Imperial Integrity Brazilian Sinologist Ricardo Joppert

The older generation in Taiwan may have some vague memories of an occasion nearly a half century ago, when a young and handsome "child prodigy" from Brazil visited Taipei. It was quite a story at the time. This 16-year-old Brazilian youth had already, at the age of 14, won first prize on a Brazilian television quiz show, startling everybody with his rich knowledge of China.

As a result, the ROC ambassador to Brazil, T.T. Li, noticed him, and eventually he was invited to visit the ROC by then-minister of education Chang Chi-yun and vice foreign minister Shen Chuang-huan. This event planted the seeds of a lifelong love for Chinese culture and for Taiwan.

His name is Ricardo Joppert.

This March Joppert's Integrite Imperiale: L'heritage de Song Huizong (1082-1135) will be released in Paris, hoping to continue the interest in Emperor Huizong sparked by a recent exhibition there of treasures from Taipei's National Palace Museum.

Thinking back on those days, Ricardo Joppert says it was like another world. Taipei has been transformed from a quiet little town into an international metropolis, while he himself has changed from a young kid into a graying scholar. He had to make a stopover in New York on his way back to Brazil from Taiwan. That gave him the opportunity to meet two of the greatest teachers in modern China, Hu Shih and Lin Yu-tang, and he maintained contact with the latter for quite a long time. All of these rare opportunities deepened his attachment to the ROC and Chinese culture.

This sinologist from afar believes that his destiny has always been connected to China. Indeed, Joppert, who has always shown an outstanding intellect ever since early youth and has a sharp sixth sense, believes that 900 years ago he was a senior minister in the court of Huizong. The latter two characters of his Chinese name, Li Jiade, are identical with the name of the Song emperor Huizong's main palace: Jiade Palace. Is that a coincidence, or fate?

The story of how Ricardo Joppert learned Chinese is quite extraordinary as well. When he was nine years old, he went walking on the street with his dad, and was drawn to a Chinese curio shop. Thereafter, he visited the shop often. The owner, surnamed Lu, an older gent, made fast friends with the boy and taught him some Chinese characters. Little did anyone expect that this child would take it so seriously, and after beginning middle school he asked his father to allow him to study Chinese. His father, who doted on his son, then visited the ROC Embassy in Brazil. There he asked Ms. Chang Tseng-li to teach Joppert. Chang, who would later become a Brazilian citizen, gave Joppert his first formal introduction to Chinese.

Studying Chinese, Joppert's interest in and knowledge of China continue to grow. Age 14 he participated in a very popular Brazilian quiz show, defeating all his competitors with his deep knowledge of China. He was called "a child prodigy" by the Brazilian media and attracted the attention of the ROC envoy to Brazil. The ambassador, T.T. Li, then introduced Joppert to vice foreign minister Shen Chuang-huan, who visited Brazil around that time. Shen was also very impressed by the young man, and on the spot at the embassy chose the Chinese name Li Jiade for Joppert. He chose this name because it sounds similar to Ricardo; nobody realized at the time that this was also the name of the great palace of the Emperor Huizong.

Joppert has many precious Chinese antiques in his home in Brazil.

Ricardo Joppert really likes his Chinese name. A deep believer in Taoism, he feels that everything is connected, and things that appear to be only coincidence have their purpose and causal relationship. Take his name Li Jiade for instance. The Chinese characters mean "honorable guests at dawn." Interpreted with the help of the I Ching's eight trigrams, one arrives at the saying: "As good people come together, good luck arrives naturally." Such is how Joppert sees his Chinese name-as an auspicious sign of meetings among good people which cause wonderful things to happen.

His depth of understanding and knowledge of ancient Chinese texts would put many Chinese to shame. He says that Chinese characters have a tremendous beauty, citing again the incidence of his name in classical Chinese. In ancient times, the Emperor Yao decided to step down and give his kingdom to a capable man of total integrity to carry on after him. The Book of Odes describes this remarkable decision as an act of "virtue" and "admirable." The term "virtue" is the character de from his name, while "admirable" is the character jia from his name.

Although it has been more than 40 years, Ricardo Joppert vividly remembers his first visit to Taiwan. Accompanied by his mother, he arrived on a Sunday in January 1958, on a typical northeast monsoon winter day-gray skies and a light, steady rain. At that time Taipei consisted mostly of small courtyard homes, Japanese-style houses with their gardens of trees and flowers, and narrow streets. It was poetic to stroll in the drizzle along Yenping North Road, Chungshan North Road, Roosevelt Road, and through Wanhua.

The local media at that time widely reported the story of this youth from a distant land with his deep love for Chinese culture, and it created quite a stir in Taiwan society. Joppert was introduced to a number of important political figures. Those who made the greatest impression included Yu You-jen, a man of deep cultivation in Chinese culture, who was then president of the Control Yuan; Chia Ching-teh, president of the Examination Yuan; minister of education Chang Chi-yun, and painter Ma Shou-hua. In particular, You, Chia, and Ma, being masters of Chinese calligraphy, inspired a deep interest in Chinese calligraphy in Joppert. This visit laid the foundations for Joppert's future direction in sinological research.

After university, Joppert earned his PhD in Paris, where he studied at the Sorbonne under Nicole Vandier-Nicholas, an expert in the great Song-dynasty painter Mi Fei. Joppert's doctoral thesis was on the the grass script (caoshu) calligraphy of Huai Su. He described the evolution from seal script (zhuanshu), with his favorite development being the invention of bafen script (bafenshu), which was used for a famous rendering of the classics in stone under the emperor Xiping of the Han dynasty.

