Non-Elite Chinese Catholic Converts’ Formation of Pragmatic Identity in the Course of Religious Interactions: A New Analysis of a 17th Century Manuscript Bingyin huike 丙寅會課 (Teaching Sessions in 1686)

Abstract

Through a critical analysis of one section of a 17th century Chinese manuscript, this article examines the formation of pragmatic identity of non-elite Roman Catholic Chinese converts, who simultaneously identified themselves as Confucians and Catholics within the culture of “Three Teachings synthesized into one system” (sanjiao heyi 三教合一) in traditional Chinese society. This investigation explores how these converts formed their pragmatic identity during their adaptation of Catholic beliefs and practices into a complex and dynamic context of interreligious interactions. The texts under examination are two essays in the Bian chizhai (辨持齋, Debating on Fasting) section in the Bingyin huike (丙寅會課, Teaching Sessions in 1686), composed in a Chinese Catholic seminarian community established and administered by Jesuit missionaries in Nanjing (南京). This interdisciplinary study not only provides a critical examination of the manuscript, which has not yet been extensively researched, but also offers a novel understanding of non-elite converts’ identity formation through the lens of pragmatic identity theory, drawing inspiration from American Pragmatism. It contributes to our contemporary understanding of non-elite Chinese Christian converts’ quest for identity amidst intercultural interactions between mainstream and marginal religions in 17th century Qing China.

1. Introduction

This article aims to explore the issue of pragmatic identity formation of non-elite Roman Catholic Chinese converts in 17th century Qing Chinese society, as these converts presented themselves simultaneously as both Confucian and Catholic and as Chinese who adopted a foreign and marginal religion within the culture of “Three Teachings synthesized into one system” (sanjiao heyi 三教合一). The choices of these converts regarding their religious beliefs and practices were influenced by the intercultural and interreligious interactions between Confucianism, Chinese popular religions (minjian zongjiao 民間宗教), and Roman Catholicism (Huang 2006; Zhang 2009, 2021; Xiao 2015). This study points out that while experiencing changes in their religious lives, these non-elite converts formed a pragmatic identity to become Chinese Catholics. Through a critical analysis of the Bian chizhai (辨持齋, Debating on Fasting) section of the manuscript entitled Bingyin huike (丙寅會課, Teaching Sessions in 1686), I aim to elucidate the understanding of the identity formation of the early non-elite Chinese Catholic converts in light of pragmatic identity theory.

During the Ming (明 1368–1644) and Qing (清 1636–1912) periods, certain aspects of religious practices from Confucianism and Roman Catholicism were integrated into the daily lives of both elite and non-elite Christian converts (see Zürcher 1997; Yao 2024; Pan 2024; Sun 2025). In contrast with elite converts whose lives were deeply influenced by the orthodox Confucian Lixue (理学, “Principle-pattern learning”) teaching founded by Zhu Xi (朱熹, 1130–1200) (see Tang 2016), non-elite converts and European missionaries who worked with them lived in a more flexible cultural environment described as “Three Teachings syncretized into one system.” As Li (2017, p. 361) has posited, this culture was sustained by Chinese popular religions (including popular Buddhism, popular Daoism daojiao 道教, and local cults):

The popular religious beliefs and practices of the common populace constituted the basic, shared foundation of Ruism (Confucianism), Daoism, and Buddhism in China. An analysis of the culture of the “Three Teachings syncretized into one system” reveals that all forms of religious life are originally rooted in popular religious practices in Ming and Qing China.

Necessarily, the culture of the “Three Teachings synthesized into one system” also encountered significant intercultural dynamics, for Roman Catholicism was introduced to Chinese local cultures by European missionaries from different orders, such as Jesuits and Dominicans, and subsequently gained acceptance among an increasing number of non-elite Chinese individuals. The adaptation of Roman Catholicism among non-elite converts thus challenged the existing Chinese religious belief system in this cultural setting. These challenges, which precipitated surprises, difficulties, refusals, and conflicts, inevitably altered many Chinese individuals’ approaches to their religious lives. Standaert employed the term “texturing on textile” (Standaert 2001a, p. 7) to metaphorically describe such intercultural interactions in the lives of Chinese converts and European missionaries during the process of inculturation of Christianity (pp. 7–8). The term “texturing” refers to the converts’ interreligious activities that gradually develop on a piece of cloth, ultimately producing a piece of “textile” that exhibits diversity in its composition. The “textile” therefore represents the reality transformed and enriched by each activity in this interreligious process. As a result, “texturing on textile” depicts the ongoing and dynamic process of shaping and reshaping Chinese Christian converts’ beliefs and practices, as well as the changes in their religiosity and identities. These interactions resulted in a “complex diffusion” that had “[interwoven] many different threads and fibers” within their identities as Christianity was adapted into various spheres of those converts’ lives and their local cultures through this process (Standaert 2001a, p. 7).

The texts that I will analyze herein are two selected essays in the Debating on Fasting section in the manuscript Teaching Sessions in 1686. The full manuscript is found in Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI) located in Rome. The Teaching Sessions in 1686 was composed by sixteen different Chinese Catholic seminarians whose names were not recorded, contributing to classroom debate exercises on eleven distinct topics in the seminary established and administered by Jesuit missionaries in Nanjing (南京), located in Jiangsu (江蘇) Province. The complete text of the Teaching Sessions in 1686 comprises 106 essays, with its opening section, Debating on Fasting, featuring sixteen essays, each authored individually by one of these sixteen anonymous seminarians (Meynard 2022, pp. 48–50). These seminarian authors demonstrated their understanding of how Catholic fasting was institutionally introduced as a new religious practice within their seminary. They formulated arguments about fasting practices based on their knowledge of Confucian, popular Buddhist, popular Daoist, and Roman Catholic teachings. Their approach involved condemning Buddhist and Daoist practices, while adjusting their lifestyle to some Confucian precedents to justify the practice of Roman Catholic fasting within their Chinese Christian sub-culture. We need to note that these essays in the Teaching Sessions in 1686 were composed and collected during a period of uncertainty surrounding both the evangelization efforts of Roman Catholic missionaries and the local conversion of non-elite Chinese in early Qing China (see Clark 2011, pp. 59–88; Xiao 2015, pp. 93–108; Meynard 2020, pp. 147–85). Although the Qing court issued the Imperial Edict of Toleration in 1692, political restrictions and persecution targeting both missionaries and Chinese converts began to escalate and spread from the imperial court to the broader empire after 1715, when Pope Clement XI issued the papal bull Exilla die. Catholicism was regarded by many contemporary Confucian apologists and Buddhist advocates as a religion that was alien and barbarian (waiyi 外夷), demonic and evil (xie 邪), untruthful (wang 妄), and heretical (yiduan 異端) (Hsia 1996; Mungello 2009, pp. 53–80).

