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Sheng Ren in the Figurists' Reinterpretation of the Yijing

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religions Article Sheng Ren inArticle the Figurists’ Reinterpretation of the Sheng Ren in the Figurists’ Reinterpretation of Yijing the Yijing Sophie Ling-chia Wei Sophie Ling-chia Wei Department of Translation, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; [email protected] of Translation, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; [email protected] Received: 13 July 2019; Received:Accepted:13 20 JulySeptember 2019; Accepted: 2019; Published: 20 September 26 September 2019; Published: 2019 26 September 2019 Abstract: Christian missionsAbstract: toChristian China have missions sought to to China make have their sought message to makemore acceptable their message to their more acceptable to their Chinese audience byChinese expressing, audience in translations by expressing, of Christian in translations texts, Christian of Christian terms texts, and Christianconcepts in terms and concepts in language borrowed languagefrom China’s borrowed indigenous from China’s Buddhist, indigenous Confucian, Buddhist, and Confucian,Daoist traditions. and Daoist The traditions. The Jesuits Jesuits were especiallywere renowned especially for renowned their accommodation for their accommodation policy. Interestingly, policy. Interestingly, when the Jesuit when the Jesuit Figurists Figurists arrived in arrivedChina in in the China early in theQing early dynasty, Qing dynasty, they conducted they conducted exhaustive exhaustive studies studies on the on the Chinese classics, Chinese classics, studiesstudies in which in which they they identified identified Tian Tianand andDi ofDi Chineseof Chinese culture culture with withGod or God Deus or Deus in Latin; their in Latin; their descriptionsdescriptions of Jesus of Jesusand Adam and Adam were were decorated decorated with with “chinoiserie” “chinoiserie” through through their their association with association with the theYijingYijing andand Chinese Chinese mystical mystical legends. legends. Each Each Figurist, Figurist, in investigating in investigating Figurism Figurism and interpreting and interpreting the theYijingYijing, had, had his hisown own identity, identity, focus, focus, and and trajectory. trajectory. The The Figurist Figurist use use of sheng of sheng ren ren was employed in was employed in thisthis paper paper to todistinguish distinguish each each signature signature approach approach and and how how they they explained explained the the image of Jesus and image of Jesus and prelapsarianprelapsarian Adam Adam using using the the ethical ethical emotions emotions and and virtues virtues of of a a shengsheng ren ren 聖人º inin their reinterpretation their reinterpretationof of the theYijing Yijing andand the DaoDao.. This This also also led led to tothe the European European people people aspiring aspiring for a for a more in-depth more in-depth understandingunderstanding and more and morediscussion discussion of the of Yijing the Yijing and theand Dao the. Dao. Keywords: Jesuit Figurists;Keywords: YijingJesuit; sheng Figurists; ren; sage;Yijing Christianity;; sheng ren Confucianism;; sage; Christianity; Dao Confucianism; Dao 1. Introduction 1. Introduction Christian missions to China have sought to make their message more acceptable to their Chinese Christian missions to China have sought to make their message more acceptable to their Chinese audience by expressing, in translations of Christian texts, Christian terms and concepts in language audience by expressing, in translations of Christian texts, Christian terms and concepts in language borrowed from China’s indigenous Buddhist, Confucian, and Daoist traditions. The Jesuits were borrowed from China’s indigenous Buddhist, Confucian, and Daoist traditions. The Jesuits were especially renowned for their accommodation policy. Interestingly, when the Jesuit Figurists arrived especially renowned for their accommodation policy. Interestingly, when the Jesuit Figurists arrived in in China in the early Qing dynasty, they conducted exhaustive studies on the Chinese classics, studies China in the early Qing dynasty, they conducted exhaustive studies on the Chinese classics, studies in which they identified Tian and Di of Chinese culture with God or Deus in Latin; their descriptions in which they identified Tian and Di of Chinese culture with God or Deus in Latin; their descriptions of Jesus and Adam were decorated with “chinoiserie” through their association with the Yijing and of Jesus and Adam were decorated with “chinoiserie” through their association with the Yijing and Chinese mystical legends. The Figurists explained the image of Jesus and prelapsarian Adam using Chinese mystical legends. The Figurists explained the image of Jesus and prelapsarian Adam using the ethical emotions and virtues of a sheng ren 聖人 in their reinterpretation of the Yijing and the Dao. the ethical emotions and virtues of a sheng ren Vº in their reinterpretation of the Yijing and the Dao. The image of the sheng ren 聖人 (sage) depicted in the Yijing is that of a sage with high virtues sheng ren Vº Yijing who embodies the ideals Theof a imagesage king of the from Chinese history.