Matteo Ricci

by Michela Fontana

  The large clock was instead placed in a garden close to the imperial apartments, as it was too cumbersome to be kept in the emperor’s rooms. Before this, however, it was further embellished by the court craftsmen with a new and richly decorated wooden base and fitted with a new bell to ring the hours.

  The positive response to the clocks enabled the Jesuits to establish a privileged channel of communication with the Son of Heaven, albeit with the taijian as intermediaries. The emperor was curious, and few days went by without a eunuch being sent from the court with some new question for the Jesuits. Wanli wanted to know how people lived, ate, dressed, and married in Europe, and what form a royal funeral took. The last question was probably motivated by a desire to compare his now completed mausoleum, to which he attached great importance, with similar edifices in the West. It was not difficult to satisfy his curiosity by describing the burial of Philip II of Spain, who had died just three years earlier. The Jesuits explained that the monarch’s remains had been placed in a case of lead inside a wooden coffin in a stone sepulcher in a church.

  It is probable that the eunuchs told the Jesuits in turn about the structure of Wanli’s huge mausoleum, located about fifty kilometers outside the capital in the area accommodating the tombs of all the Ming emperors from Yongle on. The necropolis was surrounded by a red wall and was reached by means of a road called the Sacred Way lined with a series of imposing stone statues of real and mythological animals, including lions, elephants, unicorns, and camels, whose task it was to guard the burial places. Alongside these were statues of ministers and dignitaries of high rank who had acquired particular merit during their lives. Similar in structure to those of his predecessors, Wanli’s tomb consisted of an edifice in which sacrifices were performed and the Soul or Stela Tower, beneath which were the chambers built to hold the remains of the emperor and empress, dressed in the costliest of garments and surrounded by votive objects and symbols of power.

  This indirect dialogue with the Jesuits interested Wanli, who expressed a desire to know more about the two sages from the West. The reports of the taijian and their minute descriptions of the missionaries’ physical appearance and habits were no longer enough. The emperor would have liked to see them for himself, but he was now so used to isolation that he preferred to order the eunuchs to paint life-size portraits and take them to his apartments.

  Ricci and Pantoja were summoned to the court once more to pose for the painters. On the agreed day, they were admitted to an area deeper within the Imperial City and even through the second gate, but again without being allowed to meet the Son of Heaven, as they may have hoped. Wanli’s curiosity was such that he had the portraits brought to him as soon as they were ready. On seeing the missionaries’ long beards, he appears to have remarked that they looked like Muslims, which the taijian said was impossible as they had seen them eat pork. Still not satisfied with the information received on the world from which the Jesuits came, Wanli asked how the monarchs of the West dressed and how their palaces were constructed. Having nothing else at his disposal, Ricci sent him a small engraving of Christ surrounded by the kneeling figures of the angels from Heaven, the damned from Hell, and all men on earth, including the pope, the emperor, and the king and queen. Wanli appreciated the sacred image but was unable to distinguish the different figures, and he ordered his painters to produce a much larger copy. Once again, Ricci and Pantoja were summoned to the court to help the artists in their work.

  In order to satisfy the emperor’s curiosity about European palaces and houses, Ricci provided him with some reproductions of views of the Escorial, built by order of Philip II of Spain, and Saint Mark’s Square in Venice. The eunuchs reported that Wanli was amused to see that the buildings in Europe developed vertically. Living like all the Chinese in a horizontal world of buildings and houses constructed at ground level, he saw those of the West as dangerous and inconvenient. Despite his misgivings, however, he appears to have remarked that this was obviously what the Europeans wanted. As Ricci put it in his history of the mission, “We are all happy with what we have been brought up to.”14

  After an interval of a few days, the now customary scene was repeated, and four taijian of authoritative appearance turned up at the Jesuits’ door. This time they were members of the imperial office of music with orders to learn how to play the harpsichord presented as a gift by the Jesuits, an instrument completely unknown to them. Ricci had been taught musical theory at the Roman College but appears to have been unable to play any instrument. The expert was Pantoja, who had been taught by Lazzaro Cattaneo when the missionaries were still in Nanjing.

  When the missionaries went to the court for the first lesson, the four eunuch musicians bowed not only to them, addressing them solemnly as their masters, but also to the harpsichord as a propitiatory gesture, “as though it was alive.” The lessons went on for a number of days, interrupted only by pauses for the abundant meals served in honor of the Western masters. Now well into the month of February, the Jesuits were beginning to feel at home in the Imperial City, where their visits never failed to attract inquisitive groups of high-ranking taijian.

  Ricci soon left the lessons to Pantoja, who went on teaching the eunuchs with great commitment every day for a month. It was very difficult for his pupils, especially the two oldest ones, to master an instrument and musical technique based on criteria so very different from theirs, and progress was accordingly limited. It was decided that thirty days had to suffice. Before ending the course, they insisted on Pantoja teaching them some songs to perform to the accompaniment of Western music, feeling certain that the emperor would ask them to do so and not wishing to be caught unprepared. Ricci saw this as an excellent opportunity to convey a spiritual and religious message to the Son of Heaven and decided to write the words.

