A Brief Introduction to the Study of Human Nature

Thierry Meynard and Dawei Pan offer a highly detailed annotated translation of one of the major works of Giulio Aleni (1582 Brescia–1649 Yanping), a Jesuit missionary in China. Referred to by his followers as “Confucius from the West”, Aleni made his presence felt in the early modern encounter between China and Europe. The two translators outline the complexity of the intellectual challenges that Aleni faced and the extensive conceptual resources on which he built up a fine-grained framework with the aim of bridging the Chinese and Christian spiritual traditions.