This chapter contains the first systematic study of the non-Christian literati whom Longobardo interviewed for his report. Prior scholarship has focused on Longobardo’s discussions with Chinese Christian literati, particularly Yang Tingyun. However, Longobardo mentions also the names of sixteen non-Christian literati, of whom only one had been identified (Qian Linwu). Based on the information provided by the manuscripts and Chinese historical records, Song Liming has identified with certitude eleven of the sixteen literati. For the five remaining literati, Song hazards some possibilities. He infers from details about the positions of those literati that Longobardo held two rounds of interviews: a first round in Beijing around 1621–1625 and a second round in Nanjing and Hangzhou around 1625–1629. Song provides convincing evidence that the report had not been finalised in 1623, as previously assumed, but that Longobardo continued to revise it up until the very end of the 1620s.

1. 1.

   Navarrete,Tratadoshistóricos, 282–284; Longobardo,Traité sur quelques points de la religiondes Chinois; Longobardo, “A Short Answer Concerning the Controversies AboutXang Ti,Tien Xin, andLing Hoen (That Is, the King of the Upper Region, Spirits, and Rational Soul Assign’d by the Chineses) and Other Chinese Names and Terms; to Clear Which of Them May Be Us’d by the Christians of These Parts,” 218–220.

2. 2.

   Standaert,Yang Tingyun, 199. Nicolas Standaert identified Qian Linwu using his alternative name Qian Xiangkun 錢象坤.

3. 3.

   The information has been checked against the original Portuguese manuscript in APF to resolve inaccuracies in the Latin manuscript.

4. 4.

   In the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were two provinces calledzhili, Nanjing and Beijing, which were southern and northern capitals.

5. 5.

   Zhang Dexin 張德信,Mingdai zhiguan nianbiao 明代職官年表 (Hefei: Huangshan Shushe, 2009), 2:1238.

6. 6.

   Lin Yaoyu 林尧俞, ed.,Libu zhigao 禮部志稿 (1620), 43:59a.

7. 7.

   Zhang Tingyu 張廷玉,Mingshi 明史 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1974), 22:6492–6493.

8. 8.

   Zhang, 249:6447–6448.

9. 9.

   Zhang,Mingdai zhiguan nianbiao, 2:1242.

10. 10.

    Zhang, 3:2873–2877.

11. 11.

    Zhang,Mingshi, 326:8460.

12. 12.

    Wu zi of the 12th month of the 3rd year of emperor Tianqi (22 January 1624, 天啟三年十二月戊子),Ming Xizong zhe huangdi shilu 明熹宗悊皇帝實錄 (Veritable records of Tianqi),juan 42Mingshilu 明實錄 (Veritable records of the Ming dynasty) (Shanghai: Guji chubanshe, 2018)

13. 13.

    Bing yin of the 3rd month of the 1st year of emperor Chongzhen (8 April 1628 崇禎元年三月丙寅),Chongzhenchangbian 崇禎長編 (The extended records of the Chongzhen reign).

14. 14.

    D’Elia,Fonti Ricciane, 2:46, nn.2; 2:89.

15. 15.

    Zhang,Mingdai zhiguan nianbiao, 1:658–660.

16. 16.

    Gui you of the 5th month of the 5th year of emperor Tianqi (30 June, 天啟五年五月癸酉),Ming Xizong zhe huangdi shilu 明熹宗悊皇帝實錄 (Veritable records of Tianqi),juan 59.

17. 17.

    Zhang,Mingdai zhiguan nianbiao, 1:1239–1242.

18. 18.

    Xin chou of the 6th month of the 5th year of emperor Tianqi (28 July 1625‚ 天啟五年六月辛丑),Ming Xizong zhe huangdi shilu 明熹宗悊皇帝實錄 (Veritable records of Tianqi),juan 60.

19. 19.

    Yi hai of the 1st month of the 5th year of emperor Tianqi (4 March 1625‚ 天啟五年正月乙亥),Ming Xizong zhe huangdi shilu 明熹宗悊皇帝實錄 (Veritable records of Tianqi),juan 55.

