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Conflicts Between Roman Catholicism and Buddhism & Chinese Narrative Translation The Story of St. Joasaph《聖若撒法始末》in the Late Ming Dynasty

  • The Journal of Study on Language and Culture of Korea and China
  • Abbr : JSLCKC
  • 2015, (37), pp.259-293
  • DOI : 10.16874/jslckc.2015..37.011
  • Publisher : Korean Society of Study on Chinese Languge and Culture
  • Research Area : Humanities > Chinese Language and Literature
  • Published : February 28, 2015

Soon-Bang Oh 1

1숭실대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

During his missionary work in Shaozhou Canton(廣東 韶州) China in late Ming Dynasty (1602), a Catholic Jesuit Missinary, Nicholasus Longobardi(龍華民, Italilan, 1565-1655), was attacked by Shaozhou Buddhists. To cope with his missionary difficulties, Longobardi translated one of the biography of Catholic Saints called The Story of St. Joasaph to Chinese『聖若撒法始末 Sheng Luo Sa Fa Shi Mo』. The original St. Joasaph's story spread with many variety of versions: The Balavariani, Barlaam and Ioasaph, Legenda Aurea. Among many different versions, Longobardi translated and published Jacobi a Voragine's Latin translation of Legenda Aurea『聖傳金庫』 to a Chinese version. This literary translation work of Longobardi, depicts a life story of Joasaph, a prince of India who becomes Catholic and achieves enlightenment to become a Catholic Saint. The content of this work is completely different from the Buddhist Scriptures Lalita Vistara『普曜經』in that Siddhartha, the founder of Buddhism, is depicted as a Catholic Saint evangelizing Catholicism. Longobardi, in order to achieve his missionary goals, using variety of literary translation strategies, changed the original content and introduced a completely catholicized biography to the Chinese people for the first time. The paper is divided into seven chapters to do a comprehensive analysis of Chinese Translation『聖若撒法始末 Sheng Luo Sa Fa Shi Mo』. First, activity of Jesuit missionaries and their translated literature is examined carefully. Longobardi's translation strategy and the way he achieved the translation is also studied. Comparison and analysis is made between the original text and Longobardi's Chinese translation work. The paper also studied how Longobardi's work was passed on to Chinese descendents and the literature's implication on them.

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