A Treatise on Friendship and the Import of Christianized Friendship Ethics into Late Ming–Early Qing China: A Study of Martino Martini’s Qiu You Pian

Abstract

This study focuses on Martino Martini’s A Treatise on Friendship (Qiu You Pian), exploring its content and means of introducing Christianized friendship ethics into late Ming–early Qing China. Through a close reading of the text and a comparative study with Matteo Ricci and Alfonso Vagnone, the 65 quotations in Qiu You Pian are classified according to their sources and listed, alongside corresponding ethical principles, in six tables according to the four types of original literature. It is clear that Martino Martini tried to convey Christianized friendship ethics in his work; compared to his forerunners, he delved deeper and made the greatest contribution to importing Christianized friendship ethics into China.

1. Introduction

European Jesuits in late Ming China shared a common interest in friendship with the Chinese literati circle. Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), after entering Nanchang, Jiangxi province, in 1595 at the request of the two royal princes of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Duojie (朱多㸅) and Zhu Duogeng (朱多焿), wrote his famous essay on friendship, Jiao You Lun (交友论 On Making Friends; abbreviated as JYL). This essay, the first work written in Chinese by Matteo Ricci, proved to be a great success: “Everywhere it met with the approval and the praise of the literary class, and it was frequently quoted in other works by writers of authority.… It brought him many friends and gained him a wide reputation” (Ricci 1953). With JYL, Matteo Ricci successfully expanded his social network in China, which helped him build a favorable relationship network for his missionary work in the country and maintain harmonious interpersonal relations.

Matteo Ricci set a model example for his successors. In 1643, half a century after Matteo Ricci’s JYL was published in Nanchang, a fellow Italian and Jesuit missionary from Trent, Martino Martini (1614–1661), arrived in China. In 1647, Martino Martini traveled to Lanxi, Zhejiang province, where he discussed friendship with Zhu Shi (祝石, 1602–1689), a Chinese scholar who practiced traditional Chinese medicine. Less proficient in written Chinese than Matteo Ricci, Martino Martini collaborated with Zhu Shi in a way similar to Lin Shu (林纾, 1852–1924), who translated Western novels into Chinese in collaboration with a few specialists in English and French: Martini dictated and Zhu Shi transcribed. In this way, Qiu You Pian (逑友篇 A Treatise on Friendship; abbreviated as QYP) was completed in five days. However, the essay was not published until 1661, after Martini died in Hangzhou, when his colleagues, the French Jesuit Humbert Augery (1618–1673, Chinese name 洪度贞), the Italian Jesuit Girolamo de Gravina (1603–1662, Chinese name 贾宜睦), and the French Jesuit Jacques le Favre (1610–1676, Chinese name 刘迪我) worked with Chinese Catholics, including Zhang Anmao (张安茂, jinshi in 1647), Xu Erjue (徐尔觉 1603–1680, the eldest grandson of Xu Guangqi 徐光启), and Zhu Shi, to publish it as a memorial.

QYP provides a more comprehensive, complete, and in-depth elaboration of Western classical discussions on friendship than JYL. In the academy, the unanimous opinion (D’Elia 1952) (M. Fang 1954) (H. Fang 1969) was that Matteo Ricci drew ancient Greek and Latin sayings and anecdotes from a sixteen-century Latin book entitled Sententiae et Exempla (Wise Sayings and Illustrative Anecdotes), which was compiled by the Portuguese scholar Andrea de Rèsende (1498–1573) (Ricci 2009). From the entire text of JYL, 100 maxims in total were attributed to ancient Greek and Roman authors, including Aristotle, Cicero, Diogenes Laertius, Seneca, and Plutarch. There were no quotations from the Old or New Testament. JYL also reflects Matteo Ricci’s familiarity with the Confucian classics; Confucian concepts like ren (仁, benevolence), he (和, harmony), and xin (心, heart) are woven into the text, making it a real “dialogue” (Ricci 1953) between Chinese and Western friendship ethics. Martino Martini’s QYP, on the contrary, focuses on introducing the Western classical theory of friendship, including the ancient Greek and Roman ethics and a Christianized view of friendship. It introduced Christianized Western classical friendship ethics to late Ming–early Qing China.

