prosperous age

As dusk fell, a carriage arrived in front of the Wei residence.

However, a long line had already formed in front of the Wei residence, with carriages and sedan chairs. Many people had gathered in front of the residence, all of whom had submitted invitations hoping to enter and meet the Grand Secretary.

This scene is commonplace, except that there have been more visitors than usual these past few days.

The entire alley was packed with people, and the queue stretched all the way to the corner, yet carriages and sedan chairs continued to arrive in droves.

"Xu An, should we also line up here?"

An awkward sound came from inside the carriage, and the person sitting inside was none other than Matteo Ricci.

Xu Guangqi became Matteo Ricci's student, so after Ricci left Songjiang Prefecture, Xu not only sent people to protect him along the way, but also arranged for his teacher to live in a villa in the capital.

Naturally, the Xu family's carriages and horses in the capital were all open to Matteo Ricci.

Master Xu had previously instructed that if Matteo Ricci arrived in the capital, he must send a letter to the Grand Secretary, who was very interested in this foreign missionary.

The servants of the Xu family were truly surprised. Yesterday, when Matteo Ricci arrived in the capital, they delivered the invitation as instructed by their master, and later that evening, the Wei family responded, asking them to come over today.

"Master Li, no need. The Wei family has something to say. Let's go directly there."

The coachman hurriedly turned around and said, then turned to Matteo Ricci's attendant, "I'll drive the carriage to the side gate in a bit. You can go down and give the invitation to the Wei family. They will take Master Ricci in."

This attendant was someone close to Xu Guangqi. When Matteo Ricci left Songjiang Prefecture, he needed to prepare for the imperial examinations, so he sent his attendant to take care of his teacher.

After all, he came from Songjiang and was somewhat unfamiliar with the rules of the capital. Although he had asked the Xu family a lot and learned some of the rules in the past two days, the elders around him would still give him a word of advice when he came out.

This person is different from the servants; he is a follower of the young master. There is no conflict of interest between them. On the contrary, they are quite happy to guide this person who serves the young master, which may turn out to be a good thing in the future.

Young master, eventually you will become master.

The carriage didn't queue up; it passed directly past the carriages and sedan chairs on the side. People around were paying attention to this very simple carriage, and some were whispering about which Xu official in the capital the "Xu" character on the carriage lantern represented.

The carriage quickly turned onto a straight road, where the roadside was already full of parked carriages. The carriage slowly passed through the middle and soon arrived at the gate of the Wei residence.

There were no cars or sedans parked around here, making it feel quite spacious.

"Uncle Fu, is this the place?"

"What are you thinking? This is the main gate. The main gate of the mansion is usually open to welcome guests."

The coachman casually said that the carriage should continue moving forward, and the attendant just stuck out his tongue without daring to say a word.

Not far ahead, a side gate, only half the size of the main gate, appeared before them.

As the year draws to a close, many people come to Wei Guangde's residence to deliver New Year's gifts.

However, even if these people delivered gifts to the mansion, they might not be able to meet Wei Guangde in person. Being able to meet Zhang Ji was already a great honor. Most of them could only meet the stewards in the mansion.

Well, many people think that being an official in the Ming Dynasty was very comfortable. They think that working hours meant reading documents in their office and going out for drinks with their colleagues after get off work. But that was just the life of an ordinary official.

The real high-ranking officials in the court actually have very full schedules and very little free time.

Even at night, they still have to deal with these people who bring gifts and try to curry favor.

If we don't see any of them for a long time, rumors will start to circulate.

Once you've seen them all, you won't get any rest for the night.

After all, those who are able to come all have some connection with each other.

You can only selectively meet with them, and you have to be kind and friendly to show your goodwill.

Wei Guangde was helpless in this situation and could only do as the locals do.

The carriage stopped in front of the mansion gate, and the attendant immediately jumped down, took Matteo Ricci's invitation, and handed it to a servant of the Wei family.

This was actually a modified visiting card from the Xu family, with the name changed to Matteo Ricci's.

The servant of the Wei household took the invitation, glanced at it, and then asked, "Is that the foreign monk in the carriage?"

"Exactly."

Although many foreigners came to the capital in previous years, they are not commonly seen in normal times.

Even when missions did arrive, they were mostly Korean envoys, whose appearances were not much different from those of Ming people.

When Matteo Ricci arrived in Beijing, he was seen by many people on his very first day there. Moreover, he was also seen traveling around the city by carriage that day, and the news that a foreign monk had come to the city spread quickly.

Don't be fooled by the fact that he has changed out of his priestly robes and into a scholar's robe; he can't possibly fool anyone.

