In a previous issue of this journal, we presented the Teaching Sessions in 1686 as the written assignments by sixteen Catholic students in Nanjing. We analyzed their discussions about Buddhist fasting held in the first month of that year, explaining that their assignments were mostly based on Confucian classics and intended to show that Buddhism conflicts with Confucianism while Christianity aligns with it. This paper presents the assignments from the third month of the Teaching Sessions in 1686, which were concerned with the Buddhist prohibition of killing and the release of captive animals (life release). We first review the collision between Zhuhong (袾宏, 1535-1615) and the Catholics, and then analyze how the sixteen assignments used Confucian resources to refute Buddhism, revealing their limited understanding of Buddhism itself. The full text of the sixteen assignments, along with detailed notes, can be found in the appendix.
