Reading Chinese in Oxford - Map of China: Decoding the Secrets of a Vanished Cartographer - page 43

The round-the-world journey that would carry Michael Shen from China to Ox-
ford started on 4 December 1681 in Macao, where they boarded a Portuguese ship
bound for the Dutch trading centre in Jakarta, which the Dutch called Batavia.
Couplet was fifty-eight at the time and Michael about twenty-three. Michael was
supposed to be one of five Chinese acolytes to be taken to Europe, but in the end
onlytwoChinesesetout,andonelostheartfortheadventureduringtheirlonglay-
over in Batavia. It took seven and a half weeks to get to Batavia. The season for
sailing west across the Indian Ocean on favourable winds was not quite over, but
the last ship to Europe that year had already departed. There was nothing for it but
to sit tight and wait for next year's sailing season. When they met another Jesuit
father heading intheopposite direction, thesecondChinese student travelling with
Couplet and Michael asked to return home with him. Couplet had no choice but to
let him go. Michael elected to stay with his teacher. At long last, over a year later,
they secured passage on a Dutch ship going back to Europe. A year and a week
later they were in Antwerp.
Overthenextfouryearsthetwoweresituationally inseparable. Michaelneeded
Couplet to guide, protect and support him as they moved from Jesuit house to
Jesuit house. Couplet had just as much need of 'the Chinese convert', as he was
called. Michael Shen was a huge curiosity to Europeans, none of whom had seen
a Chinese before. He was an exotic specimen of a distant land that only the Jesuits
had access to, and his notoriety in turn gained them ready access to courts and po-
lite society all over Europe. As his Latin, Italian and Portuguese improved, so did
that access. All doors opened to Michael; and when they did, they stayed open for
hishandlertoo.Poised,politeandsufficientlyeducabletomovewitheasebetween
theliteraryandculturalworldsofChinaandEurope,Michaelwaslivingproofthat
the Jesuit mission was on the right track. The Jesuits had drawn this ideal Chinese
totheChristianfaith.Withsufficientfinancialbacking,mighttheynotdothesame
with every Chinese? The sky was the limit. And so Michael, elegantly dressed in
green silk and deep blue brocade worked with dragons, was put on show for the
crowned heads of Europe. Louis XIV was so charmed when Michael visited him
in 1684 that he invited him back for dinner the next day just to watch him handle
chopsticks.
ThentherewasthePope.WouldCouplethavegotAlexanderVII'sattentionhad
henothadMichael intow?Couplet hadparticular reasontoseethePope,sincehis
maingoalinreturningtoEuropewastoaskhimtoallowtheliturgyforMassinCh-
ina to be sung in Chinese rather than in Latin. It was a tough sell. This was a pope