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The Encounter between Jesuit Missionaries and the Chinese Literati in Early Modern China

This chapter’s focus is on the encounter between Jesuit missionaries and the Chinese Literati in the late sixteenth century. Of particular concern, within this broad focus, is the life and work of Matteo Ricci, who was co-founder of Jesuit’s China mission and the main representative of the Society of Jesus and, by implication, the Catholic Church in the region. 2 My main sources for analyzing this encounter between Europe and its Chinese other are Ricci’s journals, which were translated from original Italian into Latin by his colleague and contemporary Nicola Trigault. 3 The journals, which cover a period of more than thirty years, present a vivid picture of late Ming China and are a particularly well-suited source to gain meaningful insight into the complexities of an East-West encounter in particular and inter-civilizational contact in general. In addition to Ricci’s journals, I also look at writings and policy directives of some early Jesuit leaders and arguments of Chinese critics of Christianity and Western civilization wherever available in English translation. All these primary sources are supplemented with several influential interpretations of the Jesuit experience and activities in the East.

It helps to point out here that Ricci was neither the first European nor the first Jesuit to have come to China, but significant from CPT’s and this book’s perspective, he may be characterized as the first European who felt the need to understand the Chinese on their own terms. To this effect he devised an elaborate method of accommodation of Christianity to the Chinese culture. 4 Because of his remarkable scholarly ability and his willingness to try innovative missionary methods, Ricci is often called the carrier of Euclid and Copernicus to China and an introducer of Confucian thought to Europe. 5 This characterization is not incorrect, even though some recent studies have raised questions about the usefulness and success of Ricci’s efforts in the context of the actual Jesuit mission of evangelizing China. 6 From the point of view of the subject of this book, however, I am not as concerned with the success or failure of Ricci’s approach as I am with his conviction that Christianity should enter China implicitly by way of the Chinese Literati and his reasoning to adopt an ‘integrated, interwoven missionary method’ to realize that conviction. 7 Such an approach required Ricci to invoke and amplify his training as a mathematician, logician, geographer and cartographer over his status of being a Jesuit missionary. It also demanded that Ricci and his colleagues learn Chinese and master the spirit, as well as the content of Confucian thought. This, as history tells us, was a monumental task which Ricci and his associates accomplished to near perfection. Given these facts it should be obvious that Ricci’s life, works and experiences deserve a much more detailed treatment than can be accomplished in a single book chapter. It is therefore worthwhile to acknowledge here that my focus remains intentionally limited to those elements of Ricci’s approach which, in his opinion, would have softened Chinese minds for the acceptance of Western-Christian ideas, on the one hand, and prepared religious authorities in Europe to accept his version of the non-idolatrous nature of Chinese religious practices, on the other hand.

The chapter begins with a general discussion of the Jesuit missionary practices and experience in the East and their position in the ecclesiastical politics in the West. Also discussed briefly is the significance attached to the Christianization of China by the Jesuits and early attempts made in this regard. 8 Having thus set the stage I will introduce Matteo Ricci into the picture and my focus will be on those aspects of Ricci’s experiences which have direct relevance to CPT. Jesuit missionaries, during their initial decades in China, had retained an overtly religious and European appearance and equated themselves in dress and demeanor to the learned Buddhist monks who represented the most visible, if not dominant, religious group in China. 9 Based on his experiences and observations during this early period, Ricci gradually came to the conclusion that the missionaries would be more successful in their endeavors if they abandoned this approach and shifted their focus towards engaging with the Chinese Literati by cultivating their image as Christian-Western scholars and teachers of Western science instead of missionaries from the West. 10 In addition to highlighting the salient features of Ricci’s efforts in achieving this objective, the chapter also discusses the Western scientific achievements that he chose to present to the Chinese and the philosophical topics on which he published his views in the Chinese language. Ricci’s choices in these regards reflect his attempts to represent the West and Christianity in a manner which, in his opinion, would have positively influenced the upper reaches of Chinese society and compelled them to accept the West as China’s civilizational equal. 11

As is well known, Jesuits’ accommodation methods later gave rise to the infamous rites controversy in Europe. The chapter, therefore, also discuss features of the accommodation method which contributed to the rites controversy in order to illustrate the highly complex and multifaceted nature of inter-civilizational engagement in which transforming influence is active on both sides of the contact equation. Because of this simultaneous transformative process I will also touch upon Chinese accusations and criticism of the Christian faith in post-Ricci China. A comparison of the anti-other arguments in the East and the West, I hope, will highlight the ever-present potential of reversal of fortunes earned during a cross-cultural contact by either side. The chapter concludes by juxtaposing analysis of Ricci’s encounter with the Chinese Literati in late Ming China with some of CPT’s dominant methodological preferences. These include the bias toward a Gadamarian hermeneutical approach to comparative theorizing in which a fusion of horizons is pre-supposed and the limited nature of suggestions by comparativists that the ultimate objective of CPT should be to seek Voegelin-style equivalences between disparate civilizations and that the primary purpose of comparative theorizing should be to identify comparable non-Western canons.

