A MISSIONARY ON HIS JOURNEY: MICHAŁ BOYM AND RELIGIONS IN EAST ASIA

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M
ONUMENTA
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ERICA
59 (2011): 315-340
A MISSIONARY ON HIS JOURNEY:
MICHAŁ BOYM AND RELIGIONS IN EAST ASIA
C
LAUDIA VON
C
OLLANI
Contents
1. Introduction ………………..………………………………………………………..……. 315
1.1. Sources ………………………………………………………………………...…. 317
1.2. The 17th Century European Approach towards Other Religions ………… 318
1.3. The Jesuit Approach towards Religions in China ……………………….…. 318
2. Boym’s Travel to Tonkin ………………………………………………………………… 320
2.1. Discussions with Muslims ………………………………………….………….. 320
2.2. Siamese [Theravada] Buddhism ………………………………………..……… 322
2.3. The Discussion with a Heretic ………………………………………….…….. 325
2.4. The Persecution in Japan ………………………………………………..……… 327
2.5. Popular Religion ………………………………………………………….……… 328
3. Chinese Emperors …………………………………………………………………..……. 331
3.1. The Chongzhen Emperor ………………………………………………..…….. 331
3.2. The Ming Pretender Yongli ……………………………………………..…..… 334
4. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………..….. 337
1. Introduction
Michał Boym SJ (1612–1659) belonged to the many Jesuits who started their mis-
sionary life under the auspices of the Portuguese Padroado. He was sent from Lis-
bon to the Far East on 30 March 1643.
1
Since 1645 he sojourned in the Far East, at
first in Tonkin. Afterwards he stayed on the Southern Chinese island of Hainan,
then in Annam. Thus, Boym started his missionary work in the Jesuit province of
Japan, which then consisted of Cochinchina (Southern Vietnam), Cambodia, Siam,
Tonkin (Northern Vietnam), the island of Hainan and Laos, which all were part of
the sphere of influence of the Portuguese Padroado.
2
In Macau Boym professed
his four solemn vows in 1650. In the same year Álvaro de Semedo (1586–1658),
the Vice-Provincial of China, sent him to the Southern Ming Court of the Yongli
永 曆 emperor in Guangxi to support Fr. Andreas Wolfgang Koffler (1612–
1652).
3
At the same time Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1592–1666) was in the
service of the first Qing emperor Shunzhi 順治 (1644–1662) in Peking.
1
Josef Wicki, “Liste der Jesuiten-Indienfahrer 1541–1758,” Portugiesische Forschungen der
Görres-Gesellschaft 7 (1967), pp. 215-295, p. 297, no. 909.
2
François Cardim, Relation de la province dv Iapon, escrite en Portugais par le Pere François
Cardim de la Compagnie de Iesvs, Procureur de cette Prouince (Paris 1646), pp. 2f.
3
Pfister, pp. 265-269; Dehergne, p. 137.

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Boym did not stay at the Court for a long time but was soon entrusted with a
special legation to Rome. He was sent by the Christian empress dowager Helena
and the Christian princesses of the Southern King Court to the pope and to Euro-
pean princes for spiritual and practical help for the fight of the Ming against the
Manchu. The empress dowager Helena wrote letters to Pope Innocent X (4 No-
vember 1650),
4
to the Jesuit General (same date) and to Cardinal Lugo.
5
The same
did the so-called “chancellor” Achilles Pang (Pang Tianshou 龎天 壽).
6
Boym
started his voyage by sea from Macau on 1 January 1651 to Portuguese Goa (May
1651), then continued on the land route via Persia, Smyrna, Venice. He met the
doge there on 16 December 1652, but in Rome he had to wait with his Chinese
companion Andreas (Zheng Andelei 鄭安德勒) for three years until they were fi-
nally received by Pope Alexander VII on 7 December 1655. Boym started his way
back to China as superior of a small group of Jesuits from Lisbon to Goa on the
ship “Bom Jesus do Carmo” on 30 March 1656. His companions were among oth-
ers the Jesuits Philippe Couplet (1623–1692), François de Rougemont (1624–
1676), André Gomez (1622–1681) and Ignatius Hartegovelt (1629–1658).
7
Their
destinations were Portuguese India and the Vice-Province of China.
In his luggage Boym carried encouraging letters written by Pope Alexander
VII to Empress Helena and to the great chancellor dated 18 December 1655.
8
Boym hoped that the case of the Christian Ming Court would turn to the better
now, that the Yongli emperor would embrace Catholicism as the first Chinese
emperor, that his Court would follow him and that the Southern Ming would be-
come the dominant ruling dynasty of China and of the Far East, as envisioned by
the promising strategy of accommodation of the Jesuits. However, things did not
go this way. Boym started from Goa in 1657 and arrived in Siam in 1658. There
he received message from the Senate of Macau to avoid the city, because the Por-
tuguese were dependent on the Qing Court in Peking and did not want to endan-
ger these relations.
9
Boym therefore continued his way via Ayutthaya in Siam.
There he hired a ship from pirates which brought him to Tonkin (today Northern
Vietnam). Boym then continued his dangerous travel with his Chinese companion
to the province of Guangxi, where he died of exhaustion on 22 June 1659. This
last voyage back to China, however, brought Boym not only into contact with the
Chinese flora and medicine, but also with different religions and their adherents.
4
BM V, no. 2215, published in: Athanasius Kircher, China illustrata (Amsterdam 1667), pp.
101f; Du Halde, Description de la Chine (Paris 1735) p. 83; Adrien Launay, Histoire des Mis-
sions de Chine. Mission de Kouang-si (Paris 2002), p. 10.
5
Launay, Histoire des Missions, pp. 11f.
6
BM V, p. 831; Kircher, China illustrata, pp. 100f. Additional letters were written to the Doge
of Venice and to the King of Portugal.
7
Wicki, “Liste der Jesuiten-Indienfahrer,” p. 300. Other companions were George Brett Keynes
(1629–1658 on sea), António Saldanha (1619–1656?), Francisco Velho (1631–?) and João de
Abreu (1635–1663).
8
BM V, p. 831; Kircher, China illustrata, pp. 102f.
9
Pfister, p. 273.

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1.1. Sources
The main sources for this paper are two manuscripts written by Boym, namely his
“Status Christianæ Religionis in China, ut nunc se habet.”
10
This report deals with
the two Imperial “cases” concerning the Chongzhen 崇禎 emperor and the Yongli
emperor and their relations to Christianity and the missionaries. The purpose of this
document was to demonstrate that the conversion of the Yongli emperor was not
far and that it would be the logic fulfilment of the hopes the Jesuits, especially of
Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1592–1666), who tried to convert the last Ming em-
peror Chongzhen.
11
Parts of this manuscript and related manuscripts were printed
in several editions and translations with more or less slight changes. The following
edition tells only the story of the Yongli emperor: Breve Relazione della China, E
Della Memorabile Conversione Di Persone Regali di quella corte alla Religione
Christiana (Roma 1652), French translation: Briefve Relation de la Chine et de la
notable conversion des Personnes Royales de cet Estat (Paris 1654).
12
Joseph
Stöcklein (1676–1733), the editor of Der Neue Welt-Bott, wrote
an expanded Ger-
man translation and published it about 70 years later.
13
The other manuscript is an untitled report written by Boym himself about his
last travel from India through South East Asia to Tonkin, mostly by sea. This
journey was adventurous and even dangerous, but in our context, only the reli-
gious aspects are of interest. The report is kept in the State Archives of Bavaria,
Munich (Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, München).
14
The different religious
groups mentioned there are: Islam, “Heresy,” i.e., Protestantism, [Theravada]
Buddhism, folk religion, but also the sad situation of Christianity in Japan. As a
Jesuit and future missionary, Boym had, of course, received a special education
in non-Christian religions. This course also covered “Heretics” which in the
course of the Counter Reformation constituted one of the main targets of the So-
ciety of Jesus. In Boym’s missionary attitude we can find a certain openness for
other religions and, at least in the case of Buddhism, a certain curiosity, but in
the end Boym was convinced that there is only one straight way to salvation,
10
Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, München [hereafter: BHStA], Jesuitica 589; cf. Bernward H.
Willeke, “Die Missionshandschriften im Bayerischen Hauptstaatsarchiv zu München,” in: De
Archivis et Bibliothecis Missionibus atque Scientiae Missionum Inservientibus. Euntes Docete
XXI (Roma 1968), p. 335.
11
The history of the court in Peking was dealt with in Johann Adam Schall von Bell’s Historica rela-
tio de ortu et progressu Fidei Orthodoxae in Regno Chinensi per missionarios Societatis Jesu ab
Anno 1581 usque ad Annum 1669 … (Regensburg 1672), which is the second edition of Schall’s
Historica Narratio de initio et progressu Missionis Societatis Jesu apud Chinenses … (Wien 1665).
12
BM V, no. 2221.
13
“Bericht Patris Michaëlis Boym, der Gesellschafft JESU Missionarii in Sina, aus der Polnischen
Provinz / welchen er zu Rom im Jahr 1653 abgestattet hat,” Der Neue Welt-Bott, Numerus 13
(Augsburg 1726). The report in the Welt-Bott is abbreviated, but also has some additions. Cf.
BM V, no. 2225 + 2226.
14
München, BHStA, Jesuitica 607/118; original in ARSI, Jap. Sin. 80, ff. 122-128; cf. Willeke,
“Die Missionshandschriften,” p. 335.

