Matteo Ricci

{{Infobox religious biography

| honorific_prefix = The Venerable

| name = Matteo Ricci

| honorific_suffix = SJ

| image = Ricciportrait.jpg

| caption = 1610 Chinese portrait of Ricci

| religion = Catholic Church

| order = Society of Jesus

| birth_name =

| birth_date = 6 October 1552

| birth_place = Macerata, Papal States

| death_date = {{death date and age|1610|5|11|1552|10|6|df=y}}

| death_place = Beijing, Ming Empire

| resting_place = Zhalan Cemetery, Beijing

| resting_place_coordinates =

| location =

| title = Superior General of the China mission

| period = 1597–1610

| successor = Nicolò Longobardo

| reason = His death

| works = {{transliteration|zh|Kunyu Wanguo Quantu}}

| ordination =

}}

Matteo Ricci {{post-nominal styles|post-noms=SJ}} ({{IPA|it|matˈtɛːo ˈrittʃi|lang}}; {{langx|la|Matthaeus Riccius}}; 6 October 1552 – 11 May 1610) was an Italian Jesuit priest and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions. He created the {{transliteration|zh|Kunyu Wanguo Quantu}}, a 1602 map of the world written in Chinese characters. In 2022, the Apostolic See declared its recognition of Ricci's heroic virtues, thereby bestowing upon him the honorific of Venerable.{{cite web | url=https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2022/12/17/0941/01984.html | title=Promulgazione di Decreti del Dicastero delle Cause dei Santi }}

Ricci arrived at the Portuguese settlement of Macau in 1582 where he began his missionary work in China. He mastered the Chinese language and writing system. He became the first European to enter the Forbidden City of Beijing in 1601 when invited by the Wanli Emperor, who sought his services in matters such as court astronomy and calendrical science. He emphasized parallels between Catholicism and Confucianism but opposed Buddhism. He converted several prominent Chinese officials to Catholicism. He also worked with several Chinese elites, such as Xu Guangqi, in translating Euclid's Elements into Chinese as well as the Confucian classics into Latin for the first time in history.

Early life

Ricci was born on 6 October 1552 in Macerata, part of the Papal States and today a city in the Italian region of Marche. He studied the classics in his native hometown and studied law at Rome for two years. He entered the Society of Jesus in April 1571 at the Roman College. While there, in addition to philosophy and theology, he also studied mathematics, cosmology, and astronomy under the direction of Christopher Clavius. In 1577, he applied for a missionary expedition to the Far East. He sailed from Lisbon, Portugal, in March 1578 and arrived in Goa, a Portuguese colony, the following September. Ricci remained employed in teaching and the ministry there until the end of Lent 1582 when he was summoned to Macau to prepare to enter China. Ricci arrived in Macau in the early part of August.{{Catholic |wstitle=Matteo Ricci |last=Brucker |first=Joseph |volume=13 |inline=1 |prescript=}}

Ricci in China

{{Infobox Chinese

| pic = Macau - panoramio (81).jpg

| piccap = The statue of Ricci in downtown Macao, unveiled on 7 August 2010, the anniversary of his arrival on the island

| title = Matteo Ricci

| collapse = no

| s = {{linktext|利|玛|窦}}

| t = {{linktext|利|瑪|竇}}

| p = Lì Mǎdòu

| gr = Lih Maadow

| mi = {{IPAc-cmn|l|i|4|-|m|a|3|d|ou|4}}

| j = lei6 maa5dau6

| ci = {{IPAc-yue|l|ei|6|-|m|aa|5|d|au|6}}

| altname = Courtesy name: Xitai

| c2 = {{linktext|西|泰}}

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| p2 = Xītài

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| w = {{tone superscript|Li4 Ma3-tou4}}

| bpmf = ㄌㄧˋ ㄇㄚˇㄉㄡˋ

| w2 = {{tone superscript|Hsi1-t}}{{wg-apos}}{{tone superscript|ai4}}

| gr2 = Shitay

| bpmf2 = ㄒㄧㄊㄞˋ

| tp = Lì Mǎ-dòu

| tp2 = Si-tài

}}

File:Matteo Ricci's way from Macau to Beijing.jpg

In August 1582, Ricci arrived at Macau, a Portuguese trading post on the South China Sea.{{Cite book |last=Simpson |first=Tim |title=Betting on Macau: Casino Capitalism and China's Consumer Revolution |date=2023 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-1-5179-0031-1 |series=Globalization and Community series |location=Minneapolis}}{{Rp|page=79}} At the time, Christian missionary activity in China was almost completely limited to Macau, where some of the local Chinese people had converted to Christianity. Three years before, Michele Ruggieri was invited from Portuguese India expressly to study Chinese, by Alessandro Valignano, founder of St. Paul Jesuit College (Macau), and to prepare for the Jesuits' mission from Macau into Mainland China.Gallagher (trans) (1953), pp. 131–132, 137

