Mnemonics and Bacon

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108 臺大文史哲學報 conducive to the imprinting of images. Thus, both children and the aged have difficulty memorizing things and, therefore, are prone to forgetfulness (2001: 143-44). Though Ricci does not specify the sources of his conceptions of memory, we, in the light of the striking similarity between Ricci and Aristotle, can hardly avoid the conclusion that Ricci is greatly indebted to Aristotle for the notion of memory. Likewise, Ricci is well aware of the tradition emanating from Simonides and accordingly credits the invention of mnemonics to Simonides. 24 To remember things, Ricci emphasizes that each item be given an image, and that we should assign a place for everything we try to remember. While mnemonic skills made up an integral part of the curriculum Ricci received at the Jesuit College in Rome, two overriding influences on Ricci’s guidelines for constructing memory edifices were Quintilian and Rhetorica ad Herennium (Spence 5). In her monograph on Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), Rowland clearly points out that the art of memory made up an essential part of grammar-school education in sixteenth-century Italy, and that seminary students would harness mnemonic skills to memorize different kinds of theological works, including the Scriptures, sermons, and canon law, to hoard up preaching materials or to spiritually exercise themselves (62). Echoing Quintilian and Rhetorica ad Herennium, Ricci foregrounds the import of assigning different places to the images of the things we intend to memorize. Ricci indicates that these places generally fall into three sizes in accordance with the number of things one would like to memorize: “If you are going to use a great many [images], then let the buildings be hundreds or thousands of units in extent; if you only want a few, then take a single reception hall and just divide it up by its corners.” 25 24 The original passage is as follows: 「古西詩伯西末泥德嘗與親友聚飲一室,賓主甚眾,忽出室外,其堂隨為迅風摧崩,飲眾悉壓而死,其尸齎粉,家人莫能辨識。西末泥德因憶親友坐次行列,乃一一記而別之,因悟記法創此遺世焉。」 (2001: 146). The box represents a smudged and, therefore, illegible Chinese character (2005: 6). 25 Here I follow Spence’s translation (9-10). The following passage excerpted from Ricci’s Chinese original can shed more light on the importance of architecture in his mnemonic system and, more importantly, his indebtedness to Quintilian and Rhetorica ad Herennium: 「凡記法,須預定處所,以安頓所記之象。處所分三等,有大,有中, 有小。其大則廣宇大第,若公府,若黌宮,若寺觀,若邸居,若舍館,自數區至數十百區,多多益善。中則一堂,一軒,一齋,一室。小則室之一隅,或一神龕,或倉櫃座榻。……用多,則廣宇千百間,少,則一室可分方隅,要在臨時斟酌,不可拘執一轍」 (2001: 148). A parallel argument can be found in Aleni: 「西國有習之者,法雖不一,各有訣焉。大概先在心中,備一宏大之宇。或為曾熟遊,或為暫所
Mnemonics and Bacon Though Ricci, on the whole, remains a loyal disciple of classical mnemonics as revealed in Ji fa, he sometimes modifies traditional techniques to facilitate his missionary work in China. For example, the author of Rhetorica ad Herennium reminds the reader that when faced with a surfeit of images it is desirable to put marks at regular intervals: “And that we may by no chance err in the number of backgrounds, each fifth background should be marked. For example, if in the fifth we set a golden hand, and in the tenth some acquaintance whose first name is Decimus, it will then be easy to station like marks in each successive fifth ground” (III. xvii; 211). 26 However, always mindful of his mission to convert the Chinese to Catholicism, Ricci suggests that his Chinese readers can insert a Chinese character 十 at every tenth memory image. 27 The Chinese ideograph 十 proposed in Ricci’s mnemonic tract for Chinese readers, notes Spence, is at once a reminder of the decimal system and, more importantly, of the profound symbolism intimated by the cross (23). The foregoing vignette of Ricci, who is nine years Bacon’s senior, 28 is meant to note the fact that on the threshold of the seventeenth century classical mnemonics still remained vigorous and retained a firm foothold in the training curriculum of Jesuit missionaries. Some people might demur, arguing Ricci’s and Aleni’s cases are only an isolated, singular piece of evidence falling shy of being a compelling proof that Bacon is also aware of classical mnemonics. This argument is certainly justifiable, but it should be emphasized again that the mnemonic techniques Ricci instructs to the Chinese amply demonstrate that classical mnemonics, typified by Quintilian’s treatise and Rhetorica ad Herennium, still retained its momentum on the Continent of the sixteenth century. Spence proffers several other examples wherein mnemonics came under attack. The thinkers or writers mentioned by Spence, including Cornelius Agrippa, Erasmus, Melanchthon, and Rabelais, either discredit the usefulness of these mnemonic devices or bitterly berate that these mnemonic structures, rather than enlighten people, will eventually stifle their development in 假設。其中殿廡樓臺,堂館亭榭,園林池沼,峭壁浮屠,無奇不偹 ,無珍不錯。或半生成,半剏制,如穴中塑像,山頂立亭,各部署而排列焉。」(285-86). 26 The number of fingers on a hand is used as a reminder of the number “five,” and the Latin word “decimus” means “tenth.” Aleni, in his elucidation of mnemonics, also mentions the use of a “golden hand”: 「然此法之妙,亦不全在乎多,而在乎熟。轉念之間,即億誰首誰次,本位毫釐不差。又或每排五象,即間一金掌。」(287). 27 「又不論虛實,序成行列,編成字號,如每至十所一號,記一十字,總記幾十幾號, 以便查考,以便聯絡應用,庶免紊亂。」 (2001: 148). 28 Matteo Ricci (1552-1610); Francis Bacon (1561-1626). 109
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