Leibniz and Chinese Natural Theology: Exploring Compatibility and Universality

1. The context of Leibniz’s reflexions -first Jesuit missions. they are embeddedwith the Portuguese contacts in Japan, 1549, wayaftertheir first attempt to renewbothtrade links and diplomativ relations with China, between 1514 and 1517 -In 1582, Matteo Ricci stays a bit in China beforethey are expelled -Ricci learnt about the traditions and the ways of the Mandarins, hebecomes expert and translator in latin of the Seu Chou (1593). -Leibniz agreedwith the Jesuits: westernershad to recognize the compatibility of chinese traditions and religion with the naturallawthathad been taught in the holyscriptures. -Leibniz getsconcerned by the very question the Jesuitsraisedwhentheydecided to conveytheir mission outside the rules of the Monita ad Missionarios. -The terms of the alternative are: 1/ acceptingtraditionlrituals not onlybecausethey are the expression of a culture thatcan'tbetransformed in a blink of an eye, but becausetheyreflectsomething of the truenatural religion, and are therefore compatible withchristianity as a whole (somehow in a purestform) 2/ rejecting all forms of paganworshipping as beingcontrary to the teaching of the Lord of the Christians. Question is: how couldsuch an old tradition, shared by somany, not be, in a way, universal, and how couldit not reflect the universality of the christianscriptures, if, as itisassumed, theytoocan claim to beuniversal?

2. Leibniz and China -The main expression of Leibniz'sinterest in Chinesephilosophy and theologycanbefound in the publication, as early as 1697, of the NovissimaSinica. “&3 But who would have believed that there is on earth a people who, though we are in our view so very advanced in every branch of behavior, still surpass us in comprehending the precepts of civil life? Yet now we find this to be so among the Chinese, as we learn to know them better. And so if we are their equals in the industrial arts, and ahead of them in contemplative sciences, certainly they surpass us (though it is almost shameful to confess this) in practical philosophy, that is, in the precepts of ethics and politics adapted to the present life and use of mortals. Indeed, it is difficult to describe how beautifully all the laws of the Chinese, in contrast to those of other peoples, are directed to the achievement of public tranquility and the establishment of social order, so that men shall be disrupted in their relations as little as possible.” Preface to the NovissimaSinica, 1697 -To the Orient, practical philosophy that shines in creating political order and orderly maintained communities. To the West, contemplative philosophy and science. -In practical philosophy yields the understanding of how the world was shaped. And in this stance, this summary unveils the ground for the theses developed later on by Leibniz in his letter to Monsieur de Remond, 1715, also referred to by Leibniz as the Discourse on Chinese Natural Theology.

3. Chinese natural theology -There, Leibniz mainly analyzes the concept of Li (理) "Ancient Chinese, he writes, didn't want to deliver to the crowd the adoration of the Li or of the Tai Kie, only the adoration of the Xang Ti, or the Spirit of the Sky". He adds: "They give their devotion to this visible Sky (or better say, to its King) and they adore in a profound silence this Li that they don't call because of the ignorance and rudeness of the people". -Leibniz was well documented on whatever was available at his time: presentations of confucean philosophy Father Couplet's translations of the Ta Hiao or the TchounYoun in his Confucius SinarumPhilosophus (1688) -the books from Lecomte, Longobardi (Treaty on some points regarding the religion of the Chinese people) and Sainte Marie on the controversy of chineserituals -A. Kircher, China Illustrata -De Re Sinariarum written by Spizelius, 1660. - Leibniz's Discourse reacts to Longobardi’sTreaty on some points regarding the religion of the Chinese people

4. Chinese natural theology According to Longobardi, the concept of Li, first principle and cause to the motion the skies, can in no way be seized as the equivalent of the concept of God emanating from christian religion -Leibniz understands the concept of Li as a power, a spiritual substance capable of activity and perception -Longobardi and the Father de Sainte Marie assume that the Li is considered by the chinese themselves as being without intelligence and deprived of life or animation, and that therefore it can not be compared to the concept of God, even remotely. -Leibniz replies in two stages. 1/ Argument similar to the one of some ancient philosopgers 2/ A concept like this one, the Li, having all perfections, contains as a major implication the existence. Old ontological proof. - Leibniz even refers to the Li as an Entelechia,

5. Chinese ancient knowledge -though apparently contrary to christian religion, chinese natural religion, as revealed by the combination of the Li and the Qi, is in fact, deeply rooted with the same intuitions that led to the institution of christianity -Same goes with the I Ching(易經) or with chinese language: they are key to an old form of knowledge. -Leibniz unveils what he considers to be the meaning of the I Ching hexagrams, a meaning that had been suggested to him through his correspondance with Bouvet. Those hexagrams are indeed a peculiar scripture of binary numbers, the ones he intended to use in the design of his arithmetic machine, back in 1679.

