Abstract Michele Ruggieri’s manuscripts of Humanae institutionis, originally collected by Antonio Possevino (1533-1611) and discovered later by Pasquale M. D’Elia (1890-1963), was often referred to as the earliest Latin version that appeared in the European context. A study of Possevino’s print version claims that there is a minor distinction between the print version and Ruggieri’s original manuscripts. However, the difference between the two earliest versions cannot be misinterpreted, as some critics maintained, as a simple distinction between types of terminology and textual structures. Instead, we should understand that Ruggieri’s original manuscripts have been adapted by Possevino to a far greater extent and this phenomenon reflects the complexity of the identities of the translators. What is more important, the theological positions underlying the two texts present a radical division which was based on different interpretations of Augustinian theology in Europe: Antonio Possevino held a belief in the typical Augustinian anthropology and the redemption of human desires, reinterpreting the Confucian ethical line of “body-family-country-world” from the perspective of the theological doctrine of the illumination. Contrary to Possevino, Michele Ruggieri presented a conciliatory attitude toward Zhu Xi’s doctrine of the ultimate principle of “Li/Reason” and the Augustinian theology of the Trinity, demonstrating an epistemological approach to the line of “Light-Li-Mind-Nature” in a synthetic mode. While Antonio Possevino’s knowledge of Confucianism was grounded upon his Catholic belief of the eschatology and Augustine’s doctrine of the two cities, Ruggieri’s conciliatory of the Confucian-Augustinian values was closely in association with his own experience of translating Confucian classics and preaching Catholic doctrines in China. Their theological experiences and religious visions differ prominently. Therefore, I argue that the difference of the two earliest versions reveals two possible modes of response to the Confucian ethical values as influenced by the European Augustinian tradition, which reflects early Jesuits’ complicated attitudes toward the original emergence of Confucian classics in the Western Catholic horizon as well as their underlying moderation of values during the early Confucian-Christian encounter.
