Rodrigues Joao

7/31/2019 Rodrigues Joao

1/6

Copyright c by Stochastikon GmbH ( http://encyclopedia.stochastikon.com ) 1

Biography of Jo ao Rodrigues SJ, missionary in East Asia

Name and Name Modications:Japanese: Tcuzu (modern: Tzuji = the interpreter)Chinese: Lou Yohanalso Ruiz

Relevance for the Far Eastern Mission:

Rodriguez was an important geographer and historian of the Far East, sinol-ogist and japanologist, author of the rst Japanese grammar. He also playedan eminent role in the Chinese Rites Controversy.

Dates of Birth and Death:( ) 1561 in Sernacelhe, diocese Lamego, Portugal() 1. August 1633 in in the Portuguese enclave Macau, today China

Family Data:Nothing is known about Rodrigues family.

Rodrigues joined the Society of Jesus in 1580 in Japan.

Ordination for priesthood was in Macau in 1596.

Rodrigues made his four solemn vows in Nagasaki on am 10 June 1601.

Mission:Rodrigues already arrived in Japan in 1576 or in 1577, fteen years old.

Education:

After he had joined the Society of Jesus, Rodrigues studied theology in Bungo(since 1580) and theology and philosophy in Nagasaki.

Professional Career:No to be confounded with the Jesuit Joao Rodrigues Gir ao SJ (+ 1629), whowas also in Japan.

Rodrigues already arrive in Japan with only fteen years. As a soldier, heaccompanied the daimyo (prince) of Bungo on a campaign. He was so well-
http://encyclopedia.stochastikon.com/


2/6


versed in the Japanese language that he became the official interpreter forhis brethren at the Court (since 1596). The leader of Japan, the daimy oToyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598), was very impressed by Rodrigues abilitiesand made him his personal interpreter in 1590. Also under the rule of Toku-gawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), Toyotomis successor and later Shogun, Rodriguesremained persona grata at Court. From 1603 until 1610, Rodrigues wasprocurator of the mission in Nagasaki. He also played an important role inthe silver trade between Japan and China, which was mostly done by theJesuits.

The favor of the great daimy os and of the Shogun arose the jealousy of others.The strongest adversary became the Protestant English Will Adams (1564?-1620), who came to Japan in 1600 and became the interpreter of the Shogun.He had been pilot in Dutch service and saw in the Catholic nations Portugaland Spain the concurrence in commerce. Rodrigues was accused because of a scandal in commerce and was expelled from Japan already in 1610, evenbefore the other missionaries were banned from Japan in 1614. He went toMacau and then to China.

In the interior of China, Rodrigues made investigations for old Christian com-munities from 1613-15. As a mission procurator (1591-1626), he accompa-nied the visitor Andre Palmeiro (1569-1635) on his visitation through China

to Peking. In 1630, he was interpreter of Portuguese soldiers, who helpedthe Chinese Ming dynasty (1368-1644) against the attacking Manchus. Thisbrought him an Imperial elogium (19 June 1632).

During the discussions in China about the question, if Chinese termini couldbe used for the Christian God and other theological matters, Rodrigues, be-cause of his experiences in Japan, opted for the Latin Deus. In this way, hebecame a direct source for Niccolo Longobardos (1557-1654) treatise Re-sponsio brevis super controversias de Xamti..., which became an importantdocument in the Rites Controversy.

Publications Joao Rodrigues:

Gongsha xiao zhong ji (1632) (Miracles and other stories).

Arte da Lingoa de Iapam, 1604-8, Japanese: Daibunten von DoiTadao, (1955), The Muse Described, (translation of the part onJapanese poesy by Michael Cooper) in: Monumenta Nipponica XXVI(1971) pp. 55-75.
http://132.187.98.10:8080/encyclopedia/en/topic-0000499.htmlhttp://encyclopedia.stochastikon.com/


3/6


Arte Breve da Lingoa Iapoa tirada da arte grande da mesma lingoa,pera os que comecam a aprender os primeiros principios della (Amacao1620), reprint with Japanese translation: Hino Hiroshi (Tokyo).

Amaral Abranches Pinto (ed.), Hist oria da Igreja do Jap ao, 2 vols.(Tokyo 1953), Japanese: Doi Tadao (transl.), Nihon Kyokai Shi , 2vols. (Tokyo 1967-70), parts in English translation by Michael Cooper:This Island of Japan (Teil 1, Buch 1 & 2) (1973), and: Arte del Cha (Tokyo 1954) (Spanish translation of the part on the tea ceremony byJ. Alvarez-Taladriz) .