Once in Macau, Ricci studied the Chinese language and customs. It was the beginning of a long project that made him one of the first Western scholars to master Chinese script and Classical Chinese. With Ruggieri, he travelled to Guangdong's major cities, Canton and Zhaoqing (then the residence of the Viceroy of Guangdong and Guangxi), seeking to establish a permanent Jesuit mission outside Macau.

In 1583, Ricci and Ruggieri settled in Zhaoqing, at the invitation of the governor of Zhaoqing, Wang Pan, who had heard of Ricci's skill as a mathematician and cartographer. Ricci stayed in Zhaoqing from 1583 to 1589, when he was expelled by a new viceroy. It was in Zhaoqing, in 1584, that Ricci composed the first European-style world map in Chinese, called "Da Ying Quan Tu" ({{zh|c=大瀛全圖|l=Complete Map of the Great World}}).TANG Kaijian and ZHOU Xiaolei, "Four Issues in the Dissemination

of Matteo Ricci's World Map during the Ming Dynasty", in STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, Vol. 34, No. 3 (2015), pp. 294–315. 汤开建周孝雷《明代利玛窦世界地图传播史四题》，《自然科学史研究》第34卷，第3期（2015年）：294–315 No prints of the 1584 map are known to exist, but, of the much improved and expanded Kunyu Wanguo Quantu of 1602,{{cite news|url=http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/12/16/tulip-map/|title=Historic map coming to Minnesota |last=Baran|first=Madeleine |date=16 December 2009|publisher=Minnesota Public Radio|access-date=12 January 2010|location=St. Paul, Minnesota.}} six recopied, rice-paper versions survive.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8454049.stm|title=Ancient map with China at centre goes on show in US |date=12 January 2010|work=BBC News}}

It is thought that, during their time in Zhaoqing, Ricci and Ruggieri compiled a Portuguese-Chinese dictionary, the first in any European language, for which they developed a system for transcribing Chinese words in the Latin alphabet. The manuscript was misplaced in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, rediscovered only in 1934, and published only in 2001.Yves Camus, [http://www.riccimac.org/doc/JesuitsJourneys.pdf "Jesuits' Journeys in Chinese Studies"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924090942/http://www.riccimac.org/doc/JesuitsJourneys.pdf |date=24 September 2015 }}"Dicionário Português-Chinês: 葡汉辞典 (Pu-Han cidian): Portuguese-Chinese dictionary" by Michele Ruggieri, Matteo Ricci; edited by John W. Witek. Published 2001, Biblioteca Nacional. {{ISBN|972-565-298-3}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=A7h5YbM5M60C Partial preview] available on Google Books

File:Matteo Ricci Museum in Zhaoqing.jpg

There is now a memorial plaque in Zhaoqing to commemorate Ricci's six-year stay there, as well as a "Ricci Memorial Centre"{{cite web |url = http://www.oneminuteenglish.com/map-dyj.htm |title=Ricci Memorial Centre |website = Oneminuteenglish.com |access-date=14 May 2014 }} in a building dating from the 1860s.

Expelled from Zhaoqing in 1588, Ricci obtained permission to relocate to Shaoguan (Shaozhou, in Ricci's account) in the north of the province, and reestablish his mission there.Gallagher (253), pp. 205–227.

Further travels saw Ricci reach Nanjing (Ming's southern capital) and Nanchang in 1595. In August 1597, Alessandro Valignano (1539–1606), his superior, appointed him Major Superior of the mission in China, with the rank and powers of a Provincial, a charge that he fulfilled until his death.Dehergne, 219. He moved to Tongzhou (a port of Beijing) in 1598, and first reached the capital Beijing itself on 7 September 1598. However, because of a Chinese intervention against the Japanese invasion of Korea at the time, Ricci could not reach the Imperial Palace. After waiting for two months, he left Beijing; first for Nanjing and then Suzhou in Southern Zhili Province.

