China in the Sixteenth Century

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(image)# CHINA IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTry. (The Bettmann Archive)

Left: Matthew Ricci, S. J. (1552–1610) — founder of the first Christian missions in China.

Right: Li Paul, Mandarin Colao, prominent convert and champion of the faith.

CHINA IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY: The Journals of Matthew Ricci: 1583-1610

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Translated from the Latin by
LOUIS J. GALLAGHER, S.J.

With a Foreword by
RICHARD J. CUSHING, D.D., LL.D.
Archbishop of Boston

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Random House · New York

imprimi potest: William E. FitzGerald, S.J., Provincial, Province of New England.

nihil obstat: John J. Consodine, Diocesan Censor.

imprimatur: ✠ Richard J. Cushing, Archbishop of Boston.

May 5th, 1953.

Copyright, 1942, 1953, by Louis J. Gallagher, S.J.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in New York by Random House, Inc., and simultaneously in Toronto, Canada, by Random House, of Canada, Limited. Design by Peter Oldenburg. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 53-9708. Manufactured in the United States of America by The Haddon Craftsmen, Inc., Scranton, Pa.

CONTENTS

• FOREWORD, ix
• TRIGAULT, TO THE READER, xi
• TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE, xvii

Book One

1. Concerning the Mission to China Undertaken by the Society of Jesus 3
2. Concerning the Name, Location, and the Extent of the Chinese Empire 5
3. The Fertility and the Products of the Chinese Empire 10
4. Concerning the Mechanical Arts Among the Chinese 19
5. Concerning the Liberal Arts, the Sciences, and the Use of Academic Degrees Among the Chinese 26
6. The Administrations of the Chinese Commonwealth 41
7. Concerning Certain Chinese Customs 59
8. Concerning Dress and Other Customs and Peculiarities 77
9. Concerning Certain Rites, Superstitious and Otherwise 82
10. Religious Sects Among the Chinese 93
11. Signs of the Doctrines of the Saracens, the Jews, and of Christianity Among the Chinese 106

Book Two

1. Blessed Francis Xavier Undertakes to Enter China, but Fails 117
2. The Chinese Expedition Is Again Attempted by the Jesuits 127
3. Three Times in 1582 the Missionaries Are Admitted to China, but Fail to Establish a Residence 135
4. The Missionaries Are Invited to Sciauquin, Where They Build a House and Open a Center 144
5. The Missionaries Begin to Preach Christianity to the Chinese 154
6. In the Absence of Father Ruggieri, Father Ricci is Cleared of a Grave Charge. He Astounds the Chinese with His Knowledge of Mathematics 159
7. The Spanish Embassy to the King of China 169
8. Two More Missionaries Are Admitted to China. Cequian is Visited 174
9. The Fathers Lose Their New Abode. Father Ruggieri Makes a Tour of the Province of Quamsi 179
10. The Superior Returns to Macao. The Harassed Missionaries Are Cleared of Another Serious Charge 183
11. Father Ruggieri is Detained at Macao. Father Sande Returns to Sciauquin. Another Outbreak 189
12. Father Ruggieri Goes to Rome to Arrange for an Embassy from the Pope. Father Antonio Almeida Goes to Sciauquin. New Difficulties Here Originate in Canton 193
13. A Future Fruitful Harvest is Planted at Sciauquin 200
14. Last Efforts at Sciauquin and Expulsion of the Missionaries 205

Book Three

1. The Mission is Restored. New Residence at Xaucea 217
2. Father Valignano Stabilizes the Mission 227
3. Chiut3. Chiutaiso — 230
4. First Efforts in Xaucea — 235
5. Death of Father Almeida — 240
6. Converts in Nanhiun — 244
7. Robbers in the Night — 248
8. The Death of Father Francesco de Petris — 255
9. Father Ricci Reaches the Royal City of Nankin — 258
10. Father Ricci is Expelled from Nankin — 268
11. A Mission is Opened in Nancian — 274
12. The Royal Relatives — 281
13. A Permanent Foundation in Nancian — 284
14. More Trouble at Xaucea — 287

1. Back to Nankin — 295

2. From Nankin to Pekin — 301

3. Failure at Pekin — 309

4. Overland Journey to Nankin — 316

5. Mathematics and Converts — 325

6. The Leaders at Nankin Solicit the Company of Father Ricci — 332

7. Father Ricci Debates With a Minister of the Idols — 337

8. The Mission House at Nankin — 343

9. The First Nankin Neophytes Are Baptized — 348

10. They Set Out for Pekin Again — 354

11. Imprisoned in Tiensin — 359

12. From Prison to Pekin by the King’s Command — 369

13. They Lose Their Freedom in Pekin — 379

14. The Mission is Confirmed in Pekin by Royal Authority — 388

15. Two Remarkable Converts — 394

16. The Idol Worshippers Defeat Themselves — 399

17. The Harvest Begins to Ripen in Xaucea — 405

18. Darker Days at Xaucea — 415

19. Progress in Nankin — 426

20. The Rector of the College of Macao is Assigned to the China Mission ents*

21. The Death of Father Francesco de Petris — 255

22. Father Ricci Reaches the Royal City of Nankin — 258

23. Father Ricci is Expelled from Nankin — 268

24. A Mission is Opened in Nancian — 274

25. The Royal Relatives — 281

26. A Permanent Foundation in Nancian — 284

27. More Trouble at Xaucea — 287

1. Back to Nankin — 295
2. From Nankin to Pekin — 301
3. Failure at Pekin — 309
4. Overland Journey to Nankin — 316
5. Mathematics and Converts — 325
6. The Leaders at Nankin Solicit the Company of Father Ricci — 332
7. Father Ricci Debates With a Minister of the Idols — 337
8. The Mission House at Nankin — 343
9. The First Nankin Neophytes Are Baptized — 348
10. They Set Out for Pekin Again — 354
11. Imprisoned in Tiensin — 359
12. From Prison to Pekin by the King’s Command — 369
13. They Lose Their Freedom in Pekin — 379
14. The Mission is Confirmed in Pekin by Royal Authority — 388
15. Two Remarkable Converts — 394
16. The Idol Worshippers Defeat Themselves — 399
17. The Harvest Begins to Ripen in Xaucea — 405
18. Darker Days at Xaucea — 415
19. Progress in Nankin — 426
20. The Rector of the College of Macao is Assigned to the China Mission — 432

1. China Becomes an Independent Mission Under Father Ricci
2. Father Ricci’s Chinese Writings
3. Celebrated Literati Converts and Their Works
4. Christianity in Nancian
5. Lights and Shadows in Xaucea
6. Chiutaiso Finally Surrenders to Christ
7. The First Chinese Edition of Euclid
8. The Founder of the Chinese Mission Dies at Macao
9. Brother Martinez a Victim of Alleged Rebellion in Canton
10. Mythical Rebellion Subsides—Missionaries Cleared of Charges
11. Cathay and China. The Extraordinary Odyssey of a Jesuit Lay Brother
12. Cathay and China Proved to Be Identical
13. Brother Bento Goës Dies in China
14. Persecution at Nancian—Father Soeiro Dies
15. Persecution Strengthens the Faith at Nancian
16. The First Sodality of the Blessed Virgin in China
17. The Church Grows in Nankin
18. Father Cattaneo and Ciu Paul at Scianhai
19. A Weird Journey from Xaucea to Macao
20. The Death of Father Ricci
21. Ricci’s Tomb: A Gift from the King 1. China Becomes an Independent Mission Under Father Ricci
22. Father Ricci’s Chinese Writings
23. Celebrated Literati Converts and Their Works
24. Christianity in Nancian
25. Lights and Shadows in Xaucea
26. Chiutaiso Finally Surrenders to Christ
27. The First Chinese Edition of Euclid
28. The Founder of the Chinese Mission Dies at Macao
29. Brother Martinez a Victim of Alleged Rebellion in Canton
30. Mythical Rebellion Subsides—Missionaries Cleared of Charges
31. Cathay and China. The Extraordinary Odyssey of a Jesuit Lay Brother
32. Cathay and China Proved to Be Identical
33. Brother Bento Goës Dies in China
34. Persecution at Nancian—Father Soeiro Dies
35. Persecution Strengthens the Faith at Nancian
36. The First Sodality of the Blessed Virgin in China
37. The Church Grows in Nankin
38. Father Cattaneo and Ciu Paul at Scianhai
39. A Weird Journey from Xaucea to Macao
40. The Death of Father Ricci
41. Ricci’s Tomb: A Gift from the King of China

Index

WHEN AN ASTRONOMER discovers a new star, he reveals new light of age-old existence, hitherto probably observed by others but not recognized as a new and a valuable contribution to the science of astronomy and to the knowledge of the world. A similar satisfaction must follow for the archivist who reveals a document previously known to exist but unrecognized for the light it sheds upon past experience and into future research; light of which a large portion of the reading world had been deprived for centuries. The Ricci Diary is just such a document. One of the world’s greatest missionary records, it now appears for the first time to the English reading world, disclosing startling historic and geographic revelations, a reliable directive not only for missionary methods but also for the proper manner of treating with the Chinese people. Its appearance is also very timely, coming as it does at the beginning of a crucial period of international relations, as well as of missionary history.

Both China and Japan have experienced a founding of Christianity which was all but eradicated on several occasions by anti-Christian persecutions, following war and revolution, and subsequent to international conflict for control of Far Eastern trade. Shortly after the Portuguese were permitted to establish their first trading-post with the Chinese at Macao, in 1557, the first Chinese converts were taught the Portuguese language, given Portuguese names and instructed to conform to the way of living of the foreign colonists. It was not until the arrival of a Visitor General of the Society of Jesus, Father Alexander Valignano, known as another Xavier and called The Father of the Missions of the Far East, that the Jesuits decided to turn Chinese rather than attempt to convert the Celestial Kingdom by changing its millions into Portuguese and Italians. Father Valignano established a Chinese parish at Macao and then sent to India for three Jesuits who were known to have a reputation for acquiring Eastern languages as well as for zealous and untiring labor. Father Francesco Pasio took over the temporal and administrative affairs of the mission. Fathers Michael Ruggieri and Matthew Ricci became masters of the Chinese language, and together with Father Valignano were the first universally known Jesuit missionaries in China.

The Ricci method of converting the pagan is reminiscent of Christ among the Doctors in the temple and of Paul in the midst of the learned Greeks on the Acropolis. What Xavier experienced in Japan Ricci encountered in China, though the ultimate results of opposition to their labors were far more drastic in the island kingdom than on the continent. After several futile attempts to enter the secluded kingdom, Ricci finally gained a foothold on the forbidden soil, and his influence on the educated classes of China, over a period of twenty-seven years, resulted in a permanent foundation of Christianity. How he and his pioneering companions overcame the seemingly insurmountable material and intellectual barriers separating them from the imperial court, from the mental attitude of the Chinese philosophers, and from the interest and devotion of the Chinese people, is described in graphic detail in Trigault’s narrative of the Ricci Diary.

The destruction of Catholic Missions in China, the two great world wars leaving some of them more than half a century old in Japan. With this destruction, however, the dominance of an enlightened paganism may well be fading into oblivion before the rising of a new day of Christian splendor. The dawn of this day means the beginning of a new missionary era. The material foundations of the Chinese Christian Missions may be piled up in the waste of war, in the rubble of revolution and in the clutter of Communism, but the indestructible spiritual basis of the Christian way of life, to which the Chinese took so readily, was too solidly set by Ricci and his companions to be eradicated by the seismic disturbances of human instability. The doctrine they taught is founded upon the irremovable rock of Peter on which the enduring stability of Christianity in China and elsewhere must inevitably rest.

Ricci’s great rediscovered document should serve as a source of enlightenment for the mission minded. It will also reveal to the world in general more than a few of the secrets of the Chinese mind which render this great people so amenable to the grace of God.

Richard J. Cushing, DD., LL.D.

Archbishop of Boston

My dear genial reader:

I have not taken up this book, which appeared after the death of Father Matthew Ricci, with any intention of claiming that it is an original work of mine, but rather to acquaint you with its true and original author. The following discourse is made up almost entirely of his activities, and of the manner in which he, more than any other, courageously executed the original design of this expedition, and labored with determination to develop it, to the very end of his days.

Father Matthew Ricci was born in Macerata, in the March of Ancona, Italy, in 1552, on the 16^th of October. Here, too, he began his studies under Father Niccolo Benivegni, a secular priest who afterwards entered the Society of Jesus. Later on he pursued higher studies with distinction, at the Jesuit College of that district. At the age of seventeen, his father sent him to Rome, to continue his education. He studied law for three years, and though occupied during this time, by order of his father, with studies not too intimately connected with a religious vocation, he continued in Rome to cultivate the spirit he had absorbed, and to favor the inclination he had developed, during his acquaintance with Fathers at Macerata. It was there that he became a member of the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin, and regulated his life according to its rules, under the direction of its reverend prefect. Harkening to the call of a religious vocation, he asked for admittance into the Society of Jesus, toward which he had felt an inclination from the days of his youth. He was received into the Society in Rome, by Father Giovanni Polanco, who was taking the place of the General of the Society, Father Francis Borgia, then on visitation in Spain. Ricci entered the Society on the feast of the Assumption, August 15^th, 1571, and, knowing that his father had other designs in mind for him, he sent home a letter, asking for his father’s approval of the step he had taken. This letter so surprised his parent, that he immediately set out for Rome, with the avowed intention of withdrawing his son from the Jesuit novitiate. En route to Rome, he fell sick at Tolentino, on the first day of his journey, and being persuaded that his illness was a visitation from heaven, he returned to his home and sent his son a letter, stating that the resolution he had taken was quite reasonable, and evidently in keeping with the holy will of God.

Matthew Ricci’s Novice-Master was Father Alexander Valignano, who was afterwards to become famous for his masterly direction of the Society of Jesus in India, in Japan and in China. Until 1577, Ricci pursued his studies in Philosophy and Theology at the Jesuit College in Rome. During that year Father Martino a Sylva, Procurator of the East India Mission, arrived at Rome from India, and with his assistance Matthew and several of his Jesuit colleagues obtained permission from Father Everardo Mercuriano, Fourth General of the Society, to join the India Mission. On his way from Rome to Genoa, to take passage for Spain, he could not be persuaded to visit his people at Macerata, nor even to make a detour to that town, to visit the famous church of Our Lady of Loreto. He and his companions received the blessing of Pope Gregory the Thirteenth, and then left directly by sea for Portugal, that the India trading ships had already departed, and during the following year they went to Lisbon, to embark for India.

Let us here insert what Ricci often recounted, with great satisfaction, about Sebastian, the King of Portugal, who was so solicitous about his charges. When they went to visit him, to pay their respects, the Father Procurator told him that all of those who had come with him from Italy were noblemen, some of them from very distinguished families, and all desirous to convert the Indies and to promote the cause of Portugal. Among them was Rudolph Aquaviva, of distinguished birth but more celebrated, later, as a martyr, Nicola Spinola, Francesco Pasio, Michele Ruggieri, and Matthew Ricci, of whom we are now writing; each of them celebrated for holiness of life and for the offices he held in the Society of Jesus. They say the King replied to the Father Procurator, “How can I ever be sufficiently grateful to the Father General of the Order, for so much help for the Indies?” The good prince knew well that the Society was made up of subjects of different nationalities, united under the banner of Christ.