It is important to begin with a brief discussion to the peculiar place and circumstances of the Society of Jesus in the West. The society, founded in 1540 by Ignatius Loyola, was one of the several movements within Catholic Counter-Reformation for rejuvenation of spiritual life and piety in early modern Europe. 12 It is worth remembering that the basic objective of the Reformation was also to cleanse the Church and renew Christianity through separating it from the historical baggage that had gathered over the centuries. The unintended outcome of the Reformation can be seen in shape of episodes such as the peasant revolt in southern Germany from AD 1525–1527. The cornerstone of this revolt was that the scriptures did not confirm the so-called rights of the feudal lords. 13 According to Eric Leed, the very logic of the Reformation made it possible to de-legitimize any evolved, historical present if it was not confirmed in the scriptures. He writes:

Here, in the Reformation, we see the beginning of the paradox established in the form of modernity, in which the brand-new, a revolution of mind and manners, originated out of an attempt to recover the very old, the lost, the ancient, original texts and forms. 14

Obviously, in order to be effective counter-reformationists, in an intellectual environment characterized in Leed’s observation above, early Jesuits were quick to realize that they must equip themselves with the tools which were the hallmark of leading advocates of the reformation. This was also helped by the fact that they had the opportunity and ample access to resources for equipping themselves with such intellectual tools. The society or company of Jesus actually originated out of the University of Paris which was a primary center of European academic culture at the time. 15 This influence and approach is confirmed by the fact that, in the later Jesuit missionary practice, we find that the success of missions in India, Japan and the New World was termed as the making of a reformation abroad. As we shall see later in this chapter, in non-Western lands the Jesuits often exhibited many of the reformist tendencies and strategies which they would be fighting against at home in Europe. 16 These early influences differentiated the Jesuits from other counter-reformation movements; being intimately familiar with the intellectual context of the Reformation, they realized the importance and necessity to positively engage with, and seek patronage of, secular institutions, influential individuals and rulers, for achieving their objectives. Furthermore, they also exhibited a higher than normal degree of sensitivity and intolerance for heretical ‘deformation.’ Finally they defined themselves simultaneously and equally, in terms of having twin vocations/ objectives of mission and education. 17

The missionary practices, which evolved out of these factors, enabled early Jesuits to quickly influence and enlist brilliant young students into the Jesuit educational institutions and gain the patronage of many influential individuals of the time throughout Catholic Europe. 18 Consequently, in its post-founding phase, the Society took advantage of the Spanish and Portuguese expansion, and expanded its operations rapidly through established residences in the new colonial cities of Africa, Asia and the Americas. 19 These new residences served as launching pads for attempts to further expand its missionary work and to seek conversions in foreign lands such as India, China and Japan. It was the Jesuit stories carried back to Europe from these foreign lands that gave rise to the notion, and also reconfirmed Jesuit self-understanding “that the souls lost by the Church in Europe due to the “heresies” of the Reformation were being made up in the missions of the New World and the East.” 20

One must bear in mind, however, that the Society’s expansion was not really trouble free. For instance, during the founding phase, early Jesuits had to carve out a unique space for themselves in the middle of several influential and well-established religious movements in Europe. As O’Malley rightly points out, a key factor that defined the policy and practice of early Jesuits was the limitations they faced because of the absence of any official pastoral privileges enjoyed by members of the other orders. 21 This jurisdictional limitation meant that the Jesuits did not have any ready-made clientele from the “people in the pews.” 22 Hence, in order to be competitive in the European religious milieu of the time, the Jesuits needed to build a friendly image and also differentiate themselves in their teachings and approach from the existing and more established religious movements. Understandably, this condition created a bond of mutual dependence between the Jesuits and those pockets of society which were traditionally ignored by other orders. Consequently we find that early Jesuit writings urged members of the society to focus on people who did not have ready access to ministers and pastors. 23 Developing strong relations with the European secular elites, as mentioned earlier, could also be part of this necessity to carve out a niche for themselves. 24 The point here is that these early practices were instrumental in defining Jesuit activities outside Europe during their expansion phases. Since they were used to dealing with traditionally ignored segments of society, it is no surprise that the Jesuits were generally positive of their assessments of the indigenous peoples of India, Japan and Brazil. 25 Similarly their focus on, and success in, enlisting members of the European aristocratic classes reflects on their general success in attracting similar segments of society to gain protection in colonial and foreign lands. For example, when Francis Xavier (d. AD 1552) entered Japan, he won permission to proselytize the Japanese by impressing members of the Japanese elite by putting on an aristocratic appearance and through giving gifts of clocks, music boxes, wine and spectacles. 26

The success of Xavier’s approach in India and Japan encouraged Society’s superiors in Europe to consider a more relaxed approach towards matters of ritual purity for the missionaries working in non-Christian lands. In terms of missionary methodology this relaxed approach was a highly significant development as it marked a departure from the traditional practice of treating Christianity as a distinctly European enterprise. 27 The Jesuits, however, argued that space for such practices originated from the peculiar circumstances they faced in foreign lands, as well as their conviction that all that was good belonged to Christianity and finally because means should justify ends in evangelical pursuits. 28 This approach has parallels with arguments made in favor of CPT, that is, in terms of overall orientation as well as content. More specifically this approach allowed the Jesuits to not only preach but also to learn from the natives of heathen lands. Furthermore, by attempting to understand others as they understood themselves, the Jesuits were able to develop a comparative perspective and identify those elements of heathen faith and philosophy that could be used as common ground to expound the superiority of the Christian point of view. Furthermore, the Jesuit approach also brings to the forefront the issue of intentionality implicit in claims of understanding the other in such a manner. As the title of this chapter suggests, belief in an almost divinely sanctioned superiority and consequent glorification of one’s own tradition must be factored into any efforts aimed at a fusion of horizons between disparate civilizations. These beliefs, as I argue later, can result in quite unintended consequences, which can be detrimental to the primary objectives of comparative interlocutors, on the one hand, and can cause faulty theorization, on the other.

