The third picture is selected from Jesuit Giulio Aleni's Tian Zhu Jiang Sheng Chu Xiang Jing Jie (天主降生出像經解, explanations on the incarnation of the heavenly lord), an illustration book of Jesus Christ's biography from his birth to resurrection and ascension. Drawn in the year of 1637 (the tenth year of Emperor Chongzhen), the book uses the traditional Chinese crafts of woodcarving to represent the western images in illustrations. Learning from the method of western engraving to grasp the main features, the images bear great resemblance to the book of Evangelicae Historiae Imagines by Jerome Nadal. Regardless of the aversions from Chinese traditions, the image of crucified Jesus was engraved as half naked on the Cross. This preceding conflict reflected those changes of missionary strategies during the historic Anti-Christian Campaigns in the late Ming. Juliano Aleni remarked on the book to express forthrightly his purpose of mission in China as when people read the book, they feel like praising and worshiping Lord, with all words and all deeds. Due to the Fujian Anti-Christian Campaign in the year of 1637, Juliano Aleni was expelled from China to Macao, hindering Catholic missions in China. Vatican Library has four editions and ten volumes of Aleni's Tian Zhu Jiang Sheng Chu Xiang Jing Jie. This selected picture is from the wood-bloack print edition of Jinjiang Nestorianism Church (晉江景教堂) in Late Ming.

Reference:

^[1]. D'Arelli, Francesco. (1997). I libri cinesi di G. Francesco Nicolai, O.F.M. nel fondo Borgia cinese della Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Archivum franciscanum historicum, 90, 526-532.

^[2]. 莫小也. (2011). 17-18世紀傳教士與西畫東漸. 杭州：中國美術學院出版社.

^[3]. 陳煥強. (2013). 明清天主教《聖經》故事版畫圖像敘事研究. 廣州：暨南大學.

^[4]. 謝輝. (2015). 梵蒂岡圖書館藏艾儒略著作二種版本考略. 國際漢學, (3), 178-184, 205