From the Soul–Body Relation to Hylomorphism: The Early Introduction of Aristotelianism in China

In the 'Tianzhu shiyi', the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) introduced to China the Aristotelian concept of the soul to emphasise the specificity of human beings as distinct from all other things and to combat what he perceived as Chinese pantheism. Since he considered a human being a composite of soul and body, he briefly explained the Aristotelian theory of the four causes and came to assert that Chinese philosophy knew only the material and formal causes and was ignorant of the efficient and final causes. Ricci's account of the relation between matter and form was far from complete to be adequately understood by his Chinese readers, and we must turn to the 'Huanyu shimo' by another Italian Jesuit, Alfonso Vagnone (1566–1640), to have a more complete account of hylomorphism, or the union of a substantial form with matter. Vagnone's discussion on matter and substantial form, especially his explanation of the hylomorphic union as a real entity, expressed as nexus or mutual tie, not in the weak sense of matter and form being added together, but in the stronger sense of creating a new substantial entity.