What is a true Friend? Martini Martino (1614-1661)

We have often heard that the Catholic Church in Korea started within the country when some of the educated class read books from China by Jesuit missionaries. In his 'Sunday Talk Column' of the Catholic Times, a professor of Korean literature gives readers some background on an issue some scholars at that time found interesting. He has translated the works of these scholars with notes on the texts.

'What is a true friend'? The definition of a friend, the joy of fellowship, the proper way to socialize, and even distinguishing between real and fake friends are included.

The first line of Matteo Ricci's "On Friendship" begins with the phrase: "Friends are the second self." This short sentence hit East Asian intellectuals hard. The enthusiasm for this book by the so-called Yeonam Group was awe-inspiring. Traces of reading this book were unexpectedly widespread in the anthologies of that era.

The professor following this trail encountered "On Friendship" (逑友篇) by Martini Martino (1614-1661), known in China as Wei Guangguo (衛匡國). It was an expanded version of Western friendship theory about 60 years after Matteo Ricci's book was published in 1599. While reading the book, he was surprised to realize once again that the illustration included in Chapter 2, "Distinction between True and False Friends," was the source of our Korean folktales, well-known as "The Test of Friendship Between Father and Son" or "True Friendship."

The son boasted that he had many friends. The father, trying to test his son's friendship, asked for help after an accident. The story goes that when all of his sons friends refused to help him, he went to find his father's friends, and they offered to help him without a second thought. 

In March 2023, as his last semester of study began, he was in Boston, Mass,  for six months.  He searched earnestly for materials related to these two books at the library. A considerable amount of materials was found. He looked through Martini's various Latin works on China and his complete Italian collection and collection of essays. He also saw four other portraits that remained in the West. After returning home, he organized and translated the "Jiaouron" and "Guyoupian" that had sparked a craze for friendship in East Asia and published "Chinese Scholars Discuss Friendship" (Kim Youngsa).

As soon as the vacation began at the end of June 2024, he went to Hangzhou to visit Martini's tomb near Hangzhou University. Martini, who was tall and had a spiritual appearance, after death his body did not decompose for decades, causing a stir among the local believers, who worshipped him as a god.

The tomb was preserved with only the remains of the one destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. The words "Wei Guangguo Missionary Memorial Hall" were engraved on the marble gate tower on a Gothic column at the entrance. The inner pavilion had "Tomb of the Cultivators of the Holy Teachings of the Lord" written on the front and "Resurrection of the Body of the Believers of the Faith" engraved on the back. In a communist country, the tomb of a Western missionary with an inscription that said he believed in the resurrection of the body was being managed and preserved as a cultural relic. 

Standing in front of the tomb, which was in disarray due to rain and construction work for a new renovation, he had many thoughts. He was lost in thinking about the path that led these Chinese Jesuit missionary efforts, whose scholarship reached Joseon (Korea) before the clergy or church was present, helped change minds, and became a providential hand to change the world.