History And Sino-Christian Theology:Research On The Proofs Of The Existence Of God In The Late Ming And Early Qing Dynasty

The present study is to focus on the Chinese translations of Divine names and the existence of God in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty. First, the missionaries proved the existence of God with orthodox theology to the Chinese people. Second, under the influence of the Ricci Rule, harmony can be found between the Chinese spirit of practical rationalism and the natural theology of Thomas Aquinas so that the missionaries have also proved the existence of God by reconciling Confucianism and Theology. The commencement of the study is to employ the two divisions in Paul Tillich’s religious philosophy to be a hidden platform. The present study aims to provide a new perspective to the proof of the existence of God and the current Chinese theology.The present study falls into three parts, namely existence proofs and their amendments, divine names and proofs, Tianxue and proofs. The first part examines that how the missionaries prove the existence of God in the writings of Chinese theology. The aim is not only to disclose how the missionaries prove the existence of God with orthodox theology, but also to analyze how they employ the theology of Aquinas and Augustine with their own emphasis. This part is not only to show how they corrected and reconciled Mencius by Augustinian ontological proof, but also to employ the two division in Tillich’s religious philosophy and Mou Zongsan’s Neo-Confucianism to analyze how the missionaries reconcile Augustinian proof in the sense of heart to interpret the Liangzhiliangneng. Mou Zongsan’s approach is similar to Ricci to propose the moral argument in according to Augustinian proof.The second part focuses on the connection between the name of God in the traditional sense and the proof of the existence of God. This part firstly examines the theory about shang-ti and t’ien that becomes one of the focuses of the Rite Controversy from a new perspective. From the rules of Matteo Ricci to the principle of Francis Xavier, the main concern of this part is the newness of Ricci’s innovation. The pro and con attitude toward the theory about shang-ti and t’ien is also discussed. The analysis is that Ricci also attempts to integrate Confucianism and Christian theology with the essence to prove the existence of God in China. Secondly, in the late Ming Dynasty, the Catholic missionaries render Deus a Chinese name, the Supreme Parents, which is with a typical Chinese characteristic. The dissertation on the Supreme Parents carried out some research. First, the present study concludes that Deus known as the Supreme Parents was formed no later than 1595, which should be attributed to Matteo Ricci. Secondly, through the evolution of the word meaning, the present study explained that the Supreme Parents was gradually with an ethical sense and a metaphysical sense. Thirdly, Deus is well known as the Father in the West, but the Father in the origin of the Chinese context is not easy to reveal the meaning of the Creator. The missionaries and the Chinese literati had to improve the Supreme Parents is the equivalent name of Deus. Fourthly, in the late Ming Dynasty the Supreme Parents was related with Tian Worship ideas, both of them had an obvious disciplinary character. Furthermore, the Supreme Parents in fact implies a cosmological reason that every human being has parents while the idea can conclude that there must the Supreme Parents or God beyond the individual’s parents.The third part discusses the link between Tianxue and the existence of God. Some kinds of t’ien argument exist in the late Ming, the present study focuses directly on the context of Shixue and Tianxue and the calendar system. The Confucian Christians recognize and accept the existence of God from two approaches, one through Shixue into theology and the other through Xin into theology. The present study is to situate the two approaches to the two divisions of Tillich’s religious philosophy.The Chinese and Western Tianxue have different purposes, one for Royalty and one for theocracy respectively. The Jesuits’ efforts to prove God exist by Tianxue from two approaches. From the strategic approach, the Jesuits played down the Chinese metaphysical explanations of Tian and explained Chinese Tian to customs for paving the way to accept Christian God. From the objective approach, the Jesuits also realized their aim by translating works to introduce Western astronomy and cosmology, mainly in two ways. In the first volume of Huanyouquan directly used Aquinas theology to prove the existence of God, and through the rest of the five-volume theology dominant cosmology indirectly proved the existence of God in Huanyouquan. the logical chain in Aquinas natural theology was migrated to a vast universe of astronomy, thus this proof has the double chain:logic and space.Last but not the least, the dissertation uses telescope as a case for description. Bo Jue is the first person who made telescope in China. First of all, Bo Jue’s knowledge in science and technology was influenced by Western learning. In fact he is the key figure who spread the telescope’s knowledge from the official to private. With a direct impact on Jiaoshilizhi, indirect effects of Yuanjingshuo, he further developed the Western knowledge of the optical and successfully made a Kepler telescope. In addition, a large number of Bo Jue’s astronomical works were influenced by Chongzhenlishu and Huanyouquan, with a lot of content developed from the Western works. Finally, the present study also attempts to outline the degree that his friends affected by Western culture. Telescope learning was also helpful to the formation of a new epistemology in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty. Through the application of telescope, people also realized that there weren’t Li or Qi among the planets, thus Jesuits reinterpreted the epistemology of Neo-Confucianism to prove the existence of God.