A Study Of Transcripts Of Ancient And Modern

Joachim Bouvet was a member of the first French mission group who arrivedPeking in1688. The book Kou kin king thien kien is a result of Bouvet’s study inChinese classics. It was written at the later years of Emperor Kangxi which time afierce outbreak period of the Chinese Rites Controversy. It can be said that this bookwas written for solving the Chinese Rites Controversy, and at the same time, was aresponse to the cultural exchange between China and the West in the early Qingdynasty. Because it touched the most fundamental focus of Chinese Rites Controversy,it was forbidden to be published by a person of authority whom represented theVatican. For these historical reasons, this book had produced many manuscripts.These manuscripts are kept in libraries in Beijing, Shanghai, Rome, Paris, Moscow andother cities. They were copied at different times, and some contents of them are alsodifferent. So through clarifying the similarities and differences between thesemanuscripts, we can gain a clear idea of Bouvet’s Chinese work Kou kin king thienkien.After reading this book, we can see that Bouvet used powerful evidence in hisbook. Emperor Kangxi’s explanations to Chinese classics supported Bouvet to provehis theology points. In the view of the above, we had better to know Bouvet fromseveral aspects, such as his activities in China, his works to accommodate Chineseculture, the change and development on Ricci’s missionary methods that Bouvet did.Moreover, as Bouvet communicated with Kangxi frequently, we should alsostraighten out the history events between Bouvet and his Chinese master. In this way,we can see what effect the Chinese people had on the life and work of Bouvet clearly.This is what this paper is going to work on seriously in its Chapter One and ChapterTwo. This paper tries to talk about the cross-cultural interpretation on ‘Destiny’ inKou kin king thien kien.This paper compares manuscripts of ‘Kou kin king thien kien’ in Chapter Three.Nowadays, some of these manuscripts of Kou kin king thien kien have been editedand published by some scholars. Their remarkable works make it be much more convenient to study Bouvt’s Chinese writing. Though had been mentioned by somesages of the past, versions of Kou kin king thien kien in Shanghai library are notdiscussed entirely. Shanghai library’s manuscripts contain some important andmeaningful information if we compare it with other versions, those particular pointscan make us get a clear understanding of the relationship of these manuscripts.It’s a model of Jesuits’ interpretation of Confucianism and Chinese culture. Onthe other hand, it’s a special work of Christian Chinese texts which had been donesince late Ming and early Qing. Although Bouvet was not admitted at that time, hewas ahead of his time in applying the comparative method. Differences in themanuscripts of Kou kin king thien kien offer us a good way to understand Bouvet’sChinese writing better.