Thus, this study investigates the following questions: What aspects of Western friendship ethics were introduced in QYP? In what way did Martino Martini introduce them? How was its impact in China compared with Matteo Ricci’s JYL? An overview of research on Martino Martini’s works can be obtained by searching the CCT-database of K.U. Leuven (Dudink and Standaert 1980s). The result tells us that Martini’s Novus Atlas Sinensis (1655), De Bello Tartarico Historia (1654), and Sinicae Historiae Decas Prima (1658) have received the most attention, as they were major works published in Latin in Europe during Martini’s sojourn there from 1653 to 1657. In contrast, QYP, as one of his “minor” works in Chinese, has received little study, especially by English academics, most likely due to linguistic factors. Nevertheless, some scholars have made efforts to identify the quotations in QYP, including the Italian sinologist Giuliano Bertuccioli, who translated and annotated the text in Italian (Bertuccioli 1992; Martini 1998), and the Chinese scholar Li Sher-Shiueh, who edited the five-volume Christian Literature in Chinese Translation, 1595–1647: An Anthology with Commentary and Annotations (Wanming tianzhujiao fanyi wenxue jianzhu) and included QYP, with annotated sources for its quotations, in the fourth volume (Li and Lin 2014). Although Li Sher-Shiueh’s annotation of QYP largely benefits from Giuliano Bertuccioli’s study, as stated in the introduction to this work (Li and Lin 2014), his book lists one of the most important references concerning the study of QYP in Chinese academia, which remains absent from English academia. This study tries to answer the above questions based on these two scholars’ contributions by drawing data from their works, with the aim of making this issue, Martini’s work, and the work of other scholars more visible in English academia.

According to Giuliano Bertuccioli and Li Sher-Shiueh, there are at least 65 quotations from Western classical literature in QYP that embody Western classical friendship ethics. These quotations include the sayings and deeds of ancient Greek and Roman sages, philosophers, historical stories, quotes from the Bible, and stories from secular literature. This article classifies these literary allusions into four categories: (1) those from ancient Greece, (2) those from ancient Roman philosophers, (3) those from the Bible, and (4) those from European secular literature. It identifies the original materials in the classical Western texts and lists the corresponding friendship ethics. The import of Christianized friendship ethics into late Ming–early Qing China is analyzed, and the impacts of Martino Martini’s QYP and Matteo Ricci’s JYL are compared, revealing QYP’s contributions to connecting the two traditions of friendship ethics. Eastern and Western, and introducing the light of Christianity to late Ming–early Qing China through the subject of friendship.

2. Classification of the Literary Quotations in QYP

2.1. Quotations from Ancient Greece

2.1.1. Stories of Ancient Western Kings

Two stories of ancient Western kings were introduced in QYP. In the second story as listed in

Table 1. Stories of ancient western kings.

	Quotations in QYP	Sources	Corresponding Ethical Principle
1	Someone asked the Western King, “What is your country’s law like?” He replied, “It is like a spider’s web: the poor and weak are easily trapped in it, while the rich and powerful break free and fall away.”	Lives of Eminent Philosophers: Solon by Diogenes Laertius	To make friends for the sake of gain is not true friendship.
2	Story of Psammenitos III of Memphis, captive of Cambyses II of Persia	Historiae by Herodotus (484 BC–425 BC)	The power of true love.

, Cambyses II of Persia captured Psammenitos III of Memphis, together with his sons, daughters, officials, and slaves. Psammenitos remained unmoved when Cambyses had his sons and daughters fettered with slaves to draw water but began weeping bitterly at the sight of another person fettered. Psammenitos explained that this fettered person was his friend. This story proves that true friendship existed between the king and his official: Psammenitos cried over the circumstance of his friend because he took his friend’s bitterness as his own.

2.1.2. Sayings and Deeds of the Three Ancient Greek Sages: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle

Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and ethicist who was cited by Matteo Ricci in his JYL. The most well-known maxim from Ricci’s JYL, “A friend is none other than half of myself, a second self” (Ricci 2001), came from Aristotle, or rather from Zeno. Aristotle’s original sentence is “(A friend is) A single soul dwelling in two bodies” (Laertius 1925a, vol. I), while Zeno’s original is “(A friend is) a second self (alter ego)” (Laertius 1925b, vol. II). We can see from

Table 2. Sayings and deeds of the three ancient Greek sages: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

