Scholastic Metaphysics in Late Ming China Giulio Aleni's "The True Source of the Myriad Things"

This book provides the first complete English translation of Giulio Aleni’s Wanwu Zhenyuan ???? (‘The True Source of the Myriad Things’). Aleni is one of the most important Jesuit missionaries to China, as is evidenced by the fact that he was reverentially called already during his lifetime ‘Confucius from the West’. Aleni’s work, first published in 1628, offers precious insight into the ways in which he tried to communicate Western philosophical notions to Confucian literati, arguing that only God can be the ultimate source of the world. In our introduction, we situate this work within Aleni’s life and analyze the argument of the text. We discuss the Scholastic framework that Aleni uses in his attempt to prove God’s existence, as well as his arguments against competing positions from native Chinese philosophical traditions, particularly Neo-Confucianism. We also emphasize the importance that Aleni gives to reason as the best possible means of intercultural communication. Moreover, we have provided numerous annotations to the translation that identify references, provide historical and philosophical contextualization, and otherwise aid in the appreciation and elucidation of the work. This book provides an essential step to render this significant text more accessible to a wider readership interested in Jesuit missionary history and indeed more broadly in cross-cultural dialogue, and it will also serve as a vital tool for future scholarly research on Aleni’s oeuvre.

Introduction.- Text and Annotated Translation of The True Source of the Myriad Things.- Bibliography.- Index of People.- Index of Works.

Paul K. Hosle has studied Classics and Biblical and Rabbinic Hebrew at Oxford University, Early and Medieval Christianity at the University of Chicago Divinity School, and Chinese Philosophy at Fudan University. Paul is interested in comparative religion and literature and in inter-cultural (especially Confucian-Catholic) religious/philosophical dialogue. He has published many articles on ancient Greek, Latin and Italian poetry as well as on theories of moral formation in the Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian, and Confucian traditions.

Biyun DAI, currently an Assistant Research Fellow at the Faculty of History, Nankai University, received her PhD in Philosophy from Tsinghua University and has studied at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, and at Sorbonne University in France. Her research areas are classical thought and medicine, history of religions, and contemporary French philosophy of life.