The Jesuits were convinced that the key to Christianizing the East lay in persuading the Chinese to adopt Christianity. This conviction, however, was an unintended consequence of their willingness to enter into a dialogue with the Japanese. The Japanese believed themselves to be knowledgeable and wise but accepted their inferiority to the Chinese in matters of wisdom, scholarship and other civilizational traits. This understanding emerged during Xavier’s dialogues with Buddhist monks in Japan. These monks repeatedly raised doubts about the viability of the Jesuit message because of the absence of any mention of Christianity in the works of the Chinese philosophers and scholars. 29 These dialogues were also significant for the later development of Jesuit missionary methodology because they made Xavier realize that the success of a mission depends considerably on the degree to which the missionaries can become part of a particular civilization through learning native customs, languages and norms of behavior. 30 This understanding grew out of Xavier’s conviction that among all the lands he had visited, the Japanese were “the only ones who could by themselves perpetuate Christianity,” partly because of the Chinese influence on them. 31 These dialogues were also the beginning of the Jesuit interest in establishing themselves in China. Describing the Chinese, Xavier wrote in a letter to Ignatius:

These Chinese are very talented and dedicated to studies, especially with respect to the human laws pertaining to the governing of a state. They have a great desire of knowledge. They are a white race, without beards and with very small eyes. They are a generous people and, above all, very peaceful. 32

And in another, written immediately before he was to leave for China, Xavier stated:

Three of us . . . are going to the court of the King of China, which is near Japan, a land that is extremely large and inhabited by a very gifted race and by many scholars. . . . They are greatly devoted to learning; and the more learned one is, the more noble and esteemed he is. 33

It is interesting to note that all this information about the Chinese is solely based on Xavier’s experiences with Buddhist monks in Japan, yet he is convinced that China held the key to converting the East. Xavier died before he could ever reach the Chinese mainland; however, the fascination he created with China prospered and was shared by those who became key office holders of the Society in Europe. Most prominent among these Jesuit officials was Alessandro Valignano (d. 1606), who was appointed Visitador (personal delegate) to all Jesuit missions in the Índias Orientais, by the General Superior of the Jesuit Order in AD 1573. 34 As a personal delegate of the General Superior, and remembering the centralized and hierarchical nature of the Society of Jesus, Valignano had extraordinary powers in overseeing and governing the regions under his jurisdiction. These powers included admission, dismissal, appointment, and transfer of members, and also determination of local Society superiors and implementation of new mission policies, based on native circumstances. Furthermore, Valignano was not under any obligation to seek approval or even counsel of political authorities in the regions in which he operated. 35 This obviously created the potential for direct conflict between religious and political authorities, on the one hand, and indirectly within the Society of Jesus, on the other, because it challenged the influence and authority of the Jesuits present at the Portuguese court. 36 These two together could also further intensify hostility between Jesuits and their rival religious orders in the West. 37

Valignano, however, remained unaffected by these underlying tensions and successfully kept pushing the sphere of Jesuit activity farther east. 38 In fact, he went so far as to initiate what may be termed the first ever diplomatic mission from Japan to Europe by attempting to bring four Japanese youths to represent the Japanese Christian feudal lords at papal, Portuguese and Spanish courts. 39 Valignano’s dual purpose in initiating this project was to impress Europe with the success of Jesuit missionaries in the East, on the one hand, and to dazzle the Japanese youth with the achievements of the European civilization, on the other. 40 This act is also reflective of Valignano’s desire to burnish the Society’s image in Western eyes and to discredit accusations of rival religious orders against the Jesuit approach to missionary work. A discussion of the ultimate consequences of this episode, which were quite far-reaching and unexpected, is not within the scope of this book. The purpose here is to simply identify the general approach of Jesuit activity in the East under Valignano’s leadership. For purposes of clarity the hallmark of his approach was the willingness to learn from the circumstances in foreign lands and tailor Jesuit missionary policy accordingly. Furthermore he believed in communicating the successes of Jesuit missionary methods to garner further support for the Society’s work.

From CPT’s perspective it is noteworthy that Valignano’s primary region of interest was the Far East where, in the case of Japan, he virtually overturned the policies of his predecessor Francisco Cabral in favor of a policy of accommodation of Christianity to Japanese culture. 41 Furthermore he gave directions for a similar approach to be employed in China and appointed Matteo Ricci to that mission. Like Xavier, he was also convinced that Christianity and Europeanism should be separated if the former was to be successful in the Far East. This approach reminds one of Dallmayr’s argument that the most suitable approach for comparative theorists and CPT is to locate a mid-point between the two extremes of Euro-centricism and Euro-denial and engage with non-Europeans from that vantage point. 42

As it is clear from the above discussion, by the time Ricci moved to China, Jesuit leaders were convinced of at least two things. First, in order for Christianity to succeed in China, or the East generally, accommodation of Christianity to Eastern cultures was necessary. This required a deeper understanding of these cultures through learning their languages and significant cultural traits. 43 Second, Society superiors believed that Christianity should be presented in a most palatable manner to the natives of Eastern lands. This forced them to be selective in presenting the Christian faith to non-Westerners and they presented only those elements of the Christian faith to these foreigners which they believed would be readily accepted by them given their specific cultural backgrounds. It was in this context that Ricci was ordered to go to China by Valignano in AD 1583. 44 Because of Valignano’s instructions, Ricci’s early career in China was dedicated to learning the language and reporting circumstances of the Chinese kingdom to the society superiors in Europe. 45