	Quotations in QYP	Sources	Corresponding Ethical Principle
1	Socrates: Socrates gave a banquet. His wife asked him not to be frugal. Socrates replied that a virtuous friend would appreciate his sincerity.	Lives of Eminent Philosophers: Socrates by Diogenes Laertius	The foundation of true friendship. True friends share what they have.
2	Socrates: A wise man from the West was tripped by someone’s foot and fell to the ground. He did not take any revenge.	Lives of Eminent Philosophers: Socrates by Diogenes Laertius	In friendship, one must not harbor anger; instead, one should be gentle and mild.
3	Plato: Plato said: “Only the virtuous can make friends with the virtuous; the unvirtuous cannot make friends with the virtuous, nor with the unvirtuous…”	Lysis by Plato	One should befriend those with virtue.
4	Plato: Someone asked Plato, “How can one tell whether a person is virtuous or not?” Plato replied, “One should not grow arrogant at praise, nor angry at criticism.”	Unidentified.	In friendship, one must not harbor anger; instead, one should be gentle and mild.
5	Plato: One day, Plato, in a rage said to his servant, “It is fortunate for you that I am angry—thus I spare you; if I were not angry, I would certainly punish you.”	Lives of Eminent Philosophers: Plato by Diogenes Laertius	In friendship, one must not harbor anger; instead, one should be gentle and mild.
6	Plato: There are four types of friends…	Lives of Eminent Philosophers: Plato by Diogenes Laertius	Lives of Eminent Philosophers: Plato by Diogenes Laertius
7	Aristotle: Aristotle said, “Those who befriend one another for the sake of profit will cease to be friends once profit is gone—both the profit and the friendship vanish together.”	Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle	The distinction between true and false friends.
8	Aristotle: Aristotle said, “A friend is, as it were, a second soul dwelling within a single body.”	Lives of Eminent Philosophers: Aristotle by Diogenes Laertius	The foundation of true friendship.
9	Aristotle: Here lies the essence of true friendship: though two bodies are apart, the two hearts remain united as one.	Lives of Eminent Philosophers: Aristotle by Diogenes Laertius	The foundation of true friendship.

that Aristotle was cited three times in QYP. His idea was repeatedly expressed: “A friend is a second soul dwelling within a single body.” “In your heart, I am your second self; in my heart, you are my second self. You handle my affairs as if I were there; I attend to your matters as if I were you—all because our two bodies share one and the same love.” (Huang and Wang 2013b, vol. 2). This idea of friendship was completely absent in the Chinese tradition. In the Confucian tradition, friendship ranks last among the five cardinal relationships (Wulun 五伦). Martini, realizing how this impacted the Confucian scholars of late Ming China, continued Ricci’s work, emphasizing and reaffirming this viewpoint in his treatise.

2.2. Quotations from Ancient Roman Philosophers

2.2.1. From Cicero (106 BC–43 BC)

Table 3. From Cicero.

	Quotations in QYP	Sources	Corresponding Ethical Principle
1	Flattery is a plague to friendship; it destroys true virtue…	On Friendship by Cicero	The difficulty of finding a true friend.
2	Cato said, “The intentions of an enemy are still more beneficial to me than those of a flatterer… One should know that it is better to have enemies than to associate with flatterers.”	On Friendship by Cicero	The difficulty of finding a true friend.
3	Greed is a poison to friendship—no harm is greater than it!… To look to a friend for gifts, and then measure the size of the gift to judge the depth of one’s affection for them.	On Friendship by Cicero	One should befriend those with virtue.
4	There are two fundamental principles for friendship: first, no pretense; second, no suspicion. Pretense arises from fear, and suspicion is a companion to fear… Fear drives away trust.”	On Friendship by Cicero	True friends do not fear one another.
5	A western proverb says: Serving a tyrannical ruler differs from serving a benevolent ruler. Those who serve a tyrannical ruler put on a pretense of love out of fear; those who serve a benevolent ruler trust him and act with sincerity which brings forth genuine love.	On Friendship by Cicero	True friends do not fear one another.
6	One must be cautious in choosing friends. When one intends to love a friend, one should not do so hastily… Only by associating with those who are virtuous can one truly love them sincerely.	On Friendship by Cicero	Which friends should one choose?
7	Virtue is the inherent principle of friendship—it is constant, unchanging, and always steadfast.	On Friendship by Cicero	Which friends should one choose?
8	When customs differ, intentions vary accordingly.	On Friendship by Cicero	Which friends should one choose?
9	A true friend remains in friendship when fortunes rise and fall, and social statuses change.	On Friendship by Cicero	The benefits of a true friend.
10	A true friend cannot be won over by force, nor bought with wealth; they are brought together by love and bound by virtue.	On Friendship by Cicero	The benefits of a true friend.
11	I must not seek a friend to comply with injustice, nor should a friend indulge me in injustice.	On Friendship by Cicero	A true friend abides by the principles of friendship and does not seek what is unjust.
12	Friendship has its boundaries, defined solely by virtue and righteousness; those who pursue what is unjust have overstepped such boundaries.	On Friendship by Cicero	A true friend abides by the principles of friendship and does not seek what is unjust.
13	The first principle of making friends lies not in refraining from seeking friends who are unvirtuous, but in not allowing the unvirtuous to seek friendship within one’s circle of friends.	On Friendship by Cicero	A true friend abides by the principles of friendship and does not seek what is unjust.
14	The story of the two true friends: Damon and Pythias.	On Duties by Cicero	Beyond what is not good, a true friend ought to do all that is righteous.
15	One should consider that a friend made today may turn into an enemy someday.	On Friendship by Cicero	One must not harbor unfounded doubts about a close friend.
16	The discourse on treacherous friendships is of utmost significance! The one you hold dear as a friend today may be someone you detest tomorrow.	On Friendship by Cicero	One must not harbor unfounded doubts about a close friend.
17	True love does not desire a friend’s property; it only desires love, and only loves those who love in return.	On the Ends of Goods and Evils by Cicero	The foundation of true friendship.

