Previous scholarship on the Jesuit mission in late imperial China has paid little attention to the lived experience of the Chinese learned men who embraced Christianity. Scholars have rarely investigated the language of emotions, feelings, and sentiments employed by these Chinese ‘converts’ to detail their spiritual journeys. Studies on Wang Zheng (1571–1644) are exceptions. But these studies often proceed with the assumption of a Confucian–Christian divide. Using this ‘clash of civilizations’ framework, they present Wang’s dilemmas and struggles in relation to his frantic attempt to navigate and resolve the conflicts arising from two very different cultural expectations. Professor Ong contends that the conventional approach conceals more than it reveals. Instead, this talk examines Wang’s narrative of spirituality and emotion and brings to light the important roles kinship and examination played in how he recounted his life journey that led him to the discovery of Christianity.

Chang Woei ONG is Raffles Professor of the Humanities at the National University of Singapore and Head of the Department of Chinese Studies. Trained as an intellectual historian, he is the author of Men of Letters within the Passes: Guanzhong Literati in Chinese History, 907-1911 (2008) and Li Mengyang, the North-South Divide and Literati Learning in Ming China (2016), both published by Harvard University Asia Center. He is currently working on a project that examines the life and writings of Wang Zheng (1571-1644), a late Ming Christian Scholar-official.