Chineseness Represented By Chinese Catholic Travelers To Europe

The concept of “Chineseness” represented by the Chinese Catholic travelers to Europe in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century “Chineseness” which literally means the quality of being Chinese is hard to define, as it is not reasonable to give an overview of the complexity of China and Chinese people. This essay will focus the representation of “Chineseness” by early Chinese Catholic visitors to Europe, which could be summarized into three major points: an ambiguous object of exotic fascination and curiosity, a controversial representation of national image in the contest between Chinese rituals and foreign ideological influence, and the communicators of Chinese culture and language to the Western world. This early contact of China

Born in a devout Catholic family in Fujian and trained by both classical Chinese and Christian doctrines, Arcadio Huang (1679-1716) traveled to Europe in 1702 with Arrtus de Lionne (1655–1713), who was a fierce opponent of the Jesuits’ tolerant attitude to Chinese rituals, in order to explain the issue of “Chinese Rites Controversy,” a dispute over whether or not to allow the performance of sacrifices to Confucius and ancestors in China to the pope. In France Huang built an intimate relationship with Montesquieu (1689-1755) since 1713, which had left a great impact on Montesquieu’s outlook on China as well as the dispute over Chinese rituals. As one of the leaders of depreciating the image of China, Montesquieu’s argument casted a shadow over the prevailing fascination of China in France, which finally resulted in the replacement of the positive impression of China by a negative one. In the journal he composed after several talks with Huang, Montesquieu displayed his dislike for the dictatorial regime and over-elaborate rituals in China, which contrasted greatly with the image of China propagated by the Jesuits. Admittedly, Huang’s discourse was not the only factor that had affected Montesquieu, who had long been keen on Chinese issues, but the testimony given by the Chinese traveler did offer an alternative description of the situation in China. The contradictory images presented by the Chinese

Stimulated by Shen Fuzong’s visit to London in 1687, the Oxonian orientalist Thomas Hyde (1636-1704) persuaded Shen to visit Oxford as Hyde had always been keen to attract native speakers of oriental languages to foster his studies. Shen helped to catalogue the Chinese books in the Bodleian Library, which provided important materials for the subsequent sinological work of Hyde. Shen’s capability of communicating in Latin was highly appreciated by Hyde, who praised him for his diligence and language skills. During his collaboration with Hyde, Shen managed to explain Chinese concepts on the basic of western understandings. For instance, in Shen’s letter to Hyde answering his inquiries about the Buddhist belief in China, he likened the Buddhist chant to Christian psalmody. Interestingly, however, Shen demonstrated belongingness to both Christianity and the traditional Chinese empire by adding possessive adjectives such as “my” and “our” before a number of terms varying from Christian practices to the contemporary Chinese emperor, further showing the complexity of personal identity due to the fusion of two distinct