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Home , Matteo Ricci, Michele Ruggieri, Shangdi, Taipei Ricci Institute

Educating Minds and Hearts to Change the World Report NUMBER 54 MAY 3 2010 CENTER for the PACIFIC RIM

The Center FOR THE PACIFIC RIM promotes understanding, communica- What Were “The Directives of ” tion, and cooperation among 1 the peoples and nations of the Regarding the Chinese Rites? Pacific Rim and provides leader- ship in strengthening the posi- by Paul A. Rule, Ph.D. tion of the San Francisco Bay Area as a pre-eminent American Paul A. Rule is an Honor- gateway to the Pacific. ary Associate at the History The Center fulfills Program, La Trobe Univer- its mission through graduate sity, Melbourne, Australia, and undergraduate academic and a Distinguished Fellow programs in Asia Pacific Stud- ies; research, publications; a of the EDS-Stewart Chair visiting fellows program; and for Chinese-Western Cultur- public about the al History at the USF Ricci Pacific Rim through confer- Institute. Rule has produced over one hundred and fifty ences, public lectures, and other outreach activities. publications covering the history of the early Jesuit mis- sionaries in and Sino-Western cultural relations The center includes: of the 16th-18th centuries. He has taught courses on 3 The Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural modern China, Catholicism, religion and society, peace History, an interdisciplinary studies and Aboriginal religion. research center, explores, in the spirit of Matteo Ricci, 3 3 3 3 3 S.J., cross-cultural encounters This Pacific Rim Report is offered by the USF between China and the West from the 17th c. onwards. Ricci Institute as part of its contributions to the worldwide celebrations marking 2010 as the 400th 3 The Japan Policy Research Institute, founded by anniversary of the death of the great Jesuit pioneer of Chalmers Johnson, publishes the China Mission, Matteo Ricci, who died in research and commentary on on May 11, 1610. all aspects of Japan’s place in the world, its view of itself, its The paper was originally presented by Rule at an past, and its future prospects. international symposium at ’s Fu Jen University The Decree of 19 April 1707 from the Kangxi (excerpt) 3 The U.S. offices of the in April 2010. The content is based on Rule’s work for regarding Ricci’s so-called ‘Directives’. The marked section reads: Nautilus Institute for Security the Institute’s Chinese Rites Controversy Project. (See “Instruction to all Westerners: Henceforth whoever does not and Sustainability, focused on Pacific Rim ReportNo. 32, February 2004, for more follow the customs of Madou [Matteo Ricci] shall positively not Northeast Asian affairs, and of be permitted to live in China, but must be expelled.” [Per A.S. information on this important topic). Rosso’s translation.] See Endnote 2. China Dialogue, a web based conversation on the environ- ment between “China and the world,” are also housed at the Center. ed ‘resolutions’ by Valignano; and a summary ’. He taught his Chinese visitors, he of these directives produced by Valignano “the tells us, that “the law of was in conformity same year” (presumably 1603). Gabiani sums with the natural light [of reason] and with these up as follows: what their first sages taught in their books.”6 All these early directives for this Church He was a Christian humanist in the line of deal directly with inducing Christian morals Desiderius Erasmus, seeing civility, as the and virtues in the Chinese neophytes, eradi- Chinese saw li 禮, as covering all forms of be- cating depraved and superstitious abuses; with tolerating prudently social rituals havior, from what we would call religious ritual and civil cults according to the practice of to social intercourse and political correctness.7 the nation,4 and especially with rites for dead parents; grateful veneration of Master What he was rejecting was that ritu- within the limits of common als for dead parents and Confucius were idolatry (idolatria), or were in the Christian Matteo Ricci, S.J., 1552-1610 Detail of a Ziccawei Orphanage portrait, early 20th c., “Ricci was a Christian humanist sense ‘’ (latria) of the deceased.8 He in the collection of the USF Ricci Institute. in the line of Desiderius Erasmus, admitted, as we shall see, that there might be elements of superstition in such rituals as con- n December 1706 the Kangxi Emperor, seeing civility, as the Chinese 禮 ducted by non-Christians, but these were not annoyed by the activities of the papal leg- saw li , as covering all forms of essential and could be eliminated. Ricci be- ate, Charles Maillard de Tournon, made behavior.” lieved that Chinese Catholics could be trusted asI a condition for remaining in to have correct intentions in performing such China the observance of “The Directives of 5 courtesy; with the licit use of Chinese rituals—intentions of veneration, reverence Matteo Ricci” (利瑪竇的規矩.)2 Surpris- sacred names as well as European; with covering the head as a sign of reverence and emulation, not worship, as of exemplary ingly, the specific directives Ricci issued as with the Chinese; and finally with purifying human beings, not —and