Matteo Ricci (34 page)

Ricci was satisfied with his work. As he wrote in a letter to the Alaleoni brothers, Jesuits from his hometown of Macerata, “It turned out very well.”
19
He sent two copies to Superior General Acquaviva in the same year, asking him to show one to Pope Paul V and to anyone else interested in seeing it. While they would not be able to understand the Chinese, looking through the work would help to understand “how much effort these soldiers [of Christ] make to learn these characters [of the Chinese language] and how great their need of God’s help is.”
20

The treatise enjoyed a large circulation, and the literati read it with interest as a moral and philosophical work. But there was of course no lack of criticism. As Ricci wrote to Ludovico Maselli in February 1605, reading the work “removed the suspicion of wicked ulterior motives from the minds of some but increased the hatred of others who cherished this suspicion.”
21

The Buddhist sympathizers kept to the plane of philosophical discussion in replying to Ricci’s confutations. The possibility of sending the emperor a memorial against the Jesuits was considered by a small group but was soon abandoned due to awareness that the Westerners enjoyed Wanli’s protection, and any challenge to this would be perilous.

Other editions followed. Valignano had a second one printed in Canton for Japan in 1605, and a third—a copy of which is to be found in the Jesuit Archives in Rome—was produced in Hangzhou in 1607. Numerous editions also appeared in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as translations in Manchurian, Korean, Vietnamese, French, Japanese, and English.

Notes

1.
Tao Te Ching
, 25, trans. James Legge, in The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 39 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1891).

2. Matteo Ricci S.J.,
The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven (T’ien-chu Shih-i)
, with an introduction by Douglas Lancashire and Peter Hu Kuo-chen S.J., Chinese-English edition, ed. Edward J. Malatesta S.J. (Taipei, Hong Kong, St. Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1985), p. 57.

3. See chapter 17 (“The Paradoxes of an Extraordinary Man”).

4. J. Gernet,
Chine et christianisme
, p. 110.

5. FR, book IV, ch. XX, p. 262.

6. One in Seoul, Korea, and the other in the museum of the Liaoning province, China. Cf. Y. Dong and J. D. Day, op. cit.

7. Pasquale D’Elia S.J., “Recent Discoveries and New Studies (1938–1960) on the World Map in Chinese of Father Matteo Ricci,” in
Monumenta Serica
20 (1961): pp. 129–30.

8. R. Huang, op. cit., p. 220.

9. R. Huang, op. cit.

10. FR, book IV, ch. XVI, p. 187.

11. FR, book V, ch. I, p. 274.

12. OS II, p. 260.

13. Letter dated May 10, 1605; OS II, p. 271.

14. Pasquale D’Elia refers to it as
Il solido trattato su Dio
.

15. M. Ricci S.J.,
The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven (T’ien-chu Shih-i)
, cit., introduction, p. 47.

16. Letter dated October 12, 1594; OS II, p. 122.

17. M. Ricci S.J.,
The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven (T’ien-chu Shih-i)
, cit., p. 101.

18. FR, book V, ch. II, p. 296. Ricci speaks of himself in the third person in his history of the mission.

19. Letter to Giulio and Girolamo Alaleoni, July 26, 1605; OS II, p. 296.

20. Letter to Giulio and Girolamo Alaleoni, p. 294.

21. Letter to Giulio and Girolamo Alaleoni, p. 257.

v

Beijing, 1603–1605

Never in my life have I been so pressed for time, so much so that I sometimes hardly have enough to commend my soul to God when I need it most.

—Matteo Ricci, letter to Fabio de Fabii
1

The Master said, “Learning without due reflection leads to perplexity; reflection without learning leads to perilous circumstances.”

