There is a make believe word that should catch your eye. It is a combination of the words, Confucianism and Catholicism. Although, this word may look and sound a bit funny, this phenomenon came rather close to occurring some 400 years ago. The impact on the history of China, as well as, the rest of the world could have been drastically different had this combination of moral philosophy and religion been permitted to fully develop in China. It is my opinion that the moral philosophy of Confucianism and the Catholic religion could have complemented each other quite well. Especially, Confucianism revealed through the philosophy and teachings of Confucius himself or Mencius and not Neo-Confucianism, which comes much later in history. I will prove this through the examination of the Jesuits, and their initial influence of Catholicism in China. I will examine the controversies that the Jesuits inadvertently created between the Chinese and Catholics. We will explore some sim!
             ilarities and differences between the two, as well as, attempt to determine why this movement failed in China.
             From the time Confucius introduced Confucianism in China to the time the Jesuits arrived, Confucianism had undergone several transformations. By the time of the Jesuits, Confucianism had taken the form of what present day scholars refer to as, Neo-Confucianism. Neo-Confucianism is a manifestation of original Confucianism that had mainly begun to address certain issues that Confucius did not focus his attention on. This creates a large problem because many Catholics who objected Confucianism did not make this separation among Confucianism. I think this is quite evident because if they had really investigated Confucianism they would have found out that Confucius rarely talks about heaven, evil, or any type of metaphysical ordering of the universe. "Tzu-kung said, Our Master's views concerning culture and the outward insignia of goodnes...