Because of the hard work of Jesuits such as Matteo Ricci, the Catholic Church finally established roots in China. By the time of his death, there were already four churches located in four different places: Beijing, Nanjing, Nanchang and Shaozhou.
There were 13 European priests, seven Chinese seminarians with a congregation of about 2,000. Before he died, Ricci told Didago de Pantoia SJ, Sabbatino de Ursis SJ, as well as two Chinese seminarians, You Wenhui and Zhong Mingren: "I have opened a grand door for you. If you go in through this door, you will dogreat works.‘The appreciation that the early Jesuits showed towards Chi- nese culture earned the respect of Chinese officials and intellec- tuals. In return, those officials made it much easier for the mis- sionaries to work in China. Some of them were even attracted by the teachings of the Catholic Church and were eventually bap- tized, the most well known being the scholars Xu Guangqi, LiZhicao and Yang Tingjun. Because of their contributions to the Catholic missionary work in China, they were called the "Three Pillars of the Catholic Church in the Ming Dynasty‘?
Xu Guangqi (1562-1633) was born in Xu Jiahui, Shanghai. He saw the Shan Hai yu Di Quan Tu (The map of the world) when he was young and be-gan to show his admiration for Father Matteo Ricci. In the spring of 1600, Xu Guangqi was delighted to meet Ricci for the first time in Nanjing. The latter started to teach him the Catholic Catechism. In1603, Xu spent eight days in Nanjing to study Ricci"s book The True Meaning of theLord of Heaven (Tianzhu Shi Yi) and was baptized by FatherJoao de Rocha SJ. His Christian name was taken after the Apostle Paul. In 1604, Xu earned the title Jinshi after he passed the na- tional exam for scholars and entered Hanlin Academy. Eventu- ally, he became an official in charge of imperial ceremonies and a scholar in the Wen Yuange in the imperial court.
Xu Guangqi was a scholar who could utilize his knowledge well. He was the foremost scholar to learn and to introduce West- ern science to China. In the fall of 1605, Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi began to translateEuclid"s Elements (Ji He Yuan Ben) into Chinese. It was a mile- stone of the cultural exchanges between the West and China. Over a period of one year, Xu came to Ricci"s house every af- ternoon around three or four o"clock to work with him. As Ricci spoke, Xu recorded all hiswords. Eventually, the first sixbooks of the Elements were pub-
lished. Because of the extraordinary quality of this translation, the terms they used for Geometry: Dian (point), Xian (line), Zhixian (straight line), Pingmian (Plane), Quxian (Curved line), are still in use today. The most important aspect of this book is that it introduced the strict Western scholastic logic method into China and became the foundation of its development. Chinese intellectuals highly appreciated the book. After Xu"s death, Em-peror Wan Li donated a piece of land for his burial. This caused some resentment among some officials, eliciting a response from Ye Xianggao, an official from the Imperial ceremonial court, as follows: "You have not seen any foreigner who was granted a piece of land for burial in the past. Have you seen anyone whose knowledge surpassed Matteo Ricci? Simply, the book Elements (Ji He Yuan Ben) is the first and the greatest book in Chinese history. Its contribution is immeasurable. Merely because of this,the Emperor should grant him a piece of land for burial.‘At the end of the Ming Dynasty, those intellectuals, who accepted the Catholic teachings, did so mainly because they found similarities between the two cultures. Xu Guangqi, in his book Bian Xue Zhang Shu (Chapters on distinquished learning), wrote about the Catholic Church as follows: "The Church teaches people to be kind, which leads to knowledge of the Truth; to avoid evil which leads to purity. The Church teaches God"s cre- ation and salvation history, as well as the meaning of rewarding the good and punishing the evil. Anyone who understands the true teachings of the Church will be moved by it.‘ The Catholic Church can "help the Emperor to safeguard the Kingdom, to con- trol the development of Confucian culture and to correct theBuddhist methods‘? Simply, it is "Bu Ru Yi Fo’ (adding whatConfucian culture lacks, correcting what is wrong in Buddhism)?