Foreign Devils and Philosophers: Cultural Encounters Between the Chinese, the Dutch, and Other Europeans, 1590-1800 900441892X, 9789004418929

Citation preview

Foreign Devils and Philosophers

East and West Culture, Diplomacy and Interactions

Edited by Chuxiong George Wei (bnu-hkbu United International College)

volume 6

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ewcd

Foreign Devils and Philosophers Cultural Encounters between the Chinese, the Dutch, and Other Europeans, 1590–1800

Edited by

Thijs Weststeijn

leiden | boston

Cover Illustration: Godfried Kneller, Michael Alphonsus Shen Fuzong, 1687. Oil on canvas, 212.2 × 147.6 cm. Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2020. The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2020900809 This book was made possible by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, on the basis of the Joint Scientific Thematic Research Program China-Netherlands.

Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 2467-9704 ISBN 978-90-04-41888-2 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-41892-9 (e-book) Copyright 2020 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements  VII List of Contributors  IX List of Illustrations  XIII

1

China, the Netherlands, Europe: Images, Interactions, Institutions and the Ideal of Global Cultural History   1 Thijs Weststeijn

2

The Richest Country in the World: Dutch Knowledge of China and Cathay and How to Get There in the 1590s  24 Djoeke van Netten

3

Red-Haired Barbarians: The Dongxi Yangkao (1617) and its Portrayal of the Dutch in China  57 Lennert Gesterkamp

4

The Tartars in European Missionary Writings of the Seventeenth Century  82 Dong Shaoxin

5

Just Like Zhou: Chinese Visitors to the Netherlands (1597–1705) and Their Cultural Representation  104 Thijs Weststeijn

6

Chinese Petitions to the Dutch East India Company: Gambling on Formosa  132 Joris van den Tol

7

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary II’s Lacquer Screen: Sir Constantijn Huygens’s Plea to Preserve a Chinese Artefact, 1685–1686  148 Willemijn van Noord

8

A Chinese Philosopher in European Dress: The Review of the First Latin Translation of Confucius (1687) in the Philosophical Transactions and Its Preoccupation with Chinese Chronology  205 Trude Dijkstra

9

The Relational Network of Court Jesuits in Local Provinces: The Example of Tomás Pereira (1689–1690)  225 Chen Yufang

10

Jesuit Libraries in Beijing and China in the Perspective of the Communication between Europe and China in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries  238 Noël Golvers

11

Curiosity and Authority: Images of Europeans at the Qing Court during the Kangxi and Yongzheng Reigns  254 Sun Jing

12

The Origin of the Dutch Embassy to China in 1794  278 Cai Xiangyu

Appendices  304 Index of names  367 Index of places  374

Preface and Acknowledgements In September 2016, a group of mostly young Dutch scholars, including myself, met on the Bund in Shanghai. In rather silent amazement we gaped at the flickering displays illuminating the self-confident new China on the other side of the Hangpu river. We had travelled independently—some had come by airplane via Beijing or were planning a longer stay in nearby Hangzhou. I had taken a series of trains to first see Daoist temples in Macao, the painters’ village in Shenzhen, mosks in Xi’an, and Buddhist caves in Luoyang. What is more, I had arrived in Shanghai a week before the start of our meeting. A colleague with long-standing dealings with the People’s Republic had advised me to ­reserve ample time for any last minute organization. Yet at Fudan University the first thing to catch my eye were gleaming posters for our own scheduled ­seminar. When I met our partner historian, the intrepid Dong Shaoxin, with whom I had only corresponded by e-mail, his firm handshake confirmed that everything was ready. I was fortunate to have time on my hands to explore Shanghai’s cultural treasures. We spent three days on one of the upper floors of Fudan University’s twin ivory towers, to convene with other scholars who had come from different Chinese cities, for a slew of presentations and discussions fueled by exquisite food. The meeting had a curiously performative character that cannot have been lost on any of the attendants. It made this exchange of knowledge much more than the sum of its different parts. Alternating talks by Chinese and European scholars fleshed out the topic of Sino-Western cultural encounters during the first period of intensive exchange. Of course I had previously attended many conferences where speakers from Europe and the United States were overwhelmingly in the majority. Sometimes I had also spoken at meetings where I was one of the few non-Chinese faces in the room, which had already resulted in a kind of Copernican turn in my image of what humanistic scholarship might be. Yet our three days at Fudan cannot be described otherwise than as a truly reciprocal exchange of knowledge: in the words of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, “a commerce of learning and mutual light”. The talks and discussions of this meeting have resulted in the volume Foreign Devils and Philosophers. As editor, I am particularly indebted to Dong Shao­ xin for the warm and efficient welcome in Shanghai and to all presenters and participants at the Dialogue Seminar held on September 7–9, 2016. It was made possible by the Joint Scientific Thematic Research Program of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, which generously subsidized collaboration between the University of Amsterdam’s Center for Cultural Heritage and

viii

Preface and Acknowledgements

Identity and the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies of Fudan University. The seminar was organized in the context of the research project “The Chinese Impact: Images and Ideas of China in the Dutch Golden Age,” funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research and jointly hosted by Utrecht University and the University of Amsterdam. Last but not least, on behalf of the authors I would like to express our gratitude for the valuable suggestions of the anonymous peer reviewers and Chuxiong George Wei, who included this volume in the East and West series.

Utrecht, June 2019 Thijs Weststeijn 文诗景

Presenters at the Dialogue Seminar “Entangled Cultural Histories: Encounters between China and Europe, 1600–1900” (with their affiliations in 2016) were: Cai Xiangyu 蔡香玉, Guangzhou University 广州大学 Chen Yufang 陈玉芳, Fudan University 复旦大学 Trude Dijkstra, University of Amsterdam 阿姆斯特丹大学 Dong Shaoxin 董少新, Fudan University 复旦大学 Lennert Gesterkamp 葛思康, University of Amsterdam 阿姆斯特丹大学 Noël Golvers 高华士, Catholic University of Leuven 鲁汶大学 Han Qi 韩琦, Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences 中科院自然史所 Jane Jia Si 司佳, Fudan University 复旦大学 Jiang Yinghe 江滢河, Zhongshan University 中山大学 Li Song 李松, Peking University 北京大学 Robert Moreno Pablo 保罗, Fudan University 复旦大学 Tristan Mostert, Leiden University 莱顿大学 Djoeke van Netten, University of Amsterdam 阿姆斯特丹大学 Willemijn van Noord 方若薇, University of Amsterdam 阿姆斯特丹大学 Beatriz Puente-Ballesteros 白雅诗, University of Macao 澳门大学 Sun Jing 孙晶, Tsinghua University 清华大学 Joris van den Tol, Leiden University 莱顿大学 Thijs Weststeijn 文诗景, University of Amsterdam 阿姆斯特丹大学 Zhu Xiaoyuan 朱孝远, Peking University 北京大学

Contributors Cai Xiangyu is an associate professor in the History Department and the Research Centre of Canton’s Thirteen Hongs, Guangzhou University. She acquired her PhD from Leiden University in May 2012 with a dissertation entitled “Christianity and Gender in Southeast China: The Chaozhou Missions (1849–1949).” The Chinese monograph based on the dissertation, Jianren yu shouwang: Jindai Hanjiang xiayou de fuyin ziniang 坚忍与守望:近代韩江下游的福音姿娘 [Endurance and Hope: Biblewomen along the Lower Han River in the Modern Era] was published in 2014 by SDX Joint Publishing Company. Her present research focuses on the Dutch East India Company in Guangzhou. Chen Yufang is assistant professor in the History Department of Jilin University. She earned her PhD in history from the University of Macao in 2015 with a research project on the Jesuits’ strategy of pursuing imperial toleration in China from 1610 to 1723. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at Fudan University for two and a half years. Her research concentrates on Chinese-European relations from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. She is interested in Europeans in Chinese sources, the adaptation of European missionaries to the political system of Ming and Qing China, and the relational network of Europeans in China. She has translated Liam Matthew Brockey’s book, Journey to the East: the Jesuit Mission to China, 1579–1724 (2008), into traditional Chinese (published in 2014). Additionally, she has published articles in this field, including “What Was Tolerated? The Reinterpretation of Edict of Toleration in 1692” (Ming Qing Studies, 2016) and “Court Jesuits in Pursuit of Imperial Toleration, from 1669 to 1671” (Journal of Ancient Civilizations 4, 2015). Trude Dijkstra is a postdoctoral researcher at the Meertens Institute in Amsterdam. In 2019 she defended her PhD thesis at the University of Amsterdam, concentrating on the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century. More specifically, her work examines the role of the Dutch Republic as nucleus of book production and the Dutch dissemination of images and ideas related to early modern perceptions about China and Europe. Since 2014, she has been part of the NWO Vidi project “The Chinese Impact: Images and Ideas of China in the Dutch Golden Age,” chaired by Thijs Weststeijn of Utrecht University. Within this project,

x

Contributors

her research focused on the image of Chinese religions and philosophy as presented in different types of printed materials, such as books, newspapers, and learned journals. Dong Shaoxin is professor of history at the National Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Fudan University, Shanghai and honorary professor at the College of Humanities of the University of Exeter. In 2015–16, he was a Fulbright visiting scholar at the Ricci Institute, University of San Francisco. His research areas include: the history of Sino-European relations during the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, the history of Christianity in China, and the history of medicine. His publications include Between Body and Soul: A History of Western Medicine in China during the 16th to 18th Centuries (Shanghai: Guji Press, 2008); The Portuguese Jesuit Antonio de Gouveia (1592–1677) in China (Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press, 2017); China in Western Primary Sources (as editor; Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 2012); Global History, Regional History, and National History: Proceedings of a Collaborative Conference Series of Fudan, Todai, and Princeton Universities (as editor; Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 2015). Lennert Gesterkamp is a Chinese art historian and Sinologist specializing in Chinese painting, Daoist art, and East-West cultural interactions. In 2015–2018, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Utrecht University as part of the research project “The Chinese Impact: Images and Ideas of China in the Dutch Golden Age.” Earlier he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Academia Sinica, Taipei, and Zhejiang University, Hangzhou. He acquired his PhD in Chinese art and material culture from Leiden University. His dissertation was published as The Heavenly Court: Daoist Temple Painting in China, 1200–1400 (Leiden: Brill, 2011). Noël Golvers (PhD Catholic University Leuven, 1984) is a classical philologist. Since the 1980s, his research has concentrated on Latin texts related to the Jesuit mission in China (17th-18th centuries), especially with regard to the scholarly activities of the Jesuits (resulting in three volumes on Ferdinand Verbiest and Western astronomy in China), and the Western books and libraries in China that formed the institutional background (resulting in three volumes on Jesuit Western libraries in China). His current research concerns three topics: (a) the European intellectual background of Johann Schreck Terrentius (†1630), a multi-talented German physician, alchemist, pharmacist, mathematician and calendar specialist and his role in establishing the first Jesuit libraries in China;

Contributors

xi

(b) the Jesuit mission as a framework for the circulation of knowledge between Europe and China (through books, correspondence, prints, instruments and other objects, and maps); and (c) the position of some centers in this process (Coimbra, Lisbon, Macao, Guangzhou, Beijing). Golvers is an affiliated member of the Seminarium Philologiae Humanisticae (Leuven), corresponding member of the Centro de Historia de Alêm-Mar (Lisbon), and effective member of the International Academy of the History of Science (Paris). Sun Jing is assistant professor at the School of Humanities of Tsinghua University, Beijing. She studied art history at Leiden University and received her doctoral degree for her research on Johan Nieuhof’s images of China in 2013. Her resent research focuses on artistic interaction between China and Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Her publications include: The Illusion of Verisimilitude: Johan Nieuhof’s Images of China (Leiden University Press, 2013) and “Exotic Imitation and Local Cultivation—A Study on the Art Form of Dutch Delftware between 1640 and 1720” (Intersections 19, 2011). Joris van den Tol is a Rubicon Fellow of The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and based at Harvard University. His project uses petitions to study transnational advocacy networks between England and the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century. He defended his PhD dissertation on lobbying in relation to the Dutch colony in Brazil in 2018 (Leiden University). This project was part of the project “Challenging Monopolies” funded by NWO. He has published several peer-reviewed articles in English and in Dutch in journals and in edited volumes. Djoeke van Netten is senior lecturer in early modern history and director of the MA Dutch Golden Age at the University of Amsterdam. Her research is on the crossroads of book history, history of knowledge, cartography, and maritime history. She is interested in how knowledge is acquired, stored, disseminated, published, or kept secret, with a focus on the early Dutch Golden Age. Van Netten wrote her PhD thesis (University of Groningen, 2012) about the role of seventeenth-century publishers in the presentation and dissemination of science. The book was published in 2014 (Zutphen: Walburg Pers) and entitled, Koopman in Kennis. De uitgever Willem Jansz Blaeu (1571–1638) in de geleerde wereld. In 2015, she was awarded a Veni grant from the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) to carry out the research project “Hide and Leak: Secrecy and Openness

xii

Contributors

in Overseas Companies in the Dutch Golden Age.” She was also guest curator of the exhibition, The World According to Blaeu | Master cartographer in the Dutch Golden Age (2017–2018), in the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam. Willemijn van Noord is junior curator of Chinese collections at the National Museum of World Cultures in the Netherlands. She is currently finishing her PhD dissertation at the University of Amsterdam. Her thesis studies the roles of material culture in the creation, adaptation, affirmation, and dissemination of images and ideas of China in the Dutch Republic during the second half of the seventeenth century. She has received bachelor degrees in both archaeology and Chinese studies from Leiden University. After finishing her master’s degree in Sinology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (London), she worked as a trainee curator of Chinese collections at the British Museum and Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. She is interested in Chinese material culture within global history and its reception in Europe in particular. Thijs Weststeijn is professor and chair of art history at Utrecht University and director of the research project “The Chinese Impact: Images and Ideas of China in the Dutch Golden Age.” Previously, he was associate professor of cultural heritage studies at the University of Amsterdam and has held fellowships from (among others) the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles and the Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte in Berlin. Starting in 2007 with an article on a ­comparison between Confucius and Spinoza, he has since published on Chinese-Dutch interactions in ceramics, portraiture, antiquarianism, and philosophy. He is currently preparing the monograph The Middle Kingdom in the Low Countries: The Chinese Challenge in the Dutch Golden Age.

Illustrations 5.1. Unknown draftsman. The Chinese Merchant Xing Pu 興浦 or Yppong. 1601. Drawing in colored ink on paper, octavo, 107 × 170 mm, from the Album amicorum of Nicolaas de Vrise, 1595–1609. Private collection, United States  107 5.2. Wautier, Michaelina. Portrait of Martino Martini. 1654. Oil on canvas, 69,5 × 59 cm. Signed and dated (top left): Michaelina Wautier fecit 1654. Chinese inscription (top right): Wei Kuangguo 衛匡國. Formerly with Weiss Gallery, London; presented at TEFAF Maastricht on March 19, 2017  111 5.3. Schmalkalden, Caspar. Two Chinese Men. 1655. Brush drawing. Dated August 30, 1655 in A.G. & J.G. Kirchberger's Album amicorum (1608 to 1660s), vol. 2, f. 266. Antiquariat Inlibris, Vienna  115 5.4. Schmalkalden, Caspar. A Chinese Man in Batavia. c. 1655. Drawing. Forschungsund Landesbibliothek Gotha, Chart B 533, f. 262r  116 5.5. Kneller, Godfried. Michael Alphonsus Shen Fuzong. 1687. Oil on canvas, 212.2 × 147.6 cm. The Royal Collection, London  120 5.6. Velten, Jan. A Chinese Visitor to Amsterdam. 1700–1710. Pen and brush, 54.5 × 30 cm. Jan Velten Album, Artis Library, Legkast 238, fig. 71. Amsterdam  122 7.1. Netscher, Caspar. Portrait of Constantijn Huygens. 1672. Oil on panel, 27 × 23 cm. Rijksmuseum, inv. no. SK-A-292, Amsterdam  152 7.2. Verkolje, Jan. Portrait of Mary II Stuart. c. 1688. Oil on canvas, 39.7 × 32.4 cm. National Portrait Gallery, inv. no. NPG 606, London  156 7.3.  The Leeuwarden Lacquer Room. Before 1695. Lacquered wood, 294.5 cm high. Rijksmuseum, inv. no. BK-16709, Amsterdam  161 7.4. First page of Constantijn Huygens’s first letter to Mary II concerning the screen: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KA 49dl 03 1093, The Hague  162 7.5. Pages from Huygens’s first letter concerning the screen. The inserts on the right page imply compilation (rather than direct translation). Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KA 49dl 03 1094–5, The Hague  165 7.6. First page of Huygens’s “Mémoire pour Zeelhem.” Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KA 49dl 03 1091, The Hague  172 7.7. Philippe Couplet’s translation of the inscription of the back of Mary’s lacquer screen. Noord-Hollands Archief, NL-HlmNHA 476 951 0002, Haarlem  177 7.8. One of several strips with transcribed characters from the inscription of the back of Mary’s lacquer screen. Noord-Hollands Archief, NL-HlmNHA 476 951 00013, Haarlem  179 7.9. A kuancai lacquer screen decorated with shou characters. China, 1719. Lacquered wood, 239.4 × 495.3 cm, with base designed by William Haines c. 1960. © Christies and William Haines Designs  183

xiv

Illustrations

7.10. Marot, Daniël. Design for a chimneypiece. 1712. Etching and engraving, 24.7 × 19.5 cm. From Nouvelles Cheminées faites en plusieur en droits de la Hollande et autres Provinces du Dessein de D. Marot. Rijksmuseum, inv. no. RP-P-19643043, Amsterdam  189 11.1. Anonymous court artists. Dutch Delegates Present Gifts of Horses and Oxen in Beijing. 1667, Chinese hanging scroll painting, 207.8 × 161.3 cm. National Palace Museum, Taipei  256 11.2. Anonymous artist. Untitled. Woodcut. 1607. From Sancai Tuhui 三才图会 [Collected Illustrations of the Three Realms]  260 11.3. Van Doornik, Pieter. Meeting of the Van Hoorn Embassy with Chinese Officials. 1667. Drawing, 41.7 × 51.4 cm. Atlas van Stolk, Rotterdam  261 11.4. Anonymous court artists. Shen Du’s Ode on a Painting of Qilin (a Giraffe). 1414. Hanging scroll painting, approx. 1414.9 × 4845 cm, National Palace Museum, Taipei  263 11.5. Anonymous court artists, Half-Length Portrait of the Yongzheng Emperor. Yongzheng Period. Paper, 52.3 × 43cm, The Palace Museum, Beijing  266 11.6. Anonymous court artists. Portrait of the Yongzheng Emperor in Court Dress. Yongzheng Period. Hanging scroll painting, 277 × 143.4 cm. The Palace Museum, Beijing  267 11.7. Jin Tingbiao. Qianlong gongzhong xingletu 乾隆皇帝宮中行樂圖 [The Qianlong Emperor enjoying his pleasures in the palace] 1763. Ink and paint on silk. Hand scroll, 167.4 × 320 cm. The Palace Museum, Beijing  268 11.8. [After Hyacinthe Rigaud]. Portrait of King Louis XIV in Armor with the Sash of the Order of the Saint-Esprit. Oil on canvas, 71.5 × 58.4 cm. Sold by Christie’s, July 13, 2001, London  270 11.9. Anonymous artists. Untitled. From Fifty-three Transformation Bodies of Guanyin. Kangxi period. Woodcut.  271 11.10. de Champaigne, Philippe. King Louis XIII. 1655. Oil on canvas, 108 × 86 cm. Museo del Prado, Madrid  272 11.11. Anonymous court artists. The Yongzheng Emperor Hunting a Tiger. Yongzheng Period. Color on silk. 34.9 × 31 cm. From the album The Yongzheng Emperor in Costumes. The Palace Museum, Beijing  273

Chapter 1

China, the Netherlands, Europe: Images, Interactions, Institutions and the Ideal of Global Cultural History Thijs Weststeijn It is likely that, in 1654, a meeting took place in the Netherlands between a Chinese traveler and a Moroccan scholar who wanted to learn Chinese. The Chinese man was baptized Dominicus by Catholic missionaries who seemingly taught him Portuguese. The Moroccan, named Johannes Maurus, was a convert to Protestantism and a student of theology at the university of Leiden who was preparing for missionary work in Asia. It is tantalizing to speculate on what may have been discussed by these two, who had both made long journeys before their routes crossed in Leiden or Antwerp. The sources, however, are very limited: Maurus acquired a Chinese vocabulary before 1656. It was either based on an actual meeting with Dominicus or resulted indirectly from the latter’s visit.1 One possible intermediary in this exchange of linguistic knowledge was a pioneer of Dutch oriental studies: Jacob Golius of the university of Leiden, who had welcomed the Moroccan youth in his house as his private student since he himself wanted to learn Arabic and Persian. For Maurus, friendship with the professor was a means to gain access to books and learned contacts. In 1654, these contacts included a visitor from China: the famous Jesuit missionary, Martino Martini, who traveled back from Beijing to Europe on a ship belonging to the Dutch East India Company. Golius, who owned a sizeable number of Chinese books but was unable to read them, was happy to find that Martini had brought his Chinese-born servant, Dominicus, with him. This young man impressed Golius with his literacy and demonstrated how his countrymen wielded the writing brush: one example of his calligraphy survives (now in the

1 For the details, see below, Chapter 5, pages 113–114. The Spanish Domincian archbishop, ­Domingo Navarrete, based in Manila and Fujian, claimed that Dominicus was converted by the Dominicans and not the Jesuits, which could mean that he was a Chinese from Manila; see P. Rule, “The Jesuits and the Ming-Qing Transition: How Did Boym and Martini Find Themselves on Opposite Sides?” Monumenta Serica 59, no. 1 (2011): 247, note 12. Dominicus’s calligraphy in the Royal Library in Brussels (see the next note) includes a Spanish transcription. ©

 | 

/

2

Weststeijn

Royal Library in Brussels).2 Yet Golius was not the only one to benefit from this linguistic observation: Maurus likewise acquired a list of Chinese words.3 The encounter between Dominicus and Maurus is hypothetical (for more details, see Chapter 5) but the circumstantial details around it enlighten one as to the extent to which the world had become interconnected by the middle of the seventeenth century and how the Low Countries had become a nexus of global movements of people and knowledge. Golius (possibly accompanied by Maurus) and Martini (possibly accompanied by Dominicus) met in Antwerp in a “Musaeum Sinense”—the collection of Chinese objects compiled by a local notable. In fact, Chinese paintings, sculptures, lacquer, coins, weapons, and other objects were present in various collections in the Low Countries, not to mention the porcelain wares that—imported in the millions of pieces—were affordable to virtually anyone (see Chapter 5, Appendix 1 and Chapter 7). Books were likewise available, even though nobody could read them apart from missionaries on their rare travels back to Europe. Golius, for instance, acquired the works of Confucius and Mencius, and Chinese philosophy would become an interest of frantic debate among Europeans when a Latin translation appeared in 1687—made with the help of another Chinese visitor (see Chapters 5 and 8). The hypothetical meeting between Dominicus and Maurus illustrates the various dimensions of cultural interaction that will be explored in the present book. First of all, there was the evident desire to get to know foreigners and record this new knowledge. The second salient point is that the context of individual meetings had wider material and ideological dimensions, marked by the circulation of a variety of goods, artefacts, books, and ideas. Thirdly, encounters were not spontaneous but rather inspired by political or religious agendas—foremost among them the conversion to the (Catholic) True Faith. A fourth point is that, even though the radical otherness of China could arouse fascination in Europe just like Europe could in China, in practice, meetings were often mediated—the exchange of knowledge was a matter of intensive collaboration between individuals from China and Europe rather than a clash of cultures. And obviously, the categories of East and West were fluid rather than monolithic, as the possibility of a Protestant Moroccan meeting a Catholic Chinese demonstrates. The present book on cultural encounters between Europeans and Chinese explores, in its different chapters, the four points mentioned here: the 2 Inv. 3510. Cf. N. Golvers, “De recruteringstocht van M. Martini, S.J. door de Lage Landen in 1654: over geomantische kompassen, Chinese verzamelingen, lichtbeelden en R.P. Wilhelm van Aelst, S.J.,” De zeventiende eeuw 10, no. 2 (1994): 331–350, esp. 342. 3 “Meus indiculus Sinicus, quem olim laudatus J.S. Morus dedit.” A. Müller, De Invento Sinico Epistolae nonnullae Amoebaeae Inventoris & quorundam Soc. Jesu Patrum, aliorumque Litera­ torum (s.l. s.a., [Berlin, ca. 1676?]), 30; for more details, see below, Chapter 5.

China, the Netherlands, Europe

3

representation of foreigners, the material and intellectual context of intercultural meetings, the political and religious agendas that determined the conditions and outcomes of these meetings, and the encounter of East and West as a mediated negotiation between individuals from sub-groups for which the terms “Chinese” and “European” are often only partially adequate. As this introduction will argue, the approach of cultural history is a framework for studying cultural representations in relation to their material, intellectual, and institutional context. Individual chapters are devoted to Dutch images of China (the “richest country in the world”) and Chinese images of the Dutch (“red-haired devils”), while also singling out Formosa and representations of the Manchus. Other contributions explore how these images were related to material culture (particularly lacquerware) and intellectual culture (particularly Confucianism). Other chapters address the institutional frameworks for cultural exchange (missionary networks, trade embassies) or cultural clash (petitions, libraries) and their political motivations—from both European and Chinese perspectives. 1

Global History and Cultural History: Towards a Global Cultural History?

Studying cultural history on a transcontinental scale may also be understood as an attempt to introduce a cultural dimension to the approach of global history. Global history (or world history, as it was initially called) is a recent branch on the historiographical tree. It is now mainstream: it is taught in hundreds of colleges and universities in the United States and Europe with matching core textbooks and institutionalized in the digital platform H-World and the Journal of World History (University of Hawaii Press).4 Rooted in world history as it was developed in North America in the 1980s–90s, global history has ­foregrounded China from its inception. The California School (with its luminaries Kenneth Pomeranz, Bin Wong, and André Gunder Frank) correlated ­economic trends in Europe with developments during the Song-Yuan-Ming dynasties and pointed out that many developments first originated in the ­Middle Kingdom.5

4 “H-World: Homepage,” H-World, accessed March 28, 2019, https://networks.h-net.org/ h-world. 5 K. Pomeranz, The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Econ­ omy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000); Bin Wong, China Transformed: Historical Change and the Limits of European Experience (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997); André Gunder Frank, ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999).

4

Weststeijn

Unsurprisingly this approach found a welcome response in China. As Dong Shaoxin, professor of history at Shanghai’s Fudan University, emphasizes, it is undoubtedly the US-style global history and theory, “focusing on connections, interactions, and comparisons,” that have made an exceedingly strong impact on Chinese historical scholarship with the most relevant books being translated into Mandarin.6 Among several significant institutions, most influential is Quanqiu shi yanjiu zhongxin 全球史研究中心 [Center for Global History Studies] at Capital Normal University, Beijing, and its journal Quanqiu shi ping­ lun 全球史评论 [Global History Review]. Although no Chinese scholar has written an overview work of global history, a slew of pertinent articles and chapters have appeared in China in the past fifteen years.7 Emphasis lies on the historiography of Sino-foreign relations; in this context, the Shanghaibased historian Manuel Pérez García has warned that scholarship subsidized by the Chinese government has resulted in an “utterly Sinocentric” focus, “[t]he objective and result [of which] is to build a very patriotic narrative.” However, he does not substantiate this claim with examples.8 Whereas the global-historical framework has been widely accepted, its focus on trade and politics also has clear limitations as is recognized by the main authors, most starkly in Geoffrey Gunn’s First Globalization: The Eurasian E­ xchange, 1500–1800 (2003), a book with an exceptionally wide sweep that extends to global exchanges in religion and scholarship.9 Due to the “inherent slipperiness of cultural analysis […] [w]orld historians have been slow to address the cultural dimensions of cross-cultural interactions and exchanges,” according to The Oxford Handbook of World History (2011): When historians have turned their attention from individual communities to large-scale comparative, transregional, and global issues, they have found it much simpler to quantify bolts of silk, trace the effects of biological exchanges, or outline the structures of colonial rule than to evaluate the meaning of cultural borrowings, the depth of religious conversions, or the dynamics that help to explain cultural exchanges. There is no 6 Dong Shaoxin, email conversation with author, December 24, 2018. 7 The main authors are Xia Jiguo and Liu Wenming. 8 M. Pérez García, “Introduction: Current Challenges of Global History in East Asian Historiographies,” in Global History and New Polycentric Approaches: Europe, Asia and the Americas in a World Network System, ed. M. Pérez García & L. De Sousa (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2018), 1–17, esp. 4. 9 G. Gunn, First Globalization: The Eurasian Exchange; 1500–1800 (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003); cf. J. Hobson, The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).

China, the Netherlands, Europe

5

­ ajor paradigm for the analysis of cultural developments that flow from m cross-cultural interactions and exchanges […] World historians have worked out no common approach to the study of cultural developments, nor have they even adopted any settled vocabulary or analytical convention for the investigation of cultural developments.10 While on the one hand, historians interested in a global perspective have clearly been hesitant to discuss culture, on the other hand, scholars from the fields of cultural studies and anthropology who study globalization have held back from engaging with its historical dimensions Thus, the rich work by anthropologist Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Globalization and Culture (2003; updated in 2015, see also his 2018 volume on China, edited with Changgang Guo and Liu Debin), focuses almost exclusively on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, nodding only briefly at earlier developments that might, in a teleological framework, have adumbrated contemporary globalization.11 So what, in fact, might the historical analysis of cultural encounters between China and Europe be able to contribute to the field—that is to say, to analyze historical meetings in relation to cultural expressions (in low and high culture) such as travelogues, books, libraries, paintings, prints, and the applied and performative arts? Cultural history, as championed most authoritatively by Peter Burke in the past few decades, distinguishes itself from other historiographical traditions not just by its emphasis on culture rather than politics or society, but also by a fundamentally different outlook towards its sources including literature, images, and material culture. It essentially explores the dynamic of the cultural discourses themselves regardless of the question as to whether they adequately represented reality.12 This is obviously a relevant approach in 10 11 12

J.H. Bentley, “Cultural Exchanges in World History,” in The Oxford Handbook of World His­ tory, ed. J.H. Bentley (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 343–360, esp. 343–344. J. Nederveen Pieterse, Globalization and Culture: Global Mélange (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003; 3rd ed. 2015); Nederveen Pieterse, Changgang Guo, and Liu Debin, ed., China’s Contingencies and Globalization (London: Routledge, 2018). P. Burke, What is Cultural History? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004); for a good short explanation, see A. Arcangeli, “In Search of a Definition? A Fuzzy Field of Enquiry,” in Cultural History: A Concise Introduction (New York: Routlede, 2012), 1–17; for one of the earliest explanations, see E.H. Gombrich, In Search of Cultural History (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969). Meetings between Asia and Europe have, as yet, been conspicuously absent in cultural history with exceptions such as C. Ginzburg, “Provincializing the World: Europeans, Indians, Jews (1704),” Postcolonial Studies 14, no. 2 (2011): 135–150; Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Europe’s India: Words, People, Empires, 1500–1800 (Cambridge, MA & London: Harvard University Press, 2017), which pays some attention to literature, art, and music in an integrated manner; as such, it can perhaps also be classified as

6

Weststeijn

relation to the Sino-European exchange and the many images of “Others”—in writing, print, painting, the applied arts—that inspired it and were inspired by it. The cultural-historical approach does not mean that the relationship between images and social and political events is deemed irrelevant; on the contrary, the institutional, political, and economic conditions that made images and their circulation possible are key points of interest for the cultural historian. But bracketing the question about the accuracy of images, and recognizing the historical relevance of stereotypes, preconceptions, and other distortions, can be particularly important in understanding the shock of otherness and recognition that encounters between Europeans and Chinese entailed. Artistic and ideological preconceptions paradoxically contributed to China’s impact which, in the words of Jonathan Spence, “need have little to do with the literalness of an actual experience.”13 In fact, highly stereotypical representations could affect the logistics of exchange all the more strongly; for instance, when reports about the fabulous riches of “Cathay” inspired real expeditions, or, more concretely, when Dutch images of Chineseness inspired European traders to order custom-made products and send detailed instructions to the Chinese porcelain kilns. 2

Chinese-European Encounters: From Trade and Diplomacy to Art, Antiquities, and Culture

In the past few decades, early modern Chinese-European encounters have attracted much scholarly interest. Increasingly, sources in European languages

13

c­ ultural-historical in its outlook. Some cultural historians who focus on images of other cultures and nations call their sub-discipline “Imagology”: cf. M. Beller & J.T. Leerssen, ed., IMAGOLOGY: The Cultural Construction and Literary Representation of National Charac­ ters (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2007). J.D. Spence, The Chan’s Great Continent: China in Western Minds (New York & London: Norton, 1998), xiii. Other publications that examine European images of China are: R. Dawson, The Chinese Chameleon. An Analysis of European Conceptions of Chinese Civili­ zation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1967); N. Cameron, Barbarians and Mandarins: Thirteen Centuries of Western Travelers in China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970); C. Mackerras, Western Images of China (Hong Kong, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1989); T.H.C. Lee, ed., China and Europe: Images and Influences in Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries [sic] (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1991); D. Porter, Ideo­ graphia. The Chinese Cipher in Early Modern Europe (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001); C.H. Lee, ed., Western Visions of the Far East in a Transpacific Age, 1522–1657 (London: Routledge, 2016). See also Chen Bo, “Conceptions of ‘China’ in Early Modern Europe,” Chinese Studies in History 48 (2015): 401–422.