—Confucius,
Analects
(2, 15)

Paul Xu, the “Pillar” of the Mission

Life in the Nanjing mission proceeded smoothly, and Lazzaro Cattaneo and João da Rocha kept Ricci informed of any new developments. They often went to celebrate Mass in the home of the former soldier and extremely devout convert “Paul Chin,” who had built a small chapel for religious functions where the family, all of whom were baptized, would gather for prayer in private. When the seventy-four-year-old patriarch died, his son Martin broke with tradition by obeying his wishes and refusing the Buddhist monks permission to attend his funeral. This was a small triumph for the Jesuits and a sign of the consolidation of their religious community, which had been joined by over a hundred new converts in the space of two years.

The most important event was, however, an unexpected visit in January 1603 from a scholar named Xu Guangqi, who asked for Li Madou, the author of the renowned map of the world, and explained that he had met him briefly three years earlier but had been unable to stop and talk for lack of time. According to Ricci’s account in his history of the mission, on learning that Li Madou had moved to Beijing, the
shidafu
stayed and talked until late at night with João da Rocha, who showed him the manuscripts of the
Tianzhu shiyi
(“The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven”) and the
Tianzhu jiaoyao
(“Christian Doctrine”).
2
He studied these works thoroughly over the next few days, he asked to be received into the Catholic Church soon afterward, and he was baptized with the name Paul. While the missionaries were glad to have a scholar of evident culture and the highest caliber like Xu Guangqi among their new converts, they would certainly never have imagined that he was to have such a brilliant career in the imperial bureaucracy, culminating with the positions of grand secretary, minister of rites, and tutor to the heir to the throne. Xu Guangqi was to be the most eminent Chinese Catholic and the most authoritative supporter of the Jesuits, fully deserving Ricci’s description of him some years later as the “greatest pillar” of Christianity in China.
3

Aged forty-one at the time, ten years younger than Ricci, Xu Guangqi was born in Shanghai, then a small town on the sea in the Jiangsu province. His father was a merchant of modest degree, but his mother was from a family of
shidafu
. Like all young people whose parents were able to afford the expense, he set off on the long path of study leading to a career in the imperial bureaucracy, albeit with some ups and downs, having now failed to pass the examination to qualify as a
jinshi
on two occasions.

There is no lack of allusions to prophetic dreams and omens in the account Ricci gives of the scholar’s life and conversion in the history of the mission. His failure in the third-level examinations is in fact considered providential, as he would otherwise have been able to afford a concubine and would have found it much more difficult to embrace Christianity. Moreover, he would probably have been posted to a distant province and would thus have had no opportunity to visit Nanjing and be baptized.

Xu Guangqi’s prefaces to Ricci’s works provide some insight into the reasons why he decided to become a Catholic. Despite what he described as his natural inclination toward doubt and skepticism, on reading the works of Li Madou, it was as “a cloud lifting.”
4
To quote one of his best-known remarks, the religion expounded by the missionaries was able to “supplement Confucianism and displace Buddhism.”
5
Xu Guangqi also attached great importance to ascertaining that there was nothing in Ricci’s writings incompatible with such Confucian principles as the fidelity of the subject to the monarch or the son to the father, and nothing that was not conducive to self-improvement or the common good.

While Xu Guangqi was becoming the Catholic Paul Xu in Nanjing, Li Zhizao returned to Beijing after serving as the head of a board of examiners in the Fujian province and resumed his visits to the Jesuits’ house while awaiting another government assignment. He was pleased to be able to show Ricci the good use he had made of his teaching by telling him that he had included a mathematical question among those he was required to set for the examination. To the missionaries’ regret, however, Li Zhizao had only been in the capital for a few months when he was appointed superintendent of the Imperial Canal in the Shandong province and set off without having decided to convert.

Examinations and Baptisms

In January 1604, a year after his baptism, Xu Guangqi went to sit the imperial examination for the third time in Beijing, where he and Ricci got to know each other and formed a strong attachment. Realizing the uncommon caliber of this scholar “of fine intellect and great natural virtue”
6
and the potential benefits of his collaboration with the missionaries, Ricci took a close interest in his preparation for the examination. Xu Guangqi was ranked 123rd out of the 310 successful candidates and finally obtained the longed-for title of
jinshi
, whereupon the missionaries began to refer to him simply as Dr. Paul. Martin Chin, the convert from Nanjing and son of Paul Chin, also graduated in the same session, passing the examinations of the highest level in the section reserved for army officers at his sixth attempt.