intentions Superior of the Jesuit China Mission have not the intention in fasting according to the were what determined the morality of an act. come down to us. However, they can be re- Chinese custom…. Father Ricci before he made any decisions spent almost 18 years Furthermore, the non-Christian educated elite constructed with considerable accuracy from closely studying the customs, rituals and were regarded by Ricci as holding materialistic Ricci’s own writings and the attacks of his crit- books, and consulted in various provinces and places all sorts of scholars and manda- and even atheistic views which made them ics as well as the writings of those many Jesuits rins of all ranks especially the highest. less, not more, suspect of idolatry and supersti- who claimed his authority for their practices. Gabiani and later Jesuit apologists, like tion. As many later Jesuit polemicists were to And we have a good summary of the original, their anti-Jesuit counterparts, seem to have point out, one of the strangest arguments of then in the archives of the Japan Province in assumed that Ricci was denying the ‘religious’ their opponents was that the Chinese were Macao, written in 1680 by the Vice-Provincial nature of rituals for ancestors and Confucius, simultaneously atheists and idolaters, both of China at the time, Giandomenico Gabiani. but Gabiani was writing seventy years after materialists and believers in ghosts and spirits. Gabiani, in his “Apologetic Dissertation on Ricci’s death and as part of a rebuttal of the Either they were using these terms very loosely the Rites Permitted in the Chinese Church,” 9 views of the Dominican friar, Domingo or simply as empty pejoratives. produced a list of extant documents on the Navarrete. By then, the new distinction of Many later subjects of contention are hinted subject going back to the time of Ricci.3 They ‘religious’ from ‘secular’ (with the former at in Gabiani’s summary. There is, for example, comprise Ricci’s directives or instructions being condemned if not Christian) had the question of ‘fasters’. Should converts who (ordinationes) issued in 1600 after consulta- come to dominate the controversy over the came, as many did, from the ranks of sectarian tion with his colleagues of the China Mission; Chinese Rites. Ricci himself, as we shall see, Buddhism, be allowed to continue to practice further directives issued by Ricci in 1603 and was coming from a different tradition, the late vegetarian fasts? Ricci appears to have believed confirmed by the Visitor Alessandro Valignano Christian humanism of the Renaissance with that, if fully instructed, they might be allowed to after consulting the whole Mission; some add- its emphasis on ‘natural religion’ and ‘natural do so, now with Christian motives.10

2 3 May 2010 Also mentioned are liturgical practices gieri is even more explicit: “He was nailed to was the mandarins, not Buddhists, who were which followed Chinese rather than European the cross.”12 Ricci wrote of the crucifixion and most respected and that these “follow the sensibilities, such as covering rather than soon afterward illustrated lives of Christ in- schools and doctrine of one of their ancient uncovering the head during mass. I would cluding the crucifixion were published by the philosophers who dealt with moral virtues and note in passing that the fierce supporters of China Jesuits.13 Ricci certainly recommended good government,” that is, of Confucius.18 He uncovering the head, who included some caution in public display of the after reported to the Bishop of Evora in 1588 on the Jesuits, do not seem to have reflected on the his experience with the eunuch Ma Tang initial success of his scheme for China: 14 fact that women—and bishops for part of the who interpreted it as a fetish, but it was an When I was in Japan, I determined that two time—covered their heads during the liturgy integral part of the presentation of Christian of the fathers [Ruggieri and Ricci] who were in Amacao, the Portuguese port of China, in Europe. They had converted culturally and doctrine by Ricci and his companions.15 The should devote themselves to nothing else historically contingent European customs into Tianzhu Shiyi 天主實義, from which it is but learning the language and literature of Christian absolutes. China, and be given masters and everything else necessary. And it happened that they t is a pity that the other general directives “The Chinese Rites Controversy made great progress in the language, so when issued by Ricci and Valignano perished was from the beginning as much I returned from Japan I appointed them to this great enterprise of entering China. I gave in the eighteenth-century dissolution about ‘terms’, the Chinese names them instructions that seemed suitable for ofI the . What we can say with this. They should introduce themselves into for God and other essentials of the certainty is that they did not include, as was China as men of letters who had come from Christian faith, as it was about far-off lands because of the reputation China maintained by their enemies, any instructions rituals.” had for learning and letters. To achieve this not to preach Christ crucified. TheTianzhu