Motivation to Act in Confucianism and Christianity: In Matteo Ricci’s The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven ( Tianzhu Shiyi 天主實義)

Abstract

Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), known in China as Li Madou (利瑪竇), is one of the few foreigners who have gained a place in Chinese history, and whose name many educated Chinese recognize. After four years in India, in 1582 Ricci joined his confrère Michele Ruggieri (1543–1607) in Macao, at the order of the famous visitor of the Asian missions, Alessandro Valignano (1539–1606). Valignano implemented a program of cultural accommodation and linguistic immersion for missionaries in East Asia, and found allies in Ruggieri and Ricci. To stay permanently in China, the two befriended officials in Guangdong province, and at their suggestion, introduced themselves as Buddhist monks from the West, shaving their heads and wearing the monk’s robes from 1583 to 1594. Ruggieri’s first exposition of Catholic doctrine, The True Record of the Lord of Heaven (Tianzhu shilu 天主實錄 , 1585), even used some Buddhist vocabulary. By the late 1580s, Ricci assumed the cultural leadership of the mission, and started to shift towards the new identity of the Confucian literatus. He spent much of his time reading and translating the texts of the Confucian tradition. Following the advice of friendly literati, he also adopted in 1594 the silken robes and hat of Confucian scholars. Ricci’s The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven (Tianzhu shiyi 天主實義 , 1603) emerged out of this shift in identity, but also out of a peculiarly favorable environment for new ideas in the late Ming period. Once Ricci had sufficient linguistic command, and felt comfortable in the Confucian curriculum, he set out to impress the literati with a mix of moral, religious, and scientific teachings, eventually dubbed Tianxue 天學 or Celestial Teachings. Confucian scholars in the late Ming prized the study of ethical questions, a staple of Chinese philosophy for two millennia. Some of them, moreover, were open to religious experimentation. Ricci was able to rely on his knowledge of natural and mathematical sciences, Greek and Roman philosophy, Christian theology, and the Confucian classical tradition, to engage important intellectuals, often in public fashion. By the mid-1590s, he had left the deep south, moving to central China, and he tried in 1598 to establish himself in the imperial capital of Beijing. After a setback there, he moved to the secondary capital of Nanjing, in the great cultural hub of the Jiangnan region. By 1601, however, he left again Nanjing for the north, this time succeeding