Matteo Ricci (35 page)

On completion of the work, Ricci decided to refrain from writing the expected preface, judging it inappropriate to praise a book that talked about disdain for worldly vanities. Introductions were instead written by Xu Guangqi and Feng Yingjing. The latter invited readers to compare the
Twenty-five Discourses
with the sutra of forty-two aphorisms, the first Bud
dhist text translated into Chinese in the first century, and argued that Ricci’s doctrine was to be preferred as more in keeping with the customs of the Chinese empire.

As with the earlier treatise on friendship, this moral essay enjoyed wide circulation and was greatly appreciated by a public of varied philosophical and religious inclinations: “It is read and very popular with everyone, regardless of their sect . . . and there are few of my visitors that do not urge me insistently to write more books, because we thus give credit to the things of our religion.”
16
All of the Jesuits’ friends wanted copies and could not believe that foreign culture could be capable of producing works of such value: “They were amazed to find something so accomplished from strange lands that they regarded as barbarian.”
17

The success of Ricci’s works, the ever-greater number of visits from dignitaries, and the gradual increase in conversions made it a matter of some urgency to find a new residence capable of accommodating the three priests, the two lay brothers, the two new Chinese converts who lived with the missionaries, and the servants, not to mention the novices due to arrive from Macao. The Jesuits had already moved a number of times and would have preferred to buy a house, even though they knew their funds were insufficient. By a stroke of luck, a bargain turned up due to circumstances identical to those in Nanjing. A building of forty rooms located alongside the Xuanwumen gate—the westernmost of the three gates providing access to the inner city from the south—was put on the market at an exceptionally low price because it had been constructed some time earlier without respecting the geomantic criteria of
feng shui
, and was indeed said to be haunted by evil spirits. Caring little for superstition, the Jesuits asked their friends for a loan so as not to miss this excellent opportunity. With the aid of Xu Guangqi, they raised a sum equivalent to six hundred
scudi
, sufficient to cover the initial expenses; completed the transaction in three days; and were able to move in on August 27, 1605. Ricci considered the location so close to the main entrance of the Imperial City and all the major government offices “the most convenient to be found.”

On being informed, Valignano sent money to pay the debts, buy furniture, dig a well, and add a new story. After registering the contract of purchase, the Jesuits should have begun to pay an annual tax on the property, but Ricci heard that some dignitaries were exempt and decided to consider himself so until someone turned up to demand payment. The situation came to the notice of the tax office some years later, and the Jesuits were asked to rectify matters. Fearing that they might be forced to pay a fine in addition to the arrears, Li Madou asked a mandarin friend to intercede on the grounds that he was entitled to exemption as a foreigner from far away. This move proved successful, and the Jesuits were freed of any such burden forever. As Ricci noted in his history of the mission, “This was how the Church came in some way to enjoy ecclesiastical immunity.”
18

The purchase of the house marked the beginning of stability, and Ricci now felt sure of Wanli’s protection, even though he was well aware that he had many enemies. His privileged position was put to the test when the court officials responsible for sending the Jesuits the monthly stipend granted by the emperor were persuaded to stop the payments by mandarins hostile to the missionaries’ presence. Ricci responded by sending a document to the court informing the emperor that the missionaries, having been deprived of their allowance from the state, were ready to return to their homeland and asked for an audience to take their final leave. Evidently viewing the Jesuits’ presence in the city with favor, Wanli came to their aid once again and ordered the immediate resumption of payments. The incident was never to be repeated.

“Send Me an Astronomer”

On completion of the extensions, the building was big enough to accommodate sixteen people, including the novices from Macao and the servants, and to allow the faithful to attend the services held in the spacious chapel. Pleased to note that the house now functioned as a sort of Jesuit college,
19
Ricci was always the busiest of them all. In addition to religious activities such as prayer, the performance of spiritual exercises, and celebrating Mass, he taught Chinese by reading the Confucian classics with the novices, and he did not fail to devote part of the day and night to correspondence. As the superior, he kept in constant contact by letter with the missionaries in the other residences, he wrote the customary reports to Rome, he never forgot to write to his brethren in Europe, and he answered the letters of numerous mandarins in Chinese. As though this were not enough, he taught science to those willing to listen to him, he read books in Mandarin, and he devoted many hours to study.

