Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The first people to get the news about the establishment of the free trade zones in Xiangshan Bay and Xiangjiang Island were not the businessmen, but the Jesuit missionaries.

With believers such as Grand Secretary Xu Guangqi in the court, the Jesuits were well-informed. After seeing the free trade zone policy formulated by the emperor, they suddenly became nervous.

Because they found that there was no place for them in the emperor's setting of the free trade zone.

Everything they owned in Xiangshanao was not recognized by the emperor.

"The King of Spain once named Xiangshan'ao 'the City of the Holy Name of God in China', but the Chinese emperor did not recognize it. Now he wants to take it back to establish a free trade zone. What should we do?"

Looking at the news about the free trade zone, Long Huamin, supervisor of the Chinese missionary group, said in panic.

There was no news for more than a month, and he thought that the emperor's criticism of the missionaries was just talk, so he pretended that nothing had happened and waited for the storm to subside.

Unexpectedly, before the storm had completely subsided, the emperor took practical measures to exclude missionaries. He saw the Xiangshanao incident as a warning.

As mentioned earlier, Western colonial invasions are usually led by missionaries.

The same is true for Xiangshanao. The church can only carry out activities before the council is established.

Moreover, the establishment of Xiangshanao Council was promoted by the Jesuit bishops. Since its establishment, it has been controlled by Jesuit clergy.

The Jesuits had an impact on all aspects of Xiangshan'ao's culture, education, life, etc. They even set up the Inquisition to influence administration and justice.

The commercial activities in Xiangshan'ao were also oriented towards obedience and support for the spread of the gospel in the church. Most of the funds of the Jesuits came from Xiangshan'ao.

It can be said that the emperor's sudden attack hit them right in the nick of time.

If Xiangshan Bay is reorganized into a free trade zone, the council will be replaced by the free trade zone council and the three agencies. It will be impossible for the Jesuits to obtain financial support. The donations received by the church will also be damaged due to the loss of power.

Long Huamin couldn't help but panic when his source of income was cut off.

He even thought that the emperor's regulations on religious sites and religious schools might be implemented in Xiangshan'ao, and the Jesuits would completely lose their influence in this place.

Realizing the seriousness of the matter, Long Huamin quickly summoned Jesuit missionaries in the capital to discuss the matter.

Thanks to the emperor's plan to hold a religious conference and his criticism of missionaries, many missionaries who came to the Ming Dynasty were summoned to the capital.

After hearing that the Ming Emperor intended to establish a free trade zone in Xiangshan Bay, they also realized the seriousness of the matter.

The Portuguese Yang Mano said:

“The merchants in Xiangshan’ao seem to be very pious and donate a lot to the church.”

"But as long as the Ming emperor allows them to do business, these merchants will most likely not resist."

“Those who are wealthy will even happily donate to the Ming Dynasty officials to obtain the qualifications to serve as councilors and officials in the free trade zone.”

“We cannot allow Xiangshan’ao to be transformed into a free trade zone in this way!”

Knowing the nature of businessmen, other missionaries agreed that Yang Manuo was right.
"Portugal appointed a governor who also served as the royal chief justice and captain of the official trading fleet."

"He is now in charge of the defense of Xiangshan Bay. Is it possible for him to resist the Ming army?"

The missionaries were not optimistic about the Sicilian's idea. Yang Manno knew the situation in Portugal best and said:
"The governor of Xiangshan'ao can only be responsible for defense now. He can't sacrifice his life for it."

"Besides, the current King of Portugal is also the King of Spain. The Xiangshanao issue is not taken seriously and it is difficult to get support."

As the theoretical highest person in charge, the Governor of Hong Kong also serves as the Chief Justice of the Royal Family and has administrative and judicial powers.

But this was only in theory. In reality, the administration of Xiangshan'ao was controlled by the Council of the Jesuits. The judicial affairs of Xiangshan'ao were decided by the Inquisition.

Without administrative or judicial power, he was only responsible for the defense of Xiangshan'ao. It was simply impossible to ask the Governor of Xiangshan'ao to fight for this.

What's more, resisting the Ming Dynasty is different from resisting the Dutch invading from the sea. If the Ming Dynasty wants to take Xiangshan Bay, it will first start from the land.

The soldiers in Xiangshan'ao could not stop the Ming soldiers. Otherwise, the castle in Xiangshan'ao would not have been demolished several times by Ming officials and has not been fully restored yet.

