The Three Pillars of Chinese Catholicism – Xǔ Guāngqǐ, Lǐ Zhīzǎo, and Yáng Tíngyún worked with Jesuit missionaries such as Fr. Matteo Ricci, SJ to bring the knowledge of Western science and Catholic faith into China. However, for these Three Pillars, adoption of Christianity was not seen as something new – rather it was seen as a return to the Chinese traditions of the past.

Links for Xǔ Guāngqǐ:
Video of Xǔ Guāngqǐ’s Tomb
Video presentation on the relationship of Matteo Ricci and Xǔ Guāngqǐ
Video documentary on Xǔ Guāngqǐ – trailer, part 2/4 of the full documentary

Image of statue and painting of Xǔ Guāngqǐ
Image and statue of Matteo Ricci and Xǔ Guāngqǐ

Articles on Xǔ Guāngqǐ can be found here and here

Links for Lǐ Zhīzǎo:
Article on Lǐ Zhīzǎo can be found here
The map of the world made by Matteo Ricci, SJ and Lǐ Zhīzǎo

Links for Yáng Tíngyún
Article on Yáng Tíngyún can be found here

Sources:
Fontana, Michela. Matteo Ricci: A Jesuit in the Ming Court. Rowman & Littlefield, 2011.
Standaert, N. Yang Tingyun, Confucian and Christian in Late Ming China: His Life and Thought. BRILL, 1988.
Wang, Xiaochao. Christianity and Imperial Culture: Chinese Christian Apologetics in the Seventeenth Century
and Their Latin Patristic Equivalent. Studies in Christian Mission v. 20. Leiden ; Boston: Brill, 1998.

Photo of Church built by Lǐ Zhīzǎo and Yáng Tíngyún

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Send e-mail questions and comments to catholicunderthehood@gmail.com

To listen, just click on the link below:
#288 – The Three Pillars of Chinese Catholicism”