We are pleased to share the full description of this remarkable collection of twenty Jesuit Gravestone Rubbings, catalogued by our Far East Department. This item was recently displayed on our stand at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair.
For any questions or enquiries, please contact Dr. Titus Boeder or Euphemia Franklin:
JESUIT GRAVE-STONE RUBBING. Twenty rubbings of Jesuit graves.
Measuring between 68x87cm and 75x137.5cm respectively. Text in Latin and Chinese. Backed on Chinese paper. Many with small red manuscript labels pasted on verso, identifying each Jesuit, some in Chinese characters, some in Western alphabet. Folding marks to each sheet, overall in very good condition. Peking, n.d. [but second half of the 19th century].
£65,000
An extraordinary collection of twenty grave-stone rubbings that chart the successes and eventual decline of the Jesuits at the court in Peking.
This group provides a fascinating overview of the range of characters, nationalities, and occupations that the Jesuits represented. Far from simply living the good life at the Imperial Court some of them dealt with immense challenges, threats, hardships and obviously none of them ever returned to their home countries. Notably, our rubbings includes the tombs of four Chinese converts.
Unfortunately, we know far too little about the Chinese Jesuits’ personal backgrounds or how they were introduced to the Jesuit cause. There are a number of reasons for why Western scholars have not paid enough attention to Chinese Jesuits. Much of their focus has tended to focus on the Western side, possibly due to the language constraints. Converts and their families may have been in danger after the Edict of Toleration was withdrawn in 1774, and some of their graves were destroyed during the Boxer Rebellion, adding to the difficulties.
The Field Museum in Chicago has a collection of over 4000 Chinese stone rubbings which had been collected by the German Sinologist Berthold Laufer (1874-1934). It is the largest collection of stone rubbings in a public institution outside of China. Amongst them is a group of 89 rubbings of Jesuit gravestones (see: Walravens (ed.): ‘Catalogue of Chinese Rubbings from Field Museum’ 1981). Within our collection of 20 rubbings, 12 of the gravestones are not represented in the Field Museum’s collection.
Between the opening of Peking in the 1860s (after the Second Opium War) to 1900 (Boxer Rebellion) there was a relatively brief window of opportunity when the present rubbings could have made; The Field Museum’s holdings were made after the Boxer Rebellion when the stones were already in visibly worse condition. The present collection therefore records a moment in their history before some of the graves were damaged or destroyed.
It is worth noting the graphic nature of the gravestone rubbings. The graves themselves were carved into white stone, which makes them difficult to read. One would be justified to compare them to a photographic negative, while the high-contrast nature of the print is the positive.
Founded by Ignatius of Loyola in 1540 the Jesuits focussed on two main tasks, namely worldwide missionary work and education. They were part of the scientific revolution that swept Europe in the 16th century and were eager to embrace developments in mathematics, astronomy, physics and biology which established modern science. They rejected the monastic tradition of previous orders, organised themselves in seminaries, which were supervised from headquarters in Rome, and founded schools and colleges throughout Europe. Jesuits undertook a vow to go anywhere in the world in order to preach the conversion. In the 16th century, they founded missions in India, China, Japan, Ethiopia, as well as South America. They saw themselves as an international organisation with a global reach.
St. Francis Xavier was the first Jesuit to enter China and he died in Shangchuan island in 1552. The Italian Alessandro Valignano asked for competent missionaries to be sent from Goa: Michele Ruggieri arrived in Macau in 1579, followed by Matteo Ricci in 1582. Understanding that it was essential to learn Chinese and familiarize oneself with Chinese culture, Valignano founded St. Paul’s College, the first Jesuit University in Macau in 1594. After several failed attempts Ruggieri and Ricci were the first to be given permission to found a permanent mission in Zhaoqing, the seat of the Viceroy for Guangxi and Guangdong. There they published the first Chinese catechism and wrote the first Chinese-Portuguese dictionary. His knowledge in the field of science, in particular geography and astronomy, was reported to the Wanli Emperor (Ming) who finally asked him to enter the court at Peking in 1601.
