The First Documents of Encounter between Aristotelian and Confucian Ethics: Historical and Hermeneutic Perspectives

17世纪世纪，耶稣会士开始将哲学文本翻译成中文，将中国古典文学翻译成拉丁文，从而为孔子与亚里士多德的第一次“相遇”创造了基本前提，也为早期启蒙时代对儒家哲学的多方面、持久的接受创造了条件。一个重要的文件，这一遭遇，第一个拉丁美洲版本的“四本书”出现在1711年在布拉格的一部分，“Imperii Libri Classici性别”（Libri Classici）在一个翻译的弗朗索瓦诺埃尔（1659年至1726年）。该版本一直是“Imperii Libri Classici Sex”项目的研究对象。在这一研究过程中的核心作用的“尼各马可伦理学”（EN）诺埃尔解释的“四书”（新儒家经典，所有的论述基础上，自13世纪）变得明显。但我没有成功地证明，诺埃尔是否有他的解释的例子，在形式的早期讨论的EN在中国的背景下。1630年，阿方索·瓦格诺内（1568 - 1640）出版了一本中文版的《西方修养学》，可能就是这样一个例子。XSHXX是一部介绍英语翻译和释义中的核心问题的文言文小册子。即使当它将是不可能证明直接影响的XSHXX诺埃尔工作，这是一个事实，都使用了相同的来源，科英布拉评论曼努埃尔德戈瓦（1593）。 本项目的主要课题是XSHXX的编辑和分析。通过这项研究，它应该变得清晰，在何种方式瓦尼奥内讨论的共鸣和孔子思想之间的差异。进一步的目的是在西方和中国思想史的背景下描述XSHXX。连同诺埃尔的“Libri Classici”，这一描述将是基本材料，写一个调查的第一阶段的中国接受EN及其多方面的影响，在中国和西方。

In the 17th century the Jesuits began to translate philosophical texts into Chinese and Chinese classics into Latin, thus they created the basic preconditions for the first "Encounter" between Confucius and Aristotle and also for a multifaceted and lasting reception of Confucian philosophy in the era of the early Enlightenment. An important document of this encounter, the first Latin version of the “Four Books” appeared in 1711 in Prague as part of the "Imperii Sinensis Libri Classici Sex" (Libri Classici) in a translation by Francois Noel (1659 – 1726). This version has been the object of research in the project "Imperii Sinensis Libri Classici Sex". In the process of this research the central role of the “Nicomachean Ethics” (EN) for Noels interpretation of the "Four Books" (Neoconfucian canon, base of all discourses on ethics since the 13th century) became evident. But I didn’t succeed in demonstrating, whether Noel had examples for his interpretation in form of earlier discussions of the EN in the Chinese context. A Chinese version of the EN, published as "The Western Study of Personal Cultivation" (Xiushenxixue, XSHXX) by Alfonso Vagnone (1568 – 1640) in 1630 could have been possibly such an example. The XSHXX is a tract in Classical Chinese the introduces the central issues if the EN in translations and paraphrases. Even when it will be impossible to prove a direct influence of the XSHXX on Noels work, it is a matter of fact that both used the same source, the Coimbra-commentary of Manuel de Gois (1593). The main topic of this project is the edition and analysis of the XSHXX. By this research it should become clear, in which ways Vagnone discusses the resonances and the differences between Aristotelian and Confucian thought. A further aim is the description of the XSHXX in the context of the history of Western and Chinese thought.Together with Noels "Libri Classici" this description will be the basic material to write a survey of the first period of Chinese receptions of the EN and its multifaceted influences in China and in the West.