Matteo Ricci Quotes

The whole point of writing something down is that your voice will then carry for thousands of miles, whereas in direct conversation it fades at a hundred paces.

When Europeans first came to learn of the imperial examination system, they expressed their admiration for it. This was true of Matteo Ricci, the Jesuit missionary who provided one of the earliest and most detailed European accounts of life in China. In later centuries Europeans drew on the Chinese experience as they constructed meritocratic recruitment systems of their own.

3 Vakken bladeren in de herfst, naast Jaap Jongbloed.

Western attitudes toward Chinese and Japanese religions were formed largely from the descriptions given by Christian missionaries to those countries. Earlier accounts provided by travelers, such as Marco Polo, John of Montecorvino, Odoric of Pordenone, and others, were too vague and never mentioned the Buddhist sects as such (Demiéville 1964). So misleading, for instance, was Marco Polo's description of Cathay that it took some fifteen years for the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) to realize that this empire was none other than China.

The first mention of Chan appears in [Matteo] Ricci's journals, while Japanese Zen is discussed in the letters of Francis Xavier (1506–1552). The images one gets from these accounts are strikingly different; they reflect not only the idiosyncrasies of the two Jesuits but also the different roles played by Buddhism in Chinese and Japanese societies. Whereas the Buddhist tradition in China, and Chan in particular, had been largely assimilated by popular religion, the Zen sect in Japan, under the system of the so-called Five Mountains, remained associated with the ruling class and dominated intellectual discourse.

The outstanding achievements of Matteo Ricci, the man whom Demiéville called the "founding father of Western Sinology" (Demiéville 1966, 38), had a high cost: in particular, his prejudices against Buddhism and Chinese religion have had enduring consequences; he circumscribed the field of Sinology by excluding entire areas of the Chinese intellectual and religious life. We may therefore wonder to what extent "every Western Sinologist should recognize his forebearer in him [Ricci]" (Demiéville 1967, 88). Certainly, this genealogy has lost some of its legitimizing power and needs to be questioned if it cannot be transcended.

En el caso de Francisco, pienso que él considera su principal responsabilidad hacer presente la misericordia de Dios de un modo activo, es decir, «saliendo en busca» de las personas y no esperando a que llamen a las puertas de las iglesias para pedir ayuda. Es un eco quizá del carisma «misionero» de los jesuitas, que viajan hasta las fronteras más lejanas para hablar de Dios a quien ni siquiera sabe que existe. Hace siglos, ese viaje era geográfico, ya fuera al Extremo Oriente –como hicieron san Francisco Javier o Matteo Ricci– o entre los indígenas del Nuevo Mundo –como ocurrió con las reducciones jesuíticas guaraníes en Paraguay–. Actualmente, ese viaje es «existencial» y por eso Francisco sale al encuentro de los «descartados» en todos sus niveles, desde los pobres, los emigrantes o los ancianos que viven solos hasta los transexuales, las personas homosexuales o los divorciados que consideran que no tienen sitio en la Iglesia.

Ricci's attitude toward Buddhism must be placed in its religious context-that of aggressive Counter-Reformation Catholicism engaged in a spiritual battle to win over Chinese society to Christianity. It is perhaps inappropriate to condemn him retrospectively for his lack of tolerance, when the very notion of tolerance would have seemed perfectly irrelevant to him. This virtue was associated with atheists like Voltaire and with whorehouses (maisons de tolérance), as in Claudel's witty remark: "Tolerance? Tolerance? There are houses for that" (Etiemble 1964, 50).

Admittedly, it would be naive to expect a sixteenth century Jesuit, a "warrior" for Christ, to apologize for or to compromise his faith, and to that extent Ricci's rejection of Buddhism is consistent. Ricci, however, did compromise with Confucianism, and his justification of his faith was not free of cunning and deception.