3. Conclusion: Martino Martini, A True Chronicler

3.1 In the body of my paper I have concentrated on certain points of Ming-Qing history where Martino Martini's judgment appears to be defective in some respects. However, I would not like to leave the impression that Martini is a careless judge of people and events. On the contrary, it is not without difficulty that I have succeeded in tracing these four or five instances in which his judgment is at variance with that of 20th-century historiography. Of course, all along I have assumed contemporary historical judgment to be the more correct one. I think this assumption is right insofar as 20th-century historians can observe 16th-century events from a vantage point which was not available to Martino Martini. "Was it true glory? We must leave this arduous judgment to posterity" writes Alessandro Manzoni, the author of The Betrothed, in the ode written upon hearing the news of the death of Napoleon Bonaparte. (50) Only time makes it possible for us to come to know at least something of what has been going on behind the scenes and to assess the relative greatness of historical personalities. "This observation, far from belittling Martino Martini's contribution to history-writing, makes us wonder all the more at the basic correctness of the great majority of his historical judgments. In fact, there are dozens of evaluations in the De bello tartarico which have been vindicated as correct by modem historiography. In my opinion, therefore, Ma Yong's description of Martino Martini as a balanced and impartial judge of historical events and persons remains unshaken. Martini, Ma Yong writes, is a recorder of facts who "does not give excuses for the Ming nor for the Qing dynasties." (51)

3.2 The ground for such an independence and balance of judgment can perhaps also be probed. It seems to me that this ground is the staunchly ethical approach Martino Martini adopts in evaluating people and happenings. It is this ethical standpoint that allows him consistently to praise loyalty and condemn treachery, on whatever side they may show up. A sure sense of morality is what makes him condemn the Ming practice of executing unsuccessful generals and officials, (52) while at the same time condemning the Qing conquest as 'insolent' and the extermination of the previous dynasty at the hands of the Qing conquerors as 'tyrannical'. (53) Zhang Xian Zhong is criticized most harshly because "he [involved] the innocent in the punishment of the guilty." (54) Abahai is praised because he "tempered the cruelty which [his predecessors] had used against the conquered peoples, in order to gain their allegiance through love as well as by the force of arms. [...] So true is it that, in order to gain a kingdom, love is a machine more powerful than any weapon. On the contrary, cruelty causes the loss of empires which power joined to kindness seems to have established on unshakeable foundations." (55) It is clear that it is the absoluteness of moral values that enables Martini to steer a safe course in his endeavour to sift good from evil in the complexity of the human condition.

3.3 There is one kind of judgment in Martino Martini's 'History' which perhaps causes some problems and, therefore, calls for some interpretation. It is the kind of judgment which we could call 'theological'. We have seen one instance of such a theological judgment in Martini's explanation of the cause of the decline of the Ming dynasty after emperor Wan Li's reign. These theological judgments are based on Martino Martini's world-view, which was essentially shaped by the Christian faith in God as the Lord of History and the Judge of Human Destiny.(56) With regard to this kind of judgment I shall point out that our chronicler is as sincere and as convinced as in making his ethical judgments. Martini's theological judgments are not superstitious nor are they to be understood as a Christian's simple-minded, self-serving approach. Martini's theological judgments are of a piece with his ethical judgments. This can be seen from the fact that, for Martini, "being favourable to Christianity" is not of itself a sufficient ground for a positive judgment on a person. It is necessary that this pro-Christian attitude be united to moral behaviour. Martini's theological and ethical judgments share a common root. This root is the unshakeable conviction that there is a real difference between right and wrong, between good and evil, between true and false, and that this difference is absolute. So, for example, Martini's opinion of the rebel leader Zhang Xian Zhong is firmly negative, notwithstanding the latter's sympathy for Christianity. Listening to him in conversation, Martini says, one would think "that he was a Christian well instructed in the mysteries of the faith. As a matter of fact, he had a good knowledge of Christianity, drawn from books in print, in which the maxims of the Christian religion are explained in the Chinese language; but these explanations helped only to make him a more vicious criminal, because he knew the will of his heavenly Lord and despised it." (57)

3.4 Do Martino Martini's judgments show some kind of cultural limitation or time conditioning? Such a limitation and conditioning, of course, cannot be totally avoided. We are all children of our own times! Contemporary historians are no longer so reluctant to recognize this. On one particular point Martini seems to me to be unconsciously influenced by the social consciousness of his time and age. Martino Martini appears to take for granted the legitimacy and the validity of constituted authority. This is especially apparent in his uncompromising condemnation of the Peasant Rebellions. But it also crops up throughout his 'History' in the form of a certain incapacity to doubt the truth of the motivations of official decisions. He does not doubt that the Chong Zhen emperor's treatment of Yuan Chong Huan could be unjust. He does not doubt the justice of Dorgon's treatment of Haoge. Finally, he does not doubt the truth of the slanders against the memory of Dorgon. (58) In each case, the reluctance to doubt may be related to the fact that constituted authority is involved. And Martini's respect for constituted authority may be related to his theological and ethical convictions. Martini seems to think that authority cannot be properly constituted without the providential help of God who cares for the well-being of all peoples. Consequently, as long as authority is 'constituted' it is thereby also legitimate' and under God's special providential design. Perhaps this is the reason why Martini practically never doubts the motivation of legitimate authorities. Today, however, we are aware that such a way of thinking is a kind of "theological short-circuit". God wants his people to supervise its authorities, not to trust them too generously, because "power tends to corrupt". These limitations notwithstanding, however, Martino Martini's chronicle successfully shares in history's mission to be magistra vitae.

