Hearing that Xiao Xuanye happily agreed to his proposal to recommend Wei Yijie as the new "Shaoqing of Taichang Temple and the Fourth Translation Hall of the Admiral", although it was just a "useless" verbal promise, Tang Ruowang was still overjoyed, and couldn't help but move his not very neat legs again, stood up and saluted respectfully, and praised:

"Thank you, thank you! With the help of Wei Yijie and Wei Shisheng, Lao Chen is willing to work with other priests in Beijing to teach more about the various interpretations of the Four Translation Halls. In this way, I am also confident that more talents in the Qing Dynasty will emerge and the communication between China and the West will be smoother! In time, the Gospel of God will be able to spread more smoothly in the Qing Dynasty! ”

Hongyi also hurriedly jumped down from his seat, picked up the half-hunched old foreign head in a good manner, and said with a smile:

"Hehe, why is Old Marfa so polite? However, Xuan Ye is in the palace, and he has really been to your Nantang, but he has never had the opportunity, and then he is fortunate to meet your other brothers in the same association in Beijing! ”

"Oh, now in the Jingshi, in addition to the old ministers, the priests who have been promoted to the priesthood are a few brothers such as Lisis and An Wensi." Tang Ruowang took advantage of the situation to drag his sick leg back to the circle chair, and replied casually: "It's just that both of them are temporarily living in the house of Bamian Groove, and they don't live with the old minister, so the two brothers have not been able to meet the master." ”

"Oh? Riccis ...... Avens ...... The eight-sided groove ......" Hongyi muttered to himself.

"Yes, it's the eight-sided groove. It is just north of the west exit of Goldfish Hutong and south of the west exit of Dengshikou, close to the boundary of Milk House. The old minister was in the pre-Ming period. It is said that next to the well in the middle of this street, there is an eight-sided stone trough for drinking livestock, hence the name 'eight-sided trough'. Tang Ruowang thought that Xiao Xuanye, who didn't often go to Dongcheng, didn't know what to say about this place name, so he explained it in detail.

"Oh......"

Hongyi was obviously not interested in the historical place name of "Bamian Groove", which was on Wangfujing Street, and still looked thoughtful.

"However, master, they are only temporarily living there, after all, the two of them are still guilty people......" Tang Ruowang was still silent and a little uncertain about the "omniscient" master, so he had to take the initiative to explain a "detail" - the guilty body.

"I know that." Hongyi finally remembered something and took over the topic.

"Naturally, you know that they committed themselves to Zhang Xianzhong's thief in Sichuan back then......" John Tang was not surprised that Hongyi said he knew about it.

"Huh. There is no need to mention the events of that year. Hongyi nodded in response. But I thought about another place.

It turned out that this Lixis and Anwensi were Jesuit priests of almost the same era as John Tong, and they were also in Beijing with John Tong for a considerable period of time. Riccius. The word "Zaimay". Born in the aristocracy of Sicily, Italy. He set out on April 13, 1635, to preach in China. He first went to Macao to study Chinese, and in 1642 he went to Chengdu as a missionary and established the first Catholic church there.

And that Anwens. A Portuguese Jesuit priest whose original name was Gabriel? Morality? Magellan, supposedly for Ferdinand? Descendants of Magellan. He went to China a little later than John Tong and Richard Richard, arriving in China as a missionary around 1640. After coming to China, he worked with Richards for a long time and participated in the latter's pioneering work in the Chengdu Catholic Church.

Unfortunately, in 1644, the "Eight Kings" Zhang Xianzhong led a peasant rebel army into Sichuan, and established the "Great Western Dynasty" in October of that year, called the "Great Western Emperor". Zhang Xianzhong knew the story of Emperor Wanli's reuse of priest Matteo Ricci and Emperor Chongzhen's reuse of priest John Tang, and learned that there were these two "priests from the West", so he painted a scoop according to the gourd and ordered the Ministry of Rites to send someone to greet him.

After the officials of the Ministry of Rites took the two back to Chengdu, Zhang Xianzhong asked about the political affairs of the Western countries at the time of the meeting, and the two priests responded like a stream, offering loyalty and joy, and treated the above guests as a gift, and asked the two priests to stay in Chengdu to prepare advisers, and named the "Tianxue National Teacher", and after the meeting, he ordered a certain senior to bring snacks of various colors, several horses of silk, one hundred and sixty taels of silver, and two robes and two robes, and sent them to the place of the two priests, and stipulated that each person would give the treasury ten taels of silver per month in the future. So, in desperation, the two missionaries had to commit themselves to the "western thief" and act as "foreign advisers" to him, as John Tong said.

