May 10, Yin WU

Thursday, May 10,  5:00 – 7:00 pm, CWAC 156

Materiality, Text, and Image in the Chinese Version of The Rules for Reciting the Rosary (Song nianzhu guicheng)

Yin WU 
Department of Art History, University of Chicago

“The Annunciation,” an image from Rules for Reciting the Rosary (Song nianzhu guicheng 诵念珠规程), The Getty Research Institute.

This paper examines an illustrated manual entitled Song nianzhu guicheng 诵念珠规程 (Rules for Reciting the Rosary, hereafter referred to as Guicheng), published in Nanjing, China in 1619. The Chinese version was translated by Portuguese Jesuit João da Rocha (1583-1623) from Rosary. Instead of simply transplanting a Western book, it reveals a transformation at the point of convergence between Western religion, values, traditions, and Chinese formulas for book printing. Most previous studies focus on its fusion of Western artistic style and Chinese pictorial conventions, often looking at images individually. This paper will demonstrate multiple-layers of transformation, including its materiality, format, reading procedure, text and image. Studying the book as a whole, this paper will reveal the missionaries’ meticulous considerations of how a Western religious book can be transformed and reinvented into a Chinese book that is understandable and functional to Chinese converts.