Early sinologists and Chinese ethics

Michele Ferrero
Beijing Foreign Language Study University

One interesting characteristics of early Western sinology is the attention to moral issues, morality, ethics, customs and behavior. In their descriptions of China, most of the early sinologists (between 1580 and 1780) insist on “ethics” as one of the “sciences” in which the Chinese excel.

My article focuses on three points.

The first is the reason why these early sinologists were attracted by Chinese ethics, rather than by other topics, such as production and selling of raw material, business and commerce, or military organization. As a matter of fact all the early sinologists were religious people, missionaries, active members of the Catholic Church. They were keen to find common ground with the Chinese people for their work of evangelization. The Jesuit tradition of self-cultivation found in the Confucian ethics much similarities.

The second point is about Ricci’s Tianzhu Shiyi (天主实义) as a clear example of a dialogue between Thomism and Confucianism on moral issues and ethics. Thomas Aquinas, offered a valid platform to face Chinese moral teaching with open mind. The choice of a continual dialogue with Confucian tradition rather than with Buddhism or Taoism was influenced by Thomas and Aristotle and Ignatius of Loyola: a good moral life is a necessary preparation to accept the Gospel.

The third point is the long historical debate whether Chinese ethics is directly connected with the notion of “God”. The early sinologists were greatly fascinated by this issue. For them the presence of God is necessary for moral goodness. On the opposite camp, in the middle of the XVIII century the philosophers of the French Enlightenment, with Voltaire as a representative, were looking at China as a good moral society without God, also to attack the social function of the Church in Europe.

早期汉学家与中国伦理学

麦克雷
北京外国语大学

早期西方汉学的一大有趣的特色即关注道德问题、道德观、伦理学、习俗和社会行为。在他们对中国的描述中，大多数早期汉学家（1580-1780）认为“伦理学”是中国人最擅长的“科学”之一。

我的文章将聚焦于三点。

首先，为什么早期汉学家更容易被中国的伦理学而不是其它方面所吸引？比如原材料的生产和销售、商业贸易或者军事组织。事实上，所有的早期汉学家均为宗教界人士、传教者、天主教会的活跃人士。为了在中国传播福音，他们渴望寻求与中国人的共同之处。耶稣会修身养性的传统在儒家伦理中找到了很多相似之处。

其次，我将探讨利玛窦的《天主实义》，这是托马斯学派与儒家关于道德问题和伦理学的典型对话。托马斯·阿奎那提供了一个以开放心态面对中国道德教寓的有效平台。该书选择不断与儒家传统而非佛教或道教对话，这明显受到托马斯、亚里士多德和依纳爵·罗耀拉的影响：良好的道德生活是接受福音的必要准备。

最后，文章将涉及历史上关于中国伦理学是否与“上帝”这个概念有直接关联的长期争论。早期汉学家们非常执迷于这个问题，对于他们而言，上帝的存在对于道德至善是必要的。作为他们的对立面，以伏尔泰为代表的十八世纪中期法国启蒙运动哲学家，却将中国视为一个没有上帝的良好道德社会，并以此抨击欧洲教会的社会功能。