3.5 I must admit that possibly I have dwelt too long on the analysis of Martino Martini's historical judgments. After all, the value of a chronicler for history lies more in the factuality of his or her reports rather than in his or her value judgments. Martini himself is aware of this and so several times he points out that he personally witnessed the events he narrates. (59) At other times he tells us the source of his information. (60) Moreover, he is careful to indicate how far his information extends. Often he ends an account by practically saying: "This is what I know for sure. How events have further developed I don't know." (61) Martini shows himself well-informed also about what happened in the thirty years before his arrival in China, that is, before the year 1643. He had done his research work well, painstakingly and meticulously, that is, with the same scientific attitude that inspires his other works. Only by relying on more direct witnesses can one challenge some of his statements. (62) By now, therefore, I think we can confidently assert that Martini's qualifications as a chronicler are impeccable. Further, is he "a chronicler with a purpose"? Again, I think by now it is clear that we can reply: yes. But this purpose is the inescapable purpose of all true history, namely, to be a report of the past that opens the way to the future by pointing to the enduring validity, for man's dignity, of moral absolutes and of social justice under God.

3.6 In conclusion, we may say that Martino Martini is the kind of chronicler that historiography needs to obtain an adequate view of an era. Martini has only rarely been referred to in later European historiography of China. "This is perhaps due to the fact that he was the earliest European chronicler of the events of the Ming-Qing watershed and his accounts very soon entered into other better known presentations of Chinese history. (63) With regard to Chinese historians, Ma Yong states that the De bello tartarico "is of first-hand historical value and it is not ignored by Chinese scholars who are interested in the Qing dynasty." (64) Besides being a precious primary source for historians, I think Martino Martini can also be a model for contemporary chroniclers. Contemporary historians cannot dispense with the help of chroniclers of Martini's stature. Such chroniclers assist the historian to see things from the point of view of ordinary people. Only with an abundance of such chroniclers will history not be 'royal' or 'dynastic' or 'elitist' history, but truly what it should be, a "history of the people."

50. "Fu vera gloria? Ai posteri l'ardua sentenza!" Ode "5 maggio" by Alessandro Manzoni, poet and novelist. Manzoni's The Betrothed (I promessi sposi) is the greatest novel in Italian literature.

51. Ma Yong, 256.

52. Histoire, 387, 395.

53. Ibidem, 416-417, 436.

54. Ibidem, 446.

55. Ibidem, 315.

56. Cf. Ibidem, 382-383, 386, 444-445, 456, 458.

57. Ibidem, 448. It seems to me that Ma Yong somehow underestimates the depth of Martino Martini's moral and religious convictions when he says: "when taking sides, his main criterion was faithfulness to the Roman Curia." (Ma Yong, 257) On the other hand, Ma Yong is right in perceiving that fidelity to the Roman Pontiff is for Martini an ethical and religious imperative.

58. Histoire, 394, 454-455.

59. Histoire, 413, 418, 441.

60. Ibidem, 428. 446, 456, 457.

61. Histoire, 425, 426, 436, 444, 445, 454, 455.

62. This is what Pierre Joseph D'Orleans does regarding the response of the old father of Ming general Wu San Gui (1612-1678) to Li Zi Cheng's blackmail. Martini relates that Wu San Gui's father gave in to Li Zi Cheng's pressures (Histoire, 406-407). Pierre Joseph D'Orleans, instead, relying on the more direct witness of Adam Schall, has this to say: "This is the account which father Adam's letters give of the transaction; by which it is evident that the father Martini's recollections were not so exact, for he relates that Us [Wu San Gui's father] showed symptoms of weakness and entreated his son to submit to the tyrant. The father Adam, who was in the country, and even in the capital, at the time, is the more credible of the two." (D'Orleans, History, 17-18).

63. So, for example, one third of the first thirty pages of D'Orleans' History is an almost direct translation from Martini's De bello tartarico. D'Orleans acknowledges his debt to Martini in the Preface thus: "I follow in many things the fathers Martini and de Rougemont; but more especially the letters of father Adam Schall [...]." (History, iv) Another interesting use made of Martini's 'History' is the (Abdallae Beidavaei) Hisloria Sinensis. Persice e gemino Manuscripto edita, Latine quoque reddita ab Andrea Mullero Greiffenhagio. Accedunt eiusdem Notae nwrginales...Harmonia Abdallianae & Martinianae. caeterneque Europaeis traditae Historiae Sinensis perpetuis testimoniis ob oculos ponitur. Berolini, Typis Christophori Rungii, Anno MDCLXXVII, expressa, nunc vero una cunri additainentis edita ab Antonio filio. Quovultdeo Abrahain Mullero. Jenae, Prostat apud Johannern Bielkivm, 1689. This volume is no. 710 in the Section Latine of the Catalogue de la Bibliotheque du Pe-Tang (Pekin: Imprimerie des Lazaristes 1949). A copy of this Catalogue is kept in the library of the Interregional Catholic Major Seminary of Sheshan (Shanghai).