It is therefore essential to examine how non-elite Chinese Roman Catholic converts constructed a pragmatic identity by integrating Christianity into their existing belief systems. Unlike elite and scholarly converts, non-elite converts—particularly commoners—were often drawn to Christianity through more immediate and tangible experiences. For example, there were Xu Guangqi (徐光啓, 1562–1633), Yang Tingyun (楊廷筠, 1562–1627), and others who served in the imperial court during the late Ming dynasty, whose engagement with Christianity was largely intellectual and centered on identifying commonalities between Confucianism and Catholicism. Also, non-elite converts were unlike the first generation of indigenous Chinese Roman Catholic clergy in the early Qing period, including Luo Wenzao O. P. (羅文藻, Bishop Gregory Luo Wen-zao, 1617–1691) (Streit 1929, pp. 895–96; see Fang 1988, pp. 153–54) and He Tianzhang S. J. (何天章, Francisco Xavier do Rosário, 1667–1736) (Pfister 1932, p. 410; Witek 2009, pp. 59–73; see Huang 1996, pp. 137–60), who utilized their training in Latin, Catholic theology, and Chinese traditions to advocate for religious tolerance during the Rites Controversy. They were deeply influenced by the friendship and hospitality of European missionaries, captivated by the solemnity and symbolism of Catholic liturgical rituals, and persuaded by the perceived efficacy of miracles (including healing the sick) and of exorcisms performed by Catholics. Additionally, many found Catholicism appealing due to the concrete religious, cultural, and personal benefits it offered, both through individual missionaries and the institutional church (Zhang 1999, pp. 1–36; Zhang 2021, pp. 260–88).1 Within this broader landscape of conversion, Chinese seminarians during the Ming and Qing periods occupied a unique intermediary position: although they were educated within the dominant Confucian tradition, they did not belong to the Confucian scholarly elite group, and while trained in Catholic seminaries, they remained distinct from both lay believers and ordained priests (Standaert 2001c, pp. 389–90).

We should recognize the cultural position of this group of seminarians from Nanjing as involving an “in-betweenness” of these educated, yet socially low-ranking, religious practitioners. Such individuals occupying this intermediary position in Chinese society often played bridging roles, facilitating connections between the highest and lowest social classes in terms of transmitting ideologies, ideas, and cultures. Consequently, they exhibit traits characteristic of both the upper and lower social strata. Standaert also emphasized the significance of examining the religiosity of Chinese students of theology in contemporary research (Standaert 1995, pp. 1–3, 139–46). In his study of Yan Mo (嚴謨, a Chinese student in theology who authored many theological works and was active during the late 17th and early 18th centuries in Fujian 福建 Province) and his work Ditiankao (帝天考, Investigation into the Concepts of Lord and Heaven), Standaert (1995, p. 2) stated that:

Anyone attempting inculturation in Chinese culture might not only benefit from reading the Church fathers, he or she might also benefit from reading the writings of the 17th century Chinese Christians. For these writings also convey an implicit answer to the question: ‘How to express the Christian faith and experience when entering Chinese culture?’ In many different ways, Chinese Christians tried to express this faith and experience in the language of their time. … One should underline some unique characteristics of this collection of writings by Chinese Christians. They were all written by lay people, with only a few works by Chinese who were members of a religious congregation. These lay people were well educated and fully acquainted with their own culture. Some of them had successfully passed the state examinations, while others prepared to do so. Finally, they clearly belonged to a community of Christian faith. Therefore, one could call them theologians, or at least students of theology.

In the analysis that follows, we will notice how these traits are present in the arguments of the Nanjing seminarians in 1686. Undoubtedly, analyzing this group of seminarians’ understanding of Roman Catholic beliefs and practices can provide new insights into our research. The specific intermediary and bridging role of those Chinese Catholic seminarians—as a unique group among the non-elite converts in 17th century China—may also be very valuable in our contemporary study of the inculturation of Qing dynasty Christianity.

I shall analyze the formation of these Nanjing seminarians’ pragmatic identity by examining their varying interpretations of fasting (zhai 齋, “abstention from specific foods”) as discussed in the Debating on Fasting. The function and significance of fasting and vegetarianism across different religious traditions (see Kieschnick 2005, pp. 187–212), as understood by the seminarians, are illuminated through their arguments presented in these sixteen essays. Some claims found in the Debating on Fasting have been studied by Meynard (2022), but only in its Chinese version, which has not yet been translated into English. This article represents the only relevant secondary literature available for reference. Although my discussion is based on this precedent, it will offer a new interpretation of the religious and philosophical significance of the manuscript, illustrating how early generations of non-elite Roman Catholic Chinese converts understood their identity. This study also enhances our understanding of the early Jesuit missionaries’ work with non-elite Chinese converts during the complex interreligious interactions of late 17th century China. As the Qing imperial court reinforced its Confucian–Authoritarian regime (Ru–Fa guojia 儒法國家) (Zhao 2006, pp. 148–82; see Goldin 2013),2 the political environment and religious intolerance toward Roman Catholic missions and converts increased during the 17th and 18th centuries. Therefore, exploring the path of this group of non-elite Chinese Roman Catholic seminarians toward Christianity provides an essential narrative that highlights the experiences of both non-elite converts and the European missionaries who collaborated with them. This narrative is intricately woven into the “textile” of the reality faced by non-elite Chinese converts amid the ongoing interreligious interactions within Confucian–Authoritarian Qing China.

