Mission as laboratory: Attempts to overcome competing world interpretations in Japanese translations of the early Jesuit mission

使命作为实验室：试图克服对早期耶稣会使命的日文翻译中的相互竞争的世界解释

• 批准号: 520963481
• 负责人: Privatdozentin Dr. Katja Triplett
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Forschergruppe Multiple Secularities - Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/520963481?language=en
• 关键词: Mission; laboratory; Attempts; overcome; competing

The project aims to explore, on the basis of Japanese translations from the late 16th and early 17th centuries, how Jesuits and Japanese converts dealt with competing world interpretations in an effort to create a new order of knowledge and values for a Catholic Japan that was to be uniform and harmonious. Since the Jesuit missionaries took an exclusivist approach to overcoming competing world interpretations, they had to design a vocabulary that could convey Catholic conceptions of the world, humanity and salvation in contradistinction to Buddhist conceptions and that could ultimately guide action. Epistemic competition with Japanese Buddhism existed particularly in the area of conceptions of the body, which in Catholicism included not only normative and cognitive conceptions but also bodily practices such as baptism, self-flagellation and death sacraments. Hence, following an aesthetic-of-religion’s approach, the project examines Jesuit attempts to overcome competing interpretations of the world in Japan by focusing on conceptions of the body and the practices associated with them. The project sheds light on these bodily practices because the acceptance of Christianity in large parts of the population of Japan depended on the cultural translation of concrete actions that had to be in accordance with the doctrinal prescriptions in the texts and sermons. The focus of the project is on the Japanese translation of three Latin language compendia, which were produced in 1593-1595 specifally for the mission to Japan. They comprise the knowledge ratified at the Tridentine Council in its entirety: compendia on philosophy (Aristotle's De Anima), religion (Compendium catholicae veritatis [Compendium on Catholic Truth]) and cosmology (De Sphaera). In Japan, the compendia, chiefly the Catholic tracts, also had the task of teaching bodily practices related to religion. Overall, the translation includes world interpretations from three traditions: ancient Greek, post-Tridentine Catholic and Japanese Buddhist. The project contributes to exploring the content of the Wolfenbüttel manuscript of the translation, which was rediscovered in 2019 and, unlike the previously known, yet incomplete manuscript (Magdalen College, University of Oxford), contains all three parts. Turning away from a Eurocentric perspective, the project investigates the global interconnections and contexts in the experimental linguistic and cultural translation of Catholic conceptions of the body and the confrontations with the competing world interpretations in early modern Japan that were taken into account in the translation and use of the compendia. The project thus makes a new contribution to research on the formation of comparative concepts from a period of lively exchange and encounters in Asia.

该项目旨在以16世纪末和17世纪初的日语翻译为基础，探索耶稣会士和日本的皈依者如何处理相互竞争的世界解释，努力为一个统一和谐的天主教日本创造一种新的知识和价值观秩序。由于耶稣会传教士采取排他性的方法来克服相互竞争的世界解释，他们必须设计一种词汇，能够传达天主教对世界、人性和救赎的概念，与佛教的概念形成对比，并最终指导行动。与日本佛教的认知竞争尤其存在于身体概念领域，天主教的身体概念不仅包括规范和认知概念，还包括洗礼、自我鞭笞和死亡圣礼等身体实践。因此，遵循宗教美学的方法，该项目通过关注身体的概念和与之相关的实践，研究耶稣会试图克服日本对世界的竞争性解释。该项目揭示了这些身体实践，因为日本大部分人口对基督教的接受依赖于对具体行动的文化翻译，这些行动必须与文本和布道中的教义规定相一致。该项目的重点是将1593年至1595年专门为日本代表团制作的三本拉丁文纲要翻译成日语。它们包括特伦丁会议批准的全部知识：哲学纲要（亚里士多德的De Anima），宗教纲要（天主教真理纲要）和宇宙学纲要（De Sphaera）。在日本，纲要，主要是天主教小册子，也有教导与宗教有关的身体实践的任务。总的来说，翻译包括三个传统的世界解释：古希腊，后三叉戟天主教和日本佛教。该项目有助于探索2019年重新发现的wolfenb<e:1>泰尔翻译手稿的内容，与之前已知的不完整手稿（牛津大学莫德林学院）不同，它包含了所有三个部分。从欧洲中心的角度出发，该项目研究了天主教身体概念的实验语言和文化翻译中的全球相互联系和背景，以及在翻译和使用纲要时考虑到的早期现代日本与竞争世界解释的对抗。因此，该项目为研究亚洲活跃的交流和相遇时期的比较概念的形成做出了新的贡献。