Religious Hybridization and the Legacy of Jesuit Accommodationism in the Early Modern East Asia: A Comparative Analysis of Apologetics by Early Catholics in China and Korea

open_access
Open Access
Author:
Sheen, Joo Hyun
Graduate Program:
History
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:
Dissertation
Date of Defense:
February 28, 2018
Committee Members:
Ronnie Po-Chia Hsia, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
On-Cho Ng, Committee Member
Kate Merkel-Hess, Committee Member
Kathlene T Baldanza, Committee Member
Charlotte Diane Eubanks, Outside Member
Ronnie Po-Chia Hsia, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Keywords:
Religious hybridization
The Society of Jesus
Catholicism in China
Catholicism in Korea
Xu Guangqi
Han Lin
Zhang Geng
Zhu Zongyuan
Zhang Xingyao
Chŏng Yak-jong
Hwang Sa-yŏng
Chŏng Ha-sang
Matteo Ricci
Tianzhu shiyi
Jugyo yoji
Pi wang
Paeksŏ
buru yifo
accommodationism
Jesuits
apologetics
Catholicism and Confucianism
Abstract:
The early modern period is significant in that the world began to experience globalization in a more practical sense; accordingly, cultures in different civilizations became hybridized to a greater extent. In East Asia, intellectual encounters conveyed by the Society of Jesus (members of which are referred to as Jesuits) constituted a crucial part of this significant history. This dissertation aims at tracing the hybridization process of religious ideas as a consequence of Jesuit encounters in two regions of East Asia: China and Korea. Intellectual encounters with ideas conveyed by Jesuit missionaries have been recognized as having had a large influence on the introduction of the Western ideas. In addition, because the Jesuit mission strategy of accommodating Confucian thought enabled favorable recognition in Ming elite society and the court, Christian ideas were able to be successfully adapted into the intellectual sphere of China. However, researchers have not paid enough attention to the significance of the agency enjoyed by the Christian converts, who developed further hybridization of Catholic ideas into the Chinese intellectual milieu. Therefore, this dissertation particularly aims to provide a comparative analysis of the early Catholic converts’ apologetics texts. The primary focus of this dissertation project is examining the intellectual and religious discourses of Chinese Catholics during the seventeenth century and early eighteenth century. While largely influenced by Jesuit missionaries, the local Catholic discourse did not merely repeat Jesuit apologetics. The apologetics by converts, using religious/philosophical concepts and terms and, particularly, continuing the development of the thesis of buru yifo, meaning a complement of Confucianism and the replacement of Buddhism, by Xu Guangqi (1562-1633), Han Lin (1596-1649) and Zhang Geng (1570-?), Zhu Zongyuan (1616-1660), and Zhang Xingyao (1633-1715+), were some of the best examples of actively practicing hybridization even beyond the missionaries’ intent. Chinese Catholics did not lose their agency for further hybridization until the rise of the Rites Controversy in the eighteenth century resulted in a strict ban on Jesuit accommodationism. The agency of Catholic converts becomes even more apparent when we compare the earlier case of China with Chosŏn Korea, which has often been neglected in dealing with the Jesuit influence in early modern East Asia. The Catholic discourse by early Korean converts is another main focus of this dissertation. The elite society of late Chosŏn was closely linked with the Jesuit presence from the beginning of the seventeenth century. Despite the regional and chronological gap, we can observe that the earliest Korean converts in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, such as Chŏng Yak-jong (1760-1801), Hwang Sa-yŏng (1775-1801), and Chŏng Ha-sang (1795-1839), continued to develop hybridized ideas of Catholicism based on their interpretation of Jesuit publications. Apologetics and judicial testimonies attributed to them reveal that they also willingly took advantage of Jesuit accommodationism and enjoyed agency in their practice Catholicism. The comparative study of intellectual discourse about Catholicism in China and Korea orients to a deeper understanding of connections and patterns in early modern East Asia within the context of the world history of Christianity. The consistent influence of Jesuit discourses is confirmed, particularly the paramount development of the Jesuit accommodation thesis, buru yifo, in both cases. Jesuit accommodation in China played a pivotal role in the initiation and development of Chinese Christian apologetics. In Korea, Jesuit books were crucial in allowing Christian ideas to be accepted, and the early Korean Catholics' apologetics hybridized the discourses according to their spiritual context. The story of persecution of Korean Catholics also shows that limiting accommodationism commonly resulted in a loss of opportunity to maintain religious tolerance in East Asia. Above all, we can see that, as long as Jesuit accommodationism survived, early modern Catholics in the two different regions of East Asia reproduced—rather than replicated—Christian apologetics of their own that were beyond the control of Western missionaries.