2. Methodology

This study employs a threefold methodology to analyze the pertinent issues emerging from a close textual examination of the primary source drawn from the collection of essays entitled Debating on Fasting, with the aim of deepening our understanding of complex themes including the pragmatic identity formation of educated yet socially marginal non-elite Chinese converts, and the processes of Roman Catholic inculturation in early Qing China. Firstly, by utilizing Standaert’s definition of Chinese Christian communities as “communities of effective rituals” and “exclusive groups,” it enables the distinction of Chinese Christian communities from other Chinese religious communities in Ming and Qing China based on this distinctive characteristic. This distinction also suggests the significance of examining Chinese Christian converts’ identity among other Chinese religious practitioners of Buddhism, Daoism, and regional cults. The second methodological perspective is informed by Li’s argument for the critical function of the “Three Teachings synthesized into one system”. Li has emphasized the importance of the synthesized wholeness of Chinese religions, especially when the perspective of philosophical investigation originates from common practitioners’ religious lives. Finally, the third element is the “pragmatic identity theory,” which elucidates both a method and an “insight into the shifting social and personal worlds within which people form and function in their identities”(Levitan and Carr-Chellman 2018, p. 144). This theory is advanced by contemporary researchers who are influenced by American Pragmatist philosophy. This perspective provides a conceptual framework that “seeks to circumvent the assumption that there is a dichotomy between personal and social—the psychogenetic and the sociogenetic—in order to bridge the gap between these two philosophical orientations” (p. 144). It contributes a methodological perspective from contemporary analytic philosophy to examine the non-elite converts’ religious beliefs and practices in an “exclusive community of effective rituals,” contextualized in the culture of the “Three Teachings synthesized into one system” in 17th century China.

Standaert (2001a, p. 9) has defined the establishment of “communities of effective rituals” of Christians among religious practitioners as follows:

People are brought together and united in a group whose life is rhythmed around certain rituals (mass, feasts, confession, etc.). These rituals are founded on faith and doctrine and are organized by a liturgical calendar. They are ‘effective’ both in the sense that they build a group and that they are considered by the members of the group as bringing meaning and salvation. The most obvious examples are communities of Chinese Christians.

Although “the communities of effective rituals seem to be characteristics of both Chinese and Christian folk traditions,” he confirmed that “the Christian communities in China show the characteristics of an exclusive group that is identified by the members themselves and that seems to be typical of the East Mediterranean religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam)” (Standaert 2001a, p. 13). Thus, non-elite Chinese converts needed to seek feasible ways to accommodate their adopted Catholic practices, which had these clear “characteristics of an exclusive group,” within a part of Chinese culture that would not be strictly governed by Confucian orthodoxy. Consequently, the regional cultures that developed within the overarching culture of the “Three Teachings synthesized into one system” during the Ming and Qing periods provided such a possible space for the non-elite converts to discover their particular ways of integrating Christianity within that mainline Chinese tradition.

It is crucial that we do not stereotypically misconstrue the Three Teachings as three distinct and completely separate religious systems. Li (2017, pp. 356–57) has emphasized the holistic nature of this synthesized culture:

Understanding Chinese religions from the perspective of Confucian literati scholars, Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism are considered three distinct religions. However, when viewed through the lens of the common folk and their beliefs, these religions are understood and practiced as a cohesive whole, as they are deeply interwoven. They are neither separate nor differentiated, and they hold equal significance. Since the time of Jan Jakob Maria de Groot, Max Weber, and Yang Qingkun, Western scholars of religious studies have investigated Chinese religions as an integrated system. This approach has led to the phrase ‘taking the Chinese Religions as a Whole,’ which Jan Jakob Maria de Groot referred to as ‘the Religious System of China.’ Whether one is a Sinologist in the West or a scholar in China, the characteristic wholeness of Chinese religions becomes evident, provided that one does not overlook the religious lives of non-elite commoners and does not rigidly categorize the Three Teachings based on canonical divisions. The interwoven nature of these religions, as a defining characteristic of Chinese spirituality, has been described by some Confucian literati throughout history as ‘synthesizing Three Teachings into one system (heyi 合一)’.

Li has further argued that this synthesized culture should be more precisely named sanjiao yiyuan (三教一源, “Three Teachings from one origin”) and sanjiao tongti (三教通體, “Three Teachings rooted in the same reality”). The structural complexity of this culture indicates that it is not merely a proportional mixture of the Three Teachings; rather, it represents a flexible and dynamic usage of practitioners who utilized the Three Teachings to address their specific daily religious and cultural issues (Li 2017, pp. 360–61).

In conjunction with these two methodologies, which help us understand the non-elite Chinese converts’ identity in this dynamic Chinese context, the application of pragmatic identity theory provides another critical perspective on the issue of religious identity formation, exemplified by this community of Nanjing seminarians. By examining this issue through the lens of pragmatic identity theory, which “posits that identities are both personal and social constructs,” we can enhance our contemporary understanding that identity formation of non-elite Chinese Catholic converts is viewed as “a constellation of identities that are flexible and context-dependent” (Levitan and Carr-Chellman 2018, p. 151). I will discuss the pragmatic identity of non-elite converts in detail in Section 5.

This article consists of six sections. Following the Introduction and Methodology sections, Section 3 presents a textual analysis of the seminarians’ arguments, accompanied by my English translation of the most relevant passages from the two selected essays.3 In Section 4, I illustrate the seminarians’ priority of securing their Chinese Confucian identity while integrating Roman Catholicism as a component of their community identity. Additionally, I discuss broader political and religious factors that may have influenced their choices. In Section 5, I present the definition of the pragmatic identity theory and explain how non-elite Chinese Roman Catholic converts, such as this group of Nanjing seminarians in the 17th century, formed their pragmatic identity to function as both Confucians and Catholics within that specific context. Section 6 concludes the article by addressing the questions posed in the Introduction.

