"Between scriptural language and devotional translation : Chinese rosary manuals in seventeenth-century China" / Xu Zhemeng

Published in  Journal for the Study of Religion and History (JSRH), 3, 1-42.

Abstract:

This article examines Chinese Rosary manuals produced between 1616 and c. 1665 as a case study in early modern Chinese Christian translation and Sino-European cultural encounter. Focusing on the Rosary, an explicitly devotional text rather than a formal biblical translation, the study argues that prayer manuals nonetheless constituted an important site for the transmission and transformation of scriptural language in late Ming and early Qing China. While not biblical translations in the strict sense, these texts incorporated biblical narratives and formulae in ways that confronted many of the same linguistic, conceptual, and doctrinal challenges faced by Bible translation.The analysis proceeds in two stages. First, it compares the Portuguese Rosary original with the earliest Chinese translation (1616), highlighting shifts in intended audience, pastoral needs, and local cultural sensibilities as the text was rendered intelligible within a Chinese literary and religious framework. Second, it compares three extant Chinese versions (1616, 1628, c. 1665), tracing their evolution in style, layout, and translation strategies for liturgical concepts, divine titles, and Catholic personal names. Across these versions, Catholic personal names tend to remain transliterated with relative consistency, while divine titles and liturgical concepts increasingly rely on neologism and semantic extensions, drawing on classical and Neo-Confucian vocabulary.These textual developments reveal a growing orientation toward literati’s intellectual framework and aesthetics, which may have created a gap between literary ambitions and the major devotional audiences according to missionaries’ reports. By situating Chinese Rosary manuals alongside contemporaneous Chinese versions of the Hail Mary and contrasting them with a Rosary text and critiques from other Catholic orders, this study highlights a persistent tension between concerns for doctrinal accuracy and the pragmatic need for cultural accommodation. It argues that devotional texts functioned as a distinctive mode of scriptural mediation, shaped by missionary strategies, literary norms, and pastoral realities in the early Sino-Christian encounter.

Meiguijing jiuri jingli 玫瑰經九日敬禮

Neibu ziliao internal circulation 內部資料

Meigui jingyi 玫瑰經義 / Li, Laurentio (Laurent) [Li Di] 李杕 [courtesy name Wenyu] 問漁, 1840-1911

上下兩卷.

"Reprint" (chongyin 重印).

Lead movable-type print (huoban 活版). Illustrated.

Author's preface dated 1886 (Guangxu 12).

Joachim Kurz, "The Works of Li Wenyu (1840-1911)," Wakumon 11 (2006), 153 (item 21) writes "date of first edition unknown." Kurz classifies our copy as 2nd ed. There was a 3rd ed. in 1920.

The library copy has annotations on the inside wrapper written on red slip: "Gao Pu, baptismal name Paul, from Ningyi" 寧邑洗名保祿高譜. This is followed by a series of Suzhou numerals (Suzhou ma 蘇州碼), which we have been unable to decipher. The inside wrapper also has the title in ms., followed by more Suzhou numerals and, in different ink, "For use by Paul" (Baolu yong 保祿用).

This is a devotional and theological work that explains the significance, structure, and spiritual value of the Rosary in the Catholic tradition. Written in classical Chinese, the book serves as both a catechetical guide and a meditation manual, integrating traditional Catholic teachings with Chinese literary and philosophical expression. The first part explores the origins of the Rosary, the meanings of key prayers like the Our Father and Hail Mary, and offers moral stories about the Rosary’s spiritual power—such as miracles, protection from disaster, and moral reform. The second part is a 31-day meditation plan, guiding the faithful through the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries of Christ’s life. The work reflects early efforts to localize Christian theology in China, making it accessible to Chinese converts by blending Western religious content with Chinese cultural forms.

Acquired through purchase in 2025.

[Ti] Renlei zhenan gao [題] 人類真安稿 / Ou Jialüe 歐加略.
Author: del Rosario, Arcadio O.P. 歐加略 (Ou Jialüe) (1641-1686)
In vol.17 of: Xujiahui cangshulou Ming-Qing Tianzhujiao wenxian xubian 徐家匯藏書樓明清天主教文獻續編. -- 38. （題）人類真安稿 （歐加略 Arcadio del Rosario）
Cf. Ad Dudink & Nicolas Standaert, Chinese Christian Texts Database (CCT-Database) for Renlei zhenan 人類真安.
Cf. Menegon, E., Ancestors, virgins & friars : Christianity as a local religion in late Imperial China (2009).

