De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas (On the Christian Expedition among the Chinese)

The title page says that the work is taken “from the commentaries of Father Matteo Ricci”. In his note to the reader Nicolas Trigault, a Jesuit who had himself worked in China, explains how it was made. Ricci, sensing that his life was ending, set down the beginnings of the mission in Italian and finished a few months, “or rather days”, before he died; the manuscript was found in his desk. Trigault, sent to Europe as the mission’s procurator, turned it into Latin on the journey, filled its gaps and, as he says, added much. The chapters on Ricci’s death and burial cannot be Ricci’s own. The note is dated at Rome in January 1615. The first of the five books describes China; the other four tell the story of the mission.

It is a primary source for what the Jesuits did and for how Ricci understood Chinese society and religion. It is the mission’s own account, published to win support in Europe, and because Trigault reworked it a sentence cannot always be assigned to one man or the other. What it says about Chinese converts such as Xu Guangqi is the missionaries’ report; Xu’s own words survive in his prefaces and memorials.