Jesuit grave-stones in Peking follow a particular pattern established in the Ming dynasty by that of Matteo Ricci. Their design is unique and exclusively used for Jesuit graves. On the left is the Latin text giving the name, nationality, summary biographical information (incl. the number of years at the China mission and the exact date of death, occupation etc.), on the right is the same text in Chinese and in the centre the large characters give their Chinese name and rank. Many of them carry the heading ‘D. O. M.’, three letters that stand for Domino, Optimo, Maximo (the Lord, the Best, the Greatest) a hidden motto not to be confused with a title of a church dignitary, or the designation for Benedictine and Carthusian monks.
Chinese ink rubbings are impressions on paper from low-relief or intaglio inscriptions and/or designs on stone (stele, pillars, cliffs, etc.), metal (bells, vessels, etc.), clay (pottery, brick, tile, clay sealing), bone, tortoise shells, and other hard materials. The production, use, and collection of rubbings have played a very significant part in the cultural pattern of China and some of her neighbours, especially Korea and Japan. In China particularly, with its strong historical tradition, rubbings have assumed an important role in the intellectual use of the country... In China the technique of making rubbings is considered quite special and is purely Chinese in origin. It has served as a type of camera for many centuries and is an ingenious and admirable one for it reproduces quite simply in full size every detail of the original surface. The technique is extremely useful and in no way damages the object being copied.
– Hoshien Tchen: Preface to Walravens (editor): ‘Catalogue of Chinese Rubbings from Field Museum’ 1981, p. xv.
Ink-imprints are commonly called rubbings or ink-squeezes. Because this is a duplicating technique on stone, it may be considered a prototype of lithography. In China, it is referred to as mo-ta 摹搨. Instead of the stone being pressed on paper, however, the reverse is done - the paper is pressed on the stone. The traditional Chinese method is to moisten lightly a sheet of paper made from the cortex of the mulberry tree, or from bamboo pulp. This is a tissue-thin paper that is strong and highly absorbent. The moistened paper is then spread over the surface of the engraved object and gently forced into all the incised areas with a broad brush. A flat pad, generally made of loosely woven cloth with a piece of cotton tied inside, is then soaked with just the right amount of black ink and evenly tapped all over the paper. The higher surface which the pad has touched turns black while the incised part remains white. When the ink is dry, the paper is peeled off, giving a positive impression.
– Tseng Yu-ho Ecke: ‘The Importance of Ink-Imprints’ in: Walravens (editor): ‘Catalogue of Chinese Rubbings from Field Museum’ 1981, p. xxv.
The history of the Zhalan cemetery in Peking is fascinating: the land was originally presented to the Jesuits by the Wanli Emperor as a burial place for Matteo Ricci alone. It was located to the west of the walled city outside Fucheng-men Gate and it also became known as the Portuguese cemetery (see Cordier). Gradually it was filled with other Jesuit graves and enlarged.
During the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 the graves were desecrated and many of the gravestones were severely damaged. In the mid 1950 most of the tombstones were moved to the Xibeiwang area and only the graves of Ricci, Schall von Bell, and Ferdinand Verbiest were kept in the original location. A Communist Party school for cadres replaced Maweigou church (which had been built in 1903) and an adjacent seminary, and the building now houses the Beijing Administration Institute. Deng Xiaoping approved the restoration of Ricci’s grave in the late 1970s and 60 gravestones were moved back to their original location.
Judging from the condition of the stone surfaces, the paper and the small manuscript tickets we can assume that the present copies were made before the Boxer Rebellion in the second half of the 19th century.
19 of the 20 rubbings can be located on Cordier’s map of the Zhalan Cemetery which shows the state of the graveyard before 1900 as well as the adjacent French cemetery. The only one missing is the grave of Mattaeus Lo (item 7). There are a number of un-attributed graves simply called ‘Sina’ in the French cemetery. Since Lo was affiliated to the French it is possible that he was not identified in Cordier’s map.
See: Cordier: Biblioteca Sinica. Vol. II, 1028-1036.