They left Portugal in a ship named after Saint Louis, and arrived in Goa, in India, on the 13th day of September, 1578. Ricci remained in India for four years, completing his course in Theology, acting as Professor of Rhetoric, at Goa and at Cochin, and preparing for greater undertakings. He was assigned to the China Mission by the official Visitor of the Society of Jesus. After almost thirty years of labor and of successful government of the China Mission, realizing that his time was coming to an end, he undertook to record the beginnings of this Mission in an orderly commentary, and thus to furnish some future writer with material prepared for the Mission annals. There were many incidents for recording which no one, other than he himself, could have recovered from the obscurity of early pioneering, because he was the only one involved in them. He had almost completed his commentaries a few months, or rather a few days, before his death, leaving some lacunae to be filled from the records of the various Mission centers, which were to be sent to him. His manuscript was found in his desk after his demise, together with other papers pertaining to the administration of the Mission.

Ricci’s commentaries were intended for Europe, and for fear that the record of the labor of so great a man might be lost amid the perils of such a long journey, and the dangers of overland travel on pack animals, it was decided to translate them into Portuguese, and to retain a copy in the Mission by means of an Italian. Father Ricci had written a diary, believing that it would not be read before it was seen and approved by the Father General of the Society of Jesus. Such was the modesty of this man, in view of the fact that what he had written was nothing more than an account of what he had accomplished.

The status of the Christian Mission to China at that time demanded that a Procurator be sent to Europe to promote the mission interests, and being selected for this office, my first thought was to read the manuscript of Father Matthew Ricci’s commentaries and translate them into Latin. My reasons for thinking so were, first, because I realized that this task could not be done by anyone who was not well acquainted with the affairs of the Mission, or with the various parts of the country that are mentioned, and secondly, as we have already said, because it was necessary to fill in various parts that were left unfinished, also to add certain items and to amplify others, which our good Father, in his modesty, had either omitted entirely, or only touched upon in passing. And so, although the sea voyage was long, the weather clear, and the sea calm, the work of translation was no small undertaking, and I realized that I had endeavored to accomplish something that demanded more leisure and more quiet than was customary among a crew of noisy sailors. Despite all this, however, I believe I would have come to the end of the book before coming to the end of the voyage, if I had continued on the regular course by sea. Instead, and for very good reasons, I went from India to the Persian Gulf by sea and then took an overland route, crossing Persia and the Arabian desert and a part of Turkey, and finally arrived at Heliopolis (near Cairo). From there I crossed the Mediterranean to Cyprus, Crete, Jacynthe (Zante) and finally, under God’s guidance, to Hydruntum (Otranto). My writing was only occasional on the latter part of the journey and was continually interrupted until arriving at Rome, where I managed, at night, to steal some hours from my other affairs. Here too there were many intermissions, leaving little time for writing, because of the illness that overtook me, but we did endeavor to continue the task, following the requests of friends and the advice of superiors.

You must understand, gentle reader, that we are more interested in offering you the truth of facts than the pleasure of literary style. Relative to the veracity of what is contained in the commentaries, in so far as it was humanly possible to attain to the truth, there is little if any room left for doubt. Father Ricci was not wont to deceive and was too experienced to be deceived. As for myself, I can assure you that I know my report to be honest. We gleaned it from the true report of other Fathers, who either witnessed it themselves, or approved of it for the annals of the Mission. I have not only visited China but have traversed six of its principal provinces, seen all the Mission Centers and, as I believe, garnered a thorough knowledge of the affairs of the Mission in general. We thought it best to inform you of all this, even at length, lest you be led into doubt by the contrary opinions appearing in the various writings thus far edited concerning the Kingdom of China.

Up to the present there are two kinds of authors who have written about China; those who have imagined much, and those who have heard much and have published the same without due consideration. From this latter class I can hardly except certain of our own Fathers, who placed their credence in Chinese merchants, without realizing that it is a common custom with them to exaggerate about everything and to report as true what never really happened. When our Fathers were first permitted to penetrate into the interior of China, it was remarked that they were taking much on faith, and for the first few years after they were allowed to enter the kingdom, it is quite probable that much went out in letters to Europe, that was not wholly reliable. No one, as is evident, could be expected to acquire a thorough understanding of European life without long years of contact. So too in China, in order to obtain a complete knowledge of this country and its people, one must consume years in traveling through the different provinces, learning to speak the native language and to read their books. All this we have done, and so it is only reasonable to believe that this most recent account of ours should supersede those that appeared before it, and that what it records should be taken for the truth, with due allowance, of course, for human errors, which if brought to our attention will be gratefully corrected and replaced in favor of more recent observation.

And so, kind reader, enjoy our present offering, until such time as we may be able to prepare a more ample and a more detailed history. If by God’s grace, after so many deviating peregrinations, I shall be permitted to return to my former post, and if I am granted an extension of years, I shall give you a volume of commentary concerning the customs and the habits of the Chinese, together with a compendium of Chinese annals, dating back over four thousand years and arranged, without interruption, according to successive centuries. It will also include, in Latin, the Code of Chinese Ethics, so that one may understand what the Chinese regard as the spirit and the very purpose and aim of their laws; again, how they judge of the propriety of acts of morality.

In the meantime, you must rest contented with this effort, as a sort of apéritif. I am asking your pardon for its brevity, due to my numerous occupations, occasioned by the small number of Fathers engaged in mission work. May I also ask you to take in good part the lack of elegance in the literary style of our discourse. Having for so long abandoned the art of writing, in an endeavor to learn foreign languages, it may well be that the crudity of our composition is dissonant to the subtle appreciation of your experienced ear.

Farewell.

Rome, January 14, 1615.# Translator’s Preface

FATHER MATTHEW RICCI’S DIARY, found among his papers after his demise, was originally written in Italian, and very probably with no thought of publication. Ricci died in 1610. The manuscript of his Diary was brought from Macao to Rome in 1614 by Father Nicola Trigault, who translated it into Latin and published it in 1615, together with an account of Ricci’s death and burial. Ricci’s Diary, as presented by Trigault, is a narrative account of the China Mission from the first Jesuit settlement at Macao in 1585 to the time of Ricci’s death.

In our book title we use Journals rather than Diary because Trigault draws from Ricci sources other than the Diary, such as the Annual Mission Letters, Ricci documents to other missionaries, and personal narrative which Trigault says was omitted by Ricci because of his modesty.

The appearance of Trigault’s book in 1615 took Europe by surprise. It reopened the door to China, which was first opened by Marco Polo, three centuries before, and then closed behind him by an incredulous public, who received the greater part of his fabulous narrative as the beguiling tales of a capricious traveler. Four Latin editions followed the first, in 1616, 1617, 1623 and 1648. It appeared in three French editions, in 1616, 1617 and 1618, in German, in 1617, in Spanish, in 1621, in Italian, in 1621, and excerpts from it are found in English in “Purchas His Pilgrims,” in 1625. In so far as we can ascertain, no complete translation of Trigault’s work was ever published in English before this present edition.

On the three hundredth anniversary of Ricci’s death, Father Tacchi Venturi, S.J., published the original Diary in Italian, under title of “The Historical Works of Matthew Ricci.” In 1942 the first volume of “Fonti Ricciane,” a monumental opus by Father Pasquale D’Elia, S.J., appeared, and the second volume in 1949. The third volume of this great work is a three hundred and seventy-two page Index of volumes I and II. This extraordinary publication of Ricci’s edited and unedited writings, a prodigious undertaking of research, must remain as a veritable mine of information for sinologues. The critique and commentary, the exhaustive footnotes, the volume of indices and the Chinese character equivalents in the text and in the copious notes, leave nothing in Ricci’s works unidentified or unexplained.

In the introduction to his edition of Ricci’s Diary, Father Venturi remarks that his purpose in publishing his book is to honor an illustrious son of Italy and to rescue his name from historic oblivion. In the critical commentary on “The Christian Expedition into China,” Father D’Elia reminds us that Ricci’s Diary was given to the world as a book in which Trigault seems to be the chief protagonist. Judging from Trigault’s wording of the first short chapter of Book I, the reader might readily conclude that Trigault was the author of this first book, whereas Book I is part of the original Ricci Diary, save for Trigault’s interjection here of his purpose in translating the Diary from Italian into Latin. In the very beginning of his book Trigault informs his reader that he lays no claim to the authorship of the work, which, as he says, belongs entirely to Ricci.

The Abbé Dehergne states that the reason for writing his book was to give due credit to his fellow citizen of Douai, as a scholar, historian and missionary, and as a distinguished son of Belgium.

If, indeed, there were any call to rescue such illustrious names as Ricci and Trigault from historic oblivion, or to restore them a balance of credit, we are convinced that both the leader and the historian of “The Christian Expedition into China” would be solicitous to share the glory of their renown with the pioneer laborers who took part in the titanic task involved in their common undertaking.

With due regard for the original author, Matthew Ricci, the co-founder, with Father Alexander Valignano, of the China Mission, and the prime mover in its development, and with equal regard for the scholarly historian, Nicola Trigault, who first revealed to Europe who the Chinese were and how they lived, we have chosen to entitle our translation of Trigault’s work, “China in the Sixteenth Century: The Journals of Matthew Ricci: 1583–1610.” Our purpose is, therefore, to offer an English translation of Trigault’s 1615 Latin version of the Ricci commentaries.

We dare say that from the first appearance of Trigault’s book, over three centuries ago, not a single sinologue of any nation has failed to mention Ricci, and few historians of China have failed to quote from Trigault’s work, which opened a new era of Chinese-European relations and gave us one of the greatest, if not the greatest, missionary document in the world. Our further interest in presenting this book is to fill a long-lasting lacuna in English-written Jesuit Relations, and to offer the English-reading public a chapter in Jesuit history, to which they formerly had access only through quotations and excerpts.

Save to sinologues and to students of Chinese history, Trigault’s book has been known to comparatively few, and yet it probably had more effect on the literary and scientific, the philosophical and the religious, phases of life in Europe than any other historical volume of the seventeenth century. It introduced Confucius to Europe and Copernicus and Euclid to China. It opened a new world, revealed a new race of people, and introduced into the family of nations a problem member which still remains a problem after three hundred years of acquaintance. The general theme of this work is the sixteenth-century discovery of China by the Jesuits.

Our present work might easily be augmented by a volume of footnotes more ample than the Diary itself, but all this has been done, to some extent, by the Father D’Elia in his “Fonti e Riccheze.” Book I of the Diary is in itself, as Trigault says, a book of footnotes to the following text, and as such it is quite sufficient to answer the purpose for which the Diary is now being presented.

Perhaps the most significant historical item in the Diary is the revelation that Cathay was another name for China, and not a separate kingdom, as Europe had believed since the time of Marco Polo. This discovery was the result of the famous overland Odyssey of the Jesuit Lay Brother, Bento Goës, from Agra in India, over the Hindu Kush to the China border, as related in the fifth book of the Diary. In Vol. 2 of the 1866 publication of the Hakluyt Society, entitled “Cathay and the Way Thither,” as taken from Trigault, Henry Yule says, “It is a meagre record of a journey so interesting and so important. Had Benedict’s diary, which he is stated to have kept in full detail, been spared, it would probably have been to this day by far the most valuable geographical record in any European language, on the subject of the countries through which he traveled.” Why Bento’s diary was destroyed by the Saracens is told in the Ricci story of the Goës expedition. The Goës undertaking, in turn, is intimately connected with the Christian Expedition into China, inasmuch as it opened the mysterious kingdom to an overland entrance from the west, twenty years after Ricci had entered it by sea from the east.

Ricci’s design upon entering China was to win over the people by first gaining the favor and the following of the lettered or educated classes, and this he planned to do by teaching the sciences as they were known in Europe. Educated at the Roman College under Clavius, he was numbered among the most erudite scientists and mathematicians of his time.

After tedious acquisition of the Chinese language, and once received into the upper caste of philosophers, who virtually ruled the country, Ricci adopted the costume of the bonzes or Chinese monks, and his house became a rendezvous for civil and military authorities, afterwards known in Europe as mandarins. This was an ideal setting for his purpose, because all officers, military as well as civil, were selected by law from the literati or educated classes. He wore the costume of the bonzes for six years before changing to that of the philosophers, the highest intellectual caste in the kingdom.

Shut off from the rest of the world, of their own accord, as they were, and self-satisfied that they alone were possessed of all knowledge and philosophy and the sciences, the Chinese Solons must have looked upon Ricci’s sudden appearance in their midst as a veritable revelation. Supplied from Europe, by way of Macao, with a collection of clocks and watches and with various other kinds of scientific apparatus, unknown in China, he would first thoroughly explain and demonstrate the new devices and then give them as presents to his distinguished visitors. He was an expert at making sundials, maps, geographic and celestial globes, hour-glasses for sand and water, and other such scientific equipment, most of which the Chinese had never seen. These were welcome gifts to curious scholars and served for the establishment of future beneficial relations. In collaboration with Father Ruggieri, he composed, in Chinese, an exposition of the Christian faith, in the form of a dialogue between an educated Chinese and a European Catholic priest. This was the first of a numerous series of such tracts, which were in great demand among the upper classes, and some of which were still in circulation a century after Ricci’s death.

The marvels that Ricci wrought in Nankin and in Pekin are tempting enough to lead us into long repetition, but these belong to his diary. Three years after his first and futile visit to Nankin, we find him securely installed there, where he founded a mission center that flourished until the persecution of 1616. He set out for Pekin in the year 1600, and after several months as a prisoner in Tientsin, the Emperor sent for him and he lived in the northern capital until his death in 1610. For the last fourteen years of his life he was Superior of the entire China Mission which was officially separated from Macao in 1596.

The author of numerous works on science and religion, written in Chinese, Ricci was well known to the educated classes of China as a prominent professor of physics, mathematics and geography, as a learned philosopher of Chinese and of extraneous doctrine, as a prominent commentator on Confucius, and particularly as an eminent teacher of the Christian religion. Some of his Chinese compositions, which he accomplished alone, together with those of later Jesuit missionaries, done with the assistance of Christian mandarins, are included in the official index of the best Chinese writings of all time.

The Ricci Diary is a detailed introduction to the history of European influence on China from 1615 to the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773. His first Chinese mappamondi stood as a model for European cartographers for a century after its publication; and earned him the title, The Ptolemy of China. His contributions to the Chinese calendar were a preface to the mathematical work of the scientific element in China. His solution of the China-Cathay problem instituted a new geographic era and opened five different overland routes into China, which lasted as standard but hazardous highways until the Flying Tigers flattened the Himalayas, three centuries later.

Missionary literature recounts the hazardous and, all too frequently, the fatal voyaging in Asiatic seas of Portuguese, Italian, French and German Jesuits, in their Society’s effort to develop the China Mission. The success attained, during the century and a half that followed the pioneering period, was the direct result of the effect produced upon the Chinese people by the first Jesuits to enter the Celestial Kingdom. Nowhere are the missionary methods of these forerunners of the faith more graphically described or more intimately detailed than in Trigault’s narrative rendition of the Ricci Diary.

