The Local Version of Global Entanglements
About Zhu Zongyuan
Zhu Zongyuan (1616- ?, Christian name: Cosmas) 朱宗元, the third generation of Chinese Catholic converts, was born in a low-level literati family in the southern Chinese port city of Ningbo. Around the age of thirty, he passed the provincial state examination and became a Juren 舉人. Unlike the first generation of Chinese Catholic converts, Xu Guangqi (1562-1633) 徐光啟, Yang tingyun (1562-1627) 楊廷筠, and Li Zhizao (1571-1630) 李之藻, who were called the Three Pillars of Chinese Christianity, Zhu was at most a provincial elite while the Three Pillars were all high officials in Ming central government. However, his family background, education level, and his Juren degree still distinguish him from the vast majority of Chinese converts, who belonged to much lower sections of society. His intellectual skills allowed him to read translations of European works and newly authored texts about Christianity. He also communicated regularly with Jesuit fathers across various provinces and left two monographs and several other texts in which he presented his synthetic belief of Catholicism and Confucianism. Zhu’s house seems to have figured as an important base for the dispersed Christian community in Ningbo and surrounding regions. He served as a connector not only between his local Catholic community and other Chinese Christian groups but also between European missionary networks and his local circles in late Ming society.[1]
Matteo Ricci & XuGuangqi
Zhu's Thoughts
Zhu Zongyuan pursued the ultimate goal of demonstrating that Christianity was worth the attention of his fellow scholars and other members of Chinese society. He did so chiefly by arguing that his new teaching, which in Chinese was translated as tianxue, or “Learning of Heaven,” was not only compatible with the Confucian tradition but also a way of returning to its pristine origins. he believed that ultimately only a single universal teaching would be able to better the conditions of his own society and the world at large. In this sense, the words transmitted by Confucius and the word of God were being interpreted as ultimately compatible with each other. This is the “accommodation method” adopted by many Chinese elites.
Like many other Chinese scholars in late Ming period, Zhu believed the original Confucian classics has been lost long time ago since the Qin emperor burned them in 213 B.C.E. He further pointed out that the only place where the written records had been handed down without interruption was Judea. In order to retrieve the pristine Confucianism, one must resort to Judea-origin religions. In Zhu’s eyes, Bible and Christianity—the Learning of Heaven— is the great presentation of China’s long lost intellectual tradition.
But Zhu didn’t merely see the Learning of Heaven as a reflection of pristine Confucianism but also an enrichment to it. By introducing the conception of rewards and punishments after life, Zhu transcended Confucianism’s “this-life” focus and extended its realm to “death and after-death”. Zhu’s efforts to establish relationships between “life” and “death” paralleled with Buddhist thoughts, some popular religions, and some Confucian scholars mentioned on other pages of this website. Although it’s very likely that Zhu was inspired by the Heaven and Hell in Christianity, it’s equally possible that Zhu already got the conception of after-death rewards and punishments from the Chinese religious context. It seems like Zhu believe rewards and punishments after life would promote moral behaviors and intimidate immoral ones and the reestablishment of morality in the society was the only way to restore social order.
As for the issue of the relationship between the traditional concept, Heaven 天, and the Christian God, the Lord of Heaven 天主, which has been debated among Chinese scholars in late Ming period, Zhu argued they were essentially the same one.
Similar to many contemporaries, Zhu condemned Taoism’s emptiness and Buddhism’s non-existence. He argued that people should admit their mortal life and fully commit to the Lord of Heaven for a higher reality.[2]