Atlante della Cina di Michele Ruggieri 羅明堅, S.J. (1543-1607)

"Born in Spinazzola in Puglia (Italy), Ruggieri entered the Society of Jesus at the age of twenty-nine after holding official posts under Philip II, King of Naples. He was assigned to the Eastern missions and arrived in Goa on September 13, 1578. (Matteo Ricci was a fellow passenger). In July 1579 he arrived in Macau to implement the revolutionary missiological policy inaugurated by Alessandro Valignano 範禮安, S.J. (1538-1606). In 1583, after establishing friendly contacts with Chinese officials in Guangdong Province he was granted permission to build a church and residence at Zhaoqing 肇慶. In September of 1583 Ruggieri and Ricci took up residence there, establishing the first post-medieval Christian mission in China.
Like Ricci and other pioneers of the Jesuit China mission, Ruggieri was accomplished in many areas, and cartographic and linguistic skills were deemed particularly important. On Ruggieri's map (c. 1609) can be seen detailed information on terrain, cities, and waterways. Learning the Chinese language was not restricted to local dialects but also to learning guanhua 官話, the official language known in Western countries as Mandarin. Dictionaries and lexicons were created and the first semi-standard romanizations for Chinese characters were created (based on Portuguese letter values: see the Portuguese-Chinese Dictionary in this display). Published letters describing Chinese civilization sent by Ricci, Ruggieri, and others to Europe were highly popular and avidly studied by historians and philosophers."--Display placard text.

Dicionário Português-Chinês / Direcção de Edição John W. Witek, S.J. = 葡漢辭典 / 編輯魏若望 = Portuguese-Chinese dictionary /Editor John W. Witek, S.J.
Dicionário Português-Chinês de Michele Ruggieri e Matteo Ricci: Introducão historico-linguistica = Luo Mingjian he Li Madou de Pu-Han cidian (Lishi yuyan daolun) 羅明堅和利瑪竇的葡漢辭典 (歷史語言導論)= The Portuguese-Chinese Dictionary of Michele Ruggieri and Matteo Ricci: an historical and linguistic introduction, by Paul Fu-Mien Yang 楊福綿, S.J.

Prefatory material in Portuguese, Chinese, and English; includes Facsimile of original: ARSI Japonica-Sinica I, 198, ff. 32r-169r.
Edition jointly published by: Biblioteca Nacional Portugal 葡萄牙國家圖書館 ; Instituto Português do Oriente (IPOR) 東方葡萄牙學會 ; Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History 利瑪竇中西文化歷史研究所 (San Francisco).
Translation, revision, editorial: Natercia Fraga, Iva Flores, Wu Xiaoxin 吳小新, Magarida Duarte, Wang Zengyang 王增揚.
Includes tables of Chinese characters with IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) and various Romanization systems (besides Ruggieri's and Ricci's) for regional dialects of the late Ming period.
Includes bibliographies: p. 69, 135, 211 Illustration: Inscription for the Church at Zhaoqing 為肇慶教堂的題字 / ARSI Jap.Sin. 9, II, 264r (sic)

"Collected in the late 16th century, this dictionary introduces for the very first time the romanization of the Chinese language spoken in the final years of the Ming period and constitutes a milestone in the development of Chinese studies"--back cover.
972-8013-57-4 (IPOR) 972-565-298-3 (BN) LC authority uses: Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa

See Jap-Sin I, 197 and Jap-Sin I, 198 entry in Chan catalog for manuscript description.

Local access dig.pdf. [Ricci-Dicionario.pdf]

JapSin II, 159
Itinerand[um] Sinice factum.
By an anonymous author.
Manuscript, eleven folios.

The Latin title is found on the cover. A correction was later added on the old title which reads: Non est Itinerand Sinice, sed | narratio de bonzio ex India | converso (ut in scheda). A sheet is attached on the cover with a Latin inscription: “Bonzius ex Indiâ occidentali venit Canton. Relicto fratre in urbe Canton | ipse Pekinum petit. Curatus a medico | christiano, baptizatus et uxorem ducit. | Sequuntur occasione festorum etc., | recollectiones et effusiones spirituales | metricae satis bonae nullum | nullum datum.” There follows a note that reads: “Hoc scripsit R.P. Leo | Wieger S.J. Prov. Camp. missi | onarius in China (Tcheu-li) | cum esset in Exaten | mense Julio 1912.” Cf. Wieger’s catalogue (WH): “De converzione Bonzii ex India profecti.”