3. A Textual Analysis of the Debating on Fasting

Below, I present a summary of two highly representative essays written by two different seminarians from the sixteen essays collected in the Debating on Fasting (Meynard 2022, pp. 62–88).4 Because of the limited length of this article, I am unable to analyze all sixteen essays. Instead, I have selected the most relevant passages and provided their English translations. The sixth essay (Meynard 2022, pp. 70–72) started with a quotation from the Confucian canon, the Liji (禮記, the Book of Rites), through which the seminarian articulated his understanding of Confucian fasting as follows (Meynard 2022, pp. 70–71):

禮之有齋，所以交神明也。內以齊其心志，外以潔其形體。故七日戒，三日齋，而後用犧牲以祭。一物不備，不足以告虔，未之或廢也。齋之義，取諸此。

The inclusion of zhai (abstention, fasting) in the Liji is rooted in the belief that zhai serves to facilitate communication between humans and shenming (spirits beyond the human realm). [Therefore, those who practiced fasting] aimed to cultivate their inner selves by fasting their heart-mind and will, while also focusing outwardly on purifying their physical bodies. Consequently, [practices such as] the seven-day discipline and three-day fasting were established. Following these practices, participants would offer animal sacrifices. If any item [within the required arrangement of the sacrifice] was missing, this deficiency would hinder the manifestation of the piety [embodied in the offering]; if the missing item was not supplemented, [the efforts of fasting and sacrifice] would be rendered futile. These show the meaning of the concept of zhai.5

This seminarian continued with a brief passage that expressed his interpretation of Roman Catholic fasting, based on his reading of the Jiren shipian (畸人十篇, Ten Chapters by a Nonconformist) by Matteo Ricci (Li Madou 利瑪竇, 1552–1610) (Meynard 2022, p. 71):

即吾教之守齋，有四十日大齋、四季大齋、主日前二日小齋，此皆效法吾主之嚴齋；而凜遵之，不敢稍有踰越。然遇齋之期，原不禁水族諸味，蓋取其性之寒、氣之薄者。遏抑饕情而克嗜慾，初非為免禍求福而然，其詳載畸人十篇。

The fasting practices in our religion include a major forty-day fast, major seasonal fasts, and minor two-day fasts preceding Sundays. All of these practices follow the example of our Lord’s [principle of] solemnity regarding fasting. [As practitioners], we are in awe and strictly adhere to these guidelines, refraining from even the slightest trespass. However, during the fasting periods, dishes made of aquatic animals are not prohibited, as the nature of these animals is considered cold and their qi (life energy) is perceived as thin. [The purpose of maintaining fasting practices is] to restrain one’s gluttonous tendencies and addictive desires. Initially, fasting is not intended to avoid misfortune then to seek benefits. These were explained in detail in the Jiren shipian.

After the initial two paragraphs, the subsequent three lengthy paragraphs present the seminarian’s condemnation of popular Buddhist fasting practice. The seminarian author primarily focused on his interpretation of the concepts of rebirth (lunhui 輪回) and karmic retribution (yinguo baoying 因果報應). It is important to note that in these paragraphs, his arguments are frequently interwoven with criticisms of Buddhist practitioners, particularly monks (Meynard 2022, p. 71):

釋氏既為名「齋」，葷雖不茹，而酗酒漁色則無禁。舍其大惡，擇其小善，安得為通論乎？更有名雖「持齋」，實則饕餮，私饜膏粱，潛蓄旨臠，不過依傍禪門為博取衣食之計，其實出於勉強，原非甘于淡薄。人既不嫌佛，亦不譴，可見齋之無益。間有一二黃面瞿曇，自稱叢林尊宿，一蔬一食，戒律精嚴，亦不過掩飾耳目、圖充衣缽，借說法談禪之機，為鬻奸施巧之地，行若大德，其衷叵測。此之謂「口雖齋而心不齋」，徒然吃菜事魔，實則芘蒭之罪人也。

Although Buddhist teaching refers to this practice as zhai, practitioners are not prohibited from consuming alcohol and engaging in sexual conduct [which can lead to addiction]. Can the claim [of practicing such zhai] be considered reasonable and convincing, [given that this approach] chooses to cover significant evils, while only performing minor good deeds? [Furthermore, some individuals, who claim themselves to be Buddhists and] announce their observation of zhai are, in fact, gluttonous. They consume large quantities of meat and secretly stockpile fine alcohol and premium cuts of meat. They only exploit Buddhist temples for sustenance, which is a forced choice rather than a voluntary commitment to [a life of] frugality and abstinence. They neither express disdain for, nor criticize Buddhism, [suggesting that] Buddhist fasting is not genuinely beneficial. Sometimes, a few self-proclaimed master monks claim to have lived in the woods, practicing vegetarianism, and fasting while strictly adhering to the Precepts and rules. [In reality] this is a smokescreen for their disguises of [pretending themselves as] monks. They exploit gatherings that [ostensibly] discuss Buddhist teachings to promote their villainous falsehoods and engage in cunning behavior. [They present themselves] as masters of high virtue, yet their intentions are deeply unpredictable. This phenomenon is referred to as ‘although fasting with the mouth, not fasting with the heart-mind,’ as [they adopt] vegetarianism to serve malevolent and demonic forces, making them [initiating] offenders against Buddhism.

Following this passage, this seminarian argued that if one followed Buddhist fasting and the principles of vegetarianism, all the benevolent (仁 ren) actions of the sage kings in ancient times would be considered “bad karma,” a major offence against Confucian teachings, for all their animal sacrifices would be considered evil. Not only did those sage kings use meat for sacrifices, they also encouraged people to keep domestic animals to provide meat for the elderly to sustain their health. These actions clearly opposed vegetarianism. This seminarian further illustrated his argument by citing Emperor Wu of Liang (梁武帝, 464–549), who maintained Buddhist fasting and vegetarianism throughout his life, which should have accumulated “good karma” in the end; however, the emperor’s regime was overthrown.6 The concluding remarks in the sixth essay emphasized the legitimacy of Roman Catholic fasting, which should align with the Confucian framework: “此之謂正齋，與禮相符 This is what should be called orthodox fasting, because it is in accordance with li (禮, ritual propriety, Confucian rites)” (Meynard 2022, p. 72).

