Wanli 1592

Chapter 405 Ideal Society
Why are Chinese people like this?Very difficult to deal with.

The bishop slandered to himself.

"According to what Mr. Li said, people in your hometown are used to going straight to the door, seeing the door straight to the point, so the Marquis will stop beating around the bush. The distinguished guests come from afar, so what's the matter?"

Matteo Ricci immediately translated - General Xiao is asking why you are here.

The bishop nodded, and replied cautiously: "Dear General Xiao, I am here on the orders of His Highness the Pope, and I want to establish a peaceful and friendly relationship with General Xiao, so that we can get along and communicate in peace and friendship. , we very much welcome General Xiao to visit Rome."

Matteo Ricci immediately translated.

"Welcome me to the city of Rome? Hehe, yes, yes, I am also yearning for the customs and customs of your hometown, but now I am busy with secular affairs, I am afraid that I don't have much time, it's okay, I will have a chance in the future, Benhou I must go and see your city of Rome, but you came all the way here just for this?"

The bishop said: "Of course it's not just for this. His Highness also very much hopes that General Xiao can allow our missionaries to spread the teachings of God in this land. You and our missionaries have also been in contact for a period of time, so it should be very clear. The teaching of God is to guide people to do good, obey order, and worship God.”

Matteo Ricci explained one by one.

He also had some expectations. To be honest, after following Xiao Ruxun for three years, Xiao Ruxun never said anything to support his missionary work, but he was very interested in the mathematics, Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin he mastered. Not only took him to translate "Elements of Geometry", but also translated many other works of Greek sages, especially works on mathematics.

Matteo Ricci gradually felt that he was a teacher spreading Western culture and science, rather than a missionary. He came here to spread Catholicism, not to spread mathematics and science knowledge. If you want to study mathematics and science, you can What is the purpose of looking for talents in this field and dragging me, a missionary, to learn these things?

What a great opportunity to go to Europe this time, as long as craftsmen don't want scholars, you will definitely have someone follow you when you open your mouth!Why do you insist on holding me a missionary?
In the past three years, I have helped Xiao Ruxun translate the works of the Western Renaissance and Greek period. I have translated five or six books, but I have not had a few opportunities to spread the teachings, and I have not even talked to a few people about the transaction, let alone Let the other party accept my teachings. When I lived in Guangdong, I could still make a few good friends who are willing to accept Catholicism, but now I don’t have much chance.

But Matteo Ricci is unwilling to leave here, because he knows that Xiao Ruxun has absolute power in this land, as long as he opens his mouth and agrees to allow the Catholic Church to preach here, then these more than 100 million people will have no choice but to leave. Knowing that there are not too many Confucian scholars here, there will be very little resistance to spreading the teachings. As long as he agrees, then this matter will be completed, and Catholicism will have a base in China.

But he didn't think about it either, would Xiao Ruxun not know what he knew?

Xiao Ruxun knew about it a long time ago, so he found things for Matteo Ricci everywhere, so that he had no time to go out and fool people, so that he could only stay in the office translating anthologies, and silently write out the western classics he memorized.

This guy has a very strong memory, and he also has his own special memory method, the legendary "Memory Palace" memory method, which was introduced to China by Matteo Ricci, and there are still many people who are studying it or opening cram schools , specializes in teaching the Memory Palace.

It is precisely because of his super-strong memory that Matteo Ricci can almost write down the Western classics he has memorized completely and without mistakes, and then use his own Chinese level, with the assistance of Xiao Ruxun, to translate these Western classics together. This is the past three years. Ricci's main work.

Don't think it's easy, this is a very time-consuming task, sometimes it takes less than one or two pages to translate in a day, and Xiao Ruxun doesn't have time every day.

When Xiao Ruxun has no time, he finds Chen Longzheng to replace him. Matteo Ricci once tried to develop Chen Longzheng into his first believer in Myanmar, but Chen Longzheng, who is full of romantic idealism, is completely immune to Christianity and is not affected by Lima Dou's bewitchment, on the contrary, told Matteo Ricci the legends of ancient Chinese sages.

Yes, Chen Long is teaching the stories of sages like Confucius and Mencius to Matteo Ricci in nine chapters and 81 sections, so that Matteo Ricci can further understand Chinese history, especially cultural history, and local customs and legends, etc. This made Matteo Ricci forget that he wanted to develop offline in the end, and was almost attacked by Chen Long.

Matteo Ricci finally realized that Chen Long was just a mallet, a mallet that would never develop into a Catholic. In medieval Europe, such a person could not escape the fire of the Inquisition, but in China in the sixteenth century, Li Matthew had nothing to do with him, he could only keep his faith as much as possible so as not to be bewitched by Chen Longzheng.

But in the process, Ricci gradually realized that in order to preach in China, he must understand Confucianism and contact Confucian scholars.

But the bishop didn't know that. He only knew that by asking Xiao Ruxun's consent, he could win the Pope's favor, and thus have a chance to be elected as the next Pope and reach the pinnacle of his life.

But Xiao Ruxun didn't seem to care much about it.

"You people are really interesting, Mr. Li, I don't want to say anything else, just ask you, how is the life of the people under my rule? Do you have food? Is life guaranteed? Is someone bullying them? Are they kind? Don’t they abide by the laws and regulations of Nanhou Mansion in my town?”

Matteo Ricci thought to himself that if you say this, you will kill the conversation...

But it is true that the biggest function that Catholicism can achieve is to control the mind, control the heart, keep the heart in order, obey the order, achieve the effect of ignoring the people and weakening the people, and cultivate excellent taxpayers.

Note that it is taxpayers, not citizens. Citizens know their rights, the rights they can obtain after paying taxes and obeying the law, and dare to defend their rights when their rights are violated, while taxpayers only know how to pay taxes, honestly Really pay taxes, know nothing, do nothing.

Governments all over the world hope that the common people under their rule are taxpayers, and the taxpayers are the ideal common people in the eyes of the rulers.

Catholicism was used by the Roman government to train taxpayers.

But the more than 100 million people under Xiao Ruxun's rule are almost like this. Their lives are stable, they don't make troubles or quarrel, they farm and do business from morning to night, and the hard work and hard work of the Chinese people is something he has never seen before.

Xiao Ruxun also paid great attention to protecting the life and safety of the people under his rule, and safeguarding their interests, so these people also paid great attention to maintaining the Zhennanhou Mansion, abiding by laws and regulations, and building an ideal society—the ideal society in Plato's ideal.

What are you calling us to talk about?
(End of this chapter)