During these early years the responsibilities assigned to Ricci by Valignano, coupled with his keen intellect, helped him in appreciating the complexities involved in fulfilling the role of an interlocutor between the East and the West. Ricci’s journals, in his own words, are meant for a European audience and he consistently provides comparable examples from Europe to equip his audience with the tools to understand better the Chinese customs, laws and attitudes. 46 In doing so, Ricci and his translator Trigault also inevitably reveal the process through which they themselves make sense of Chinese peculiarities. Once again it is noteworthy that Ricci, or his translator, miss no opportunity for claiming superiority of the journals over other available sources on China in Europe. The Journals, highlighting the rigor of the Jesuit method of understanding the culturally other, claim:

We [the Jesuits] have lived in friendly intercourse with the nobles. . . . We speak the native language of the country, have set ourselves to the study of their customs and laws and finally, what is highest of importance, we have devoted ourselves day and night to the perusal of their literature. 47

The narrative that follows this claim is fairly elaborate and describes the geography, culture and government of the Chinese kingdom. 48

From CPT’s perspective, however, the more significant sections of the Journals are those which juxtapose China against Europe. Ricci also frequently intersperses explanatory notes in his description of the Chinese other to contextualize his observations for his readers. For instance, he explains that the Chinese king is called the Lord of the Universe, because the Chinese believe that their vast dominion is coterminous with the borders of the universe. He further states that the Chinese make claim despite the knowledge of neighboring kingdoms which in their opinion are unworthy of any serious attention. 49 Anticipating, and perhaps in order to tone down any feelings of ridicule or absurdity in his European audience towards this Chinese notion of self-assigned jurisdiction, Ricci immediately reminds the Europeans that if the Chinese knew about similar titles assumed by European monarchs they would also be amazed at the absurdity of such notions, as no European ruler ever had any jurisdiction over China. 50 However this conciliatory tone should not be mistaken as the overriding theme of the narrative as Ricci frequently highlights European superiority in several areas. A most significant observation in this regard is his claim that the Chinese sense of superiority is a result of their ignorance. He claims that once their shortcomings are made clear to them the Chinese prefer the foreign to the local. 51 This claim seems quite unbelievable when examined in context of repeated assertions, by Jesuits in general and Ricci in particular, that the Chinese believe all foreigners are barbarians. 52 In fact, according to Ricci:

Even the written characters by which they [the Chinese] express the word foreigner are those that are applied to beasts, and scarcely ever do they give them a title more honorable then they would assign to their demons. 53

This attitude towards the other reminds one of the images that the Europeans had of the Mongols (Tartars), as explained in the chapter on William of Rubruck. In fact Ricci himself mentions that the last known raids on the Chinese mainland were made by the Tartars and since then the kingdom has been peaceful. 54 A reasonable claim here would be that Chinese hostility towards foreigners was due to memories and stories of past invasions but Ricci puts forward a totally different reason for this attitude. According to him, Chinese hostility to foreigners derived from their conviction that they could learn nothing of value from a source other than what was contained in their own books of wisdom. 55

From above examples Ricci’s claims seem self-contradictory at times, however, the real significance of his journals, for CPT, lies in the fact that they actually show attempts to achieve accommodation between two disparate cultures over a considerably long period of time. Furthermore, it also seems credible to suggest that the Journals, published after Ricci’s death, could also be an attempt to convince the Europeans of Jesuits’ achievements in China, that is, in addition to informing the Europeans about the Chinese. Partial proof of this claim is evident from the fact that Trigault heavily edited the actual journals to glorify the Jesuit mission in China and also to make them more palatable to a European audience. 56 This insight into the character of the Society of Jesus, once again, brings forth the significance of intentions with which any comparative work is undertaken. And, as discussed later in this chapter, what followed the publication of these journals in Europe cautions us of the inevitability of unintended outcomes during and after and inter-cultural contact even when they are made in the spirit of dialogue to mutual understanding and respect.

The first real opportunity that Ricci gained to influence and impress the Chinese was the unexpected interest shown by the Chinese Literati in the cosmological chart of the universe displayed in the Jesuit mission. 57 The governor of the province where the Jesuit mission was based requested Ricci to make a similar description of the world in Chinese. In describing this episode Ricci reasserts the point that the Chinese had never known such a description of the world and were intrigued by the depiction of their kingdom as only one part of the great East. 58 Ricci welcomed the invitation and immediately began work on a bigger more detailed map of the world with Chinese illustrations. 59 He states that “keeping with the Chinese genius” in this detailed version, he made several amendments and added new annotations, which were missing in the original map. 60 The journals boast of Ricci’s ingenuity because he accommodated the Chinese misconception of being located in the center of the world by depicting the kingdom towards the center in the new map. 61 This clever tactic paid off in two important ways in furthering Ricci’s effort to engage the Chinese; first, it developed a much higher general opinion of the European education system among the Chinese elite; and second, it helped to reduce the characteristic Chinese fear of foreigners by confirming that Europe and China were separated by great bodies of water and other natural barriers which dampened the overriding Chinese concerns regarding possible attacks by foreign “barbarians” on their kingdom. 62