contains 17 quotations from Cicero, among which On Friendship ranks number one with 15 quotations. According to Timothy Billings, in JYL’s 100 maxims, there are 27 quotations of Cicero’s works, among which 20 are from On Friendship (Ricci 2009). This shows that Cicero is undoubtedly the most frequently cited ancient Western author both in JYL and QYP. Like with Aristotle, quoting Cicero’s work proves that Martini also followed Ricci’s path in selecting ancient European philosophers’ ethical works.

2.2.2. From Seneca (4 BC–65 AD) and Other Roman Poets, Philosophers, and Historians

Alongside Cicero, Seneca and Plutarch are two other frequently quoted Roman authors, with seven and six quotations respectively, as shown in

Table 4. From Seneca and other Roman poets, philosophers, and historians.

	Quotations in QYP	Sources	Corresponding Ethical Principle
1	Others’ crops are more luxuriant and vigorous than mine; others’ cattle and sheep are fatter and woollier than mine. Yet one often takes the illusory for the real.	The Art of Love by Ovid (43 BC–17 AD)	In friendship, one must not harbor hatred nor engage in jealousy or rivalry.
2	Others’ abundance is the envier’s scarcity; others’ fortune is the envier’s misfortune; others’ joy is the envier’s sorrow.	Epistles by Horace (65 BC–8 BC)	In friendship, one must not harbor hatred nor engage in jealousy or rivalry.
3	To judge a friend, observe what they value. If their affection lies in wealth and power, the friendship will ultimately be false.	Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium by Seneca	The distinction between true and false friends.
4	Before making friends, one must assess others carefully; after making friends, one should not have fear.	Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium by Seneca	True friends have no fear of each other.
5	When a plague rages, one might still get infected despite precautions. One should be cautious of this when forming new friendship.	Moral Essays by Seneca	The harm of bad friends.
6	True friends share all their belongings.	Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium by Seneca	The foundation of true friendship.
7	True friends share what they have, just as children share their parents’ belongings.	Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium by Seneca	The foundation of true friendship.
8	A good friend relieves the sorrow in my heart, their words resolve my doubts, and their affection leads me to joy.	Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium by Seneca	One must not harbor unfounded doubts about a close friend.
9	Consider all aspects carefully before forming a friendship; once the friendship is established, treat each other as one’s own self.	Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium by Seneca	One must not harbor unfounded doubts about a close friend.
10	A story between a princess of a fallen royal family and a palace maid who would sacrifice her own life for her lady.	Memorable Deeds and Sayings by Valerius Maximus (1st century)	The power of true love.
11	A person having many friends is like having more eyes, more ears, more hands, more mouths, and more hearts.	Discourse by Dio of Prusa (40–120)	The benefits of a true friend.
12	The story of Lucilius saving his friend Brutus.	Parallel Lives by Plutarch (45–125)	The power of true love.
13	The story of Anytus and his friend Alcybiades.	Parallel Lives by Plutarch	The foundation of true friendship.
14	Philip II of Macedon persuaded by a minister of the former king and turned into a wise ruler.	Moralia by Plutarch	A true friend abides by the principles of friendship and does not seek what is unjust.
15	Teleclus’s younger brother wonders why the people praise his elder brother, not him.	Moralia by Plutarch	In friendship, one must not harbor anger; instead, one should be gentle and mild.
16	The wise man declines Alexander the Great’s gifts.	Parallel Lives by Plutarch	To make friends for gifts is not to make friends at all.
17	King Alcamenes declines gifts.	Moralia by Plutarch	To make friends for gifts is not to make friends at all.

