Jesuits in China – Woodstock Theological Library

Continuing our exploration of Matteo Ricci’s works in Chinese at Woodstock Theological Library (WTL), we feature here an image of the title page from an 1868 edition of his work entitled Tian zhu shi yi = 天主實義 , translated as The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven.

This book was his most famous and also most controversial because of its perceived anti-Buddhist sentiment. Ricci began work on this in 1595 and it was finally complete and printed in 1603. The book’s genre is that of the dialogue between a scholar of the West and a Chinese scholar. R. Pol-Chia Hsia in, A Jesuit in the Forbidden City: Matteo Ricci 1552-1610, says the following about the book: “…the dialogical text represented an ordered synopsis of the numerous conversations between [Ricci] and the Chinese literati. His intended readership was the Confucian scholar, manifest in Ricci’s appeal to Confucian principles in the introduction to the book: All doctrines of peaceful and just rule depend on the principle of oneness; therefore the sages admonish offices to be loyal. What is loyalty but devotion to the one [lord]. Among the Five Human Relationships, the most important concerns the ruler, the relationship between the ruler and his official represents the first of the three bonds…Every country has a lord; can it be that only heaven and earth do not have a lord? A country is unified under one lord, how can heaven and earth not have two lords? A gentleman cannot but know and reflect on the origins of the universe and the source of creation.” (p. 225)

WTL’s copy was printed by T’ou-sè-wè = 土山灣 a Jesuit compound in Shanghai founded in 1864 which not only housed a printing press, but also was the location for an orphanage and professional school, also run by Jesuits. T’ou-sè-wè is now a museum where a library also operates. The Cathedral built there remains open and remains a testament to the Jesuit presence there.

entry authored by Amy E. Phillips, Rare Materials Cataloger for WTL

Woodstock Theological Library (WTL) has recently rediscovered among our rare book collections a 1847 reprint of Matteo Ricci’s Ji ren shi pian = 畸人十篇, which is often translated as Ten Discourses on the Man of Paradox. Here is an image of the title page which bears the imprimatur of Jerónimo José de Mata, C.M., who was bishop of Macao from 1844 to 1862.

This book, first published in 1608, is a collection of conversations Ricci had with some of the most influential intellectuals in China over Confucianism, Christianity, ethics, culture, and values. The book received a wide reception and, even if not well liked by all, gained a following. Ricci’s letter to his friend Girolama Costa attests to its influence:

“A great scholar lived close to our house: he was very haughty, of great fame among them [the Confucian literati], received a continuous stream of auditors in his house, and was promoted from a minor post at court to a higher one due to his virtue. Many times he had been invited to come and visit us on account of the fame of our letters and the novel things and good doctrines we discourse on, but in two years, nobody had succeeded in persuading him to visit. I don’t know how he got hold of my [Ten Discourses on the Man of Paradox], which he liked a lot, so that he suddenly came to see me in great humility, and has already invited me to two or three banquets at his home, and he has brought his friends, many people of importance, to come and visit us. From this, Your Reverence can understand how much you can obtain with the publication of books in China.” — from A Jesuit in the Forbidden City: Matteo Ricci 1552-1610. by R. Pol-Chia Hsia. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2010. p. 281

WTL’s copy of Ji ren shi pian is the only one in North America. Worldwide only three other copies of this version exist, one at the Bibliothèque national de France, Paris, another at the Bibliothèque interuniversitaire des langues orientales, also in Paris. The third copy is at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. WTL is grateful to our colleague Ding Ye for his help in creating the original cataloging for this book.

entry authored by Amy E. Phillips, Rare Materials Cataloger for WTL