Matteo Ricci

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{| align=right| image:Ricci1.jpg (徐光啟) (right) in the Chinese edition of Euclid's Elements (幾何原本).] 1552 - May 11 1610) (; courtesy name:西泰 Xītài) was an Italy Jesuit priest.

Matteo Ricci was born in 1552 in Macerata, then part of the Papal States. Ricci started learning theology and law in a Rome Jesuits' school. In 1577, he filed an application to be a member of a Missionary to India, and his journey began in March 1578 from Lisbon, Portugal. He arrived in Goa, a Portuguese Colony, in September 1578, and four years later he was dispatched to China.

Ricci in China In 1582, Ricci started learning the Chinese language and customs in Macao, a Portuguese trading post in Southern China, and became a rare Western scholar who had mastered Chinese classical script. The next year saw Ricci move inland and, after a visit to Guangzhou, settle in Zhaoqing(肇慶) in Guangdong Province. Ricci moved there after receiving an invitation from the governor of Zhaoqing at the time, Wang P'an, who had heard of Ricci's skill as a mathematician/cartographer. Ricci stayed there from 1583-1589 before having to leave after a new viceroy decided to expel him. It was in Zhaoqing, in 1584, that Ricci composed the first ever map of the world in Chinese.

There is now a memorial plaque in Zhaoqing to commemorate his six-year stay there as well as a building set up as a 'Ricci Memorial Centre' although the building itself does not date back to the time of the priest as it was built as recently as the 1860s.

Further travels in China saw Ricci reach Nanjing and Nanchang in 1595, Tongzhou (a port for Beijing) in 1598 and then first reached Beijing on the 7th September 1598. However, because of a Japanese invasions of Korea (1592-1598) at the time, Ricci could not reach the Imperial Palace. After waiting for two months he left Beijing first for Nanjing and also stopped at Suzhou in Jiangsu Province.

In 1601 he returned to Beijing where he was not initially granted an audience with the Emperor of China but, after he presented the Emperor with a chiming clock, Ricci was finally allowed to present himself at the Imperial court of Wanli thus becoming the first Westerner to be invited into the Forbidden City. Although Ricci was given free access to the Forbidden City he never met the Wanli Emperor but was able to meet important officials and leading members of the Beijing cultural scene.

Ricci lived on in China until the end of his life. He died in Beijing on May 11th 1610.

Ricci's approach to Chinese culture Ricci could speak Chinese as well as read and write classical Chinese(wen yan),the literary language of scholars and officials. Added to this he was known for his appreciation of the indigenous culture of the Chinese. During his research he discovered that in contrast to the cultures of South Asia, that Chinese culture was strongly intertwined with Confucius values and therefore decided that Christianity had to be changed to fit Chinese culture in order to be attractive to the Chinese.

In his early life in China, he referred to himself as a Western Monk, a term relating to Buddhism. He later discovered that Confucian thought was dominant in the Ming dynasty in China. Ricci became the first to translate the Confucian classics into a western language, Latin; in fact "Confucius" was Ricci's own Latinisation. He came to call himself a "Western Confucian" (西儒). The credibility of Confucius helped make Christianity take root.

Ricci also met a Korean people emissary to China, Yi Su-gwang. Ricci taught Yi Su-gwang the basic tenets of Catholicism and transmitted western knowledge to him. Ricci gave Yi Su-gwang several books from the west, which became the basis of Yi Su-gwang's later works. Ricci's transmission of western knowledge to Yi Su-gwang influenced and helped shape the foundation of the Silhak movement in Korea.

The following places and institutions are named after Matteo Ricci:

Ricci Hall, a dormitory at The University of Hong Kong
Ricci Building, a building at Wah Yan College, Kowloon in Hong Kong
The Matteo Ricci Study Hall, at the Ateneo de Manila University
Matteo Ricci College, Kowloon in Hong Kong
Matteo Ricci College at Seattle Preparatory School and Seattle University
Sekolah Katolik Ricci in Pancoran, Indonesia
Taipei Ricci Institute, Taiwan
Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History at the University of San Francisco.
The Matteo Ricci Society at Fordham University