THE INSCRIPTIONS ON TOMÁS PEREIRA’S TOMBSTONE AND THE ‘EDICT OF TOLERATION’ FROM THE EMPEROR KANGXI徐日升墓碑碑文與康熙皇帝“容教諭旨”
Wang Bing's article provides a comparative analysis of the inscriptions associated with the tomb of the Portuguese Jesuit Tomás Pereira (Xu Risheng, 徐日昇) in Beijing, preserved in three rubbings held in the rare books section of the National Library of China. Based on the catalog description and mate...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
October 2009
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40032/3570 |
| Summary: | Wang Bing's article provides a comparative analysis of the inscriptions associated with the tomb of the Portuguese Jesuit Tomás Pereira (Xu Risheng, 徐日昇) in Beijing, preserved in three rubbings held in the rare books section of the National Library of China. Based on the catalog description and material identification of two distinct stelae—one linked to the request for "safeguarding/defense of Catholicism" and the other erected in the Nantang Church—the author argues that the inscriptions, by combining Pereira's petition with an imperial edict of the Kangxi Emperor, constitute a key document for understanding how the legal and symbolic status of Catholic missionaries was formalized at the end of the 17th century. Methodologically, the work undertakes a documentary reconstruction centered on the articulation between the front and back of the stelae, the chronology (1692, the 31st and 47th years of Kangxi), and the historiographical function of the engraved texts. It concludes that the textual insignia of the edict—beyond legitimizing the missionary's cultural and technical activities (music, calendar, and instruments)—frame imperial tolerance as a response to local initiatives and to the process of mediation between missionary work and governance. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |