The Acta Pekinensia is a Latin manuscript found in the Jesuit Roman Archives. It is a record of the papal legation to China of Charles Maillard de Tournon, from his arrival in China to his death in Macau. It was compiled by Kilian Stumpf, a German Jesuit missionary/scientist serving at the court of the Kangxi Emperor of China. Stumpf was in a privileged position to record day by day the events of this crucial episode not only in the history of Christianity in China but in Chinese-Western relations. This annotated translation provides a full documentation and an acute and lively commentary on the clash of values which resulted in the failure of the legation and the condemnation of Chinese Rites.
Paul Rule, Ph.D. (1973), Australian National University, taught Religious Studies and Chinese History at La Trobe University, Melbourne (1973-2002) and since researched for the Ricci Institutes of Macau and San Francisco on the Chinese Rites and Jesuits in China.
Claudia von Collani, Dr.Theol., is Professor at the University of Würzburg, and is a missiologist and specialist in early modern East Asian mission history. She has written extensively on the Chinese Rites Controversy, Figurism, and the exchange of knowledge between China and Europe.
'...the Acta is an invaluable source for the study of missionary politics, the Rites Controversy and the functioning of the imperial Qing court. An international team headed by the editors has transcribed and translated this manuscript from Latin into English. The extensive footnotes have identified the persons involved, from western missionaries to the Qing ruling class, as well as Chinese Christians.The publication of this second volume is a most welcome contribution to the field as we look forward to the completion of the entire project.'
R. PO-CHIA HSIA, PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 70: 4. (2019).
"This richly annotated translation should be kept in all academic libraries, and it shall certainly live near the desks of serious scholars of the Chinese rites controversy and the clash of values that troubled the Jesuit mission surrounding the imperial court of Kangxi." - Anthony E. Clark, Whitworth University, Journal of Jesuit Studies, 7/4 (2020).
Abbreviations Introduction
The Acta Pekinensia—September 1706 to December 1707
Major Headings and Marginal Subheadings to the Acta Pekinensia Manuscript’s English Translation Compendium of the Acta Pekinensia for 1705 and 1706 September 1706 October 1706 November 1706 December 1706 January 1707 February 1707 March 1707 April 1707 May 1707 June 1707 July 1707 August 1707 September 1707 October 1707 November 1707 December 1707 BibliographyIndex
Scholars, students and libraries interested in the Chinese Rites Controversy; general and religious history, and in particular the mission history of China; philosophy and theology.