a poor soldier or someone without any relatives died, contrary to the Japanese custom of the time, Dario Takayama and Justo Ukon, as daimyo father and son, also displayed their faith by both personally shouldering the casket, which seems to be an important thing that should be seen as a practice of their Christian side.

The adaptation of the liturgy was born from the missionary purpose that supposes the missionaries' long experience and spiritual salvation to be the number one priority. I want to consider the effects of propagation that were produced as a result of the fundamental position towards adaptation in Japan, the contents of various regulations, and the practice of faith.

淺見雅一 ASAMI Masakazu

Regarding the Solution That Antonio Rubino, Visitor to Japan and China, Gave on the Rites Controversy

Antonio Rubino, the Visitor to Japan and China, and Diego Morales, in 1641, were writing a paper in Manila about the Chinese rites controversy. It is thought that they tried to present a solution to the rites controversy before voyaging to Japan, after having prepared themselves for martyrdom. It is believed that this paper was something that, while in Manila, Morales put together in Portuguese based upon Rubino's point of view. In this paper Chinese beliefs have been explained in a generalized manner; and concerning Confucius, though described as China's greatest philosopher, it is not supposed that the Chinese regard him as a god or a prophet. The Jesuits interpret Confucius' Mausoleum to be anything from an auditorium to a residence, and though it is a place that praises Confucius, it is considered that Confucius is not necessarily deified. In this way, paying respect to Confucius as a scholar does not become a problem. In Confucius' Mausoleum, essentially, with regard to practicing such acts as offering up impermissible animal sacrifices to anything other than God, as the offering of sacrifices is something that can be misunderstood even by church writers, it was assumed that this would not become a problem. The same logic was also applied toward Chinese ancestor worship.

Regarding the rites controversy, it became necessary to deal with the situation in which Christian officials are forced to worship at Chenghuang Temple in the capacity of Chinese government officials. As an example, in the event of being inaugurated to an official government position, one was required to worship at the temple. Also praying for rain when there was a draught, regardless of whether one was active duty or retired, was considered one's duty as a government official. Although Yang Yanjun of Hangzhou, had already left his official post, it was still required that he worship at Chenghuang Temple to pray for rain. On these occasions, the vice provincial of China, Francisco Furtado, who received counsel from him, advised applying to one's superior officer to remain at home without going to Chenghuang Temple, but if that was not possible, he encouraged making a confession after worship and receiving Holy Communion. Afterwards, in regard to situations like this, things like building an independent chapel within Chenghuang Temple, and putting up a framed picture praising the Christian God, came to be adopted as ways to avoid the act of corresponding doing worship at Chenghuang Temple with idol worship.

The dispute/controversy over the question of conscience in Japan is referred to as an important argument in this paper. Excerpts can be seen from the collection of examples on the conscience issue in Japan that was drawn up in Goa by Francisco Rodrigues in 1570. It turns out that Rodrigues' argument maintained its efficacy in Japan after that, extending over a prolonged period of time. It can also be confirmed that in 1592, Alessandro Valignano, the Visitor to the East Indies, when conferring with Europe on the conscience problem in Japan, consulted Rodrigues' case history on the matter. It can be confirmed that Pedro Gomez, the vice provincial of Japan, also was consulting Rodrigues' argument concerning idol worship in Japan. Because Gabriel Vasquez's response to Valignano's inquiry is often cited in Rubino's paper, it recognizes that an example of idol worship in Japan can be considered to be applicable to the rites controversy in China.

According to this paper, after Vasquez's response received the recognition of Athol, Vasquez de Padilla, and Angelis, it came to be recognized in a coordinated inquisition meeting held in Alcalá on April 4, 1602. In 1602, by order of Pope Clement VIII, Alcalá University underwent an inquisition and Vasquez, too, at this time, received suspicion from papal criticism, and his response, although already officially recognized immediately following its writing in 1595, was restricted. After that, because Vasquez' name was cleared and he was acquitted, his opinion will probably be considered able to be approved. At the point in time when this paper was written, Vasquez' response had been maintaining its efficacy in Japan as well as China. Consequently, it turns out that the Chinese rites controversy as a conscience problem has devised a resolution through Rubino's application of the problem of idol worship in Japan.

川村信三 KAWAMURA Shinzō, S.J.

