About Us

2023/24 School of Chinese Research Student Seminar

天儒摻和——晚明常熟瞿氏家族之家世考述

Blending Catholicism and Confucianism: A Study of the Qu Family in Changshu in the Late Ming Dynasty

Abstract:

常熟五渠瞿氏成員瞿汝夔、瞿式耜皆為學界有名之第一代中國天主教徒，前者與來華傳教士利瑪竇擁有友好之關係，勸喻利氏放棄和尚打扮，改穿儒生的服飾，協助利氏傳教；後者與多名來華傳教士有所接觸，包括潘國光、艾儒略、畢方濟等，並協助南明政權打敗清兵。然而，二人的家世在學界上「似明若暗」，爭論不斷，汝夔因「家難」而遭家族除名，在可見之中國傳統文獻難以找到汝夔之名。式耜則被後人誤會為「常熟古里瞿氏」之祖，有人將清代的鐵琴銅劍樓藏書家常熟瞿氏家族攀附為式耜之後。長期以來，學界均從不同的文獻勾勒出汝夔與常熟瞿氏的關係，以及式耜與古里瞿氏之關係，但卻忽略了二代汝夔和式三代式耜對於家鄉之關懷，也忽略了他們的上輩瞿景淳科舉發跡一事對後代聲望延續的重要性。歸根究底，乃為學界未有對瞿氏家族的家世有較為系統和深入的研究。有鑑於此，本文的研究首先處理常熟瞿氏的家世問題，追溯常熟瞿氏的源流，並分析常熟瞿氏的發展概況，指出汝夔乃為常熟瞿氏之員，而古里瞿氏則並非五渠瞿氏之後，消除學界的疑慮。其次，本文指出汝夔、式耜成為教徒前後對家族仍有很大程度上的關懷，對家族的人物和發展有很大的情意結。第三，本文將研究景淳科舉發跡之情況，提出景淳身處在明代的科舉成熟期，他能科舉進士及第，並在官場上度過險阻，官至禮部左侍郎，使常熟瞿氏自此發跡，成為望族，並提出後代得景淳蔭澤，除了繼承景淳之《詩》學參加科舉，使家族成為科舉世家，更能以景淳的聲望利用非科舉的途徑維繫家族聲望，使常熟瞿氏終能成為晚明望族，以彌補學界研究不足的地方。

Qu Rukui (瞿汝夔) and Qu Shisi (瞿式耜), members of the Qu Family in Changshu, were both well-known in academic circles as first-generation Chinese Catholics. The former had a friendly relationship with Matteo Ricci, one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions, and advised Ricci to abandon the attire of a monk and wear the clothes of a Confucian scholar. The latter had contact with many missionaries to China, including Francesco Brancati, Giulio Aleni, Francesco Sambiasi, etc., and assisted the Southern Ming regime in defeating the Qing soldiers. However, the family backgrounds of the two people are quite controversial in the academic world, and there are constant debates. Rukui was expelled from the family due to "Family changes ". It is difficult to find Rukui's name in visible traditional Chinese documents. Shisi was misunderstood by later generations as the ancestor of the "Qu family in Guli, Changshu (常熟古里瞿氏)". Some people attached the Qu family of Tieqintongjian Library (鐵琴銅劍樓) scribes in the Qing Dynasty to the successor of Shisi. For a long time, academic circles have drawn from different documents to outline the relationship between Rukui and the Qu family in Changshu, and the relationship between Shisi and the Qu family in Guli. However, they ignored the concern of the second-generation Rukui and the third-generation Shisi for their hometown and also ignored the importance of their predecessor Qu Jingchun (景淳)'s success in the imperial examination (科舉) to the continuation of the family’s reputation for future generations. It is mainly because no systematic and in-depth study has been conducted on the family history of the Qu family. Because of this, the study of this article first deals with the family background of the Qu family in Changshu, traces the origin of the Qu family, and analyzes the development profile of the Qu family. It points out that Rukui is a member of the Qu family in Changshu, while the Qu family in Guli does not belong to the same system. Secondly, this article points out that Rukui and Shisi still cared about the family to a great extent before and after they became Catholic believers, and they had a great affection for the family's characters and development. Thirdly, this article will study Jingchun’s success in the imperial examination, and propose that Jingchun was in the heyday of the imperial examination in the Ming Dynasty. He was able to pass the imperial examination and overcome the difficulties in the officialdom. He became the Left Attendant Gentleman (Zuo Shilang, 左侍郎) of the Ministry of Rites. From then on, they became a prominent family. This article will propose that the later generations took advantage of Jingchun’s success. In addition to inheriting Jingchun's "Poetry" studies and participating in the imperial examination, which brought the family to be a well-known imperial examination family (科舉家族), Jingchun's reputation was also used to maintain the family's reputation in ways beyond the imperial examination. As a result, the Qu family in Changshu could eventually become a prominent family in the late Ming Dynasty.