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Clerics › Religious Figure
Italian Jesuit who reached Beijing in 1613, worked across Jiangnan, wrote on the soul with Xu Guangqi and was later received by the Southern Ming courts
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 Francesco Sambiasi
Francesco Sambiasi, known in Chinese as Bi Fangji, was an Italian Jesuit trained in astronomy and mathematics who reached Macau in 1610 and entered Beijing in 1613. After the Nanjing persecution of the late Wanli years he worked in Huai'an, Nanjing, Wuxi, Shanghai and Jiading, and built a church in Nanjing. With Xu Guangqi he wrote the Lingyan lishao, an introduction to the scholastic doctrine of the soul, and he also wrote short dialogues on sleep and on painting. After the fall of Beijing he was received with honour by the Southern Ming courts of Hongguang, Longwu and Yongli, and he died at Guangzhou in 1649. The Ming History (Mingshi) names him, with Niccolo Longobardo, Giulio Aleni and Johann Schreck, among the missionaries well known in China at the time.
The Italy chapter of the Ming History says the countries of Europe all follow the teaching of Jesus and the Lord of Heaven, and that those of that land who came east were mostly intent on spreading the teaching rather than seeking pay or profit. It names Longobardo, Bi Fangji, Aleni and Schreck among those then well known in the Chinese lands.
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