Matteo Ricci, the missionary, is very clever. When he first studied Confucius, he imagined Confucius as a religious leader in China, such as Islamic pagan leaders in some Middle Eastern countries. However, Matteo Ricci was very cautious. He carefully studied the content of Confucianism in China feudal society and the core of Confucius. Then according to some works and classic stories of Confucius, he found that Confucius was not a religious leader, but a very thoughtful philosopher. The spread of Confucius' thought is that Confucius is spreading a kind of philosophical thought, similar to some philosophers in ancient Greece.
After Matteo Ricci discovered this, he led missionaries not to blindly oppose Confucianism. But from the perspective of Confucianism, people in China feudal society can better understand the similarities between Christianity and Confucianism. Matteo Ricci's way of spreading Christianity won the favor of some literati in the Ming Dynasty. One of the important figures is Xu Guangqi.
These measures taken by Matteo Ricci made some people in the Ming Dynasty quickly accept the existence of Christianity. But when Matteo Ricci reported to the Western Catholic Church about China's missionary work. Many people also follow Matteo Ricci's missionary ways. It does not deny the legitimacy of Confucianism, and at the same time regulates the conflict between western thought and Confucianism, but this idea has been questioned by many people in the Roman church. Some people in the Roman church think that some thoughts and ways of Confucianism are no different from those of pagan religious leaders, and Confucius is the religious leader. Matteo Ricci's missionary way was denied.
Matteo Ricci's missionary thought was criticized in the Roman church, but his way was successful in China. His missionary thought accords with Confucianism to some extent.