Communities, Christendom, and the Unified Regime in Early Modern Japan

Sixteenth century Japan is the period in which the authority of great and powerful families including the Imperial family, who long reigned in the seat of authority, was eclipsed, and the power and authority of the Muromachi Shogunate as the central government lost its substance. In the meantime, it became a period of chaos in which the daimyo, the local clans, as well as the upper-class farmers everywhere fought anew for supremacy while conserving energy. From the standpoint of religious history, it was a period in which emerging sects, which were considered heretical by influential family temples and shrines, formed networks over wide areas. To those who harbored ambitions of national unification, the leveling of various communities of “mutual solidarity” became a matter of utmost importance. What kind of position did the newly arrived Christian communities have in this place? I focus my study on “temple precincts” as a keyword.

In June 1587, an edict expelling the Christian missionaries (in a June 18 memorandum) was suddenly issued by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had drawn near to national unification; and the Christian community, which had accomplished forty years of development, was driven into a predicament. In the law, Hideyoshi pointed out by using the keyword “temple precincts” the resemblance between Christianity and the Ikko sect (Jōdo Shinshū Honganji Buddhism), regarded both the Ikko sect (Honganji) and Christianity as mutually dangerous, and declared it to be a fundamental principle of national unification. What was it that Hideyoshi, the first statesman who pointed out the resemblance between Christians and Honganji (Jōdo Shinshū) foresaw?

During the latter half of the 15th century in which the Honganji expansion began under Rennyo (1415-1499), Jōdo Shinshū built dōjō (training halls) in various places, appointed dōjō masters as organizers of the part-time (un-tonsured) monks, set up periodic kou (lecture) meetings, and solidified its religious foundation through doctrinal explanations of dialogue ritual according to sermon texts. These places were independent autonomous regions, that is, the basis of the “temple precinct”, and before long were not only exiling feudal lords “like a republic of peasants,” but also possessed independent sovereign territories. For the feudal lord with an eye on total unification, the existence of independent territories within a domain became an evil that was difficult to allow.

On the other side of things, the foundation of the Christian community was recognized as the nucleus of the establishment of the “confraternitas” organizations, which had their origins in Europe and then were imported to Japan. Confraternitas were laymen’s groups that had their roots in 13th century Italy, did not cause interference with the clergy, had the designation of being an autonomous and independently administrated faith circle of believers, and after the spread of the bubonic plague in the 14th century, by means of super-diocesan mutual solidarity, preserved the church community which was on the verge of a parish system collapse as a result of the sharp drop in population. Usually, the confraternitas placed a mutually elected leader above approximately 50 members and had a law of independent executive power. The concept of confraternitas that was introduced to Japan soon became the Christian “confraria,” and became the core of the civilian religious community. Believer groups were formed in various places, with each one building “a private house with an altar”, setting up periodic meetings, and having the congregational leaders prepare the missionaries’ rounds throughout the area. In this way, the Christian confraria and the kou organizations of the Ikko sect (Shinshū) came to be closely resembled. Just as the Honganji formed “temple precincts” with extensive networks at the heart of Ōsaka Ishiyama; in 1580, under Alessandro Valignano (1539-1606), the situation of Jesuit “church territorialization” in Nagasaki made deep implications of being a challenge to the governing authority in the eyes of the ruling statesmen.

Christians, in barely half a century, showed a stretch of acquiring in excess of 300,000 believers. The reason for such apparent growth can be attributed to the same request of the times that made Honganji’s prosperity possible. About the turn of the 15th century, there exists scientific data that the northern hemisphere was hit by a climate change that struck on a global scale. The long summer rain that occurred in Europe during the 14th century brought crop failure and after causing malnutrition and immunity deterioration, the “Black Death” spread. During this time, the flourishing activity of the confraternitas stood out. At the same time in Japan, the advance of local all-village style unions and farm villages, so as to completely contradict the loss of authority of the Muromachi Shogunate together with the weakening of the center, were instead entering a “leap” period of stored up energy. Some Japanese researchers have concluded that they were a result of the collective defenses and survival games that developed against the damage resulting from natural disasters and military campaigns.

In those circumstances, in order to make the bonds of mutual aid stronger, a “monotheistic” union was indispensable; and there, both religions could read into reasons that attracted people. The strong connection between the populace for whom farmers play a central role by way of ideology, and the creation of territories that were autonomous and independent, was the primary prohibitive factor for statesmen who had their eyes set on the establishment of consolidated political power, and influenced the fate of both religions.

