Albert Chan. Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome: A Descriptive Catalogue:
                  Japonica Sinica I-IV.Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2002. xliii + 626 pp. Bibliographical references and
                  abbreviations, illustrations, indices. $145.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-7656-0828-6.
                  Reviewed by Eugenio Menegon, Department of Oriental and Slavonic Studies, KatholiekeUniversiteit
                  Leuven, Belgium.
                  Published by H-Asia (February,2003)
                         AGate to the China Materials in the Roman         "orientalists." Nevertheless, the most active
                  Jesuit Archives                                          academic centers of European proto-sinology were
                         Between the late sixteenth century and the        elsewhere: Paris, Leiden, Berlin, and St.
                  eighteenth century,Catholic missionaries to              Petersburg.
                  China--especially Jesuits--were the only foreign               One of the reasons for the scholarly
                  observers allowed in the Chinese empire. Besides         marginality of Rome in Chinese studies was the
                  engaging in their religious work, theyalso acted as      narrowfocus of the ecclesiastical collections: a
                  the first Western interpreters of China. The books        large portion of the Chinese materials found there
                  theypublished in Latin and in a number of                wasgathered in the context of the famous--or
                  European languages on the history,geographyand           rather notorious--Chinese Rites Controversy.[1]
                  culture of China, based on first-hand experience          Starting in the 1650s, Rome became the main site
                  and knowledge of the country,offered to the              of a bitter theological struggle overmissionary
                  scholars and "curious readers" of Europe a wide          strategies in China, pitting the Jesuits and their
                  range of topics, going from descriptions of the          sympathizers against other religious orders (mainly
                  imperial bureaucracy, tothe philosophyof the Dominicans and the Foreign Mission Society
                  Confucius, to Chinese pharmacopoeia. Most of             of Paris). The issue of the so-called "Chinese
                  this knowledge was derivedfrom Chinese                   Rites" crystallized the essence of the diatribe: was
                  informants, but also, to a large extent, from            it possible to allowChinese Christians to
                  Chinese books. Besides consulting them in loco,          participate in ancestral rituals and in the cult to
                  missionaries also brought or sent Chinese books          Confucius, seen as civil ceremonies with no
                  back to Europe, both as curios and as proof of their     religious meaning, as the Jesuits thought, or was
                  labors in Asia. European bibliophiles since the late     this a way to condone idolatry and superstition, as
                  sixteenth century remained fascinated by these           the Dominicans and their allies believed? Other
                  books from China: their physical appearance, the         connected issues were the permissibility of
                  thin, almost transparent paper of their pages, the       translation of liturgical books and of the liturgy
                  mysterious Chinese characters, all made these            itself into Chinese, and the creation of a Chinese-
                  objects a prized collectible. And thus, sometimes        Christian theological vocabulary.
                  by chance, sometimes by design, Chinese books                  Asteady stream of treatises, letters, and
                  found their way to a number of European royal            reports from the Chinese missions continued to
                  libraries, as well as to the papal library in Rome.      reach the Eternal City,debating the issue of the
                         In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries       Chinese Rites, of liturgy and terminology.
                  Rome hosted in the aggregate of its libraries and        Subsequently,disputes ensued in the papal
                  archivesone of the largest concentrations of             commissions of the Congregation De Propaganda
                  Chinese materials in Europe.       Some important        Fide (the "Ministry of Missions" of the Catholic
                  collections assembled through the efforts of             church), as well as of the Holy Office, the
                  scholarly patrons such as Cardinal Girolamo              institution that controlled the purity of the faith and
                  Casanate in the late seventeenth century and             ran the Roman Inquisition. Often, along with
                  Cardinal Stefano Borgia in the second half of the        reports in Western languages, Catholic books
                  eighteenth century included Chinese holdings, and        written in Chinese, as well as other books on
                  were occasionally opened to visiting European            Chinese philosophyand religion, were brought
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                  back by envo ysofthe twofactions to be used in           Collegium Germanicum (German College), at the
                  the battle. These texts were occasionally read by a      time in the Borromeo Palace (Via del
                  small number of "old China hands" who had left           Seminario).[2]
                  the mission and traveled back to Rome to defend                The China materials traveled along.
                  their respective positions in the papal commissions.     However, between 1890-1893 all archival
                         Besides the books housed in the Vatican           documents were discreetly transferred to Exaten,
                  Library,the twomain collections of China-related         the Netherlands, by order of the Jesuit General
                  materials in early eighteenth-century Rome were          Luis Martin, who feared further confiscation.