China, the Netherlands, Europe

7

and in Chinese have been studied in comparison. Authors such as Tonio Andrade, Leonard Blussé, and John Wills have contributed greatly to the ambition to write global history, based on the increased interconnectivity between China and Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.14 Their work has been largely positivistic in nature and charted mercantile, diplomatic, or political events in East Asia that had been little known in the West. It is complemented by the historiography of the Jesuit mission in China, as the Jesuits were the only Europeans who traveled relatively freely in the country and had access to the Forbidden City. Publications in this thriving subfield of scholarship, in Western languages and in Chinese, are meticulously tracked in the Chinese Christian Texts Database of Leuven University.15 Various sizeable biographies address individuals, foremost among them Matteo Ricci as alleged founding father of the Chinese mission,16 followed at some distance by Ferdinand Verbiest and Johann Adam Schall von Bell.17 Some of these works (e.g., Ronnie Hsia’s biography of Ricci of 2010 and Liam Brockey’s Journey to the East, 2007)

14

Among the vast literature on Sino-European exchanges, I mention these works that involve the Dutch in the seventeenth century: T. Andrade, Lost Colony: The Untold Story of China’s First Great Victory over the West (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011); T. Andrade, The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016); L. Blussé, Strange Company: Chinese Settlers, Mestizo Women and the Dutch in voc Batavia (Dordrecht: Foris, 1986); L. Blussé & F.-J. van Luyn, China en de Nederlanders: Geschiedenis van de Nederlands-­ Chinese betrekkingen 1600–2007 (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2008); J. Wills, Pepper, Guns and Parleys: The Dutch East India Company and China, 1662–1681 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974); J. Wills, Embassies and Illusions: Dutch and Portuguese Envoys to K’ang-shi, 1666–1687 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984). 15 “cct Database” KU Leuven, accessed March 28, 2019, https://www.arts.kuleuven.be/ sinologie/english/cct. 16 M. Fontana, Matteo Ricci: A Jesuit in the Ming Court (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011); R.P. Hsia, A Jesuit in the Forbidden City: Matteo Ricci 1552–1610 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010); M. Laven, Mission to China: Matteo Ricci and the Jesuit Encounter with the East (London: Faber and Faber, 2011); Filippo Minigni, Matteo Ricci: Il chiosco delle fenici (­Milan: Il Lavoro Editoriale, 2009). 17 R.A. Blondeau, Mandarijn en Astronoom: Ferdinand Verbiest (1623–1688) aan het Hof van de Chinese keizer (Brugge: Desclée de Brouwer, 1970); N. Golvers, The Astronomia Euro­ paea of Ferdinand Verbiest, S.J. (Dillingen, 1687). Text, Translation, Notes and Commentaries (­Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1993); U. Libbrecht, Ferdinand Verbiest (1623–1688). Een Vlaamse zendeling aan het Chinese Hof (Brugge: Kredietbank, 1988); J.W. Witek, ed., Ferdinand Ver­ biest (1623–1688): Jesuit Missionary, Scientist, Engineer and Diplomat (Nettetal: Monumenta Serica, 1994); R. Malek, ed., Western Learning and Christianity in China: The Contribution and Impact of Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1592–1666) (Nettetal: Monumenta Serica, 1998).

8

Weststeijn

have charted the practical dimension in which the missionaries operated.18 Yet there is also a sustained interest in the theological intricacies of how European missionaries sought to accommodate Chinese traditions with Catholic orthodoxy, and how Chinese literati in turn reacted to the European attempts at conversion (Gernet, Mungello, Brancaccio, among many others).19 The most promising approach seems to lie in the integrated study of European and Chinese perspectives towards each other’s ideas, as is exemplified in Nicolas Standaert’s The Interweaving of Rituals (2008).20 Yet these historical and missiological studies leave room for the comprehensive ambition to approach Chinese-European confrontations from the perspective of cultural history. One might argue that analyzing the production and reception of European imaginations of China, and Chinese images of Europeans, in the full gamut of literary, visual, material, and performative dimensions, remains an important historical prerogative. Practical, linguistic, and cultural barriers have ensured that, in Europe, many residues remain of Hegel’s description of China as an essentially static, non-dialectical civilization: an isolated society that could only be transformed from the outside. The present book’s focus on cultural entanglement supports the approaches of historians who want to deconstruct notions of cultures as closed entities, by highlighting “contact zones,” “trading zones” or, as put by a recent approach that focuses on the aesthetic aspects of sites of encounter, “entangled landscapes.”21 Yet, it is not enough simply to point out that stereotypical imaginations of other 18

19

20 21

L.M. Brockey, Journey to the East: The Jesuit Mission to China, 1579–1724 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007); more recently, Qi Yinping 戚 印 平 , 耶 稣 会 士 与 晚 明 海 上 贸 易 [The Jesuits and Maritime Trade in the Late Ming Dynasty] (Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2017). See also E. Menegon, Ancestors, Virgins, and Friars: Christianity as a Local Religion in Late Imperial China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009). D. Mungello, Curious Land: Jesuit Accommodation and the Origins of Sinology (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1985); J. Gernet, China and the Christian Impact: A Conflict of Cultures (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985); L. Brancaccio, China accommo­ data: Chinakonstruktionen in jesuitischen Schriften der Frühen Neuzeit (Berlin: Frank & Timme, 2007). N. Standaert, The Interweaving of Rituals: Funerals in the Cultural Exchange between China and Europe (Seattle & London: The University of Washington Press, 2008). To mention a few of the publications that foreground this terminology: W. Lepenies, ed., Entangled Histories and Negotiated Universals: Centers and Peripheries in a Changing World (Frankfurt & New York: Campus, 1993); S. Subrahmanyam, “Connected Histories: Notes towards a Reconfiguration of Early Modern Eurasia,” Modern Asian Studies 31, no. 3 (1997): 735–762; P. Long, “Trading Zones in Early Modern Europe,” Isis 106, no. 4 (2015): 840–847; Yue Zhang & A.M. Riemenschneider, ed., Entangled Landscapes: Early Modern China and Europe (Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, 2017); J. H Bentley,

China, the Netherlands, Europe

9

c­ ultures have been unfounded or “wrong”—it may be much more essential to study how these images of East and West came into being in the first place also in terms of the conditions of their circulation, endurance, popularity, and afterlife. Historians of art and antiquities have, in fact, been quick to understand the importance of an integrated Sino-European perspective. Miller and Louis first called attention to antiquities in Antiquarianism and Intellectual Life in Europe and China (2012) while Gerritsen and Riello dealt with material culture more broadly in The Global Lives of Things (2015). In addition, art historical studies by Musillo, Grasskamp, Johns, and Doesschate Chu & Ning, among others, have brought the ideal closer to realization of a “global art history” centered around hybrid works that cannot be characterized as solely Chinese or European.22 Recently, a few similar studies of literature and theatre have also appeared (Yang, Lu, Kuruppath).23 Such integrated or comparative approaches, obviously, do not need to tell a story of increasing intercultural understanding. As Noël Golvers suggests in the present book (Chapter 10), even the Jesuit libraries in China, which enabled “crossed consultations between Chinese and Western works” of literature, can be conceived as a “battlefield” of diverging ideologies. In 2017, Keevak and Hertel devoted a volume precisely to the “telling failures”: the misunderstandings and conflicts that marked many encounters between early modern East Asia and Europe (Chapter 12 in the

22

23

“Cultural Exchanges in World History,” in The Oxford Handbook of World History, ed. J.H. Bentley (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011): 343. P.N. Miller & F. Louis, ed., Antiquarianism and Intellectual Life in Europe and China 1500– 1800 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2012); A. Gerritsen & G. Riello, ed., The Global Lives of Things: The Material Culture of Connections in the Early Modern World (Basingstoke: Routledge, 2015); A. Grasskamp, “Cultivated Curiosities: A Comparative Study of Chinese Artifacts in European Kunstkammern and European Objects in Chinese Elite ­Collections,” (Ph.D. diss., Leiden University, 2013); M. Musillo, The Shining Inheritance: Italian Painters at the Qing Court, 1699–1812 (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2016); P. ten-Doesschate Chu & Ding Ning, ed., Qing Encounters: Artistic Exchanges between Chi­ na and the West (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2015). The literature on Chinoiserie is vast; for the most recent, see C. Johns, China and the Church: Chinoiserie in Global Context (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2016). A creative, integrated analysis of paintings and material culture is provided in T. Brook, Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World (New York: Bloomsbury, 2007). C. Yang, Performing China: Virtue, Commerce, and Orientalism in Eighteenth-Century E­ ngland, 1660–1760 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011); M. Lu, The Chinese Impact on English Renaissance Literature: A Globalization and Liberal Cosmopolitan Ap­ proach to Donne and Milton (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015); M. Kuruppath, Staging Asia: The Dutch East India Company and the Amsterdam Theatre (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2016).

10

Weststeijn

present book by Cai Xiangyu recalls that, in fact, all of the embassies of the Dutch East India Company to Beijing ended in failure).24 Finally, it should be noted that most of the (English-language) studies mentioned here privilege European attitudes towards the Chinese. Although the Chinese view of foreigners has increasingly been the subject of analysis as well (Hostetler, Liu), much of the source material remains insufficiently explored.25 It will be a challenge for the next few decades to work further towards an integration of the cultural-historical perspective within the framework of global history: a comparative analysis of how, and why, cultural representations developed synchronously in the Middle Kingdom and Europe. This entangled approach will be comparative in different dimensions: exploring European and Chinese sources, regarding literature, books, and libraries; paintings, prints, and the applied arts; and other cultural expressions such as music, performative arts, and food. All these elements should be understood against the structural and institutional background of economic and diplomatic exchange and the ideological background of religious, and sometimes philosophical, ­attempts to understand and accommodate the foreign. Such an ideal of ­entangled histories has inspired the combination of chapters in the present volume. Its first aim is to demonstrate that only by bringing together scholars from different linguistic, cultural, and academic backgrounds and specializations, can this ideal be approached. 3

China and Europe, Familiar and Foreign: Preferences in Terminology

When the German Sinophile philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz spoke of two “worlds” that were joined by a mutual “commerce of light” by the late seventeenth century (“commercio inter duos velut orbes late divisos […] Commercia

24 25

R. Hertel & M. Keevak, ed., Early Encounters between East Asia and Europe: Telling Failures (New York: Routledge, 2017); see also M. Keevak, Embassies to China. Diplomacy and Cul­ tural Encounters before the Opium Wars (London: Palgrave, 2017). See in particular L. Hostetler, Qing Colonial Enterprise: Ethnography and Cartography in Early Modern China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001); L.H. Liu, The Clash of Empires: The Invention of China in Modern World Making (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004); Kim Hyun Jin, Ethnicity and Foreigners in Ancient Greece and China (London: Duckworth, 2009); He Yuming, “The Book and the Barbarian in Ming China and Beyond: The Luo Chong Lu, or Record of Naked Creatures,” Asia Major 24, no. 1 (2011): 43–85.

China, the Netherlands, Europe

11

inquam doctrinae et mutuae lucis”), he referred to Europe and China.26 In fact to Leibniz, as to many early admirers of the Celestial Empire, China seemed to offer as much as a continent (if not an entire planet) of its own. In 1667 the Dutch poet Joost van den Vondel sung a similar praise of the Middle Kingdom as the jewel in Asia’s crown and as a pars pro toto for the Orient: that “noble diamond, / That sparkles divinely in the eye […] You are the heart, that can give life and soul / To all your fellow members.”27 Such statements have inspired modern historians to call their own studies China and Europe: Images and In­ fluences (Lee), Leibniz and the European Encounter with China (Li), or Funerals in the Cultural Exchange between China and Europe (Standaert).28 The present volume follows this pattern, avoiding the generic terms East and West and preferring Europe and China as the interpretive categories that were used by the historical actors, even though this means contrasting and comparing a continent to a country. In discussing actors from the Low Countries, Britain, or Italy, this book likewise speaks about Europe versus China (or East Asia in order to include Formosa also), but not versus Asia as a continent. Another concept that merits explanation is “foreigner.” In this case as well, the present volume has sought a relevant actor’s category and has opted for “foreign” as a relatively neutral and uncontroversial term in comparison to “exotic” or “the Other.” Here “foreign” translates the Chinese yi 夷 (literally “barbarian”), as in hongmaoyi 紅毛夷 (red-haired foreigners) or hongyi 紅夷 (red foreigners), terms that could refer to all Europeans but, as will be argued in Chapter 2, were of special relevance in regard to the Dutch. Likewise, the term “foreign” occurs in English sources about China, such as the Philosophical Transactions, to characterize the writings of Confucius (discussed in Chapter 8).29 As an actor’s category, the term “foreign” reflects the extent to which sentiments of “East is East, West is West” were taking shape in the period under discussion, even though in reality groups were obviously not clearly separated nor monolithic. On the European side, the Dutch and the English could be at 26

Leibniz to Giovanni Laureati, November 12, 1689, in G.W. Leibniz, Leibniz korrespondiert mit China (Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann, 1990), 11. 27 “[A]en den ring der landeryen / Van twee-endertigh heerschappyen / Is Sina d’eedle diamant, / Die goddelijk in d’oogen flonkert, […] Gy zijt het hart, dat ziel en leven / Aen alle uw medeleên kunt geven.” Joost van den Vondel, “Zungchin, of ondergang der Sineesche heerschappije,” (Amsterdam, 1667). For the English version, see http://www.let.leide nuniv.nl/Dutch/Ceneton/VondelZungchin1667English.html. 28 Lee, China and Europe; Li Wenchao, Leibniz and the European Encounter with China: 300 Years of “Discours sur la théologie naturelle des Chinois” (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2017); ­Standaert, Interweaving of Rituals. 29 Philosophical Transactions 16 (1686–1692), 377.

12

Weststeijn

loggerheads in terms of their respective imperial ambitions overseas (and even within the Low Countries, Dutch and Flemish perspectives on China could diverge substantially); meanwhile, within the Chinese Empire, the Manchu group, ethnically and linguistically different from the Han Chinese, was in a position of power during the Qing dynasty (see Chapter 4). Finally, the present book, besides understanding Sino-European exchange in terms of cultural entanglement, also zooms in on individual encounters. The term “encounter” stems from the Latin “contra” and implies (according to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary) “meeting as an adversary or enemy,” “to come upon face-to-face” or “to come upon or experience especially unexpectedly.” This word highlights that meetings between foreigners could often result in hostility and misunderstanding rather than rapprochement; yet, precisely such unexpected face-offs could be events of a performative nature that, in turn, sparked creativity, as is testified by the cultural reactions to the Chinese visitors in the Netherlands, featured in Chapter 5. 4

Sales and Salvation, Protestants and Catholics

As the travels of Dominicus and Maurus suggest, mentioned at the outset of this chapter, Dutch encounters with China were marked by a European dimension in which religious divisions were no hindrance for cultural exchange. In the later historiography, however, it seems that different confessional vantage points persist and actually hamper an analysis that is truly European in scope. Due to the importance of the Jesuit mission, scholarship on Sino-­ European meetings has given pride of place to Portuguese, Italian, and French sources and stories. The Dutch and English ventures in East Asia, which were not motivated by the Catholic agenda, have received comparatively less attention. This is surprising in light of the role of the Dutch on the world stage, who had emerged—according to Immanuel Wallerstein’s influential analysis—as the hegemonic global power, their rise coinciding with the breakthrough of the “modern world system” in the sixteenth century.30 The motor of both processes was the expansion of European trade. The United Provinces, having freed themselves from the grip of the Habsburg Empire during the Dutch Revolt (1568–1648), established a trading empire that provided them with the wealth needed to keep their position at the top of the European hierarchy during the remainder of their “Golden Age,” with sizeable holds over West and South 30

I. Wallerstein, The Modern World System ii: Mercantilism and the Consolidation of the E­ uropean World Economy, 1600–1750 (New York: Academic Press, 1980), 46.

China, the Netherlands, Europe

13

­ frica, Persia, Ceylon, South India, Java and the Spice Islands, Siam, Tonkin, A and Japan; in the Western hemisphere: Brazil, the Caribbean, and Manhattan, trading extensively in silk, silver, copper, porcelain, opium, slaves—and more (see Chapter 2). Although the historical literature on the Dutch East and West India Companies (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or voc and Westindische Compagnie or wic) is vast, the extent to which the cultural dimension has failed to be studied is worthy of note.31 Harold Cook made an exemplary study of the place of science in the Dutch overseas enterprise and, increasingly, the history of ­linguistics is included in the analysis, but similar studies of literature, art, historiography, religion, and philosophy are lacking.32 This is partly due to the obvious mercantile interests of the voc above all else; with plunder on their minds, the Dutch rarely aimed at religious conversion, let alone at any more lofty humanistic projects, as contemporaries (most famously, voc governor Nicolaas Witsen) already lamented.33 Even though the voc may have demonstrated an almost utter lack of interest in foreign cultures, there was an evident cultural impact of the exchange of material culture that the Company set in motion—to think only of the tens of millions of pieces of Chinese porcelain that moved across continents (or Chinese lacquerwork, discussed in Chapter 7 of this book). What is more, the Dutch tried to legitimize their overseas brutality in cultural terms. This attempt often overlapped with their efforts to legitimize their own new state. Thus, they gave the malaria-infested trading post that was to become capital of their colonial empire the lofty name of Batavia, in reference to the ancient tribe described by Tacitus that, during Roman times, would have lived in the area later occupied by the Dutch Republic. The status of the Batavians in the classical sources was philologically unclear and the creation of an overseas Batavia could provide a political legitimacy to this story— in terms of the global projection of imperial power—that made up for the spuriousness of the temporal pedigree. Studying the Dutch overseas exploits from a perspective that is both cultural and global should obviously also involve their European rivals on the 31 32

33

The doyen of this area of study was Charles Boxer, among whose many publications, The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600–1800 (London: Hutchinson, 1966) merits a mention here. H. Cook, Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008); A. Pytlowany, “Ketelaar Rediscovered: The First Dutch Grammar of Persian and Hindustani (1698)” (Ph.D. diss., University of Amsterdam, 2018). “[H]et is alleen gelt en geen wetenschap die onse luyden soeken aldaer, ’t gunt is te beklagen.” Nicolaes Witsen to Gijsbert Cuper, August 1, 1712, in J.F. Gebhard, Het leven van Mr. Nicolaes Cornelisz. Witsen (Utrecht: Leeflang, 1882), 2, no. 41, 341.

14

Weststeijn

world stage (Iberians, English, French) and the supra-national institutions with global ambitions such as the Jesuit order. There were, after all, two intercontinental networks that facilitated knowledge about China: the voc and the Society of Jesus. The present book will therefore work towards an integrated approach of these two companies, which remains a desideratum, although an excellent, unpublished dissertation by Frasie Hertroijs (Free University ­Amsterdam) has taken essential first strides.34 As is exemplified by the fact that Dominicus traveled to Europe on a voc ship, the missionaries realized that the Dutch had established the fastest and most efficient route of communication with China. It helped a small group of Jesuits from the Southern Netherlands, which reached inside the Forbidden City, to become extraordinarily successful; one of them, Verbiest, even became personal tutor to the emperor.35 The missionaries provided publishers, scholars, and artists in the Netherlands with first-hand information from their privileged position. Dutch colonial settlements in East Asia sometimes played intermediary roles in this exchange.36 Linguistic and cultural affinities apparently 34

35

36

F. Hertroijs, “Hoe kennis van China naar Europa kwam. De rol van Jezuïeten en VOC-­ dienaren, circa 1680–1795,” (Ph.D. diss., Free University of Amsterdam, 2014). For the importance of the interconnected study of the Northern and Southern Netherlands, see P. Demaerel, “Couplet and the Dutch,” in J. Heyndrickx, ed., Philippe Couplet, S.J. (1623– 1693): The Man Who Brought China to Europe (Nettetal: Steyer, 1990), 87–120; K. Davids, “Van VOC-mentaliteit naar Jezuïetenmentaliteit: de Societas Jesu als schrikbeeld, partner en ijkpunt voor de Oost-Indische Compagnie,” in M. Ebben a.o., ed., Alle streken van het compas: maritieme geschiedenis van Nederland (Zutphen: Walburg, 2010), 132–135; and R.P. Hsia, “China in the Spanish Netherlands: Belgian Jesuits in the Production and Circulation of Knowledge about Ming-Qing China” (paper presented at the Embattled Territory. The Circulation of Knowledge in the Spanish Netherlands Conference, kantl, Ghent, March 9–11, 2011). Missionaries traveled on the Dutch ships that also carried their mail; this was known as the Via Batavia, Via Hollandica, or Via Jacquetrensi (on the way back, Dutch journals appear to have kept the missionaries informed with news from Europe). See J. Wills, “Some Dutch Sources on the Jesuit China Mission, 1662–1687,” Archivum historicum Societatis Iesu 54 (1985): 267–294. At all times, the Portuguese, French, and Italian missionaries were numerically superior. For some numbers, see J. Dehergne, Répertoire des Jésuites de Chine (Rome and Paris: Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 1972), which lists 920 Jesuits of the Chinese Mission (who departed for China from Europe, were born in China, or came from the Japanese mission but were relevant to China) in the period 1552–1813. Thirtyeight of them came from the Low Countries, including at least seven born in the Northern Netherlands. One was procurator of the mission (Trigault); two became mandarins (Verbiest and Thomas); another was visitor for the Chinese mission and rector (Petrus van Hamme, 1651–1727). An example of this was the vital communication between Jesuits from the Southern Netherlands on the Chinese coast, the VOC physician Andreas Cleyer and the minister, Theodorus Sas in Batavia, and an Antwerp publisher; see N. Golvers, Ferdinand Verbiest,

China, the Netherlands, Europe

15

trumped religious differences; Jesuits could move relatively freely in the Dutch Republic where there was a large Catholic population.37 In turn, the Celestial Empire was always on the horizon of Dutch maritime ambitions: it was seen as the greatest prize of colonial discovery, trade, and conquest (as Djoeke van Netten argues in Chapter 2). After failing to sail the Northeast Passage, Dutch fleets from the 1620s approached Southern China. Their colonial settlements in Batavia and Formosa (Taiwan) were made possible by the successful symbiosis with sizeable local Chinese communities (see Joris van den Tol in Chapter 6). At home Dutch artists, cartographers, and craftsmen made Chinese information available to a large audience that had previously been available chiefly in Latin for an elite, mostly related to the Jesuit mission. Thus, according to Lach and Van Kley’s monumental Asia in the Making of Europe (1993), the Netherlands became “Europe’s primary entrepôt for information about Asia” and the Dutch perception of China has “considerable significance for understanding early modern European culture generally.”38 What is more, the Low Countries also feature prominently in Chinese reactions to the West. The proverbial Chinese stereotype of Europeans as “redhaired devils” was used first for the Dutch in 1601 and was (as Lennert Gesterkamp argues in Chapter 3), exclusively aimed at visitors from the Low Countries. As a plea for redressing the balance and for an integrated approach of the different Europeans involved, the present volume therefore pairs six chapters featuring Dutch protagonists to six chapters where other Europeans are central. Up to the final years of its existence, the voc kept sending embassies

37

38

S.J. (1623–1688) and the Chinese Heaven (Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, 2003), 188. To quote Hsia, “China in the Spanish Netherlands”: “Through [their] proximity to the former northern provinces, which became the independent Dutch Republic, and thanks to the large Catholic population in the north, Belgian Jesuits in China could shift from a Portuguese-dominated network to the more efficient Dutch route of communication.” J. Andriessen, De Jezuïeten en het saamhorigheidsbesef der Nederlanden, 1585–1648 (Antwerp: 1957), 69–71. In Jesuit sources from the Low Countries, “Belgium” indicated both the Southern and Northern Netherlands. “This use seems to be continued in the letters by ‘Flemish’ Jesuits of the second half of the same century in China, such as François de Rougemont, Philippe Couplet, and Ferdinand Verbiest.” N. Golvers, The Logistics of Acqui­ sition and Circulation, vol. 1, Libraries of Western Learning for China. Circulation of Western Books between Europe and China in the Jesuit Mission (ca. 1650–ca. 1750) (Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, 2012), 428. D. Lach & E. van Kley, A Century of Advance. Book i: Trade, Missions, Literature, vol. 3, Asia in the Making of Europe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), 508; E. van Kley, “Qing Dynasty China in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Literature 1644–1700,” in The History of the Relations Between the Low Countries and China in the Qing Era (1644–1911), ed. W.F. Vande Walle (Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, 2003), 217–234, esp. 231.

16

Weststeijn

to China, and (as Cai Xiangyu argues in Chapter 12), even the failure of the famous Macartney mission can be understood in the light of a similar Dutch attempt of 1794. 5

Chapters in This Book

The volume’s chapters are organized chronologically, starting with the first discussions of China in the Netherlands in the late sixteenth century and ending with the very last embassy of the voc in the late eighteenth century. Chapters that explore European perspectives alternate with others written from Chinese perspectives. Whereas in some chapters, the intricacies of interactions between Chinese and Europeans are charted and explained—as shaped by structural factors such as petitions, lobbying, patronage, and networking—in others, the focus lies on the representations that resulted from these meetings. In all chapters, the role of the Low Countries is relevant, in some very explicitly so; in others, this role is more implicit as Netherlanders such as Ferdinand Verbiest, Philippe Couplet, or Johan Nieuhof make background appearances. Three chapters (by Djoeke van Netten, Willemijn van Noord, and Trude Dijk­ stra) address Dutch images of China in different media including travelogues, maps, scholarly journals, and the applied arts, demonstrating how, in European eyes, China was not a monolithic concept but that the—often surprisingly positive—take on the country and its inhabitants depended on a variety of contextual factors, not least being the medium of cultural expression. The chapter by Dong Shaoxin provides yet more nuance by exploring how European accounts of the Middle Kingdom singled out one of the Empire’s specific ethnic groups: the Manchus. A mirroring position is taken by Lennert Gesterkamp, who analyzes how early Chinese visions of Europeans identified the Dutch as “red-haired barbarians.” Images of the Dutch and other Europeans in the later seventeenth and early eighteenth century are discussed by Sun Jing, who points out that the Kangxi and Yongzheng Emperors ordered paintings of foreigners partly to fashion their own authoritative identity. In addition, four chapters address the logistics of cultural entanglement, in relation to gambling on Formosa (Joris van den Tol), the provincial networks of missionaries based in Beijing (Chen Yufang), Jesuit libraries in China (Noël Golvers), and the trading embassies to the imperial court (Cai Xiangyu). Chapter 2, by Djoeke van Netten, provides an innovative overview of knowledge and ideas on China in the Low Countries from before the moment that the first China-bound fleets from Holland and Zeeland set sail in the mid-1590s.

China, the Netherlands, Europe

17

In theory, at least five routes could be taken for European ships looking for trade with China and Cathay. In practice, in 1594–1595, the Dutch started to try the northeastern and the southeastern routes. Both endeavors did not reach China (or Cathay: the distinction is clarified in this chapter). However, as Van Netten argues, to understand the outset, plans, and preparations of these attempts, the results and consequences should not be taken into account. That is why the chapter is teleologically framed as little as possible, starting from the available knowledge on China in classical and Biblical sources, medieval testimonies from people such as Marco Polo, via printed books and maps informed by the first Portuguese explorations, to eyewitness accounts by Dutch travelers who had actually been to East Asia. When the Dutch finally reached China in 1601, they did not fail to make a lasting impression. In Chapter 3, Lennert Gesterkamp explores how their arrival is documented in Zhang Xie’s 張燮 Dongxi yangkao 東西洋考 [Investiga­ tions on the East and West Seas]. This state-commissioned literary text on the trade routes and the peoples in the China Seas contains the first official description of the Dutch, or “red-haired barbarians.” It outlines their origins and appearance, a short history of Chinese-Dutch interaction from 1601 to 1607, some cultural specifics of the Dutch, and the products of their trade. Their technology appeared spectacular: the retracting cannons with barrels “as big as a wagon wheel” and their enormous iron-girded ships, covered in a shiny layer of grease in which the Chinese gaped at their own reflection. The appendix to this chapter includes a full translation of the relevant Chinese passage. While the Chinese were surprisingly specific in singling out the Dutch among the different groups of Europeans they engaged with, the ethnic varieties within the Chinese Empire were only slowly recognized by the foreign visitors. In Chapter 4, Dong Shaoxin focuses on the Tartars, a group that was described in European texts already before the Manchu Conquest in 1644. Dong gives pride of place to documents related to the Catholic mission, including not only well-known printed books but also unknown manuscripts from Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian archives. The Tartars feature in travelogues and dramatic plays and even an opera, where, as conquerors of the Ming, their “masculine” vigor is contrasted with the “effeminacy” of the Han Chinese. The chapter argues, however, that the historical relevance of the European writings on the Tartars does not lie in their appeal to their readers’ curiosity, but rather in their practical role in establishing missionary and mercantile contacts. In Europe, there were few opportunities to check the validity of stereotypes against actual cultural encounters. The handful of early Chinese visitors to the Netherlands comes to the fore in Chapter 5. Here, Thijs Weststeijn presents four of these visits as adequately documented by different sources; three other

18

Weststeijn

Chinese men are only known by their images and one more is reported to have departed, but never arrived. The chapter raises the question as to what extent the documentation about these visits can be taken at face value. The successful performance of Psalmanazar, an impostor posing as a visitor from Formosa, demonstrates the sheer inability of Europeans to verify the accuracy of cultural representations. At the same time, the available archival data suggest that too much fear of a positivist “fallacy” may only perpetuate the dynamic of Orientalist or “exotic” projections, whereas an encounter between individuals actually took place. Chinese and Europeans engaged particularly intensively on the island of Formosa, which was a successful Dutch colony for several decades. In Chapter 6, Joris van den Tol explores an aspect of the institutional background of their encounters: regulations for gambling (toppen). This was a popular pastime for Chinese merchants and colonists in the voc territories, but it also had a bad reputation. The Chinese population attempted to lobby the Dutch leadership for regulations governing gambling on the island. Van den Tol’s innovative analysis of Chinese petitions delivered to the voc demonstrates that neither the Dutch leadership nor the Chinese merchants should be considered monolithic and that their interactions became increasingly entangled. Even though the Chinese merchants relied on the Chinese tradition of an essay-like petition and provided no new arguments against gambling, their request was hon­ ored by the Formosan Council. Over the next few years, the Chinese population “Dutchified” their petitions to the voc leadership on Formosa on other requests. Chapter 7, by Willemijn van Noord, illustrates the complex and potent role of material culture in mediating cultural encounters. She traces the vicissitudes of a Chinese lacquer screen in the hands of the English Princess, Mary ii Stuart, and the esteemed Dutch poet and diplomat, Constantijn Huygens. The chapter shows that the confrontation between one Chinese object and two European individuals, triggered very different responses and conveyed diverging views of China. The chapter brings new source materials to bear on Huygens’s letters to illuminate not just the trajectory of the lacquer screen, but also his rhetorical tactics and genuine interest and respect for Chinese art and culture. Ultimately, the agency of material culture in processes of image formation comes to the fore. Worthy of special attention is a letter that the Dutch poet allegedly received from a Chinese interlocutor, who deplored the lack of respect that Chinese heritage was shown in Europe. Moving from material to intellectual culture, Chapter 8 by Trude Dijkstra explores one of the epochal products of Sino-European entanglement: the

China, the Netherlands, Europe

19

publication of the Latin translation of three of the Four Books of Confucian philosophy: Confucius Sinarum philosophus (1687). This resulted from a century’s work by different missionaries and their Chinese assistants. Dijkstra points out that the journal of the Royal Society in London, Philosophical Transactions, along with every other major learned journal of the time, included a review article of this book, with comparative chronology—the question whether Chinese or the Judaeo-Christian civilization was older—as the hottest potato. On the basis of the reviews, she demonstrates that, in Europe, the image of Confucius was fragmented whereby different voices used the Chinese sage to push their own philosophical, religious, or political agendas. If the Confucius Sinarum philosophus can be seen as a co-production of entangled European and Chinese philology, Chapter 9, by Chen Yufang, further explores how the success of the Jesuits’ approach rested on a sophisticated strategy to nurture relationships with Chinese bureaucrat-scholars. The central position of missionaries based in the Forbidden City allowed them to develop large relational networks among provincial officials, intended to safeguard local missionaries and their projects. The chapter focuses on the Portuguese Tomás Pereira, successor of Ferdinand Verbiest as director of the Imperial Bureau of Astronomy, and his interaction with local-level mandarins from c.1689–1690 onwards. While Pereira could not leave the capital at will, his network was widely ramified across the provinces, from viceroys and governors to prefects of different levels and even clerks. Pereira himself benefited from the prestige he obtained among all officials in the light of the imperial favor and patronage. His example casts an innovative light the success of the Jesuit mission: rather than on the individual “giants” of the mission such as Ricci and Verbiest, it was partly based on the distributed agency of networks that connected Europeans and Chinese and extended throughout the Qing empire. Chinese and European ideas were also debated and confronted in the Middle Kingdom itself; in fact, the Jesuits exerted noteworthy logistical effort to make this possible. Chapter 10, by Noël Golvers, surveys the contents of Jesuit libraries in Beijing and elsewhere, as he has been able to identify their almost five thousand titles. These libraries were, on the one hand, databases for research and teaching, with classics next to novelties; on the other, they were arsenals of arguments for polemics with Chinese and European opponents. The chapter argues that these were “living libraries” with livres actifs that were recycled in new compositions in Chinese or European languages. Especially critical was having at hand a collection with books in Chinese, which provoked cross-consultations between Chinese and European works. This transformed

20

Weststeijn

the libraries into battlefields where the exchange of knowledge between ­Europe and China took place: battles that sometimes left their physical traces, such as annotations, in the books concerned. Issues of legitimacy, rather than mere lust of knowing, also come to the fore in Chinese paintings representing Europeans. Chapter 11, by Sun Jing, explores images of Europeans commissioned at the Qing court during the reigns of Kangxi and Yongzheng (1662–1735). The analysis foregrounds the painting Dutch Delegates Presenting a Gift of Horses and Oxen, made for Kangxi, and a series ordered by his predecessor: The Yongzheng Emperor’s Portraits in West­ ern Costume. Analyzing the visual sources of these images and their reception, interpretation, and transformation by court artists in Beijing, the chapters argues that the twin factors of curiosity about strangers and imperial authority expressed in the mirror of the foreign, provide interpretive models for these artifacts of cultural entanglement. Thus, the emperor imagined the failed Dutch attempt to open up China for free trade as a performance of tributary subordination. In the final chapter, Cai Xiangyu explores how, following the well-known Macartney embassy of the British East India Company (1793), the voc sent their own ambassador—Isaac Titsingh—to the court of Beijing in the following year. Earlier scholarship has proposed that André Everard van Braam Houckgeest played a crucial role in urging the dispatch of this embassy. This chapter, by contrast, foregrounds the initiative taken by Chang Lin, the viceroy of Guangdong and Guangxi. By carefully analyzing different documents, it reconstructs key junctures in the formation of the mission: correspondence between Van Braam and the authorities in Batavia requiring an embassy; the investigation on the credibility of Van Braam undertaken by Titsingh soon after his arrival in Guangzhou; and the testimonies given by the chiefs of the English and Spanish factories on the spot. This new information brings to light a link between the failures of the successive Macartney and Titsingh embassies to acquire trading privileges from the Chinese. Selected Bibliography Andrade, T. Lost Colony: The Untold Story of China’s First Great Victory over the West. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011. Arcangeli, A. “In Search of a Definition? A Fuzzy Field of Enquiry.” In Cultural History: A Concise Introduction, 1–17. New York: Routledge, 2012. Bentley, J.H. “Cultural Exchanges in World History.” In The Oxford Handbook of World History edited by J.H. Bentley, 343–360. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

China, the Netherlands, Europe

21

Blussé, L. & F.-J. van Luyn, China en de Nederlanders: Geschiedenis van de NederlandsChinese betrekkingen 1600–2007. Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2008. Blussé, L. Strange Company: Chinese Settlers, Mestizo Women and the Dutch in VOC Batavia. Dordrecht: Foris, 1986. Brockey, L.M. Journey to the East: The Jesuit Mission to China, 1579–1724. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007. Burke, P. What is Cultural History? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Chen Bo. “Conceptions of ‘China’ in Early Modern Europe.” Chinese Studies in History 48 (2015): 401–422. Fontana, M. Matteo Ricci: A Jesuit in the Ming Court. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Gerritsen, A. & G. Riello, ed. The Global Lives of Things: The Material Culture of Connec­ tions in the Early Modern World. Basingstoke: Routledge, 2015. Ginzburg, C. “Provincializing the World: Europeans, Indians, Jews (1704).” Postcolonial Studies 14, no. 2 (2011): 135–150. Golvers, N. “De recruteringstocht van M. Martini, S.J. door de Lage Landen in 1654: over geomantische kompassen, Chinese verzamelingen, lichtbeelden en R.P. Wilhelm van Aelst, S.J.” De zeventiende eeuw 10, no. 2 (1994): 331–350. Golvers, N. Ferdinand Verbiest, S.J. (1623–1688) and the Chinese Heaven. Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, 2003. Gombrich, E.H. In Search of Cultural History. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969. Grasskamp, A. “Cultivated Curiosities: A Comparative Study of Chinese Artifacts in European Kunstkammern and European Objects in Chinese Elite Collections.” Ph.D. diss., Leiden University, 2013. Gunn, G. First Globalization: The Eurasian Exchange, 1500–1800. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. He Yuming. “The Book and the Barbarian in Ming China and Beyond: The Luo Chong Lu, or Record of Naked Creatures.” Asia Major 24, no. 1 (2011): 43–85. Hertel, R. & M. Keevak, ed. Early Encounters between East Asia and Europe: Telling Fail­ ures. New York: Routledge, 2017. Hertroijs, F. “Hoe kennis van China naar Europa kwam. De rol van Jezuïeten en VOCdienaren, circa 1680–1795.” Ph.D. diss., Free University of Amsterdam, 2014. Hobson, J. The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation. Cambridge: Cambridge Univeristy Press, 2004. Hostetler, L. Qing Colonial Enterprise: Ethnography and Cartography in Early Modern China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. Hsia, R.P. A Jesuit in the Forbidden City: Matteo Ricci 1552–1610. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Keevak, M. Embassies to China. Diplomacy and Cultural Encounters before the Opium Wars. London: Palgrave, 2017.

