A Vision Betrayed: The Jesuits in Japan and China, 1542-1742 (review)

Abstract

514 China Review International: Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 1996 Andrew C. Ross. A Vision Betrayed: The Jesuits in Japan and China, 15421742 . Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1994. xvii, 216 pp. Hardcover $34.95, isbn 0-88344-991-9. This work by Andrew C. Ross represents a valiant attempt to tell the whole story of the Jesuit missionary efforts in East Asia from about the middle of the sixteenth century to the middle of the eighteenth century. Ross points out that while the special problems and separate events of the Jesuit enterprise in Japan and China have been studied by scholars, and their research published, the full story has not been told. His purpose in writing this book was to fill in the gaps. In general, Ross has succeeded in reconstructing the history of the unusual achievements of the pioneering Jesuit missionaries. He also manages to assign responsibilities fairly to Western organizations and individuals for the eventual failure of the Christian missions in Japan and China in the early modern period. As a Senior Lecturer in the History of Missions at the University of Edinburgh, Ross is also able to bring his knowledge of the history of early Christendom to bear in his evaluation of Jesuit policies and methods, and to declare that the Jesuits were the true followers of the tradition of the early Christian Church. He emphasizes that the Jesuits had great success in their policy of cultural accommodation, but they were eventually betrayed and their efforts defeated by the Europeanism of the Mendicants, by the conquistador mentality, and by the Portuguese insistence on its Padreado (Patronage) privileges. Ross sounds an appropriate warning by saying that at the present time "Europeanism is still alive and well, . . . [Some Westerners ] still unquestioningly assume the experience ofwestern European humanity to be definitive" (p. xv). They continue to claim that it is universally valid and should be adhered to by all people everywhere. This timely warning should remind his readers that the shrewd invocation of the "trade" or "human rights" issue by some Western politicians needs to be examined closely. Ross divides his account into two major parts in addition to an introduction, a brief survey of Japan and China at the time of the coming of the Portuguese and Spanish explorers, and a concluding chapter. The two major parts deal with the Jesuit and Mendicant activities in Japan (chapters 2-5) and the Jesuit experiences in China (chapters 6-9). Jesuit missionaries succeeded first in propagating the Christian message in Japan; hence, that history is treated ahead of China. In both Japan and China, Ross affirms that it was Alessandro Valignano (1539-1606), the© 1996 by University Jesuit Visitor to the East, who initiated a new missionary approach that was conofHawai i Presssistent with the Constitution ofthe Society ofJesus as well as die aim ofIgnatius Loyola and other founders of the Society. Under Valignano's leadership, Jesuits not only conscientiously respected the cultural traditions of Japan and China but Reviews 515 also discarded any trace ofEuropeanism. Ross stresses that Valignano wanted "to build in Japan a Christian Church that was Japanese and in China a Church that was Christian but also Chinese" (p. 43). The Jesuit efforts at adaptation or acculturation in Japan were frustrated by the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians, who entered Japan from the Spanish Philippines. Ross notes that these Mendicant missionaries not only violated the customs and habits ofthe Japanese commoners and elites but also made implied threats ofSpanish military action against the Japanese rulers (p.74). The thoughtless and intolerant behavior of the Mendicants finally led to the repeated persecution ofboth Western missionaries and Japanese Christians in Japan. Fear ofWestern military conquest eventually gave the Tokugawa shoguns the excuse they needed to close Japan to foreign contact, although the Chinese and the Dutch were still allowed limited access to Japanese trade. In spite of the final suppression of the Christian religion in Japan, Ross notes that the Jesuit mission did achieve great success by converting to Christianity a large number of Japanese from all classes (p. 115). Turning to the Jesuit glory in China, Ross says that Valignano was totally committed to "the general principle of...