Such a "combination" that was not harmonious but still had some "upper way" was not ended until the fourth year of Shunzhi (1647) when the Qing army broke into Sichuan under the leadership of King Su Haoge, Zhang Xianzhong was killed, and the Great Western Army was defeated, and the two priests were also captured by the Qing army. After receiving the report, Hauge also personally met with the two priests, and only after asking did he know that they were friends of John Tang, and at this time, John Tang had revised and completed the "Shixian Calendar" under the credit of the Qing court, and was appointed as the supervisor of Qintian, which can be said to be thriving. Hauge then sent the two priests to Beijing. Because of the relationship between the two of them in Zhang Xianzhong's regime, for the sake of safety, they stayed in King Su's mansion for a year after entering Beijing. Later, because of the "downfall" of Hauge, they were able to leave the palace of the king of Su, and with the assistance of John Tong, they began to do their semi-public work - preaching.

However, Hongyi didn't really care about these past events, but remembered one of his close relatives. So, he said with a smile:

"You said that they live in the eight-sided trough temporarily, but this house is owned by my uncle Tong Guogang, right?"

"Ah...... Be! Be! The master already knew...... Your two uncles ......" John Tang seemed to be very reluctant to mention the matter, and he coped with it.

"Hehe, old Marfa, there are only you and me here today, and my subordinates are also very strict, so why do you shy away from it? Besides, doesn't my emperor Ama go to your south hall every once in a while? If you are not baptized, can you not admire your God and the Virgin Mary? Hongyi smiled and said with relief.

"Yes! Be! Master is right! It's just that your two uncles really don't want me and other priests to mention this matter......" John Tang was forced to admit the fact that Tong Guowei and Tong Guogang were devoted to the "Holy Religion".

"Haha, this matter is really not an outsider. It's just you and me...... Oh, and the two priests, Li and An, a few of us know it and know it by heart. Hongyi further comforted John Tang's uneasy feeling because of his "duty of confidentiality".

In fact, in the more than a year that Li Zhisi and An Wensi have temporarily lived in the Hauge Mansion, they have already turned the Suwang Mansion into their missionary place. Hauge's wives and concubines saw that the two priests were of good character and otherworldly, and felt that the teachings were quite reasonable, so they were gradually influenced. The so-called "many concubines and servants and maidservants were baptized into the church". After that, the people in the palace of King Su respected the two missionaries even more, treated them with courtesy, no longer treated them as slaves, and allowed them to preach in all parts of the capital, except that they were not allowed to leave the capital[1]. In the sixth year of Shunzhi (1649), the two were sent to Xuanye's maternal uncle, Guanglu Temple Gushan Tong Guogang to serve. Tong Guogang and his brother Tong Guowei were also convinced of the teachings they preached. Although the Tong brothers were forced to "refuse to be baptized" under pressure, they "offered a statue of Our Lady at home, and often lit candles in front of the statue to pay tribute, and they were unremitting for many years." ”

It can be seen that on the one hand, Ricci and Anwensi devoted themselves to their so-called "missionary cause" without being shocked and completely selfless, and on the other hand, like John Tong, they attached great importance to the "upper line" adopted by Matteo Ricci during his mission, that is, he used his deep residence in the palace to preach to the upper class of the Manchurian aristocracy, and achieved success, so that "after the two priests preached in Beijing for several years, the number of Catholics increased." ”

"Thank you, Master! The old minister thanks you for your protection for 'them'! ”

When Tang Ruowang heard Xuan Ye's statement, he took a reassuring pill and used the word "they" to refer to the two brothers in the same association, Li and An, as well as Tong Guowei and Tong Guogang. In the end, he knows that although these two people are the uncles of the master, they are still courtiers, and if one of the nephews of the "second son of the emperor" is unhappy, they must also be a good one who "can't eat and walk"!

"Old Marfa, you are polite. Indeed, this missionary matter is not appropriate. Regardless of anything else, Xuan Ye has always admired your persistence. Just like you, Richards and Anwensi were in Chengdu that day, and they actually had a lot of hard work......"

Hongyi wanted to continue to praise, but following the train of his words, he suddenly realized a problem that he had just ignored!

(Chapter to be continued)

"A limerick poem. Hidden Head

Reading literature and reading history is only a long breath

I was saying that there was an opportunity back then

The layout is a long-cherished wish

It's hard to come and go

Get up and spend a hundred years

Point out the suffering and diseases of the world

The edge of the town was razed to the sea

Wen'an Wuding tears of joy

[1] The content of this paragraph refers to and cites the "Examination of the Catholic Tradition in China" written by Joseph Hsiao and the "Compilation of Chinese Catholic Historical Books" published by the Catholic Historical Research Center of Fu Jen University in Taiwan. (To be continued......)