Course Description
This course aims to retrace the path of the Jesuit missionaries who sailed from Portugal to China, believing that they could convert China to Christianity. Besides describing the role of Jesuits as cultural emissaries, this course will examine how these priests, in the first concerted European effort to engage with Chinese language and thought, translated Roman Catholicism into the Chinese cultural frame until the proscription of Christianity in China in 1724. In the retelling, this course will take students across continents and centuries to reveal the deep political, cultural, scientific, linguistic, and religious complexities of a true early engagement between East and West.
Intended Learning Outcomes
CILO-1: Establish the historical significance of the Society of Jesus and the mission in Ming-Qing China.
CILO-2: Characterise the plurality of approaches adopted by the Jesuits to enter into a dialogue with China, as well as the scientific and philosophical legacies.
CILO-3: Identify continuity and change and analyse cause and consequence linked to the Jesuit presence in China through academic writing.