A Vision Betrayed: The Jesuits in Japan and China, 1542-1742

236 Pages·2000·8.859 MB·English

by  Andrew C. Ross

A Vision Betrayed
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A Vision Betrayed
The Jesuits in Japan and China
1542-1742
ANDREW C. ROSS
ORBIS BOOKS
Maryknoll, New York 10545
The Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America (Maryknoll) recruits
and trains people for overseas missionary service. Through Orbis Books,
Maryknoll aims to foster the international dialogue that is essential to
mission. The books published, however, reflect the opinions of their authors
and are not meant to represent the official position of the society.
Copyright ©1994 by Andrew Ross
Published by Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York 10545, U.S.A.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording
or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission
in writing from the publishers. For permissions write to Orbis Books, P.O.
Box 308, Maryknoll, NY 10545-0308 USA.
Manufactured in the United Kingdom
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ross, Andrew (Andrew C.)
A vision betrayed : the Jesuits in Japan and China, 1542-1742 /
Andrew C. Ross,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-88344-991-9
I. Jesuits—Missions—Japan—History. 2. Jesuits—Missions—
China—History. 3. Japan—Church history—To 1868. 4. China
—Church history. I. Title.
BV3447.R67 1994
266’ .252—dc20 94-10623
CIP
Contents
Introduction xi
Chapter i Japan and China Before the Expansion of i
the Iberian Sea-borne Empires
Chapter 2 Francis Xavier and the Mission to Japan *3
Chapter 3 Alessandro Valignano 32
Chapter 4 The Christian Century in Japan, 1549-1650
To the Death ofToyotomi Hideyoshi, 1598 47
Chapter 5 The Christian Century in Japan, 1549-1650
To the Coming of the Closed Land9 79
Chapter 6 Matteo Ricci and the Road to Beijing 118
Chapter 7 Christian Priest and Confucian Intellectual 142
Chapter 8 The China Mission under Schall and Verbiest 155
Chapter 9 The Pope, the Bourbon Kings and the Kangxi 178
Emperor
Chapter 10 Whence Came the Vision? 201
Bibliography 208
Index 211
Japan in the Christian Century
Shaded areas indicate heaviest
concentrations of Christians
H Shinto shrines
Yedo (Tokyo)
KYUSHU
100 miles
_ Kagoshima
Q Tanegashima

To the memory of the six members of
the Society of Jesus, and their two faithful
attendants, martyred in San Salvadore on
16 November 1989
Amando Lopez Quintana
Ignacia Ellacuria
Juan Ramon Moreno Pardo
Joaquin Lopez y Lôpez
Ignacio Martin-Baro
Segundo Montes Mozo
Celina Market Ramos
Elba Julia Ramos
Acknowledgements
In attempting to write a synoptic history of the mission of the Society of Jesus
in Japan and China from the arrival in Asia of Francis Xavier to Benedict XIV’s
constitution Ex quo singulari of 1742,1 have depended upon the army of scholars
American, European, Japanese and Chinese who have published in this field.
In addition, there are a number of people to whom I owe particular thanks.
I must thank for their help Fr Willi Henkel of the Library of the Pontificia
Universitas Urbaniana in Rome, the staff of the library of Dartmouth College,
Ms Martha Smalley and her colleagues in the Day Missions Library of Yale
University, and the ever helpful librarians of New College, University of
Edinburgh.
My thanks are also due to Professor Richard Gray, lately of the School of
Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, and Fr Albert Chan sj
of the University of San Francisco for their careful reading of the completed
manuscript and the good advice and information they offered me. I hope they
will overlook the places where I have not heeded them sufficiently.
At the Edinburgh University Press Penny Clarke and Jonathan Price have
been supportive and encouraging and Dr Ian Clark has provided a very careful
editing of the whole text ‘con il modo soave* - for which I am most grateful.