Lazzaro Cattaneo

Lazzaro Cattaneo (Chinese: 郭居静; Sidney Lau: Gwok³ Gui¹ Jing⁶) (Sarzana, Italy, 1560 - Hangzhou, China, 19 January 1640) was an Italian Jesuit missionary who invented the first tone markings for Chinese transcription.

Cattaneo was born into a noble family at Sarzana, near Genoa, Italy. In 1581, he entered the Collegio di S Andrea of the Society of Jesus in Rome. He removed to Portugal in 1585 where he completed his training and was ordained in 1587. He sailed for the Portuguese colony of Goa, in India, on 1 April 1588, and, by 1589, became superior of the mission at Fishery Coast.

Cattaneo joined Matteo Ricci in Shaoguan (formerly Shaozhou), Guangdong, in 1594, after first having spent a year in Macao. He had originally been headed for Japan but was redirected to Macao by the Society of Jesus' Visitor in the Indies, Alessandro Valignano. He accompanied Ricci on his first trip to Peking, arriving on 7 September 1598 in hopes of establishing a mission there, but failed to gain an imperial audience and left two months later. He returned to Nanking where he stayed until falling ill and leaving for Macao in 1603. He travelled to Malacca in 1604.

Having returned to Macao, word spread, in 1606, that Cattaneo was plotting to lead a Portuguese invasion and install himself Emperor of China resulting in enslavement of the population. The rumour was sparked by a belief that a large fortification was under construction in Macao, a belief arising from the secretive method and large number of Japanese labourers employed in construction of St Paul's Cathedral. After a short period of intense conflict in which at least one Portuguese Jesuit, Francisco Martinez, died in imprisonment accused of spying for Cattaneo, the rumour was dispelled when Cattaneo hosted a Chinese military investigator on a tour of St Paul's College where only books and humble students were to be seen.

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