Confucius of Europe

Confucius of Europe ...

The following references support A Short History of Economics, Part 3 and Part 4
Note: In addition, shared HERE, see Dr. Peter Bowman's 2013 lecture, China: 4000 years of taxing land, explaining how and why China inspired the French Physiocrats and led to the European Enlightenment.

Introduction
- 1421, the Year China Discovered The World
- "The Art of Teaching"
- The Origins of Psychological Testing

Selected Reports
On China's contribution to the European Enlightenment
(i) Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552-1610)
(ii) On Matteo Ricci’s Interpretations of Chinese Culture
(iii) Confucius of Europe
(iv) "Leibniz's Political and Moral Philosophy in the "Novissima Sinica", 1699–1999"
(v) Judith Berling's enlightening 1982 essay on neo-Confucianism
(vi) Overview of the role Confucian philosophy played in sustaining China's imperial status-quo
(vii) Toward The Ecumenical Unity Of East And West: The Renaissances Of Confucian China and Christian Europe

Introduction:

1421, the Year China Discovered The World,
by Gavin Menzies, (2002), Bantam Press, London
Gavin Menzies was a member of the British Royal Navy, and had the advantage of being able to read naval charts. Menzies claims the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of a unified China, Ying Zheng's vice-admirals, Hong Bao and Zhou Man 'discovered' Australia almost 350 years before Captain James Cook's first landing. GavinMenzies.net provides a wealth of insights and references.

Abstract
“…On the 8th of March, 1421, the largest fleet the world had ever seen sailed from its base in China. The ships, huge junks nearly five hundred feet long and built from the finest teak, were under the command of Emperor Zhu Di’s loyal eunuch admirals. Their mission was ‘to proceed all the way to the end of the earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas’ and unite the whole world in Confucian harmony. The journey would last over two years and circle the globe.
When they returned Zhu Di lost control and China was beginning its long, self-imposed isolation from the world it had so recently embraced. The great ships rotted at their moorings and the records of their journeys were destroyed. Lost was the knowledge that Chinese ships had reached America seventy years before Columbus and circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan. They had also discovered Antarctica, reached Australia three hundred and fifty years before Cook and solved the problem of longitude three hundred years before the Europeans…” >>> more

"The Art of Teaching" (1989), by Scottish-American literary historian Gilbert Highet, (1906-1978) describes Jesuit 'outreach' strategies in China:

"The Jesuits went to unparalleled lengths and showed unbelievable patience in adapting themselves to the people they had determined to teach. For instance, they sent out a small expedition of ten or twelve priests to Christianize four hundred million Chinese. This almost impossible task they started by studying China. The Jesuits therefore spent several years learning Chinese philosophy, art, and literature, making ready to meet the Chinese on their own level. After the imperial officials had slowly, reluctantly admitted them, the Jesuits at once flattered them by talking to them in their own tongue, and attracted them by displaying specially prepared maps and astronomical instruments. Instead of being rejected as foreign barbarians, they were accepted as intelligent and cultivated men."
– Gilbert Highet, The Art of Teaching, Vintage, 1989, pg. 222-223

The Origins of Psychological Testing
“we begin at the beginning by reviewing rudimentary forms of testing that existed over four thousand years ago in imperial China.” – Robert J. Gregory, (2007) Psychological Testing: History, Principles, and Applications
Excerpt:

Rudimentary forms of testing in China - from 2200 B.C.
Although the widespread use of psychological testing is largely a phenomenon of the twentieth century, historians note that rudimentary forms of testing date back to at least 2200 B.C. when the Chinese emperor had his officials examined every third year to determine their fitness for office (Bowman, 1989; Chaffee, 1985; DuBois, 1970; Frankie, 1963; Lai, 1970; Teng, 1942-43). Such testing was modified and refined over the centuries until written exams were introduced in the Han dynasty (202 B.C. - A.D. 200). Five topics were tested: civil law, military affairs, agriculture, revenue, and geography.

