Discovery of East Asia (XVII) Fugitives and Saints: East Asia Meets Catholicism

Song Nianshen

2016-02-17 18:04 From The Paper

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The introduction of Christianity to the East Asian world can be traced back to the Jingjiao (which originated from the Nestorians in Syria) from the Western Regions before the Tang Dynasty, but the various sects declined after the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and their influence on modern East Asia was far less than that of catholicism that came from Europe by sea in the 16th century. And when it comes to the encounter between Catholicism and East Asia, and the great grudge between the two that leads to it, it must start from the encounter between two people. One of the most famous saints in later Christian history, francis Xavier of Spaniard, and an Anjiro or Yajiro, a Japanese fugitive.

Today, we don't know much about Yajiro's life or even the age of his death. He lived in Kagoshima, at the southern tip of Kyushu, and was an early samurai of satsuma domain, with a low culture, and later fled for murder. At that time, Portuguese merchant ships had already made contact with Kyushu, and in 1543 arquebusiers were first introduced to Japan from Tanegashima Island, and Portuguese merchant ships along the coast of Kyushu have since come and gone frequently. It was here that Mijiro met a Portuguese captain. Although considered by the Japanese to be a "southern barbarian", the captain was willing to help Yajiro escape from Japan and wrote him a letter of recommendation. But the yin and yang were wrong, and Yajiro took the letter and mistakenly ran to the ship of another Portuguese, Jorge Alvares. This time taking the wrong boat changed the trajectory of Yajiro's life and made a piece of history.

It's not clear how Yajiro communicated with the Alvares (the portuguese explorer who first arrived in China, but not the same person). The latter listened to his experience and offered to take him to Malacca, which had been occupied for Portugal, and find Xavier, a Jesuit who was preaching there, saying that Xavier was a noble man and was more suitable to listen to his confession. Yajiro took his retinue and rushed to Malacca, but Xavier happened to leave.

In desperation, Yajiro had to find a boat back to Japan. As a result, it encountered a storm and was blown to the coast of China. When Sion lost his horse, he met another Portuguese captain, who told him that Xavier had returned to Malacca and brought back the Japanese man who was obsessed with his quest. Finally, in December 1547, the Japanese fugitives met the long-admired European missionaries.

Using a little pidgin Portuguese he had learned, Yajiro asked Xavier for advice and introduced him to Japan. Probably for Yajiro, Xavier told him about Christianity that was quite fresh, at least quite different from the Japanese Buddhism he was familiar with, and he decided to follow Xavier and return with him to Goa, India, the stronghold of the Jesuits in Asia at that time. There, Yajiro further studied Portuguese and Christian doctrine and was baptized as "Paul of the Holy Faith," becoming the first Catholic in Japan.

And the shock of this encounter to Xavier is probably far greater than that of Yajiro. Although the Portuguese merchant had been in contact with Japan a few years earlier, the well-read, determined missionary had never heard of such a fascinating kingdom in the world. According to Yajiro, as recorded by Xavier, Japan was ruled by a "king" who was well-ordered, strictly law-abiding, and civilized. People are literate, believe in "religion", and regularly go to "churches" and "priests" to communicate. The "religion" of the Japanese, like Christianity, worships a god of creation. The Founder (Xaqua), similar to jesus Christ, was born of a dream by the gods, and when he grew up, he preached around to persuade people to abandon the old god and convert to the new religion. For thousands of years, not only did the People of Chenguinquo convert, but also succeeded in converting Chinese, and Protestantism was transmitted from China to Japan. Like Rome, ancient religious icons are still visible there to this day. In addition, the founder said that the only Creator God had made five precepts (not to kill, not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to cling to irredeemable things, and to forgive harm)—which Xavier probably felt somewhat similar to the Ten Commandments of Moses when he wrote this. He obviously did not know that the kingdom of God that Yajiro was talking about was close at hand, in India, where he was located.

Yajiro also promised Xavier that the Japanese would be rational and self-absorbed, and that they would be baptized in full within 6 months. Because the Japanese scripture law has long stipulated that all laws are one, and the Japanese people really need a good law to replace their current law. And in his view, there is no law more perfect than Christianity; he has been blessed by God with great joy, only because he himself was chosen by God to lead Christians to Japan. At the same time, Captain Alvares, who had helped Yajiro, also reported to Xavier that Japan was a highly civilized place, and its description was mutually corroborating with Yajiro.

In this way, Xavier decided that he must go to Japan and complete his mission. He spent some time explaining to the Jesuits and the Portuguese kings who financed the Jesuits that Japan was more important than India. With permission, he set out with Yajiro, two other Jesuits, and two servants, and in August 1549, landed on Kagoshima and began a missionary mission in Japan.

Unlike The case of Yajiro, various studies on Xavier and his trip to Japan have been documented for hundreds of years. When it is generally said that Christianity was "introduced" to East Asia, Xavier was the focus.

Statue of Xavier erected in Oita City, Japan

Xavier was born in 1509 to an aristocratic family in the Kingdom of Navarre (later incorporated into the Kingdom of Spain), and was hospitalized at an early age. At the age of 19, he was sent to the University of Paris to study theology. There, he became roommates with Ignatius of Loyola, another son of a nobleman from Spain. Born in martial arts, Loyola aspired to be a warrior defending the sacred position of the Catholic Church and the Pope. Later, the roommate founded the Society of Jesus, and under his influence, Xavier became one of the original six founders of the order.

The immediate purpose of the establishment of the Society of Jesus was to counter the Protestant Reformation movement that was in full swing in Europe at the time. Martin Luther preached "justification by faith", and he published the Ninety-Five Theses critical of the Catholic Church, which was translated into German by the good people and spread throughout the new Gutenberg printing press, and the Germans changed their minds. John Calvin had just left when Loyola and Xavier had begun their studies at the University of Paris, and a few years later his Reformedism swept across Western Europe, shaking the Catholic system even more.

