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Abstract
Neither the theological perspective of church history nor the “impact–response” framework can sufficiently explain why Catholicism was able to take root in Joseon. Early Joseon converts from Confucianism received a contextualized understanding of Catholicism transformed by Chinese thought. One can describe this as Confucianized or Sinicized Catholicism. The first missionary sent to the Joseon Peninsula was Zhou Wenmo, a Chinese Catholic priest whose interpretation of the development and historical memories of Chinese Catholicism significantly shaped the ways of Joseon’s early converts from Confucianism. China’s historical narrative was so profound that the converted Confucians and other early converts embraced Catholicism, and the vision was constructed from the historical memories of the late Ming and early Qing. Nevertheless, this vision of nationalizing Catholicism was shattered by consecutive persecutions after 1801.
Abstract
Soon after the first contact between sixteenth-century Europeans and the Ming state, European traders, travelers, and missionaries tried to understand the Chinese language. This chapter outlines three models that these earliest translators employed in their attempts to understand Chinese books, maps, and religious texts despite the significant cultural and linguistic barriers. Native Chinese speakers were employed by Europeans; teams of Chinese and European translators worked together outside China; and European missionaries systematically mastered Chinese through extensive “study abroad.” This chapter explores how each of these translation models reflected deeper hierarchical and social relationships between the European and Chinese actors involved—a fact reflected in the accuracy and content of these translated works.
Abstract
In 1761, the Qianlong emperor commissioned Xu Yang to do a painting to commemorate a rare astronomical event called a syzygy that was considered to be especially auspicious. This chapter examines how the resulting handscroll painting titled Syzygy of the Sun, Moon, and Five Planets portrays the cityscape of Beijing on the day not only when denizens celebrated the New Year but also when the emperor and his subjects received the felicitous news about this phenomenon held as a sign of Heavenly Mandate. By featuring the instruments for observing celestial bodies at the Imperial Observatory and the sun and moon in the sky, the painting was believed to “document” this phenomenon that could be hardly seen with the naked eye at the time. It also validated it through the witness effect of officials and commoners as observers and as those who spread the news on the site of the Inner City of Beijing. The detailed and realistic depiction of the infrastructure and urban fabric of the city strengthens the sense of authenticity to the scenes rendered therein.
Abstract
The Qianlong emperor typically spent the Lunar New Year at the Yangxin dian 養心殿 (Hall of Mental Cultivation) within the Forbidden City. The Lunar New Year was one of three important annual ceremonies at court: a formal audience where officials and foreign ambassadors paid ritual homage to the Qing state. This chapter considers two large paintings that were commissioned to hang at the Yangxin dian palace, Gongzhong xingle tu 宮中行樂圖 (Merrymaking in the Palace) and Wanguolaichao tu 萬國來朝圖 (Myriad Countries Paying Tribute). I show that these paintings provided a visual invitation to imperial introspection, representing the emperor within semi-imaginary worlds that reflected his role as a Manchu lord and Han ruler and was uniquely able to cross ethnic, geographic, and pictorial borders.
Abstract
Technical images like charts, maps, and diagrams that saturated early modern visual culture provided fertile opportunities for cross-cultural communication. The Chidao nanbei liang zong xingtu 赤道南北兩總星圖 (Double Hemisphere Star Atlas) that Jesuit and Late Ming astronomers produced in Beijing demonstrates how this imagery did more than simply transmit knowledge across borders. Through works such as this celestial map, the Jesuits in China framed their brand of science as an empirical and, therefore, trustworthy practice. In this context, this chapter considers how technical images functioned as a form of diplomacy and how the idea of empiricism central to such epistemic images related to Jesuit devotional art and spiritual practice at the Collegio Romano. Analyzing the rhetoric of empiricism employed by the early modern missionary scientists, this chapter examines the agency of technical images in the making of a multicultural society.
Abstract
This chapter explores the activities of the Florentine architect-engineer Ferdinando Bonaventura Moggi (Li Boming 李博明) in Beijing. Through analysis of Moggi’s life and works, the chapter calls attention to the daily labor experiences of the skilled artisan community that sustained the Zaobanchu 造辦處 (Applied Arts Workshops)—that is, the twenty-eight ateliers founded in 1680 at the Qing court, where glassworks, enamel furnishings, clocks, cannons, paintings, maps, and much more were produced. Although Moggi was previously considered a “minor” missionary figure, scholarly focus on someone like him helps us redefine the missionary artist, revealing in particular the material conditions of construction and ornament production. The chapter argues that attention to this historically marginalized class of artisans and their work is essential for understanding the true scope of Jesuit contributions to the visual arts in China, not only within the confines of the court but also beyond it.
Abstract
The famous Four Churches of Beijing, named after the four directions, comprised one Propaganda Fide and three Jesuit missionary centers and reflected diverse political, artistic, religious, and scientific agendas, producing different forms of exchange with the surrounding capital. They have been studied in recent years mainly from art historical and scientific perspectives, but their role as communitarian foci of religious and social life still needs exploration. A web of daily interactions with the local Christian communities and the members of the imperial court enveloped, connected, and separated the churches, the adjoining residences and facilities, the women’s chapels, and the small oratory and hostels in Haidian near the Yuanmingyuan suburban palace, in a hierarchy of varied importance and influence. Using internal missionary correspondence, this chapter offers a picture of the complex grid of relations surrounding the churches. These relations created physical and social spaces in Beijing and its hinterland, in what amounted, to quote Italo Calvino, to an “invisible city” within the capital.
Abstract
This essay argues that the Jesuit painter Brother Jean-Denis Attiret (1702–1768) was the first European to recognize the relative equality between European and Chinese art. Primary sources trace Attiret’s personal and artistic evolution at the Qianlong court and record the gradual arc of his metamorphosis. Building upon manuscripts as well as letters and essays published during the eighteenth-century, I show how the strict demands of his patron Qianlong, a deep exposure to fine Chinese painting, and a culture of exchange within the Imperial Workshops enabled Attiret to develop and change not only his artistic practice, but, more significantly, his theoretical understanding of Chinese painting, architecture, and garden design. Just as decisive for his recognition of the value of Chinese art was the theoretical concept of the relative taste of nations which Attiret had learned from the French writer Roger de Piles. The combination of close collaboration with Chinese court painters, access to the great collection of the Qianlong emperor, the Jesuit imperative to accommodate for the sake of saving souls, and the theoretical structure supplied by Roger de Piles enabled Attiret to reach this radical breakthrough.
Abstract
Early modern Jesuit missionaries became known for adapting to the local customs in the countries around the world where they worked. This chapter explores how Jesuits managed tensions between self and other, inside and outside, and the proper and the improper through their sartorial experiments in the mission fields. By analyzing representations of Jesuits as produced and circulated within early modern European print culture, I argue that the idiosyncratic or even transgressive act of cultural “cross-dressing” became an accepted visual sign of Jesuit cultural accommodation and a key part of their identity as successful missionaries.