"A treatise on friendship and the import of Christianized friendship Ethics into Late Ming–Early Qing China : a study of Martino Martini’s 'Qiu You Pian'" / Jiang Xiangyan

Published in Religions 2025, 17(2)

Also available through Boston College Libraries

Abstract:
This study focuses on Martino Martini’s A Treatise on Friendship (Qiu You Pian), exploring its content and means of introducing Christianized friendship ethics into late Ming–early Qing China. Through a close reading of the text and a comparative study with Matteo Ricci and Alfonso Vagnone, the 65 quotations in Qiu You Pian are classified according to their sources and listed, alongside corresponding ethical principles, in six tables according to the four types of original literature. It is clear that Martino Martini tried to convey Christianized friendship ethics in his work; compared to his forerunners, he delved deeper and made the greatest contribution to importing Christianized friendship ethics into China.

Chinese compass : how the Jesuits created and spread the myth / Thierry Meynard and Yijing Zhang

Published in Journal of Jesuit Studies vol. 13 issue 1 

Also available through Boston College Libraries

Abstract:
The compass is now widely acknowledged as one of China’s four great inventions, alongside paper, printing, and gunpowder. Simon Winchester emphasized this in his 2008 biography of Joseph Needham, titled Bomb, Book and Compass: Joseph Needham and the Great Secrets of China. However, it was actually seventeenth-century Jesuit missionaries who first credited China with inventing the compass. This paper examines how the Jesuits constructed this historical narrative and reveals their complex attitudes toward this attribution. The Jesuits held a nuanced view: while they recognized the compass as evidence of China’s historical excellence in science and technology, they also maintained that Western modern science had ultimately surpassed Chinese achievements. In their assessment, China’s most significant contribution to civilization was not technological but philosophical—specifically the influence of Confucian thought on Chinese culture and society. The Jesuits argued that Confucian philosophy contained universal wisdom valuable even to Western societies.

Il gesuita che disegnò la Cina : la vita e le opere di Martino Martini / Giuseppe O. Longo.
Capitolo Primo. Il richiamo dell’Oriente.-- Capitolo Secondo. I primi anni: da Trento a Roma.-- Capitolo Terzo. Dall’Europa alla Cina.-- Capitolo Quarto. Dalla Cina all’Europa e ritorno. -- Appendice A. Le condizioni dell'Europa all'epoca di Martino Martini -- Appendice B. Cronologia essenziale di Martino Martini S.J. -- Appendice C. Opera Omnia di Martino Martini.

Description:
L'Occidente fu sempre attratto dalla Cina, ma la mitica "Terra di Mezzo" rimase un mondo sconosciuto, favoloso e irraggiungibile fino all'inizio del Seicento, quando il gesuita Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) penetrò in quell'immenso Paese, facendo conoscere alla Cina la civiltà europea. Fu un altro grande gesuita a compiere l'operazione inversa, rivelando all'Europa il volto della Cina: il trentino Martino Martini (1614-1661). Questo libro vuol essere un contributo alla conoscenza di un uomo straordinario per fede, scienza, capacità oratoria, coraggio fisico, abilità diplomatica e doti d'iniziativa. Visse solo 47 anni, di cui una dozzina passati sul mare o segregato in luoghi remoti e inospitali, ma, oltre a svolgere la sua missione evangelizzatrice in Cina, riuscì a raccogliere sul Celeste Impero una mole immensa di materiale, esponendola in alcune opere che ebbero in Europa vastissima risonanza. Tra queste un Atlante della Cina di ricchezza e precisione eccezionali. Sullo sfondo, il Seicento europeo mette in scena i suoi fasti e le sue miserie: secolo abietto e sontuoso, percorso dai fremiti del nuovo e dai sussulti del vecchio, che si apre alle innovazioni scientifiche più ardite e si accanisce nella cruenta repressione degli slanci riformatori, tra guerre interminabili, pestilenze e devastazioni, ma anche una straordinaria fioritura artistica e culturale.

Dall'altra parte del mondo, in Cina, il Seicento fu altrettanto contraddittorio: insanguinato dalla feroce guerra di successione tra la vecchia dinastia dei Ming e la nuova dei Ching, fu tuttavia un'epoca di grande rinnovamento della civiltà cinese, che sfociò in un singolare amalgama di cultura letteraria, saggezza amministrativa, ritualità e credenze popolari, senza contare le millenarie tradizioni scientifiche e tecniche su cui si innestarono le grandi innovazioni matematiche, astronomiche e cartografiche europee, introdotte dai gesuiti insieme con la pratica evangelizzatrice. Protagonista di questo fecondo incontro di civiltà e di tradizioni, propugnatore di una prassi missionaria tollerante, rispettoso della sensibilità e delle consuetudini di quel popolo così fiero e civile, Martino Martini seppe interpretare il proprio apostolato con saggezza ed equilibrio, ma anche con rigore e disciplina. Nominato mandarino, esercitò la carica con dignità e decoro, al punto di diventare cinese egli stesso, per lingua, costumi e abiti, pur senza rinunciare in nulla alla sua fede.

DOI 10.1007/978-88-470-1533-3
Local access dig.pdf. [Longo-Martino Martini.pdf]

FRANCO DEMARCHI: Martino Martini und die Chinamission der Jesuiten im 17. Jahrhundert — KLAUS SCHATZ S.J.: Jesuiten und Propaganda-Missionare. Zwei unterschiedliche Wege der Akkommodation — SEVERINO VARESCHI: Heiliges Offizium gegen Propaganda"? Das Dekret des Jahres 1656 in der Ritenfrage und die Rolle Martino Martinis — LANFRANCO M. FEDRIGOTTI S.D.B.: Martino Martini's De Bello Tartarico. A Late Ming and Early Qing Chronicle, Valid Point of Reference for a "History of the People" — ADRIAN HSIA: The Literary Reception of Martino Martini's De Bello Tartarico Historia (1654) in Europe — UTA LINDGREN: Wissenschaftshistorische Bemerkungen zur Stellung von Martinis Novus Atlas Sinensis (1655) — CLAUDIA VON COLLANI: Theologie und Chronologie in Martinis Sinicae Historiae Decas Prima (1658) — LUCIA LONCO: Martino Martinis Traktat über die Freundschaft (1661) — ARNOLD ZINGERLE: Verwandtschaft trotz Fremdheit? Eine Hypothese zu den Bedingungen der Verständigung zwischen Jesuiten-Missionaren und Literaten-Beamten.
Drei Nachdrucke: BENNO M. BIERMANN, O.P.: War Martino Martini chinesischer Mandarin? -- HENRI BERNARD, S.J.: Les sources Mongoles et Chinoises de l’Atlas Martini (1655) -- H. VERHAEREN, C.M.: A German edition of Fr. Martini’s Novus Atlas Sinensis.
Biogramm — Bibliographie — Generalindex.

Martino Martini’s Qiuyou pian (逑友篇, 1647) : introducing the Christian understanding of friendship in early modern China / Son Eunsil 손은실

 Published in Religions 2026, 17(1), 62

Abstract: 
Martino Martini’s Qiuyou pian (逑友篇, 1647) represents a deliberate attempt to complement Matteo Ricci’s Jiaoyou lun (交友論, 1595) by introducing a deeper Christian understanding of friendship to China. Despite its rich content and scholarly value, Qiuyou pian has remained overshadowed by Jiaoyou lun. While scholars have noted Christian overtones in Martini’s work, no detailed analysis of its distinctive approach to friendship has been undertaken. Through close textual analysis, this study reveals that Martini’s conception of friendship is deeply rooted in the Christian notion of agape (love). The analysis illuminates both similarities and differences between the two works while drawing meaningful parallels between Qiuyou pian and Aelred of Rievaulx’s Spiritual Friendship, a seminal Christian text that adapts Ciceronian ideals of friendship. Martini’s reflections resonate with Aelred’s adaptation, suggesting a conceptual lineage that transcends temporal and cultural boundaries. Recovering this overlooked work reveals the complex dynamics of Jesuit cultural accommodation and religious transmission in early modern China.

The forgotten Christians of Hangzhou / D. E. Mungello.

"Based on manuscripts from the once inaccessible former Jesuit library of Zikawei in Shanghai, this book breaks new ground in focusing on the generation that followed Matteo Ricci and other luminaries of the early China mission. Unusual in its coverage of both Jesuits and their Chinese literati converts, The Forgotten Christians of Hangzhou traces the development of the Christian presence in seventeenth century Hangzhou through the work of Jesuit fathers Martino Martini and Prospero Intorcetta, and Confucian scholar Zhang Xingyao, whose struggle to demonstrate the compatibility of Neo-Confucianism with the 'Lord of Heaven Teaching from the Far West' forms the focus of D. E. Mungello's penetrating study. Zhang and his fellow literati converts were in almost all respects highly orthodox Confucians who nevertheless regarded Christianity as complementary to, and in some respects transcending, Confucianism. Their search for an intellectual blending of the two religions shows that, contrary to important recent studies, Christianity was inculturated into seventeenth-century China far more than has been realized. Prior to their dissolution at the hands of a hostile imperial government a century later, the Hangzhou Christians had built one of the most beautiful churches in East Asia, a seminary for training young Chinese priests, a library and printing center, and a Jesuit cemetery. The church and cemetery have since been reopened and the works of Hangzhou Christians are preserved in libraries in Shanghai, Beijing, and Paris. These architectural and literary monuments help reconstruct the features of one of China's most colorful and historical cities and the experiences of some of her most remarkable inhabitants. The Forgotten Christians of Hangzhou not only tells us their story but adds a new dimension to our knowledge of the assimilation of Christianity by Chinese culture—a process that is still under way today."

