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Journey to the East: The Jesuit Mission to China, 1579-1724
It was one of the great encounters of world highly educated European priests confronting Chinese culture for the first time in the modern era. This “journey to the East” is explored by Liam Brockey as he retraces the path of the Jesuit missionaries who sailed from Portugal to China, believing that, with little more than firm conviction and divine assistance, they could convert the Chinese to Christianity. Moving beyond the image of Jesuits as cultural emissaries, his book shows how these priests, in the first concerted European effort to engage with Chinese language and thought, translated Roman Catholicism into the Chinese cultural frame and eventually claimed two hundred thousand converts. The first narrative history of the Jesuits’ mission from 1579 until the proscription of Christianity in China in 1724, this study is also the first to use extensive documentation of the enterprise found in Lisbon and Rome. The peril of travel in the premodern world, the danger of entering a foreign land alone and unarmed, and the challenge of understanding a radically different culture result in episodes of high drama set against such backdrops as the imperial court of Peking, the villages of Shanxi Province, and the bustling cities of the Yangzi Delta region. Further scenes show how the Jesuits claimed conversions and molded their Christian communities into outposts of Baroque Catholicism in the vastness of China. In the retelling, this story reaches across continents and centuries to reveal the deep political, cultural, scientific, linguistic, and religious complexities of a true early engagement between East and West.
512 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2007
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June 18, 2021
I went to high school in a small town in Ontario, Canada called Midland. Every day on the school bus, I passed Sainte Marie among the Hurons and the Martyr’s Shrine, two monuments to the 17th Century Jesuit mission to the Huron Indians. At the time, I wasn’t very curious about them but in university I undertook to study them and read some of the Jesuit Relations, the letters the Jesuits sent back to France to garner support for their mission, various secondary studies, and I wrote a couple of undergraduate papers about those events in Canadian history. Journey to the East showcases another part of the worldwide Jesuit mission, the Jesuit mission to China from 1579 to 1724.
This is a story that has been told before and there are many ways to tell it. You could emphasize the suffering of the missionaries and the glory of their mission, which was the normal way it was usually told in the past by Catholic historians. You can emphasize the elite cultural and scientific exchange that took place in Peking. You can write it as an exercise in mutual cultural misunderstanding. You could write it as an episode of interesting cultural exchange. The author has done the second two, with a lot of emphasis on bureaucratic infighting within the Catholic Church, the education required of the Jesuits, and the lives of the priests and their congregations.
The Jesuit mission was founded through Portugal, and there are three names to remember: Francis Xavier, Michel Ruggieri, and Matteo Ricci. To begin with, foreigners were not permitted to enter Ming China, except for the trading station at Canton. Francis Xavier, the famous Jesuit who opened Japan to Christianity, was the first Jesuit to try to enter China, in 1552. He was brought to Shangchuan Island in the Pearl River delta by Portuguese merchants and was abandoned there where he died of hunger and disease. Michel Ruggieri succeeded where Francis Xavier failed. He learned Chinese, dressed like a Buddhist monk and was allowed to stay in Canton by the local Chinese officials from 1580-82 when he impressed them by speaking their language. Matteo Ricci was the person who was given imperial permission to enter Peking and for the Jesuits to be in China in 1601. He interested the Mandarins in European civilization, including Euclid’s geometry, astronomy, lenses, paintings and other writings. He was the person who started dressing as a Chinese bureaucrat and learned about Confucian culture to make himself more attractive to the local elite. Other Jesuits in the provinces concentrated upon converting regular people, though it is to be noted that, during the entire time, there were never fewer than fifteen and at the most thirty-five Jesuits in all of China. For the rest of it, there are probably five main points to sum up the book.
First, for the entire time of the Jesuits being in China, they had a mission in Peking and were generally a part of the Chinese bureaucracy. They were astronomers, calendar and map makers, using the superior European techniques to be of service to the emperor. This service was crucial to the ability of missionaries to be in China, but was also its Achilles Heel in the end.
Second, the Jesuits witnessed the break-down of the Ming Dynasty and its replacement by the Qing. This was a slow-motion conquest that proceeded from North to South and was accompanied by all the normal terrors of war: riots, rebellions, crimes, starvation and disease. Surprisingly, the Jesuits and their converts came through this process all right. Both the Ming and Qing were too weak to suppress them and more missionaries came and they gained more converts.
Third, there was the Calendar Case of 1664. Muslim scholars charged that the Jesuits in the capital, in charge of the official calendar, were calculating dates incorrectly. Specifically, the Jesuits were charged with incorrectly calculating an “auspicious” day for the burial of an infant from the Imperial family. All the Jesuits were summoned from all over China to hear the charge. The Jesuits were found guilty and the verdicts were very serious, death for some, expulsion for all the others. In the end, four Chinese assistants were beheaded and the Jesuits were forced to remain in their homes. This issue was resolved in 1668. A new Jesuit chief astronomer, made a new calendar that was shown to be more accurate than that of the Muslim astronomers and the Jesuit was put back in place of director of the Astronomical Bureau.