The Jesuits’ delight at the success of their converts was tempered by regret that they would now have to leave the city, as only those topping the list of successful candidates could hope for a position in Beijing. Everyone else would have to obtain a post in a faraway province and then wait for promotion so as to move gradually toward the capital, or be recalled if lucky. As expected, Martin Chin was assigned to the Zhejiang province, where he remained for six years.

Xu Guangqi was also ready to accept a post on the outskirts of the empire, but Ricci was most reluctant to let him leave. He had no wish to lose the brilliant convert who resembled him so closely in terms of personality and might well prove an invaluable ally. In order to keep him in Beijing without harming his career prospects, Ricci advised him to take the examination for membership of the Hanlin Academy, which was based in the capital. The examination, which was extremely selective, was scheduled for the early summer. The
jinshi
accepted the challenge, took lodgings with the Jesuits to study, and succeeded in passing. Paul Xu would be able not only to stay in the capital but also to aspire to positions of great prestige and take Christianity into the upper echelons of the imperial bureaucracy. The academy was located in the vicinity of the southern gate of the Imperial City close to the ministries and the other government departments. In the space of a few months, Xu Guangqi found a house near the office in which he worked and was joined there by his family. His father was christened with the name Leo soon afterward, and his eldest son with James three years later.

Ricci was pleased with the results achieved and felt optimistic. Living with him in the mission were Pantoja, Ferreira, the two Chinese novices, and a small group of disciples. They were joined every day by numerous converts who attended the religious ceremonies regularly. One of the most fervent was the former geomancer Li Yingshi, or Paul Li, who helped the Jesuits “hunt for souls.” Such was his zeal in following the doctrinal precepts to the letter, Ricci tells us, that the missionaries had to dissuade him from going all the way to Macao for confirmation, a long journey that would have cost him a fortune.

Now satisfied with the mission’s progress, Ricci reported to his superiors on the results achieved, sometimes lingering over descriptions of the fervor shown by his converts and mentioning episodes considered miraculous. Together with the anecdotes and “prodigies” recounted in order to reassure the religious authorities as to the performance of the China mission, he endeavored to take stock of the situation objectively. There were about 150 conversions in the first three years of his stay in Beijing and about 1,000 in twenty-two years for China as a whole. While far higher figures were achieved in Japan and other countries where the Jesuits operated, Ricci pointed out that there were only fourteen priests and four lay brothers in “this never cultivated land,”
7
few indeed for a vast empire differing so radically in terms of language, culture, and mentality, especially as some of the brethren had still to acquire a mastery of Chinese. In agreement with his superior Valignano, Ricci stuck to the strategy of proceeding step by step and giving priority to conversion based on rational conviction—“few but good” rather than “many and imperfect,” as he put it in a letter to Ludovico Maselli in February 1605.
8
This held above all for the Beijing residence, which baptized fewer converts than the others.
9
Ricci was unconcerned about this, however, as he was convinced that the converts in the capital, people in positions of authority who were assiduous in their observance of the sacraments, were “superior in quality.”
10

Confirmation of the validity of this approach came from the Nanjing mission with the good news that Qu Taisu, the “great old friend who helped us so much to earn the credit we have in China,”
11
had finally been baptized. The decision had not been easy. Qu Taisu had turned up at the missionaries’ house and had asked them to take in his fourteen-year-old son and give him a Christian upbringing. After a short indoctrination, the missionaries baptized the youth with the name Mattew, after Ricci, and urged the father to receive the sacraments too. The scholar hesitated once again, having no wish either to leave his concubine or to be forced to relinquish the work he had recently been commissioned to undertake. By an ironic twist of fate, this was the publication of Buddhist works, which would have been a source of renown and guaranteed earnings.

