Abstract
Matteo Ricci’s Tianzhu Shiyi (The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven) is a landmark in the Jesuit strategy of cultural accommodation in late Ming China. This article examines Ricci’s programme of Burulun (“Supplementing Confucianism”) by analysing how he appropriates pre-Qin Confucian concepts such as Tian (Heaven) and Shangdi (Supreme Emperor), while at the same time directing a systematic critique against Buddhist emptiness (kong), Daoist non-being (wu), and Neo-Confucian notions of Taiji (Supreme Ultimate) and li (principle). Drawing on Aristotelian-Thomist ontology, Ricci argues that only a personal and transcendent Tianzhu can serve as the ultimate source, governor and end of all beings, and that impersonal principles or “nothingness” cannot fulfil this role. I argue that Ricci’s strategy of “supplementing Confucianism” simultaneously creates a space of conceptual convergence and produces structural misreadings of Chinese metaphysical traditions, especially in his treatment of Taiji and li. By distinguishing Ricci’s interpretive accommodation from his doctrinal critique, the article clarifies the philosophical logic of Tianzhu Shiyi and reflects on its significance for contemporary discussions of inculturation and intercultural theology.