Angelo Zottoli A Jesuit Missionary In China 1848 To 1902

This book offers a study of the cosmogonic works by Fr. Angelo Zottoli S.J., a Jesuit missionary who has received relatively little attention by modern scholars, but who deserves a special recognition for his theological and philosophical ideas. More generally, the book aims to shed light on the importance of cosmogony in the cross-cultural and interdisciplinary environment of Xujiahui, the area in modern Shanghai where Zottoli flourished. It shows how through Zottoli’s teaching and sermons he was able to reimagine his own cosmogonic ideas, his personality, and his relationship with local Chinese converts. Among Zottoli’s most famous students was Ma Xiangbo (馬相伯 1840–1939) and Zottoli played a crucial role in Ma’s intellectual formation. A wider familiarity with Zottoli’s works is not only interesting in and of itself, but also paves the way to future studies on the complex and multifaceted relationship between European missionaries and Chinese students in Shanghai during the nineteenth century.

This book presents an extensive literary survey of the influence of ancient Chinese cultural classics around the globe, highlighting a mammoth research project involving over forty countries or regions and more than twenty languages. As the book reveals, ancient Chinese culture was introduced to East Asian countries or regions very early on; furthermore, after the late Ming Dynasty, Chinese “knowhow” and ideas increasingly made inroads into the West. In particular, the translation of and research on Chinese classics around the world have enabled Chinese culture to take root and blossom on an unprecedented scale. In addition to offering a valuable resource for readers interested in culture, the social sciences, and philosophy, the book blazes new trails for the study of ancient Chinese culture.

It was one of the great encounters of world history: highly educated European priests confronting Chinese culture for the first time in the modern era. This “journey to the East” is explored by Liam Brockey as he retraces the path of the Jesuit missionaries who sailed from Portugal to China, believing that, with little more than firm conviction and divine assistance, they could convert the Chinese to Christianity. Moving beyond the image of Jesuits as cultural emissaries, his book shows how these priests, in the first concerted European effort to engage with Chinese language and thought, translated Roman Catholicism into the Chinese cultural frame and eventually claimed two hundred thousand converts. The first narrative history of the Jesuits’ mission from 1579 until the proscription of Christianity in China in 1724, this study is also the first to use extensive documentation of the enterprise found in Lisbon and Rome. The peril of travel in the premodern world, the danger of entering a foreign land alone and unarmed, and the challenge of understanding a radically different culture result in episodes of high drama set against such backdrops as the imperial court of Peking, the villages of Shanxi Province, and the bustling cities of the Yangzi Delta region. Further scenes show how the Jesuits claimed conversions and molded their Christian communities into outposts of Baroque Catholicism in the vastness of China. In the retelling, this story reaches across continents and centuries to reveal the deep political, cultural, scientific, linguistic, and religious complexities of a true early engagement between East and West.

The Jesuit Archives in Rome (Archium Romanum Societatus Iesu) contains books and manuscripts from the Ming (1369-1644) and Ching (1644-1911) dynasties on Chinese history, Chinese and Western philosophy, astronomy and other sciences; volumes by Westerners introducing Christian thought to the Chinese; and works by Chinese Christians comparing what they were taught by the Jesuits with the Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian traditions. Many works deal with the famous Chinese rites controversy. There are also volumes that treat other religious groups such as the Muslims and the Jews. The archive has a collection of some of the first Chinese-Western dictionaries. Some of the works include marginal annotations by the emperors of China, famous Chinese scholars, and Jesuit missionaries and much, much more. This catalogue consists of careful descriptions of all these archival items with bibliographical sources pertaining to them. English is the main language, but Latin, other European languages, and Chinese (with characters) are also abundant.

Book Review

China has bulked large in the imagination of the Catholic Church for 500 years. It had been central to the missionary dream of the Jesuits for almost as long. However, only with this book's appearance has the detailed focus of attention shifted to the substantial and neglected period of catholic and Jesuit engagement with china - the almost 120 years from the second arrival of the Jesuits. Matteo Ricci the polymath, Ferdinand Verbeist and Adam Schall von Bell the astronomers and the exquisite painter who influenced Chinese painting beyond measure, Giuseppe Castiglione, have been written about, made ls of and been the heart and soul of the first stage of Jesuit impact on China - in the 17th and 18th Centuries. They brought Western learning and art to China and took Chinese language and literature to Europe. The Jesuits were the first multinational to be welcomed in China and they came with a specific method of engagement - to make friends build relationships and share their gifts before anything else was transacted, including conversations about Christianity. It remains an unsurpassed method of engagement with a rich and ancient people. But the second arrival - from the 1840's - was very different. It was made possible by the arrival of European governments and traders, many of whom came not just for financial gain but to spread their "superior" religion. This work by David Strong in two volumes is the first major treatment of the period from the arrival of the European and eventually American Jesuit missionaries under the protection of the so called Unequal Treaties through to their expulsion after the Communist victory in the long running civil war in 1949. Volume 1: The French Romance - traces the people, projects, expansion and impact of those who provided the predominant Jesuit presence. At the height of it's engagement with China, the French Government has 19 Consulates and attendant military and navy throughout China. The French Jesuits were afforded access and protection by their government and activated missions in northern and central China - schools, seminaries, universities, parishes, retreat houses, publications - and attracted Chinese nationals to join their number.

China has bulked large in the imagination of the Catholic Church for 500 years. It had been central to the missionary dream of the Jesuits for almost as long. However, only with this book's appearance has the detailed focus of attention shifted to the substantial and neglected period of catholic and Jesuit engagement with china - the almost 120 years from the second arrival of the Jesuits. Matteo Ricci the polymath, Ferdinand Verbeist and Adam Schall von Bell the astronomers and the exquisite painter who influenced Chinese painting beyond measure, Giuseppe Castiglione, have been written about, made ls of and been the heart and soul of the first stage of Jesuit impact on China - in the 17th and 18th Centuries. They brought Western learning and art to China and took Chinese language and literature to Europe. The Jesuits were the first multinational to be welcomed in China and they came with a specific method of engagement - to make friends build relationships and share their gifts before anything else was transacted, including conversations about Christianity. It remains an unsurpassed method of engagement with a rich and ancient people. But the second arrival - from the 1840's - was very different. It was made possible by the arrival of European governments and traders, many of whom came not just for financial gain but to spread their "superior" religion. This work by David Strong in two volumes is the first major treatment of the period from the arrival of the European and eventually American Jesuit missionaries under the protection of the so called Unequal Treaties through to their expulsion after the Communist victory in the long running civil war in 1949. Volume II- The Wider European Adventure- covers the commitments, places and activities of missions undertaken by the Spaniards, Austrian, Hungarians, Italians, French Canadians, and lastly in the 1930s, the Americans from California.