Taking a Concubine and Repenting Afterwards:Reading the Christian Scholar-Official Wang Zheng’s Daily Jottings in the Chongyi Hall against the Flourishing of Qing in Late Ming Culture

Abstract

<p>長期以來，學界在討論明清之際天主教來華對士大夫階層的衝擊時，都傾向於把焦點集中在論述以儒家為代表的中國傳統文化和天主教教義之間的衝突或調和，以及辨別個別士大夫思想中的儒家和天主教成分。近來雖然因為受到新的學術思潮的啟發，已有新的研究視角出現，但上述範式仍主導著學者的寫作。因此，學界多從儒耶衝突的角度，解讀入教士大夫王徵（1571-1644）因膝下無子而受家人逼迫娶妾一事。以往論者認為，自小受儒家以無後為不孝的觀念熏陶的王徵，入教以後，因為天主教以納妾為違反一夫一妻原則的淫行而面對兩難的局面，其內心的矛盾與掙扎，彰顯了天主教在中國傳播過程中遭遇儒家倫理時所面對的阻力。本文則試圖證明，圍繞著王徵納妾一事而產生的一系列文本，其中的複雜性和多層次的意義，不是利用「儒」、「耶」這類經過高度化約的概念可以揭示的。因此，本文將緊隨文本自身的脈絡和語境，在晚明重情文化的背景下，還原王徵對納妾行為及相關問題的反思，並說明王徵如何通過書寫情欲，把信仰、傳教、親情、生理的欲望、身體的規訓與救贖等多方面的因素結合起來，展現了明清之際情欲觀一些甚少獲得關注、但值得重視的面向。</p> <p> </p><p>For a very long time, studies on Chinese-Christian encounters during the late Ming tend to focus on how the two value systems went through a process of conflict or accommodation. Historians are particularly interested in trying to identify and distinguish the Christian or Confucian components in the thought of individual scholar-official who were engaged in such interactions. For this reason, when the Christian scholar-official Wang Zheng (1571-1644) produced a collection of texts to recount how he was forced by his family to take a concubine because he had no son and how he felt ashamed of himself for failing to observe the Christian precept concerning adultery, modern scholars tend to interpret Wang’s distress as a manifestation of the dilemma of an individual who were caught between two incompatible value systems: the Confucian tradition that criticizes the inability to produce an heir as unfilial and the Christian tradition that forbids sexual intercourse with another woman who is not your legal wife. Wang’s struggle, according to these scholars, is indicative of the difficulty that Christianity faced when it was trying to gain a foothold in Confucian China.</p> <p> This article will show that we cannot do justice to the complexity of the texts produced in relation to the incident by simply analysing them using a pair of highly essentialized concepts as in Confucianism and Christianity. Instead, we should follow the logic of the narrative closely to try to understand Wang Zheng’s reflection within the context of the rise of the notion of qing in the late Ming. Only then could we fully appreciate Wang’s unique take on the connections between religious belief, missionary work, family affection and obligation, bodily desire and discipline, and salvation. Wang’s view might be idiosyncratic, but it is also a product of its time.</p> <p> </p>