The problem of the Chinese calendar was never far from his mind, and every year, after the presentation of the “Book of the Laws of Time” at court, he checked and saw that the imperial astronomers’ predictions were inaccurate. As he told João Alvarez in a letter dated May 12, 1605, “Even though I have no book of astrology [astronomy] here, I sometimes predict eclipses more precisely than them with certain Portuguese ephemerides and tables.”
20
Evidence of the imperial astronomers’ ignorance was provided by the glaring error of three quarters of an hour in predicting the beginning of the solar eclipse two years earlier in May 1603.
21
Well aware of how important the accuracy of astronomical predictions was for the Chinese, Ricci repeated to Alvarez his customary request for brethren skilled in astronomy to be sent to China to help. He was convinced that the missionaries’ reputation would benefit enormously if a Jesuit were to succeed in correcting the Chinese calendar:

I want very much to make a request that I made many years ago but never received a reply, and it is one of the most useful things that could come from there for this court, namely for a father or brother who is a good astrologer [astronomer]. I say an astrologer because I know enough about other things like geometry, clocks, and astrolabes, and have enough books, but they do not say so much about this, about the movement and true place of the planets, the calculation of eclipses, and how to construct ephemerides. . . . If a mathematician came here, as I ask, we could turn our [astronomical] tables into Chinese characters, which I can do very easily, and undertake the task of amending the year [correcting the calendar], which would give us a great reputation, expand our foothold in China, and allow us greater stability and freedom.
22

Ricci’s activities while awaiting this long-desired scientific support included an increasingly busy social life. Deeply convinced that availability was an integral part of his missionary work, he never refused to receive anyone who wanted to see him, and he accepted every invitation. The influx of visitors was greater in the capital than at any other residence, not only because Beijing was so densely populated, but also because the city filled up every year with thousands of dignitaries and literati taking part in special events and celebrations. In addition to the arrivals and departures of
shidafu
and
guan
, there was an almost continuous stream of merchants arriving from other urban and rural areas to supply the Imperial City and the court. Many occasional visitors took advantage of their stay in Beijing to see Li Madou, and old friends gladly undertook the journey to the capital to visit him.

Ricci wanted the house to be always open: “Even though it is a lot of hard work, let everyone be warmly welcomed so as to gain the good wishes of all as well as the possibility of talking to them about the matters of our faith.”
23
He knew that contacts with the most important mandarins were conducive to the progress of the mission and to the protection of the brethren in other cities, being sure that if officials passing through saw the respect that Li Madou enjoyed at court, they would have more consideration for the Jesuits resident in the provinces. He received up to twenty books of visits a day and as many as hundreds on festive occasions, and he went to return the invitations every two or three days, on foot or horseback, as required by etiquette.

Such zeal had its price, and the Jesuit felt his energy flagging. The post of superior of the China mission was now too much of a burden for him, and he wished with little real hope that Valignano would “lift it from his shoulders.”
24
He confessed his weariness to Girolamo Costa on May 10, 1605: “The more the work proceeds, the more business they load upon me. . . . Responding to the visits of the important men that constantly come to see us and learn about our religion would be enough by itself for a man much abler than me.”
25
He wrote to Fabio de Fabii in much the same vein: “Writing is all that is left to poor me, so close to the Tartars and very far away not only from Europeans and friends but also from the companions who are in China . . . but do not think that I am therefore idle, as never in my life have I found myself so pressed for time, so much so that I sometimes hardly have enough to commend my soul to God when I need it most.”
26

The Jew and the “Worshipers of the Cross”