Furnished with so many details, we had little difficulty in identifying the author of this booklet of poems. He is none other than Michele Ruggieri, who is known for the first catechism he wrote in the Chinese language: the Tianzhu shengjiao shilu 天主聖教實錄 (cf. Jap-Sin I, 54, 189 and 190).
Michele Ruggieri (Luo Mingjian 羅明堅, zi 復初) was born in 1543 in Spinazzola in the royal state of Naples. He studied law and obtained his doctorate in Rome. After serving his country for some years he joined the Society of Jesus. In 1577 he was sent to India, where he remained for some years. In 1581 he went to China, where he worked as a missioner till 1588, when he returned to Europe. He died in Salerno in the year 1607.
In 1585, when Wang Pan 王泮, prefect of Zhaoqing and a friend of Ruggieri, was promoted and on his triennial visit to the court, he offered to bring Ruggieri with him. In the company of a Portuguese Jesuit, António d’Almeida (麥安東, zi 立修, 1556–1591) they set out from Guangzhou on 20 November 1585. They reached Meiling on 7 December and from there entered the province of Jiangxi. By 22 December they reached Hangzhou. For some reason, Ruggieri was not able to proceed north towards Beijing, but instead he went to Guilin 桂林 in Guangxi province. He spent some four months in Baishui 白水 (Huguang) and then moved to Guilin again. Eventually he returned to Guangdong. The whole book consists of fifty-two poems of different metrical style, in the opinion of Wieger “metricae satis bonae.”
As we know, Ruggieri began his Chinese studies while he was still in India. However, according to the opinion of Alexander Valignano, Ruggieri’s Chinese was never good. We knew that he was taught Chinese by a xiucai 秀才 (bachelor) from Fujian. One of the poems actually makes mention of most probably this same scholar, considering him as a sworn brother. There is no doubt that these poems had been polished by some literary man.
It is to be noted that among the non-Chinese missioners, as far as I know, no one had made an attempt to write poems. We must give credit to Ruggieri for his courage and attempt to produce something artistic!
The handwriting of the book is clearly written, but does not seem to have been from the hand of a good calligrapher. Sometimes there even are simplified characters, such as 関 [關], 湿 [濕], and 䑓 [臺]. Some of the characters are incorrectly written such as {for 浙, 冤, 華, 顛, 葉}.

For the Chinese text and translation of these poems, see Albert Chan, “Michele Ruggieri, S.J. (1543–1607) and his Chinese poems,” Monumenta Serica 41 (1993), pp. 129–176. See also Albert Chan, “Two Chinese poems written by Hsü Wei 徐渭 (1521–1593) on Michele Ruggieri S.J. (1543–1607),” Monumenta Serica 44 (1996), pp. 317–337.

Source: Albert Chan, S.J., Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, pp. 444-446.

For full bibliographic and textual citation see: Ad Dudink & Nicolas Standaert, Chinese Christian Texts Database (CCT-Database).

Michele Ruggieri's Tianzhu shilu (the True Record of the Lord of Heaven, 1584) / edited and translated by Daniel Canaris ; with contributions by Wang Huiyu, Wang Yuan and Wang Qi.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction / Daniel Canaris -- The life of Michele Ruggieri / Wang Huiyu and Daniel Canaris -- Critical Edition of the True Record of the Lord of Heaven /The Newly Revised True Record of the Lord of Heaven from Western India -- Vera et brevis divinarum rerum expositio/True and Brief Exposition of Divine Things -- Appendix : True Record of the Holy Religion of the Lord of Heaven.

"The True Record of the Lord of Heaven (Tianzhu shilu, 1584) by the Jesuit missionary Michele Ruggieri was the first Chinese-language work ever published by a European. Despite being published only a few years after Ruggieri started learning Chinese, it evinced sophisticated strategies to accommodate Christianity to the Chinese context and was a pioneering work in Sino-Western exchange. This book features a critical edition of the Chinese and Latin texts, which are both translated into English for the first time. An introduction, biography, and rich annotations are provided to situate this text in its cultural and intellectual context"--  Provided by publisher.

Text in English, Chinese, and Latin.

Local access dig.pdf. [Canaris-Ruggieri Tianzhu shilu.pdf]

Jap-Sin I, 197
Portuguese-Chinese Vocabulary.
Manuscript, written on Chinese bamboo paper; one volume, leather bound. Unnumbered pages. 17.8 x 12.5 cm.

On folio 1 there is a note by D’Elia: “Frasario per imparare il cinese. Della mano del Ruggieri a quanto sembra. Potrebbe darsi che su una raccolta di frasi fatte del Ruggieri coi suoi giovani e di cui si servi il Ricci ai primi anni — la traduzione italiana delle prime pagine sembra del Ricci. 6. 10. 34. P. D’Elia.” Wieger’s catalogue (WH) gives: “Locutiones Lusitanae-Sinenses.”

