Introduction
To this day, Chinese society remains highly ritualized at all levels. Traditional rituals honoring ancestors and spirits, observed by all, and those honoring Confucius, observed by the literati, have been essential to maintaining the generational continuity within both families and the country. Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) recognized the importance of these rituals and encouraged Chinese Christians to continue practicing them. However, after his death, a century-long dispute arose among the missionaries. This article begins with Ricci’s analysis of the rites, and then turns to Niccolò Longobardo’s (1559-1654) critical response before moving on to the condemnation. Such a historical exploration provides insight into the anthropological and theological concerns underlying the debate.
Portrait of Matteo Ricci
Ricci: Using the Ambiguity of Rituals
Upon his arrival in China in 1583, Ricci observed that the Chinese had hardly any divine worship and that their priests were not highly esteemed. He was initially struck by what he perceived as an absence of religion in China but later came to recognize the importance of rituals dedicated to Confucius and ancestors. However, before discussing this shift in Ricci’s understanding, it is necessary to explain his hermeneutic principle, which he articulated at the end of his life in China.
It was very profitable to draw our opinion towards Confucius, the leading figure of the sect of the literati, by interpreting in our favor something he had left ambiguous in his writings. Through this, we gained great favor with the literati who do not worship idols. (Matteo Ricci, Della entrata della Compagnia di Giesù e Christianità nella Cina, p. 455)
Ricci acknowledged the central role of Confucianism in Chinese culture and society. He believed that Christianity could only establish itself in China if it became Confucianized. For Ricci, it is not just about conforming to an obligation imposed from the outside though. He had an intellectual conversion that revealed to him the profound moral value of Confucianism. An essential aspect of Confucianism is the observance of rituals. Ricci applied his hermeneutic method to rituals honoring ancestors and Confucius. He inherited from scholasticism the interpretation of superstitions as originating from ancestor worship (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica IIa-IIae, q.94, a.4). In The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven, Ricci reiterated:
In ancient times, people were very artless, and because they did not know the Lord of Heaven, they set up images of those who more or less represented authority, or of the departed relatives for whom they felt great affection, and they built ancestral temples as memorial to them. After the passage of much time, people would burn incense and offer paper money in order to seek their blessing and protection. (Matteo Ricci, The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven, pp. 325-327)
Ricci here was quite cautious, suggesting that ancestor worship was originally a legitimate manifestation of affection. However, he noted that it had degenerated into superstition and idolatry, with people burning incense and offering paper money to their ancestors in exchange for protection. In the same work, however, Ricci seems to legitimize the ancient Chinese practice of ancestor worship that went beyond affection:
Pan Geng was the descendant in the ninth generation of King Tang, the Successful, and nearly four hundred years separated them; yet he still sacrificed to him, still feared him, and still believed he could send down calamities and misfortune as a warning to him and as an encouragement to the people. It is obvious that he believed that the soul of Tang had not been destroyed and continued to exist. (Matteo Ricci, The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven, p. 143)
Nicolas Trigault, Regni Chinensis Descriptio
In fact, this paragraph relates to a section in which Ricci demonstrated that the ancient Chinese believed in the survival of the soul after death. He mentioned ancestor worship not to endorse it, but to prove the belief in soul immortality. Judging the true intentions of ancient kings in offering sacrifices based solely on texts would be difficult. Yet, it was easier for Ricci to evaluate the rituals towards Confucius because he could observe them firsthand or consult the literati. In his history of the mission, Ricci noted that the literati visited the Temple of Confucius several times a year:
They offer incense and dead animals as sacrifices to him, but they do not recognize him as a deity, and they do not ask him for anything, so it is not a true sacrifice. (Matteo Ricci, Della entrata, p. 97)
When Ricci asserted that the literati did not recognize Confucius as a deity or expect anything from him, he applied the aforementioned hermeneutic principle, approving a ritual likely devoid of religious significance for most literati. But this judgment cannot be taken to represent the thoughts of all literati at all times and in all regions. The major difficulty lies in the fact that the question of belief in retributive offerings was never raised in China. Participating in the rituals was what mattered, and everyone could freely attribute a different meaning to them. Therefore, the emphasis was on orthopraxy rather than orthodoxy. In Catholicism, however, both are important. Beliefs regarding ancestor rituals are even more diverse since family rituals, unlike those for Confucius, are weakly regulated by the elites.
More than twenty years after his arrival in China, Ricci acknowledged he had made a significant shift in his missionary strategy. This acknowledgment is found in a letter dated December 12, 1605, addressed to his brother, Antonio Maria Ricci. The letter was first published in Chinese in 2018 by Wen Zheng 文铮 and Eugenio Menegon. In the letter, Ricci recalls that in his early years in China, he regarded the local rituals as fruitless. Therefore, he did not get many results. Later, he began participating in those rituals that did not violate Christian doctrine or his identity as a missionary. Through this, he gained respect. The Chinese no longer avoided him nor were they eager to leave his residence. As crucial evidence of Ricci’s pragmatic approach, the letter reveals his deepening understanding of Chinese ritual practices. He not only permitted Chinese Christians to practice ancestral rituals but also took part in them himself—likely not in churches, but in ancestral halls (Matteo Ricci, The Collected Letters of Matteo Ricci, p. 349).