張先清 ZHANG Xianqing

Migration, Trade and Religion: the Social Networks of Catholic Communities in South Fujian in the Late Ming Period

In the Ming Dynasty the South Fujian Zhang Spring area, because it "has mountains carried on the sea as its pillow," such that "the East connects to Japan, the West joins with Siam, a sphere, and to the South are the Franks (ie. Portuguese, Spanish, etc.), Pahang (Malaysia) and various countries," possessed the convenience of superior overseas transportation, and after the 16th century, had frequent contact with Western influences like Portugal, Spain, and other nations that came East. Under this backdrop, Catholic missionaries also frequently entered this region for activities, such as disseminating religious doctrine and "converting people as if they were at the market," causing this area to gradually develop into the center of Catholicism in South China during the Ming Dynasty.

The development of Catholicism in South Fujian at the end of the Ming Dynasty possessed different characteristics from inland China and other areas. Among them, this region's unique characteristics such as its overseas immigrants and merchant network played an important role in the process of the spread of Catholicism being promoted in that area. About the time the Spanish occupied the Philippines, the people from South Fujian's Zhang Spring had already migrated to Manila in groups, with "merchants reaching tens of thousands in number, often residing for a long time not to return, and thus creating a long line of descendants." As a result of the missionaries carrying out a pro-active missionary strategy in the Philippines, the people that lived together there from the Zhang Spring area also became the primary object of missionary work, and a considerable number of people from South Fujian accepted Catholicism, receiving baptism and becoming believers, and forming in that locality a Catholic community of South Fujian immigrants.

Catholic missionaries, through converting these South Fujian immigrants, not only learned the Southern Fujian dialect and Chinese writing, but moreover made full use of the South China Sea merchant network that was formed by the South Fujian traders, actively developing in a positive direction towards missionary activities in the South Fujian region. With the help of the South Fujian merchant believers, the Catholic community frequently dispatched missionaries, sailing aboard the South Fujian merchant ships that came there to do missionary work. It can be said that the Manila–Zhang Spring shipping route, as one of the busy merchant lines at the end of the Ming Dynasty, was also, in the meantime, an important Catholic import route.

Precisely by relying on immigration and the merchant network, Catholicism in South Fujian at the end of the Ming dynasty obtained fairly rapid development, had multitudes of believers, an educational administration that also flourished considerably, and places such as the hillside behind Zhangzhou, Gangwei, Quanzhou Jinjiang, and An Hai all of which were, at that time, major Catholic missionary areas. More importantly, South Fujian also gradually became the primary stopover station for Western missionaries entering South China and other areas, in particular the Catholic Dominicans and Franciscans, all of whom regarded the South Fujian area as a springboard for expanding missionary work along the Chinese coast, and thus caused the South Fujian area to become another gateway for Catholicism to enter China at the end of the Ming Dynasty opposite Macau.

What should be pointed out is that South Fujian Catholicism's unique characteristic of having an overseas network, while providing various kinds of conveniences for doing missionary work for local Catholicism, also proposed many challenges for the development of the church. Because there were numerous traders who went out to sea from the Zhang Spring area during the Ming Dynasty, they came to live for a long time in South Fujian and the regions of Southeast Asia, where they engaged in trade activities, and were influenced by what they saw and heard of Western power and influence in the colonization activities of places in Southeast Asia. There they witnessed criminal acts of many early Western colonizers that violated the carrying out of colonial policy, and from this emerged a repugnance and apprehension against Westerners that included the Catholic missionaries, and through which were derived many bizarre rumors about Catholicism, these rumors having been passed on through direct oral communication to the South Fujian merchants, and which frequently became a public opinion tool at the end of the Ming Dynasty in the South Fujian area that gave rise to the rejecting of the Catholic case, and brought a disadvantageous influence against the development of Catholicism in South Fujian.