Matteo Ricci was, after all, a missionary sent to the East by the Catholic Church, as clearly stated on his travel permit.

"Please invite him down, I'll go in and inform him."

The servant seemed to have received instructions; he glanced at the carriage and spoke, then walked into the mansion.

Having received the order, the attendant quickly returned to the carriage, took down a stool from the side, and said to the carriage, "Master Li, you can get out of the carriage now."

Matteo Ricci then lifted the carriage curtain and got down from the carriage.

Tonight he wasn't wearing Confucian robes, but instead a priest's robe, all in black, with a tall black hat on his head.

As soon as he appeared, everyone around him saw him and began to whisper among themselves.

"Oh my, this must be the foreign monk that's been all over the place these past few days."

"It should be."

Matteo Ricci's fame had become widespread without his knowledge.

As for why he was called a foreign monk, it was naturally because he was a person sent by the Western church.

In the eyes of the Ming people, such people were either monks or Taoist priests. Perhaps it was easier to say "foreign monk" than "foreign Taoist priest," so everyone just called them "foreign monks."

After getting off the carriage, Matteo Ricci took out a box from the carriage and carried it carefully, even refusing to let his attendant take it from him.

"I'll keep it myself. This is a gift for Lord Wei."

Matteo Ricci spoke in broken Chinese.

In fact, the servant knew what was in the box; it was just a few books translated by Matteo Ricci, including the Bible for missionary purposes, and the rest were Western literature and knowledge books translated by him.

These kinds of books are probably not valuable in the Ming Dynasty. Some of them were only copied by Xu Guangqi, but some of them were not available at all.

Things are valued for their rarity. Since it's not available elsewhere, book lovers will naturally treasure it when they see it.

But for ordinary people, it's really nothing.

For example, the eunuch I met today, he didn't even glance at him and just tossed him aside.

Originally, Matteo Ricci also intended to use him to deliver some books to the Ming emperor.

Regardless of whether the Ming emperor read the Bible, he was determined to find a way to get the book into the emperor's hands.

He had heard that the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were quite tolerant of religion, but even in the city of Beijing, during his walk around today, he saw many Taoist temples and Buddhist temples, many of which were built with money from the emperors of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty did not seem to interfere much with foreign religions.

Indeed, the Ming emperors were quite tolerant of religion. The Ming capital not only had monks and Taoist priests, but also lamas. As long as it wasn't a cult plotting rebellion, the Ming dynasty wouldn't interfere.

In their view, religion should primarily encourage people to do good deeds and accumulate virtue, and the emperors of the Ming Dynasty sometimes genuinely hoped to achieve something one day.

In fact, Emperor Jiajing was not the only Ming emperor who believed in cultivating immortality; he was just the one who went the furthest. Emperors Hongzhi, Longqing, and Wanli were also obsessed with cultivation.

They were merely believers whose brilliance had been obscured by the Jiajing Emperor.

Before long, a steward came out with the gatekeeper and welcomed Matteo Ricci into the mansion, not letting him stand outside any longer.

His priestly robes made him stand out conspicuously in front of the Wei residence.

The others outside the gate also wouldn't approach him to chat at this time, even though they had just heard that this foreign monk could speak Chinese.

However, after Matteo Ricci was welcomed into the Wei family mansion by the steward, many guests outside the mansion had a gleam in their eyes.

Matteo Ricci was invited into the Wei residence as soon as he arrived, which clearly showed that the Grand Secretary regarded this foreign monk with special regard.

For most of these people, knowing how to strike up a conversation with the Grand Secretary is very important.

Matteo Ricci, it seems like another opportunity.

Wei Guangde never imagined that his meeting with Matteo Ricci would contribute to Ricci's missionary work in the Ming capital. At that moment, he received this historically famous missionary in a hall.

"Greetings, Lord Wei."

"Mr. Li, please have a seat."

Wei Guangde smiled at Matteo Ricci, kindly invited him to sit down, and then asked him about his experiences in the Ming Dynasty and his impressions of the journey from Songjiang Prefecture to the capital.

It was all just idle chatter. He had already looked at the list of guests who came today, and none of them were important people, so he left it all to Zhang Ji to arrange.

When asked about Wei Guangde's question, Matteo Ricci, whether genuinely feeling it or simply trying to flatter him, described the Ming Dynasty as an impressive and desirable country.

Wei Guangde listened quietly with a smile. Despite the awkward but ornate language, it boiled down to a few points: the country is large, the population is large, the cities are well-organized, and the cityscape is clean.

"Hehe. Mr. Li is too kind."

Wei Guangde smiled and said modestly.

It's natural that the country is large; all the countries in Europe combined don't even have the size of the Ming Dynasty's territory at this time.