The success of the map greatly emboldened Ricci and he began concentrating on preparing and presenting other scientific objects which bore testimony to Europe’s superior status vis-à-vis China in the scientific realm. It is, however, interesting to note that the Jesuit effort in this regard was not focused on creating a general awareness about European scientific achievements. Instead, the Jesuits identified and chose to emphasize only those aspects which they thought were of direct relevance to the Chinese and would have emphasized European equality to China in the scientific field. 63 From CPT’s perspective, please note that at this stage the Jesuits were still in the process of creating a favorable space for themselves in China. In other words, this was the pre-dialogue stage of the Jesuit-Chinese contact. The Jesuit approach, which worked quite nicely, at least until Ricci’s death, suggests that in order to hold a meaningful dialogue between representatives of diverse traditions one must first clearly establish that a dialogue is worthwhile because of advances already made independently in areas of possible mutual interest. The journals repeatedly state it was Ricci’s success in establishing the Jesuits’ expertise in the scientific field which eventually led to a sustained dialogue on equal terms between Ricci and the Chinese Literati. 64 Nicolas Standaert has described this pre-dialogue phase as the “first stage” of the “major principle” of cultural contact. 65 Once this mutual interest is established, the next stage involves acceptance of those characteristics of the other, both in thought and behavior, which are non-existent in one’s own culture. However, these alien elements are almost never accepted, as they exist in their indigenous cultural setting and are always subject to reinterpretation before their incorporation into one’s own system of ideas. 66 It seems only logical to assume that events during both these stages of cultural contact are important since the approach adopted and the intentions at work during the first stage are intrinsically linked to the fate of the dialogue which takes place essentially in the second stage of the overall process.

One could argue that in case of the Jesuits in China it is the expectations developed by both sides during the pre-dialogue stage which determined the fate of the Jesuit China mission in the post-Ricci period. In the pre-dialogue stage, Ricci realized that there were many similarities between the Chinese society and Europe. Once these similarities were identified, it became inevitable for him to theorize and alter Jesuit preferences so that the ultimate objective of Christianizing China could be achieved. One must recall here the suggestion made by Parel that CPT’s purpose must be to seek similarities between disparate civilizations. As we can see, in case of Ricci, similarities merely necessitated a new approach towards the civilization with which one is trying to engage in a meaningful dialogue. Ricci had to make drastic changes to the Jesuit approach in light of what he experienced. Ironically, the first of these changes was to abandon an overt religious posture. During their first decade in China the Jesuits had socially positioned themselves as parallels to the Chinese Buddhist clergy because of their proximity in terms of vocation. Ricci realized that this positioning was reflecting negatively on the missionaries and sought approval from Valignano to allow the missionaries to change their identity to that of Western intellectual and adopt the dress and life style of the Chinese Literati, who had the most dignified status in the kingdom. 67

Ricci’s request, which was granted by Valignano, had serious implications in both late sixteenth-century China and Europe. In Europe, because of their uneasy existence within the overall religio-political landscape of the West, it meant leaving the door open for fresh attacks on the integrity of Jesuit missionary strategy and ulterior motives because of issues related to ritual purity. In addition, if the strategy turned out to be successful it posed serious dangers to the prevalent Europe understanding that it had a monopoly over the Christian faith. Ricci appears to be fully aware of the potential objections arising out of these factors. He therefore repeatedly informs his audience that the Chinese believed that intellectuals and literati had the unity of method and customs regardless of their geographical locale because of their reliance on reason and logic in practicing their craft. Following from this Ricci argued that it is this Chinese belief which necessitates for the Jesuits to follow “the customs and wear the clothes demanded by the customs of the country in which they reside” so that they are accepted by the locals as European scholars and intellectuals. 68 This interesting argument reveals the importance of having an efficient strategy to keep the audience at home convinced that the Jesuit activities, in the zeal to achieve short-term goals, did not in any way compromise their European identity. To a certain extent, the discussion of CPT in earlier chapters of this book also highlights a similar tendency in a majority of attempts to conceptualize CPT. Most comparative theorists advocate inclusion of the ideas of non-Western thinkers into the mainstream study of political theory in the West. However, they do not seem so keen on exploring the impact of such an inclusion on the achievements of traditional political theory. 69

To restate for purposes of clarity, the comparativists’ main justification for instituting CPT and studying non-Western systems of ideas is dissatisfaction with traditional political theory’s Western domicile and its patronizing attitude toward other traditions through a claim to universality. Consequently comparative theorists aim at juxtaposing ideas of prominent non-Western thinkers vis-à-vis their Western counterparts to achieve a truly universal understanding of the political. I believe that the case of Jesuit missionaries in China compels comparative theorists to also consider the post-contact scenario. In every inter-cultural contact, due to exposure to new ideas, there is a potentially strong transforming influence at work which necessarily alters the self-identity of parties on both sides of the contact equation. Furthermore, this transforming influence may or may not push the encounter towards a fusion of horizons as the parties involved can also use the new information to develop more comprehensive and effective approaches to refute the other. This argument gains further strength as one considers the specifics of the missionary method which Ricci devised to achieve success in China.

Ricci’s innovative missionary method was based on his observation that China had a unique and very advanced literary culture and almost all Chinese preferred to read books over oral forms of acquisition of knowledge. This culture in turn was made possible by the easy and efficient Chinese printing method. 70 Ricci actually welcomed this Chinese trait as, according to him, written words, read at leisure and in one’s own language, could be much more persuasive than an oral sermon in a foreign language. 71 For Ricci, the possibility of writing books on Christianity in the Chinese language also ensured that Jesuits could spread their ideas to lands which they could not easily visit themselves. These included all fifteen provinces of the Chinese kingdom, the Japanese, the Koreans, the inhabitants of Cochin China, and the Leuchians. 72 However, making positive use of this Chinese trait required that the Jesuits adhered to the literary qualities and standards that the well-respected Chinese scholars adhered to. To this effect, Ricci set out to revise the first Chinese compendium of Christian doctrines, which was written with the help of translators and at a time when he was still a newcomer and did not fully understand the social and political realities of China. 73 The guidelines he adopted for this revision explain the key features of Ricci’s approach. The revised compendium, in Ricci’s words “a more ample explanation of the Christian doctrine,” was meant for the consumption of “pagans” and “neophytes” and was based “entirely on arguments drawn from natural light of reason rather than such as are based upon the authority of the holy scripture.” 74 In addition, the new compendium also contained citations “which served its purpose” from the works of ancient Chinese writers and refuted all Chinese religious sects except the one that was adhered to by the Literati which was developed by Confucius, “the prince of Philosophers.” 75 For the benefit of his European audience Ricci again justified this approach by stating that Confucianism contained little that could be reprehensible to Christians. In addition, this approach made good sense because the Jesuits “were accustomed to use the authority of the Literati to their own advantage.” 76

