A Jesuit in the Forbidden City

A Jesuit in the Forbidden City PDF Author: R. Po-chia Hsia
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191625116
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Get Book Here

Book Description
A 16th century Italian Jesuit, Matteo Ricci was the founder of the Catholic Mission in China and one of the most famous missionaries of all time. A pioneer in bringing Christianity to China, Ricci spent twenty eight years in the country, in which time he crossed the cultural divides between China and the West by immersing himself in the language and culture of his hosts. Even 400 years later, he is still one of the best known westerners in China, celebrated for introducing western scientific and religious ideas to China and for explaining Chinese culture to Europe. The first critical biography of Ricci to use all relevant sources, both Chinese and Western, A Jesuit in the Forbidden City tells the story of a remarkable life that bridged Counter-Reformation Catholic Europe and China under the Ming dynasty. Hsia follows the life of Ricci from his childhood in Macerata, through his education in Rome, to his sojourn in Portuguese India, before the start of his long journey of self-discovery and cultural encounter in the Ming realm. Along the way, we glimpse the workings of the Portuguese maritime empire in Asia, the mission of the Society of Jesus, and life in the European enclave of Macau on the Chinese coast, as well as invaluable sketches of Ricci's fellow Jesuits and portraits of the Chinese mandarins who formed networks indispensible for Ricci's success. Examining a range of new sources, Hsia offers important new insights into Ricci's long period of trial and frustration in Guangdong province, where he first appeared in the persona of a foreign Buddhist monk, before the crucial move to Nanchang in 1595 that led to his sustained intellectual conversation with a leading Confucian scholar and subsequent synthesis of Christianity and Confucianism in propagating the Gospels in China. With his expertise in cartography, mathematics, and astronomy, Ricci quickly won recognition, especially after he had settled in Nanjing in 1598, the southern capital of the Ming dynasty. As his reputation and friendships grew, Ricci launched into a sharp polemic against Buddhism, while his career found its crowning achievement in the imperial capital of Beijing, leaving behind a life, work, and legacy that is still very much alive today.

A Jesuit in the Forbidden City

A Jesuit in the Forbidden City PDF Author: R. Po-chia Hsia
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191625116
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Get Book Here

Book Description
A 16th century Italian Jesuit, Matteo Ricci was the founder of the Catholic Mission in China and one of the most famous missionaries of all time. A pioneer in bringing Christianity to China, Ricci spent twenty eight years in the country, in which time he crossed the cultural divides between China and the West by immersing himself in the language and culture of his hosts. Even 400 years later, he is still one of the best known westerners in China, celebrated for introducing western scientific and religious ideas to China and for explaining Chinese culture to Europe. The first critical biography of Ricci to use all relevant sources, both Chinese and Western, A Jesuit in the Forbidden City tells the story of a remarkable life that bridged Counter-Reformation Catholic Europe and China under the Ming dynasty. Hsia follows the life of Ricci from his childhood in Macerata, through his education in Rome, to his sojourn in Portuguese India, before the start of his long journey of self-discovery and cultural encounter in the Ming realm. Along the way, we glimpse the workings of the Portuguese maritime empire in Asia, the mission of the Society of Jesus, and life in the European enclave of Macau on the Chinese coast, as well as invaluable sketches of Ricci's fellow Jesuits and portraits of the Chinese mandarins who formed networks indispensible for Ricci's success. Examining a range of new sources, Hsia offers important new insights into Ricci's long period of trial and frustration in Guangdong province, where he first appeared in the persona of a foreign Buddhist monk, before the crucial move to Nanchang in 1595 that led to his sustained intellectual conversation with a leading Confucian scholar and subsequent synthesis of Christianity and Confucianism in propagating the Gospels in China. With his expertise in cartography, mathematics, and astronomy, Ricci quickly won recognition, especially after he had settled in Nanjing in 1598, the southern capital of the Ming dynasty. As his reputation and friendships grew, Ricci launched into a sharp polemic against Buddhism, while his career found its crowning achievement in the imperial capital of Beijing, leaving behind a life, work, and legacy that is still very much alive today.

Matteo Ricci

Matteo Ricci PDF Author: Michela Fontana
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 1442205881
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Get Book Here

Book Description
Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), the first of the early Jesuit missionaries of the China mission, is widely considered the most outstanding cultural mediator of all time between China and the West. This engrossing and fluid book offers a thorough, knowledgeable biography of this fascinating and influential man, telling a deeply human and captivating story that still resonates today. Michela Fontana traces Ricci's travels in China in detail, providing a rich portrait of Ming China and the growing importance of cultural exchanges between China and the West. She shows how Ricci incorporated his ideas of "cultural accommodation" into both his life and his writings aimed at the Chinese elite. Her biography is the first to highlight Ricci's immensely important scientific work and that of key Christian converts, such as Xu Guangqi, who translated Euclid's Elements together with Ricci. Exploring the history of science in China and the West as well as their dramatically different cultural attitudes toward religious and philosophical issues, Michela Fontana introduces not only Ricci's life but the first significant encounter between Western and Chinese civilizations.

