Jesuit China missions in the context of Shangchuan

Matteo Ricci SJ (Italian: [matˈtɛːo ˈrittʃi]; Latin: Matthaeus Riccius; 6 October 1552 – 11 May 1610) was an Italian Jesuit priest and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions. He created the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu, a 1602 map of the world written in Chinese characters. In 2022, the Apostolic See declared its recognition of Ricci's heroic virtues, thereby bestowing upon him the honorific of Venerable.

Ricci arrived at the Portuguese settlement of Macau in 1582 where he began his missionary work in China. He mastered the Chinese language and writing system. He became the first European to enter the Forbidden City of Beijing in 1601 when invited by the Wanli Emperor, who sought his services in matters such as court astronomy and calendrical science. He emphasized parallels between Catholicism and Confucianism but opposed Buddhism. He converted several prominent Chinese officials to Catholicism. He also worked with several Chinese elites, such as Xu Guangqi, in translating Euclid's Elements into Chinese as well as the Confucian classics into Latin for the first time in history.

Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which originated in the borderlands of south-western China, north-east India and northern Myanmar. Tea is also made, but rarely, from the leaves of Camellia taliensis and Camellia formosensis. After plain water, tea is the most widely consumed drink in the world. There are many types of tea; some have a cooling, slightly bitter, and astringent flavour, while others have profiles that include sweet, nutty, floral, or grassy notes. Tea has a stimulating effect in humans, primarily due to its caffeine content.

An early credible record of tea drinking dates to the third century AD, in a medical text written by Chinese physician Hua Tuo. It was popularised as a recreational drink during the Chinese Tang dynasty, and tea drinking spread to other East Asian countries. Portuguese priests and merchants introduced it to Europe during the 16th century. During the 17th century, drinking tea became fashionable among the British, who later started to plant tea on a large scale in India, where it had previously been used only as a medicine.

Martino Martini (20 September 1614 – 6 June 1661) was a Jesuit missionary in China. Born and raised in Trento, he worked as a cartographer and historian of ancient imperial China.

De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas suscepta ab Societate Jesu ... (Latin for "On the Christian Mission among the Chinese by the Society of Jesus ...") is a book based on an Italian manuscript written by the most important founding figure of the Jesuit China mission, Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), expanded and translated into Latin by his colleague Nicolas Trigault (1577–1628). The book was first published by Christoph Mang in 1615 in Augsburg.

The book's full title is De Christiana expeditione apud sinas suscepta ab Societate Jesu. Ex P. Matthaei Riccii eiusdem Societatis commentariis Libri V: Ad S.D.N. Paulum V. In Quibus Sinensis Regni mores, leges, atque instituta, & novae illius Ecclesiae difficillima primordia accurate & summa fide describuntur("The Christian Expedition among the Chinese undertaken by the Society of Jesus from the commentaries of Fr. Matteo Ricci of the same Society... in which the customs, laws, and principles of the Chinese kingdom and the most difficult first beginnings of the new Church there are accurately and with great fidelity described / authored by Fr. Nicolas Trigault, Belgian, of the same Society," dedicated to Pope Paul V). As it indicates, the work contained an overview of the late Ming China's geography, politics, and culture, its philosophy and religions, and described the history of Christianity's inroads into China (primarily, the work of Ricci himself and his fellow Jesuits). The book articulated Ricci's approach for planting Christianity on the Chinese soil: an "accommodationist" policy, as later scholars called it, based on the premise of the essential compatibility between Christianity and Confucianism. With some evolutionary changes, this policy continued to guide Jesuit missionaries in China for the next century.

Wanguo Quantu or the Complete Map of the Myriad Countries is a map developed in the 1620s by the Jesuit Giulio Aleni in Ming China following the earlier work of Matteo Ricci, who was the first Jesuit to speak Chinese and to publish maps of the world in Chinese from 1574 to 1603. Aleni modified Ricci's maps to accommodate Chinese demands for a Sinocentric projection, placing the "Middle Kingdom" at the center of the visual field.

Dong'e County (simplified Chinese: 东阿县; traditional Chinese: 東阿縣; pinyin: Dōng'ē Xiàn) falls under the jurisdiction of Liaocheng Prefecture-level city, in the Shandong Province of China. It is located on the left (northern) bank of the Yellow River, some 100 km (62 mi) upstream from the provincial capital Jinan.

The county is regionally and nationally renowned for the production of Ejiao, a donkey-hide gelatine used in traditional Chinese medicine. According to a ca. 1723 account by the French Jesuits Dominique Parrenin, there was a well in this county which was normally kept closed and sealed, and which was only opened when water was taken to be used in preparation of Ejiao for the emperor's court.

Philippe Couplet, SJ (1623–1693), known in China as Bai Yingli, was a Flemish Jesuit missionary to the Qing Empire. He worked with his fellow missionaries to compile the influential Confucius, Philosopher of the Chinese, published in Paris in 1687. As his works were in Latin, he is also sometimes known as Philippus Couplet.

Sabatino de Ursis (1575–1620, Chinese name: 熊三拔; pinyin: Xióng Sānbá) was an Italian Jesuit who was active in 17th-century China, during the Jesuit China missions.

The Three Pillars of Chinese Catholicism (聖教三柱石, literally the "Holy Religion's Three Pillar-Stones") refer to three Chinese converts to Christianity, during the 16th and 17th century Jesuit China missions:

• Xú Guāngqǐ (Wade–Giles: Hsü Kuang-ch'i; 徐光啟, 1562–1633) of Shanghai
• Lǐ Zhīzǎo [zh] (Wade–Giles: Li Chih-tsao; 李之藻, 1565–November 1, 1630) of Hangzhou
• Yáng Tíngyún [zh] (Wade–Giles: Yang T'ing-yün; 楊廷筠, 1557–1627) of Hangzhou

Their combined efforts helped lead Hangzhou and Shanghai to become centres of missionary activity in late Ming China. These men shared an interest in Western science and mathematics, and it is probable that this was what first attracted them to the Jesuits responsible for their conversion.