The Jesuit Longobardo’s Interpretation of the Neo-Confucian Concepts of li and qi

This article addresses the most important translation issue in the first philosophic and religious dialogue between Europe and China: is there a Chinese equivalent for the Christian concept of God? We approach the question from the perspective of comparative philosophy. We start by examining the historical and theoretical context in which the Jesuit Niccolò Longobardo developed his disagreement with Matteo Ricci regarding the question as to whether the Confucianism is an atheism. We then analyse the interpretation that equates li and qi, respectively, with the Aristotelian notions of accident and prime matter. After showing how Longobardo reduces neo-Confucianism to Presocratic atheism in an Aristotelian manner, we propose an alternative perspective that can reconcile Christianism and neo-Confucianism with regard to the concept of first cause.