The article suggests to take a fresh look at the historical significance of Shilu by the Dominican friar, Juan Cobo. It aims to evaluate the implication of the work as one of the Catholic apologetics literatures in Chinese during late Ming period. Fir...
The article suggests to take a fresh look at the historical significance of Shilu by the Dominican friar, Juan Cobo. It aims to evaluate the implication of the work as one of the Catholic apologetics literatures in Chinese during late Ming period. First, the article provides a historiographical critique particularly on its dominance in dealing with the latter part of Shilu. The first chapter also deals with the confirmation of the title of Shilu for it has been misleadingly referred to as Bian Zhengjiao Zhenchuan Shilu rather than Wuji Tianzhu Zhengjiao Zhenchuan Shilu. Second, the article investigates remarkable aspects of accommodationism in the apologetics as a pioneering discussion of buru, Catholicism complementing Confucianism, as well as noteworthy motivation of Cobo as a member of Domincan order competing with the Society of Jesus. Cobo did not only take quotations from the Chinese Classic, Zhongyong(The Doctrine of the Mean). He took significant terms with Neo-Confucianism, which is quite distinctive to the typical discussions in Jesuit accommodation, particularly those by Matteo Ricci. Finally, the article strives to provide a comparative analysis in the terminology of Shilu, with those of Michele Ruggieri’s Tianzhu Shilu and Matteo Ricci’s Tianzhu Shiyi. By these, we can glimpse some primary traits of the first Dominican apologetics written in Chinese and its implications, particularly when it comes to authorship and circulation of Chinese Christian texts in the Early Modern World.