“Traité des Sectes religieuses chez les Chinois et les Tonquinois; par le Frère Adrien de Sainte-Thècle, Missionaire au Tonquin.” Journal asiatique. March 1823. pp. 163–175.
This short article introduces the work of Adriano di Santa Thecla (1667–1765), an Augustinian missionary to northern Vietnam, who in 1750 penned a Latin treatise called Opusculum de sectis apud Sinenses et Tunkinenses. The article laments the fact that this very useful Latin work remains unedited and untranslated. The Société Asiatique wants to make this work available in French translation in small installments, and this article begins that endeavor by translating two sections of Adriano’s second chapter, on the tutelary deity called Thanh-hoang, and on the Spirit Examinations.
An English translation of Opusculum de sectis apud Sinenses et Tunkinenses was completed in 2002 by Olga Dror, in Cornell’s Studies on Southeast Asia series. Buddhologists should note that Adriano di Santa Thecla devoted an entire chapter of his Opusculum to Buddhism, discussing the person of Śākyamuni, the propagation of the religion in China, the doctrines of Buddhism, its principal idols, its temples and their staff, and the rituals of the faith.