. When making friends, Seneca emphasized that one should “think for a long time whether or not you should admit a given person to your friendship. But when you have decided to do so, welcome him heart and soul, and speak as unreservedly with him as you would with yourself”, because “after friendship is formed you must trust, but before that you must judge” (item 4 in Table 4) (Seneca 1969). This ethical principle of friendship echoes with what Confucius advocates in The Analects: “In friendship, one must be trustworthy in one’s words” (“与朋友交, 言而有信”) (Analects: 1.7) (Yang 2006). One can see that the cultivation of one’s own virtue is highly valued in Confucian friendship ethics, as becoming a junzi (君子) is Confucius’s ideal in cultivating oneself. In contrast, in ancient Greece and Rome, virtue was a premise in forging true friendship. Like Greek philosophers, Cicero stressed the importance of virtue in making friends. He said, “friendship can only exist between good men.” (Cicero 1909) “The clear indication of virtue, to which a mind of like character is naturally attracted, is the beginning of friendship.” (Cicero 1909) Once friendship is established between two good people, it is natural that one treats the other “as unreservedly as you would with yourself”.

2.3. Quotations from the Bible

QYP was divided into two volumes. In the first volume, Martini emphasizes the difficulty of finding a true friend, the distinction between true and false friends, the benefits of true friends, the harm of false friends, and the power of true love, etc. He mainly drew the stories of friendship from the works of ancient Greek and Roman historians, philosophers, and poets; these are generally regarded as “secular” stories. In the second volume, Martini mostly quotes words, verses, or passages from the Bible, including both the Old Testament and the New Testament. See

Table 5. From the Bible.

	Quotations in QYP	Sources	Corresponding Ethical Principle
1	St. Paul says: “If by chance one associates with the unvirtuous, then virtue will be endangered—precisely because the unvirtuous exert a stronger influence than the virtuous.”	2 Corinthians 6: 14 New Testament	The harm of bad friends.
2	God delights in those who delight in what God delights in.	Psalms 17: 26–27 (Vulgata)	The harm of bad friends.
3	If you dip your hand into pine resin, the resin will surely stick to it.	Sirach 13:1 Old Testament	The character of friends, either good or bad, is easily contagious.
4	Do not befriend short-tempered people.	Proverbs 22: 24–25 Old Testament	In friendship, one must not harbor anger; instead, one should be gentle and mild.
5	A gentle response defuses anger; a firm reply provokes fury.	Proverbs 15: 1 Old Testament	In friendship, one must not harbor anger; instead, one should be gentle and mild.
6	You shall love those who hate you and do good to those who mistreat you; only then are you child of the Lord.	Matthew 5: 45–48 Old Testament	In friendship, one must not harbor anger; instead, one should be gentle and mild.
7	St. Paul says: “A slanderer is one whom the Lord abhors and angers.”	Romans 1: 29–31 New Testament	Do not slander your friends.
8	St. Paul says: “Slanderous and pernicious words have destroyed countless fortified cities, ruined numerous noble families, enfeebled multitudes of strong people, and toppled many valiant states.”	2 Peter 2: 1–6 New Testament	Do not slander your friends.
9	Double-tongued words are like thin cloth: it is easily seen through.	Proverbs: 26: 22–25 Old Testament	One should not befriend a double-tongued person.

.

Among the nine quotations in Table 5, two are from the first volume, and seven are from the second volume. Martino Martini did not limit his discussion on Western views of friendship to an introduction of the concepts of friendship in ancient Greek and Roman traditions, like Matteo Ricci did in JYL; instead, he further elaborated on the discourse on friendship by quoting the Bible, providing the Christian perspective on friendship. He quoted proverbs from the Old Testament, advising people to be “gentle and mild” in friendship (quotations 4, 5); he quoted sayings from the New Testament to dissuade people from slander (quotations 7, 8). He also quoted from Matthew to encourage people to “love those who hate you and do good to those who mistreat you” because only then will one deserve to be a “child of the Lord” (quotation 6). In this way, Martino Martini introduced Christian moral standards and values concerning friendship to China. In contrast, Matteo Ricci did not quote the Bible in JYL. Martino Martini apparently delved deeper into Western classical views on friendship in QYP. In this sense, Martino Martini’s QYP can be regarded as a continuation and further development of Matteo Ricci’s JYL.