In brief, through putting in order and carefully combing through historical documents of China and the West, we not only can trace the process of the early South Fujian people's conversion to Catholicism, and examine their being able to pass through Southeast Asian waters unhindered, but also the stories of ordinary South Fujian Catholic Christians that were almost cast into historical oblivion. This will advance both of these topics together and explore the development of South Fujian Catholicism, and moreover will undoubtedly deepen regard related to social networks, such as immigrant and trade networks, in the understanding of the important role they played throughout the growth process of promoting Catholic communities in South China at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

莫小也 MO Xiaoye

16-17th Century Art Contact Between Macau and Japan

At the beginning of the 16th century the Japanese drawing style primarily received influence from the Chinese Chiangnan region, and along with the clearing of the Portuguese-Macau-Nagasaki shipping route, Japan gradually emerged with the influence of Western "Namban (Southern Barbarian) Drawings." Thereafter, the Japanese Namban drawing style spread to Macau. 16-17th century art contact between Nagasaki, Japan and Macau, China became a period in which both countries contemplated Western drawing, which simultaneously and mutually seeped into both countries' traditional drawing characteristics.

This article can be divided into the following parts:

(1) In the middle of the 16th century, images of the Virgin Mary & Child and the Annunciation, which originated in Portugal, were brought to Kagoshima by St. Francis Xavier. In 1583, the Jesuit Giovanni Niccolò, after spending time in Macau, arrived in Japan and established the Academy of St. Luke, where he instructed native Japanese students in European sculpture and drawing, training many outstanding Christian students. Not only did his school have a huge effect on the promotion of Japanese Christian art formation and development, but also became the basic origin of early Christian artistic work in Macau and inland China.

(2) Niccolò's significant contribution lay in using Japanese Jesuit schools to raise a group of Chinese monk painters, including Ni Yagu. Ni Yagu (Niva) was born in Japan in 1579 to a family of Chinese descent. In 1601, he was appointed to Matteo Ricci's side for accomplishing outstanding missionary work as an artist. Ni Yagu successively passed through or stayed for a while in Macau six times, ultimately passing away in Macau on October 26, 1638. He once produced a mural for the Samba Temple which was completed as "Illustration of Christ's Ascension to Heaven." Wen Hui (Pereira Yoeu), who was born in Macau, was able to pass through and go to a Jesuit school to study fine arts, and in 1598, after returning to the mainland from Macau, together with Matteo Ricci, went to Beijing from Nanchang. As for Niccolò, he escaped to Macau during the Christian persecutions and there died away from home.

(3) During the period of intimate art contact between Japan and Macau emerged several creations of identical subject matter. Japan has a picture of "St. Michael Battling the Devil" in which the archangel is stepping on the devil's supine body, with one hand ready to insert a lance into the devil's throat, and the other hand holding a golden scale. Today's Macau Museum of Sacred Art also has a picture "St. Michael." In this picture, the character's facial features and colors completely draw off of Western drawing technique, but the handling of the attire and background aspects also have Eastern line drawing characteristics. Now, in Portugual one can find statues and oil painting work using identical themes on chinaware, such that one can know that Macau and Japanese works already share a common origin, while also having their own respective characteristics.

若桑みどり WAKAKUWA Midori

The Development and Transfiguration of the Iconic Image of the Virgin Mary in Japan – The Relationship Between Chinese Buddhist Images and Maria Kannon

When Francis Xavier landed in Satsuma in 1549, he brought with him an image of the Virgin Mary. As for Xavier, the image of the Virgin Mary was revered by the mother of the lord of the Satsuma clan, and was able to request that the same thing be drawn. Thereafter, until the ban in 1614, numerous images of the Virgin Mary were given rise to and were produced by Japanese art schools. Through records it is known that images of the Virgin Mary, even more than images of Christ's crucifixion, were much preferred by the Japanese, and while there was also a language barrier, images of the Virgin Mary were considered to have a big impact on the establishment of Japanese churches.

The image of the Virgin Mary in Japan changed through the course of the following three stages: (1) images of the Virgin Mary brought through the influx of goods from Western Europe, (2) pictures of the Virgin Mary drawn by Japanese artists who modeled themselves after the Western European teacher Nicolau or Western painting, and (3) images of the Virgin Mary that were disguised during the periods of persecution and of hiding underground.

Disguised images of the Virgin Mary were either made in Japan, and were drawings on paper of a female image that resembled the Buddhist Kannon (the goddess of mercy), as a so-called closet god. Otherwise there were also Chinese-made "Zi'an Guanyin / Koyasu Kannon (the goddess of mercy for the safe delivery of children)" that were imported through Chinese merchants, ceramics that were similar in nature, or Buddhist images made of metal, all of which were revered as the Virgin Mary. This was the so-called "Maria Kannon."