                  found in the hands of the Jesuits and the                During the "Dutch exile" the documents were re-
                  Dominicans. The Jesuits kept their collections in        ordered, restored (manybyirreversible old
                  the library of the famous Jesuit "Collegio Romano"       methods likethe coating of documents with gelatin
                  (Roman College) and in the central Jesuit archives       and cellophane), and inventoried. The documents
                  kept at the "Professed House" (seat of the Jesuit        remained in the Netherlands until 1939, when they
                  General). The Dominicans, on the other hand, kept        were finally transferred again to Rome, in the new
                  theirs in the Biblioteca Casanatense.[3] Even if         General Curia, in Via dei Penitenzieri. In 1993, a
                  only a narrowstreet separated their libraries in the     newarchivesbuilding, located in the garden of the
                  center of Rome, the twogroups of priests                 Curia, has been opened to the public.
                  researching the China materials remained bitter                The ARSI Chinese materials also migrated
                  and divisive tow ard each other.                         to the Netherlands in 1893, and it is there that they
                         The old Jesuit China materials today in           receivedtheir present classification. These
                  Rome are mainly divided between two                      materials, remarkably well preserved, all came
                  repositories: the Archivum Romanum Societatis            from the old central archivesatthe Professed
                  Iesu (ARSI), i.e. the central archivesofthe Jesuit       House, and not from the Library of the Collegio
                  Order,and the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di           Romano.[4] The Chinese collection of this latter
                  Roma "Vittorio Emanuele II" (Italian Central             institution, instead, mostly ended up in the Italian
                  National Library,BNCR). These collections are            Central National Library of Rome. Acolorful
                  the survivors of the difficult history of the Society     episode regarding the library of the Collegio
                  of Jesus at the end of the Ancien Regime and into        Romano shows howthe Jesuits tried with all their
                  the nineteenth century.In1773, due to pressures          forces to resist the confiscation of their materials
                  from secular governments all overEurope, and to a        by the Italian state. In 1877, four years after the
                  mounting wav e of opposition from within the             Collegio Romano had been occupied by the
                  church, the papacydecided to dissolvethe Society         Italians, thanks to the information offered by a
                  of Jesus. The Archivesatthe Professed House              citizen, the authorities discovered a trapdoor in the
                  where the General resided (in today’sPiazza del          library leading to a storage room where theyfound
                  Ges=) were seized by Pontifical authorities, and          agreat number of precious manuscripts (overthree
                  remained under the control of the Roman Curia.           thousand), rare books and objects, probably hidden
                  Between 1773 and 1814, some of the documents             there by the last Jesuit Prefect of the library for
                  kept at the Professed House were taken by                safe-keeping. Among them were also some
                  cardinals and other individuals, and ended up in         Chinese books, and the manuscript of a Chinese-
                  different collections (such as the archivesof            Portuguese dictionary,which had been studied in
                  Propaganda Fide in Rome, the French National             1869 by the Italian orientalist Carlo Valenziani,
                  Library,orthe Chapter Archivesofthe Toledo               with the permission of the Jesuits.[5]
                  Cathedral, Spain). Whether the China materials                 Through their covert transfer operations, the
                  were also partly pilfered, we do not know. After         Jesuits had better luck in preserving their archival
                  the restoration of the Society in 1814, part of the      records, including today’sARSI Chinese materials.
                  archivaldocuments returned in the hands of the           With the publication of Albert Chan, SJ’s Chinese
                  Jesuits, but we knowlittle about those years. In         Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in
                  1873, when the newItalian state suppressed the           Rome: A Descriptive Catalogue: Japonica Sinica
                  religious corporations in Rome, the Jesuits first         I-IV,wefinally have a complete overviewofthose
                  secretly transferred the archivesfrom the Professed      Chinese materials. Chinese Books and Documents
                  House to the nearby Torlonia Palace. Later on, the       is a handsome hardbound volume of xliii + 626
                  archiveswere movedtoadepot in the Jesuit                 pages, the publication of which was sponsored by
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                   the China and California Provinces of the Jesuit         of mostly Latin works on the Jesuit interpretation
                   order,and by the Ricci Institute for Chinese-            of the Chinese classics and of Chinese histories
                   Western Cultural History at the University of San        and chronologies. Such a diverse collection seems
                   Francisco, with support from the Henry Luce              naturally to cluster around enduring themes of the
                   Foundation. After a brief preface by the author          Jesuit engagement with China: the study of the
                   explaining the genesis of the volume in the early        Chinese Confucian classics (to the detriment of
                   1970s, a list of the books and documents ordered         serious appreciation for the Buddhist and Daoist
                   by signaturae (call numbers), and a list of              traditions); the compilation of texts harmonizing
                   bibliographical references and abbreviations, the        Catholic doctrine with Confucian sensibilities;
                   text itself starts without preambles, arranged           internal discussions on the problems of rites; the
                   mainly by the signatura of the archivaldocuments         introduction of Western knowledge to the Chinese
                   and books. Indexesofbook titles in Wade-Giles            literati; and the composition of apologetic writings
                   romanization (the system used throughout the             attacking Chinese "superstitions," as well as
                   volume) of the ancient Chinese printing houses and       glorifying the Jesuit enterprise in China.
