In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

184 7 / Imperial Sponsorship of Jesuit Funerals Over the course of the seventeenth century, missionaries and Chinese Christians gradually paid more attention to the organization of their funerals. After the Jesuits’ period of exile in Canton, from 1666 to 1671, these initiativeswere,unexpectedly,alsoencouragedbyimperialdecisions.Theimperial sponsorship in 1669 of the funeral of Johann Adam Schall von Bell—one of only four Jesuits who remained in Beijing during the exile—was one of the events that definitively marked the end of the Calendar Case controversy behind the exile. Moreover, in the post-exile period, three other funerals received imperial subsidies in the form of money, gifts, and recognition: that of Gabriel de Magalhães, who died 6 May 1677, Lodovico Buglio, who died 7 October 1682, and Ferdinand Verbiest, who died 28 January 1688. Both Chinese and Western documents produced by the missionaries extensively stress this imperial support , especially in the case of Verbiest’s funeral. funeral sponsorship Verbiest’s death on 28 January 1688, in the final days of the twenty-sixth year of Kangxi’sreign,followedjustonedayafterthedeathof Kangxi’sbelovedpaternal grandmother, Xiaozhuang. About one and a half months later, on 11 March 1688, Verbiest was buried with full imperial honors. Kangxi’s sponsorship of his funeral must have impressed the missionaries deeply, as shown by the extensive reports on this imperial sponsorship. Oneof theearliestreports,whichformedthebasisof lateraccounts,waswritten by Antoine Thomas, SJ (1644–1709), who had been involved in astronomical activities in Beijing since 1686.1 A text that made the funeral widely known in Europe is the description included in New Memoirs about the Present State of China, 1687–1692 (Nouveaux mémoires sur l’état présent de la Chine 1687–1692) by Louis Le Comte, SJ (1655–1728). Le Comte arrived in Beijing on 7 February 1688, too late to meet Verbiest, but in time to assist at his funeral on 11 March 1688. Le Comte describes these events in a letter to Marie, duchess de Nemours imperial sponsorship of jesuit funerals 185 (1625–1707).2 In1691,hereturnedtoFranceasProcuratorof theJesuits,andthere he included the report in a collection of letters in 1697 that was to play a role in the Rites Controversy on the European continent. Fifteen years after the fact, in 1703, Jean de Fontenay (1643–1710), another mathématicien du Roi (mathematician of the French King) who had arrived in Beijing together with Le Comte, stillfounditworthwhiletoreportaboutthefuneraltoFrançoisd’AixdeLaChaize, SJ (1624–1709), confessor of Louis XIV since 1675. This letter was published in EdifyingandCuriousLetters(Lettresédifiantesetcurieuses),oneof themostimportant sources of information about the Catholic missions in the eighteenth century , begun by the French Jesuit Charles Le Gobien (1671–1708) in 1702 and continued by Jean-Baptiste Du Halde (1674–1743) and others.3 Le Comte’s and Fontenay’s reports were combined into one report in the famous work by JeanBaptisteDuHalde ,Geographical,Historical,Chronological,Political,andPhysical Description of the Chinese Empire and Chinese Tartary (Description geographique, historique, chronologique, politique et physique de l’empire de la Chine et de la Tartariechinoise),printedinParisin1735andintheHaguein1736.4 Writtenmore than forty-five years after Verbiest’s death, this account begins as follows: Such was this illustrious Missionary, who gained the Esteem and Favour of a deserving Prince, to that degree that he honoured him with an Encomium composed by himself, which he order’d two Noblemen to read before his Co‹n, after having on his part performed all the Funeral Honours which are commonly rendered in China. The Encomium was as follows: “I with myself seriously consider that P. Ferdinand Verbiest voluntarily quitted Europe to come into my Empire, where he pass’d a great part of his Life in my Service. And I ought to give him this Testimony, that during the time in which he presided over the Mathematics, his Predictions were never found false, but always agreeable to the Motions of the Heavens. Besides, far from neglecting my Orders, he appeared in every Circumstance exact, diligent, faithful, and constant in every Undertaking till it was perfected, being always consistent with himself. As soon as I heard of his Sickness, I sent my own Physician to his relief. But when I understood that the Sleep of Death had for ever separated us, my Heart was wounded with the most sensible Grief. I sent two hundred Ounces of Silver, and divers Pieces of Silk to contribute to his Obsequies; and I WILL, that this Edict be a publick Testimony of the sincere Aªection I bear him.” The Grandees of...

Share