Xueying Wang

This project reexamines one of the most consequential controversies in early modern Catholicism—the Chinese Rites Controversy. Traditionally, it has been viewed as a prolonged dispute between rival missionary orders: the Jesuits, who advocated for accommodation of Confucian rites and adoption of culturally embedded theological terminology, and the Franciscans, Dominicans, and later Vincentians, who opposed such accommodations. The perspectives of Chinese Catholics, whose lives were most profoundly affected, has often been marginalized. To date, no book-length study has been dedicated to the intellectual corpus of any individual Chinese Catholic from this period. The Neglected Voices fills this critical gap by recentering the intellectual contributions of Chinese Catholics. This study focuses on Yan Mo 嚴謨 (ca. 1640–after 1718), a Confucian scholar who embraced Catholicism, examining Yan’s viewpoints on ancestral sacrifices, the veneration of Confucius, the translation of divine names, and funerary practices. Alongside Yan’s corpus, the study analyzes the writings of other literati—such as Zhang Xingyao 張星曜 and Xia Dachang 夏大常—to present a more panoramic view of the theological landscape among Chinese Catholics. Through close textual analysis, read in dialogue with missionary records, Wang argues that these literati pioneered a creative mode of inculturated theology. Their defense of indigenous rites and culturally embedded translation demonstrates a sophisticated attempt to be authentically Catholic and unmistakably Chinese. This project recovers a forgotten chapter of global Church history, providing a vital resource for modern discourse in inculturated theology and World Christianity.