Whatever design of civilization and culture may develop subsequent to the chaotic conditions existing in China since the collapse of the monarchy in 1911, China’s ancient mode of living must always be reckoned with, in the establishment of any stable form of government. An ancient civilization may be coming to a definite end, but whatever form of government is established in China, or imposed upon it, the fundamental characteristics of the race will remain unchanged. The nobility of character of the Chinese people, their love of liberty, of order, and of learning, their devout tendency toward religion, and their keen sense of justice and of ethical interpretation, were never more clearly revealed than when set forth in what Ricci calls his summary study of the customs, laws, institutes and government of the Chinese people. Despite contrary opinions, he vehemently maintained that though deeply devoted to their parents in life, and for years publicly expressive of their grief for parents departed, they were never ancestor worshippers, in the religious sense of the term.

The benign and peaceful attitude of this people toward all other nations is clearly outlined in Ricci’s lucid explanation of the Chinese form of government of his time. The value they set on national character is explained in the same chapter, when he says, “It must be said of the Chinese that they would prefer to die an honorable death rather than swear allegiance to a usurping monarch.”

Chinese life of the future will be modeled, to a considerable extent, upon their own unique and original pattern of the past. Without a knowledge of that, there is no understanding and hence no appreciation of their singular genius. We know no better literary portrayal than that offered them in the present volume of it done by Matthew Ricci.

We wish to acknowledge our indebtedness and to offer our thanks to Rev. Russell M. Sullivan, S.J., for his collaboration on the manuscript, to Rev. George T. Eberle, S.J., for his critique of our English version, to Rev. Joseph Sebes, S.J., and Professor Lien-Sheng Yang of Harvard University for the Chinese index, and to Mr. Vincent P. Roberts and Mr. Bernard Goldfine, as Sponsors of the present edition.

Louis J. Gallagher, S.J.,

Saint Robert’s Hall,
Pomfret Center, Connecticut,
Feast of Saint Robert Bellarmine,
May 13, 1953.

Reasons for this First Book and Its Method

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It not infrequently happens that the beginnings of vast expeditions and mighty undertakings which have matured in the course of ages are all but a closed book to those who live long after these events. After frequently pondering over the reasons for this fact, I came to the conclusion that the beginnings of all events, even of those which later took on vast proportions, were so very small and meager at the outset that they seemed to give no promise whatever of developing later into anything of importance. This would account for the fact that those who brought up these events from their infancy, so to speak, put themselves to no pains to commit to memory the facts which at that time seemed to have but little significance. Perhaps, too, it might be preferred to explain this fact by saying that the beginnings of such undertakings were beset with so many and such great difficulties, that we would be warranted in assuming that the authors of these happenings, who were straining every nerve to accomplish their tasks, found but little time and had but little energy left for keeping records of what was happening.

Such is the opening paragraph of the Ricci Diary, after which Father Trigault remarks, in the first person, that he is endeavoring to write an historical account of facts gathered from the posthumous papers of Father Matthew Ricci, facts which were set down in his Diary for the benefit of posterity. The Diary is then continued, with Ricci writing, in the first person.

It is, therefore, by keeping such records that I hope to rescue from oblivion the story of the entrance of our Society into the vast dominion of China, whose borders have been closed for so many ages, and likewise of the first fruits of Christianity gathered from this noble race. There is another reason also which strongly urges me to undertake this work; namely, that if perchance it should sooner or later please the Divine Goodness to garner into the granaries of the Catholic Church a rich harvest from this initial sowing of the gospel seed, the faithful of later days may know to whose instrumentality to attribute the admirable work undertaken for God in past years for the conversion of this estimable people. If, on the other hand, it should happen, because of the hidden judgments of God, that the expected harvest should not come to fruition, then at least posterity will know how much our least Society of Jesus has labored and suffered to dispel the deep shadows of infidelity, and with what zeal and industry they labored with high hope of cultivating this new soil. Furthermore, who can doubt that this whole expedition of which we are now writing is divinely directed, since it is entirely devoted to bringing the light of the gospel to souls? Since we look upon it as such, we shall endeavor to present it to the reader rather with the frankness of truthful statements than with rhetorical narratives. Now I have made use in this account of the private letters of our companions, provided these have the solidity of truth, based on authority, which of right they should possess, unless perchance there be a contradiction between them. Moreover, I do not propose to give every detail in a history of this kind or to exhaust the matter treated therein, for indeed there might well have been many other happenings fully worthy of recording.

China and Europe differ as much in manners and customs as they do in geographical position, and because this entire narration is intended for Europeans, I have thought it necessary before entering upon my chief task of recording our experience in China, to give a brief account of the position of this kingdom, of its customs, its laws, and of other like topics. My purpose in so doing is to save the reader the distasteful task of repeatedly breaking the thread of the diary story by frequently encountering explanatory passages that would otherwise have to be inserted. Concerning the matters treated, however, I shall adhere to the practice of touching only upon such things as are at variance with our own customs and manners, in so far as this will reveal something historically new. Although many books are circulating through Europe concerning these same topics, I am of the opinion that it will not bore anyone to hear these same things from our companions. We have been living here in China for well-nigh thirty years and have traveled through its most important provinces. Moreover, we have lived in friendly intercourse with the nobles, the supreme magistrates, and the most distinguished men of letters in the kingdom. We speak the native language of the country, have set ourselves to the study of their customs and laws and finally, what is of the highest importance, we have devoted ourselves day and night to the perusal of their literature. These advantages were, of course, entirely lacking to writers who never at any time penetrated into this alien world. Consequently they were writing about China, not as eyewitnesses but from hearsay and depending upon the trustworthiness of others. In truth, we ourselves have restricted the discussion of the topics mentioned to the somewhat limited compass of a few chapters in a single book, whereas each of the subjects could be deservedly expanded into a separate book, if its relative importance were taken into consideration.

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This most distant empire of the Far East has been known to Europeans under various names. The most ancient of these appellations is Sina, by which it was known in the time of Ptolemy. In later days it was called Cathay by Marco Polo, the Venetian traveler who first made Europeans fairly well acquainted with the empire. The most widely known name, however, China, was given by the Portuguese who reached this kingdom after vast maritime explorations and who even today carry on their trade in the southeastern province of Canton. The name, China, was slightly modified by the Italians and by some other European nations, due to their lack of familiarity with the Spanish pronunciation which differs somewhat from the Latin. China is pronounced by all Spaniards in the same way in which the Italians pronounce Cina.

In my judgment there can be little doubt that this is the country which is called the land of the Hippophagi, the horse eaters, for even to this very day, in this vast empire, the flesh of horse is eaten much in the same way as we eat the flesh of oxen. Nor again have I any doubt that this is the country referred to as the Land of Silk (Serica regio), for nowhere in the Far East except in China is silk found in such abundance that it is not only worn by all the inhabitants of the country, the poor as well as the rich, but it is also exported in great quantities to the most distant parts of the earth. There is no other staple of commerce with which the Portuguese prefer to lade their ships than Chinese silk, which they carry to Japan and India where it finds a ready market. The Spaniards, too, who dwell in the Philippine Islands, freight their trading vessels with Chinese silks for exportation to New Spain and other parts of the world. In the annals of the Chinese Empire, I find mention of the art of silk weaving as far back as the year 2636 before Christ, and it appears that the knowledge of this art was carried to the rest of Asia, to Europe, and even to Africa from the Chinese Empire.

It does not appear strange to us that the Chinese should never have heard of the sovereign states of the west; but to us it should be strange that they should be entirely unaware of their existence. No vestige of these names is to be found among them nor is there any cause to explain the multiplicity of names. The Chinese themselves in the past have given many different names to their country and perhaps will impose others in the future. It is a custom of immemorial age in this country, that as often as the right to govern passes from one family to another, the country itself must be given a new name by the sovereign whose rule is about to begin. This the new ruler does by imposing some appropriate name according to his own good pleasure. Thus we read that the country was at one time called Than, meaning broad; at another time Yu, or quiet; and again Hia, equivalent to our word great. In later days it was called Sciam, which signifies splendid. Then it was known as Cheu, that is to say, perfect; and Han, which means the Milky Way, and through the ages it was known by many other names. From the time of the ascendency of the present reigning family which bears the name of Ciu, the empire was called Min, meaning brightness, and at present the syllable Ta is prefixed to Min, so that today the empire is called Ta-Min, that is to say, great brilliance. Among the nations bordering China, few are aware of this variety of names, whence it happens that China is called now by one name and now by another by the people beyond its confines. Today the people of Cochin and the Siamese as well, from whom the Portuguese learned to call the empire China, call this country Cin. The Japanese know it as Than. The Tartars know it as Han, and the Saracens, who live to the west, speak of it as Cathay. Among the Chinese themselves, and the Latin writers most frequently call them Chinese, after Ptolemy,Claudius Ptolemy, Alexandrian geographer, astronomer, and mathematician of the second century. besides the name assumed with the coming of the new sovereign, the country also has a title which has come down through the ages and sometimes other names are joined to this title. Today we usually call this country Ciumquo or Ciumhoa, the first word signifying kingdom, and the second, garden. When put together the words are translated, “To be at the center.” I have heard that this title is due to the fact that the Chinese look upon the heavens as spherical and imagine that the world is flat and that China is situated in the middle of this flat plain. Due to this idea, when they first saw our geographical maps, they were somewhat puzzled to find their empire placed not in the center of the map but at its extreme eastern border. When Father Matthew RicciHere, as throughout Books 2 to 5, Trigault, the narrator, as he signs himself at the end of Book 5, uses the name of Matthew Ricci where the original manuscript has P. Matteo, il Padre or some other indefinite form. drafted a map of the world for them and inscribed it with Chinese characters, out of deference to their ideas, he so arranged it that China appeared in the center of the world, as they contended it should be. Now, however, the Chinese, better informed as to the shape of the world, correct their former error and make it a source of no little mirth.

He whose authority extends over this immense kingdom is called Lord of the Universe, because the Chinese are of the opinion that the extent of their vast dominion is to all intents and purposes coterminous with the borders of the universe. The few kingdoms contiguous to their state, of which they had any knowledge before they learned of the existence of Europe, were, in their estimation, hardly worthy of consideration. If this idea of assumed jurisdiction should seem strange to a European, let him consider that it would have seemed equally strange to the Chinese, if they had known that so many of our own rulers applied this same title to themselves, without at the same time having any jurisdiction over the vast expanse of China. So much then for the name of the kingdom known as China.

Relative to the extent of China, it is not without good reason that the writers of all times have added the prefix great to its name. Considering its vast stretches and the boundaries of its lands, it would at present surpass all the kingdoms of the earth, taken as one, and as far as I am aware, it has surpassed them during all previous ages. To the south, China is bounded by the 19° north latitude and terminates in the island which they call Hainam, which word signifies the south sea. Thence it extends to the 42° north latitude, to the great northern wall, which the Chinese built to divide their territory from Tartary and which serves as a defense against the incursions of those peoples. To the west, China’s frontier lies along the 112° longitude,In the edition of 1615, Trigault writes centesimo duodecimo evidently for centesimo secundo. Yunnan lies between 98° and 104° longitude. measured from the Fortunate Islands, in the province which they call Yunam, and from this point it extends eastward until it terminates at the 132° longitude in the sea of the rising sun. We ourselves have determined the positions of these boundaries, in those parts of the empire wherein we happened to travel, by means of the astrolabe and of such other instruments as are used by mathematicians. We have also checked our findings by consulting the data of eclipses found in Chinese records in which the new and full moons are accurately described and especially with the aid of cosmographical maps. It appears to me that nothing further can be added concerning the length of the country from north to south, nor concerning the measurements of longitude spanned by this country. If it shall please divine providence that some of our companions should later on carry the light of the gospel further west, and that in the course of these travels they should make more accurate observations concerning the breadth of this country, differing from the figures I have assigned, I feel certain that the difference will be very small. In such case, however, I shall most readily yield to their authority in the matter, knowing that more recent observations will very probably be more accurate.

From what has been said, it will be seen that the extensive dominions of this great empire lie for the most part within the temperate zone and are favored with a mild climate. Taken as a whole, however, the country possesses all those gradations of climate which one might experience in passing from the Island of Meroe to a point as far north as Rome. Vast as the dimensions of this country are in reality, its length from north to south falls far short by almost one third of the distance commonly attributed to it by the writers of our time, who as a rule place the northern boundary slightly above the 53rd parallel of north latitude. Now lest one should imagine that this great expanse is for the most part made up of uncultivated desert land, let me insert here the testimony of eyewitnesses as I find it recorded in a Chinese book, entitled, A Description of the Chinese Empire, written in 1579. The passage, exactly translated, runs as follows: “In the Chinese Empire, there are two regal provinces—Nankin, the southern kingdom, and Pekin, the northern kingdom. Besides these two there are thirteen other provinces. These fifteen provinces”—which might very well be called kingdoms—“are further divided into one hundred and fifty-eight departments or small provinces,” which the Chinese call Fu and most of which contain twelve to fifteen large cities, besides smaller towns, fortresses, villages, and farms. “In these regions two hundred and forty-seven large cities are designated by the title, Cheu, although for the most part these are differentiated from other large cities by their dignity and importance rather than by their size. Then there are eleven hundred and fifty-two common cities which are called Hien.” At the time when the book I have just mentioned was printed, the adult population, of which every member was subject to royal taxes, numbered 58,550,801. This number does not include the women of the empire nor such as soldiers, eunuchs, the relatives of the King, magistrates, scholars, and many others.

Notwithstanding the fact that apart from Tartar raids peace has now prevailed for a very long time, more than a million soldiers are retained in service, at the expense of the government. This number will not seem to be exaggerated if we recall that of the three provinces in the north, one of which is called Leatum, nearly half of the entire population is constantly under arms in the service of the King. The author of the book just quoted enumerates three countries to the east, more than fifty-three countries to the west, more than fifty-five to the south, and three to the north, all of which pay tribute to the empire. I have observed, however, that today very few of these countries are paying the stipulated tribute. Indeed, those who do continue to pay it, when they come into the country to fulfill their obligation, carry away with them from China more money than they bring in as tribute, so that the Chinese authorities have become quite indifferent as to whether or not the tribute is ever paid.

Referring again to the enormous extent and renown of this empire, it should be observed that it is quite well protected on all sides, by defenses supplied by both nature and science. To the south and the east it is washed by the sea, and the coast is dotted with so many small islands that it would be difficult for a hostile fleet to approach the mainland. To the north the country is defended against hostile Tartar raids by precipitous hills, which are joined into an unbroken line of defense with a tremendous wall four hundred and five miles long. To the northwest it is flanked by a great desert of many days’ march, which either deters an advancing army from attacking the Chinese border or becomes the burial place of those who attempt the attack. Beyond the mountain range which hems in the kingdom to the west, there exist only impoverished countries to which the Chinese pay little or no attention, as they neither fear them nor consider them worth while annexing.

