“What Is Above The Sky?” Antelmo Severini, Chinese Classics, and His Answer to “Zhuzi Wentian”

Antelmo Severini(1828-1909) is widely recognized as the pioneer of Italian academic Sinology. He held the position of professor of Far Eastern languages and literatures at Regio Istituto di Studi Superiori di Firenze from 1864 to 1900, and made significant contributions to the field. His work "Il Dio dei Cinesi" (The God of the Chinese) was published in 1873 and is one of the first studies on Chinese religion by a Western secular scholar. In this work, Severini advocates for a departure from preconceived notions about Chinese religion prevalent among Europeans, stressing the importance of analyzing original Chinese texts. He criticizes missionary sinologists' readings of Chinese religion, arguing that they imposed the framework of Western theology on Chinese religion, and that their interpretation was biased because it was instrumental to their missionary activities, and not directed by a pure scientific interest.Severini focuses primarily on the Ruist religious tradition, and he devotes a great deal of attention to the concepts of Shangdi and Tian. He argues that these concepts are distinct from the Western concepts of God and Heaven, and that they need to be understood within the context of Chinese culture, not in reference to Western theological tradition. Severini describes Chinese religion as a religion of rites, which does not prescribe a dogma of faith or belief in a well-defined God. Since Chinese religion has no dogma, it also does not contain a system of theology. As a consequence, the concepts of Shangdi and Tian do not necessarily have to match and express a coherent and unitary concept of divinity. Chinese tradition does not provide any univocal answer to Zhuxi's question about the sky ("What's above the sky?"). In Severini's view, Chinese civilization provides an example of a tolerant society that grants its members complete freedom of religious conscience. I argue that Severini employs the authority of Chinese classics to support political claims relevant to the Italian political debate of his time. Severini's approach results in an idealized portrayal of ancient China, too abstract and lacking historical accuracy. Moreover, Severini did not engage with other prominent religious traditions such as Buddhism and Taoism.Despite these limitations, Severini's work remains an important contribution to the study of Chinese religion. His emphasis on the importance of analyzing original Chinese texts and his criticism of missionary sinologists' readings of Chinese religion paved the way for more accurate and nuanced understandings of Chinese religious beliefs.