In the eleventh essay (Meynard 2022, pp. 77–81), there is another argument illustrating a different seminarian’s comprehension of the Confucian concept of fasting (zhai). This seminarian referenced six distinct classical Confucian texts to substantiate his understanding of Confucian fasting. These texts included the Lunyu jizhu (論語集註, Commentaries on the Analects edited by the major Song Confucian Zhu Xi 朱熹), the Shi daya daming (詩‧大雅‧大明, the poem “Great Enlightenment” in the Greater Odes of the Kingdom in the Book of Poetry), the Wei guwen shangshu zhonghui zhi gao (偽古文尚書‧仲虺之誥, “The Edict of Zhonghui” in the Pseudo-ancient Shangshu,), the Lunyu yanghuo (論語‧陽貨, the seventeenth chapter of the Analects named Yang huo), the Shijizhuan (詩集傳, Collected Commentaries on the Book of Poetry edited by Zhu Xi), and the Liji Kongzi xianju (禮記‧孔子閒居, the chapter on “Confucius leisurely at Home” in the Book of Rites). While references to these six texts comprised the content of the first two paragraphs, the subsequent four lengthy paragraphs illustrated this seminarian’s condemnation of Buddhist concepts of rebirth and karma. Following this, a relatively shorter paragraph presented his justification for consuming meat, based on directives from the sage kings to their subjects as found in the Mencius (孟子, Mengzi) (Legge 1895, pp. 461–62).7

In the next two longer paragraphs, this seminarian returned to condemning popular Buddhist fasting and vegetarianism by quoting from the pseudo-ancient commentary of Shangshu in order to support this aspect of his argument. In addition, there are two shorter paragraphs condemning fasting in popular Daoist practices and performed in popular cults. The final paragraph articulated the seminarian’s purpose in this debate: he aimed “不責其非，而示其誤，以歸于正 not to blame the wrongness of these practices, but to present their mistakes in order to [remind people] to return to what is orthodox” (Meynard 2022, p. 81). He provided two reasons for practicing fasting according to orthodox Confucianism. The first reason was to demonstrate respect and reverence for Heaven (敬天 jingtian), while the second reason was to preserve one’s health, integrity, and survival (守身 shoushen).

The last sentence of this essay was the only instance in which Roman Catholic practices of fasting were mentioned in the entire essay: “所以泰西先生于聖道有大齋、小齋日期，持之最嚴明，于天主教者皆知之 Therefore, the Master from the West teaches that the practice of the holy Dao (Way) has designated times for undertaking both major and minor fasts. One practices these with the utmost strictness and impartiality, which all [Roman Catholic] practitioners of the Lord of Heaven’s teachings are aware of” (Meynard 2022, p. 81).

It is evident that these two essays, the most representative examples from all sixteen essays, allocated a minimal proportion of the text to directly address practices of Roman Catholic fasting.8 The structure of the essays demonstrated that these seminarians had a strong awareness of the meaning of fasting based on their knowledge of Confucian teachings. These cultural emphases superseded the seminarians’ inclination to directly and immediately develop their analysis of Roman Catholic practices of fasting. The seminarian authors were obviously concerned with supporting the orthodoxy (zheng 正) and condemning the heterodoxy (xie 邪). In this manner, they exhibited an ideological mindset, namely, they consciously regarded themselves as part of the orthodox tradition and felt obliged to protect and strengthen it. Zürcher (1994, pp. 40–41) has pointed out that:

No marginal religion penetrating from the outside could expect to take root in China (at least at that social level) unless it conformed to that pattern which in late imperial times was more clearly defined than ever. Confucianism represented what is zheng 正, ‘orthodox,’ in a religious, ritual, social and political sense; in order not to be branded xie 邪, ‘heterodox’ and thus to be treated as a subversive sect, a marginal religion had to prove that it was on the side of zheng.

Notably, following Zürcher’s argument, the author of the eleventh essay positioned himself against popular Buddhism and Daoism, for the sake of “returning to the orthodox,” while the author of the sixth essay was motivated to locate Roman Catholic practices within the orthodox culture. Meynard (2022, p. 52) has also pointed out this discernible pattern among these seminarians in the formulation and presentation of their arguments across all sixteen essays:

The seminarians’ strategy and methodology are noteworthy: they almost never directly quoted from Catholic canons. They cited the Jiren shipian by Matteo Ricci only once. The sources for their statements regarding Catholic fasting primarily derive from Tianzhu shiyi (天主實義 The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven) and their own interpretations. For instance, they coined terms such as ‘minor fasting’ (two days before Sunday liturgy) and ‘major fasting’ (Lent). However, this aspect of their arguments is the weakest. There is, in fact, a significant difference between the three-day fasting and purification rituals completed before sacrificial ceremonies in Confucian traditions (i.e., sanri ji 三日祭) and the Catholic fasting practices, regardless of whether the fasting occurs before the Sunday liturgy or during Lent. Non-Catholic believers would not perceive any connection between these fasting practices in Confucianism and Roman Catholicism.

Although these essays collected in the Debating on Fasting mention Confucian fasting, specifically referencing the term xinzhai (心齋, “fasting of the heart-mind”), none of the sixteen essays provide a thorough exploration of this concept. Regarding the application of “fasting of the heart-mind” in religious life, the seminarians neither developed this idea in conjunction with the Confucian practice of xiushen (修身, “whole person cultivation”) nor focused on the Catholic practice of fasting of the mind-heart.

4. The Perceived Necessity of Aligning Roman Catholic Practices with Orthodox Confucian Principles

In their quest to stabilize their Christian identity within the Confucian–Authoritarian society of late 17th century China, this group of seminarians from Nanjing exhibited distinctive features of their interpretations of both Chinese religions and Roman Catholicism, as evidenced in the Debating on Fasting. Analyzing these features can enhance our understanding of their identity formation as they embraced Roman Catholicism within an exclusive Chinese Catholic seminarian community. These features include the perceived necessity of aligning Roman Catholic practices with Confucian principles, the condemnation of popular Chinese religions, and the absence of Ignatian spirituality. In this article, I will focus solely on the first feature, as it is directly relevant to the topic at hand.

