A Concealed Reading for Early Chinese Christians: Text, Context, and Circulation of the Discourse on Vegetarianism (Su shuo 素說) in the Early Modern Period

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dc.contributor.authorDe Caro, Antonio
dc.contributor.authorFan, Zhenxu
dc.contributor.authorMeynard, Thierry
dc.date.accessioned2025-03-25T13:07:23Z
dc.date.available2025-03-25T13:07:23Z
dc.date.issued2022-11
dc.description.abstractThis article provides a new study on the profound cross-cultural encounters and adaptations between different religions in China. The overreaching goal is to analyse the philosophical relevance and value of the Su shuo 素說 (Discourse on Vegetarianism) in the context of the religious practices of vegetarianism and fasting that were adapted, reframed and used by Chinese Catholic converts starting in the early modern era. The Su shuo is the ninth section of the Cang ju 藏句 (Concealed Sentences), which is a forty-folio manuscript written on Chinese bamboo paper held in the ARSI (Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu). In the text of the Cang ju, its author, Xiong Ding 熊定, refutes ten ‘superstitious’ beliefs and practices commonly present in seventeenth-century Chinese culture. The manuscript preserved at the ARSI is a copy of the now-lost original booklet by Xiong Ding, which was hand copied by a Chinese Catholic convert named Ruohan 若翰 (John). Based on textual evidence and the context of the manuscript, the Cang ju must have circulated in both non-Christian and Sino-Christian communities during the early Qing dynasty (1644–1912), therefore, between the mid-seventeenth and early eighteenth century. This article also provides the first Chinese transcription and English translation of the Su shuo.
dc.description.sponsorshipThis article is the result of the grant research project No. UMO-2020/37/N/HS1/03273, “Adaptation of the Christian Beliefs of God and Soul in Chinese Thought: Rethinking the Legacy of Early Catholic Missionaries and Converts during 17th–18th Centuries” (Adaptacja chrześcijańskich wierzeń odnośnie Boga i duszy w myśli chińskiej: Nowe spojrzenie na dziedzictwo wczesnych katolickich misjonarzy i konwertytów w XVII-XVIII wieku), funded by the National Science Centre, Poland.
dc.identifier.citation"Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu", Vol. XCI, fasc. 181 (2022-I), pp. 121-158
dc.identifier.issn0037-8887
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12153/8519
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherArchivum Historicum Societatis Iesu (AHSI), by Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu (ARSI)
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectChristianity in 17th century China
dc.subjectearly Chinese Catholic converts
dc.subjectinterreligious and intercultural communication
dc.subjectConfucianism
dc.subjectChinese popular Buddhism
dc.subjectsuperstitions
dc.subjectfasting and vegetarianism
dc.titleA Concealed Reading for Early Chinese Christians: Text, Context, and Circulation of the Discourse on Vegetarianism (Su shuo 素說) in the Early Modern Period
dc.typeArticle
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