“书籍传教”:一种适应明清之际中国社会的传教方法

Preaching through Books:A Method Acceptable for the Chinese Society from the mid-Ming Dynasty to the mid-Qing Dynasty

在明清之际,利玛窦等耶稣会士通过长期的观察,摸索出了一种借助书籍在中国传教的方法,即"书籍传教"。这是一种适应明清之际中国社会的传教新方法,其特点是融间接传教与直接传教于一体。传教士不仅把书籍作为一种信息传播媒介,而且把它作为一种彰显西洋文明与传教士自我证明的外在传教手段。具体而言,他们从以下方面发挥书籍的传教作用:第一,迎合中国人敬重书籍的心理,携带和展示西洋图书,以此证明基督教来自一个文化昌明的世界,减轻传教阻力;第二,根据中国社会尊崇学术的特点,撰写中文作品,翻译西文书籍,以此证明传教士是知识渊博的学者,为传教创造有利条件;第三,利用书籍在中国信息传播中的优势,大量撰写中文宗教书籍,以此来传播基督教的信仰、教理、礼仪和伦理观等;第四,在科技、人文社科类书籍中插入宗教内容。除耶稣会之外,其他修会的传教士也在不同程度上开展"书籍传教"。

From the mid-Ming Dynasty to the mid-Qing Dynasty,Jesuits like Mathew Ricci invented a new method of preaching through books. They not only made books a medium to spread the gospel in China,but also used them as an indirect missionary means to showcase the Western civilization and missionaries' learning. Specifically,books were used in preaching in the following ways. Firstly,capitalizing on Chinese people's respect to books,missionaries brought and displayed books to demonstrate that Christianity was from a well-developed world and to relieve hindrance to preaching. Secondly,considering the academic worship of Chinese people,they wrote books in Chinese and translated Western books into Chinese to show that they were knowledgeable scholars and to create favorable conditions for preaching. Thirdly,capitalizing on books' advantage in information dissemination in China,they wrote a lot of books about the religion in Chinese to spread Christian beliefs,dogma,rituals and ethics. Fourthly, they added knowledge about the Christianity in books on science,technology and humanities. Missionaries other than Jesuits also preached through books to different degrees.