The Chinese Etiquette Controversy: History, Documents, and Significance
by Li Tiangang
About This Novel
The "Chinese Etiquette Controversy" was a major event that took place in China in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, spread to Europe, and had an impact on subsequent Western and Chinese cultures. The core of the debate concerns Chinese sacrificial rituals, such as "reverence to heaven", "sacrifice to ancestors" and "sacrifice to Confucius". Confucian Catholics such as Xu Guangqi maintained sacrifices after their conversion, while Jesuits such as Matteo Ricci tolerated it with a tolerant attitude of "complementing Confucianism and changing Buddhism." This practice was later questioned and finally led to conflicts during the Kangxi period. Enlightenment thinkers such as Leibniz, Voltaire, and Montesquieu participated in the debate, and European "Sinology" formed a series of views on this, which profoundly affected the history of Chinese thought in the 20th century. This book uses the newly published Chinese documents of the "Chinese Etiquette Controversy" to provide a detailed description of this period of history for the first time, and points out its importance in the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties, church history, Chinese and Western cultural exchanges, and comparative classical studies.
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