they should first of all write a treatise in the shilu 天主實錄 of Ricci’s companion, Michele form of a dialogue in the language and letters of China in which they would expound the absent, is not a doctrina for the instruction of Ruggieri, specifically mentioned the cruci- whole substance of our holy faith.19 fixion and death ofTianzhu become man, neophytes but a work of apologetics to attract But this immediately raised the question although the casual Chinese reader would those outside the faith.16 The description of of God-language, which Gabiani refers to in perhaps not have appreciated the full signifi- ‘catechism’ given to it relates to its question his summary of Ricci’s directives as “the licit cance of the phrase “suffering on a support in and answer form, not its intended audience. use of Chinese names as well as European.” the form of the character ten.”11 [Note: The External conformity to Chinese customs The Chinese Rites Controversy was from the Chinese numeral ten is written 十.] In one of in dress and behavior had been prescribed beginning as much about ‘terms’, the Chinese his Chinese poems, which may, however, have from the beginning. The Visitor, Valignano, names for God and other essentials of the been seen only by his Christian friends, Rug- instructed the members of the Japanese Christian faith, as it was about rituals. mission not only to live and act like Japanese Initially, the problem arose in relation to but to celebrate in their houses Japanese the formula for baptism. Probably following festivals, including (the Japanese ‘All the practice of the Japanese mission, Ricci and Souls’ commemoration of the dead), and to his companions seem to have first used a for- conform to Japanese ceremonial usage.17 He mula in Chinese which represented the sounds also argued that in a hierarchical society like of the Latin baptismal formula:20 that of Japan (and presumably this applied Ego te baptizo in nomine Patris et Filii et in China also), both European and Japanese Spiritus Sancti. Amen Jesuits should attempt to obtain acceptance 阨峨德拔弟作引諾米搦罷德利斯厄德 as the social and religious equivalent of the 費離意厄德斯彼利都斯三隔弟。亞孟 influential religious sects. In Japan, these were Ewo de badizuo yin nuominuo Badelisi ede clearly Buddhist. But soon Valignano learned, Feiliyi ede Sibilidusi Sangedi. Yameng The Crucifixion of Jesus, from Giulio Aleni’s no doubt from Matteo Ricci, that in China it [Note: This modern Chinese transliteration does not pictorial life of Christ, 1635 perfectly reflect the pronunciation of Ricci’s time.]

University of San Francisco Ricci Institute 3 3 The reason for this curious approach was (a term equally ambiguous in its European ens was “theology rather than astrology since a concern about the validity of the baptism, usage) as ‘governor of and earth’. The they worship a god they call .”27 which in Europe was thought to depend zhu avoided any ambiguous misidentification Matteo Ricci seems to have arrived at on the exact use of the prescribed formula. with ‘sky’ and ‘the ’ while retaining the his view that Tian and were God- Undoubtedly,��������������������������������� ��������������������������������Latin was used in baptisms per- biblical notion of Heaven as the dwelling-place concepts from studying Confucian writings, formed by European priests, but once Chinese of God. There were some obscure uses of the especially the Four Books and the Classics. In Jesuit brothers, catechists, and perhaps lay term in Buddhism and popular religion which his most famous work, one which the Kangxi Christians, following the standard catechism, later critics would raise, but I very much doubt Emperor read and praised on several occa- began baptiz������������������������������ing,����������������������������� even if only in emergen- that Ricci and Ruggieri were aware of this, or sions, the Tianzhu Shiyi (first edition 1603, cies, problems immediately arose.21 As a even that they would have been deterred by it. the year of Ricci’s major “Directives”), Ricci catechetical device it was useless: the formula Tianzhu seemed perfect as the Chinese name concluded: “You can see from examining the was nonsense or worse. And even the concern passages of the ancient books that Shangdi and about phonetic exactness lost force through “This solution [to the problem of Tianzhu differ in name only.”28 And what of the variety of dialects and local pronuncia- the Chinese name for God] was Tian? And, especially, what of the Neo-Confu- tions. By about the time of Ricci’s death, the enthusiastically adopted not only cian interpretation of Tian as Principle (li 理) China Mission was already moving towards a by the Jesuits in Japan but also rather than a ? Ricci’s reply to a translation solution not fully realized however by the Spanish Dominicans in purported inquirer in the Tianzhu Shiyi is that until the twentieth century.22 the material sky could not be the controller of Manila.” ore central, and a subject of dis- all things; its use in the ancient books is meta- pute for centuries to come, was phorical. Heaven must, in the end, be the the term for ‘God’ in Chinese. for the Christian God and so Tianzhujiao 天 of Heaven.29 Even less is