The Communication And Acceptance Of Catholicism Culture In Shanxi

Jules Aleni, the society of Jesus, arrived Shanxi Province in 1620 in order to promulgate Catholicism. At the same time, the scholars of Shanxi Province began to contact this kind of culture which was totally strange to them. The scholars held diffident kinds of attitudes towards Catholicism. Someone accepted the religion and became a Catholic. Someone treated it with a neutral manner. Someone regarded it as a heresy. The Catholicism introduced to Shanxi did not be accepted by everyone, but these responses show the contact between scholars of Shanxi Province and the Catholicism culture.There are many collisions and conflicts between the Catholicism culture which is a heterogeneous culture and Chinese culture. The Catholicism culture must make concession to Chinese culture, in order to mingle with Chinese culture and be promulgated in China properly. Han Lin, a scholar of Shanxi Province, shows the conflicts and the fusions between the heterogeneous culture and the local culture typically. On the one hand, he accepted the culture of Catholicism, the thoughts of equality and the thoughts of forgiveness, for instance. On the other hand, as a traditional Chinese scholar, Han Lin reconstructed the thoughts of Catholicism consciously or unconsciously. By doing this, the culture of Catholicism can be accepted by himself and other people easier. Han Lin was ordered by Sun Shunming, the chief of Jiangzhou, written a book named Duoshu. This book was expected to interpret the Doctrines from Emperor, which is written by Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of Ming Dynasty, to the public at the very start. But as a Catholic, Han Lin took this occasion to imply the culture of Catholicism into this book, and finished a text interpretation between heterogeneous culture and the local culture. This thesis, which takes Duoshu as a example, reveals Han Lin's acceptance and reconstruction to the Catholicism culture.This thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter 1 mainly describes the background of Duoshu, including the survey of the Catholicism in Shanxi Province,the survey of Han Lin and his literature,the background of culture and religion in Ming Dynasty society. Chapter 2 is about the direct impact of Catholicism culture, taking the thoughts of forgiveness, the conception of sin as examples, and sorts out the materials that Han Lin quoted from the Bible and the literature written by the missionaries. The analysis reveals the Catholicism culture has the influence on Han Lin directly. Chapter 3 explicates the interpreting and misreading under the background of the intercultural in Duoshu. To be exact, there are three ways, interpreting Chinese concepts by the concepts of Catholicism,interpreting Catholicism concepts by the concepts of Chinese and avoiding the contradictions. This part is the most important in this thesis. By the analyses of the three ways, we can see the conflicts and the fusions between the Catholicism culture and Chinese traditional culture more clearly.In short, Han Lin is a very special person in the history of the intercultural communication. He is not only a scholar who was affected by Chinese traditional culture, but also a Catholic who accepted the religion early. He represented the conflicts and the fusions between the heterogeneous culture and the local culture typically. Duoshu, the book which is official and Catholic, shows the unique thoughts of Han Lin. Understanding the conflicts and the fusions between the heterogeneous culture and the local culture correctly will make sense to treat the relationship of Chinese culture and Catholicism culture properly, and promoting the helpful communication between them much better.