22

Weststeijn

Kuruppath, M. Staging Asia: The Dutch East India Company and the Amsterdam­ Theatre. Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2016. Lach, D. & E. van Kley. Asia in the Making of Europe. Vol. 3, A Century of Advance. Book i: Trade, Missions, Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. Laven, M. Mission to China: Matteo Ricci and the Jesuit Encounter with the East. London: Faber and Faber, 2011. Lee, C.H., ed. Western Visions of the Far East in a Transpacific Age, 1522–1657. London: Routledge, 2016. Lee, T.H.C., ed. China and Europe: Images and Influences in Sixteenth to Eighteenth Cen­ turies [sic]. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1991. Lepenies, W., ed. Entangled Histories and Negotiated Universals: Centers and Peripheries in a Changing World. Frankfurt & New York: Campus, 1993. Lu, M. The Chinese Impact on English Renaissance Literature: A Globalization and Lib­ eral Cosmopolitan Approach to Donne and Milton. Farnham: Ashgate, 2015. Malek, R., ed. Western Learning and Christianity in China: The Contribution and Impact of Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1592–1666). Nettetal: Monumenta Serica, 1998. Menegon, E. Ancestors, Virgins, and Friars: Christianity as a Local Religion in Late Impe­ rial China Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009. Miller, P.N. & F. Louis, ed. Antiquarianism and Intellectual Life in Europe and China 1500–1800. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2012. Mungello, D. Curious Land: Jesuit Accommodation and the Origins of Sinology. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1985. Musillo, M. “Sino-Western Interactions: Materiality and Intellect in the Historiography of China.” European History Quarterly 43, no. 3 (2013): 508–518. Musillo, M. The Shining Inheritance: Italian Painters at the Qing Court, 1699–1812. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2016. Nederveen Pieterse, J. Globalization and Culture: Global Mélange. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003; 3rd ed. 2015. Nederveen Pieterse, J. Changgang Guo, and Liu Debin, ed. China’s Contingencies and Globalization. London: Routledge, 2018. Pérez García, M. “Introduction: Current Challenges of Global History in East Asian Historiographies.” In Global History and New Polycentric Approaches: Europe, Asia and the Americas in a World Network System, edited by M. Pérez García & L. De Sousa, 1–17. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2018. Pomeranz, K. The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000. Porter, D. Ideographia. The Chinese Cipher in Early Modern Europe. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. Spence, J.D. The Chan’s Great Continent: China in Western Minds. New York & London: Norton, 1998.

China, the Netherlands, Europe

23

Standaert, N. The Interweaving of Rituals: Funerals in the Cultural Exchange between China and Europe. Seattle & London: The University of Washington Press, 2008. Subrahmanyam, S. “Connected Histories: Notes towards a Reconfiguration of Early Modern Eurasia.” Modern Asian Studies 31, no. 3 (1997): 735–762. Subrahmanyam, S. Europe’s India: Words, People, Empires, 1500–1800. Cambridge, MA & London: Harvard University Press, 2017. Ten-Doesschate Chu, P. & Ding Ning, ed. Qing Encounters: Artistic Exchanges between China and the West. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2015. Van Kley, E. “Qing Dynasty China in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Literature 1644–1700.” In The History of the Relations Between the Low Countries and China in the Qing Era (1644–1911), edited by W.F. Vande Walle, 217–234. Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, 2003. Wills, J. Embassies and Illusions: Dutch and Portuguese Envoys to K’ang-shi, 1666–1687. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984. Wills, J. Pepper, Guns and Parleys: The Dutch East India Company and China, 1662–1681. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974. Wills, J. “Some Dutch Sources on the Jesuit China Mission, 1662–1687.” Archivum his­ toricum Societatis Iesu 54 (1985): 267–294. Witek, J.W., ed. Ferdinand Verbiest (1623–1688): Jesuit Missionary, Scientist, Engineer and Diplomat. Nettetal: Monumenta Serica, 1994. Wong Bin. China Transformed: Historical Change and the Limits of European Experi­ ence. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997. Yang, C. Performing China: Virtue, Commerce, and Orientalism in Eighteenth-Century England, 1660–1760. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011. Zhang Yue & A.M. Riemenschneider, ed. Entangled Landscapes: Early Modern China and Europe. Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, 2017.

Chapter 2

The Richest Country in the World: Dutch Knowledge of China and Cathay and How to Get There in the 1590s Djoeke van Netten 1 Introduction1 It is the richest country to be found under the sun.2 This quote regarding China is drawn “from the mouth of Dirck Gerritsz,” the first Dutchman recorded to have been in China. However, when he visited China in the early 1580s, he probably did not think of himself as a Dutchman. He came from the city of Enkhuizen, from West Frisia in the province of Holland, part of the Seventeen Provinces under Spanish Habsburg rule. Only seventy years later, the Northern Netherlands would become an independent country. In hindsight we can point to Gerritsz, who later in his life adopted “China” as his middle name, as the first representative of Dutch-Chinese relations. That is why we start with him. The question here is not whether China was, indeed, the richest country but why people in Holland thought so and, subsequently, how they used that knowledge. This chapter will examine these questions by focusing on the available knowledge of China in the Dutch Republic and how it shaped the plans and preparations for the first fleets sent out to Asia in the mid-1590s. Gerritsz’s words were published in 1592, just before the real takeoff of Dutch presence in Asia. According to received scholarship, it seems that Dutch-­ Chinese encounters began in 1600.3 Besides being a round number, 1600 was 1 This chapter has its origins in a presentation at a conference in Shanghai, September 2016, organized by Thijs Weststeijn and Dong Shaoxin. Many thanks for critical reading and thinking along go to: Rosanne Baars, Tiffany Bousard, Isabel Casteels, Trude Dijkstra, Michiel van Groesen, Helmer Helmers, Geert Janssen, Eric Jorink, Michael Keevak, Jaap van Netten, ­Willemijn van Noord, Paul Posthuma and Thijs Weststeijn. 2 “Het is dat rijckste lant datmen onder de sonne mach vinden.” Lucas Jansz Waghenaer, Thresoor der zeevaert (Amsterdam: Claesz, 1592), 198. 3 For example, see the title of the conference, where the research for this chapter was first presented: “Entangled Cultural Histories. Encounters between China and Europe, 1600–1900.” See also Leonard Blussé and Floris-Jan van Luyn, China en de Nederlanders. Geschiedenis van ©

 | 

/

The Richest Country in the World

25

the year a Dutch ship arrived in the Far East (albeit Japan). In 1602, the Dutch East India Company (voc) was established and, around the same time, the Dutch attacked Spanish Manila and Portuguese Macao. According to a slightly different narrative, real Dutch-Chinese exchange is seen as commencing only in the 1620s, when the Dutch settled at Formosa. Other scholars even place it in the third quarter of the seventeenth century, when the first Dutch embassies to the Chinese court occurred.4 However, China before the seventeenth century was not like a pre-Columbian New World.5 Whereas the Americas can be considered as an unknown unknown in Rumsfeldian terms, East Asia was a known unknown.6 It helps to distinguish these two concepts, especially when writing on “the age of discovery” and being, of course, very much aware that this implies a very European perspective. In the late sixteenth century, information on China was not just available for the Portuguese, who had landed on the southeastern shores of China in 1514, but also for other people in Europe. The general existence of China and some of its products were already known in antiquity. So, if China was known, what did people know, what did they expect, and how did they frame China? This last question is important since, by framing it, they shaped the idea of China in the European mind. In many publications on the voc, Dutch colonialism and Dutch-Asian relations, a prologue or prelude is included regarding the last decade of the de Nederlands-Chinese betrekkingen 1600–2007 (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2008); Jan van Campen and Tristan Mostert, Zijden draad. China en Nederland 1600–2000 (Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Vantilt, 2015). See also Thijs Weststeijn, “Portraits of China and Japan. The Case of the Dutch Golden Age,” in Portraits of Asia and Europe, ed., K. Yoshida and B. Durrans (Osaka: Asahi Shimbun, 2008), 278; Leonard Blussé, “Peeking into the Empires. Dutch Embassies to the Courts of China and Japan,” Itinerario 37, no. 3 (2013): 15; Dong Shaoxin, “Research Statement. Portuguese-Dutch Conflicts and the Macao-Nagasaki Trade in the Early Seventeenth Century,” Itinerario 37 (2013): 72. Additionally, the same is true for Japan: Huibert Paul, Nederlanders in Japan 1600–1854. De voc op Desjima (Weesp: Fibula-Van Dishoeck, 1984); Peter Rietbergen, Japan verwoord. Nihon door Nederlandse ogen, 1600–1799 (Amsterdam: kit Publishers, 2003). 4 Cynthia Viallé, “Daily Life of the Dutch in Canton and Nagasaki. A Comparison Based on the voc dagregisters and Other Sources,” Itinerario 37, no. 3 (2013): 153–171; John E. Wills, Pepper, Guns and Parleys: The Dutch East India Company and China, 1662–1681 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974); Blussé, “Peeking into the Empires” (2013). 5 Cf. John H. Elliot, The Old World and the New, 1492–1650 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970); Anthony Grafton, New Worlds, Ancient Text. The Power of Tradition and the Shock of Discovery (London: Belknap Press, 1992); Stephen Greenblatt, Marvellous Possessions. The Wonder of the New World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003). 6 United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in a news briefing February 12, 2002 (on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq): “We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns— the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

26

van Netten

s­ ixteenth century. However, these are always presented with later results in mind. Much is written from subsequent perspectives, especially in (neo- or post-)colonial history; much is written focusing on what later turned out to be successful and much is written arguing from the truths fitting in modern worldviews and modern world maps. The literature on European-Asian encounters, exchange and relations is vast, though not as vast as what has been written on the New World and Europe. The works of Charles Boxer as well as Donald Lach’s multivolume Asia in the Making of Europe must be mentioned.7 From the mid-nineteenth century onward, many travel accounts were (re)published by the English Hakluyt Society and the Dutch Linschoten-Vereeniging. Various other Dutch historians of geography, cartography and navigation, made public their late sixteenth-century past during the first decades of the twentieth century. Some of the protagonists and books mentioned in this chapter were researched, presented in publications quite obscure and outdated by now and are almost exclusively in Dutch. The challenge in understanding what was known in the 1590s is to leave out the teleology and the national, even nationalistic, undertones. We should not laugh at the stupidity of “the stubborn Dutch” who tried to find a sea route where there was just ice.8 Nor should we admire the brave heroes from Holland who established a colonial empire and brought about the Dutch Golden Age.9 Instead, we should focus on the 1590s, stick to the chronology as best as possible and have a closer look at people planning, outfitting, sending out and discussing the first Dutch fleets to Asia. We may then ask how their production, dissemination and use of knowledge on China played a role. We should not include their unknown unknowns in our explanations, since they planned and prepared to the best of their knowledge.10 Moreover, we should take into ­account how the Dutch set sail for Asia thanks to and notwithstanding the earlier and simultaneous attempts of other Europeans.

7

Charles Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600–1800 (London: Hutchinson, 1966); The Portuguese Seaborne Empire 1415–1825 (London: Pelican Press, 1969) and much more; Donald F. Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe, 3 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965– 1993), later volumes with Edwin J. van Kley. 8 Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe, vol. 1, book 1, The Century of Discovery, 489. 9 Cf. much Dutch heroic historiography of the 1920s and 1930s; Arun Saldanha, “The Itineraries of Geography. Jan Huygen van Linschoten’s Itinerario and Dutch Expeditions to the Indian Ocean, 1594–1602,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 101, no. 1 (2011): 149–177. 10 On knowledge, begin with Peter Burke, What is the History of Knowledge? (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2016).

The Richest Country in the World

27

Chronologically, this chapter is the first in this volume. However, it aims to be more than a prologue; it is a late sixteenth-century story, trying to understand the actors in their own terms and argue without considering the knowledge from later results and consequences. The most exciting decade in Dutch history does deserve some attention on its own merits. 2

Reading China

In the early 1590s, no Netherlandish ship had ever sailed to the East Indies. At the same time, the economy boomed, especially in the coastal provinces Holland and Zeeland. Prosperity grew, despite the ongoing revolt against the Spanish king. When Philip ii also became king of Portugal in the 1580s, DutchPortuguese trade became forbidden. As a result, demand regarding spices and other Asian luxuries, so much loved by the late sixteenth-century European elites, grew while supply declined. Netherlandish merchants longed for their own share in this lucrative trade and wished to secure tastier meals, exotic drinks and show off with tables full of silk, porcelain, silverware, and gems. But where could they obtain these and how could they get there? Money, ships and crew were easy to find, especially since the influx of refugees from the Southern Netherlands, which brought along capital, business knowledge and manpower. Yet detailed knowledge on places, people, products and prizes was lacking. To understand what happened in the early 1590s, we have to journey back in history since, before people in Holland proved able to produce their own knowledge on China, there were some other sources available. In general, Asia or (East) India—these terms were roughly interchangeable—were not completely unknown before the 1580s. By oral transmission, manuscripts and printed maps and books, knowledge of the Far East had already reached Western Europe. It is important to add that knowledge on Asia was an elite affair and, for the greater part, only available for literate ­people with ample time to read. The Far East is referred to in the Bible, specifically as the land of Chittim and the land of Magog.11 The peoples of Gog and Magog lived there, oftentimes presented as man-eaters, of which traditional rumor told that Alexander the Great had them put behind a wall. The Jewish historian Josephus identified the Magogites with people called Scythians by the Greeks.12 Around the same 11 Genesis 10:4, Isaiah 23:1; Ezekiel 38. 12 Josephus, The Complete Works, trans. William Whiston (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1999), Chapter 6: 1.

28

van Netten

time, Pliny wrote about Scythia and what lied even further northeast.13 That part of the world was also referred to as Serica or the land of Seres, meaning silk, its most well-known export product. This product had given its name to the land route to the most eastern part of the world.14 Further south, a Sinae region could be found, sometimes known as Sin, Chin, China, or Tzinista.15 From a seafaring point of view, this was also the end of a (more southern, sea-)route. According to Ptolemy and other classical scholars, this was the furthest east that men could go, or at least, that they knew of. The Sinae were the remotest nation of the habitable world. After Ptolemy in the second century ce, not much news was added on the world map in Europe, and Serica remained little more than a name. Things changed in the thirteenth century. The Mongol Empire rose, with its eastern part called Catai or something similar, named after a nomadic people who called themselves Khitan. European travelers came overland to this part of the world or came at least half way and wrote about more eastern lands.16 The Franciscan monks John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck wrote about Cathay.17 Rubruck even concluded that Cathay was the same place as the land of the Seres. In the late thirteenth century, Marco Polo visited the Mongol ruler, the Great Khan, in the land of Cathay. The image that emerges from ancient and medieval writers up to Rubruck, Polo and beyond, is that the Sinae, the Seres, or Cathayans, were civilized, well-organized, just, temperate, kind, white, and 13 14 15

16

17

Gaius Plinius Secundus, Naturalis historia, trans. John Bostock and H.T. Riley (New Jersey, University of Princeton Press: 1857), book 6, Chapter 17, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ hopper/text?doc=Plin.+Nat.+toc. Peter Frankopan, The Silk Roads. A New History of the World (London: Bloomsbury, 2015), Chapter 1. On ancient and medieval notions of China see, Henry Yule and Henri Cordier, ed., Cathay and the Way Thither. Being a Collection of Medieval Notions of China with a Preliminary Essay on the Intercourse between China and the Western Nations Previous to the Discovery of the Cape Route (London: Hakluyt Society, 1914), vol. 1, esp. 1–6, 12–13, 23; Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe, vol. 1, book 1, 20–30. In general on this period, see: Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe, vol. 1, book 1, 34–38; Yule and Cordier, Cathay and the Way Thither, vol. 1, 16, 30, 32, 150, 156–161; Marianne O’Doherty, The Indies and the Medieval West. Thought, Report, Imagination (Turnhout: Brepols, 2013), 112; Michael Keevak, Embassies to China. Diplomacy and Cultural Encounters before the Opium Wars (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), Chapter 2. O’Doherty does not devote much text to China specifically and does not problematize China/Cathay: neither does Keevak. Christopher Henry Dawson, ed., The Mongol Mission. Narratives and Letters of the Franciscan Missionaries in Mongolia and China in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries (­London: Sheed and Ward, 1955).

The Richest Country in the World

29

wealthy. The land and the people were famous for their fertility, craft skills, silk, paper money and writing in characters. Most imaginative in Polo’s account were the “heavenly city” of Cambaluc and the “grandest city of the world”: Quinsay. His stories were so fascinating that they were sometimes difficult to believe for contemporaries and later readers.18 More than any other medieval traveler, his adventures were widespread and read far beyond his hometown of Venice. Already in the 1480s, Polo’s account (in Latin) was printed in Holland: in Gouda.19 These late medieval travelers never used the term “China,” however. Polo calls the region to the south of Cathay by the Mongol name of Mangi. With the crumbling of the Mongol Empire, the already fragmented information flow to Europe came to an end. In May 1513, when the Portuguese explorer Jorge Álvares, landed on the coast of China, these eastern lands were almost “discovered” anew.20 The Portuguese did not mention Cathay or Cambalu, but sent messages to Europe about “China,” and introduced city names such as Canton, Macao, and (later) Peking. The Portuguese did not actively spread or publish their newly acquired knowledge. On the contrary, they tried to keep their information on geography and trade as secret as possible.21 They did so quite successfully, at least until the 1550s. And even in the third quarter of the century, most information on China only circulated in manuscript, only in Portugal, and only in Portuguese. Some books were published in Lisbon, most noteworthy the Decades of Asia (1552-) of João de Barros, a multivolume history of the Portuguese in Asia, and 18

Nowadays it is generally agreed upon that Marco Polo was, indeed, in China. See, for e­ xample, Hans Ulrich Vogel, Marco Polo was in China. New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2013). 19 Marco Polo, De consuetudinis et conditionibus orientalum regionum ([Gouda: Leeu 1483–1485?]). 20 Amongst much more: Roderich Ptak, China, the Portuguese and the Nanyang. Oceans and Routes, Regions and Trade (c.1000–1600) (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003); Timothy Brook, “Trade and Conflict in the South China Sea. Portugal and China, 1514–1523,” in A Global History of Trade and Conflict since 1500, ed., Lucia Coppolaro and Francine McKenzie (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 20–37. 21 Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe, vol. 1, book 1, 150–170, 190–191; Donald F. Lach, China in the Eyes of Europe. The Sixteenth Century (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1965), 730– 741; Charles Boxer, ed., South China in the Sixteenth Century. Being the Narratives of Galeote Pereira, Fr. Gaspar da Cruz, Fr. Martín de Rada (1550–1575) (London: Hakluyt Society, 1953), lxii; Robert Richmond Ellis, “The Middle Kingdom through Spanish Eyes. Depictions of China in the Writings of Juan González de Mendoza and Domingo Fernández Navarrete,” Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 83, no. 6 (2006): 469–483. On (Portuguese) secrecy, see also Bailey W. Diffie, “Foreigners in Portugal and the ‘Policy of Silence,’” Terrae incognitae 1, no. 1 (1969): 23–34; María M. Portuondo, Secret Science. Spanish Cosmography and the New World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009).

30

van Netten

Gaspar da Cruz’s treatise specifically on China (1569). Despite the stress on their paganism, here the Chinese are again presented as civilized, white, and peace-loving; sometimes, their silk and porcelain are praised.22 At first, the rest of Europe remained largely unaware of this Portuguese knowledge. If ideas about China were to be based on what was written and depicted in general geographical works and printed maps, there is not much to tell for the first three quarters of the sixteenth century. The German Peter Apian in his Cosmographia (1524), for example, does not draw Asia farther east than India. “India extra Gangem” is left to the imagination. The word China is not to be found, but Apian mentions Serica and lists the territory of Cathaio. Here, amongst others, the city Quinsay is mentioned: the largest city in the world, to be translated as heavenly city, with a lake in the middle and 1,200 bridges.23 This is based on Polo, who had actually reported twelve thousand bridges, but this was probably beyond Apian’s imagination. When Gemma Frisius, from the Northern Netherlands, edited Apian’s work, published in Antwerp in several editions from 1529 onwards, he added that the knowledge on East India produced by Marco Veneto (i.e. Polo) was most uncertain and therefore in current times (i.e. Frisius’s times) valued otherwise.24 This definitely did not prevent others from including Polo in their representations of the known world. See, for example, one of the first collections of travel accounts, compiled by Johan Huttich, Sebastian Münster and Simon Grynaeus, issued for the first time in Latin in Basel in 1532.25 The book is entitled Novus orbis regionum ac insularum veteribus incognita (The new world of provinces and islands unknown by the ancients), although many of the described lands were not completely unknown in classical times (e.g. Eastern Europe, Scythia, India). Cathay figures in the work, but China is not a geographical concept used in this book, probably since the text on this part of the world was based on Polo.26 In 1563, this work was translated in Dutch (from a German edition) by one Cornelis Ablyn and printed in Antwerp.27 The last 22 Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe, vol. 1, book 1, 172, 175, 176. 23 “Quinsay civitas totius mundi maxima & in nostro idiomate dicitur coeli civitas, in medio lacus est habens in circuitu 1200 pontes.” Peter Apian, Cosmographia, ed., Gemma Frisius (Antwerpen: Berckman, 1640), 24r, 29r., 40r, 40v; Apian, Cosmographia, 15r, 42r, 43r. 24 “Haec de India Orientalis ex Marco Veneto deprompta, incerta plurimum sunt, atque ob eam causam aliter hodie traduntur & observantur.” Apian, Cosmographia, 43r. 25 On this book, see: Michiel van Groesen, The Representations of the Overseas World in the De Bry Collection of Voyages (1590–1634) (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 36–37. 26 Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe, vol. 1, book 1, 179–180. 27 [Simon Grynaeus], Die nieuwe weerelt der landtschappen ende eylanden, die tot hier toe allen ouden weerelt bescrijveren onbekent geweest sijn, ed., Cornelis Ablijn (Antwerp: Van der Loe, 1563).

The Richest Country in the World

31

page states that the book was also for sale in Amsterdam in the Golden Missal, which appears to be the bookshop of Cornelis Karelsen.28 Ablyn dedicated his work to Stadtholder William of Orange as a relaxing amusement and a distraction from his important affairs.29 Apparently reading about faraway and foreign cities, peoples, idolatry, rulers, wars, feasts, banquets, food, and animals was considered a nice pastime for the nobility. World maps and atlases were also marketed as luxury items for the elite. In general, maps were in first instance based on (manuscript, and later printed) texts. And innovation on maps, incorporating “discoveries,” was quite slow. The Portuguese portolan charts (navigational maps for pilots) are exceptional. These manuscript charts on parchment were adapted and updated, but scarcely spread and unknown outside circles of seamen.30 Most world maps available to a wider European public were, with the major exception of the introduction of the “new world,” still based on Ptolemy and contained Cathay, Serica, and a Sinarum regio. The famous Waldseemuller world map of 1507 mentions “Chatay,” “Mangi provincial,” and a vague “Sina regio” to the west of Mangi in “India meridionalis.” Gerardus Mercator’s world maps, printed in Antwerp over half a century later, show a “Sinarum regio” and a Chinese Sea, with the area north of this called Cathay. Mercator also still uses the classical terms Seres and Serica and, for example, in his enormous world map of 1569, provides several references to Pliny for his topographical nomenclature, especially to the north and east of China. In particular, Pliny’s “Cape Tabin,” the northernmost point of Asia, stands out. More text, accompanying maps, is to be found in Abraham Ortelius’s Theatrum orbis terrarum of 1570, the first atlas in the modern sense of the word. Ortelius did not invent the maps, but compiled the atlas based on previous maps and descriptions of many earlier geographers. A Dutch edition was published in 1571. China is mentioned on the world map, on the maps of Asia, of Tartary, and of India. Comparing these maps, it becomes clear how different China’s coastline, borders, and position in relation to Japan could be mapped in sixteenth-century sources. On the map of Tartary (“or the kingdom of the Great Khan”), Marco Polo is frequently cited alongside Pliny. In the text on Cathay, Polo is quoted regarding the size of Cambalu and Quinsay (the twelve 28

“Men vintse te coope tot Antwerpen […] ende tot Amsterdam int gulden Missael.” [Grynaeus], Die nieuwe weerelt, 318 (last page). Identification of bookseller via stcn Adresboek 1473–1700, http://www.bibliopolis.nl. 29 “…[S]ij ghemoet ende sinnen vanden grooten affairen ende ghedachten af trecke, ende wat lustichs voor die handt neme …” [Grynaeus], Die nieuwe weerelt, *2v. 30 Lach, Asia in the Making of Europa, vol. 1, book 1, 218.

32

van Netten

t­ housand bridges again) with the argument that “he knows this because he has been there.”31 In the texts regarding “Asia” and “India” (with India being presented as one of the five parts of Asia), China is nowhere explicitly mentioned.32 Other (is-) lands like Japan, Ceylon, Java, Borneo, the Moluccas, and Mindanao do get written attention. Apart from (at least in the Latin edition) several classical sources, the aforementioned Barros is explicitly referred to in the text. In Seville in 1577, the first book on China that was printed outside Portugal, appeared. The book was written by the Spanish soldier, priest, and geographer Bernardino de Escalante, on the basis of the works of Barros and Da Cruz and interviews with Portuguese merchants and even Chinese people in Spain (as Escalante himself states).33 In a Latin translation, Escalante’s text was integrated in the 1584 edition of Ortelius’s Theatrum, accompanied by the first separate map of China printed in Europe, probably made by the Portuguese geographer Luiz Jorge de Barbuda.34 In the 1580s, European attention for China boomed. Suddenly, it was not a vague region on the map anymore, but a country, a kingdom to be more precise, consisting of fifteen provinces. Most influential and most widespread was the work of Spanish monk Juan González de Mendoza, Historia de las cosas mas notables … del gran reyno dela China (Rome, 1585). Mendoza had not been in China himself. He based his work on the writings of other Spanish travelers, combined with some Portuguese sources and writings from ancient and biblical times.35 Mendoza’s goal was to evoke respect for non-Europeans, especially the civilized Chinese, and promote the peaceful evangelization of China.36 31

Abraham Ortelius, Theatre, oft: Toonneel des aerdtbodems waer in te siene sijn die landttafelen der geheelder weerelt, met een corte verclaringe der selver (Antwerp: Gielis van ­Diest, 1571), 47. 32 The same is true for the small-sized popular rhymed version of Ortelius’s atlas. Peeter Heyns, Spieghel der werelt (Antwerp: Plantin, 1577). 33 Bernardino de Escalante, Discurso de la navegacion que los Portugueses hacen a los Reinos y Provincias de Oriente, y de la noticia que se tiene de las grandezas del Reino de la China (Sevilla: Escrivano, 1577). 34 Lach, China in the Eyes of Europe, 818; Lach, Asia in the Making of Europa, vol. 1, book 1, 224–225. 35 Lach, China in the Eyes of Europe, 742 e.v.; Boxer, South China in the Sixteenth Century, lxxxvii-xc; Ellis, “The Middle Kingdom through Spanish Eyes,” 470, 472; Birgit TremmlWerner, Spain, China and Japan in Manila, 1571–1644. Local Comparisons and Global Connections (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2015), 34. 36 Ellis, “The Middle Kingdom through Spanish Eyes,” 473–474; Nancy Vogeley, “China and the American Indies. A Sixteenth-Century ‘History,’” Colonial Latin American Review 6, no. 2 (1997): 165–184.

The Richest Country in the World

33

The book was quickly translated into Italian and, in 1588, into English.37 It would take another decade for a Dutch translation, but it is better not to get ahead of ourselves. 3

Writing China

In the late 1580s, much changed in the northern sea provinces of the Low Countries. The fall of Antwerp in 1585 brought many refugees, especially to Amsterdam: business men, publishers, engravers, and so on.38 In the same years, navigational practices, theory, and the boundaries of Netherlandish voyages began to change. Ships, commissioned by northern private merchants and companies, started to sail further from home: to the Mediterranean, West Africa, and even over the Atlantic to the West Indies. Maps and instruments, and the knowledge of how to use them thus became more important. In 1584–85, Lucas Jansz Waghenaer published his first pilot guide, the Spieghel der zeevaerdt, consisting of maps covering the coast from Gibraltar to Archangelsk as well as an introduction in astronomy and navigation.39 Other navigational textbooks were translated from Spanish (1589) and English (1594).40 Interest in China and Cathay also travelled north. Already by the 1520s, ships to China were outfitted in Dieppe, northern France.41 In the 1530s, in Leuven in the Southern Netherlands, books were printed summarizing Portuguese activities in Asia.42 In Antwerp, a little more to the north, the aforementioned maps and atlases by Mercator and Ortelius were produced. And in 1577, an Italian appeared before the States of Holland and Zeeland (the provincial g­ overnment) 37

List of all editions: John Dickson Kendall, “Juan González Mendoza and his Historia de la China. An Essay in Historical Bibliography” (MA diss., University of Minnesota, 1965). Hakluyt Society edition of the English translation: Juan González de Mendoza, The History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China and the Situation Thereof, ed., Robert Parke, George T. Staunton and Richard Henry Major (London: Hakluyt Society, 1583–1584). 38 J. Briels, Zuid-Nederlandse immigratie 1572–1630 (Haarlem: Fibula-Dishoeck, 1978) and other works by Briels. 39 Lucas Jansz Waghenaer, De spieghel der zeevaerdt (Leiden: Plantin, 1584–1585); Facsimile edition: Lucas Jansz Waghenaer, De spieghel der zeevaerdt (Amsterdam and Lausanne: ­Israel-Meridian, 1964). See also: Günter Schilder, Early Dutch Maritime Cartography. The North Holland School of Cartography (Leiden: Brill, 2017), Chapter 2. 40 Pedro de Medina, De zeevaert oft conste van ter zee te varen (Amsterdam: Claesz., 1589), originally published 1545; William Bourne, De const der zeevaerdt (Amsterdam: Cornelis Claesz., 1594), originally published 1574. 41 Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe, vol. 1, book 1, 177. 42 Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe, vol. 1, book 1, 178.

34

van Netten

with a plan to make money by sending out ships to the Moluccas and, ultimately, the land of Cathay.43 This is presumably the first recorded plan in the Northern Netherlands to sail to the Far East, although we have no idea what happened afterwards. Reading on China changed from leisure to business: not just amusement, but trade and profit became the goal. The first printed text in this regard dates from 1592 and is to be found at the end of the second book of the abovementioned Waghenaer. This was his Thresoor der zeevaert, the successor of his Spieghel. At the end of the Thresoor, five short pieces of text on extra-European navigation are inserted, hitherto ignored by most historians.44 After a very short summary of the English circumnavigations led by Francis Drake and Thomas Cavendish, we can read about “the trade and commerce that take place in the Indies and the adventures that happen there.”45 The three pages of text are taken “from the mouth of Dirck Gerritsz, who had travelled in Asia for twenty-four years.”46 This possibly indicates that Gerritsz did not write it himself, but was interviewed. Clearly, his own experience is seen as providing extra value to the statements. Not only is Gerritsz the first Dutchman whose account on East Asia was published, he is also the first who presents China as a country of its own in a Dutch publication. China is said to have a king and “very good people” (even though they worship devils and eat dogs): skillful and smart.47 Possibly even more important is his quote, presented at the start of this chapter, that “China is the richest country to be found under the sun […] gold, gems, pearls, camphor, musk, quicksilver etc. [….] the only thing they need is silver.” The piece based on the experiences of Gerritsz is followed by another short text on the trade conducted in the East Indies: mostly spices and some precious stones; but without mentioning China.48 These texts do not teach us how to sail to and in the Indies. However, that is provided in the last parts of this

43 44 45 46 47 48

W.S. Unger, ed., De oudste reizen van de Zeeuwen naar Oost-Indië (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1948), xx. Robert Skelton, “Introduction,” in Waghenaer, Thresoor der zeevaert, x. Skelton mentions them in passing. For the most part, historians working on pilot guides are historians of cartography, focusing on maps. “Van alle den handel van coopmanschap die in Indien gheschiet, ende wat avonturen in dese landen ghebueren.” Lucas Jansz Waghenaer, Thresoor der Zeevaert, 197–199. “Gheschreven uyt den mont van Dirck Gerritz, die daer vierentwintich iaren verkeert ende ghehandelt heeft, over gheheel indien.” Waghenaer, Thresoor der Zeevaert, 197. “Seere goet volck […] cloecksinnighe lieden, die alle dinghen connen seer subtylijck ende scherpsinnich maecken.” Waghenaer, Thresoor der Zeevaert, 198. “Beschryvinghe van alle de coopmanschappen die in Indien uut verscheyden landen ende eylanden ghebrocht worden, ende van daer voort naer Portugael ende meer ander landen.” Waghenaer, Thresoor der Zeevaert, 201–202.

