"The most important source informing us about the Fujian community is the Kouduo richao 口鐸日鈔, an extensive selected record of the missionaries' preaching in Fujian during a period of more than ten years (13 March 1630-4 July 1640). More than twenty-five Christians participated in the recording and editing of this work. Besides theological questions, it contains quite a number of homilies related to moral questions."--Cf. Standaert, Handbook of Christianity in China, v. 1, p. 423.

Jap-Sin I, 81
Kouduo richao 口鐸日鈔
By Ai Rulüe 艾儒略 (Giulio Aleni), Lu Ande 盧安德 (Andrius Rudamina, zi Panshi 盤石, 1594–1632), Lin Bendu 林本篤 (Bento de Matos) and Qu Ximan 瞿西滿 (Simão da Cunha).
Eight juan. Chinese bamboo paper in four volumes, bound in one volume, European style. The cover bears the title in Chinese.

There is a preface (three folios) by Zhang Geng 張賡, another (five folios) by Lin Yijun 林一[jun], (zi Yongyu 用籲) and a last one (two folios) by Li Jiubiao 李九標, (zi Qixiang 其香). Then follow directions to the readers (one and one-half folio) and a general table of contents (one folio), which reaches only juan 6. A more specific table of contents is found at the beginning of each juan, which gives a short description of each item and the number of the corresponding folio.
There are nine columns in each half folio. The first column of each paragraph contains twenty characters and the rest of the paragraph has nineteen characters in each column. The title of the book is given on the upper middle of each folio with the number of the juan and of the folio below.
Pfister (p. 193, no. 2) speaks of the Kouduo richao as “Réponses à diverses questions posées par des lettrés au P. Rudomina et au P. Aleni (ci-dessus, p. 136, no. 31). L’ouvrage a été rédigé par des lettrés au nombre de six, et imprimé à leurs frais à Fou-tcheou, 1630, en 8 vol.” Both Hsü Tsung-tse (Xu Zongze 1949, p. 89) and Fang Hao (JWC 1:260) give the same account. However, Pfister was not quite correct in his statement. The replies given to the scholars are not only those of Aleni and Rudamina; rather they include also those of two other Fukien missioners, Bento de Matos (in juan 4 and 6) and Simão da Cunha (juan 6). Moreover, the book cannot have been published in 1630 (see below).
The Chinese scholars who took part in publishing this book numbered no less than twenty-four, the most important of whom was Li Jiubiao, who had recorded the replies of the missioners. The following is a synopsis of the eight juan:

1. Replies made by Aleni and Rudamina from the first month of Chongzhen 3 (1630) to the second month of the next year (1631); altogether twenty-nine days with seventy-one replies.
2. Replies by Aleni and Rudamina from the fourth to the eleventh month of Chongzhen 4 (1631); twenty-seven days with sixty-eight replies.
3. Replies by Aleni from the eleventh intercalary month of Chongzhen 4 (1631) to the seventh month of the next year (1632); thirty-three days with sixty-three replies.
4. Replies by Aleni and de Matos from the second to the ninth month of Chongzhen 6 (1633); twenty-seven days with fifty-four replies.
5. Replies by Aleni from the tenth month of Chongzhen 6 (1633) to the sixth month of the next year (1634); twenty days with sixty-two replies (according to the table of contents; actually there are only forty-two replies).
6. Replies by Aleni, Simão da Cunha and Bento de Matos from the eleventh month of Chongzhen 7 (1634) to the eighth year (1635); from the seventh month of Chongzhen 8 (1635) to the ninth year of Chongzhen (1636), second to eighth month included; twenty-five days with fifty replies.
7. Replies by Aleni from the first month of Chongzhen 10 (1637) to the eleventh day of the ninth month of the same year; thirty days with forty replies.
8. Replies by Aleni from the eighth month of Chongzhen 11 (1638) to the fifth month of Chongzhen 13 (1640); nineteen days with thirty-six replies.

In general, the questions and replies deal with Catholic doctrine and at times with Western sciences. It was only natural that, since many of these converts were scholars, their interests should turn towards cultural problems. There were others who were Buddhists and then the discussion would turn towards fake religion and superstition, as we find in juan 8 (ff. 1b–6b), the report of a discussion (on Buddhism, Taoism and the cult of the city god), which Aleni had on 23 September 1638 in Putian 莆田 with Mr. Zhu, a former Grand Secretary at the Nanjing government [Zhu Zongbo 朱宗伯, 會相國于横塘] (which must refer to Zhu Jizuo 朱繼祚, zi Liwang 立望, jinshi of 1619 and a native of Pu-tian, cf. Fujian tongzhi 福建通志, juan 216, f. 5a). This is a good example of the kind of conversation the ancient missioners must have had with non-Christian scholars.
Throughout the book one finds a good deal about the Christian practices of the early church in China. For example, in juan 7 (folio 6b), where the funeral of Mark Chang is described. This book is full of historical details which could be of great help to both secular and ecclesiastical historians. It will perhaps be useful to note down some of these details:

Juan and Folio numbers:
Juan 1, 11b---The pacification and rebellion of Zheng Zhilong 鄭芝龍.
Juan 1, 10a---Necessity of the Catholic press.
Juan 2, 4b---Lin Yijun (author of a preface, see above) and Wang Zheng 王徵 ](ECCP 2:807–809), who after being converted to Catholicism, refused to take concubines.
Juan 2, 9b---The building of the church in Futang 福唐 (Fuqing 福清) was started in the spring of 1631, completed in the summer of the same year, but it was not put into service until the autumn.
Juan 4, 24a---The Xiuzhenhui 修真會 in Zhangzhou 漳州, the patron of which was Lü Dongbin, a Taoist deity.
Juan 5, 14a, 23b and Juan 6, 24a---Catholic books in Chinese in circulation in those days.
Juan 6, 9b---The Catholics proposed to establish a Society of Chastity.
Juan 6, 13b, 16a---The Sodality of Taoyuan 桃源.
Juan 6, 28a--- The new church built in Longjiang 龍江, dedicated to Our Lady of the Snow (see also juan 8, f. 25a).
Juan 6, 29a--- The Catholics of Longjiang proposed to establish a local Sodality.
Juan 7, 19b, 20a---The discovery of the Nestorian monument.
Juan 8, 10b--- Many conversions among the poor but few among the rich.
Juan 8, 18b–19b The three Duan 段 brothers of Shanxi: Peter Duan Gun 段袞, Duan Xi 段襲 (Vital?) and Duan Yi 段扆 (Paul?), all staunch Catholics, friends of Alfonso Vagnone and benefactors of the newly founded mission in Shanxi.
Source: Albert Chan, S.J., Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, p. 131-133.