Page 322 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

ricci, matteo 1623

joined the Jesuit Order. Under the tutelage of the famous In 1595, after a total of twelve years in the south, Ricci
scholar Clavius, he studied mathematics and astronomy was able to secure permission to travel north into the
in addition to his religious training, which he received at heart of China. Although he could not gain entry to the
Jesuit colleges in Florence and Rome. In 1577 Matteo capital of Beijing, he did establish himself in the city of
left Italy and, after a brief stay at the University of Coim- Nanchang in central China. Here he continued to culti-
bra in Portugal where he studied Portuguese, he arrived vate friendships with members of the literati, and in 1597
in the port of Goa in India. While in Goa he taught he was named the superior of the China mission. In the
Latin and Greek at the local Jesuit college and continued fall of 1598 he was finally allowed to accompany a
to prepare for the priesthood. Ordained in July 1580, prominent Chinese official on a trip to the imperial cap-
Father Ricci was dispatched two years later to Macao on ital.Although his first visit to Beijing was brief, Ricci was
the coast of southern China where he immediately began convinced that the city was the same as Khanbalic, the
an intensive program of studying both written and spo- capital of Cathay that had been described by the adven-
ken Chinese. turer Marco Polo three centuries earlier. Father Ricci’s
In 1583, Matteo Ricci accompanied Father Michele belief that Polo’s Cathay and Ming dynasty China were
Ruggieri on a mission to establish a Catholic presence one and the same was confirmed a few years later by his
inside China.They settled in Zhaoqing, the administrative fellow Jesuit, Father De Goes, who travelled to China
capital of the southern provinces of Guangdong and overland from India noting the accuracy of Polo’s descrip-
Guangxi, careful not to draw unnecessary attention to tions of the region.
themselves while they worked to secure friendship from After leaving Beijing, Ricci settled in the secondary cap-
the ruling class. Abandoning an early strategy of inte- ital of Nanjing on the Chang (Yangzi) River where he
grating into Chinese society by wearing the orange robes continued his study of Chinese language and philosophy.
of Buddhist priests, Fathers Ruggieri and Ricci donned He also reworked an earlier version of a map of the world
the traditional costume of the Confucian literati elite that he had drawn while in Zhaoqing, and this extremely
instead. Recognizing that it was this class of society detailed map greatly impressed the local Confucian schol-
whose toleration, if not assistance, they required, the ars. After nearly two decades in China, Ricci was at last
Jesuit missionaries worked to gain their acceptance by granted permission to travel to Beijing, and despite efforts
portraying themselves as scholars, moralists, and philoso- by the powerful eunuch Ma Tang to stop his visit, he
phers, rather than as religious priests. entered the Chinese capital in January of 1601. The
While in Zhaoqing, Ricci mastered not only the basics Ming emperor, who was impressed by the Jesuit’s gifts,
of the Chinese language but also the philosophy of the which included a painting that utilized the technique of
ruling class. Relying on his tremendous memory, he perspective, something untried up to this time by Chinese
could recite passages from the Four Books of the Confu- artists; two clocks that struck on the hour; and a music
cian codex as well as selections from the classics of instrument called a spinet, granted him permission to
ancient literature and history along with volumes of reside in Beijing permanently. Ricci spent the final nine
commentaries on Chinese philosophy.This was a remark- years of his life in the Ming capital.
able achievement given that no substantial dictionaries or During his time in Beijing, equipped with a com-
language guides existed at the time. In the summer of mand of written Chinese after years of dedicated study,
1589, Ricci and Ruggieri were forced to leave Zhaoqing Ricci began to translate European texts for publication.
after being expelled by an official who was hostile to the In addition to publishing his revised map of the world,
presence of foreigners. The Jesuit fathers then moved he also oversaw the publication of many of these texts,
north of Gangzhou (Canton) to the town of Shaozhou including a summary of the Christian faith in a work
where they remained for the next six years. called The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven (1603), the