Matteo Ricci and the Zhalan Cemetery( 柵欄墓地) in Beijing
Dr. Law Chi Lim, Robert
It is a safe bet that many readers of this column are familiar
with the name Matteo Ricci, especially those who have been
associated in the past with the Wah Yan Colleges and Ricci
Hall which are run by Jesuit priests. They probably also know
that Matteo Ricci was a famous Jesuit missionary in China
some hundreds of years ago. What they probably did not know
(neither did I, until recently) is that Matteo Ricci’s tomb can
still be found in Beijing.
Some most unusual foreigners in China
Matteo Ricci was born in 1552 in a noble Italian family and joined the Society of
Jesus (耶穌會 ) in Italy at the age of 19 . When he was sent to China for missionary
work by the society in 1582, he first went to Macao to study the Chinese language.
For the next two decade he stayed mainly in Zhaoqing(肇慶) in Guangdong province
and later in Nanjing (南京) where he befriended many Chinese scholars and
important officials. The most prominent of these officials was Xu Guangqi (徐光啟)
who was fascinated with Ricci’s rich knowledge of western astronomy, geometry, and
trigonometry. Together, the two friends translated the Greek classic of Euclid’s
Elements into Chinese (幾何原本). To the Chinese scholars, here was a foreigner
unlike any one they had seen before---------this one was intelligent, cultured and fully
conversant with classical Chinese. He translated many Chinese Confucian classics
into Latin. In fact, it was him who coined the word Confucius as a name for the most
venerated scholar in Chinese history. After he accurately predicted( while other
Chinese astronomers failed) an eclipse of the sun on 22 September, 1596,his
reputation spread further and he was subsequently granted an imperial audience with
the Ming Emperor Wanli (萬曆 ) in 1601. He presented the emperor with many gifts
which included maps of the world and a chiming clock. The Emperor was so
impressed that he granted permission for Ricci to live and carry on his work in
Beijing, something totally unheard of in the past.
It must be said that Ricci developed a unique way to carry out his missionary work in
China. Unlike other missionaries (like the Dominicans and Franciscans who were
concurrently present in other parts of China), Ricci advocated complete adaptation to
the Chinese culture. He even gave up his Catholic friar’s habit for that of a Chinese
Confucian scholar. Because of his study of and respect for Chinese culture, he
understood how Confucian beliefs, together with its tradition of venerating one’s
elders and ancestors, formed the basis of Chinese social and political structures. So he
established what was subsequently known as the ‘Ricci’s rules” which allowed his
converts to continue with the traditional Chinese religious rites and ancestor worship.
His method was to attract people to his church with western curiosities like chiming
clocks and knowledge of western science and the spread of the Word of God became
as if “incidental”. This proved to be the most effective evangelistic method given the
practically “closed” society in China during the Ming Dynasty. By 1605 , there were
more than 200 converts in Beijing , including many government officials like Xu
Guangqi.
Other Jesuit missionaries that came to China after Ricci’s death followed his rules
faithfully and many of them were able to attain high positions in the Chinese Court .
In fact , the Imperial Astronomy Department was led by Jesuit priests like Adam
Schall von Bell ((湯若望) and Ferdinand Verbiest (南懷仁)for a period of nearly two
hundred years covering the period from late Ming to early Qing Dynasty. They
established a firm foundation for the spread of Christianity in China.
The activities of the Jesuits in China did not go unnoticed in Rome which frowned
upon Christians worshipping their ancestors. The Pope’s displeasure was further
fuelled by the damaging reports sent home by the Franciscan and Dominican
missionaries who were against the “liberal” ways of the Jesuits. It might well have
been jealousy too because the former never achieved as much popularity in the
Chinese court as the Jesuits.
The final crunch came in 1705 during the reign of Emperor Kang Xi ( 康熙) when an
emissary from Rome arrived in China to specifically forbid Christian followers in
China to worship their ancestors. . The Emperor Kang Xi responded by issuing
“certificates” (票) only to those missionaries who would declare that they would
follow “Ricci’s rules” . Those who failed to comply were expelled from the country.
