Миссия иезуитов в Китае - [89]

Rationalist authors, especially Voltaire, widely used Jesuit sources, being the fans of Chinese moral principles, common sense and "religion". However neither Ricci, nor his followers were guilty in Voltaire's exaggerations. The first missionaries of the Old mission mostly admired political organization of the country where they saw the practical embodiment of Plato's government of philosophers.

The activities of Matteo Ricci and his followers in China was an unprecedented experience of alteration the dominant ideological cliches of the time and it opened the new era in the history of East-Western relations.