Description
Book SynopsisThe image of a voice in the wilderness evokes an outcast who has been condemned and banished by society. That image fits the scholar-priest Joseph de Prémare who spent the last thirty-eight years of his life (1698-1736) mainly in remote areas of China. He was condemned to silence by not only his religious superiors, but also by intellectuals in Europe. He was silenced because his Figurist theories were regarded as dangerous and implausible. And yet the irony of this silencing is that Father Prémare was one of the most knowledgeable Sinologists of all time. As a missionary in towns in the southern province of Jiangxi, he was freed from many pastoral duties by an assisting catechist and able to devote himself to intensive study of Chinese texts. He was practically a scholar-hermit who left the urban, politicized atmosphere of Beijing after only two years to return to Jiangxi province. There he cultivated Chinese literati who helped him assemble a remarkable collection of classical texts
Trade ReviewThis book is a major contribution to a fascinating aspect of the Jesuit mission in China. Prémare's is a tragic story, and it is well told here, with compelling examples of his 'discovery' in the Chinese classics of prefigurations of Christian Revelation. However ultimately misguided his claims may have been, the author establishes beyond any possible doubt Prémare's encyclopedic knowledge of Chinese language and culture, and his devoted sincerity of purpose. -- Jonathan Chaves, professor of Chinese, The George Washington University
Never before has interest in the Jesuit enterprise in China been been more acute, and D. E. Mungello's study of the Jesuit Figurist, Joseph de Prémare, is among the most insightful and informed studies now available. This remarkable work on one of the progenitors of modern Sinology will receive wide acclaim. -- Anthony E. Clark, Whitworth University
Table of ContentsChapter I: Water Chapter II: Drama versus History Chapter III: The Vestigia Chapter IV: Daoism and Hieroglyphics in the Vestigia Chapter V: Earth to Earth, Dust to Dust