This so-called “Rites Controversy” (禮儀之爭) continued over the next half century
and fuelled periodic waves of anti-Christian incidences in Beijing as well as in other
provincial centres. In spite of this , however, Jesuit priests with various scientific or
artistic talents were still retained and treated with great respect in the court by
emperors like Yong Zheng (雍正)and Qian Long (乾隆 ). The various priests were
even allowed to be buried in Beijing after their death in the so called Zhalan
Cemetery( 柵欄墓地).
The Zhalan Cemetery
When Matteo Ricci died in 1610 , the Emperor Wanli granted a piece of land outside
the Fucheng gate of the west side of the old Beijing city wall for the priest’s body to
be buried in --------- again another historical first for any foreign missionary in China.
Subsequently, several hundred foreign missionaries (Jesuits as well as priests from
other Orders) were buried in the nearby land and the area came to be known as the
Zhanlan Cemetery. The graves were all marked by substantial stelae in Chinese
style, and carved in Latin, Chinese, and sometimes Manchu characters.
In 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion, the cemetery was destroyed, but rebuilt after
several years at the demand of the foreign powers. The stone plaque which
commemorates this event is still preserved in the present day cemetery. It was in
effect a profuse apology from the Imperial Qing government to the dead priests.
Since then, the cemetery suffered damages repeatedly at the hands of the Japanese
army as well as the Nationalist army. No significant
repair was done until the Beijing Municipal Bureau for
Civil Affairs (北京市市委) acquired the land around
the graveyard to build the Beijing Administrative
College, which is, in effect, the
training institution for Communist Party cadets in Beijing (中共北京市黨校). So the
Zhanlan Cemetery is now situated in a very quiet corner inside this very exclusive
place. As such , even people who had lived in Beijing for most of their lives may not
know of the existence of this cemetery.
However, during the Cultural Revolution, the red guards nearly destroyed all the
tombstones if not for the ingenuity of the caretaker there who persuaded the
youngsters to “bury” these tombstones so that the “foreign devils” would never be
able to see the light of day. That was how the tombstones were preserved.
Subsequently, the tombstones were dug up again and the Zhanlan Cemetery returned
to its former glory.
First time visitors to the cemetery are invariably impressed by the elegant lay-out of
the graveyard. The impressive Stone Gate ( which dated from the time of Emperor
Kang Xi) led to the main graveyard with the tombstone of Matteo Ricci in the middle
flanked by two of his most famous colleagues----Adam Schall von Bell (湯若
望 ,1591-1666 ) and Ferdinand Verbiests (南懷仁, 1623-1688).The tombstones were
ornate with carved dragons with 4 claws, one claw
short of the 5 clawed-dragon which was generally
reserved for the highest royalties). There were stone
coffins behind each of the tombstones, but we had it
from authority that they were just empty boxes. The
actual remains of the priests were long gone and
could not be recovered.
Next to this main graveyard is another graveyard of similar size but simpler lay-out. It
contains 60 tombstones of various foreign missionaries who died in China in the 16th
to 18th century.
These 63 tombstones have, in fact, witnessed over 300
hundred years of tumultuous history in China. One can
spend hours admiring the stones and ruminating on the
checkered history of these missionaries in China. Here
are 63 men who felt the call to spread their religion, and
no doubt, to save people’s souls, in this foreign and,
perhaps, alien land. They opened China’s eyes to western science and technology.
They did not set out to become an important part of the history of this strange land,
but they did, and they never went home.
Epilogue
Matteo Ricci is often credited to be the first successful Christian missionary in China.
But in fact, historically, Christianity had reached China in a big way during the Tang
Dynasty, well before Ricci’s time. There is, in fact, a stone stele in the Xian Beilin (西
安碑林) Museum to prove it . But, of course, that is another story for another article.