From Ricci to Couplet: The Jesuits' Hybrid Interpretation of Confucianism (16th-17th century)
Confucius, Jesuits, Cultural Hybridity, China
The objective of this research is to analyze the Jesuit interpretation of Confucianism through the investigation of two works: Matteo Ricci’s Tianzhu Shiyi and the Jesuit version of the Lunyu, which is part of the collection known as Confucius Sinarum Philosophus. The adopted approach is inspired by the concepts of Cultural Hybridity, reflecting on the maturation of the Jesuit interpration of Confucian philosophy and its main topics: 1 – the figure of Confucius; 2 – the Jesuit belief in the existence of a monotheistic religion in Ancient China; 3 – Buddhism antagonism as a necessary facet of Confucianism; 4 – the Jesuit interpretation of Chinese rites as civil. These topics began with Matteo Ricci and the production of the Tianzhu Shiyi at the end of the 16th century and were consolidated in the 17th century with the publication of the Confucius Sinarum Philosophus in Europe. The chronological of this thesis covers the beginning of the Jesuit mission in China, in the 1580s, until the period of production and printing of the Confucius Sinarum Philosophus, by the end of the 1680’s