The number of popular publications talking about the Jesuits resident in Beijing grew along with Ricci’s renown. Some concentrated on the story of the priests’ arrival and on vivid, admiring descriptions of the gifts brought for the emperor. Other more scholarly works examined the scientific, moral, and philosophical subjects addressed by Ricci in his writings, citing entire passages and reproducing parts of his maps of the world. The Jesuit often noted that the authors talked about him without even having read his works or met him. The Jesuits were described more or less as follows in a highly popular publication in vernacular Chinese entitled “Things I have heard”:

They are two Westerners, one called Matteo Ricci and the other Cattaneo. Both have prominent foreheads, deep-set eyes, pink faces, and grey beards. They arrived in the Guangdong province after an eight-year voyage and stayed there for ten years. They built a house worth many thousands of
taels
and then abandoned it and traveled to Nanjing, each holding a bamboo umbrella. There an official of the water department possessed a house haunted by many evil demons, and anyone who entered it died immediately. These two men chased the demons out and lived there with no harm done to them. They say that in the West there is an extraordinary lord called the Lord of Heaven who loves good by nature, eats no meat, and has nothing to do with women. The entire country honors him as its sovereign. As regards customs, they esteem friendship and do not cultivate solitude. On arriving in the Middle Kingdom, they began studying the classics and histories day and night, and so have published many observations about friendship. It is impossible to count precisely all the precious objects they have with them. These are the strangest: a painting of the Lord of Heaven whose eyes follow you everywhere, a clock that rings the hours and is very precise for the minutes and quarters, a prism that makes even dead trees and broken down walls shine with the five colors as soon as it starts glowing before the eyes, a square harpsichord with strings of iron that makes sounds even when no one touches it and is played with a bamboo rod that moves over the strings.
27

Even though Ricci made ironic fun of the “falsehoods,” “bizarre lies,” and “fantastic, unheard-of things” that he chanced to read, he was pleased to be mentioned together with his companions, as he believed that his reputation furthered the cause of Christianity: “They spread so many true and false reports that they will always be remembered for all the centuries in these lands, and mostly in a good way.”
28

The book with the description of the Jesuits had been read by a
shidafu
who visited the missionaries’ home while he was in Beijing to sit the imperial examination. The man was not of the Chinese race but was a Jew named Ai Tian from the Henan province in central China. Being under the impression that the Jesuits shared his faith, he interpreted the images of Mary, Jesus, and John the Baptist in the chapel as depictions of Rebecca and her sons Jacob and Esau. Ai Tian called himself an Israelite and did not know the term “Jew.” When Ricci showed him his copy of the
Biblia Regia
, he recognized the Hebrew writing even though he was unable to read it.

This unexpected visit was a precious source of information. Ai Tian told Ricci that there were many Jewish families in the city of Kaifeng, where he lived; that they were allowed to practice their religion in a great synagogue that had just been restored; and that there were also Jews at Hangzhou in the Zhejiang province and in other Chinese cities. He said that the Jews had arrived in the Middle Kingdom five centuries earlier and that the Chinese made no distinction between Muslims and Jews, even though the latter “loathed” the followers of Mohammed and hated being mixed up with them. He confessed that he was not a devout follower of his religion and that, having studied the Confucian philosophy in order to sit the imperial examinations, he would abandon his faith with no regret if he passed. He informed Ricci that the Chinese term
Huihui
, used by extension for the followers of all foreign religions, originally indicated an ethnic minority of the Muslim persuasion descended from Arabian and Persian immigrants,
29
reference being made to diet in order to differentiate the various religions. Saracens were thus
Huihui
that did not eat pork, Jews were
Huihui
that did not eat sinews (a reference to their particular way of butchering meat), and the descendants of Christians were
Huihui
that did not eat animals with hooves, because it was not their habit to use horses or mules for food. The latter were also known as
Huihui
of the number ten because of the similarity between the Chinese character for ten and a cross.