Jap-Sin I, 198
Portuguese-Chinese Vocabulary.
Manuscript on a kind of thin and soft white paper known as mianzhi 綿紙, bound in European style. 189 folios. 23 x 16.3 cm.

The first folio bears an inscription of D’Elia: “Questo è il Dizionario Europeo-Cinese fatto da Ruggieri — Ricci. È il primo del genere. La romanizzazione è italiana, probabilmente del Ricci — spesso scrittura del Ruggieri. Al principio c’è il primo catechismo verso il 1583–1588 e alcune . . . di cosmografia. Dicembre di 1583–1588. Molto prezioso. 6.10.34. P. D’Elia, S.J.” The same folio bears another Italian inscription: “Dell’ Archivio Rom^o | di Comp^a di Giesu.”

Folios -- -- Contents
2. -- Blank.
3r–7r. -- Romanization of words.
8r–12r. -- Blank.
12v–16v. -- Several transcriptions from Ruggieri’s Catechism (cf. Jap Sin I, 187).
17v–23v. -- The terrestrial globe:
紀天地毬，共有十二圖，南北二極，中央地一，每圖俱有三百六十分數.
24r. -- The names of the twenty-four solar periods 二十四氣 in Chinese with Latin equivalents.
24v–26v. -- Some Chinese characters.
27r. -- The names of the two capitals and the thirteen provinces of China and the names of dates.
27v–28r. -- The names of the Chinese cycles, the names of the twenty-four solar periods and some Chinese characters.
28v–31v. -- Chinese characters, occasionally with romanization and Latin explanation.
32r–156r. -- A Portuguese-Chinese vocabulary from A to Z. The Portuguese word is given first, followed by the romanization and then the Chinese equivalent. The last two lines (f. 156r) are written in Latin: “Laus Deo Virginique Matri Divis Gervasio e Protasio Amen. Jesus.” Perhaps the manuscript was completed on the Feast of Gervatius and Protasius (19 June).
157r–185r. -- A supplementary vocabulary. Folios 170r–171r gives the 日則訣 and folio 171v the 日則圖.
186v–187v. -- A copy of the verdict given by the magistrate on the calumny of Cai Yilong 蔡一龍 against Ruggieri. D’Elia reproduced this document in his Fonti Ricciane, vol. I, p. 242 (N. 297), where he puts the event under 26 October 1587. The handwriting of this verdict is badly done and there are several errors in the characters: 瞞住 is written 瞞准 and twice the character 理 is written 俚. And, in copying this document D’Elia failed to recognize the character 簿 and instead of 李主簿 he has 李主灣. We must admit that in the original this character is not clear. It can, however, be identified by its context.
188r–189r. -- Seemingly transcriptions from a book of rhymes; e.g. in 189r: dimen 地門 (groups of phrases on geographic expressions: 水緣，山光；源白，水遠 etc.) and in folio 188r renmen 人門 (phrases that deal with human beings: 時人，玉昆，偷閑，少年，野僧，漁郎).

------------------------------------------

The following are some interesting curiosities within the text:
Folios -- -- Contents
102v. -- The words connected with figs are given different meanings: Figo de Portugal is given as 無花果 and 番蕉， Figuera as 蕉樹, Figo de India as 芭蕉 and Figo passado as 蕉乾.
103r. -- Fisico is given as 醫生 (under medico and chirugião [surgeon]), Fisico mor as 太醫 (under chirugião) and Freyra as 尼姑 (under Bonza);
108r. -- Igreja is given as 寺; Jogo is wrongly written賻 (it should be賭博 and 賭錢 should be 賭); Juiz is given as 官, perhaps because in China the local mandarins often acted as judges as well as being governors of the districts. India is given as 西洋, Larranje as 柑子, Larrançeira as 柑樹 and both Lição and livro as 書.
113r. -- Limão is given as 酸柑 and Limoeiro as酸柑樹.
122r. -- Nação Portuguese is given as 番人，夷人; obedezer as 孝順 and obediente as 孝.
132v. -- Por merce de deos is given as 因為[口+廖口+師]. These two characters for God do not appear in any other book. The Zhengjiao bianlan (cf. Jap-Sin I, 170) by Domingo de Nieva, O.P., published in Manila, 1606, gives the term Liaoshi 僚氏 for God, which is very close to the term we have here. It looked and sounded too odd to the Chinese people and soon went out of use and the terms Tianzhu, given in Ruggieri’s Catechism (Jap-Sin I, 189), prevailed throughout the centuries.
136r. -- Queiso is given as 牛乳 (milk) instead of 乳酪 (cheese).
149r. -- Tía Irmãa da Pai is given as 姑 and Tía Irmãa da Mai as 姨. It is interesting to note that the term tía is applied to the sister of the father and to the sister of the mother. The latter in Chinese is quite different.

