Sky or Heaven: The Correlation Between Confucianism and Christianity During Ming and Qing Dynasties

Tian(天) is a very crucial key word in Chinese philosophy as well as in the whole Chinese cultural history. Being so profound and complicated, this tian casts a tinge of mystery upon Chinese culture, which makes it more flexible when it is explained. During Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was by utilizing the flexible meaning of the Chinese word tian that Jesuits proposed the strategy of 'incorporating Confucianism' into Christianity. They assumed that the tian in ancient Chinese literature was none other than the Western God. Their purpose was, of course, to disseminate their religion of Christianity itself. However, the heuristic method they used opened up a channel for communication between Chinese and Western cultures. This approach of making effort to be accommodated with local culture may well be regarded as a paradigm of intercultural communication.