The image of the Lord of Heaven showed to Wang by de Pantoja made Wang deeply explore the unique Lord. These visible icons and portraits of God usually attract more and more seekers, new believers and growing Christians to the church. As some scholars say, “The revealing of God’s image not only leads the audience, though not yet converted, to bow and even to pray for their well-being but also facilitates the catechesis process that follows.”477 The moment that Wang saw the image was the key point for him to convert to the belief. Wang states in WTARJL that de Pantoja showed him the holy image of God, and God was like one man, caressing one round globe,478 which may be found in the work Tianzhu jiangsheng chuxiang jingjie 天主 降生出像經解(The Images and Explanations of the Lord of Heaven) compiled by Giulio Aleni (Ai Rulüe 艾儒略 1582-1649) in 1637. In the image, we can find that many religious symbols occur, a kindly man (God) and his head with a round of holy lights, angels are around him full of joy. All of the elements are like a magnet and formed a field of Christian God, in which Wang had no choice but to approach the Lord of Heaven.
Although this icon appears ten years after de Pantoja showed it to Wang, it (Fig. 3.3) highly resembles Wang’s description in his text. Some scholars have found that the images of Giulio Aleni’s Tianzhu jiangsheng chuxiang jingjie originate from the Latin
卷六, and so on. See Scripta Sinica database/http://hanchi.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/ihp/hanji.htm.
476 TZSY, see TXCH, pp.377-399.
477 See Junhyoung Michael Shin, The Jesuits and the Portrait of God in Late Ming China, in Harvard Theological
Review, vol.107, 2 (2014), p.201.
work Evangelicae Historiae Imagines.479 The figure 3.4 is the first image in this Latin work, which is also about the Creator－God. We can find that figure 3.3 has a little similarity to figure 3.4. The symbol of the Society of Jesus appears on the top of both of them. The angels around God are thankfully in the Latin work too. God has a benevolent look which appears in the two images. Presumably, the Latin images were changed with inculturation in Chinese text, which promoted Wang’s acceptance of Christian God.
Fig. 3.3 The image of Incarnation of God in Chinese Christian work.480
479 See Junhyoung Michael Shin, The Supernatural in the Jesuit Adaptation to Confucianism: Giulio Aleni’s
Tianzhu Jiangsheng Chuxiang Jingjie (Fuzhou , 1637), in History of Religions,vol. 50, No. 4, Jesuit Missionaries in China and Tibet (May 2011), p.361.
480 The image is from Giulio Aleni’s book,Tianzhu jiangsheng chuxiang jingjie 天主降生出像經解 (The Images
Fig. 3.4 The image of Incarnation of God in Latin work.481
Wang’s descriptive image on Creation, which is based on his illustration.
Tusi/Tianzhu/Lord of Heaven
The world
Humankind
Chart 3.3 The world creation image of Wang Zheng’s understanding
Obviously, God is in the supreme position, everything, including mankind, was created by God. The difference between mankind and other things is that man was given with Anima by God. This depiction is from the chapter Genesis of the Old Testament, which is one part of Christian doctrine. Wang’s statements clearly show he accepted this creation story.
Pater Adam Eve
Anima
The Heaven/Tian The Earth/Di Angels/ Tian ShenThe other things
Angels/ Tian Shen
The other things
The other things The other things
In the whole of WTARJL, the name Adam (Ya Dang 亞當) appears 5 times, Eve (E Wa 厄襪) 4 times, Adam and Eve appear during the explanation of God, de Pantoja states Tusi created the heaven and the earth, and then man, the first ancestors are Adam and Eve, de Pantoja’s uses Adam 4 times and Eve 3 times in his dialogue. Comparatively, Adam and Eve also appear in the late chapter of TZSY. At the end of WTARJL, Wang explains the human soul, referring to both Adam and Eve one time, in the text when it discusses God creating Adam and Eve, Anima (Ya ni ma 亞尼瑪) appears 3 times, additionally, Lucifer (Lu ji fu er 露祭弗【拂】爾) appears 3 times. Wang Zheng uses these creationist terms in his text, which mirrors him as a Confucian convert accepting this view. Undoubtedly, he has accepted that Adam and Eve are the first ancestors.
The term Meng duo 蒙鐸, meaning the world, occurs 6 times in WTARJL. Meng duo is also found in the text of Tianshi mingbian 天釋明辯.482 In WTARJL, Meng duo appears at the beginning of part D3.2 (Heaven, hell and world), “The world where people dwell now is called Meng duo, which is a general term for the place where good and evil are not separated, where the holy and common, the pure and filthy, sorrow and joy appear together.”483
Ba De Lei 罷德肋 4 times Pater God of Heaven Tu Si 徒斯 13 times Deus God
Yang Dang 亞當 5 times Adam The first man E Wa 厄䙠 4 times Eve The first woman Ya Ni Ma 亞尼瑪 3 times Anima Soul
Lu Ji fu Er 露祭弗（拂）爾 3 times Lucifer Satan
Meng duo 蒙鐸 6 times Mundo The world
Chart 3.4 The Latin terms used in WTARJL,
482 Yang Tingyun, Tianshi mingbian, in Wu Xiangxiang 吳相湘, ed., Tianzhujiao dongchuan wenxian xubian 天
主教東傳文獻續編,Taibei: 1964, vol.1. p.249,3.