Politically, this was Ricci’s masterstroke, because he not only openly endorsed the beliefs of the Literati, he also argued against the beliefs of the idol worshippers and hence established a doctrinal unity with the former and gained their support for Jesuit activities. 77 By siding with the Literati and depicting Confucianism as a non-idolatrous ethical system based on natural reason, he created an image of the Literati as virtuous pagans who were worth saving. 78 Note that Ricci’s approach parallels William of Rubruck’s strategy to convince the Nestorians and Muslims to forge an alliance against Buddhists during the religious debate at the Mongol court. 79 It is noteworthy that in implicitly attempting to make an alliance with the Literati, Ricci took care to hide those elements of his own faith which could have alienated the Literati and he also did not question those Literati practices and beliefs which later became the source of the rites controversy in Europe and China. Ricci’s approach, as the journals claim, was very successful in the short run; however, he did not have the foresight to see the long-term problems that it would eventually cause. 80 Apparently, Ricci’s success rested on extremely shaky foundations, since the manner, and possibly the only one, through which he could fuse horizons between the Jesuits and the Literati was by misrepresenting the self and misunderstanding the other. 81

The above also raises some interesting concerns about methodological preferences of comparative theorists. First of these is in context of the argument favoring adoption of models based on the logic of Gadamarian philosophical hermeneutics for CPT. The Jesuit experience in China suggests that the desirable outcome for comparative theorizing should be the exact opposite of achieving a fusion of horizons because of the tendency of erroneously marginalizing those civilizational attributes that are fundamental to one’s self-understanding. Second, it exposes the inherent weakness of the practice of constructing imaginary dialogues between representatives of disparate civilization as the preferred style for doing CPT. An imaginary dialogue assumes that both parties have agreed to talk to each other. The case of Jesuits in China shows that reasons for scarcity of interaction during the pre-dialogue stage are equally important for understanding a previously inaccessible or unexplored system of ideas. Consequently, an imaginary dialogue, which juxtaposes ideas of the representatives of a non-Western tradition against familiar Western concepts, serves at best to achieve a temporary fusion of horizons which could easily fall apart when the genealogy and basis of non-Western ideas is taken into account. 82

Based on the criteria mentioned earlier, Ricci published numerous widely circulated works in Chinese on topics related to philosophy, religion, ethics and mathematics. 83 The fame gained through these works eventually won Ricci and the Jesuits a place at the Chinese imperial court. Hence, as Rubiés rightly asserts, it was

as members of a Renaissance civilization, and not as Christians, that sixteenth century missionaries could go further than their medieval predecessors. It was also largely in relation to the secular sciences that the Chinese intellectual elites welcomed, or rejected, the enormous effort of cultural transmission undertaken by the Jesuits. 84

Rubiés’s argument raises more interesting concerns regarding the fundamental assumption on which the whole CPT enterprise is based, that is, to understand the non-Westerners as they understand themselves. Rubiés’s argument here underscores the fact that the Jesuits completely misunderstood the relationship between their increasing fame and success in China and consequently their chances of converting the Chinese to the Christian faith. This misunderstanding seems to be based on two fundamental errors, first, Jesuits’ works were focused on gaining friends in the scholarly class and their success in achieving this objective could not be generalized to the broader Chinese population. Second, the compromises that the Jesuits had made in initiating a dialogue with the Literati were not reversible. They had projected their image as European scholars and were accepted only because they had the expertise to solve problems which were important to the Chinese but which they could not handle themselves, e.g., production of an accurate astronomical calendar. 85 Furthermore, they presented European civilization to the Chinese as scientifically advanced but having a rather straightforward and uniform religious character. As stated earlier, the Jesuits achieved this by hiding from the Chinese the deep divisions in matters of faith that characterized the Europe of their time. This invited severe criticism of Jesuit methods and motives from rival Christian groups at home and also from the rival groups of the Literati factions with whom they had gained favor. These attacks became especially scathing after Ricci’s death which again highlights the temporary nature of the fusion of horizons. It is obvious that the purpose of these attacks was to discredit the Jesuit religious teachings by exposing logical inconsistencies in the Christian doctrine. 86 But it is the manner in which the Jesuits’ scientific skills were denounced by these anti-Jesuit arguments which is most revealing. Some of Ricci’s Chinese critics discredited his skills and knowledge by emphasizing classical Confucian teachings about the need for a positive relationship between skill and the nurture of body and mind. Maintaining the notion that all foreigners are barbarians, they argued that, first, skills such as Ricci’s were already present in the writings of ancient Chinese scholars and, second, that even if these skills were new they had no impact on good government and good education which related to the mind of an individual and not in the skills that he could demonstrate. This superior ability of the mind remained the exclusive domain of the Chinese. 87 Other critical comments highlighted the universal notion present in neo-Confucius teachings that man was superior as compared to the rest of creation and existed in continuum with the heaven. Since heaven was the ultimate standard for goodness, therefore human nature, because of this privileged connection, was essentially good. This notion clashed directly with the Christian emphasis on man’s essential sinfulness and the consequent need for a savior. These critics accepted the presence of evil in men but also argued that sinfulness or evil could be cured through recourse to a Confucian education, which, unlike Christianity, showed the path and the remedy to cure such moral weaknesses. 88

