Christian Conception Of Death In The Late Ming And Early Qing Dynasties In China Dissemination And Acceptance

This dissertation focuses on the various understanding on the concept of life and death regarding the different cultural contexts. The core elements to capture the concept of life and death embody in the response of following issues: the composing of life, the end-result after death, the pursuit of human value. And both western and eastern cultures have their constructional traditions to the questions above. In the late Ming and early Qing dynasty when these two cultures first encountered, a completely new definition of human life asserted into the complexity of Chinese culture, which, as a scholastics explanation, came along with the great mission pioneered by Matteo Ricci. In comparison with the main trends of Chinese life and death wisdom, namely Confucian, Taoism and Buddhism, Christianity seeks immortality in the after death, which is enlightened by the God and represents the reunion of mundane and divinity.The first chapter explores a systematic understanding of existed conceptions of life and death in China so as to set a backdrop of the cultural communication. Rather than seeking immortality in the after death, the Confucius practices, often labeled as inner transcendent, denies a continuous existence of life in another realm and pays much attention to reality, namely this-world oriented. Daoism, directly dealing with death, indicates that to live as long as heaven and earth may be possible through inner cultivation and the mastery of the Dao. Buddhism, longing to escaping from the Samsara since its establishment, approaches this issue by religious meditation. The diversification of Chinese life and death wisdom provides much possibility of culture dialogue as well as conflicts.The second part starts with an overview of Christianity attitudes towards life and death, characterized by the notion of Soul, Sin and Salvation. It is affirmed that the ancient Chinese and Western people shared the same idea that God or Tian blesses virtuous man and punishes evils. A monitory function, stemming from the absoluteness of the God, served as an alternation for those Chinese literati, by means of which, they foresaw the potential to realize the great cause of scholar-bureaucrat.The third part represents different types of indigenous responses. The Buddhism, whose likeness to Christianity may challenge its utter authority, fatally became one of the blaming targets. As to the Chinese converts, due to their individual experiences and the great transition of the epoch, showed various levels of belief. However, all these feedbacks composed a splendid prospect of cultural communication.