Tombs of Jesuits past

To the immediate west of Chegongzhuang Station rests a small cemetery which holds the graves of foreign missionaries to China as well as, more significantly, the tombs of three Jesuit missionaries. These three missionaries were not only among the first Westerners to venture into China, but individuals that had high influence among Beijing officials, even advisory roles in the court of the emperor.

The cemetery itself is very difficult to find, as it is housed in a courtyard within Beijing Administrative College, a governance training school just a few blocks from the southwest exit of Chegongzhuang Subway Station. With no official signs or markers leading to this place, it took a few minutes walking through the courtyard until I stumbled across some European-style architecture. Then, walking past a stone shaped like a basin for holy water and through a hedge-laden archway, I came across three large tombs.

The Jesuits, members of the Society of Jesus Christ (a religious order founded in 1534 by St. Ignatius of Loyola), were a group known greatly for their missionary work and service to the Catholic Church. This service made many of them the first Westerners to visit East Asia, especially countries such as Japan. China, for the Jesuits, was much harder to get into, with St. Francis Xavier dying before he himself could even get to the mainland. Instead, the title of the first Jesuit to enter mainland China goes to the Italian Matteo Ricci, who had spent some years in Macau and Canton (Guangdong) before going further inland.

Along with being the first Jesuit to do work in mainland China, Ricci was also the first Westerner to set foot within the walls of the Forbidden City in Beijing. According to an article in the 2012 Adventure issue of the World of Chinese magazine, it was due to Ricci's interest in learning about China, especially its language and culture, as well as his introduction of Western astronomy, mathematics, that he garnered a special interest among Chinese officials. He even made a Portuguese-Chinese dictionary, the first bi-lingual Chinese dictionary in a European language. Following this feat and the drafting of a European-style map of China and the world, which would aid in expanding China's knowledge of the rest of the known world, special notice was taken by Ming emperor Wanli, who invited Ricci to the newly constructed Imperial Palace.