Life and work

Born in Douai (then part of the County of Flanders in the Spanish Netherlands, now part of France), he became a Jesuit in 1594. Trigault left Europe to do missionary work in Asia around 1610, eventually arriving at Nanjing, China in 1611. He was later brought by the Chinese Catholic Li Zhizao to his hometown of Hangzhou where he worked as one of the first missionaries ever to reach that city and was eventually to die there in 1628.

In late 1612 Trigault was appointed by the China Mission's Superior, Niccolo Longobardi as the China Mission's procurator (recruitment and PR representative) in Europe. He sailed from Macau on February 9, 1613, and arrived in Rome on October 11, 1614, by way of India, the Persian Gulf and Egypt. His tasks involved reporting on the mission's progress to Pope Paul V, successfully negotiating with the Jesuit Order's General Claudio Acquaviva the independence of the China Mission from the Japan Mission, and traveling around Europe to raise money and publicize the work of the Jesuit missions. Peter Paul Rubens did a portrait of Trigault on 17 January 1617, when Trigault was either in Antwerp or Brussels (at right).

It was during this trip to Europe that Trigault edited and translated (from Italian to Latin) Matteo Ricci's "China Journal", or De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas. (He, in fact, started the work aboard the ship when sailing from Macau to India). The work was published in 1615 in Augsburg; it was later translated into many European languages and widely read. The French translation, which appeared in 1616, was translated from Latin by Trigault's own nephew, David-Floris de Riquebourg-Trigault.

In April 1618, Trigault sailed from Lisbon with over 20 newly recruited Jesuit missionaries, and arrived in Macau in April 1619.

Trigault produced one of the first systems of Chinese Romanisation (based mostly on Ricci's earlier work) in 1626, in his work Xiru Ermu Zi (西儒耳目资 Xīrú ěrmù zī, literally Aid to the Eyes and Ears of Western Literati). Trigault wrote his book in Shanxi province.

Aided by a converted Chinese, he also produced the first Chinese version of Aesop's Fables (况义 "Analogy"), published in 1625.

In the 1620s Trigault became involved in a dispute over the correct Chinese terminology for the Christian God and defended the use of the term Shangdi that had been prohibited in 1625 by the Jesuit Superior General Muzio Vitelleschi. André Palmeiro, the Society of Jesus inspector assigned the task of investigating and reporting on the circumstances of Trigault's death in 1628, on information from Trigault's confessor Lazzaro Cattaneo, stated that a mentally unstable Trigault had become deeply depressed after failing to successfully defend the use of the term, and had committed suicide.

Publications

• De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas, Nicolas Trigault and Matteo Ricci

• Xiru Ermu Zi (西儒耳目资 "Aid to the Eyes and Ears of Western Literati")

生平

1577年3月3日，金尼阁生于西属尼德兰佛兰德的杜埃城（今属于法国），1594年11月9日加入耶稣会，1607年3月自修院毕业，被派遣至远东开展传教工作。金尼阁在1610年抵达澳门，1611年到达南京。

1611年4月，因李之藻之请，偕司铎郭居静、修士钟鸣仁赴杭州宣传天主教。

1613年2月，奉耶稣会中国教区会长龙华民之命返回欧洲，赴罗马向教宗保禄五世汇报教务工作，并向教廷请求允许以汉语举行圣事，以中文翻译圣经。1615年6月，教宗颁发诏谕，同意耶稣会中国教区的请求。

1618年4月，金尼阁带著教宗的诏谕以及在欧洲募集到的七千多部图书，率领二十馀名新招募的愿意来华传教的传教士，由里斯本出发。后来成为著名传教士的邓玉函、罗雅谷、汤若望、傅泛际与之同船赴华。次年7月，金尼阁抵达澳门，1620年抵达南京。1621年，金尼阁赴南昌、建昌、韶州视察。1623年，赴开封宣教。1624年，赴绛州建教堂。1625年，赴陕西。1627年，返回杭州。

1628年11月14日，金尼阁于杭州辞世，被安葬于杭州城外的耶稣会司铎公墓。

汉学和译著

金尼阁抵达中国以后，对中国的政治、历史、宗教、语言等都有一定的研究。

金尼阁是第一个把五经翻译成拉丁文的人。1626年，他在杭州将翻译成拉丁文的五经付梓，定名《Pentabiblion Sinense》。同年，金尼阁将《西儒耳目资》付梓，它是第一部运用音素字母对汉字标音的字典。

此外，金尼阁还是第一个系统地编写中国编年史的西方人。他还曾将利玛窦的意大利文回忆录手稿翻译成拉丁文，以《利玛窦中国札记》为名刊行。

金尼阁曾经与福建举人张赓合作选译《伊索寓言》，定名《况义》。第二次抵华以后，金尼阁曾订有庞大的译书计划，但由于他的过早逝世，计划并未实行。金尼阁所带来的七千多部图书也因为无人问津而逐渐散佚、流失。