Paul Rule 鲁保禄

Tomás Pereira and the Jesuits of the Court of Kangxi

Tomás Pereira (1645-1708) was one of the Patres Pekinenses, Jesuits who lived in Beijing and worked in various capacities for the Emperor and his Court. Very few were mandarins in the strict sense but rather members of the Inner Court or household of the Emperor, performing whatever tasks the Emperor required of them. Some of them became more intimate with the Emperor as tutors and musicians and a very few, of whom Pereira was an outstanding example, became personally close to him. Some reasons are suggested why this was possible in general and for Pereira in particular.

António SALDANHA 萨安东

The Last Imperial Honors. Fr. Tomás Pereira, Nantang and the Eulogium of the Europeorum Doctorum in 1711

Honours, especially imperial honours, individual or collective, have a well known and distinctive role in Chinese culture. The Jesuit Padres da Corte – as individuals or collectively – were (possibly more than any other foreign individuals or group during the Shunzi and the Kangxi Emperors reigns), the beneficiaries of those distinctions. Exceptional and sophisticated imperial honours were granted to Schall, Verbiest and Pereira as individuals. Formal collective honours – assumed by the Jesuits as directed not to them but ad majorem Dei gloriam by a pagan monarch – are less common. In 1711, as he had done in 1675, the Kangxi Emperor decided to give the “Portuguese Church” (vulgo 南堂 Nantang) three calligraphic compositions of religious inspiration. The exceptional grant was supposed to commemorate the inauguration of the new church of the Portuguese Mission, a posthumous accomplishment of Tomás Pereira; under the Emperor’s patronage, he had conceived and directed the works of rebuilding the temple since the last decade of the seventeenth century until his death in 1708. Conceived, produced, carried on, displayed, the gift was installed with an elaborated ritual in the southern church during a period of trouble for the Christian mission, the consequence of Maillard de Tournon’s apostolic legation. This unusual and “collective honour” still waits for the full attention of the historiography of the Christian mission. In parallel, the participation of the highest officials of the Board of Mathematics headed by the 钦天监监正 Qintianjian Jianzheng, the First President 明图 Ming Tu in the cortège and ceremony of inauguration of the new church, was exceptional; the public display by them of an eulogium of the Europeorum Doctorum – eventually conceived and no doubt endorsed by the Emperor – deserves also our attention as another peculiar “collective honour”. Actually, the text of the eulogium can reveal itself as a significant Chinese conception and formulation of the European contribution to the “sciences” in China; it can also be interpreted as an honourable consecration, authorized by the Kangxi Emperor, of a chosen number of Jesuits: since Matteo Ricci, Tomás Pereira included, they where associated with that kind of services to the Emperors of China. The eventual criteria of that selection, the concept of “scientific contribution” and the exceptional circumstances that, by initiative of the Emperor, surrounded the inauguration of the Portuguese Church are the subject of this paper.

Thierry MEYNARD, S.J. 梅谦立

The Conditional Service of Missionaries to the Court and the Opposition from Han Literati

In 1691, some Han officials were growing worried about the spread of Catholicism. They were especially worried that the Manchus may adopt this foreign religion and change national culture. On the other hand, the Jesuit missionaries had already served the Court for ninety years. Though they enjoyed at that point the personal support of the Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722), yet their missionary activities never received legal protection. A general persecution was stirred up in Zhejiang. This gave a long-expected opportunity for the two camps to confront. While Han officials at the local and central levels were pushing for the strict enforcement of previous religious restrictions and even establishing a general proscription, the Jesuits were putting more pressure on Kangxi for legalizing Catholicism. This paper analyzes the strategies of the two camps and how Kangxi was finally obliged to take a stance.

Henrique LEITÃO 雷恩礼

Portuguese Jesuits and the Scientific Apostolate during Tomás Pereira’s Time

Although the topic of the scientific activities of the Jesuit missionaries in China has received great attention in the past decades, the specific contribution of the Portuguese missionaries has generally been neglected. This is to be regretted not only because the Portuguese were numerically the larger group of missionaries living in China, but most of all because the need to send trained missionaries to China placed unexpected tensions in the educational system of the Portuguese Province. Recent studies have emphasized the long-range nature of the Jesuit network of colleges and learning institutions and have clarified some of the aspects of the transmission and accumulation of knowledge within that network. Furthermore, political circumstances also played a significant part in the shaping of scientific activities in the Portuguese province, an aspect that would have important consequences in the China mission. In this presentation I will address these topics, focusing specifically in the period of Tomás Pereira’s (1645-1708) life and on the career of Pereira himself.

Antonella ROMANO

Defending European Astronomy in China... Against Europe: Tomás Pereira and the Tribunal of Mathematics in 1688

My aim here is to insert the reading of an unpublished document from the Portuguese archives, written by Pereira and Thomas in 1688, within a broader context the starting point of which can be found in an internal dispute among the brothers of the Chinese province in the 1640s and its conclusion – as far as this can be said – in the Chinese rites controversy. At the core of the document, the need to defend Jesuit’s presence at the Court of Mathematics, opens interesting new perspectives on the scientific dimension of the mission and its evaluation among both the Society of Jesus and the European learned élites.

