Abstract
The Franciscan missionary Antonio de Santa María Caballero (1602–1669) is famed for his categorical opposition to the Jesuit accommodation of Confucianism. Yet scholars have been perplexed by the apparent dissonance between this stance, which was expressed in his 1668 letter to the Jesuit Visitor Luís da Gama (1610–1671), and his embrace of the Confucian classics in his earlier Chinese writings, notably the Tian Ru yin (1664). Using archival sources hitherto neglected by scholars, this article reveals the continuities between his Western-language and Chinese-language writings and traces the gradual evolution of his views on Confucianism after he discovered in 1661 a report by the Jesuit Niccolò Longobardo (1559–1654) on the materialistic monism of pre-Qin Confucianism. It argues that Caballero’s encounter with Longobardo’s treatise was transformative for the Rites Controversy, which was broadened from a ritual focus to interrogate the metaphysical commensurability of Confucianism and Christianity.
Published Version
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