The Richest Country in the World

35

book, where we encounter two-and-a-half pages entitled, “How one should travel from Holland to India, and from India back home, over water and land, with the least costs and effort.”49 The unnamed author describes the land route (over land from Tripoli or Aleppo to Ormus) or the—much longer, but probably more interesting for merchants—sea route from Lisbon to Goa and beyond, with quite detailed sailing directions to Malacca, China, and Japan. The author then opens up a broad horizon: the South Sea with, on the one hand, the Strait of Magellan and, on the other hand, Nova Zembla and Waygats in Russia: “So that one should sail a shorter way from Waygats to Japan than one should from Goa to Japan.”50 Waghenaer recalls the same in his pilot guide. Describing the northern coasts of Russia, he also mentions Waygats and the land of Nova Zembla. Waghenaer writes conditionally: “If there is no ice, one should be able to sail […] to the delicious lands of China.” He adds that this passage is four times as short as the Portuguese route, rounding the Cape of Good Hope.51 Waghenaer summons “every merchant” to take this knowledge on board and seriously embark on this passage.52 He does not tell what is to be found in “China.” However, the text at the end of his book does. It states that most writers who have described these lands had pinned their hopes on a large city north of Japan, under the Great Khan (presumably the aforementioned Cambalu, based on Polo). Yet neither the people in China, Japan and India, nor foreign merchants knew of this city, so it has possibly perished or changed and lost its name, thus the author. Then it is again recalled how Portuguese merchants enrich themselves with their voyages to China and Japan. And as already stated, the way to Japan via the North Cape is much shorter than from Goa, so “rich and mighty merchants should endeavor to get through the ice near Waygats,” since this would bring so much profit to the Low Countries.53 Subsequently, it is told exactly when these 49 50 51

52 53

“Hoemen soude moghen reysen uut Hollandt in Indien, ende weder uut Indien ’thuys comen te water ende te lande, met de minste costen en moeyten.” Waghenaer, Thresoor der Zeevaert, 202–204. “Sulcx datmen met corter wegh soude mogen va[n] Waygat seylen tot Japan, dan men doen soude van Goa in Indien tot Japan.” Waghenaer, Thresoor der Zeevaert, 204. “[D]aer den meesten tijt vol ijs is ligghende, anders soude men tot […] dat lant van Nova Sembla moghen rontom seylen, ende men soude oock moghen aen seylen die costelicke lande[n] van China met het vierendeel vanden wech, die de Portugesers moeten seylen.” Waghenaer, Thresoor der Zeevaert, 101. “Dit wil een ieder coopman ter herten nemen ende bedencke om eenmael met ernst dese passage aen te vanghen.” Waghenaer, Thresoor der Zeevaert, 101. “[D]’welck van rijcke ende machtighe Cooplieden te versoecken staet, ende behoorde becosticht te werden. Want ‘tselve soude een grooten rijcdom voor dese Nederlanden zijn.” Waghenaer, Thresoor der Zeevaert, 204.

36

van Netten

e­ xpeditions should take place, with sailing directions as precise as those for the trip from Goa to Japan. We learn about the rich lands of Cathay and Catago, and the city of Quinsay, but also of Brema, Cianganon, and Castagara. In both texts, Oliver Brunel is named as proof of possibilities and of profit.54 Brunel was a Flemish merchant who had not visited China, but had ventured quite far east into Russian lands. The author of the last parts in Waghenaer’s pilot guide is undeniably Jan Huygen van Linschoten. Specifically, most of this information in Waghenaer’s pilot guide is excerpted from a letter of Linschoten to his parents in Enkhuizen in 1584.55 Linschoten was born in Holland in 1563, was sent to Spain when he was thirteen years old, and sailed for India in 1583 as secretary of the newly appointed Portuguese archbishop of Goa.56 As Linschoten arrived back home a few months after Thresoor der zeevaert was published, Waghenaer, also from Enkhuizen, must have received the information from Linschoten’s mother.57 The importance of the small harbor town of Enkhuizen in Holland regarding the spread of Dutch knowledge on China cannot be stressed enough. Dirck Gerritsz, who Linschoten had met in Goa, originated from this town as well, and continued to live there after his Asian voyages.58 Thus, both Linschoten and Waghenaer advocated a northeastern route to China and actively sought to convince merchants to set up expeditions. Besides Brunel, the English had the most experience in the northeastern waters of Europe. In the early 1580s, Arthur Pet and Charles Jackman even managed to sail through the Kara Strait.59 It cannot be a coincidence that, in 1594, the ­Amsterdam publisher Cornelis Claesz, who knew Waghenaer as well as Linschoten, issued a Dutch translation of an English navigational tract written by 54 Waghenaer, Thresoor der Zeevaert, 101, 204. On Brunel, see Marijke Spies, Arctic Routes to Fabled Lands. Oliver Brunel and the Passage to China and Cathay in the Sixteenth Century (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1997). 55 The full text of the letter is published in J.W. IJzerman, De eerste Nederlander die China en Japan bezocht 1544–1604 (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1915), 8–13. 56 As for biographical information, see Charles McKew Parr, Jan van Linschoten. The Dutch Marco Polo (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1964); Vibeke Roeper, “D’Hollandtsche Magellaen. De wereld van Jan Huygen van Linschoten,” in Souffrir pour parvenir. De wereld van Jan Huygen van Linschoten, ed. Roelof van Gelder, Jan Parmentier and Vibeke Roeper (Haarlem: Arcadia, 1998), 11–29. 57 Skelton, “Introduction,” x. 58 Enkhuizen as a knowledge hub on Asia (and the intellectual networks in and around this city) in the late sixteenth century deserves more research. See the (unpublished) MA thesis of Isabel Casteels, De wereld in Enkhuizen (University of Amsterdam 2018). 59 C.P. Burger, De deurvaart by noorden om naar Cathay ende China (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1930), 11–48.

The Richest Country in the World

37

William Bourne.60 It was presumably translated by Waghenaer.61 It contains a “hidrophicalen overloop” (roughly to be translated as “waterways”?), demonstrating five ways to Cathay, “of which two are known and three are supposed.” Bourne utters his hesitations only with the last-mentioned route straight across the North Pole. The other unknown routes (northwest and northeast) are brought forward as trustworthy and as detailed as the known ones (via the Cape of Good Hope and the Strait of Magellan). Although the Moluccas, Japan, and China are mentioned, the ultimate goal of each route is “Quinzay in Catay.”62 4

Sailing to China

On June 3, 1594, a small fleet of two ships, commissioned by merchants from Enkhuizen and Zeeland on the one hand, and the city of Amsterdam on the other, departed to find their way to China and Cathay. They opted for Bourne’s fourth way, the northeast passage. Linschoten, who we already saw as a protagonist of this route, participated on this voyage. He kept a journal, published eventually in 1601.63 After some explorations in Waygats Strait (by then renamed Nassau Strait) in late July with the Enkhuizen/Zeeland ship, they were quite sure they had found the passage. In Linschoten’s text, he repeatedly states that he was sure and without doubt that there was an open sea, an open ocean, 60 Bourne, De const der zee-vaerdt, 50v-55r. Just one copy of the 1594 edition is known, which is kept in the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam (not in stc or stcn), inv.nr. S.1226. It has been translated from the 1592 English edition [London: Hood, 1952]. See E.G.R. Taylor, ed., A Regiment for the Sea, and Other Writings on Navigation (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1963), 450–451. On Claesz: Bert van Selm, Een menighte treffelijcke boecken. Nederlandse boekhandelscatalogi in het begin van de zeventiende eeuw (Utrecht: hes Uitgeverij, 1987), 176–184; Paul Dijstelberge, “De cost en de baet,” in Gedrukt in Holland, ed. J.W.J. Burgers, P. Knevel and E. Wouthuysen (Haarlem: Historische Vereniging Holland, 1994); Günter Schilder, Monumenta Cartographica Neerlandica vii: Cornelis Claesz (c. 1551–1609). Stimulator and Driving Force of Dutch Cartography (Alphen aan den Rijn, Canaletto, 2003). 61 His name is not to be found, but he refers to his Thresoor der zeevaert in the first person singular. Bourne, De const der zee-vaerdt, 35r. 62 Bourne, 50v-*55r. 63 Jan Huygen van Linschoten, Voyagie, ofte schipvaert, van Ian Huyghen van Linschoten, van by noorden om langes Noorvvegen, de noortcaep, etc. (Franeker: Ketel, 1601). Linschoten Vereeniging edition: S.P. L’Honoré Naber, ed., Reizen van Jan Huygen van Linschoten naar het Noorden (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1914). See also: S.P. L’Honoré Naber and C.P. Burger, ed., Reizen van Willem Barentsz, Jacob van Heemskerck, Jan Cornelisz Rijp en anderen naar het Noorden, verhaald door Gerrit de Veer, 2 vols. (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1917).

38

van Netten

an open passage to China from the place where they were.64 On August 11, he writes that they had decided to sail back to the fatherland to “communicate this successful navigation with happiness, for the prosperity of our fatherland.”65 In the autumn of 1594, news about the “found northern passage to China” spread fast and the preparations for a next, much bigger and more ambitious, expedition were begun. In between the first and the second voyage to the northeast, protagonists of this route from the province of Zeeland tried to obtain further information and charts of the region from the English writer Richard Hakluyt. They pursued this via Emanuel van Meteren, a Flemish historian who acted as consul, representing the Dutch merchants in London. Van Meteren writes that the English were not quite sure how far the Dutch had pursued the route, but “suspect the way will be found.”66 Hakluyt apparently had shown Van Meteren ancient and medieval evidence for the route to Cathay (mentioning the thirteenth-century missionary Plano Carpini) and offered to copy a Chinese map of China in Cavendish’s possession.67 China and Cathay are mentioned as the ultimate goal of these expeditions. Other sources are even more specific as can be seen in, for example, the 1595 instructions for the second voyage drawn up by Balthasar de Moucheron, a merchant originally from Antwerp with trading contacts and experience as far as the Kara Sea.68 He mentions as destinations: Quinsay in the land of Mangi, the north side of the island of Japan, and Cantan in the kingdom of China. Looking for a map that illustrates, or perhaps even inspired, these proposed routes and destinations, we should go back to Ortelius’s Theatrum orbis t­ errarum. On his world map, we see a rather unproblematic waterway from Europe to northeast Asia, contrary to other maps depicting monsters, strange peoples, whirlpools or magnetic mountains.69 Furthermore, we encounter all 64 L’Honoré-Naber, Reizen van Linschoten, 72–73, 83, 88, 97, 99, 100. 65 “[A]ldaer […] dese wel-gheluckte begonnen vaert, met blijdtschap te communiceren […] tot […] welvaert onses […] Vaders-lants.” L’Honoré-Naber, Reizen van Linschoten, 105. 66 This should be investigated more thoroughly. L’Honoré-Naber, Reizen van Willem Ba­ rentsz, 2: appendices, second voyage 1–4. In particular, letter from Van Meteren to Valcke (January 18/28, 1595), 205. 67 L’Honoré-Naber, Reizen van Willem Barentsz, 2, 205. 68 Moucheron, “Advis”(appendix 6) and Moucheron and Parduyn, “Verbael” (Appendix 13) in L’Honoré Naber, Reizen van Linschoten, 231 and 257. On Moucheron, see Unger, ed., De oudste reizen van de Zeeuwen; A. Prinsen, Balthazar de Moucheron voorloper van de voc (Middelburg: Stichting voc Publicaties, 1987); Spies, Arctic Routes, 115–117; Kees Zandvliet, Mapping for Money. Maps, Plans and Topographic Paintings and Their Role in Dutch Overseas Expansion during the 16th and 17th Centuries (Amsterdam: Batavian Lion International, 2002), 33–34. 69 Several examples in Spies, Arctic routes, Chapter 2 and Chapter 5.

The Richest Country in the World

39

the places mentioned in the texts of Linschoten and Moucheron: if not on Ortelius’s world map, then on his map of Asia. The projection applied on this map of Asia makes it credible that it is shorter from Waygats to Japan than from Goa to Japan. The discussions on the exact route to take after reaching Nova Zembla continued in 1595. But other routes to Asia existed, some of them better known than others. The contemporary historian Pieter Bor writes that the route around the Cape of Good Hope was “a far distance […] but known (however full of peril).”70 Besides the usual dangers of the ocean, these “perils” were the Portuguese and the Spanish, of course. Most available knowledge on this route was Portuguese too: this can be considered a known unknown for the Dutch. In 1592, the geographer and Calvinist minister Petrus Plancius succeeded in buying maps from the Portuguese cartographer Bartholomeo de Lasso, cosmographer of the Spanish king. The publisher Claesz obtained a license from the States General to print these maps.71 Additionally, in 1592, some Amsterdam merchants joined in the Compagnie van Verre (“Long Distance Company”) dispatched Cornelis and Frederik de Houtman to Lisbon to pilfer necessary information about sailing to the East and trading there.72 In spite of the Houtman brothers being characterized in the literature as spies, Bor makes clear that buying is a more adequate description of their actions than spying. Bor writes that “good knowledge” was acquired by “diligence, gifts and meals” and adds “not without great danger and excessive costs.”73

70 71

72

73

“[E]enen verren wegh door het Zuyden, die bekent was (hoewel vol perijckels).” Pieter Bor, Vervolch van de Nederlantsche oorloghen, vol. 4, book 32 (Leiden, Basson and Amsterdam: Colijn, 1630), 15. My emphasis. J.K.J. de Jonge, De opkomst van het Nederlandsch gezag in Oost-Indië: i (1595–1610) (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1862), 92; Johannes Keuning, Petrus Plancius. Theoloog en geograaf 1552–1622 (Amsterdam: Van Kampen, 1946), 76–86; Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe, vol. 1, book 1, 200; Zandvliet, Mapping for Money, 43. Interestingly, most serious investigations into the De Houtman brothers date from the mid-nineteenth century. See J.A. van der Chys, Geschiedenis der stichting van de Vereenigde O.I. Compagnie en der maatregelen van de Nederlandsche regering betreffende de vaart op Oost-Indië, welke aan deze stichting voorafgingen (Leiden: Engels, 1856) and De Jonge, De opkomst van het Nederlands gezag: i, 91–97 and appendices. In several recent publications, the De Houtmans’ alleged imprisonment in Lisbon (without sound base in the sources) is repeated, despite quite convincing proof of the contrary. See a short report of an unpublished lecture of F.W. Stapel in Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 51 (1936): 370–373. Pieter Bor, Oorsprongk, begin, en vervolgh der Nederlandsche oorlogen ( Amsterdam: Wolfgangh & Boom, 1681), 337.

40

van Netten

One copy of the Houtman report is kept in a manuscript, now in the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam. It contains a hodgepodge of knowledge on Asia, to be considered as preparations for a first Dutch navigation rounding Africa, probably brought together by the directors of the Compagnie van Verre.74 The manuscript starts with the report by Houtman, summarizing places and routes and the products and people to find there. Additionally, sailing directions can be found, a treatise on navigation, and several other descriptions and lists of places and commodities. The knowledge presented is partly based on Spanish and Portuguese sources (some even published) and partly on accounts by Dutchmen who had been to these places, like Willem Lodewijcksz on Africa. We also find the literal text of Dirck Gerritsz that was already published in Waghenaer’s Thresoor and Linschoten’s letter to his parents quoted in full. This report is mostly read with later events and results in mind and, indeed, it contains detailed instructions on how to get to Java, Bantam and Sumatra, and how to trade there. This seems most interesting since, in 1596, the Netherlandish ships did in fact reach Bantam and in 1619 established Batavia nearby, which would be the capital of the Dutch overseas empire until World War ii. However, it is important to realize that Dutch ships had not yet visited Asia in 1595 and there were many places to go. This manuscript is a treasure trove of possibilities. Of the 145 pages, a one-page text is exclusively dedicated to “trade in China,” stating what the Portuguese brought to China (mostly silver) and what they returned with: gold, silk and other fabrics, musk, porcelain, and so forth.75 In all the various lists of goods to buy or sell, China is inserted as a demarcated geographical unit and one of the most important lands to go to.76 Cathay is not to be found in these lists. Moreover, the directors of the Compagnie van Verre apparently had made their own list with goods to bring to and from China. In the manuscript, they mention their sources explicitly: Mendoza and the Spanish Jesuit José de Acosta.77 However, since the merchants sending 74

75 76 77

Manuscript Voorbereiding Eerste Schipvaart, inv.nr. A.4592, Amsterdam Maritime Museum; J.C.M. Warnsinck, De wetenschappelijke voorbereiding van de Eerste Schipvaart naar Oost-Indië (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1936) (hereafter cited as Eerste Schipvaart mss); Vibeke Roeper, “Alle kennis van de wereld. Het manuscript voorbereiding Eerste Schipvaart, 1595,” in De ontdekking van de wereld: Nederlanders in onbekend vaarwater (1600–2000) ed. Remmelt Daalder et al. (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2003), 8–15. Warnsinck as well as Roeper made a transcription: neither are published but are accessible in the library of the Maritime Museum, Amsterdam. In 2018–2018, a research fellowship in the Maritime Museum will be devoted to compose a critical edition of this manuscript. Eerste Schipvaart mss, 15. Eerste Schipvaart mss, 59–63, 69–70, 76–78. “Dit voorsz. is getrocken uyten schriften van Ivan Gauzale de Mendozae ende Josepho de Acosta. Item uuten verclaringe van Martin de Herrada, Provinciael van S. Augustyne

The Richest Country in the World

41

out their first expedition were not satisfied with this knowledge from Spanish books, they asked an eyewitness to comment. This was Dirck Gerritsz again, who, by then was known by the surname of Pomp.78 The interview is formatted in two columns with the items taken from Mendoza as the main text and the comments of Gerritsz in the margins. A few examples should suffice to show the precision of the information.79 It starts with: “Goods that can be exported with big profits from these lands [Europe] to the kingdoms of China.”80 We find out that the Chinese liked blue, green, and especially crimson cloth, that they did not need linen because they have cotton, that Gerritsz was not aware of the Portuguese importing emeralds and cochineal from Peru, that he did not think it a good idea to bring paintings because the Chinese made paintings themselves, that they (according to Gerritsz) liked different kinds of wine but not French or Rhine wine and finally, that they craved olives, fireworks, needles and mirrors. Regarding the goods ideally going in the opposite direction, Gerritsz mostly confirms what is already stated about silk, cotton, rhubarb, china root, sugar, honey and rice. Sometimes he adds some details on weights, measures or crops. He also adds saltpetre, pearl and quicksilver to the list. Only when the source mentions nutmeg, mace and other spices, Gerritsz firmly states that these are not to be found in China, but in the Moluccas, Banda and Malacca. Gerritsz’s own experience and the amount of detail in this text must have helped to make it credible. However, this interview is dated April 15, 1595. Already two weeks earlier, on April 2, a fleet sent out by the Compagnie van Verre left Holland to follow a southern route to Asia. If the date of the interview is not a slip of the pen, the directors of the Company must have already presumed it useful to start enquiries for a future voyage. The voyage already under way in April 1595 has b­ ecome famous as the first Dutch navigation (eerste schipvaart) to the East. However, this is only true if, with the advantage of hindsight, successful expeditions are taken into account.81

78 79 80 81

orden: Hieronimo de Marin ende Pedro de Alfarao ende anderen die in China geweest zyn.” Eerste Schipvaart mss, 204; Mendoza, D’historie ofte beschrijvinghe, 7–8. Eerste Schipvaart mss, 202. The whole text in modern Dutch in Vibeke Roeper, “Waren uit het koninkrijk van China,” in Symposiumbundel Dirck Gerritsz Pomp alias Dirck China, ed. K.W.J.M. Bossaers et al. (Enkhuizen: Vereniging Oud Enkhuizen, 2002), 26–28. “Waeren die men met groote winste uijt desen landen soude connen voeren in den Coninckrycken van China.” Eerste Schipvaart mss, 201. On this “First Navigation,” many original documents are published. Most importantly: Linschoten Vereeniging editions: G.P. Rouffaer and J.W. IJzerman, De eerste schipvaert der Nederlanders naar Oost-Indië onder Cornelis de Houtman, 1595–1597, 3 vols. (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1915–1929); enlarged edition: J.C. Mollema, ed., De eerste schipvaart de N ­ ederlanders

42

van Netten

Most likely, the ships taking the southern route to Asia carried another copy of Houtman’s report. Certainly they brought with them Plancius’s maps as well as a manuscript of a book that would be published by Cornelis Claesz later in 1595: Linschoten’s Reys-gheschrift.82 Considering his publications, Linschoten must have kept detailed notes and sketches of his voyages and encounters in Portuguese service and also actively collected and copied Portuguese and Spanish sources.83 Reys-gheschrift, meaning “travel journal of the navigations of the Portuguese in the East,” contains many sailing directions, from Lisbon to India and to and from a great number of places in the East.84 It becomes clear that eyewitness reports became increasingly important as sources of knowledge. To give credit to his information, Linschoten provides dates of voyages and names of ships and pilots, mentioning Dirck Gerritsz of Enkhuizen as one of his sources amongst various Spanish and Portuguese navigators.85 Several voyages to and from China are described, one of them interrupted with a text on trade in China. Such an insertion is quite rare in this book that, for the greater part, only contains sailing directions. Here again, the great profits to gain in China are stressed, adding that the information came from the city of Macao in China—to make it even more authoritative.86 Please note that apart from Pomp, still no Dutchman had ever been to China.

naar Oost-Indië, naar de oude journalen, uitgegeven door de Linschoten-vereniging, opnieuw beschreven en voorzien van een inleading, waarin behandeld de voorgeschiedenis, het doel, de uitreeding en de lotgevallen der deelnemers, 2 vols. (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1935). See also: Willem Lodewijcksz, Vibeke Roeper and Diederick Wildeman, ed., Om de Zuid. De eerste schipvaart naar Oost-Indië onder Cornelis de Houtman, 1595–1597, (Nijmegen: sun Uitgeverij, 1997). 82 On the chronology of the voyage and the publishing, see Arie Pos, “So weetmen wat te vertellen alsmen oudt is. Over het ontstaan en de inhoud van het Itinerario,” in Souffrir pour parvenir, 135–151. 83 Pos, “So weetmen wat te vertellen alsmen oudt is,” 135–151. 84 Jan Huygen van Linschoten, Reys-gheschrift vande navigatien der Portugaloysers in Orienten (Amsterdam: Claesz., 1595). Linschoten Vereeniging edition: J.C.M. Warnsinck, ed., Itinerario. Voyage ofte schipvaert van Jan Huygen van Linschoten naer Oost ofte Portugaels Indien, 1579–1592 iv and v: Reys-gheschrift vande navigatien der Portagaloysers (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1939). 85 “Een voyage ofte Schipvaert, ghedaen van Macau uyt China af […] met het Schip Sancta Crus, waer van Capiteijn was eenen Portugescher, met name[n] Francisco Pays, ende Constapel van dien, eenen Dirrick Gerritszoon, Burgher deser Stadt Enckhuysen, in het iaer 1585.” Linschoten, Reys-gheschrift, 85–86. 86 Linschoten, Reys-gheschrift, 100–101.

The Richest Country in the World

5

43

More Writing China

The next year, 1596, Claesz published Linschoten’s travel journal Itinerario.87 His Reys-gheschrift must have been of more practical use although it became obsolete quite quickly. Itinerario comprises descriptions of different parts, places, people and products in Asia and Linschoten’s own adventures while travelling to India and living there. Linschoten also adds information on places where he had not been: China, among many other places. There is, however, a difference in the rendering of China and that of other places. In the headers on almost every page it simply says “about [geographical unit]” or “description of ….” Only, the headers on the first pages regarding China are less neutral: “About the fertility of the land of China” and “About China and its riches.”88 Apparently China had to be presented as an extremely wealthy place. The Chinese people also get their fair share of attention. Generalized as usual and in line with the contemporary literature, Linschoten narrates that they value learning, are decent, robust, with wide faces and small eyes. On the coast, people are brownish but inland, they are white.89 Furthermore, Chinese are sagacious but also jealous, unchaste and especially deceitful and treacherous.90 The overall picture is positive though; additionally, from the images— probably the first time the Chinese were presented as people on their own in Dutch print—the idea of a highly civilized people is conveyed.91 However, the most important idea in Itinerario’s account of China is that of its riches and the profits that can be made. Much more than on animals, people, ceremonies or eating habits, Linschoten expands on products; that is, ­merchandise. This means information on, for example, rhubarb, porcelain and 87

Jan Huygen van Linschoten, Itinerario. Voyage ofte schipvaert, van Ian Huygen van Linschoten, naer Oost ofte Portugaels Indien (Amsterdam: Claesz., 1596). Linschoten Vereeni­ ging edition: H. Kern, ed., Itinerario. Voyage ofte schipvaert, van Ian Huygen van Linschoten, naer Oost ofte Portugaels Indien, 2 vols. (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1910). Revised edition: H. Terpstra, ed., Itinerario. Voyage ofte schipvaert, van Ian Huygen van Linschoten, naer Oost ofte Portugaels Indien, 3 vols. (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1955–1957). 88 “Vande vruchtbaerheden des Landts China”; “Van China ende des selfden Rijckdoms.” Linschoten, Itinerario, 28–30. The headers are not rendered in the modern editions. 89 Linschoten, Itinerario, 30. 90 Linschoten, Itinerario, 30–31, 93. 91 This is quite generalized. Much more can be said on the images. See Ernst van den Boogaart, Civil and Corrupt Asia. Image and Text in the Itinerario and the Icones of Jan Huygen van Linschoten (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2003); Van Groesen, The Representations of the Overseas World (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 224–227; Simon Dedoncker, “Een onderzoek naar de hiërarchie tussen Java, Malakka en China in de perceptie van Nederlandse reisverhalen uit de ‘lange zeventiende eeuw’” (MA diss., Universiteit Gent, 2010).

44

van Netten

musk (or what some Chinese sell as musk but what is, in fact, not made from the testicles of a musk deer, according to Linschoten).92 He devotes the most space to a lengthy explanation on different kinds of silk, their quality and costs, and on the different coins and weights and measures in use.93 As mentioned, Linschoten had not been to China himself. The general information on China and the Chinese he more or less copied from Mendoza.94 Linschoten does give some credit to Mendoza, mentioning his book if readers wanted to know more about China, especially about their ceremonies.95 He adds that Mendoza’s book is not without mistakes but still contains many things that are true and worth reading.96 Linschoten refers to the Latin translation of Mendoza’s Spanish book, but when Itinerario was published, a Dutch version had already come out. The translation, from the Italian edition into Dutch, had been made by some­ one  lose to Linschoten: the poet Cornelis Taemsz from Hoorn, located near Enkhuizen.97 In 1595, two editions were issued, one printed in Delft, the other in Alkmaar: both, not surprisingly, for the publisher Cornelis Claesz.98 Taemsz’s dedication to Holland’s admiralty presents the knowledge on China’s wealth, authorities, laws, people, fertility, and customs (in that order) as a service to his fatherland.99 From a marginal note next to Mendoza’s introduction, it becomes clear that he only offers the first part of Mendoza’s book, containing the general information on China, and not the individual travel accounts.100 In other marginal notes (not to be found in Mendoza’s original) Taemsz comments on the “ridiculous” customs of the Chinese and—more importantly— emphasizes the abundance of the land: “Plenty of fruits […] plenty of silk” and

92 Linschoten, Itinerario, 28–29, 93–94. 93 Linschoten, Itinerario, 100–102. 94 Kern ed., Itinerario i, 86, 93, 95; Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe vol. 1, book 1, 201; and Pos, “So weetmen wat te vertellen,” 140–141. 95 Linschoten, Itinerario, 33. 96 Linschoten, Itinerario, 33. Cf. Van Groesen, The Representations of the Overseas World, 32–33, who stresses the inaccuracy of Mendoza according to Linschoten. 97 On Taemsz, see: C.P. Burger, “De historie ofte beschrijvinghe van het groote rijck van China,” Het Boek 19 (1930): 17–32, 30–32; Roeper, “De wereld van Jan Huygen van Linschoten,” 22. 98 Juan González de Mendoza, D’historie ofte beschrijvinghe van het groote rijck van China ([Delft; Vennecool for] Amsterdam: Claesz., 1595 and Alkmaar; De Meester for Amsterdam: Claesz., 1595). On the two issues: C.P. Burger, “De historie ofte beschrijvinghe van het groote rijck van China,” 17–32, 21. 99 Mendoza, D’historie, 3–4. 100 Mendoza, D’historie, 7–8.

The Richest Country in the World

45

“China is the most fertile land of the world.”101 More than Mendoza, Taemsz seems to hint at the mercantile uses of China.102 We cannot be sure if the marginal notes are written by the author Taemsz or inserted by the publisher Claesz. Yet almost certainly, it was the publisher who was responsible for a short “To the reader,” where he refers to Linschoten’s work.103 In the abovementioned printed works, many intertextual links show a closely intertwined network of travelers and intellectuals from Enkhuizen and Hoorn. See, for example, another marginal note in Taemsz’s Mendozatranslation, where Pomp is named as someone who had brought Chinese paintings to Holland.104 Another important role in this network must be allotted to Bernardus Paludanus, a scholar in Enkhuizen, who annotated Linschoten’s Itinerario and who owned a famous cabinet of curiosities, containing many objects from the East Indies, with several of them brought to him by Linschoten who, in turn, refers to Paludanus in the Itinerario.105 Another intertextual link can be found in the presence of an ode by Taemsz to Linschoten in the Reys-gheschrift. In this poem, Linschoten is abundantly praised. However, it is not his Asian adventures but his expeditions to the north that form the subject matter.106 These seem to be seen as even more important by contemporaries. In the poem, the Dutch are said to have sailed to “discover China.” Taemsz writes that there is no doubt that the goal will be reached and Chinese treasures will increase Dutch riches.107 When the Reys-gheschrift and Taemsz’s Mendoza-translation appeared, Linschoten was probably preparing for (or already) sailing his second voyage to the north. This expedition departed late in the summer of 1595. Since discussions on the exact route and on who should lead and who should pay had 101 Mendoza, D’historie, 22, 24, 25, 68, 165. 102 Besides, the same is the case in the 1588 English translation of Mendoza as appears from the dedication of the translator Parke to Cavendish. Mendoza, The History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China and the Situation Thereof, ed. and trans. R. Parke, rev. ed. (1588, repr. 2010 Cambridge, Cambridge University Press), 2; Ashley Eva Millar, A Singular Case. Debating China’s Political Economy in the European Enlightenment (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017), 38. 103 Mendoza, D’historie, 2. This and comparable cross-references by Claesz are also suggested by Van den Boogaard, Civil and corrupt Asia, 5. 104 Mendoza, D’historie, 45. 105 Roelof van Gelder, “Paradijsvogels in Enkhuizen. De relatie tussen Van Linschoten en Bernardus Paludanus,” in Gelder, Parmentier and Roeper, Souffrir pour parvenir, 30–50. 106 Cornelis Taemsz, “Ode,” in Linschoten, Reys-gheschrift, 7–12; Mies Visser, ed., Cornelis Taemsz Vaygats ofte de Straet van Nassau. Ode tot lof van Jan Huygen van Linschoten (Den Haag: Linschoten-Vereniging, 1942). 107 “[H]et Chinasche rijk bij Noorden te ontdecken”; “[D]aermen spoedigh voort / Met de Chinasche schat ons rijckdom sal vermeren.” Taemsz, “Ode,” 8, 12.

46

van Netten

c­ ontinued on for a long time, the ships encountered too much ice in the Kara Sea and returned home disappointed.108 However, that was not the end of the northern endeavors to China. In 1595–1596, discussions and disagreements went on, in particular between Linschoten and Plancius. Eventually, a third voyage left in 1596, without Linschoten but with Gerrit de Veer, who had also participated in the second voyage. They brought with them several charts and earlier travel journals; for example, those of the Englishmen Pet and Jackman.109 The Dutch translation of Mendoza’s book on China was also aboard, which would have been handy when arriving at their destination.110 In the summer of 1597, people in Holland must have been curious and full of anticipation. The third voyage northeast and the first voyage southeast had not yet returned, and news from oversea could not travel faster than ships. Probably the discussions, uncertainties and hopes for profit had not ceased. The best route was not yet known, but plans were already made for new expeditions, which also considered southwest and northwest routes to the East Indies and China in particular. Dirck Gerritsz Pomp was involved in the preparations for a voyage bound to cross the Strait of Magellan with the purpose of trading in China and Japan.111 He was still the only Dutchman who had been there or, at least, the only one we know having been there. His (Enkhuizen) network must have helped him in this respect. In the sources regarding his later voyage to South America, he is referred to as Dirck “China.” This was not just a nickname but also a form of self-fashioning. This can be concluded from the fact that he also signed a notarial document in Enkhuizen that way.112 But why China? Why not Dirck Japan or Dirck India? We cannot be sure, but it seems another indication of China as a source of intrigue for the Dutch in the 1590s.

108 Burger, De deurvaart, 49–54; L’Honoré Naber, Reizen van Linschoten, xxix-xxx; Diederick Wildeman, “Een doodlopende weg. Jan Huygen van Linschoten in het hoge noorden,” in Gelder, Parmentier and Roeper, Souffrir pour parvenir, 111–122, 120. 109 Burger, De deurvaart, 1–48; J. Braat et al., ed., Behouden uit het Behouden Huys: catalogus van de voorwerpen van de Barentsexpeditie (1596), gevonden op Nova Zembla: de Rijksmuseumcollectie, aangevuld met Russishe en Noorse vondsten (Amsterdam: Bataafsche Leeuw, 1998), 158. 110 Braat, Behouden uit het Behouden Huys, 302. These copies of Mendoza and Pet and Jackman are now kept in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. 111 IJzerman, De eerste Nederlander die China, 25 and further; P.J. de Vries, “Het leven van Dirck Gerritsz Pomp alias Dirck China,” in Bossaers, Symposiumbundel Dirck Gerritsz Pomp alias Dirck China, 7–24, 19. 112 IJzerman, De eerste Nederlander die China, 26; De Vries, “Het leven van Dirck Gerritsz Pomp,” 7. De Vries concludes from this that Gerritsz was an experienced writer although Roeper doubts if he was literate (see Roeper, “Waren uit het koninkrijk van China,” 25).

