The Acta Pekinensia or historical records of the Maillard de Tournon Legation, II: September 1706–December 1707. Edited by Paul Rule, and Claudia von Collani,. (Studies in the History of Christianity in East Asia, 1.) Pp. x + 811. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2019. €199. 978 90 04 39631 9 ; 2542 3681

Kilian Stumpf sj, The Acta Pekinensia or historical records of the Maillard de Tournon Legation, II: September 1706–December 1707. Edited by Paul Rule and Claudia von Collani. (Studies in the History of Christianity in East Asia, 1.) Pp. x + 811. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2019. €199. 978 90 04 39631 9 ; 2542 3681

The papal legation sent in 1705 to settle the Chinese Rites Controversy was a disaster. The legate, Tournon, elevated as cardinal shortly before dying of illness in Macao in 1710, was diplomatically maladroit. His mission was doomed from the start. The controversy concerned whether traditional rituals honouring Confucius and dead ancestors could be practised by Chinese converts, and whether the word Tian (heaven) could...