in China, he also devoted much time to answering the letters of
the priests under him, a matter on which he spared no painsor
detail. New converts had to be attended to—always
welcomed, and never hustled away. Besides these came the
composition of his Chinese books, the teaching of his people and
the maintenance of the record of the mission history which had
been enjoined upon him by the general of the order, and which
he kept well up to date. Thus his labours were wearing and
incessant. In May 1610 he broke down, and after an illness
of eight days died on the 11th of that month. His colleague
Pantoja applied to the emperor for a burying-place outside the
city. This was granted, with the most honourable official
testimonies to the reputation and character of Ricci; and a
large building in the neighbourhood of the city was at the same
time bestowed upon the mission for their residence.
Ricci’s work was the foundation of the subsequent success attained by the Roman Catholic Church in China. When the missionaries of other Roman Catholic orders made their way into China, twenty years later, they fotmd great fault with the manner in which certain Chinese practices had been dealt with by the Jesuits, a matter in which Ricci’s action and policy had; given the tone to the mission in China—though in fact that tone was rather inherent in the Jesuit system than the outcome of individual character, for controversies of an exactly parallel nature arose two generations later in southern India, between the Jesuits and Capuchins, regarding what were called “Malabar rites.” The controversy thus kindled in China burned for considerably more than a century with great fierceness.[1] The chief points were (1) the lawfulness and expediency of certain terms employed by the Jesuits in naming God Almighty, such as Tien, “Heaven,” and Shang-ti, “Supreme Ruler” or “Emperor,” instead of Tien-Chu, “Lord of Heaven,” and in particular the erection of inscribed tablets in the churches, on which these terms were made use of;[2] (2) in respect to the ceremonial offerings made in honour of Confucius, and of personal ancestors, which Ricci had recognized as merely “civil” observances; (3) the erection of tablets in honour of ancestors in private houses; and (4), more generally, sanction and favour accorded to ancient Chinese sacred books and philosophical doctrine, as not really trespassing on Christian faith.
Probably no European name of past centuries is so well known in China as that of Li-ma-teu, the form in which the name of Ricci (Ri-cci Mat-teo) was adapted to Chinese usage, and by which he appears in Chinese records.[3] The works which he composed in Chinese are numerous; a list of them (apparently by no means complete, however) will be found in Kircher’s China Illustrata, and also in Abel Rémusat’s Nouveaux Mélanges Asiatiques (ii. 213–15). They are said to display an aptitude for clothing ideas in a Chinese dress very rare and remarkable in a foreigner. One of the first which attracted attention and reputation' among Chinese readers was a:Treatise upon Friendship, in the 'form of a dialogue containing short and pithy paragraphs; this is stated in the De Expeditione to have been suggested during Ricci’s stay at Nan-Chang by a conversation with the prince of Kien-ngan, who asked questions regarding the laws of friendship in the West.
In the early part of his residence at Peking, when enjoying constant intercourse with scholars of high position, Ricci brought, out the T’ien-chu shih-i, or “Veritable Doctrine of the Lord of Heaven,” which deals with the divine character, and attributes under eight heads. “This work,” says A. Wylie, “contains some acute reasoning in support of the propositions laid down, but the doctrine of faith in Christ is very slightly touched upon. The teachings of Buddhism are vigorously attacked, whilst the author tries tot draw a parallel between Christianity and the teachings of the Chinese literati.”
In 1604 Ricci completed the Erh-shih-wu yen, a series of short articles of moral bearing, but exhibiting little of the essential doctrines of Christianity. Chi-jên shih pien is another of his productions, completed in 1608, and consisting of a record ten conversations held with, Chinese of high position. The subjects are: (1) Years past no longer ours; (2) Man a sojourner on earth; (3) Advantage of frequent contemplation of eternity; (4) Preparation for judgment by such contemplation; (5) The good man not desirous of talking; (6) Abstinence, and its distinction from the prohibition to take life; (7) Self-examination and self-reproof inconsistent with inaction;, (8) Future reward and punishment, (9) Prying into futurity hastens calamity; (10) Wealth with covetousness more 'wretched than, poverty with contentment. To this work is appended a translation of eight European hymns, with elucidations, written in 1609.
