The prayer Shanyuan wuduan ????to be ... - Lirias - KU Leuven

[p. 207]
The Holy Mass in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century China:
Introduction to and annotated translation of
Yu Misa gongcheng ????? (1721),
Manual for attending Mass. Ad Dudink
Table of contents
Introduction [pp. 208-228]
Text 1: Translation of the instruction for attending Mass in the prayer
book Tianzhu shengjiao nianjing zongdu (1628). [p. 229]
Text 2: Translation of the instruction for attending Mass (Yu Misa li) in
later prayer books (based on Giulio Aleni's Misa ji yi lüe). [p. 232]
Text 3: Translation of Giulio Aleni's general introduction (zongshu ??) to
his 'expositio Missae' (Misa lijie) in juan xia of his Misa jiyi (1629).
[p. 236]
Table 1: Summary of Yu Misa gongcheng and Misa lijie (thirty-three section
in three parts). [p. 237]
Table 2: Yu Misa gongcheng compared with the 'Ritus servandus in
celebratione Missae' in the Missale Romanum. [p. 242]
Text 4: Translation of Yu Misa gongcheng (ca. 1721). [pp. 245-294] Appendices:
1) Yu Misa gongcheng ????? (bibliographical note). [p. 295]
2) The prayer Shanyuan wuduan ???? to be read before the Mass.
3) The Chinese text of the Confiteor. [pp. 297-299]
4) The Chinese text of the hymn Gloria in excelsis Deo. [p. 300]
5) Note on section I.8. [p. 301]
6) Note on section I.11 (The Latin text and Chinese translation of the
Twelve Articles of the Faith, or the Creed of the Apostles, and the Nicean
Creed). [pp. 302-304]
7) Note on section I.14 (Two Chinese versions (A and B) of the prayer Anima
Christi). [pp. 305-306]
8) Note on section II.2 (The prayer to be said after the Veneration of the
Five Wounds (which takes place right after the Consecration). [p. 307]
9) Note on part II, sections 6-7
10) The ceremony of the Communion of the faithful during the Mass.
11) At the left or the right side of the altar? [pp. 313-316]
12) The suite Misa yueyin ???? by the Chinese Jesuit Wu Li ?? (1632-1718).
13) Pedro de la Piñuela's Ting Misa fanli compared with Misa lijie (Aleni).
[pp. 318-319] Bibliography (and abbreviations) [pp. 320-326]
Introduction ( [208]
Yu Misa gongcheng ????? (1721), later entitled Yu Misa guicheng ????? or
Misa guicheng ????,[1] enjoyed an enormous success in Catholic China,
according to Paul Brunner who in 1959 published a French translation of the
text.[2] For more than two centuries, it shaped the eucharistic piety of
Chinese Christians (1959, p. 271). In 1721, this text was not entirely new:
it had only added prayers to an explanation of the Mass, Misa lijie ????,
which is found for the first time in an undated prayer book of probably the
1640s (Tongku jingji ????).[3] Brunner attributed this anonymous Misa lijie
to Niccolò Longbardo SJ (1565-1655, in China since 1597).[4] In fact, Misa
lijie is an abridged version ("for daily use" ????) of the second juan of
Misa jiyi ???? (The Meaning of the Sacrifice of the Mass, 1629) composed by
Giulio Aleni SJ (1582-1649).
