Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/59

 RICCI

35

RICCI

predecessors in two sojourns at Canton (1580-81) allowed him by an unwonted complacency of the mandarins. Finally, after many untoward events, he was authorized (10 Sept., 1583) to take up his residence with Father Ricci at Chao-k'ing, the ad- ministrative capital of Canton.

Method of the Missionaries. — The exercise of great prudence alone enabled the missionaries to remain in the region which they had had such difficulty in entering. Omitting all mention at first of their in- tention to preach the Gospel, they declared to the mandarins who questioned them concerning their ob- ject "that they were religious who had left their country in the distant West because of the renown of the good government of China, where they desired to remain till their death, serving God, the Lord of Heaven". Had they immediately declared their in- tention to preach a new religion, thvy would inner have been received ; this would have clashed with Chinese pride, which would not admit that China had anything to learn from foreigners, and it would have especially alarmed their politics, which beheld a national danger in every in- novation. However, the mis- sionaries never hid their Faith nor the fact that they were Christian priests. As soon as they were established at Chao- k'ing they placed in a conspicu- ous part of their house a pic- ture of the Blessed Virgin with the Infant Jesus in her arms. Visitors seldom failed to in- quire the meaning of this, to them, novel rei)r('sentation, and the missionaries profited thereby to give them a first idea of Christianity. The mis- sionaries assumed the initia- tive in speaking of their re- ligion as soon as they had sufficiently overcome Chinese antipathy and distrust to see their instructions desired, or at least to be certain of making them understood without shocking their listeners. They achieved this result by appealing to the curiosity of the Chinese, by making them feel, without saying so, that the foreigners had something new and interesting to teach; to this end they made use of the European things they had brought with them. Such were large and small clocks, mathematical and astronomical instruments, prisms revealing the various colours, musical instruments, oil paintings and prints, cos- mographical, geographical, and architectural works with diagrams, maps, and views of towns and build- ings, large volumes, magnificently printed and splen- didly bound, etc. The Chinese, who had hitherto fancied that outside of their country only barbarism existed, were astounded. Rumours of the wonders displayed by the religious from the West soon spread on all sides, and thenceforth their house was always filled, especially with mandarins and the educated. It followed, says Father Ricci, that "all came by degrees to have with regard to our countries, our people, and especially of our educated men, an idea vastly different from that which they had hitherto entertained". This impression was intensified by the explanations of the missionaries concerning their little museum in reply to the numerous questions of their visitors.

One of the articles which most aroused their curi- osity was a map of the world. The Chinese had al-

scriptions in Chinese.

ready had maps, called by their geographers "de- scriptions of the world", but almost the entire space was fiUed by the fifteen provinces of China, around which were painted a bit of sea and a few islands on which were mscribed the names of countries of which they had heard — all together was not as large as a small Chinese province. Naturally the learned men of Chao-k'ing immediately protested when Father Ricci pointed out the various parts of the world on the European map and when they saw how small a part China played. But after the missionaries had explained its construction and the care taken by the geographers of the West to assign to each country its actual position and boundaries, the wisest of them surrendered to the evidence, and, beginning with the Governor of Chao-k'ing, all urged the missionary to make a copy of his map with the names and in- Ricci drew a larger map of the world on which he wrote more detailed inscriptions, suited to the needs of the Chinese; when the work was completed the governor had it printed, giv- ing all the copies as presents to his friends in the province and at a distance. Father Kieri does not hesitate to say: "This was the most useful work that could be done at that time to dispose China to give credence to the things of our holy Faith. . . . Their conception of the greatness of their country and of the insignificance of all other lands made them so proud that the whole world sei-med to t hem savage and barbarous compared with tlu'insclvcs; it was scarcely to be expected that they, while entertaining this idea, would heed foreign masters." But now nuniljers were eager to learn of Euro- pean affairs from the mission- aries, who profited by these dispositions to introduce reli- 1, ii, ],:, gion more frequently with their

explanations. For example, their beautiful Bibles and the paintings and prints de- picting religious subjects, monuments, churches, etc., gave them an opportunity of speaking of "the good customs in the countries of the Christians, of the false- ness of idolatry, of the conformity of the law of God with natural reason and similar teachings found in the writings of the ancient sages of China". This last instance shows that F'ather Ricci already knew how to draw from his Chinese studies testimony favourable to the religion which he was to preach.

It was soon evident to the missionaries that their remarks regarding religion were no less interesting to many of their visitors than their Western curios- ities and learning, and, to satisfy those who wished to learn more, they distributed leaflets containing a Chinese translation of the Ten Commandments, an abbreviation of the moral code much appreciated by the Chinese. Next the missionaries, with the assistance of some educated Chinese, composed a small catechism in which the chief points of Christian doctrine were ex-plained in a dialogue between a pagan and a European priest. This work, printed about 1584, was also well received, the highest mandarins of the province considering themselves honoured to re- ceive it as a present. The missionaries distributed himdreds and thousands of copies and thus "the good odour of our Faith began to be spread throughout China". Having begun their direct apostolate in