For this week, I chose exploration pack 1, which explores when China and Europe interacted with each other. Due to geographical locations Europe and Chinese modernity were two different ideas. The problem with the European discovery was needing to colonize China, which meant influencing cultures like the Jesuit religion. Both excerpts teach us the struggles of adapting to a new culture and how the Chinese intermingled with their visitors. This assimilation helped open up the world in China, and the people of that time learned a whole new part of the world.
For the Europeans, the goal of the Chinese was to convert them to their ideas or views. China differed from an African colony because China was viewed as an intellectual equal. The Europeans looked for comparisons between Chinese belief systems and Christianity to convert Chinese people. It wasn’t just Christianity but also Jesuits that looked to explore China for religious purposes. The Europeans, after their discovery, strove to immerse themselves in the culture. They learned the language and culture, hoping to convert some Chinese people. In search of comparisons to Chinese culture, the “Jesuit view argued that most moral and social truths of Confucianism, such as honoring one’s parents and treating others as we wish to be treated, were similar to Christianity.” In the process of trying to learn the culture in China, many Europeans were able to dissect Confucianism and translate their findings into texts. The trips were expensive, and most weren’t focused on China. Many imports came from china, like spices and other essential materials in Europe, but religion wanted to inhabit China. Jesuits tried to convince public opinion to want to fund trips to China to convert people there. With persistence traveling to China gained in popularity. Even though China’s popularity grew, there was a small group committed to studying the culture and language.
After the popularization of China in Europe, there were waves of how people visited it. The first wave of people to explore China was “missionaries, mainly Jesuits, who had years of firsthand experience in China studying the difficult Chinese language and making contact with the Chinese.” The second level was the proto-Sinologists, who believed that Chinese culture applied to biblical understandings. They thought the Chinese language could be a universal language understood everywhere. The third group only focused on the culture of China, like language, intellectual advances, and much more. The third wave concentrates on how the Chinese people can influence politics and influence on intellectual movements.
Mungello, David. “4. European Acceptance of Chinese Culture and Confucianism.” In The Great Encounter of China and The West, 1500 – 1800. Critical Issues in History. World and International History. Lanham, Md: Rowman and Littlefield, 2013.
“Matteo Ricci and the Ming dynasty”. In Our Time, BBC Radio 4 (Podcast), April 16, 2015.
Leave a Reply