The criticisms mentioned above constitute only a small sample of a whole industry of anti-Christian and anti-Western polemics in China. But even these few selections expose the inherent weakness of Ricci’s accommodation method. Ricci was able to befriend, and even convert, some very influential members of the elite scholarly class by posing as a Western scholar and displaying his remarkable scholarly abilities, but he was not very successful in converting key players in the religious arena in China. In other words, by adopting the social customs and dress of the Literati, Ricci was successful in becoming one of the Literati only and not as such a Chinese. His strategy of presenting a rather monolithic picture of the Christian faith backfired because most of the accusations leveled against his teachings were frequently the subject of religious and intellectual discussions in Europe. He had mastered the Chinese classics and in his Chinese works responded to these classics through recourse to reasoning methods learned during his own humanist training at Jesuit institutions in Europe. Yet, in his zeal to fit in with the upper reaches of Chinese society, he ignored the complexities of Christian doctrine and the Western scientific milieu.

It is noteworthy that on the scientific front, at the very time at which the Jesuits were introducing, using and promoting Copernican theories and ideas in the East to gain imperial favor, they were recognized as the leading opponents of Copernican scientists and of skeptical and post-skeptical philosophies in Europe. 89 The selective approach on the religious front is apparent in targeting the single most influential segment of Chinese society to gain access to the larger population and also by choosing to hide key elements of the Christian doctrine on the pretext that the uninitiated Chinese would not be able to grasp the complexities involved in understanding the superior Christian message. From the perspective of CPT this is instructive because it shows that opting for a selective approach placed the Jesuits in a precarious position in the middle of two great world civilizations, which had developed almost completely independent of each other with different but very dynamic and rich scholarly traditions. Both these civilizations believed in notions of heavenly perfection and, in the end, neither was willing to give up their superior self-image. As a result, the Jesuits were discredited in both civilizations, China as well as Europe.

It was the Rites controversy which eventually caused the downfall of the Jesuit China mission. As described till now, Ricci’s strategy was to befriend the Literati by arguing that in its pure form Confucianism was based on natural reason and principles fully acceptable to Christianity. Based on this argument, he identified segments of the Chinese society whose customs and lifestyle were potentially least objectionable to the Christians and hence perfectly all right for the Jesuits to adopt for achieving future mass conversions. He depicted remainder of the Chinese population as consisting of those who engaged in idolatry and indulged in customs totally unacceptable to Christianity. This neat theoretical division, made in the last decade of the sixteenth century, was accompanied by the beginning of sustained efforts by Ricci to establish himself as a scholar completely at par with the very best and most accomplished in the Chinese scholarly elite. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, Ricci had reached the Chinese capital and felt reasonably comfortable about the foundations of the church in China. It was at this point that he began to put into action the final stage of his plan for the Literati, which was to convince them that Christianity was not in conflict with the ideals of Confucian teaching and that it was possible for a high official of the Chinese empire to be Christian and a follower of Confucian teachings at the same time. 90 Ricci set about doing this by publishing comparative works on Confucianism and Christianity which were sure to be widely circulated because of his solid reputation and also because the Chinese, as mentioned earlier, had a rich literary culture and preferred to read books over oral forms of acquiring knowledge. Most of Ricci’s famous works, including the revised compendium and translations of other European texts, were produced during this stage of Ricci’s missionary career in China. Consequently, it was also during this period that the most scathing critiques of Ricci’s work surfaced from his opponents. 91 It is also noteworthy that Ricci was especially diligent in stressing to his Chinese audience that his new writings did not in any way suggest disrespect for Confucianism. Instead, he took the stance that the more he immersed himself into the realm of Confucian teachings, the more it became clear to him that the Chinese culture in its original form proclaimed a unique form of monotheism. 92 To this end, as Dunn argues in his seminal study, Ricci developed a Chinese philosophical vocabulary for Christian terms. 93 Many of these terms came under rigorous scrutiny by the Chinese and the Europeans alike and in most cases were adjudicated as being based on an inaccurate understanding of Confucianism by the Chinese, on the one hand, and as misrepresentation of Christianity by Jesuits’ European critics on the other. 94

From the point of view of this book, the critics on both sides were not merely interested in achieving a more accurate vocabulary by providing more nuanced understanding of both philosophies, that is, Confucianism and Christianity. Instead, the tone and content of these critiques emphasized the superiority and ultimate truthfulness of each system of ideas. Based on his understanding, Ricci had insisted that many of the ancestral rites practiced by the general public, and special Confucian rites followed by the sect of the Literati, were mere social practices and had no religious connotations. These rites reinforced notions of filial piety and formed the basis of the very fabric of Chinese society. Based on his argument for the secular nature of these ancestral rites, Ricci sought and was granted approval for continued practice of such rituals by Chinese Christians from his European superiors and the Vatican. As Ross aptly points out, if Ricci had not painted these rites as secular, there simply would not have been any Chinese Christianity. 95 In support of his arguments Ricci interviewed many of the members of the Literati regarding the true nature of these rites and reported in the Journals that the Literati claimed their association could be best understood as “an academy instituted for the proper government and general good of the kingdom.” 96 Based on this claim and his admiration for the Chinese scholarly tradition, he argued that in truth, “the teachings of this academy were far from being contrary to Christian principles which provided the basis to believe that such an institution could derive great benefit from Christianity and might be developed and perfected by it.” 97 One could accuse Ricci of being too desperate to achieve a compromise between Confucianism and Christianity, but this is a question for the historians to decide. However, from a theoretical perspective, it is interesting to note that Ricci believed that Confucius philosophy was deficient and could only be perfected once it was brought in line with Christian teachings. Remember that Ricci was acceptable to the Chinese only because of their misunderstanding that he appreciated and believed in the superiority of the Chinese tradition. This faith in the superiority of one’s tradition resulted in the persecution and eventual expulsion of Christian missionaries from China, as well as a prohibition against allowing Chinese Christians to practice ancestral rites through a papal bull by Pope Clement XI in AD 1715, hence bringing the Jesuit enterprise in China to an end. 98