Matteo Ricci, The Collected Letters of Matteo Ricci
On February 15, 1609, a year before his death, Ricci wrote to Francesco Pasio, the Jesuit visitor to Japan and China. In the letter, he summarized his missionary experience and outlined eight key points for the future of the mission. The seventh point noted that the Jesuits had gained a reputation as learned and virtuous men through the publication of books and their participation in rituals (cortesie). Ricci’s 1609 official correspondence confirms what he had said privately to his brother four years earlier.
In summary, Ricci gradually and cautiously adopted an open and accepting attitude towards Chinese rituals. His initial motivation was tactical: it was the only way to introduce Christianity into Chinese society. However, he also demonstrated creativity and flexibility in seeking a possible reconciliation. As Paul Rule says:
He recognized that many aspects of Confucianism were ambiguous; that they could be, and were, interpreted in various ways, some perfectly compatible with basic Christian doctrines, others less so. So the Jesuits in seeking to identify their teachings with Confucianism, “interpreting in our favor anything which (Confucius) left ambiguous in his writings.” (Paul Rule, K’ung-Tzu or Confucius? The Jesuit Interpretation of Confucianism, p. 40)
Ricci, therefore, made a bet on a possible interpretation. That is, he deliberately avoided providing a fixed theological interpretation. However, when confronted by those seeking definitive answers and certainties, his balanced position became quite unstable.
Longobardo’s Criticism of Confucianism and the Rites
Ricci’s mission established itself in major urban centers, such as Beijing, Nanjing, and Hangzhou, and developed close ties with the literati. This strategy resulted in his accommodating hermeneutic approach toward Chinese rites. Later, the mission expanded to other regions of China, particularly reaching broader social circles that did not follow the rationalist or psychological interpretations of the Confucian elites. These groups experienced rituals for ancestors as a means of communication and interaction with the dead, resembling the practices in popular religions.
Shortly after Ricci’s death, the Jesuits began disputing the terms used to express concepts such as God, angels, and the human soul in Chinese. Ricci had adopted terms found in Chinese classics: shangdi, tianshen, and linghun, respectively. Around 1619, Sabatino de Ursis and João Rodrigues wrote treatises opposing these terms in the Catholic Church, arguing that they were inadequate and could promote misunderstandings about divine transcendence. These two treatises have been lost, but a very systematic and detailed one was written between 1625 and 1629 by Niccolò Longobardo, Ricci’s successor as superior of the China mission. Longobardo primarily discussed the issue of terminology, conducting a meticulous analysis of Confucian philosophers from the Song and Ming dynasties to show that their philosophy was atheistic and materialistic. Longobardo also briefly mentioned rituals towards ancestors and translated the explanation of the great philosopher Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130-1200):
If there were no spirits, the ancients would never demand anything from them. We see, therefore, that for seven days they refrain from marital relations, and for three days they fast in order to make their entreaties to visible or invisible things. Therefore, it must necessarily be understood that there are spirits. Now, the emperor makes sacrifices to heaven and earth. Therefore, it is certain that there is heaven and earth… Now when in the ancestral temples it seems wondrous that there is nothing other than the air of the mountains and waters gathered there. After some time, if these temples have later been destroyed or fallen into ruin, they will not appear wondrous. The reason of this is that the Air of such places has been completely dispersed. (Niccolò Longobardo, A Brief Response on the Controversies over Shangdi, Tianshen and Linghun, pp. 151-152)
“A Dialogue Between Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi” by Chinese sculptor Yang Dongbai, in Piazza Matteo Ricci, Macerata, Italy
For Zhu Xi, it is indeed the correspondence between a person’s qi 气 and that of his ancestors that enables communication during rituals, particularly in the Ancestral Hall, where the ancestors’ cattered qi can more easily form. Accordingly, Longobardo concludes:
Spirits are none other than the activity of Air. To this are directed the sacrifices which are made to heaven, earth, mountains, rivers, gates, hearths and the ancestral temples. (Niccolò Longobardo, A Brief Response on the Controversies over Shangdi, Tianshen and Linghun, p. 152)
Like Ricci, Longobardo interpreted qi as a material element, specifically, air. However, Ricci, who was presumably unaware of Zhu Xi’s interpretation, did not condemn rituals performed in honor of ancestors or Confucius. He only asserted that when the literati performed the rituals, they did not ask for anything in return. Therefore, for Ricci, the rituals were not superstitious. Drawing on Zhu Xi’s interpretation, Longobardo suggested that the literati expected nothing in return because they were materialists and atheists.
Ricci suspected the literati he engaged with of having atheistic tendencies. However, Longobardo took it a step further, believing that even ancient Chinese, including Confucius, were atheists. Moreover, Longobardo introduced a Machiavellian element: the literati were hiding their atheism. They performed religious rituals, but they did not believe in them, as they used religion as a means of political control.