-----------------------------------------

There are indications that this vocabulary was compiled in the Ming period: on folio 161r we find 大明國 (China), 唐人, chumpim 總兵, chaiuen察院 ; Colao 國老 (the character 國 should be 閣), i.e., Grand Secretary; Guei 衛, guards; then on folio 27r there is a list of the two capitals and the thirteen provinces 兩京十三省.
Among the things Chinese given in the vocabulary are: chaapa, 告示，票，文書; faxas 快子, cha 茶, fazer cortesia 作揖, jiunco 船, girobasa 通事, mandarin 官府，老爺，老爹，武官，大官. For ‘Europe’ the term 西竺 is used, as can be seen on folio 20r: 此毬西竺儒者作.

Source: Albert Chan, Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, pp.254-256.

Sinp'yŏn Ch'ŏnju sillok Lat'inŏbon Chunggugŏbon yŏkchu  신편 천주 실록 라틴어본 중국어본 역주 /  Michele Ruggieri chiŭm ; Kwak Mun-sŏk, Kim Sŏk-chu, Sŏ Wŏn-mo, Ch'oe Chŏng-yŏn pŏnyŏk mit chuhae. 지음 ; 곽 문석, 김 석주, 서 원모, 최 정연 번역 및 주해

Includes bibliographical references (pages 51-52) and index.
Includes original text [photoreproduction] in Chinese and Latin with Korean translation.

명말청초 예수회 동서교류문헌 중 최초의 서학서이며 최초의 중국어본 교리교육서인 미켈레 루제리의 <신편천주실록>과 라틴어 저본인 Vera et Brevis Divinarum Rerum Expositio을 세계 최초로 완역 주해한 것이다.

발간에 즈음하여
역주자 서문
일러두기

제1부 작품 해제
미켈레 루제리의 신편천주실록

제2부 미켈레 루제리의 신편천주실록 번역
천주실록 이끄는 말
제1장 한 분의 천주가 진실로 계시다
제2장 천주의 본성
제3장 세상 사람들이 천주를 경솔하게 인식함을 풀이하다
제4장 천주가 천지와 사람과 사물을 창조하시다
제5장 천사와 아담
제6장 사람의 혼이 불멸하며 짐승과 크게 다름을 논하다
제7장 혼이 네 곳으로 돌아감을 풀이하다
제8장 예로부터 지금까지 천주는 다만 세 차례에 걸쳐 세 가지 규계를 내리셨다
제9장 천주가 인간에게 세 번째 규계를 주셨다
제10장 세 번째로 사람에게 주신 규계의 내용을 풀이하다
제11장 사람은 천주가 실제로 하신 일을 믿어야 함을 풀이하다
제12장 천주 십계
제13장 첫 번째 비문을 풀이하다
제14장 천주의 두 번째 비문에 있는 일곱 가지 조항의 내용을 풀이하다
제15장 승도의 성심과 수행이 하늘로 오르는 정도임을 풀이하다
제16장 맑은 물로 이전에 지은 죄를 제거함을 풀이하다

라틴어 찾아보기
중국어 찾아보기

제3부 미켈레 루제리의 신편천주실록 중국어 원문
ARSI, Jap.Sin. I, 190 원문
ARSI, Jap.Sin. I, 189 표제지 

Archivum Historicm Societatis Iesu (ARSI) edition. Ex. Japonica-Sinica.
Digital copy in .tiff format, 4 ¾ CDROM & PDF.
CD-ROM contents: Tianzhu shiyi 天主實義 [JapSin I-44] -- Manwen Tianzhu shiyi 滿文天主實義 (Abkai ejen-i unenggi jurgan) [JapSin I-48a-b] -- Jiaoyou lun 交友論 [JapSin I-49] -- Jiren shipian 畸人十篇 [JapSin I-52] -- Tianxue shiyi 天學實義 [JapSin I-53a] -- Tianzhu Shengjiao shilu 天主聖教實錄 [JapSin I-54] -- Tianzhu shilu 天主實錄 [JapSin I-189] -- Tianzhu shilu 天主實錄 [JapSin I-190]

JapSin I, 54
Tianzhu shengjiao shilu 天主聖教實錄.
By Luo Mingjian 羅明堅 (Michele Ruggieri).
One juan, one volume. Chinese bamboo paper. No place or date of publication. Ming edition.

