Matteo Ricci’s Contributions To The Philosophical Exchange Between China And Europe

As is well known, the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty is one of themost important periods of cultural exchange. As a representative figureof missionaries, Matteo Ricci was welcomed by the Chinese ruling classfor his strategy of the Catholic Confucianism at that time. His tendencytowards adaptation of Chinese language and culture, and subsequentsuccess offered further opportunity for future missionaries in China. Hebrought the Western humanism and natural science of the Renaissance thatwas spread more than the religion in the Chinese elite society. Meanwhilehe studied the Chinese Classics then translated and disseminated back toEurope that created profound effects on the European thinkers. His areasof works include mathematics, astronomy, ethics, art and so on, openingup a dialogue for heterogeneous ideological and cultural between East andWest. Matteo Ricci made an important contribution to the cultural exchangebetween China and the West, he was known as a pioneer of “eastward spreadof Western Culture” and “Chinese knowledge western spreading”This thesis is an attempt to sort out and interpret the contents ofMatteo Ricci’s scholarly work entitled:“The Truth of God”from theChinese and Western philosophy point of view. It endeavors to dig out thephilosophy of the book and mastery Matteo Ricci’s strategy on a deeperlevel–integration of the traditional Chinese Confucian philosophy andthe Western philosophy. Here, a meticulous analysis on Matteo Ricci’s“Confucianism” has been outlined with references to relevant historic,political, social and cultural context. It reveals the influences of Renaissance, religion reformation of the west and political situation,ideological tendencies of the late Ming on Matteo Ricci. The thesis picksout the common features of the western philosophy and Chinese Confucianism,where Matteo Ricci underlined the authority of Chinese Confucianthoughts；besides, it puts forward discussions on the effects and impactsof the book. The paper concludes that when heterogeneous culture meet andcollide towards broader level of cultural infusion, and expansion, thenew culture would evolve through dialogue and communication betweendifferent societies and that would bring cultural benefits for each other.The thesis has been organized under four main chapters. The initialchapter provides the background of the paper by discussing the life andworks of Matteo Ricci. Chapter II adopts an analytical approach to discussthe origin and content of the book“The Truth of God”. Purpose and argumentof the work “The Truth of God” is the subject matter of Chapter III;while being the final part of the thesis, Chapter IV offers an overallevaluation and reflection.