CHAPTER 7

XU GUANGQI'S RELIGIOUS WORKS

I. On the Authenticity olthe Works

Xu Guangqi was an important and well-known Christian, but some modem scholars both in China and worldwide have questioned the sincerity of his conversion. For example, Liang Qichao, an influential reformer and deep thinker, wrote in the lntellectua/ Trends in the Qing Period: The seed of late Ming and early Qing science came from the hands of the Jesuits ... The missionaries of that society had a clever way of preaching Christianity; they understood the psychology of the Chinese. They knew that the Chinese did not like religion of extreme superstition so they used science as alure, since the Chinese lacked science. On the surface evangelism was their side-Iine and the converts were allowed to worship the Chinese Tian (Heaven) and ancestors. Such a method was carried out for years, and both sides were satisfied. (1926, pp.28-9) A Japanese scholar, Inaha Kaneyama, has stated in The Comp/ete History 01 Qing Dynasty: After Matteo Ricci came to Beijing, the number of believers increased to more than two hundred within only four or five years. We may see the success of Catholicism in China from the conversion of eminent literati, such as Li Zhizhao, Yang Tingyun Xu Guangqi, and others. Those eminent literati, therefore, converted not for the reason of absolute faith in Christianity, but beeause of the method of persuasion used by Matteo Rieci, whieh did not greatly differentiate its central ideas from Chinese traditional thought. The literat i of that time urgently needed Western science, and for this reason they eonverted. (1915, p. 132)1 Since the foundation ofthe People's Republic ofChina, Xu Guangqi has been treated mainly as a successful scientist. Papers on him rarely mentioned his Christian faith, so that modem readers generally were not even aware that Xu Guangqi was a Christian. (LI Xiaolin, 1988, pp. 206-10) Here those scholars assumed that the encounter between Christianity and the late Ming empire was on the level of a bargain to which the dictum of the nineteenth century reformer, Zhang Zhidong, would apply: "Chinese leaming for the basis; Western leaming for the application." No real encounter at the

I Cf. LIU Yizheng, 1988, p. 675. 108 CHAPTER SEVEN

level of belief is presurned to have taken place, all being a matter of expediency. Their viewpoint also referred to the relationship of science and religion. The encounter between the late Ming world and the world of sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe certainly revealed a profound divergence in the understanding of man and the cosmos, but it is quite misleading to interpret it only in terms of a conflict between science and religion. It will be helpful to begin by looking at the standpoint of converts such as Xu Guangqi. Was Xu Guangqi a sincere Christian? How did he understand his faith in the light of his Confucian upbringing? The best way to find a reliable answer to these questions is to explore Xu Guangqi's own religious works to identify his religious faith. It is a great pity that we have no complete book of Xu Guangqi's works today, even though many collections of Xu's writings have been compiled by Chinese scholars since.2 It is obvious that his articles on Christianity were not the main part of Xu's writings, nor have they been completely preserved. For our purpose to know his understanding of Christianity, therefore, we can examine only his extant religious works. What are called the religious works of Xu Guangqi in Chinese academic circles usually include thirteen items. They are as follows (the order is my own):

(1) Eulogy on the Portrait 0/ Jesus; (2) Eulogy on the Portrait o/the Virgin Mary; (3) An Outline ofthe Way ofJustice; (4) Hymn ofAdmonition and Commandment; (5) An Admonitory Hymn on the Ten Commandments; (6) Admonitory Hymn 0/ the Seven Virtues 0/ Redemption; (7) A Hymn 0/Admonition on the Eight True Beatitudes; (8) A Hymn 0/ Admonition on the Fourteen Mercies; (9) A Letter in Reply to A Countryman; (10) A Short Explanation o/the Hanging Picture o/the Creator; (11) Memorial Written to De/end the Teaching o/Tian; (12) Refuting Heterodoxy; (13) A Random Collection 0/ Advisory Words.

In fact, there were two others besides the above thirteen articles: (14) A Postscript to the Twenty-Five Sayings, which talks about his communication with Ricci, and (15) Reading Notes on the Inscription 0/ the Luminous Religion, which talks about the Nestorian mission in China.

2 Cf. Wang Chongmin, 1963, Appendix 2, pp. 581-608, in which professor Wang Iisted all the collections ofXu Guangqi's writings.