The Chinese examination system took its final form about 1370 when proficiency in the Confucian classics was emphasized.
In the preliminary examination, candidates were required to spend a day and a night in a small isolated booth, composing essays on assigned topics and writing a poem. The 1 to 7 percent who passed moved up to the district examinations. Perhaps 3 percent of this final group passed and became mandarins, eligible for public office.
. . . In response to widespread discontent, the examination systems was abolished by royal decree in 1906 (Franke, 1963).
– Gregory, 2007, CH. 2, p. 47

Selected reports
References supporting A Short History of Economics, Part 3 & Part 4:
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On China's contribution to the European Enlightenment:
The need to prevent anarchy and maintain social order led to new ideas in political economy, out of which emerged a new school of economic thought, led by the Physiocrats who, facilitated by Jesuit missionaries in China, took inspiration from China's 4000 year history of taxing land.

"The role played by Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) of Mazzarino in Italy was historically important" – Wei-Bin Zhang, 2000

'Italian Jesuit missionary to China, Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) translated the Confucian ‘Four Books’ into Italian: "The first to introduce Chinese learning to the West." ' – Chen Hong, 2015

(i) Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) introduced the works of Confucius to Europe with his Italian translation of the ‘Four Books’. Shortly after Ricci's death, his Jesuit colleague Nicolas Trigault published a Latin translation, De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas, in 1615. Ricci's writings were translated into English in 1953 by Louis J. Gallagher who informs us that Ricci saw the teaching of Confucius as "moral, rather than religious, in nature and perfectly compatible with or even complementary to Christianity". – Gallagher, Louis J. (1953), China in the Sixteenth Century: The Journals of Matteo Ricci, pp. 93–98

"The Bible shows the way to go to heaven, not the way the heavens go." – Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

Ming Dynasty astronomer, and mathematician, Xu Guangqi (1562-1633) studied with Matteo Ricci, who arrived at the Jesuit mission in Macau in 1582. Xu became a Confucian Christian and worked with Ricci on translating European books on mathematics, hydraulics, and geography into the Chinese language. Xu passed the “Imperial Examination” and gained the jinshi (chin-shih) degree in 1604, at age 42.
In 1629, at the age of 67, Xu was promoted to a leading ministerial position, during the reign of the last Ming Dynasty Emperor Chongzhen, when he proved that the European astronomical mapping system was superior to both the Chinese and Middle Eastern traditions.

"Xu Guangqi was one of the first promoters of Western science in China, worked together with the Jesuit Matteo Ricci on translations of Western science" -State-Craft and Intellectual Renewal in Late Ming China. The Cross-Cultural Synthesis of Xu Guangqi (1562-1633), 2001, by Catherine Jami, Peter Engelfriet, Gregory Blue. [Google preview]

(ii) On Matteo Ricci’s Interpretations of Chinese Culture
By Chen Hong, 2015, Coolabah, No.16, Observatori: Centre d’Estudis Australians / Australian Studies Centre, Universitat de Barcelona

Abstract:
On the contribution to introducing Western learning to China by Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), the 16th-century Italian Jesuit missionary to the Ming Dynasty, abundant research has been done; however, not so on his contribution to introducing Chinese learning to the West, and if so, not profoundly. Though Ricci's understandings of Chinese culture were found in every aspect of Ming Dynasty lives, this essay focuses on four important and representative aspects, and analyzes the political system of a government guided by philosophers, the confused outlooks of religious sects, Chinese ethics compared to Christian tenets, and the unique qualities of the Chinese language. It discloses Ricci's moderate (middle-of-the-road) attitude toward Chinese culture, especially his efforts to reconcile Confucianism and Christianity as well as his prejudice against Buddhism and Taoism, which shows on the one hand his broad-mindedness as a humanistic missionary, and on the other the historical or rather religious limitations of his absolute faith as a pious Catholic. Narrow-minded or broad-minded, Ricci's role as the first scholar who introduced Chinese learning to the West should not be neglected. One should bear in mind that it is Ricci who laid the foundation for European sinology. >>> more

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(iii) Confucius of Europe
Why did Francois Quesnay (1694-1774), leader of the Physiocrats, become known as “the Confucius of Europe” during his lifetime?

Professor Wei-Bin Zhang, Department of Economics, The National University of Singapore, quotes Maverick (1938) in Confucianism and Modernisation: Industrialization and Democratization, (1999), Palgrave Macmillan (GoogleBooks scan)

The influence of the Chinese upon the physiocrats was probably more extensive and more significant than has generally been appreciated. If one will but look into the matter, he can readily discern similarities in thought on the part of Chinese sages and French économistes…. This similarity is more than mere coincidence; it is due to an actual borrowing on the part of the physiocrats. (Zhang, 1999, p. 195)

Dr. Wei-Bin Zhang explains how, and why, Confucian philosophy led to the European Enlightenment: "On Adam Smith and Confucius: The Theory of Moral Sentiments and the Analects" (2000), (Nova Science Publishers), New York: pp. 22-30 on Google book scan.

p. 22
Confucius in the Age of The Enlightenment in Europe.