Reading the seminarians’ arguments presented in the passages of Section 3, we can observe that their primary objective was to utilize the practices of fasting in both Confucian and Roman Catholic teachings as “mere tokens”—simply to ideologically align Catholicism with Confucianism. This approach inevitably led the seminarians to a misunderstanding that “fasting of the heart-mind in Ru (Confucian) teaching is equivalent to the fasting of the heart-mind in Catholic teaching” (Meynard 2022, p. 52). Meynard (2022, pp. 56–57) has highlighted this issue:

The seminarians mistakenly considered that Confucian teachings prescribed specific times for fasting, and Catholic teachings followed a similar pattern. [They failed to see that] the two fasting practices primarily differed in their timing: Confucian fasting took place during sacrificial offerings, while Roman Catholic fasting was observed during Sunday Mass and Masses on important feast days, and the annual Lent period. However, the most significant distinction between the two was that Confucian sacrificial offering rituals occurred approximately three times a year, whereas Catholic fasting was associated with the holy sacrament at Mass and was routinely practiced throughout the year. Additionally, Confucian fasting was observed only by those conducting the rituals, while Roman Catholic fasting was more broadly practiced by all Catholics, regardless of gender or age. Notably, the seminarians’ essays do not highlight these significant differences but instead focus on the similarities [that they erroneously perceived] between the two practices.

In fact, the seminarians’ choice to align Catholicism with Confucianism was not solely the product of their studious efforts. Rather, their religious engagement and identity formation were shaped by two additional critical factors. The first was the psychological and behavioral shifts among Confucian literati, which inevitably influenced the educated non-elite Chinese during the transition from the Ming to the Qing dynasty. These shifts were largely driven by the increasingly stringent and repressive measures imposed by the Qing imperial authorities. The second factor was the strategic adaptation of European missionaries, who sought to ensure the continuity and sustainability of their missions within the sociopolitical environment of the early years in Qing China.

Although the Nanjing seminarians were non-elite religious practitioners, they were nonetheless educated individuals poised to become future local leaders within the marginalized Chinese Catholic community. Positioned in a unique cultural and social institution at this historical juncture, these seminarians were acutely aware of politically sensitive issues, particularly as they observed the Qing imperial court’s enforcement of a series of reward-and-punishment policies that profoundly reshaped the mentality and social behavior of the literati.

As Fan’s detailed analysis illustrates, since the early Qing period, the Jiangnan (江南)9 literati experienced a significant transformation following the severe punishments imposed by the Qing court in response to major incidents involving tax collection, financial management, and political involvement (Fan 2019, pp. 326–54). Those punitive measures led to what Fan describes as the literati “collectively lost the dignity and integrity (fenggu jiecao 風骨節操) of scholars (shi 士). Many of them degraded themselves, becoming subservient to flatter governmental officials, as if they were their shadows” (Fan 2019, p. 351). Consequently, the Jiangnan literati became “increasingly cautious about protecting their reputations [which was closely tied to their survival]. They restricted their activities to literary work and refrained from social gatherings and active political engagement” (p. 351). Simultaneously, they generally embraced “a much lower standard of responsibility toward their society” (p. 353).

Given that Nanjing had long served as the cultural center of the Jiangnan region, this pervasive shift in mainstream literati culture likely also influenced the seminarians’ mindset and conduct. Within this historical context, the seminarians and other non-elite converts would have regarded the transformation of the Qing literati as a cautionary precedent, compelling them to navigate their own religious and social identities with heightened vigilance. In an effort to avoid political entanglements and safeguard their positions, they would have exercised particular caution in choosing their behavior, using survival strategies within both political and social spheres.

Considering the broader political and ideological context, during the dynastic transitional period from the Ming to the Qing, converting to Catholicism for the Nanjing seminarians entailed more than altering one’s religious beliefs within the seminary (an exclusive community established upon effective rituals). They also needed to cautiously determine a safe method for adapting their customary Roman Catholic rituals, in order to avoid potential political prohibition outside of their community. These seminarians, who were likely predominantly of Han (漢) ethnicity, were cognizant of the collective memories preserved by many Han people regarding dynastic changes. These memories served as warnings to the seminarians about the consequences of altering not only one’s beliefs, but also choosing to adopt customary appearances and inoffensive lifestyle options as perceived by Qing authorities.10 Meanwhile, the Qing imperial authorities implemented exceedingly stringent and severe policies to eliminate those who contravened the orthodox rules established by Qing policies (Zhu 2019, pp. 175–95; Schlesinger 2021, pp. 245–62).

Within the context of the Qing imperial court’s complex and often fraught relationship with Christianity in 17th century China, the second crucial factor shaping the Nanjing seminarians’ integration of Catholic religious practices with Confucian principles was the strategic approaches adopted by European missionaries to sustain their missions in the Qing empire (Standaert 2001b, pp. 503–33; Ch’en 2003, pp. 155–94; Hsia 2018, pp. 208–24). Doctrinal debates among European missionaries arose under the political pressures and existential uncertainties of practicing Catholicism in the new Qing empire. Giandomenico Gabiani (畢嘉 Bi Jia, 1623–1696), the Jesuit missionary who had survived the Calendar Case (曆獄 liyu, 1659–1665) and subsequently endured the Canton Exile (1666–1671), played a pivotal role as the overseer of the Nanjing seminary in the process of the seminarians’ education and formation (Meynard 2022, pp. 43–47). Given his leadership, the seminarians were likely well aware of the Calendar Case and its implications. During the Canton Exile, the twenty-five European Catholic missionaries—comprising members of the Jesuit, Dominican, and Franciscan orders—engaged in extensive discussions and produced reports on critical issues related to their evangelization efforts in the Qing empire (Meynard 2024). One such debate, held at the Canton Conference in 1668, concerned whether individuals who followed Buddhist fasting and vegetarian dietary practices could be baptized (see Meynard 2018a, 2018b, 2019). This question remained relevant eighteen years later, in 1686, when the Nanjing seminarians conducted their own classroom debates on the same topic (Meynard 2022, p. 49).

The arguments presented in the Debating on Fasting underscore the necessity of making informed decisions regarding Catholic practices within a highly contentious political, religious, and cultural environment. The seminarians’ engagement with these doctrinal issues reflects not only a theological inquiry within their exclusive community, but also the broader reality of negotiating religious identity amid Qing-era restrictions and missionary adaptations.