1. Nicholas Longobardi (1565-1654), Italian.
Born into a noble Sicilian family, he entered the Jesuit novitiate in Messina in 1582. At the end of his spiritual and academic formation he was ordained a priest and shortly afterwards volunteered for the Mission of the Orient.
Father Longobardi embarked in Lisbon on April 10th, 1596 and arrived in Macao on 20 July 20th, 1597. While he was learning Chinese culture and language, he sent letters to Portugal, declaring, that if Plato were to visit China now, he would find that his ‘ideal republic’ had been realized. He was clearly impressed by the system of administration of the huge empire by bureaucrats who were recruited by merit and not through family ties. In 1597, he was sent to Shaozhou to help Father Lazzaro Cattaneo (1560-1640). Initially Longobardi travelled from one village to the next to evangelise: he would send a trusted neophyte ahead to announce their arrival.
The excitement of seeing a foreigner was great and everybody turned out. Longobardi would explain the ten commandments as well as Christian law and those who were willing to convert were given a catechism after a certain period they could be baptised. One of the conditions was the renunciation of other religious beliefs. Baptisms were large communal gatherings that were lavishly celebrated with music and food not dissimilar to what a Sicilian first communion would be like. Initially they were particularly successful with the conversion of women. But as the movement spread into towns the first conflicts emerged. Proselytizing irritated Buddhist monks who took offence at the fact that the Christians worked in opposition to their religion.
In 1609, he was called to Peking, where Matteo Ricci promoted him to Superior of the Jesuits of the China mission just before his death. He would remain in this position until 1622. The question of rites was thrown into view by the first Nanjing prosecution of Christians in 1616. It occurred as a result of a less accommodating attitude by missionaries there and although Longobardi tried to intercede on their behalf with the Kangxi Emperor he was unable to stop the expulsion of four Jesuits to Macao. From that point on the Rites Controversy began to dominate and bog down the mission effort in China. Longobardi studied geography and astronomy and famously built a terrestrial globe together with Manuel Diaz which is now in the British Library. He also wrote about a dozen works in Chinese, most of them of a religious nature, but also including a treatise on earthquakes to explain one that had shaken Peking in 1624.
In 1629, when the mathematicians of the imperial court made a mistake in their calculations of an eclipse, the scholars Xu Guangqi (1562-1633, a famous Chinese convert) and Li Zhizao (1565-1630) asked Longobardi to help them correct the calendar that depended on it. He witnessed the fall of the Ming dynasty, and died in Peking on December 11th 1654, aged over 90. He was buried next to Matteo Ricci. One of the unsung heroes of the early Jesuit mission, he mastered many difficulties at the Chinese Court but at the same time never neglected the original task of true missionary activity. (Pfister 17)
Not in Field Museum.
2. Antoine Thomas (1644-1709), Belgian.
Antoine Thomas was born in Namur which at the time was part of the Spanish Netherlands and joined the Jesuits in 1660. He volunteered to go to China in 1677 but went to Coimbra where, while learning Portuguese, he taught mathematics at the university (1678-1680. He wrote a report on the eclipse of the moon on October 29, 1678.
On April 3rd 1680 he embarked in Lisbon on his voyage to China together with 20 other Jesuits. After a long and difficult journey, he finally reached Macao in 1682, where he managed to observe an eclipse of the sun (1683). Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688) who held the influential position of Vice-President at the Bureau of Astronomy/Mathematics presented him to the Kangxi Emperor as his chosen successor.
For twenty years Thomas worked on the Observatory, wrote the Imperial calendar, predicted eclipses, was closely involved in a geographical survey of the Chinese empire, was regularly consulted on mathematical and scientific questions, as well as building projects, like a dike to help prevent regular floods of the Yellow River and developed an irrigation system for the gardens of the Summer Palace. All of this brought him into close contact with the Kangxi Emperor, who also consulted him on moral and religious questions. In 1692 Thomas finally managed to obtain the famous "edict of tolerance" which gave missionaries the freedom to preach the Christian faith. He became Provincial Superior of the Jesuits from 1701 to 1704.