The Richest Country in the World

47

6 Conclusion China, “the richest country under the sun,” seems to occupy a special place in the Dutch imagination regarding the East, especially in the early 1590s. In Holland, China quite suddenly became a nation, a kingdom to be more specific, instead of just a vague region on the map. Even more significantly, it had become a destination. More correctly, the first voyages of the Dutch, principally the northern expeditions, were voyages to China and Cathay: to be seen as two different countries according to the sources. Although the Spanish Augustinian Martín de Rada had (already in the 1560s) equated Polo’s Cathay with the land of China, this knowledge was not widespread in Europe.113 Charles Boxer has dubbed the term “China legend” for the early modern idea of China as an enviable country for Europeans: a place with well-administered justice, prosperous and hardworking people who are peaceable and self-controlled, and a high level of art and industry. According to Boxer, this legend had started with Mendoza and was subsequently fostered by Jesuits.114 It seems as if a Dutch version of the China legend existed in Holland a decade after Mendoza’s first edition, fostered by a group of men who had many ties to one another and the town of Enkhuizen: Jan Huygen van Linschoten, Cornelis Claesz, Dirck Gerritsz Pomp, Lucas Jansz Waghenaer, Bernardus Paludanus and Cornelis Taemsz. In recent research, the presentation of the Chinese as civilized, sometimes explicitly as white and civilized, has received some attention.115 However, as demonstrated in this chapter, the focus in the Dutch sources was not on the Chinese but on their land: rich, fertile and wealthy. Something else that Linschoten, Claesz, Waghenaer, and Taemsz had in common was their enthusiasm for searching for a northeastern passage to China. It is quite possible that their positive rendering of China and the Chinese is related to these endeavors. Certainly, the “First Navigation” of 1595 was not the first navigation to the east; only in hindsight, can it be seen as the first successful Dutch fleet to return with Asian spices. The rest of the story has to be saved for the epilogue, since this chapter only aims to show what was known before this return. We have seen that knowledge of China and the desire to go to China came north slowly and in uneven steps during the sixteenth century. When, in 1592, (new) 113 Boxer, South China in the Sixteenth Century, lxxvi. 114 Boxer, South China in the Sixteenth Century, xc-xci. 115 Van den Boogaard, Civil and Corrupt Asia, 15, 21–22; Van Groesen, The Representations of the Overseas World, 224–227 on Linschoten’s “appreciative representation of the Chinese”; this in contrast with De Bry. Ellis, “The Middle Kingdom through Spanish Eyes,” 471, 474.

48

van Netten

k­ nowledge was brought by real people with personal experiences in the East, it seems to have triggered more enthusiasm. Besides changing economic and political circumstances, the information conveyed by Linschoten, Pomp and Houtman—made public, thanks to the work of Waghenaer, Paludanus, Plancius and Claesz—put the Netherlandish wishes to sail to Asia into practice. However, whereas the economic and political conditions were necessary to set out, the available knowledge—the knowns and the known unknowns— shaped and defined the (alleged) possibilities and plans. Modern scholars have devoted much efforts to disentangle the sources of early modern Europeans (especially Mendoza) writing on China, seeking to distinguish fact from fiction or establish the reliability of Mendoza’s image of Ming China.116 But to understand contemporary European reactions, this is not too relevant since it was the presented image (combining several sources) that shaped the worldview these Europeans planned from, sailed with, and aimed for. It does not help to judge or even criticize early modern descriptions and cartography by modern standards while using what we know to be their unknown unknowns.117 To understand their plans and their possibilities, one should to adopt their names, views and concepts. 7 Epilogue As stated in the introduction, this chapter is not just a prologue although, in a way, it is. We do have the advantages of hindsight and while it is very insightful to leave retrospection out of our argument as much as possible, it does not mean we cannot present an epilogue. For most of the intervening period since the first Dutch encounters, China lost rank economically and no longer is a kingdom. However, from a European perspective, it probably still is the ultimate Far East and a place where large profits can be made. Despite all their plans and preparations, the Dutch did not get to China in the 1590s. The First Navigation went to Bantam on Java, where they actually met Chinese people. The clerk Willem Lodewijcksz writes about them in the first published eyewitness account of this voyage, issued by Claesz in 1598. Although Lodewijcksz does not refer to Linschoten in these parts, it is quite clear 116 Boxer, South-China in the Sixteenth Century, Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe vol. 1, book 1, 745; Juan González de Mendoza, Die Geschichte der höchst bemerkenswerten Dinge und Sitten im Chinesischen Königreich des Juan Gonzales de Mendoza. Ein Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte des ming-zeitlichen China, ed. Margereta Griessler (Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1992) and the review of this work by Ad Dudink in T’oung Pao 81 (1995): 171–191. 117 Cf. Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe vol. 1, book 1, 67.

The Richest Country in the World

49

that his gaze must have been colored by this earlier travel account. And he still cites Marco Polo as an authority on the Chinese.118 In October 1597, Lodewijcksz had returned to Holland with the First Navigation. They had lost one ship and two thirds of the crew, and brought hardly enough pepper to cover the costs. However, they had shown the feasibility of the southern route to Asia. A few weeks later, the few men surviving the (in-) famous heroic wintering on Nova Zembla also returned to Holland. The hardships, cold and polar bears met on this third expedition to find a northeast passage have obscured most of what can be told about the first two endeavors to the northeast.119 Claesz published De Veer’s account of all three voyages in 1598 and it became a success.120 It has been reprinted many times, translated and retold in both early modern and in modern times.121 The reason for the success and the focus of these publications has always been that last winter. Linschoten’s travel journal on the first two northern voyages, only published for the first time in 1601, did not make it into Dutch collective memory. From Linschoten as well as De Veer, it becomes clear that these were expeditions to China. De Veer’s title explicitly states that his were “voyages […] to the kingdoms of Cathay and China.” In Linschoten’s work the word China and its riches are even more frequently found: perhaps since he knew more about it? He relates that some people do not believe in the riches of these lands but, on the contrary, their gold, silver, silk, sugar, quicksilver, and other beautiful goods are real.122 Likewise obvious, but hardly stressed in the literature, is that Linschoten as well as De Veer and Moucheron (mentioned above) were absolutely convinced that the passage was there, “undoubtedly” waiting only to be discovered.123 They brought together classical and biblical wisdom, medieval testimonies, oral confirmation, common sense, existing maps, and the fact that the Portuguese also only found their way to India by trial and error, which evoked 118 Rouffaer and IJzerman, De Eerste Schipvaart i, 99, 121–125. 119 Cf. Wildeman, “Een doodlopende weg,” 121–122. 120 Gerrit de Veer, Waerachtighe beschryvinghe van drie seylagien, ter werelt noyt soo vreemt ghehoort, drie jaeren achter malcanderen deur de Hollandtsche ende Zeelandtsche schepen by noorden Noorweghen, Moscovia ende Tartaria, na de coninckrijcken van Catthai ende China … (Amsterdam: Claesz, 1598). 121 See, for example, Hans Gramberg, De overwintering op Nova Zembla (Hilversum: Verloren, 2001). De Veer’s story was even made into a film (called Nova Zembla and directed by Rei­ nout Oerlemans, 2011). 122 L’Honoré Naber, Reizen van Linschoten, 241. Note that De Veer does include silver, while Pomp had argued silver was the only thing the Chinese did not have to offer. 123 L’Honoré Naber, Reizen van Linschoten, lxvii, 4–5 (dedication to States General), 27, 206 (conclusion: “ghelijck sonder twijffel te presumeeren is […] dat het een ghewisse passagie, en open Zee nae Chyna is”).

50

van Netten

the thought of how much there was discovered in modern times that was not known by the ancients.124 Even though these three voyages did not arrive in China, by that time and even till at least the mid-seventeenth century, they were not considered as total failures but as an encouragement to continue searching. In the early years of the seventeenth century, just after the establishment of the Dutch East India Company in 1602, the Dutch attacked Portuguese Macao (unsuccessfully) several times, thereby reaching the Chinese mainland. By then it is said that the major outlines of Asia were set on maps for centuries to come, while the interior of China and India were slowly filled over the course of the seventeenth century.125 Additionally, from early in the century, ideas on the identification of Polo’s Cathay with (the north of) “Portuguese” China became commonplace in Europe: this became more definite after the travels and the letters by the Portuguese Jesuit Bento de Góis (published in 1615).126 However, Cathay was not removed from globes or maps. In the mid-­ seventeenth century, world maps still mention, for example, Polo’s Cambalu and Pliny’s Cape Tabin.127 This is understandable in the absence of anything better and the two locations were definitely not yet rejected as acceptable knowledge to present. Knowledge on China in the seventeenth century and probably beyond, remained an amalgam of hearsay, classics, medieval writers, and texts of early modern sailors and scholars. The Bible and classical writers remained important, alongside personal experiences of missionaries, merchants and other travelers. To understand early modern worldviews, we should consider change as well as continuity. Bibliography Apian, Peter. Cosmographia, ed. Gemma Frisius. Antwerp: Withagen, 1564. Apian, Peter. Cosmographia. Antwerp: Berckman, 1640.

124 L’Honoré Naber, Reizen van Linschoten, 4–5, 26, 206, 233–234; L’Honoré Naber, Reizen van Willem Barentsz, 26; Jeanette Mirsky, To the Arctic! The Story of Northern Exploration from Earliest Times to Present, rev. ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), 35–45; Spies, Arctic Routes. 125 Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe vol. 1, book 1, 217. 126 Yule and Cordier, Cathay and the Way Thither i, 172–173, 181–182. 127 See for example Joan Blaeu, Nova totius terrarum orbis tabula ([Amsterdam]: J. Blaeu, 1648).

The Richest Country in the World

51

Blussé, Leonard and Floris-Jan van Luyn. China en de Nederlanders. Geschiedenis van de Nederlands-Chinese betrekkingen 1600–2007. Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2008. Blussé, Leonard. “Peeking into the Empires. Dutch Embassies to the Courts of China and Japan.” Itinerario 37, no. 3 (2013): 13–29. Bor, Pieter. Oorsprongk, begin, en vervolgh der Nederlandsche oorlogen, enlarged edition, Amsterdam: Wolfgangh & Boom, 1681. Bor, Pieter. Vervolch van de Nederlantsche oorloghen. Leiden; Basson and Amsterdam: Colijn, 1630. Bourne, William. De const der zee-vaerdt. Amsterdam: Cornelis Claesz., 1594. Originally published 1574. Boxer, Charles, ed. South China in the Sixteenth Century. Being the Narratives of Galeote Pereira, Fr. Gaspar da Cruz, Fr. Martín de Rada (1550–1575). London: Hakluyt Society, 1953. Boxer, Charles. The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600–1800. London: Hutchinson, 1966. Boxer, Charles. The Portuguese Seaborne Empire 1415–1825. London: Pelican Press, 1969. Braat, J. et al., ed. Behouden uit het Behouden Huys: catalogus van de voorwerpen van de Barentsexpeditie (1596), gevonden op Nova Zembla: de Rijksmuseumcollectie, aangevuld met Russische en Noorse vondsten. Amsterdam: Bataafsche Leeuw, 1998. Briels, J. Zuid-Nederlandse immigratie 1572–1630. Haarlem: Fibula-Dishoeck, 1978. Brook, Timothy. “Trade and Conflict in the South China Sea. Portugal and China, 1514– 1523.” In A Global History of Trade and Conflict since 1500, edited by Lucia Coppolaro and Francine McKenzie, 20–37. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Burger, C.P. De deurvaart by noorden om naar Cathay ende China. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1930. Burger, C.P. “De historie ofte beschrijvinghe van het groote rijck van China.” Het Boek 19 (1930): 17–32. Burke, Peter. What is the History of Knowledge? Cambridge: Polity Press, 2016. Dawson, Christopher Henry, ed. The Mongol Mission. Narratives and Letters of the Franciscan Missionaries in Mongolia and China in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. London: Sheed and Ward, 1955. De Escalante, Bernardino. Discurso de la navegacion que los Portugueses hacen a los Reinos y Provincias de Oriente, y de la noticia que se tiene de las grandezas del Reino de la China. Sevilla: Escrivano, 1577. De Jonge, J.K.J. De opkomst van het Nederlandsch gezag in Oost-Indië i (1595–1610). The Hague. M. Nijhoff, 1862. De Medina, Pedro. De zee-vaert oft conste van ter zee te varen. Amsterdam: Cornelis Claesz., 1589. De Veer, Gerrit. Waerachtighe beschryvinghe van drie seylagien, ter werelt noyt soo vreemt ghehoort, drie jaeren achter malcanderen deur de Hollandtsche ende Z ­ eelandtsche

52

van Netten

schepen by noorden Noorweghen, Moscovia ende Tartaria, na de coninckrijcken van Catthai ende China. Amsterdam: Cornelis Claesz, 1598. De Vries, P.J. “Het leven van Dirck Gerritsz Pomp alias Dirck China.” In Symposiumbundel Dirck Gerritsz Pomp alias Dirck China, edited by K.W.J.M. Bossaers et al., 7–24. Enkhuizen: Vereniging Oud Enkhuizen, 2002. Dedoncker, Simon. “Een onderzoek naar de hiërarchie tussen Java, Malakka en China in de perceptie van Nederlandse reisverhalen uit de ‘lange zeventiende eeuw’.” MA diss., Universiteit Gent, 2010. Dickson, Kendall John. “Juan González Mendoza and his Historia de la China. An Essay in Historical Bibliography.” M.A. diss., University of Minnesota, 1965. Diffie, Bailey W. “Foreigners in Portugal and the ‘Policy of Silence.’” Terrae incognitae 1 (1969): 23–34. Dijstelberge, Paul. “De cost en de baet.” In Gedrukt in Holland, edited by J.W.J. Burgers, P. Knevel and E. Wouthuysen. Haarlem: Historische Vereniging Holland, 1994. Dong Shaoxin. “Research Statement. Portuguese-Dutch Conflicts and the Macao-­ Nagasaki Trade in the Early Seventeenth Century.” Itinerario 37 (2013): 70–74. Elliot, John H. The Old World and the New, 1492–1650. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970. Frankopan, Peter. The Silk Roads. A New History of the World. London: Bloomsbury 2015. González de Mendoza, Juan. D’historie ofte beschrijvinghe van het groote rijck van China [Delft: Vennecool for] Amsterdam: Cornelis Claesz., 1595 and Alkmaar: De Meester for Amsterdam: Claesz., 1595. González de Mendoza, Juan. Die Geschichte der höchst bemerkenswerten Dinge und Sitten im Chinesischen Königreich des Juan Gonzales de Mendoza. Ein Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte des ming-zeitlichen China, edited by Margereta Griessler. Sigmaringen: Thorbecke 1992. González de Mendoza, Juan. The History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China and the Situation Thereof, translated and edited by Robert Parke, George T. Staunton and Richard Henry Major. Reprinted Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Grafton, Anthony. New Worlds, Ancient Texts. The Power of Tradition and the Shock of Discovery. London: Belknap Press, 1992. Gramberg, Hans. De overwintering op Nova Zembla. Hilversum: Verloren, 2001. Greenblatt, Stephen. Marvellous Possessions. The Wonder of the New World. Oxford: ­Oxford University Press, 2003. [Grynaeus, Simon]. Die nieuwe weerelt der landtschappen ende eylanden, die tot hier toe allen ouden weerelt bescrijveren onbekent geweest sijn, edited by Cornelis Ablijn. ­Antwerpen: Van der Loe, 1563. Heyns, Peeter. Spieghel der werelt. Antwerp: Plantin, 1577. Huibert, Paul. Nederlanders in Japan 1600–1854. De VOC op Desjima. Weesp: Fibula-Van Dishoeck, 1984.

The Richest Country in the World

53

IJzerman, J.W. De eerste Nederlander die China en Japan bezocht 1544–1604. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1915. Keevak, Michael. Embassies to China. Diplomacy and Cultural Encounters before the Opium Wars. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. Kern, H., ed. Itinerario. Voyage ofte schipvaert, van Ian Huygen van Linschoten, naer Oost ofte Portugaels Indien. 2 vols. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1910. Keuning, Johannes. Petrus Plancius. Theoloog en geograaf 1552–1622. Amsterdam: Van Kampen, 1946. L’Honoré Naber, S.P., ed. Reizen van Jan Huygen van Linschoten naar het Noorden. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1914. L’Honoré Naber, S.P. and C.P. Burger, ed. Reizen van Willem Barentsz, Jacob van Heemskerck, Jan Cornelisz Rijp en anderen naar het Noorden, verhaald door Gerrit de Veer. 2 vols. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1917. Lach, Donald F. and Edwin van Kley. Asia in the Making of Europe. 3 vols. Chicago: 1965, 1970, 1977, 1993. Lach, Donald F. China in the Eyes of Europe. The Sixteenth Century. Chicago: Chigcago University Press, 1965. Lodewijcksz, Willem. Om de Zuid. De eerste schipvaart naar Oost-Indië onder Cornelis de Houtman, 1595–1597, edited by Vibeke Roeper and Diederick Wildeman. Nijmegen: SUN Uitgeverij, 1997. McKew, Parr Charles. Jan van Linschoten. The Dutch Marco Polo. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1964. Millar, Ashley Eva. A Singular Case. Debating China’s Political Economy in the European Enlightenment. Montreal: McGill-Queem’s University Press, 2017. Mirsky, Jeanette. To the Arctic! The Story of Northern Exploration from Earliest Times to Present. Revised edition. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1970. O’Doherty, Marianne. The Indies and the Medieval West. Thought, Report, Imagination. Turnhout: Brepols, 2013. Polo, Marco. De consuetudinis et conditionibus orientalum regionum. [Gouda: Leeu 1483–1485?]. Portuondo, María M. Secret Science. Spanish Cosmography and the New World. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2009. Pos, Arie. “So weetmen wat te vertellen alsmen oudt is. Over het ontstaan en de inhoud van het Itinerario.” In Souffrir pour parvenir. De wereld van Jan Huygen van Linschoten, edited by Roelof van Gelder, Jan Parmentier and Vibeke Roeper, 135–151. Haarlem: Arcadia, 1998. Prinsen, A. Balthazar de Moucheron voorloper van de VOC. Middelburg: Stichting VOC Publicaties, 1987. Ptak, Roderich. China, the Portuguese and the Nanyang. Oceans and Routes, Regions and Trade (c.1000–1600). Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003.

54

van Netten

Richmond, Ellis Robert. “The Middle Kingdom through Spanish Eyes. Depictions of China in the Writings of Juan González de Mendoza and Domingo Fernández Navarrete.” Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 83 (2006): 469–483. Rietbergen, Peter. Japan verwoord. Nihon door Nederlandse ogen, 1600–1799. Amsterdam: KIT Publishers, 2003. Roeper, Vibeke. “D’Hollandtsche Magellaen. De wereld van Jan Huygen van Linschoten.” In Souffrir pour parvenir. De wereld van Jan Huygen van Linschoten edited by Roelof van Gelder, Jan Parmentier and Vibeke Roeper, 11–29. Haarlem: Arcadia, 1998. Roeper, Vibeke. “Waren uit het koninkrijk van China.” In Symposiumbundel Dirck Gerritsz Pomp alias Dirck China, edited by K.W.J.M. Bossaers et al., 26–28. Enkhuizen: Vereniging Oud Enkhuizen, 2002. Roeper, Vibeke. “Alle kennis van de wereld. Het manuscript voorbereiding Eerste Schipvaart, 1595.” In De ontdekking van de wereld: Nederlanders in onbekend vaarwater (1600–2000), edited by Remmelt Daalder et al., 8–15. Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2003. Rouffaer, G.P. and J.W. IJzerman, De eerste schipvaert der Nederlanders naar Oost-Indië onder Cornelis de Houtman, 1595–1597. 3 vols. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1915–1929. Saldanha, Arun. “The Itineraries of Geography. Jan Huygen van Linschoten’s Itinerario and Dutch Expeditions to the Indian Ocean, 1594–1602.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 101 (2011): 149–177. Schilder, Günter. Monumenta Cartographica Neerlandica vii: Cornelis Claesz (c. 1551– 1609). Stimulator and Driving Force of Dutch Cartography. Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 2003. Schilder, Günter. Early Dutch Maritime Cartography. The North Holland School of Cartography. Leiden: Brill, 2017. Skelton, Robert. “Introduction.” In Waghenaer, Thresoor der zeevaert. Amsterdam: Cornelis Claesz, 1965. Spies, Marijke. Arctic Routes to Fabled Lands. Oliver Brunel and the Passage to China and Cathay in the Sixteenth Century. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1997. Taylor, E.G.R., ed. A Regiment for the Sea, and Other Writings on Navigation. Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1963. Terpstra, H., ed. Itinerario. Voyage ofte schipvaert, van Ian Huygen van Linschoten, naer Oost ofte Portugaels Indien. 3 vols. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1955–1957. Tremml-Werner, Birgit. Spain, China and Japan in Manila, 1571–1644. Local Comparisons and Global Connections. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2015. Unger, W.S., ed. De oudste reizen van de Zeeuwen naar Oost-Indië. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1948. Van Campen, Jan and Tristan Mostert. Zijden draad. China en Nederland 1600–2000. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Vantilt, 2015.

The Richest Country in the World

55

Van den Boogaart, Ernst. Civil and Corrupt Asia. Image and Text in the Itinerario and the Icones of Jan Huygen van Linschoten. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2003. Van der Chys, J.A. Geschiedenis der stichting van de Vereenigde O.I. Compagnie en der maatregelen van de Nederlandsche regering betreffende de vaart op Oost-Indië, welke aan deze stichting voorafgingen. Leiden: Engels, 1856. Van Gelder, Roelof. “Paradijsvogels in Enkhuizen. De relatie tussen Van Linschoten en Bernardus Paludanus.” In Souffrir pour parvenir. De wereld van Jan Huygen van Linschoten, edited by Roelof van Gelder, Jan Parmentier and Vibeke Roeper, 30–50. Haarlem: Arcadia, 1998. Van Groesen, Michiel. The Representations of the Overseas World in the De Bry Collection of Voyages (1590–1634). Leiden: Brill, 2008. Van Linschoten, Jan Huygen. Reys-gheschrift vande navigatien der Portugaloysers in Orienten. Amsterdam: Cornelis Claesz., 1595. Van Linschoten, Jan Huygen, Itinerario. Voyage ofte schipvaert, van Ian Huygen van Linschoten, naer Oost ofte Portugaels Indien. Amsterdam: Cornelis Claesz., 1596. Van Linschoten, Jan Huygen. Voyagie, ofte schipvaert, van Ian Huyghen van Linschoten, van by noorden om langes Noorvvegen, de noortcaep, etc. Franeker: Ketel, 1601. Van Selm, Bert. Een menighte treffelijcke boecken. Nederlandse boekhandelscatalogi in het begin van de zeventiende eeuw. Utrecht: HES, 1987. Viallé, Cynthia. “Daily Life of the Dutch in Canton and Nagasaki. A Comparison Based on the VOC dagregisters and Other Sources.” Itinerario 37 (2013): 153–171. Visser, Mies, ed. Cornelis Taemsz Vaygats ofte de Straet van Nassau. Ode tot lof van Jan Huygen van Linschoten. Den Haag, Linschoten-Vereniging, 1942. Vogel, Hans Ulrich. Marco Polo was in China. New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues. Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2013. Vogeley, Nancy. “China and the American Indies. A Sixteenth-Century ‘History’.” Colonial Latin American Review 6, no. 2 (1997): 165–184. Waghenaer, Lucas Jansz. De spieghel der zeevaerdt. 1584–1585. Fascimile of the first edition with an introduction by R.A. Skelton. Amsterdam: Israel, 1964. Waghenaer, Lucas Jansz. Thresoor der Zeevaert. Amsterdam: Cornelis Claesz., 1592. Warnsinck, J.C.M. De wetenschappelijke voorbereiding van de Eerste Schipvaart naar Oost-Indië. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1936. Warnsinck, J.C.M., ed. Itinerario. Voyage ofte schipvaert van Jan Huygen van Linschoten naer Oost ofte Portugaels Indien, 1579–1592. Parts 4 and 5: Reys-gheschrift vande navigatien der Portagaloysers. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1939. Weststeijn, Thijs. “Portraits of China and Japan. The Case of the Dutch Golden Age.” In Portraits of Asia and Europe, edited by K. Yoshida and B. Durrans, 274–278. Osaka: Asahi Shimbun, 2008. Wildeman, Diederick. “Een doodlopende weg. Jan Huygen van Linschoten in het hoge noorden.” In Souffrir pour parvenir. De wereld van Jan Huygen van Linschoten, edited

56

van Netten

by Roelof van Gelder, Jan Parmentier and Vibeke Roeper, 111–122. Haarlem: Arcadia, 1998. Wills, John E. Pepper, Guns and Parleys: The Dutch East India Company and China, 1662– 1681. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974. Yule, Henry and Henri Cordier. Cathay and the Way Thither. Being a Collection of Medieval Notions of China with a Preliminary Essay on the Intercourse between China and the Western Nations Previous to the Discovery of the Cape Route. Vol. 1. London: ­Hakluyt Society, 1915. Zandvliet, Kees. Mapping for Money. Maps, Plans and Topographic Paintings and Their Role in Dutch Overseas Expansion during the 16th and 17th Centuries. Amsterdam: Batavian Lion International, 2002.

Chapter 3

Red-Haired Barbarians: The Dongxi Yangkao (1617) and its Portrayal of the Dutch in China Lennert Gesterkamp Since the first contact between the Dutch and Chinese in 1601, the Dutch have made a lasting impression on the Chinese, earning them the name “red-haired barbarians” (hongmaofan 紅毛番). Many of these interactions have been the subject of detailed studies, focusing primarily on the Dutch embassies to the Chinese court, trade in the China Seas region by the Dutch East India Company (voc), and its clashes with Chinese navy and pirates. There is a wealth of information in these studies and in seventeenth-century Dutch sources on the Chinese, such as the extensive voc archives. The viewpoint of the Chinese on the Dutch is less thoroughly studied and now belongs to a growing field of cultural history in a global context, particularly to a subfield that looks at stereotypes (sometimes referred to as imagology).1 Whereas studies usually take the viewpoint of the European or Westerner as their starting point, this study will reverse roles and take rather the European—in this case, the seventeenthcentury Dutch—as prime subject of the investigating gaze of the Chinese. This study aims to look at the Chinese sources and their portrayal of the Dutch in order to answer these questions. However, Chinese textual sources mentioning the Dutch are numerous and Dutch-Chinese interactions fluctuated heavily over time: the impression and ideas of the Chinese of the Dutch fluctuated with these changes in interaction. To this end, we will look at the first official description of the red-haired barbarians given in the Dongxi yangkao 東西洋考 [Investigations on the East and West Seas] written by Zhang Xie 張燮 (1574–1640). Until 1620, Dutch-Chinese interactions were still few and far between, and the voc was still attempting without any success to gain access to China and the Chinese market. A change in voc policy in 1620, promoting a more aggressive and violent approach, heralded a new era in Dutch-Chinese relations and the Dongxi yangkao, as an official publication, is therefore a

1 P. Burke, What is Cultural History? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004); M. Beller & J.T. Leerssen, ed., Imagology: The Cultural Construction and Literary Representation of N ­ ational Characters (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2007).

©

 | 

/

58

Gesterkamp

­ erfect source for summarizing the views of the Chinese on the Dutch for the p first two decades of their interactions. The Dongxi yangkao is essentially a work on Chinese trade and its partners in the China Seas region, in which the also Dutch figure. To be able to investigate the Chinese views of the Dutch in the Dongxi yangkao, it will first be necessary to clarify briefly the historical background against which it was written. After that, this study will introduce the Dongxi yangkao and provide a full translation of the chapter on red -haired barbarians, followed by a discussion of the particular views on the Dutch it expresses. The study will demonstrate that the views are, perhaps obviously, not uniform and that Dutch attempts to establish trade relationships with the Chinese were severely hampered by conflicting Chinese views of the Dutch. This study also offers a new explanation for the Dutch failure of establishing trade relations in 1603. The results of the study further hint at a hitherto unnoticed but important condition of Chineseforeigner interactions, usually understood in the framework of the “tribute system” or “tribute trade system,” which entails non-violence: as long as the ritual conditions are met and no violent intentions are harbored, the Chinese very much welcomed trade relations. Such views can shed new light, not only on Dutch-Chinese interactions but also on Chinese views on foreigners in general. 1

The China Seas in Historical Context

The China Seas have been a nexus of global trade for at least two millennia and, over the centuries, merchants from various countries have controlled the lucrative trade in this much-contested area. From the Tang to the early Northern Song dynasties (seventh to eleventh centuries), merchants from Persia were in control of long-distance and intermediary sea trade in both the Indian Ocean and the China Seas. From the early Northern Song dynasty to the Yuan dynasty under Mongol rule (eleventh to fourteenth centuries), strong Chinese policies promoting trade resulted in a new dominance of Chinese merchants in the China Seas, largely wrestling trade from their Persian peers who, however, remained the main actors in the Indian Ocean during that time.2 2 For a convenient overview of trade in the China Seas, see Angela Schottenhammer, “The ‘China Seas’ in World History: A General Outline of the Role of Chinese and East Asian Maritime Space from its Origins to c. 1800,” Journal of Marine and Island Cultures 1 (2012): 63–86. For trade in pre-Ming times, see further Lo Jung-Pang, “The Emergence of China as a Sea Power During the Late Sung and Early Yuan Periods,” The Far Eastern Quarterly 14, no. 4 (1955): 489–503; Wang Gungwu, “The Nanhai Trade: A Study of the Early History of Chinese

Red-Haired Barbarians

59

With the establishment of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), the Ming court imposed a sea ban (haijin 海禁) forbidding all private sea trade. A sea ban was a customary measure in Chinese history when a new dynasty, or sometimes a new reign period, was established and which was designed to regain control over the coastal area and its sea trade: installing new officials, new bureaucratic regulations and tax systems, and maritime defense systems. After a while, the ban was usually lifted again, often followed by a series of embassies to neighboring kingdoms and trade centers, announcing the arrival of a new dynasty and emperor in China and, at the same time, it was an invitation to establish new trade relations. In the Chinese sources, this type of trade relation with a neighboring country, as well as with the provinces regarding local produce, was conceived in a typically Chinese ritual framework and referred to as “tribute” (gong 貢).3 The Ming dynasty was no different: the ban was lifted and embassies were sent out. The now-famed Zheng He 鄭和 (1371–1433) expeditions that reached as far as the East African coasts are best known.4 However, after the Zheng He expeditions, the Ming court took a different turn in history. For complex reasons, the ban was reinstated. The official reason was to counter the wokou 倭寇 or “dwarf bandits” as the Japanese pirates were derogatively called in Chinese sources (even though they actually consisted of peoples of all kinds of backgrounds and nationalities), who created havoc on the Chinese coast and disrupted sea trade. Military, political, and ideological Trade in the South China Sea,” Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 31, no. 2 (1958): 1–135; Angela Schottenhammer, “China’s Gate to the Indian Ocean—Iranian and Arab Long-distance Traders,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 76, no. 1 (2016): 135–179; idem, “China’s Rise and Retreat as a Maritime Power,” in Beyond the Silk Roads: New Discourses on China’s Role in East Asian Maritime History, ed. Robert J. Antony and Angela Schottenhammer, (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2017), 189–212. 3 The traditional article on tribute is J.K. Fairbank, “Tributary Trade and China’s Relations with the West,” Far Eastern Quarterly 1, no. 2 (1942): 129–149, but which is now largely dismissed. For recent discussions, see John E. Wills, Embassies and Illusions: Dutch and Portuguese Envoys to K’ang-hsi, 1666–1687 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984), 5–24; Zhang Feng, “Rethinking the “Tribute System”: Broadening the Conceptual Horizon of Historical East Asian Politics,” The Chinese Journal of International Politics 2, no. 4 (2009): 545–574; and Peter C. Perdue, “The Tenacious Tributary System,” Journal of Contemporary China, 24, no. 96 (2015): 1002–1014. For the Song policies and Yuan policies on strengthening sea trade, see Schottenhammer, “The ‘China Seas’ in World History,” 74–79, and idem, “China’s Rise and Retreat as a Maritime Power.” These sources show how a sea ban and tribute missions were part of a ritualized framework for conducting trade with foreign countries. 4 Publications on Zheng He abound, from the popular to the scholarly. See, for example, Edward L. Dreyer, Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the Early Ming Dynasty, 1405–1433 (New York: Pearson Longman, 2007) and Schottenhammer, “The ‘China Seas’ in World History,” 80–81.

60

Gesterkamp

reasons may have similarly been in play, such as a military emphasis on border protection in the north and northeast against the steppe people rather than the sea borders, or (neo-)Confucian disdain for merchants that became more outspoken and articulated in Ming court politics.5 The instatement and reinstatement of the sea ban, however, did not mean that sea trade stopped: it continued unabated. Illegal trade usually happened in collaboration with local officials, local elites investing in these enterprises, as well as with the wokou pirates who could either offer protection—if paid enough—or simply provide another career path for destitute Chinese seafarers cut from their traditional sources of livelihood.6 The Ming dynasty further saw another change in the China Seas trade besides a continuous sea ban and rampant piracy on the Chinese shore; namely, the arrival of new competitors from Europe. The Portuguese had arrived in the Indian Ocean in the final years of the fifteenth century and, in the sixteenth century, they established themselves in many major port cities around the China Seas; furthermore, they were the only foreign entity with a foothold in China, occupying the Macao peninsula from 1557 onward. The Spanish followed soon after and had established themselves in Luzon (present-day Manila, Philippines) in 1521, importing Mexican silver that had been shipped across the Pacific Ocean. The Portuguese and Spanish, whose people and territories were unified under one king during the Iberian Union (1580–1640), controlled much of the trade (together with their Fujianese middlemen and sailors) in the China Seas and mostly acted as intermediaries, exchanging (for example) Japanese silver for Chinese silk, while this trade was previously shipped by the Chinese merchants. In the Chinese sources, the Portuguese and Spanish were referred to as the Farangi (folangji 佛郎機), or the “Franks,” after the Persian word for Europeans and adopted into Chinese by the Mongols.7 The Dutch arrived in the China Seas in the final years of the sixteenth century, first as independent traders and, from 1602, organized in a “cooperation” 5 On the Sea ban, see Chao Zhongzhen 晁 中 辰 , Mingdai haijin yu haiwai maoyi 明 代 海 禁 與 海 外 貿 易 (Beijing: Renmin daxue chubanshe, 2005). 6 See Robert J. Antony, Like Froth Floating on the Sea: The World of Pirates and Seafarers in Late Imperial South China (Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 2003); idem, Elusive Pirates, Pervasive Smugglers Violence and Clandestine Trade in the Greater China Seas (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2010); Cheng Weichung, War, Trade and Piracy in the China Seas (1622–1683) (Leiden: Brill, 2013). 7 Igor de Rachewiltz, “Turks in China under the Mongols,” in China among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and its Neighbors, 10th–14th Centuries, ed. M. Rossabi (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), 281; Endymion P. Wilkinson, Chinese History: A Manual (Harvard: Harvard University Press: 2000), 730.

Red-Haired Barbarians

61

of investors from different Dutch cities: the Dutch East Indian Company (voc). They established headquarters in Batavia (present-day Jakarta, Indonesia) in 1619, and then gradually expanded their network of factories (trading posts) across the coasts of the China Seas, the most important being Taiwan in 1624, and Malacca (Malay) and Nagasaki (Japan) in 1641, following the expulsion of the Portuguese. The Dutch attacked the Portuguese in Macao and the Spanish in Luzon on several occasions but without success. Nevertheless, already by the early seventeenth century, they had uprooted the Portuguese trade in the Indian Ocean and China Seas regions, taking over the main trade shipping routes and similarly acting as intermediaries in trade with China, in which the Dutch monopoly on Japan had become the most lucrative. From the beginning however, one of the main goals of the voc was to establish trade relations with China. The first contact with China was made in 1601 while attempting to land in Macao, and Chinese sources from that year already refer to the Dutch as “red-haired barbarians” (hongmaofan 紅毛番), because of their red hair.8 Later Chinese sources would also refer to the Dutch using other terms, such as “redhaired foreigners” (hongmaoyi 紅毛夷), abbreviated as “red foreigners” (hongyi 紅夷), as well as “red-haired devils” (hongmaogui 紅毛鬼). The Dutch made numerous other attempts to establish trade relations with China, both clandestine and legal, even sending official embassies to the Chinese court in Beijing, but always to no avail.9 The British, who had similarly organized themselves into an East Indian Company in 1600, were also soon active in the China Seas, even though they were mostly eclipsed for the period of the seventeenth century by the Dutch. When Dutch maritime power waned at the end of the seventeenth century, the British would, in turn, supersede the Dutch, controlling the trade routes and factories in the China Seas from the eighteenth century onward. The Chinese sources of the early seventeenth century did not differentiate, however, between the Dutch and British and referred to both as “red-haired barbarians,” being unaware of the different European countries and simply naming and 8 Leonard Blussé, “Brief Encounter at Macao,” Modern Asian Studies 22, no. 3 (1988): 647–664. 9 Studies on the voc and the Dutch in China are numerous. Two overview studies, in Dutch, are W.P. Groeneveldt, De Nederlanders in China (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1898), Leonard Blussé and Floris-Jan Van Luyn, China en de Nederlanders: Geschiedenis van de Nederlands-Chinese betrekkingen, 1600–2008 (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2008). For studies in English, see (amongst others) John E. Wills, Pepper, Guns, and Parleys: The Dutch East India Company and China, 1622–1681 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974), Tonio Andrade, How Taiwan Became Chinese: Dutch, Spanish, and Han Colonization in the Seventeenth Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), Michael Keevak, Embassies to China: Diplomacy and Cultural Encounters Before the Opium Wars (Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).

62

Gesterkamp

grouping them after their physical features.10 The British presence in the China Seas in that early period was, however, too minor to suggest a conflation of nationalities with the name of “red-haired barbarian” and in the majority of cases the Dutch were clearly referred to, as the context confirms. The arrival of European competitors in the China Seas had not only shifted the balance of trade in favor of the Europeans, it had also changed the rules of the game. The use of heavily armed ships and the building of large-scale fortifications to enforce and maintain trade resulted in the militarization of the Indian Ocean and China Seas.11 Of course, the colonization of overseas regions entailing the introduction of, notably, Portuguese and Spanish languages, culture, and religion was an integral part of the Portuguese-Spanish, and later British, ideals of establishing a global empire. This state-guided aspect of colonization was absent from previous times in the trade between the various populations in the Indian Ocean and China Seas. Not surprisingly, the Chinese sources usually speak in very negative terms about the Farangi, taking issue in particular with their reliance on violence to do trade, while other neighboring countries were “not used to using weapons.”12 In this context, it is of special interest to look at the way the Chinese viewed the Dutch, as this question, if not the view of the Chinese on all Europeans at that time, has not received much attention thus far.13 2 The Dongxi yangkao The Dongxi yangkao is the most important text for the study of the China Seas history, trade, and cultures during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth 10

11

12 13

According to Ming history, the Dutch would have arrived in Canton (Guangzhou) in 1637. There are no records of Dutch ships in Guangzhou in this year. There are, however, records of English ships: see G. Schlegel, “De betrekkingen tussen Nederland en China volgens Chineesche bronnen,” Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië 42, no. 1 (1893):16–18, 29. On the militarization and colonization of the Indian Ocean by the Portuguese, see Kirti N. Chaudhuri, “The Portuguese Maritime Empire, Trade, and Society in the Indian Ocean During the Sixteenth Century,” Portuguese Studies 8 (1992): 57–70, esp. 63–66. The same Portuguese practices apply to the China Seas. Quoted from the Ming shi lu 明 實 錄 in Keevak, Embassies to China, 59. Meng Hua, “The Chinese Genesis of the Term ‘Foreign Devil’,” in Images of Westerners in Chinese and Japanese Literature, ed. Meng Hua and Sukehiro Harakawa (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000), 25–37; Peng Zhaorong, “The Image of the ‘Red-Haired Barbarian’ in Chinese Official and Popular Discourse,” in Images of Westerners in Chinese and Japanese Literature, ed. Meng Hua and Sukehiro Harakawa (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000), 17–13.

Red-Haired Barbarians

63

centuries.14 It consists of twelve chapters. The first four chapters describe the foreign peoples, their histories, cultural specifics, and major products of the “East Sea” (dongyang 東洋) and denotes a series of fifteen main trading centers along a sea route going from Fujian in southeast China along the northside of Borneo and moving south to the Indonesian archipelago. The fifth chapter similarly describes the foreign peoples of eight main trading centers along a sea route following the southside of Borneo via Vietnam and also ending at the Indonesian archipelago. The sixth chapter on the “external biographies” (waiji 外紀) discusses the wokou, or Japanese (and other) pirates, and the red-haired barbarians: the Dutch. The remaining six chapters deal with taxes (twice), navy, inscriptions (twice), and miscellanea. The text is essentially a local gazetteer but focused on charting the cultures and products of the foreign peoples that were trading with the Chinese in the China Seas. The only other text of its kind dated four centuries earlier to the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), the Zhufan zhi 諸蕃志 [Record of all the Barbarians], compiled by Zhao Rushi 趙汝 適 (1170–1228) in 1225. Even though it described a much wider geography—also divided into eastern and western barbarians, from Japan to Italy—it only consisted of two chapters and its information had become obsolete after four centuries and two dynastic changes. The compilation of the Dongxi yangkao was ordered by the state specially to fill the lacuna in the current Ming knowledge of the foreign peoples along the China Seas and to investigate the possibilities for trade or “tribute relations.” The sea ban had caused a great decrease in state revenue and the China Seas had become a vastly different theatre with different actors and different rules during the time of the sea ban. In order to reverse the trend, or at least to get a grip on the new situation and make revenue flow into the state treasury again (instead of the pockets of foreigners, pirates, or local corrupt officials), the sea ban was lifted in 1567. Zhangzhou 漳州, a trading port at the Fujianese coast, close to Xiamen 廈門 (Amoy), was designated as the official port where trade with foreign entities was allowed. To this end, the entire governing body and system of regulations and taxes concerning foreign trade had to be updated to better suit the changed needs of their present time. In addition, knowledge on these foreign trade partners had to be collected, informing the trade officials 14

For a synopsis on the importance of the text, see Zheng Yong 鄭 鏞 , “Zhang Xie yu Dongxi yangkao 張 燮 與 《 東 西 洋 ,” Zhangzhou shifan xueyuan xuebao (zhexue shehui kexue ban) 漳 州 師 範 學 院 學 報 (哲 學 社 會 科 學 版 ), 51, no. 2 (2004): 41–46. For a discussion of the text in English, see Leonard Blussé, “No Boats to China. The Dutch East India Company and the Changing Pattern of the China Sea Trade, 1635–1690,” Modern Asian Studies 30, no. 1 (1996): 51–76.

64

Gesterkamp

on the cultural background of their foreign trade partners, their main products, as well as the potential benefits and problems of dealing with them. The Dongxi yangkao is the result of these reforms and investigations, a task commissioned to one of the most erudite Fujian scholars of the late Ming, Zhang Xie.15 He was a jinshi of 1574 and, in the chaotic years at the end of the Ming, he preferred traveling and living as a “recluse” and associating with other local erudites than taking office. In the 1620s, he was even invited to help with the compilation of the Ming shi lu 明實錄 [Ming Veritable Records], but declined.16 The Dongxi yangkao is exemplary of Zhang Xie’s breadth of knowledge, including references to a great number of historical works and providing descriptions of the foreign peoples. Zhang Xie did not simply rely on written, historical sources alone and adopted a wide range of other research methods, including palace reports, local archives, personal interviews with merchants, and his own travel experience in the region, achieving an impressively wellbalanced and objective view of each subject.17 Beside descriptions of foreign trade partners, the Dongxi yangkao also pays much attention to describing the new tax system and the bureaucratic system developed to administrate the overseas trade. None of these were in place in the late sixteenth century, and the Dongxi yangkao has clearly been important in codifying such systems for overseas trade and for dealing with foreigners; understandably, the work had a profound influence on later, similar works. Compiled in Fujian, the Dongxi yangkao portrays the views of the local officials promoting the trade in the China Seas region on behalf of the state but from the point of view of the merchants. In Chinese studies, it is often called a “trade manual” (maoyi zhinan 貿易指南) but this may imply that it was intended for merchants. The contents, however, suggest a more official use. To cite a few examples: names and official titles are reduced to the minimum, there is a large emphasis on history and cultural oddities (of no avail to a merchant), a significant part of the work is dedicated to regulations and costs and benefits for the state, the text is written in an elegant and literary style indicating its use for more educated readers, and the two chapters with inscriptions (ranging from stele inscriptions to memorials) have a historical and archival value rather than a practical value for merchants. All these aspects suggest that the text was intended for decisions and policy-making by officials, rather than merchants, to better coordinate trade and business in the China Seas region 15

16 17

Chen Qingyuan 陳 慶 元 , “Zhang Xie zhushu kao 張 燮 著 述 考 ,” Zhangzhou shifan xueyuan xuebao (zhexue shehui kexue ban) 漳 州 師 範 學 院 學 報 (哲 學 社 會 科 學 版 ), 78, no. 4 (2010): 48–54; idem, “Zhang Xie nianbiao 張 燮 年 表 ,” Nanjing shifan daxue wenxue yuan xuebao 南 京 大 學 文 學 院 學 報 1 (2013): 182–188. See Zheng, “Zhang Xie yu Dongxi yangkao,” 41–42. Zheng, “Zhang Xie yu Dongxi yangkao,” 45.

Red-Haired Barbarians

65

and, therefore, increase state revenue. Since it was printed, its additional use by merchants cannot be ruled out, but this is not borne out by the text itself or other sources. The Dongxi yangkao has been used notably for its invaluable information and sources on the Chinese perspective on the history, economy, politics, and military history of the China Seas region, which even to this day is a hotbed of conflicts and political dispute. Its value for Dutch history has also been recognized early on. The Dutch voc archives present an enormous wealth of information on Dutch trade and the peoples of the China Seas area and the Dongxi yangkao has proved invaluable for comparing the Dutch versions of events with those of the Chinese. In that specific context, the eminent Dutch scholar on voc history in East Asia, Leonard Blussé, has cited the Dongxi yangkao in a good number of his vast publications and it served as the main source for his publication that reconstructed the affairs around the first Dutch occupation of the Penghu Islands (Pescadores) in the strait between Fujian and Taiwan in the year 1604.18 Some passages of the text have appeared as translations in Blussé’s article. Because of its focus on the historical aspects, the passages dealing in particular with the description of the Dutch, their appearances, and habits are not yet translated. This study, in contrast, will focus on the foreigner aspect of the Dutch and use the text of the Dongxi yangkao to discern the Chinese views of the Dutch and the modes of perspective. Because the historical part is just as essential to the understanding of the Dutch from the Chinese point of view, I will present a full translation of the text in appendix 3.1. Chapter 6 contains two sections, one very long section on the Japanese, with whom the Chinese already had traded since pre-Tang times, and one shorter section on the Dutch, who were still completely unknown to the Chinese as a foreign people, and constituted a potential trade partner sixteen years before the printing of the Dongxi yangkao. Much of the text is therefore devoted to making sense of the Dutch and detailing as best as possible their role in the China Seas and their relationship to the Chinese. 3

Chinese Views of the Dutch in the Dongxi yangkao

An analysis of the text is needed to be able to discern Chinese views and perceptions of the Dutch as recorded by Zhang Xie. Whether the text represents 18

Leonard Blussé, “Inpo, Chinese Merchant in Pattani: A Study in Early Dutch-Chinese Relations,” in Proceedings of the Seventh iaha Conference, held in Bangkok, 22–26 August 1977 (Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Press, 1977), 290–309.

66

Gesterkamp

the personal view of Zhang Xie or not, is a question I will answer and try to put into perspective at the end. Basically, I will view the text as a compilation of images “depicting” the Dutch, which have particular “iconographic” aspects that can be discussed in relationship to each other, other images, and the social background against which they appear and are used. This kind of analysis should yield some discernable “stereotypes” or conceptions of the Dutch by the Chinese of ca. 1617. First of all, the particular categorization of foreign people in the Dongxi yangkao reveals an important aspect of how the Chinese viewed the Dutch and where they placed them on the scale of trusted trade partners. The neighboring foreign port cities, kingdoms, and islands are first geographically divided into two categories based on their location on the trade routes leaving from Zhangzhou. These foreign peoples constitute the “tribute” relations and therefore belong to the trusted partners of the Chinese. In pre-Ming times, Japan was also a tribute state but, because of the wokou pirates and internal problems in Japan, tribute relations had stopped from the early Ming onward. In order to reflect this new situation, Zhang Xie has constructed an extra category, the “external biographies.” Clearly, the new arrival of the Dutch posed a problem to his framework, which Zhang Xie solved by placing the Dutch together with the Japanese in the external biographies chapter. The implication of this categorization of the Dutch is ambiguous and is perhaps intended as such. On the one hand, it suggests that the Chinese viewed the Dutch similar to the Japanese, namely as wokou pirates and the killing, plundering, and kidnapping committed by the Dutch in the China Seas would certainly justify such an identification. The Dongxi yangkao itself does not fully support this view, however. The Dutch are depicted as traders with mighty weapons, or as “chickens with fox grease” because, to the Chinese, the use of weapons and doing trade seemed to be a contradiction in terms: if one wanted to do trade, why would one need weapons? In the eyes of the Chinese, bringing weapons meant that there were ulterior motives, such as occupying territory. The Chinese sources on the first encounter with the Dutch in Macao in 1601 also most clearly advocate this non-violent approach to the Dutch.19 The earliest Chinese sources on the Portuguese were, by contrast, fully aware of the ­aggressive and colonialist intentions of the Portuguese.20 On the other hand, by placing the Japanese and Dutch in a special category, the Dutch were still 19 Blussé, “Brief Encounter at Macao,” 660–661. 20 Keevak, Embassies to China, 43–44, quoting the Ming shi lu dated between 1517 and 1521 as well as a Guangdong gazetteer. For an interesting discussion of ancient Chinese attitudes towards the barbarians, which can be divided into “relativist” (Daoist) and “expansionist” (Confucian) approaches or mixtures thereof, see Kim Hyun Jin, Ethnicity and Foreigners in Ancient Greece and China (London: Duckworth, 2009), 29–38, 59–71, 85–98.

Red-Haired Barbarians

67

given the benefit of the doubt, meaning that, even though they were not recognized tributors, the Chinese still felt it possible to conduct trade with the Dutch. The final sections of the text also support such a view. The organization of the text also reveals the Chinese views on the Dutch. It consists of basically five topics: (1) the name, appearance, and provenance of the Dutch; (2) the history of the relations between the Dutch and the Chinese; (3) characteristics of Dutch technology, culture and etiquette; (4) products; and (5) trading and competing with the Dutch. In order to inform the Chinese officials deciding on trade in the China Seas and possibly Chinese merchants, Zhang Xie included the most essential information on the Dutch, on which they could base their decisions and evaluate the possibilities for trade and how to compete with this new visitor in the China Seas. The information on the Dutch, therefore, does not only include geographical and historical information, but also important information on weaponry and advanced techniques, as well as lessons on etiquette; for example, how the captain of a ship is approached, explaining the specific sequence and actions of such a meeting, and how food is shared and eaten, namely, on one plate and eaten with knives. What goes unmentioned because it is presupposed by any Chinese reader, Chinese distribute food on different plates and eat with chopsticks. The modern reader may perhaps interpret these kinds of notes on etiquette as a form of inversed exoticism but, considering the Chinese obsession with ritual and hierarchy, which then and now are expressed most emphatically in meetings between host and guest and at the dinner table (the Chinese meeting place par excellence), Zhang Xie is, in all probability, extremely serious about recording this information. At the end of the text, the products of Dutch trade are listed, which include some remarks on Dutch trade techniques in the China Seas. The general structure and contents of the text indicate that the Dutch were seen as potential trade partners and certainly not as dangerous pirates. The first two paragraphs discussing the names, appearance, and provenance of the Dutch are our most direct information on the Chinese view of the Dutch. The Chinese name for the Dutch is not the name the Dutch have given themselves but was bestowed upon them by the Chinese: solely based on their appearance of being red-haired, red-bearded, red-clothed, and most probably red-sunburnt. The Chinese applied this name to the Dutch from their very first encounter in Macao in 1601 and recorded them as such in Chinese sources, here in the translation of Leonard Blussé:21

21

Blussé, “Brief Encounter at Macao,” 654; quoted from Yue jian bian 粤 劍 編 , by Wang Linheng 王 臨 亨 , 1601 (Taipei: Guangwen shuju, 1969), 141–142.

68

Gesterkamp

In the ninth moon of the year 1601, two ships of the eastern(!) barbarians arrived in Macao. Even the interpreters did not know from which country they originated. They were called the red-haired barbarians. Their hair was reddish, their eyes light blue and roundly shaped and they stood about ten feet tall. Their ships were truly gigantic with hulls wrapped on the outside with copper plates and drawing twenty feet. The barbarians [the Portuguese] were worried about competition [by the Dutch] in trade. By armed force they chased the ships to the great ocean, thereupon they were blown away by a typhoon. I do not know where they eventually have drifted to. Red-haired barbarian is a colloquial Chinese name for the Dutch, despite the fact that Zhang Xie knew the proper name of the Dutch, namely “Hollander,” as pronounced in the Dutch language (see appendix 3.1). It is curious, therefore, that the Chinese adopted a name given to the Dutch by locals rather than the Dutch themselves, and the Dutch seem to have been the only (European) foreigners “honored” with such a name. For example, the Spanish and Portuguese also came from Europe and neither were known from the Chinese historical record, but identified with the Farangi, probably by the Persian traders, which was a name with a record in Chinese history and therefore readily identifiable. Nor can it be argued that all Dutch were red-haired or that the Spanish and Portuguese were not red-haired, because many of the Portuguese colonists were of different European backgrounds. The red hair must have been such a predominant feature that the name stuck. If the appellation of “red-haired” is already an unpleasant one, the use of the term “barbarian” (fan 番) sounds even more derogative. It has a negative connotation and, in traditional China, it essentially means anyone outside the periphery of the Chinese worldview.22 Another term often encountered to name the Dutch and also many other foreigners is yi 夷, which (in ancient times) was equivalent to fan. The Yi were, in ancient times, the barbarians (to the Chinese) living in what is now Shandong province and the Korean peninsula; ­however, by Han times, it was already used to designate the barbarians of all regions outside the Chinese heartland (traditionally the Hebei-Henan area).23 22 On fan see Peng, “The Image of the ‘Red-Haired Barbarian,’” 18. 23 The Yi already appears as a general term for all barbarians, i.e. foreigners, in the “Tribute of Yu” (yugong 禹 貢 ) chapter in the Book of Documents (shujing 書 經 ), one of the Confucian classics, but which is a chapter dating to the Han period. On this place of foreigners in the Chinese worldview of the “Tribute of Yu,” see Zhang Qiong, Making the New World Their Own: Chinese Encounters with Jesuit Science in the Age of Discovery (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 99–119.

Red-Haired Barbarians

69

Because the Dongxi yangkao refers to all foreigners as Yi, including the Dutch, and often with a less negative connotation, I have translated it here as “foreigner.” There is another term for foreigner and barbarian in Chinese, hu 胡, but I have not come across any text using that term in connection to the Dutch. By contrast, “red-haired devil” (hongmaogui 紅毛鬼) is fairly common in Chinese texts and surely testifies to a negative connotation. It is conspicuously not used by Zhang Xie. Among the twenty or so references to the Dutch in the Dongxi yangkao, it appears once in his quotation from the Guangdong Provincial Gazetteer and twice in other Chapters (9 and 12), where Zhang Xie is quoting other sources. We may at least assume that Zhang Xie did not think the term red -haired devil very appropriate to apply to the Dutch. All in all, redhaired barbarian seems (again) an ambiguous term but, in the Dongxi yangkao, it is not necessarily associated with negative ideas, just outlandishly foreign ones: designating foreigners outside the official Chinese trade framework. The red hair as well as the blue eyes and big noses must have struck the Chinese both as awesome and terrifying. The emphasis in the text on the big boats and cannons also applies to this dual aspect. Zhang Xie’s first quotation of a Tang commentator referring to the Rong 戎 people of the Han period, who lived in present-day Xinjiang, is probably one of the extremely few references to red hair (and blue eyes) in Chinese classical sources prior to the arrival of the Dutch, not only underscoring Zhang Xie’s erudition, but also hinting that red hair must have been unknown in ancient China. The first sight of the Dutch with red hair (undoubtedly not all of them), would have made a strong impression. This impression has been translated into a name. On a side note, the red-haired Rong barbarians mentioned by the Tang commentator have sometimes been linked to the so-called Tarim Mummies.24 Skeletons with Eurasian features, some most conspicuously with red hair, have been discovered in the Tarim Basin in the far west of China (Xinjiang) dating from the eighteenth to the first centuries bc. They have invariably been linked to various western tribes mentioned in Chinese sources, among of which the Wusun 烏孫 to which Yan Shigu here refers. The Rong is a Chinese name for all barbarian tribes in the western regions, and in Chinese pre-Han sources, the Rong are the powerful arch-enemies of the Chinese living in the central planes (Hebei, Henan). The Tarim Mummies and the Dutch may possibly have some common ancestors in a very ancient past, and Zhang Xie’s textual discovery based on red hair and deep-sunken eyes is therefore remarkable in itself, but 24

Victor H. Mair and J.P. Mallory, The Tarim Mummies. Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West (London, Thames & Hudson, 2000).

70

Gesterkamp

the Dutch can of course not be equated with the Rong or Wusun barbarians some two millennia earlier, in terms of “nationality,” ethnicity, or culture. The fact, however, that Zhang Xie makes the link on the basis of the red hair and deep-sunken blue eyes, reveals that, for the Chinese, the Dutch at least carry this historical and cultural baggage as part of their Dutch identity: a distant relative of the Rong and Wusun barbarians of the Chinese far west region and enemies of the ancient Chinese. Zhang Xie puts this information in a note to his text with the ancient source, suggesting that he did not see a direct link between the Dutch and the ancient Rong, but rather as an intellectual question on the origin of the Dutch. The Dongxi yangkao is very well able to locate Holland in the sense that, from our modern point of view, it is indeed located somewhere adjacent to Spain (and at the time still part of the Spanish Kingdom). Whether the ancient Chinese understood this as well is not absolutely clear. The Spanish occupied Luzon and because the Dutch were in Batavia, some later Chinese sources may have interpreted Batavia as adjacent to Luzon, but there is no indication that Zhang Xie viewed it this way. He clearly states that the Spanish had “occupied” Luzon, meaning that he knew they were not originally from Luzon, and he nowhere mentions that the Dutch were in Batavia. In fact, at the time of writing, Batavia was not yet the voc headquarters (established in 1619), and Zhang Xie clearly writes at the end that an official envoy was dispatched to Pattani, indicating that he was well aware that Spain and the Netherlands were two different countries. Zhang Xie never went to the Netherlands, nor did any other Chinese of his time (with two remarkable exceptions)25 and he therefore had to rely on oral and textual sources. Very probably, Zhang Xie relied on a textual source by Chen Xueyi 陳學伊 from 1604, praising Admiral Shen Yourong for

25

The first exception was a young Chinese boy arriving in the Netherlands in 1598 (see b­ elow, Chapter 5, p. 105–106). The second exception was the Chinese merchant, Inpo or Yppong, who traveled to the Netherlands in 1600 and whose portrait and handwriting have survived, which in turn served as a model for a famous sketch and altar piece by Rubens. Blussé, “Inpo, Chinese Merchant in Pattani”; Leonard Blussé, “Het ware gezicht van de eerste Chinees in Vlissingen,” Zeeuws Tijdschrift 1 (2016): 72–75. Thijs Weststeijn and Lennert Gesterkamp, “A New Identity for Rubens’s ‘Korean Man’: Portrait of the Chinese Merchant Yppong” Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art/Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 66 (2016): 141–169. It must be noted that in his article, “Inpo, Chinese Merchant in Pattani,” Leonard Blussé proposes to identify the Pattani merchant Li Qin with Inpo/ Yppong, making him the mastermind behind the Dutch strategies for Dutch-Chinese trade relationships. However, the Dongxi yangkao clearly mentions at the end of the piece on the Dutch that Li Qin is executed in 1604. Inpo/Yppong died in 1612 according to the Dutch sources. Li Qin and Inpo/Yppong therefore cannot be the same person.

Red-Haired Barbarians

71

d­ efeating the Dutch. The passage on the Dutch is interesting and I translate it here for comparison (the original text is in Appendix 3.2):26 Note on Ordering the Western Barbarians Furthermore, I heard that the Red Barbarians were originally a part of the Farangi [i.e. the Spanish kingdom] called Holland [helan 和蘭], and later became rich and powerful. They are tall and have red hair and deepsunken, blue eyes. They often carry swords, and their best swords are easily worth over a hundred taels [silver]. They are particularly interested in Chinese silk, for which they come traveling over the shipping lanes from Pattani. Their boats are over sixty meters long and several meters high. The boards [of the hull] are over two feet thick and fortified with metal in the interior. A boat has over thirty cannons on each side, and one cannon can hold four or five iron cannon balls [as an indication of length?], each weighing thirty or forty pounds. Boats have their own gunpowder to fill them [the cannons]. Among the sailors are black devils who excel in diving and can dive under water [i.e. swim] for several hundred meters. Their weapons and machines are ingenious and without comparison among the other foreigners, being certainly stronger than those of the Farangi. But even with our hands down, they will not form a threat to our superior Chinese technical skills. This passage on the Dutch addresses many of the same details as the Dongxi yangkao and is, overall, more specific. The mentioning of the fascination of the Chinese for Dutch swords is of great interest—for this reason, I think the “knives” (dao 刀) of the Dutch products in the Dongxi yangkao text are actually swords—but some details are also much clearer; for example, the swimming Africans. Interestingly, the location and history of Holland is quite accurate, recounting that the Netherlands at the time were still a part of the Spanish Kingdom, albeit striving for independence. If Chen Xueyi was still ambiguous as to whether the Dutch were different from the Farangi, Zhang Xie clearly sees them as two different countries. Even though the Dutch were at war with the Spanish and declared themselves a republic, the Spanish recognized the Netherlands as an independent country with the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. As a modern convention, such notions of states with borders were, nevertheless, unknown to Zhang Xie and the rest of the world, and we may therefore assume that Zhang Xie thought of the Dutch as culturally, ethnically, and g­ eographically 26

Minhai zengyan 閩 海 贈 言 , compiled by Shen Yourong 沈 有 容 (1557–1627), Chapter 2.

72

Gesterkamp

different from the Spanish. Needless to say, at that time no passports existed that identified somebody as from this or that country. The second section on the historical encounter at the Penghu Islands between the Dutch and Chinese offers possibilities to qualify the Chinese views on the Dutch further. Many different actors interacted with the Dutch. These include the Chinese merchants from Pattani, the local officials in Zhangzhou, the military officials, the local populace, and eventually the Ming emperor and the Chinese court. Although hardly any of them left explicit statements on their views of the Dutch, the description of their actions and behaviors reveal much about their attitudes, expectations, and views of the Dutch. These views are, perhaps unsurprisingly, not uniform and the Dutch “mean” something different to each Chinese, ranging from extremely positive to extremely negative. On the basis of the text, it is possible to indicate three categories of different views, with each category more or less overlapping with one or more social groups. The first category comprises the local merchants, local people, and local officials, who see the Dutch as very positive. Their positive view is mainly motivated by financial gain. Merchants can trade, local people can sell Dutch food and goods, and local officials can grease their pockets as intermediaries. A second category is constituted by the military officials and high administrative officials, whose task it is, ideally, to protect the interests and territory of the empire. They see the Dutch as a potential danger, which should be stopped immediately, investigated, and reported to the court for further instructions. However, depending on the decision of the court, and the real intentions of the Dutch, they are ambivalent on their view of the Dutch. This ambivalent attitude is also reflected in their social position. They are representatives of the court and empire but stationed locally where they have to interact with the Dutch. The distance between them and the Dutch is, however, greater than that between themselves and the local people. There is also an exception to this general scheme of three categories. The notoriously corrupt imperial tax collector Gao Cai should represent the emperor and his actual duty is to raise revenue for the palace treasury, but he is (in fact) working entirely for his personal interest; thus, acting rather like a local official. Finally, the third category comprises the Chinese emperor, court officials, and military leaders in the capital. They see the Dutch as an immediate threat and want them forcibly expelled from Chinese territory and waters. Their distance to the Dutch and the local situation is the greatest and they are consequently dependent on information on the Dutch from intermediaries. The views of the “Chinese court” and “emperor” in the text are rather vaguely identified through a censor-in-chief and finally through an order by the

Red-Haired Barbarians

73

e­ mperor, which states (also rather vaguely, and seemingly not to the point at all) that the Dutch should stay clear from small-minded merchants: not presenting this as advice but as an actual command. I have been able not only to identify this censor-in-chief but also, and most fortuitously, to locate his memorial to the Ming Wanli Emperor (r. 1573–1620) as well as the emperor’s official response. It is preserved, as many more of these memorials, in the Ming shi lu but it was misplaced between two events dated 1587 and 1588 (years dinghai 丁亥 and wuzi 戊子), perhaps explaining why it was not noticed before.27 This passage not only puts the entire affair into a better perspective, but also an entirely new perspective: one in which the Chinese view of foreigners plays a central role. The Ming shi lu records (see appendix 3.3): The Administrative Commissioner of Fujian Province Xu Xueju 徐學聚 presented a memorial to the throne stating that the red barbarians had invaded the Chinese waters, and that they had to be methodically expelled in order to clear our coastal waters; and further that the criminals Pan Xiu and Zhang Yi 張嶷 should be punished. The Ministry of War replied: The Emperor says: “The red-haired barbarians have come suddenly and without reason. They are crafty and treacherous, and We therefore order that they are resisted immediately and returned to Luzon. We further order that they are immediately informed not to listen to these criminals sowing confusion and causing harm. The criminal Pan Xiu should be punished according to the law.” As signaled earlier, the venomous hatred against the Dutch is glaringly apparent in this text and, at first sight, this attitude must represent a general conception of the Dutch at the Chinese court in the capital. However, first impressions are deceptive. We first take a look at the actors. The Ming shi lu identifies Xu Xueju as administrative commissioner (xunfu 巡撫) of Fujian Province. According to another text, he also held the title of censor-in-chief (duyushi 都御史),28 confirming that they are the same person. An attentive reader will further notice that the memorial not only mentions Pan Xiu but also a certain Zhang Yi. This Zhang Yi is nowhere mentioned in connection to the Dutch. Even more 27

28

Ming shi lu 明 實 錄 , Shenzong 神 宗 , chapter 403. Because the Dutch had not arrived in China in those years, and the text of the memorial clearly discussed the events of 1604, and because it even names Pan Xiu, we are certain that we are dealing with the correct memorial. Jinhua zhengxian lüe 金 華 徵 獻 略 , compiled by Wang Chongbing 王 崇 炳 (1653–1739), Chapter 12.

74

Gesterkamp

remarkable is the reply by the Wanli Emperor, saying that the Dutch should be driven back to Luzon (i.e. the Philippines), followed by the order that the Dutch should be informed about such criminals as Pan Xiu, the “small-minded” merchant of the Dongxi yangkao. Certain things do not add up in this official text. Who was Zhang Yi and why should the Dutch return to Luzon? What do Zhang Yi and Luzon have to do with the Dutch? If we investigate this Zhang Yi further, we find an entirely different story that somehow became intertwined with the Dutch arrival at the Penghu Islands; basically, this was a case of “mistaken identity” but with farreaching consequences for the Dutch, at least. This other story with which the Dutch inadvertently became intertwined, was the massacre of over twenty thousand Chinese in Luzon by the hands of the Spanish, the Farangi.29 In a story that has many parallels with the Dutch story, perhaps explaining the Chinese shocked response, a Chinese merchant, called Zhang Yi (Tio Heng), and a collaborating tax official in Zhangzhou, Yan Yinglong 閻應龍, wanted to look for an alleged “mountain of gold” at Luzon. They gained access to the throne through the notoriously corrupt eunuch, Gao Zai, also receiving approval from the censor-in-chief, Xu Xueju, for their plan. After much dispute at the Ming court, the emperor eventually consented and supported the expedition, sending three Chinese judges together with Zhang Yi and Yan Yinglong and a large company to Luzon in Spring 1603 to look for the gold mountain. Upon viewing such a large delegation of Chinese, the Spanish were startled and feared a Chinese invasion. Of course, the Chinese found out there was no mountain of gold but when, a few months later in the autumn of 1603, an uprising of the Chinese took place in Luzon, the Spanish massacred the entire Chinese population. More than twenty thousand Chinese were killed and only some women and children survived. Upon hearing about the massacre, the Chinese were greatly infuriated. Xu Xueju accepted responsibility for the affair, correct or not, and in the Chinese history annals, his role and that of Zhang Yi, Yan Yinglong, and Gao Zai, have become inextricably linked. Very soon, Xu Xueju petitioned for a punitive action against the Spanish in Luzon, but in the twelfth lunar month of 1604 (i.e. the first month of 1605), the emperor replied that no such action was feasible or practical and only requested the return of the widows and children.

