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Nicolas Standaert had previously edited the Handbook of Christianity in China , Volume One: 635-1800 ( Leiden , Boston , Köln, Brill, 2001, 964 pp.), and Ad Dudink is well known for his bibliographic research on the works related to Christianity in China of the Ming-Qing dynasties. They confess (p. 6) that, in order not to delay the publication of the Handbook, Volume One , in it “there was one major absentee: ritual, which is often considered essential for understanding China .” They hastened, so to say, to fill up the gap in their research thanks to a workshop on “Chinese and Christian Rituality in Late Imperial China” (Leuven, June 2004), out of which two selected papers are published in this book: “Deliver Us from Evil: Confession and Salvation in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Chinese Catholicism”, by Eugenio Menegon (pp. 9-102) and “Buddhist chanhui and Christian Confession in Seventeenth-Century China” by the late Professor Erik Zürcher (pp. 103-129). These are followed by two other contributions. First, “Illuminating the Shades of Sin: The Society of Jesus and Confession in Seventeenth-Century China” (pp. 129-181), by Liam Matthew Brockey (note, p. 129: “an adapted version of an article which appeared in Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu , LXXIV, 2005 [pp. 119-154: “Between the Middle Kingdom and the Lord of Heaven: The Jesuits and Confession in Seventeenth-Century China”]). Second, the important study by L. M. Brockey and Ad Dudink entitled: “A Missionary Confessional Manual: José Monteiro's Vera et Unica Praxis breviter ediscendi, ac expeditissime loquendi Sinicum idioma ” (pp. 183-239), that comprises a presentation of José Monteiro, S.J. (1646-1720), the Lisbon Portuguese manuscript of the Confissionario , the Chinese text of the manual, editorial remarks, text edition and English translation. A Bibliography (pp. 241-257) and an Index (pp. 259-268) complete the volume. Inserted between chapters are four illustrations of “The Four Last Things”: Death (p. 8), Judgment (p. 102), Heaven (p.128), Hell (p. 182), reproduced from Philippe Couplet, 四末真論 Simo zhenlun (1676), Vatican City, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana: Borg. cin. 345.7, f. lb, 5b, 9b, 13b.
Due to the composite origins and contents of the volume, some observations are perhaps in order, as they are tacitly subjacent to the text of the Introduction. The Editors are aware that it was difficult to avoid some degree of repetition in the analysis of a ritual practice spanning over more than one hundred years (cf. p. 12: Matteo Ricci's celebrated “ The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven , first edition Beijing, 1603” and p. 197: “approximate date of the Confissionario […] between 1695 -1705” ). All the more so that the ritual practice in question was based on firmly established ecclesiastical (Catholic), pastoral and spiritual (Jesuit) traditions. Emphasis only might have varied due to the development of Christian communities and of their needs, as L. M. Brockey has so carefully described in his later publication ( Journey to the East: The Jesuit Mission in China, 1579-1724 , Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2007, 496 p.). Hence the illustrations, dated 1676, inserted in the present volume.
But one might still have two other mutually related regrets. One is about terminology, the other about cultural context.
The subtitle of the book under review introduces the first: Confession in Late Ming and Early Qing China . The Introduction tries to explain: “Confession in early modern Europe has been the subject of several studies. What happened to the confessional practice when it moved to other cultures?” The various chapters of the book, as summarized supra, “portray from different angles one of the sacramental rituals, viz. that of confession.” (p. 6) Strictly speaking, in such a context “confession” is just one part of this “sacramental ritual” that traditionally is called, in the Catholic Church, the sacrament of penance. This ritual includes several steps or elements as Eugenio Menegon describes in his “Part 1: The Sacrament of Penance in Prescriptive Texts” (pp. 11-44), before dealing with the evolution of its importance in his “Part 2: The Importance of Confession in Christian Life: Sacrament, Community and Fear of Damnation” (pp. 47-84).
An attentive reading of the studies included in this book suggests an excessive emphasis on “confession” with its human (and cross cultural) difficulties to the detriment of a holistic understanding of its sacramental practice. A sign of this focalisation is given by the entries of the Index: nine of them only refer to penance although there are about three columns detailing various topics related to confession (pp. 260-61). The same observation could be made about the Handbook mentioned above (under Sacraments, no entry about penance, five only about confession, p. 950) or about Journey to the East by L. M. Brockey (under “Sacraments”, no entry about penance, 43 entries about confession). Such a focalisation is unfortunately grounded in a linguistic cleavage: at that time, in Chinese Catholic terminology, the sacrament of penance (nowadays called 和好圣事 hehao shengshi , sacrament of reconciliation [with God]) was called 告解圣事 gaojie shengshi sacrament of confession.
Was it due to avoid using the Buddhist terminology? In his communication Erik Zürcher refers to the Buddhist 懺會 chanhui or “communal confessional liturgies” (“confession of guilt or remorse”) as he terms them (p. 106), but better understood as “penitential assembly”. To answer the second above-mentioned regret, further studies are needed on this point. The book under review would nevertheless have gained in clarity by having first a broader yet succinct presentation of the Chinese spiritual practices of the time—be they of Taoist, Confucian or Buddhist traditions—related to self improvement or cultivation, including self examination and repentance. Only then pastoral Jesuit insistence on the steps leading to the reception of the sacrament of penance would have been more appropriately understood, that is to say, beyond the detailed pastoral questions so exhaustively mentioned by the various Confessors manuals quoted in the volume.
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