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Is Confucius a Philosopher or a Saint? Michele Ruggieri’s Views from his Translations of the Four Books
Version 1
: Received: 14 June 2024 / Approved: 1 July 2024 / Online: 1 July 2024 (07:32:02 CEST)
How to cite: Wang, H. Is Confucius a Philosopher or a Saint? Michele Ruggieri’s Views from his Translations of the Four Books. Preprints 2024, 2024070033. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.0033.v1 Wang, H. Is Confucius a Philosopher or a Saint? Michele Ruggieri’s Views from his Translations of the Four Books. Preprints 2024, 2024070033. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.0033.v1
Abstract
Michele Ruggieri (1543-1607) was the first Westerner officially approved to reside in China. He promoted Chinese and Western cultural exchange, and he was especially noted for facilitating dialogue between Confucianism and Catholicism. His writings had an important impact in both China and Europe. During his sojourn preaching in China, Ruggieri not only wrote the Tianzhu shilu-- the first catechism written in Chinese--but he was also the first Westerner to translate the Four Books into western language and introduce them to Europe.
Based on Ruggieri’s two translations of the Four Books--one translation into Spanish, and one into Latin--this article analyses Ruggieri’s views of Confucius. In his translations, Ruggieri identified Confucius as a philosopher and a shengren, or saint, and he highlighted the status of Confucius in the Four Books. After the analysis of the Confucian concepts, this article discusses Ruggieri’s translations implied that despite showing the rational aspects of Confucianism, the religiousness was still in Confucianism. After Ruggieri, other Jesuits who came to China gradually turned to emphasize the rational aspects of Confucianism.
Keywords
Michele Ruggieri; views of Confucius; the Four Books; Chinese Philosophy
Subject
Arts and Humanities, Religious Studies
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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