Traditional histories paint a rosy portrait of Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), the celebrated Jesuit missionary to China. He is praised as a figure of intercultural friendship, as the introducer of Western science and arts into the Middle Kingdom. However, Yu Liu notes that such portrayals, in their one-sidedness, conceal a subtle Eurocentrism. Accordingly, his book does not portray a Ricci who intellectually dominated his Chinese peers, but rather one who received subtle rejection and criticism from them.

Liu develops his argument by carefully re-evaluating and collating previous research in the field. He throws a wide scholarly net, moving between biography, social and cultural history, comparative philosophy and religion. The first four chapters treat works by Ricci: On friendship [交友論], The true meaning of the lord of heaven [天主實義] and the Twenty-five paragraphs [二十五言]. Liu contrasts Ricci's intentions in writing these pieces with their actual reception among Chinese literati. He notes that many readers disregarded Ricci's attempts to proselytise, instead focusing on aspects that were more immediately relevant to late Ming society. The last four chapters of the book examine four scholars who befriended Ricci: Qu Taisu [瞿太素], Xu Guangqi [徐光啟], Li Zhizao [李之藻] and Yang Tingyun [楊廷筠]. Liu argues that they often had mixed motives for receiving baptism, and that they interpreted Christianity quite differently from Ricci, in particular in regard to its compatibility with Confucianism and Buddhism.

All in all, this is a strong piece of work. Liu has a vast knowledge of both Western and Eastern philosophy, and his analyses are sharp. A minor criticism is that he strongly emphasises ideological differences as the root of disagreement between Ricci and his collaborators, perhaps neglecting other factors that may have been at work. None the less, his research is always reasoned and always supported by sources. It ought to provoke much healthy discussion in the field.