The Relationship Between Catholicism And The Adherents Of Ming Dynasty’s Poems In The South Of Yangtze River Region During The Late Ming And Early Qing Dynasty

The late Ming and early Qing Dynasty is one of the very important periods of thedevelopment of Catholicism in China. In this period of time, the missionary in China useda kind of special way invented by Matteo Ricci called “cultural missionary” to makeChinese people Catholic. They made themselves close to Confucianism and excludedBuddhism to earn scholar-bureaucrats’ trust and help. Once, the Catholicism in Chinareached its peak in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty. The South of Yangtze RiverRegion is one of the main areas of the dissemination of Catholicism. It almost spread to allthe winds there and had a great number of followers. Therefore, it had a strong influenceon the adherents of Ming Dynasty there. The adherents of Ming Dynasty and themissionary were once in close relations and some of the Catholic Thoughts somehowchanged the adherents of Ming Dynasty’s poetic theory and poem implications. This paper,focusing on Wu Li and Qu Shisi, will try to elaborate on the relationship of the Catholicismand the adherents of Ming Dynasty’s poems in the South of Yangtze River Region duringthe late Ming and early Qing Dynasty in three respects. For this reason, there are threeparts in this article as follow:First part: the spreading of Catholicism in China, especially in the South of YangtzeRiver Region. This part of article focuses on the relationship between missionary and the,indicating that Catholicism had been changed by Confucianism and it somehow changed Confucianism as well. This part is the research background for this paper.The second part: the relationship between Catholicism and the adherents of MingDynasty’s poems. Study the general influence on the adherents of Ming Dynasty’s poemsby Catholicism and provide a overall context for the following studies.The third part: two patterns of scholar-bureaucrat believers, take Wu Li and Qu Shisias an example. This part submits two different kinds of patterns:“presentation” and“internalization”, trying to elaborate that the adherents of Ming Dynasty’s poems wereaffected by Catholicism, but they were usually affected in two different ways. This paper istrying to make this clear.