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Italian Jesuit Michele Ruggieri(1543-1607) played a key role in introducing Catholicism into the Ming Dynasty, he was the first Catholic priest to establish a permanent mission post of Christianity in the sixteenth century. However, so far his early life in south China has not been fully researched. Based on a poem written by a famous Chinese literati Ou Daren( 1516-1595), this paper aims to study the history regarding Ruggieri and the building of the first Church in Zhaoqing.
PROFESSOR Stephen Owen within the Department of East Asian Language and Civilization, Harvard University, is a well-known sinologist in the study of Chinese classical poetry and literature. In recent years, some of his works have been successively translated into Chinese for publication and he has accumulated quite a few domestic supporters. In Borrowed Stone, an optional anthology by Prof. Owen, there is a short essay, an excerpt, in which the author discusses the poetic art of the Song Poetry and the meaning of its hidden expression by way of a poem written by Huang Tingjian. Ms. Tian Xiaofei, the translator, gave it the title: “Just a Poem”.(1) Though a few words only, it can hardly conceal its clever thoughts, enticing strong aspirations from readers. Here, I’d also like to borrow this title to discuss a poem of the Ming Dynasty that I have recently come across by chance, a theme involving the Chinese and western cultural exchange during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It reads as follows:
At Xian Hua Temple Meeting Lord Monk Sir Jian(2)
Across the Southern seas, he came long years ago,
I did ask the Master: What is your sole preaching?
No two gates for the Law, no need for words or signs,
Could it be that beyond the Pure Land is Heaven?
The composer of this poem was Ou Daren (1516-1595). Daren, styling himself Zhenbo, alias Lunshan, was a native of Shunde County, Guangdong Province, of the Ming Dynasty. He was bright and eager to learn even when he was a child. He read his family’s book collection many times. At 14 years of age, he succeeded as a supplementary county school student, then became a disciple of Huang Zuo, a famous Confucian scholar, and was skilled in ancient prose and poems. Often, he would get together with scholars, such as Liang Youyu, Li Minbiao, Li Shixing and Wu Dan to recite poems, and they were collectively branded “Nan Yuan Hou Wu Zi (The Latter Five Poets of the Southern Garden)”. Although Ou Daren was profoundly learned and talented, he could not succeed in government examinations even after trying many times: “He entered the examination hall eight times and yet couldn’t pass the examination”, ridiculed Ou Biyuan, his great-grandson of his clan. During the 42nd year of the reign of Emperor Jiajing (1563), Daren, already 47 years old, eventually succeeded in entering the final imperial examination with a senior licentiate degree, a government examination. The chief examiner at that time was Qu Jingchun, father of Qu Taisu, a famous Roman Catholic of the Ming Dynasty. He read over the examination paper and couldn’t help exclaiming: “Certainly a talent of the generation”, and specially recommended him to be the No. 1 Scholar (title conferred on the one who came first in the highest imperial examination). Since then, Daren became famous both at home and abroad.(3) However, apparently, achievements in poem and prose did not open for him a bright prospect for career development. From the 4th year of the reign of Emperor Long Qing (1570), Daren subsequently assumed a number of relatively low positions in the Imperial hierarchy, such as Xundao or instructor of Jiangdu (a post equivalent to vice bureau director for education), Xuezheng of Guangzhou or Guang Prefecture (a senior 8th ranking position for education), Jiaoshou of Shaowu Prefecture (the highest academic official in a prefecture, equivalent to the head of provincial education department), Zhujiao or assistant (a Junior 7th ranking position in the feudal court ranking system of China) of Guozijian, the Imperial College, and Pingshi or judicial clerk in the Central Judicial Court, etc. It wasn’t until the 10th year of the reign of Emperor Wan Li (1582) that he was promoted to Langzhong or Director of the Bureau of Weights and Measures (Yuhengsi) of the Ministry of Works, an officer in the Ministry of Works Affairs in Nanjing, a middle ranking bureaucrat of the Imperial Court when he was already 66 years of age. Two years later, Ou Daren, who was tired of his official career, resigned for retirement and returned to his hometown in southern China, living in seclusion for over a decade, and eventually died at the age of 80 during the 23rd year of the reign of Emperor Wan Li (1595). His main works were compiled by his family members and disciples into a book entitled Ou Yubu Ji (Collected Works of Ou Yubu), consisting of 15 categories in 72 volumes, such as “Bai Yue Xian Xian Zhi (Biographies of Virtuous Ancestors of Bai Yue)”, “Wen Ji (collected works)”, “Lü Yan Ji”, “Fu Huai Ji”, “Yao Zhong Gao”, “Guang Ling Shi Xian Sheng Zhuan (biographies of ten gentlemen from Guangling)”, “You Liang Ji”, “Nan Zhu Ji”, “Bei Yuan Cao”, “Yong Guan Ji”, “Xi Shu Ji”, “Leng Ling Ji”, “Zhao Gui Ji”, “Qu Yuan Ji”, “Du Xia Zeng Yan”, etc., with one appendix category in 4 volumes. The poem quoted in this article is from Vol. 1 of “Qu Yuan Ji”.
