JapSin I, (38/42) 41/3
Zhi Mu laoshi wen liangshou 致穆老師文兩首, fu ba yishou 附跋一首.
By Yan Mo 嚴謨.
Manuscript, six folios (Arabic numbers). Chinese bamboo paper, one volume. 24.3 x 14.3 cm.

An inscription on the top margin of the first folio reads: “Scriptus Ien Pauli.”

Herewith I present two essays and a postscript to Mu laoshi (i.e., José Monteiro) for his study, and I request that all the works, as found in the list of my writings, be copied and sent to Nie laoshi 聶老師 (Father Greslon) of Jiangxi province. I have been told that Father Greslon intends to write on this subject. He asked earlier for my writings, but because of the long distance I have never carried out his wishes.

1. On the temple of Confucius in Gucheng Xian 榖城縣, Xiangzhou 襄州 (Hubei), by Ouyang Xiu 歐陽修 (1007–1072).
2. An eight-legged essay (bagu wen 八股文) on the veneration of ancestors by Tang Laihe 湯來賀 (jinshi of 1640). This essay contains remarks by diverse scholars.

Yan Mo’s postscript seeks to prove that neither in the veneration of Confucius nor in that of the ancestors there is any superstition, nor is there anything that might show usurpation of God’s right as was suspected by some of the foreign missioners, who at the same time thought that what Chinese Christians told them was not reliable. Yan Mo therefore selected these two essays from pagan writers to satisfy his accusers.

Source: Albert Chan, SJ, Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, pp. 65-66.