介乎國體安危與華夷之辨之間——晚明政府對待外來宗教態度辨析

本文以發生在萬曆末期南京和崇禎時期福建的兩次有官方背景的天主教事件爲研究對象,將兩次事件中留下的官方文告與同一時期士人反對天主教的文章進行橫比,再以之與前後朝代官方反對民間宗教組織的政策和行爲進行縱比,分析出晚明政府對待外來宗教和外來文化的基本特點是服從於社會治安管理的需要,當政府認爲其不危害社會時,可以容忍,反之則傾向於加以限制,其中並不包含明確的是否文化異端的考慮。因此,雖然晚明政府對一個團體之社會價值的認定有很大主觀性和偏見,但也不能認爲晚明中國政府習慣於排斥外來文化和宗教。

Rethinking of the Political Minds of Traditional Chinese Government: A Case Study on Two Anti-Christian Events in Late Ming Period

This paper focuses on the two so-called anti-Christian events directed by the government in the late Ming period. After comparing the official announcements published during these two events with the literati’s anti-Christian articles written in the same period and with the government’s policies and acts to the popular religious organizations in the former and later dynasties, the author finds that the critical element to mold the late Ming government’s attitude to a foreign religion or foreign culture is not whether it is a cultural heterodoxy, but it is danger or not to the social order in the viewpoint of the government. Although the government’s judge sometimes tends to be partial, it has its own logic in a traditional society. It is unfair to say that the late Ming government inclines to exclude certain kind of foreign culture. The Catholic community and other foreign communities should understand the characteristic minds of late Ming government in order to comment their fate in China full-scaly and to think better about the indigenous problem.