Dis-assembling traditions: Deconstructing Tasan via Matteo Ricci

Chǒng Yagyong (1762-1836), commonly known by the penname Tasan was infamous for his involvement in the early Catholic Church, which was formed by his close friends and his brothers. This Church was responsible for its self-evangelisation based on the ideas found in Matteo Ricci's Tianzhu shiyi (The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven). The effects of this very controversial aspect of his life, and the influence of this precarious context-fraught with danger, narrowly escaping execution and exiled for 18 years-has been under-valued. This paper highlights the effects of such a context on Tasan's ideas by engaging with deconstruction, drawing on the ideas of Jacques Derrida. I outline how Tasan embroidered Ricci's deconstructive strategies into the deepest fabric of his own deconstruction of original Confucianism, or his dis-assembling of traditions. The paper uncovers Christian traces silhouetted in Tasan's theistic commentaries, leading him towards a Post-Confucian conceptualisation of humanity (vis-à-vis a personal, monotheistic, creator God.