CHINA-ITALY Mattarella and the missionaries in China

In the speech at Peking University and in the tribute at the tombs of Intorcetta and Martini in Hangzhou, he recalled the contribution to dialogue made by missionaries, before and after Marco Polo. And in continuity with them, the president of the Italian Republic also spoke about human rights in China.

Milan () – The visit of the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella to China, which is coming to an end, has taken place under the sign of the deep historical and cultural ties between China and Italy, to which they made a fundamental contribution the missionaries. As was obligatory in the year of the 700th anniversary, the visit remembered the Venetian traveler and merchant Marco Polo. However, he was not the first Italian or European to set foot in China: before, at the same time and after him, in the 13th and 14th centuries, numerous Franciscan missionaries, Italian or European, traveled the silk routes of Central Asia or They crossed the seas of South and East Asia to reach China.

In the important Lectio magistralis which took place on November 9 at Peking University (known in China as Beida), Mattarella cited four Italian missionaries as champions of intercultural dialogue: Matteo Ricci, Michele Ruggieri, Alessandro Valignano and Prospero Intorcetta. The next day, Sunday, November 10, the president visited the tomb of the Jesuit missionaries in the beautiful city of Hangzhou: among others, Prospero Intorcetta and Martino Martini.

Mattarella knows well the figure of Intorcetta, originally from Piazza Armerina (as is known, the president is also Sicilian), whom he had already mentioned seven years ago during his previous visit to Beijing. Intorcetta was in China from 1659 to 1696 and is considered one of the most learned and undoubtedly the best sinologist among the Jesuit missionaries in China. A convinced supporter of the line of “accommodation” inaugurated by Matteo Ricci – a figure much better known and appreciated in China than in Italy – Intorcetta also participated with his writings in the controversy over Chinese rites. A profound connoisseur and original interpreter of the Chinese language, he translated the Chinese classics into Latin and published them in Europe. with his work Confucius, the Chinese philosopher (Paris 1687, to which the French Jesuit Philippe Couplet also collaborated) introduced Confucianism to Europe. Among the readers of these works are philosophers such as Leibniz, Spinoza, Voltaire and other scholars linked to the Sorbonne University, where the events and controversies regarding China were followed with great interest. In all likelihood, reading the Confucian works translated by the Jesuits and their letters from China in some way inspired the French intellectuals who gave rise to the Enlightenment. The ideal of the enlightened sovereign, who rules the people with reason and surrounds himself with the best, is also taken from the Jesuit narrative of the Chinese imperial system.

Martino Martini – Trentino missionary in China from 1642 to 1661, also involved in the controversy of the Rites – is the author of the important Novus Atlas Sinensis (Amsterdam, 1655), the first and very precise atlas that introduced the geography of Chinese cities and provinces in Europe. In the Popoli e culture museum of our Pime Center in Milan we preserve a very valuable copy of the first edition, reproduced in its entirety in a digital version available to the public. The Jesuit missionaries Intorcetta and Martini had an extraordinary historical merit: they introduced the geography and philosophy of China to Europe for the first time, thus becoming absolute protagonists of modernity and intercultural dialogue.

Returning to Mattarella’s significant speech at Peking University, I was struck not only by the ideal reference to missionaries but also by the reference to human rights and peace, two of the great contributions of the Christian religion that missionaries brought to China and the whole world. The explicit reference to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is all the more significant because it is not at all obvious. It raises an issue that is more current than ever in China and the world. Just as it could not be taken for granted that, invoking the good of peace, Mattarella had invited China to assume its responsibility of mediation and peacemaking in the world, particularly with respect to Russia, whose invasion of Ukraine the president explicitly condemned.

The visit to China was carried out under the sign of friendship and dialogue. It is very positive that Mattarella and Chinese President Xi Jinping address each other with respect and sympathy. But this has not prevented the Italian president from encouraging – with clear words – Chinese interlocutors on the path of human rights and peace.