Atheism: A word travelling to and fro between Europe and China

The Society of Jesus in China chose, with Matteo Ricci, a dialogue with Confucianism, and spared no efforts to present ancient as an ethical, moral or philosophical system fully compatible with Christianity. But the Society also promoted the first images of China in which ancient Confucianism had been replaced by a new Confucianism which, in its “relativism”, had become atheism. The qualifier “atheist” enjoys great popularity at the time of the condemnation of Chinese rites, during the Maigrot-Tournon’s period. The issue of the Chinese rites grew larger, to attack not just the issues of the translation of the name of God and of the rites practiced by Chinese converts, but Chinese philosophical culture as a whole. It was forbidden to say that its culture, even when correctly interpreted, contained nothing that was contrary to Christianity. How then to explain the very existence of a Chinese culture and of its high ethical standards without recourse to Revelation? The solutions devised by the Society of Jesus were focused on a debate about the value of the historical and theological sources of Chinese books. Were these texts or commentaries? Ancient or modern? Where was the germ of Chinese monotheism hidden? Taking apart of the accusation of atheism levelled at an entire nation became a tool to defend the Chinese rites which slowly moved the debate from China to Europe, as Chinese atheism could not be accepted and supported because it implied that moral atheism existed and therefore weakened the indissoluble link between religion and morality in European culture.