Life, Thought and Image of Wang Zheng, a Confucian-Christian in Late Ming China Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde der Philosophischen Fakultät der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn vorgelegt von Ruizhong Ding aus Qishan, VR. China Bonn, 2019 Gedruckt mit der Genehmigung der Philosophischen Fakultät der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn Zusammensetzung der Prüfungskommission: Prof. Dr. Dr. Manfred Hutter, Institut für Orient- und Asienwissenschaften (Vorsitzender) Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kubin, Institut für Orient- und Asienwissenschaften (Betreuer und Gutachter) Prof. Dr. Ralph Kauz, Institut für Orient- und Asienwissenschaften (Gutachter) Prof. Dr. Veronika Veit, Institut für Orient- und Asienwissenschaften (weiteres prüfungsberechtigtes Mitglied) Tag der mündlichen Prüfung：22.07.2019 Acknowledgements Currently, when this dissertation is finished, I look out of the window with joyfulness and I would like to express many words to all of you who helped me. Prof. Wolfgang Kubin accepted me as his Ph.D student and in these years he warmly helped me a lot, not only with my research but also with my life. In every meeting, I am impressed by his personality and erudition deeply. I remember one time in his seminar he pointed out my minor errors in the speech paper frankly and patiently. I am indulged in his beautiful German and brilliant poetry. His translations are full of insightful wisdom. Every time when I meet him, I hope it is a long time. I am so grateful that Prof. Ralph Kauz in the past years gave me unlimited help. In his seminars, his academic methods and sights opened my horizons. Usually, he supported and encouraged me to study more fields of research. He recommended that I should take part in the seminars of BIGS, whereby I knew a lot of Ph.D colleagues and especially I have benefited immeasurably from the discussions, reports and methods. Here I should express my gratitude to Prof. Christine Schirrmacher, Prof. Christoph Antweiler, Prof. Stephan Conermann, Prof. Ines Stolpe, Prof. Günther Distelrath, Prof. Julia Hegewald, Prof. Bethany Joelle Walker, Prof. Judith Pfeiffer, Dr. Andreas Mühlichen, Dr. Ralph Lützler, Dr. Jim Rheingans and Dr.Timo Duile, who supplied many suggestions and inspirations for my research. I also want to express my thanks to Prof. Christian Schwermann, Prof. Manfred Hutter and Prof. Günther Distelrath. In the seminars, Prof. Schwermann’s preciseness and refinement impressed me deeply. His enthusiasm for Chinese philosophy may excess Chinese scholars. In the seminars, Prof. Distelrath’s statistical methods and theory inspired my research thinking, i.e. to use statistical methods to do research on ancient texts. He also kindly showed me how to use some statistical softwares. In the seminars, Prof. Hutter’s passion and knowledge remained in my mind profoundly. He also warmly introduced some works on the sociology of religion to me. China Zentrum and the Institute of Monumenta Serica in Sankt Augustin provided me with tremendous help on my study. I give special thanks to P. Martin Welling, P. Piotr Adamek, P. Zbigniew Wesołowski, Dr. Barbara Hoster and Dr. Hu Baozhu. The librarian, Hr. Alek Stypa, searched for many books for me, despite my frequent and bothering demands. My warm and deep appreciation should be expressed to Prof. Nicolas Standaert, who invited me as a visiting scholar to study in the University of Leuven. During the three months, Prof. Standaert very kindly instructed me to use some databases and we discussed some themes together with other Ph.D students. Especially, he supplied me with his many superior research articles, and he also pointed out some important parts in my study. Prof. Adrianus Dudink is a very kind and learned scholar, who supplied some rare texts about Wang Zheng and articles to me. Every time in the library when we met, his thoughts surprised me greatly all the time. Prof. Noël Golvers also provided help and a lot of articles to me. I am grateful to the librarian of East Asian Studies Library, Ms. Benedicte Vaerman who helped me find relevant books wherever upstairs or downstairs. Therefore, I have inadequate words to thank them. In the meantime, I am also very grateful to the institute of Ferdinand Verbiest of Leuven University, they provided me with accommodation for three months, especially P. Jeroom Heyndrickx who is nearly 90 years old and helped me find some French texts. I would like to thank Prof. Lin Lechang of Shaanxi Normal University, who supplied me with his works on Wang Zheng. He also encouraged me to explore deeper and more profound thinking about the research. I sincerely thank Prof. Dong Shaoxin of Fudan University, who supplied me with some translated documents about Wang Zheng, which is in Portuguese. I am particularly grateful to Dr. Jiang Wei who also timely supplied me with some sources. I would also like to give many thanks to Silvia Toro of Leuven University, a Ph.D student and Chen Tuo of Fudan University, a Ph.D student, for the time together in Leuven and their warm help. Also, I give warm thanks to my scholarship KAAD, who financed me for the past four years. Thanks to Dr. Heinrich Geiger, who kindly cares about me all the time and Frau Karin Bialas, who is very careful and works for our Asian scholarship students. I am deeply indebted to my parents and my wife and without their support and encouragement, this research could not be finished. 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 3 1.1 Brief Biography of Wang Zheng ......................................................................... 4 1.2 Research Stance .................................................................................................. 6 1.2.1 During the Qing Dynasty ............................................................................... 6 1.2.2 From the Beginning of Minguo to the Late 1970s ......................................... 7 1.2.3 After the Late 1970s....................................................................................... 9 1.3 The Collection of Wang Zheng’s Works ........................................................... 19 1.4 My Former Research on Wang Zheng .............................................................. 20 1.5 Research Questions ........................................................................................... 21 1.6 Research Approaches ........................................................................................ 22 1.7 The Structure of this Research .......................................................................... 23 2. Extraordinary Life .................................................................................................... 25 2.1 Wang Zheng’s Upbringing ................................................................................ 25 2.2 Wang Zheng Accepted Christian Baptism ........................................................ 34 2.3 Wang Zheng Acquired the Degree of Jingshi ................................................... 37 2.4 Social Network.................................................................................................. 38 2.4.1 Confucians ................................................................................................... 38 2.4.2 Confucian-Christians ................................................................................... 43 2.4.3 Jesuit Missionaries ....................................................................................... 45 2.5 Wang Zheng’s Official Career .......................................................................... 47 2.5.1 Treating Flood .............................................................................................. 48 2.5.2 Dealing with Social Cases ........................................................................... 49 2.5.3 The Upright Official..................................................................................... 51 2.6 Military Capability ............................................................................................ 52 2.7 Wang Zheng’s Scientific Contributions ............................................................ 57 2.7.1 All under Heaven Are of One Family .......................................................... 57 2.7.2 Mechanical Works ........................................................................................ 62 3. Knowing the Lord of Heaven .................................................................................. 73 3.1 The Text of Weitian airen Jilun ......................................................................... 73 3.1.1 The Type of Writing ..................................................................................... 74 3.1.2 The Structure of WTARJL ............................................................................ 75 3.1.3 The Themes and Contents of WTARJL ........................................................ 77 3.1.4 The Sources of WTARJL .............................................................................. 78 3.1.5 The Characteristics of Wang’s Quotations ................................................... 81 3.1.5.1 Direct Quotation...................................................................................... 81 3.1.5.2 Indirect Quotation ................................................................................... 83 3.1.5.2.1 Displacement.....................................................................................