18 How the Church Has Changed the World in life, they thought that the best demonstration of their honor would be to “bring” food to them after their death. The common people, however, had mingled the practice with a good deal of superstition, and that, too, had to be taken into account. Father Ricci sought out the wisest sages among the Chinese, and determined that the most ancient Chinese deity of all was the T’ien-Chu ShihI—“heavenly Lord” or “Lord of heaven.” That Lord was the one in whom all things had their origin, and whom all things in heaven and earth obeyed. So after long observation and careful study of the old texts, he wrote The True Doctrine of God, a short and brilliant catechism of the Catholic faith, filled with citations from the venerated words of such ancient wise men as Confucius and Mencius. For we believe that God does not leave any of his beloved people entirely in darkness. Love of God, the bond of friendship After many years of patient labor, Matteo Ricci was accorded the rarest of privileges. He, a mandarin from the West, was allowed entrance to the Forbidden City, the abode of the emperor himself. It was a momentous occasion. For we are not talking about slick operators, buying land from indigenous peoples by paying them nuggets of glass, or rotting out their virtue by soaking them with firewater. Matteo Ricci came
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzMzNzY=