Those who came to visit Yin Feng were the three pillars of Catholic missionary missionary: Xu Guangqi, Yang Tingyun, and Li Zhizao. These two came to receive a group of detained persons at the invitation of Yin Feng, the president of the Chinese Army. The Catholics in Nanjing Prison were all victims of the Nanjing Christian Disaster in the 44th year of Wanli the previous year.
The Nanjing lesson plan was the first direct political blow that Catholics encountered when they were spread in the Ming Dynasty. The main messenger was the Nanjing Ministry of Rites Shi Lang Chenqi. He wrote three letters to the court to "shoulder" and accused Jesuit missionaries of infiltrating into China. , the whereabouts are suspicious and the plot is indiscriminate. There are two crimes listed: one is that Western missionaries participated in the preliminaries of the calendar, which violated the traditional Chinese calendar since the Shangshu Yao and Shun; the other is that the believers did not allow worshipers to worship their ancestors, which was a great rebellion. Shen Jun asked the court to recommend missionaries Deportation.
Emperor Wanli did not comment on his memorials, but Chen Jun had the support of the eunuch of the Silijian and the support of the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet. Without waiting for the court to make the imperial edict, he would like to Wang Fengsu (later renamed Gao Yizhi) and Xie Wulu (later renamed Zeng Dezhao) and ten other things. Three missionaries and believers arrested them.
Wang Fengsu was beaten to death by the prison guards in prison and was half dead. He followed another memorial from Shen Yun directly accusing the Catholic treason: "According to what he called God, he was the first sinner of that country... He called witches and honors, deceiving and watching, It is not enough to argue, but it is not a conspiracy to stop practicing paganism. Why do you have to privately seize the throne of the king of Hongwugang? Why do you have to build a garden in front of Xiaolingwei?... According to investigation, Taiwan Sea The enemy is obeying his teachings, and he is ruthless at the sea, and he is ruthless..." Shenzong was deserted in politics, and Shen Qu colluded with eunuchs and forged edicts to drive away the barbarians. Missionaries from the north and south were arrested and imprisoned, their residences were demolished, and most of the churches were destroyed .
Speaking of which, the Chinese company's resistance to maritime ban also affected this crisis. Since Taiwan openly allowed Catholic missionary, this has become a crime of Catholic rebellion.
When Yin Feng's army invaded Nanjing City, the group of missionaries and believers had just been moved to the Censorate. After all the officials and yamen run away, these special prisoners fell into the hands of the Chinese army.
The victims of these religions include not only Western missionaries such as Wang Fengsu and Xie Wulu, but also Chinese believers, brothers Zhong Mingli and Zhong Mingren, who have been sentenced to be slaves outside the pass. Zhong Mingren is the first Chinese to join the Jesuit Society. His name is Nianjiang, a native of Xinhui, Guangdong, and is proficient in Portuguese and other Western languages. He was a translator of Matteo Ricci. He has been in charge of several years and has more than a dozen Chinese believers, including Jesuit internships. Monks, they were treated well by the Chinese army and were taken care of by Catholics in the Chinese army.
After the court refused to negotiate, Yin Feng decided to expand his military attack on the court again, and on the other hand, he looked for people who could mediate between the government and the opposition.
At this time, he thought of these victims of the teaching difficulties and immediately sent a letter to Yang Tingyun and Li Zhizao in Hangzhou. The letter said: I have long admired you and are all the people who are working hard to promote Western learning. My China Company has always been committed to integrating Eastern and Western learning. The army discovered the Catholics in the Nanjing prison and wanted to rescue these tragic missionaries from prison and took them to Taiwan. We can also help transfer the missionaries and believers who took refuge in the two homes, but we don’t know what to do.
In the event of a crisis in Nanjing, two missionaries were left behind by the Jesuit Chinese Missionary Council, Long Huamin, and Germanic Deng Yuhan. The rest of the missionaries were either arrested and imprisoned, deported or hiding at the homes of believers. To protect, among them, I, Pondi, Guo Jujing, Bi Francis, Ai Ruluo, Shi Weizhen and other missionaries were safely hidden in Yang Tingyun and Li Zhizao in Hangzhou to preach at their homes.
Originally, Yang and Li, two Chinese Catholics who came from the imperial examination, would never have interacted with rebel thieves. Helplessly, they received a letter from Long Huamin from Beijing at this time: asking them to find a way to save the teachings in Nanjing. Friends, and do everything possible to make a good relationship with Taiwan China Company.
Yang and Li in the church made them know the important position of Taiwan in the Jesuit Chinese diocese. There are nearly 4,000 Chinese baptized believers in the Chinese company ruling area, which is more than the entire mainland of China. It is due to the same church. Friendship, they wanted to get to know the believers in the Chinese army and rescue those believers in prison, so they had a trip to Nanjing.
The two of them were accompanied by Macau believer Shi Hongji to the old camp of the Chinese Army in Nanjing.
Shi Hongji, whose courtesy name is Houqi, is a Chinese Catholic in Macau. He is 43 years old this year. Shi Hongji was one of the first Chinese Catholics in the Ming Dynasty. He was a student of the first class of the art courses of St. Paul's College in 1596. After graduation, he went to the mainland. The diocese served as a "painter" and was only 13 years old at the time. In 1603, he went to the Beijing Institute to assist Matteo Ricci in his work. After 1610, he preached in various parts of China. He was very familiar with Juventus and was also the first Chinese painter to learn Western oil painting techniques.
Yang Tingjun and Li Zhizao heard that one of Yin Feng’s entourage was Shi Hongji’s fellow villager, so he asked him to accompany him.
