The Evolution of the Soul-Body Relationship: A Study of Catholic Works in Late Ming and Early Qing China

Abstract

During the late Ming and early Qing periods, Western Catholic missionaries who entered China adopted a strategy of "cultural accommodation" to more effectively preach in the culturally heterogeneous Chinese society. They billed themselves as Confucian scholars from the West, engaging in extensive collaboration with Chinese literati and rulers. They attempted to convey the Gospel through a series of works that employed Chinese terminology to spread "science" firstly, such as Xingxue Cushu (性學觕述), Xing Shen Shi Yi (形神實義), and Ge ti ciowan lu bithe (格體 全 錄). However, while these works all promoted the importance of the non-physical soul, their impact in China was mainly on the physical body. Past research has mostly concentrated on the spread of theories of the soul or Western medical knowledge in China, with less discussion on the core issue of the relationship between soul and body. Yet, this relationship is crucial in the discourse of these works, as Catholic missionaries used it to construct a bridge from the study of "xing xue"(性學, physics) to "chao xing zhi xue" (超性之學, theology). This study finds that the explanations of the soul-body relationship by Catholic missionaries during this period were not unchanged. Early texts from the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, viewing the human body as a precursor to understanding the soul, adopted a hylomorphic perspective, seeing the body as matter and the soul as form. However, the imperial Manchu translation "Ge ti ciowan lu bithe" from the later Kangxi era showed a distinct departure from hylomorphism in its view of the human body. Although the work begins by mentioning the rational soul, it emphasizes the independence and autonomy of the body, with a theoretical framework closer to Descartes' mechanistic view of the body. This represents a deviation from the Jesuit theological perspective, a change possbily influenced by the increase in popularity of Cartesianism in Western Europe and the Chinese Rites Controversy.

Keywords: Soul-Body Relationship, Catholic Missionaries in China, Hylomorphism, Cartesian Mechanism