the Neo-Confucian MThe Jesuit solution was the ancient one, re- 主教, the name by which Catholic Christian- Supreme Ultimate (Taiji 太極) a god to be flected in the very word ‘God’ (from Germanic ity is known in China to this day, was born. worshipped: Gott) and the Latin and Greek and Theos. This solution was enthusiastically adopted in Although I have only recently entered This was to take a corresponding term in the place of awkward phonetic renderings based China I have thoroughly and diligently studied the ancient classics. I have heard local language drawing on local belief systems. on the Spanish dios/Portuguese deus not only that the gentlemen of ancient times paid But which term? by the Jesuits in Japan but also by the Spanish their respects to the High Lord of heaven 25 天地之上 A solution was found accidentally, but to Dominicans in Manila. and earth (Tiandi zhi Shangdi 帝), but I have never heard that they rever- Ricci and his companion, , it But the adoption of Tianzhu as the name enced a Supreme Ultimate. If the Supreme seemed providential. Ruggieri had been forced for the Christian God left open the possibility Ultimate was the begetter of the High Lord of all things, why didn’t the ancient sages to leave temporarily his first mission in Zhaoq- of the use in certain contexts of the common say so?30 ing 肇慶 in early 1583, and when he returned God-language of the Confucian tradition, The view thatTaiji and Li were Song with Ricci in September that year they found Tian 天 and Shangdi 上帝. Ruggieri seems to Dynasty innovations was one that Chinese their disciple, Chen, had preserved their mass have initially thought, as indicated in a letter scholarship came to accept not long after. altar in his house and placed on it incense of 1581, that Tian was simply the material sky 26 Ricci used Shangdi and Tian extensively burners and above it on the wall an inscription and that the Chinese knew no God. This and interchangeably in his Chinese writings to ‘the Lord of Heaven’, Tianzhu 天主.23 Rug����- was a conclusion that could easily be reached but seems to have preferred Shangdi, especially gieri was working on his first Chinese work to by a beginner in studies on in his more literary works such as his “Treatise be published the next year as “A True Record encountering the bewildering variety of tian on Friendship” (Jiaoyoulun 交友論, 1595) of the Lord of Heaven,”24 and in the Latin expressions for weather, time, stars, and so on. and his “Eight Songs for the Harpsichord” sketch of 1581 had described the Chinese By the end of his life, however, Ruggieri was (Xiqin quyi bazhang 西琴曲意八章, 1601).31 Tian, which he translated as coelum in Latin writing that all the Chinese study of the heav-

4 3 May 2010 rites to Confucius that he describes in such literary academies, of the period, which were loving detail?36 It is certainly not impossible, committed to political and moral reform as given his detailed descriptions of them, that he well as recovery of the mission of Confucian- “offered the Spring and Autumn sacrifices,” or, ism. The Jesuits found allies there in their at least, attended them. His account is complex struggle against Buddhism and their advocacy and nuanced, and it is his translator/editor of high and pure morals in private and public Nicholas Trigault who added a flat: “[Con- life, although some academicians regarded the fucius] was never venerated with religious growth of as a symptom of the na- rites, however, as they venerate a god.”37 Ricci tion’s moral decline rather than a remedy.42 himself unequivocally calls it a ‘sacrifice’, On ancestor rituals he was more cautious. involving incense and the offering of animals, He saw no problem in Christians performing them, because he thought their Christian in-

An early Qing Christian ancestral tablet “Ricci, significantly, does not say, struction would obviate any danger of ‘super- as later Jesuits did, that rituals stition’, i.e., beliefs incompatible with Christian In the second chapter of his Tianzhu Shiyi, for Confucius were not religious, faith, about the location of the spirits or their on mistaken views about the Lord of Heaven, power to help their descendants. He was duly Ricci first equatesTianzhu with Shangdi: but rather that they were not cautious about such beliefs on the part of the “He who is called the Lord of Heaven in my idolatrous.” majority of Chinese. However, he was quite humble country is he who is called Shangdi certain that idolatry was not involved. This (Sovereign on High) in Chinese.”32 He then “but not a true sacrifice,” since “they acknowl- assessment is found in the Storia, where he identifiesShangdi with Tian, denies that Tian edge no divinity in him and ask nothing of summed up his view of ancestor rites after a as Lord (zhu) is the ‘blue sky’, and asserts that 38 him.” Also, with serious later consequences, detailed and accurate description of the more “only the one true Lord of Heaven who creates Trigault’s Latin version turns Ricci’s designa- solemn rituals: all things and who produces and preserves tion of Confucius’s disciples from the Italian 33 The reason they give for this observance on mankind may be reverenced.” santi (his rendering