The Interweaving of Rituals: Funerals in the Cultural Exchange between China and Europe

5 / Funerals as Community Practice

140 5 / Funerals as Community Practice In the post-Canton period, at least as important as the development of a mission policy regarding funerals was the creation of a systematic Chinese Christian funeral liturgy. As illustrated by a guideline of rituals for funerals in thirty-two articles that was drafted in Guangdong in 1685, the Chinese and Christian funerary traditions were interwoven within one and the same ritual process.1 From this unique document, two major functions of the funeral ritual emerge:first,itallowsthetransformationof adeceasedindividualintoanancestor by the family and into a member of the community of saints by the Christian community; and second, it strengthens the cohesion and solidarity of both the family group and the Christian community. The Chinese Christian funeral ritual is framed into the elementary structure fundamental to the Chinese funeral, and upon this core framework are grafted key elements of the Christian ritual. a guideline for chinese christian funerals The ritual guideline for Christian funerals stipulates the diªerent actions to be performed by the participants from the moment of death until the entombment of the body. There are four diªerent versions of this guideline: A. “Ritual Sequence for Attending Funerals and Organizing the Procession” (“Linsang chubin yishi”) (earlier version)2 B. “Ritual Sequence for Attending Funerals and Organizing the Procession” (“Linsang chubin yishi”) (later version)3 C. “Ritual Sequence for Funerals and Burials” (“Sangzang yishi”) (earlier version)4 D. “Ritual Sequence for Funerals and Burials” (“Sangzang yishi”) (later version)5 These four versions of the “Ritual Sequence” guideline, which are here labelled “text A,” “text B,” “text C,” and “text D,” are interrelated and were probably produced in this chronological order.6 funerals as community practice 141 Text A is anonymous, but notes written on the cover of texts B, C, and D give information about their textual history.7 Text B contains a short note in Latin and Portuguese by Francesco Saverio Filippucci, SJ (1632–1692): “I had Antonio Ly, xianggong [i.e., local catechist] of this house, compose this paper in the first month of 1685.”8 This note is important because right from the start it acknowledges the Chinese collaborator, (Antonio) Li Andang, as main author of the text, Filippucci being the one who ordered the document. The note on text C, also signed by Filippucci and dated 16 May 1685, gives information about the subsequent transformation of the text: “This paper is drawn from the other one that I had composed by Antonio Ly, xianggong of this house. It was revised by Leontio Ly, xianggong of His Lordship the Bishop of Basilitano , who wished to approve and sign it. The Reverend Friar Agostinho de S. Pascual retained it, because he wished to add the obligation of a statement of clarification in number eleven.”9 The Bishop of Basilitano was Luo Wenzao or Gregorio López (1617–1691), a Dominican (OP) ordained as a priest in Manila in 1654 and consecrated as a bishop in Canton on 8 April 1685. Agustín de San Pascual (ca. 1637–1697), was a member of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor (OFM) who came to China in 1671. He first served in the Dominican mission in Fujian, and then from 1677 to 1683, he reopened the Franciscan mission in Shandong. By the close of 1683, he was active in Canton, where he had also served as assistant priest at the episcopal ordination of Luo Wenzao. He authoredseveraltreatisesinChineseanddrewuppastoralnormsfortheSpanish Franciscans in China. At the end of 1685, de San Pascual was elected to a fiveyear post as their provincial commissar.10 The note on version D indicates the suspension of the publication project through Filippucci’s withdrawal of his signature: This paper, revised by Ly Leontio, xianggong of the house of His Lordship the Bishop of Basilitano, has an addition to number eleven dealing with the statement of clarification on oªerings to the dead and, without my knowledge, it was signed by His Lordship the Bishop and by the reverend Fathers Friar Jo. Francisco de Leonessa11 and Friar Agostinho de S. Pascual. I disclaimed this, and with the consent of all, my name was withdrawn from the head of the paper and likewise my signature from the bottom of the same together with the seal of His Lordship the Bishop and the signatures of the aforesaid fathers so as to invalidate the foregoing signatures.12 It seems that the “Ritual Sequence” guideline was never printed.13 As appears from this history and also...