During the winter of 1598, Ricci, with the help of his Jesuit colleague Lazzaro Cattaneo, compiled another Chinese-Portuguese dictionary, in which tones in Chinese syllables were indicated in Roman text with diacritical marks. Unlike Ricci's and Ruggieri's earlier Portuguese-Chinese dictionary, this work has not been found.

In 1601, Ricci was invited to become an adviser to the imperial court of the Wanli Emperor, the first Westerner to be invited into the Forbidden City. This honor was in recognition of Ricci's scientific abilities, chiefly his predictions of solar eclipses, which were significant events in the Chinese world.Chan Kei thong. Faith of Our Father, Shanghai: China Publishing Group Orient Publishing Centre. He established the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Beijing, the oldest Catholic church in the city.(Chinese) [http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/beijing/31024.htm "The Tomb of Matteo Ricci" Beijing A Guide to China's Capital City] Accessed 5 October 2010 Ricci was given free access to the Forbidden City but never met the reclusive Wanli Emperor, who, however, granted him patronage, with a generous stipend and supported Ricci's completion of the Zhifang Waiji, China's first global atlas.{{cite web |url={{wdl|227}} |author=Li, Zhizao |title=職方外紀六卷卷首一卷 |language=zh |trans-title=Chronicle of Foreign Lands |work=World Digital Library |date=1623 }}

Once established in Beijing, Ricci was able to meet important officials and leading members of the Beijing cultural scene and convert a number of them to Christianity,Gallagher (trans) (1953), pp. 433–435{{citation |first=Peter M. |last=Engelfriet |publisher=BRILL |year=1998 |isbn=90-04-10944-7

|title=Euclid in China: the genesis of the first Chinese translation of Euclid's Elements, books I-VI (Jihe yuanben, Beijing, 1607) and its reception up to 1723

|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=aKLr5duAiwMC

|page=70}} the most prominent being leading agronomist Xu Guangqi.Niell, Stephen A History of Christian Missions 1984 p.165 ISBN 0140206280

Ricci was also the first European to learn about the Kaifeng Jews, being contacted by a member of that community who was visiting Beijing in 1605. Ricci never visited Kaifeng, Henan Province, but he sent a junior missionary there in 1608, the first of many such missions. In fact, the elderly Chief Rabbi of the Jews was ready to cede his power to Ricci, as long as he gave up eating pork, but Ricci never accepted the position.White, William Charles. The Chinese Jews. New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corporation, 1966

File:Matteo Ricci Tombstone Beijing 2017.jpg's Zhalan Cemetery]]

Ricci died on 11 May 1610, in Beijing, aged 57. By the code of the Ming Dynasty, foreigners who died in China had to be buried in Macau. Diego de Pantoja made a special plea to the court, requesting a burial plot in Beijing, in the light of Ricci's contributions to China. The Wanli Emperor granted this request and designated a Buddhist temple for the purpose. In October 1610, Ricci's remains were transferred there.{{cite web |url = http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/beijing/31024.htm |title = The Tomb of Matteo Ricci |website = China.org.cn |access-date=14 May 2014 }} The graves of Ferdinand Verbiest, Johann Adam Schall von Bell, and other missionaries are also there, and it became known as the Zhalan Cemetery, which is today located within the campus of the Beijing Administrative College, in Xicheng District, Beijing.{{cite news |last = Qin |first = Danfeng |title = At last, they rest in peace |url = http://china.org.cn/travel/2010-03/29/content_19706587.htm |publisher= Global Times |access-date=10 October 2010 |date=29 March 2010 }}

Ricci was succeeded as Provincial Superior of the China mission by Nicolò Longobardo in 1610. Longobardo entrusted another Jesuit, Nicolas Trigault, with expanding and editing, as well as translating into Latin, those of Ricci's papers that were found in his office after his death. This work was first published in 1615 in Augsburg as De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas and soon was translated into a number of other European languages.{{cite book

| last = Mungello

| first = David E.

| title = Curious Land: Jesuit Accommodation and the Origins of Sinology

| publisher = University of Hawaii Press

| year = 1989

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wb4yPw4ZgZQC

| isbn = 0-8248-1219-0

| pages = 46–48

}}

Ricci's approach to Chinese culture

File:Matteo Ricci 2.jpg|alt=]]

