Abstract
In this paper, the author focuses on one of the earliest groups of Sinologists, the Jesuit Figurists, particularly discussing how they translated mystical creatures and elements in Chinese classics, such as the dragon, dog, and Chinese mythological figures, in their typological exegesis as a tool of proselytization. Interestingly, in their translations into Latin, the Three Sovereigns 三皇 and Chinese mythological figures were depicted as biblical figures or figures from Greek and Roman mythology to parallel them with the biblical stories and narrow the cultural gap; and in the opposite linguistic direction, in their translations in Chinese manuscripts, the betrayal of Satan, the fall of Adam and Eve, and the emergence of Jesus were modeled as mystical creatures in Chinese classics, to lessen their foreignness. In addition, this paper will also focus on the space they borrowed from the Chinese classics and records of mythic geography, such as Shan Hai Jing 山海經 (The Classic of Mountains and Seas) and their purpose to create a new space that accommodated the histories and mythologies of both sides. Their translations of Chinese ancient mythologies came into play to broaden the European people’s understanding of Chinese culture, while their translations of biblical stories also opened the eyes of the emperor and the Chinese literati to a Chinese packaging of Christian stories.
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Notes
- 1.
The Four Books, together with the Five Classics, are canons of Confucianism and share the same authoritative status. The Four Books comprise the Da Xue 大學 (the Great Learning), Zhong Yong 中庸 (Doctrine of the Mean), Lunyu 論語 (the Analects), and Mengzi 孟子 (the Works of Master Meng).
- 2.
It is a collection of mystic stories compiled by Wang Jia 王嘉 in the Eastern Jin period 東晉 (317–420).
- 3.
In Chinese, it is 共工天神也, 蛇面人身生於離.
- 4.
In Chinese, it is 大風風伯天神, 也能壞人屋舍.
- 5.
In Chinese, it is 龍首牛耳, 連眉一目.
- 6.
This sentence is originally from Shuo Gua Zhuan 說卦傳 (The Commentaries of Explaining the Trigrams) in the Yijing.
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Acknowledgements
This paper was supported by 2018–2019 Early Career Scheme Grant: Genealogies of the Dao—the Jesuits’ Dao Journey (Project Number: 24601818), sponsored by RGC, Hong Kong, during the period 1 January 2019 to 30 June 2021 and Direct Grant offered by the Faculty of Arts, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong [grant project code: 4051188], during the period 21 May 2021 to 20 May 2022.
I also express my deep appreciation to the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF) for the images in Figs. 1, 2, and 3.
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Wei, S.Lc. (2022). Typological Figuration of Mystical Elements in Jesuit Figurists’ Re-interpretation of Chinese Classics. In: Qi, L., Tobias, S. (eds) Encountering China’s Past. New Frontiers in Translation Studies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0648-0_9
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