Two Kinds Of "last Resort" Of The Debate

In the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, Western missionaries came to evangelizein China, thus triggering a series of influential communication and collision from theencounter between the Chinese culture and the Western culture. This encounter hasalready been discussed by many with various aspects. One tiny spot is chosen as thispaper’s center from this dazzling yet complicated encounter--the debate between BuDe Yi (I Cannot Do Otherwise) and Bu De Yi Bian (A Refutation of I Cannot DoOtherwise). Published in1665, Bu De Yi is a collection of Yang Guangxian’s articlesagainst the Western missionaries, Catholicism, and the Western calendar. There istwenty one articles in total, the earliest written in1659, for example On ExposingHeterodoxy (Bi Xie Lun), and the latest, Kou Hun Ci Shu, in1665. In the same year（1665），Lodovico Buglio, an Italian missionary wrote the apologetic book Bu De YiBian to refute Yang’s attack on Catholicism. In fact, Yang’s attack and Buglio’sdefense were due to two missions of Bu De Yi.One of these two is the mission to preserve the ancient Chinese culture, the other theCatholic mission. The latter, originated from Paul the Apostle, encountered the former,originated from Mencius, as the Western missionaries did their missionary work inChina. Fierce debates were provoked by the encounter of these two missions, as wellas the opportunity of communication. The affinity was found in some aspects, butthere were also certain conflicts hard to reconcile with each other. This paper exploresthe debate between Bu De Yi and Bu De Yi Bian. First we will talk about theorigination of the two missions, the way they have been passed down, and theirencounter. Then full attention is focused on the debate between these two booksinspired by the two missions，in the hope of a better understanding on the differencesbetween the ancient Chinese culture and the Catholic culture.