Joppert, an expert on calligraphy, favors the bafen script that came between the seal and official scripts. On this visit to Taiwan, he was delighted to receive a rubbing of an ancient stone inscription of the classics done in bafen script. (photo by Hsueh Chi-kuang)

Bafen was a variation on official script (lishu), but Joppert, a man of strong personal preferences, still favors the rounded elegance of the bafen script to the square regularity of the official script. In support he quotes an ancient text by Jiang Kuei as saying that grass style (caoshu), which is especially free-spirited and full of character, and is the style which best shows the beauty of Chinese characters, actually derived from bafen script.

Joppert's fascination with the Song emperor Huizong arose out of his interest in Chinese painting and calligraphy. The first time he saw a portrait of Huizong, he immediately felt a sense of familiarity. He also had a strong feeling of deja vu when, as a research scholar in mainland China, he visited Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song dynasty, where the ancient layout of the streets and location of major buildings like the Temple of the City God can still be traced. He became even more convinced that he was once a high official in the court of Huizong, and that his mission in this life was to rectify the misunderstandings so many people have held about Huizong over the centuries, and to restore to him his proper historical status.

After several years of research, this March Joppert's book Integrite Imperiale will be released in Paris. In the book, he quotes frequently from Huizong's own writings and many other historical documents, giving a systematic analysis of the tremendous contribution Huizong made to Chinese culture.

Ricardo Joppert points out that Huizong was a great lover of culture and art, who believed that Chinese culture had reached its apogee after 1000 years of development and evolution. Thus he systematically promoted and collated virtually every aspect of culture-calligraphy, painting, poetry, literature, music, rites, architecture, gardening, pottery, archeology, mineralogy, philosophy-in order to create a complete canon of Chinese civilization.

Because of the military weakness of the Northern Song, it was unable to resist the Jurchen people of the north, and Huizong was taken prisoner by the enemy, dying in Manchuria. However, his policies and the cultural atmosphere he created gradually blossomed, and China's exquisite civilization was greatly affected by his Taoist philosophical outlook.

Joppert first came to Taiwan as a 16-year-old "prodigy" more than 40 years ago. He met numerous famous figures of the time, including Yu You-jen and Chia Ching-te, two renowned literati and calligraphers who changed the course of his life.

Though there has been praise for Huizong's artistic achievements, and there are scattered references in old documents to his accomplishments, up to the present time there has been no systematic account of his enormous contribution to Chinese culture and heritage. So Ricardo Joppert has made it his mission to compile such a work, building on all of his many connections with China. On his return to Taiwan, four decades after his first visit, he made a special trip to the town of Tucheng to have a personal seal made with characters meaning "a minister of Tianshui." The Song imperial clan, surnamed Zhao, came from a place called Tianshui in Gansu, so naturally the "minister of Tianshui" is none other than Ricardo Joppert himself.

Asked why he has chosen to publish his work on Huizong in French and first in Paris, Ricardo Joppert explains that back in 1998 and 1999, the special exhibition of works from the National Palace Museum (NPM) in Taipei that was on display in Paris created a sensation. Many of the works shown were from the Song dynasty, and guides pointed out that Emperor Huizong is considered to be the founder of the current NPM collection. In recent years, the portrait of Huizong has been a common sight in Paris, and Westerners have had a chance to get to know this great historical figure. That is why Joppert chose to bring his book out in Paris, to follow up on this awareness and to give people a chance to understand Huizong even more deeply.

Joppert's other new book, published in English, recounts his own "Taiwan experience." After his first visit to Taiwan at age 16 in 1958, he wrote a book called Taiwan Journal in which he described his personal experiences, as well as the situation in and historical background to Taiwan at that time. In 2000, he returned to Taiwan at the invitation of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation as a visiting scholar. His forthcoming book, entitled Taiwan Revisited, records his thoughts on what he saw in Taiwan as well as the changes in Taiwan over the last 40 years. From the observations of contemporary Taiwan by this unique sinologist, who has been fated to have such a deep relationship with Taiwan and an understanding of Chinese culture, we can be expected to acquire a different understanding of this land.

Ricardo Joppert is an idealist who never compromises. Although he has been to Taiwan only twice in his life, and stayed for only one month each time, his impression of Taiwan is detailed and profound. He recalls that on his first visit, he spent a day at Chihnan Temple in southern Taipei, and was fascinated by it, deciding to become a follower of Taoism. At that time he asked if he could spend a night in the temple, but his guides did not think it appropriate and his mother did not agree, so he had to give up the idea. Forty years later, he finally realized his wish. He stayed one night in the Chihnan Temple, and even had a strange experience, having a dream about Emperor Huizong.

Another place that he hoped to visit when he first came was Kinmen, but the situation was too dangerous in those days. This time, after doing research at the NPM, the Museum of History, and the Institute of History and Philology at the Academia Sinica, he found time to travel to Kinmen.

Asked when he plans to return and what he might do if he does, he simply smiles, leaving it all up to fate. However, his new books, which are scheduled in come out in Paris in March, will later be released in Taiwan. Through these books, he has brought the spirit and works of Huizong across the centuries, so that everyone, East and West, will have an opportunity to re-evaluate this tragic hero and cultural giant. Moreover, through these books we can see the "loyal minister" who is trying to rehabilitate Hui-zong's reputation, Ricardo Joppert.