Although the Jesuits insisted on the orthodoxy of the Church in Rome, Loyola and others also saw corruption within the Holy See and advocated reform within the system. On the one hand, they vigorously defended the holy authority of the Pope, and on the other hand, they absorbed the fruits of the humanist movement and gave a new face to Catholicism. Loyola administered the Jesuits in an army manner with strict discipline. Members are required not only to undergo extremely rigorous theological training, but also through other scientific and humanistic training, and those who join the membership are required to swear an oath of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Eventually, becoming an official priest is also required to swear allegiance to the Pope. The Jesuits were action-oriented, setting up schools and actively preaching overseas to open up a new territory of Catholicism to counter the growing influence of Protestantism in Europe.

At this time, the age of great navigation has begun. European countries invested heavily in adventure in order to bypass the Ottoman Empire and find trade routes to the East. Columbus wanted to open up the Indian route, but he accidentally hit and "discovered" the Americas, which stimulated the two major maritime powers at that time: Spain and Portugal, to become increasingly fierce in the competition for overseas colonies. Influenced by the rise of the Islamic world, medieval Europe has always been said that in the Ottoman East, there was a Christian god kingdom ruled by the sacrificial king John (Prester John), and if you can find the country, you can definitely join forces to block the Ottomans. In short, under the entanglement of various practical interests and ideologies, the Holy See and the two maritime powers established close alliances to jointly colonize the world beyond Europe.

At the mediation of the Pope, in 1479 and 1529, Spain signed the Treaties of Tordesillas and Zaragoza, which divided the earth in half, with Spain responsible for the expansion of the Americas and the western Pacific (including the Philippines), and Portugal having territory from east of Brazil, including most of Africa and Asia, to the Indonesian archipelago.

Thus, the Jesuit cause in Asia was supported by the Holy See on the ecclesiastical side and financed by Portugal on the secular side. In 1510, Portugal invaded Goa on the west coast of India and established the most important Portuguese colonial stronghold in the Indian Ocean. The following year, he captured Malacca as a strategic base in the East Indies. Soon, Portuguese merchant ships cruised along the southern coast of China and advanced into Macau and Kyushu in Japan in the mid-16th century. Later, European Jesuits traveled to East Asia, first stopping in Portugal and then traveling through Goa, Macau or Malacca to Chinese mainland and Japan.

Xavier was the first overseas missionary of the Society of Jesus. His mission was to travel to Goa to provide religious services to the colonial authorities. But Xavier, disgusted by the depravity of the colonists in the region, always had his ideal of opening up a new Catholic state, so upon his arrival in 1542 he was keen to preach to the local population, especially the lower classes. Despite his popularity from the bottom, he was never able to persuade the ruling class in the caste hierarchy of India. In India, he never thought of preaching in the local language. To accept Christianity is to accept European civilization (including language) in its entirety. This further made the local elite less interested in him.

With regret, in 1545 he left India for a two-year missionary mission to Malacca and the Moluccas. It was during this period that he met Yajiro. It is conceivable that when he heard of the existence of such a highly developed and highly religious country as Japan, Xavier's fierce religious enthusiasm and illusion of the Christian kingdom of the East were immediately ignited, and he would rather give up his position in India and go to Japan.

So, how can a man who does not know the local language at all and has not even understood the basic situation preach in this strange country? There is no doubt that in the early days, he had to rely on Yajiro with all his might. Kagoshima is the hometown of Yajiro, and Xavier is warmly received by the locals. After Yajiro's translation of the teachings, the people seem to be very impressed. And Yajiro's dissatisfaction with his native religion is also true: for a long time, Japanese Buddhist sects and political groups have intervened in each other, colluding with each other and fighting for power and profit. Ordinary people look forward to and welcome new faiths that can bring true spiritual comfort.

It was not until he had a slight understanding of the local situation and the Japanese language that Xaviero discovered the problem: Yajiro basically understood Christianity in Buddhist terms, as he had done in Malacca and India. For example, the most crucial word for "god" (Lord) and the Latin word Forus were translated by Yajiro as Dainichi (Japanese for "Daiichi"). And the "great day" is too easy to understand for the Japanese people: isn't this what the Shingon Sect often says, "the great sun is coming", the incarnation of the Buddha? Coupled with Xavier's coming from India, the Japanese directly regarded him as a high monk to spread a new Buddhist sect.

Xavier was once again confused: Japan was too complex, completely different from what he had imagined. At the time of the Warring States period, Xavier wanted to go to Kyoto to meet the "king", but found that the "king" was not like that at all. Although Xavier's mission was successful over time, he had new ideas. He knew that Japan's article system was more likely to take China,000, and if it could successfully turn China into a Catholic country, then the source was clear, and wouldn't it be logical for Japan's Christianization to be complete? So, after a two-year stay, Xavier regrouped and set off. On the way to China, the ship reached Shangchuan Island in Guangdong Province, where he fell ill and died in 1552.

When everyone talks about the introduction of Christianity to East Asia, Xavier is the absolute protagonist. But the question is – was Christianity really "passed on" to Japan and China by Xavier? From another point of view, isn't it Yajiro who worked hard and took the initiative to "take it" to save his hometown? However, speaking of Yajiro, it seems that the most meaningful thing in his life is that as a fugitive, he happened to meet Xavier. After Xavier's death, his body was incorruptible and is still stored in Goa for people to visit. His deeds were also quickly deified and he was canonized in 1662. As for the outcome of Yajiro, we know very little, some people say that more than two years after Xavier left Japan, he fled again due to religious persecution, became a pirate, and later died in China.

Keywords >> Yajiro, Xavier, Christianity introduced to East Asia