Nicolas Trigault

Early Years and Entry into the Society

Nicolas Trigault (金尼阁) was born on March 3, 1577, in Douai in the Spanish Netherlands (now in northern France). He received a good education from childhood, and on November 9, 1594, he joined the Society of Jesus, resolved to go far to the East to preach the gospel. The study and spiritual formation of his youth laid the foundation for his later ministry spanning Europe and Asia.

Coming to China

Around 1610 Trigault reached Macau, and the following year, 1611, he went north to Nanjing, entering the Chinese empire in the late Ming dynasty. He carried on the approach of Matteo Ricci of bringing China and the West together through scholarship, made friends widely among the scholar-officials, and stayed to preach in turn in Nanjing, Hangzhou, Nanchang, Shaozhou, Kaifeng, Jiangzhou and other places. Because the Christian Li Zhizao (李之藻) invited him there, Hangzhou became an important home for his work and his life.

Returning to Europe to Gather Books

At the end of 1612 Trigault was appointed by the China mission as its representative in Europe. In February 1613 he sailed from Macau and travelled west by way of India, the Persian Gulf and Egypt, reaching Rome in October 1614. On this journey he reported to the Holy See on the actual state of the mission in China, sought support, and collected books widely across Europe. In 1618 he set out from Lisbon on the return journey to the East, bearing a papal edict and the more than 7,000 Western works he had gathered, and reached Macau the following year; the books are known in history as the "Books Left by Trigault." The arrival in China of these books, covering theology, science and the humanities, became a treasury of the late-Ming transmission of Western learning to the East; although they could not all be translated and circulated, their influence was far-reaching.

Scholarly Writings

As a writer, Trigault made especially notable contributions. On his journey back to Europe he translated into Latin, with additions, the journals Ricci had kept in Italian, under the title De Christiana Expeditione apud Sinas; it was published in 1615. The book gave a systematic introduction to Chinese civilization and the course of the mission in China, caused a sensation in Europe, and deeply shaped Western understanding of China. In 1626 he published Xi Ru Ermu Zi (西儒耳目资, An Aid to the Eyes and Ears of Western Scholars) in Hangzhou; with the help of Wang Zheng (王征) and others, it was the first systematic use of the Latin alphabet to mark the pronunciation of Chinese characters. It pioneered the romanization of Chinese and was a milestone in linguistic exchange between China and the West. He also took part in translating and introducing Aesop's Fables into Chinese.

Death and Remembrance

On November 14, 1628, Trigault died in Hangzhou and was buried in the Jesuit priests' cemetery outside the city. As for his last years, some records say he was worn out by the controversy within the Church over the Chinese terms for God and died in depression, while other sources record only that he died of illness in Hangzhou; the details can no longer be established with certainty. In any case, he gave his life to communication between China and the West and to the spread of the faith. As a scholar and missionary, Trigault linked Europe and Asia by his pen and his travels, and his writings and the books he brought remain an indelible mark on the history of that encounter of civilizations.