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- Herausgeber: Chorabooks
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
The topic of the relationship between China and the Catholic Church is fascinating and also a source of many concerns. The cultural diversity inherent in our being “social animals” often leads to worldviews that are almost irreconcilably in contrast. You may ask, why would a musician like me be concerned with China? Because I have lived in China for more than 8 years, I have taught in Macao and Shanghai, and I have had extensive experience in Hong Kong as well. For more than 20 years, I have been interested in the Chinese world, studying its culture, language, music, and painting. Therefore, I believe I have some minimal credentials to say something about the text you are about to read.
It is a text by Father Sergio Ticozzi, a missionary of PIME who has lived in Hong Kong for more than 50 years and who has already authored important works aimed at understanding the difficult relationship between the Celestial Empire and the Catholic Church. (Aurelio Porfiri)
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
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Things of China
Catholic missionary attempts in XVI century China
Copyright © 2024 Chorabooks, a division of Choralife Publisher Ltd.
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First eBook edition:Table of contents
INTRODUCTION
CHRONOLOGY OF THE MAIN EVENTS
1 THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT IN THE XVI CENTURY
2 EVANGELIZATION OF THE NEW WORLD THROUGH THE ‘PATRONAGE SYSTEM’ OF THE KINGDOMS OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
3 ST. FRANCIS XAVIER (1506-1552) AND HIS CHINA ADVENTURE
4 MISSIONARY ATTEMPTS IN CHINA (XVI CENTURY)
5 THE “MYTHS” ABOUT FR. MATTEO RICCI (1552-1610)
6 Fr. ALONSO SANCHEZ and the “EMPRESA DE CHINA”
7 THE SURVIVING CHRISTIAN PRESENCE IN CHINA (XV-XVI centuries)
INTRODUCTION
Aurelio Porfiri
The topic of the relationship between China and the Catholic Church is fascinating and also a source of many concerns. The cultural diversity inherent in our being “social animals” often leads to worldviews that are almost irreconcilably in contrast. You may ask, why would a musician like me be concerned with China? Because I have lived in China for more than 8 years, I have taught in Macao and Shanghai, and I have had extensive experience in Hong Kong as well. For more than 20 years, I have been interested in the Chinese world, studying its culture, language, music, and painting. Therefore, I believe I have some minimal credentials to say something about the text you are about to read.
It is a text by Father Sergio Ticozzi, a missionary of PIME who has lived in Hong Kong for more than 50 years and who has already authored important works aimed at understanding the difficult relationship between the Celestial Empire and the Catholic Church. As I mentioned, the topic of the relationship between China and the Catholic Church is so fascinating that it has filled libraries with books in all languages. What does this relationship ultimately boil down to? To the Catholic Church’s desire to evangelize China. Many attempts have been made for this evangelization to “inculturate” (as it is said today) the Christian message for the Chinese. These attempts have not always been successful and have often yielded very little in terms of results. Christianity has been present in China since at least the 7th century, through the preaching of the Syriac Church or Church of the East (improperly called the “Nestorian Church”). This date is attested by the famous stele of Xi'an, though some trace it back to the very beginnings of Christianity. But we will stick here to what most scholars consider plausible. Among Catholic attempts, two must certainly be mentioned, one less known from the Franciscans in the 13th century and the much more famous one by the Jesuits starting in the 16th century, with the most representative figure being Matteo Ricci. Father Ticozzi's text deals specifically with the missionary efforts of the 16th century, a time certainly of great fervor. The Jesuits encountered the China of the Ming dynasty, which had replaced the Mongol Yuan dynasty, known to the Franciscans. The Ming dynasty ended in 1644, but the Christian presence did not, continuing even under the subsequent Qing dynasty, which remained in power until the end of the imperial era in 1911. Even after that time, Christianity continued to develop in China, facing great difficulties with the rise of communism led by Mao Zedong. The difficult relationship between Christianity and communism continues to this day, and the various initiatives put forth by the Holy See are subject to close scrutiny but also strong criticism.
And yet, the effort has always been to ensure that the Chinese people, with their great culture and rich history, could encounter the equally glorious history, culture, and spirituality of the Catholic Church. These missionary efforts have sought to foster this encounter so that the Chinese, too, could meet Christ, know Him, and love Him.
The text you are about to read by Father Sergio Ticozzi is not a narrative solely of triumphs and conquests, but also of failures and frustrations. Personally, I believe that the path of the Church in China has been one where progress was achieved through the immense sacrifice of missionaries and Chinese believers who wished to bring Christ to their fellow countrymen. This is also a story of martyrdom, a martyrdom that has accompanied the history of the Chinese Catholic Church until recent years. Some may call it an epic, and certainly, that term is not out of place. The Catholic religion has been in China for many centuries and is a reflection of Christ’s Passion, with the hope that it will soon also be a reflection of His Resurrection.