of Chinese sheng 聖) to behalf of their ancestors is this, “to serve ow far did Ricci’s assimilation to the Latin divi, or gods (Chinese 神).39 the dead as if they were living.” Nor do they think that the dead come to eat these things, go in ritual mat- Ricci, significantly, does not say, as later or have need of them; but they say they do ters? In his 1599 preface to Ricci’s Jesuits did, that rituals for Confucius were it because they know of no other way of “TreatiseH on Friendship,” Qu Rugui 瞿汝夔, showing the love and gratitude they have not religious, but rather that they were not for them. Some say that this ceremony was Ricci’s first important scholar disciple, wrote: idolatrous.40 This stems from his general view instituted more for the living than the dead, He recites the texts of the Sages, and that Confucianism was in origin a monothe- that is to teach the children and ignorant observes the laws of the kingdom. He wears to know and serve their parents while alive, istic natural religion but that this ‘original a scholar’s cap and belt, and he offers the seeing that important people, once they are spring and autumn sacrifices. He is pure in Confucianism’ in time was overlaid with Bud- dead, perform for them the services they his behavior and walks in the paths of vir- dhist and Daoist superstition and denatured were accustomed to perform when they tue. He respects and serves the commands were alive. And since they neither recognize of Heaven and promotes orthodoxy.34 by a naturalistic materialist interpretation any divinity in these dead, nor ask anything in the Song Dynasty.41 Some Confucians, of them, nor hope for anything from them, Did Ricci really participate in the solemn the practice is completely free from any he thought, had never lost the sense of the sacrifices of the Confucian ‘school’35 in Spring idolatry, and perhaps could even be said ancient tradition which was preserved in the to involve no superstition. Nevertheless, and Autumn? Through what ritual actions, if texts and structure of the ritual, and some it would be better to replace this custom any, did he promote orthodoxy? with giving alms to the poor for the souls of were recovering it during the intellectual 43 With no patriarchal household and no these dead, when they become Christians. and political crisis of the late Ming. This was ancestral graves to tend, presumably he would There is not the slightest suggestion that especially the case with the shuyuan 書院, or have avoided ancestor rites. But what of the Ricci acknowledged but condoned idolatry,

University of San Francisco Ricci Institute 3 5 as many later anti-Rites critics and even some the living; for example, obeisance to parents death. But the letters, which survive as well as modern writers have alleged.44 After investiga- and the courtesies at solemn banquets. In his those of others, all confirm this general picture tion he was convinced that no idolatry was description of the latter, Ricci notes the ritual of Ricci’s views on Confucianism and Chinese involved, no ‘worship’ of the ancestors, and of making a libation of wine before sitting rituals. “TheD Directivesirectives of MattMatteo eo Ricci” on an-an- certainly not superstition on the part of Chris- down, which he says is offered to ‘the Lord of cestor rituals and rituals in honor of Confucius . ‘Perhaps’ (forse) it was not superstitious He av e n’. 48 In other words, he sees a religious sprang from a deep-seated Christian human- in any way. element to Chinese social occasions which he ism which he found echoed in the Confucian The diversity of beliefs associated with interestingly compares to the Greco-Roman tradition. ancestor rituals, ranging from an austere convivium, the love-feast of those who are [The ancient Chinese] always took great agnosticism on the part of many scholars to accustomed to eat and drink together.49 Ricci, care to follow in all they did the dictates of reason which they said they had received in typical Christian humanist fashion, sees the fear of the wrath of unappeased ancestors by from Heaven, and they never believed of the many ordinary Chinese, meant that the ritual King of heaven and other spirits, his minis- ters, things as indecent as our Romans, the actions per se could not be accused of imply- “The diversity of beliefs associated Greeks, the Egyptians and other foreign ing acquiescence in any specific set of beliefs, with ancestor rituals, ranging from nations believed. Whence we can hope of superstitious or otherwise, and it was in the ac- an austere agnosticism to fear of the immense goodness of the Lord, that many of these ancients were saved in the companying beliefs, not acts, that superstition the wrath of unappeased ancestors, natural law, with the special help that only lay. In the end, he envisages what has become meant that the ritual actions per God grants to those who do on their part the modern practice in many Chinese Catholic as much as they can to receive it…. This se could not be accused of implying can also be derived from many beautiful communities, the development of modified acquiescence in any specific set of books that remain to this day, of these their domestic