“Great perfection seems chipped, yet use will not wear it out; Great fulness seems empty, yet use will not drain it.”
– Lao Tzu (6th century BC)

What a thinker is concerned with is partly determined by the historical circumstances in which he finds himself. It appears that there are always some lapses of thought in the interpretation of philosophy by later readers. It is difficult for later interpreters to experience the spirit and main concerns of the past when philosophy is constructed. It is partly due to this that Confucius has displayed varied “faces” in Chinese as well as European thinkers’ minds.

In order to further rationalise my comparison of Confucius and Adam Smith, it might be important to illustrate how Confucius was accepted in the age of the Enlightenment in Europe before Adam Smith constructed TMS and WN.

p. 23
The Missionaries Introduce Confucius to Europe

“When you see good, then diligently examine your own behavior, when you see evil, then with sorrow look into yourself.”
– Sun Tzu (298-238 BC)

Although the European mind was familiar with the imaginary construction of Chinese culture as early as the 13th century after Marco Polo’s expedition to China, a main step had not been taken until the 16th century when the Europeans began to rapidly expand consciousness, interest and power (e.g., Needham. 1954, Ching and Oxtoby, 1992, Hsu, 1995, Clarke, 1997).

In the 16th century cultural exchange between Europe and China was conducted through missionary activities. In 1573 Alessandro Valignano, an Italian Jesuit, was made Superior of all the Jesuit missions in the East Indies, which included China and Japan. He arrived in Macao in 1577. He attempted to spread religion in such a way that Christianity should enter China quietly and transform it from within. The Jesuits in China were instructed to learn to read, write and speak Chinese, to “Sinicize” themselves rather than “Portugalize” their converts. Two Italian priests, Michele Ruggieri and Mateo Ricci, were sent as pioneer missionaries to carry out this policy. They settled in Kwangtung, in 1583. At this time Christianity had almost no influence in China. The two priests changed into Chinese attire, studied the Chinese language, adopted Chinese mannerisms, and learned Confucianism. it should be noted that they preferred the teachings of Confucius to the Sung school of Neo-Confucianism.

p. 23-24
The role played by Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) of Mazzarino in Italy was historically important. Before he went to Peking in 1601 to seek imperial patronage, he had studied the Chinese language and the classics and had spent almost twenty years in various parts of China. He successfully established himself as a learned scholar of Chinese culture, maker of the famous world map with China at centre, teacher of mathematics, astronomy, and other scientific works, and a missionary of Catholicism. He died in 1610 in Peking. He translated the Confucian ‘Four Books’ into Italian. It was the first Western language version of the Confucian works. Latin version of three, ‘The Great Learning, ‘The Mean’ and ‘The Analects’ of the ‘Four Books’ by Ignatius de Costa, Proper Intorcenta, and Philippus Couplet was published in the name of the ‘Confucius Sinarum Philosophical’ in Paris in 1687. This publication began the introduction of Chinese philosophical and political thought to Europe. In the 17th century the main focus on China was concentrated on the Confucian doctrines. Scant attention was paid to other Chinese classics and their translation into Western languages began only toward the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.
– Dr. Wei-Bin Zhang, 2000, pp. 22-24 (Google Book scan)

On the influence of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1664-1716)

p. 24-26
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, born at Leipzig in Saxony on 23 June 1664, is remembered as one of the greatest thinkers of Western civilisation– amongst the foremost mathematicians and rationalist philosophers between 17th and 18th century across Europe, writing on geometry, biology, geology, theology, metaphysics and statistics. Inspired by his study of China, Leibniz published ’Novissima Sinica’ in Latin in 1697, a testament to his admiration of Confucian doctrines of politics. In his Preface to the ’Novissima Sinica’, Leibniz sings his praise of Chinese civil life:

"But who would have believed that there is on earth a people who, though we in our view so very advanced in every branch of behaviour, still surpass us in comprehending the precepts of civil life? Yet now we find this to be so among the Chinese, as we learn to know them better. And so if we are there equals in the industrial arts, and ahead of them in contemplative sciences, certainly they surpass us (though it is almost shameful to confess this) in practical philosophy, that is in the precepts of ethics and politics adapted to the present life and use of mortals." – Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Zhang, Wei-Bin, (2000), On Adam Smith and Confucius: The Theory of Moral Sentiments and the Analects (GoogleBooks scan)

