—Cicero, Laelius de amicitia (Laelius on Friendship) (45–47) The Master said, “Governing with excellence can be compared to being the North Star: the North Star dwells in its place, and the multitude of stars pay it tribute.” —Confucius, Analects (2, 1) A Courteous Welcome to Nanchang Ricci spent his first few days in Nanchang at home thinking over his unsuccessful attempt to settle in the second capital. He was bitterly disappointed, as he would never have expected such an abrupt volte-face from Xu Daren, a dignitary he had considered his friend. As he wrote in a letter the following August to his superior Duarte de Sande, “This, Father, was how our great friendship with this mandarin came to an end.”1 The Jesuit reconsidered his relationships with the Chinese literati. With the exception of Qu Taisu, whose support and affection he believed to be sincere, the dignitaries that Ricci called friends were in reality superficial acquaintances eager to meet him because they were attracted by his gifts and curious about his learning, but they were ready to ditch the “foreign devil”