It was the Chinese lay brother Francisco Martines, recently transferred to Nanjing, who came up with the right arguments to overcome his resistance and convince him after so much hesitation. Qu Taisu resolved the problem of his concubine by making her his lawful wedded wife in defiance of social conventions, and he abandoned the publication of the Buddhist works. He was immediately baptized with the name Ignatius on March 25, 1605.

Greatly pleased at this triumph, Ricci decided to publish his
Tianzhu jiaoyao
, or
Christian Doctrine
, a work long ready in manuscript form, in August of the same year. Designed specifically for converts and prepared “with great diligence,” it contained Chinese translations of the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary, and the Creed, as well as the Ten Commandments and the seven sacraments. A further aim was to ensure the uniformity of the missionaries’ teaching and to specify the terminology to be used in preaching by creating “many ecclesiastical words and new words in China.”
12
Given the lack of any equivalent of a capital letter in Chinese, prominence being indicated by a higher position with respect to the other characters, Ricci adopted this practice for those designating God, Jesus, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but not Mary.
13

Commending Virtue:
The Twenty-five Discourses

The increase in the number of converts encouraged Ricci in his attempt to reach as many Chinese intellectuals as possible with his teachings. It was now two years since the publication in 1603 of
The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven
, in which the Jesuit had attempted to reconcile Christianity and Confucianism by taking a stance against Buddhism and Taoism. As he was well aware, the work had persuaded some people of the validity of the Christian doctrine but had also aroused great resentment against the Jesuits among sympathizers of the two Chinese religions. He therefore thought it better to avoid controversy and to resume the role of sage and moralist that he found so congenial.

The time had come to publish
Ershiwu yan
, or
Twenty-five Discourses
, an ethical work written at the end of 1599 in Nanjing addressing subjects of interest to Confucian literati regardless of their religious sympathies. The small volume published in August 1605 was a Chinese adaptation of the
Enchiridion
of the Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus (
ad
50–115),
14
who taught the renunciation of desire, passion, and worldly goods; the endurance of evil; and acceptance of one’s fate. The subjects addressed were all part of the Jesuits’ cultural baggage, as revised in the light of Christian morality, and were perfectly comprehensible to Chinese literati due to their similarities with Confucian ethics. While it is not known whether Ricci had a copy of the philosopher’s work with him or he relied for the citations solely on his memory of his years of study at the Roman College, he adheres very closely indeed to the original text.

In offering this work to the Chinese, Ricci meant to present himself as a Christian philosopher who praised virtue without attacking the other religious doctrines. As he wrote to Ludovico Maselli shortly after its publication, “I do nothing but speak of virtue and living a good life in a very complete way as a natural philosopher but also as a Christian without refuting any sect.”
15

In much the same way that Jesuit thinkers reworked the subject matter of pagan morality in Christian terms, Ricci presented ancient Confucianism to the Chinese as though it were the Chinese version of Stoicism. The result was another small masterpiece of cultural accommodation, or indeed of twofold cultural accommodation, consisting as it did in the adaptation of Greek philosophy to Chinese philosophy and then both to Christianity. Ricci translated the aphorisms and the anecdotes of the
Enchiridion
with the modifications required to adapt them to Chinese culture, and he replaced the Greek word for the gods with the singular “God,” the Lord of Heaven. He omitted references to typical aspects of the Greco-Roman world that would have proved incomprehensible or inappropriate to Chinese readers, including gladiatorial combat, sexual relations, and moments in the private life of Roman matrons, and he replaced them with Chinese equivalents. In place of Socrates, Zeno, Homer, and other figures of the Western classical world, he cited Confucius and the legendary founding fathers of ancient China, such as the first sovereigns of the Zhou dynasty. Where Epictetus complained of the abstruseness of an ancient philosophical work by Chrysippus, he referred instead to the
I Ching
or “Book of Changes,” the best-known Chinese book of divination and one renowned for its cryptic utterances.