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Due to the great extent of this country north and south as well as east and west, it can be safely asserted that nowhere else in the world is found such a variety of plant and animal life within the confines of a single kingdom. The wide range of climatic conditions in China gives rise to a great diversity of vegetable products, some of which are most readily grown in tropical countries, others in arctic, and others again in the temperate zones. The Chinese themselves, in their geographies, give us detailed accounts of the fertility of the various provinces and of the variety of their products. It hardly falls within the scope of my present treatise to enter into a comprehensive discussion of these matters. Generally speaking, it may be said with truth that all of these writers are correct when they say that everything which the people need for their well-being and sustenance, whether it be for food or clothing or even delicacies and superfluities, is abundantly produced within the borders of the kingdom and not imported from foreign climes. I would even venture to say that practically everything which is grown in Europe is likewise found in China. If not, then what is missing here is abundantly supplied by various other products unknown to Europeans. To begin with, the soil of China supplies its people with every species of grain—barley, millet, winter wheat, and similar grains.

Rice, which is the staple article of Chinese diet, is produced here in far greater abundance than in Europe. Vegetables, especially beans, and the like, all of which are used not only as food for the people but also as fodder for cattle and beasts of burden, are grown in unlimited variety. The Chinese harvest two and sometimes three crops of such plants every year, owing not only to the fertility of the soil and the mildness of the climate but in great measure to the industry of the people. With the exception of olives and almonds, all the principal fruits known in Europe grow also in China, while the real fig tree, which, by the way, our Fathers introduced into China, yields in nothing to its European progenitors. The Chinese, moreover, possess a variety of fruits unknown in Europe which are found exclusively in the province of Canton and in the southern parts of China. These fruits are called licya and longana by the natives and for the most part they are very pleasing to the taste. The Indian nut-bearing palm tree bears fruit very similar to the Chinese fig, a very sweet and appetizing fruit which the Portuguese call salsucina. This particular fruit can be eaten only after it is dried, hence the Portuguese call it a fig. It has nothing in common with the real fig, however, since it resembles a large Persian apple, Probably the peach. only it is red, and lacks the soft down and the pit. Here, too, we find oranges and other citrus fruits and every kind of fruit that grows on thornbushes, in a larger variety and possessing a finer flavor than the same fruits grown in other countries.

Much the same can be said of the variety and quality of table vegetables and the cultivation of garden herbs, all of which the Chinese use in far greater quantities than is common among the people of Europe. In fact, there are many among the common folk who live entirely upon a vegetable diet through the whole course of their lives, either because they are forced to do so by reason of poverty or because they embrace this course of life for some religious motive. The profusion of flowering plants really leaves nothing to be desired, as the Chinese have many species unknown to us which make a deep appeal to the aesthetic sense and show forth the lavish bounty of the Creator. The Chinese seem to take more delight in the shape and color of flowers than in their odors, and the science of distilling essential oils from flowers and plants was practically unknown to them until they began trade relations with the Europeans. In the four southern provinces we find the splendid plant which the Indians call betre, and the tree which they call arequiarum is also very common. The Indians derive great pleasure from constant chewing of the leaf of the betre, mixed with lime, and they claim that the warmth produced by the chewing is quite beneficial to the stomach.

The Chinese have several substitutes for our olive oil, both for food and for the filling of lamps. Chief among these is an oil which has a pleasing odor and is obtained from the sesame, which grows everywhere in abundance. Their wines are inferior to our European products although they try to persuade themselves of the opposite. Grapes are not common and those that are obtainable are not of very good quality. Hence they do not manufacture wine from grapes but obtain it by fermenting rice and other grain seeds, which accounts for the fact that it is everywhere used plentifully. This rice-wine is very much to their taste and of a truth it is not at all unpleasant, though it does not produce the same feeling of warmth as our wines of Europe.

The meat most in vogue with the common people is pork and the meat of all kinds of fowl, but other meats are also plentiful. Beef, lamb, and goat are to be had at the butcher shops in every street and in full supply. Hens, ducks, and geese are to be found everywhere in large flocks. Yet in spite of this plentiful supply of meat, the flesh of horses, mules, asses, and dogs finds equally as much favor as other meats, and this equine and canine meat is exposed for sale in all the markets. In some districts oxen and gazelles are not slaughtered because of some superstition or because of the needs of agriculture. The flesh of game animals, especially that of deer, hares, and other small animals, is common and may be had cheaply.

Neither horses nor other beasts of burden are the equal of those in Europe, in stature or in form, but in numbers, in cheapness of price, and in carrying power, they excel our own and are used as pack carriers in those parts where one does not meet the rivers. This country is so thoroughly covered by an intersecting network of rivers and canals that it is possible to travel almost anywhere by water. Hence, an almost incredible number of boats of every variety pass hither and thither. Indeed there are so many of them that one of the writers of our day does not hesitate to affirm that there are as many people living on the water as there are dwellers on land. This may sound like an exaggeration and yet it all but expresses the truth, as it would seem, if one were to travel here only by water. In my opinion it might be said with greater truth and without fear of exaggeration, that there are as many boats in this kingdom as can be counted up in all the rest of the world.

This statement is true if we restrict our count to the number of boats sailing on fresh water. As to their ships that pass out into the sea, they are very few and not to be compared with ours either in number or in structure. Let us return for a moment to their horses. The Chinese know little about the taming or training of horses. Those which they make use of in daily life are all geldings and consequently quiet and good tempered. They have countless horses in the service of the army, but these are so degenerate and lacking in martial spirit that they are put to rout even by the neighing of the Tartars’ steeds and so they are practically useless in battle. Moreover, since their hoofs are not shod and are very tender they cannot endure long journeys over flinty and rocky ground.

The sea which lies to the east and southeast of China is literally alive with fishes. The rivers, too, which in some places widen out into what might be called small seas, also yield a great quantity of fish. Stocked fishponds are almost as common here as in Europe, and they are fished every day for private consumption and for the market, and yet the fish are very cheap on account of their abundance. Fowls, too, are cheap and are excellent. Their pigs in the stalls grow to an enormous size in six months.

There are no lions in the forests in China, but tigers, bears, wolves, and foxes exist in large numbers. A great many elephants are reared at Pekin to lend color to the court pageantry, but the elephant is an importation and is to be seen nowhere else within the confines of the kingdom. The Chinese have no knowledge of linen, but the common people weave a cloth from cotton which is used for clothing.

Cotton seed was introduced to this country only forty years ago, and it thrives so well, because of the fertility of the soil, that enough cotton could be grown in China to supply the whole world. Silk is manufactured on so large a scale that it can readily compete with the European product, though perhaps the latter may be of a higher quality. From silk, too, they also weave a Damascene cloth having an admixture of cotton, and in imitation of European products they now weave a cloth made entirely of silk. Their other woven fabrics also find a ready market in Europe, and the price they receive for them is about one-third or one-fourth of what we pay for a similar product in the West. For summer use they make a rough cloth from the fiber of hemp and certain other plants.

The Chinese drink only the milk of cows and do not use the milk of goats either for making cheese or as a beverage. They shear sheep, but in the use of sheep’s wool they are not nearly as adept as the people in Europe, and though they place a high value on imported woolen cloth they do not know how to weave wool into cloth for clothing. True, they do weave a woolen cloth of light weight for summer use which is much in demand by the poorer classes for hats and for the carpets which they use as sleeping mats. These carpets are also used in the performance of their social rites of which we shall speak later. Woolen cloth is more in demand in the northern parts of China where the cold is almost as biting as it is in the northern parts of Europe, despite the fact that the northern confines of China are much farther distant from the pole. In fact, it is not quite clear as yet why the great rivers and lakes of north China should freeze thick in the winter, unless it be their proximity to the snow-capped mountains of Tartary, on whose rugged slopes the natives gather the skins of foxes and of Scythian weasels, which they make into garments to ward off the rigorous frosts.

All of the known metals without exception are to be found in China. Besides brass and ordinary copper alloys, the Chinese manufacture another metal which is an imitation silver which costs no more than pewter. From this they fashion the same sorts of utensils as we do, for example, cauldrons, pots, bells, gongs, mortars, gratings, furnaces, martial weapons, instruments of torture, and a great number of other things, all but equal in workmanship to our own metalcraft. Gold is considered to be a precious metal, but they do not appraise it as highly as we do. Silver is used as a currency and, whether by weight or in stamped coins, is used as legal tender in all commercial transactions. This, of course, gives rise to difficulties, such as the fluctuating value of silver, which must always be taken into account when paying bills, and the ease of counterfeiting which is not at all infrequent. In many places a small brass coin, which is struck off in a public mint, is used for smaller purchases. Silver vessels, and, among the very rich, even vessels of gold are used, but rather more sparingly than in Europe. Here, as elsewhere, much silver and gold is used to fashion headdresses and ornaments for womenfolk. The ordinary tableware of the Chinese is clay pottery. It is not quite clear to me why it is called porcelain in the West. There is nothing like it in European pottery either from the standpoint of the material itself or its thin and fragile construction. The finest specimens of porcelain are made from clay found in the province of Kiam, and these are shipped not only to every part of China but even to the remotest corners of Europe where they are highly prized by those who appreciate elegance at their banquets rather than pompous display. This porcelain, too, will bear the heat of hot foods without cracking and, what is more to be wondered at, if it is broken and sewed with a brass wire it will hold liquids without any leakage. These people have also acquired the art of glass blowing but their workmanship here falls far short of what we see at home.

Common dwellings are built of wood, but royal palaces are built with walls of brick, though the roofs are done in wood and are supported by wooden columns. Judging from this and from what we have already remarked about the existence of so many boats, one can easily understand how great is the quantity of lumber and how vast are the forests in which practically every species of wood known in Europe is to be found. Oak is not common, but the Chinese have a kind of wood which far excels oak for durability. It is a hard and imperishable wood, in color similar to iron, hence the name ironwood given to it by the Portuguese. The cedar, which is common enough, is considered by the Chinese to be a tree of mourning. It is used for making the caskets of the dead, and in other parts so highly respected that the Chinese wish to be buried not in grass, or, as some do, to be covered with gold pieche value of the gold piece is nowhere given in the original manuscript. in constructing such a burial place. A common species of reed grows here, which the Portuguese call bamboo, cylindrical in form and almost as hard as iron. When fully grown it can hardly be spanned by both of a man’s hands, and though it is hollow and formed like pieces joined together, its nodes and joints give it such strength that it is commonly used as the posts of small buildings. The slender sticks make excellent lances, and bamboo is used for a hundred and one different purposes, a catalogue of which would serve only to weary one in the reading. Bamboo grows only in the southern provinces, but it grows there so plentifully that the supply satisfies the demand of the whole country and probably no other wood is used so extensively.

Wood, reeds, and straw are burned in the hearth fires, and a kind of coal similar to that which is mined in the diocese of Leodienses in Belgium also is used. They call it Mui and use it for all purposes for which we use coal and it burns without giving off noisome smoke. Nature is more propitious to the man in the north, where this coal is found in plenty and of better quality. It is mined from the earth and widely distributed through the country at a low price, indicating its abundance and making it possible for even the poorest to use it in their kitchens and in heating the bath.

China is rich in medicinal herbs which are known elsewhere only as importations. Rhubarb and musk were first brought in from the West by the Saracens, and after spreading through the whole of Asia, they were exported to Europe at an almost unbelievable profit. Here you can buy a pound of rhubarb for ten cents, which in Europe would cost six or seven times as many gold pieces. Here too, you find that famous remedy for many diseases, called Chinese Wood by the Portuguese and Sacred Wood by others. It grows freely in barren parts and without cultivation, and may be obtained for the price of the labor necessary to collect it, but it is exported at a high price. Salt is plentiful in the maritime provinces and may also be obtained from some inland lakes the water of which is easily crystallized. In fact, salt is found everywhere in large quantities, and with all its varied uses and so many people employed in its production and distribution, the taxes derived from it are a source of great wealth for the royal treasury. Sugar is much more commonly used among the Chinese than honey, almost as much as among the Moors. Besides, they have another kind of wax, which is not so sticky and burns with a much brighter flame. This wax is obtained from a species of small worm which they breed in the trees for this purpose. They also have a third kind of wax, made from the fruit of a certain tree, which is as clear as the second but its flame has far less power of illumination.

The use of paper is much more common in China than elsewhere, and its methods of production more diversified. Yet the best variety produced here is inferior to many of our own brands. It cannot be printed or written upon on both sides, so that one of our sheets is equivalent to two of theirs. Moreover, it tears easily and does not stand up well against time. Sometimes they make paper in square sheets measuring one or two paces, and the kind they manufacture from cotton fiber is as white as the best paper found in the West.

We must, of necessity, forgo the discussion of many things such as variegated marbles, bronzes, precious stones, gems, various coloring materials for paints, scented woods, bitumens, and numerous other things indicating civilization and culture. However, two or three things are entirely unknown to Europeans of which I must give a brief account. First, there is a certain bush from the leaves of which is decocted that celebrated drink, known to the Chinese, the Japanese, and to their neighbors as Cia (Tea). Its use cannot be of long duration among the Chinese, as no ideography in their old books designates this particular drink and their writing characters are all ancient. Indeed it might be that this same plant can be found in our own fields. Here they gather its leaves in the springtime and place them in a shady place to dry, and from the dried leaves they brew a drink which they use at meals and which is served to friends when they come to visit. On such occasions it is served continually as long as they remain together engaged in conversation. This beverage is sipped rather than drunk and it is always taken hot. It is not unpleasant to the taste, being somewhat bitter, and it is usually considered to be wholesome even if taken frequently.

The leaves of this shrub are of different grades and a pound of them will bring one, two, or even three gold pieces according to their quality. In Japan the best grades sell for ten or even twelve gold pieces a pound. The Japanese brew their drink from these leaves in a slightly different way from the Chinese. They reduce them to powder and then place two or three tablespoonfuls of the powder in a pot of boiling water and drink the resulting beverage. The Chinese place pieces of a bamboo rod in the apparatus they drink from to prevent their teeth from biting upon and cracking these vessels. When one of them has extracted the virtue from the leaves, they strain off the leaves and drink what is left.

Another thing worthy of detailed recording is a peculiar kind of pitch, pressed from the trunk of a certain tree. It has the appearance of milk but the consistency of glue. From this the Chinese prepare a kind of sandarac or coloring matter which they call Cie and which is known to the Portuguese as Ciaco. It is commonly used for staining wood in building houses and ships and in the manufacture of furniture. Woods finished with this stain can be made to hold varying shades of color and a gloss like that of a mirror, dazzling the eye with its luster and appealing to the touch by reason of its smoothness. This finish also is durable, and will wear for a long time. With an application of this polish any kind of wood can be easily imitated in color and in grain, and this is the finish that gives to the houses of China and Japan their rich and attractive appearance.

It is customary with the Chinese, more so than with other people who use this polish, not to spread their dining table with a cloth when they sit down to eat. If the table loses any of its luster or becomes soiled by particles of food falling upon it, the gloss can be readily restored by washing with water and polishing with a cloth, because this thin but hard finish prevents any permanent stains. The export of the product of this particular tree might well be the beginning of a profitable enterprise, but up to the present it seems that no one has given any thought to such a possibility. Besides the particular kind of pitch just mentioned, another variety is obtained from the fruit of a different tree, quite similar to the former and used for much the same purposes. This second kind cannot be as highly polished as the first, but it has the advantage of being much more plentiful.

