Kang Youwei, Buddhism and Catholicism. Kang Youwei, The Travelogue of Italy, Trans. from Chinese into Russian and Comm. by Dmitry E. Martynov

Abstract

The article offers an interpretation of the religious worldview of Kang Youwei (1858–1927). The basis of his views was Confucianism, with the ritual model of religiosity inherent in this doctrine; Kang Youwei also studied several areas of Buddhism from a philosophical point of view. In the treatise The Travelogue of Italy (1904), Kang Youwei offered an analysis of contemporary Catholicism from the standpoint of traditional Chinese literature, considered mainly from a political point of view. The Chinese thinker adhered to axiological relativism, from the position of which he perceived as equivalent any doctrines aimed at the self-improvement of the human person and the entire human society, al­though he did not approve of ascetic practices. Kang Youwei himself also claimed to be the founder of the dogma, although he was indifferent to ritual, and his sys­tem had an expressly philosophical pattern. The Kang’s key concept was Tao, which was revealed to the maximum extent to Buddha and Confucius. Kang Youwei considered the teachings of Mohism, Taoism and early Christianity to be approximately equivalent, and he considered the Catholic Church and the Papacy as a cast from the socio-political system of Ancient Rome, which were particular implementations of the Tao in specific cultures and historical settings. Kang Youwei argued that the most important provisions of the teachings of Pythagore­anism, Judaism and early Christianity were of Indian origin, introduced by Bud­dhist preachers after the conquests of Alexander the Great.