Joachim Bouvet’s interpretation of Zhouyi and his mathematical model : research on Joachim Bouvet’s Chinese manuscripts of Yijing in the Apostolic Vatican Library collection

• Main Author: Mu, Xiaofeng
• Other Authors: Li Chenyang
• Format: Thesis-Doctor of Philosophy
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Humanities::Language
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/144167
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The westward spread of Zhouyi周易 (or Yijing易经) and the Missionaries’ Yijing-study coincided with the prelude of modern Catholic missions in China and became entangled with the ups and downs of their development over a period of 200 years. Jesuit missionary Fr. Joachim Bouvet白晋 (1656-1730) undoubtedly was one of the most representative and influential figures of such academic pursuits during the reign of Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722). Bouvet’s study of Zhouyi was gradually done under the guidance of Kangxi himself. Fruits of such painstaking endeavor are the sixteen writings authored by Bouvet in the Chinese language conserved in the Vatican Apostolic Library. This thesis will research these sixteen manuscripts and will further argue that mathematics was used as a kind of neutral philosophical bridge between Western Catholicism and Yijing. Joachim Bouvet’s interpretation of the Yijing not only established a new research paradigm for Chinese and Western study of the Yijing, but also created a new study model of Christian-Yi 耶易, which sets itself apart from Confucian-Yi儒易，Daoist-Yi道易and Buddhist-Yi佛易. Key words: Zhouyi; Yijing;Yi-study; study of Yijing; mathematical interpretation