(iv) "Leibniz's Political and Moral Philosophy in the "Novissima Sinica", 1699–1999" – Patrick Riley's 1999 review is outstanding:

In 1693, four years before the publication of Novissima Sinica, Leibniz revealed the outlines of his jurisprudence universelle in the Codex Iuris Gentiuu: ["a large collection of medieval documents supporting the position of the Empire against the claims of the French. . . containing an excellent statement of his general theory of justice as the charity of the wise, which he attempts to relate to international principles"– Riley, 2012]

"a good man is one who loves everybody, so far as reason permits. Justice, then, which is the virtue which regulates that affection which the Greeks call philanthropy, will be most conveniently defined ... as the charity of the wise man, that is, charity which follows the dictates of wisdom ... Charity is a universal benevolence, and benevolence the habit of loving or of willing the good. Love then signifies rejoicing in the happiness of another ..., the happiness of those whose happiness pleases us turns into our own happiness, since things which please us are desired for their own sakes."
– Riley, 1999, The Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 60/2, pp 217-239

(v) Judith Berling's enlightening 1982 essay on neo-Confucianism
Confucianism, Focus on Asian Studies, Vol. II, No. 1: Asian Religions, pp. 5-7, Fall 1982.
Copyright AskAsia (Asia Society), 1996.
Excerpt:

Confucianism is often characterized as a system of social and ethical philosophy rather than a religion. In fact, Confucianism built on an ancient religious foundation to establish the social values, institutions, and transcendent ideals of traditional Chinese society. It was what sociologist Robert Bellah called a "civil religion,"1 the sense of religious identity and common moral understanding at the foundation of a society's central institutions. It is also what a Chinese sociologist called a "diffused religion"; its institutions were not a separate church, but those of society, family, school, and state; its priests were not separate liturgical specialists, but parents, teachers, and officials. Confucianism was part of the Chinese social fabric and way of life; to Confucians, everyday life was the arena of religion.

The founder of Confucianism, Master Kong (K'ung, Confucius, 551-479 B.C.E.) did not intend to found a new religion, but to interpret and revive the unnamed religion of the Zhou (Chou) dynasty, under which many people thought the ancient system of religious rule was bankrupt; why couldn't the gods prevent the social upheavals? The burning issue of the day was: If it is not the ancestral and nature spirits, what then is the basis of a stable, unified, and enduring social order? >>> more

[Note: Robert Bellah, The Broken Covenant: American Civil Religion in a Time of Trial, New York: Seabury Press, 1975 is avaiable online HERE.

(vi) Overview of the role Confucian philosophy played in sustaining China's imperial status-quo: Professor Derk Bodde, (2005), Chinese Ideas in the West, China: A Teaching Workbook, Asia for Educators, Columbia University (pdf):

To men infected with these new ideas, China provided a powerful stimulus. For in China they saw a great civilization that had evolved quite independently of, and earlier than, their own. Although not a Christian nation, it had nevertheless developed in Confucianism a high system of morals of its own. And, unlike Europe, it had done so without permitting a priesthood to become so powerful as to challenge the state's authority. The emperor of China, furthermore, though seemingly an absolute ruler, was in actual fact limited by the teachings of Confucianism, which declared that "the people are the most important element in the state; the sovereign is the least." Particularly was China admired as a land where government did not rest in the hands of a feudal aristocracy, as in Europe. Instead, it was managed by the mandarins — a group of highly educated scholars — who gained their official positions only after proving their worth by passing a series of state-administered examinations. We know today that this highly favorable picture of China was somewhat over-painted. Yet there is little doubt that the China of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was, both politically and economically, in many ways ahead of Europe (Bodde, 2005, p. 4.).