When they entered Nanjing, they were very surprised to find that the city of Nanjing was in order, with all walks of life and prosperity, and there were even many blonde and blue-eyed Westerners coming and going on the streets; the Chinese company seized the opportunity and brought foreign businessmen from Taiwan Port to Taiwan. Nanjing, doing business in a big way.
After the Suzhou Battle, Yan Siqi's Fifth Brigade captured Suzhou, Jiading, Jinshan and other places. Basically, the entire southern half of Nanzhili was occupied by the Chinese army. This area is the main sericulture area in Jiangnan, and every year April to November are the season for Jiangnan to acquire silk cocoons. This is the end of the silk acquisition season. Jiangnan’s sericulture industry has not been interrupted by the war. With the rapid victory of the Chinese army, the scope of war damage is very small. Moreover, the biggest customer of the overseas silk trade in China came directly to receive goods, and the industry reached a climax. The streets of Nanjing were filled with silkworm farmers and silk merchants. Someone was asking the market manager who temporarily established the China Army. : "...you'll come again next year, or how long do you want to stay here?"
Yang and Li were puzzled by the fact that the empire Nanjing City became a big market. They couldn't help but laugh and cry. They came to the residential areas of officials, gentry and nobles in the North City and found that there were black soldiers guarding the doors of the houses of various families, but they could see it. The family of these bureaucratic nobles was not destroyed.
They also found that except for a few treasury, official yamen, and barracks were requisitioned by the Chinese army, the rest of the residential houses in Nanjing were basically not affected by the Chinese army. Moreover, the common people got along well with the Chinese soldiers on duty on the streets and alleys, and seemed to be inconsistent. mood.
They were surprised and puzzled. They had heard of the Chinese army's military discipline, but now they really saw it, but they were worried: In any case, the pirates acted like a "king army", for them, It was not a good thing, but the crisis of the Ming Dynasty.
They came to the old camp to see Yin Feng and informed him of his own teachings. Yin Feng had been waiting for them for a long time and immediately sent Juventus to greet him.
As soon as they met, they identified their identity as Catholics and Ding You at home, and emphasized that they were meeting here as a private person. They came to learn to save the church members. Lu Ruohan, who was present, was an inspector of the Chinese diocese of the Jesuit, and was crossed with the two of them. He started bowing and greeting. This kind of Chinese and Western etiquette seemed very funny to Yin Feng. He finally held back his laughter. He did not care about the pretentiousness of the two celebrities and personally took them to meet the church members who came out of Nanjing prison. noodle.
Yin Feng then invited them to visit the books published by China United Company at his residence: all 15 volumes of translations of "Geometric Origin", "Theory of the Operation of Celestial Bodies", and other Western scientific books. Li Zhizao also wrote "Circular Contour" with reference to "Geometric Origin". The book "Geometric" also has two books "Theory of Geometric" and "Geometric Methods" published five years ago. This is the work of Sun Yuanhua, a native of Jiading, Shanghai. Sun himself is Xu Guangqi's friend, student, and a Catholic.
Li Zhizao and Yang Tingyun were both surprised: Li Zhizao had no objection to the pirated copy of his books, but was surprised that these books that were practical and Western learning could be published in large quantities in Taiwan.
Yin Feng took the opportunity to do work to them and asked them to mediate between the Chinese company and the imperial court.
"...We are the hope of the Ming Dynasty. Now our Ming Dynasty is full of diseases. Western learning is the way to save it, and it is also the way to "replenish Confucianism" that Grand Secretary Xu and all of you said. Our company is not like changing dynasties, but wants to open a sea. In the country, the people of Ming Dynasty live and work in peace and contentment, and the maritime ban must be lifted, so that the Catholicism you believe in can spread throughout the land of China..."
Li and Yang did not make any promises. When they left, they left their disciples. Then, some missionaries hiding in their homes also came to Nanjing via water. Pondi, Guo Jujing, and Bi Fang. Among the missionaries such as Ji, Ai Ruluo, Shi Weizhen, Guo Jujing was unwilling to leave the mainland and stayed at Li Zhizao's home in Hangzhou.
Yang Tingyun once served as the Censor of the Supervisor, and Li Zhizao was appointed as the Shaoqing of the Taipu Temple in Nanjing. His official position was not high and he did not have enough influence in the court. Yin Feng had also considered this. Soon, Wang Fengsu, a missionary in the Nanjing prison, and Hangzhou. When Pondi, Bi Francis, Ai Ruluo and others who fled to Taiwan for refuge, they jointly wrote a letter to Xu Guangqi, who was in Tianjin, asking him to come forward and advocate pacifying the Chinese company.
During the same period, Li Zhizao and Yang Tingyun wrote to the former chief assistant of the cabinet, Ye Xianggao. Ye Xianggao was the young master and the crown prince in August of the 42nd year of Wanli. After resigning, he had been living in his hometown in Fuqing County, Fuzhou Prefecture, Fujian. Matteo Ricci and the Western missionary, who had a good impression of Ye Xianggao, received the letter and immediately set off for Hangzhou.
Yang and Li did not directly mention the pacification in their letters, but instead told them about their experiences in the Chinese military-controlled area, and then mentioned that Yin Feng was willing to evacuate Nanjing and Beijing after he proposed to open a sea ban on trade.
Ye Xianggao was a politician after all, and he saw from the things he described in the letter that the Ming Dynasty said was facing.
He hurried to Hangzhou. He first visited Zhejiang Vice General Luo Qing and asked him to talk about the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army. Luo Qing thought that the former cabinet master was going to return to the court, so he came out to find trouble. Naturally, He said something in a bit of fuel and ignorance. After coming out of Luo Qing, Ye Xianggao went to Li Zhizao's house to meet Yang and Li.
As soon as he met, he said, "This battle cannot be fought. If it continues, the Ming Dynasty will be in danger."