Why is this poem by Ou Daren, a talented scholar of the Ming Dynasty from southern China, worthy of our attention? Let’s read the title of the poem again: “At Xian Hua Temple Meeting Lord Monk Sir Jian”. The wording “Xianhua Temple”(4) will, I think, make anyone surprised who is familiar with the history of China and the western cultural exchange of the sixteenth century. Indeed, Xianhua Temple, mentioned in this poem, is not an ordinary Buddhist temple in southern China during the Ming Dynasty, as it was the earliest Roman Catholic Church built in the Chinese mainland by the Jesuits who entered China at the end of the Ming Dynasty. The “Buddhist monk Master Jian”, mentioned in the poem, is none other than Michele Ruggieri, a Jesuit who led Matteo Ricci to propagate the Catholic faith and open churches in Zhaoqing after hardworking and painstaking efforts.
During the 8th year of the reign of Emperor Wan Li of the Ming Dynasty (1580), when Matteo Ricci was just ordained to the priesthood in Cochin, India, there were already Jesuit pioneers who came to China to knock on its door. On his way to Japan for evangelization from Goa, India, Alessandro Valignano, the Apostle of the East, resided in Macau for a time, following the strategy of St. Francis Xavier that: to convert Japan, you must first convert China. Several times, he attempted to open the door of the Chinese empire, but eventually he failed and had to leave with regret. It is said that he once stood against the window of the Jesuit College in Macau, looking far into the Chinese land and couldn’t help breathing a heavy sigh of disappointment, thus leaving a famous remark in the history of the Roman Catholic Church: When will this rock be open for the Lord? In his capacity as Visitor of Missions of the Society of Jesus in the Far East, he issued an order that all subsequent comers must learn the Chinese language before being allowed to enter the Chinese empire for evangelization. Just as Valignano was leaving for Japan with a heavy heart, Michele Ruggieri, his Italian compatriot, received an order to come to Macau in July 1579. With the instruction of Valignano in his hands, Ruggieri was nevertheless still determined to fulfil his vow and obey his superior—he had promised when entering the Society of Jesus to start to learn the abstruse Chinese language and characters with resolute determination and perseverance although, at heart, he felt terribly horrified, thus opening a new page for the church in China...
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1. Stephen Owen (USA), translated by Tian Xiaofei, Borrowed Stone: Optional Anthology of Stephen Owen, Nanjing, Jiangsu People’s Press, 2003, pp. 252-269.
2. Ou Daren (Ming Dynasty), Vol. I of “Qu Yuan Ji” of “Ou Yubu Ji (Collected Works of Ou Yubu)”, p. 3, Si Ku Jin Hui Shu Cong Kan (A Series of Prohibited and Destroyed Books in Four Categories), Ji or volume collection, Vol. 48.
3. Compiled by Chou Juchuan, checked and annotated by Chen Xianyou, Yang Cheng Gu Chao (ancient banknote of Guangzhou), Guangzhou, Guangdong People’s Press, 1993, p. 496.
4. Literally "Immortals' flowers temple". [Editor's note].
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Zhang Xianqing graduated in 2003 from the Xiamen University where he obtained his PhD. Assistant Professor, he teaches Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology in the College of Human Sciences of the same university. His main research interests are History of Chinese Christianity and present condition, Han Chinese communities in Southern China, etc. Among his recent publications are “Officials, clans and Catholicism: historical account of the Fu’an village church in the XVII-XIX centuries” (monograph, Zhonghua Shuju, 2009), “Compendium of Christian Materials in Chinese Local Annals” (monograph, Oriental Publishing Centre, 2009). He is presently making a research survey on the ethnic annals of Catholic hamlets in Southern China. |
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| Issue 7.2 |
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Priceless Friendship
—Matteo Ricci’s Legacy
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