Thursday, May 14, 2009

concubines

I have been trying to find works that address what happened to the
concubines of Chinese men who converted to Christianity, especially in the
Jesuit period. Did they also convert? Who took care of them? Could they
get re-married? What was the Confucian view of concubines? The Buddhist
view? How did the missionaries treat the concubines? How did they respond
to the argument that turning out concubines was immoral?

So far I have only found some tangential references in Willard Peterson's
"Why Did They Become Christians? Yang T'ing-y�n, Li Chih-tsao, and Hs� Kuang-ch'i." Any help will be much appreciated.

An article by Tian Haihua entitled 'Confucian Catholics' Appropriation of
the Decalogue: A Case Study of Cross-Textual Reading' in Chloe Starr, ed.,
Reading Christian Scriptures in China (London: T&T Clark, 2008) deals with
the question of concubines and adultery as part of a wider discussion on
morality. Tian draws on various articles by Nicolas Standaert on
inculturation etc. in her article, including Standaert's monograph on Yang
Tingyun.*

*Ed. Note: Nicholas Standaert, _Yang Tingyun, Confucian and Christian in
Late Ming China: His Life and Thought_ (Sinica Ledensia, Vol 19), Leiden
& New York: E.J. Brill, 1988 ISBN: 9004081277

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