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Doctoral Thesis MINISTRY OF NATIONAL EDUCATION AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH „1 DECEMBRIE 1918” UNIVERSITY IN ALBA IULIA FACULTY OF ORTHODOX THEOLOGY DOCTORAL SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY DOCTORAL THESIS The Religions of China (Confucianism, Daoism, Chan and Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism) and Christianity. A Historical Case Study for an Orthodox approach to the Theology of Religions and Comparative Theology: the „Empathic Exclusivism” Model ~ Summary ~ Scientific Coordinator: FR. AND UNIV. PROF. DR. EMIL JURCAN Author: ANDREI EMIL DIRLAU Alba Iulia 2016 Content PART I ARCHAIC CHINESE RELIGION: FROM MONOTHEISM TO DIFFUSED RELIGION INTRODUCTION: CONFUCIANISM – A DIFFUSED MONOTHEISM CHAPTER 1: THE ARCHAIC CHINESE MONOTHEISM. THE RICCI–LEGGE–GILES–CHRISTENSEN HERMENEUTICAL LINE 1.1. The archaic period 1.2. The books of the Chinese Classical Canon 1.3. The Religious Dimension of Confucianism 1.3.1. Confucianism is a religion, not merely an ethical-philosofical secular humanism 1.3.2. The religious paradigm of ancient China 1.4. The virtue of Legendary Sovereigns. Ideographic Epiphanies 1.5. Monotheism and the network of Rú-ist concepts 1.5.1. The fundamental religious concepts 1.5.1.1. Tian 1.5.1.2. Shang Di 1.5.1.3. Dao; Tian Dao 1.5.1.4. De 1.5.1.5. Tian Xia 1.5.2. Ren and the other Confucianist concepts 1.6. The descending dynamics of the fall from Dao: spiritual entropy and moral atrophy 1.7. After Babel 1.8. The last „good kings” and the first dynasties CHAPTER 2: RÚ-ISM AND A DISGUISED TEOCRACY 2.1. A periodization of the Confucianist schools 2.2. The Heaven’s Mandate 2.3. The State Cult 2.3.1. The centre of the State Cult: the imperial Feng Sacrifice to Tian. The Temple of Light (ming tang) and the Taishan sacred mountain 2.3.2. A monotheistic prayer: the Solstice Ritual. The Great Sacrifice to Shang Di (translated after James Legge) 2.4. Wang: a cruciform semiotics. A model of the State Cult 2.5. The imperial symbolism: a tangible hierophany 2.6. Disguised theocracy and diffused religion CHAPTER 3: RÚ 儒 – A SACERDOTAL CLASS. GRAPHO-CRACY, HIERO-GRAPHO-PHANY, ICONOCRACY, OPTOCRACY 3.1. Rú 儒: a (quasi-)sacerdotium 3.1.1. „The fragrant mildnesss” of an educated nature 3.1.2. Rú – the „Brahmins” of China in Nakamura’s interpretation 3.2. Charisma and writing 3.2.1. Charismatic authority and gentilic charisma 3.2.2. Caligraphy as a hierographo-phany. The masters of the image: the iconocrats. Rú – an optocracy 3.3. An optocratic culture. Pictograms, metaphors, icons 3.3.1. Fenollosa, the sun in the tree, and a visual civilisation 2 3.3.2. Ideographic writing and visuality 3.3.2.1. Of Icons and Logograms 3.3.2.2. Afinities with the iconic thinking of Orthodox Christianity PART II CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA. ITS INTERACTION WITH THE THREE RELIGIONS (SAN JIAO) INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 4: AN APOSTOLIC EVANGELISATION OF CHINA IN THE FIRST CENTURY? A HYPOTHESIS: THE HOLY APOSTLES THOMAS AND ANDREW 4.1. Saint Thomas’s Christians: The Syro-Malabar Rite 4.2. The sculptures at Kongwangshan and the „Perrier Hypothesis”: The Holy Apostle Thomas in East China? 4.3. A Buddhist „hi-jacking” of Christianity in China? 4.4. The Holy Apostle Andrew in Western China? 4.4.1. The „George Alexandrou hypothesis”: He raised the Cross on Ice 4.4.2. The Apostle Andrew’s four missionary journeys: Asia, Africa, Northern Europe 4.4.3. The Apostle Andrew in Sogdiana. The Saints Tadeus and Agai CHAPTER 5: THE MISSION OF THE (SIRIAN) CHURCH OF THE EAST TO TANG DYNASTY CHINA (618–907 A.D.) 5.1. The Syrian Church and the „Nestorian” misnomer 5.2. The main written and archeological sources. Chinese, Syrian and Arab sources 5.2.1. The Syrian Stele in Xi’an 5.2.1.1. The discovery of the Stele in the 17th century 5.2.1.2. The Land of Da Qin 大秦 and Fulin. The Bizantine Empire, Palestine and Syria in Chinese perception 5.2.1.3. The missionary Aluoben and China’s first Metropolite – Adam of Sinistan 5.2.1.4. The Tang Persecutions 5.2.1.5. Central-Asia Christianity and Mahayana Buddhism 5.2.1.6. Inculturation, indigenization, contextualization, accomodation. The risk of syncretism 5.2.2. The Syrian monastery of Da Qin – the first Christian monastery in China 5.2.3. The Dunhuang Documents or the „Jesus Sutras” 5.2.4. The Luoyang Pillar. The Sogdian Christians 5.2.4.1. A Christian dhārāṇi pillar. A Christian-Buddhist iconography 5.2.4.2. The inscription: The Chinese Trisagion, the sūtra of the Metropolite Adam of China and the high Sogdian clergy 