Here, too, we find a great variety of aromatic substances, both native and imported. Cinnamon and ginger are indigenous to the country and plentiful. Ginger, especially, is very prolific and of finer quality than can be found anywhere else in the world. Pepper, nuts, aloes, and other such products, which are imported from the neighboring islands of Molucca or from states bordering on China, are becoming less appreciated and are falling off in price as the supply increases.

Finally we should say something about the saltpeter, which is quite plentiful but which is not used extensively in the preparation of gunpowder and of other combustibles for use in the military arts. It, however, is used in lavish quantities in making fireworks for display at public games and on festival days. The Chinese take great pleasure in such exhibitions and make them the chief attraction of all their festivities. Their skill in the manufacture of fireworks is really extraordinary, and there is scarcely anything which they cannot cleverly imitate with them. They are especially adept in reproducing battles and in making rotating spheres of fire, fiery trees, fruit, and the like, and they seem to have no regard for expense where fireworks are concerned. When I was in Nankin I witnessed a pyrotechnic display for the celebration of the first month of the year, which is their great festival, and on this occasion I calculated that they consumed enough powder to carry on a sizable war for a number of years.

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It is a matter of common knowledge, borne out by our own experience, that the Chinese are a most industrious people, and it may be logically concluded from the foregoing chapter that most of the mechanical arts flourish among them. They have all sorts of raw material and they are endowed by nature with a talent for trading, both of which are potent factors in bringing about a high development of the mechanical arts. It will suffice to illustrate the versatility of this people by touching upon those phases only, of the arts in question, in which the practice of the Chinese seems to differ most widely from that of our own artisans. It should be noted that because these people are accustomed to live sparingly, the Chinese craftsman does not strive to reach a perfection of workmanship in the object he creates, with a view to obtaining a higher price for it. His labor is guided rather by the demand of the purchaser who is usually satisfied with a less finished object. Consequently they frequently sacrifice quality in their productions, and rest content with a superficial finish intended to catch the eye of the purchaser. This seems to be particularly noticeable when they toil for the magistrates who pay the craftsmen according to their own whims without any regard to the real value of what they buy. At times, too, they compel the artisans to design things for which they have no genius or aptitude.

Chinese architecture is in every way inferior to that of Europe with respect to the style and the durability of their buildings. In fact, it is dubious just which of these two qualities is the weaker. When they set about building, they seem to gauge things by the span of human life, building for themselves rather than for posterity. Whereas, Europeans in accordance with the urge of their civilization seem to strive for the eternal. This trait of theirs makes it impossible for them to appreciate the magnificence of our architecture as it appears in public and in private buildings, or even to give credence to what we tell them about it. They seem to be utterly at a loss for expression when we tell them that many of our buildings have withstood the elements for the space of a hundred years and some even for one or two thousand years. When they question this and we tell them that the reason for this durability is the depth and massiveness of the foundations which are able to carry the superstructure unshaken for such an extent of time, they merely stare at us in blank amazement. This, however, is not to be wondered at, because they themselves do not dig into the ground to build up foundations but merely place large stones on an unbroken surface of the ground; or, if they do dig foundations, these do not go deeper than a yard or two even though the walls or towers are to be built up to a great height. The result is that their buildings and fortifications cannot even weather the storms of a century without the need of frequent repairs. We have stated already, as one will recall, that most of their buildings are constructed of wood, or if made in masonry they are covered in by roofs supported on wooden columns. The advantage of this latter method of construction is that the walls can be renovated at any time, while the rest of the building remains intact, since the roof is supported by the columns and not resting on the walls.

The art of printing was practiced in China at a date somewhat earlier than that assigned to the beginning of printing in Europe, which was about 1405. It is quite certain that the Chinese knew the art of printing at least five centuries ago, and some of them assert that printing was known to their people before the beginning of the Christian era, about 50 B.C. Their method of printing differs widely from that employed in Europe, and our method would be quite impracticable for them because of the exceedingly large number of Chinese characters and symbols. At present they cut their characters in a reverse position and in a simplified form, on a comparatively small tablet made for the most part from the wood of the pear tree or the apple tree, although at times the wood of the jujube tree is also used for this purpose.

Their method of making printed books is quite ingenious. The text is written in ink, with a brush made of very fine hair, on a sheet of paper which is inverted and pasted on a wooden tablet. When the paper has become thoroughly dry, its surface is scraped off quickly and with great skill, until nothing but a fine tissue bearing the characters remains on the wooden tablet. Then, with a steel graver, the workman cuts away the surface following the outlines of the characters until these alone stand out in low relief. From such a block a skilled printer can make copies with incredible speed, turning out as many as fifteen hundred copies in a single day. Chinese printers are so skilled in engraving these blocks, that no more time is consumed in making one of them than would be required by one of our printers in setting up a form of type and making the necessary corrections. This scheme of engraving wooden blocks is well adapted for the large and complex nature of the Chinese characters, but I do not think it would lend itself very aptly to our European type which could hardly be engraved upon wood because of its small dimensions.

Their method of printing has one decided advantage, namely, that once these tablets are made, they can be preserved and used for making changes in the text as often as one wishes. Additions and subtractions can also be made as the tablets can be readily patched. Again, with this method, the printer and the author are not obliged to produce here and now an excessively large edition of a book, but are able to print a book in smaller or larger lots sufficient to meet the demand of the time. We have derived great benefit from this method of Chinese printing, as we employ it for domestic help in our colleges and the churches. What is more, it is also used in the printed projects which we translate into Chinese from the languages in which they were written originally. In truth, the whole method is so simple that one is tempted to try it for himself after once having watched the process. The simplicity of Chinese printing is what accounts for the exceedingly large numbers of books in circulation here and the ridiculously low prices at which they are sold. Such facts as these would scarcely be believed by one who had not witnessed them.

They have another old method of reproducing reliefs which have been cut into marble or wood. An epitaph, for example, or a picture set out in low relief on marble or on wood, is covered with a piece of moist paper which in turn is overlaid with several pieces of cloth. Then the entire surface is beaten with a small mallet until all the lineaments of the relief are impressed upon the paper. When the paper dries, ink or some other coloring substance is applied with a light touch, after which only the impression of the relief stands out on the original whiteness of the paper. This method cannot be employed when the relief is shallow or made in delicate lines.

The Chinese use pictures extensively, even in the crafts, but in the production of these and especi### 1. Back to Nankin

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WITH THE BURDEN of the charge of the India Mission off his shoulders, Father Valignano, the Official Visitor, turned his attention to putting the China Mission on a secure basis, before he sailed for Japan. From his own experience, he already knew enough about China to realize that an embassy to the King from the Pope or from the Catholic King, as proposed several years past, was out of the question. Nor did he think that such an embassy would be the best method of promoting Christianity in China. He realized that the China Mission was making more progress than had been hoped for and that it was growing more prosperous from day to day. This he attributed especially to the help of Heaven and also to the caution and the industry of those who were better acquainted with what was going on in China. So, with the meager means he had at his disposal, he determined to augment its prestige.

To begin with, and for various reasons, he thought that the Mission was laboring at a disadvantage in being governed by the Rector of the College at Macao, who was not present on the Mission proper, and consequently could not be expected to appreciate its difficulties. It followed only naturally that, being separated by such distances, present opportunities that demanded quick action for the benefit of the Mission, were frequently lost. His conclusion was that the Superior of the Mission should be a man who was living in the interior of China and on the scene of action. Father Eduardo Sande, the Rector of the College of Macao, was growing old and could not be asked to go into the interior of the kingdom. Of those who were deep into the vineyard, Father Matthew Ricci was the oldest and most experienced with the Chinese, because of his long sojourn among them. Father Ricci was, therefore, appointed Superior of the entire Mission, with full authority to conduct it as he judged to be for its greater good, and to open a new center where there was most hope of success. As Superior he had the same ecclesiastical faculties as the Father Visitor. What the Father Visitor particularly recommended to the new Superior was that he bend every effort to open a residence in Pekin, because it seemed to him, that there would never be any assurance of remaining permanently in China, unless someone should be favorably received by the King.

In order to promote the purpose he had in mind, the Father Visitor gathered together whatever he thought would help the cause and sent it to Nankin; a statue of the Blessed Virgin, sent on from Spain, a statue of Christ the Saviour, and a medium-sized clock with a mechanical arrangement of wheels cleverly built into its mechanism for striking the hours, the half hours and the quarters. This clock was sent to the Mission by Very Reverend Claudio Aquaviva, the General of the Society of Jesus, with the hope that the Mission might be advanced by it. The clock was also sent to the Father Visitor for the China Mission by the Bishop of the Philppine Islands. In addition to these things he collected, in Macao, whatever he thought would be of service to the missionaries and sent it all in to Nancian.

At this time, those who were appointed to the interior China Mission were delayed at Macao, awaiting an opportune sailing, and the Father Visitor requested the Rector of the College to provide for them during the delay, as he had formerly done when they were under his jurisdiction. He also arranged that there should be one Procurator, or Treasurer, for both the Chinese and Japanese Missions. He was to handle the subsidy donated by the Catholic King and also the alms donated by others. The Portuguese of Macao gave frequent and generous donations to these two missions; something that we note in passing, that it may not be forgotten in the future.

Father Emanuele Dias, who had left Portugal years before and was several times Superior of the mission in India, was at this time living in Macao. Possessed of the necessary qualities for governing in the Society, and being particularly interested in China, the Father Visitor appointed him Rector of the College of Macao, which was considered to be the seminary of the two great missions of Japan and China. The ex-Rector, Father Sande, had governed the College during the years of great changes, and his holy life in religion came to an end shortly after his retirement. He had entered the Society of Jesus as a young man, and for many years, until he reached old age, his intellectual genius and his many other endowments marked him as a learned professor, as a brilliant preacher, and especially as a religious Superior who was beloved of everyone both at home and abroad.

Knowing the mind of the Father Visitor, Father Ricci left no stone unturned, nor any means neglected, in planning to enter the royal City of Pekin. First he thought of contacting his friend, Chiengan, the quasi-king and the nearest in blood relationship to the reigning monarch. He showed him the clock and the other gifts which he thought of giving to the King. On second thought, however, he decided that this method of approach would be quite useless. He was aware of the fact that the King not only kept his relatives out of public life, but actually protected himself against them, fearing that if occasion offered they would not hesitate to take over his throne. Such an approach appeared to him to be dangerous, in fact, it could result in trouble for the entire Mission. And, if the King concluded, even in the quasi-legal mind of his Magistrates, that Chiengan was the King’s, he would undoubtedly refuse to interest himself in such a project.

Ricci had heard that the Guam, with whom we are acquainted, had visited the Mission at Xaucea and had become quite familiar with the Fathers, during his trip from Pekin to his birthplace on the Island of Hainan, to the south. He had also heard that this man had been recalled to Nankin by the King, to preside over the First Tribunal, called the Li Pu. To the Chinese it is known as the Tribunal for Magistrates, being the court by which Magistrates are made. With this in mind, he told Father Cattaneo to contact the Guam on his return trip, because he had promised that when he returned to the Royal Court, he would take the Fathers with him to correct certain errors in the Chinese calendar relative to the constellations, and to explain certain other mathematical difficulties. The Guam came to Xaucea and Father Cattaneo went to see him. He asked for Father Matthew, and when he learned that he was at the Capital of the Province of Nancian, he was delighted and said he would join him there. Father Cattaneo offered to go along with him as far as Nancian, to talk over the matter with Father Ricci, and so it was agreed. In the interim, the residence was turned over to the care of Father Nicolo Longobardo and Father Cattaneo went along, to remain at Nancian. It so happened that the Guam, now called the President of the Tribunal, had left two days in advance of the appointed time, and Father Cattaneo traveled day and night to overtake him. The fact that he took an early start was somewhat to the advantage of the Fathers, as it gave them time to talk over what was to be done and to arrange their baggage accordingly. They were both of the opinion that Father Cattaneo should accompany Father Ricci. When the Guam arrived, the Fathers of Nancian went to visit him and brought him some European presents, and he was particularly pleased with the triangular glass prism, which he had seen at Xaucea and which he thought was a precious stone of great value.

The President of the Tribunal was highly pleased with being recalled to his former Magistrature by the King, and also with the hope that this would serve as a stepping-stone to the corresponding office in Pekin, which would give him supreme authority in the Colao. At the first opportune moment during their visit, the Fathers began talking about their own affairs and said that they would like to go to Pekin and bring some presents to the King. The President asked to see the objects and he liked them immensely, as he realized that they would help them greatly when they were presented to persons of influence and good will, and they would pay the expenses of the trip, exercise the necessary care, and make all the necessary preparations. In reply, the President told them that he would be pleased, not only to have them accompany him to Nankin, but to Pekin also, and that he would have to go there in about a month to congratulate the King on his birthday. That would be on the seventeenth day of the eighth moon, or as we would say on the seventeenth of September. He thought that would be quite an opportune occasion on which to offer the King presents, such as he had never seen before. Here was an opportunity so favorable to their plans that they could not afford to neglect it. Ricci hired a boat for the trip, took along Father Cattaneo, whom he expected to be of considerable help, leaving the other two at Nancian, and set out post haste. Two of our Brothers also accompanied the Fathers. We call them our Brothers because shortly afterwards they entered the Society of Jesus as Lay Brothers. They were Sebastiano Fernandez and Emanuele Pereira, both Chinese but with Portuguese names, and natives of Macao. They were the sons of Chinese, who accepted the faith and at the same time Portuguese ways. They took Portuguese names when they were baptized, and by this time they seemed to be more Portuguese than Chinese. Their sponsor at baptism gave them a surname and a family name, and they used their Chinese family name only when speaking or writing Chinese. The Fathers call them by their Portuguese names, which are better known to Europeans.

Being pressed for time at their departure, they did not bid adieu to friends, nor did they say good-bye to the Magistrates, for fear they might make some objection. They didn’t even trouble to secure letters patent for traveling, as was done on other occasions. The company of this particular Magistrate would be better assurance than letters, and the fact that they had made this trip would render the residence at Nancian more secure and strengthen the Mission in general. No Magistrate would think of opposing the ideas of the President of the Court of Magistrates. What happened was just what they had looked forward to; not a murmur was heard against them either at Xaucea or in Nancian.

They set sail from Nancian, the day after the Octave of the Feast of Saint John the Baptist in 1598. During the voyage to Nankin they became better acquainted with the President and won the friendship of his children and of his servants with suitable presents. It was their good fortune also to become acquainted with one of the eunuchs on the President’s staff. This was his wife’s brother, who was blessed with an abundance of good nature and who remained a friend of the Fathers as long as he lived.

During the voyage they discussed the ways and means of bringing this enterprise to a happy end. The President proposed that one of the clocks be given to the Superintendent of the King’s palace, for presentation, and the other to a certain one of the palace eunuchs, whom the President had in mind to promote the presentation. Father Matthew in turn refused to give a clock to anyone, or to accept any sponsor, other than the President, himself. This seemed to please him no end, and they agreed upon that procedure. The promise was made, and he was given one of the clocks, which he learned to set and to regulate when that was necessary.

