Ricci states this in his work History of the Introduction of Christianity to China:
"So as not to occasion any suspicion about their work, the fathers [i.e., the Jesuits] initially did not attempt to speak very clearly about our holy law. In the time that remained to them after visits, they rather tried to learn the language, literature, and etiquette of the Chinese, and to win their hearts and, by the example of their good lives, to move them in a way that they could not otherwise do because of insufficiency in speech and for lack of time."
So he then wrote,
"So as not to occasion any suspicion about their work, the fathers [i.e., the Jesuits] initially did not attempt to speak very clearly about our holy law. In the time that remained to them after visits, they rather tried to learn the language, literature, and etiquette of the Chinese, and to win their hearts and, by the example of their good lives, to move them in a way that they could not otherwise do because of insufficiency in speech and for lack of time."
So he said about his Chinese friends,
"He treated the affairs of our fathers as if they were his own and our fathers in turn treated his as if they were ours."
What we get here is that through Matteo Ricci's journey as a Jesuit priest in a foreign land, he crossed cultural barriers and from this 1. he found that the Chinese had a rich culture much more respectful and bountiful in ancient knowledge and 2. he also found that the Chinese are unlike the Westerners in how they kindly accepted the Jesuits into their land to teach them about Christ and in return the Chinese taught the Jesuits language, ancient culture and both ancient and modern knowledge. The Europeans were and still are much more harsh on accepting foreign peoples and cultures.