Some of the characteristics thus indicated may have suggested the bitterness of attacks afterwards made upon Ricci’s theology. An example of these is found in the work called Anecdotes sur l’état de religion dans la Chine (Paris, 1733–35), the author of which (Abbé Villers) speaks of the T’ien-chu shih-i in this fashion: “ The Jesuit was also so ill versed in the particulars of the faith that, as the holy bishop of Conon, Monsgr. Maigrot, says of him, one need merely read his book on the true religion to convince oneself that he had never imbibed the first elements of theology.” . . .
Ricci’s pointed attacks on Buddhism, and the wide circulation, of his books, called forth the opposition of the Buddhist clergy. One of the ablest who took their part was Chu-hang, a priest of Hang-chow, who had abandoned the literary status for the Buddhist cloister. He wrote three articles against the doctrine of the missionaries. These were brought to Ricci’s notice in an ostensible tone of candour by Yu-chun-he, a high mandarin at the capital. This letter, with Ricci’s reply, the three Buddhist declamations and Ricci’s confutation, were published 'in a collected form by-the. Christian Sen-Kwang-K’e.
Another work of Ricci’s which attracted attention was the Hsi-kuo fa, or “Art of Memory as practised in the West.” Ricci was himself a great expert in memoria technica, and astonished the Chinese by his performances in this line. He also wrote or edited various Chinese works on geography, the celestial and terrestrial spheres, geometry and arithmetic. And the detailed history of the mission was drawn out by him, which after his death was brought home by P. Nicolas Trigault, and published at Augsburg, and later in a complete format Lyons under the name De Expeditione Christiana apud Sinas Suscepta, ab Soc. Jesu, Ex P. Mat. Ricci ejusdem Societatis Commentariis, Trigault himself adding many interesting notes on China and the Chinese.
Among the scientific works which Ricci took into China was a set of maps, which at first created great interest, but afterwards disgust when the Chinese came to perceive the insignificant place assigned to the “Middle Kingdom,” thrust, as it seemed, into a corner, instead of being set in the centre of the world like the gem in a ring. Ricci, seeing their dissatisfaction, set about constructing a map of the hemisphere on a great scale, so adjusted that China, with its subject states, filled the central
- ↑ The list of the literature of this controversy occupies forty-one columns in M. Cordier’s excellent Bibliographie de la Chine.
- ↑ “Compare Browning, The Ring and the Book, x., The Pope, 1589–1603.
- ↑
“The name comes forward prominently in the mouth of the
emperor Kang-hi, in a dialogue which took place between him
and? Monsgr. Maigrot, the leader of the anti-Jesuit movement
(mentioned in Browning’s lines referred to above, at the summer
residence in Tartary, August 1706-a dialogue which the Jesuits have
reported with not a little malice:—
“Emperor, ‘Tell me why do the people call me Van-sui (10,000 years). The Most Reverend (i.e. Maigrot), ‘To express their desire for your Majesty’s long life.’ Emp. ‘Good. You see, then, Chinese words are not a was to be taken literally. We pay cult to Confucius and to the dead, to express our respect for them. How is that inconsistent with your religion? When did it begin to be so? Is it since. Ly-Mattheu’s time? Hast thou ever read Ly-Mattheu? ' The Most Reverend, turning to P. Parenin, whispers, Who’s he?' and learning that it was P. Matteo Ricci, . . . answered the emperor: ' I have not read that book.' Emp. ‘Ly-Mattheu and his fellows came hither some two centuries ago; and before their time China never heard anything of the Incarnation, anything of Tien-chu, who had not become incarnate, in this part of the world. Why then, if it was lawful to call God Tien before Ly-Mattheu’s time, should it be improper now?’ ”—Epistola de Eventu Apostolicae Legationis, scripta a PP. Missionariis . . . ad Praepositurn Generalem S. J., An. 1706; 1 Novembris.