Antoine Thomas was at the heart of the Rites Controversy when in 1705 Charles-Thomas Maillard de Tournon, was sent to Peking to investigate the orthodoxy of these rites, which the Jesuits claimed were simply social customs. It became clear that his opinion was made up before he even landed in China. Thomas tried in vain to prevent Tournon from declaring the Chinese rites and other customs "contrary to divine law" (Nanking, January 25, 1707) with disastrous consequences for the mission and Christian converts (the Edict of Tolerance was revoked on May 17th 1717).
Father Antoine Thomas died on July 28, 1709, in Beijing, undermined by the worries caused by the serious conflict. (Pfister 163)
Not in Field Museum.
3. Kilian Stumpf (1655-1720), German.
Johann Kilian Stumpf grew up in Würzburg, where his father ran a grocery store. In 1670, at the age of just fifteen, he enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Würzburg. In addition to logic, physics (natural philosophy) and metaphysics, he also studied mathematics, which at the time included astronomy. Three years later he entered the Jesuit order and took his religious vows in July 1675. He spent over ten years teaching in a number of high schools and embarked on further studies in theology.
Over the course of the decade, Stumpf had already written to the Superior General of the Order in Rome, asking for his employment in the "pagan mission." After some hesitation, he received confirmation of his assignment in China in the summer of 1689. First, he travelled with two other young Jesuits, Jakob Moers and Bernhard de Wit, to Madrid and onto Lisbon. There they were delayed for a year and only set sail in 1691. They had to spend almost six months on the Ilha de Moçambique where both De Wit and Moers died. In 1692 Stumpf finally reached Goa, where he met Claudio Filippo Grimaldi (1638–1712), an Italian Jesuit who was on his return journey to Peking and who would share his insights into Chinese culture. Furthermore, the national rivalries amongst the Jesuits were explained to him. They did not arrive in Macao until June 1694. Two days later he made his journey to Canton.
In Macao, the Portuguese superiors were not happy about the arrival of the German brother. Stumpf had to stay behind in Canton and promise not to leave the city. Grimaldi left behind numerous astronomical instruments that had been damaged during the long sea voyage. Stumpf was given the task of cleaning and repairing them which he did this with great skill and was called to Peking where he arrived in July 1695. He lived in the house of the French Jesuits and never again left the city.
Stumpf set up a foundry and restored hundreds of geometric and astronomical instruments. It is likely that while repairing optical instruments, he decided to build glass melting furnaces (1697). This first glass workshop in China aroused the interest of the emperor, who selected talented people for professional training. Stumpf was transferred to the astronomical office to help calculate a new calendar and was appointed director from 1711 to 1719.
The national rivalries amongst the Jesuits in China continued. In addition, there was the dispute over the use of religious terms Shangdi ("supreme ruler") and Tian ("heaven") and the evaluation of Chinese ancestor worship (Rites Controversy). The majority of the Jesuits (incl. Stumpf) saw them as social rites without religious content that could be overcome through accommodation, but there were fierce attacks from the Dominicans/Franciscans both in China and Europe.
The Edict of Toleration issued by Emperor Kangxi in 1692 gave Christianity a great deal of freedom and gave rise to expectations of a positive development of the mission in the empire, but soon the controversy flared up again, whereupon Innocent XII appointed a commission of cardinals in 1699 to examine all documents relating to the dispute.
In this situation, every document had to be carefully drafted. Stumpf drafted and supervised the correspondence with the Roman General Curia. His knowledge of Manchu and Chinese, his empathy, and his efforts to be polite under strained circumstances added to his reputation. In 1705 the Pope sent his envoy Monsignor Charles-Thomas Maillard de Tournon (1668–1710) to deliver his ruling against the Jesuits, with terrible consequences for them and the Christian converts.
Stumpf managed to postpone the publication of the Pope’s ruling for a number of years. He wrote his famous Informatio pro Veritate which was published in Peking in 1718. It was a summing up of the Jesuit rebuttal of the Pope’s ruling, but it was soon banned by the Propaganda Fide who also ordered that Stumpf be removed of his post as the head of the Jesuits in China. Stumpf resigned as head of the Astronomical Bureau and died on July 24th 1720. (Pfister 198).
