Volume 32, Number 10 · June 13, 1985
A Jesuit Adventure
By Hugh Trevor-Roper
The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci
by Jonathan D. Spence
Viking (Elisabeth Sifton Books), 350 pp., $19.95
In 1583 two Italian Jesuits established themselves in Chao-ch'ing near Canton. They had come thither from Macao on the unexpected invitation of the governor of Canton and the viceroy of the province, who offered them land on which to build a church, a promise of protection, and freedom to travel. One of them was Michele Ruggieri, a Neapolitan from Salerno, who had already, but briefly, set foot in China. His companion was Matteo Ricci, a native of Macerata in the papal state, and the subject of Jonathan Spence's new book. Ruggieri would remain in China for seven years; then he would return to Europe in an abortive attempt to stimulate a papal embassy to the court of Peking. Ricci would stay for twenty-seven years, establishing Jesuit houses first at Chao-ch'ing (afterward moved to Shao-chou near Canton); then at Nan-ch'ang, the capital of Kiangsi province, at Nanking, the southern capital of China, and finally in Peking. It was the beginning of an astonishing adventure: the Jesuit penetration of the Chinese court, begun by them under the Ming dynasty and brought, through fierce controversy, to its climax under their successors, the Manchus.
Review, 5168 words
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