Vladimir Stepanovich MYASNIKOV 米亚斯尼科夫

Tomás Pereira at the Nerchinsk Conference

The Diary of Tomas Pereira (1645-1708), which he wrote being a member of the Qing delegation at the Sino-Russian negotiations at Nerchinsk, is a very important historical document. It was translated from English to Russian and published as a part of the volume two Russian-Chinese Relations in the XVII century in 1972. This publication allowed us to compare the characteristic features of the Russian and Chinese diplomatic schools.

Gerlinde GILD 戈林德.吉而特

Mission by Music. The Challenge of Translating European Music into Chinese in the Lülü Zuanyao

Much has been written about the eminent role of music and rites in the Chinese world order. From the beginning of the Chinese civilization music and power were symbiotically associated. Correct sounds were believed to be attuned to the sound of the atmosphere. Incorrect sounds would disturb the whole system. Ritual music represented the legitimation to rule and its correct sounds legitimated power and kept it upright. Therefore, wise emperors paid keen attention to ritual music, which was reserved for the Court. The locus classicus is found in the Lüshi Chunqiu, chapter guyue.

The Jesuits, who came to China, soon recognized the eminent role of music in the Chinese world order. From the beginning, Matteo Ricci used music as language and medium in the conversation with Chinese rulers.

Recommended by Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688), Tomás Pereira (1645-1708) was ordered from Macau to the Palace in Beijing by Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722). Already impressed by Pereira’s successful negotiating in Nerchinsk, he also wanted him to teach music to the princes in order to ensure their comprehensive knowledge (boxue) in all aspects concerning music. However, Kangxi’s intention to revise the Chinese musical system was not without political motives. In order to teach musical theory, Pereira wrote the Lülü Zuanyao, the first tractatus on European music in Chinese language.

In my paper I intend to give a brief introduction into this book, which is not only an example of Pereira’s excellent knowledge of Chinese and European music, but also reflects his competence in this extraordinary transcultural process.

古偉瀛 Ku Weiying

Fr. Tomás Pereira, S. J., Emperor Kangxi and the Court Westerners

Fr. Tomás Pereira, S. J. (1645-1708) was one of the most trusted Inner Court Westerners of Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722) and probably also the most important Portuguese Jesuit in China. He and other Court Westerners enjoyed Emperor Kangxi’s favours and trust. It was during Pereira’s Beijing years that the Chinese Emperor Kangxi issued the famous “Edict of Tolerance”, allowing Chinese to convert to and practice the Catholic religion. This edict of 1692 was the culmination of Emperor Kangxi’s trust and friendship with the Jesuits Court Westerners; but later on it was undermined by the Rite’s Controversy in the early eighteenth century. This essay’s purpose is to trace the causes of the edict, the events before and after the issuing of the edict, and the role played by Tomás Pereira and other Court Westerners. Despite the fact that the “Edict of Tolerance” had been the result of the accumulated efforts of the Court Jesuits since Adam Schall (1591-1666), it is argued that it was indeed Tomás Pereira and his companions who made the last push for the issuance of the Edict.

Eugenio MENEGON 梅欧金

Ubi Dux, Ibi Curia: Kangxi’s Imperial Hunts and the Jesuits as Courtiers

This paper will compare the accounts by Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688), Francis Gerbillon (1654-1707), and Tomás Pereira (1645-1708) written in 1682-1685 during Kangxi’s (1654-1722) hunting trips in "Tartary", and analyze their descriptions within the context of "imperial touring" and Manchu aristocratic hunting, as well as within the imperial desire for "portable science & art" to be displayed to the court during the summer retreats. Kangxi took along Verbiest, Gerbillon and Pereira on his hunts in the 1680s because he wanted them to do "science" and "music" for him while on vacation beyond the wall, and display their knowledge, and his understanding of it, to his courtiers. Verbiest, Gerbillon and Pereira, on their part, took this as a form of special imperial patronage and favor, to be used to gain prestige for themselves and the mission in front of the aristocrats participating in the hunts. The paper will explore what these dynamics tell us about Manchu Court culture, and the participation of non-Han people (in this case, European courtiers) in that culture and networking.

余三乐 YU Sanle

The Vicissitudes of the Portuguese Seminary in Beijing and the Misfortune of the Tombstone of Tomás Pereira

Tomás Pereira was buried in the Portuguese seminary in the western suburb of Beijing after he had died in the capital three hundred years ago in 1708. The seminary, originally granted to Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) as his final resting place by the Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was later approved by the Shunzhi Emperor to accommodate the tomb of Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1591-1666) as well at its west side. The position of the tomb of Tomas Pereira was close to that of Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1689). In the past three hundred years, the seminary, where many of the Western missionaries took their final rest, has witnessed a plethora of vicissitudes such as the “Gengzi event” or Boxers’ Rebellion in 1900, the relocation and conservation attempts in 1954, the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, and the reconstruction in 1978. In 1984, the seminary became a historic site under the protection of the Beijing Municipal Government, and it was elevated in 2006 to a key historic site under the protection of the national government. But unfortunately, Pereira’s tombstone went missing. In 2005, Song Jian, ex-Minister of the National Science and Technology Commission, asked in person for the whereabouts of Pereira’s tombstone. The re-inscription and restoration of Father Pereira’s tombstone are now under deliberation and planning.