and communal rituals combining ancient philosophers, full of great piety and Chinese forms with specifically Catholic beliefs, superstitious or otherwise.” good advice for human living and acquir- ing virtues, in no way inferior to the most practices. famous of our ancient philosophers.51 social, especially the ritualized social occasion, A similar caution marks his position on It was but a short step from this to approv- as grounded in religion. He does not describe funerary rituals. Ricci, in the Storia, does not ing the rituals that enshrined their values, the such actions as ‘political’ (politicus in Latin)— play down the overtly religious elements, values which Kangxi was defending by insist- polite or civil in the modern sense—as op- including the normal participation of “many ing on “The Directives of Matteo Ricci” being posed to religious. priests of the idols,” i.e., Buddhist monks, or followed by missionaries in China. the burning of paper money and goods.45 Interestingly, though, the term politicus is What is obligatory, however, and laid down used by Trigault in the description of Ricci’s Endnotes in the ritual books always consulted on such own funeral in Trigault’s Latin appendix to his 1. This paper draws heavily on a chapter on Ricci occasions, are the mourning clothes, the visits, own 1615 Latin version of Ricci’s journals: in my forthcoming history of the Chinese Rites Controversy. When the ecclesiastical rites were con- the bowing, and the offerings of food and 2. The formal decree on the subject (of 19 April 46 cluded, the neophytes did not omit their drink “just as when they were alive.” It would 1707) is to be found in Chen Yuan 陳垣, ed., own political rites (suos politicos); they Kangxi yu Luoma shijie guanxi wenshu ying- seem that Ricci had no problem with the basic performed bows and genuflections first to yinben 康熙與羅馬使節關係文書影印本, the image of Christ the Savior, then to the death rituals stripped of Buddhist and Daoist Beijing: Gugong Bowuyuan 故宮博物院, 1932 tomb as was their custom.50 elements. (reprint Taibei: Xuesheng shuju; Zhongguo The same action, one clearly worship, shixue congshu 23, 1973), doc. 4, pp. 13–14. On the annual visits to the graves he is Guiju 規矩 in this document is translated as the other clearly not so interpreted; but both quite laconic: “Every year on the Day of the ‘customs’ in A. S. Rosso’s translation in Apostolic Dead, the relatives go to the cemetery to per- ‘religious’. Delegations to China of the Eighteenth Century Ricci’s comments as detailed in this paper (South Pasadena; P.& I. Perkins, 1948, doc. 5, p. form the usual ceremonies, burning incense 242), but the phrase seems to be regulatory and and making offerings according to the usage are taken from his memoirs, written in the last to imply obligation rather than mere custom. of the land.”47 These rituals resemble those to year of his life and found in his desk after his They were Ricci’s instructions as superior of the

6 3 May 2010 China Mission and confirmed by the Visitor, 9. See Lucien Febvre on the loose use of ‘atheist’ in authorship of Ricci. Compare the note in FR, Alessandro Valignano, and Gabiani rightly the sixteenth-century controversy (The Problem vol. 1, p. 370, on the edition held by Propaganda called them ordinationes, i.e., directives, regula- of Unbelief in the Sixteenth Century, Cambridge, Fide with Ricci’s own annotations. In 1611, tions, or standing orders. Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982, p. 132). Ricci’s successor Longobardo introduced a 3. Gabiani’s 1680 list (elenchus), which is to be 10. For Ricci’s extensive treatment of this ques- slightly different and improved formula which found in several manuscripts of his Dissertatio tion in the Tianzhu Shiyi, see True Meaning of does not simply follow the Latin (it has a Chi- Apologetica, which was published as Dissertatio the Lord of Heaven (T’ien-chu Shih-i), ed. E. nese formula for baptizing and omits the Latin Apologetica … de Sinensium Ritibus Politicis, Malatesta, S.J., trans. with introduction and grammatical endings), but still uses European Liege: Streel, 1700. It is reprinted in full as an notes by D. Lancashire and Peter Hu Kuo-chen, names for the (see the edition in ARSI: appendix to Henri Bernard-Maître, “Un dossier S.J., St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1985, Jap. Sin. I. 57a, published in MQTW, vol. 1: p. bibliographique de la fin du XVIIe Siècle sur la #294–320, pp. 262–83. 341. See Etienne Roulleaux Dugage, “La version chinoise de la formule baptismale,” in Axes 13 Question des Termes Chinois,” in Recherches de 11. 在於十字架, see Ming-Qing Tianzhujiao (1981): 25 on the historical development of the Science Religieuse 36 (1949), pp. 25–79. The first wenxian 明清天主教文獻: Chinese Christian baptismal formula. four items dealing with the time of Valignano Texts from the Roman Archives of the Society and Ricci are conveniently reproduced in a long of Jesus, Nicholas Standaert & Adrian Dudink, 21. See Albert Chan, Chinese Books and Documents note in P. M. D’Elia, ed., Fonti Ricciane [hence- eds., : , 2002 [hence- in the Jesuit Archives in : A Descriptive forth FR], Roma: Libreria dello Stato, 1949, vol. forth MQTW], 1: p. 63. Catalogue, Japonica-Sinica I-IV, Armonk, N.Y./ 2, pp. 273–74. London: M.E. Sharpe, 2002, pp. 458–59, on 12. 