Matteo Ricci

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Matteo Ricci (left) and Xu Guangqi (徐光啟) (right) in the Chinese edition of Euclid's Elements (幾何原本) published in 1607.
Matteo Ricci (left) and Xu Guangqi (徐光啟) (right) in the Chinese edition of Euclid's Elements (幾何原本) published in 1607.
Map of the Far East by Matteo Ricci in 1602.
Map of the Far East by Matteo Ricci in 1602.

Matteo Ricci (October 6, 1552 – May 11, 1610; traditional Chinese: 利瑪竇; simplified Chinese: 利玛窦; pinyin: Lì Mǎdòu; courtesy name:西泰 Xītài) was an Italian Jesuit priest.

Matteo Ricci was born in 1552 in Macerata, then part of the Papal States. Ricci started learning theology and law in a Roman Jesuits' school. In 1577, he filed an application to be a member of a Missionary to India, and his journey began in March 1578 from Lisbon, Portugal. He arrived in Goa, a Portuguese Colony, in September 1578, and four years later he was dispatched to China.

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[edit] Ricci in China

In 1582, Ricci started learning the Chinese language and customs in Macau, a Portuguese trading post in Southern China, and became a rare Western scholar who had mastered Chinese classical script. The next year saw Ricci move inland and, after a visit to Canton, settle in Zhaoqing (肇慶) in Guangdong Province. Ricci moved there after receiving an invitation from the governor of Zhaoqing at the time, Wang P'an, who had heard of Ricci's skill as a mathematician/cartographer. Ricci stayed there from 1583 to 1589 before having to leave after a new viceroy decided to expel him. It was in Zhaoqing, in 1584, that Ricci composed the first ever map of the world in Chinese.

There is now a memorial plaque in Zhaoqing to commemorate his six-year stay there as well as a building set up as a 'Ricci Memorial Centre' although the building itself does not date back to the time of the priest as it was built as recently as the 1860s.

Further travels in China saw Ricci reach Nanjing and Nanchang in 1595, Tongzhou (a port for Beijing) in 1598 and then first reached Beijing on the 7th September 1598. However, because of a Korean/Japanese war at the time, Ricci could not reach the Imperial Palace. After waiting for two months he left Beijing first for Nanjing and also stopped at Suzhou in Jiangsu Province.

In 1601 he returned to Beijing where he was not initially granted an audience with the Emperor of China but, after he presented the Emperor with a chiming clock, Ricci was finally allowed to present himself at the Imperial court of Wanli thus becoming the first Westerner to be invited into the Forbidden City. Although Ricci was given free access to the Forbidden City he never met the Wanli Emperor; however, Wanli did grant him patronage by allotting to Ricci a generous stipend and the title of Superior-General of the Jesuits in China.[1] Ricci was able to meet important officials and leading members of the Beijing cultural scene.

He learned much about Chinese culture and history, and was the first Westerner to learn about the Kaifeng Jews.[2] He was personally contacted by a member of the Jewish community living in Beijing in 1605. Ricci never officially visited the community in Henan, but he did send a junior missionary there three years later in 1608, which was the first of many such missions commissioned by the church. In fact, the elderly Chief Rabbi of the Jews was ready to cede his power to Ricci, as long as he gave up eating pork, but he never accepted the position.[2] Ricci lived on in China until the end of his life. He died in Beijing on May 11th 1610.

Matteo Ricci dressed in traditional Chinese robes.
Matteo Ricci dressed in traditional Chinese robes.

[edit] Ricci's approach to Chinese culture

Painting of Matteo Ricci in which he was depicted as wearing "Chinese scholar" robe, dated 1611.
Painting of Matteo Ricci in which he was depicted as wearing "Chinese scholar" robe, dated 1611.

Ricci could speak Chinese as well as read and write classical Chinese (wenyan), the literary language of scholars and officials. Added to this he was known for his appreciation of the indigenous culture of the Chinese. During his research he discovered that, in contrast to the cultures of South Asia, Chinese culture was strongly intertwined with Confucian values and therefore decided that Christianity had to be changed to fit Chinese culture in order to be attractive to the Chinese.[citation needed]

Later discovering that Confucian thought was dominant in Ming Dynasty, Ricci became the first to translate the Confucian classics into a western language, Latin, with assistance from the scholar Xu Guangqi.

Ricci also met a Korean emissary to China, Yi Su-gwang. He taught Yi Su-gwang the basic tenets of Catholicism and transmitted western knowledge to him, giving Yi Su-gwang several books from the west that became the basis of his later works. Ricci's transmission of western knowledge to Yi Su-gwang influenced and helped shape the foundation of the Silhak movement in Korea.

The following places and institutions are named after Matteo Ricci:

Matteo Ricci's grave in Beijing.
Matteo Ricci's grave in Beijing.
Christianity in China Portal

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Douglas, 14.
  2. ^ a b White, William Charles. The Chinese Jews. New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corporation, 1966

[edit] References

  • Douglas, Robert Kennaway. (2006). Europe and the Far East. Adamant Media Corporation. ISBN 0-543-93972-3.

[edit] Further reading

  • Vincent Cronin, The Wise Man from the West: Matteo Ricci and his Mission to China (1955) ISBN 0-00-626749-1
  • Jonathan D. Spence, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci (1985)
  • Simon Leys, Madness of the Wise : Ricci in China, an article from his book, The Burning Forest (1983). This is an interesting account, and contains a critical review of The Memory Palace by Jonathan D. Spence.

[edit] Resources

Works

[edit] External links

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