On their arrival at Nankin, they were surprised to discover that everyone there was living under a cloud of fear. The Japanese had marched beyond the border, in an armed invasion of Korea, which was tributary to China. It would cost a tremendous amount to defend Korea and there was little hope that the Japanese advance could be halted. As a result of this condition, no one was willing to receive the Father’s party into his home; for a recent law had been passed strictly forbidding anyone to harbor a person whose clothes or whose countenance might give rise to suspicion. Only a few days before, they had arrested Japanese spies who were wandering about the city, observing everything that was going on. With such a law in effect, no one dared to take in the Fathers and they were left in their small boat, in extremely hot weather and with scarcely any protection. Even the President himself would not dare make use of his authority. On the contrary, he was almost trembling, for fear that someone might accuse him of having secretly brought in foreigners. Several times, Father Ricci went into the city to see the President, but always in a curtained palanquin, and he could not travel, even in this manner, unless the Supreme Commander of the Military was notified of his coming. No one knew about these secret visits until he told the other Fathers about them several years later. He also recounted that on one occasion the Supreme Commander sent a military guard to arrest him, but when he informed them that he was on his way to the palace of the Viceroy, they let him pass, either in fear of the President of the Magistrates, or because they knew that there was nothing to be feared from one who was honored with the friendship of such an exalted dignitary.

All of this led them to think otherwise and to change plans, and it was decided to send a request to the King from Nankin. This had to be done through the office of the local Chancellor, the Magistrate whose duty it was to send such documents to the King from Nankin. Father Ricci had this request prepared and written by one of the better known literati, who was familiar with negotiations pertaining to the royal court. The petition was not very long and yet the scribe charged just short of eight gold pieces for it, which will afford one some idea of what the Chinese literati thought of their manuscript productions. This whole idea went up in smoke. The Chancellor Magistrate was a good friend of the President of the Magistrates, but he could never be persuaded to interest himself in a request to the King, coming from a foreigner. In order to bolster up his refusal, he suggested that the President take the Fathers with him to Pekin, where he could more easily present the request to the King, and perhaps with better results. With this advice, or rather with this refusal, the full charge of the Fathers in Nankin reverted to the President of the Magistrates.

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Despairing of not being able to carry out his plan at Nankin, and not wishing to break his promise after receiving so many gifts, the President of the Magistrates resolved to take the Fathers with him to Pekin. Once there, he thought he would be able to have their presents offered to the King by the court eunuchs, with whom he was on friendly terms. He himself had to make the trip by land in order to get there for the King’s birthday and to congratulate him on behalf of the six councils he governed. His luggage was to go by river, in charge of two servants, and he invited the Fathers to take passage on the boat with them, as members of his household. This particular kind of boat had some resemblance to a trireme, and because of its speed the Chinese called it a cavalier. In order to have more freedom on the voyage, the Fathers preferred to hire a separate cabin, rather than to share one with the domestics. This also afforded them ample space for their luggage.

Among the presents which they were taking along for the King, there was a large tablet, on which was drawn a map of the world, which Father Matthew had decorated with brief commentaries in Chinese writing. The President took great pleasure in studying this tablet, wondering that he could see the great expanse of the world depicted on such a small surface, and that it contained the names of so many new kingdoms and a list of their customs. He would examine it over and over again and very attentively, in an effort to memorize this new idea of the world.

As soon as the President arrived in Nankin, all the high Magistrates, according to Chinese custom, made haste to visit him and to congratulate him on his new appointment, or rather on his return to his former office. Such visits are not made empty handed. The Viceroy of Nankin, who was a close friend of the President, lived in a little town about a day’s journey from the larger city. He lived outside, rather than in Nankin, because, although he was local Viceroy, he was of lower rank than the President of the Magistrates and inferior in grade to many of the City Judges. This was generally true of the Viceroys of Nankin, and so they preferred to reside in a district where there was no superior Magistrate.

Now it happened that this particular Viceroy had received from the Mayor of a certain town in the Province of Nankin, a map of the world, which Father Matthew had previously made at Sciauquin. He was so pleased with it that he had it copied on marble, in the town of Luceu, together with a beautifully carved inscription, in praise of the drawing. He himself had composed the inscription, but he made no mention in it of the author of the original map. Among the gifts which he gave the President there was a copy of this map, given as his own original work. The Chinese method of first engraving on marble and then making copies of the engraving has been explained in our first book. When the President saw that the map he had received was exactly like the one which, as he thought, Father Matthew had copied, he called him and said, “You see we also have these universal maps. Here is one I received from the Viceroy of Nankin, which is exactly like the one I got from you.” It was patently evident to Ricci that he was looking at his own work. He said he had put his features and dates on it and given copies of his map; the map evidently had reached this far. His host was glad to hear this, because it increased his satisfaction with the present, to realize that a man with such a nation-wide reputation as the Viceroy esteemed it so highly. In truth, at that time there were very few in public life with reputations equal to that of Sciau, as the Viceroy was called. His vivacious spirit and his excellent conduct of public affairs were everywhere highly praised, and this fame, constantly attributed to him for his conduct of public affairs, was really genuine and none of it invented, as fame so frequently is. Only a year later he was called from the high office he was holding to be Assessor of the chief Presidial at Pekin, called the Scilam. It happened that the people in the Province of Uquam were rising in sedition against the tyranny of one of the eunuchs of the King’s palace. The King, without seeking advice from anyone appointed this man to quell the rebellion. This he did in a quiet way, but in an unguarded moment, being too confident that peace had been fully restored, they say he was murdered in the same province by the King’s relatives.

To return to the thread of our narrative, the President wrote to the Viceroy to thank him for his gift, and told him that the man who made the map was staying at his house and was going with him to Pekin. Whereupon, the Viceroy sent a military captain of the guard with a letter begging the President to send him the author of the map as soon as possible, saying that he had been waiting for a long time to meet him, because of his wide-spread reputation. He also sent a covered palanquin and carriers to bring Father Ricci to his house, and other carriers with horses to bring along his luggage. At the time of the arrival of the Viceroy and his retinue at Nankin, Father Ricci and his companions, with all their baggage, were already aboard the cavalier galley, ready to set sail on the following day. The President advised them not to refuse the Viceroy the visit he had requested, and the Fathers were of the opinion that they should not forgo an opportunity for making a friend of a dignitary with so much authority. So it was agreed that Father Cattaneo should set out in advance, as the boat could be easily overtaken by horses, later on. Father Ricci remained behind and went to visit the Viceroy, in the covered chair that had been sent for him. He took two servants with him and was accompanied on the road by the same captain who had brought the letter of invitation.

After greeting the Viceroy in Chinese fashion, he presented him with some European gifts, which pleased him highly, but the presence of his guest made him happier than the gifts, and there was no end to his desire for conversation. During Ricci’s stay they discussed mathematical problems and talked over Europe in general, in which the Viceroy was so deeply interested that he detained his guest there, almost by force, for ten whole days. Father Ricci brought along with him some of the gifts intended for the King, in order to introduce conversation relative to offering presents to the monarch. Among these gifts there was a very highly ornamented crucifix, contained in a transparent case of fluted glass. At first sight of it, in his living room where Ricci showed it to him, the Viceroy stood in silent admiration, then with both hands opening the two little glass doors of the case, he turned his face away from it. Father Matthew could not understand this gesture and thought that perhaps the man was horrified. “This image,” he said to the Viceroy, “represents none other than the Lord of Heaven and earth.” “You don’t have to tell me,” his host replied, “it speaks for itself. It surely is not the image of any merely mortal being, and this room is no fitting place to expose the image of the Lord of Heaven and earth.”

At the top of the house there was a beautifully furnished room, open to the sky, a sort of chapel, where they went to worship the heavens, according to the law of the philosophers. There were three entrances to this chapel, on the north, east and west, and it was surrounded by a gallery with balustrades, and beyond these there were little gardens, made very attractive by various fruits and flowers. The Viceroy had his servants build an altar in this chapel, on which he placed lighted candles and burning incense, with the crucifix set in the middle. Dressed in the full robes and ornaments of his official position, he would approach the altar with great reverence, repeat the customary salutation four times over, and ascend the altar to gaze leisurely at the crucifix. His approach was always from one side, never directly in front of the image, and he spent so much time in contemplating the crucifix that it seemed as if he could not be drawn away from it. After him, the domestic servants would go through a similar ceremony. This ceremony of veneration became a daily practice with the household, and one of the servants was commissioned by the master to keep a thurible of incense perpetually burning on the altar. The Viceroy invited the dignitaries of the city to come and view the marvelous image, and among those who came was the presiding officer of the Literary Academy of Nankin, who afterwards became the Viceroy of the southern Province of Fuchian. Father Matthew spent much time in the chapel mentioned, reading the divine office and saying other prayers, and he thanked God that these honors were being paid to Him even by pagans.

The Viceroy was anxious to have Father Ricci remain longer, to make certain mathematical instruments, but knowing that his companion had already set out for Pekin, his host agreed to his departure. Considering the poverty of the Mission, the large sum of money which he gave the Father, to defray the expenses of his voyage, was really a welcome alms, but the good advice he offered was probably more valuable for their present undertaking. In no wise minimizing the difficulty, he openly expressed his opinion that the project would not meet with the success to which the Fathers were looking forward.

After Father Ricci left the house, the Viceroy called for a palanquin and had himself taken to the river landing. There he went aboard the cavalier galley with one of his attendants, whom he had chosen to accompany the Father until he rejoined his companions. They overtook the others at the town of Chingán, from which the attendant returned and made his report to the Viceroy. It was this same Viceroy who afterwards in Pekin used to boast to the other Magistrates that for some days his palace had harbored the image of Christ the Saviour, which was to be presented to the King.

The Nankin River, which has already been alluded to as the Son of the Sea, is called Hiansu, in Chinese. As far as Nankin it flows north, then turns somewhat south and flows rapidly to the sea, forty miles beyond Nankin. In order to go by water from Nankin to the royal city of Pekin, the Chinese kings had a long canal constructed from this river to another, called the Yellow River, because of the color of its turbulent waters. The Yellow River is the second greatest river in China, both in size and in importance. Its source is beyond the border of the kingdom, to the west, on a mountain called Cunlun, which they say, is the same mountain, or at least is near the mountain, from which the Ganges takes its rise. At the source of the Yellow River there is a great lake called the Lake of the Constellations. From there it enters China on the west border of the Province of Scensi. From the north walls it turns back again into the country of the Tartars. It then swings south into the same province from which it came, thence into the Province of Sciansi and from here into the Province of Honan, then to the river of Hiansu, which its waters have colored, not far from which it empties itself and flows in that direction to the ocean.

This Yellow River has no respect at all for Chinese law and order. It comes from a barbarous region and, as it were, seeking vengeance for the hatred the Chinese have for outsiders, it frequently ravages whole districts of the realm when it fills up with sand and changes its course at will. There are certain Magistrates who try to control it with religious rites, offered to the river, or to its spirits. The Chinese assign governing spirits to many things and they say that the waters of the Yellow River become clear only once in every thousand years. Hence the Chinese proverb to indicate something that very seldom happens, “When the Yellow River clears.” Those who sail on this river watch the water for several days, until the mud and the sand settle in it. The general content of its water is not less than one third silt. Entrance to the City of Pekin from the river, and also an exit from it are made by means of canals, constructed for boats bringing cargoes into the city. They say there are ten thousand boats engaged in this commerce and these come only from the five provinces of Chiansi, Cechian, Nankin, Uquam and Sciantum. These are the provinces that provide the King with his annual tribute of rice and grain. The other ten provinces pay their taxes in silver money. Besides these tribute vessels, a great many more, belonging to the Magistrates, are continually coming and going, and still more plying private trade.

Private merchants coming in from the Hiansu River are not permitted to enter these canals, excepting those who live between the canals to the north. This law was passed in order to prevent the multitude of boats from clogging the traffic, and cargoes destined for the royal city from being spoiled. And yet, so great is the number of boats, that frequently many days are lost in transit by crowding each other, particularly when the water is low in the canals. To prevent this, the water is held back at stated places by wooden locks, which also serve as bridges. These locks are opened when the water rises to full height behind them, and the boats are carried along by the force of the stream produced. Going from one lock to another creates a difficult task for the sailors and occasions tedious delays on the journey. The work is increased also by the fact that there is seldom enough wind in the canals for sailing, and ropes are stretched from the banks to pull the boats along. At times it happens that the rush of water is so high and so strong, at the exit from one lock or at the entrance to another, that some boats are capsized and for this reason the rower is drowned. The water is carried into the canals from the river and is hauled up the stream, against the current, by wooden devices on the shore, and the expense for such hauling is paid by the Government. The cost of maintaining these canals, which consists chiefly in keeping them navigable, amounts to a million a year, as a mathematician would express it. All this may seem rather strange to Europeans, who may judge from maps that one could take a shorter and a less expensive route to Pekin by sea. This may be true enough, but the fear of the sea and the pirates who infest the seacoast has so penetrated the Chinese mind, that they believe the sea route would be far more hazardous for conveying provisions to the royal court.

Along the route from Nankin to Pekin, one passes a great number of well known cities, in the Provinces of Nankin, Sciantum and Pekin. Besides the cities there are along the river banks so many towns, villages and scattered homes that one might say that the entire route is inhabited. Nowhere along the whole journey is there any lack of provisions, such as rice, wheat, meat, fish, fruit, vegetables and wine, and the like, all of which are bought very cheaply. Through the canal and into the royal city they bring great quantities of wood for royal buildings; beams, columns and flat boards, especially after a royal palace has been burned down, and it is said that two out of three of them go up in fire. All along the voyage the Fathers saw huge rafts of beams lashed together and hauling other cargoes of wood, being drawn with great effort by thousands of men trudging along the banks. Some of them were making five or six miles a day. Rafts such as these from the very distant province of Suscuen are sometimes two or three years in transit to the capital. A single beam of some of these rafts may cost as much as three thousand ecus in gold, and some of the rafts were two miles long. The Chinese prefer brick to stone, and the bricks destined for use in the royal palaces may be transported in barges, a distance of fifteen hundred miles. There are many boats used for this purpose only, and they are kept moving day and night. Along this route one could see enough building material to construct not only a royal palace 1. China Becomes an Independent Mission Under Father Ricci

The Christian expedition to China now numbered four residences, so placed as to measure off the entire length of the kingdom, from north to south, but no penetration had been made as yet from east to west. Because of the influence of the settlement in the capital city, the status of the Mission had been so stabilized, within a few years, that the Christian faith was beginning to flourish in all parts. The flame of Christian zeal, once lighted, was spreading with every day. The neophytes were openly receiving the faith without any opposition. They took part in building Mission-posts, were attending instruction classes and Mass and performing other religious devotions in presence of the rest of the world. Some of the pagans, even of the class of the literati, together with Magistrates of high position, were visiting the Mission House to venerate the crucifix.

