Jesuit Cemetery 利玛窦墓

车公庄大街北京市委党校里
Chinese and Latin inscriptions on Christian tombstones hidden inside Party cadre school
Part of A Better Guide to Běijīng’s coverage of West of the Imperial City

Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci (利玛窦, Lì Mǎdòu) was the perfect missionary combination of brilliant scholar and marketing man. He became the first Jesuit to receive permission to reside in Běijīng, which he did from 1601 until his death in 1610 (see Christianity in China).

His tombstone lies in one of two small enclosures in gardens at the heart of a school for Party cadres (京市委党校, Běijīng Administrative College) and is thus accessible only by appointment at least a day in advance, with a little more warning preferred. But some English is spoken on the number given, and visitors are made welcome by an English-speaking guide. Unfortunately this is usually one with little knowledge of the site, which once apparently produced wine for communion use and undertook religious printing and publishing. There’s a church now used for storage, but this is not always shown to visitors.

Founded in the 17th century by the Portuguese, and looked after by the Russians during periods when they were the only foreigners resident in Běijīng, the site was taken over by the French for the burial of their envoys who had been imprisoned and murdered in 1860. (The British and Indians killed were buried in a former Russian cemetery that is now Qīngnián Hú Park just outside the Āndìng Mén, then moved in 1902 to a British cemetery in what is now Nán Lǐshì Lù Park outside the Fùxīng Mén. No signs remain at either site.) French plenipotentiary M. le baron Gros described the scene:

La cérémonie de l’enterrement a été très-imposante; elle avait attiré un concours immense de peuple. Les six corps étaient portés chacun sur un chariot d’artilleries; un drap de velours noir sur lequel se détachait une crois blanche recouvrait chaque curceuil. Le cortége qui suivait le dueil se composait de tous les prêtres catholiques français, anglais et chinois en grand nombre; tous les officiers de l’armée anglaise étaient melée aux officiers français, qui avaient rendu, quelque jours auparavant, les mêmes devoirs aux Anglais victimes de la même trahison.

Expédition des Français et des Anglais en Chine 1860, Paris 1861

There’s no sign of the 1860 burials now, but the earlier Jesuit gravestones are striking, carved in both Latin and Chinese, although, having been gathered from various points around the site, probably none now has a body underneath. The original graves were despoiled and the bones scattered by the Boxers in 1900. In addition to Ricci, eminent Jesuits here include:

German Adam Schall von Bell (汤若望, Tāng Ruòwàng, 1591–1666) who cast cannon for the last Míng emperor and yet survived the change of dynasty to became tutor to the first Qīng emperor to reign from Běijīng. He was subsequently given a Mandarin rank and was put in charge of correcting the faulty Chinese calendar from 1634

The Belgian astronomer-priest Ferdinand Verbiest (南怀仁 Nán Huáirén, 1623–1688) who took over from Schall, casting cannon for the Kāngxī emperor and teaching him mathematics and astrononomy as well as making six of the measuring instruments sited on top of the Ancient Observatory (later to become a source of contention at the end of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, see Ancient Observatory)

Italian Guiseppe Castiglione (郎世宁, Láng Shìníng, 1688–1766) whose paintings of China and the court of Qiánlóng (most famously perhaps of his horses) are often mistakenly thought to be Chinese, and who produced the images of the ‘Old’ Summer Palace still seen in history books

Castiglione’s contemporary Frenchman Michel Benoît or Benoist (蒋友仁, Jiǎng Yǒurén, 1715–1774) who taught the Qiánlóng emperor to use a telescope, made maps of China for him, and who with Castiglione and others was the designer and builder of the European-style palaces at the ‘Old’ Summer Palace.

The churches in Běijīng are essentially rebuilds of Victorian hodge-podge neo-Gothic, of no particular architectural merit, and more interesting for the history of their destruction during the Boxer Rebellion (particularly the North Church which was also besieged) than for their current physical presence. Their interiors offer none of the fine artwork, statuary, and heraldry that provide interest to churches in Europe, for instance. These tombstones, on the other hand, are tokens of vast physical and mental effort against great odds, and ought to impress even those who may think the whole enterprise was misled from the beginning.

▶ Lì Mǎdòu Mù, Chē Gōng Zhuāng Dàjiē 6, t 6800 7279, 8.30–11.30am, 2–4.30pm. nb by appointment only. ¥10. m Chē Gōng Zhuāng West (Line 6) and walk E. b to 三塔寺: 特4, 19, 107电车, 118电车, 392, 685, 701.

The Ancient Observatory has more on how the Jesuits influenced Chinese development. The ‘Old’ Summer Palace contains the ruins of the ‘Versailles en Orient’ they built for the Qiánlóng emperor. Losing Their Heads describes the continuing propaganda around Jesuit-made bronze animal heads. The South Church sits on the site of Matteo Ricci’s original.

Next in West of the Imperial City: Línglóng Gōngyuán
Previously: Altar of the Moon
Main Index of A Better Guide to Beijing.

For discussion of China travel, see The Oriental-List.