Michael Cooper (transl., ed.), This Island of Japan (Tokyo 1973), alsoas: Michael Cooper (ed.) Jo ao Rodrigues account of sixteenth-century Japan (London 2001).

Jeroen Pieter Lamers (ed.), Treatise on Epistolary Style. Jo ao Ro-driguez on the Noble Art of Writing Japanese letters (Ann Arbot 2002).

English translation of Rodrigues letters from China:

Letter, Macao, 1 November 1611, to the Jesuit General, in: MichaelCooper (ed.), Rodrigues in China. The Letters of Jo ao Rodrigues,1611-1633, in: Doi Tadao (ed.), Kokugoshi he no michi: Doi sensei shoju kinen ronbunsh u (Festschrift Prof. Doi Tadao) , vol. 2 (Tokyo1981) pp. 350-338.

Letter, Canton, 25 January 1612, to the Jesuit General, in: MichaelCooper (ed.), Rodrigues in China. The Letters of Jo ao Rodrigues,1611-1633, in: Doi Tadao (ed.), Kokugoshi he no michi: Doi sensei shoju kinen ronbunsh u (Festschrift Prof. Doi Tadao) , vol. 2 (Tokyo1981) pp. 338-324.

Letter, Canton, December (?) 1615, to Valemtim Carvalho, in:Michael Cooper (ed.), Rodrigues in China. The Letters of Joao Ro-drigues, 1611-1633, in: Doi Tadao (ed.), Kokugoshi he no michi: Doi sensei shoju kinen ronbunshu (Festschrift Prof. Doi Tadao) , vol. 2(Tokyo 1981) pp. 324-315.

Letter, Macao, 22 January 1616, to the Jesuit General, in: MichaelCooper (ed.), Rodrigues in China. The Letters of Jo ao Rodrigues,1611-1633, in: Doi Tadao (ed.), Kokugoshi he no michi: Doi sensei shoju kinen ronbunsh u (Festschrift Prof. Doi Tadao) , vol. 2 (Tokyo1981) pp. 313-298.


4/6


Letter, Macao, 31 October 1622, to the Jesuit General, in: MichaelCooper (ed.), Rodrigues in China. The Letters of Jo ao Rodrigues,1611-1633, in: Doi Tadao (ed.), Kokugoshi he no michi: Doi sensei shoju kinen ronbunsh u (Festschrift Prof. Doi Tadao) , vol. 2 (Tokyo1981) pp. 298-284.



Peking, Macao, 27 May 1630, to the Macao community ?, in: MichaelCooper (ed.), Rodrigues in China. The Letters of Jo ao Rodrigues,1611-1633, in: Doi Tadao (ed.), Kokugoshi he no michi: Doi sensei shoju kinen ronbunsh u (Festschrift Prof. Doi Tadao) , vol. 2 (Tokyo

1981) pp. 251-242. Letter, Macao, 5 February 1633, to the Jesuit General, in: Michael

Cooper (ed.), Rodrigues in China. The Letters of Jo ao Rodrigues,1611-1633, in: Doi Tadao (ed.), Kokugoshi he no michi: Doi sensei shoju kinen ronbunsh u (Festschrift Prof. Doi Tadao) , vol. 2 (Tokyo1981) pp. 242-231. (+ Annotations to all letters, pp. 230-224).

Rodrigues manuscripts about the sects and religions, the geographyand an explanation of the Stele of Xianfu of China seem to be lostseem to be lost, and also his Tractatus copiosissimus contra praxes

Matthaei Ricci, which served Longobardo to write his Tractatus.

Joao Rodrigues Bibliography: Joseph Dehergne, Repertoire des Jesuites de Chine de 1552 ` a 1800 (Rome,Paris 1973) pp. 227f. Louis Pster, Notices biographiques et bibliographiques sur les Jesuites delancienne Mission de Chine 1552-1773 (Chang-hai 1932) 214f. Robert Streit, Bibliotheca Missionum , vol. V (Freiburg 1929) # 1497.


5/6


Henri Bernard, Les etapes de la cartographie scientique..., Monumenta Serica I (1936) pp. 440-452. Jacques Besineau, Au Japon avec Jo ao Rodrigues 1580-1620 (Lisbonne,Paris 1998). Charles R. Boxer, Padre Jo ao Rodrigues Tzucu, S.J. and his JapaneseGrammar, in: Miscell anea de Filologia, literatura e hist oria cultural a mem oria de Francisco Adolfo Coelho, vol. II (1950) pp. 338-363, and in: Charles R.Boxer, Portuguese Merchants and Missionaries in Feudal Japan, 1543-1640 (Aldershot 1997), article VI. Charles R. Boxer, The Christian Century in Japan, 1549-1650 (Cambridge1951).