29

José Eugenio Borao, “The Massacre of 1603: Chinese Perception of the Spanish in the Philippines,” Itinerario 22, no. 1 (1998): 22–40. See also Birgit Tremml-Werner, Spain, China, and Japan in Manila, 1571–1644: Local Comparisons and Global Connections (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2015).

Red-Haired Barbarians

75

As it appears from these events, the Dutch were mixed up with the Spanish and believed that, similar to Zhang Yi, the Pattani Chinese merchants Pan Xiu, Guo Zhen, and Li Jin had duped the Dutch into believing that they could acquire trade relations with China through the eunuch Gao Zai, and that such an ominous deal between a merchant, Gao Zai, and the Dutch would inevitably lead to bloodshed. Noteworthy, Xu Xueju was involved in both cases. The timeline of events is also very important. The Dutch arrived in the seventh month of 1604 and left in the tenth month of the same year. This was exactly the period between the Luzon massacre and Xu Xueju’s petition for punitive action and the emperor’s final decision. Xu Xueju was, however, in the midst of correcting his former failure and could not afford another disaster with foreigners. From his memorial, it also becomes clear that the original intent of the Dutch—that is, establishing trade links with China—never reached the Chinese court. From this sequence of events and their related texts, we cannot be certain that Xu Xueju was aware about the difference between the Dutch and the Spanish (or Farangi), but it is beyond any doubt that the Ming emperor and Chinese court in faraway Beijing were totally unaware of such a distinction. This could explain, first of all, the insertion of Zhang Yi into the affair of the Dutch and the reply of the emperor to drive the Dutch back to Luzon instead of Batavia, Pattani, or the Netherlands. Furthermore, it could convincingly explain the vehement reaction of the Chinese court to the Dutch presence at the Penghu Islands, sending Admiral Shen Yourong with reportedly fifty warships (according to the Dutch sources) to expel the Dutch (and thwart Gao Zai’s corrupt and treacherous games). Lastly, it could also explain why the emperor sent a letter to the Dutch, warning them against “small-minded” merchants, because the emperor believed that both cases in Luzon and Pattani were linked to, and the result of, conniving merchants. It is, therefore, most interesting that the Dongxi yangkao, fourteen years later, hints rather at the uprightness of the Dutch, essentially clearing their name from any wrongdoing in the Luzon massacre, by including a line in the final sentences to the effect that the Dutch would join the Chinese in any fight with China’s enemies and, in a small note, that the Dutch Admiral Van War­ wijck deplored the Luzon massacre. At the time of writing, Zhang Xie was not aware that the Chinese and Dutch would actually collaborate in defeating the wokou pirates in the following decades. It cannot be known with certainty, but perhaps the Dongxi yangkao had been instrumental in informing the Chinese court on the nature and intentions of the Dutch, the Chinese views of whom were first officially recorded in the Dongxi yangkao and which were cautiously positive in outlook.

76

Gesterkamp

In all, the Chinese views on the Dutch expressed in the Dongxi yangkao are relatively benign. The views are not uniform and depend heavily on the physical and social distance existing between the Dutch and the various Chinese expressing their views. The closer the contact, the greater the chance for a positive impression. The greater the distance, the greater the chance that information became distorted or influenced by outside or ulterior factors, often resulting in an ultimately negative verdict on the Dutch. It is perhaps also important to note what is not included in the Dongxi yangkao. Most surprisingly, there is no independent entry on the Farangi (Spanish or Portuguese). Zhang Xie could also have incorporated them in the chapter on “external biographies” but chose not to. It may be clear that the Farangi, or the Portuguese at least (the Spanish were in Luzon, which is included), were considered neither trade partners of the Chinese or a tribute relation. However, it is possible to catch a glimpse of the Chinese views on the Farangi in the Dongxi yangkao. It mentions (Chapter 5 on Luzon) the Luzon massacre, condemning the Spanish. It also, for example, mentions running from the Portuguese (Chapter 4 on Malacca), writing that the Malaccan people only know “three terrors (san hai 三害) […]crocodiles, black panthers, and Portuguese!” The absence of any mention of Dutch violence and atrocities is similarly revealing. Until that time (1617), the Dutch and Chinese relations had been relatively peaceful. The Dutch constantly hoped to establish official trade relations with the Chinese, restraining them from going to war. Unfortunately for both sides, the Dutch voc leadership had lost patience with the Chinese and, from the 1620s, ordered aggressive attacks on the Chinese in order to coerce them into a trade cooperation as the Portuguese had done in Macao. The Dutch once more returned to the Penghu Islands but this time for war. They were eventually rebuffed and afterwards they established themselves in the south of Taiwan in 1624: some say offered or advised by the Chinese to do so.30 It is from this time, the year 1620, that we have a poem by Zhang Xie (appendix 3.4). Times have changed, and the Dutch have changed. If this poem may express the personal views of Zhang Xie on the Dutch, which hitherto have been left undiscussed and which did not come to the fore in the Dongxi yangkao, they are views of utter despair and confusion. The local populace is suffering under the attacks of the Dutch, while the local officials and merchants are rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of trading with them. At the same time, Zhang Xie has no place to go or hide. In the years thereafter, he obtained

30

Leonard Blussé, “The Dutch Occupation of the Pescadores (1622–1624),” Transactions of the International Conference of Orientalists in Japan 18 (1973): 18–44.

Red-Haired Barbarians

77

a position in Nanjing to escape the turmoil caused by the Dutch on the Fujian coasts. He was, however, soon implicated in a scandal and demoted, after which he returned again to his hometown near Zhangzhou. 4 Conclusion From the first encounter with the Chinese, the Chinese name for the Dutch— “red-haired barbarians”—had stuck. It was not an official name but one borrowed from the locals in the Guangzhou area, describing the simultaneously awesome and terrifying appearance of the newcomers from the sea. As this chapter has sought to demonstrate, in the short time span of two decades and in only a few direct encounters between the Chinese and Dutch, the name “red-haired barbarian” carried a different meaning for different groups of people, although all still relatively benign and positive. It is interesting to note that such meanings were strongly correlated to social class and proximity or the relative distance between the Chinese observer and the Dutch “Other.” Obviously, the greater the distance, the greater the possibility arises that views become muddled and accrue alternate associations, such as the mixing up of the Dutch with the Spanish massacre in Manila, which again was fueled by distrust of the court for Chinese overseas merchants. After 1620, the Dutch began aggressively attacking Chinese merchant vessels and coastal towns, which resulted in a major shift in the Chinese view of the Dutch, tilting the scale towards the negative and, ultimately, leading to distrust and fear, a label that would remain attached to the Dutch for the following decades. Stereotypes of foreigners are obviously only vestiges of the logistics of the original cultural exchange. As this chapter suggests, in line with the expectations of a topic in cultural history, stereotypes evolve in specific historical and social contexts.31 Despite the name “red-haired barbarian,” which is still wellknown today in China and Taiwan to refer to the Dutch and mostly uttered with a broad smile, this stereotype is far from static or clearly defined and is one that is constructed and reconstructed over time and by multiple groups, who apply layers of associations—both real and fictive—to an actual event 31

The studies on stereotypes (or schemata) and their relationship with reality as well as the relationship between an image and its larger cultural context have been the subject of studies by art historians Ernst Gombrich and Erwin Panosfsky. See E.H. Gombrich, Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation (London: Phaidon, 1956); idem, In Search of Cultural History (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969); and Erwin Panofsky, Meaning in the Visual Arts (New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1957), 26–54.

78

Gesterkamp

and its recording in history, either orally, textually, or pictorially.32 It is fascinating to note that the cultural background of the observer, as can be deduced from the above study, seems to have been responsible for the selection and adoption of the various associations that produce or “reconstruct” a certain stereotype. To the Chinese of the seventeenth century, a Dutchman should fit into their conceptual framework or “scheme” of a foreigner. This question opens a whole new field of inquiry, since the “foreigner” only very recently has become a topic of interest in Chinese academia. In describing foreigners as possible trade partners, the author of the Dongxi yangkao must have grappled with a similar question, not knowing where to place to the Dutch, and his ­approach of relying on a wide variety of sources is therefore all the more laudable. Classical Sources Linheng Wang 王 臨 亨 . Yue jian bian 粤 劍 編 (1601). Taipei: Guangwen shuju, 1969. Xie Zhang 張 燮 (1574–1640). Dongxi yangkao 東 西 洋 考 (1617). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1981. Xie Zhang 張 燮 (1574–1640). Qunyu lou ji 群 玉 樓 集 (1638) Beijing: Guo jia tu shu guan chu ban she, 2009.

Bibliography Andrade, Tonio. How Taiwan Became Chinese: Dutch, Spanish, and Han Colonization in the Seventeenth Century. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. Andrade, Tonio. Lost Colony: The Untold Story of China’s First Great Victory over the West. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011. Antony, Robert J. Like Froth Floating on the Sea: The World of Pirates and Seafarers in Late Imperial South China. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 2003. Antony, Robert J. Elusive Pirates, Pervasive Smugglers Violence and Clandestine Trade in the Greater China Seas. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2010. Blussé, Leonard. “Inpo, Chinese Merchant in Pattani: A Study in Early Dutch-Chinese Relations.” In Proceedings of the Seventh IAHA Conference, held in Bangkok, 22–26 August 1977. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Press, 1977: 290–309.

32

On construction, see Burke, What is Cultural History?, Chapter 5.

Red-Haired Barbarians

79

Blussé, Leonard. “The Dutch Occupation of the Pescadores (1622–1624).” Transactions of the International Conference of Orientalists in Japan 18 (1973): 18–44. Blussé, Leonard. “Brief Encounter at Macao.” Modern Asian Studies 22, no. 3 (1988): 647–664. Blussé, Leonard. “No Boats to China. The Dutch East India Company and the Changing Pattern of the China Sea Trade, 1635–1690.” Modern Asian Studies 30 no. 1 (1996): 51–76. Blussé, Leonard, and Floris-Jan Van Luyn. China de Nederlanders: geschiedenis van de Nederlands-Chinese betrekkingen 1600–2008. Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2008. Blussé, Leonard. “Het ware gezicht van de eerste Chinees in Vlissingen.” Zeeuws Tijdschrift 1 (2016): 72–75. Borao, José Eugenio. “The Massacre of 1603: Chinese Perception of the Spanish in the Philippines.” Itinerario 22, no. 1 (1998): 22–40. Chaudhuri, Kirti N. “The Portuguese Maritime Empire, Trade, and Society in the Indian Ocean During the Sixteenth Century.” Portuguese Studies 8 (1992): 57–70. Chao Zhongzhen 晁 中 辰 . Mingdai haijin yu haiwai maoyi 明 代 海 禁 與 海 外 貿 易 . Beijing: Renmin daxue chubanshe, 2005. Chen Qingyuan 陳 慶 元 . “Zhang Xie zhushu kao 張 燮 著 述 考 .” Zhangzhou shifan xueyuan xuebao (zhexue shehui kexue ban) 漳 州 師 範 學 院 學 報 (哲 學 社 會 科 學 版 ) 78, no. 4 (2010): 48–54. Chen Qingyuan 陳 慶 元 . “Zhang Xie nianbiao 張 燮 年 表 .” Nanjing shifan daxue ­wenxue yuan xuebao 南 京 大 學 文 學 院 學 報 1 (2013): 182–188. Cheng Weichung. War, Trade and Piracy in the China Seas (1622–1683). Leiden: Brill, 2013. Dreyer, Edward L. Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the Early Ming Dynasty, 1405–1433. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. Fairbank, J.K. “Tributary Trade and China’s Relations with the West.” Far Eastern Quarterly 1, no. 2 (1942): 129–149. Gombrich, Ernst. H. Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation. London: Phaidon, 1956. Groenveldt, W.P. De Nederlanders in China. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1898. Hostetler, Laura. Qing Colonial Enterprise: Ethnography and Cartography in Early Modern China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. Keevak, Michael. Embassies to China: Diplomacy and Cultural Encounters Before the Opium Wars. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. Kim Hyun Jin. Ethnicity and Foreigners in Ancient Greece and China. London: Duckworth, 2009. Lo Jung-Pang. “The Emergence of China as a Sea Power During the Late Sung and Early Yuan Periods.” Far Eastern Quarterly 14, no. 4 (1955): 489–503. Mair, Victor H. and J.P. Mallory. The Tarim Mummies. Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West. London, Thames & Hundson, 2000.

80

Gesterkamp

Meng Hua. “The Chinese Genesis of the Term ‘Foreign Devil’.” In Images of Westerners in Chinese and Japanese Literature, edited by Meng Hua and Sukehiro Harakawa, 25–37. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000. Panofsky, Erwin. Meaning in the Visual Arts. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1957. Peng Zhaorong. “The Image of the ‘Red-Haired Barbarian’ in Chinese Official and Popular Discourse.” In Images of Westerners in Chinese and Japanese Literature, edited by Meng Hua and Sukehiro Harakawa, 17–13. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000. Perdue, Peter C. “The Tenacious Tributary System.” Journal of Contemporary China 24, no. 96 (2015): 1002–1014. Rachewiltz, Igor de. “Turks in China under the Mongols.” In China among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and its Neighbors, 10th–14th Centuries, edited by M. Rossabi, 281– 310. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. Schlegel, G. “De betrekkingen tussen Nederland en China volgens Chineesche bronnen.” Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië 42, no. 1 (1893): 1–32. Schottenhammer, Angela. “The ‘China Seas’ in World History: A General Outline of the Role of Chinese and East Asian Maritime Space from its Origins to c. 1800.” Journal of Marine and Island Cultures 1 (2012): 63–86. Schottenhammer, Angela. “China’s Gate to the Indian Ocean—Iranian and Arab Longdistance Traders.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 76, no. 1 (2016): 135–179. Schottenhammer, Angela. “China’s Rise and Retreat as a Maritime Power.” In Beyond the Silk Roads: New Discourses on China’s Role in East Asian Maritime History, edited by Robert J. Antony and Angela Schottenhammer, 189–212. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2017. Tremml-Werner, Birgit. Spain, China, and Japan in Manila, 1571–1644: Local Comparisons and Global Connections. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2015. Wilkinson, Endymion P. Chinese History: A Manual. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2000. Wang Gungwu. “The Nanhai Trade: A Study of the Early History of Chinese Trade in the South China Sea.” Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 31, no. 2 (1958): 1–135. Weststeijn, Thijs, and Lennert Gesterkamp. “A New Identity for Rubens’s ‘Korean Man’: Portrait of the Chinese Merchant Yppong.” Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art/ Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 66 (2016): 141–169. Wills, John E. Pepper, Guns, and Parleys: The Dutch East India Company and China, 1622–1681. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974. Wills, John E. Embassies and Illusions: Dutch and Portuguese Envoys to K’ang-hsi, 1666– 1687. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984. Zhang Feng. “Rethinking the ‘Tribute System’: Broadening the Conceptual Horizon of Historical East Asian Politics.” The Chinese Journal of International Politics 2, no. 4 (2009): 545–574.

Red-Haired Barbarians

81

Zhang Qiong. Making the New World Their Own: Chinese Encounters with Jesuit Science in the Age of Discovery. Leiden: Brill, 2015. Zhang Weihua. A Commentary of the Four Chapters on Portugal, Spain, Holland and ­Italy in the History of Ming Dynasty. Peiping: Harvard-Yenching Institute, 1934. Zheng Yong 鄭 鏞 . “Zhang Xie yu Dongxi yangkao 張 燮 與 《 東 西 洋 考 》 .” Zhangzhou shifan xueyuan xuebao (zhexue shehui kexue ban) 漳 州 師 範 學 院 學 報 (哲 學 社 會 科 學 版 ) 51, no. 2 (2004): 41–46.

Chapter 4

The Tartars in European Missionary Writings of the Seventeenth Century Dong Shaoxin In the past few decades,1 many studies have been devoted to the intensifying contacts between Europeans and various Asian groups in the seventeenth century. Among these different groups, the Tartars have received comparatively little attention. This chapter will outline how the increasingly correct understanding of the terms “Tartar” and “Tartary,” and of the people denoted by these terms, can be attributed to texts related to the Catholic mission. In so doing, it will illuminate how the European stereotype of China became increasingly nuanced throughout the seventeenth century, due to direct contact with different groups. Yet, these new differentiations could, in fact, result in the profusion rather than the disappearing of stereotypes, such as the contrast that was constructed between “masculine” Tartars and “effeminate” Chinese. The European word “Tartar” and the Chinese word “Dada” 鞑靼 may have the same origin. But they acquired different meanings in different historical periods. “Dada” first appeared in a text from the Tang dynasty, Li Deyu’s Hui­ chang Yipinzhi Ji 李德裕 [Collected Works of Li Deyu] (《会昌一品制集》). Thereafter, the term returned in Chinese sources of the Song and Yuan dynasties. During the Ming, “Dada” referred in particular to Mongols beyond the Great Wall. The Ming Shi  明史 [The Official History of the Ming Dynasty] i­ ncludes a Dada zhuan 鞑靼传 [History of the Tartars],2 which is, in fact, a brief history of the Dada (Mongolian) people. The different connotations of “Dada” in Chinese literature have been studied thoroughly by Chinese and Japanese scholars of the early twentieth century, such as Wang Guowei, Fang Zhuangyou, and ­Yanai Wataru.3 Through these studies, we can see that the Jurchen people 1 This article is one of the results of the project “Ming-Qing War in European Sources” (17AZS006) sponsored by the National Social Science Foundation of China. 2 Zhang Tingyu 张 廷 玉 et al., Ming Shi 明 史 [The Official History of the Ming Dynasty] (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2000), juan 327, liezhuan 215, waiguo 8. 3 Wang Guowei, 王 国 维 , “鞑 靼 考 [A Study on Tartar],” 清 华 学 报 Tsing Hua Journal 3, no. 1 (1927): 651–678; Fang Zhuangyou, 方 壮 猷 , “鞑 靼 起 源 考 A Study on the Origin of the Tartars,” 国 立 北 京 大 学 国 学 季 刊 [Quarterly of Chinese Studies of National Peking Universi­ ty] 3, no. 2 (1932), separate, 16 pages; Yanai Wataru, 箭 内 亘 , 兀 良 哈 及 鞑 靼 考 [A Study on

©

 | 

/

5

The Tartars in European Missionary Writings

83

女真, a Tongusic people in northeast Asia, never called themselves “Dada”;

­additionally, in Chinese literature, “Dada” seldom refers to the Jurchen. The connotations of the term Tartar in European texts are more complicated. Generally speaking, it was applied to the people living in the northern parts of Eurasia. In the thirteenth century, the name Tartar was used in Europe for the Golden Horde of Genghis Khan, while Marco Polo’s term “Tartari” mainly refers to the Mongols. Later, the word was applied to the different Turkic- or Mongolic-speaking peoples who were encountered by the Russians.4 Before 1600, Europeans had not known about the Jurchen, so the term Tartary in European literature before the sixteenth century does not include them. Only by the seventeenth century, the word Tartar in European texts usually refers to the Manchus. Martino Martini’s (1614–1661) Bellum Tartaricum (1654) and JeanBaptiste Du Halde’s (1674–1743) Description […] de l’Empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie Chinoise (1735) are two important examples. With these well-known publications, the Jurchen people (and later the Manchus) were included in the conception of Tartary and the terms Tartar and Manchu were used interchangeably. This shift can be attributed to the contributions of European Catholic missionaries in China in the seventeenth century. 1

Sixteenth-Century Sources

In the early sixteenth century, Europeans established a direct sea route with east Asia. But during this entire century, no Europeans—except the Portuguese ambassador Tomé Pires—reached Northern China, and none of them had a chance to encounter the Mongols or the Jurchen beyond the Great Wall. Europeans arriving in south and east Asia in the sixteenth century mentioned the Tartars occasionally in letters, reports, and books. Their ideas were based on the traditional European statements about the Tartars and on hearsay in Asia. As Tomé Pires wrote in his Suma Oriental of 1515: They say that there are people from Tartary [Tartaria] in the land of China and they call them Tartar [Tartall], and these people are very white with red beards. They ride on horseback; they are warlike. And they say Uriankhai and Tartar], translated from Japanese into Chinese by Chen Jie 陈 捷 and Chen Qingquan 陈 清 泉 , (Beijing: The Commercial Press, 1932). 4 For more details on the European concept of the term “Tartar,” see Svetlana Gorshenina, L’Invention de l’Asie Centrale: Histoire du concept de la Tartarie à l’Eurasie (Genève: Librairie Droz, 2014).

84

DONG

that they go from China to the land of the Tartars [Tartaros] in two months and that, in Tartary, they have horses shod with copper shoes, and this must be because China extends a long way on the northern side [….] Between the Chinese and the Tartars are certain places where there are the Koreans [Guores] and after Tartary [is] Russia [Roxia], say the Chinese.5 Half a century later, a Portuguese Dominican friar, Gaspar da Cruz, had a more reliable account. He had lived in Guangzhou for several weeks and had a chance of seeing captured Tartars there. As his Treatise on China (Tractado em que se co[n]tam muyto por este[n]so as cousas de China com suas particulari­ dades, 1569) stated: These people [the Tartars] are commonly red and not white; they go naked from the waist upward; they eat raw flesh, and anoint themselves with the blood of it; whereby commonly they are stinking and have a foul smell. An old man of China did affirm unto me, that sometimes when they came against the countries of China, if the wind blew from that side whence they came, they were discerned by their smell. When they go to war, they carry the flesh raw under them for to eat. They eat it in this manner and anoint themselves with the blood to make themselves the more sturdy and strong, and to provoke themselves to cruelty in the war. These also fight on horseback with bows and arrows, and use short swords. Da Cruz continued: With these is the continual war of the Chinas and, as I have said, the Chinas have a hundred leagues (others saying there are more) of a wall between them and the other, where are continually garrisons of men for defense against the raids of the Tartars. It may be believed that this wall is not continuous but that some mountains or hills are intermixt between, for a Persian lord affirmed to me that the like works were in some parts of Persia, intermixed with some hills or mountains.6 5 Tomé Pires, The Suma Oriental, an Account of the East, from the Red Sea to Japan, trans. and ed. Armando Cortesão (London: Hakluyt Society, 1944), 127–128. 6 Gaspar da Cruz, Tractado em que se co[n]tam muyto por este[n]so as cousas de China com suas particularidades, e assi do Reyno de Dormuz dirigido ao muyto poderoso rey D. Sebastiam nosso senhor (Évora: Andre de Burgos, 1569), quoted from C.R. Boxer, ed., South China in the Six­ teenth Century (London: Hakluyt Society, 1953), 84–85.

The Tartars in European Missionary Writings

85

Similar information about the Tartars, both new and old, was included in the very influential book by the Spanish Augustinian friar, Juan González de Mendoza: The History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China (Historia de las cosas mas notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reyno de la China, first published in 1585). This book confronted Europeans with the knowledge that the rebel warlord Zhu Yuanzhang 朱元璋 had overthrown the Yuan dynasty, expelled the Tartars (Mongols) from China, and established the Ming dynasty. Mendoza wrote, in the words of the English translation of 1853 that uses “Tartarians” to refer to the Mongols: These Tartarians have had many times wars with them of China: but at one time they got the whole kingdom of China, and did possess the same for the space of ninety-three years, till such time as they of China did rebel and forced them out again. At this day they say that they are friends one with another, and that is, for that they be all Gentiles, and do use all one manner of ceremonies and rites. They also do differ in their clenes [sic] and laws, in the which [sic] the Chinas doth exceed them very much. The Tartarians are very yellow and not so white: and they go naked from the girdle upwards and they eat raw flesh and do anoint themselves with the blood of raw flesh, for to make them more harder and currish, by reason whereof they do so stink, that if the air doth come from that part where they be, you shall smell them afar off by the strong savor.7 The Italian missionary Matteo Ricci was the first Jesuit to reach Beijing, where he stayed for ten years until his demise in 1610. Like Mendoza, in his Journals, he mentioned the Tartars to denote the Mongols.8 On the world map he made in China, the Tartars are located to the north and the Jurchen to the northeast of China.9 The fact that he clearly distinguished the Tartars from the Jurchen people suggests that Ricci used Chinese sources for making this map. In a modern map of Ming dynasty China, made by the famous historical geographer Tan

7 Juan González de Mendoza, Historia de las cosas mas notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reyno de la China […] hecha y ordenada por el muy R.P. maestro Fr. Joan González de Mendoça (Roma: Grassi, 1585); quoted from the English translation, The History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China and the Situation thereof, vol. 1, trans. and ed. R. Parke (London: Hakluyt Society, 1853), 9. 8 Matteo Ricci and Nicolas Trigault, China in the Sixteenth Century: The Journal of Matteo Ricci, 1583–1610, trans. Louis J. Gallagher (New York: Random House, 1953), 42, 44, 312. 9 Matteo Ricci 利 玛 窦 , Kunyu Wanguo Quantu 坤 舆 万 国 全 图 (1602) (Beijing: Society of Chinese Historical Geography 1936).

86

DONG

Qixiang, we can also see that the locations of the Tartars, Jurchen, and Vara 瓦 剌 [Western Mongols] are differentiated.10 Another Italian Jesuit, Giulio Aleni, published a book in Chinese, Zhifang Waiji 职方外纪 [An Outline of Geography], in 1623. In the first volume of this book, General Description of Asia, Aleni mentioned Tartary as the realm of the Mongols living to the north of the Gobi desert. He also mentioned the Jurchen 女直 as different and separate from the Tartars. Worthy of note is his claim that this knowledge came from a Chinese book of official geography, Daming Yitong zhi 大明一统志 [The Geographical Book of the Great Ming], 1461. But later, he wrote: “From the north of China to the east of Europe, this whole vast land is named Tartary. There are very few rivers. Most of the plains are deserts. There are lots of mountains. One of the biggest mountains is Imao, which divides Asia into two parts, the north and the south. All the ethnic groups living on the land to the north of the Imao Mountain belong to Tartary.”11 Here Aleni interpreted Tartary in a broader sense. This description must have been based on a European idea, because we do not find the term Imao in contemporary Chinese sources. Aleni’s term Ya Xi Ya 亚细亚 (Asia) is also a new geographical concept to Chinese readers.12 As mentioned above, in the Ming dynasty, the term “Dada” only denotes the Mongols, a sense much narrower than what Aleni described. Both Ricci’s world map and Aleni’s geographical book mentioned the Jurchen without, however, going into detail. 2

The Uprising of the Jurchen Hordes

The Jurchen, who inhabited northeast Asia for more than two thousand years, conquered the northern Song in 1127 and established the Jin dynasty, gaining control of most of Northern China, until the Mongols vanquished them in 1234. After the Ming dynasty expelled the Mongols, most parts of the Jurchen territories were under Ming control. The Ming distinguished three groups of Jur­ chen: the Wild Jurchen 野人女真 of northernmost Manchuria, the Haixi ­Jurchen 海西女真 of modern Heilongjiang Province, and the Jianzhou Jurchen 建州女真 of modern Jilin and Liaoning Provinces. Over a period of thirty years 10 11 12

Tan Qixiang 谭 其 骧 , ed., Jianming Zhongguo Lishi Ditu Ji 简 明 中 国 历 史 地 图 集 , (Beijing: Zhongguo Ditu Chubanshe, 1991), 63–64. Giulio Aleni 艾 儒 略 , Zhifang Waiji 职 方 外 纪 [Records of Places beyond the Tribute States], (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1996), 33–34. Dong Shaoxin, “The Introduction of the Concept ‘asia’ into China and the Chinese Responses,” in Sailed to the East: Global Mapping of Macao, ed. Zhang Shuguang and Dai Longji (Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press, 2015), 43–74.

The Tartars in European Missionary Writings

87

from 1586 onwards, Nurhachi, a chieftain of the Jianzhou Jurchen, united the Jurchen tribes. In 1616, Nurhachi established the Jin regime, which was subsequently called the Later Jin to distinguish it from the Jin dynasty of the twelfth century. In 1635, Nurhachi’s son, Huangtaiji, who succeeded him as khan, ordered that the name Jurchen be changed to Manchu. According to some scholars, the term Manchu came from the Bodhisattva Manjushri, in Chinese Manshu 曼殊菩萨, owing to the influence of Buddhism in Manchuria.13 In 1636, Huangtaiji proclaimed himself emperor and established the Qing dynasty. In 1644, the Qing captured Beijing and conquered the entire Chinese Empire in the following two decades. The uprising of the Jurchen hordes in the 1610s shocked the Ming court and caught the Jesuits’ attention. In 1618, Nurhachi commissioned a document entitled Qi Da Hen (Manchu: Nadan koro) 七大恨 [The Seven Grievances], swearing to fight against the domination of the Ming dynasty and then started attacking the fortresses of Fushun 抚顺 and Qinghepu 清河堡. In discussing this situation, the Annual Letter of China of 1618 includes the first Jesuit description of the Jurchen. The composer of this document, a Portuguese Jesuit named Manuel Dias Junior, called the Jurchen Tartars or “oriental Tartars,” whereas he called the Mongols “occidental Tartars”: The Tartars live separately on a vast territory to the north of China. They have various tribes and the ways they occupy their land, their chieftains, and customs are different. The Chinese call them many different names, but all these names have negative and insulting meanings. For example, lù giên 虏人 and nù giñ 奴人 mean captives; sáo nù 骚奴 means slaves with a bad smell; hiuḿ nù 匈奴 means humble servants; collectively, they are called tat çù 鞑子 and ta talh 鞑靼, which seem to be the general names.14 In fact, in official Chinese sources, such as Ming Shilu 明实录 [Memoir of the Ming Dynasty], the Jurchen, and later the Manchus, were seldom called Tartars; the negative meanings attached to this name in Chinese made it impossible for the Jurchen to call themselves Tartars. It is likely that ordinary Han Chinese people used to call the Jurchen “Dada” and told the Jesuits this name,

13 14

Meng Sen 孟 森 , Manzhou Kaiguo Shi Jiangyi 满 洲 开 国 史 讲 义 (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2006), 2. Manuel Dias Junior, SJ, Carta Annual da China do Anno de 1618, Biblioteca de Ajuda (Lisboa), Jesuítas na Asia, 49-v-5, fol. 235v.

88

DONG

and this may be one of the reasons why the Jesuits called the Jurchen Tartars. The composer of the 1618 Annual Letter continues: The easternmost group of the Tartars, located between Beijing and Korea, contiguous to Liaodong Province, is called Kin giń 金人, which means people made of gold. When Emperor Hum vû liberated China from the rule of the Mouros [i.e., Mongols], the Kin giń also gained freedom from slavery. At that time, the Kin giń had no strength to oppose their neighbors, so they succumbed to the control of the Ming dynasty. They settled outside of the Great Wall, and were divided into sixty tribes in the manner of a republic (modo de republica). They followed the example of the Ming in many ways, and submitted to the rule of Ming for nearly 250 years.15 This differentiation, however basic, was a new feature in European texts about Asia. For the first time, the Jurchen were introduced. The Jesuits had already differentiated some ethnic groups of China such as the Mongols, Muslims, Tibetans, and even the Jews in the province of Henan. But since the uprising of the Jurchen, this ethnic group became a point of focus in their writings. If we regard the Jesuits’ studies of Chinese culture as the origin of European Sinology, we may also assume that their studies of the Jurchen (Manchus) are at the origin of European “Manchuology.” But why did the Jesuits pay so much attention to the Eastern Tartars? There may be several reasons. First of all, the uprising of the Jurchen not only shocked the Ming, but also made the Jesuits rethink the situation in China and the possibility of regime change. Secondly, they tried to frame the crisis on China’s northeastern frontier in Christian terms, stating that the uprising of the Jurchen was God’s retaliation for the persecution of the Christian mission by the Ming government in 1616, the same year in which Nurhachi took to the throne as khan. The Ming should therefore accept Christianity and only then, with the protection of God, could they overcome this crisis. Thirdly, the Jesuit missionaries wanted to preach Christianity in Manchuria, as every inhabited place on earth was their destination in the ambition to convert humankind. To venture into Manchuria, they first needed to study its geography, people, customs, ­religion, and so on. Around the same time, the Jesuits were trying to find an overland route from Europe to China via Siberia, to safeguard their correspondence with Europe, and to establish another trade route. Lastly, the Jesuits 15

Manuel Dias Junior, SJ, Carta Annual da China do Anno de 1618, Biblioteca de Ajuda (Lisboa), Jesuítas na Asia, 49-v-5, fol. 236–236v.

