Biography of Michele Ruggieri SJ, China missionary

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Biography of Michele Ruggieri SJ, China missionary
Name and Name Modifications:
Originally: Pompilio
Chinese: Luo Mingjian
Relevance for the China Mission:
Together with Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), Michele Ruggieri belongs to the pioneers
of the China mission of early modern times. He was the first European
to study the Chinese language in Macau, he made important contributions
to the Method of Accommodation in China, and he started to translate the
Four Confucian Books.
Dates of Birth and Death:
(∗) 1543 in Spinazzola, Apulia, Kingdom of Naples, today Italy
(†) 11 May 1607 in Salerno, Campagna, Kingdom of Sicily, today Italy
Family Data:
Ruggieri’s parents were Lodovico and Giulia Fonella. They called their son
Pompilio. The father was in the administration of Spinazzola.
Ruggieri joined the Society of Jesus in Rome on 27 or 28 October 1572.
His ordination to priesthood was on 12 March 1578 in Lisbon.
It is unknown when and where Ruggieri made his four solemn vows.
Education:
Ruggieri received his first education in Naples at the school of the Jesuits.
In 1560, Ruggieri enrolled for the study of both laws (canon and secular) at
the University of Naples, where he obtained the doctoral degree. Afterwards,
he worked to the Court of Justice.
Mission:
Departure for China: in 1578.

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Arrival in China: on 20 July 1579, in the Portuguese Enclave Macau.
Professional Career:
In Macau, Ruggieri had first contacts with the Jesuits Visitor Alessandro
Valignano (1539-1606), who gave the outlines of the mission method of accommodation.
This method should help to get contact to the Chinese people
and, perhaps, to start to do missionary work. Against the resistance of his
brethren in Macau, Ruggieri started to study the Chinese language, which
was considered to be impossible to be understood by Europeans. Nevertheless,
he succeeded to learn it so that he could join the annual Portuguese
trade legation to Guangdong as an interpreter. Ruggieri was highly admired
by the Chinese because of his abilities in the Chinese language and his politeness,
but only obtained a limited permission to stay in China. He celebrated
the first Eucharist on Chinese soil, and together with Fr. António de Almeida
(1557-1591), Ruggieri founded a mission in Zhejiang (1585), in Guangxi and
in Huguang (1587), but he was not permitted to stay there. In November
1588, he was ordered to return to Rome to prepare a Papal delegation to the
Imperial Court in Peking.
Based on Ruggieri’s experiences and preparatory work, his confrere Matteo
Ricci (in Macau since 1582, in China since 1583) succeeded to found the
China mission of early modern times for a long-term. Contrary to Ricci
and to most of his later brethren, Ruggieri refused Confucianism and tried
to cooperate with Buddhism. Ruggieri wrote the first Chinese catechism of
modern times and translated as first European part of the Chinese Classical
books, which remained unpublished. But they became the fundament of later
translations and publications of the Confucian Classics made by the Jesuits
in China.
Publications Michele Ruggieri:
• “Itinerandum Sinice factum” (ca. 1580-1590), English in: Albert Chan,
“Michele Ruggieri, S.J. (1543-1607) and His Chinese Poems”, Monumenta
Serica 41 (1993) pp. 139-157.
• Together with Matteo Ricci et al.: Zu chuan tian zhu shi jie (1583).
• Ruggieri’s catechism: Xin bian Xizhu guo tian zhu shi lu (1584), also
as: Tianzhu shilu, Latin: “Vera ac brevis divinarum rerum expositio”,
(1582), Latin in: Antonio Possevino, Bibliotheca selecta qua agitur
de ratione studiorum in historia, in disciplinis, in salute omnium