Already before 1629, explanations of the Mass must have circulated. When
Yang Tingyun ??? in his Daiyi pian ??? (1621) speaks of the Mass, he refers
for further information to an essay (or section of a work) [209] which
gives an explanation of the Mass (Misa jie yibian ?????), but there is no
indication what kind of explanation this precisely was.[5] The same applies
to Misa yi lüe ???? (Summary of the Meaning of the Mass) which Michael
Zhang Shi ?? mentions in a letter (1623) to Aleni.[6]
The first preserved instruction for attending Mass is found in Tianzhu
shengjiao nianjing zongdu ???????? (1628), one of the first Catholic prayer
books in China, published one year before Aleni's Misa jiyi. This
instruction is included in the section "Daily Exercises" (Shengjiao rike
????) of that prayer book (j. 1, ff. 7a-22b), exercises that Longobardo is
said to have composed.[7] The instruction virtually only concerns nine
prayers to be recited: when leaving home to go to church; when entering the
church; at the beginning of the Mass; during the Elevation of the Host and
the Chalice; during the Communion of the priest (when the faithful practice
'spiritual communion'); and at the end of the Mass.[8] In his Misa jiyi
???? (juan 1, section 7) Aleni supplied an additional instruction on the
way the faithful should act during the Mass (when to kneel, bow, kowtow,
strike the breast, etc.) and which prayers they had to recite (Aleni did
not supply the text of them). It is entitled Yu Misa li ???? (The ritual of
attending Mass) and in a slightly abridged form was included in later
prayer books, starting with the Tongku jingji ???? of the 1640s.[9]
According to the 1628 instruction, "seeing the Mass is seeing how Our
Lord Jesus suffered the passion, died nailed on a cross and gave his blood,
[210] offering it to the Lord of Heaven, the Great Father, to ransom the
sins of all people." The instruction does not further explain this. It is
Aleni who in juan 2 of his Misa jiyi will tell in detail how the Mass
represents, in thirty-three sections (that is, rites or ceremonies), not
only the story of the birth, life, passion, death, resurrection and
ascension of Jesus, the Lord of Heaven who became incarnate for thirty-
three years, but also the entire history of salvation, from the time before
the Creation (when there was only the Trinity) to the time after the Last
Day.[10]
This story can be uncovered by interpreting the movements and gestures
(and sometimes the sounds of high or low voice) which the priest during the
Mass is making and not in the first place by the contents of the texts he
recites. In other words, it concentrates on what is visible (and audible)
to the spectator.[11] This way of explaining the Mass had originated in
Carolingian times, when lay people no longer understood Latin. Moreover,
they were not expected to precisely know the prayers and formulas spoken by
the priest, as the Mass gradually had become the special domain of the
[211] clergy. Before early medieval times, the Mass had been a community
celebration, in which one praised the divine deeds of salvation and in
which the Communion was the central structure. During the early Middle
Ages, however, this notion shifted to a view in which the Eucharist was
seen as a 'holy object' and the priest as a 'holy man'. One focused on the
'real presence' (realis presentia) of Christ, and so the priestly act of
the 'change' (consecration) constituted the new centre of the Mass. The
priest became the representative of Christ on earth; he was no longer the
'choirmaster' of the praying community bringing its sacrifice of praise.
The form itself of the Mass, however, did not change and remained the
heritage of an urban church based on a local community. When during the
early Middle Ages this kind of church disappeared, the rites of the Mass
were no longer clear; in fact, they had become superfluous and therefore
needed explanation.[12]
So the faithful were given an allegorical explanation of the Mass (a
special type of what technically has become known as 'expositio
Missae'):[13] they should learn the deeper meaning of mainly movements and
[212] gestures, in order to participate in the mystery celebrated at the
altar.[14] Several people, however, were opposed to allegorical
interpretation, for example, Florus of Lyon (d. ca. 860) who heavily
criticized Amalarius of Metz (775-852), the 'father' of the allegorical
explanation of the Mass. Also more recently people were irritated by the
arbitrariness of this kind of explanation.[15] Nevertheless, taking this
kind of 'expositio Missae' seriously[16] does not imply that one should not
be aware of the inconsistencies in, and the arbitrariness of, allegorical
interpretation.
Some events of the Mass are interpreted as moral lessons and some as
re-enactments of Old Testament practices; some refer to the life of
Christ, and some have eschatological significance. Not infrequently,
a single event bears two or more interpretations simultaneously. By
the same token, the roles of the participants are fluid. [...]
Numerous conflicts among levels of interpretation, inconsistencies
[213] of chronology, and abrupt shifts of meaning are apparent. On
the other hand, in the midst of these anomalies one element stands
out sharply. From beginning to end, but especially during the Canon
and Communion, the Mass is a rememorative drama depicting the life,
ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ. Although other
elements vary according to the interpreter, rememorative allegory is
always present.[17] One example from the 'Chinese' expositions may suffice to further
illustrate this. According to the 'Ritus servandus in celebratione Missae'
in the Missale Romanum, the Mass starts with the priest leaving the
sacristy holding the chalice in his hands; he then ascends the altar and
puts the chalice in the centre of it, goes to the Epistle side of the
altar, opens the Missal at the text of the Mass of that day and puts
ribbons at the pages with the text of other prayers he has to read during
the Mass, and finally he descends to the foot of the altar where he
actually starts the Mass.[18] Aleni (or his source) only explains this
morally: the descending of the priest signifies his humbleness (see below,
Text 4, sub I.1). Rui de Figueiredo (in ca. 1635) explains these
preparatory acts as signifying the f