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namely Catholicism. The other religions can perhaps offer a possible way to sal-
vation, but they are not the sure and true path.
1.2. The 17th Century European Approach towards Other Religions
In 17th century Europe, there were two possible missionary attitudes towards non-
Christian religions. The official one was: “Extra ecclesiam nulla salus,”
15
“Out-
side of the Church there is no salvation.” However, this directive referred to
heretics who were in opposition to and outside of the Roman Catholic Church,
like Arians and Manicheans. “Pagans” as such did not belong to this group, but
were subdivided into Jews and Moslems, who as descendents of the Abrahamite
religion were treated in a special way. As “real” pagans were considered the
Mongols in the Far East or later the peoples in the newly discovered continents in
Africa and East Asia. These were thought to be lost eternally if they were not
baptized. Therefore, the obligation of missionary work arose.
According to the other attitude, God wanted the salvation of all human beings
and Jesus Christ had died for all men. There was the possibility that men may be
saved by God’s grace, even if they lived before or outside the Catholic Church,
but had followed high morals and their pure conscience. Salvation was possible if
someone had no possibility to know Catholicism, and therefore lived under the
“law of nature,” i.e., neither belonging to Judaism nor to Islam. The situation
changed if the true faith was offered in the right way so that it could be grasped.
If somebody recognized that Catholicism was the right religion, but refused to
accept it, this was the worst of all possible cases. These conceptions were still of
great importance in 16th and 17th centuries Europe.
16
1.3. The Jesuits Approach towards Religions in China
When Michele Ruggieri (1543–1607) and Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) first set foot
into China proper, they adapted to Chinese culture by dressing as Buddhist
monks, whom they knew from the mission in Japan, i.e., they attempted a reli-
gious accommodation presenting Christianity as a kind of new sect of Buddhism.
But soon they were instructed by their friend Qu Rukui 瞿汝虁, alias Qu Taisu
瞿太素 (1549–?) that the “sect of the literati,” namely the Confucianists, were
15
This phrase was coined by the Church Father Cyprianus from Carthago (ca. 200/210–258), Epistola
(73) ad Iubaianum, c. 21: “Salus extra Ecclesiam non est.” (Migne, PL 3, 1 169A). It was con-
firmed by the 4th Lateran Council in 1215: “Una vero est fidelium universalis Ecclesia, extra quam
nullus omnino salvatur.” See Henricus Denzinger – Adolfus Schönmetzer, Enchiridion Symbolorum
et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum (Freiburg 1965): no. 802 (4th Lateran Council, 1215), no.
3866 (Pius XII, 1949); Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche 3 (2nd ed., Freiburg 1959), cols. 1320f.
16
See Bartolomé de Las Casas, Werkauswahl, Band 1. Missionstheologische Schriften, ed. Maria-
no Delgado (Paderborn 1994), introductions by Mariano Delgado und Michael Sievernich,
especially pp. 53f., and Claudia von Collani, “Das Problem des Heils der Heiden. Die Apolo-
gie des P. Vincentius Mascarell S.J. aus dem Jahre 1701,” NZM 45 (1989), pp. 17-35, 93-109.

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the leading social group in China and not the Buddhists.
17
The Jesuit adaptation to
the Confucian literati also meant a change from religious accommodation to sci-
entific accommodation for which the Jesuit mission became famous, since “mod-
ern” Confucianism did not appear as a religion but as a secular philosophy.
In his book about the Chinese empire and the history of his missionary efforts
in China De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas suscepta (Augsburg 1615), Ricci
and his editor/translator Nicolas Trigault (1577–1628) described the different re-
ligions in China. Ricci had a very high opinion of Chinese religions, which was
shared by later Jesuit missionaries: “Of all the pagan sects known to Europe, I
know of no people who fell into fewer errors in the early ages of their antiquity
than did the Chinese.” Ricci found in their old books traces of Monotheism, i.e.,
a King of Heaven, but also the worship of different spirits. In Ricci’s opinion the
old Chinese religion was far superior to the old religions of the Greeks, Egyp-
tians and Romans. Therefore he hoped that “many of the ancient Chinese found
salvation by the natural law” (legge naturale).
18
Contemporary Confucianism,
however, was responsible for public peace and order, and the economic security
in the family, i.e., it was a secular state philosophy whereas the literati as such
had become prone to Atheism, at least in Ricci’s opinion.
19
As for the other relig-
ions in China, Buddhism and Daoism, Ricci described them in a comparatively
objective way, recounting their history, their way of life and their idols.
20
Ricci
also gave descriptions of Judaism and Islam in China. He had personal relations
with some Jews, and with regard to Islam he described the Muslims as very well
adapted into Chinese society.
21
17
Johannes Bettray, Die Akkommodationsmethode des P. Matteo Ricci S.J. in China (Roma 1955),
pp. 4f.
18
Pasquale D’Elia, Fonti Ricciani [hereafter: FR], vol. 1 (Roma 1942), n. 170, pp. 108f; cf. Louis
J. Gallagher, China in the Sixteenth Century: The Journals of Matthew Ricci, 1583–1610 (New
York 1953), book 1, ch. 10. Until modern times, theologians thought that world history was sub-
divided into three periods, the first being the lex naturalis or lex naturae, followed by the lex
mosaica and the lex evangelica or lex Christiana. The lex naturalis lasted from the creation until
the preaching of the Gospel. During this period the law of the lumen naturale inscribed into the
hearts of men was valid; if men followed it they could be saved by God’s grace. Claudia von Col-
lani, “Philippe Couplet’s Missionary Attitude Towards the Chinese in Confucius Sinarum Philoso-
phus,” in: Jerome Heyndrickx, C.I.C.M. (ed.), Philippe Couplet, S.J. (1623–1693). The Man
Who Brought China to Europe, Monumenta Serica Monograph Series 22 (Nettetal 1990), pp. 47f.
19
Gallagher, China in the Sixteenth Century, book 1, ch. 10, pp. 94-95, 105; FR I, n. 171-199 (in
the Trigault edition, ch. 9 of book 1 was subdivided into two chapters).
20
Gallagher, China in the Sixteenth Century, book 1, ch. 10, pp. 98-105. This way of report
changed in the 18th century, when missionaries of all orders described the religions of China as
terrible, full of superstitious sects, whose believes were just mockeries of Catholicism made by the
devil and whose priests were impostors. Cf. Claudia von Collani, “Parishes, Priests and Lay Peo-
ple: Christian Communities as Described in the Neue Welt-Bott,” in: Noël Golvers – Sara Lievens
(eds.), A Lifelong Dedication to the China Mission. Essays Presented in Honor of Father Jeroom
Heyndrickx, CICM, on the Occasion of his 75th Birthday and the 25th Anniversary of the F. Ver-
biest Institute K.U. Leuven, Leuven Chinese Studies XVII (Leuven 2007), pp. 669-704.
21
Gallagher, China in the Sixteenth Century, book 1, ch. 11, pp. 106-114.

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2. Boym’s Travel to Tonkin
When Boym heard that the Yongli emperor and his Court had moved to Guangxi,
he decided to take the route from Siam to Tonkin, which shared common borders
with the Southern Chinese province Guangxi. The only possibility to reach Tonkin
was on a Chinese pirate ship. This travel lasted two months (Boym reached Tonkin
on 10 August 1658)
22
giving opportunity to him not only to describe several plants
and remedies, but also to meet adherents of several religions aboard. On the ship
were 27 persons, among them the captain and a Dutch mestizo who served as pilot.
He was a “heretic,” i.e., a Protestant with two Catholics in his service. Boym was
in the company of Zheng Andelei, who had entered the Society of Jesus as a
brother in Rome.
23
This group of men who were mostly merchants proved to be
very interesting and Boym took the chance to discuss religious questions with his
fellow travellers and tried to convince them of Catholicism.
2.1. Discussions with Muslims
During the boring travel by sea, Boym had, for example, discussions with Indian
Moslems on the topic of religion. In the history of the relations between Europe
and China the encounters of the first Jesuits with Chinese scholars played an emi-
nent role because they were often carried out in the form of dialogues between
men of the same level of society and education, who respected each other. But
these scholars were rooted in Confucianism, which was considered a secular state
philosophy by the Jesuits. Therefore, it was looked upon as compatible with
Christianity, whereas the ancient Confucianism of the Chinese Canonical Books
contained, at least in the Jesuits’ opinion and in that of other theologians, traces
of an old Monotheism and of a primitive revelation given by God to mankind.
The Jesuits therefore tried to convince their Confucian dialogue partners that
Christianity was the continuation of the ancient Chinese monotheism and that
Neo-Confucianism should be complemented by Christianity using the old vestiges
of the primitive religion. By this constellation it was possible to be a Confucian
scholar and a Christian at the same time.
Most discussions and talks with other religions than Confucianism were in fact
no real dialogues, but rather cases in which the Jesuits, with a strong intellectual
formation in scholastic theology and shaped by the controversies in Counter Re-
formation, engaged in friendly conversation with people of other religions trying
to teach and convince them. These often proved to be inconvincible and obdurate.
However, there had also been conversations between Muslims, Jews and Chris-
tians in the Middle Ages, which can be considered as dialogues.
24
22
Edward J. Malatesta, “The Tragedy of Michael Boym,” in: Actes du VIe colloque international
de Sinologie, Chantilly 1989 (Taibei – Paris 1995), pp. 363f.
23
Malatesta, “The Tragedy of Michael Boym,” p. 362.
24
Abailard, Gespräch eines Philosophen, eines Juden und eines Christen (Frankfurt 1995); Ra-
mon Lull, Das Buch vom Heiden und den drei Weisen, übersetzt und herausgegeben von Theo-
dor Pindl (Stuttgart 1998).

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Matteo Ricci was the first Jesuit to mention Islam in China, calling the Mus-
lims “Saracens.” They had lived in China since the Mongol dynasty according to
Chinese laws and customs (they only avoided pork) and were admitted to the pub-
lic examinations. Muslims did not spread their religion in China and were very
well inculturated, i.e., they often became Chinese and were no longer Muslims.
25
In the Indian Mughal Empire, the Jesuits had even very good relations with the
Muslims. The Mughal Emperor Jalaluddin Muhamad Akbar the Great (reign 1556–
1605) invited the representatives of different religions, among them also Jesuits, to
his court to have religious dialogues with them. His intention, however, was not to
be converted to Christianity; he rather wanted to create a new religious cult with
elements from many other religions, called Din-i-Ilahi (Divine Faith), where the
emperor himself was venerated. Nevertheless, the Jesuits continued to have friendly
contacts with Akbar.
26
Boym’s conversations with the Muslims on board, however,
were much less tolerant. He considered Islam to be a secta maledicta, a “cursed
sect.” Boym’s main partner in the disputation was a recording clerk or secretary of
the ship, who was comparably educated, while the others were illiterates. During
these talks, the Muslim merchants coming from India gathered around them and
listened eagerly, for they were evidently highly interested in religious things. The
discussions were held in Portuguese with the help of an interpreter. Boym, of
course, tried to prove the superiority of Christianity in comparison to Islam. The
Muslims, on the other hand, were convinced that their religion was on a higher,
advanced level and therefore the better one. They asked why Boym refuted Islam.
He answered that the true religion had to be in accordance with the light of reason
(lumen rationis). Christianity had the witness of God himself, and the only true re-
ligion was the lex Christi. This was proved, he said, by countless miracles also
mentioned in the Qur’an. The clerk and the merchants answered in unison:
“Please, then perform a miracle, and we will all embrace the Christian law.”
Boym escaped the trap answering that sometimes miracles were necessary, but
not when God had other possibilities to prove the true law. By comparison with
other religions, it was possible to see that the lex Christi was the true religion,
because it was in conformance with the lumen rationale, an argument the Jesuits
often used.
27
Boym argued that the Muslims already knew the excellence of
Christianity, and that miracles were therefore unnecessary. If somebody had to
prove the excellence of his religion, then it was the Muslim’s duty to do so.
25
Gallagher, China in the Sixteenth Century, book 1, ch. 11, pp. 106-107.
26
Cf. Arnulf Camps, Jerome Xavier S.J. and the Muslims of the Mogul Empire, NZM
Supplementa VI (Schöneck-Beckenried 1957). Friedrich Huber, Das Christentum in Ost-, Süd-
und Südostasien sowie Australien, Kirchengeschichte in Einzeldarstellungen IV/8 (Leipzig
2005), p. 93.
27
Many Jesuits, as Matteo Ricci, also considered the lumen rationale going conform to the lex
naturae (xingjiao 性教). This was the first stage of mankind, followed by the lex Mosaicae
(shujiao 書教), Judaism, and finally the lex gratiae, the Gospel and Christianity (enjiao 恩教).
Lumen rationale means that it is possible to see the truth in one’s heart, and if obeying it, then
man can be saved by God’s grace.

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Christ’s miracles were already well known to everybody. Boym asked them if the
Qur’an mentioned Christ. They answered that Jesus was considered as the highest
prophet of God, who founded a new law. For a better understanding Boym con-
structed a kind of parable. The clerk of the ship was an important man, installed
by the captain as his deputy, all merchants entrusted their merchandise to him and
later received them back again. If he had no credentials, then nobody would be-
lieve him. All agreed. The same is true for Christ and Muhammed (Mahomet).
Jesus Christ came into the world before Mahomet, and at first gave his holy law
to the Jews, then to all people and confirmed it with many miracles: blind men
could see, lame men could walk and dead men came to life again. This was also
confirmed in the Qur’an. Mahomet came later, therefore he had to prove by
miracles his mission from God, which he did not do until now. Therefore
Christ’s law, confirmed by so many miracles, was the true one. The Muslims
liked this way of argumentation.
The discussion continued about the Virgin Mary, and how she gave birth to
Jesus, being a virgin. Mahomet only mentioned that the archangel Gabriel ap-
peared to the father of Maryam and gave him a bottle with a certain liquor. If a
virgin would drink it, then she would conceive Jesus Christ. Boym considered
this assumption as a lie. Mary conceived Jesus and remained a virgin forever,
even after she had given birth to Christ.
28
The Muslims asked how she could have
remained a virgin? Boym used the comparison of a sunbeam shining in a glass
jug. The glass is not damaged, but the sunshine just sifts through it.
29
In this conver-
sation the most important point was omitted, namely that Jesus Christ was not con-
sidered as son of God by the Muslims, but only as a high prophet, whereas Maryam
had a comparably high position.
30
Boym related that he had several conversations with Indian Muslims. He often
told them that their sect was wrong, but they evidently did not feel offended and
liked to discuss and to listen. They also never attacked Christianity. In Boym’s
opinion, many of them had been pagans and had just become Muslims to gain the
favour of their Lords and Kings, who were Muslims, or to obtain other advan-
tages. Therefore, as Boym argued, many people in Industan, Pulocambi, Nar-
synga or Siam belonged to this “cursed sect.”
2.2. Siamese [Theravada] Buddhism
28
Mary, called Maryam in the Qur’an, is especially dealt with in Sura 19, but also referred to
many other times. She is the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur’an.
29
The same example was used by the Chinese convert Yang Tingyun, cf. Nicolas Standaert, Yang
Tingyun, Confucian and Christian in Late Ming China, Studia Leidensia 19 (Köln – Leiden
1988), p. 124.
30
Often Jesus was called “Son of Miriam,” cf. “Isa ben Miriam,” in: Adel Theodor Khoury –
Ludwig Hagemann – Peter Heine, Islam-Lexikon. Geschichte – Ideen – Gestalten, vol. 2
(Freiburg – Basel – Wien 1991), pp. 491-500.

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The kingdom of Siam (today: Thailand) was part of the sphere of influence of the
Portuguese Padroado. Nevertheless, different nations tried to set foot into Siam
for the purpose of trade: Portuguese, Dutch, English, later also French, then
Jesuits from different nations and members of the “Missions Étrangères de
Paris.”
31
Siam was located on the way to the Far East and later became a place
for retreat for Japanese Christians as it belonged to the Jesuits’ province of Japan.
There are several old descriptions of Siam.
32
The Jesuits and other missionaries in the Far East came into contact with dif-
ferent schools or sects of Buddhism in different countries. In Japan, they met
Mahayana Buddhism, mostly in the form of Zen Buddhism, but quite probably
also as Shingon Buddhism. The Jesuits had discussions with Zen Buddhists,
which, however, cannot be considered as a dialogue, because they were talking at
cross-purposes.
33
In China the Jesuits encountered Mahayana Buddhism, which
had become part of folk religion, and Lamaism.
34
The strict Theravada Buddhism
had come to Thailand in the 13th century and became the main religion there, in
a particular form.
35
One stop of Boym’s way to China was Siam. He evidently had no idea about the
Buddhism there and just gave a naïve and simple description. He wrote that the
temples are the best buildings in Siam, the other houses just being huts. For Boym
it was astonishing to see how many temples were built along the roads and streets.
Outside the temples there were big pyramids in courts, which they called agelias.
These golden monuments of dead or living people were built in honour of the idols.
Nearly all temples had ministers or priests, whom they called telapoys,
36
who at
certain times of day, at vesper for example, or in the middle of the night were sing-
ing by candlelight. They were assembled by a bell, tolled with wooden hammers
from outside. The heads and beards of the telapoys were shaved and they wore yel-
31
Dirk Van der Cruysse, Louis XIV et le Siam (Paris 1991).
32
Siam was often described together with Japan. See François Caron, A True Description of the
Mighty Kingdoms of Japan and Siam (London 1663). Caron (1600–1673), a French Huguenot,
had stayed in Dutch service in Japan from 1619 to 1641. Later, he was Director-General of the
French East Indies Company. See also Engelbert Kaempfer (1651–1716), Historia Imperii Ja-
ponici Germanicè Scripta ab Engelberto Kaempfero (Londoni 1727); The History of Japan
(London 1727); the excerpt about Siam: A Description of the Kingdom of Siam (1690) (repr.
Bangkok 1998).
33
The Jesuits overwhelmed the Zen Buddhists with their scholastic way of disputation whereas the
Zen Buddhists had a different understanding of the relativity of reality which could not be
taught by intellectual ways. Georg Schurhammer, Die Disputationen des P. Cosme de Torres
S.J. mit den Buddhisten in Yamaguchi im Jahre 1551 (Tokyo 1929); Claudia von Collani, “Je-
suiten im Gespräch mit chinesischen Gelehrten,” Jahrbuch für Religionswissenschaft und Theo-
logie der Religionen 2 (1994), pp. 72-74.
34
There are only very few descriptions of Buddhism made by Jesuits. One was by Tomás Pereira
(1645–1708), published in: Fernaõ de Queyroz, The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon
(Colombo 1930), who described the Chinese Mahayana Buddhism.
35
Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart 8 (4th ed., Tübingen 2008), p. 207.
36
Talapoin means Buddhist monk and ascetic in Siam, who is said to have great magic power.

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low garments. If they were professed, they had a long red cloth, wrapped several
times around them. They were walking barefoot like all others, waving big fans.
The “prelates” travelled in golden sedans, an umbrella was carried in front of them
with a fan, behind them a long row of telapoys.
The telapoys’ yellow garments showed that they were poor. The people living
in Siam gave their sons to the temples of the telapoys so that they were taught
reading, writing and singing. After some years, they became telapoys themselves
or returned to secular life. Only the professed telapoys were not permitted to
marry. If they were then found out to have sexual intercourse with a woman they
were put to death. People cooked meals for them and gave them money to sustain
their lives. They were even permitted to visit women inside the houses.
The telapoys’ main task was carrying out funerals. For this purpose they made
corpses of paper dressed in garments, which were brought to certain halls of the
temples, accompanied by the noise of the drums, and were buried together with
the corpses. The relatives of the departed distributed food, garments and money,
while the telapoys were singing and reciting. Such a ceremony went on for sev-
eral days and was performed again on the day of the anniversary. Each telapoy
received a rich meal, then the three oldest sang an antiphony with great modesty.
This was followed by the singing of the people with elevated arms and murmur-
ing as if they would pray for the dead. Then everybody silently returned to his
house, whereas the telapoys kept their eyes down to the earth.
With the help of an interpreter Boym tried to get more information about the
priests. According to his description the telapoys lived in their temples for about
15 or 20 years. In their opinion the killing of animals was a great sin. There
were, for example, pictures in the temples showing a man killing a pig and
nearby the picture of devils punishing him with fire. If somebody had killed pigs
he would end by suicide. Nevertheless, they ate the meat of animals, such as pork
and chicken. Eating meat was not considered a sin, only the killing of animals.
Boym tried to demonstrate to them that eating meat was not a lesser sin than kill-
ing the animals, but they did not understand him.
In the hall of the temple there was a statue of a priest made of iron with the face
of a youth and a crown on his head, but instead of a lower part of the body there
was a kind of column from the girdle to the feet. Some of their idols were standing,
others sitting. Boym asked if this idol had father and mother; he was told, yes, but
when he asked if he had a wife and children, some affirmed this, while others de-
nied it. And before the idol was born, did they have no deity in Siam? The people
became silent looking at each other. Then Boym asked if he had died? They did not
deny. So, Boym questioned them: “You are without a god, why then do you adore
him and make a statue?” They answered that they made the statue to keep the
memory of somebody, because he had given many alms to the telapoys.
Then Boym continued to ask them about the single golden idols, about their
names and why some were standing whereas others were sitting, one with a
crown, the other without any. The Siamese answered that one was a numen, but
that most statues were just there because people liked them and they could make

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their devotion. Later, Boym also saw statues of men looking like angels with
wings similar to Christian angels. The white ones were called saints, being more
saintly than the others. The Siamese themselves very rarely went to the temples.
The telapoys were thought to be responsible for the religious life of everybody
and people deemed it sufficient to give them alms.
37
2.3. The Discussion with a Heretic
Boym had lived a great part of his life during the Thirty Years’ War in Europe and
therefore the hostility between Protestants and Catholics was still very pronounced.
He was born in a Catholic country and during his Jesuit education, he also must
have received an introduction to the “bad sect” of the heretics. Especially Antonio
Possevino had dealt in his Bibliotheca Selecta qua agitur de ratione stvdiorvm in
Historia, in Disciplinis, in Salute omnium procuranda (1593, Books VII and VIII)
with a long refutation of the pernicious sects of the heretics, i.e., the adherents of
Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, the Arians, the Anabaptists, the Ubiquitarians, and
others, and informed about the Confessio Augustana of 1530.
38
All these sects were
“atheistic,” implying that their faith was insufficient.
39
Despite their hostility at home Catholic and Protestant Europeans kept closer
to each other abroad. For example, missionaries travelling around the Cape of
Good Hope often paid a visit to the Dutch there, or made a stop in Dutch Bata-
via. On his travel to Siam, Boym got to know the pilot of the ship, who was a
Dutch mestizo, as Boym called him, and evidently a Protestant. During a calm of
several days, the superstitious sailors thought that the foreigners, in particular the
foreign priest, were the reason for this and wanted to throw them into the sea.
This brought Boym and the pilot closer together. Feeling responsible for the eter-
nal salvation of his travel companion, Boym started a disputation with him on re-
ligion. At first, both contenders expressed their prejudices, but after their discus-
sion, they evidently found a common base in their Christian faith.
Boym admonished the pilot to confess his sins and to reconcile with the Catho-
lic Church to be prepared for his death. The Dutch refused saying that he would
confess only to God. He very much disliked the Roman Church, the cult of the
37
BHStA 607/118. Concerning the religion of the telapoys, there is also the report of the French
Jesuit Joachim Bouvet ca. 30 years later. He found vestiges of the primitive revelation in their
religion: “… une joye secrette de reconnoitre parmi les fables de la Religion de ce pais, certains
vestiges de notre, que ny la longue suite des siècles, ny le Père de Mensonge (i.e., devil) qui
reigne dans ces lieux depuis si long temps avec un Empire absolu, n’ont encore pu effacer ... ce
Dieu mort depuis plus de 2000 ans, ce Dieu qui a presché sa loy au peuple ... ce Dieu qui doit
revennir dans quelque temps, ne peut il pas être pris avec quelque vraye semblance pour la Per-
sonne de Jésus-Christ, dont la suite des temps jointe à l’ignorance de ces peuples, ont obscurci
peu à peu la connoissance qu’on a eue ici aparemment vers les premiers siècles.” Janette C.
Gatty (ed.), Voiage de Siam du Père Bouvet (Leiden 1963), p. lx.
38
The Confessio Augustana was the confession of the Protestant faith. It was presented on the
Reichstag of Augsburg in 1530 and is still an important text of the Lutheran Churches.
39
Antonio Possevino, Bibliotheca Selecta qua agitur de Ratione Stvdiorvm, t. I (Roma 1593).

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relics and the invocation of the Saints (he had also approved of the sailors’ throw-
ing Boym’s images of saints into the sea). Boym replied that the power of relics
was clearly proved by the miracles described in the Holy Scripture. In this con-
text he mentioned the Acts of the Apostles describing that Paul’s apron (semicinc-
tium) had been a tool for exorcisms of demons and healed ill people.
40
Even the
shadow of Petrus passing by had effected healings.
41
In the Old Testament the
Book of Kings contained the story of a man killed by robbers, but he was re-
stored to life by the bones of Elisaeus (Elisha).
42
This was a clear proof of the
power of relics. Concerning the invocation of the Saints, Boym made clear that
they were not adored like God. If Catholics prayed to God or to the Trinity, they
said: “Father God of Heavens,” or “Holy Trinity One God.” But to Mary and
Peter they said “Holy Mary,” or “Saint Peter,” and only asked them to “pray for
us,” for the saints were honoured as God’s friends. This was similar to the prac-
tice that if one wanted to obtain something from somebody else, he often first
asked his wife or his friend.
The heretic answered that he used to ask Jesus Christ himself as mediator.
Boym answered that in the scripture, Petrus is called Kephas, “rock” in Hebrew,
(in Greek: petra), and fundament by Christ, on which Christ wanted to build his
church.
43
In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians one reads: “For no one can lay
any foundation other than the one that has been laid. That foundation is Jesus
Christ.”
44
Therefore Christ is the rock, and Saint Peter too was the rock. Christ
was also the light of the world, but Christ said to the Apostles: “You are the light
of the world,”
45
they were the light through Christ. Therefore the Roman Church
prays to the Saints so that they plead with Christ for the faithful, and via Christ
with God. Saint Paul wrote to the Romans and Corinthians that they should pray
for him, and he called them “Saints.”
46
The Dutch answered that it is permitted to
beg something from living people, not from dead ones. In the Book of Revelation
(Apocalypsis), the 24 seniors offered perfumes which are the prayers of saints.
47
The next topic concerned the veneration of pictures and statues, which was
forbidden by the Protestant church of the Dutch. The pilot argued from the Holy
Scripture which forbade pictures and statues: “You shall not make yourself an
idol.”
48
Boym answered that this prohibition was in Leviticus,
49
but in Deuteron-
40
Acts 19:12.
41
Acts 5:15.
42
2 Ki 13:21.
43
Mt 16:18; Jn 1:42.
44
1 Cor 3:10-11.
45
Mt 5:14f; Jn 8:12.
46
Ro 15:30-31.
47
Rev 4.
48
“Non facies tibi sculptile,” Ex 20:4.
49
Both, the Dutch and Boym wrongly thought that the prohibition was in Leviticus, but it was in
fact in Exodus.

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omy it was repeated with an addition: “and adore them, for the Lord and God is
zealous.”
50
No Catholic ever adored pictures as if they had divine power. Then
the pilot asked if they revered the Scripture. Boym affirmed: without any doubt,
because it is the word of God, but not the paper nor the ink neither the printed
letters. The same is true for the saints: the Catholics venerate them and not their
images, pictures or statues or colours. The Catholics destroy the idols of the pa-
gans and therefore they do not revere the pictures or the saints like idols.
Then the pilot admitted that he had also problems with the person of the Pope
and disliked confession, which was nowhere mentioned in the scripture. Boym
had an answer for him. After his resurrection Jesus Christ appeared to the Apos-
tles and, breathing on them, said: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive any-
one his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not for-
given.”
51
Therefore not only God forgives the sins, but he gave this power also to
the Apostles, and they gave it to the priests, who are their successors. But the priest
can only forgive the sins if he knows them. Therefore confession is needed first.
The pilot continued the dispute arguing that Catholics and the Church Fathers
had suppressed the truth, which was evident because they had forbidden reading
the Bible. Boym answered that not everybody could read the Bible, and those
who would read it often did not understand it. The pilot answered that everybody
could understand it even if he could not read Latin. Boym answered: “Look, I
clearly proved to you the forgiveness of sins, and you denied it. You do not un-
derstand well.” The Dutch pilot promised to become a Catholic if Boym would
show him the relevant text of the Bible in Tonkin.
52
This was the end of the discussion, but Boym could persuade the pilot that if
he died he should in his heart wish to die in the creed of the Apostles, which was
also the faith of the Catholic Church, he should regret his sins, and be careful to
search for the truth. He promised, and Boym concluded that this man was a good
man in a moral sense, for he observed the precepts of the Ten Commandments
and belonged to the Lutheran sect.
53
Boym had not been successful in convincing the heretic pilot, whereas he
mentioned in his manuscript that his former companion, the Dutch Hartegovelt,
had converted several heretic merchants using his native language.
2.4. The Persecution in Japan
During his trip on the ship Boym also obtained some information about the sad
situation in Japan, where great persecutions started at the end of the 16th century
and after 1640 all doors had been closed for Christianity. The pilot as a half Dutch
had been there two times and stayed there for several years, especially in “Fi–
50
Deut 5:8-9.
51
Jn 20:23.
52
This touches the question of the translation of the Bible. Apparently the Dutch mestizo also used
a Latin Bible. It seems that Boym had lost his copy of the Holy Scripture.
53
BHStA, Jesuitica 607/118, pp. 20f.

