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Ricci (1552-1610) the Italian Jesuit, astronomer and mathematician who left Portugal in 1578 and reached China in 1583. After time spent in Guangdong Province (mostly at Zhaoging (Shiuhing) on the West River), Nanchang and Nanjing, he finally reached Beijing in 1601. His descriptions of life at the Imperial Court created an enthusiasm in Europe for all things Chinese and he contributed to cultural exchange between China and the West. Matteo Ricci's legacy was to be a recurring feature of our weekend.
The second grave is of Adam Schall von Bell (1591-1666) from Cologne, who arrived in Beijing in 1630. He became a translator of Western books on astronomy at the Ming court of Hsu Kuang-ch'i and later produced a calendar based on Western mathematical calculations. Under the first Qing emperor, Shih-tsu, he was granted permission to erect the Southern Church, which we were to visit on Easter Sunday. The third grave is of the Belgian, Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-88) who arrived in 1659. In the second section, graves include those of priests from Portugal, Italy, Germany, France, Czechoslovakia and Belgium, and also 14 Chinese priests. In this section the most notable is that of the Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), famed for his painting of horses. Some of the buildings bordering the Cemetery have been destroyed during the passage of history but a former French convent, built in 1926, is still standing and the Matteo Ricci Society plans to turn it into a museum as part of their revival of Matteo Ricci studies.
At our hotel, the Palace, we found that Nina Ricci now had a shop there, indicating that although some Beijing intellectuals had a revived interest in Matteo, the new-rich of the capital preferred the high-fashion consumerism of Nina.
On the Saturday we visited the National Library of China at 39 Baishigiao Road, near Beijing Zoo and Purple Bamboo Park, in West Beijing where we were received by Madam Sin Liping, Deputy Director of Foreign Affairs and Mr Huang Runhua, Head Librarian of the Rare Book Section, together with members of his staff; and given a privileged viewing of a selection of rare foreign books. These included a Catechism dated 1588 in Latin and Chinese, with the Chinese also transliterated into Roman script. This may have been the work of Matteo Ricci. Another equally fascinating book had been written in Spanish,