Reading Chinese in Oxford - Map of China: Decoding the Secrets of a Vanished Cartographer - page 54

Shen's hand had just surfaced in another file in the Sloane collection. She sent
me photocopies. In addition to half a dozen Buddhist and Daoist prayers, the new
file included fair copies of the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed and the Ten
Commandments, written in large Chinese characters with subscript romanisations.
The Chinese is in Michael's hand, the Latin in Hyde's. These are the rest of the
manuscript copies of the topic Hyde hoped to publish, exactly as promised on his
title-page. Clearly a publishing project was under way with Michael's help; just as
clearly, it never came to fruition.
When it was time for Michael to leave Oxford, Hyde sent him to London with
an introduction to the eminent scientist and philosopher Robert Boyle. He hoped
that Boyle might be able to steer funds his way to support publication, and that
meeting Michael would ignite Boyle's enthusiasm for the project. Boyle was in-
trigued by Michael, but what would have been the first English book on Chinese
never appeared.
____________________
ThomasHydecherishedMichael'smemoryfortherestofhislife.Callinghim'my
Chinese' in a letter, he wrote: 'Michael Shun Fo-Çung (for that was his name) was
bredaSchollarinalltheLearningoftheircountry,readalltheirBooksreadily,and
was of great honesty and sincerity, and fit to be relyed upon in every thing.' The
praise may have exceeded the achievement, but it was to remember a friend with
whom he had lost contact. He would recall him just as fondly in print in his mag-
num opus on Persian religion, as 'my Chinese friend Dr Michael Shin-Fo Çungh
of Nanjing, who today lives in Nanjing', not knowing that Michael was dead.
Shortly after Michael sent his last letter to Hyde, on 29 December 1687, he and
his mentor Philippe Couplet sailed from London to Lisbon. Their intention was to
return immediately to China, but the politics of French Jesuits travelling in Por-
tuguese ships was sufficiently tangled and tense that the two ended up stranded in
Lisbon.Michaelspentthreeyearsthere,studyingtotakehisfirstvowstowardsbe-
coming the first Chinese Jesuit priest. He was finally cleared to leave Portugal, but
he died at sea, probably of dysentery, somewhere between the Cape of Good Hope
and Mozambique. Two years later Couplet would take the same return journey and
meet death on the same ocean.
Hyde was left behind not just by his Chinese informant and, yes, friend. He
was left behind by an age that was rapidly losing its fascination for Oriental know-
ledge. During JohnSelden'stime Oriental studies had promised to hold the keys to