Hubert Cieslik, Father Jo ao Rodrigues the Interpreter, Missionary Bul-letin IX (1955) pp. 326-331, 404-409. Claudia von Collani, The Treatise on Chinese Religion (1623) of N. Lon-gobardi, S.J., Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal XVII (1995) pp.29-37. Michael Cooper, They came to Japan. An Anthology of European Reportson Japan 1543-1640 (1965). Otis Cary, A History of Christianity in Japan (Rutland, Tokyo 2000). Michael Cooper, The Muse described, Joao Rodrigues Account of JapanesePoetry, Monumenta Nipponica XXVI (1971) pp. 55-75.

Michael Cooper, Rodrigues the Interpreter. An Early Jesuit in Japan and China (New York, Tokyo 1974, 1994). Michael Cooper, Rodrigues in China. The Letters of Joao Rodrigues,1611-1633, in: Doi Tadao (ed.), Kokugoshi he no michi: Doi sensei shoju kinen ronbunsh u (Festschrift Prof. Doi Tadao) , vol. 2 (Tokyo 1981) pp. 352-224. Heinz Finger, Geschichte der Kirche in Japan (Koln 2004). Eta Harich-Schneider, A History of Japanese Music (London 1973). Ikuo Higashibaba, Christianity in Early Modern Japan. Kirishitan Belief and Practice (Leiden, Boston, Koln 2001). Wenchao Li, Hans Poser (eds.), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Discours sur la theologie naturelle des Chinois. Mit einem Anhang: Nicolas Longobardi,Traite sur quelques points de la religion des Chinois; Antoine de Sainte Marie,Traite sur quelques points importans de la Mission de la Chine; NicolasMalebranche, Entretien dun Philosophe Chretien et dun Philosophe Chi-nois sur lexistence et la Nature de Dieu; Leibniz, Marginalien zu den Tex-ten von Longobardi, Sainte Marie und Malebranche; Rezensionen aus demJournal des S cavans; Leibniz, Annotationes de cultu religioneque Sinensium(Ver offentlichungen des Leibniz-Archivs) (Frankfurt 2002). Joseph Moran, The Well of Japanese Undeled: J.R. Advice How to Study


6/6


Japanese, Monumenta Nipponica XXX (1975) pp. 277-290. Isabel Castro Pina, Jo ao Rordrigues T cuzu and the controversy over Chris-tian terminology in China: The perspective of a Jesuit from the Japanesemission, Bulletin of Portuguese-Japanese studies 6 (2003) pp. 47-71. Benjamin Videira Pires, Matteo Ricci and Jo ao Rodrigues Tcuzzu: TwoLinks in the Cultural Interpretation of China and Japan, Review of Culture30 (1997) pp. 47-54. Georg Schurhammer, Das kirchliche Sprachproblem in der japanischen Je-suitenmission des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts (Tokyo 1928). Georg Schurhammer, Doppelganger in Portugiesisch-Asien, in: Orien-talia (Rom 1963) pp. 124-126.

Georg Schurhammer, P. Johann Rodriguez T cuzzu als GeschichtsschreiberJapans, Archivum Historicum Societatis Jesu 1 (1932) pp. 23-40, also in:Orientalia, Gesammelte Studien , t. 2 (Rome 1963) pp. 605-618. Josef Franz Sch utte, A Historia inedita dos Bispos da Igreja do Japao,in: Congresso Internacional de Hist oria dos Descobrimentos. Actas V/1(Lisboa 1961) pp. 297-327. Arcadio Schwade, Die Fr uhgeschichte des Christentums in Japan im Uberblick,in: Adrian Hsia, Ruprecht Wimmer (eds.), Mission und Theater. Japan und China auf den B uhnen der Gesellschaft Jesu (Jesuitica 7) (Regensburg 2005)pp. 289-353.

Nicolas Standaert (ed.), Handbook of Christianity in China. Volume One:635-1800. (Handbook of Oriental Studies, section 4: China 15/1. Handbuchder Orientalistik, Abt. 4: China 15) (Leiden, Boston, K oln 2001).

Ad Dudink, Nicolas Standaert, Chinese Christian Texts Database (CCT-Database) http://www.arts.kuleuven.be/sinology/cct (12 November 2009).

Author(s) of this contribution:Claudia von Collani

Version: 1.00

Rodrigues Joao

Documents

Transcript of Rodrigues Joao