Catholic Music in Macau and Mainland China During the Late Ming and Early Qing Dynasties

224 Chapter 7

Chapter 7 Catholic Music in Macau and Mainland China during the Late Ming and Early Qing Dynasties

In this essay, the expression “Catholic music” is used to refer to the European music brought to Macau and mainland China directly by European missionaries, including musical theory, musical composition, musical instruments, and the chants used in Catholic ritual.1 Before the Ming dynasty (i.e., prior to 1368), many Christian churches had been built in China thanks to the spread of Christianity during the Tang (618–907), Song (960–1279), and Yuan (1279–1368) dynasties. During the Yuan dynasty, for example, Franciscan missionaries built three magnificent churches in Quanzhou city alone.2 It can be assumed, therefore, that Catholic music would have been introduced into China together with church music well before the Yuan dynasty. However, after the Yuan dynasty, as Catholicism disappeared in China, Catholic music also vanished. As European merchants and missionaries headed east from the middle years of the Ming dynasty onwards, Catholic music was once again introduced into China. According to the available sources, Shuangyu port, in the Ningbo area of Zhejiang province, was the first place into which Catholic music was introduced during the Ming period. The Portuguese explorer Fernão Mendes Pinto 平托 (1509–83) gave the following account of Shuangyu port:

Antonio de Faria boarded this boat. Amid the extremely loud music of trumpet, flute, timpani, treble flute, and bass drum as well as the earsplit-

1 The research on this topic includes the following: Wu Xiangxiang 吳相湘, “History of the Introduction of Western Music to the East” [西洋音樂東傳記略], in Ta-Kung Pao [大公報] (February 9, 1937); Wang Rou 王柔, “Introduction of Western Music to China” [西洋音樂傳入中國考], Music Research [音樂研究] 2 (1982); Yang Naiji 楊乃濟, “Western Music Band in the Royal Court during the Reign of Emperor Qianlong” [乾隆朝宮遷西洋樂隊], Forbidden City [紫禁城] 4 (1984); Tao Yabing, Draft of History of Communication between Chinese Music and Western Music [中西音樂交流史稿] (Beijing: China Encyclopedia Press, 1994), chapters 3, 4, 6; Fang Hao, “History of the Spread of Western Music in China before the Reign of Emperor Jiaqing” [嘉慶前西洋音樂流傳中國史略], Mainland Magazine [大陸雜誌] 4, no. 10 (1952); and Fang Hao, History of Sino-Western Transportation, vol. 2 (Hong Kong: Chinese Publishing House, 1992), chapter 8, “Music.” 2 Arthur Christopher Moule, Christians in China before the Year 1550, trans. Hao Zhenhua (Beijing: Chinese Publishing House, 1984), 280.

ting music played by Chinese, Malays, Chamba, Siamese, Borneo, and Ryukyu at the port with other musical instruments, he reached the wharf. When he reached the gate of the church, […] some people sang to the organ […]. According to the ancient way, the acting bishop played a huge guitar […]. [He] played a few pieces of music on the guitar for the special occasion. There was also a performance during the banquet: one Chinese play and one Portuguese play.3

This account indicates that an international band had taken shape at the port, which was developed jointly by the Portuguese, Japanese, and merchants from Southeast Asia and China. The band was composed of musicians playing vari- ous instruments, and they even performed “Portuguese plays.” These European instruments are likely to have been brought into the port by the Portuguese. However, Shuangyu port in Ningbo did not become a base for Westerners bound for China. Around 1548 (the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Emperor Jiajing 嘉靖 [r. 1522–66]), the port was completely demolished by the troops of the Ming dynasty. As a result, while Catholic music was clearly introduced to islands along the coast of China during this period, it would appear that such music did not initially spread to Macau or the mainland.

1 The Spread of Catholic Music in Macau

Catholicism was first introduced into Macau in 1555, two years before the Portuguese formally settled there. Gregório Gonçalves, the first priest in Macau, “built a thatched church” in 1556.4 At least three churches were built in Macau in the space of around ten years,5 with Western religious music being brought into Macau along with the Catholic creed. The creation of a formal church in Macau thus signifies the introduction of Western church music into Macau. The earliest Chinese document on religious music in Macau was writ-

3 Fernão Mendes Pinto, Peregrinação, trans. Jin Guoping (Macau: Fundação Macau, 1999), 196, 200, 203. Among the three historical records quoted in this book, the first came from Jin Guoping’s translation, but there was no specific term for the musical instrument. Therefore, the translation of Peregrinação in RC (Rui Manuel Loureiro is the editor of no. 31, 1997) was adopted; see Pinto, Peregrinação, no. 31, 1997, 146. 4 Rui Manuel Loureiro, Em busca das origens de Macau (antologia documental), doc. 12, Carta do Padre Gregório González a D. Juan de Borja (Malacca, c.1571), 194. 5 Tang Kaijian, “Establishment of the City of Macau during the Ming Dynasty” [明代澳門城市建置考], in Literature and History [文史] (Beijing: Chinese Publishing House, no. 48, July 1999).