跨文化语境下的中国经典诠释及其意义：以利安当《天儒印》为例 [A Christian Interpretation of the Chinese Classics in Cross-cultural Context: A Case Study of Antonio Caballero’s Tian Ru Yin]

Abstract

From the traditional perspective of cross-cultural communication, it is expected that a foreigner should try his/her best to understand the local culture in the basis of knowing the local knowledge tradition and this foreigner is evaluated by the degree he/she grasps the local tradition. Such a perspective tends to ignore or underestimate the value of new elements promoted or created by the encounter between different cultures. Indeed, the creation of new entities is an important factor in the cross-cultural communication. Today, in the cross cultural context, we are required to reorient those things which measured under the traditional paradigm as inaccurate or ridiculous. And further, we can take this moment to think and discuss which way is proper for the Chinese Classics or tradition to take part in the modern life, and how could we reasonably construct a space for the reviving of Chinese Classics. Antonio Caballero‟s Tian Ru Yin (How Catholicism was Sealed in the Ancient Confucianism) is an outstanding case for discussing the above mentioned topics. In this work, Caballero chose some sentences from Da Xue, Zhong Yong, Lun Yu and Meng Zi, and tried to re-interpret them through the perspective of monotheism and Catholic moral and observance system, by which he turned these Confucian mottos into footnotes of the idea of Catholicism. Actually, Caballero transplanted an idea system into another tradition. Instead of criticizing his crudeness and rush to Chinese Classics, I grant that both the real result and the illumination to our mind are worthy of thinking and investigating carefully.