Much scholarship on Father Matteo Ricci has been focused on the Jesuit missiological approach of accommodation. This essay investigates how the Chinese scholar officials in the Ming Dynasty perceived Ricci's presentation of the Christianity. The first section of the article deals with the sociopolitical context of Ricci's work. The second section discusses Ricci's presentation of the Christian message. Finally, the third section—through the writings of two key Chinese converts, Xú Guangqi and Yáng Tíngyún—looks at why Christianity won over Buddhism and Daoism (Taoism) as the religion of choice for the Confucian scholars.
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