Description
Tracing the history of the Jesuits' invention of Confucius and of themselves as native defenders of Confucius's teaching, Jensen reconstructs the cultural consequences of the encounter between the West and China. For the West, a principal outcome of this encounter was the reconciliation of empirical investigation and theology on the eve of the scientific revolution. Jensen also explains how Chinese intellectuals in the early twentieth century fashioned a new cosmopolitan Chinese culture through reliance on the Jesuits' Confucius and Confucianism. Challenging both previous scholarship and widespread belief, Jensen uses European letters and memoirs, Christian histories and catechisms written in Chinese, translations and commentaries on the Sishu, and a Latin summary of Chinese culture known as the Confucius Sinarum Philosophus to argue that the national self-consciousness of Europe and China was bred from a cultural ecumenism wherein both were equal contributors.
About the Author
Lionel M. Jensen is Assistant Professor of History and Director of the Program in Chinese Studies at the University of Colorado at Denver.
Reviews
"A thesis that will scandalize cultural purists: the 'Confucius' we love, honor and emulate springs from the intercultural trafficking of seventeenth-century Jesuit missionaries. Jensen argues his case on many planes, with nuance and bedrock affection for both China and sinology."-Haun Saussy, Stanford University, and author of The Problem of a Chinese Aesthetic
"Jensen makes his case with a forceful combination of detailed sinological research and rigorous reasoning. It is certain to be a focus of discussion for many decades to come. Indeed, it will be a significant milestone in the field."-Hoyt Cleveland Tillman, Arizona State University, and author of Confucian Discourse and Chu Hsi's Ascendancy
Book Information
ISBN 9780822320470
Author Lionel M. Jensen
Format Paperback
Page Count 472
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 853g