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Gabriel de Magalhães (; 1610 – 6 May 1677), or gallicized as Gabriel Magaillans, was an early Portuguese
Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
missionary to China who was one of the first Catholic missionaries to reach
Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...
. He also worked in
Peking Beijing, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's most populous national capital city as well as China's second largest city by urban area after Shanghai. It is l ...
and founded the original St. Joseph's Church there.


Early life

Magalhães was born in Pedrógão, Coimbra, Portugal, a member of the same family as
Ferdinand Magellan Ferdinand Magellan ( – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer best known for having planned and led the 1519–22 Spanish expedition to the East Indies. During this expedition, he also discovered the Strait of Magellan, allowing his fl ...
.
read on line on chineancienne.fr
an
here
.


Mission to China

After first spending six years in the Portuguese colony of
Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...
, Magalhães arrived in Hangzhou in 1640. He was then sent to
Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...
in
Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...
and arrived in August 1642. He began a close association with fellow Jesuit Lodovico Buglio in Chengdu, and started to study Chinese under Buglio's guidance. Buglio would become his biographer 35 years later. Both Magalhães and Buglio were pressed to serve under the rebel "King of the West",
Zhang Xianzhong Zhang Xianzhong (張獻忠 or Chang Hsien-chung; 18 September 1606 – 2 January 1647), courtesy name Bingwu (秉吾), art name Jingxuan (敬軒), was a Chinese peasant leader who led a peasant rebellion from Yan'an wei, Shaanxi (today Yulin, ...
() after Zhang captured Sichuan in 1644. Initially Magalhães wrote sympathetically of Zhang's attempts at empire-building in Chengdu, but became fearful when Zhang started his campaign of terror in Sichuan. After Zhang was defeated by the Manchus in 1647, the pair was captured by Hooge. In his plea to avoid execution, Magalhães claimed the German Jesuit
Adam Schall Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1 May 1591 – 15 August 1666) was a German Jesuit, astronomer and instrument-maker. He spent most of his life as a missionary in China (where he is remembered as "Tang Ruowang") and became an adviser to the Shunz ...
as their "elder brother" who was recognized by the Manchu commander. They were taken to the
Forbidden City The Forbidden City () is the Chinese Empire, imperial Chinese palace, palace complex in the center of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City in Beijing, China. It was the residence of 24 Ming dynasty, Ming and Qing dynasty, Qing dynasty L ...
in
Peking Beijing, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's most populous national capital city as well as China's second largest city by urban area after Shanghai. It is l ...
in 1648 where they were well received by the
Shunzhi The Shunzhi Emperor (15 March 1638 – 5 February 1661), also known by his temple name Emperor Shizu of Qing, personal name Fulin, was the second emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the first Qing emperor to rule over China proper. Upon the deat ...
emperor, and were given a church, house and income. He and Buglio undertook the construction of the original St. Joseph’s Church in Peking (originally known as ''Dong Tang'' or Eastern Church). Magalhães was given the duty of maintaining various Western machinery, including the clocks at the court of the
Shunzhi The Shunzhi Emperor (15 March 1638 – 5 February 1661), also known by his temple name Emperor Shizu of Qing, personal name Fulin, was the second emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the first Qing emperor to rule over China proper. Upon the deat ...
and
Kangxi The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 165420 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, personal name Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper. His reign of 61 ye ...
emperors. He built a number of mechanical devices, including a
carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a musical keyboard, keyboard and consists of at least 23 bells. The bells are Bellfounding, cast in Bell metal, bronze, hung in fixed suspension, and Musical tuning, tu ...
and
turret clock A turret clock or tower clock is a clock designed to be mounted high in the wall of a building, usually in a clock tower, in public buildings such as Church (building), churches, university buildings, and town halls. As a public amenity to enab ...
that played a Chinese tune on the hour. After the death of the Shunzhi emperor, anti-Christian sentiments surfaced, and in 1661, during the reign of the Kangxi emperor, Magalhães was charged with bribery. He was imprisoned and tortured, but later released as the charges were not sustained. Magalhães died in Peking on 6 May 1677 and the Kangxi emperor himself wrote Magalhães' eulogy, and granted his estate 200 taels of silver and ten large bolts of silk. He was buried in the Jesuits' Zhalan Cemetery in Beijing.


Works

Starting in 1650, Magalhães began writing "the most comprehensive and perceptive description of China" in the second half of the 17th century, and it was completed in 1668. After Magalhães' death, the work was taken to Europe by the French Jesuit
Philippe Couplet Philippe Couplet, SJ (1623–1693), known in China as Bai Yingli, was a Flemish people, Flemish Jesuits, Jesuit Jesuit China missions, missionary to the Qing Empire. He worked with his fellow missionaries to compile the influential ''Confucius, P ...
in 1681, and was translated by
Abbé ''Abbé'' (from Latin , in turn from Greek , , from Aramaic ''abba'', a title of honour, literally meaning "the father, my father", emphatic state of ''abh'', "father") is the French word for an abbot. It is also the title used for lower-ranki ...
Claude Bernou. It was published under the title ''Nouvelle Relation de la Chine, contenant la description des particularitez les plus considerables de ce grand empire'' in 1688. The work was originally written in Portuguese as ''Doze excellencias da China'' (Twelve excellences of China) and deals with various aspects of China, such as its history, language, custom, and government. Part of the document however was damaged by fire, and there were therefore alterations and deletions in the translation. The translation was reorganized into 21 chapters instead of the original 12, and was published under its new French title with the author's name gallicized as Gabriel de Magaillans. It was also translated into English the same year as ''A New History of China Containing a Description of the Most Considerable Particulars of that Vast Empire''. Magalhães also left works in Chinese – including the translation of ''De resurrectione carnis'' (復活論), which is part of the supplement to ''pars tertia'' of
Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...
' ''
Summa Theologica The ''Summa Theologiae'' or ''Summa Theologica'' (), often referred to simply as the ''Summa'', is the best-known work of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), a scholastic theologian and Doctor of the Church. It is a compendium of all of the main t ...
'' (超性學要) previously partly translated into Chinese by Buglio.


Legacy

Magalhães and his fellow missionaries left a positive impression on the
Kangxi emperor The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 165420 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, personal name Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper. His reign of 61 ...
who described them as "devoted to the public good." He went on:
"They have done nothing wrong, yet many Chinese have mistrusted them. However, We have always known that they are sincere and trustworthy. We have for many years carefully observed their behaviour and found that they have done absolutely nothing improper."
This recognition by the emperor laid the foundation for the
edict of toleration An edict of toleration is a declaration, made by a government or ruler, and states that members of a given religion will not suffer religious persecution for engaging in their traditions' practices. Edicts may imply tacit acceptance of a state r ...
of 1692.


See also

*
Catholic Church in Sichuan The presence of the Catholic Church in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan and city of Chongqing dates back to 1640, when two missionaries, Lodovico Buglio and Gabriel de Magalhães, through Jesuit missions in China, entered the provin ...
* '' An Account of the Entry of the Catholic Religion into Sichuan''


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Magalhaes, Gabriel de Portuguese Roman Catholic missionaries 17th-century Portuguese Jesuits 1610 births 1677 deaths Roman Catholic missionaries in Sichuan Jesuit missionaries in China Portuguese missionaries in China People from Coimbra