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procuranda (Romae 1593), t. I, liber IX, cap. XXVIII, p. 456, cf.
Piero Tacchi Venturi, Opere storiche del P. Matteo Ricci S.J., vol. 2
(Roma 1911-1913) pp. 498-540, later revised: Tianzhu sheng jiao shi
lu (posthumously, ca. 1640), s.a Nicolas Standaert, Ad Dudink (eds.),
Yesu hui Luoma dang an guan Ming Qing tian zhu jiao wen xian (Chinese
Christian texts from the Roman Archives of the Society of Jesus),
12 vols. (Taibei 2002), vol. 1, # 1.
• Jiao yao (1584).
• Together with Anonym: Luoma jiao huang zhi Da Ming guo guo zhu
shu (Letter by Pope Sixtus V [1585-1590] to the emperor of China)
(1590).
• “Lettera del P. Michele Ruggieri S.J. al P. Everardo Mercuriano, Preposito
Generale, Macao, 8 Novembre 1580, in: Pietro Tacchi Venturi (ed.),
Opere storiche del P. M. Ricci, vol. II: Lettere dalla Cina (Macerata
1913) pp. 396-399.
• “Lettera del P. Michele Ruggieri S.J. al P. Everardo mercuriano, Preposito
Generale, Macao, 12 Novembre 1581”, in: Pietro Tacchi Venturi
(ed.), Opere storiche del P. M. Ricci, vol. II: Lettere dalla Cina (Macerata
1913) pp. 399-406.
• “Lettera del P. Michele Ruggieri S.J. al P. Claudio Acquaviva, Preposito
Generale, Macao, 14 Dicembre 1582”, in: Pietro Tacchi Venturi
(ed.), Opere storiche del P. M. Ricci, vol. II: Lettere dalla Cina (Macerata
1913) pp. 402-408.
• “Lettera del P. Michele Ruggieri S.J. al P. Claudio Aquaviva, Preposito
Generale, Sciaochin, 7 Febbraio 1583”, in: Avvisi della Cina dell’ottantatre,
et dell’ottantaquvattro (Venezia 1586) pp. 169-174, Pietro Tacchi
Venturi (ed.), Opere storiche del P. M. Ricci, vol. II: Lettere dalla Cina
(Macerata 1913) pp. 410-419, Fernere Zeitung (Dilingen 1586) pp. 150-
155, englisch in: M. Howard Rienstra (ed., transl.), Jesuit Letters from
China 1583-84 (Minneapolis 1986) pp. 15-19.
• “Carta del P. Miguel Rogerio S.J. al Padre Alonso Sánchez, Xauquin,
a 7 de Hebrero de 1583”, in: Francisco Colín, Pablo Pastells, Labor
evangélica de los obreros de la Compañia de Jesús en las Islas Filipinas,
vol. 1 (Barcelona 1904) p. 315.
• “Carta de los PP. Miguel Rogerio y Francisco Pasio al P. Pero Gómez,
rector del colegio de Macan, Xauqín, a 10 de Hebrero de 1583, in:

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Francisco Colín, Pablo Pastells, Labor evangélica de los obreros de la
Compañia de Jesús en las Islas Filipinas, vol. 1 (Barcelona 1904) p.
318.
• “Carta de los PP. Miguel Rogerio y Francisco Pasio al P. Pero Gómez,
Xauquín, a 12 de Hebrero de 1583”, in: Francisco Colín, Pablo Pastells,
Labor evangélica de los obreros de la Compañia de Jesús en las Islas
Filipinas, vol. 1 (Barcelona 1904) p. 319.
• “Lettera del P. Michele Ruggieri S.J. al P. Claudio Acquaviva, Preposito
Generale, Macao, 25 Gennaio 1584”, in: Avvisi della Cina dell’ottantatre,
et dell’ottantaquvattro (Venezia 1586) pp. 177-179, Luís Froís, Fernere
Zeitung auß Japon, deß zwey unnd achtzigsten, und vier und achtzigsten
Jahr (Dillingen 1586) pp. 157-158, englisch in: M. Howard Rienstra
(ed., transl.), Jesuit Letters from China 1583-84 (Minneapolis 1986)
pp. 1f, Pietro Tacchi Venturi (ed.), Opere storiche del P. M. Ricci, vol.
II: Lettere dalla Cina (Macerata 1913) pp. 419-421.
• “Lettera del P. Michele Ruggieri S.J. al P. Claudio Acquaviva, Sciaochin,
30 Maggio 1584”, in: Avvisi della Cina dell’ottantatre, et dell’ottantaquvattro
(Venezia 1586) pp. 179f, Pietro Tacchi Venturi (ed.), Opere storiche del
P. M. Ricci, vol. II: Lettere dalla Cina (Macerata 1913) pp. 422-424,
Luís Froís, Fernere Zeitung auß Japon, deß zwey unnd achtzigsten, und
vier und achtzigsten Jahr (Dillingen 1586) pp. 158f.
• “Da un’altra [lettera] del P. Michele Ruggiero, di Amacano, 21 di Ottobre
1584”, in: Avvisi della Cina dell’ottantatre, et dell’ottantaquvattro
(Venezia 1586) pp. 180f, Luís Froís, Fernere Zeitung auß Japon, deß
zwey unnd achtzigsten, und vier und achtzigsten Jahr (Dillingen 1586)
pp. 159f, englisch in: M. Howard Rienstra (ed., transl.), Jesuit Letters
from China 1583-84 (Minneapolis 1986) pp. 23f.
• “Lettera del P. Michele Ruggieri S.J. al P. Claudio Acquaviva, Sicaochin,
18 Ottobre 1585”, in: Pietro Tacchi Venturi (ed.), Opere storiche del
P. M. Ricci, vol. II: Lettere dalla Cina (Macerata 1913) pp. 434f.
• Translation of several lines of the Confucian Classic Da Xue (Die große
Lehre) in: Antonio Possevino, Bibliotheca Selecta quae agitur de Ratione
Studiorum t. I (Rome 1593) lib. IX, p. 583.
• Eugenio Lo Sardo (ed.), Atlante della Cina di Michele Ruggieri, S.I.
(Roma 1993).

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• M. Howard Rienstra, Jesuit Letters from China 1583-84 (Minneapolis
1986) (Pasio, Ruggieri, Cabral).
• “On the birthday of God (twelve poems)”, in: Roman Malek (ed.),
The Chinese face of Jesus Christ, vol. 2 (Sankt Augustin 2003) pp.
750-751.
• “Early Jesuits on Jesus Christ”, in: Roman Malek (ed.), The Chinese
face of Jesus Christ, vol. 2 (Sankt Augustin 2003) pp. 745-749.
• John W. Witek (ed.), Dicionário Português-Chinês= Pu Han ci dian=Portuguese-Chinese
dictionary (Lisboa 2001) (together with Matteo Ricci).
Michele Ruggieri Bibliography:
• Marina Battaglini, “The Jesuit Manuscripts Concerning China, Preserved
in the Biblioteca Nazionale centrale - Vittorio Emanuele II in Rome”, in:
Actes du Ve Colloque international de Sinologie, Chantilly 1986 (Taipei -
Paris 1993) pp. 35-75.
• Marina Battaglini, “The Jesuit manuscripts on China preserved in the Biblioteca
Nazionale in Rome”, in: Federico Masini (ed.), Western Humanistic
Culture presented to China by Jesuit Missionaries (XVII-XVIII centuries)
(Bibliotheca Instituti Historici S.I. vol. XLIX) (Roma 1996) pp. 11-100.
• Henri Bernard, “Les adaptations chinoises des ouvrages européens”, Monumenta
Serica X (1945) pp. 1-57; pp. 309-388; Monumenta Serica XIX (1960)
pp. 349-383.
• Henri Cordier, L’imprimerie sino-européenne en Chine (Paris 1901).
• Joseph Dehergne, Répertoire des Jésuites de Chine de 1552 à 1800 (Rome,
Paris 1973) pp. 235f.
• Paul Pelliot, Inventaire sommaire des manuscrits et imprimé chinoise de
la Bibliothèque Vaticane, Takata Tokio (ed.) (Italian School of East Asian
Studies Reference Series 1) (Kyoto 1995).
• Louis Pfister, Notices biographiques et bibliographiques sur les Jésuites de
l’ancienne Mission de Chine 1552-1773 1932, pp. 15-21.
• Robert Streit (ed.), Bibliotheca Missionum, vol. IV (Freiburg 1928) pp.
521f.
• Yu Dong, Catalogo delle opere cinesi missionarie della Biblioteca Apoatolica
Vaticana (XVI-XVIII sec.) (Città del Vaticano 1996).
• Henri Bernard, Aux portes de la Chine. Les Missionnaires du XVIo siècle
(1514-1588) (Tientsin 1933).
• Albert Chan, “Michele Ruggieri, S.J. (1543-1607) and His Chinese Poems”,

