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

17世纪，耶稣会开始把哲学文本翻译成中文，把中国经典翻译成拉丁文，为孔子和亚里士多德的第一次“相遇”创造了基本的先决条件，也为早期启蒙运动时代对儒家哲学的多层面和持久的接受创造了基本的前提条件。作为这次相遇的重要文献，《四书》的第一个拉丁文版本于1711年出现在布拉格，作为由弗朗索瓦·诺埃尔(Francois Noel，1659-1726年)翻译的《帝国中华宝典》(Libri Classici Sex)的一部分。这一版本一直是“帝国中华宝库经典性爱”项目的研究对象。在这项研究的过程中，“尼科马赫伦理学”(EN)对诺埃尔解释“四书”(新孔子正典，13世纪以来所有关于伦理学的论述的基础)的核心作用显而易见。但我没有成功地证明，诺埃尔是否有例子可以在中国语境下以早期讨论的形式来解释EN。阿方索·魏格纳(1568-1640)在1630年出版的《西方修身学》(The Western Study of Personal Products，XSHXX)可能就是这样一个例子。XSHXX是文言文的一部分，介绍了EN在翻译和释义中的中心问题。即使当它将不可能证明xshxx对Noels工作的直接影响，这是一个事实，两者使用了相同的来源，科英布拉-曼努埃尔德戈伊斯(1593)的评论。本项目的主题是XSHXX的编辑和分析。通过这项研究，我们应该清楚地知道，瓦尼纳是如何讨论亚里士多德思想和儒家思想之间的共鸣和差异的。更进一步的目的是在中西思想史的语境中对《慈禧学派》进行描述，并与诺尔斯的《古典主义天秤座》一起，作为考察第一期中国接受文艺思想及其对中国和西方多方面影响的基本素材。

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.