The cover bears the title in Chinese and a Latin inscription: “Compendium legis divinae a P. Michael Ruggiero, S.J.” There is a note by D’Elia: “Questa è la 2^a edizione del Catechismo del Ruggieri (NN. 189, 190) uscita coll’ imprimatur del Furtado verso 1640, dopo censure dei PP. Emmanuel Dias, Gaspard Ferreira e Giovanni Monteiro. D’Elia. 23.9.1937.”

The main text consists of thirty-seven folios. The first folio gives again the title in Chinese and the name of the author. Each half folio contains nine columns, with nineteen characters in each column. The upper middle of each folio gives the title of the book and the number of each folio is given under the title.
This edition of the Tianzhu shilu was published, when Francisco Furtado was Vice Provincial of the mission in China (1635–1641 and 1646–1647) and revised by the three Jesuits whose names we have recorded above. It was then nearly sixty years since the Jesuits had come to China. By this time Ruggieri’s book was no longer in circulation (cf. Jap-Sin I, 189). It was only natural that the new edition should be adapted to the needs of the time. The designation “a monk of India” for the author of the book is no longer to be seen in this edition. Instead the term yuanxi 遠西 (Extreme West) and Yesuhui houxue 耶穌會後學 (member of the Society of Jesus) is used. Since the publication of Matteo Ricci’s Chinese World Map, the Chinese had begun to know something about Europe, and Ricci called himself a European in his book Jiaoyou lun 交友論 (cf. Jap-Sin I, 49 and 53.2). The word seng 僧 (Buddhist monk), which appeared in the first edition of the Tianzhu shilu, was then replaced by the word jian 堅 (the last character of Ruggieri’s Chinese name, i.e., I or me). The last phrase of the first chapter of the original edition, which reads: 一位之天主, was changed to 一尊之天主, in order to avoid misunderstanding on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity (三位一禮). Likewise in the first line of chapter two 一位天主, the word 位 was dropped and so afterwards wherever the same phrase occurred. Also, terms used in the first edition were changed considerably. Thus: 天人 (angel) was changed into 天神, 魂靈 (soul) became 靈魂, 咽咈諾 (hell) became 地獄; 布革多略 (purgatory), however, was given the free translation: 古今善人煉罪者之居 (the habitation where the just, ancient or recent, make satisfaction for their sins). Furthermore, the original edition did not try to give much explanation of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity; the new edition develops the doctrine more fully. Even the word si 寺 (monastery) was felt to be too Buddhist and it was changed to Tianzhutang 天主堂 (a Catholic church).

This new edition is divided into sixteen chapters, as was the original edition. The divisions, however, are not quite the same; e.g. the seventh chapter of the original edition (解釋魂歸四處) is placed in the eighth chapter and the wording reads: 解釋魂歸五所. The seventh chapter of the new edition adds a new item, namely: 天主聖性章 (chapter on the Divine nature of God). In short, the new edition makes so many changes that the original book is greatly improved. The book has the qualities of a modern catechism.

Cf. Courant 6815: “Véritable exposé de la religion chrétienne. Par le P. Michaele Ruggieri, Jésuite (1543–1607; nom chinois Lo Ming kien, Fou tchhou), avec introduction de l’auteur (1584) et autorisation du P. Furtado.”
Source: Albert Chan, S.J., Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, pp. 97-99.

Full bibliographic information see: Ad Dudink & Nicolas Standaert, Chinese Christian Texts Database (CCT-Database).
Online at ARSI Chinese Books.
Local access dig. pdf. See ARSI Jap-Sin I-IV folder [Jap-Sin I-54.pdf]

Yesuhui Luoma dang'anguan Ming-Qing Tianzhujiao wenxian / Edited by Nicolas Standaert [and] Adrian Dudink. Reproduction of original text in vol. 1 of this collection. 

Citation source: Albert Chan, S.J., Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, pp. 90-99.
Jap-Sin I, 189
Xinbian Xizhuguo Tianzhu shilu 新編西竺國天主實錄
By Luo Mingjian 羅明堅 (Michele Ruggieri).
One juan (thirty-nine folios), one volume. Thick Chinese bamboo paper.
Cloth cover, half leather, in European style.

The back of this book bears the title in golden letters: “P. Ruggieri | Doctrina | christiana.”

