Abstract
In this article, we reconstruct the daily lives of Jesuit missionaries in China during the late Ming Dynasty. Our evidence comes from a manuscript, 拜客訓示 Bai Ke Xun Shi (Instruction Pour les Visites de Mandarins), which contains dialogues between Jesuit priests and their Chinese servants and friends. In the work, we see how the Jesuits introduce European customs to the Chinese and learn alien customs in China. The various interactions between Jesuits, Chinese servants, Chinese Catholics, and Chinese scholar-gentlemen (士大夫 shidafu) show how the Jesuits deal artfully with the differences between China and Europe and combine various cultural elements in daily life. All the while, the Jesuits must be sure to live the kind of life that makes Chinese identify them as part of the shidafu class, as this identification makes missionary work go more smoothly.