Forgotten Assistants behind the Scenes

Abstract

In the 16th century, Western Catholic missionaries arrived in China to propagate the Christian faith. In order to accommodate, assimilate with and blend into the new culture’s setting, they first intentionally imitated it and adopted the same language and lifestyle. Commenting on this process, Paul Rule notes that some Chinese literati served as xianggong (assistant) to help the Western missionaries with the daily matters of sinicisation. Although they played a significant role, they were not widely acknowledged. As Rule asserts, the xianggong were the Catholic Chinese literati of the 17th century. They used their excellent command of the Chinese language to hold full-time jobs in the Church assisting European Catholic priests with translation and writing. The author elucidates the role of the xianggong, uncovering their outstanding achievements as well as acknowledging their proper and deserved prominence in history by introducing a number of xianggong in form of case studies.