An 18th-Century Catholic–Daoist Theology: Complementary Non-Being and Being in the Trinitarian Latin Laozi

A fundamental question when comparing Western and Chinese traditions is what if any similarities exist between the key metaphysical concepts Being and Non-Being and you 有 and wu 無. We find an inspired solution in the oldest preserved translation of the Laozi, the “Liber Sinicus Táo Tě Kīm inscriptus, in Latinum idioma Versus.” This 18th c. Latin translation by a Jesuit Figurist makes a particularly fascinating argument for the equation of Being and you 有 and Non-Being and wu 無. Essential to this is recognizing Non-Being as a type of Being that more closely matches the Laozi’s term wu 無. From this starting point, the translator fuses the three cosmogonies of chapters 1, 40, and 42 to reveal a Daoism-inflected trinitarian theology where Non-Being (wu) and Being (you) become terms to express the complex relationship of the three divine Persons. This effort to connect Daoism and Catholicism both has great historical value and also may serve as a resource for articulating East Asian forms of theology.