Ricci could speak Chinese as well as read and write classical Chinese, the literary language of scholars and officials. He was known for his appreciation of Chinese culture in general but condemned the prostitution which was widespread in Beijing at the time.{{cite book |last=Hinsch |first=Bret |year=1990 |title=Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual Tradition in China |publisher=University of California Press |page=2 |isbn=0-520-06720-7 }} He also called the Chinese "barbarians" in letters back home to his friends, and opposed what he considered to be anti-Black prejudice among the populace. He noted this, however, in the context of his function as a slave catcher for the Portuguese. (Ricci himself also owned African slaves.){{Cite web |last=Bruno |first=Debra |date=13 November 2013 |title=Can Matteo Ricci's Beatification Mend China's Rift With the Catholic Church? |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/11/can-matteo-ricci-s-beatification-mend-china-s-rift-with-the-catholic-church/281405/ |access-date=27 December 2022 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}

During his research, he discovered that in contrast to the cultures of South Asia, Chinese culture was strongly intertwined with Confucian values and therefore decided to use existing Chinese concepts to explain Christianity.Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, "Western Gods Meet in the East": Shapes and Contexts of the Muslim-Jesuit Dialogue in Early Modern China, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 55, No. 2/3, Cultural Dialogue in South Asia and Beyond: Narratives, Images and Community (sixteenth-nineteenth centuries) (2012), pp. 517–546. With his superior Valignano's formal approval, he aligned himself with the Confucian intellectually elite literati,Bashir, Hassan Europe and the Eastern Other Lexington Books 2013 p.93 {{ISBN|9780739138038}} and even adopted their mode of dress. He did not explain the Catholic faith as entirely foreign or new; instead, he said that the Chinese culture and people always believed in God and that Christianity is the completion of their faith,{{cite book |first=August |last=Franzen |title=Kleine Kirchengeschichte |url=https://archive.org/details/kleinekirchenges00fran |url-access=registration |location=Freiburg |publisher=Herder |year=1988 |isbn=3-451-08577-1 }}{{rp|323}} and explained the tenets of the Catholic faith through existing Chinese precepts and practices.{{Rp|page=79}} He borrowed an unusual Chinese term, Tiānzhǔ ({{lang|zh|{{linktext|天主}}}}, "Lord of Heaven") to describe the God of Abraham, despite the term's origin in traditional Chinese worship of Heaven. (He also cited many synonyms from the Confucian Classics.)

Ricci took an accommodating approach on various Chinese practices, including rituals such as ancestor worship.{{Rp|page=81}}Dominican and Franciscan missionaries considered this an unacceptable accommodation and later appealed to the Vatican on the issue.{{rp|324}} This Chinese rites controversy continued for centuries. In 1721, fallout from the controversy led the Kangxi emperor to expel the Jesuits.{{Rp|page=81}} The Vatican's most recent statement on the Chinese rites controversy came in 1939. Some contemporary authors have praised Ricci as an exemplar of beneficial inculturation,{{Citation | last=Griffiths | first=Bede | author-link=Bede Griffiths | editor-last=Derrick | editor-first=Christopher | editor-link=Christopher Derrick | title=Light of Revelation and Non-Christians | place=New York, NY | publisher=Alba House | year=1965 | chapter=The meeting of East and West}}{{Citation | last=Dunn| first=George H. | editor-last=Derrick | editor-first=Christopher | editor-link=Christopher Derrick | title=Light of Revelation and Non-Christians | place=New York, NY | publisher=Alba House | year=1965 | chapter=The contribution of China's culture towards the future of Christianity}} avoiding at the same time distorting the Gospel message or neglecting the indigenous cultural media.{{cite book |author=Zhiqiu Xu |year=2016 |title=Natural Theology Reconfigured: Confucian Axiology and American Pragmatism |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=N6fOCwAAQBAJ |via=Google Books |isbn=9781317089681 }}

Like developments in India, the identification of European culture with Christianity led almost to the end of Catholic missions in China, but Christianity continued to grow in Sichuan and some other locations.{{rp|324}}

Xu Guangqi and Ricci became the first two to translate some of the Confucian classics into a Western language, Latin.