In the upper middle of the frontispiece there is a wood cut emblem of the Society of Jesus (IHS), surrounded by a verse taken from Psalm 112: † A SOLIS ORTV VSQUE AD OCCASVM LAVDABILE NOMEN DOMINI—PS:CXII. At the four corners of the emblem there are drawings of an oak branch with an acorn and two leaves. Below there are two lines in big Chinese characters: 天主實 | 錄正文. Above the emblem there is an inscription in Chinese: 解此番字周圍眞經. At the right of the emblem there is an inscription: 天主之名當中, and at the left: 益揚乾坤明教. For a photocopy of the frontispiece, see FR 1:196 (tavola X) [and figure 3 of the present catalogue]. On the opposite page there is an inscription by D’Elia:

Questo è la prima edizione del | 1^o Catechismo cinese curato dal | P. Michele Ruggieri e finito di stampare a | Siauchin o Shiuhing verso il 26–29 nov. 1584. | Questo Jap Sin I, 189 è | lo stesso di Jap Sin I, 190. | Il primo non ha il nome dell’ autore | mentre il secondo lo ha = [Ruggieri] Michele | Uno studio su questo catechismo | è aparso in Arch. Hist. S.J. 1934, | pp. 193–222, ma l’autore dall’arti– | colo non conosceva allora che Jap Sin I, 190, che è un edizione posteriore (the last five words are erased with an annotation: correzioni fatte dal P. D’Elia, 21.XII.57) Preziosissimo. 15.9.34. cf. Tacchi Venturi: Opere storiche del P. Matteo Ricci II, 50–51.

The folios 1–2 contain an introduction by Ruggieri, dated Wanli 甲申歲 (1584), 秋八月望後三日. At the end there is no signature, but only the inscription: 天竺國僧書 (written by a monk from India). The first line of folio 3 reads: 新編西竺國天主實錄目錄 (An index of the newly compiled Tianzhu shilu of West India). This is followed by the titles of the sixteen chapters of the book. Folio 4 begins: 新編天主實錄, and below: 天竺國僧輯 (Compiled by a monk of India).

Each half folio contains nine columns with twenty characters in each column. The middle of each folio bears the title followed by the number of each folio.
At the end of the book the Ten Commandments (Zuchuan Tianzhu shijie 祖傳天主十誡) are given on a separate sheet (56 x 24 cm). On the top margin there is a pencil inscription in Latin: Fol. separatum de decalogo et salute animae. The end of this last folio bears the inscription:

Hoc folium continet traductionem sinicam Decalogi. Probabiliter missum est Romam e Sinis die 30 Nov. 1584, cf. Tacchi Venturi, Opere storiche del P. Matteo Ricci, 1913, II, p. 51. Contra id quod affirmat Wieger in Arch. Hist. S.J. 1932, p. 84, non habet annum (multo minus non habet 1582) impressionis. Probabilissime impressum est inter 10 sept. 1583 et mensem januar. 1584 in Sinis, cf. Arch. Hist. S.J. 1934, 194–195.

The Tianzhu shilu was written in the form of a dialogue, probably influenced by the method then in use in Europe (cf. Jap-Sin I, 43a). Its main point was to prove the existence of God and at the same time to disprove the superstitions of Buddhism. It also tried to explain why the missioners had entered religion. Moral problems and popular beliefs of the late Ming period were also discussed: choosing lucky days, divination, explanation of dreams, sodomy, concubinage, etc.
The Decalogue found at the end of the book consists of a long sheet with 18 columns of thirteen characters each. It was published together with the Our Father and the Hail Mary around the years 1583–1584. The last two prayers are no longer to be found. The Chinese characters are fairly large and they are in the written style and are printed in blue ink (so also Jap-Sin I, 190). Whether or not this was done intentionally, it bears great similarity to a Buddhist scripture.
The Tianzhu shilu is undoubtedly the first catechism written and published in Chinese, cf. Margiotti, p. 277. According to a letter from Ruggieri to the General of the Society of Jesus (25 January 1584), he had been preparing a catechism in Chinese for the past four years (Jap-Sin 9 II, f. 257v). According to D’Elia (FR 1:197, n. 2) the T’ien chu shih lu was based on the Latin catechism compiled in Macao in 1581 by Ruggieri and his fellow Jesuit, Pedro Gomez. This manuscript is now kept in the Biblioteca Nazionale di Roma (catalogue number: Ges. 1276). Tacchi Venturi, however, thought that the handwriting of this manuscript was not that of Ruggieri. Furthermore, D’Elia in his article (AHSI, 3, 1934, p. 219) estimated that the Latin manuscript contains above 15,000 words, while the Tianzhu shiyi has only 8,002 words. This is a big difference between the two. Then, we have a letter written by Ricci from Canton to the Jesuit General (November 30, 1584), in which he says that the Chinese edition of the Tianzhu shiyi is ready and that he is going to send it to Rome together with the translation of the Ten Commandments, the Our Father and the Hail Mary. He then goes on to say that because of the visit to Zhaoqing of Father Francisco Cabral, rector of Sao Paulo at Macao, he had to postpone the translation of this book into Latin or Italian. This perhaps can serve as a circumstantial evidence that the Chinese text was not a direct translation of the 1581 Latin manuscript.