It can be said that as long as the Ming Dynasty officials took action, Xiangshanao had no room to resist. From a legal point of view, they had originally bribed Ming Dynasty officials to lease the land. Now that the Ming Emperor allowed them to lease the land and asked officials to formulate a more complete treaty, these people had no reason to object.

Even the merchants in Xiangshan'ao would be happy to accept the conditions proposed by the Ming Emperor. The establishment of a free trade zone would help their trade.

If they do not accept it, the newly established Hong Kong Island Free Trade Zone will attract many people.

It can be said that the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty used an open conspiracy to force Xiangshan Bay to become a free trade zone.

After discussing this, the Jesuit missionaries were very depressed. And the young Holy Roman Empire missionary Johann Adam Schall von Bell said something that made them even more terrified:

"If the Ming emperor established contact with the Western countries through merchants, they would be able to purchase various books without going through missionaries."

“We need to make major changes in the way we preach!”

The missionary work of the Jesuits in the Ming Dynasty was established by Matteo Ricci and others. They mainly put on the Confucian clothing of Chinese scholars and disguised themselves as Confucian scholars.

By utilizing the various knowledge developed in the West since the Renaissance, they successfully gained the recognition of Confucian scholars in the Ming Dynasty and were called Western Confucians.

Many Jinshi admired their knowledge and even became believers. Under the protection of these Jinshi, their missionary activities could be carried out and more people could be attracted to believe.

The scholars of the Ming Dynasty thought that this knowledge came from the church, but the missionaries knew that they only created this illusion because they monopolized the cultural exchange between China and the West. In fact, much of their knowledge did not come from the church, and was even taken from the opponents of the church.

If the scholars of the Ming Dynasty knew that these missionaries were not actually Western Confucianists, the Jesuit mission would suffer a major blow.

This blow is more terrible than cutting off financial resources, as it concerns the foundation.

Those Confucian scholars who want to supplement Confucianism with Western learning will abandon them.

Thinking of this scene, Long Huamin was completely speechless. Although he was dissatisfied with some of Matteo Ricci's missionary strategies, they were in agreement in terms of pretending to be Western Confucianists. Otherwise, he would not have given himself a Chinese name to make it easier for believers to accept him.

Aleni was a supporter of Matteo Ricci's missionary strategy. He mainly preached in Fujian and even discovered the Nestorian stele in Quanzhou. Faced with this situation, he raised the question that the Jesuits had not dared to face for some time:

"Because of the war between Protestants and Catholics, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty decided that other Christian sects, except the Society of Jesus, were not allowed to spread in the Ming Dynasty."

"Should we use this decree to request the Ming Emperor to retain the power of the Xiangshan Ao Church and guard against other sects?"

Many missionaries looked at Long Huamin after hearing this. As the supervisor of the Chinese mission, Long Huamin was the decision maker of missionary affairs. Even if other missionaries had conflicts with him, they had to respect this.

Long Huamin welcomed the Ming Emperor's request for the Jesuits to change their name because he advocated the use of Latin transliteration. He also proposed the name "Dousi". But he did not accept the Ming Emperor's addition of Chinese religious terms such as "Tianzhu" and "Tianzun" after Dousi, and even wanted to confer the title in the name of the Son of Heaven.

In his opinion, this was absolutely blasphemy.

Because of his and some other people's opposition, although the Ming emperor granted the Jesuits the right to preach, the Jesuit missionaries did not accept it. They were almost playing dead with the emperor's policies on the Jesuits.

But now that the emperor has taken action against Xiangshanao, and may even contact the Western countries directly without going through the missionaries, they can no longer sit still and can only discuss this matter.

Long Huamin still held an opposing opinion, believing that it was okay to change the translated name, but he could not add "Tianzhu" or "Tianzun" at the end, and he certainly could not accept the canonization by the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty and become one of the gods.

Ai Ruliu opposed his view and said:
"When the Nestorian Church was preaching in China, it used titles such as Tianzun and Fawang."

"I think there is nothing wrong with giving Dousi the title of Heavenly Venerable."

"The translation of Deus could be Dousi Tianzun."

His viewpoint attracted many people to agree with him. Some even thought that the name should be translated as Dousi Tianzhu or Dousi Shangdi to make it easier for believers who had been recruited to accept it.

These people wanted to make this concession in exchange for the Ming Emperor granting the Jesuits the right to preach.

Facing the opposition from these people, Long Huamin was unable to suppress them even with his identity as the missionary supervisor, so he could only say:
"Vote!"

