中欧社会论坛 - China Europa ForumExamining the Rites Controversy in early Qin Dynasty China: a cultural viewpoint
To be discussed with Mr. An Ximeng
Authors: Li Qiuling
Extract from ” The People’s University Journal, Beijing, Vol. 4, 2003, pp 113-119“
The Rites Controversy at the beginning of the Qin dynasty caused a clash between Chinese and Christian culture. Internal conflict among Catholic orders stemming from complex, historical causes led to a political and religious quarrel between the Pope in Rome and the Chinese emperor. Opposing viewpoints were irreconcilable due to the different conceptions of religion in Eastern and Western culture. Pushed by a non-accommodating and arbitrary position of the Vatican that increased hostility, the Chinese government banned the practice of Christianity. The Rites Controversy had profound, negative effects on the modernisation of China.
The first real contact between Chinese culture and Christianity occurred during the third wave of Christian influence during the 16th and 17th centuries. Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit preacher, used classic Confucian concepts like Sky and God to prove the existence of a supreme being in Christianity, and spread the religion by incorporating it into traditional customs such as Confucian rites and offerings made to ancestors - a process which would lead to the Rites Controversy. While unrest may have come from Ricci’s successor, who refused in part Ricci’s techniques, it was the arrival of the Dominicans, opposed to the Jesuit adoption of local customs, that finally provoked the clash. At the recommendation of Bishop Maigrot who was in China, a hesitant Vatican decided to condemn and ban ritual practices in China. The Kangxi Emperor was asked by the Jesuits to declare that Confucian and ancestor-based rites were simply traditional customs rather than part of a religious practice. Bad communication and the cultural ignorance of the Pope’s envoy, however led to the ban by each side of the other’s practice, and an open revolt between the two. While both the Vatican and the Chinese Emperor were responsible for the conflict, it was the arbitrary meddling of the former, along with the Rites Controversy, that led to the banning of Christianity in China.
The Rites Controversy has had profoundly negative repercussions in China, where Christianity and even Western culture in general are viewed with indifference. The proscription of the Christian faith re-enforced the country’s closed-door policies and seriously damaged the Church in China, which resorted to illegal and violent methods of spreading the religion in reaction to the ban, thus worsening both its reputation and the intellectual chasm between East and West. Chinese culture and Christianity remain incompatible on certain levels. Representatives of both sides must adopt a more respectful and peaceful approach.