"How we chose the “Giants” Luisa M. Paternicò – “Sapienza” University of Rome “This is the story of a small group of men who, breaking with the dominant spirit of their times and recalling a distant past, restored the concept of...
more"How we chose the “Giants”
Luisa M. Paternicò – “Sapienza” University of Rome
“This is the story of a small group of men who, breaking with the dominant spirit of their times and recalling a distant past, restored the concept of cultural adaptation to a central position in the world mission of Christianity. […] Their story is worth telling not simply as an important segment of world history, but because it has much to say […] to a world which has not yet learned to break down the barriers of cultural, racial and national pride.”
Gorge H. Dunne’s words at the end of the prologue of Generation of Giants (1962) have been the driving force for this monographical issue. The authors of this volume offer to the reader a vivid, though concise, portrait of the main characters of the Jesuit China mission, from the end of the 16th until the beginning of the 18th century. The choice of the missionaries presented in this volume has been inspired by different factors. First of all, the wish to familiarize the reader about some Jesuits who are probably less known than the pioneer of the China mission, Matteo Ricci, but certainly not less influent in the history of the relations between China and the West. At the same time we tried to choose a bouquet of talents as multicolored as possible, including some missionaries who, for chronological reasons, had been excluded from Dunne’s work, which concentrated on the last decades of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Finally, we followed the leading definition of “giants” offered by Giuliano Bertuccioli in Italia e Cina (1996) concerning the China Jesuits: […] “those missionaries proved incredibly endowed both physically and mentally. This is witnessed by their resistance to endless hardships, including those of the long and dangerous journey from Europe to China; by their accommodation abilities and, above all, by the way they were able to support themselves and the mission […]; by their remarkable, sometimes phenomenal, cultural production. Astronomers, mathematicians, geographers, theologicians, painters, musicians, experts in hydraulics and ballistics: the China Jesuits of that time were definitely ad omnia parati”.
After an introduction on the beginning of the Jesuit mission in the Celestial Empire, we will present those missionaries who, as we believe, were key figures in the China mission – being aware that others could have been included. For their strength in facing and overcoming indescribable difficulties and unease – including plagues and persecutions – as well as for their ability in making themselves known as scholars and intellectuals in China - fighting off the distrust and the hostility of the Chinese as well as that of the missionaries of other orders – they deserve to be called “giants”: Johann Schreck (1576-1630), who wanted to move to a country that, as witnesses used to say, was ruled by learned men and where scholars were not persecuted” (Iannaccone); Giulio Aleni (1582-1649), the humble “Fujian’s apostle” who first “described the world as it was known and imagined in the West in the 17th century to the Chinese” (De Troia); Adam Schall (1591-1666) “the first Christian missionary to be in charge of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, opening the way for later missionaries to stay at the Imperial Court in Peking” (C. von Collani); Michael Boym (1612-1659) “partly a missionary, partly a scientist, a diplomat, a traveller and a dreamer” (Miazek); Martino Martini (1614-1661), who “was the first to introduce China to the European readers” (Masini); Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688), “the transmitter of Western science and technology to the Far East” (Golvers); Prospero Intorcetta (1625-1696), who “had an outstanding knowledge of Chinese language and culture” (Paternicò); Tomas Pereira (1646-1708) who “was appreciated for his musical talent as well as for his ability to fix clocks, make musical instruments and automations” (Antonucci); Joachim Bouvet (1656-1730) who “was somehow forced by the circumstances to propose an alternative accommodation strategy” (Paternicò); Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), who made “masterfully crafted paintings” and “also worked as an architect and as a designer of objects produced in the imperial palace workshops” (Salviati)."