Fourth, there were intra-Jesuit doctrinal disputes about which Chinese words signified Christian words and if these were adequate translations. In addition, other Catholic priests came, especially from France as France became preeminent in Europe. There were many disputes among all these groups over issues of doctrine, precedence, and just plan human jealousy.
Fifth and finally, the mission ended because the Papacy ordered that observation of Confucian rites were incompatible with Catholic doctrine. This was a very contentious debate that took place over a period of more than one hundred years. The Jesuits contended that the observation of Chinese Confucian rituals for honouring ancestors were merely secular, while other Catholic missionaries argued they were religious. The matter came to a head in 1708, when the Pope sent a legate to China to enforce the prohibition. The Emperor of China then told all Catholic priests in China that they would have to sign a statement that they supported the idea that the Confucian rites were compatible with Christianity. While most of the Jesuits signed the statements, thus defying Papal authority, most of the other Catholic priests left China. The Emperor also actually sent a letter to the Pope in Rome insisting that the rites to propitiate the ancestors were not religious, merely civil. In the end, the Pope was more interested in spiritual conformity and Papal authority than the mission in China. In 1724, a new emperor ejected all the Jesuits from China, with a few exceptions who managed to stay hidden in the provinces. The Jesuits left behind them a Christian community of about 200,000 people.
There were usually only two or three Jesuits at the capital, and the book consciously emphasized the activities of the majority of Jesuits and their congregations in the provinces, but I would have liked to know more about the Jesuits in Peking. I understand why they were such good calendar makers. They were using the recently-developed Gregorian calendar, which we still use today. I am not sure why they were such good astronomers. The Catholic Church did not accept the heliocentric universe as put forward by Copernicus and Galileo, and so I am wondering if the pre-Copernican European astronomy that the Jesuits were using was actually better than Asian astronomy at the time.
Outside the scope of the book, but related to it, it is interesting to note how Europeans and Chinese behaved when Europeans were or were not in control of the situation in China. The Chinese were strong enough to expel the Jesuits in 1724. The Emperor saw very well the danger than large numbers of Christians would pose to his authority. A little more than one hundred years later, other Europeans would come back with gunboats that were too strong to ignore and they did in fact disrupt the Emperor’s authority. And they brought missionaries with them then that would not be expelled. Until now. Now the authorities in China are again preeminent and they do not allow missionaries to come to China who they are not in control of. Also, the government of China will not allow the Catholic Church to appoint its own clergy without the approval of the government of China. The church authorities are not allowed to overrule the secular authorities in 2021, and they weren’t in 1724, either.
I give this book four stars out of five. It is actually a meticulously well-researched work of a professional historian. There is a lot of detail and anyone would learn quite a bit of both the world of the Jesuits and China. I learned why elementary schools are also called grammar schools. But you really have to want to know exactly how Jesuit priests were educated and exactly how Chinese peasants were converted and how Christians were organized and what kind of bureaucratic infighting was going on with the Jesuit order and within the Catholic Church to read this book. Not quite as exciting as shooting rapids in a birch bark canoe or being in a Huron village as a thousand Iroquois warriors come tearing in through the palisade.
This is a story that has been told before and there are many ways to tell it. You could emphasize the suffering of the missionaries and the glory of their mission, which was the normal way it was usually told in the past by Catholic historians. You can emphasize the elite cultural and scientific exchange that took place in Peking. You can write it as an exercise in mutual cultural misunderstanding. You could write it as an episode of interesting cultural exchange. The author has done the second two, with a lot of emphasis on bureaucratic infighting within the Catholic Church, the education required of the Jesuits, and the lives of the priests and their congregations.
The Jesuit mission was founded through Portugal, and there are three names to remember: Francis Xavier, Michel Ruggieri, and Matteo Ricci. To begin with, foreigners were not permitted to enter Ming China, except for the trading station at Canton. Francis Xavier, the famous Jesuit who opened Japan to Christianity, was the first Jesuit to try to enter China, in 1552. He was brought to Shangchuan Island in the Pearl River delta by Portuguese merchants and was abandoned there where he died of hunger and disease. Michel Ruggieri succeeded where Francis Xavier failed. He learned Chinese, dressed like a Buddhist monk and was allowed to stay in Canton by the local Chinese officials from 1580-82 when he impressed them by speaking their language. Matteo Ricci was the person who was given imperial permission to enter Peking and for the Jesuits to be in China in 1601. He interested the Mandarins in European civilization, including Euclid’s geometry, astronomy, lenses, paintings and other writings. He was the person who started dressing as a Chinese bureaucrat and learned about Confucian culture to make himself more attractive to the local elite. Other Jesuits in the provinces concentrated upon converting regular people, though it is to be noted that, during the entire time, there were never fewer than fifteen and at the most thirty-five Jesuits in all of China. For the rest of it, there are probably five main points to sum up the book.
