Knowing "things and affairs" in premodern China -- Nature, crafts, and knowing -- Private affairs -- The Ming dynasty and the Song family -- Childhood and education -- Driving forces: the appointment of Chen Qixin -- Song's writing campaign -- Affairs of honor -- Knowledge in terms of qi: universal rulings and rationality -- The truth in heaven and the order of qi -- The power of heaven: omens and eclipses -- Systems of value: the sage-kings, the authority of the past, and man's role -- The knowledge in crafts -- Public affairs -- Crafts and the Ming state -- Man's nature (xing) and talents -- Abilities and education -- Social permeability and the commercialization of society: the merchant -- Customs and habits -- Written affairs -- Rhetoric of knowledge inquiry: texts and experience -- Images, technology and argument -- Observing the nature of qi: theory and practice in knowledge construction -- The complexity of qi transformations: composites and compositions of qi -- Formulating the transformation -- Reading the signature of yin-yang qi in gas, salt, wind, and rain -- Growth and decay: wood, corpses, and the proportional relation of yin and yang -- Glitches in the matrix of qi: the concepts of ashes and particles -- Acoustics -- An anatomy of sound -- The human voice -- Volume and velocity -- Resonance and harmony -- Conclusion. leaving the theater -- Epilogue. aftermath -- By virtue of friendship: literary sponsorship -- By virtue of position: outside and opposition -- By virtue of loyalty: moral obligations -- An artifact in transmission: The editions of the Works of heaven -- Writing about practical knowledge in the Chinese literati world -- Acknowledgments -- Appendix 1. Chinese dynasties and various rulers -- Appendix 2. Song Yingxing curriculum vitae -- Appendix 3. Editions of the Tiangong kaiwu.

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The Jesuit Longobardo’s interpretation of the Neo-Confucian concepts of li and qi

Published in Religions 2025, 16(12), 1559

Abstract:
This article addresses the most important translation issue in the first philosophic and religious dialogue between Europe and China: is there a Chinese equivalent for the Christian concept of God? We approach the question from the perspective of comparative philosophy. We start by examining the historical and theoretical context in which the Jesuit Niccolò Longobardo developed his disagreement with Matteo Ricci regarding the question as to whether the Confucianism is an atheism. We then analyse the interpretation that equates li and qi, respectively, with the Aristotelian notions of accident and prime matter. After showing how Longobardo reduces neo-Confucianism to Presocratic atheism in an Aristotelian manner, we propose an alternative perspective that can reconcile Christianism and neo-Confucianism with regard to the concept of first cause.