This book is called xinbian 新編 (newly revised), in contradistinction to the original manuscript which circulated in 1580. When Ruggieri first went to Canton with the Portuguese merchants he must have had talks with the Chinese on the Christian religion. He probably had something prepared in Chinese to meet such occasions. In the Roman Jesuit Archive there is a Portuguese Chinese vocabulary (Jap-Sin I, 198) attributed to Ruggieri and Ricci. At the end of the manuscript there is a brief catechism in four and one-half folios. On folio 12v there is a paragraph entitled 解釋聖水除前罪惡, which is substantially the same as Xinbian Tianzhu shilu, f. 28v (line 7) to 29r (line 5). Can this be the original of the Tianzhu shilu? This manuscript was never printed, but only circulated among Ruggieri’s Chinese friends. Ruggieri himself told the Jesuit general in his letter of 12 November 1581, that the Chinese mandarins called him shifu 師傅 (the great master), "because they read only one catechism [lit., doctrina] which I had composed last year to give them some general knowledge of our holy law, as much as they can take." (TV 2:403–404). Ruggieri arrived in Macao in the year 1579. His Chinese was then scanty. When he tried to compose his catechism he had to seek help from a Chinese, probably some student from the seminary (cf. TV 2:35 & n. 4). The manuscript catechism of four and one-half folios (Jap-Sin I, 198) is in the handwriting of a Chinese, badly written with a large number of mistakes [cf. Chan, p. 94]. This merely shows that the copyist was not a well educated man. The catechism had to be brief to suit the capacity of its readers, who had never heard anything like it. Communication for the first time was by no means easy.

The Xinbian Tianzhu shilu was written in Zhaoqing 肇慶 sometime before 1584 and Ruggieri was encouraged by his mandarin friends to have it published. He obtained permission from the Jesuit Visitor, then Alexander Valignano (cf. Jap-Sin 9, folio 257v). Publication, however, was postponed till the end of 1584, because it still had to be corrected and retouched for Chinese style.
In a letter, written on 5 December 1584, Francisco Cabral reported to Valignano on his visit to Zhaoqing the month before. He said that on 21 November he had baptized two Chinese, one of whom was a literary man (according to Ricci, a xiucai 秀才 or bachelor and a native of Fujian), who had been living in the house for four to five months and was teaching Chinese to the two priests (TV 2:118, 1:149). He was also helping to compile the Chinese catechism (TV 2:429). There can be no doubt that this man (Cabral mentions his name as Paolo) did the polishing of the style. Ricci in his letter to the Jesuit General (Guangzhou, 30 November 1584) mentions that he too had collaborated in this catechism: “un catechismo che habbiamo fatto in lettere china gia con la gratia del Sig^e stampato . . .” (Jap-Sin 9, folio 315).
The second convert whom Cabral baptized also seems to have taken part in this new catechism. He was a native of Zhaoqing, known by his Christian name Giovanni [John]; according to Ricci, his full name in Chinese was Cin Ni co (D’Elia could not make out the Chinese character of his family name: 陳，鄭，秦). In the middle of folio 26 we find the Chinese character 陳 at the bottom of the column. Did he put his name there while he was proofreading (as we still see proofreaders do in our days) and did the engraver cut it out on the wooden block? (cf. AHSI, 3, 1934, p. 202; TV 1:149, cf. 1:125–126).
Hsü Tsung-tse (1949, p. 141) observes that the Chinese of the Tianzhu shilu is clumsy and the terminology awkward. This was only natural, since this was the first attempt to translate something entirely new into Chinese and that by foreigners. If we bear in mind that nearly four centuries after the coming of Catholicism to China we still have so much difficulty in the translation of Catholic terms, we can perhaps readily excuse the imperfections of the first Chinese catechism. As an illustration we cite the following examples: 天人 for 天神 (angel), 祖公啞噹 for 原祖亞當 (Adam), [口 + 熱] 所 for 耶穌 (Jesus), 咽咈諾 (inferno) for 地獄 (hell) and 得道神仙 for 聖人 (saints).
The author of the book signs as 天竺國僧 (a monk from the Tianzhu country [India]), because the Chinese had never heard of Europe. D’Elia, however, did not agree in this explanation with Wieger, but said that the Japanese used to call the Jesuits Tenjiku jin 天竺人, hence Ruggieri and Ricci adopted this name (AHSI, 3, 1934, pp. 209–218). And because the Chinese did not know what a religious meant they chose the term seng 僧, (Buddhist monk) as the closest equivalent (cf. Jap-Sin I, 53.4).
In 1585 when the Provincial of Mexico wrote to the Jesuit General in Rome he quoted Alonso Sánchez of the Philippines, who had paid a visit to Guangzhou, as saying that 1,500 copies of the Tianzhu shilu had been printed (cf. Francisco Zambrano, S.J., Diccionario Bio-Bibliográfico de la Compañía de Jesús en Mexico, Mexico, 1962, Tomo II [siglo XVI, 1566–1600], p. 119, n. 57). The book enjoyed a wide circulation. Ricci says that they had given hundreds of copies to friends and that Catholicism was thus soon spread. Where the missioners could not penetrate, the book was able to convey the instruction (TV 1:134). He also says that several Chinese became Christians through reading the book (TV 2:55, 71). Between the years 1584 and 1585 the “ambassador” of Cochin China who happened to be in China, visited the Jesuits in their house and brought back with him a number of copies of the book. And in 1586 Valignano wrote to the Jesuit General that this Catechism in Chinese would be of use for the Japanese Buddhist monks. Indeed, he asked that a good number of copies to be sent to Japan (Jap-Sin 10, folio 214v, no. 10; cf. FR 1:379, n. 4).
According to Duarte de Sande (孟三德, 1531–1600) the Tianzhu shilu was reprinted several times in Korea and Japan around the year 1595. Ruggieri returned to Europe in 1588. He brought back with him the Tianzhu shilu in Latin and also his Latin translation of the Four Books, with the intention of having them published in Europe. This, however, was never realized due to the strong opposition of Valignano, who was aware that Ruggieri’s Chinese was never very good and that the book he had written, though widespread, was nevertheless imperfect. Furthermore, later on the Jesuits changed their Buddhist dress for that of the scholars and they no longer called themselves seng as in Ruggieri’s book. Valignano had set his eyes on Ricci, whom he thought far better at Chinese than Ruggieri (Jap-Sin 13, f. 46r, 46v [Japon. Epist. 1596–1599]). We are told that Valignano had given him an assignment to write a new catechism and this was published in its due time under the title Tianzhu shiyi 天主實義 (q.v.). By then Ruggieri’s book was no longer in use; even the stored copies were no longer distributed. Eventually the wooden blocks were destroyed.
Léon Wieger quotes Trigault as saying that in Jiangnan the missioners kept the wooden blocks of Ruggieri’s book and reprinted it on several occasions. Unfortunately, he does not give us the sources of his information and does not help us to find out whether the newly engraved book was an entirely new edition or was based on the old first edition of 1584 (Jap-Sin I, 190?). The new edition of the Tianzhu shengjiao shilu 天主聖教實錄 in Jap-Sin I, 54 and 55 (see below), was published after the death of Trigault (1628). The contents had been changed considerably. It was not quite the same as the original book.