5.2.4.3. The Da Qin monastery confirmed. The theological vocabulary and the first „Buddhist-Daoist” Hristology in China CHAPTER 6: THE SYRIAN CHRISTIANITY AND THE FRANCISCAN CATHOLIC MISISION IN YUAN MONGOL DYNASTY CHINA (1271–1367) 6.1. The reintroduction of Nestorian Christianity in the Mongol Empire and Northern China 6.1.1. The Christianized Turkish-Mongolian tribes – a vehicle of Nestorianism in China 6.1.1.1. From Central Asia, along the Silk Road, to Khanbaliq 6.1.1.2. A Christian tribal elite. Kubilai’s mother, Patriarch Yaballaha III, Bar Sauma and Prince George 6.1.2. The organization of missionary structures of the Syrian Church in China 6.1.2.1. Syrian Metropolitanates along the Silk Road: Merv, Samarkand, Kashgar 3 6.1.2.2. The Metropolitan provinces in China: Almaliq and Cathay 6.1.3. Christians of Byzantine rite (Alans, Russians, melkites), Armenians and Jacobites 6.2. The Catholic Presence in Yuan dynasty China 6.2.1. Travellers and merchants. Niccolo, Maffeo and Marco Polo 6.2.2. The Franciscan Mission 6.2.2.1. Giovani dal Piano del Carpini and Willem van Rubroek 6.2.2.2. Giovanni da Montecorvino, Archbishop of Khanbaliq 6.2.2.3. Odoric of Pordenone CHAPTER 7: THE CATHOLIC MISSION TO MING AND QING DYNASTY CHINA (16TH–18TH CENTURIES) 7.1. The Jesuits in late Ming dynasty China (16th–17th centuries) 7.1.1. Michele Ruggieri, Matteo Ricci and Valignano’s „accomodation” strategy 7.1.1.1. From Buddhist beggars to authentic Ru-s 7.1.1.2. Missionary cartography, eclipses and an excentric emperor 7.1.1.3. The accomodation strategy 7.1.2. Mysterious Kathay. From Marco Polo to Bento de Góis 7.2. Jesuites in Qing Manciurian dynasty China (sec. XVII-XVIII) 7.2.1. After Ricci: Trigault, Longobardo, Semedo, Schall 7.2.1.1. Nicolas Trigault: De Christiana Expeditione apud Sinas 7.2.1.2. Alvaro Semedo: Imperio de la Cina 7.2.1.3. Adam Schall: an excentric astronomer 7.2.2. The Decree of Tolerance. Kangxi – a Chinese „Constantine the Great”? The „Golden Period” 7.2.2.1. Philippe Couplet: Confucius Sinarum Philosophus 7.2.2.1.1. A Chinese eating with chopsticks in the Versailles 7.2.2.1.2. Proemialis Declaratio 7.2.2.1.3. The translation of the Clsasics Da Xue (Great Learning) and Zhong Yong (Unwobbling Pivot) 7.2.3. Longobardo’s treaty. The beggining of the Rites Controversy 7.3. The Rites Controversy 7.3.1. The context of the controversy. The arrival of the Dominicans 7.3.2. The actual controversy 7.3.3. Crisis: Maigrot and Tournon 7.3.4. The consequences of the controversy. Repression. Disaster PART III: FIGURISM – INTUITIONS AND ERRORS. A „DEAD END”, OR A FIRST ATTEMPT AT CREATING A COHERENT CONTEXTUAL THEOLOGY IN CHINA? CHAPTER 8: THE SEPTUAGINT OR THE VULGATE? THE ISSUE OF CHRONOLOGY 8.1. The Septuagint and the early non-Masoretic version of the Old Testament 8.2. The Vulgate and the deviations of the Masoretic Text CHAPTER 9: THE FIGURISM: TOPICS AND DIRECT PRECURSORS 9.1. Gabriel de Magalhães 9.1.1. Yang Guangxian and Li Zubai’s response 9.1.2. Nouvelle relation de la Chine. Chinese chronology 9.2. Martino Martini – the „Mandarine of Heaven” 9.2.1. Life: sinologist, theologian, historian, mathematician, cartographer, „admiral”, „mandarine of God” 9.2.1.1. Trento, Rome, Lisbon, Goa, Macao, Canton 9.2.1.2. Hangzhou. Wèi Kuāng Guó 衛匡國 – a missionary in the „desert of the 4 Tartars” 9.2.1.3. The sting: the caligrapher-general, the deserted-fortress stratagem, and the Doctor of divine law from the Great West 9.2.1.4. Manila, Batavia, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Antwerpen, Bruxelles: The White Elephant and the Cycle of Cathay 9.2.1.5. Rome: making the case to Propaganda Fide and the dispensations. Pope Alexandru VII’s „economic” decree 9.2.1.6. Genoa, Lisbon, Macao, Hangzhou. The „relics” and their veneration by the „pagans” 9.2.2. The work: from success to being ignored to rediscovery 9.2.2.1. Works in Chinese 9.2.2.1.1. The treaty On Friendship 9.2.2.1.2. „The Rational Proofs on the Existence of the True God “ 9.2.2.1.3. Gramatica Linguae Sinicae. The Essay against the Doctrine of Reincarnation 9.2.2.2. Novus Atlas Sinensis 9.2.2.3. De Bello Tartarico 9.2.2.3.1. The narative content 9.2.2.3.2. Martini’s historiographic method 9.2.2.4. Brevis Relatio 9.2.2.5. Sinicae Historiae Decas Prima 9.2.2.5.1. A synthesis of the reconciliation between two worlds 9.2.2.5.2. An Accomodationist-„Figurist” chronology. The Flood. The theory of a mythological mnemogenesis of the first sovereigns a) The Ussher – Yao variant b) The Septuagint variant 9.2.2.5.3. The first sovereigns, the Heavenly Spirit and the Golden Age 9.2.2.5.4.
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