Realizing the difficulties encountered in the laws and customs of China, the Official Father Visitor and others of the Society of Jesus were convinced that they saw the hand of God in what had been accomplished in so few years. For this they gave thanks to God, not only because the light of divine grace was beginning to break through the darkness of centuries, but also because there were many studiously vying to take part in the labor of this particular vineyard.

The reputation of the small number of Mission Houses had spread rapidly into the fifteen provinces of China. It grew as it traveled and, going beyond the truth, as is apt to happen, it reached across the bounds of the kingdom and spread abroad reports of things highly desirable, as if they had already been accomplished.

It was reported in Europe that the King of China had become a Christian, that he had granted leave for any of his subjects to embrace the faith, and for the Gospel to be preached everywhere in the Kingdom. As a result the members of other Religious Orders were taking passage in Spanish boats, by way of the Philippine Islands, eager to assist in the work that was being done in China, but as yet the gates to the great kingdom were not as wide open as false rumor had reported.

Moved by the proportions to which the Mission was attaining, the Father Visitor returned from Japan to Macao, whence he could readjust operations in China from a closer base and more easily supply the Mission’s needs. Hope for success in China seemed to surpass even that in Japan. In fact, this seemed to be the most important expedition undertaken for the promulgation of Christianity since the exodus of the Apostles to evangelize the whole world. The first step, upon the Visitor’s arrival, was to call Father Emanuele Dias for consultation. He was also anxious to see Father Ricci, if this busy missionary could absent himself from Pekin. On hearing of the Visitor’s arrival, Father Emanuele and Father Cattaneo hastened to Macao. They did their best to further the cause of the Mission in every way possible. In a word, he granted every concession they asked, and even then he thought that their requests were very moderate. Because of the great scarcity of men who could undertake to learn the difficult language, and at the same time to labor on a mission so full of obstacles, he first confirmed Father Emanuele’s appointment and then assigned eight men who were living at Macao, and whom he deemed properly equipped, as members of the China Mission. In addition to this, he also promised more help when the ship arrived, on which some of their brethren were sailing from India. The question of man power, however, was not his only problem, one also had to supply their means of support. The subsidy which the King of Portugal had ordered to be paid to the Mission was frequently turned into other channels for the needs of the realm, and following the early example of the Apostles, no financial burden was ever placed on the converts. Moreover, regarding the support of the Mission, if the converts had been asked to contribute, less difficulty would have been expected from them than from the pagans, who were accustomed to spread stories about the missionaries; saying that they were so poor at home in Europe that they came to wealthy China to mulct the people of their money.

After computing the cost of support for each house, it was decided, because of the low scale of market prices, that thirty gold pieces per annum would be sufficient for food and clothing for each separate community. The Father Visitor also decided that henceforth the Procurator, or Mission Treasurer, of the Japanese Mission, then living at Macao, would also be in charge of the finances of the China Mission. Permission was granted for admission into the Society of Jesus of several Chinese students then studying at Macao. The churches of the mission centers were to be improved, the residences better furnished and the customary gifts to friends and to the Magistrates were sanctioned. By way of alms offered for the Mission, Father Emanuele and some of the other Fathers collected numerous donations from the Portuguese merchants, who were always very generous toward the China undertaking. There were also questions to be discussed which seemed to be very difficult of solution and had to be treated with prudence. Finally, in order to insure more liberty of action in the administration of the China Mission, Father Matthew Ricci, who was deemed to be most experienced in Chinese affairs, was placed in charge of it as the representative of the Rector of the College of Macao, with jurisdiction.

After these acts, preparatory to their mission, these Fathers made all preparations for departing; but in the meantime something unexpectedly happened which seriously interfered with their plans, though it did not upset them entirely. The packet boat, already loaded and ready to sail for Japan, was seized and thoroughly ransacked by Dutch pirates, who for several years past had infested these waters. This stunning loss was keenly felt in the City of Macao. As we have mentioned before, the hope and the wealth of the city was carried in these vessels. Scarcely anyone in the town was left untouched by this misfortune, and the loss to the Jesuits in the east was something exceptional, as the full store of supplies for the Japanese Mission had already been placed aboard. Being somewhat accustomed to such reverses, this one did not dishearten the Father Visitor, but it did prevent him from sending into China the number of Fathers and the amount of supplies he had decided upon. Father Emanuele Dias and three others went in at that time, and Father Valignano took care of the house in Macao with reference to the shortage of supplies.

Of the new missionaries, Father Bartolomeo Tedeschi was assigned to remain at Xaucea with Father Nicolo Longobardo, and later on they were joined by Father Girolamo Rodrigues, a Portuguese. Father Pietro Ribero went to Nankin, as a companion to Father Roccia and they were later joined by two others; Father Alphonso Vagnoni, from Piedmont, and the Portuguese Father Feliciano da Silva. Father Emanuele Dias, the former Rector, was advised to live at Nankin, as it was centrally located relative to the three houses under his direction. Together with these came Father Gaspare Ferreira who was assigned to join the two at Pekin. Father Cattaneo was held at Macao because of his health. Here he devoted himself to the spiritual care of the Chinese who were carrying on trade with the Portuguese and, in order to facilitate this work, he dressed as the Fathers do in the interior of the Kingdom of China. In this general entrance certain difficulties were experienced with the collectors of the customs, but only for the luggage they were importing, for which the eunuchs were particularly exacting. It was only through the industry of a Jesuit Lay Brother that the Fathers soon found themselves as comfortably settled as they might have been in many parts of Europe.

Father Gaspare Ferreira, on his way to Pekin, encountered more difficulties than the others, especially from the eunuch in charge of the boat on which he was traveling. This fellow was about to cast the Father’s luggage onto the bank of the river, half way on the voyage, looking forward when he planned the incident. They were just coming to the end of their journey when they were shipwrecked right in the harbor of the Capital City. The Father’s luggage was all dumped into the water and most of it destroyed, with a loss valued at more than two hundred gold pieces, which meant a consequent strict curtailment of his domestic expenses. Among the ecclesiastical ornaments that were lost there was an exceptionally fine easement, done in gold-covered fluted woodwork for framing a statue. This unfortunate wreck was caused by an unusual rising of the river, due to the incessant rains which that year were really extraordinary and which caused tremendous damage in the Royal City. Rising above its banks, the river swept away many houses, and the King very liberally ordered a hundred thousand gold pieces to be set aside from his treasury for rebuilding the houses and for relieving the poor. Father Gaspare came ashore after the wreck and left Brother Sebastiano on the boat with the servants and the baggage which they had pulled out of the water. They would have saved much more, were it not for the fact that the sailors, who were more savage than the river, had thrown overboard much of what they had stolen. It was only by the grace of God that they saved an elegantly bound set of eight volumes of the Holy Bible from the Plantin Press, which Cardinal Severini had sent, as a gift, to the China Mission. The box containing these books and other pieces of baggage had been floating in the river for some time before it was salvaged by the predatory sailors. When they opened it and found it contained only books which they could not read, they gave them back to the Brother for a small price which he was quite willing to pay. Fortunately the water had not penetrated the box and the books were in perfect condition. Afterwards, on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, these books were received by the Fathers and the converts with considerable display and with the celebration of a solemn high Mass. As the books were being brought in, the Acolyte carrying them was preceded by a censer bearer. Later they were placed on a table in the church and the people reverently knelt and kissed them, giving thanks to God for preserving them, after passing through a thousand difficulties on many seas and finally being saved from a last minute shipwreck. Many visitors came to the house to see these books and, wondering at the type and the binding, they would say, “No doubt, there must be a wonderful doctrine contained in books which come with such art and with such a solemn care.”

Once again the Fathers had recourse to the Magistrate in order to recover what had been stolen from them, and their friend Fumo Can, who was still detained in chains, took over the burden of the search for the culprits. Through his influence the Master of the ship and some of his crew were finally brought into custody. The Magistrate judging the case was a friend of the Mission and he was set upon punishing the thieves, but the Fathers pitied them and withdrew all charges, for which Fumo Can took occasion from their clemency to praise the charity of the Christian Law. The result of the court action was the recovery of a box containing sacred relics, and of a few other things of minor value; enough to have made it a worthwhile effort.

(image)

Here in China, as was mentioned in the first book of the Diary, literary studies are cultivated to such an extent that there are very few people who are not interested in them to some degree. It is also distinctive of the Chinese, that all their religious sects are spread, and their religious doctrine promulgated, by written books, rather than by the spoken word. They have a great dislike to people gathering together in crowds, and so news is spread chiefly by writing. But this did not hamper the work of the Missionaries, because a book-reading people were probably more readily persuaded by something they would read at leisure, than by something said from a pulpit by a preacher who was not thoroughly acquainted with their language. This does not mean that the Fathers did no preaching to their converts on Sundays and on feast days. The reference is rather to the pagans, who are attracted by books, and who spread about the ideas they find in them, in their private conversations. From this common custom it happened at times that someone, while reading a pious book at home, would come across a passage relative to Christianity, which he committed to memory, and then repeated to his relatives and friends. This proved to be of interest to the Fathers and it served as an incentive to their learning to write in Chinese. This is always a long and a tedious task but, with the grace of God, the time and the attention they gave to overcoming the difficulties and the drudgery of it, proved to be very well spent.

Apart from the fact that writing in Chinese is in itself an accomplishment, and not a common one, any book written in Chinese was sure to find its way with profit into the fifteen provinces of the kingdom. Moreover, it would also be understood by the Japanese, the Koreans, the inhabitants of Cochin China, the Leuchians and even by people of other countries, who would be able to read it as well as the Chinese. While the spoken languages of these different races are as unlike as can be imagined, they can understand written Chinese because each individual character in Chinese writing represents an individual thing. If this were universally true, we would be able to transmit our ideas to people of other countries in writing, though we would not be able to speak to them.

Father Ricci was the first one to begin the study of Chinese literature and he was so well versed in what he learned that he became the admiration of the Chinese lettered class who, in their reading, had never before encountered a foreigner from whom they could learn anything. We are purposely treating of this subject here, so that posterity may know what a great advantage was derived from the knowledge of Chinese, and so that Europeans who read this may realize that the interest the Fathers took in the genius of the people was well placed.

Father Ricci began by teaching the first principles of Geography and of Astronomy, and although in the beginning he taught nothing that was not known to an educated European, for those who obstinately defended the errors handed down to them from their ancestors, his teaching was simply astounding and something beyond their imagining. So much so, indeed, that many of them confessed that up to that time, their ignorance of the better things had rendered them stubborn by default. It may be that once their minds had been completely closed by their studies of antiquity, they were not able to open them for the more serious things in life. Omitting here the commentaries on the four elements and also the Treatise on Friendship, already mentioned, Father Ricci wrote twenty-five tracts on diverse moral questions and on control of the evil propensities of the soul. These were pamphlets which the Chinese call Opinions or Sentences. They were read by some of his Chinese friends before they were published and met with their wholehearted approval. In fact, they deemed it to be quite incredible that a foreigner, coming from a people who up to that time were looked upon as barbarians, could treat so aptly of such subtle subjects, and they all wanted to make copies of his pamphlets.

Fumo Can received copies of these tracts and had them published in a single book to which he added a preface in praise of the work, wherein he made a comparison between this book and another one like it, published by the sect of idol worshippers and called The Forty-two Paragraphs. He thought so highly of this work that he counseled the people of the educated class to read it and then judge between the shady virtue, colored by superstition, and virtue drawn from the fountain head of Christianity, and then to decide which was more proper for the good of the individual, and more useful for the public in general. Their friend Paul added another preface and an epilogue, and the prestige of these two names greatly enhanced the authority of the book. This approval by such distinguished figures served also to augment the reputation of the Christian faith. This was particularly true of their friend Paul’s approbations, in which he took occasion to praise the principles of Christianity by stating that he not only approved of them but had already embraced them, as a convert.

Just at that time the Fathers encountered a difficulty, that was somewhat more than average. Their first Compendium of Christian Doctrine was written when they were inexperienced, and with the help of interpreters. To their better trained minds and eyes, it now looked to be truncated and inadequate, and so it was revised, augmented and re-edited by Father Ricci, and the former editions were discontinued. This new edition was written as a more ample explanation of Christian Doctrine, but before being published it was so arranged as to be chiefly adapted for use by the pagans. It was thought that the neophytes would receive sufficient religious instruction from the catechism lessons they attended as catechumens, and from the frequent exhortations they attended, after their conversion. And so this new work consisted entirely of argumentation, set forth in the natural light of reason and set forth as a rule based upon the system of the philosophers. In this way the road was leveled and made clear for the acceptance of the mysteries dependent upon faith and upon the knowledge of divine revelation. The book also contained citations serving its purpose and taken from the ancient Chinese writers; passages which were not merely ornamental, but served to promote the acceptance of this work by the inquiring readers of other Chinese books. It also provided a refutation of all the Chinese religious sects, excepting the one founded on the natural law, as developed by their Prince of Philosophers, Confucius, and adopted by the sect of the literati. Their particular philosophy as developed by the ancients, contains but little that is justly reprehensible. Not many errors will be committed by a thoughtful and a careful man, writing on subjects about which he feels that he is not sufficiently informed. The Fathers were accustomed to use the authority of this sect to their own advantage, by commenting only on what had happened since the time of Confucius, who lived some five hundred years before the coming of Christ. The reply made by Doctor Paul, when he was asked, in company, what he considered to be the basis of the Christian law, might be quoted here, as being very timely. He defined the whole subject in four syllables, or rather in four words, when he said, Ciue, Fo, Pu, Giu, meaning, It does away with idols and completes the law of the literati.

The contents of Father Ricci’s tract, which we are now considering, may be summed up as follows. First is presented the proof that there is only one God, who created and governs all things, followed by a proof of the immortality of man’s soul, and an explanation of punishment for evil and of reward for good deeds done, especially in the life to come. The Pythagorean doctrine of the transmigration of souls, which is a common doctrine among the Chinese, is thoroughly refuted. Toward the end of the work, there is inserted a practical dissertation on God and Man, followed by an exhortation inviting all the Chinese to ask the Fathers for further explanation of the law which is here presented in brief, rather than explained in full.

This book was really necessary, in order to spread the idea of Christianity through the entire kingdom in a brief space of time, and since it could touch only lightly upon many questions that were frequently asked of the Fathers, the author inserted a number of pleasant and lighter touches to whet the curiosity of the reader, with the result that it made very enjoyable reading. For the same reason, it proved to be quite satisfactory to answer those who had merely heard about Christianity, especially the literati, because they could peruse at leisure what they had heard. It also served as a supplement to the shorter interviews with the Magistrates, who always had more time for reading than they had for talking, due perhaps to the fact that their education had been chiefly acquired by voluminous reading.

