The Diary of Oral Admonitions (Kouduo richao) is an invaluable mirror of early Chinese Christianity, as it stands out as the only source that allows a glimpse of Jesuit missionary practice in China on a local level - "accommodation in action" - and of the various responses of the Chinese audience, both converts and interested outsiders. It is a compilation of some five hundred notes "about everything" made by Li Jiubiao and other Christian literati during their conversations with Jesuit missionaries in Fujian between 1630 and 1640. These notes are arranged in chronological order and divided into eight books. The most important Western protagonist in the Diary is the Italian Jesuit Giulio Aleni (1589-1642), called "Master Ai (Rulüe)" in Chinese. The present study and translation of the Diary of Oral Admonitions can be seen as a companion volume to the proceedings of an international conference that was held on Aleni in his native place Brescia in 1994, also published in the Monumenta Serica Monograph Series XLII: "Scholar from the West." Giulio Aleni S.J. (1582-1649) and the Dialogue between China and Christianity, 1997. The present work in two volumes is meant to be a tool for further research. Volume 1 presents a comprehensive introduction to the Diary and its historical context, followed by the annotated translation, both by Erik Zürcher (Leiden), a renown specialist for the study of Christianity in China. It is enhanced by illustrations, partly in colour, and maps. Volume 2 includes a facsimile of the Chinese text (reproducing a copy held in the Roman Archives of the Society of Jesus), a bibliography of Chinese and Western sources as well as secondary literature, and an analytical index with glossary that will enable the reader to trace specific data in the text.

This book constitutes a pioneering and comprehensive text-in-context study of the translation of Christian tracts (from English into Chinese) by Protestant missionaries in nineteenth-century China. It focuses on the large body of hitherto widely neglected Protestant Chinese books and tracts, putting the translated texts into their socio-political, cultural and ideological contexts. This integrated approach proves to be fruitful and insightful in describing and explaining actual practices of translation, or translation norms. [...] The book addresses the central issue of how original texts were selected, translated and presented by Protestant missionaries under the patronage of various missionary institutions in order to achieve their specific agendas. Based on primary materials and rare archival documents, this extensive survey of the corpus of Chinese Christian literature fills a significant gap in the evaluation of Protestant missions to China, especially with regard to the role of the Religious Tract Society (RTS). Moreover, the contributions of Chinese collaborators are examined in detail to achieve a more balanced view in accessing the role of missionary translators. The book also sheds light on the sophisticated procedures and strategies of cross-cultural translation, particularly on the facet of religious translation in the Chinese translation tradition. "... John T.P. Lai provides a wealth of information about the development of Protestant religious publishing in late imperial China. Full of interesting data and illustrations, this work should find an audience with church historians and mission scholars." Joseph Tse-Hei Lee in Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal Fields of interest: Religious Studies, Translation Studies, History of Christianity in Modern China. Contents: Introduction. Chapter 1: Translation, Protestant Missions, and the Chinese Context. Chapter 2: Institutional Patronage: The Ideological Control of Tract Societies. Chapter 3: Teamwork Translation: The Invisibility of Chinese Collaborators. Chapter 4: Christian Tracts in Chinese Costume: A Critical Survey. Chapter 5: Rewriting the Children's Message: The Peep of Day. Chapter 6: Domesticating for Chinese Literati: The Anxious Inquirer. Conclusion Appendices: Appendix A: Protestant Missionary Publishers and Societies in China. Appendix B: Protestant Missionaries and Chinese Translators. Appendix C: Chinese Translations of Christian Literature, 1812-1907. Appendix D: Most Well-Received Christian Literature in Chinese, 1812-1907. Appendix E: Favell L. Mortimer's Works in Chinese. Appendix F: William Muirhead's Works in Chinese. Bibliography. Index.

The book contains the first annotated English translation of the Correct Explanation of the Tang “Stele Eulogy on the Luminous Teaching” (1644) by the Jesuit Manuel Dias Jr. and other late Ming Chinese Christian sources interpreting the “venerable ancestor” of the Jesuit mission, namely, the mission of the Church of the East in Tang China. Based on this documentation, the book reconstructs the process of “appropriation” by Jesuit missionaries and their Chinese converts of ancient traces of Christianity that were discovered in China in the first half of the seventeenth century, such as the Xi’an stele (781) and other Christian relics

The Sinitic Languages is the quintessence of Mieczysław Jerzy Künstler’s thirty years of research into the Chinese languages. Originally published in Polish in 2000 as Języki chińskie, this work collected Künstler’s various lectures on the fascinating world of this branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It marked the apogee of linguistic research of Chinese languages in Poland. With a keen, intuitive understanding of the workings of these languages, Künstler introduces his readership to the historical development of spoken Sinitic languages. Besides analyzing the various stages of Standard Chinese, he also makes a convincing case for classifying Cantonese, Pekinese, Nankinese, Minnanese, Wu, and other so-called "dialects" as distinct languages. Künstler’s work offers an insightful and detailed overview about synchronic and diachronic research on the major language groups of Chinese, a fast growing academic field until today. The present English version was begun by Künstler himself before his untimely demise in 2007. However, it is not merely a translation of the Polish work, but a revised edition that introduces a shift in Sinological linguistics from a genetic to an areal description of Modern Chinese languages. A joint effort of the Polish linguist Alfred Franciszek Majewicz and the Sinologists Ewa Zajdler and Maria Kurpaska helped to bring the original manuscript to its completion. Thus, The Sinitic Languages is now finally accessible for a larger readership. Both amateurs and experts interested in this topic are invited to follow Künstler on his intellectual journey into Sinological linguistics. Künstler intentionally excluded Chinese characters from his work because he viewed the Sinitic languages primarily as spoken languages. In order to provide readers with the opportunity to compare spoken and written language, the editors added an index with glossary to the English version.

