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Map of the Far East by Matteo Ricci in 1602.

'Matteo Ricci' (October 6 1552 - May 11 1610) (; courtesy name:西泰 Xītài) was an Italian Jesuit priest.
Matteo Ricci was born in 1552 in Macerata, then part of the Papal States. Ricci started learning theology and law in a Roman Jesuits' school. In 1577, he filed an application to be a member of a Missionary to India, and his journey began in March 1578 from Lisbon, Portugal. He arrived in Goa, a Portuguese Colony, in September 1578, and four years later he was dispatched to China.

Contents

Ricci in China

Ricci's approach to Chinese culture

Further reading

See also

External links

Ricci in China

In 1582, Ricci started learning the Chinese language and customs in Macao, a Portuguese trading post in Southern China, and became a rarely seen Western scholar who mastered Chinese classical script. The next year saw Ricci move inland and, after a visit to Canton, settle in Zhaoqing in Guangdong Province. Ricci moved there after receiving an invitation from the governor of Zhaoqing at the time, Wang P'an, who had heard of Ricci's skill as a mathematician/cartographer. Ricci stayed there from 1583-1589 before having to leave after a new viceroy decided to expel him. It was in Zhaoqing, in 1584, that Ricci composed the first ever map of the world in Chinese.
There is now a memorial plaque in Zhaoqing to commemorate his six-year stay there as well as a building set up as a 'Ricci Memorial Centre' although the building itself does not date back to the time of the priest as it was built as recently as the 1860s.
Further travels in China saw Ricci reach Nanjing and Nanchang in 1595, Tongzhou (a port for Beijing) in 1598 and then first reached Beijing on the 7th September 1598. However, because of a Korean/Japanese war at the time, Ricci could not reach the Imperial Palace. After waiting for two months he left Beijing first for Nanjing and also stopped at Suzhou in Jiangsu Province.
In 1601 he returned to Beijing where he was not initially granted an audience with the Emperor of China but, after he presented the Emperor with a chiming clock, Ricci was finally allowed to present himself at the Imperial court of Wanli thus becoming the first Westerner to be invited into the Forbidden City. Although Ricci was given free access to the Forbidden City he never met the Wanli Emperor but was able to meet important officials and leading members of the Beijing cultural scene.
Ricci lived on in China until the end of his life. He died in Beijing on May 11th 1610.

Ricci's approach to Chinese culture

Ricci could speak Chinese as well as read and write classical Chinese(''wen yan''),the literary language of scholars and officials. Added to this he was known for his appreciation of the indigenous culture of the Chinese. During his research he discovered that in contrast to the cultures of South Asia, that Chinese culture was strongly intertwined with Confucian values and therefore decided that Christianity had to be changed to fit Chinese culture in order to be attractive to the Chinese.
In his early life in China, he referred to himself as a Western Monk, a term relating to Buddhism. He later discovered that Confucian thought was dominant in the Ming dynasty in China. Ricci became the first to translate the Confucian classics into a western language, Latin; in fact "Confucius" was Ricci's own Latinisation. He came to call himself a "Western Confucian" (西儒). The credibility of Confucius helped make Christianity take root.
Ricci also met a Korean emissary to China, Yi Su-gwang. Ricci taught Yi Su-gwang the basic tenets of Catholicism and transmitted western knowledge to him. Ricci gave Yi Su-gwang several books from the west, which became the basis of Yi Su-gwang's later works. Ricci's transmission of western knowledge to Yi Su-gwang influenced and helped shape the foundation of the Silhak movement in Korea.

The following places and institutions are named after Matteo Ricci:

★ Ricci Hall, a dormitory at The University of Hong Kong

★ Ricci Building, a building at Wah Yan College, Kowloon in Hong Kong

★ The Matteo Ricci Study Hall, at the Ateneo de Manila University

★ Matteo Ricci College, Kowloon in Hong Kong

★ Matteo Ricci College at Seattle Preparatory School and Seattle University

★ Sekolah Katolik Ricci in Pancoran, Indonesia

★ Taipei Ricci Institute, Taiwan

★ Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History at the University of San Francisco.

★ The ''Matteo Ricci Society'' at Fordham University

Further reading

★ Vincent Cronin, ''The Wise Man from the West: Matteo Ricci and his Mission to China'' (1955) ISBN 0-00-626749-1

★ Jonathan D. Spence, ''The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci'' (1985)

★ "Madness of the Wise : Ricci in China", an article by Simon Leys in his book, ''The Burning Forest'' (1983), is an interesting account, and contains a critical review of Spence's book

See also

★ Religion in China

★ List of Roman Catholic missionaries in China

★ Jesuit China missions

★ Christianity in China

★ 19th Century Protestant Missions in China

★ List of Protestant missionaries in China

External links

'Works'
An excerpt from ''On Chinese Government, Selection from his Journals'' by Matteo Ricci
An excerpt from ''The Art of Printing '' by Matteo Ricci
Ricci's ''World Map of 1602''
'Resources'

★ Fairfield University: Matteo Ricci, S.J.

★ A timeline of Matteo Ricci in China

★ The Zhaoqing Ricci Center

★ Article about the tomb of Matteo Ricci in Beijing

★

★ Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History

★ Rotary Club Macerata Matteo Ricci

★ Lamberto Bozzi: The Matteo Ricci Macerata Project

★ Lamberto Bozzi: Pinocchio in China/Pinocchio nella Cina