Not to mention the population, the combined population of Europeans probably doesn't even equal that of the Ming Dynasty.

As for cities, Europeans probably didn't have many cities at all, except for their capitals.

In many places, even a castle might be next to a town, which is what makes a European city.

Unlike the Ming Dynasty, where densely populated cities built city walls, this city truly resembled a proper city.

As for urban planning, cities in the Ming Dynasty were often built upon existing main roads running east, west, north, and south, which was naturally far superior to European shacks.

Moreover, the municipal construction of the city, from the sewers to the city appearance, has indeed achieved remarkable results since Wei Guangde learned about the work of the Shuntian Prefecture.

The animal droppings that used to litter the streets are gone; they've been replaced with pebbles, and all vehicles have bags attached to prevent the indiscriminate disposal of animal waste, making the area look clean.

When Wei Guangde first came to the capital, he was truly disgusted by how dirty and smelly it was.

Over the years, the city's urban construction has long been documented and regulations have been established.

Officials in the capital were delighted with this, as everyone wanted to live in a clean and hygienic city.

These measures have already been rolled out nationwide.

Except for some remote prefectures and counties, most cities have already begun to implement this rule.

Although it increased the burden on ordinary people, it did change the dirty and smelly living environment of the past, so people in the city still support it.

Simply sweeping the floor more often and disposing of trash in designated areas has changed my life.

The merchants also went from initial resistance to support, witnessing the changes in the environment. Although the government took away a sum of money, they saw the effects of the money spent.

Actually, it wasn't that the merchants were unwilling to pay money to the government; the main problem was that in the past, this money ended up in the pockets of officials.

In fact, wealthy merchants and gentry in the Ming Dynasty did not oppose building bridges and roads. They were happy to donate money for it because the money would have a visible effect and they would also gain a good reputation.

But if the money goes into the pockets of officials, they are naturally unhappy.

After recounting his experiences during his journey through the Ming Dynasty, Wei Guangde also inquired about the situation in Europe.

At this time, Europeans were not worried that the Ming Dynasty would have ambitions towards them, as they were too far away to be of any interest. Therefore, Matteo Ricci also explained the situation in Europe to Wei Guangde in detail.

"I feel that Europe has no civilization at all. The streets are full of excrement, and it's not much better than the Ming Dynasty."

Having learned from Matteo Ricci and corroborated the information brought back by previous missions, Wei Guangde was almost certain that Europe might have achieved some success in certain projects, but it would be very limited.

Hoping to learn by observing others seems unrealistic.

"I am aware of Mr. Li's request. The court does not prohibit religious beliefs, but it does prohibit the use of religion to coerce the people of our Great Ming into doing things they do not want to do, such as worshipping ancestors or defrauding them of money."

As for building churches, the imperial court did not object, but could offer very few conveniences.

Finally, the topic returned to Matteo Ricci's request, which he had actually already conveyed.

Matteo Ricci wanted to build a cathedral in the capital to attract believers. Wei Guangde would not stop him, but he would not completely ignore him either. With the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Shuntian Prefecture officials keeping an eye on things, as long as nothing went wrong, he would tacitly approve of everything else.

Believers can donate as they please, as long as they don't commit fraud.

Matteo Ricci wanted government donations to help him repair his church, but Wei Guangde naturally refused.

Although there are many Taoist temples and Buddhist temples in the capital, with a few exceptions, they are all funded by private donations, with the majority being donations from the imperial family.

Don't be fooled by the emperor's decree to oversee the construction; the funds actually come from the imperial court. Instead, they are recorded in the Ministry of Revenue's expenditure account for the inner court, essentially donations from the royal family, and are definitely not donations from the imperial court.

This was the case before, and Wei Guangde wouldn't have set this bad precedent.

Getting money is your skill; don't expect anything else from the government.

Matteo Ricci seemed to have anticipated this, so he was not angry.

In fact, it is very difficult for missionaries to go to a place at the beginning. They need to attract believers and then obtain donations from them.

Over time, as the number of believers increased, money accumulated. It was a gradual process, and he didn't expect to be able to persuade the officials of the imperial court.

The key is the person at the very top. If we can persuade him to convert to the religion, we can save a lot of time.

"Lord Wei, this is a gift I prepared. Please accept it."

Matteo Ricci and Wei Guangde talked for a while, and finally opened his gift box and took out the books.

"Why are there two Bibles?"

Wei Guangde took the question and asked.

"One copy is for your perusal, and the other is intended to be delivered to His Majesty the Emperor of your country through your perusal."

Matteo Ricci stated frankly. (End of Chapter)