In 1614 the shogunate prohibited Christianity amidst rumors of foreign plots to conquer Japan. But more than the fear of armed invasions, it was the ideological threat--or spiritual conquest--that the Edo shogunate feared the most. This book explores the encounter of Christianity and premodern Japan in the wider context of global and intellectual history. M. Antoni J. Ucerler examines how the Jesuit missionaries sought new ways to communicate their faith in an unfamiliar linguistic, cultural, and religious environment--and how they sought to re-invent Christianity in the context of samurai Japan. They developed an original moral casuistry or cases of conscience adapted to the specific dilemmas faced by Japanese Christians. This volume situates the European missionary enterprise in East Asia within multiple geopolitical contexts: Both Ming China and Warring States Japan resisted the presence of foreigners and their beliefs. In Japan, where the Jesuits were facing persecution in the midst of civil war, they debated whether they could intervene in military conflicts to protect local communities. Others advocated for the establishment of a Christian republic or civil protectorate. Based on little-known primary sources in various languages, The Samurai and the Cross explores the moral and political debates over religion, law, and reason of state that took place on both the European and the Japanese side.

This study in German offers profound insights into the life and thoughts of Wang Guowei (1877-1927). Like many intellectuals who strongly perceived the necessity of reforms in the waning years of the Late Qing dynasty, i.e. after the Opium wars, Wang sought to strengthen China's position against foreign, in particular Western, powers. Contrary to earlier approaches, which either advocated a close adherence to Confucian traditions or tried to adapt only elements of Western material culture, mainly industrial and military technology, Wang Guowei aimed at reviving traditional Chinese culture by analysing its source texts using a modern scientific approach (and thereby started the discipline of guoxue [national studies]) and simultaneously adapting compatible elements of Western immaterial culture. Thus, Wang became known as an authority on Chinese paleography as well as on German philosophy, especially Kantian epistomology.

When in 1775 the scholar Wang Xihou compiled a dictionary called Ziguan , he wrote, for illustrative purposes, the personal names of Confucius and the three emperors Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong in the introduction. In oversight, he recorded their complete names. This accidental writing of a few names was condemned by Emperor Qianlong as an unprecedented crime, rebellion and high treason. Wang Xihou was executed, his property confiscated and his books were burnt. His family was arrested and his sons and grandsons were killed or sent as slaves to Heilongjiang. It is surprising what an enormous impact the tabooing of names (bihui ) had on Chinese culture. The names of sovereigns, ancestors, officials, teachers, and even friends were all considered taboo, in other words it was prohibited to pronounce them or to record them in writing. In numerous cases characters identical or similar in writing or pronunciation were often avoided as well. The tabooing of names was observed in the family and on the street, in the office and in the emperor's palace. The practice of bihui had serious consequences for the daily lives of the Chinese and for Chinese historiography. People even avoided certain places and things, and refused to accept offices. They were punished and sometimes even killed in connection with the tabooing of names. The bihui custom existed as an important element of Chinese culture and was perceived as significant by Chinese and foreigners alike. It was crucial for implementing social values and demonstrating the political hierarchy. The present work A Good Son Is Sad if He Hears the Name of His Father is a systematic study of Chinese name-tabooing customs, which until now have been relatively little explored in Western-language Sinological studies. It attempts to provide a long-term perspective on the changing dynamics of tabooing and elucidates various aspects related to the fascinating topic of tabooing of names.

This volume completes the previous volumes 1, 2, 3a, 3b, and 4a of an interdisciplinary book project on the reception of Jesus Christ in China, as seen from the perspectives of Sinology, mission history, theology, and art history, among others. It consists of the following parts: A "Supplementary Anthology" that presents excerpts and longer quotations from selected works – such as translations, prayers, poems, and scholarly articles – listed in the bibliography of vol. 4a; two sections of "Notes on Contributors, Vols. 1–3b" and "Notes on Authors of the Anthologies, Vols. 1–3b, 4b" that provide short biographical information on the contributors of articles and authors of all texts in the anthologies; a "List of Reviews of Vols. 1–4a" published on the whole collection as well as on individual volumes; the Tables of Contents of vols. 1, 2, 3a, 3b and 4a; a "General Index and Glossary" that gives readers access to all articles and anthologies included in vols. 1, 2, 3a, 3b, and 4b, a corpus of almost two thousand pages of text; and finally a list of "Errata and Corrigenda."

This is a study of the earliest and finest collated inscription in the history of Chinese calligraphy, the Ji Wang shengjiao xu 集王聖教序 (Preface to the Sacred Teaching Scriptures Translated by Xuanzang in Wang Xizhi’s Collated Characters), which was erected on January 1, 673. The stele records the two texts written by the Tang emperors Taizong (599–649) and Gaozong (628–683) in honor of the monk Xuanzang (d. 664) and the Buddhist scripture Xin jing (Heart Sutra), collated in the semi-cursive characters of the great master of Chinese calligraphy, Wang Xizhi (303–361). It is thus a Buddhist inscription that combines Buddhist authority, political power, and artistic charm in one single monument. The present book reconstructs the multifaceted context in which the stele was devised, aiming at highlighting the specific role calligraphy played in the propagation and protection of Buddhism in medieval China.

While the Jesuits claimed Xu as a convert, he presented the Jesuits as men from afar who had traveled from the West to China to serve the emperor.