The First Documents of Encounter between Aristotelian and Confucian Ethics: Historical and Hermeneutic Perspectives

• Applicant: Dr. Henrik Jaeger
• Subject Area: History of Philosophy ; Asian Studies
• Term: from 2018 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 407689948

In the 17th century the Jesuits began to translate philosophical texts into Chinese and Chinese classics into Latin, thus they created the basic preconditions for the first "Encounter" between Confucius and Aristotle and also for a multifaceted and lasting reception of Confucian philosophy in the era of the early Enlightenment. An important document of this encounter, the first Latin version of the “Four Books” appeared in 1711 in Prague as part of the "Imperii Sinensis Libri Classici Sex" (Libri Classici) in a translation by Francois Noel (1659 – 1726). This version has been the object of research in the project "Imperii Sinensis Libri Classici Sex". In the process of this research the central role of the “Nicomachean Ethics” (EN) for Noels interpretation of the "Four Books" (Neoconfucian canon, base of all discourses on ethics since the 13th century) became evident. But I didn’t succeed in demonstrating, whether Noel had examples for his interpretation in form of earlier discussions of the EN in the Chinese context. A Chinese version of the EN, published as "The Western Study of Personal Cultivation" (Xiushenxixue, XSHXX) by Alfonso Vagnone (1568 – 1640) in 1630 could have been possibly such an example. The XSHXX is a tract in Classical Chinese the introduces the central issues if the EN in translations and paraphrases. Even when it will be impossible to prove a direct influence of the XSHXX on Noels work, it is a matter of fact that both used the same source, the Coimbra-commentary of Manuel de Gois (1593). The main topic of this project is the edition and analysis of the XSHXX. By this research it should become clear, in which ways Vagnone discusses the resonances and the differences between Aristotelian and Confucian thought. A further aim is the description of the XSHXX in the context of the history of Western and Chinese thought.Together with Noels "Libri Classici" this description will be the basic material to write a survey of the first period of Chinese receptions of the EN and its multifaceted influences in China and in the West.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants