The China game was a unique experience. I feel I learned a lot through the eyes of Jinshi from WuChang. My character's family was from a fishing background and grew up on the coast. My character had a lot of promise as a boy and was taught the art of calligraphy by the time h was 5. My character was slightly confusing in one aspect he was a Purist, and in another way he seemed to enjoy supporting the emperor on many occasions as well.
My character seemed confused on the issue of succession and had to make his decision by the second memorial. My character chose to leave the issue of succession open, because he thought it was necessary for the best person to have the job and not someone with the right blood line. Jinshi was able to use his thoughts on succession to persuade the emperor to give him an audience concerning the Jesuits.
The main Jesuit that Jinshi was interested in was a man by the name of Matteo Ricci. Matteo Ricci was a Jesuit who had lived his later life in the southern part of China until he was forced to leave by a new viceroy in the area. Ricci wanted to convert people to Christianity, but he was mostly scribe and wished to study Chinese culture. Ricci's real character wrote the first map of China ever published, learned Chinese and was the official correspondent to the Vatican about all things Chinese. He lived in the Forbidden City until his death. Ricci taught the Chinese court algebra, western philosophy, and tried to explain Christianity in Confucian terms so that he was not seen as such a controversial character. Ricci never had an audience with the emperor, but his presence was felt throughout the empire, and still is today.
As far as my role was concerned I thought I helped the other players, to keep their minds open about succession. I thought if Confucius was able to pick and choose a man based on his merit, then the empire should be able to do so as well. I was not confused about my goals in this game. My character wanted to allow Matteo Ricci to establish an outpost in Peking. And if the game had not ended so abruptly I am sure that he would have been able to achieve this goal. The emperor had already sent an embassy and determined that the intentions of Ricci were not harmful to the Middle Kingdom.
I think overall my character achieved his goals. I only wish I had introduced the Jesuit embassy a little earlier in the game. Then I think that the Middle Kingdom would have been left with the historical information that Ricci had to offer instead of with floods and famine.