  The Jesuit found some compositions on moral subjects in his books, transformed them into songs in Mandarin Chinese, and presented them in a slender volume entitled Xiqin quyi bazhang (“Eight Songs for the Western Harpsichord”) dedicated to the Son of Heaven. The Jesuit also prepared a version with Chinese characters whose pronunciation reproduced the sounds of the Italian words so that the eunuchs could sing them in the original version.15

  In line with Ricci’s style as an expert in proffering ethical teachings with the light and graceful touch of a humanist, the verses of the songs were composed with the intention of “teaching the right way to live” and not just “delighting the ear.”16

  In the first composition, entitled “My Hopes for Those in High Places,” Ricci urged the monarch to honor the Lord of Heaven, to do good, and to be impartial in judging his subjects. He then went on to give sage advice on how to cultivate the virtues and seek spiritual peace in the knowledge of being at the service of the Creator. The last song, “Death Makes Inroads Everywhere,” addressed the subject of death, recalling that it strikes rich and poor, stupid and wise, all alike. While Wanli’s reaction to this gift is not known, the songs enjoyed success also outside the imperial court. The literati were eager to read them and praised Li Madou for his highly Confucian intention “to teach their king to govern this reign well and to live virtuously in keeping with the demands of his position.”17

  Imprisonment in the “Foreigners’ Castle”

  While Pantoja went to the court for the daily lessons in Renaissance music, Ricci began the customary round of calls on mandarins whose names he had been given in Nanjing in the hope that they might help to establish his position in the city on a sound basis and thus free him from the tutelage of the eunuch Ma Tang. As these dignitaries were, however, all afraid of compromising themselves through dealings with a foreigner and refused to receive him, he was forced to admit that Ma Tang’s intervention had proved useful in securing their arrival at the imperial court and even thanked the Lord for having brought them together.

  The future looked very uncertain. Even though the missionaries had been well received at court, their posit
ion was precarious and ambiguous because their entry into the capital and presentation of gifts had not taken place under the supervision of the ministry of rites through the office of reception as required by protocol. The head of the office was offended because he had not met the Jesuits and inspected their gifts before their delivery to the Forbidden City, and he was particularly annoyed with Ma Tang for his interference. Being unable to take any action against the eunuch, the guan vented his anger on the missionaries by sending a group of guards and agents to order them to report to the ministry of rites and clarify their position.

  The soldiers imprisoned the Jesuits in their house and tied them up for fear that they might escape. The agent of Ma Tang who kept constant watch over the missionaries came to their defense and offered them safer accommodation, but Ricci declined, thinking it preferable to give his own version of the facts to the officials at the ministry and show that he had acted in good faith.

  The eunuch accompanied him to the ministry in order to intimidate the guan but was forced to stand aside. Ricci was taken before the head of the office of reception and kept kneeling for more than an hour before being questioned. Accused of failure to comply with the law, he explained that he had been unable to free himself of the tutelage of Ma Tang and added that he had been living in China for many years and therefore assumed that the protocol established for visiting foreign ambassadors did not apply in his case.

  Even though the mandarin seemed to be convinced of the Westerners’ good faith, he refused to free them and had them moved to what Ricci called the “foreigners’ castle,” where all foreign ambassadors were required to live until their audience with the Son of Heaven. This was a dilapidated building that provided accommodation for over a thousand people a year in small rooms with no doors or furnishings that seemed more appropriate for sheep than human beings, as Ricci observed on entering. Moreover, the “foreigners’ castle” was a sort of prison. Those lodged there were allowed out only when summoned to the court or in order to return to their homeland. The only positive element in this very disagreeable situation was that Li Madou was granted preferential treatment because of his friends in high places. The director assigned the missionaries a small apartment with chairs, tables, mats, and silk blankets for the night, and invited them to dine with him more than once during their stay, displaying a keen interest in mathematics and astronomy. He was delighted to receive the gift of a celestial globe.

  Ricci initially thought that the building accommodated only ambassadors from tributary countries, but he soon discovered that the guests were much more varied. Many were members of delegations sent from distant lands to pay homage to the Son of Heaven, the already high number of which had increased over the years during the Ming period, after Yongle, the third emperor, had initiated diplomatic relations with the countries of Central and Southeast Asia by sending out Chinese emissaries. Most of the countries in the neighboring regions were willing to accept the status of vassal states and adopt the Chinese calendar as a sign of submission to the emperor in exchange for access to the empire’s products, most importantly silk, which was in great demand in every part of the world. The delegations of representatives of foreign governments had, however, been joined over the years by ever-increasing numbers of merchants passing themselves off as ambassadors, who arrived in China from more or less distant lands in search of business opportunities. The mechanism was very simple. All they had to do was turn up at the frontier, declare their desire to pay homage to the emperor, and display some gifts, not necessarily of any great value, whereupon permission would be granted for a certain number to continue their journey to the capital entirely at the expense of the Chinese government.