(sage) The depicted sheng in ren the enjoys ais supreme that of a sagestatus with high virtues who embodies the ideals of a sage king from Chinese history. The sheng ren enjoys a supreme status due to due to his virtues and flawlessness, as described in Confucianism and Daoism; Joachim Bouvet (1656– 1730) thus describes hisJesus virtues as a Confucian and flawlessness, sage for as the described purpose in of Confucianism proselytization and and Daoism; Joseph JoachimHenri- Bouvet (1656–1730) Marie de Prémare (1666thus–1736) describes and Jean Jesus François as a Confucian Foucquet sage (1665 for– the1741) purpose also applied of proselytization this term to and their Joseph Henri-Marie de description of Jesus inPr theirémare Chinese (1666–1736) writings and Jeanand in François their dissemination Foucquet (1665–1741) of the Dao also toapplied Europe. this While term to their description Dao staying in the imperialof Jesus court, in theirFoucquet Chinese, under writings pressure and in from their disseminationthe Kangxi Emperor of the (1654to Europe.–1722), While staying in the employed his expertiseimperial of astronomical court, Foucquet, knowledge under pressureand deciphered from the the Kangxi images Emperor of hexagrams (1654–1722), in the employed his expertise Yijing Yijing, using them toof draw astronomical parallels knowledgebetween the and fall deciphered of Adam and the imagesthe hexagram of hexagrams Yi 頤 in(Corners the of , using them to draw Yi $ the Mouth/Nourishment)parallels and between redefine thed Jesus fall ofas Adama sheng and ren. the hexagram (Corners of the Mouth/Nourishment) and sheng ren On the other hand,redefined Prémare, Jesus after as abeing deemed. unfit for the imperial court, lived in the coastal areas of China. As one ofOn the the most other knowledgeable hand, Prémare, missionaries after being who deemed had unfita great for command the imperial of both court, lived in the coastal areas of China. As one of the most knowledgeable missionaries who had a great command of both Religions 2019, 10, x; doi: FOR PEER REVIEW www.mdpi.com/journal/religions Religions 2019, 10, 553; doi:10.3390/rel10100553 www.mdpi.com/journal/religions Religions 2019, 10, 553 2 of 10 Classical and vernacular Chinese, he analyzed the compositions of Chinese characters; it was he who used the two hexagrams Tai 泰 (Peace) and Pi & (Stalemate) to indicate the image of the sheng ren. In this paper, the concept of sheng ren are explored through the Chinese, Latin and French manuscripts of those Figurists; a close comparison and examination of their Chinese writings and manuscripts in European languages is made to identify the similarities and differences in their approaches in identifying Jesus and Adam as a type of Jesus,1 with sheng ren. In these rarely examined Chinese, Latin, and French manuscripts, Jesus, as a sheng ren, has plural and dialogic identities, which not only mitigated the differences between Christianity and the Yijing and reflected a new facet of the sheng ren to Chinese readers but also helped communicate the Dao to Europe. 2. Saint or Sage? A saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness or likeness or closeness to God. However, the use of the term “saint” depends on the context and denomination. In the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Oriental Orthodox, and Lutheran doctrines, all the faithful deceased in Heaven are considered saints, but some are considered worthy of greater honor or emulation (Woodward 1996, p. 16). According to Lawrence Cunningham, there are four general categories of saints: (1) godly people, (2) the blessed ones who are in heaven, (3) the persons publicly recognized for their holiness by the process of canonization in the Catholic Church, and (4) the justified, as that distinction is understood in the scriptures of the New Testament (Cunningham 1980, p. 62). When Christianity was brought by the first batch of Jesuit missionaries and they found they needed to translate the word “saint” into Chinese, the holiness of a saint was transferred and carried into the Chinese term they chose for translation, sheng ren Vº (literal translation: the holy man; semantic translation: the sage). In Latin, sanctus was usually used to refer to a saint or a holy man; in Chinese, it was translated into sheng ren Vº in the first Catholic catechism in Chinese, Tianzhu Shengjiao Shilu
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