Wanted: an eighteenth-century Chinese Catholic priest in China, Italy, India, and Southeast Asia

Abstract

This essay explores the life of Cai Ruoxiang (1739–1806), alias Pietro Zai, a native of southern Fujian, China, who was trained as a priest in the Chinese College of Naples in Italy. After returning to China, Cai quietly worked there for over a decade as an underground missionary, but in 1784 became the ‘number one’ on the list of wanted criminals in an empire-wide anti-Christian campaign launched by the Qianlong emperor and his governors. Cai was able to avoid the imperial wrath by sailing to Goa (India). From there he travelled back to southern China under a new name, Giovanni Maria Ly, passing through Siam, Malaysia, Batavia and Tonkin, and spent the rest of his life working again in central China. Cai's sixty letters in Italian archives reveal how a native priest born in China, transplanted for his education in Italy, and then again back in his home country, interpreted his own evangelical work, communicated with his superiors in Naples and Rome, and participated in a global network extending from Italy to China.