At the end of 1595 he completed his first book, which talks about THE FRIENDSHIP. It was his
first attempt, and the first made by a western, by designing and writing a
book in ideography chinese.
At the same time , in Nachan, Ricci began to discuss theories about the memory
with their chinese interlocutors, and to teach MNEMONICS, so that in 1596,
Ricci was writing his second book in chinese, a brief treatise on the art of the
memory and entitled: THE PALACE OF THE MEORIA. This second book was presented
as a gift to the governor Lu and her three children who were preparing to
the examinations of the civil service triennial on the confucian classics, as it was
very important to pass these exams with distinction, because it was imperative to stand out
on them to get any position of honor in China. Almost all of his treatise on
the memory was based on Pliny and Cicero.