2.4. Quotations from European Secular Literature

Material quoted from European secular literature included ancient Greek dramas, Italian proverbs, Aesop’s Fables, and others. Eleven items are listed in

Table 6. From European secular literature.

	Quotations in QYP	Sources	Corresponding Ethical Principle
1	The friendship story between Orestes and Pylades.	Iphigenia in Touris by Euripides (480 BC–408 BC)	The power of true love.
2	The misfortunes of neighbors enhance my wisdom.	Metamorphose by Ovid (43 BC–17 AD); Italian proverb.	The distinction between true and false friends.
3	Not only does he explicitly admonish that those who obtain blessings incur his wrath, but even those who harbor doubts will arouse his anger.	Latin proverb.	In friendship, one must not harbor hatred, nor engage in jealousy or rivalry.
4	Boasting about oneself will surely turn into a disgrace.	Latin or Italian proverbs.	Do not praise yourself when making friends.
5	A dog entered the cattle trough. When the ox was about to eat, the dog stopped it…	Aesop’s Fables	In friendship, one must not harbor hatred, nor engage in jealousy or rivalry.
6	The lion, the king of beasts, gathered all the animals and asked who was the most beautiful among them. The monkey presented its child to him.	Aesop’s Fables	Do not praise yourself when making friends.
7	The wolf asked the sheep for water. The sheep replied, “You are not for water, but for me.”	Aesop’s Fables	One should not befriend a double-tongued person.
8	An old father taught his son how to distinguish between true and false friends.	Widely seen in Eastern and Western literature, or from Disciplina Clericalis by Petrus Alphonsi (1062–1110)	The distinction between true and false friends.
9	In a flock of a hundred sheep, if one sheep has a sore, the illness will spread to all the others…	Juvenal and Persius by Juvenal (55–127)	The harm of bad friends.
10	The story between King Alfonso and his ministers.	De dictis et factis Alphonsi Regis Aragonum et Neapolis by Antonio Beccadelli (1396–1458)	The distinction between true and false friends.
11	In a city in the West, disabled people must pay one coin to enter the city…	Disciplina Clericalis by Petrus Alphonsi (1062–1110)	In friendship, one must not harbor anger; instead, one should be gentle and mild.

.

Among the eleven items in Table 6, Aesop’s Fables was an example of secular literature from which the Jesuits in China in the late Ming period liked to quote. Matteo Ricci, in his Ten Essays on Eccentric Personalities (畸人十篇, 1608), and Diego de Pantoja, in his Conquering the Seven Vices (七克, 1614), both included six of Aesop’s fables. Nicolas Trigault collaborated with the Chinese convert Zhang Geng (张赓, juren in 1597) and compiled Kuangyi (况义, 1625), a selected translation of 22 fables from Aesop’s Fables. The three fables in QYP were translated into Chinese for the first time.

3. Introduction of Christianized Friendship Ethics in Late Ming–Early Qing China

Among those who introduced the concept of Xixue (西学), or Western Learning, in late Ming China, Alfonso Vagnone (1566–1640) and Giulio Aleni (1582–1649) were notable contributors. These two Italian Jesuits introduced Xixue through their writing: Alfonso Vagnone wrote one chapter to introduce “Xixue” in his second volume of Tongyou Jiaoyu (On Children’s Education, 1620), and Giulio Aleni wrote his famous essay Xixue Fan (An Introduction to Western Learning, 1623). In the six subjects listed, “philosophia” is studied in the second stage, just after “rhetorica” education is completed, and includes Logica, Physica, Metaphysica, Mathematica, and Ethica. The subject of “Ethics”(厄第加) was thus imported into late Ming China. As Vagnone expounds,

Ethics, literally signifying the study of upholding righteousness and proprieties, comprises three essential aspects: firstly, cultivating one’s virtue through righteousness and proprieties; secondly, governing one’s family with this cultivated virtue; and finally, administering the state based on the principles of family governance. (“夫厄第加者, 译言察义礼之学也, 其务不外乎三者: 先以义礼修身, 次以身齐家, 终以家治国是也。”