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rando” (Hirado), where the Dutch had built their first factory in Japan. But then
they had to leave for the port of Nagasaki,
54
like all other foreign merchants, and
they were not allowed to go to the interior of Japan. The last time when the pilot
was there, a beautiful present was sent to the Japanese emperor (i.e., the Shōgun)
consisting of a ship as long as an arm, with sails, sailors and anchors, all made of
silver. It could move because of little wheels inside, i.e., it was a kind of automa-
ton, which astonished everybody.
Boym, of course, especially wanted to know about the persecution of Christians
in Japan. The Chinese passengers on the ship reported about torments and the death
of many Japanese Christians; they had more information because they could walk
freely through the streets, whereas the Dutch were forbidden to do so. Everywhere
posters exhibited in the public promised thousands of silver coins for finding Chris-
tians. They said that the fire which destroyed parts of “Jendo” (Edo, i.e., contem-
porary Tokyo) and killed thousands of Japanese this year had been sent by heaven.
Every time a ship arrived from abroad, the Japanese at first counted the people
there and wrote down their names, their religion, and from which religion their
idols were. People going on land were forced to step on Christian images E-fumi
(tahui 踏繪) to prove that they were no Catholics. This information about the ha-
tred of the Japanese toward Catholicism made Boym very sad, and he was aston-
ished that God was so patient and did not punish the whole of Japan.
55
2.5. Popular Religion
On his travel to Tonkin Boym also came into closer contact with the sailors/pirates
on the ship. They were adherents of the popular folk religion, which turned out to
be dangerous for him. Travelling by ship was quite risky in former times, be-
cause one was dependent on the weather. The sailors believed in the help of dei-
ties, saints and spirits and tried to protect themselves by amulets. In Boym’s eyes
they were quite superstitious. The most important figure on the whole ship was
an idol, made of a certain stone and called Mago.
56
Probably, the revered “idol”
was the Chinese folk goddess Mazu 媽祖, the protectress of sailors and mer-
chants.
57
It is not astonishing that Boym had a strong aversion against this female
54
That is, to the artificial island of Deshima.
55
BHStA, Jesuitica 607/118, p. 17. For the E-fumi, which was considered as a blasphemy in Ca-
tholicism, see Charles Boxer, The Christian Century in Japan 1549–1650 (Berkeley – Los An-
geles 1951), pp. 441f.
56
Boym quite probably did not speak about the Korean goddess Mago (Magu 麻姑) (Mother Earth),
a female deity, who was (or is) especially revered in East Asia (China, Japan, Korea). In the Ma-
goist cosmogony she gave birth to two daughters with whom she forms a kind of female trinity.
She is considered as an apparence of the Great Goddess. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, “The Female
Principle in the Magoist Cosmogony,” Ochre. Journal of Women’s Spirituality (Fall 2007)
(http://www.ochrejournal.org/2007/scholarship/hwang2.html) (accessed 29 July 2011).
57
See Gerd Wädow, T’ien-fei hsien-sheng lu. “Die Aufzeichnungen von der manifestierten Heilig-
keit der Himmelsprinzessin.” Einleitung, Übersetzung, Kommentar, Monumenta Serica Mono-
graph Series XXIX (Nettetal 1992), pp. 22-30.

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idol. In the missionary’s impression, the devil himself was inside of this idol
which therefore hated Catholic priests who had the power to baptize or to make
an exorcism. The idol was revered by sacrifices of pigs and perfumed candles.
Three times a day golden paper money was burnt. Before a decision was made
the idol was asked by lots made of paper. When wind was needed the sailors per-
formed noisy music dancing around with drums and making percussions with
sticks. When the ship approached the mountain where the stone of the idol came
from, they built a little wooden boat with sails, offered a sacrifice of rice, wine,
water and perfumes, bowing to the stone idol many times. When the sailors
needed information or help from the idol, they threw the lot with money or
looked into cups of porcelain filled with water. In case of a calm or a thunder-
storm, the sailors sought the fault not in bad demons or ghosts, but made the for-
eigners on board responsible, especially the foreign priest.
At the beginning of the travel, even the Dutch pilot had many strange ideas
thinking that Boym was equipped with oil made of the bones of dead people.
Boym often had to fear for his life because of the sailors’ superstition. At this
point of the voyage he prepared himself well to meet death and to become a mar-
tyr. As mediator between the idol Mago and the ship crew acted a sailor, who
suffered from some kind of epileptic attacks.
58
Especially calms of the sea caused
precarious situations. At such occasions Boym used to remain in his little room,
whereas the pilot, who was also in great danger, kept awake. The sailor appeared
as if ill, half dead, frothing at the mouth, possessed by the idol and speaking for
the goddess. The sailor himself felt no hatred for the foreign priest, but de-
manded that the pilot should be thrown into the sea by order of the deity, because
she had the impression that the tempest rising after the calm was his fault. Finally
the medium wanted to plunge into the sea himself and was barely held back by
the other sailors. The owner of the ship, well dressed and with a hat, made his
reverences to the medium kissing the feet and hands of the sailor asking why he
was so angry. Were the tempest and the bad winds the fault of the foreign priest
or of another foreigner? The idol, i.e., the medium answered no. But the crew
decided that the foreigners should die. The next day the idol said that killing the
foreign priest would be a great favour for him, because Boym wanted to go to
heaven and to become the first martyr of Tonkin. The next day the wind changed
several times. The sailors always wanted to kill Boym, but despite the fact that
they had made up their minds several times that he should die, he survived. They
were much impressed by his attitude: “Look, the heart of the European, who is
not afraid of death.” Finally, a fair wind brought them to the coast of Tonkin.
Many times during the travel, the sailors had reproached Boym to have been
irreverent against an idol in Siam. They made lots of paper bearing the names of
each man on the ship. But the lots always said that the adverse winds were not
because of the Father. Nevertheless, they threw many of his Flemish pictures on
parchment, the holy oil and crucifixes into the sea. They asked Boym if he had
58
Evidently this was a kind of shamanistic session.

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more pictures and he answered with a loud voice in Chinese language that he was
a teacher of the law of the Lord of Heaven; if they wanted to kill him or throw
him into the sea, he was prepared because of the law of God. The sailors then
became uneasy. Because they did not understand Chinese, a Chinese merchant
translated Boyms words into the language of Cochinchina. The merchant told
them that Boym would give, if he had, a thousand lives for the true God. If they
would like to kill him or to throw him into the sea, they should do so, he was
prepared but perhaps not worthy to become a martyr. The sailor, who used his
big stick for certain superstitious movements, tried to throw his stick towards
Boym and would have broken his arm, but others stopped him. Then the sailors
wanted to force Boym’s comrade Andreas to adore the idol, but he refused, for
he had been a Christian since his childhood.
On another occasion, when there was a bad wind, they wanted not only to kill
Boym, but also the Chinese Andreas, the pilot and the two people from Tonkin
on board, but the pilot menaced them telling he had two boxes with a certain
powder for wind. If the sailors would do something against them, he would use it
and everything would be burned. The next danger arose when the sweet water
was consumed, but like a miracle, in the night before the feast of St. Ignatius, a
heavy rain came and saved them for several days.
59
When they finally arrived in Tonkin on 10 August 1658,
60
Boym had to leave
the ship in such a hurry that he was not even able to take his breviary with him, for
the sailors did not want to return it to him. At first, the sailors feared that Boym
would accuse them because of their behaviour, but became impudent again when
they heard that Christianity should be forbidden. However, the pilot helped Boym
to get his belongings that had survived the travel. From Tonkin there was still a
two months journey left for Boym to reach the Ming Court in the South. In Tonkin
Boym met two Jesuits, namely Fr. Onufrius Borges and Fr. Joseph François Tis-
sanier (1618–1688), who informed him that King Trinh Tac (1654–1682) of Tonkin
had ordered the other six Jesuits to leave the country for Macau on 17 July. He had
menaced to prohibit the Christian religion in his kingdom, if the people of Macau
would not continue to trade with him. When the eunuchs at the royal court of King
Trinh Tac heard about Boym’s arrival they pressed him to give presents, namely a
triangular glass, two Indian embroidered cloths, telescopes and English knives.
Boym could only obey, because he feared for the two Jesuits.
Finally Boym and Andreas got their passports and were permitted to leave
Tonkin on February 16, 1659.
61
59
I.e., the day of St. Ignatius = 31 July.
60
Malatesta, “The Tragedy of Michael Boym,” p. 364.
61
Ibid.

