Dis-assembling Traditions: Deconstructing Tasan via Matteo Ricci

Chŏng Yagyong 丁若鏞 (1762–1836), commonly known by the penname Tasan 茶山, was infamous for his involvement in the early Catholic Church, which was formed by his close friends and his brothers. This Church was responsible for its self-evangelisation based on the ideas found in Matteo Ricci's Tianzh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 2014-04, Vol.24 (2), p.297-313
Main Author: CAWLEY, KEVIN N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biographies
Buddhism
Catholic Church
Catholic churches
Catholicism
Christian history
Christianity
Confucianism
Context
Deconstruction
Deconstructionism
Heaven
Imperialism
Metaphysics
Monotheism
Morality
Philosophers
Religion
Religious history
Religious literature
Ricci, Matteo (1552-1610)
Roman Catholic Church
Siblings
Theology
Traditions
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:Chŏng Yagyong 丁若鏞 (1762–1836), commonly known by the penname Tasan 茶山, was infamous for his involvement in the early Catholic Church, which was formed by his close friends and his brothers. This Church was responsible for its self-evangelisation based on the ideas found in Matteo Ricci's Tianzhu shiyi 天主實義 (The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven). The effects of this very controversial aspect of his life, and the influence of this precarious context—fraught with danger, narrowly escaping execution and exiled for 18 years—has been under-valued. This paper highlights the effects of such a context on Tasan's ideas by engaging with “deconstruction”, drawing on the ideas of Jacques Derrida. I outline how Tasan embroidered Ricci's deconstructive strategies into the deepest fabric of his own deconstruction of “original” Confucianism, or his dis-assembling of traditions. The paper uncovers Christian traces silhouetted in Tasan's theistic commentaries, leading him towards a Post-Confucian conceptualisation of humanity (仁) vis-à-vis a personal, monotheistic, creator God.
ISSN:1356-1863
0035-869X
2051-2066
1474-0591
DOI:10.1017/S1356186313000783