(Huang and Wang 2013a, vol. 1)

To introduce the study of “upholding righteousness and proprieties” to China, Alfonso Vagnone wrote three books on ethics in Chinese in the 1630s, namely, Xiushen Xixue (Western Learning on Cultivating One’s Virtue), Qijia Xixue (Western Learning on Governing One’s Family) and Zhiping Xixue (Western Learning on Administering the State). These three books, which corresponded perfectly to the Confucian teachings Xiushen (cultivating one’s virtue), Qijia (governing the family well), Zhiguo (administering the state effectively), and Pingtianxia (bringing peace to the world), elaborated in Daxue (Great Learning) in content, realized a real dialogue between Christianized Greek ethics (including ethics in the modern sense, household management, and political science) and the core ideas of Confucian political philosophy.

In 1636, Alfonso Vagnone compiled Dadao jiyan (Illustrations of the Grand Dao) in collaboration with the Chinese official Han Yun (韩云, juren in 1612), which addressed the theme of friendship. In Dadao jiyan, Alfonso Vagnone collected 355 ancient Greek and Roman sayings (what Sher-shiueh Li and Thierry Meynard call “Jesuit Chereia” (Li and Meynard 2013) and categorized them into five groups according to the traditional Chinese Five Cardinal Relationships. In the Chinese tradition, friendship ranks last among the Five Cardinal Relationships: (1) righteousness between a ruler and his official; (2) affection between a father and his son; (3) distinction between a husband and his wife; (4) order between elder and junior siblings; and (5) trust between friends. In Dadao jiyan, Alfonso Vagnone collected 122 friendship-themed sayings, just behind the 158 sayings focusing on the ruler–official relationship (Li and Meynard 2013). Alfonso Vagnoni did not deny that the ruler–official relationship occupied the primary position among the Five Cardinal Relationships, but he also held that friendship was superior to the family relationships (namely, the father–son, elder–junior sibling, and husband–wife relationships). Like Matteo Ricci, Alfonso Vagnoni did not quote the Bible in this book; instead, he quoted sayings from ancient Greece and Rome.

Friendship ethics is also discussed in Alfonso Vagnone’s Qijia Xixue. “On making friends” appears in the 19th chapter in the third volume of the book. Alfonso Vagnone states that friendship plays an important role in children’s education, and he interweaves the teachings of the Lord, the Bible, and the prophets with those of ancient Greek and Roman philosophers like Pythagoras, Plato, and Seneca. Martini’s treatise on friendship is much like Alfonso Vagnone’s in referencing the Lord, the Bible, and ancient Greek and Roman sages, though Martini evidently put more emphasis on the former. In Martini’s work, the frequent references to the latter only serve as examples to support the basis of true friendship: common faith in the Lord. All stories of friendship in ancient Greek and Roman works, and in secular literature, are meaningful only when the context of Christianity is taken into account. Martini makes his point very clear in the closing remark of his prelude to QYP:

Whoever understands the essence of true friendship is closer to Heaven. (“能识真交之本者, 于天国近。”

(Huang and Wang 2013b, vol. 2)

Martino Martini tried to introduce Christianized friendship ethics to China, including being willing to sacrifice one’s own life for a true friend (quotation 14 in Table 3 and quotations 10, 12 in Table 4), which is a step further than sharing with a friend (quotations 6, 7 in Table 4). As Thierry Meynard observes, “Martino Martini’s De Amicitia is permeated with heroic acts where one sacrifices his own life for his friend” (Meynard 2010), and even to love one’s enemy, as this is an ethical rule advocated by Christianity (Meynard 2010). Martino Martini was more motivated to introduce the doctrines of Christianity to the Chinese, just like he “enthusiastically eulogizes the success of the Jesuit mission” (Yeh 2019) in his Brevis relatio (1654), a pamphlet published in Rome when Martini was sent back to Europe to advocate for the Jesuits’ achievements and justify their disobedience regarding Pope Innocent X’s 1645 decree against the Chinese rites.

