I
In antiquity China gradually received a delineation
in Western thought which
set it apart from the rest
of Asia, especially India, as an independent
civilization.
Trade on an important scale convinced the Romans
of
China's advanced technical capability, but the ideas
of China, even in arts
and crafts, left few deep or
lasting imprints upon Roman culture. From the
fourth
century A.D. to the return of Marco Polo to Venice,
nearly a
millennium later, medieval Europe almost lost
sight of China as an
independent civilization and it
again became an undifferentiated part of a
vague or
mythical Asia.
The restoration of overland communications by the
Mongols from 1215 to 1350
permitted Christian mis-
sionaries and
merchants to visit China (Cathay) and
enabled them to prepare accounts of
their experiences
there. But even commentators as acute as Marco Polo
and Odoric of Pordenone were unable to provide in-
sights into Chinese thought, probably because they did
not
command the language. What the European re-
porters of the Mongol era accomplished was to re-
awaken interest in China as an advanced, wealthy, and
independent civilization. It was not until the establish-
ment in the sixteenth century of permanent
relations
by the sea routes that Europe began to acquire a sense
of
the depth and sophistication of Chinese thought and
culture.
The sea passage opened to India by the Portuguese
in 1499 was extended to
the coast of south China by
1514. With the establishment of direct
intercourse the
Portuguese and their associates in Europe eagerly
sought information on the merchandise, military po-
tential, religion, and customs of the Chinese. Their
concern to
learn about religion and customs was origi-
nally inspired by the fear that the hated Muslims might
be firmly
entrenched in China, as they were in India
and southeast Asia. The
Portuguese were quick to
learn, however, that the obstacles to intercourse
with
China were not created by the Moors but by the
Chinese themselves. The Ming policy of isolation se-
verely restricted foreign intercourse, but a
few
Europeans still managed to penetrate China illegally.
The earliest
reports to reach the West based upon
direct experience came from Europeans
who were
prisoners in China.
In Europe the accounts of the Portuguese prisoners
were used as sources by
the chroniclers of the discov-
eries,
Fernão Lopes de Castanheda and Joāo de Barros.
The
chroniclers also garnered whatever information
they could from the oral
reports of European mer-
chants and sailors
and natives coming from China itself,
or from Eastern ports where
information on China was
current. Barros had a Chinese slave who read
and
abstracted materials for him from Chinese books that
had been
expressly collected for this purpose in the
East. The Portuguese
chronicles, like most of the pre-
vious
accounts, are limited to descriptions of the phys-
ical aspects of life, political institutions, and history,
and
the most striking and obvious social practices.
Observers and writers of the Catholic orders pro-
vided the first glimpses of China's religious and intel-
lectual life. The Portuguese
Dominican, Gaspar da
Cruz, after spending several months in south
China
in 1556, presented in his Tractado... (Evora,
1569)
a rounded and detailed account of life in China. In
obedience to
orders from Pope Gregory XIII, the
Spanish Augustinian, Juan
González de Mendoza,
completed his comprehensive Historia... del gran
Reyno de la China (Rome,
1585). It was quickly trans-
lated into most
European languages and soon became
one of the best selling and most widely
quoted books
of the day. The first systematic Jesuit work in which
China figures prominently is the compendium of
Giovanni Petri Maffei
entitled Historiarum Indicarum
libri XVI
(Florence, 1588). Maffei's sketch of China is
based in large part upon the
manuscript descriptions
prepared by Alessandro Valignano, the notable
Jesuit
Visitor to the Asian mission. Richard Hakluyt in his
Voyages (1599) published, in English translation, a
small discourse prepared by the Jesuits in China which
summarized briefly
what the missionaries had learned
of Chinese civilization to that time.
In their descriptions of China the sixteenth-century
religious observers in
the field and the compilers in
Europe show a fresh and lively interest in
Chinese
language, customs, arts, thought, and religious prac-
tices. The Jesuits are the first to
undertake the system-
atic study of the
Chinese language, the tool essential
to the penetration of learning. Aside
from describing
the peculiarities of the Chinese language, certain of
the more sophisticated commentators begin to specu-
late on the possible relationships between Chinese
pictographs,
Egyptian hieroglyphs, and the Amerindian
languages of the New World. Chinese books on cere-
monies, laws, sciences, arts, and history were
collected
and sent to Europe. Excerpts from some of these books
were
translated in the Philippines and then relayed to
Europe. Mendoza,
apparently on the basis of such
translations, seeks to give a complete list
of the names,
chronological limits, and great achievements of the
Chinese dynasties. All of the writers comment admir-
ingly on the architectural monuments, great cities, and
excellent social organization of the Chinese. Close
attention is paid to
Chinese methods and organization
in education and to the examination system
for state
offices. The religious writers comment favorably on
the
treatment of women, and on the maintenance by
the state of almshouses and
hospitals. While their ad-
miration in these
cases is genuine, it should also be re-
membered that the religious commentators were
always writing for the
edification of their European
readers.
Certain of the sixteenth-century religious writers are
highly critical of
the content of Chinese learning. More
than once the Europeans remark with
disdain on the
unsophisticated character of Chinese astronomy,
mathematics, and geography. The knowledge of the
Chinese in these fields is
judged to be limited to empir-
ical
observations of the sort that people everywhere
make. Chinese science is
esteemed to be in the same
primitive state that the European sciences were
in
before Aristotle organized them and before Christianity
enlightened
them.
In their social life the Chinese are said to suffer from
gross superstition,
inhumane tortures, unnatural prac-
tices, and
excessive preoccupation with pleasures of
the flesh. Their three principal
religions—Confucian-
ism,
Buddhism, and Taoism—do little, in the estimation
of the
Christians, to raise the moral tone of Chinese
personal life. Confucianism,
with its stress upon attain-
ing the five
virtues and an orderly society, approaches
truth more closely than the
other two faiths. Buddhism,
which teaches a primitive notion of
immortality, is
otherwise fraught with obvious errors that are easily
refuted. Neither the Taoists nor the Buddhists show
any interest in
learning and their priests are reviled
for their evil and servile behavior.
To the Europeans of the sixteenth century, China
was a “Mightie
Kingdome” whose major art was gov-
ernment, or the effective political and social orga-
nization of a large and heavily peopled
nation. Its
civilization was admired for longevity, continuity, and
cohesiveness. In the arts and crafts it was thought to
be as advanced as
Europe, perhaps even more so. Its
limitations in theoretical science, in
personal morality,
and in appreciation of religious truth were
attributed
to its ignorance of Christianity. Once China had been
evangelized, the inference is clear that it would neces-
sarily become worthy of emulation by
Europe.