Not in Field Museum.
4. Joseph Suarez (aka José Soares, 1656-1736), Portuguese.
Born in Coimbra, Soares became a Jesuit aged 17. After his studies at Coimbra University he left for China in 1680. In 1685 he was posted to Yangzhou, where he did missionary work. In 1688 he was called to Peking where he stayed until his death 48 years later. He became rector of the Jesuit college from 1692-97 and vice-provincial in 1711. The Kangxi Emperor sent him to Canton in order to obtain a desired rifle as well as mathematical instruments.
In 1704, when many refugees from a flood in Shandong province fled to Peking, the Kangxi Emperor asked Soares to help with the relief operations and much to the amazement of the local population the Jesuits managed to feed around 1000 people a day. When Soares died the Emperor donated 200 taels of silver towards his burial. (Pfister 161)
Field Museum 1170.
5. Leopold Liebstein (1667-1711) Bohemian (German).
Leopold Liebstein arrived in Macao in 1707. He was summoned to the Court at Peking due to his talents as a musician. He was involved in repairing the organ at the Nantang Cathedral and although he only lived in Peking for four years, his talents were cherished both at court and amongst his Jesuit brothers. (Pfister 278).
Not in Field Museum.
6. Pierre Vincent de Tartre (1669-1724), French.
Born in Pont-a-Mousson (Lorraine) he attended its famous University before entering the Jesuit noviciate in Nancy. He was given permission to travel to China, and on his outward journey in 1700 de Tartre survived 20 storms in five months aboard the ‘Amphitrite’. He was part of the team of geographers surveying Shanxi, Shaanxi, Jiangxi and Guangdong province for the large mapping project on behalf of the Kangxi Emperor. This famous map was printed in 1721 from 41 copper plates arranged in eight vertical rows. (Pfister 264)
Not in Field Museum.
7. Mattaeus Lo, (1685-1746) Chinese, aged 61.
Lo was affiliated to the French mission. During the times of persecutions around 1734 to 1736, Lo was frequently chosen to administer sacraments in the private houses of female converts. (Pfister 328).
Not in Field Museum.
8. Stephanus (Etienne) Rousset (1689-1758) French.
Rousset was born in Nevers. He arrived in China in 1719 and became the private physician and apothecary for the Kangxi Emperor. Rousset worked as surgeon in Peking for 39 years. Father d’Entrecolles described him as follows: “He made a great reputation for himself through his zeal and his skill and through the success with which God blessed his remedies for various diseases. So many people have experienced the effects of his remedies that he is known only as the ‘charitable doctor’.” (Pfister II, p.662) During the times of persecutions he came up with a system that would allow converts to still attend mass without attracting the attention of the authorities. (Pfister 306).
Field Museum 1190.
9. Paulo de Mesquita (1696-1729), Portuguese.
He left Lisbon in 1725 together with Antoine de Magalhaens who accompanied the Portuguese embassy to the Kangxi Emperor under Alexandre Metello de Souza Menezes. When they arrived in Peking in May 1727 they found that the Emperor had been dead for some time. The new Yongzheng Emperor received the ambassador who performed the kow-tow but achieved little. Mesquita remained in Peking where he entered the court as a mathematician but unfortunately died on March 5th 1729 aged only 36. (Pfister 317).
Not in Field Museum.
10. Anton Gogeisl (1701-1771) was born on October 30th 1701 in Siegenburg in Bavaria.
He studied mathematics for five years before joining the Jesuit order in 1720. In 1737 he left for China but only reached Peking on 1 March 1739. In 1746 Gogeisl was made vice-president of the Tribunal of Mathematicians and a Mandarin (6th class). Gogeisl succeeded Ignaz Kögler (1680–1746) as Vice Director of the Board of Astronomy. Here he invented and constructed an improved quadrant which simplified astronomic observations. “He spent the last 26 years of his life in this office, and dear to all for his modesty, prudence, and his integrity.”. (text on gravestone). He was nominated rector of the Jesuit college from 1748 to 1754. (Pfister 350).
Not in Field Museum.
