Paper short abstract:

The wrongly wrote Jesuit emblem in frescos of Guia Church in Macau can not be simply interpreted as Chinese customes. To Chinese people in early modern time, the emblem is more like a pattern than a language.

Paper long abstract:

Guia Church was created no later than 1622, The walls and ceiling of Guia Church are painted with frescos, among which the Jesuit emblem is wrote in reverse order: SHI. Some may say that the painter was Chinese, who wrote these letters according to Chinese customs (from right to left), but the logic premise of this view is that the painter knew that the IHS is a kind of language, so I have reservations about this view.

The wrongly written Jesuit emblem in Guia Church is no a solitary case. In the collection of Santa Casa da Misericórdia in Macau we find many porcelain with Jesuit emblem, among which quite a few are wrongly written. Some wrote the letter "J" as "τ", some wrote the three letters in the way of mirror image, what is more, some wrote the letter "S" like "3". These Strangely written Jesuit emblems make me think about the problem: how did Chinese in early modern time make of the Jesuit emblem?

More likely, Early Chinese had no idea of western language, nor did they know the Jesuit emblem is an abbreviation of three words. To them, the emblem is more like a pattern than a language, and they use it as a decorative design. This hypothesis is supported by the truth that nothing is remained intact except the letter "H". Why? I think most likely is that "H" is in symmetric form and is in the middle place, and symmetry is the nature of pattern.