The political conditions in which the seminarians’ debating exercise could be successfully conducted throughout 1686 involved the fact that the Kangxi emperor (康熙, 1661–1722) granted Chinese Catholic evangelization “the full rehabilitation … in 1669,” and so “opened the door for the Catholic Church to enjoy a long period of fifty years of imperial protection” (Meynard 2024, sct. 4). However, from our contemporary historical perspective, it is important to note that the Kangxi emperor, who personally cultivated relationships with a few Jesuit missionaries during his earlier years, also ended this toleration of Christianity by the time of “the prohibition in 1721 … in reaction to the condemnation by the Vatican of the Chinese Rites” (Meynard 2024, sct. 4). In fact, in 1720, the Kangxi emperor clarified his altered perspective, which significantly revealed the utilitarian approach the Qing emperors generally adopted to govern the empire built upon the Confucian–Authoritarian model (Standaert 2001b, pp. 503–4):

As the Religion you [European Catholic missionaries] preach is without any harm or benefit (haowu sunyi 毫無損益) to China, so also it is of no consequence whether you go or stay.… Why do we venerate Confucius? The Holy Sage by the great doctrine of the five constant virtues (wuchang 五常), the many kinds of conducts, and the cardinal relationships (dalun 大倫) of ruler and minister and of father and son, handed down a system for the education of posterity, and inculcated thereby in the people the great duties of love for their superiors and ancestors. This is why the most holy Sage should be respected and venerated.

The successor of Kangxi, the Yongzheng emperor (雍正, 1678–1735), fully prohibited Christianity throughout the empire in 1723. As Standaert has astutely observed, “these remarks made by Valignano and the Kangxi and Yongzheng emperors show in a nutshell the major difficulty Christianity faced in China: the Christian teachings should not be in conflict with the interests of the Chinese state” (Standaert 2001b, p. 504).

It is therefore unsurprising that, fifteen years after the Canton Exile, the Nanjing seminarians instinctively recognized the necessity of safeguarding themselves by maintaining alignment with the Confucian orthodoxy, which the Qing court had adopted as the empire’s predominant ideology. Although their formation took place during the “fifty years of imperial protection” of Christianity in Qing China, and despite the intellectual training inherent in the 1686 debating exercise within the seminary, these seminarians carefully prioritized strategies for political and social survival. They sought to establish themselves as a unified and exclusive community of educated non-elite practitioners who had adapted their marginalized Roman Catholicism to the cultural conditions under the Manchu regime. In this context, they primarily identified as both Chinese and Confucian, for political survival necessitated a heightened awareness of the importance of preserving what the Qing authorities considered to be “an authentic Chinese identity” (see Ebrey 2004, pp. 122–40; Lee 2004, pp. 141–53; Lu 2017, pp. 268–85).11

5. Non-Elite Chinese Catholic Converts’ Pragmatic Identity

In contemporary scholarship on the identity of early Chinese Christian converts, researchers frequently employ prefixes such as “hybrid” or “semi-” as hyphenated terms to describe converts’ interreligious and intercultural “in-betweenness”. This characterization of identity formation as a transitional process is often framed in terms of adaptation and integration. However, such conceptualizations introduce a conceptual dichotomy, as they primarily emphasize the outcomes of converts’ identity formation rather than elucidating the dynamic and flexible processes through which these identities were constructed. An overemphasis on outcomes risks fostering the misconception that Christianity, as a foreign and marginal religion, could be fully transmitted during the Ming and Qing dynasties in the same manner as it had developed in medieval Europe. Standaert (2001a, p. 6) has critiqued this essentialist perspective, arguing,

[This is a] concept of the transfer of knowledge based on the paradigm of ‘means and effect’ in which ‘effectiveness’ is conceived as the successful transfer of an idea in its purest form, i.e., in the new environment it corresponds as closely as possible to the idea in its original setting.

Standaert further explained that this misinterpretation of Christianity’s inculturation in China stems from the “essentialist approach… a mostly unconscious assumption that China, or Christianity, entail a quasi-invariable essence with which they invariably identified” (Standaert 2001a, p. 6). To avoid the erroneous pursuit of an idealized, “pure” form of Christianity in China, it is necessary to adopt a more nuanced analytical framework that accounts for the integrated and complex nature of early Chinese Christian converts’ identity. Such an approach is crucial for understanding their religiosity and the rationale behind their adaptation of Roman Catholicism, alongside the political, social, and religious institutional factors examined in the previous sections. Therefore, this study proposes to analyze the identity formation of early Chinese Catholic non-elite converts through the lens of pragmatic identity theory.

Pragmatic identity theory has been described by Levitan and Carr-Chellman (2018, p. 148):

[It] posits that identities are both personal and social constructs, which are held in complex relationships internally and intersubjectively (between individuals), as well as in complex relationships with the social and physical world. Pragmatic Identity Theory is conceptually based on the recognition that existence is relationship. … [It] helps provide analytical insight into the shifting social and personal worlds within which people form and function in their identities. Pragmatic Identity Theory seeks to circumvent the assumption that there is a dichotomy between personal and social—the psychogenetic and the sociogenetic—in order to bridge the gap between these two philosophical orientations.

Applying this theory to the case of early Chinese Catholic converts, the Nanjing seminarians’ approach to integrating Catholic practices—such as fasting—into their Chinese Confucian orthodox identity can reflect an evolving awareness of the nature and practical value of Christian teachings understood by non-elite religious practitioners in Qing China. These seminarians’ engagement in the Debating on Fasting exercise was not merely an intellectual and doctrinal endeavor but was intrinsically linked to both “psychogenetic and sociogenetic” dimensions of their religious lives inside and outside of their exclusive community. Through this process, these non-elite converts actively reshaped their identities, as their adoption of Roman Catholicism challenged and redefined their personal and social conduct. Rather than replacing their Confucian identity, Catholicism was strategically adapted and incorporated within a preexisting Chinese religious framework, demonstrating that conversion did not result in a singular, monolithic identity, but developed significantly within their dynamic co-existence with multiple, overlapping identities. This phenomenon suggests the formation of Chinese Christian converts’ pragmatic identity, which is manifested “internally and intersubjectively, in complex relationships with the social and physical world” that can be seen from the analysis of the selected texts of the Debating on Fasting above. The seminarians’ specific method of integrating Roman Catholic practice into the prioritized Confucian orthodoxy, in order to safely become Chinese Christians in the midst of their “shifting social and personal worlds,” exemplifies the concept that “existence is relationship.”

