There's a book by Jonathon Spence called the Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, describing the life of an Italian Jesuit who lived in China and was an advisor to the court (I can't recall if it was late Ming or early Qing, but it was in the 17th century). Besides sharing advanced Western science and artistic techniques, another way in which he and other Jesuits inserted themselves into the life of the court was by using the memory palace technique to learn spoken and written Chinese, understand the cultural and social aspects of the court, and impress the court officials with some incredible feats of memory. One trick I remember involved reciting a long passage of Chinese backwards after hearing it once, which utterly astounded those in attendance.