Late Ming Dynasties On The Evolution Of The Missionary Policy

The successive entering of the western missionaries, Alessandro Valignano (1539-1606), Michele Ruggieri(1543-1607)and Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) , into China through different coastal places of Guangdong, such as Shangchuan, Langbai and Aomen, during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty( 1572-1620), marked the beginning of the their thorough contacts with the culture, society and government of the Chinese Empire. Since the western missionaries played an important role in the history of sino-western relations, they have always been considered an area that can't be omitted in the study of sino-western relations. The policies adopted by the Ming Government towards these preachers in different periods of time greatly reflect the emperors' attitudes and cognitions of the religions, politics and culture of the West represented by the Christian missionaries. Starting by analyzing the changes of the Ming Government's attitude towards missionaries, this thesis attempts to give a clear picture about the evolution of the Ming Government's cognitions and its policies towards the western missionaries in different periods of time, thus summarizing the characteristics of each stage of these cognitions and policies by analyzing the attitude of China towards the Western World in the Ming Dynasty, so as to investigate the causes of all these changes, the emperors' diplomatic thoughts hidden behind them.This article is divided into 5main parts :Part I is a brief introduction of the works done and the respective achievements obtained by the former researchers on the topic of "the missionaries of the last Ming Period". It also gives an outline of the basic standpoints of this thesis and the main trends of thought that will be developed in the same article.Part II analyses briefly the historical background and the experience of the west missionary coming to Chinese, in order to make out the missionary's real goal.Part III summarizes the two important factors that determined the Ming Court's policy towards the western missionaries, namely the mutual cognition and evaluation between the East and the West, so as to analyze the historical background which led to the changes of Ming Court's policies towards the missionaries.