Ricci also met a Korean emissary to China, teaching the basic tenets of Catholicism and donating several books.National Assembly, Republic of Korea: [http://korea.assembly.go.kr/history_html/history_07/jos_L_07.jsp Korea History] Along with João Rodrigues's gifts to the ambassador Jeong Duwon in 1631, Ricci's gifts influenced the creation of Korea's Silhak movement.{{cite book |last=Bowman |first=John S. |year=2000 |url=https://archive.org/details/columbiachronolo00john |url-access=registration |title=Columbia Chronologies of Asian history and Culture |publisher=Columbia University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/columbiachronolo00john/page/212 212] |isbn=0-231-11004-9 }}

Cause of canonization

{{Infobox saint

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Matteo Ricci

| birth_date = {{birth date|1552|10|6|df=y}}

| death_date = {{death date and age|1610|5|11|1552|10|6|df=y}}

| feast_day =

| venerated_in =

| image = Kircher - Toonneel van China - Ricci and Guangqi.jpg

| imagesize =

| caption = Ricci with Xu Guangqi (right), {{nowraplinks|from Athanasius Kircher's China Illustrata, 1667}}

| birth_place = Macerata, Papal States

| death_place = Beijing, Ming Empire

| titles =

| canonized_date =

| canonized_place =

| canonized_by =

| major_shrine =

|attributes =

| suppressed_date =

| issues =

}}

The cause of his beatification, begun in 1984, was reopened on 24 January 2010, at the cathedral of the Italian diocese of Macerata-Tolentino-Recanati-Cingoli-Treia.{{cite web|url=http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=5239 |title=Father Matteo Ricci's beatification cause reopened |publisher=Catholicculture.org |access-date=14 May 2014}}{{cite web|url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/18408/diocese-to-re-launch-beatification-cause-for-missionary-fr-matteo-ricci |title=Diocese to re-launch beatification cause for missionary Fr. Matteo Ricci |publisher=Catholicnewsagency.com |date=25 January 2010 |access-date=14 May 2014}} Bishop Claudio Giuliodori, the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Macerata, formally closed the diocesan phase of the sainthood process on 10 May 2013. The cause moved to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican in 2014. Pope Francis issued a decree on 17 December 2022 that Ricci had lived a life of heroic virtue, thus conferring on him the title of Venerable.

Commemoration

The following places and institutions are named after Matteo Ricci:

Matteo Ricci Pacific Studies Reading Room at The National Central Library of Taiwan
Ricci Hall,{{cite web|url=http://www.hku.hk/ricci/|title=Ricci Hall – The University of Hong Kong|website=www.hku.hk|access-date=17 August 2017}} 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,{{Cite web|url=http://rizal.lib.admu.edu.ph/matteo2/default.asp|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121221131035/http://rizal.lib.admu.edu.ph/matteo2/default.asp?action=0&what=0&type=0|archive-date=21 December 2012|url-status=dead|title=Matteo Ricci|access-date=11 November 2020}} at the Ateneo de Manila University
Matteo Ricci College, Kowloon{{cite web|url=http://web.mrck.edu.hk/|title=web.mrck.edu.hk|website=mrck.edu.hk|access-date=17 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130531015023/http://web.mrck.edu.hk/|archive-date=31 May 2013|url-status=dead}} in Hong Kong
Matteo Ricci College,{{cite web|url=http://www2.seattleu.edu/mrc/|title=Matteo Ricci College – Seattle University|website=www2.seattleu.edu|access-date=17 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120911141945/http://www.seattleu.edu/mrc/|archive-date=11 September 2012|url-status=dead}} at Seattle University
Colégio Mateus Ricci,{{cite web |url=http://www.ricci.edu.mo/|title=首頁 – Colegio Mateus Ricci|website=www.ricci.edu.mo|access-date=17 August 2017}} Macau
Sekolah Katolik Ricci 1 and 2 in Jakarta, Indonesia
Taipei Ricci Institute, Taiwan
Macau Ricci Institute,{{cite web|url=http://www.riccimac.org/|title=MACAU RICCI INSTITUTE|first=MACAU RICCI|last=INSTITUTE|website=www.riccimac.org|access-date=17 August 2017}} Macau{{cite web|url=http://www.riccimac.org/ |title=The Macau Ricci Institute 澳門利氏學社 |publisher=Riccimac.org |access-date=14 May 2014}}
Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History{{cite web|url=https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/centers/Ricci-Institute.html|title=Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History|website=www.bc.edu|access-date=6 July 2022}} at Boston College.
The Matteo Ricci Seminar at Fordham University{{cite web|url=http://www.fordham.edu/academics/colleges__graduate_s/undergraduate_colleg/fordham_college_at_r/opportunities_for_ex/matteo_ricci_seminar_76733.asp|title=Fordham online information – Academics – Colleges and Schools – Undergraduate Schools – Fordham College at Rose Hill|last=Fordham|website=www.fordham.edu|access-date=17 August 2017}}
Centro Matteo Ricci, a centre for refugees and asylum seekers run by the Italian branch of the Jesuit Refugee Service{{Cite web|url=https://centroastalli.it/inaugurazione-del-centro-matteo-ricci/|title=Inaugurazione del Centro Matteo Ricci con la visita del Presidente della Repubblica|first=Europe Consulting|last=ONLUS|date=4 February 2019}} in Rome, Italy
Matteo Ricci Hall-"R" Hall,{{Cite web |url=http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/goabroad/english/lifesogang/campus.htm |title=Sogang University |access-date=11 June 2009 |archive-date=12 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090512153610/http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/goabroad/english/lifesogang/campus.htm |url-status=dead }} Ricci Hall Annex-"RA" Hall, two buildings at Sogang University in Seoul, South Korea

