Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary to the late Ming China, translated of Epictetus’ Enchiridion into Twenty-Five Sayings in Chinese for the purpose of Christian mission. His selection of the representative book in the Western stoic philosophy had specific purpose: Introducing one of religious semantic meaning in the Western Christianity, Stoic ethics and its religious similarities with Buddhist frameworks. By doing so, Ricci tried to demonstrate the Western Christianity was same in relation to ethical framework but different in regard to religious implications. He tried to find the point of contact and the point of difference at the same time by comparing Christianity’s stoic characters and China’s Buddhist ethics, which was different from traditional Confucian framework. The Chinese responses, however, show different outcomes. The Chinese intellectuals, who responded Ricci’s missiological intention, read his book with different perspectives. They showed their surprising interests in the newly translated book on the Western stoic philosophy in relation to promote and uphold their traditional Confucian values. The author claims that both missionaries and the responders of the new religious teaching tend to be confused by semantic values in the early period of cultural and religious contact. Without this awareness, both sides of cultural and religious contact would be confused in the proper understanding of the true religious meanings.

• 김상근(연세대학교, 선교학) | Sangkeun Kim