Clerics › Religious Figure
Li Madou
Italian Jesuit who reached Macau in 1582, won leave to live in Beijing in 1601 and with Xu Guangqi translated the first six books of Euclid into Chinese
In a temple courtyard at dusk, a great bronze bell hangs at the right and incense smoke rises from a bronze urn; monks in orange robes and plainly dressed visitors walk toward a lamplit hall, lotus flowers bloom in a stone basin, and a gold prayer wheel stands at the left.
Also known as Matteo Ricci
Matteo Ricci, known in Chinese as Li Madou, was a Jesuit from Macerata in Italy. He reached Macau in 1582 and the next year settled with Michele Ruggieri at Zhaoqing in Guangdong, later moving to Shaozhou, Nanchang and Nanjing, adopting the dress of a Confucian scholar. In 1601 the eunuch Ma Tang presented him to the Wanli emperor with gifts that included chiming clocks and religious paintings; the Ministry of Rites wanted him sent home, but the emperor let him stay in Beijing on a court stipend. He published the world map Kunyu wanguo quantu, which introduced the idea of five continents, wrote The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven (Tianzhu shiyi) to explain Christianity through the Confucian classics, and with Xu Guangqi translated the first six books of Euclid's Elements as Jihe yuanben. Xu Guangqi and Li Zhizao were among the officials he brought to the faith. He died in Beijing in 1610 and was granted a burial ground west of the city.
Life and times
Dates 1552 CE–1610 CE