In 2010, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Matteo Ricci's death, the Italy Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo in China commissioned Italian sculptor Dionisio Cimarelli[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UgfvPBKtY&list=PL41cpyl0a4nkCeaWWh0tLEkNE2Na6Fs9E Living in China, Italian artist tells his journey] Xinhua China, August 4, 2017 to create a monumental bust in his honor. This sculpture was later exhibited for about two years at the Italian Embassy in Beijing. Subsequently, the Marche Regional Government purchased the work, while the original model is now permanently exhibited at the main entrance of the Italian Consulate in Shanghai.

In the run-up to the 400th anniversary of Ricci's death, the Vatican Museums hosted a major exhibit dedicated to his life. Additionally, Italian film director Gjon Kolndrekaj produced a 60-minute documentary about Ricci, released in 2009, titled Matteo Ricci: A Jesuit in the Dragon's Kingdom, filmed in Italy and China.{{cite web|url=http://www.h2onews.org/english/51-culture/19749-h2onews.html |title=A Jesuit in the dragon's kingdom |publisher=H2onews.org |access-date=14 May 2014}}{{cite web |author=Category: Focus: The Legacy of Matteo Ricci |url=http://www.erenlai.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3554 |title=Interview with Gjon Kolndrekaj |publisher=Erenlai.com |date=20 May 2010 |access-date=14 May 2014 |archive-date=10 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150410085811/http://www.erenlai.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3554 |url-status=dead }}

In Taipei, the Taipei Ricci Institute and the National Central Library of Taiwan opened jointly the Matteo Ricci Pacific Studies Reading Room{{cite web |author=Category: Focus: The Legacy of Matteo Ricci |url=http://www.erenlai.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3553 |title=Remembering Ricci: Opening of the Matteo Ricci – Pacific Studies Reading Room at the National Central Library |publisher=www.eRenlai.com |date=20 May 2010 |access-date=14 May 2014 |archive-date=8 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908113443/http://www.erenlai.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3553 |url-status=dead }} and the Taipei-based

online magazine eRenlai, directed by Jesuit Benoît Vermander, dedicated its June 2010 issue to the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Ricci's death.{{cite web |url=http://www.erenlai.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=665&Itemid=321&lang=en |title=June 2010 |publisher=www.eRenlai.com |access-date=14 May 2014 |archive-date=18 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160118020312/http://www.erenlai.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=665&Itemid=321&lang=en |url-status=dead }}

File:Matteo Ricci Far East 1602 Larger.jpg

Works

= ''The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven'' =

The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven (天主實義) is a book written by Ricci, which argues that Confucianism and Christianity are not opposed and in fact are remarkably similar in key respects. It was written in the form of a dialogue, originally in Chinese. Ricci used the treatise in his missionary effort to convert Chinese literati, men who were educated in Confucianism and the Chinese classics. In the Chinese Rites controversy, some Roman-Catholic missionaries raised the question of whether Ricci and other Jesuits had gone too far and changed Christian beliefs to win converts.{{Cite encyclopedia|last = Kuiper|first = Kathleen|title = Chinese Rites Controversy (Roman Catholicism)|encyclopedia = Encyclopædia Britannica | date=2006 |url = https://www.britannica.com/event/Chinese-Rites-Controversy}}