This book proved to be a thorn in the side of the idol worshippers, because it stripped them of arms to defend their own vain doctrines, but there was no danger of opposition to it on the part of the literati, because they would thus be refuting their own profession. It seemed to be divine direction, that the faith should be defended by those who realized from the very beginning, that there was nothing in the doctrine of the literati that was contrary to the law of Christianity. Otherwise, if they had been forced to combat all the sects at once, they might have been reduced to silence by accumulated authority, and by the sheer weight of numbers. Due in part to assistance from some of the pagans, this book of Father Ricci’s went through four printings and was published in different provinces. Fumo Can, who was one of the literati, had many copies of it printed at his own expense, and gave them to the Fathers for distribution to their friends. He wrote to the Fathers and told them that the amount of money he paid for having the books printed, was spent by way of restitution. He explained this by saying that he had once taken a gift for using his official influence in doing a favor, and that he knew of no better way of amending his fault, than by giving wide publicity to a pamphlet explaining the Christian faith. He did this while he was yet a pagan. There is no telling what this man might have done for Christianity, if his life as a Christian had been extended for some years.

Another book of Father Ricci’s which he called Paradoxes, had as many critics as the former, because it contained moral precepts hitherto unheard of by the Chinese. For the most part, it was a running commentary, a sort of continued meditation on death, as a means of maintaining proper order in one’s life. It treated a variety of topics, such as: Considering life as a continual dying; Reward for good deeds and punishment for evil is not always fully paid in this life but must be in the next; Silence and restraint of speech are both very difficult, but very useful; Each one should examine his actions and discipline himself for his misdeeds. These and many other similar declarations are confirmed by proofs and citations, by numerous apothegms, and by examples, with apt quotations from the philosophers, from the Fathers of the Church, and from Holy Scripture, in such a way as to make pleasant reading. The paradoxes were inserted in the form of replies to questions which Father Matthew had already discussed at length with some of the most prominent of the Magistrates.

If all the notices written about this book, by distinguished people, were to be collected in one volume, it would take longer to read that volume, than to read the book itself. This work contained several proemia by friendly critics, which not only lauded its publication, but spoke in terms of the highest praise of European genius, of its numberless books, and of the Christian faith. In order to make it better known, the Fathers distributed copies of it on all sides and used it to fulfill their obligations of giving presents at stated times. Some of their friends sent printers to the Mission House to make copies of it for distribution to their acquaintances. The first printing was exhausted in a year, and it was reprinted twice in the following year; once in the Royal City of Nankin and again in Nancian, the metropolitan city of the Province of Chiansi.

One of the highest ranking Magistrates of the Royal Court of Pekin, a member of the Tauli, was so impressed when he read the book we have been discussing, that he came of his own accord to call on the Fathers in the Capital City. What surprised the Fathers about this man was that no one up to that time had seemed to be more friendly and at the same time more distant, than he, as was once said of Novius. Seating himself beside Father Ricci, he said, “And you are the author of this book,” as he produced a copy of the book. Father Matthew agreed that he had spent considerable time on it, and his visitor continued, “The author of such a book must be a holy man. It has never been my custom, nor did I ever wish, to be hostile toward holy men. Hence, I must ask you to pardon my past indifferences, for which I hope to make amends by my future friendship.” Then he went on to talk about other things and concluded with the comment, “There are more than a few who frequently assert that they have no fear of foreigners such as you men, because it is impossible for anyone following your doctrine to injure the public welfare.”

In 1604, our friend Ciu Paul, who had already attained to the Licentiate, came to Pekin, to take the public examination for the highest class of Doctorate. Martin also came, from Nankin, eager to try his fortune for the same degree in the Military Senate. These two were the most distinguished, in fact they were veritable luminaries, among the converts of the Province of Nankin. Naturally, they were both delighted that the Mission Center in the Capital City was well established, and that the outlook for Christianity there was very promising. Their first interest on arriving was to visit the Mission House, to go to confession and to receive the Holy Eucharist. It was said of Paul, that he was so devout, that when he received Holy Communion, he could not restrain his tears, nor could those who saw him at the altar rail. Before they became Christians, neither one of these men was successful in acquiring the high degree he was seeking. This time, trusting in the help of God, they went down to battle, as it were, in the literary arena, and they came away victorious, each with the degree of Doctor, and each destined for membership in the particular Senate of his choice. A few months later, Martin, whose name was Cin, was appointed Military Prefect in the Province of Cechian. In six months more he was raised to a higher post in Nancian, and shortly afterwards to a post near to the very top of his department. He went ahead in leaps and bounds, instead of passing from grade to grade as is customary.

When the results of the examinations were announced, Ciu Paul’s name was not included among those of highest rating. Therefore, according to the national custom, he was listed for appointment as a Magistrate, somewhere outside of the Royal City, but not in a lower court. From there he could aspire to higher honors. But it seems as if Divine Providence had selected this man to be a bulwark of Christianity in Pekin, because he was kept there and appointed to a position of dignity, that surpassed his fondest hopes.

There were three hundred and eight Doctor’s degrees granted, for the whole kingdom, after the examination just mentioned. Shortly afterwards there followed another examination, for selection of members to the Royal Academy. Successful candidates in this examination were later attached to the College, called Hanlinien. From the total holds in all degree examinations, these twenty-four must excel in the exact formation of Chinese written characters. Successful candidates in this examination eventually become the highest Magistrates in the country, and if they are called to fill a Government post, they are appointed directly, rather than by promotion, to the very highest positions.

For sheer lack of confidence, Ciu Paul did not wish to attempt this examination but he ceded to the petitions of the Fathers and of the converts, when they reminded him that the acquisition of higher honors would redound to the benefit of Christianity. Good fortune favored him and he was fourth in order when results were announced, thus increasing his own reputation, and the happiness of the Mission Center. But this was not the end of it all. The twenty-four successful candidates from this examination do not immediately become members of the Royal Academy. What they have won is the right, or the privilege, of aggregation, after they have spent some time under the tutelage of the Colao, the Supreme Magistrate. There is, so to speak, another cast of the dice to be made. Only twelve, or at most fifteen of the twenty-four are eventually selected for the Academy, and these are determined by a series of monthly examinations, in which only one candidate can qualify, generally the highest ranking. Since all twenty-four are called for all of these monthly tests, it frequently happens that a first ranking student in one test will absent himself from some of the remaining examinations, so as to give the others a chance for highest honors, and also so as not to appear too covetous. He is free to do this, and in so doing he makes friends without losing either rank or dignity.

Ciu Paul was now certain of his own status and also of the safety of the Fathers in the Capital, and from that time on he devoted all his efforts to the advancement of their interests and to the spread of Christianity. A rare example of devotion and of holiness of life, he was imitated by the converts and admired by the pagans, among whom, some of the more distinguished would frequently remark, “Is there another man as holy as Ciu Paul?” He brought his aged father, a man over seventy, to Pekin, to win him over to Christ before time should overtake him; and after much effort, both on his part and on that of the Fathers, the old man came to know God and to do away with his idols. Finally, and fortunately at his age, the old gentleman was baptized; and a year and a half after, he passed away, a good death.

The Church in Pekin was gradually developing from infancy to childhood, and it was being helped, not only by Ciu Paul but by other converts for whom he was serving as an example, particularly in his frequent approach to the sacrament of Penance. His son, and, what was more unusual, his wife, followed in his footsteps. There was a problem to be solved here relative to the sequestration of women, and this lady was the first one in Pekin to work out its solution. Before long the converts were asking to receive Holy Communion, but the Fathers were inclined to postpone this privilege in order to increase devotion to the sacrament. Those who were acting as confessors to this family urged their penitents to go to confession several times before receiving their first Holy Communion, to impress upon them the fact that the soul must be as pure as possible when God comes to it. In order to shorten the delay and to fulfill the number of confessions, Li Paul, the other famous Paul already mentioned, went to confession every day, including Sundays and feast days. Such ardent desire for the bread of life could not be too long delayed, and he received his first communion on Easter Sunday, with devotion and tears that touched the hearts of the converts who were present. From that time on, he went to the altar-rail on every ecclesiastical feast day, keeping a strict fast the day before, by way of preparation, and continuing the fast for the rest of that day, as an act of thanksgiving.

This man had someone or other in the Mission House informing him of everything the Fathers did by way of religious practice, so that he could imitate their way of religious life. If fast was being observed there, or other ecclesiastical regulations being put into practice, Li Paul did the same in his own home. When he first heard about indulgences, he was continually asking the Fathers how they could be obtained, and when he read somewhere that a plenary indulgence was granted by the Pope to anyone converting a pagan, his ardor to this end was redoubled. This fervent desire for such a spiritual reward was like a spur that kept him continually moving in search of souls. He was so anxious to receive the sacrament of Confirmation, that they could scarcely restrain him from going to visit the Bishop at Macao, a distance of four months’ travel from his home. He was, in reality, on the point of departure when the Fathers persuaded him that an absence of eight months would be detrimental to his family, which was quite true, because his family income had diminished with the sacrifice of certain movable possessions, which had been sold to bring them first of all from the Province of Quang-tung to this province, and then to the Province of Quang-tung again for the baptism of the whole household. Some urgent matters obliged him for a long time to remain in the Province of Quang-tung to set his affairs and to take care of his aged mother. While there he was active spreading a knowledge of Christianity and sending souls to Heaven by baptizing dying children, and by giving sufficient instruction to adults in danger of death and then baptizing them. He wrote frequently to the Fathers, always expressing a desire to return, to visit the Church, but the duty and the care which he owed to his declining mother prevented his return. To the Chinese, it would have been a scandal and an infamous crime if he had done otherwise.

Let us insert here a little story about our friend Ligotsun, who was not as yet a convert. Just a year before this time he was appointed to preside over the examinations in the Province of Fuchian, to be held in the Metropolitan City, for the degree of Licentiate. Perhaps the most distinguished literati of the whole country live in this province, and so his appointment here was a mark of considerable honor and dignity. The results of these examinations are published in writing by the presiding official and on this occasion, for no seeming reason, Ligotsun wrote a high encomium of European literary studies. Later on, he was transferred to a high position in the Province of Sciantum, and when he was leaving, he gave the Fathers most of the furniture from his palace. He also wanted to take one of the Fathers with him, but due to the small number present, his invitation had to be declined.

In order to give one an idea of the integrity with which the Chinese Magistrature and its courts are administered, it will be of interest to know that this same man was deprived of the right to all high office, and reduced to a lower post for three years, because a complaint was entered against him to the effect that he exhibited too much levity at the banquets he was accustomed to attend, and also that he was too devoted to the game of chess. After three years of this humiliation he was again recalled to a position of high honor.

It was in this year that the Chief Magistrates of the entire country made their triennial visit to Pekin to pay their respects to the King. During the time they were permitted to remain in the Capital City the streets were so crowded that one made his way along them with difficulty. The Fathers there took occasion of this opportunity to contact the Magistrates and the numerous merchants from the other cities where they had residences. This was a method of increasing the prestige of the house in Pekin, which served as a sort of protecting tree in the shade of which the other houses basked by way of security.

On this occasion also there was no lack of those who complained to the Magistrates that they had seen certain books written by the Fathers in disparagement of the idols. They had hit upon this as a pretext relative to the public peace, which the Fathers, as they said, were probably endeavoring to disturb by their preaching. In this way, it was asserted, they could incite the many who were united to them by a common bond, into general rebellion. These critics were said to be men of distinction. The common people could scarcely hope for much success in grumbling against the Fathers. However, by the grace of God and due to the patronage of certain friends, the missionaries succeeded in frustrating this hostile endeavor of their adversaries.

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FATHER GIOVANNI SOEIRO labored all alone at the Nancian Mission for three years, burdened as he was with a serious illness which finally developed into tuberculosis. Another obstacle to the development of his mission was the presence there of so many of the royal relatives, a wealthy and a do-nothing class whose insolence was proverbial. Yet, despite these impediments, his holiness and his extraordinary zeal accomplished more than might have been expected. Most of his converts were from the common people; only a few of the more distinguished individuals were received into the Church during those days. One of these was an old man of eighty, one of the high-ranking literati, who developed an unusual zeal for the spread of Christianity. He was a skillful writer and he produced many treatises on the principles of the faith, which he had learned from the Fathers. In order to attract the attention of the literati he zealously gathered from their own books an amazing amount of testimony in favor of Christianity.

There was a pagan family living next to the Mission House and one day the father of the family brought in their newborn baby to be baptized. Father Giovanni thought it was not altogether safe to baptize the child at the time, considering the fact that the parents had no idea of abandoning their pagan errors, and doubting also whether or not this apparent piety was genuine or fraudulent. So he placed the child on the altar, sprinkled him with holy water and called him Giovanni. A short time afterwards, the parents moved away from that vicinity, believing that the child was a Christian. Seven years later the father appeared at the Mission House with the child, to thank God for the wonderful manner in which the child was unexpectedly returned to health, from a serious illness. The boy had been unconscious and they had given up hope of his life, when, as he afterwards told them, he thought he saw the majestic Mother of God coming toward him, with a child in her arms. When the child called him by name several times, he awoke, as it were from sleep, and from that moment he began to grow well and strong. None of the domestic servants had the slightest doubt that the lady the child had seen was the same one whose picture they themselves had often seen at the Mission House, and the boy confirmed their belief when he was shown two madonna pictures, and pointed to the one, the original of which, they say, was painted by Saint Luke the Evangelist. It was only then that Father Soeiro told the parent that his child had never been baptized, but that he would baptize him, if they promised never to introduce him to the worship of idols. The child’s father agreed to this, but he could not be persuaded to give up his idea of selecting a day of good omen from the Chinese calendar for the performance of the ceremony. So he took the child away with him, but he brought him back on the following day, and after the child was baptized, the parent took home a catechism, to begin studying for his own conversion.

The little flock at Nancian was exemplary in the performance of religious duties. They attended Mass regularly, came in for instructions when in doubt, strictly avoided all pagan ceremonies when conducting a funeral and publicly professed their faith in Christ. All of which would not be very encouraging, in some missions, but it was a great step forward in the order of Christian life, in Cochin-China. One of them, even to make a trip outside of the city, went into the house of a pagan acquaintance. Entering the reception room he took a seat with his back to a collection of idols which the pagan had arranged at one end of the room. His host informed him that his position was uncomplimentary to the gods and he answered, “I adore only one God and I am in no wise concerned about idols.” With that he made the sign of the cross on himself and then over the idols, moved his chair to the middle of the room and sat down again, still facing away from the statues of the gods, and so his friend let the incident pass. The Chinese are not nearly as interested in the honor they believe to be due their gods as they are in the courtesy they believe to be due to a friend. At lunch time the pagan host was about to place a few small viands before the idols by way of a good omen offering, when the Christian said, “If you do that, I shall not eat what you put on the table.” Then the host omitted the superstitious rite rather than offend his visitor, who considered that he had gained a double victory over the lifeless gods. This same convert had a neighbor whose wife had left him and the husband went to a fortune teller to seek information as to her return. She returned as the fortune teller predicted but when the husband saw her he thought she was possessed of a devil. She was so distraught and furious that he realized that he had an enemy on his hands instead of a housewife. Every pagan rite and ceremony was employed to expel the evil spirit, but without any result. Then the convert intervened. First he recited the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin, then with all the faith in him, he scolded the evil spirit for daring to come into a house so close to his own, where the image of the crucified Christ was kept. After that, he made the sign of the cross over the woman and with strong words commanded the spirit to depart. Then the demoniac became quiet, as did the loquacious demon also. There are many instances of the strong faith of the converts performing such amazing wonders with the use of holy water, too many indeed to be rec