A cemetery of cosmonauts
The remains of the pioneers in the difficult art of adapting to Chinese culture
rest in a Beijing cemetery
Whenever I think about how complex it is, still, to break through in China, make contacts or close deals here, I remember them. His remains lie in the oldest Christian cemetery in China. There are more than 60 graves: 49 of Westerners and another 14 of Chinese priests. All of them date from the 16th and 17th centuries, when those extraordinary men tried, during the time of the Ming and Qing dynasties, what many of us continue to try, daily, four centuries later: to adapt to the Chinese to try to understand them.
The Zhalan cemetery rests in a strange and serene place: in the inner courtyard of a public administration school for members of the Chinese Communist Party, beyond the second ring of highways in Beijing. There, isolated by hedges, prowled by cats and surrounded by cypresses, pines and ginkos, lie peacefully the tombs of the Jesuits who tried to carry out one of the first missions of the Society of Jesus: to enter the mysterious China, to reach the Emperor and evangelize him. Those men, sent to China with such an ambitious mission, never returned to their countries of origin. His letters took 3 years to receive and another 3 to respond. As cosmonauts sent to another galaxy, they traveled for months (using all kinds of means of transport), until they reached their destination: the "hidden face of the Earth", the unknown Kingdom of the Center, the so-called "Cathay" according to the stories of Marco Polo and Francisco Javier; one of the most enigmatic and unknown places in the world, then as now. Among all the graves of Belgian, French, German, Italian and Spanish missionaries, one stands out: that of the Italian Mateo Ricci (1552 - 1610).
Mateo Ricci is an incredible character who deserves a separate chapter in history: he is the father of Western sinology (the study of China, its culture and its history), but he was much more than that. To begin with, Ricci was a scholar and an expert in algebra, trigonometry, astronomy, and cartography. But what most caught the attention of Ricci and his colleagues (especially those of us who work daily in China or with the Chinese) was his astute strategy and his determination to carry it out. Ricci soon understood that fulfilling his mission would require a great adaptation, in form and substance, of his message. For this reason, what was interesting about Ricci's strategy was the enormous process of inculturation that demanded, from intellectual respect, adaptation to the local culture, its uses and customs. For 15 years, Ricci studied the Chinese language thoroughly until he mastered it to perfection. Once he learned the local language (the first barrier to be overcome, even today, by anyone who wants to achieve something here), he translated classical works and the Gospels into Chinese, adapting them to Chinese logic. In addition, he mimetized with the locals, adopting the beards and clothing of the Confucian lawyers of the time.
But the feats of Mateo Ricci do not end there. The missionary soon understood one of the key traits of the Chinese: their pragmatism. Convinced that the strategy of evangelization of that colossal Empire had to flow from top to bottom, converting the Emperor first so that all his subjects would follow him (as had already been proven with success when converting Constantine or Recaredo), Ricci understood that the Chinese They paid more attention to him for his scientific knowledge than for his message of salvation. Thus, it was his world map, astronomical measuring instruments, clocks, European musical instruments and knowledge of alchemy that really opened the impenetrable doors of Beijing for him and achieved conversions and respect among the locals. But what earned him the greatest admiration among the high hierarchies of the time, was his system, applied to the study, to memorize huge amounts of data. Ricci invented a mnemonic technique, which he called "The Palace of Memory", based on the association of concepts with mental architectural structures. Despite this, and after 27 years in China, Ricci never managed to get the Emperor to give him an audience. However, after his death, he authorized that his remains not be transferred to Macao (as was the custom at the time) and, instead, allowed his burial in Beijing. Emperor KangXi himself, visiting his tomb, knelt in a sign of unusual and grateful respect.
In the words of Ricci himself - which in the current geopolitical panorama take on all their relevance - patience, tenacity and a long-term strategy end up bearing fruit: “all things (including those that finally manage to triumph powerfully) are initially so small and with such imperceptible contours that it is not easy to be convinced that they are going to generate matters of great importance ”. After his death, Ricci and his companions, after 27 years in China, had only managed to get five hundred Chinese to convert to Christianity. Today China already has 67 million believers.