Peter Phan argues that True Meaning was used by a Jesuit missionary to Vietnam, Alexandre de Rhodes, in writing a catechism for Vietnamese Christians.{{cite book | last=Phan | first=Peter C. | title=Mission and Catechesis: Alexandre de Rhodes & Inculturation in Seventeenth-Century Vietnam | publisher=Orbis Books | year=2015 | isbn=978-1-60833-474-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WMlDCgAAQBAJ&q=%22True%20Meaning%20of%20the%20Lord%20of%20Heaven%22 | access-date=1 February 2017}} Note: Phan offers a concise summary of the contents of True Meaning as well. In 1631, Girolamo Maiorica and Bernardino Reggio, both Jesuit missionaries to Vietnam, started a short-lived press in Thăng Long (present-day Hanoi) to print copies of True Meaning and other texts.{{cite journal|title=Catholic Written and Oral Cultures in Seventeenth-Century Vietnam|first=Tara|last=Alberts|journal=Journal of Early Modern History|location=Leiden|publisher=Koninklijke Brill|year=2012|volume=16 |issue=4–5|page=390 |doi=10.1163/15700658-12342325 }} The book was also influential on later Protestant missionaries to China, James Legge and Timothy Richard, and through them John Nevius, John Ross, and William Edward Soothill, all influential in establishing Protestantism in China and Korea.

= Other works =

{{multiple image

| width = 175

| footer = Kunyu Wanguo Quantu (坤輿萬國全圖), printed by Matteo Ricci upon request of the Wanli Emperor in Beijing, 1602

| image1 = Kunyu Wanguo Quantu by Matteo Ricci Plate 1-3.jpg

| caption1 = Left plates 1–3

| image2 = Kunyu Wanguo Quantu by Matteo Ricci Plate 4-6.jpg

| caption2 = Right plates 4–6

}}

File:Kunyu Wanguo Quantu (坤輿萬國全圖).jpg transliterations of the phonetic Chinese characters]]Ricci translated various European scientific works into Chinese.{{Rp|page=79}} Other works by Ricci include:

De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas: the journals of Ricci that were completed and translated into Latin by another Jesuit, Nicolas Trigault, soon after Ricci's death. Available in various editions:
Trigault, Nicolas S. J. "China in the Sixteenth Century: The Journals of Mathew Ricci: 1583–1610". English translation by Louis J. Gallagher, S.J. (New York: Random House, Inc. 1953)
On Chinese Government,{{cite web |url=http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/ric-jour.html |title=Chinese Cultural Studies: Matteo Ricci: On Chinese Government, Selection from his Journals (1583–1610 CE) |first=Paul |last=Halsall |website=acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu |access-date=17 August 2017 |archive-date=18 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170818012230/http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/ric-jour.html |url-status=dead }} an excerpt from Chapter One of Gallagher's translation
De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas,{{cite web |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=iLsWAAAAQAAJ |title=De Christiana expeditione apud sinas suscepta ab Societate Jesu. Ex P. Matthaei Riccii eiusdem Societatis commentariis Libri V: Ad S.D.N. Paulum V. In Quibus Sinensis Regni mores, leges, atque instituta, & novae illius Ecclesiae difficillima primordia accurate & summa fide describuntur |first1=Matteo |last1=Ricci |first2=Nicolas |last2=Trigault |date=17 August 2017 |publisher=Gualterus |access-date=17 August 2017 |via=Google Books }} full Latin text, available on Google Books
A discourse of the Kingdome of China, taken out of Ricius and Trigautius, containing the countrey, people, government, religion, rites, sects, characters, studies, arts, acts; and a Map of China added, drawne out of one there made with Annotations for the understanding thereof (an early English translation of excerpts from De Christiana expeditione) in Purchas his Pilgrimes (1625). Can be found in the "Hakluytus posthumus".{{cite web |url = https://archive.org/stream/hakluytusposthu14purcgoog/hakluytusposthu14purcgoog_djvu.txt |title=Full text of "Hakluytus posthumus" |website=archive.org |access-date=17 August 2017}} The book also appears on Google Books, but only in snippet view.{{cite book |url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_wrBAXK9wOnUC |title = Hakluytus Posthumus, Or, Purchas His Pilgrimes: Contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells by Englishmen and Others |year = 1906 |first=Samuel |last=Purchas |publisher=J. MacLehose and Sons |access-date=17 August 2017 |via=Internet Archive }}
An excerpt from The Art of Printing by Matteo Ricci{{Cite web|url=http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/ric-prt.html|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20040611095107/http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/ric-prt.html|archive-date = 11 June 2004|title = Chinese Cultural Studies: Matteo Ricci on the Art of Printing}}
Ricci's Treatise On Friendship published in Chinese in 1595, first translated to English in 2009 Ricci, Matteo (2009). On Friendship. One Hundred Maxims for a Chinese Prince. Translation and introduction by Timothy Billings. New York: Columbia University Press. See also Chu, Wei-cheng (2017) The utility of 'translated' friendship for the Sinophone world: Past and Present. In Carla Risseeuw & Marlein van Raalte (Eds.): Conceptualizing Friendship in Time and Place pp. 169- 183. Leiden & Boston: Brill-Rodipi. and again in 2025 by ChatGPTRicci, Matteo (2009). ''On Friendship. Ancient Chinese and Western Wisdom on Loyalty, Fellowship, and Virtue. Foreword by Mark Linden OMeara. Translation by ChatGPT. Soul Care Publishing.
Ricci's World Map of 1602.
Rare 1602 World Map, the First Map in Chinese to Show the Americas, on Display at Library of Congress, 12 Jan to 10 April 2010{{cite web |url = https://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2010/10-002.html |title=Rare 1602 World Map, the First Map in Chinese to Show the Americas, on Display at Library of Congress, Jan. 12 to April 10 |website=loc.gov |access-date=17 August 2017 }}
The Chinese translation of the ancient Greek mathematical treatise Euclid's Elements (幾何原本), published and printed in 1607 by Matteo Ricci and his Chinese colleague Xu Guangqi
The Ershiwu Yan or Book of Twenty-Five Paragraphs. A moral treatise published in 1605, the text is a highly redacted and adapted version of the Enchiridion by Epictetus. Ricci took the core ideas from the Enchiridion and condensed them into twenty-five sections. The text is a blend of Stoic philosophy, Christian theology, and Confucian ethics that influenced Chinese converts to Catholicism.

References

= Citations =

= Sources =

Dehergne, Joseph, S.J. (1973). Répertoire des Jésuites de Chine de 1552 à 1800. Rome: Institutum Historicum S.I. [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/462805295 OCLC 462805295]
Hsia, R. Po-chia. (2007). "The Catholic Mission and translations in China, 1583–1700" in Cultural Translation in Early Modern Europe (Peter Burke and R. Po-chia Hsia, eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|9780521862080}} {{ISBN|0521862086}}; [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/76935903 OCLC 76935903]
Spence, Jonathan D. (1984). The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci. New York: Viking. {{ISBN|9780670468300}}; [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/230623792 OCLC 230623792]
Vito Avarello, L'oeuvre italienne de Matteo Ricci: anatomie d'une rencontre chinoise, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2014, 738 pages. ({{ISBN|978-2-8124-3107-4}})

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20140222054121/http://www.georgetown.edu/inculturation.html Inculturation: Matteo Ricci's Legacy in China] [Short videos from Georgetown's Ricci Legacy Symposium.]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20080318204413/http://matrix.scranton.edu/about/ab_matteo_ricci.shtml University of Scranton: Matteo Ricci, S.J.]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150419130654/http://v2catholic.com/riccicenter/ The Zhaoqing Ricci Center]
[http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/beijing/31024.htm Article about the tomb of Matteo Ricci in Beijing]
[http://www.usfca.edu/ricci/ Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100227103857/http://www.usfca.edu/ricci/ |date=27 February 2010 }}
[http://www.rotarymaceratamricci.it Rotary Club Macerata Matteo Ricci (in Italian)]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20100630063703/http://www.romereports.com/palio/Matteo-Ricci-moves-closer-toward-beatification-english-2327.html Matteo Ricci moves closer toward beatification]