Zhongguo lishi : cong shangu zhi gongyuan yuannian 中國歷史 : 從上古至公元元年 / Martini, Martino 衛匡國, Masini, Federico 馬西尼, Paternicò, Luisa M.Socol, Carlo 苏国怡

內容簡介

為浙江省社科規劃重大課題“衛匡國全集”之一，受到義大利外交與國際合作部資助。習近平主席曾在義大利《晚郵報》發表署名文章，對衛匡國（Martino Martini）等人在中西文化交流上所作貢獻充分肯定。衛匡國的《中國歷史》是在歐洲出版的第一部系統、詳實地描述從中華民族的起源至漢哀帝這一漫長時段中國古代歷史著作，向西方展示了古老而又燦爛的中華文明，其詳盡程度以及在歐洲產生的影響是此前其他著作所無法比擬的。

衛匡國意圖以蒂托·李維（Tito Livio）的羅馬史《羅馬建城紀年》為範本，以每部十卷的方式向西方介紹中國的歷史。從本書的拉丁文原名為《中國歷史·第一部十卷》中可見衛匡國本來應該計畫在這部《十卷》之後還有後續的兩部《十卷》，但隨著他的早逝，其後續的中國歷史著作沒能問世。本書卷一介紹了中國的神話和中國人的世界起源觀；卷二為夏代史；卷三為商代卷；卷四、卷五為周代史；卷六為秦代史；卷七至卷十均為西漢史。書稿內容以多部中國典籍為底本，並附有衛匡國本人，義大利當代漢學家白佐良、馬西尼、陸商隱、安德偉，以及中文版主編張剛峰、蘇國怡，譯者瞿姍姍，審校陶磊等人的大量學術注解。

Christianity in China according to the Brevis Relatio / A. Lazzarotto--Making friends in the essential tension / Bao Limin--Martino Martini's Treatise on Friendship and other Chinese works / Giuliano Bertuccioli--On the contribution of Italian Sinologist Martino Martini to the cultural exchange between China and Italy / Xu Mingde--M. Martini and Hangzhou Catholic Church / John Zhu Fengqing--Trying to assess J. Aleni's mission in China / Chen Cunfu--The end of Aleni's mission in China / Lin Jinshui and Wu Huaimin--J. Aleni and Poxieji / Xia Guiqi--The purpose and significance of Aleni's writing on M. Ricci, Michael Zhang and Yang Tingyun / Xu Zuda--Intorcetta, his important contribution to Sino-Western exchange / Guo Mutian--Yang Guangxian's opposition to Adam Schall: Christianity and Western science in his work Budeyi / Eugenio Menegon--Ragioni storico-culturali della controversia dei Riti Cinesi / Pietro Tchao--On Li Zhizao's main acts and contributions to Sino-Western exchange / Huang Lanying--A study of Christian history in Wenzhou before 1949 / Mo Fayou.

中國耶穌會教士紀略 -- 包利民 : 逑友與必要的張力之中 : 論衛匡國的逑友篇 -- 徐明德 : 論意大利漢學家衛匡國在中意文化交流史上的卓越功績 -- 朱峰青 ： 杭州教堂 -- 陳村富 : 評艾儒略的傳教活動 -- 林金水, 吳懷民 : 記艾氏在閩北 -- 夏瑰琦 : 艾儒略入閩傳教與破邪集 -- 徐祖達 : 論艾儒略撰寫利瑪竇, 楊廷荺, 張識三傳之目的與意文 -- 郭慕天 : 中西文化交流的功 臣殷鐸澤 -- 楊光先對湯若望從不得已看基督教與西方科學 -- 中國禮儀之爭的歷史文化 -- 黃蘭英 : 論李之藻在中西文化交流史上的主要活動和貢獻 -- 莫法有 : 1949 年前德溫州基督教史研究.

Added keywords: Zhongguo Yesuhui jiaoshi jilue; Qiuyou pian; Chinese rites controversy (Italian)