Review of: A Jesuit in the Forbidden City: Matteo Ricci 1552–1610
- Format:
- Book Review
- Year:
- 2011
- Journal Title:
- Chinese Cross Currents
- Volume:
- 8
- Issue:
- 3
- Language:
- Abstract:
The four hundredth anniversary of Ricci’s death in Beijing in 1610 was marked by a number of conferences and publications, including three biographies in English. In Matteo Ricci, A Jesuit in the Ming Court (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2011), Michela Fontana delved into the cultural, political and scientific dimensions of the encounter (the book was originally published in Italian as Matteo Ricci, un Gesuita alla corte dei Ming, Mondadori, 2005; it is also available in French). Also, Mary Laven wrote another biography, entitled Mission to China: Matteo Ricci and the Jesuit Encounter with the East (Faber and Faber, 2011). The biography under review here appears to have a better academic standing than the two previous, since its author, Ronnie Po-Chia Hsia, professor at Pennsylvania State University, is indeed fully qualified for the task. Educated both in Hong Kong and in the West, he is able to read the primary materials in Chinese, Italian and Spanish (though not in Latin, it seems). Also, he brings his own expertise in the fields of history, philosophy and religious studies, which he had developed over the years with a few research articles on the Jesuit mission in China and Japan. Finally, he consulted an important second set of literature, especially in Chinese. The result is quite honest, but somehow falling short of expectations. The book title catches the eye: it evokes the breakthrough of a Jesuit having penetrated the heart of political power of the Chinese empire. Yet, the title does not reflect the substance of the book, since the last chapters only deal with Ricci’s stay in the capital. Also the title is misleading: though Ricci did penetrate within the Forbidden City, he was allowed there only on a couple of occasions, in order to repair the famous clocks he had brought. We may have expected a more sober title from Oxford University Press. The structure of the book does not show any sign of originality: the chapters follow Ricci’s journey, according to his own account of his life and mission in China (Della entrata della Compania di Giesù e Cristianità nella China). The chapter titles are simply the names of the places where Ricci stayed. The first chapter, Macerata and Rome, provides a useful background on Catholic reformation and the newly founded Society of Jesus. In a Catholic world undergoing rapid transformation and facing many challenges, the Jesuits represented a new vision of christianitas. Ricci’s vocation as a Jesuit was carried by this intellectual and geographical expansion which would shape his future mission. The second chapter, the Portuguese seas, opens with a lengthy account of the hardships of a six-month sea journey, from Lisbon to Goa. More interesting is how Ricci lived and interacted with Indian culture, since we may glean here some precious indications on the way he would operate in China. In fact, the Indian stop-over of four years (1578–1582) turned out to be quite a disappointment for Ricci himself. The Portuguese presence was typically colonial, aiming only at managing a military and commercial enterprise in the area. The Portuguese, including the Jesuits among them, were not really interested in missionary activities among the indigenous population, not to say about learning anything about Indian culture. Ricci complained in his letters of being caught in a college very similar to any Jesuit college in Europe. Ricci’s theological training had nothing stimulating, being a pale replica of the training at the Roman College. In brief, circumstances completely prevented Ricci from having a meaningful encounter with Indian culture. Yet, we may discern from his attitude toward the Indians the way he would behave later with the Chinese: being a true cosmopolitan, Ricci was not rigidly attached to a national identity (Italy as a nation did not even exist), and he was keen on developing relationships with foreign cultures on an equal basis. This is why Ricci expressed in a letter to the Superior General his dissatisfaction with the racial discrimination being implemented in the college of Goa, where indigenous people were barred entry to philosophy and theology. On the contrary, Ricci supported admitting Indians among the Jesuits and giving them equal treatment and status. The three following chapters are not centred on the figure of Ricci but on Ruggieri’s. Though this long excursus disrupts the narrative a bit, it provides a new light on Ricci as being the follower and companion of Ruggieri. The chapter Macao starts with the establishment of the city by the Portuguese in 1552, as well as the first attempts of missionaries to enter China (the Jesuits Barreto and Góis in 1555, the Dominican Gaspar de Cruz in 1556, the Jesuit Francisco Perez in 1563, and four Franciscan friars in 1579). All these attempts failed because of a lack of understanding of the Chinese language and customs. The breakthrough came with Ruggieri: the Jesuit visitor Alessandro Valignano instructed him to learn the Chinese language, both spoken and written. Ruggieri visited Guangzhou the first time during the spring fair of 1580, and, in the autumn of the same year, was authorized to reside on land. In 1582, at Zhaoqing, he met Chen Rui, the Supreme Commander, or zongdu, who hosted a sumptuous dinner with opera entertainment in his honour and granted him the permission to settle in Zhaoqing. However, Chen Rui was shortly after removed from office and Ruggieri was forced to go back to Macao. Meanwhile Ricci stayed in Macao, studying the language. In his letters from Macao, he criticized again the Portuguese Jesuits for their lack of missionary zeal, but unlike in Goa, he expressed admiration for a non-Western culture, China. In Chapter 4, Zhaoqing, describes the first permanent Jesuit outpost in China: with the approval of Guo Yingping, the new Supreme Commander, and the protection of Wang Pan, the local magistrate, the Jesuits were allowed to settle there in September 1583, near a Buddhist temple. The first successes were achieved in 1584, with the publication of the first catechism in Chinese, the Tianzhu shilu, by Ruggieri, and the printing of the first world map in China, by Ricci. Yet their presence was surrounded by many threats: the xenophobia of the local habitants, the precarious finances of the mission, and the project of a Spanish armada launched from Manila. More problematic, the protection granted by Wang Pan was based on a misunderstanding: this one believed that the Jesuits were worshipping a female deity bearing a child, similar to the bodhisattva Guanyin. Having been married for 30 years and still childless, Wang Pan hoped to obtain a son through the new deity brought by the Jesuits. One year after the arrival of the Jesuits, Wang Pan had a son and believed it was thanks to the new deity. Wang Pan was not unsophisticated, but well educated and, in fact, a refined poet. He became one of the many literati who would assimilate Christianity into a new form of Buddhism. For Hsia, the friendship between Ruggieri and Wang Pan fits perfectly into the pattern of the patronage of Buddhist monasticism by the literati. The author stressed that most of the converts in Zhaoqing were Buddhist: when they embraced Christianity, they did not truly reject Buddhism, but they only substituted some liturgical and doctrinal elements for others. Therefore, we can see in the first catechism, the Tianzhu shilu, the paradoxical position of the Jesuits: even though they presented themselves as Buddhist monks and were drawing a lot from Buddhist concepts, they openly rejected Buddhism. Chapter 5, entitled Ruggieri, reappraises the importance of a man who has largely been eclipsed by Ricci in the historiography of the Catholic mission: “With hindsight, it is easy to forget that Ruggieri was in fact the founder of the Jesuit mission in China, the pioneer in learning Chinese, and the author of the first Christian work published in the Chinese language”(97). The poems written by Ruggieri reveal that he had a good command of written Chinese, even if his spoken Chinese was not as good.
- Reviewed Component:
- Author: Hsia, R. Po-chiaTitle: A Jesuit in the Forbidden City: Matteo Ricci 1552–1610
- Who (Jesuits):
- What (Subjects):
- Where (Locations):
- When (Centuries):
- Page Range:
- 108–117
- ISSN:
- 1810-147X