First, for the entire time of the Jesuits being in China, they had a mission in Peking and were generally a part of the Chinese bureaucracy. They were astronomers, calendar and map makers, using the superior European techniques to be of service to the emperor. This service was crucial to the ability of missionaries to be in China, but was also its Achilles Heel in the end.
Second, the Jesuits witnessed the break-down of the Ming Dynasty and its replacement by the Qing. This was a slow-motion conquest that proceeded from North to South and was accompanied by all the normal terrors of war: riots, rebellions, crimes, starvation and disease. Surprisingly, the Jesuits and their converts came through this process all right. Both the Ming and Qing were too weak to suppress them and more missionaries came and they gained more converts.
Third, there was the Calendar Case of 1664. Muslim scholars charged that the Jesuits in the capital, in charge of the official calendar, were calculating dates incorrectly. Specifically, the Jesuits were charged with incorrectly calculating an “auspicious” day for the burial of an infant from the Imperial family. All the Jesuits were summoned from all over China to hear the charge. The Jesuits were found guilty and the verdicts were very serious, death for some, expulsion for all the others. In the end, four Chinese assistants were beheaded and the Jesuits were forced to remain in their homes. This issue was resolved in 1668. A new Jesuit chief astronomer, made a new calendar that was shown to be more accurate than that of the Muslim astronomers and the Jesuit was put back in place of director of the Astronomical Bureau.
Fourth, there were intra-Jesuit doctrinal disputes about which Chinese words signified Christian words and if these were adequate translations. In addition, other Catholic priests came, especially from France as France became preeminent in Europe. There were many disputes among all these groups over issues of doctrine, precedence, and just plan human jealousy.
Fifth and finally, the mission ended because the Papacy ordered that observation of Confucian rites were incompatible with Catholic doctrine. This was a very contentious debate that took place over a period of more than one hundred years. The Jesuits contended that the observation of Chinese Confucian rituals for honouring ancestors were merely secular, while other Catholic missionaries argued they were religious. The matter came to a head in 1708, when the Pope sent a legate to China to enforce the prohibition. The Emperor of China then told all Catholic priests in China that they would have to sign a statement that they supported the idea that the Confucian rites were compatible with Christianity. While most of the Jesuits signed the statements, thus defying Papal authority, most of the other Catholic priests left China. The Emperor also actually sent a letter to the Pope in Rome insisting that the rites to propitiate the ancestors were not religious, merely civil. In the end, the Pope was more interested in spiritual conformity and Papal authority than the mission in China. In 1724, a new emperor ejected all the Jesuits from China, with a few exceptions who managed to stay hidden in the provinces. The Jesuits left behind them a Christian community of about 200,000 people.
There were usually only two or three Jesuits at the capital, and the book consciously emphasized the activities of the majority of Jesuits and their congregations in the provinces, but I would have liked to know more about the Jesuits in Peking. I understand why they were such good calendar makers. They were using the recently-developed Gregorian calendar, which we still use today. I am not sure why they were such good astronomers. The Catholic Church did not accept the heliocentric universe as put forward by Copernicus and Galileo, and so I am wondering if the pre-Copernican European astronomy that the Jesuits were using was actually better than Asian astronomy at the time.
Outside the scope of the book, but related to it, it is interesting to note how Europeans and Chinese behaved when Europeans were or were not in control of the situation in China. The Chinese were strong enough to expel the Jesuits in 1724. The Emperor saw very well the danger than large numbers of Christians would pose to his authority. A little more than one hundred years later, other Europeans would come back with gunboats that were too strong to ignore and they did in fact disrupt the Emperor’s authority. And they brought missionaries with them then that would not be expelled. Until now. Now the authorities in China are again preeminent and they do not allow missionaries to come to China who they are not in control of. Also, the government of China will not allow the Catholic Church to appoint its own clergy without the approval of the government of China. The church authorities are not allowed to overrule the secular authorities in 2021, and they weren’t in 1724, either.
I give this book four stars out of five. It is actually a meticulously well-researched work of a professional historian. There is a lot of detail and anyone would learn quite a bit of both the world of the Jesuits and China. I learned why elementary schools are also called grammar schools. But you really have to want to know exactly how Jesuit priests were educated and exactly how Chinese peasants were converted and how Christians were organized and what kind of bureaucratic infighting was going on with the Jesuit order and within the Catholic Church to read this book. Not quite as exciting as shooting rapids in a birch bark canoe or being in a Huron village as a thousand Iroquois warriors come tearing in through the palisade.
May 20, 2020
It is difficult for me to provide an opinion, as I am not a historian or an academic to critique the book. It is a long essay, maybe beneficial for scholars or historians, it covers less than two decades of history. I found the first part confusing as the narrative is not ordered chronologically. By the time I got to the second part, the author was drawing conclusions on why the Jesuits planned something or so, I found that I forgot the context, and I could not remember what did these figures do. In my opinion, the book needs to be broken to smaller volumes that cover shorter periods of time.
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