Incarnation and the Unity of Heaven and Humans: Zia Nai-zin’s Christian Reinterpretation of Zhongyong

Andrew Ka Pok Tam

doi:10.4312/as.2024.12.3.179-209

Authors

Andrew Ka Pok TAM University of Glasgow, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, United Kingdom

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2024.12.3.179-209

Keywords:

Zhongyong, Christianity, Confucianism, Zia Nai-zin, Chinese philosophy

Abstract

Zia Nai-zin 謝乃壬, Xie Fu-ya or Hsieh Fu-yah 謝扶雅 (1892–1991), a remarkable Chinese Christian philosopher, theologian, and translator, developed his unique philosophy of “in-ism” (唯中論) from the 1960s to 1980s to indigenize Christianity into the ideal “Chinese Christianity” (中華基督教). Zia declared that the essence of Confucianism is the concept of Zhong 中 (neutrality, avoidance of extremes) and compared the Confucian teaching of the Unity of Heaven and Humans (天人合一) with the Christian Christology, which argues that Jesus Christ is the unity of divinity and humanity. Zia further stated that New Confucians emphasize the Way of Humans over the Way of Heaven, while the Christian doctrine of incarnation balanced both divinity and humanity and achieved the Unity of Heaven and Humans.

While Zia’s reinterpretation of the Doctrine of the Mean is controversial, following the recently developed method of sublation, this paper aims to evaluate whether Zia’s Christian reinterpretation of Zhongyong 中庸 has successfully sublated Confucianism and Christianity. I argue that although Zia’s interpretation of Zhongyong contains certain philological flaws, overall he successfully produced new insights enriching both Christianity and Confucianism by grounding both on the same ontological ground of Zhong.

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