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Monumenta Serica 41 (1993) pp. 129-176.
• Albert Chan, “Two Chinese Poems Written by Hsü Wei (1521-1593) on
Michele Ruggieri, S.J. (1543-1607)”, Monumenta Serica 44 (1996) pp. 317-
337.
• Claudia von Collani, “Die Chinamission von 1520-1630”, in: Die Geschichte
des Christentums, Band 8: Die Zeit der Konfessionen (1530-1620/30) (Freiburg
1992) pp. 933-942.
• Gianni Criveller, Preaching Christ in Late Ming China. The Jesuit presentation
of Christ from Matteo Ricci to Giulio Aleni (Taipei 1997).
• Pasquale d’Elia, “Quadro storico sinologico del primo libro di dottrina cristiana
in cinese”, Archivum Historicum Societatis Jesu 3 (1932) pp. 193-222.
• George H. Dunne, Generation of Giants. The First Jesuits in China (Notre
Dame 1962), German: Das große Exempel (Stuttgart 1965).
• Francesco Antonio Gisondi, Michele Ruggieri S.J.: missionario in Cina,
primo sinologo europeo e poeta “cinese”. (Spinazzola 1543 - Salerno 1607)
(Milano 1999).
• L.C. Goodrich, Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368-1644, (New York 1976)
cols. 1148-1149.
• Eugenio Lo Sardo, “L’Atlante della Cina di M.R. (XVIsec.)”, in: La cartografia
geografica nel progresso delle conescenze sull’Oriente nell’Europa dei
secoli XV-XIX (1991) pp. 127-141.
• Eugenio Lo Sardo, Atlante della Cina di Michele Ruggieri S.J. (Roma
1993).
• Eugenio Lo Sardo, “The Earliest European Atlas of Ming Chinas: An Unpublished
Work by Michele Ruggieri”, in: Actes du Colloque international
de VIe Sinologie, Chantilly 1989 (Taipei, Paris 1995) pp. 259-273.
• Knud Lundbæk, “The first translation from a Confucian Classic in Europe‘”,
China Mission Studies (1550-1800) Bulletin I (1979) pp. 1-11.
• Federico Masini, “Notes on the first Chinese dictionary published in Europa
(1670)”, Monumenta Serica 51 (2003) pp. 283-308.
• David E. Mungello, Curious Land: Jesuit Accommodation and the Origins
of Sinology (Stuttgart 1985).
• David E. Mungello, “The Seventeenth-Century Jesuit Translation Project
of the Confucian Four Books“, in: C.E. Ronan and B.B.C. Oh (eds.), East
Meets West. The Jesuits in China, 1582-1773 (Chicago 1988) pp. 252-272.
• Luciano Petech, “La fonte Cinese delle carte del Ruggieri”, in: Eugenio Lo
Sardo, Atlante della Cina di Michele Ruggieri S.J. (Roma 1993) pp. 39-44.
• László Polgár, Bibliographie sur l’histoire de la Compagnie de Jésus 1901-
1980, vol. II (Rome 1986) pp. 323-376.
• M. Howard Rienstra (ed., transl.), Jesuit Letters from China 1583-84 (Minneapolis
1986).

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• Charles Ronan, B.B. C. OH (eds.), East Meets West: The Jesuits in China,
1582-1773 (Chicago 1988).
• Arnold H. Rowbotham, Missionary and Mandarin. The Jesuits at the
Court of China (Berkeley 1942) repr. 1966.
• Paul A. Rule, K’ung-tzu or Confucius? The Jesuit Interpretation of Confucianism
(Sydney 1986) pp. 1-10.
• Joseph Sebes, “The Precursors of Ricci”, in: C.E. Ronan and B.B.C. Oh
(eds.), East Meets West. The Jesuits in China, 1582-1773 (Chicago 1988)
pp. 19-61.
• Joseph Shih, Le Père Ruggieri et le problème de l’évangelisation en Chine
(Romae 1964).
• Nicolas Standaert (ed.), Handbook of Christianity in China. Volume One:
635-1800. (Handbook of Oriental Studies, section 4: China 15/1. Handbuch
der Orientalistik, Abt. 4: China 15) (Leiden, Boston, Köln 2001).
• Boleslaw Sczesniak, “The Seventeenth Century Maps of China”, Imago
Mundi 13 (1956) pp. 116-136.
• Léon Wieger, “Notes sur la première catéchèse écrite en chinois, 1582-
1584”, Archivum Historicum Societatis Jesu I (1932) pp. 72-84.
• John W. Witek, “Changing Perspectives on Michele Ruggieri (Luo Mingjian
1534 - 1607) and the Origins of Sinology”, (Forum für Ost-West-Austausch
Band 2) (Shanghai 2001) pp. 314-346.
• Yang Fu-mien, “The Portuguese-Chinese dictionary of Michele Ruggieri
and Matteo Ricci: An historical and linguistic introduction”, in: Proceedings
of the second international conference on sinology. Section on linguistics and
palaeography (1989) pp. 191-236.
• Erik Zürcher, Nicolas Standaert, Adrianus Dudink, Bibliography of the Jesuit
Mission in China ca. 1580-ca. 1680 (Leiden 1991).
• Ad Dudink, Nicolas Standaert, Chinese Christian Texts Database (CCT-
Database), http://www.arts.kuleuven.be/sinology/cct (13 July 2009).
Author(s) of this contribution:
Claudia von Collani
Version: 1.00