Baobao ZHANG, The Shaping of Confucius’s Image in Early Western Writings: António de Gouvea’s Life of Confucius (1654) and Inter-Order Interactions (2026)
Qinghe XIAO
This article examines the sustained and complex process through which Western missionaries in China constructed the image of Confucius during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Previous scholarship has generally taken the “Life of Confucius” included in Sapientia Sinica (1662) by Prospero Intorcetta and Ignatio da costa as the starting point of this tradition. By uncovering an earlier “Life of Confucius” contained in António de Gouvea’s Historia de China dividida em seis idades (1654), this study reveals a previously overlooked origin of this line of writing.
Focusing on Gouvea’s account, the article analyzes how early Jesuits fashioned Confucius as an intellectual and moral authority intelligible to European audiences. It further situates this construction within a broader context of inter-order exchange and controversy. Through a comparison of Jesuit and Dominican interpretations—particularly concerning the “kongzi guan qi qi孔子观欹器,” the dictum “Jun zi bu qi君子不器,” and Confucius’s religious status—the article demonstrates how divergent readings of Confucius became entangled with the broader dynamics of the Chinese Rites Controversy.
It argues that the early Western image of Confucius was not a unilateral Jesuit construction, but rather the product of sustained interaction, negotiation, and polemical engagement among different missionary orders.
张宝宝. (2026). 早期西文孔子形象的塑造 : 何大化1654年《孔子传》与修会间的互动及论争. 中国基督教研究（ISSN：3068-479X）, 26, 128-151.
17—18世纪来华西方传教士对孔子形象的塑造经历了持续而复杂的过程。学界以往多以1662年殷铎泽、郭纳爵《中国智慧》所附《孔子传》为起点考察这一传统，但本文通过发掘1654年何大化《中国分期史》中的《孔子传》，揭示了这一书写传统更早的源头。本文以何大化《孔子传》为基础，进一步探讨早期耶稣会士所塑造的孔子形象，并考察不同修会围绕孔子所展开的书写与论辩。通过比较耶稣会与多明我会在“孔子观欹器”、“君子不器”等典故及孔子信仰问题上的争议，揭示传教士之间的思想交流及其与中国礼仪之争的联系，从而表明早期西文中的孔子形象是在修会互动与论争中逐渐形成的。