Jesuits' Impressions on Zhang Xianzhong in Sichuan (1644–1647) from Buglio, Magalhaes, and Gourdon: Contrasting Religious and Cultural Perspectives
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Year:
- 2011
- Journal Title:
- Journal of Chinese Studies
- Issue:
- 52
- Language:
- Abstract:
Two Jesuit missionaries, Ludovico Buglio (1606–1682) and Gabriel de Magalhães (1610–1677), a Sicilian and a Portuguese, were in Sichuan in 1644–1647 when it fell under the ravage of the notorious Ming rebel leader Zhang Xianzhong, who in early 1645 affirmed independence as ruler of the Great Western Kingdom over Shanxi and Sichuan but was routed and killed by the Manchu forces in early 1647. Buglio and Magalhães arrived in Sichuan in late 1640 in an attempt to establish a Catholic mission and witnessed Zhang Xianzhong's unrelenting march into Chengdu and the ensuing brutal killing and widespread looting in the provincial city. They were brought to Zhang Xianzhang who first befriended them, ordering them to work on a celestial and terrestrial globe and explaining to him the doctrine of Christianity, principles of Western science and technology, but suffered from Zhang's occasional mental derangement and outbursts of murderous anger, and escaped execution only by the intrusion of the Qing forces to his camp in early 1647 that ended the life of the notorious tyrant. Upon his return to Peking, Magalhães submitted to Rome in 1651 a report of their ordeal in Portuguese entitled Relação da perda e destituição da Provincia e Christiandade de Su Chuen e do que os pes. Luis Buglio e Gabriel de Magalhães passarão em seu cativ. There is also a similar work titled Relação das tyranias obradas por Cang-hien chungo attributed to Magalhães; it may be an extraction of the former. These two reports were never published; their manuscripts were kept in the Archives of the Society of Jesus in Rome. They had been excerpted in several Jesuit narratives and provided the source of a Chinese summary of their work written by the French Jesuit François Marie Joseph Gourdon (1840?–1930?) under the title Shengjiao ru Chuan ji, published in Chongqing in 1918. A collated edition of Magalhães's report with Gourdon's work in English translation had been prepared by the late Albert Chan, S. J. (1915–2005), but it was apparently not yet completed at the time of his death. The present essay is a synopsis and appraisal of the two Jesuits' accounts of their vicissitudes in Sichuan under Zhang Xianzhang based on the Chinese summary of their memoirs in Shengjiao ru Chuan ji with occasional comparison of their original reports excerpted in the writings of modern scholars such as James B. Parsons and Erik Zürcher. The objective is not only to introduce to readers these Jesuit memoirs to augment the Chinese sources on the tragic events in Sichuan under Zhang Xianzong, compare the discrepancy between the Chinese and Portuguese versions, but also to illuminate the disparate religious and cultural viewpoints between the Jesuits and Zhang Xianzhong that emerged from their encounters and sealed the fate of the Jesuit mission. Highlights from Buglio/Magalhães's report include their arrival in Sichuan in 1640 seeking to establish a Christian mission and baptize the local people; Zhang Xianzhong's march into Chengdu and initial friendly reception to the Jesuits as erudite scholars sent from Heaven; Zhang Xianzhang's seeking Buglio and Magalhães to produce a celestial and terrestrial globe, and elucidate the doctrine of Christianity and the principles of Western science and technology; the Jesuits' impression of Zhang's extraordinary intelligence but limited understanding of the new faith and twisted interpretation of Western culture; description of Zhang's unpredictable paranoia, outbursts of terror, persecution of the Buddhist and Daoist clergies, brutal killing and plundering of the innocent people; Zhang Xianzhong's wrath towards the Jesuits for seeking to baptize people and punishing the converts with gruesome torture and execution; Zhang Xianzhong's wanton burning of the city and exterminating the population in autumn 1646 when he decided to abandon Zhengdu to return to Shanxi; and his attack in January 1647 by the Manchu forces on the outskirt of the city during which he was killed in a skirmish. These Jesuit accounts provided firsthand information unavailable from the Chinese sources and offered a historical appraisal of Zhang Xianzhang and his reign of terror from a different cultural perspective.
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- Page Range:
- 65–94