A Brief Study On "Xixue Hanji"(Chinese Books On Western Learning) From Japan

In mid-16th century, Christian missionaries, mainly Jesuits, traveled to the area of East Asia, countries including China, Japan and Korea. This was the first meeting with comprehensive communication between the East and the West. A series of works documenting this meeting, which the author of this thesis refers to as "Xixue hanji"(Chinese books on western learning, or Chinese Christian Texts), were published in China, and soon were imported to Japan and Korea. These works were written in traditional Chinese and presented in traditional Chinese printing format and manuscript; the majority of the works deal with Christianity and Western science and philosophy; and they were composed by Chineses converts and missionaries(mostly Jesuit), mainly during the17th and18th centuries. Since it was through this series of works that people in China, Japan and Korea got to know Europe in a broad sense, these works are seen to have great influence on the history of western culture reception of these countries.The subject matter of this thesis is the "Xixue hanji" imported to Japan. This thesis studied what were the works, how many of them and through what channels they have been imported to Japan, and how Japanese people in the Edo period received these works.This thesis based on the research of eight Japanese libraries or book preservation institutions, namely National Archives of Japan, The Oriental Library, Seikado Bunko Library, Hosa Library, Kyoto University Library, Kansai University Library, Tenri University Library, and Waseda University Library, covering a total number of478volumes of works. Under careful examination,153volumes of the478volumes have been marked as works imported to or circulated in Japan during the Edo period. The first chapter of this thesis serves as a first-hand report of this research. In order to provide the historical background of the imported "Xixue hanji", the second chapter went on to analyze the persecution of Christianity in Japan as well as its impact on banned books, and the Sino-Japan trade through which Chinese books have been brought to Japan. Then, the third chapter studied people’s reactions to these works, to be more specific, how people from different classes collected and preserved, read and reproduced these works in the Edo period.In addition, this thesis weigh heavily for the value of "Xixue hanji" preserved in Japan to the full research on "Xixue hanji"."Xixue hanji", also referred as Chinese books on Western learning or Chinese Christian Texts, are a large group of publications appeared during a period of300to400years. First published in China, and nowadays scatted around the world, these works are still in the primary stage of research. A comprehensive catalogue of these works is still under revision. During the research of the eight libraries mentioned above, the author of this thesis paid great attention on works with distinguished value, editions have not been seen so far from the "Xixue hanji" collections in European and Chinese libraries.Therefore, chapter four chose four works with distinctive values as case studies. They included a newly discovered edition of Tianxue chuhan, the oldest edition so far of Tianzhu shiyi, the manuscript copy of the first edition and the second edition in print version of Juejiao tongwenji, and the manuscript copies of Chongzhen lishu and Chongzhen leishu compiled by the Japanese scholar Yasusuke Toita in the Edo period. The values of "Xixue hanji" preserved in Japan were well presented through these four case studies.Also, the author of this thesis compiled a catalogue based on the research of the eight Japanese libraries, which appeared as the appendix "Catalogue of Xixue hanji preserved in Japan, Part I". The calogoue covers104titles and400volumes of works with detailed publication and preservation information. The author hopes the catalogue will be a valuable contribution to the field of research on "Xixue hanji" and related subject matters.