(vii) Toward The Ecumenical Unity Of East And West:
The Renaissances Of Confucian China and Christian Europe,
by Michael O. Billington, Fidelio Magazine, Vol. II, No. 2, Summer 1993
Excerpt:

The 16th-Century arrival of the Jesuits in China was certainly not the first contact between China and Europe, which goes back thousands of years. In the Middle Ages, Europeans, Persians, and Arabs traversed the famous Silk Road, many taking up permanent residence in China. The Muslims, in particular, contributed their scientific knowledge to the Chinese, becoming the primary astronomers to the court. During the 13th-Century reign of the Kubla Khan over China, Franciscan missionaries from the West had followed the Venetian trader Marco Polo to Cathay, establishing close contacts with the ruling Khan and extensive networks among the Chinese population. But the Franciscans appear to have made little attempt to learn the Chinese Classics—in fact, they appear to have been primarily a "foreign mission," serving Europeans who came in following the Mongol conquests. With the end of the Mongol reign, the mission collapsed without a trace.

Three hundred years later, St. Francis Xavier, one of the founders of the Society of Jesus, travelled to Asia. After a period in Japan, he determined that the Japanese respect for and deferment to China on philosophical issues necessitated the conversion of China first. He died before reaching the Middle Kingdom, however, and the opening of China fell to another Jesuit, Matteo Ricci.

Ricci arrived in 1581, and developed the policies that guided the mission through the next two centuries. He had received extensive training at the Roman College under the direction of the German Christopher Clavius, who was an associate and friend of the astronomer Johannes Kepler and later of Galileo. Ricci spent four years with Clavius studying geometry, geography, and astronomy, including the construction of astronomical and musical instruments.

What Ricci discovered in China was totally unlike the conditions that prevailed in the Americas, Africa, or India at that time. The Jesuits' reports to Europe described a country with a civilization which surpassed in many respects that of the West, with a greater knowledge of its own antiquity. A century later, Europe's greatest philosopher, scientist, and statesman, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, reflecting on the reports from Ricci and those who followed him, reported: There is in China in certain regards an admirable public morality conjoined to a philosophical doctrine, or rather a doctrine of natural theology, venerable by its antiquity, established and authorized for about 3,000 years, long before the philosophy of the Greeks. ...
. . .
An Ecumenical "Grand Design"
The greatest scientist and statesman of modern European history, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), did make extensive studies of Confucianism, however, ...
. . .
Leibniz, later, reflecting on the writings of the Jesuits and his own study of the classics, characterized Confucianism as follows:

"To offend Heaven is to act against reason; to ask pardon of Heaven is to reform oneself and to make a sincere return in work and deed in the submission one owes to this very law of reason. For me, I find this all quite excellent and quite in accord with natural theology.... Only by strained interpretation and interpolation could one find anything to criticize on this point. It is pure Christianity, insofar as it renews the natural law inscribed on our hearts, except for what revelation and grace add to it to improve our nature."

As will become clear in the course of this study, the historical conflict between Confucianism, on the one hand, and Legalism and Taoism, on the other, follows the same course as the conflict between Platonism and Aristotelianism in the West. And thus, just as the representatives of Renaissance Christian Platonism identified with the Confucian tradition when they encountered it in China, so too did the Western Aristotelians recognize in Legalism and Taoism a kindred spirit.

The nearly successful alliance of Christianity and Confucianism championed by Leibniz collapsed in the early eighteenth century. Within a century, the British Imperial intrusion into China was unleashed, with opium and gunships jointly leading the assault to break the moral and political institutions of the faltering Ch'ing Dynasty. Immediately, the British empiricists launched cultural warfare against Confucianism, extolling Taoist mysticism and Legalist totalitarianism as the "essence" of Chinese culture. Later, the British contributed to the creation of a new Legalist Dynasty under Taoist Mao Zedong, organized to a large extent to sabotage the efforts of the great Chinese statesman--both Christian and Confucian--Dr. Sun Yat-sen.

British support for tyranny in China has been justified for centuries by the fraudulent argument that the Chinese have never believed in the freedom of the individual, individual civil and human rights, or other "Western" concepts, and thus the bloody suppression of any and all dissent, as carried out by dictators (Communist or otherwise), is justified by "Chinese" standards.

To the contrary, the dominant school of Confucianism for nearly a thousand years in China--the Sung Neo-Confucian school--proclaimed the role of the individual as the singular reflection of the love of the creator of Heaven and earth; an individual whose creative potential must be nourished and extended without bound in order to achieve both personal peace, in keeping with the Way of Heaven, and social progress, based on the expanding capacity of each individual to contribute to that process of development. This scientifically valid view of mankind is the necessary basis for ecumenical peace and global development. Accommodation to any other view will court disaster. >>>more

– Short History of Economics