Sheng meigui hui huigui shuolüe 聖玫瑰會會規說略 / 無名氏.
In vol.13 of collection: Xujiahui cangshulou Ming-Qing Tianzhujiao wenxian xubian 徐家匯藏書樓明清天主教文獻續編.-- 22. 聖玫瑰會會規說略 /（無名氏）

Song nianzhu guicheng 誦念珠規程 : JapSin I, 43b / João da Rocha 羅儒望.
Reproduction of original text in: Yesuhui Luoma dang'anguan Ming-Qing Tianzhujiao wenxian 耶穌會羅馬檔案館明清天主教文獻 / Edited by Nicolas Standaert [鐘鳴旦] [and] Adrian Dudink [杜鼎克]. 

Local access dig.pdf. [Rocha-SongNianzhu.pdf]

"Rocha is known for two works, one a translation of a catechism in the form of a dialogue written in 1561 by Marco Jorge, the title of which Rocha rendered as Tianzhu shengjiao qimeng (1619) ... the second known as the Method of the Rosary, Nien-chu kuei-ch'eng (Nianzhu guicheng, ca. 1620) .... illustrated with fifteen woodblock prints. Tung Ch'i-ch'ang (Dong Qichang) or someone of his school is said to have been responsible for adapting the pictures, made originally by Girolamo Nadal in 1595, for Rocha's book. The latter is extremely rare but a copy, probably an original, is preserved in the Vatican Library. Pasquale M. d'Elia in 1939 reproduced all fifteen illustrations, together with Nadal's on facing pages." Cf. Dictionary of Ming Biography, p. 1145.

Citation source: Albert Chan, S.J., Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, pp. 71-72.
Jap-Sin I, 43b
Song nianzhu guicheng 誦念珠規程.
By Luo Ruwang 羅儒望 (João da Rocha, 1565–1623).
Thirty-six folios (Arabic numbers: 72–107). Chinese bamboo paper, one volume. No date or place of publication.

The Latin catalogue has: “Rosarium ignoto auctore.” The word “ignoto” was struck out by the archivist, who added a note: “P. Gaspar Ferreira S.J. ut patet e comparatione textus inventus cum eo, qui inventus in Bibl. Apost. Vatican., Racc. Gen. Orient. III 214 Tom I. | Jap Sin 115 f. 165v Figueredo testatur anno 1628 hoc Rosarium cum catechismo P^is Da Rocha esse simul eodem volumine colligatum | Ita P. Paulus Brunner, S.J., Prov. Camp. 8 Maii, 1958, Treviri. | P. Teschitel, Archiv.”

The title page is missing. At the beginning of folio 1 the title is given in Chinese. Each folio gives the title as Nianzhu guicheng; the number of the folio is given at the bottom. There are eight columns in each half folio and each column contains 19 characters. Both the types and the format suggest a Ming edition.
The first three folios of this book also are written in form of a dialogue and the vernacular is used. The prayers, however, are written in simple classical Chinese.
Courant (no. 6861–II) says that the book consists of thirty-two folios with fourteen illustrations. The Jesuit Archive edition has lost the last two folios. It is to be noted that these are xylographic illustrations in the Chinese style, modeled, however, on the book of Girolamo Nadal, Adnotationes et Meditationes in Evangelia quae in Sacrosancto Missae Sacrificio toto anno leguntur (Antwerp, 1595); cf. Jap-Sin I, 187 and 188.
From comparison with Jap-Sin I, 43a, one can say that they were published together. Even the terminology used in both books is the same. I am inclined to think with D’Elia that the author is not Ferreira but da Rocha. Machado Barbosa in his Biblioteca Lusitana (Lisboa, 1749–1759), vol. II, p. 736, attributes to da Rocha another book bound together with the catechism which he called Practica de rezar o Rosario. The title agrees with that of the book we are now trying to identify, namely, the Song nianzhu guicheng. Also Couplet attributed this work to da Rocha: “de praxi recitandi Rosarium” (p. 8). The book of Ferreira, however, bears another title: Shengmu meguijing shiwuduan 聖母玫瑰經十五端 (cf.. Shengjiao rike 聖教日課, Jap-Sin I, 172, vol. I, ff. 30–43), which is not the same book as the Song nianzhu guicheng.