Alphonse Vagnoni, S.J.'s Activities And Influence Upon Culture At The Late Ming Dynasty In China

Western missionaries who came to China during the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties have played an intermediary and pioneering role in the cultural exchanges of the East and the West 高一志(ALPHONSE VAGNONI, formerly named 王丰肃 , 1568-1640), an Italian Jesuit, has played a certain role in the history of Sino-foreign cultural exchanges. As one of the few Jesuits who really found their way into China, he carried out his missionary work in Nanjing, Shanxi, Macao for 37 years. He devoted all his life to missionary work and Sino-foreign cultural exchanges. With the publication of a score of Chinese books, he justified his role as one of the polygraphs among the early missionaries to China. However, Alphonse Vagnoni has long escaped the attention of researchers in Christianity Studies. The present thesis, taking Alphonse Vagnoni as a case for study and utilizing both Chinese texts and texts in Western languages, attempts to carry out a systematic research on his genealogy, life before and after his entering into China, missionary work in both Nanjing and Jiangzhou, Shanxi. Through his works and the comments of his contemporaries, we obtain a clear picture of his role in and contributions to the introduction of western learning into China in the late Ming Dynasty. The survey of his social networking with scholar officials at that time also secures us an insight into Alphonse Vagnoni's painstaking effort in implementing the "Adjustment Strategy" formulated by Metteo Ricci in China. To sum up, through theoretical analysis, we justify the historical role of Alphonse Vagnoni: obscure as he is in Christianity Studies, he has in fact made a great contribution to Sino-foreign cultural exchanges. With this, we can also have a more comprehensive picture of the history of Sino-foreign relations of the seventeenth century.