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3. Chinese Emperors
3.1. The Chongzhen Emperor
Boym greatest wish was to work as a missionary in the Far East. After his studies
in Cracow and after writing several “Indipetae,” he was permitted to go there and
arrived in Macau in 1645. Only in 1649 he arrived at the Southern Ming Court of
the Yongli emperor in the company of Andreas Xavier Koffler. As early as No-
vember 1650 he left the court in his mission to Rome. But the short stay at the
court had evidently made a great impression on him. The highest goal of the Jesuit
accommodation policy was to convert the emperor himself to Christianity, after
which, it was assumed, the whole empire would follow suit. But before and besides
the court of the Southern Ming, the Jesuits had already worked in Peking at the
Court of the last Ming emperors. Matteo Ricci had come into contact with the court
by means of European clocks and other gifts, which were considered as a tribute
from the Far West. He had never personally met with the Wanli 萬曆 emperor, but
had only an indirect contact to him. When Ricci died in Peking in 1610, he was the
first to be buried in a tomb for the foreigners paid by an Imperial donation. Later
the burial site came to be known as the Jesuit cemetery of Zhalan 柵欗.
62
But Ricci
did neither succeed to convert the emperor nor even to see him.
The Wanli emperor was succeeded by his son who ruled as Taichang 泰昌
(1620–1621), and the last Ming emperors Tianqi 天唘 (r. 1621–1628) and Chong-
zhen 崇禎 (1628–1644). Under the rule of the Chongzhen emperor, the calendar
reform was started in cooperation between Chinese and Jesuits scholars. The Jesu-
its now working in Peking and also present at Court seemed to be very close to the
emperor, so his conversion deemed to be merely a question of time. The missionar-
ies had contacts to eunuchs and ladies at the Court, and some of the courtiers had
become Christians. The visions of the missionaries, however, did not come true, as
the last Ming emperor Chongzhen killed himself without having converted.
The presents from Matteo Ricci to Chongzhen’s grandfather Wanli, among
them a clavicembalo and a picture of the Virgin Mary, were kept in the Imperial
treasure house. Finally, in 1640 they gave Johann Adam Schall von Bell a good
opportunity to come into closer contact with the emperor. Chongzhen wanted to
play on the clavicembalo, but found that it was out of tune after more than thirty
years. Therefore he ordered the only Europeans in Peking, the Jesuits (quite
probably Schall), to repair the instrument and to translate the inscription on it.
63
62
Jean-Marie Planchet, Le cimetière et les oeuvres catholiques de Chala 1610–1927 (Peking
1928); Edward J. Malatesta – Gao Zhiyu (eds.), Departed, Yet Present: Zhalan. The Oldest
Christian Cemetery in Peking (Macao – San Francisco 1995), p. 32.
63
Dudink identified this inscription as: “Laudate Dominum in cymbalis benesonantibus, laudent
Nomen eius in tympano et chora psalant ei.” See Adrian Dudink, “The Religious Works Com-
posed by Johann Adam Schall, Especially His Zhuzhi qunzheng and His Efforts to Convert the
Last Ming Emperor,” in: Roman Malek (ed.), “Western Learning” and Christianity in China.

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When Schall brought the instrument back to the palace, he also considered it as
the right time to present two gifts to the emperor, evidently left from the so-
called “Pommer-Cabinet,”
64
once given by the Bavarian Duke Maximilian I to
Nicolas Trigault as a present to the Chinese emperor – namely a booklet on the
life and the miracles of Jesus Christ and a group of the Three Kings or Magi
adoring Jesus Christ, which was made of wax. The booklet consisted of 150
pages on parchment and of 45 pictures of Jesus en miniature. The reverse of the
pictures featured the Latin text in golden letters explaining the pictures. The
booklet was bound in silver depicting the four Evangelists.
65
The following description is based on a later report of a Court lady, because
no Jesuit was with the court then. When Chongzhen saw the presents for the first
time he was quite astonished and pleased. He washed his hands and looked at the
kings for a long time. Finally he bowed his knee in front of the King of Kings,
bowed his head to the floor, whereas the two “queens” (consorts) followed his
example. He pointed with his finger to the group and said: “This child is greater
and mightier than our idol Fo 佛,
66
and this king (he pointed to the eldest of the
three kings) has more virtue than our emperor Yu [大] 禹,” whom the Chinese
hold in great reverence because of his virtue and innocence.
67
The picture was
only brought back to the treasure house after ten days.
68
A Eunuch then became a
Christian, and he was the one who converted several ladies of the inner court,
who otherwise had no contact with the life outside.
69
The Contribution and Impact of Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1592–1666), Monumenta Serica
Monograph Series XXXV/1-2 (Sankt Augustin – Nettetal 1998), p. 838.
64
A beautiful cabinet with many partitions and drawers, where many things of European everyday
life were kept en miniature.
65
Yan Wang, “Die ‘Vita Domini nostri Jesu Christi’ und deren chinesische Übersetzung
‘Jincheng Shuxiang’. Ein Geschenk Herzog Maximilians I. von Bayern für den Kaiser von Chi-
na,” in: Renate Eikelmann (ed.), Die Wittelsbacher und das Reich der Mitte. 400 Jahre China
und Bayern (München 2009), pp. 113f. The original booklet has disappeared.
66
I.e., Buddha.
67
Yan Wang found three possible explanations for the name. It could be Yao 堯 (2357–2258 BC)
or Yuhuang 玉皇, the Jade emperor of Daoism, or Da Yu 大禹 (2270–2198 BC), the Great Yu.
In the text of Munich, Jesuitica 589, I found Yu, in my opinion an allusion to Da Yu, who
saved China from the great flood. Cf. Dudink “The Religious Works,” p. 840; cf. Nicolas
Standaert, An Illustrated Life of Christ Presented to the Chinese Emperor. The History of
Jincheng shuxiang (1640), Monumenta Serica Monograph Series LIX (Sankt Augustin – Net-
tetal 2007), vol. 2, pp. 44-48.
68
Alfons Väth, Johann Adam Schall von Bell S.J. Missionar in China, kaiserlicher Astronom und
Ratgeber am Hofe von Peking 1592–1666, Monumenta Serica Monograph Series XXV (Köln
1933, repr. Sankt Augustin – Nettetal
2
1991), pp. 124-126; cf. Standaert, An Illustrated Life of
Christ, pp. 46f.
69
The story was told several times, see Johann Adam Schall von Bell, Historica Relatio de ortu et
progressu fidei orthodoxæ, pp. 35-37; Philippe Couplet, Histoire d’une dame chrétienne de la Chine
ou par occasion les usages de ces peuples, l’établissement de la Religion, les manieres des Mission-
naires & les Exercises de Pieté des nouveaux Chrétiens sont expliquez (Paris 1688), pp. 104f.

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When Chongzhen had contemplated the wax figures for a second time and
looked with curiosity at the different pages of the booklet, he very much wanted
to read it, even postponing his meal. He spent a whole day reading the texts
which had been added to the pictures by the Jesuits. Boym does not mention that
Schall in fact wrote a whole booklet in Chinese for the emperor with the impor-
tant stations of the life of Jesus Christ, namely Jincheng shuxiang 進呈書像.
70
The next day the emperor ordered that the holy pictures should be exhibited in
the public Hall, which was called the “Hall of Virtue.” There he revered the pic-
tures together with the consorts and the whole court. To avoid that an idolater did
not treat them in the right reverent way, he gave the order that the Christian pre-
sents were brought to his inner rooms, where he often stayed to read the text of the
Gospel and a compendium of the holy faith. Then he said: “It seems to me as if the
law of the King of Heavens is true, only now I can understand it well.” For this
reason, the Jesuits prepared books, which contained the explication of the greater
mysteries of faith. In the meantime Chongzhen ordered that the traditional idols
should be removed from the palace, and he instructed the successor to the crown
not to revere them anymore, since it was enough to pray to the Lord of Heaven.
The following interpretation can be found in Boym’s manuscript. Chongzhen
concluded from his experience that the Christian faith was complete, but although
he was convinced by the truth, he did not embrace it and did not accomplish his in-
tention to drive off all idols from the palace. Therefore, he and his kingdom were
punished. His concubine, the queen, bore him a son, who showed by his gestures
and his cries that he was obsessed by a demon. The mother of the unhappy child
asked the emperor to call a Bonze to the palace, a daoshi 道士, whom the Chinese
consider to have power over the demons so that he could speak with the idols. The
emperor permitted it, and the idols were returned to the palace.
The well-known story about Chongzhen’s sad end follows. The message ar-
rived at the court that the famous “chief of bandits” called “Ly” (Li Zicheng 李
自成 1605–1645) approached Peking together with an army of at least 60.000
men. On his way he had crossed the provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi and de-
populated them, after that he wanted to conquer Peking. He sent his soldiers to
bribe the Mandarins and Eunuchs of the gates, so that he could enter without a
fight. When he arrived the city gates were open.
When the emperor got to know that his vassal, the bandit Li, would come to
the Royal city, he drank some wine, cut his finger and wrote with a brush using
his own blood: “The Mandarins should be punished, but the innocent people
should be spared.”
71
He covered his face with his hair and cried: “Look! The
70
See Standaert, An Illustrated Life of Christ; cf. Alfons Väth, Johann Adam Schall von Bell S.J.,
pp. 125f.
71
“Puniantur Mandarini, innocenti autem populo parcatur.” In Schall’s Historica Relatio de ortu
et progressu fidei orthodoxæ we read pp. 107f.: “Multam salutem futuro Imperatori agnomine
Ly, enixè rogo: ue hai ngo min, ue jum ngo chi (wu hai wo min, wu yong wo chen 勿害我民,

