人情反复，初终易辙：清初天主教徒徐若翰笔下的耶稣会士

Abstract

This article makes case an anonymous handwritten Chinese letter found in the Vatican Library at Rome. The letter specifically targeted at the Jesuits in China, accusing that they secretly sabotaged the diplomatic negotiations of Emperor Kangxi and Carlo T. Maillard De Tournon (1668-1710), the Papal Legate to China. The conflict not only led to the tragic exile and death of Tournon in Macau, but it also caused irreversible damage to the China mission as a whole. Largely due to its unknown author, the letter has been hitherto unattended in previous research. By comparing a group of relevant texts collected from several archival sites in Europe and the U.S., I am able to confirm that the letter was written by Johan Su, a Chinese convert from Sichuan Province. The real name of Johan Su is not found in Chinese sources of the time, but he was the very person who assisted the MEP missionary Jean Basset (1662-1707) in translating the New Testament from Latin to Chinese, who later made a synopsis of the four gospels on his own, and who served as a Chinese secretary of Tournon in Macau. Because of his unique background and experiences, Su in his letter seriously criticized the Jesuits for pretending to be “honest and upright men” in public but slandering others in secret to satisfy their factional prejudices. More strikingly, Su’s negative views went beyond the differences in terms of missionary method and the fight for Patronatus missionum among the Catholic orders. He was likely the only early Qing convert who was able to skillfully quote original biblical passages to highlight how the Jesuits misbehaved and betrayed the will of God. The recovery of this long forgotten letter, I would argue, has considerable values. It reflected a higher level of complexity during early stage of the Chinese Rites Controversy, and it represented an unprecedented negative image of the Jesuits as insidious hypocrites in the eyes of an ordinary Chinese convert.