11. Giacomo Antonini (1701-1739) Italian.
Was born on August 6th 1701 in Modena and entered the Noviciate at Venice aged 17. He was summoned to the court and arrived in Peking on April 8th 1738 where he worked as a physician, but he died just over a year later on November 7th 1739. (Pfister 348)
Field Museum 1166.
12. Aegidius Thebault (1706? -1766) French, was born in St.-Malo on July 8th 1703.
He was trained as a watchmaker before entering the Jesuit order in Toulouse. He came to China together with Attiret in 1737. In Peking, he built on his knowledge of watchmaking and constructed a number of automaton animals, incl. famously a tiger and a lion that could walk 30 to 40 steps. Amiot wrote about him: “It is astonishing that with the sole principles of simple watchmaking, this dear Brother was able, by himself, to invent and combine all the artifice of a machine containing the most advanced mechanics.” (Pfister II, p. 793). Thébault died on January 18th 1766 (Pfister 357).
Not in Field Museum.
13. Antonio Gomes (1706-1751) Portuguese surgeon.
Not much is known about his early life. He entered the Jesuit order in 1725 and arrived in Macao in 1743. He was summoned to court at Peking on April 22nd 1744 where he practised medicine for two years. In 1748 was appointed Vice-Provincial and was respected for treating the poor with great charity. (Pfister 376)
Not in Field Museum.
14. Ignacio Francisco (1725-1792), Portuguese.
Born in Coimbra on August 15th 1725. He came to China in 1752 and joined the last Portuguese embassy to the Qianlong Emperor under Francisco de Assis Pacheco in May 1753. He remained in Peking until the end of his life, administering to the material needs of the Portuguese house as well as looking after Christian converts in the capital and the surrounding areas. (Pfister 401)
Field Museum 1155
15. Thomas Lieou, (1726-1796) Chinese.
Thomas Jean-Baptiste Lieou, or Liu, was born in the province of Beijing and entered the novitiate residence of the French Jesuit mission in 1748. He was ordained a priest in 1754. Very little is known about him. (Pfister 387)
Field Museum 1231.
16. Hubertus de Mericourt (1729-1774) French.
Hubertus de Mericourt joined the Jesuits in 1754 and set out for Chinese mission in 1773 arriving in Peking on August 20th 1774. He worked together with Ventavon (see item 18) manufacturing and repairing clocks and watches as well as working on a number of automatons. He died in Beijing in 1774. Died aged 55. (Pfister 438)
Field Museum 1227.
17. Andreas Rodrigues (1729-1796), Portuguese was born in Coimbra.
He entered the Jesuit order aged sixteen and graduated having studied philosophy, theology and mathematics for eight years. He arrived in Peking in 1759 together with Father d’Almeida and was one of the last Presidents of the Board of Astronomy from 1783-96. At the same time, he was superior at St. Joseph’s residence where he taught Latin to the novices. Pfister 418.
Not in Field Museum.
18. Jean Matthieu De Ventavon (1733-1787) was born on September 14th 1733 in the Alpine town of Gap (France).
He entered the Jesuit order in 1754 and arrived in Peking in September 1769. A clockmaker by training, he constructed mechanical curiosities for the Qianlong emperor and repaired clocks. The Emperor asked him to build one of two walking men carrying a flower vase as well as one that could write in Manchu. For a while Ventavon began to enjoy the good life in Peking frequenting parties given by the nobility. After being reprimanded by his superiors he repented and used his influence for the good of people who were facing prosecution or were imprisoned. He died on May 27th 1787 after a long illness. (Pfister 426)
Field Museum 1213.
19. Paulus Lieu (1742-1791), Chinese.
Lieu was born in Hunan province. He was admitted into the Jesuit order on September 30th 11763 and died in Peking on April 21st 1791. (Pfister 422)
Field Museum 1232.
20. Paulus Kia (1752-1774), Chinese, was born in Peking.
He was studying Latin and entered the Noviciate and had just taken his vows (March 14th 1774) when he died of tuberculosis aged 22. (Pfister 440)
Not in Field Museum.