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empire is lost … I will go to my ancestors.” Then he went to the nearby wood
and hanged himself. His example was followed by the heir to the throne, the con-
sorts, and the mandarins, who drowned themselves in the pool there. When the
bandit Li entered the palace he found the emperor and his son dead. He wanted to
salute the emperor paying him homage. He spared some mandarins, others he put
to torture and some he saved for a great amount of money.
During this time the Chinese general Wu Sangui 吳三桂 (1612–1678) together
with one million soldiers near the Great Wall protected China against the Man-
chus. When he heard about the death of the emperor, his lord, and that the bandit
Li had killed his father he changed the sides and joined the Manchus to fight the
tyrant together. When the bandit heard that Wu Sangui was approaching, he fled
the Manchus, who followed him in vain. Subsequently the Manchus first con-
quered Peking and then the whole of China, province after province.
Boym, of course, did not know about the changed situation in Peking. The
Manchus had conquered the capital, Schall became astronomer of the new Qing
dynasty and a kind of friend and advisor to the young Shunzhi emperor, the first
Manchu ruler. Shunzhi, like the last Ming emperor, became interested in Christi-
anity, but again the occasion to convert him went by.
72
3.2. The Ming Pretender Yongli
The Manchus conquered most of China, but in the South several pretenders de-
scending from the Ming family tried to establish their own court and to reconquer
China. In Nanking a grandson of emperor Wanli named “Hum Quam” (Hong-
guang 弘光, 1607–1646) started to reign in 1644 as the first emperor of the South-
ern Ming. Though he was a formidable rival to the Manchu, he lost the province
because of his vices. In the province of Fujian the Longwu 隆武 emperor (1645–
1646) was crowned, who was of royal blood, but no descendant of Wanli. He was
a learned man, courageous and a friend of the Jesuits and the Christians. However,
he also reigned only for one year, for when he together with his entourage was
crossing a river on a bridge, the bridge collapsed and he died together with many
soldiers. His brother “Xau V” (Shaowu 紹武, 1646–1647) became emperor in the
province of Guangdong, but was captured and killed by rebels. So within three
years there were three emperors, all of whom perished.
73
Before Longwu died he sent a legate called Achilles Pang Tianshou, who was a
Christian, Eunuch, Vice-King and highest chancellor of the empire, to Zhu You-
lang 朱由榔, prince of Gui, the later Yongli emperor (1623–1662, reigned from
勿用我臣, hoc est ne populo meo noceas, neve consiliariis meis utaris [Do not harm my people
and do not rely on my counselors].”
72
Claudia von Collani, “Theaterstücke mit chinesischen Themen auf bayerischen Jesuitenbühnen,”
in: Peter Claus Hartmann – Alois Schmid, Bayerisch-chinesische Beziehungen in der frühen Neu-
zeit, Zeitschrift für bayerische Landesgeschichte, Beiheft 4 (München 2008), pp. 52-54.
73
Cf. the article by Paul Rule in this volume.

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1646) to offer him a city for his court and sustentation.
74
When Pang was with this
prince in Wuzhoufu (Guangxi), the Christian general Lucas Jiao Lian 焦璉 arrived
there with 10.000 soldiers and with Fr. Andreas Xavier Koffler from Austria. Kof-
fler had learned from Pang that the prince was there and that he never stayed on
the land or in the palace, but only on ships travelling on the rivers, because he
was afraid of demons plaguing him. Therefore Pang gave him his “Lipsan-
otheca,” a reliquary, i.e., a box containing relics, which helped him a bit. Pang
told Koffler: “If Your Reverence would like to talk with the prince, I will pro-
vide you with an audience.”
Koffler agreed and was received with much affection by the prince, not being
permitted to make any reverence to him. Koffler gave him as presents some opti-
cal tubes, cylinders, mathematical instruments and a picture of the Holy Virgin
holding her son in the arms, St. John the Baptist standing nearby. The prince en-
joyed these small presents and talked with Koffler. He was invited to return to the
prince again.
When Yongli was crowned with the help of Pang he invited Koffler to his court
where he stayed. Because of tumults the emperor had to change the place. Pang did
all he could to persuade Yongli to embrace Christianity and to permit that the
queen received baptism. Together with the empress he daily prayed the Lord’s
Prayer, the Ave Maria with the Apostolic Creed, bowing his knees. Later, the em-
peror dreamt three times, as he told Boym, of a little boy with a cross who said:
“If you will not follow my law, I will make you die.” The emperor recognized that
this boy was identical with the child held by the Virgin in the picture and that the
cross was similar to the one of St. John depicted at the side of Mary.
75
Therefore the empress decided to receive baptism and admonished Achilles
Pang: “I see well that baptism is necessary for salvation. But who will do that?
Did you not say that the fathers in the imperial city of Peking gave the faculty to
baptize the virgins and matrons of the palace to the chamberlains, because no-
body else can come to our conclave, much less a Father, a foreign man, because
of the hard punishment.”
Achilles answered that he could not make any decision on this behalf, but
wanted to talk to Koffler about it. Koffler answered that many emperors and em-
presses suffered in the eternal flames and that it was an easy way to go to hell
without baptism. But if the empress wanted to be saved it was best to be baptized
by the Jesuit. A short time afterwards the empress heard the false rumours that the
capital had been conquered by rebels and decided to commit suicide, a kind of
death considered noble by the Chinese, in contrast to the shame of falling into the
hands of the enemy. But Achilles Pang told her: “God wants that Your Majesty re-
ceive the baptism from the hand of the Fathers. Then nobody can rob you of eter-
nal salvation.” These words filled the empress and the consorts with new courage.
74
Zhu Youlang was the son of the seventh son of the Wanli emperor, Zhu Changying 朱常瀛.
75
In Der Neue Welt-Bott it was the empress who dreamt, see the letter by Michael Boym, 1653,
Der Neue Welt-Bott vol. 1, part 1, letter no. 13.

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Kneeling before the pictures of the Saviour and the Holy Virgin they promised to
receive baptism through the holy ceremonies of the Roman Church. The empress
received the name Helena (Liena 烈納), the mother of the emperor the name Anna
(Yana 亞納), and the legitimate wife of the emperor the name Maria (Maliya 瑪利
亞), and also the other women of the seraglio desired fiercely to be baptized.
76
The next day the emperor returned and was invited to adore the pictures of
Christ and the Holy Virgin. He stated: “The idol Fo shall not be adored, but
Christ the true God.” He praised the decision of the empress. “I, too,” he said,
“will follow your example.” But he postponed baptism for some reasons and re-
mained a catechumen, daily reciting the prayers of the catechism and burning
precious perfumes before the pictures of the saints. Boym thought that he was
baptized soon after he left the court.
Five provinces sent petitions that they wanted to be subjects of the emperor and
receive Vice-Kings from him, which was granted. In the meantime a concubine of
the emperor bore a daughter, who died at once. When Koffler was asked for the
reason, he answered that God’s law forbids having a concubine, and therefore the
little girl from a sinful relation had to die. The emperor should pray now that the
queen would have a son. The next day the empress Maria sent a message to Koffler
that she daily prayed to have a son as successor to the throne, she recommended
herself to her guardian angel for an easy delivery, whereas Koffler as a help sent
her consecrated candles to be burnt before the images of Christ and the Holy Vir-
gin. During the next night, the queen happily gave birth to a son. The emperor sent
the astronomical signs of the time of the birth in Chinese language to Koffler who
should explain them, i.e., make a Christian horoscope. Koffler answered that the
imperial son would be happy because he was born in the middle of the night like
the son of God when he decided to become a human being born from the virgin. At
that time, the sun and the dragon were in conjunction, the dragon being the symbol
of imperial rule in China. This Christian interpretation of the horoscope pleased the
emperor and the whole court. The empress and the consort wanted to have the baby
baptized, but Koffler refused and wanted to do so only with the consent of the em-
peror. The emperor answered that the son should be educated in the Christian way
and should have only one wife.
But the emperor himself postponed the baptism, which caused a great discord
between him and the queen, and the son was only baptized after a dangerous ill-
ness. So the boy with the Chinese name Cixuan 慈烜 was baptized, Achilles Pang
being his godfather. He received the name of Constantine, in Chinese “Tam
Tym” (= Dangding 當定), meaning he is the one who determines. The emperor
was very pleased with this name. The emperor and all felt edified by this event
and the holy faith was held in high esteem now.
76
Sometimes the name of the mother of Yongli is Maria and that of his wife Anna, which seems
to be illogical, because according to Christian and Islamic tradition, Anna or Hanna was the
mother of the Virgin Mary. However, she is not mentioned in the canonical gospels.

