Mission to China: Matteo Ricci and the Jesuit Encounter with the East - Softcover

'Mary Laven's account of a Jesuit priest's attempt to bring Christianity to China in the 1580s offers a fascinating insight into a time when the Ming dynasty was closed to foreign influence ... An illuminating read.' -- Jonathan Gibbs, Financial Times

'Laven's intricately intellectual approach also reaps thought-provoking results. A historian of the Renaissance by training, Laven has read carefully in recent anglophone scholarship on early modern China and suggests a number of nicely made comparisons between the Ming dynasty and counter-reformation Rome. She captures well China's culture of connoisseurship, pragmatic worship of material goods and fascination with exotica.' Julia Lovell, Guardian

'Makes compelling reading ... Laven artfully and playfully chooses topics that arouse the reader's curiosity, and makes interesting use of some of her sources.' --Ana Carolina Hosne, Times Higher Education Supplement

'Her reflections on Ricci's understanding of the concept of friendship are thought-provoking, the sections on the importance of the prism as a vaulable gift of cultural exchange might just create a scholarly cottage industry, and there is a detailed analysis of the clash between western and eastern attitudes towards masculinity ... Alongside Ronnie Hsia's recent biography, this is one of the two best books about Ricci since Jonathan Spence's 1980s classic.' -- Jonathan Wright, BBC History Magazine

'This is by no means the first study of (Ricci). There is, however, much to commend it, especially the deft way in which its narrative of Ricci's years in China are interspersed with reflections on the issues raised by his remarkable career.' T.H. Barrett, Independent

'Mary Laven, a lively theological historian, casts her pioneer priests out into an unfamiliar world and then reels them in to learn lessons, still relevant, about cultural difference.' --Iain Finlayson, The Times

In the sixteenth century, the vast and sophisticated empire of China lay almost entirely unknown to Western travellers. As global trade expanded, this land of reputedly boundless wealth, pale-faced women, and indecipherable tongues began to feed the fantasies of European merchants and adventurers. The Catholic Church, meanwhile, saw in this great people millions of souls who would be damned unless the Christian message could be brought to them. In this book, Mary Laven tells the extraordinary story of the first Jesuit mission to China. Confronting enormous challenges, the Italian priest Matteo Ricci and a tiny handful of learned companions gained permission from the notoriously xenophobic Wanli emperor to settle in the fabled Forbidden City. Living among eunuchs and mandarins, wearing the clothes of Confucian scholars, Ricci and his associates strove to master the language and culture of their hosts. At the same time, they energetically preached the virtues of Western art and science. In Mission to China Mary Laven brings this remote world vividly to life.