                   publishers of the texts, of place names, and of                Obviously,this collection is (and has been)
                   subjects and persons, makesearching the volume           very precious in exploring the Jesuit interpretation
                   an easier task. Alist of popes, Jesuit Generals, and     of Confucianism and its commentarial sources, the
                   the China mission superiors during the sixteenth-        scientific approach of the Jesuits in China, as well
                   eighteenth centuries, and a short vita of Albert         as the internal debates between Jesuits and their
                   Chan, SJ close the volume.                               converts on thornyritual issues. Manytexts are not
                         The main text (pp. 1-561) is a detailed            unique, and other copies or editions of those texts
                   descriptive catalogue of the materials contained in      can be found in the Bibliotheque nationale de
                   the ARSI section Japonica Sinica I-IV.While most         France (Paris), the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
                   of the Japonica Sinica section [i.e. Documents           (Vatican City), or elsewhere. But a number of texts
                   from Japan and China, without anyroman                   in ARSI are unique or very rare, and recently a vast
                   numeral] in ARSI contains Western-languages              selection of these texts has been offered to the
                   manuscript letters and reports from East Asia            sinological public in the collection edited by
                   written by Jesuit missionaries in the sixteenth to       Nicolas Standaert and Adrian Dudink, Yesuhui
                   the eighteenth centuries; the part of Japonica           Luoma Dang’anguan Ming-Qing Tianzhujiao
                   Sinica with roman numerals I-II-III-IV mostly            wenxian - Chinese Christian Texts from the Roman
                   consists of Chinese-language manuscripts and             Archives of the Society of Jesus (Taipei: Taipei
                   printed books (some Japanese items can also be           Ricci Institute, 2002), 12 vols. (For a presentation,
                   found, hence the name Japonica).                         see
                         The present organization of the collection         ).
                   dates to the days of Exaten, although we cannot                Chan’swork in fact represents an ideal guide
                   exclude that it followed some previous archival          to this collection of primary sources, and to much
                   ordering.[6] Jap. Sin. I (no. 1-224) contains            more. Chinese Books and Documents in fact is not
                   editions of Chinese classical and philosophical          simply an inventory of the collection, but rather a
                   writings, mainly in the Confucian tradition, as well     descriptive catalogue, and herein lies its value.
                   as the manuscript and printed writings of Chinese        Manyentries run to several pages, and supply a
                   converts, and catechetical printed works by              wealth of bibliographic information on the texts
                   missionaries, grouped by authors. A fewJapanese          (often unique manuscripts), their authors, and the
                   works and some miscellaneous works in Latin are          scholarship about them. Only with time, possible
                   also included. Jap. Sin. II (no. 1-173) gathers          omissions or errors (such as identification of
                   mainly Chinese-language works of natural                 individuals mentioned in the sources), deriving
                   philosophy, sciences, linguistics, as well as            from the pioneering nature of this large work and
                   miscellaneous works in Latin, imperial and royal         the relative lack of research on certain aspects of
                   edicts, and some catechisms. Jap. Sin. III (no.          the Jesuit mission, may emerge through the effort
                   1-24) is an assemblage on the translation efforts of     of scholars.[7] Nevertheless, the quality of the
                   the Jesuits in Confucian thought, and of historical      scholarship is high throughout, as we would expect
                   and biographical works on the history of the China       from a careful Ming historian likeAlbert Chan,
                   mission. Finally,Jap. Sin. IV (no. 1-30) is a series     trained both in the traditional Chinese curriculum
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                  and in the Western historical method.                    Apostolica Vaticana, 1996); Anna Germano and
                         Ihav e only twogeneral criticisms, one on         Marco Nocca, eds., La collezione Borgia:
                  the style of the entries, and another on the             curiosit= e tesori da ogni parte del mondo
                  secondary scholarship employed. First, there is a        (Napoli: Electa, 2001).
                  certain lack of uniformity in the entries, which are           [2]. The Archivesofthe Jesuit General
                  sometimes quite long, sometimes too brief, and           Procurators, kept in the Collegio Romano after the
                  which offer differing levels of details about the        restoration of the Society,howev er, were
                  physical form of the texts (number of folios or          confiscated by the Italian government in 1870
                  pages, dimensions of the pages, number of                following the incorporation of Rome into the
                  characters per page, etc.) and their provenance.         Kingdom of Italy.In1873 theybecame part of the
                         Secondly,the scholarship cited is not             Royal State ArchivesofItaly and were returned to
                  updated to the latest research. After the first draft     the Jesuits only in 1924, forming the so-called
                  of the catalogue was completed in the early 1980s,       "Fondo Gesuitico" in ARSI. After 1873, the
                  "due to various circumstances" almost twodecades         modern section of the Jesuit archivesmovedwith
                  elapsed before publication. Chan therefore               the General Curia to Fiesole near Florence, while
                  acknowledges at p. xv that "references to                the early section remained hidden in the German
                  catalogues and studies published after the 1970s         College in Rome. On the history of ARSI, see e.g.
                  are fewand mainly restricted to the early 1980s."        Edmond Lamalle, "L’archivio di un grande ordine
                  Foranupdate on the exciting work in this field            religioso. L’Archivio Generale della Compagnia di
                  published in the 1980s and 1990s, readers are            Ges=," Archiva Ecclesiae 24-25 (1981-82): pp.
                  advised to turn to the pages of the recent               89-120.
                  Handbook of Christianity in China (edited by                   [3]. Smaller collections were also kept in
                  Nicolas Standaert; Leiden: Brill, 2001).                 some Franciscan convents in Rome, and partly
                         In sum, Chinese Books and Documents is a          ended up in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di
                  rich introduction to a variety of materials, covering    Roma "Vittorio Emanuele II" (BNCR); see Marina
                  the Chinese classics, Christian-Chinese topics, and      Battaglini, "Libri cinesi e giapponesi alla
                  Chinese religions, and offers a convenient and           Biblioteca Nazionale [pp. 7-10 "I fondi di origine
                  learned gate to the ARSI materials. It will be a         ecclesiastica"]," in  Pa gine dall’Oriente.Libri
                  needed addition for anysinological library,and a         cinesi e giapponesi della Biblioteca Nazionale,
                  source of research ideas for years to come in the        edited by Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Vittorio
                  fields of Chinese-Western relations and of                Emanuele II - Roma (Roma: Bardi Editore, 1996),
                  Christianity-in-China.                                   pp. 7-14. On the library of the Collegio Romano,
                         Notes                                             see Ricardo Villoslada,     Storia del Collegio
                                                                           Romano dal suo inizio (1551) alla soppressione
                         [1]. There were exceptions, however. In           della Compagnia di Ges= (1773) (Roma:
                  1684, the Jesuit Philippe Couplet brought to Rome        Universit= Gregoriana, 1954); Virginia Carini
                  acollection of Chinese Christian books that was          Dainotti,  La Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio
                  donated to the pope as a propaganda move on              Emanuele al Collegio Romano (Firenze: Olschki,
                  behalf of the Jesuit mission. Those books are still      1956); on the Chinese materials in the
                  housed in the Vatican Library today.Moreover,            Casanatense, see Eugenio Menegon, "The
                  some cardinals collected "exotic" oriental               Casanatense Library (Rome) and its China
                  materials, including Chinese ones, in their private      Materials. A Finding List," Sino-Western Cultural
                  libraries (for example Cardinal Corsini and              Relations Journal XXII (2000): pp. 31-55.
                  Cardinal Casanate in the seventeenth century).                 [4]. An eighteenth-century catalogue of the
                  Later on, Cardinal Stefano Borgia, Prefect of            Chinese books in the old Jesuit archivesisstill
                  Propaganda Fide, became an avid collector of             preserved in ARSI: Indexlibrorum Sinensium juxta
                  orientalia and archeological artifacts. His              rerum classes distributus,Jap. Sin. 152.2, ff.
                  collection of Chinese books is nowhoused in the          23r-38r; see Chan, Chinese Books,p.436. A
                  Vatican Library; on orientalism in Rome, see, e.g.,      comparison of the Latin renderings of the titles
                  Paola Orsatti, Il fondo Borgia della Biblioteca          kept then in archivesand the today-existing
                  Vaticana e gli studi orientali a Roma traSette e         Chinese books and documents could help us
                  Ottocento    (Citt= del Vaticano: Biblioteca             reconstruct the history of the collection.
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