Cf. Léon Wieger, “Notes sur la première catéchèse écrite en chinois, 1582–1584” in AHSI, 1, 1932, pp. 72–84; P.M. D’Elia, “Quadro storico-sinologico del primo libro di dottrina cristiana in cinese,” AHSI 3, 1934, pp. 193–222; JWC 1:65–71; Antonio Possevino, Bibliotheca Selecta (Romae, 1593), Liber IX, p. 581.
Source: Albert Chan, S.J., Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, pp. 90-96.

The Latin inscription on the frontispiece reads: “Catechismus R.P. Michaelis Rogery.” The Latin catalogue gives: “ed. maior 1585, and classifies it as: rariss [ima].”

190 2r 天竺國僧明堅書
189 The characters 明堅 are absent
190 4r 明堅輯，天主篇第一
189 Both 明堅 and 第一 are absent
190 5r, line 7 且如乾坤之內
189 如此 instead of 且如
190 6r, line 5 章第三
189 These three characters are missing
190 9r, line 6 惡悲
189 The first character is written as 慈
190 23v, line 3 亞當達誡
189 違 instead of 達
190 29v, line 6 以代世人贖罪
189 以普世人除罪
190 38v, line 3 解釋淨首除穢
189 解釋淨水除前罪

The comparison of these two editions shows that 190 reads better than 189; even the quality of the paper and the style of binding is better than in 189. From these indications we conclude that 190 is a new edition. However, in the correspondences of contemporary missioners we have found no trace of this new edition. Can it have been published some time after 1584 or before 1640? (Compare the remarks of Wieger and D’Elia in Jap-Sin I, 189, which we have cited above).
Cf. Vatican Library, Borgia Cinese 324.1 (duplicate of this edition).

Source: Albert Chan, S.J., Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, pp. 96-97.

明末清初耶穌會思想文獻匯編 = An expository collection of the Christian philosophical works between the end of the Ming dynasty and the beginning of the Qing dynasty in China ; 第1冊.

Local access dig.pdf. in folder: [Andrew Chung Series].