There seems to be an implicit inheritance relationship. In the year when Matteo Ricci died of illness in Beijing (1610), another missionary landed in Macau. He was the Belgian Ginnyge. Five years later, he was on the ship returning to China.
He translated Matteo Ricci's Italian memoir "The History of the Christian Expedition to China" into Latin. In 1615, he published this book under the name "Matteo Ricci's Notes on China". The publication of this book caused the arrival of European missionaries.
Missionary craze in China.
In the spring of 1618, Jin Nige led more than 20 newly recruited missionaries to embark on a journey to China again. The sea road was long, and seven missionaries died of illness on the way, including Jin Nige's younger brother. Deng was also on the same ship to China.
Yuhan, Luo Yagu, Tang Ruowang, Fu Fanji and other well-educated missionaries all became the main force in spreading Western learning in China.
Jin Nige came to China for the second time with an important mission, which was to establish a library for the Jesuits in China. To this end, he and his companion Deng Yuhan selected classic works in various fields from all over Europe, plus 500 gifts from the Pope.
A total of 7,000 books were shipped to China - of such a scale that it was considered a large library in Europe at the time.
In the forty-seventh year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1619), Jinni Ge arrived in Macau, China with books. Due to the "Nanjing Mission Case" that had occurred before, these Western books had to be transported to the mainland in batches and were brought to Beijing. However, they were later
Only part of it was transported to the Jesuit Library. After the Jesuit order was disbanded, this part of the Western books went to the Beitang Library.
Those who have visited the first Hong Kong International Antiquarian Book Fair will be lucky enough to see "On the Movement of the Celestial Bodies" first published in Germany in 1543, with a price tag of US$1.5 million. Among the 7,000 Western books brought to China by Jinni Pavilion, there happened to be 1566
The second edition of "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Bodies" was published in Basel, Switzerland. This challenging scientific masterpiece was banned by the Holy See in 1616, but it is really lucky that it found its way into China. Unfortunately, "
"On the Movement of Celestial Bodies" has not been translated into Chinese like "Elements of Geometry". It lies lonely in a foreign land like the batch of Western books from the East, becoming a good book that no one has read.
In fact, when Jinni Pavilion came to China, it had drawn up a huge translation plan and contacted Chinese and foreign people such as Ai Julius, Xu Guangqi, Yang Tingyun, Li Zhizao, Wang Hui, Li Tianjing, etc. to jointly translate and publish these books. However, Jinni Pavilion had already established its presence in Hangzhou.
Finally, except for a small number of books that were translated into Chinese by Li Zhizao, Wang Hui and others, most of the Western books not only did not have a Chinese voice, but also ended up unknown and their bodies were not found.
He only left a desolate name for future generations - "Kim's suicide note."
"Kim's suicide note".
invisible cultural heritage
More than 300 years have passed, even if the "Kim's suicide note" cannot be found, people still want to know what the 7,000 Western books brought by Jinni Pavilion are. I once asked a lady who was studying for a doctorate in the UK to check.
She checked whether there was a bibliography of these 7,000 ancient books in Europe. She could not find anything in this regard. The West did not have the answer to these Western books. The only thing that could reveal a little information about "Kim's suicide note" was the famous catalog-"
"Beitang Bibliography". It shows in the form of a bibliography: "Jin's suicide note" once "existed" and is "alive" today.
The so-called Beitang, its "tang" refers to the church; Beijing had four cathedrals in the East, West, South and North at that time; the Beitang was later the Xishiku Church, located diagonally opposite the old Beijing Library. The so-called "Beitang Bibliography"
", is the catalog of books collected in the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beitang Library. It is a microcosm of the spread of Western learning to the East for more than 300 years, including some remains of the "Jin family's posthumous writings".
The Beitang collection is very complex. It is divided into the old Beitang collection and the New Beitang collection. The New Beitang collection was the Beitang collection after the Anglo-French allied forces entered Beijing in 1860 and the Catholic property was returned, and the Nantang collection and the Beitang collection were officially merged.
Since the old Beitang collection does not have a clear bibliography, the "Kim's Posthumous Letters" books are mixed into the new Beitang books, and it is not easy to distinguish them from the "Beitang Bibliography".
China is a country of books, and even Western books that are incomprehensible are looked upon highly by the intellectual community. The "Beitang Bibliography" was launched in 1939 at the request of Beijing's intelligentsia. This project was approved by Yenching University President Stuart Leighton and others.
