<P> Rodrigues and other Jesuits also began compiling geographical information about the Chinese Empire . In the early years of the 18th century, Jesuit cartographers travelled throughout the country, performing astronomical observations to verify or determine the latitude and longitude relative to Beijing of various locations, then drew maps based on their findings . Their work was summarized in a four - volume Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique et physique de l'empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise published by Jean - Baptiste Du Halde in Paris in 1735, and on a map compiled by Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville (published 1734). </P> <P> To disseminate information about devotional, educational and scientific subjects, several missions in China established printing presses: for example, the Imprimerie de la Mission Catholique (Sienhsien), established in 1874 . </P> <P> In the early 18th century, a dispute within the Catholic Church arose over whether Chinese folk religion rituals and offerings to the emperor constituted paganism or idolatry . This tension led to what became known as the "Rites Controversy," a bitter struggle that broke out after Ricci's death and lasted for over a hundred years . </P> <P> At first the focal point of dissension was the Jesuit Ricci's contention that the ceremonial rites of Confucianism and ancestor veneration were primarily social and political in nature and could be practiced by converts . The Dominicans, however, charged that the practices were idolatrous, meaning that all acts of respect to the sage and one's ancestors were nothing less than the worship of demons . A Dominican carried the case to Rome where it dragged on and on, largely because no one in the Vatican knew Chinese culture sufficiently to provide the pope with a ruling . Naturally, the Jesuits appealed to the Chinese emperor, who endorsed Ricci's position . Understandably, the emperor was confused as to why missionaries were attacking missionaries in his capital and asking him to choose one side over the other, when he might very well have simply ordered the expulsion of all of them . </P>

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