The Clash of Civilizations and their Coexistence: Matteo Ricci’s “TIANZHU SHIYI” and the Catholicism of the Joseon dynasty

The “Tianzhu Shiyi; The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven; Lat. De Deo Verax Disputatio” written by Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit priest in Beijing China, was introduced to the Joseon dynasty of Korea in the 17th century and accepted as “Western Learning” by the Joseon intellectual class in the 18th century. Ricci›s conceptualization of the essence of “Shangdi” and God thus being was received as an acceptance of a Confucian adaptation of Christianity by intellectuals in Joseon, including famous philosopher Jeong Yakyong. In Joseon, where the dogmatization of Neo-Confucianism increased after the 17th century, in the late 18th century Catholicism was defined as “heresy” and mass persecution of Catholics took place. The pretext for the persecution was not the Catholic faith itself, but the refusal of Catholics to perform ancestral rites. In Joseon, the land of Neo-Confucianism, the rejection of ancestral rites marked a clash of civilizations and combined with domestic and international political factors such as party disputes, power politics, and a sense of national crisis resulting from a rapidly changing international situation, leading to the deaths of more than 10,000 martyrs during the century. Catholicism in Joseon underwent persecution and spread widely among the middle and lower classes, especially women. Catholicism thus began with the adoption of the new civilization by the intellectual class and then became a folk religion centred on the middle class and women.