Jesuits as Diplomats in the Service of Chinese Emperors in Early Modern Times

Abstract

In East Asia, China played a special role spreading its superior culture to other nations. The relations between Europe and China, however, were besides trade destined by the attempts to spread Catholicism and later also Protestantism in China. Especially during the 17th and 18th centuries some of the Western missionaries bringing Western religion to China also tried to interpret traditional Chinese rituals like the veneration of Confucius and the ancestors in a pejorative way declaring these rites to be superstitious and to forbid them for Chinese Christians. The legation of the papal delegate Charles-Thomas Maillard de Tournon (1668- 1710) to China brought the latent quarrel between the adherents and the adversaries of the Rites to an outbreak. The Kangxi Emperor (1662-1722) tried to explain his attitude to the Holy See in Rome. Therefore, after several more general delegations of Jesuits to Europe Kangxi sent special embassies to Rome concerning the Chinese Rites. His efforts, however, to solve the problems and to protect Christianity and missionaries respecting the Chinese culture failed and the Rites were condemned.