6. Chinese ancient knowledge I Ching Yi King Yi Jing 易經

7. Die mathematischeschriften von Gottfried Wilheim Leibniz, vol. VII, C. I. Gerhardt, pp 223-227 I Ching Yi King Yi Jing 易經 EXPLANATION OF BINARY ARITHMETIC, WHICH USES ONLY THE CHARACTERS 0 AND 1, WITH SOME REMARKS ON ITS USEFULNESS, AND ON THE LIGHT IT THROWS ON THE ANCIENT CHINESE FIGURES OF FUXI “What is amazing in this reckoning is that this arithmetic by 0 and 1 is found to contain the mystery of the lines of an ancient King and philosopher named Fuxi, who is believed to have lived more than 4000 years ago, and whom the Chinese regard as the founder of their empire and their sciences. (…) It was scarcely more than two years ago that I sent to Reverend Father Bouvet,3 the celebrated French Jesuit who lives in Peking, my method of counting by 0 and 1, and nothing more was required to make him recognize that this was the key to the figures of Fuxi. Writing to me on 14 November 1701, he sent me this philosophical prince's grand figure, which goes up to 64, and leaves no further room to doubt the truth of our interpretation, such that it can be said that this Father has deciphered the enigma of Fuxi, with the help of what I had communicated to him. “

8. Chinese ancient knowledge I Ching Yi King Yi Jing 易經 And it even turns out that square numbers, cubic numbers, and other [GM VII, p226] powers, likewise triangular numbers, pyramidal numbers, and other figure numbers, have similar cycles, so that tables of them can be written immediately, without any calculation. And this one drawn-out task in the beginning, which then gives the means to make reckoning economical and to proceed to infinity by rule, is infinitely advantageous. -In the same effort, Leibniz analyzes chinese language as a possible source for a lingua characteristicauniversalis, as close as possible of a rational language: a vicinity that has been lost in western countries.

9. Diderot, the Encyclopedie and China -As much as Leibniz tried to reconcile chinese philosophical, cultural and theological components in his rational reconstruction of the world picture, by the times the Encyclopédie has been designed and written, China itself had tightly closed the doors. -Sinophobia is predominant in the Encyclopédie. -Only slightly more than 120 articles are directly devoted to an aspect of China, out of more than 70 000 topics. Roughly 500 articles are either dealing with or only alluding to China, out of which Denis Diderot wrote and signed 85. -With d’Holbach, Diderot seems to be the main contributor on China -Diderot’s source is mainly JakobBrucker’sHistoriacriticaphilosophiæ, published between 1742 and 1744, Martin Martini, Novus atlas sinensis, 1655, Louis Lecomte, Nouveaux Mémoiressurl'étatprésent de la Chine, 1698 ; et Jean-Baptiste du Halde, Description de la Chine, 1736 -Diderot’s source is mainly JakobBrucker’sHistoriacriticaphilosophiæ, published between 1742 and 1744, Martin Martini, Novus atlas sinensis, 1655, Louis Lecomte, Nouveaux Mémoiressurl'étatprésent de la Chine, 1698 ; et Jean-Baptiste du Halde, Description de la Chine, 1736 , and also, more used than quoted, Ephraïm Chambers, Cyclopaedia or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, 1728 and extended in 1753 or Savary- Desbruslons, Dictionnaireuniversel de commerce, 1723-30. -Another source, the Lettresédifiantes et curieuses, 1707-58, has been massively used. This jesuit publication shows that, considering as well the 20 Jesuit members of the Chinese missions who are acknowledged and quoted, Diderot was depending on the collection of data and reflections brought back by the missions.

10. Diderot, the Encyclopedie and China

11. Diderot, the Encyclopedie and China -In a letter written in September 1760 to MsVolland, Diderot can’t hide a form of despise towards China, which shows a marked contrast with the sinophile enthusiasm that drove Leibniz in his own time: “If I had the time I would report to you a good conversation. It was about the Chinese. Father Hoop and the baron [d’Holbach] are pretty enthusiast, and it could be worth it, if all that we hear about the wisdom of these populations is true, but I have little faith in wise nations” -d’Holbach’s enthusiasm became eventually a fierce critique of China’s overall lack of progress in modern times. -With d’Holbach, Diderot seems to be the main contributor on China -Looking back on Diderot’s main contribution to the Encyclopédie on the topic of China (article CHINOIS, PHILOSOPHIE DES / CHINESE, PHILOSOPHY OF), we can notice that: -Diderot uses the same comments and reports from Longobardi that Leibniz used -However he takes from this reading a complete set of very different conclusions: refusing to re-elaborate on Longobardi’s account of confucian and neo-confucian metaphysics, Diderot conveys without any change the admiration Longobardi and the Jesuits had towards chinese political administration. He displays as well the same contempt for the underlying metaphysics and natural religion of the chinese.

12. Diderot, the Encyclopedie and China -Diderot, however, doesn’t strictly follow the Jesuit trends. All 3 religions in China, Taoism, Buddhism and neo-confucianism are nothing but “3 combinations of different superstitions, idolatries and polytheism or atheism” -China’s atheism can’t be understood as completely foreign to Diderot’s own preoccupations however what strikes is the constant accusation towards a theological of a religion that doesn’t confess its lack of a real concept of God = a contradictory religion. D’Holbach writes: “after balancing between a thousand uncertainties, they fall in the darkness [ténèbres] of atheism, rejecting all supranatural cause, admitting no principle but an insensitive virtue, united to and identified to matter”. -On the same ground (Longobardi’s book), Diderot and the Encyclopedists acknowledge the materialist nature of chinese thought, whereas Leibniz had recognized its essential spiritual essence. -Both philosophers, indeed, find in China the elements of their own doctrines, processing the information in a very different way, and in different historical contexts: to the relative openness of the country and the imperial Court in the times of Leibniz, China went to close the doors to foreign positive or negative curiosity.