Author: Cheng Tingrui 程廷瑞

Shengji baiyan 聖記百言. [BnF 7329. Jap-Sin I, 147e]
Date1633
Publish_location---
Publisher---
CollectionRicci Institute Library
Edition
LanguageChinese 中文
Record_typeBook (Text in Collection)
Series
ShelfHallway Cases
Call NumberBX1665.A24 B526 2009 v.23.163
Description1 juan.
NoteSee 法國國家圖書館明清天主教文獻. Chinese Christian texts from the National Library of France, v. 23.163

Full bibliographic citation, see: Ad Dudink & Nicolas Standaert, Chinese Christian Texts Database (CCT-Database).

JapSin I, 147e
Shengji baiyan 聖記百言.
Translated by Luo Yagu 羅雅谷 (Iacomo Rho).
One juan. Chinese bamboo paper in one volume. Reprinted by the Catholic Church of Minzhong 閩中 (i.e., Fuzhou, Fujian) in 1633 (Chongzhen 6).

The cover bears the title in Chinese with a Latin inscription: “100 sententiae morales | a p. Jacobo Rho S.J.”
The title page bears the title in four large characters. On the right side the publisher is given: 三山景教堂重刻. The verso of this folio gives the name of the author together with the names of the censors: Gao Yizhi 高一志 (Alfonso Vagnone), Long Huamin 龍華民 (Niccolò Longobardo), and Tang Ruowang 湯若望 (Adam Schall von Bell). There is a preface (three folios) by Wang Bingyuan 汪秉元 (zi 幼起, a native of Shanxi province and jinshi of 1616), written in 1632 (Chongzhen 5).
Folio 1r gives the title of the book and the name of the author: 極西羅雅谷譔. The Chinese style was improved by Cheng Tingrui 程廷瑞 of Xingyuan 星源. The main text consists of nineteen folios. There are nine columns in each half folio with eighteen characters in the first column of each paragraph and seventeen in the rest of the paragraph. At the end of the book the names of the censors are given again together with the date and place of publication. There is a postscript by Cheng Tingrui.

According to the author’s own preface, St. Teresa (of Avila) wrote down a hundred maxims which she thought to be of great help for her spiritual life. Rho had them translated into Chinese. He was able to obtain a preface from Wang Bingyuan through his friend Zhu Maoshan 祝茂善. The postscript of Cheng Tingrui praises the book for its plain language and charming ideas. He observes, however, that “since it was a translation from a Western language into Chinese, here and there in the text there were slight mistakes which I usurped the right to correct before I returned the manuscript to the Master.”

Cf. Pfister, p. 190, no. 3; Hsü 1949, pp. 330–332; Courant 7329–7331; Couplet, p. 22; BR, p. XXXIV.
Source: Albert Chan, S.J., Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, pp. 197-198.

Multimedia
SubjectPrayer--Treatises, Chinese--17th century--Jesuit authors Teresa of Ávila, Saint, 1515-1582--Quotations, maxims, etc.--Translations into Chinese