RICCI
37
RICCI
Shao-chow, to which was added in 1608 that of
Shang-hai. In each of these there were two or three
missionaries with "brothers", Chinese Christians
from Macao who had been received into the Society
of Jesus and who served the mission as catechists.
Although as yet the number of Christians was not
very great (2000 baptized in 1608), Father Ricci in
his "Memoirs" has said well that considering the
obstacles to the entrance of Christianity into China
the result was "a very great miracle of Divine Om-
nipotence". To preserve and increase the success
already obtained, it was necessary that the means
which had already proved efficacious should continue
to he employed; everywhere and alwaj's the mission-
aries, without neglecting the essential duties of the
Christian apostolate, had to adapt their methods to
the special conditions of the countrj', and avoid
unnecessary attacks on traditional customs and
habits. The application of this undeniably sound
policy was often difficult. In answer to the doubts
of his fellow-workers Father Ricci outlined rules,
which received the approval of Father Valignano;
these insured the unity and fruitful efficacy of the
apostolic work throughout the mission.
Question of the Divine Names and the Chinese Rites. — The most difficult problem in the evangelization of China had to do with the rites or ceremonies, in use from time immemorial, to do honour to ancestors or deceased relatives and the particular tokens of respect which the educated felt bound to pay to their master, Confucius. Ricci's solution of this problem caused a long and heated controversy in which the Holy See finally decided against him. The discussion also dealt with the use of the Chinese terms T'ieti (heaven) and Shang-ti (Sovereign Lord) to designate God; here also the custom established by Father Ricci had to be corrected. The following is a short his- tory of this famous controversy which was singularly compHcated and embittered by passion. With regard to the designations for God, Ricci always preferred, and employed from the first, the term T'ien chu (Lord of Heaven) for the God of Christians; as has been seen, he used it in the title of his catechism. But in studying the most ancient Chinese books he con- sidered it established that they said of T'ien (heaven) and Shang-ti (Sovereign Lord) what we say of the true God, that is, they described under these two names a sovereign lord of spirits and men who knows all that takes place in the world, the source of all power and all lawful authority, the supreme regu- lator and defender of the moral law, rewarding those who observe and punishing those who violate it. Hence he concluded that, in the most revered monu- ments of China, T'ien and Shang-ti designate nothing else than the true God whom he himself preached. Ricci maintained this opinion in several passages of his "T'ien-chu-she-i"; it will be readily understood of what assistance it was to destroy Chinese prej- udices against the Christian religion. It is true that, in drawing this conclusion, Ricci had to contradict the common interpretation of modern scholars who follow Chu-Hi in referring T'ien and Shang-ti to apply to the material heaven; but he showed that this material interpretation does not do justice to the texts and it is at least reasonable to see in them some- thing better. In fact he informs us that the educated Confucianists, who did not adore idols, were grateful to him for interpreting the words of their master with such goodwill. Indeed, Ricci's opinion has been adopted and confirmed by illustrious modern Sinol- ogists, amongst whom it suffices to mention James Legge ("The Notions of the Chinese concerning God and Spirits", 1852; "A Letter to Prof. Max Muller chiefly on the Translation of the Chinese terms Ti and Chang-ti", 1880).
Therefore it was not without serious grounds that the founder of the Chinese mission and his successors
believed themselves justified in employing the terms
T'ien and Shang-ti as well as T'ien-chu to designate
the true God. However, there were objections to
this practice even among the Jesuits, the earliest
arising shortly after the death of Father Ricci and
being formulated by the Japanese Jesuits. In the
ensuing discussion carried on in various writings for
and against, which did not circulate beyond the
circle of the missionaries only one of those working
in China declared himself against the use of the name
Shang-ti. This was Father Nicholas Longobardi,
Ricci's successor as superior general of the mission,
who, however, did not depart in anything from the
lines laid down by its founder. After allowing the
question to be discussed for some years, the superior
ordered the missionaries to abide simply by the cus-
tom of Father Ricci; later this custom together with
the rites was submitted to the judgment of the Holy
See. In 1704 and 1715 Clement XI, without pro-
nouncing as to the meaning of T'ien and Shang-ti in
the ancient Chinese books, forbade, as being open to
misconstruction, the use of these names to indicate
the true God, and permitted only the T'ien-chu.
Regarding the rites and ceremonies in honour of
ancestors and Confucius, Father Ricci was also of
the opinion that a broad toleration was permissible
without injury to the purity of the Christian rehgion.
Moreover, the question was of the utmost impor-
tance for the progress of the apostolate. To honour
their ancestors and deceased parents by traditional
prostrations and sacrifices was in the eyes of the
Chinese the gravest duty of filial piety, and one who
neglected it was treated by all his relatives as an
unworthy member of his family and nation. Similar
ceremonies in honour of Confucius were an indis-
pensable obligation for scholars, so that they could
not receive any literary degree nor claim any public
oflice without having fulfilled it. This law still re-
mains inviolable; Kiang-hi, the emperor who showed
most goodwill towards the Christians, always refused
to set it aside in their favour. In modern times the
Chinese Government showed no more favour to the
ministers of France, who, in the name of the treaties
guaranteeing the liberty of Catholicism in China,
claimed for the Christians who had passed the exam-
inations, the titles and advantages of the corre-
sponding degrees without the necessity of going
through the ceremonies; the Court of Peking in-
variably replied that this was a question of national
tradition on which it was impossible to compromise.
After having carefully studied what the Chinese
classical books said regarding these rites, and after
having observed for a long time the practice of them
and questioned numerous scholars of every rank
with whom he was associated during his eighteen
years of apostolate, Ricci was convinced that these
rites had no religious significance, either in their
institution or in their practice by the enlightened
classes. The Chinese, he said, recognized no divinity
in Confucius any more than in their deceased ances-
tors; they prayed to neither; they made no requests
nor expected any extraordinary intervention from
them. In fact they only did for them what they did
for the living to whom they wished to show great
respect. "The honour they pay to their parents con-
sists in serving them dead as they did living. They
do not for this reason think that the dead come to eat
their offerings [the flesh, fruit, etc.] or need them.
They declare that they act in this manner because
they know no other way of showing their love and
gratitude to their ancestors. . . . Likewise
what they do [especially the educated], they do to
thank Confucius for the excellent doctrine which he
left them in his books, and through which they ob-
tained their degi-ees and mandarinships. Thus in
all this there is nothing suggestive of idolatry, and
perhaps it may even be said that there is no super-
