Matteo Ricci was respected by scholars in China, and he was called "Taixi Confucian scholar". He was one of the pioneers of Catholicism in China and the first western scholar to read China literature and study China classics.
In addition to spreading Catholic teachings, he also made friends with China officials and celebrities, and spread western scientific and technological knowledge such as astronomy, mathematics and geography. His writings not only made an important contribution to the communication between China and the West, but also had an important influence on Japan and countries on the Korean Peninsula to understand Western civilization.
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Matteo Ricci can be said to be one of the pioneers of Catholicism in China. He successfully met the emperor in Beijing, and established a good reputation and relationship among the literati, which opened the door for other missionaries to enter China in the future.
Moreover, it also initiated the activities of missionaries in China for more than 200 years in the future: on the one hand, Christian religion was spread in Chinese, and Matteo Ricci himself was dressed as a scholar-bureaucrat in China; On the other hand, using natural science knowledge to win the favor of China people.
Matteo Ricci, who came with western learning, developed the ethos of scholar-officials learning western learning since the late Ming Dynasty. From Wanli of Ming Dynasty to Shunzhi of Qing Dynasty, more than 150 kinds of western books were translated into Chinese.
The Records of God written by Matteo Ricci and Euclid's Elements translated by Xu Guangqi and others not only brought China many advanced scientific knowledge and philosophical thoughts, but also many Chinese words.
For example, words such as point, line, surface, plane, curve, curved surface, right angle, obtuse angle, acute angle, vertical line, parallel line, diagonal line, triangle, quadrilateral, polygon, center of circle, circumscribed, geometry, week and so on were created by them and are still in use today.
Great universal geographic map, a world map made by Matteo Ricci, is the first world map in the history of China, which has been engraved for twelve times in China. And soon after it came out, it was introduced to Japan in the early edo period.
The map has fundamentally changed the traditional Japanese concept of "Mu Xia" worshipping China. It has a very important influence on the development of Japanese geography. Words such as Arctic, Antarctic, Mediterranean and Sea of Japan all come from this map. Up to now, Japan still calls the maps from17th century to18th century as Ricci maps.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Matteo Ricci