Si discute ampiamente, oggi più che mai, su come due culture diverse e millenarie possano incontrarsi per attuare un reciproco e pacifico scambio di idee e conoscenze. È un tema questo che chiama a raccolta studiosi e storici, soprattutto se le due culture appartengono a due emisferi diversi, se la discussione riguarda il confronto tra la cultura occidentale europea e quella orientale cinese. Ma può la dedizione, l’impegno e la forza d’animo di un solo uomo ridurre le distanze tra queste due grandi culture?
Questo libro ci dimostra che è possibile e che è già avvenuto più di 400 anni fa. L’uomo di cui parliamo è il gesuita maceratese Matteo Ricci, nato nel 1552 e morto nel 1610 a Pechino. Penetrato nel Paese di Mezzo (traduzione letterale dal cinese del nome Cina, nda) dopo mille peripezie per compiere opera di evangelizzazione, Matteo Ricci si trova di fronte ad una società complex, featuring a sprawling bureaucracy and slow, and found great difficulty in relating to people suspicious, that does not tolerate the presence of foreigners in the kingdom. The Jesuit realize soon enough that the teachings received by the Company of Jesus "to enter the hearts and souls of the Chinese and understands that the best way to start a mission in China is to buy credit from the authority and mandarins , officials learned of the Emperor Wanli, reporting to the Machiavellian principle of adaptation. Ricci began with great effort over time to learn and master the complex language of China, adopts the ceremonial reception of guests, he studied the classics philosophical and religious Confucius and Laozi. Thus able to attract the attention of shidafu (writers) and guan (imperial officials) showing a deep knowledge of Chinese culture and provision of philosophical knowledge, geographical and astronomical "Far West" while finding it extremely difficult to disseminate and inculcate the fundamentals of the religion of Tianzhu , Lord of Heaven, a term coined by the Jesuits to identify Thank God for his gifts, "bells ring for themselves" or mechanical clocks and crystal prisms, but also the reputation of a wise man Earn during the long years spent in previous settlements, Matthew Ricci manages to get the protection of the Emperor himself and authorization to reside in Beijing, where he died about nine years after receiving the honor of being buried in the capital of North (translation from Chinese in Beijing, nda). The Jesuit maceratese thanks to his dedication and outstanding performance has become the bridge between two worlds, the Chinese and European, separated by an ocean of difference, broke several records (such as the first Westerner to have written a work Chinese language, ed) and consigned to history as Li Madou (the Chinese name of MR) an extraordinary man.
