A Tribute To Matteo Ricci


Above is a picture I took of a statue of Ricci in Macau right by the world famous, Ruins of St. Paul's

Why I Chose To Do My Tribute For Him

Matteo Ricci is one of my personal heroes. Having been born over 400 years ago, his influence is still huge, and his linguistic and cultural achievements astound people even today. His life story inspires me for many reasons, among others, for learning languages, especially Mandarin Chinese, and for being a cultural bridge between the East and West. As the first ever Westerner allowed, as an advisor, into the Forbidden City, he paved the trail for later great Sinologists to follow. The idea of going into a foreign culture, completely cut off from any language even remotely resembling one's own, with no dictionary or local person who could speak your language, for some may seem to be a totally daunting or even impossible task. Yet, Ricci became a scholar of the Chinese language and culture, and to top it off, was able to mesmerize Chinese scholars with his own abilities and knowledge of their culture and language.

Highlights of His Life

  • First Westerner to be invited into the Forbidden City, as an advisor to the Ming Court.
  • Was able to recite Chinese Classics, in Classical Chinese, both forwards and backwards.
  • Along with his companion, Ruggieri, compiled the first ever dictionary between Chinese and a European language, specifically between Chinese and Portuguese.
  • Established the first Catholic Church in Beijing called Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
  • Created, along with Chinese collaborators, the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu (Chinese: 坤輿萬國全圖) "Complete Geographical Map of all the Kingdoms of the World", which is the is the earliest known Chinese world map with the style of European maps. He created this under the patronage of the Imperial Court.
  • A world class translator who translated Euclid's "Geometry" into Chinese, and is well known for several other famous translations as well
  • Well known for mnemonic techniques he used for learning Chinese, such as memory palaces, which people use today for memorizing Chinese Characters and vocabulary.
  • One of the earliest Catholic Missionaries in China. As opposed to being arrogant or Western-centric, he argued for many similarities between Confucianism and Christianity. As a missionary, he argued that Chinese worshiped the same god as Christians did, and that Christianity was simply the completion their faith.

Quick Bio

Matteo Ricci, Chinese name 利瑪竇 (romanized Chinese lì mǎ dòu) was born on 6 October 1552 in the Italian region of Marche. He died 11 May 1610 in Bejing, China and was the first Westerner to be buried in Beijing. Westerners were normally not allowed to be buried there, but Diego de Pantoja, a fellow Jesuit, appealed to the Ming Court for permission for Ricci to be buried there in light of Ricci's contributions to China. Soon after, the appeal was granted. Ricci entered the Society of Jesus (a.k.a. the Jesuits) in April 1571.
He applied to be a missionary, and later sailed for Goa, from Lisbon, Portugual in March 1578, and arrived in September 1578. He worked as a teacher and in the ministry in Goa until 1582, when he was sent to Macau. A true Renaissance man, he was both a polymath and polyglot. He studied, and was an expert in, many subjects including: mathematics, astronomy, cosmology, philosophy, cartography, and theology. In addition to his own native Italian, he was a master of Mandarin Chinese and Classical Chinese, Latin, and Portuguese.

Life in China

Ricci arrived in Macau on August 1582. Macau at the time was a Portuguese colony, like Goa. Foreigners, in general, were quite restricted from going across the border from Macau into Ming China. In 1583, Ricci along with his companion Ruggieri, were invited to stay in Zhaoqing, by the governor. Ricci lived throughout Eastern China over the years. In 1601, Ricci was invited to become an adviser to the imperial court of the Wanli Emperor, the first Westerner to be invited into the Forbidden City. This honour was in recognition of Ricci's scientific abilities, chiefly his predictions of solar eclipses, which were significant events in the Chinese world. Ricci was given free access to the Forbidden City and the emperor gave him patronage in support of completing the Zhifang waiji, China's first global atlas.

Ricci's famous Kunyu Wanguo Quantu ("Map of the Myriad Countries of the World")


Original image here

Sources For This Tribute

Tribute by Justin Barry ☺