The Kannon (Avalokitesvara) that originated in India was originally a male. How was it that this Kannon became not only female, but maternal? The present writer sees in there the fusion of maternal deity worship found in Chinese folk beliefs and Buddhism. Through the fusing together of maternal deities and Kannon, the earthly beneficial Buddhist images of guarding over mother and child and protecting childbirth were established. "Koyasu Kannon," a general term established in China, could be seen being purchased in large quantities from traders by Japanese Christians seeking images of the Virgin Mary and Child. The Chinese-made images remaining all over the place prove this fact.

My hypothesis on the process by which "Koyasu Kannon" was formed, is that there likely were iconic images that had been produced to be used as the Madonna and Child through Chinese Christians already in China. Matteo Ricci reports that the Chinese preferred images of the Virgin Mary without liking pictures of Jesus' crucifixion. Although there is no evidence according to records, I want to prove this theory by taking up on examples among the Koyasu Kannon that resembled icons of the Virgin Mary in particular.

In conclusion, "the worship of female deities," which remains at the grassroots levels in East Asia such as China and Japan, managed to bring about the feminization of a Kannon that was male, and was revered as Zi'an Guanyin (Koyasu Kannon) in China, and as Maria Kannon in Japan. In previous research, Maria Kannon came to be evaluated too insignificantly as a mere "substitute" during the period of persecution, but this author sees this as the most original form of fusion of Asian folk customs and culture and Christian beliefs in the hearts and minds of the people.

山本博文 YAMAMOTO Hirofumi

Christianity as Seen from the 17th Century Edo Shogunate

This report focuses its analysis on the correspondence of the Edo Shogunate towards Christians during the early 17th century. From the latter half of the 16th century to the early 17th century in Japan, missionaries of several Catholic orders, beginning with the Jesuits, visited Japan and vigorously engaged in activities to propagate the faith. The founder of the Edo Shogunate, Tokugawa Ieyasu, made it forbidden to propagate Christianity, but in order to reap the benefits of trade with Portugal and Spain, he did not take such a strict stance against propagation.

However, in 1614, Ieyasu reached a point where he began strictly forbidding the propagation of Christianity, destroying churches in every place, and causing the exposure of Christian believers.

Furthermore, Ieyasu's successor, Tokugawa Hidetada, while taking over his father Ieyasu's prohibition edict against Christianity, came to take up an even more severe policy of oppression. During Ieyasu's reign, it is also worth noting that the martyrdom of Christian believers was a rare event, and even when it occurred, cases in which believers seemed to desire martyrdom were also often seen. But in Hidetada's period, Christians came to be exposed more severely than before. This report plans to examine more closely the attitudes of these such rulers.

Hidetada's successor, Tokugawa Iemitsu, is famous for being the shogun who made Japan's so-called "national isolation" (sakoku) complete. Iemitsu, from the year following when his father Hidetada passed away in 1632, issued the decrees that came to be known as the "Sakoku edicts." The essence of these laws was to restrict Japanese from traveling overseas, prohibit the return home of Japanese who were already overseas, forbid belief in Christianity, and restrict foreign trade areas to Nagasaki and Hirado, among other things. Until recently, it was thought that these laws indicated the fundamental policy of Japan's Edo period, that is, the regulation of foreign trade, prohibition of Christianity, and prohibition of overseas voyages by Japanese. But as for me, I think that the regulation of foreign trade, as well as the part on the regulation of Japanese travel overseas, were all measures designed to implement the prohibition of Christianity, and that the basic philosophy of the laws was the prohibition of Christianity. It is the intention of this report to demonstrate this part based upon historical records.

Due to the policy of prohibition against Christianity brought about by Iemitsu, overseas voyages by Japanese were forbidden in every regard and, furthermore, led to the severance of trade with Portugal. One of the factors that caused this kind of outcome was the Shimabara Rebellion, which was a religious uprising, and the shogunate who, in severing trade relations with Portugal, made various consultations the Dutch. Since this argument is left behind to historical records now, by reading and solving this, the true intentions of the shogunate severing trade with Portugal and prohibiting the overseas passage of Japanese can be made clear.

