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 (西儒耳目資 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 (況義 "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 (西儒耳目資 "Aid to the Eyes and Ears of Western Literati")

生平

1577年3月3日，金尼閣生於西屬尼德蘭佛蘭德的杜埃城（今屬於法國），1594年11月9日加入耶穌會，1607年3月自修院畢業，被派遣至遠東開展傳教工作。金尼閣在1610年抵達澳門，1611年到達南京。

1611年4月，因李之藻之請，偕司鐸郭居靜、修士鐘鳴仁赴杭州宣傳天主教。

1613年2月，奉耶穌會中國教區會長龍華民之命返回歐洲，赴羅馬向教宗保祿五世匯報教務工作，並向教廷請求允許以漢語舉行聖事，以中文翻譯聖經。1615年6月，教宗頒發詔諭，同意耶穌會中國教區的請求。

1618年4月，金尼閣帶著教宗的詔諭以及在歐洲募集到的七千多部圖書，率領二十餘名新招募的願意來華傳教的傳教士，由里斯本出發。後來成為著名傳教士的鄧玉函、羅雅谷、湯若望、傅汎際與之同船赴華。次年7月，金尼閣抵達澳門，1620年抵達南京。1621年，金尼閣赴南昌、建昌、韶州視察。1623年，赴開封宣教。1624年，赴絳州建教堂。1625年，赴陝西。1627年，返回杭州。

1628年11月14日，金尼閣於杭州辭世，被安葬於杭州城外的耶穌會司鐸公墓。

漢學和譯著

金尼閣抵達中國以後，對中國的政治、歷史、宗教、語言等都有一定的研究。

金尼閣是第一個把五經翻譯成拉丁文的人。1626年，他在杭州將翻譯成拉丁文的五經付梓，定名《Pentabiblion Sinense》。同年，金尼閣將《西儒耳目資》付梓，它是第一部運用音素字母對漢字標音的字典。

此外，金尼閣還是第一個系統地編寫中國編年史的西方人。他還曾將利瑪竇的意大利文回憶錄手稿翻譯成拉丁文，以《利瑪竇中國札記》為名刊行。

金尼閣曾經與福建舉人張賡合作選譯《伊索寓言》，定名《況義》。第二次抵華以後，金尼閣曾訂有龐大的譯書計劃，但由于他的過早逝世，計劃並未實行。金尼閣所帶來的七千多部圖書也因為無人問津而逐漸散佚、流失。