將身釘十字, see Albert Chan, “Michele Rug- the concern for observing the correct forms in 4. Gabiani writes: “de politicis ritibus et civili cultu gieri, S.J. (1543–1607) and his Chinese Poems,” baptism by members of lay confraternities. ex more gentis prudenter tolerandis.” It is worth in Monumenta Serica 41 (1993), p. 146. noting here that this is the language of later 22. Only in 1924 did the Synod of allow 13. See P. M. D’Elia, S.J., “La passione Gesù controversy. Ricci himself did not call the rites baptism in the name of the (Chinese) Father Cristo in un'opera cinese dal 1608–1610,” in in question either ‘political’ or ‘civil’. (fu 父), Son (zi 子), and Holy Spirit (shengshen Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu [henceforth 聖神); see Roulleaux Dugage, “La version 5. “Intra civiles terminos contenta.” Again, the ARSI] 22 (1953), pp. 276–307. In the 1605 cat- chinoise…,” p. 28. language is not that used by Ricci himself in his echism Tianzhu jiaoyao 天主教要, which may extant writings; ‘civil’ should not be read here as have been written by Ricci and was certainly 23. FR, N236, 1: p. 186. ‘secular’ as opposed to ‘religious’. approved by him and sent to Rome with his 24. Published in 1584 as the Tianzhu Shilu 天主實錄. 6. FR, N250, vol. 1, p. 195. This is one of the pas- annotation, the crucifixion is plainly acknowl- 25. For example, in Juan Cobo’s Tianzhu zhengjiao sages that was deformed by Ricci’s Latin transla- edged, at least in the edition I have seen in the shilu zhenchuan 天主正教實錄真傳 (1593). tor, Nicholas Trigault, or Trigault’s German ARSI, Jap. Sin. I.57a. (see MQTW, 1: p. 361). See the facsimile in C. Sanz, Primitivas Rela- editors, by a long theological addition about 14. FR, N588, 2: pp. 115–16. cioñes de España con Asia y Oceanía (Madrid, ‘the innate light of nature’ and adding to the 15. See P. M. D’Elia, S.J., “Il domma cattolica integral- 1958), and the edition and translation by natural law the supernatural as taught by God mente presentato da Matteo Ricci ai letterati della Santamaria, Dominguez, and Villaroel, Pien become man. Gallagher, in his translation of Cina,” in Civiltà Cattolica (1935.II), pp. 35–53. Cheng-chiao chen-ch’uan shih-lu: Apologia de la Trigault, further distorts it by reading the ‘inner Verdadera religion: Testimony of the True Religion 16. In the Tianzhu Shiyi, he introduces the incarna- light’ as ‘conscience’, not ‘reason’ (China in the (Manila, 1986). Sixteenth Century, p. 156). Ricci’s understanding tion and redemption in general terms and 26. Letter to Jesuit General , of the term is elaborated in FR, N709, vol. 2, pp. merely states that the Lord of Heaven “experi- , 12 Nov. 1581, in Opere Storiche del P. 292–93: “especially using arguments that can enced everything [experienced by man]” (True Matteo Ricci S.J., ed. P. Tacchi Venturi, S.J., vol. in some way be proved by natural reason and Meaning, #580, p. 449). 2, Macerata, 1913, pp. 401–2. understood by the same natural light.” 17. Il ceremoniale per i missionarii del Giappone: Im- 27. “Commentarii,” in ARSI, Jap. Sin. 101.II, f. 300r. 7. See Roger Chartier, The Cultural Uses of Print, portante documenti circa i metodi di adattamento Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, nella Missione giapponese del secolo XVI, edizione 28. My translation from the Chinese text in True 1987, ch. 3, especially p. 95, for the evolution of critica, introduzione e note de Giuseppe Fr. Meaning, #108, p. 124. the notion of the civil, specifically in the French Schütte, S.J., Rome: Storia e Letteratura, 1946. 29. True Meaning, #114, p. 131. term civilité from its Erasmian sense, which em- 18. Historia de principio y progresso de la Compañia 30. My translation from True Meaning, #78, p.106. braced all forms of behavior from the religious de Jésus en las Indias Orientales (1542–1564), ed. 31. P. M. D’Elia gives a word count of Ricci’s respec- and the spiritual, “qualities of the soul or the J. Wicki, Rome, 1944, p. 253. tive employment of Tianzhu, Tian, and Shangdi divine in man,” to strictly social activities. 19. Letter from , 23 Dec. 1588, to Don Theoto- in his various writings in “Prima introduzione 8. There is no evidence that Ricci toward the nio de Bragança, Archbishop of Evora, in Cartas della filosofia scolastica. in Cina (1584, 1603),” end of his life came to regard ancestor rituals que os Padres e irmaos da Companhia de Jesus in Zhongyang Yanjiuyuan: lishi yuyan yanjiusuo as ‘worship’ in this sense as Timothy Billings escreverão dos Reynos de Japão e China, Evora, jikan 中央研究院：歷史語言研究所集刊 seems to claim in the introduction to his new 1598, vol. 2, ff. 170rv. [Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philol- translation of Ricci’s Jiaoyulun (On Friendship): 20. This is the formula given in the 1605 edition ogy], Academia Sinica 28, 1956, pp. 166–67. One Hundred Maxims for a Chinese Prince, New of the Tianzhu jiaoyao, published in Beijing 32. True Meaning, #103, p. 121 (romanization York: Columbia University Press, 2009, p. 12). presumably under the auspices and probably changed).

