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By Go Bon Juan
Editor’s note: The Sixth Dr.
Jose P. Rizal Awards for Excellence awarding ceremony will be held
at 2 p.m., June 14, at the Kaisa-Angelo King Heritage Center on Anda
and Cabildo streets, Intramuros, Manila.
Among the earliest books
published in Chinese in the Philippines are Shi-Lu Apologia de la
Verdadera Religion by Juan Cobo in 1593 and Doctrina Christiana en
Lengua China by Keng Yong in 1605.
Doctrina Christiana en Lengua
Española y Tagala, in Spanish and Tagalog, was also published in
1593. Its Chinese version was at first wrongly documented as having
been published that same year; it saw print in 1605.
But two Chinese books less known
than Cobo’s and Keng’s were also published in the Philippines in
the early 17th century. An article written by Fang Hao in 1967,
Chinese Books Published in Manila during Wan Li of Ming refers to
these two titles. Fang Hao’s article is found in his collection of
works, Self Collected Works of Fang Hao at 60.
Fang Hao cites W.E. Retana who
listed on page 71 of his 1911 book, Origenes de Imprenta Filipina
(The Origin of Philippine Publication), a Chinese book published by
Fr. Domingo Deniefa in 1606 in Binondo, Memorial de la Vida
Christiana en Lengua China. This is kept in the State Library of
Vienna.
The other Chinese book, Simbolo
de la Fe en Lengua y Letra China, was annotated by the famous
historian Van der Loon and published in 1607 in Manila.
Unfortunately, the first 10 pages of the book are missing.
The Chinese version is intact,
but its Chinese title can no longer be traced.
The book is found in Sinologische
Instituut in Leyden, the Netherlands.
Fang Hao is a famous scholar and
historian on cultural exchange between China and the West, as well
as on the history of Christianity in China. It was Fang Hao who
first discovered the Shi Lu in 1952 at the National Library of
Madrid and Simbolo de La Fe in 1957 in Leyden’s Sinologische
Instituut.
So in all, we have at least four
Chinese books published in the Philippines between 1593 and 1607.
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