About Us

The School of Chinese at The University of Hong Kong &

The Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History at Boston College

Jointly Present the Following Public Lectures of International Workshop on

HISTORICAL LEGACIES OF CHRISTIANITY IN EAST ASIA

Chinese Christian Books in Nagasaki:

From Censorship to Circulation

Speaker: Prof. M. Antoni J. UCERLER, S.J. D.Phil., Oxon.

Ricci Institute, Boston College, U.S.A.

Date: 12 December 2024 (Thu)

Time: 9:00–10:15am (HKT)  

Venue: CRT-4.36, Run Run Shaw Tower,  Centennial Campus, HKU 

Mode: In-person & Online (via Zoom) 

https://hku.zoom.us/j/93349592397?pwd=Y4KU1BPlNoJ0lL9vCFIaalK2252Biu.1

Meeting ID: 933 4959 2397

Password: 532577

In the aftermath of the prohibition of Christianity in Japan, the Edo shogunate discovered that Christian books written by the Jesuit missionaries in classical Chinese were being imported into the country. These books were being brought into Nagasaki by the Chinese merchants who were allowed to trade there. As a result of this discovery, the authorities appointed the head of the Shuntokuji Buddhist Temple as “inspector of books” in 1630 and placed strict limits on the activities of the Chinese, who were forced to live in walled quarters. The shogunate subsequently established a magistrate-level position of “censor” in Nagasaki to ensure that no prohibited books were imported from China. Despite such censorship, Edo scholars remained curious about the Jesuits’ Chinese publications, some of which were copied illegally and circulated underground. This ultimately would lead to Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune’s easing of the prohibition to import Jesuit books from China, provided that they contained no direct references “that promoted the Evil Teaching”.

Antoni J. UCERLER, S.J. is the Director of the Ricci Institute and Associate Professor of History at Boston College. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he is also an Associate Fellow of Campion Hall at the University of Oxford. He is co-Editor of the Brill series, Studies in the History of Christianity in East Asia. His most recent publication is: The Samurai and the Cross: The Jesuit Enterprise in Early Modern Japan (Oxford University Press, 2022). His research interests include early modern Japanese and global history, comparative histories of Christianity and missionary translation in East Asia, and Christian material culture, including the history of the book. He holds a STB from the Gregorian University in Rome and a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford. 

Notice:

• The lecture is FREE to faculty, students and the public, thanks for the sponsorship by the Louis Cha Fund in the Faculty of Arts at The University of Hong Kong and the EDS-Stewart Endowment and the Ricci Scholarship Endowment, Ricci Institute at Boston College.
• The seminar will be conducted primarily in a face-to-face mode; Those who cannot attend the seminar in-person could apply for online participation (via Zoom).
• For participation either online or offline, please register at: https://forms.gle/CvxnmWMm4VE2ACX56
• Email of confirmation will be sent to the registered email addresses and participants are requested to show the screenshot or print-out version of the email for entry of the seminar venue.