ABSTRACT
The Yijing played a pivotal role in these Jesuit Figurists’ research on Chinese characters, grammar, and esoteric interpretation. Not only did they follow what existed in the tradition of Classical Chinese, but also, in order to persuade the Emperor and the literati, they also invented a new term, Di Tian Jun Fu 帝天君父, and used it in Da Yi Yuan Yi Nei Pian 大易原義內篇 and Yi Gao 易7A3F;. In addition, so as to attract more common people for conversion, Bouvet also collected more than 40 sets of entries, including lines from the classics, the sayings of literati, and the sayings of common people. In spite of being conservative in Notitia Linguae Sinicae and refraining from using Tian as a term for God directly, Prémare, a protégé of Bouvet, still inherited Bouvet’s approach of using different names for God in his Chinese works. He also blended the classical phrases of the Yijing in the Ru Jiao Xin to convince the literati of God’s existence in Chinese texts. Chinese languages and characters are one of the Figurists’ keys to unlocking God’s mystic messages and opening the gates to more Chinese readers, including the emperor, the literati, and the commoners.