20. 20.

    Bing yin of the 7th month of the 7th year of emperor Tianqi (12 August 1627‚ 天啟七年七月丙寅),Ming Xizong zhe huangdi shilu 明熹宗悊皇帝實錄 (Veritable records of Tianqi), juan 86.

21. 21.

    Ji hai of the 9th month of the 1st year of emperor Tianqi (15 October 1621, 天啟元年九月己亥),Ming Xizong zhe huangdi shilu 明熹宗悊皇帝實錄 (Veritable records of Tianqi),juan 14.

22. 22.

    Zhang,Mingshi, 21:6286–6287.

23. 23.

    Gu Xichang 顧錫鬯, ed.,Nanchangxian zhi 南昌縣誌 [Nanchang county gazetteer], Qianlong 乾隆 16th year (1751),juan 37, 13a.

24. 24.

    Bing yin of the 6th month of the 2nd year of emperor Tianqi (9 July 1622, 天啟二年六月丙寅),Ming Xizong zhe huangdi shilu 明熹宗悊皇帝實錄 (Veritable records of Tianqi),juan 23.

25. 25.

    Gui you of the 4th month of the 3rd year of emperor Tianqi (12 May 1623, 天啟三年四月癸酉),Ming Xizong zhe huangdi shilu 明熹宗悊皇帝實錄 (Veritable records of Tianqi),juan 33.

26. 26.

    Yi hai of the 10th month of the 3rd year of emperor Tianqi (10 November 1623, 天啟三年十月乙亥),Ming Xizong zhe huangdi shilu 明熹宗悊皇帝實錄 (Veritable records of Tianqi),juan 39.

27. 27.

    Zhang,Mingshi, 21:6557.

28. 28.

    D’Elia,Fonti Ricciane, 2:133, 149.

29. 29.

    Xin mao of the 6th month of the 1st year of emperor Tianqi (8 August 1621, 天啟元年六月辛卯),Ming Xizong zhe huangdi shilu 明熹宗悊皇帝實錄 (Veritable records of Tianqi),juan 11;Wu wu of the 3rd month of the 6th year of emperor Tianqi (11 April 1626, 天啟六年三月戊午),Ming Xizong zhe huangdi shilu 明熹宗悊皇帝實錄 (Veritable records of Tianqi),juan 69.

30. 30.

    Yuan Yuanxiu 袁元修 and Yang Jiuyou 楊九有,Hejianxian zhi河間縣誌, 康熙十三年 (1674).

31. 31.

    George H. Dunne,Generation of Giants: The Story of the Jesuits in China in the Last Decades of the Ming Dynasty (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1962), 284–85; Claudia von Collani, “Did Jesus Christ Really Come to China?,” inReligions and Missionaries Around the Pacific, 1500–1900, ed. Tanya Storch (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2006), 31; Wenchao Li 李文潮, “Long Huamin jiqi ‘Lun zhongguo zongjiao de jige wenti’ 龍華民及其《論中國宗教的幾個問題》,”Guoji hanxue 國際漢學 25 (2006): 67. For Li Tiangang, the treatise should be dated between 1622 and 1623. See Li Tiangang 李天纲, “Long Huamin dui Zhongguo zongjiao benzhi de lunshu ji yingxiang 龍華民對中國宗教本質的論述及其影響,”Xueshu yuekan 學術月刊 49, no. 5 (2017): 173. See also J. S. Cummins,A Question of Rites: Friar Domingo Navarrete and the Jesuits in China (Aldershot, UK: Scolar Press, 1993), 159. Brockey, however, proposes 1624. See Liam Matthew Brockey,Journey to the East: The Jesuit Mission to China, 1579–1724 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007), 439, n.85.

32. 32.

    Liam Matthew Brockey,The Visitor: André Palmeiro and the Jesuits in Asia (Cambridge: Harvard University Press), 2014, 253–277.

Authors and Affiliations

1. Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

   Liming Song

Editors and Affiliations

1. Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

   Thierry Meynard

2. Xue-Heng Institute for Advanced Studies, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

   Daniel Canaris

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