According to the introduction, it received support from the Rockefeller Foundation in the United States, and Fu Jen Catholic University was responsible for editing. In 1944, the first bibliography of the Beitang Collection was published, that is, the French part of the bibliography; in 1948, the second and third Latin volumes were published.
and other bibliographies from various countries. In 1949, the "Beitang Bibliography" was officially published by the Church Press.
Although it is difficult to identify "Jin's posthumous writings" in "Beitang Bibliography", it is a "complete collection of Western rare books" in the sense of a catalog.
"Beitang Bibliography".
Complete Records of Rare Books in Western Languages
Chinese philologists who could not find or touch "Jin's suicide note" had to put their enthusiasm for studying rare books in Western languages into the study of "Beitang Bibliography". It is their precise statistics that allow us to know:
The Beitang has a collection of ancient books in almost all European languages including French, Latin, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, German, Greek, Dutch, English, Hebrew, Cyrillic and Polish. The largest number of them is
Latin ancient books, and then French ancient books.
"Beitang's posthumous books" are extremely famous, but most of them come from the collection of Nantang, about 1,300 kinds; while the collections of Dongtang, Xitang and Beitang together only have more than 300 kinds. In addition, there are also Zhenjiang, Jinan,
There are nearly 1,000 kinds of books in the collections of residential churches such as Hangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai, Zhengding, Wuchang, and Kaifeng, as well as the private collections of several bishops, plus more than 2,000 kinds of books of unknown origin, totaling 4,101 kinds and 5,133 volumes. But the total number of "Four Halls"
The number of books in the collection is still less than the "seven thousand suicide notes" of Jinni Pavilion.
Without statistics, it is easy for people to think that the books brought by missionaries are all religious books. In fact, this is not the case. The religious books in the "Beitang Bibliography" only account for one-third of the collection. There are Bibles, patristics,
Theological doctrines and ethics, dialectical theology and mysticism, canon law and civil law, sermons and catechisms, prayer books, asceticism, etc., totaling more than 2,000 kinds. Two-thirds of the books in Beitang are natural and social sciences.
It covers history, natural history, philosophy, literature, geometry and hydrology, mathematics, astronomy and sundial timekeeping, physics and chemistry, mechanics and technology, medicine, linguistics, biography, miscellaneous topics, etc.
More than 3,000 species.
I can't help but sigh: If all the "Jin Family's Posthumous Letters" or "Beitang Collection" were translated, what kind of cultural appearance would our Ming and Qing Dynasties have? But history is not a game, history is the ending you have to accept.
: In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Chinese people are still eager to study the "Four Books and Five Classics", regardless of science, let alone democracy.
Great kindness exists, look up to the "high pavilion"
Obviously, the "whole body" of the "Kim family's suicide note" is no longer visible, but there are still books in the Beitang collection. So many rare and valuable Western books with complex life experiences, in which "high cabinet" are they "highly regarded" now?
It is said that the "Beitang Bibliography" and the rare Western books collected by Beitang are now in the Rare Books Department of Ancient Books of the National Library. Among them, there are at least four kinds (five volumes) of the precious "cradle edition" published between 1450 and 1500, followed by
These are the rare Western books mentioned here. Some of these ancient books have been lost in the West.
It is said that someone has seen the second edition of "On the Movement of the Celestial Bodies". It is lying quietly in the Rare Books and Special Collections Department of the National Library. It has a blue cloth envelope and a calfskin cover. On the title page, there is a message about the same ship that came to China with Jinnige.
The Latin name of the missionary Roya Valley.
Two years ago, I visited the National Treasure Book Department. I originally planned to go through the "back door" to visit the rare book, but it turned out that there was no way. Not long ago, I met Mr. Jiang Xiaoyuan, a doctor of history of science, and talked to him about this matter. He said that at that time,
For his graduation thesis, he also looked for the "Beitang Suicide Note", but couldn't find it either. He told me: There are many explanations in it.
According to public information, 1,953 Spanish and Japanese books are included in the National Rare Books Catalog. However, the Beitang Collection is not included in this catalog. Due to "various reasons," the Beitang Collection cannot yet be opened to the public or to the outside world."
The final identity of Kim’s suicide note has yet to be revealed.
I can only wish that these rare Western books will survive for good.