"Let's vote and choose a translation."

This decision was supported by many missionaries.

Just as they were about to vote, the young missionary Johann Adam Schall von Bell said:

"Before this vote, I have to tell you something."

"News came from Shaanxi that it has not rained since May."

“It is confirmed that there is a severe drought there, even worse than the drought in Gyeonggi Province.”

"The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty may really be able to communicate with the gods!"

This news shocked many missionaries, and those who were unaware of the situation asked whether it was true.

Long Huamin, Yang Manuo and others remained silent.

Although they pretended to be dead, they were actually very concerned about the events in Shaanxi. Not only did they get news from the Ming officials, they also asked believers in Shaanxi to pass on messages to them.

At first, when they learned that it had rained in Shaanxi in April and that a severe drought might not occur, they were very happy and thought that the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was talking nonsense.

However, letters written after May increasingly showed that Shaanxi was experiencing an unprecedented drought, which was even more serious than that in the capital.

Long Huamin, Yang Manuo and others knew this. That is why they believed that the emperor's establishment of a free trade zone in Xiangshan Bay was an attack on the Jesuits.

If the emperor of the Ming Dynasty can prove that he can communicate with gods, he will be the true god in the world.

All the resistance of the missionaries was of no consequence to him.

So he took advantage of this favorable situation and forced the Jesuits to surrender.

Long Huamin and others originally wanted to conceal this news and announce it after the translation was finalized.

However, Johann Adam Schall von Bell, who succeeded Nicolas Trigault as the missionary in Shaanxi, also learned about this matter through his connections with Shaanxi believers.

Now that he announced this before the vote, it had a huge impact on the psychology of many missionaries:

"The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty can communicate with the gods. According to Confucian scholars, he is the supreme god in the world."

"Are we going to go against such a god?"

Listening to the whispers of some missionaries, Long Huamin was depressed, knowing that he had already lost even though the vote had not yet taken place. Facing a real god, what ability did they, who were attached to the gods, have to oppose?
Moreover, the missionaries' words made him realize that while Chinese Confucianists were supplementing Confucianism with Western learning, some missionaries were influenced by them and were also supplementing Western learning with Confucianism.

They were accepting the Confucian teachings and regarded the Son of Heaven as the supreme god on earth.

This is what Long Huamin feared, and it was also the reason why he opposed using "Tianzhu" or "Shangdi" as translations. He wanted to use this method to isolate the influence of Confucianism on the Jesuits.

But now he found that what he worried about had become a reality.

"Even if I and some others leave, the Ming Emperor can use these missionaries to reorganize the Jesuit Order."

"What should I do now?"

Praying silently in his heart, Long Huamin suddenly had an epiphany:
This missionary vote is Deus' decision.

So he did nothing and just waited for the voting results to come out.

His inaction was in stark contrast to that of Johann Adam Schall von Bell and Giulio Aleni. Under the strong promotion of Giulio Aleni, the translation of Dousi Tianzun received the most recognition.

Many people comforted themselves in their hearts that Deus had accepted the title of Tianzun before, and did not punish the Nestorian missionaries for this. They used this translation to learn from their predecessors.

Once the translation was finalized, the rest was easy. According to the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the next step was to accept the title.

However, Ai Rulie and Long Huamin both objected to this point, because according to him, the Buddha of the Western Heaven did not accept the canonization of the emperor, and Dousi Tianzun did not need it either.

This made Long Huamin feel better, and he said to Ai Rulie and Tang Ruowang:
"In that case, let's all ask Master Xu to allow us to see the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty."

"We, the Society of Jesus, will preach according to his will and constrain all missionaries in China."

When Xu Guangqi got the news, he was overjoyed. In fact, he had been suffering during these days.

On the one hand, it was because of the faith he had established under the guidance of Matteo Ricci, and on the other hand, he realized that what the emperor said was gradually coming true.

Shaanxi did have a severe drought, and according to his inquiries, missionaries were indeed the forerunners of invasions in America and other places. There was even such a tendency in Japan, to the point where Christianity was banned.

This made him doubt the missionary's identity as a Western Confucianist. Even his faith was impacted, and he lived in pain these days.

Now, the Jesuit missionaries were going to partially accept the emperor's will. Xu Guangqi immediately used his position as a university scholar to request an audience with the emperor.

He hoped to reach a good conclusion through the talks so that he would no longer be caught in the middle and suffer this kind of hardship. (End of this chapter)