The Buddhist-Christian encounter in the late Ming has left an important body of literature which has been the object of scholarly attention in the last decades. This paper investigates a very little-known document, never published, about a short but violent conflict in 1643–1644 in Chengdu. The manuscript, written by a direct witness and actor in the conflict, the Portuguese Jesuit Gabriel de Magalhães, contains a half-dozen original documents translated into Portuguese. Based on those documents and other sources, we attempt to reconstruct the course of the events, and to elucidate the root cause of the conflict. As we shall show, the conflict in Chengdu is a prolongation of the anti-Christian campaign launched by the abbot Miyun Yuanwu in 1632 in Zhejiang, but it was greatly exacerbated by the political crisis felt by the saṃgha in Chengdu in the final year of the Ming.
目次
Abstract 65 Keywords 65 I. Introduction: Catholic-Buddhist Conflicts in Late Ming 66 II. Three Historic Documents on the Conflict of 1643–1644 in Chengdu 68 III. Report of Magalhães and Other Direct Sources on the Conflict 73 IV. The Prologue by Lizhi 83 V. Yuanwu's Third Discourse and Portuguese Abstract by Magalhães 88 VI. Request to the Surveillance Commissioner and Launch of the Investigation 93 VII. Defamation Campaign through Pamphlets and Attacks of Christian Houses 96 VIII. Support of High Officers toward Christianity but Liu Family's Withdrawal 98 IX. Yan's Conversion and his Support for Christianity 100 X. Publication of Four Christian Works and the Conflict's Resolution 101 XI. Conclusion 103 Bibliography 105 Abbreviations 105 Primary Sources 105 Secondary Sources 107
