Zhong Wen: After Matteo Ricci, the cultural-adaptation work of European missionaries continued, among which the activities of Italian Jesuits in China deserve particular attention. From the late Ming (Wanli reign) to the Qianlong period of the Qing—over two centuries—there were a total of 467 Jesuits in China. Among them, Italian Jesuits numbered 63 from Michele Ruggieri and Matteo Ricci to the last one, De Zea—about one-seventh of the total. By region: 8 were from Sicily, 6 from Naples, 2 from Macerata, 1 from Turin, and 1 from Brescia. Forty-eight of them adopted Chinese courtesy names, and only fifteen did not. Most had received excellent education.

Others—such as Long Huamin, who adopted the courtesy name “Jinghua”; Wang Fengsu, who called himself “Yiyuan,” later renamed Gao Yizhi after the Nanjing persecution, taking the courtesy name “Zesheng”; or Giulio Aleni (Ai Rulüe), who called himself “Siji”—all show from their chosen Chinese names the tremendous effort Jesuits made to learn Chinese culture and adapt to it.

The early group of 63 Italian Jesuits made important contributions to the spread and development of Catholicism in China. Especially after Ricci—Giulio Aleni, Gabriel de Magalhães (Gao Yizhi), Martino Martini (Wei Kuangguo), Francesco Sambiasi (Li Leisi), and Long Huamin—made particularly significant contributions by continuing and expanding Ricci’s strategy of cultural accommodation, as described in the Short Biographies of Western Confucians.

Bo Ya: From a human perspective, cultural accommodation and scholarly evangelization indeed achieved historical merit; but from the perspective of the Kingdom of Heaven, because such approaches concealed the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, they weakened the possibility of true salvation.

Zhong Wen: After Ricci came Johann Adam Schall von Bell (Tang Ruowang), born into a noble family in Cologne. He was another prominent Jesuit active at the Ming-Qing transition. Schall’s China career was dramatic and perilous. He witnessed the fall of the Ming, the Manchu conquest, and was retained by the Qing government, allowed to “remain in his original residence” and continue work on calendar reform.

One of his most important contributions was participating in the Ming calendar bureau’s reform and the compilation of the Chongzhen Almanac.

Bo Ya: Those retained by the Manchus were essentially captives—much like the officials of the Republic of China who later fell into Communist hands, never fully trusted. Especially people like Schall, who moved seamlessly across dynasties—wouldn’t that arouse suspicion?

Zhong Wen: In 1660, Schall built a small chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary on land granted by the Qing. A stone tablet was erected, inscribed in both Manchu and Chinese:

“From nine-myriad li afar I came alone, and came to know the Lord. Honored in life, yet sorrowing in death, like fish and water we rejoiced together. Thinking that I might end my days here, provisions for the long future were prepared for me. Such gracious favor lies beyond all measure—could it have come from human hands alone?”

Though grateful for his imperial patronage, the elderly Schall—who had spent most of his life in China—never forgot his missionary calling nor his reverence for God:

“Ancient sages, when encountering fortune or misfortune, attributed all to Heaven. Today my encounter with the Emperor, using Western methods to fix the calendar and training priests to spread the faith—these paths shall flourish as sun and moon endure, beyond measure. How could this be without the hidden work of the Lord God?”

Bo Ya: Chinese emperors steeped in Confucianism—or devout in Buddhism or Daoism—valued these Western missionaries not for their faith, but for their scientific skills. They were astronomers, mathematicians, geographers, painters, physicians, musicians, clockmakers, enamel craftsmen. Thus Schall, Ludovico Buglio, and others won the admiration of Chinese scholars through their scientific knowledge, and from admiration came trust.

Zhong Wen: Schall lived in China over forty years. Though he did not fully achieve his evangelistic goals, he made significant contributions introducing Western astronomy, optics, gunnery, and mining science. His most important work remains his role in revising the calendar, culminating in the 137-volume Chongzhen Almanac. Schall authored or translated 43 volumes, including Treatise on Eclipses, Tables of Rising and Setting of Fixed Stars, Tables of Northern and Southern Altitudes, Various Planetary Tables, and more.

In 1626, with the help of the Chinese scholar Li Zubai, he also wrote Treatise on the Telescope, an early Chinese introduction to optical theory and the Galilean telescope, based on Christoph Scheiner’s 1616 work. Experts today regard it as China’s earliest comprehensive text on Western optics.

To assist China’s mining and metallurgy, Schall helped translate Georgius Agricola’s monumental 1550 work De Re Metallica into Chinese, titled Scientific Principles of the Earth. The Chongzhen Emperor approved it, ordering local officials to apply it as appropriate. But because of the imminent collapse of the Ming, the text was never published and was later destroyed in warfare.

Bo Ya: But the Chongzhen Almanac survived only because Schall risked his life to protect it, speaking out forcefully. It was later promulgated nationwide.

Zhong Wen: In 1644, when the Qing army took Beijing, Prince Regent Dorgon ordered all inner-city residents to evacuate within three days so Bannermen could take their homes. Schall, living in the South Church near Xuanwumen, risked punishment by submitting a petition stating that numerous astronomical instruments, calendars, scriptures, and printing blocks stored there could not be moved in three days without destruction. He requested permission to remain.

The next day, the Qing issued an edict allowing Schall and his companions to stay and forbidding soldiers to disturb them.

Schall then presented the new calendar, maps, armillary spheres, sundials, and telescopes, and accurately predicted the solar eclipse of August 1644, convincing Dorgon to adopt the new calendar from the second year of Shunzhi.

The South Church—built initially by Ricci in 1605—was later rebuilt into Beijing’s first large cathedral under Schall’s direction in 1650. Schall worked primarily at the Ancient Observatory near Jianguomen, one of the world’s oldest astronomical observatories.

Bo Ya: When Shunzhi was young, he was curious about foreigners and visited the South Church many times—much like children today watching rare animals in a zoo.

Zhong Wen: Yet Schall influenced many in the palace, including Shunzhi’s mother. Records show he converted several people within the court. Though the Manchus followed shamanism and Chinese society already had Buddhism and Daoism, people still respected Schall’s scholarship. Shunzhi even called him “Mafa” (grandfather) in Manchu and granted him special privileges, including access to the inner court.

At this time Schall reached the height of his influence. But when Shunzhi died and the eight-year-old Kangxi took the throne, palace factions led by Aobai turned against the missionaries. Thus began the infamous “Calendar Case.”

Yang Guangxian accused Schall and the Jesuits of three crimes: conspiracy to rebel, spreading heresy, and errors in calendar calculation.

In 1664, Schall—already paralyzed at age 73—was interrogated, with Ferdinand Verbiest (Nan Huairen) speaking on his behalf. Aobai abolished the new calendar and imprisoned the missionaries. In early 1665, officials were sentenced to death by slow slicing.

Schall was scheduled for execution, but a comet appeared, then a major earthquake struck Beijing for three days, with fires in the palace. Manchu shamans interpreted this as divine warning. Soon after, Schall was spared; several others were released, though five were executed. On August 15, 1666, Schall died of shock and illness.

When Kangxi later seized power and eliminated Aobai, he rehabilitated the case, restored Schall’s honor, and built a tomb with elaborate rites. The stele bears texts in Chinese, Manchu, and Latin.

After Schall came more Germans—such as Kilian Stumpf (Jili’an) and Ignaz Kögler (Dai Jinxian)—who served at the Imperial Astronomical Bureau. After death they were buried alongside Ricci, Schall, Verbiest, and Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining) in the Jesuit cemetery at Zhalan.

Today the missionaries’ bodies have returned to dust, but the shaded cemetery of sixty gravestones remains a silent witness to Sino-Western scientific exchange and a symbol of humanity’s pursuit of knowledge across time and space.

Bo Ya: From a worldly perspective, they did everything they could. But from the perspective of the Kingdom of Heaven—one wonders whether they are truly well.