The Tartars in European Missionary Writings

89

tried to cater to the European readers’ curiosity by sending back noteworthy information. During the seventeenth century, the Jesuits in China recorded and sent back to Europe plenty of information on the Tartars (Manchus), some of which was quite influential in early modern Europe. These letters, reports, books, and images contributed to the formation of the European conception of the Tartars. 3

Direct Contact with the Manchus: Annual Letters

Nowadays, many Jesuit sources on the Tartars are held in different archives and libraries around the world (mainly in Europe). Most of these were written in Portuguese, Latin, and French, and were intended for European readers. Although we do not have a hard number, the number of relevant documents certainly runs into the hundreds. A large part of these can be found in three series of archives: the “Japonica-Sinica” of the Jesuit Archive in Rome; the “Jesuitas” collection in the library of the Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid; and the collection “Jesuítas na Ásia” of the Biblioteca de Ajuda in Lisbon. The latter consists of mid-eighteenth-century copies from the Jesuit Archive in Macao. These writings can be classified in different ways: whether they were written before or after the arrival of the Manchus in Beijing, whether they were based on personal experiences;, and whether they were written by Jesuits who traveled to Manchuria or by authors who had never physically visited this area. Besides these written sources, of great importance are also maps of Tartary and images of Tartars made by missionaries. Moreover, there are relevant sources by Dutch, Portuguese, and Russian merchants, travelers, and diplomatic envoys, which are beyond the remit of this chapter. This chapter focuses on the writings of missionaries who had lived in China. These sources can be divided into two categories. The first category consists of letters and reports and the second category consists of books. Some of the authors personally witnessed the Ming-Qing dynastic transition and wrote the letters and reports at the time the wars were happening; hence, their letters and reports are first-hand sources. It normally took two years for these letters and reports to arrive in Europe and, for European readers, they were news from China. This is a feature that distinguishes the first category from the second. The most important sources of the first category are probably the annual letters of the Society of Jesus of China. Each year, the vice provincial of the society appointed a Jesuit to compose an annual letter of the former year, to report the missionary affairs in China to their generals in Rome. These annual letters were based on the annual reports of the Jesuit residences in different

90

DONG

provinces of China. In 1618, the China mission was separated from the Jesuit province of Japan and became an independent vice-province. Since then and until the end of seventeenth century, there was an annual letter almost every year from China; sometimes, there were several annual letters in the same year and, sometimes, several years were combined into a single annual letter. During 1642–1647, due to the turbulence and chaos of the peasant uprising and the Ming-Qing war, the vice-province of China was divided into two parts, resulting in two annual letters for each year: for Northern and Southern China. The Jesuit annual letters covered the whole period of Ming-Qing dynastic transition and recorded the whole process. Compared with the books by Martini, the annual letters cover a longer period, include more content, and provide more details. They cover almost all the important events, from Nurhachi’s declaration of conquering the Ming to the major battles (of Fushun, Qinghepu, Sarhu, and Ningyuan); the incident of the Manchus’ appearance near Beijing and their breaching of the imperial mausoleum; the mutiny of Kong Youde 孔有德 and Geng Zhongming 耿仲明 at Wuqiao, Shandong Province; the ­entrance of Li Zicheng’s peasant army into Beijing and the fall of Ming; the en­ trance of the Qing army into Beijing; the resistance of the Southern Ming and their defeat, and so on. If we take out this content from the annual letters of this period, they themselves can compose a chronicle of the Ming-Qing transition. Of all these annual letters, those of the years from 1644 to 1654 are particularly important because there is plenty of information about the Tartars, their invasion into China, and their religions, customs, food, and costumes. Besides the annual letters, the Jesuits wrote separate reports. For example, in 1645, the Portuguese Ignácio da Costa (1603–1666) compiled the Relation of the Entrance of the Tartars into China, Occupying the Empire (Relação da entra­ da dos Tartaros nesta China, tomado do Imperio) to record the Manchu pursuit of the rebel leader Li Zicheng’s peasant army in Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi from October 1644 to October 1645.16 A longer and more important report was provided by the Portuguese Jesuit, Manuel de Azevedo (1581–1650): Relation of the Wars and Uprisings, which Happened in China, and the Death of its Emperor, and the Entrance of the Tartar into it, from 1642 to 1647 (Relação das guerras, e levantam.tos, que Ouve na China, morte do seu éperador, e entrada dos Tartaros nella, desdo anno da 1642 atê o de 1647).17 Manuel de Azevedo was appointed 16 17

Ignacio da Costa, Relação da entrada dos Tartaros nesta China, tomado do Imperio, Xén Sí, Octubro 30, 1645. Biblioteca de Ajuda, Lisboa, JA, 49-v-13ff. 267–300v. Manuel de Azevedo, Relação das guerras, e levantam.tos, que Ouve na China, morte do seu éperador, e entrada dos Tartaros nella, desdo anno da 1642 atê o de 1647, do Visitador da Prov.a de Jappão, E da Vice Prov.a da China—Manoel de Azevedo Pera o nosso R.do P.e geral. Jesuit Archive in Rome arsi, Jap.-Sin.126ff. 31–78, ff. 79–127; Jap.-Sin 123ff. 181–207v;

The Tartars in European Missionary Writings

91

Visitor of the Society of Jesus of Japan and China in 1642, based in Macao until he died there in 1650. This was a very turbulent period in China. During this period, he received many letters and reports from Semedo, Sambiasi, Furtado, and other Jesuits based in mainland China, on which this one-hundred-page document was based. It contains even more information than Martini’s Bellum Tartaricum, describing the miserable situation of Chinese society. He focused on Southern China, including many details about the chaos in Guangzhou, Hainan Island, and Macao when the Manchu army entered these areas. Noteworthy in particular are several chapters describing the reactions and attitudes to the Ming-Qing transition from Japan, Annan, and Cochinchina. As to the capture of Guangzhou by Manchu troops, there is the report by Alvaro de Semedo, who was present in Guangzhou and witnessed the fall of the city: Rela­ tion of what Happened in Guangzhou when the Tartars Surrounded it (Relação do que se passou no cerco de Quantum pelos Tartaros, 1653).18 The Portuguese Jesuit, João Nunes (1613–1659), was preaching Christianity in Hainan when the Manchu army captured this island, and he recorded what he saw and heard at this period in his report Relation of the Entrance of the Tartars into the Big Is­ land of Hainan (Relação da entrada dos Tartaros na grande Ilha do Háynán, 1649).19 4

Direct Contact with the Manchus: Books

Most of the writings of the first category were not published in the seventeenth century, but they were essential sources for the second category: the books. Some of these books also remained unpublished, including two important works by the Portuguese Jesuit, António de Gouvea. His manuscript Asia ex­ trema (in two hefty volumes) was finished in 1644, the year of the fall of the Ming, and dedicated to the Portuguese king as a gift to celebrate the ­restoration

18 19

Biblioteca de Ajuda, Lisboa JA, 49-v-13ff. 1–49. This report was generally studied by Davor Antonucci, “The ‘Eastern Tartars’ in Jesuit Sources: News from Visitor Manuel de Azevedo,” Central Asiatic Journal (The Manchus and “Tartar” Identity in the Chinese Empire) 58 (2015): 117–132. [Alvaro de Semedo] Relação do que se passou no cerco de Quantum pelos Tartaros; e do que os Padres obrarão, e padecerão nesse tempo, e quando se tomou, 1653. Biblioteca de Ajuda in Lisbon, JA, 49-v-61ff. 252v-260; 668–675v. Joam Nunez, Relação da entrada dos Tartaros na grande Ilha do Háynán: As Guerras que tiverão com os Chinas naturais da Ilha, e dos grandes trabalhos, e perigos de vida que pas­ saram os P.P. que nella estavam pregando o S(an)to Evangelho.15 Dezembro 1649. Jesuit Archive in Rome arsi, Jap.-Sin. 126ff. 155–164v.

92

DONG

of the monarchy. More than ten chapters are related to the Ming-Qing conflicts, with most information based on the annual letters. Gouvea also wrote down his own experience in Wuchang, where he established a Jesuit residence in 1638, which was destroyed in 1644 in an attack of the peasant army. Gouvea moved to Fuzhou, where he witnessed the rise and fall of the Longwu 隆武 reign and, for the first time, personally encountered Tartar officials and soldiers. In Fuzhou, he compiled seven Annual Letters (1643–1649) regarding Southern China, in which he reported on the process of the entrance of Tartar army into Fujian. Gouvea also wrote a book on the history of China, History of China Divided into Six Periods (Historia da China dividida em seis idades), with an appendix entitled “The Tartar Monarchy,” describing the Manchu conquest of China.20 All of these writings reached Europe but were not published during the seventeenth century. Their influence was much smaller than that of Martino Martini’s works. Martini arrived in Macao in 1642 where he studied Chinese for one year. In 1643, he traveled to mainland China and settled in Hangzhou. Only one year later, Li Zicheng’s peasant troops captured Beijing and overthrew the Ming. For some time, Martini continued to serve the remnants of the Southern Ming regime. He was in the south of Zhejiang on a mission for the Southern Ming when the Manchu troops entered and besieged the city of Wenzhou. At the entrance of his house, Martini put up a poster in Chinese characters, saying: “Here lives a doctor of the divine Law who has come from the Great West” (later he brought this poster to Europe, gave it to Jacob Golius and eventually it was kept in the collection of Adriaan Reland in Utrecht: see Appendix 5.1). He also arranged tables with European books and astronomical instruments, surrounding an altar with an image of Jesus Christ. The Manchu commander was impressed and treated Martini politely, asking him to switch his loyalty to the Qing: Martini obediently shaved his hair, Manchu style, and changed his Mingstyle dress to Manchu costume. Then he returned Hangzhou, preaching Christianity under Manchu protection. In 1651, Martini left China for Rome as delegate of the Society of Jesus to deal with the so-called controversy of Chinese rites. On his way to Rome, he met publishers in Antwerp, Vienna, and Munich, to whom he gave his manuscripts of books and maps he had prepared during his long journey. His most famous book, Bellum Tartaricum, was first published in Antwerp in Latin in 1654 and 20

Antonio de Gouvea, Historia da China dividida em seis idades tirada dos Livros Chinas e Portuguezes com o continuo estudo e observaçoens de 20 annos, em a Metropoli de Fó (Kien) a 20 de Janeiro de 1654. Com hum apendix da Monarchia Tartarica. Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid, mss 2949.

The Tartars in European Missionary Writings

93

was translated in the same year into French, English, Dutch, and German.21 In the period 1654–1706, it was republished twenty-five times and translated into nine other European languages.22 Besides the Bellum Tartaricum, Martini also published Novus atlas Sinensis (1655), the most complete geographical description of China at that time, and Sinicae Historiae Decas Prima (1658), one of the first historical chronicles of China composed by Jesuits. These works made the author famous in Europe. In Novus atlas Sinensis, Martini wrote a brief introduction of the Eastern Tartars (which will be discussed in more detail later on). There are more books of the second group by (among others) Adam Schall von Bell,23 Adrien Greslon,24 François de Rougemont,25 Giandomenico Gabiani,26 and the Dominican friar Vittorio Ricci.27 Some of them, together with Martini’s Bellum Tartaricum, have been studied in relation to the Manchu conquest of China.28 As a whole, these missionary writings form a body of information about the Manchu and contribute to the Europeans’ new knowledge of Tartary and the origin of the Qing dynasty. Based on these writings, 21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Martino Martini, De bello tartarico historia in quâ, quo pacto Tartari hac nostrâ aetate Sini­ cum Imperium inuaserint, ac ferè totum occuparin, narratur; eorumque mores breuiter de­ scribuntur cum figuris aeneis (Antwerp: 1654); Bellum Tartaricum, or the Conquest of the Great and Most Renowned Empire of China, by the Invasion of the Tartars (London: Crook, 1654). Henri Cordier, Bibliotheca sinica. Dictionnaire bibliographique des ouvrages relatifs à l’Empire chinois (Paris: E. Leroux, 1878–1895) vol. 1, 623–627. Adam Schall von Bell, Historica Narratio de Initio et Progressu Missionis Societatis Jesu apud Chinenses, Praesertim in Regia Pequinens (Vienna: Cosmoverius, 1665). Adrien Greslon, Histoire de la Chine sovs la domination des Tartares: ov l’on verra les choses les plus remarquables qui sont arrivées dans ce grand empire, depuis l’année 1651 qu’ils on achevé de le conquerir, jusqu’en 1669 (Paris: Henault, 1671). François de Rougemont, Relaçam do Estado Politico e Espiritual do Imperio da China, pellos annos de 1659 até o de 1666 (Lisbon: I. Da Costa, 1672); De Rougemont, Historia Tartaro-­ Sinica Nova (Leuven: Hullegaerde, 1673). Joannem Dominicum Gabiani, Incrementa Sinica Ecclesia, a Tartaris oppugnata […] ac­ curata et contestatâ narratione (Vienna: Leopoldi Voigt, 1673). Vittorio Ricci, Hechos de la Orden de predicadores en el imperio de China, 1667. Archivo Provincia Santo Rosario apsr (Avila) China 1. Chen Min-sun, “Three Contemporary Western Sources on the History of Late Ming and the Manchu Conquest of China” (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1971). Edwin J. van Kley, “News from China: Seventeenth-Century European Notices of the Manchu Conquest,” The Journal of Modern History 45, no. 4 (1973): 561–582; Davor Antonucci, “La ‘Tartaria’ nelle Fonti dei Missionari Gesuiti in Cina tra il xvi e il xvii secolo,” in La Cina e il Mondo, ed. Paolo de Troia (Roma: Edizione Nuova Cultura, 2010), 131–24; Anna Busquets i Alemany, “Other Voices for the Conflict: Three Spanish Texts about the Manchus and Their Conquest of China,” Mingqing Yanjiu xvii (2012): 35–64; Li Xuetao 李 雪 涛 , 误 解 的 对 话 :德 国 汉 学 家 的 中 国 记 忆 [Misunderstood Diologue: Chinese Memories of German Sinologists] (Beijing: New Star Press, 2014), 65–78.

94

DONG

more literature was published in Europe by authors who had never been to China, among which Juan de Palafox y Mendoza’s (1600–1659) History of the Conquest of China by the Tartars (Historia de la Conquista de la China por el Tartaro, 1670) stands out.29 Palafox finished this book in Mexico and his main sources came from Macao via Manila. His book is more than four times longer than Martini’s Bellum Tartaricum and contains many more details. Besides the description of the conquest of China by the Tartars, the last eight chapters are dedicated to the religions, character, political administration, languages and way of writing, military organization and martial arts, appearance, costumes, and women of the Tartars. Of special interest are the theatre plays that were devoted to the fall of Ming and the Manchu conquest of China, such as the Dutch playwright Joost van den Vondel’s Chongzhen, or the Fall of the Ming Dynasty (Zungchin, of onder­ gang der Sineesche heerschappije, 1667)30 and the British playwright Elkanah Settle’s The Conquest of China by the Tartars (1675);31 in 1715, Antono Salvi published the operatic work Il Tartaro nella Cina.32 These dramas indicate the strong interests the Europeans had in what was happening in China, while also broadcasting knowledge about the Tartars on a popular scale. 5

Ethnographic Information

The main content of the missionary writings on the Tartars deal with the process of the Manchu conquest of China, including most of the important battles between Ming and Qing. Besides the Manchu Conquest, these writings include other information related to the Tartars, such as the geography, natural conditions, products, social and military organizations, faith and religions, national

29

30

31 32

Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, Historia de la Conquista de la China por el Tartaro (Paris: A. Bertier, 1670). English transl., The History of the Conquest of China by the Tartars t­ ogether with an Account of Several remarkable Things Concerning the Religion, Manners, and cus­ tomes of both Nations, but Especially the Latter (London: W. Godbid, 1671). Joost van den Vondel, Zungchin, of ondergang der Sineesche heerschappije (Amsterdam: Voor de weduwe van Abraham Wees, 1667). For the English version see http://www.let .leidenuniv.nl/Dutch/Ceneton/VondelZungchin1667English.html. About this drama, see Manjusha Kuruppath, Staging Asia: The Dutch East India Company and the Amsterdam Theatre (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2016), 61–115. Elkanah Settle, The Conquest of China by the Tartars (London: W. Cademan, 1675); cf. Jeannie Dalporto, “The Succession Crisis and Elkanah Settle’s ‘The Conquest of China by the Tartars,’” The Eighteenth Century 45, no. 2 (2004): 131–146. Antonio Salvi, Il Tartaro nella Cina (Reggio Emilia: Ippolito Vedrotti, 1715).

The Tartars in European Missionary Writings

95

traditions, customs, dresses, and food. In this respect, some of these missionary writings can be regarded as ethnographic texts.33 The Jesuits were showing interests in the appearance, character, and temperament of the Tartars by giving many descriptions and frequently compared them with Han Chinese and Europeans. In the Jesuit annual letter of China of 1647, Antonio de Gouvea wrote that “the physical aspect of the Tartars is not much different from that of the Chinese, but they are much more courageous than the Chinese people.”34 Martini wrote in his Bellum Tartaricum: “Their faces are comely, and usually broad, like those of China; their color is white, but their nose is not so flat, nor are their eyes so little as the Chinese are; they speak little, and ride pensively. In the rest of their manners they resemble our Tartars of Europe, though they be nothing so barbarous. They rejoice to see strangers; they do not like at all the grimness and sourness of the Chinese gravity, and therefore in the first meetings they appear more human.”35 The phrase “our Tartars of Europe” shows that Martini’s description of the Tartars was different from the traditional European conception. Palafox’s description is more detailed. In his Historia de la Conquista de la China por el Tartaro, he wrote a whole chapter “Of the Behavior of the Tartars” (Chapter xxxi), from which I quote a longer passage: The Tartars, who conquered China, are generally proper men, and wellshaped, only their shoulders are broad, but the rest of their limbs are well proportioned. But they are sturdy and strong, which makes them appear rather rough and unhewn, than nice or effeminate. The Tartars have not ordinarily their complexions so fair as the Chinese; there is not much difference usually in their faces, unless it be that some are more black and tanned. They have thicker beards, which, for the most part, are either black or red, but they cut it quite off, leaving only a tuft on the middle of their chin. They have no mustaches, but for all that, they are very gallant fellows. Which is an argument that men (at least in that country) may have courage, though they have no mustaches. They wear their hair very short, or rather none at all, being willing to discharge themselves of that, 33 Zhang Xianqing 张 先 清 , 小 历 史 :明 清 之 际 的 中 西 文 化 相 遇 [Micro-History: ­Encounters of Chinese and European Cultures during Late Ming and Early Qing Period] (Beijing: Shangwu Yinshu Guan, 2015), 196–216. 34 Antonio de Gouvea, Cartas Ânuas da China, 1636, 1643 a 1649, ed., introdução e notas de Horácio P. de Araújo (Macao: Instituto Português do Oriente; Lisboa: Biblioteca Nacional, 1998), 293. 35 Martino Martini, Bellum Tartaricum, or the Conquest of the Great and Most Renowned Em­ pire of China, by the Invasion of the Tartars (London: Crook, 1651), 35–36.

96

DONG

of which they have so little need. […] The Chinese men always have fans in their hands, as women have in other countries. If they were either in their own houses, or making visits, or in the streets, or Temples, they were never without fans, even the common sort of people. The Spaniards in the Philippine Isles, who were used to see them with these arms in their hands, did no longer wonder at it. But the Tartars could not refrain breaking out into laughter, as at a thing which they thought very ridiculous; and they asked them scoffingly, if these were not the arms of their women which they used not so much to beat and cool the air, as to defend them from the heat of the sun, lest it should melt the paint upon their faces? The Tartars were not prohibited to use fans, but though the heat was so excessive, that it almost stifled them, none of them could be persuaded to make use of a fan.36 The missionaries often compared the Manchus with Chinese, Europeans, Japanese, and other ethnic groups. As Michael Keevak has recently argued, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, before the birth of racial anthropology, Europeans thought that the Chinese were white like themselves: the “yellow race” is a later invention.37 The Europeans, however, frequently described the weakness and feminine features of Chinese men, and this is one of the reasons why the Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch thought it would not be difficult to conquer China. They genuinely made plans for this conquest; but, either these failed or were never put into action. After the Manchu Conquest, Europeans praised the Manchus’ strong physical constitution and martial spirit, comparing it with the Romans, which the missionaries saw as one of the reasons why the Manchus successfully conquered China. The missionaries were also interested in the costume of the Tartars, of which Antonio de Gouvea and Palafox gave detailed descriptions. In the annual letters of 1647, Gouvea wrote: The upper part of the battle costumes they wear is tight, the cuffs are narrow, but the lower part is large, and divaricated in both front and rear, for convenience of riding horses. They wear a tie waist belt and hang a sword on it. When walking in the city without resistance, the handle of the sword is backward, and the point of the sword is forward; but it is reverse when ready to fight. They wear boots, just like the literati. The shave their 36 37

Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, The History of the Conquest of China by the Tartars, 546–554. Michael Keevak, Becoming Yellow: A Short History of Racial Thinking (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011).

The Tartars in European Missionary Writings

97

hair, only leave a tuft of hair on the top, which they never shave. They braid this tuft of hair into a pigtail, which they cherish so much: they can even die for it. Some of their hats are woven from reed: most of these types of hats are delicate; some hats are like baskets, with brims downward; some hats are like Gypsy’s, smaller than their heads. The most special and best hats are like upside-down funnels, adding different linings inside according to their personal taste. When they wear this type of hat, they tie the two slim ribbons under their jaws to avoid it being blown away by the wind. The most unique is the tassels made of silk on the hats, normally in red, like the tassels on the hat of doctors of law. The ends of the brims are various. If it is a dragon (loong) shape, it means the wearer is an emperor. According to different statuses of the wearers, there are sunbirds with rays, and other shapes, made of silver, gold, and jade, etc.38 Palafox described in details many categories of costumes of the Tartars. From hats to boots, his descriptions include almost everything. On only the different types of their hats, he wrote several pages, which would be too long to quote here.39 Instead, I would like to quote Martini’s general and brief description for the readers to have an idea. He wrote in his Novus atlas Sinensis: Their clothes are mostly made of hides, but also of silk and cotton, which they buy from the Chinese here and there. They exchange their clothes for those of the Chinese, that is, skins of the wolves, bears, foxes, beavers, otters, martens and muscovite rats, which they commonly call sables, and skins of other animals like this. Their clothes are long and come right down to their toes. The sleeves are tight and finish in the shape of the hoofs of a horse. They tie a rather wide cord around these clothes and from it two bands hang down at either side. These are used for cleaning their face and hands. A knife too hangs from this cord as well as two pockets in which they keep the tobacco they are so greedy for, and such like things. Guests are received with the “tobacco sucking” ritual and already-lit pipes are given to as many guests as are present by the servants. The strength of this herb, or rather vice, is undoubtedly marvelous. It has by now spread to almost the whole world and is excessively familiar to many [.…] They have bootlegs made of silk or mostly of suitably prepared horse 38 Gouvea, Cartas Ânuas da China, 293–294. 39 Palafox y Mendoza, Conquest of China by the Tartars, 571–576.

98

DONG

leather; they do not use spurs. A small hat fits their head exactly. It is round and simple, with a band of valuable fur tied all around it. This fur protects the forehead, ears and temples from the cold. In summer they wear a head covering made of matting or straw. On the head covering, which is visible above the fur band, they put red cloth made of byssus or red purple horse hair, which they imbue with beautiful colors.40 These descriptions supplement the Chinese and Manchu sources on early Manchu habits and costumes. Rich in detail, the descriptions catered to the interest and curiosity of the Europeans. Besides these missionary writings, many images of Manchu costumes circulated in contemporary Europe. In the Library and Museum of the Comédie Française in Paris, there is a collection of these images that were collected for practical purpose: to make costumes for actors in dramas about China and the Tartars. Incidentally, even Martini’s comment on tobacco is a fascinating historical detail: smoking was very popular in northeast China, but little is known about the origin of this addiction. Missionaries paid a great deal of attention to the faiths and religions of the Tartars. One of the reasons is that they wanted to evaluate the possibility of converting them to Christianity. Many of them wrote about this aspect; for example, Palafox wrote a whole chapter, “Of the Religion of the Tartars; Their Natural Virtues and Vices” (Chapter xxv), in his book. He said: It may truly be said that those Tartars which conquered China, are men who have neither the knowledge of God or of any religion. For it doth not appear that they apply themselves to the knowledge of any deity, or that they showed forth the notions of any particular religion. But they indifferently receive all religions and superstitions which they are acquainted with, refuse none, but conform to all. They have their bonzi, which are their priests, which offer their sacrifices; and these are their philosophers and learned men; but yet they have no great esteem for them. Their women (as devotion in all places whether true or false is most natural to that sex) seem to be somewhat more devout that the men, and this appears by the veneration they have for their bonzi. As this nation embraces no particular religion, so it rejects none, but easily are induced to believe a divinity in that thing to which they see

40

Martino Martini, Atlas extremae Asiae sive Sinarum Imperii geographica descriptio (Trento: Comitato per le Celebrazioni di Martino Martini, 1981), 132–133.

The Tartars in European Missionary Writings

99

any other person pay any adoration; which they manifested in all parts of China through which they passed.41 The missionaries had different opinions on the possibility of converting the Tartars to Christianity. Martini was very optimistic: They are very worried about what will happen after death, the state of the soul, and immortality. They receive the Christian religion easily and even now a large number of them have embraced it. Who can deny that perhaps, by the will of God, this way was opened to them towards the Chinese so that they might find the path to salvation and the true faith and religion? It was once very difficult to reach them, indeed virtually impossible to do so, but now it has become extremely easy, almost in the same way as God once allowed Rome, mistress of races, to be occupied and destroyed by the barbarians so that she might instruct Goths, Vandals, and others in the sacred matters of Christianity and illuminate them with the light of the true faith.42 By contrast, Antonio de Gouvea was of a different opinion: the Tartars had no knowledge of the afterlife and believed in nothing; they only had interests of this life, such as eating meat without any taboo and having many concubines. There was (in contrast to the Chinese) no hope to convert them.43 In fact, in the early Qing period, several Manchu families, even imperial ones such as the Sunu 苏努 and Depei 德沛 families, converted to Christianity. But most of them did not find a good end, due to the persecution of Christianity in this period. Although the Jesuits wanted to spread Christianity to Manchuria, and some had the opportunity to travel there, they were never permitted to do so officially. 6 Conclusion The missionaries presented to their European readers a comprehensive picture of Eastern Tartary, which enriched European knowledge of the Manchus and of China. Since the age of discovery, European merchants, missionaries, travelers, and diplomatic envoys had reached remote parts of the world and 41 Palafox y Mendoza, Conquest of China by the Tartars, 439, 441. 42 Martini, Atlas extremae Asiae, 134. 43 Gouvea, Cartas Ânuas da China, 296.

100

DONG

encountered many different peoples. They often recorded these experiences; each year, plenty of their writings were sent back to Europe from the Americas, Africa, and Asia through the global networks they established, which made Europe the center and headquarter of ethnographical information. The new information on the Tartars was part of this flow of knowledge. Paradoxically perhaps, but not unsurprisingly, the increasingly nuanced understanding of the multiethnic nature of the Ming and Qing empires did not result in the disappearing of stereotypes but rather in the multiplication of them: the “unhewn” and “courageous” Tartars were contrasted with the “sour” and “effeminate” Chinese. As this chapter has argued, the first European images of the Tartars, although far from immune to the dynamic of stereotyping, were rooted in practical considerations. Satisfying the curiosity of the European readers was not their main aim. Establishing trade connections and preaching Christianity in China were the two goals of the European seaborne companies and the Catholic missions. To realize these goals, Europeans needed profound understanding of the people, culture, religion, and political situation in China. The Manchu Conquest in the middle of the seventeenth century was the biggest political change in east Asia. The missionaries’ writings on Tartary were important for Europeans to know about China’s new ruler and adapt their strategies of preaching and trade with the new dynasty. The missionaries’ writings on Tartary are therefore essential for a fuller understanding of the history of European expansion—material and ideological— in east Asia. But this is not the only reason why they merit the historian’s attention. There are not many Manchu and Chinese sources on early Manchu people and society, and they can be supplemented to some extent by the missionary texts. After the establishment of Manchu rule in China, Manchu and Chinese sources on early Manchu and early Qing were systemically altered and manipulated. The missionary sources, as an external observer’s “third eye,” are important complementary material for scholars of early Manchu and early Qing history. Profoundly overlooked in this respect, the European documents have many new research avenues to offer. Archival Sources Avila, APSR Archivo Provincia Santo Rosario

China 1. Ricci Vittorio, Hechos de la Orden de predicadores en el imperio de China, 1667.

Lisbon, Biblioteca de Ajuda

JA, 49-v-13. Dias Junior Manuel, S.J, Carta Annual da China do Anno de 1618.

The Tartars in European Missionary Writings

101

JA, 49-v-5. Costa Ignacio da, Relação da entrada dos Tartaros nesta China, tomado do Imperio, Xén Sí, Octubro 30, 1645. JA, 49-v-61. Semedo Alvaro de, Relação do que se passou no cerco de Quantum pelos Tartaros; e do que os Padres obrarão, e padecerão nesse tempo, e quando se tomou, 1653.

Madrid, Bibliotheca Nacional

Mss 2949. Gouvea Antonio de, Historia da China dividida em seis idades tirada dos Livros Chinas e Portuguezes com o continuo estudo e observaçoens de 20 annos, em a Metropoli de Fó (Kien) a 20 de Janeiro de 1654. Com hum apendix da Monarchia Tartarica.

Rome, ARSI Jesuit Archive

Jap.-Sin. 126; Jap.-Sin. 123. Azevedo Manuel de, Relação das guerras, e levantam.tos, que Ouve na China, morte do seu éperador, e entrada dos Tartaros nella, desdo anno da 1642 atê o de 1647, do Visitador da Prov.a de Jappão, E da Vice Prov.a da China— Manoel de Azevedo Pera o nosso R.do P.e geral. Jap.-Sin. 126. Nunez Joam, Relação da entrada dos Tartaros na grande Ilha do Háynán: As Guerras que tiverão com os Chinas naturais da Ilha, e dos grandes trabalhos, e perigos de vida que passaram os P.P. que nella estavam pregando o S(an)to Evangelho. 15 Dezembro 1649.

Bibliography Ai Rulue 艾 儒 略 [Giulio Aleni]. 艾 儒 略 , Zhifang Waiji 职 方 外 纪 [Records of Places beyond the Tribute States]. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1996. Antonucci, Davor. “La ‘Tartaria’ nelle Fonti dei Missionari Gesuiti in Cina tra il xvi e il xvii secolo.” In La Cina e il Mondo, edited by Paolo de Troia, 131–24. Roma: Edizione Nuova Cultura, 2010. Antonucci, Davor. “The ‘Eastern Tartars’ in Jesuit Sources: News from Visitor Manuel de Azevedo.” Central Asiatic Journal (The Manchus and “Tartar” Identity in the Chinese Empire) 58 (2015): 117–132. Boxer, Charles, ed. South China in the Sixteenth Century. London: Hakluyt Society, 1953. Busquets i Alemany, Anna. “Other Voices for the Conflict: Three Spanish Texts about the Manchus and Their Conquest of China.” Mingqing Yanjiu xvii (2012): 35–64. Chen Min-sun. “Three Contemporary Western Sources on the History of Late Ming and the Manchu Conquest of China.” PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1971. Cordier, Henri. Bibliotheca sinica. Dictionnaire bibliographique des ouvrages relatifs à l’Empire chinois, 3 vols. Paris: E. Leroux, 1878–1895.

102

DONG

Cruz, Gaspar da. Tractado em que se co[n]tam muyto por este[n]so as cousas de China com suas particularidades, e assi do Reyno de Dormuz dirigido ao muyto poderoso rey D. Sebastiam nosso senhor. Évora: Andre de Burgos, 1569. Dalporto, Jeannie. “The Succession Crisis and Elkanah Settle’s ‘The Conquest of China by the Tartars’,” The Eighteenth Century 45, no. 2 (2004): 131–146. Dong Shaoxin. “The Introduction of the Concept ‘ASIA’ into China and the Chinese Responses.” In Sailed to the East: Global Mapping of Macao, edited by Zhang Shuguang & Dai Longji, 43–74. Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press, 2015. Fang Zhuangyou 方 壮 猷 . “鞑 靼 起 源 考 [A Study on the Origin of the Tartars].” 国 立 北 京 大 学 国 学 季 刊 [Quarterly of Chinese Studies of National Peking University] 3, no. 2 (1932), separate, 16 pages. Gabiani, Joannes Dominicus. Incrementa Sinica Ecclesia, a Tartaris oppugnata […] ac­ curata et contestatâ narratione. Vienna: Leopoldi Voigt, 1673. Gonzaláz, de Mendoza Juan. Historia de las cosas mas notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reyno de la China […] hecha y ordenada por el muy R.P. maestro Fr. Joan González de Mendoça. Roma: Grassi, 1585. González, de Mendoza Juan. The History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China and the Situation thereof. London: Hakluyt Society, 1853. Gorshenina, Svetlana. L’Invention de l’Asie Centrale: Histoire du concept de la Tartarie à l’Eurasie. Genève: Librairie Droz, 2014. Gouvea, Antonio de. Cartas Ânuas da China, 1636, 1643 a 1649, ed., introdução e notas de Horácio P. de Araújo. Macao: Instituto Português do Oriente; Lisboa: Biblioteca Nacional, 1998. Greslon, Adrien. Histoire de la Chine sovs la domination des Tartares : ov l’on verra les choses les plus remarquables qui sont arrivées dans ce grand empire, depuis l’année 1651 qu’ils on achevé de le conquerir, jusqu’en 1669. Paris: Henault, 1671. Keevak, Michael. Becoming Yellow: A Short History of Racial Thinking. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011. Kuruppath, Manjusha. Staging Asia: The Dutch East India Company and the Amsterdam Theatre. Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2016. Li Xuetao 李 雪 涛 . 误 解 的 对 话 :德 国 汉 学 家 的 中 国 记 忆 [Misunderstood Diologue: Chinese Memories of German Sinologists]. Beijing: New Star Press, 2014. Li Madou. 利 玛 窦 [Matteo Ricci]. Kunyu Wanguo Quantu 坤 舆 万 国 全 图 (1602). Beijing: Society of Chinese Historical Geography 1936. Martini, Martino. Bellum Tartaricum, or the Conquest of the Great and Most Renowned Empire of China, by the Invasion of the Tartars. London: Crook, 1651. Martini, Martino. Bellum Tartaricum, or the Conquest of the Great and Most Renowned Empire of China, by the Invasion of the Tartars. London: Crook, 1654. Martini, Martino. De bello tartarico historia in quâ, quo pacto Tartari hac nostrâ aetate Sinicum Imperium inuaserint, ac ferè totum occuparin, narratur; eorumque mores breuiter describuntur cum figuris aeneis. Antwerp: 1654.

The Tartars in European Missionary Writings

103

Martini, Martino. Atlas extremae Asiae sive Sinarum Imperii geographica descriptio. Trento: Comitato per le Celebrazioni di Martino Martini, 1981. Meng Sen 孟 森 . Manzhou Kaiguo Shi Jiangyi 满 洲 开 国 史 讲 义 [Lecture Notes on the History of the Founding of the Manchu State]. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2006. Palafox y Mendoza, Juan de. Historia de la Conquista de la China por el Tartaro. Paris: 1670. Palafox y Mendoza, Juan de. The History of the Conquest of China by the Tartars together with an Account of Several remarkable Things Concerning the Religion, Manners, and Customes of both Nations, but Especially the Latter. London: W. Godbid, 1671. Pires, Tomé. The Suma Oriental, an Account of the East, from the Red Sea to Japan. Translated and edited by Armando Cortesão. London: Hakluyt Society, 1944. Ricci, Matteo and Nicolas Trigault. China in the Sixteenth Century: The Journal of Matteo Ricci, 1583–1610. Translated by Louis J. Gallagher. New York: Random House, 1953. Rougemont, François de. Relaçam do Estado Politico e Espiritual do Imperio da China, pellos annos de 1659 até o de 1666. Lisbon: I. Da Costa, 1672. Rougemont, François de. Historia Tartaro-Sinica Nova. Leuven: Hullegaerde, 1673. Salvi, Antonio. Il Tartaro nella Cina. Reggio Emilia: Ippolito Vedrotti, 1715. Schall von Bell, Adam Johann. Historica Narratio de Initio et Progressu Missionis Socie­ tatis Jesu apud Chinenses, Praesertim in Regia Pequinens. Vienna: Cosmoverius, 1665. