Joining the Spiritual World of Confucianism: The Jesuit Translation of the Zhongyong

Thierry Meynard

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Journal of Translation Studies ›› 2017, Vol. 1 ›› Issue (1) : 7-57.

Sinologists as Translators in the Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries: Archives and Context

Joining the Spiritual World of Confucianism: The Jesuit Translation of the Zhongyong

Thierry Meynard

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Abstract

In their encounter with China, the Jesuits developed a multi-layer approach, and the religious, philosophical and political layers of this encounter are quite well known. However, the spiritual encounter is less known, and yet quite important because it deals with the most inner layer of the personal identity of the Jesuits and of the Chinese people. The Italian Jesuit Prospero Intorcetta was intellectually deeply influenced by the spiritual encounter between the two traditions of Western Christianity and Confucianism as shown in his Latin translation of the Zhongyong, published in 1687.

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Zhongyong / Jesuits / Intorcetta / spirits / spirituality

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Thierry Meynard. Joining the Spiritual World of Confucianism: The Jesuit Translation of the Zhongyong[J]. Journal of Translation Studies. 2017, 1(1): 7-57

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