University of San Francisco Ricci Institute 3 7 33. True Meaning, #110, 11, p. 127 (romanization changed). with Islam, which he seems to regard as a legge formata 34. See Tianxue chuhan 天學初函, ed. Li Zhizao 李之藻 (Ricci to Roman, , 13 September 1584, Ricci, [1629], Taibei: Taiwan xuesheng shuju, 1965, vol. 1, pp. Lettere (1580–1609), ed. Francesco D’Arelli, Macerata: 295–96. Quodlibet, 2001, p. 84). Confucianism is again included among the three religions (sette) of China in FR, bk. 1, ch. 35. “Scuola,” in FR, vol. 1, p. 40. 10. 36. For example, FR, NN55, pp. 178–79. See P. Rule, K’ung- 41. The key passage on the development of Confucianism tzu or Confucius?, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1986, pp. is found in FR, N170, vol. 1, pp. 108–10. See a more full 46–48 for a more full analysis. analysis of Ricci’s writings in Rule, K’ung-tzu or Con- 37. Trigault’s De christiana expeditione apud sinas suscepta fucius?, pp. 26–43. a Soc. Jesu ex P.M. Ricci commentariis libri V (Augsburg, 42. See Albert Chan, “Late Ming Society and the Jesuit Mis- 1615), trans. L. J. Gallagher, as China in the Sixteenth sionaries,” in C. Ronan and B. Oh, eds., East Meets West: Century, New York: Random House, 1953, p. 30. the Jesuits in China, 1582–1773, Chicago: Loyola Uni- 38. FR, N44, vol. 1, p. 40. Trigault added a gloss that the versity Press, 1988, pp. 153–72; J. Gernet, China and the Chinese “are accustomed to use the word sacrifice in a Christian Impact: Conflict of Cultures, Cambridge, Mass.: broad and indefinable sense” (Gallagher, p. 335), which Cambridge University Press/Paris: Editions de la Maison suggests it had already become an issue a few years after des Sciences de l'Homme, 1985, pp. 17–18, 132–33. Ricci’s death. On Ricci’s participation in discussions in Shuyuan in 39. De Expeditione, p. 108. Athanasius Kircher in his China Il- Nanzhang and , see FR, NN536 & 556, vol. 2, pp. lustrata (1667) copied this passage. In the French edition 46, 74. (1670), apart from the disciples being ‘dieux’, Confucius 43. FR, N177, vol. 1, pp. 117–18. himself becomes ‘le Dieu Confutius’. This then was used 44. E.g., Hugh Baker, who alleges Ricci ‘condoned heresy’ by in anti-Jesuit polemics as proof that Ricci believed Con- allowing ‘worship’ of ancestors (More Ancestral Images, fucius was worshipped as a god in Confucian rituals. Hong Kong, 1980, p. 154). 40. Compare Lionel Jensen, Manufacturing Confucianism: 45. Again Gallagher adds a gratuitous and misleading note Chinese Traditions and Universal Civilization, Durham, by saying “the funeral procession itself is really a religious N.C.: Duke University Press, 1997, p. 64: Ricci “emphati- function” (China in the Sixteenth Century, p. 73), a com- cally denied the religious aspect of the ceremonies in ment found in neither Trigault’s Latin nor the Italian honor of Confucius.” This is a common view, but one original. that does not survive a close textual analysis. Similarly, Filippo Mignini in his preface to the new edition of 46. FR, N133, vol. 1, p. 84. Ricci’s memoirs says Ricci denies Confucianism is a 47. FR, N133, vol. 1, p. 85. ‘vera religione’, but the passage he quotes says simply it 48. FR, N129, vol. 1, p. 77. is not ‘una legge formata’, i.e., a hierarchically organized 49. FR, N128, vol. 1, p. 76. institutional religion, an entirely different matter; see Della Entrata della Compagnia di Giesù e Christianità nella 50. FR, N998, vol. 2, p. 628. Cina, ed. Piero Corradini, Macerata: Quodlibet, 2000, 51. FR, N170, vol. 1, pp. 109–10, compare an exact transla- p. XVII. In one of his earliest letters from China, Ricci tion in De Expeditione, p. 104. This is spelled out even stated that there was no ‘religion’ in China, but in the more explicitly in a letter to Francesco Pasio: “We can context he seems to mean no centrally organized body hope in the divine mercy that many of their ancients were with fixed and enforced doctrines, since he goes on to say saved through observing the natural law with whatever that their beliefs are so complex that nobody seems to be help God through his goodness gave them” (Letter of 15 able to give a clear explanation of them, and then writes February 1609, Lettere, p. 518). of the three ‘sects’ (sette) of China which he contrasts

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