By the time Longobardo questioned a dozen literati, both Christian and nonChristian, he had already formed a firm opinion on the atheism of the group. As Benoît Vermander has noted, Longobardo failed to grasp the subtleties of the position of Chinese Christians, suspecting them of disguised materialism that placed all major religious and philosophical traditions (Christianity, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Islam) on the same level. Vermander also argued that Longobardo overlooked the simultaneous process of forming a Christian and a neo-Confucian orthodoxy (Benoît Vermander, Les Jésuites et la Chine, de Matteo Ricci à nos jours, pp. 37-38). Longobardo’s criticism mainly focused on terminology, but it also implied a strong disapproval of rituals towards Confucius and ancestors. It remains unclear whether Longobardo allowed Chinese Christians to perform these rituals. In any case, this did not provoke an open controversy.
The Condemnation of Rites as Superstitious by the Church
When the Franciscans and Dominicans arrived in Fujian Province in 1631, they mainly conducted their mission in rural areas and had little contact with literati elites. Like Longobardo, they noticed that people often performed rituals to seek prosperity, health, and wealth. They considered these practices to be superstitious, while Longobardo criticized them as a religious pretense manipulated by atheist literati. The controversy over Chinese rites escalated through several stages, culminating in condemnations by the Vatican in 1704, 1715, and 1742—which hindered the development of Christianity in China. In 1721, it was treated as a pernicious sect, and in 1724, it was officially prohibited.
During this dispute, both sides invested considerable effort in translating classics and their various interpretations, as well as in interviewing Chinese people—from commoners to the emperor, Christian or not. One positive effect of this controversy was a deeper understanding of Chinese rites, practices, and canonical texts. However, the missionaries raised questions that the Chinese had seldom discussed, as these issues did not seem important within their own intellectual framework. This is why the controversy over Chinese rites remained essentially an external issue to the Chinese tradition.
One of the most debated questions was how the spirits of Confucius and the ancestors were present in the rituals. According to the Franciscans and Dominicans, the Chinese believed that the spirits of Confucius and their ancestors came to the offerings. By consuming these offerings, people believed they would secure prosperity, health, and wealth. Therefore, Chinese rites were religious and superstitious in nature (Domingo Navarrete, Controuersias antiguas y modernas de la mission de la gran China, p. 303). But the Jesuits responded that the rites and texts should be understood symbolically, not literally. Thus, the rites were political or civil, not religious (Francesco Brancati, Testimonium de Cultu Sinensi, p. 76).
The annual grand ceremony honoring Confucius took place on September 28, 2025, at the Confucius Temple in Qufu, Shandong Province
According to Confucius, by offering sacrifices, one serves deceased family members “as if they were present” (ruzai 如在). This means one continues to serve deceased parents in the same way they were served while alive. Some people even offered meals at home daily for those who had recently died. Were the deceased truly present during these rituals? Due to the conciseness of the Chinese language, there are many different interpretations, but missionaries disagree on two of them: 1) it is believed that the deceased are still alive and that their spirits come during the ritual to accept the offerings brought to them. The family consumes these offerings to receive blessings from the spirits; 2) it is believed that the deceased are still alive, but they are not physically present during the ritual. However, the ritual must be performed to express filial piety. The first interpretation, developed by the Dominicans and Franciscans, considers ancestor rituals to be idolatrous. The second interpretation, proposed by the Jesuits, regards ancestor rituals as non-religious and therefore acceptable for Chinese Christians. In both cases, the missionaries failed to realize that they were imposing concepts that were completely foreign to Chinese thought, such as material/spiritual, civil/religious, and real/symbolic. They wanted to force an answer in one direction or the other.
Conclusion
It was not until 1939 that Pope Pius XII (1876–1958) officially recognized the Chinese rituals. This decision was influenced by the broader aim of fostering the Church’s adaptation to China’s social and cultural context at the time. Later, during the Second Vatican Council, the relationship between faith and culture was placed under greater emphasis, and Matteo Ricci came to be regarded as an exemplar of inculturation. Consequently, elements of Chinese rituals were gradually incorporated into the Church’s liturgical life.
Ricci’s missionary approach acknowledged the cultural and social significance of the rituals, paving the way for the contextualization of Christianity in China. However, due to the historical and theological constraints of his time, he could not fully embrace the deeper dimensions of these rites within Christian theology and practice, which kept them somewhat separate from the core of ecclesiastical tradition.
Today, there is renewed appreciation for rites honoring ancestors and Confucius. These practices are now recognized as meaningful ways to strengthen intergenerational bonds and uphold ethical and family values, not just as cultural customs. In an era of rapid social change, these rites can provide continuity, identity, and moral guidance, as well as a meaningful connection between past and present generations in this increasingly fragmented society.
Thierry Meynard: French scholar, professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Philosophy at Sun Yat-sen University. His research focuses on Sino-Western intellectual exchange, Western classical philosophy, and contemporary Neo-Confucianism.
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