1 THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT IN THE XVI CENTURY
The ‘Impact’ of the Geographical Discoveries
Francisco López de Gómara, a mid-sixteenth century Spanish historian, stated that: The greatest event since the creation of the world (excluding the incarnation and death of Him who created it) is the discovery of the Indies. [1] ‘Indies’, at that time, were identified with all the mysterious New World, that is, lands both in the West and in the East, that travelers, among whom Marco Polo, have spoken of. Consequently, their populations were called “Indians”. Later on, when geographical knowledge improved, people differentiated between Eastern and Western Indies.
The ‘discovery’ of the New World was indeed an eye-opener for the outlook of Europe and constituted a strong push toward new horizons, especially by Portuguese and Spanish explorers: it opened new avenues and opportunities for trade and exchanges with foreign lands, putting Europe really in the ‘global’ context.
However, it was indeed a rather inexplicable and strange fact! Europe already possessed a great quantity of knowledge about Asia, but it seemed it has forgotten it.
“Since 1310 and perhaps even before”, - notes A. T’Serstevens – “thousands of people in Europe were acquainted with the ‘things of China’. Only to mention the Popes and their entourage, several kings of the West and their courts, the superiors of the religious orders, monks and friars who had returned from there, the merchants from Italy and other countries, who in their trading contacts had financed the building of churches…, we already gather a group of persons of a certain importance, both for their quality and for their number. No one of these people, probably only except the merchants, had any motivation to hide their knowledge about that distant country. Everybody, on the contrary, should have rejoiced to know that the Catholic faith was spreading there. And yet, the geographers continued to ignore it. The Central and Oriental Asia, known by many people, remained a mystery only for the learned people!” [2]
The beginning of the ‘discoveries’ dates earlier in the fifteenth century when the Portuguese had started to conduct exploratory voyages down along the coast of Africa. Such an enterprise finds its roots, when the Portuguese Order of the Knights of Christ ( Ordo Militiae Christi, a religious order of soldiers-monks [3]) had accepted the ideological inheritance and the properties of the suppressed Order of the Temple of Jerusalem (or Templars) and had been approved by Pope John XXII with his Bull Ad ea ex quibus (14-15 March, 1319). The Bull is not only the Magna Charta of the Order of the Knights of Christ, but also the basis of Portugal's future colonial expansion and its ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the conquered territories, the realpadroado, as we later will see in details.
The motivations that pushed the Portugal to extend its empire are well summarized by the Encyclopedia Britannica in these terms:
“ The idea of expansion into Africa was a logical result of the completion of the re-conquest in the peninsula, and the conquest of Ceuta in North Africa (1415) probably provided the impulse toward further expansion, The simple idea of fighting the Muslims on their own soil was linked with more complicated motives: the desire to explore in a scientific sense, the hope of finding a way to the rich spice trade of the Indies, and the impulse to spread the Christian faith. These purposes were gradually molded together into a national enterprise, though at first, they represented the hopes and aspirations of one man, Prince Henry…”[4]
A world-wide perspective will provide a more pluralistic and complex picture of human life and society in the XVI century.
While Spain and Portugal explored and conquered the world seas, with Latin America becoming a Spanish colony, and Portugal the master of the Indian Ocean, snatching the control from the Arab hands, as we will see in details, China, during and after the 1405-1433 seven sea expeditions of Zheng He (Ma He1371-1433), decided for an isolation policy officially forbidding its subjects from emigrating or trading overseas, on pain of death. The ban however was not strictly kept, and junks from Fujian and Guangdong continued to sail to Malayan, Indochinese and Indonesian ports for trading purposes. Due to the prohibition, they frequently were considered and often were acting as pirates, conniving with the Japanese pirates (w ako), first and later, with Portuguese merchant-adventurers. So, the Chinese authorities became very concerned with protecting the coastal areas from the local and Japanese piracy. Japan, in that period, was suffering under a severe civil war.
“ Official relations with Japan could only be conducted through the port of Ningbo, at the north-eastern tip of Chekiang; Fuzhou was reserved for trade with the Philippines and a similar role had been assumed later by Quanzhou. In 1530 permission for the Japanese to send missions to Ningbo was withdrawn. From that moment onwards piracy made rapid progress, and more and more recruits began to come from China itself. The pirates’ principal bases were in the Chusan Islands off the north-east coast of Chekiang, and in Xiamen (Amoy) and Quanzhou area, in Chaozhou area (north-east of Kwangtung).” [5]
In the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire was quite dynamic, with the Arabs in control of the trade in the Pacific Ocean, while in the Indian region, Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great (1542-1605), was ruling rather opulently and trying to achieve good harmony in the country by reconciling the major religions in a syncretistic way.
The Portuguese Empire
Portugal, as a nation, dates its origin on 24 June 1128. Alfonso proclaimed himself the first King of Portugal in 1139. By 1143, Portugal was formally recognized as independent. From 1249 to 1250, Algarve, the southernmost region, was finally re-conquered from the Moors (as Muslims were then called), who had invaded the Iberic peninsula since the beginning of the 8 th century.