So why did the Edo shogunate so despise the propagation and belief of Christianity like this? With earlier theories, the problem was that the belief of Christianity places God (Jesus Christ) above the Tokugawa family, who were the state administrators, and the daimyo, who were the local lords, while the established theory is that they were cautious about the occurrence of things like the religious wars that were seen in Japan's Warring States period (Sengoku Jidai). And in recent years, it is being contended via the important fact and the view also that they were wary of the military strength of Spain and Portugal that supported the propagation of Christianity.

However, these theories in actuality are not things that were proved based upon historical records that show the intentions of the statesmen, they are, so to speak, things that were guessed through circumstantial evidence. By utilizing the historical records of that time from the Japan side, I am considering wanting to approach the Edo Shogunate's view of Christianity, taking into consideration and analyzing the thinking of the statesmen who hammered out such policies and the personality of each shogun.

卜正民 Timothy BROOK

Europaeology: Assembling Knowledge of Europe in Late-Ming China

The scholarly field of sinology emerged in the seventeenth-century Europe to order the new knowledge reaching Europeans from the other side of the globe. While China had loomed large in the European imagination since at least the time of Marco Polo, only with the regular contact between China and Europe beginning in that century could a discipline of knowledge come into being. A similar process of knowledge formation was occurring in China at the same time, though in a very different context. Chinese called it xixue 西學or taixi zhi xue 泰西之學 ("Western learning"). We usually think of Western learning as the study of the new scientific knowledge Europeans were bringing to China, not as the study of Europe, yet it was both. The Chinese who took up Western learning for its scientific ideas were in fact also developing a body of knowledge about the West. But that "West" is too generic, based purely on the self-identification of the Jesuit missionaries as having come from the "West." In fact, they were from Europe, and their knowledge was peculiarly European in its forms and content, which is why xixue might more accurately by translated as sinology's counterpart, as europaeology. To speak of sinology without europaeology threatens to treat China as something "local" that has to be studied and the West as something "universal" that has content without context. This paper is a first sketch of the emergence of europaeology in the first two decades of the seventeenth century, based on a reading of Matteo Ricci's Chinese writings for what they reveal about Europe, and Xu Guangqi's writings for what they show of how knowledge in China was received.

João Paulo OLIVEIRA E COSTA

The Japanese Students in the College of Macao (1594-1606)

By the end of the 16th century, Macao was the centre of Portuguese activity in the China Sea, and it was the sole place East off Malacca where the missionaries of the Portuguese Patronage could organise a kind of Western daily life, despite most of the Portuguese there were actually luso-asiatic people.

The founding of the College of Macao by Alessandro Valignano was a decision concerning all his missionary strategy for East Asia, but it was also a direct answer to the evolution of the Japanese mission from his first visit (1579-1582) to the second (1590-1592).

The growing of baptisms and the admission of a large number of Japanese as Jesuits, as well as the beginning of the hostility of Japanese central power against Christianity, stressed the urgent need of an institution where some of those Japanese clerics could make their preparation for becoming priests. Due to the political situation in Japan and to the controversies about the admission of native clergy, Valignano realised that such an institution had to be created out of the archipelago.

During his second stay in Japan, the visitor admitted the possibility of sending 10 Japanese brothers to Rome, in order to finish there their training. However he realised soon that such idea was not very practical and Macao became the natural solution, which could be used also for the training of the future Chinese missionaries. Such a college could be also the ideal place for the last studies of the European Jesuits who would be later sent to China or to Japan. Therefore, Macao emerged as the appropriated place for the training of all the Jesuits who would be involved in the conversion of East Asia – an Asiatic city where East Asian and European civilisations were interacting.

During about a decade, the College of Macao was the main training centre for the Jesuits who would work in Japan, and a few Japanese brothers made there a significant part of their studies. However, after Valignano's death the Japanese disappear from the College lists. Francesco Pasio, the vice-provincial of Japan was an opponent of Valignano's policy concerning the College, and changed the system of preparation of Japanese brothers, as soon as he received news about Valignano's death.

In the following years, bishop Cerqueira ordained several Japanese priests, but most of them (including all the diocesan priests) had made their preparation in Japan. Later, the retreat of most of the Jesuits to Macao and Manila, in 1614, was not profited to start again the preparation of Japanese Jesuits in Macao.

In my paper I shall present an analysis of the Japanese who studied in Macao from 1594 to 1606 trying to integrate that specific group of Jesuits in Valignano's apostolic policy.