The formation of pragmatic identity was particularly manifested among non-elites, whose daily lives were shaped by the culturally pervasive synthesis of the “Three Teachings synthesized into one system.” This contrasted sharply with elite converts, whose lives were more institutionally structured by the orthodox Lixue Confucian framework during the Ming and Qing periods. Throughout these last two imperial dynasties, the overarching paradigm of the “Three Teachings synthesized into one system” fostered an inclusive religious environment, in which many practitioners already embodied multiple intracultural identities (see Li 2017, pp. 282–88, 293–300). Non-elite Chinese Christian practitioners would benefit from this fluid and pragmatic religious accommodation to integrate their newly adopted Catholic practice and identity, as Li (2017, p. 282) has summarized:

Before Christianity was introduced to local religious life, practitioners in the Jiangnan region did not strictly distinguish between different religions or differentiate among deities. Instead, non-elite adherents within this tradition favored a pluralistic approach, selectively integrating and adapting elements from various religious traditions and deities based on personal preferences and needs. Likewise, institutionalized Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism employed a similar strategy to expand their followers within their respective temples, effectively leveraging this inclusive religious landscape to incorporate and accommodate popular folk cults.

Obviously, Roman Catholicism, having developed an exclusive character in medieval Europe, fundamentally differed from Chinese religious traditions, including Mahāyāna Buddhism. Consequently, many non-elite Chinese converts, in their efforts to culturally integrate Catholic beliefs and practices, often perceived Catholicism as analogous to Buddhism or Daoism, in the sense of incorporating it into the fluid cultural environment of “Three Teachings synthesized into one system.” However, the Nanjing seminarians occupied an intermediary position between the elite scholars and illiterate commoners. They could not adopt Catholicism as uncritically as the commoners, given their formal education in both Lixue Confucian classics and the Roman Catholic catechism (Meynard 2022, p. 44). At the same time, they lacked the capacity to develop sophisticated theological arguments akin to those formulated by figures such as Yang Tingyun in the Daiyi pian (代疑篇, Treatise to Supplant Doubts) and Ricci in the Tianzhu shiyi (天主實義, The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven). However, as Lixue was the official teaching and the unequivocal Qing cultural orthodoxy, the seminarians needed to reconcile their altered belief system after adopting Roman Catholicism. Through their arguments, they endeavored to prove that their adaptation of Roman Catholicism was aligned with orthodox Confucianism. In this way, they also benefited from the flexibility of the “Three Teachings synthesized into one system,” incorporating their Catholic identity as one additional element in the “mapping” of their understanding of what religious practitioners they were becoming (Levitan and Carr-Chellman 2018, pp. 151–52). To reconcile their altered belief system within the framework of Confucian orthodoxy, the seminarians engaged in selective adaptation, a strategy that mirrored the Jesuit approach of zunru yifo (尊儒易佛, “promoting Confucianism while modifying Buddhism,” or zunru bianfo 尊儒貶佛, “promoting Confucianism while condemning Buddhism”). This selective adaptation underscores how their intellectual framework and religious practice were deeply shaped by the syncretic culture in which they lived. Their syncretic approach was not merely a passive byproduct of cultural conditioning, but a conscious strategy to accommodate Catholicism within their existing religious system.

The pragmatic identity of these seminarians was fundamentally relational, shaped by the interplay between their self-understanding and the socio-political environment of Qing China. The harsh political climate necessitated that they prioritize survival by primarily identifying as Chinese Confucians while incorporating Catholicism as one facet of their overarching identity. This dynamic formation process aligns with the assertion that identity is “an umbrella term that describes the conglomeration of self-concepts that are constructed, negotiated, and imposed”(Levitan and Carr-Chellman 2018, p. 148). An early Chinese Christian non-elite convert could, therefore, act Confucian when performing political duties and ancestral offerings, appear Buddhist when visiting temples and discussing with erudite monks, live as a Daoist when studying esoteric practices, and identify as Christian when engaging with a new set of religious teachings absent in the other religious traditions. This multiplicity of identities may be metaphorically depicted as clothes or textiles that appear different in color depending on the light in which they are viewed, shifting according to external needs and circumstances. For the Nanjing seminarians, being Confucian remained their primary and orthodox identity, while being Catholic functioned as an auxiliary identity that enhanced, rather than supplanted, their Confucian worldview. They must have recognized that the one and overarching identity of a person was formed “as a constellation of identities that are flexible and context-dependent” (p. 151). They retained their overarching pragmatic identity “formed through the relationship between self and society in continuous process” (p. 148).

6. Conclusions

Taking the Nanjing seminarians who were active in the late 17th century as an example, this study has analyzed non-elite Chinese Roman Catholic converts’ formation of their pragmatic identity. With a clear awareness of the complex and harsh political environment that governed multiple spheres of individuals’ religious lives in early Qing China, non-elite converts utilized the fluid, flexible, and accommodating nature of religious syncretism found in the culture of the “Three Teaching synthesized into one system,” to frame their strategies in adopting their pragmatic identities.

In this dynamic process of integrating Roman Catholic beliefs and practices into their religious lives, non-elite converts demonstrated the necessity of prioritizing their Chinese Confucian identity for the sake of political and social survival, while adapting Roman Catholic practices within their exclusive communities of effective rituals, even though this was based on their limited theoretical knowledge including conceptual religious understandings and misunderstandings. Catholic practice was therefore initially and necessarily aligned with the orthodox Lixue Confucian principles, and subsequently, Catholic identity was accepted as one of the co-existing and malleable identities in these practitioners’ communities and their related spirituality. Their formation of specific pragmatic identities was “an experiential and relational process based on learning one’s internal, perhaps biological impulses, as well as the feedback from the social and physical environment” (Levitan and Carr-Chellman 2018, p. 148). It can be viewed as a component of the process in which “[one person’s distinct identity is] conceptually integrated into the interactive whole of a dynamic and relational social and material world” (p. 148). By this means, the non-elite Chinese converts’ Catholic identity could be shaped in accordance with various circumstances that occurred during the interreligious interactions between Chinese religions and Christianity during the early period of the Confucian–Authoritarian Qing dynasty.