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

17世纪，耶稣会士开始将哲学文献翻译成中文，将中国经典翻译成拉丁文，从而为孔子和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和持久的接受创造了基本前提。“四书”的第一个拉丁版本于1711年出现在布拉格，作为“Imperii Sinensis Libri Classici Sex”（Libri Classici）的一部分，由弗朗索瓦·诺埃尔（Francois Noel, 1659 - 1726）翻译。这个版本是“Imperii Sinensis Libri Classici Sex”项目的研究对象。在这一研究过程中，“尼各马可伦理学”（EN）对诺埃尔解释“四书”（新儒家经典，自13世纪以来所有伦理学论述的基础）的核心作用变得明显。但是我没有成功地证明，Noel是否有他的解释的例子，以早期在中国背景下讨论EN的形式。阿方索·瓦格内内（1568 - 1640）于1630年出版的《西方修身学》（修身学，XSHXX）中文版可能就是这样一个例子。《XSHXX》是一本文言文小册子，介绍了英语翻译和意译的核心问题。即使无法证明XSHXX对诺埃尔的作品有直接影响，但事实上，两者都使用了相同的来源，即曼努埃尔·德·戈伊斯（Manuel de Gois, 1593）的科英布拉评论。本课题的主要课题是XSHXX的编辑与分析。通过这一研究，我们应该清楚地看到，在哪些方面，vagone讨论了亚里士多德和儒家思想之间的共鸣和差异。进一步的目的是在西方和中国思想史的背景下描述XSHXX。这一描述将与小说《古典图书馆》一起，成为撰写一篇关于中国对英语的第一阶段接受及其在中国和西方的多方面影响的调查的基本材料。

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.