闢妄醒迷：明清之際的天主教與「迷信」之建構
摘要
This paper investigates the usage of the term mixin (迷信) which now denotes the Chinese rendering of the Western concept of ”superstition.” Mixin was rarely used in the Chinese language before the twentieth century but appeared several times in Christian documents during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was used as a verb meaning ”to indulge in” pagan customs which did not fit Christian expectations, particularly behaviors violating the commandments to honor the Lord and against adultery. When the Jesuits arrived in China, they dealt with local beliefs with caution. They recorded these strange customs and advised their followers not to follow them, but they did not make a concerted effort to dispute them. It was probably Iiterati converts like Zhu Zhongyuan (朱宗元) who initiated the protest against mixin behaviors. The Chinese Christian community invoked the concept of classical reason in theology and natural philosophy in order to awaken the Chinese who had gone astray. In their discourses, religion went hand in hand with reason. Later Qing criticism of mixin (superstition) reIies on a concept of reason formulated during the Enlightenment when religion no longer played an important role in human affairs. Thus, Buddhism, Daoism, the cults of deities, mantic practices, and even Christianity could not be exempt from the accusation of mixin in light of reason. The history of the term mixin thus reflects the complicated relationship among religion, reason, and superstition and the transformation of these concepts in China and Europe.