Matteo Ricci, an early recruit of the Jesuit order, was sent to China as a missionary in 1582. If he approached the Emperor with a Bible in one hand, in the other he carried much of the accumulated technological and philosophical wisdom of the late Renaissance Europe, and thus found favour among the Mandarins, the men of learning who enjoyed high status at the Imperial Court. He learned Chinese the better to discuss with them the problems in science and technology, as also questions of religion and the hereafter. But his ...
Read More
Matteo Ricci, an early recruit of the Jesuit order, was sent to China as a missionary in 1582. If he approached the Emperor with a Bible in one hand, in the other he carried much of the accumulated technological and philosophical wisdom of the late Renaissance Europe, and thus found favour among the Mandarins, the men of learning who enjoyed high status at the Imperial Court. He learned Chinese the better to discuss with them the problems in science and technology, as also questions of religion and the hereafter. But his progress was not unopposed, for the Wise Man from the West came to be seen as an unsettling element in a too-settled society. Ricci died in 1610, disappointed in his ambition to convert the Emperor, and with him the whole of China, to Christianity. But the seed was sown and the crop, even after almost a century of atheistic communism, continues to grow in present-day China. This story of the first fully documented contact between West and East offers a fascinating insight into the history of ideas during one of the most fertile eras in European and Chinese history. Vincent Cronin has built up a reputation with his scholarly, elegantly written works of history and biography, as one of the finest popular historians of his generation. This early book proves his gift as an acutely observant and sensitive historian.
Read Less
Add this copy of The Wise Man From the West to cart. $9.97, very good condition, Sold by mark henderson rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Olathe, KS, UNITED STATES, published 1999 by Harvill Press.
Add this copy of Wise Man of the West to cart. $11.52, very good condition, Sold by Gavin's Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Maria, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2003 by Harvill Press.
Add this copy of The Wise Man From the West to cart. $26.66, very good condition, Sold by Prior Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Cheltenham, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UNITED KINGDOM, published 1999 by Harvill Press.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very Good. Size: 5x1x8; Original stiff card covers; in very good shape; no tears, chips or creases, just mildly rubbed and edge-worn. Contents sound and clean; no pen-marks. Not from a library so no such stamps or labels.
Add this copy of Wise Man of the West to cart. $43.41, new condition, Sold by Revaluation Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2014 by Harvill Press.
