Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary to the late Ming China, translated of Epictetus’ Enchiridion into Twenty-Five Sayings in Chinese for the purpose of Christian mission. His selection of the representative book in the Western stoic philosophy had specific purpose: Introducing one of religious semantic meaning in the Western Christianity, Stoic ethics and its religious similarities with Buddhist frameworks. By doing so, Ricci tried to demonstrate the Western Christianity was same in relation to ethical framework but different in regard to religious implications. He tried to find the point of contact and the point of difference at the same time by comparing Christianity’s stoic characters and China’s Buddhist ethics, which was different from traditional Confucian framework. The Chinese responses, however, show different outcomes. The Chinese intellectuals, who responded Ricci’s missiological intention, read his book with different perspectives. They showed their surprising interests in the newly translated book on the Western stoic philosophy in relation to promote and uphold their traditional Confucian values. The author claims that both missionaries and the responders of the new religious teaching tend to be confused by semantic values in the early period of cultural and religious contact. Without this awareness, both sides of cultural and religious contact would be confused in the proper understanding of the true religious meanings.

If you want to write a mission history, academic dilemmas hinder you to sustain objective perspectives due to your confessional orientation. We mission historians believe that God has a grand plan of salvation for humankind and we are witnessing His story in the history of mission. Secular historians, however, do not believe in this kind of confession orientation. Rather they despise this kind of approach as the lack of academic objectivity. We mission historian must find the third way for writing mission history which could be shared not only with our fellow Christian scholar but also secular historians who believe in the objectivity as the primal condition for writing history. This paper suggests the method of Jacob Burckhardt(18181897) who proposed a flexible approaches in historiography. He criticizes that history is neither logic nor philosophy which is logical framework is firm and decisive. History writing should, according to Burckhardt, flexible because the interpretation of history should be open. The present author shows that this kind of flexible historiography could be accommodated in a new way of mission historiography. To show an example the author interprets the early Jesuit Missionary Matteo Ricci from the flexible mission historiography: Push factor and Pull factor. The author claims that writing mission history in more flexible historiography could be achieved by comparing push factor of missionary sending and pull factor of missionary receiving. Early Jesuit mission history will be more flexible if we approach the Jesuit mission from politics(of missionary sending from 16thcentury Europe and missionary receiving from the late Ming China's political situation), culture, and religion.

Matteo Ricci’s missionary work in China was a remarkable cross-cultural mission in the 16th Century. Matteo Ricci introduced Christian teaching to the Chinese literati. By adopting the Chinese language and culture, he was able to enter the center of the Chinese society which was normally closed to foreigner. His missionary approach was effective. Ricci did not approach the Chinese culture with superiority like other Western missionaries. He behaved that he came to China to learn. Ricci made notable sacrifices to study the language―he had learned to speak, read and write Chinese, the habits and customs of the Chinese, as to make them his own. Ricci’s second cultural approach is to conform life-style with the socio-ethical system. When Ruggieri and Ricci first entered China together in 1583, they were dressed as Buddhist monks. Later, Ricci found that the monks he met were neither learned nor well respected. Ricci decided to carry his religious testimony to the very heart of the society, and for this, he adopted the life style and dress of educated Confucians. Ricci had grown his hair and beard and put on the scholar’s robes. Ricci’s third approach was to write many moral writings. It was an academic approach. Ricci’s moral writings had attracted the Confucian literati, even by those did not sympathize with his religious ideas. In T’ien-chu shih yi, Ricci mentioned that T’ien-chu [Lord of Heaven] in Christianity was same as Shang-ti [Sovereign Lord] in Confucianism. Ricci’s fourth cultural approach was the introduction of Western science and technology. Ricci displayed world map, western clocks, Venetian prism, European paintings and books. Ricci was accepted widely among the literati by his knowledge of mathematics and other sciences; by the curious objects he had brought, and even by his alleged knowledge of alchemy. Ricci’s fifth cultural approach was to respect Chinese rites and customs. Through discussion with the Chinese literati, Ricci indirectly introduced the Christian point of view on the various problems and matters. His Chinese disciples demonstrated that to accept the Christian faith did not imply abandoning one’s own culture, nor mean diminishing loyalty to one’s own country and traditions, but rather that the faith offered them to serve their country. By this reason, Jesuit missionaries allowed to worship at a shrine of Confucius and to perform a religious service in an ancient rite. In fact, an ancient rite was very delicate and sensitive issue at that time. It requires careful approach through theological reflection and evaluation because cultural accommodation may change to relativism or syncretism. As a missionary, Ricci never forgot his ultimate goal: the preaching the Gospel and the conversion of China. Ricci’s missionary work in China is still a model of Asian missionary work. Ricci’s missionary method through cultural accommodation was vital and actual as ever. It is necessary for the effective missionary works to understand the social structure of the field. Without destroying or ignoring their own culture and customs, we can carefully make a connection between Christianity and culture and customs of the field.