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The emperor ordered Achilles Pang to send Christian mandarins on ships with
gifts to the Jesuit Church in Macao, the ships being equipped with silken sails and
bearing the sign of the Cross. When they approached Macao they proclaimed in a
loud voice that they were Christians. Therefore the people guided them to the
Jesuit College and they handed the letters to the Visitor. In these letters, the em-
peror asked the Fathers to accept the gifts in his name as a sign of gratitude.
They were sent in his name and in that of his son. The presents consisted of two
candelabra of silver, two thuribula made of silver, two vases made of flowers,
two silver baskets for flowers, Chinese incense and damask clothes. The legates
made their reverence in the Chinese way and gave the gifts to the Jesuit Church.
Boym finished his report with the remark: “May God grant the emperor many
victories against the rebels.”
4. Conclusion
Michal Boym was a child of his times and received the typical education of the
Jesuits, including the Ratio studiorum based on Antonio Possevino’s Bibliotheca
Selecta: There was only one true faith, namely that of the Roman Catholic Church.
This faith was propagated by Catholic missionaries all over the world. But Boym
and the other Jesuits also learned how to meet the various gentiles and how to
speak to them in different ways.
Concerning Boym’s contacts to gentiles we find the following groups and his
opinions about them:
1. The Japanese pagans: They were considered to be really evil, not merely
being pagans, but persecutors of the true faith and of the Christians in their own
country. All disastrous events in Japan were the fruit of this evil behaviour, that a
whole nation persecuted Christianity.
2. The idolaters: They were the worst of all pagans, because they supersti-
tiously adored idols made of stone, wood, and metals. In reality these idols were
dead matter, their life coming from the devil, the great seducer. The idols, i.e.,
the devil, wanted to obfuscate the true faith and its propagation by various means.
Nevertheless, the devil and his adherents were stupid and in principal easily
fought. In this respect Boym and his fellow Christian travel companion, the
Dutch heretic, held the same opinion.
3. [Theravada] Buddhists: This is a higher kind of religion with temples,
priests, monks, prayers and certain rules. They take care of people’s religious
and social needs and therefore have a special function within society. In this re-
gard, their deeds are at least much better than idolatry.
4. Muslims: Islam was considered by Boym as a Monotheistic religion ac-
knowledging the one true God, like Christianity. The Muslims even knew about
the roles of Jesus Christ and especially that of the Virgin Mary. During their talks
Boym and the Muslims avoided to speak about controversial subjects like Trinity
or Incarnation. Whereas Boym considered the Islam as a “cursed sect” and de-
spite of the fact that both sides were convinced that their respective faith was on a

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higher, advanced level, the Muslims showed a kind of tolerance and respect for
the other side. They also enjoyed the discussion on religious subjects so that
Boym’s conversations with them came close to a kind of real dialogue.
5. Heretics: Since the 16th century, Europe was religiously divided into the
Catholic Church and the Protestant Churches. Some countries became completely
Protestant, others kept Catholicism or were reconquered by Catholicism, some
had several Churches at the same time, as, for example, the Holy Roman Empire
of the German Nation. The Jesuits, of course, were the vanguard of Counter-
Reformation, and Boym and the Dutch pilot had long discussions about the role
of the Pope, saints, relics, but at the end, they developed a kind of mutual con-
sent: both acknowledged the Holy Scripture and believed in the Trinity. Boym
was content that the Dutch would make a perfect act of contrition in his heart,
which could save him.
6. Chinese emperors: They constituted a special case. The story of the Chong-
zhen Emperor was closely connected with Johann Adam Schall von Bell, whereas
the family of the Yongli emperor was converted and baptized by Andreas Koffler
and the Eunuch Achilles Pang. Therefore, in this context Boym was not involved
as a missionary himself, but only related the conversion stories as reported by his
colleagues. The two Ming emperors were shown in direct relation to each other.
Chongzhen saw the truth of Christianity clearly in form of images, books etc.,
but at the end did not embrace it. If people had no opportunity to meet Christian-
ity, but lived an ethically good life, they could be saved. But if Christianity was
introduced to them in the right way and they refused it out of obstination or privi-
leges, there was little hope for them. Schall regretted that the emperor did not
follow the way of salvation he had shown him, but at least the emperor not only
tolerated Christianity in China and at the Court, but favoured and protected the
Christian faith. He would have done more if his violent and premature death
would not have stopped him.
77
Boym judged the same situation much stricter than Schall: “From these signs
(i.e., the veneration of the Saviour and the admiration of the Magi) some thought
that he had embraced Christian faith, but despite of the fact that he was convinced
about the truth, he did not embrace it …, therefore together with his empire, he
was punished by God.”
78
In Martini Martini’s De Bello Tartarico Historia, Chongzhen’s fate is described,
but without any moral judgement, just with the conclusion: “So this family
(Ming), which was started by a bandit,
79
was extinguished by a bandit.”
80
On the
77
Schall, Historica Relatio, pars I, cap. 7 “Imperii occasus,” in: Henri Bernard(-Maître), Lettres
et mémoires d'Adam Schall, édités par le P. Henri Bernard, S.J., tome 1: Relation Historique.
Texte latin avec traduction française du P. Paul Bornet (Tientsin 1942), pp. 108f.
78
“Ex his signis aliqui conjiciebant eum fidem Christianam fuisse complexum; sed temetsi à veri-
tate superatus fuerit, non tamen amplexus est, aut in proposito perseveravit, quoambrem una
cum suo regno divinitus est punitus.” Boym, “Status Christianæ Religionis in China …”
79
Namely Taizu 太祖 (1368–1399).

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stage of the Jesuits’ theatre, the story had no connection with Christianity or di-
vine punishment, but stressed the human factor. Chongzhen was fainthearted, the
eunuchs were traitors, because Chongzhen had limited their power, but the story
has a happy ending insofar as Johann Adam Schall von Bell could secure the con-
tinuance of Christianity.
81
As for Yongli, Boym’s report stops, of course, before his death. Joseph Stöck-
lein, the editor of Der Neue Welt-Bott, finished the story: Yongli was captured by
the “Tartars” (= Manchus) and killed, whereas his mother and wife were brought
to Peking, where they lived peacefully in their Catholic faith until their death.
82
The whole story about conversions or missed conversions corresponds to the
image of a quite zealous God as described in the Old Testament. He punished
everybody who did not become a Catholic after having been offered the chance.
In his edition of Boym’s report in Der Neue Welt-Bott, Stöcklein added the story
of the demise of the Southern Ming imperial house clearly expressing the same
merciless pedagogy: the Wanli emperor did not accept the Christian faith, he
even persecuted Christianity in Nanking in 1615/1616 (or tolerated these activi-
ties); therefore he died before his time.
83
His grandson Chongzhen knew about
the truth of Christianity, but did not accept it. He was punished when the rebel Li
came to Peking and he committed suicide.
84
Boym’s attitude could be explained by the fact that he stayed in China only for a
short time, ca. five years, and that he never really worked as a missionary among
the Chinese. Quite probably he had no contact with Confucian scholars. His Italian
confrere Giulio Aleni (1582–1649), for example, had many discussions with Chris-
tians and non-Christians in Southern China, and it does not seem that he had any
problems with the “pagans.”
85
The same is true for the missionaries living at the
80
Martino Martini, De bello Tartarico Historia … (Antverp 1654), German translation: Histori
von dem tartarischen Kriege (Amsterdam 1654), p. 80.
81
Von Collani, “Theaterstücke,” pp. 50-52.
82
“Bericht Patris Michaëlis Boym der Gesellschafft JESU Missionarii in Sina, aus der Polnischen
Provinz / welchen er zu Rom im Jahr 1653. abgestattet hat,” in: Joseph Stöcklein (ed.), Der
Neue Welt-Bott, Theil 1, Numerus 13. Stöcklein wrote about the fate of Koffler. “Wie es aber
dem Apostolischen Mann Patri Andreæ Wolffgango Koffler, welchem die Portugesen den
Nahmen verändert und Andream Xavier genannt haben / ferner ergangen seye / hab ich nach
fleißiger Nachforschung nicht erfahren können. Einige glauben / er wäre in dem Sturm einer
gewissen Stadt mit in die Pfannen gehauen worden. Andere meynen / er seye mit seinem
Käyser Yum-liè hingerichtet worden.”
83
Boym, letter dated 1653, in: Der Neue Welt-Bott, Nr. 13, p. 40.
84
Von Collani, “Theaterstücke,” pp. 50-52.
85
Bernard Hung-kay Luk, “A Serious Matter of Life and Death: Learned Conversations at Foo-
chow in 1627,” in: Charles Ronan – B.C. Oh (eds.), East Meets West: The Jesuits in China,
1582–1773 (Chicago 1988), pp. 173-206; T. Lippiello – R. Malek (eds.), “Scholar from the
West.” Giulio Aleni S.J. (1582–1649) and the Dialogue between Christianity and China,
Monumenta Serica Monograph Series XLII (Sankt Augustin – Nettetal 1997); Gianni Criveller,
“The Dialogues of Giulio Aleni on Christ and China. The Mystery of the Plan of Salvation and
China,” in: Ku Wei-ying (ed.), Missionary Approaches and Linguistics in Mainland China and
Taiwan, Leuven Chinese Studies X (Leuven 2001), pp. 163-181.

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Imperial Court after the Calendar Case. Most courtiers were, of course, not Chris-
tians, but they were accepted as if they were. Chongzhen and the first Manchu em-
peror Shunzhi are described as lost men, not only by Boym and Stöcklein, but also
in the Jesuit plays. The Kangxi emperor is described as the great exception: he did
not become a Christian but at least issued the Edict of Tolerance in 1692 and
helped Christianity in many ways. Therefore he represented a special case.
86
Boym’s life seems to have been a long chain of misfortunes. After writing many
“Indipetae” he finally travelled to the Far East as a missionary, but apparently he
did not lead many people to Christianity. He wrote the first book on Chinese medi-
cine in a European language, the Clavis Medica ad Chinarum Doctrinam de Pul-
sibus … (1686), but it was published only posthumously. Boym was sent as an offi-
cial legate of the Southern Ming Court to the Holy See and to European princes,
but he was considered to be a defrauder for several years. His Jesuit brethren had
in the meantime changed their position and stood for the case of the Manchus, who
had conquered Peking and seemed to be more useful for Christianity than the de-
clining Ming. As a result of his legation Boym could only obtain a letter written by
Pope Alexander VII for the Yongli Emperor, but when he arrived in China after a
long travel, it was too late: the Manchus had emerged victorious, the Yongli em-
peror had died, the Southern Court had vanished, and Boym died on the border to
China, not as a real martyr as he had wished but just because of exhaustion. Was
his life then a failure? In my opinion he is comparable to the heroes of the Japanese
history, as Minamoto no Yoshitsune 源義経 in the 12th century, who were not suc-
cessful, but exhibited the nobility of failure in their lack of success.
87
86
Von Collani, “Theaterstücke,” p. 56.
87
Ivan Morris, The Nobility of Failure. Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan (New York 1975).