As the Jesuits transmitted Aristotelian philosophy to China, they also transmitted Confucianism to the West. This double transmission is often studied separately, but this obscures the fact that the two transmissions are tightly connected. This paper compares the Xiushen xixue ( Western studies on the Cultivation of the Self , 1637) of the Italian Jesuit Alfonso Vagnone with the “Monastica ethica” ( Individual Ethics , 1711) of the Flemish Jesuit François Noël, showing how the two Jesuits built their comparative ethics based on Scholastic philosophy, enabling them to show significant similarities Chinese and Western ethics. Despite this overall compatibility, this study explains how the two Jesuits were aware of differences: while Vagnone emphasized the idea of acquired virtue as a specific contribution to supplement and correct Confucian ethics, Noël de-emphasized the Mencian ideas of innate virtues to draw closer to Aristotelian and Christian ethics.
Thierry Meynard (Mon,) studied this question.