  Once inside China, the merchants set about buying goods to sell in Beijing. After the presentation of their gifts at the court, they then bought Chinese goods for sale on return to their own countries. Even though the accommodation provided during their stay in the capital was the most unpleasant imaginable and their movements were kept under the strictest control, the bogus ambassadors obtained substantial financial benefits. Though well aware of the real purpose of these sham embassies, the Chinese government turned a blind eye and allowed the merchants to do good business, as they considered it an easy way to establish cordial relationships with foreign countries and discourage hostile actions. Ricci was astonished at this practice, which he describes as follows in his history of the mission: “They deceive the King of China into thinking that all the world is his and pays him tribute, to the great sorrow of those with a better understanding, who see that it is rather China that pays them tribute.”18

  Having clarified the identity of his fellow prisoners, Ricci took advantage of the opportunity to talk to merchants from Korea, Siam, Cochin China, Burma, Formosa, Tibet, and Mongolia, and he conversed at great length with a group of Muslims from Central Asia who were familiar with Europe. They had done very good business by purchasing crates of rhubarb at the border and selling it in the capital at a handsome profit, and now they planned to buy silk before leaving for their homeland to sell it. Their gifts for the emperor were jade, diamond tips used by the Chinese to work porcelain, and lapis lazuli, the only really precious objects that Ricci saw in the castle. Most of the other merchants brought worthless gifts like half-starved horses or swords and armor that were no more than rusty scrap iron. Ricci’s long conversations with the “Saracen” merchants in the gloomy palace not only supplied precious information about their countries of origin and the regions of the empire they had traveled through, but also further evidence that China was Cathay and Beijing Khanbalik, as the Muslims again confirmed that the Middle Kingdom and its capital were still known in their lands by the names that Marco Polo used. The Jesuit wrote to his superiors in India and Europe immediately to reaffirm his discovery and assured them that they “could have all their maps of the world corrected.” Once again, there was no reply.

  Having adapted with some difficulty to the hardships of life in the castle, Ricci learned from his fellow prisoners that the arrival and departure of groups of ambassadors were marked by sumptuous banquets with musical entertainment and such an abundance of food that the leftovers were sufficient to feed the “guests” in the fortress for several days, as long as they managed to keep them safe from the avaricious guards. Ricci was astonished at this waste of public money, even though he did understand the reasons for such generosity. When those in charge let it be known that they would be willing to allow the missionaries to take part in these banquets in exchange for a small fee, Ricci answered that he had no interest in that kind of overindulgence and would, on the contrary, be willing to pay in order to be sure that nothing of the kind was organized in his honor.

  Notes

  1. FR, p. 123, no. 4.

  2. Jacques Gernet, Le Monde chinois (Paris: A. Colin, 1972), [trad. it. Torino: Einaudi, 1978, p. 411].

  3. See P. Buckley Ebrey, op. cit., p. 201.

  4. Published in China in 1610 and translated into English by Clement Egerton as The Golden Lotus, 4 vols. (London: 1938). The translation by David Tod Roy (The Plum in the Golden Vase, or Chin P’ing Mei, Princeton University Press) is still incomplete at the time of this writing.

  5. Mario Sabattini and Paolo Santangelo, Storia della Cina (Rome-Bari: Laterza, 1996).

  6. FR, book IV, ch. XII, p. 124, no. 1.

  7. FR, book IV, ch. XII, pp. 123–24, no. 5.

  8. FR, book IV, ch. XII, pp. 123–24, no. 4.

  9. Crowned by a gigantic portrait of Mao Zedong, this gate now provides access to the northern side of the huge square of the same name.

  10. This area included the present-day Beihai Park and the Zhongnanhai district, where the most important offices of the People’s Republic of China are now located, as well as the private homes of the highest officials.

  11. Wanli reigned for forty-seven years, from 1573 to 1620, longer than any other Ming emperor. The second longest was t
he forty-four-year reign of Jiajing from 1522 to 1566.

  12. The information in the following lines is drawn from the above-cited work by R. Huang.

  13. FR, book IV, ch. XII, p. 125.

  14. Ibid., p. 131.

  15. See Pasquale D’Elia, “Sonate e canzoni italiane alla corte di Pechino in 1601,” Civiltà Cattolica 96, no. 3 (1945): pp. 158–65; “Musica e canti italiani a Pechino (marzo–aprile 1601),” Rivista degli studi orientali 30 (1955): pp. 131–45.

  16. FR, book IV, ch. XII, pp. 134–35, no. 6.

  17. Ibid., p. 135.

  18. Ibid., book V, ch. XIV, p. 433.

  Chapter thirteen

  v

  The Empty Throne

  Beijing, 1601

  I recently saw Ricci’s map with his notes, the maps printed by Europeans, and the map of Nanjing printed on six sheets, and realized for the first time the immensity of the heavens and the earth.

  —Liang Zhou1

  The Master taught under four categories: culture, proper conduct, doing one’s utmost, and making good on one’s word.

  —Confucius, Analects (7, 25)