If one hypothetically replaces the Jesuits with comparative theorists and their policy of accommodation with the question of appropriate methodology for doing CPT, the Chinese rites controversy provides at least two interesting macro level insights for CPT. First, the Jesuit case cautions us that an endeavor to compare and understand ideas of a non-Western civilization must not be an attempt to equate eventually and merge them with those of Western civilization. It also reminds us of the significance of taking into account the cultural baggage that interlocutors carry with them when initiating an inter-cultural dialogue. In addition, as the Jesuit and other cases of inter-cultural contacts discussed in this book show, while one’s cultural disposition is instrumental in making sense of the other, it also has the tendency to exaggerate the differences and similarities that are encountered in a foreign setting. This tendency can cause the desired inter-cultural dialogue to be based on flawed assumptions that can cause it to unravel on closer scrutiny and become counterproductive vis-à-vis the original intention of the interlocutors.

Second, the encounter between China and the West should caution comparativists that excursions into foreign lands, or foreign ideas, with the intention of achieving a degree of accommodation are by definition transformative in nature and leave a permanent mark on parties on both sides of the contact equation, that is, even in instances where achievements of inter-cultural interlocutors are reversed. For example, even though the advances made by the Jesuits in terms of their accommodation policy were eventually reversed because of the rites controversy, they nevertheless contributed heavily to the religious debates raging inside the Europe of their time. As Rubiés convincingly argues, because of their peculiar missionary spirituality, quite paradoxically, the Jesuits may actually have ended up playing the role of a catalyst in bringing about the eventual secularization of Europe. 99 The gist of Rubiés’s argument is that the religio-cultural and educational background of Jesuit missionaries working in China compelled them to identify and emphasize the distinction between the original intention of Confucian philosophy and the secularity of those Chinese civil customs that did not contradict the “natural light of reason.” The sophistication with which the Jesuits elaborated this point and responded to their critics (i.e., rival religious orders as well as philosophers) brought the foundations of the Christian-European identity of the time under intense scrutiny and eventually contributed to the emergence of the concept of a rational civilization that could exist independently of theological definitions. 100 Rubiés’s claim about the unintended consequences of Jesuit strategy in China, and the discussion in the first chapter of this book, remind us of the possibility that in the zeal to promote a geographically neutral and truly universal understanding of the political, comparative theorists in reality may be promoting an even more intensely Eurocentric account of the same. Finally, it brings into question the comparative theorists’ implied understanding that CPT can peacefully co-exist with, or as a subfield of, traditional Western political theory. One could argue that a fate similar to the one suffered by the religious orders within the counter Reformation and also the ultimate transformation of the very role of religion in Europe, as argued by Rubiés, could also befall the overall practice of political theory in the West.

NOTES

1. Karl Marx on China, see his “[Trade or Opium?] Published in New York Daily Tribune on September 20, 1858. Available online at http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1858/09/20.htm. Last accessed June 7, 2012.

2. While Ricci’s status as co-founder is popularly accepted, because of his invaluable contributions in establishing the china mission, some recent studies argue that the actual co-founder of the mission was Michele Ruggieri. See Brockey (2007) pp. 30–31. In addition, others such as Standaert (1985), call Valignano the co-founder of the China mission, see p. 56.

3. Trigault’s translation includes Ricci’s observations recorded in his meticulously kept diary, the Annual Mission Letters and his letters to other missionaries and close friends. I use the English translation from Trigault’s Latin by Gallaghar (1953) hereinafter referred to as Journals

4. See Hsing-San (1985) p. 37.

5. See for instance Journals p. xix, Gutheinz (1983) pp. 106–7 and Ibid., p. 37–39.

6. See Hart “Translating the Untranslatable: From Copula to Incommensurate Worlds” in Liu ed. (1999) pp. 48–50.

7. Gutheinz op. cit., p. 106.

8. From 1552 to 1583 twenty-five Jesuits had gone to China but were allowed to stay only for a short period. See Ronan and Oh (1988) p. xix.

9. See Brockey, op. cit., p.25; also, Peterson, “What to Wear? Observation and participation by Jesuit missionaries in late Ming society,” in Schwartz (1994) pp. 409–11.

10. As explained later in this chapter, the accommodation method was not solely Ricci’s idea; instead, the Jesuits realized the need for such an approach after they came into contact with the Japanese in the East and the policy in its early stages was defined by Francis Xavier and Alessandro Valignano. Ricci, however, was most responsible for perfecting it into an organized method in the Chinese context. For details see, among many others, Journals, pp. 275–77, 446–49 and Young (1983) pp. 9–24.

11. Ricci was cautious of not presenting the West as superior to Chinese civilization. For example see Duignan (1958) pp. 727–28.