The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci

The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci PDF Author: Jonathan D. Spence
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0140080988
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Get Book Here

Book Description
From the renowned historian and author of The Death of Woman Wang, a vivid and gripping account of the 16th-century missionary’s remarkable sojourn to Ming China In 1577, the Jesuit Priest Matteo Ricci set out from Italy to bring Christian faith and Western thought to Ming dynasty China. To capture the complex emotional and religious drama of Ricci's extraordinary life, Jonathan Spence relates his subject's experiences with several images that Ricci himself created—four images derived from the events in the Bible and others from a book on the art of memory that Ricci wrote in Chinese and circulated among members of the Ming dynasty elite. A rich and compelling narrative about a fascinating life, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci is also a significant work of global history, juxtaposing the world of Counter-Reformation Europe with that of Ming China.

Mission to China

Mission to China PDF Author: Mary Laven
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780571225187
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 279

Get Book Here

Book Description
An epic history of the clashes of cultures between Jesuit missionaries in China.

The Wise Man from the West

The Wise Man from the West PDF Author: Vincent Cronin
Publisher: Ignatius Press
ISBN: 1621640043
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is the amazing story of the famous Jesuit missionary priest to China, Fr. Matteo Ricci, revered as a "Wise Man" by the Chinese. He arrived in China in 1582 and died there twenty-eight years later, having developing a deep knowledge of and love for the country, the culture and the people. Before Ricci's heroic mission, China was an unexplored land bordering on the vague, mysterious Cathay, and the West was no more than a rumor to the learned Mandarins, a distant unknown region lying beyond the bounds of geography. In the person of Father Ricci these two worlds met, and Vincent Cronin dramatically recreates the romance, the crossed purposes, the potential tragedy of that meeting. He shows us ancient China, the timeless state, with a civilization older than that wherein Christianity first found expression. Because Ricci loved this civilization and honored it, he was able to teach his strange new Christian doctrine with tact and sympathy. He carried much of the technological and philosophical wisdom of the late Renaissance Europe, and thus found favor among the Mandarins, the men of learning who enjoyed high status at the Imperial Court. He learned Chinese to discuss with them the problems in science and technology, and also questions of religion and the hereafter. He lived as a great scholar among great scholars and left behind him a memory worthy of the Christian faith he served. Well researched and written with an enchanting style, Cronin relied almost entirely on contemporary material only recently assembled, including Father Ricci's own letters and reports, and his account of China written in Peking before his death. The seed of Faith was sown and the crop, even after a century of atheistic communism, continues to grow in present-day China.

On Friendship

On Friendship PDF Author: Matteo Ricci
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 023152028X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 188

Get Book Here

Book Description
"On Friendship, with its total of one hundred sayings, is the perfect gift for friends." Feng Yingjing, renowned scholar and civic official, 1601 Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) is best known as the Italian Jesuit missionary who brought Christianity to China. He also published a landmark text on friendship the first book to be written in Chinese by a European that instantly became a late Ming best seller. On Friendship distilled the best ideas on friendship from Renaissance Latin texts into one hundred pure and provocative Chinese maxims. Written in a masterful classical style, Ricci's sayings established his reputation as a great sage and the sentiments still ring true. Available for the first time in English, On Friendship matches a carefully edited Chinese text with a facing-page English translation and includes notes on sources and biographical, historical, and cultural information. Still admired in China for its sophistication and inspirational wisdom, On Friendship is a delightful cross-cultural work by a crucial and fascinating historical figure. It is also an excellent tool for learning Chinese, pairing a superb model of the classical language with an accessible and accurate translation.

Following the Steps of Matteo Ricci to China

Following the Steps of Matteo Ricci to China PDF Author: Xiping Zhang
Publisher: 五洲传播出版社
ISBN: 9787508509822
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 180

Get Book Here

Book Description


Matteo Ricci and the Catholic Mission to China, 1583-1610

Matteo Ricci and the Catholic Mission to China, 1583-1610 PDF Author: R. Po-chia Hsia
Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company
ISBN: 9781624664335
Category : Missionaries
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Portuguese Asia -- Catholic renewal -- Ming China -- Matteo Ricci -- Ricci in our time.

The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven, T'ien-chu Shih-i

The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven, T'ien-chu Shih-i PDF Author: Matteo Ricci
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description


Matteo Ricci and the Catholic Mission to China, 1583–1610

Matteo Ricci and the Catholic Mission to China, 1583–1610 PDF Author: Ronnie Po-Chia Hsia
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
ISBN: 1624664342
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 166

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Here at last is the text that many college teachers of Chinese, Asian, and world history have been waiting for: an accessible collection of primary sources on the life of the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci and the Catholic mission that he helped establish in China. Ricci's missionary career indeed constituted a key moment in modern history, for it was through his examples and recommendations that the Jesuits in China collectively adopted an accommodative approach to Chinese culture and embarked on various projects of cultural translation that resulted in the first wave of sustained interactions between Chinese and European civilizations. Instructors and students alike will benefit greatly from Hsia's lucid introduction, which sets Ricci's life story against the broader background of Portuguese Asia, Catholic renewal, and late Ming China; the pithy, informative introductory statements preceding each document; a chronological chart of major relevant events; and an excellent annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources in multiple languages. This is a very affordable text produced at the highest academic standards." —Qiong Zhang, Associate Professor of History, Wake Forest University