4. Comparison of Impact of JYL and QYP

As previously mentioned, Matteo Ricci’s JYL was a great success and “had been repeatedly printed both in Beijing and in other provinces with great applause from all scholars, … and that it had already begun to be quoted in important Chinese books” (Ricci 2009). The text was repeatedly anthologized in full or in part by Chinese writers after Ricci’s death, among whom Li Zhizao (李之藻, 1565–1630) prepared the definitive edition in the anthology Tianxue Chuhan (天学初函, 1629). It was even collected in the first of the great imperial libraries Gujin tushu jicheng (古今图书集成) nearly one century later (in 1725). Since its publication, JYL has been translated into at least five European languages: Italian, French, English, German and Polish (Dudink and Standaert 1980s).

In contrast, prior to the 20th century, QYP had only been reprinted once in 1677 (Jiao Qiu he lu交逑合录, A Combined Edition of JYL and QYP) and had only been translated into Italian (by Giuliano Bertuccioli in 1992). Only the preface to QYP by the Chinese scholar Shen Guangyu (沈光裕, 1607–1684) and the preface to Jiao Qiu he lu by Liu Ning(刘凝, around 1625- around 1715) were translated into English (also by Giuliano Bertuccioli) (Bertuccioli 1996). A scholar commented that, in contrast to the enduring success of Ricci’s JYL, Martini’s QYP “has been almost completely forgotten”, partly because it is “several times longer, heavily didactic, and much more explicitly religious in content” (Ricci 2009). This is not true. QYP has not been “almost completely forgotten”, though it is indeed much longer, “didactic”, and more religious than JYL. Some scholars have made comparative studies on the interaction of two traditions of friendship theories in JYL and QYP and examined the acceptance of each text among Chinese literati (Jiang 2021). We can say that QYP has been remembered and was reprinted when Martino Martini’s complete works, Opera Omnia, were translated into Italian and published by the University of Trento in six volumes from 1998 to 2020, as part of a project promoted by Franco Demarchi and Giuliano Bertuccioli and directed by Federico Masini. QYP was published in volume II, a collection of “minor” works, including another work originally written in Chinese, Zhenzhu lingxing lizheng (Rational Proofs of the Existence of the True Lord and the Immortality of the Intellectual Soul). The Chinese version of Opera Omnia is being published by Zhejiang University Press. Among the six volumes, Sinicae Historiae Decas Prima (volume IV) and Novus Atlas Sinensis (volume III) were translated into Chinese and published by Zhejiang University Press in 2024 and 2025, respectively. The other volumes in Chinese, including QYP, will be published in the future.

QYP and Martino Martini’s other works received more attention in academia when his portrait by the female Flemish Baroque painter Michaelina Woutiers (1604–1689) was discovered in 2016 (Golvers 2016), and an exhibition of Woutiers’ paintings, including Martino Martini’s portrait, was held by the museum MAS in Antwerp, Belgium, in 2018 (Michaelina 2018). Martino Martini’s QYP was not forgotten; on the contrary, it continues to arouse research interest in both China and Europe with the publication of Martini’s complete works on both sides.

5. Conclusions

This article sets Martino Martini’s QYP in the context of late Ming-early Qing China as a text on friendship, succeeding Matteo Ricci’s JYL after half a century. In Section 2, we classified QYP’s 65 quotations into four categories, namely (1) from ancient Greece, (2) from Ancient Roman philosophers, (3) from the Bible, and (4) from European secular literature, and arranged them into 6 tables with the quotations, the sources and the corresponding ethical principles. Then, Section 3 offered the introduction of Christianized friendship ethics in the framework of the import of the Xixue (Western Learning) in late Ming China, in which Alfonso Vagnone and Giulio Aleni were the two notable forerunners. Friendship ethics was discussed in Vagnone’s Dadao jiyan and Qijia Xixue. Martini’s QYP is much like Vagnone’s work but has more quotations from the Bible, and his borrowing from the ancient Greek and Roman works, even the secular literature serves as a means of evangelization, as he directly advocates that the essence of true friendship is the belief in God. In Section 4, a comparative study of the impact of JYL and QYP was made, highlighting the latter’s regaining attention in the academy with the publication of Martino Martini’s complete works both in Europe and in China.

In conclusion, Martino Martini imbued QYP, his treatise on friendship, with Christianized friendship ethics, introducing late Ming–early Qing China to Christian values such as empathy, caring, sharing, and self-sacrifice and connecting Eastern and Western perspectives on friendship. In doing so, he let the light of Christianity in through the window of friendship, which was of interest to late Ming–early Qing Chinese scholars. Martino Martini and his QYP remain influential in China to this day.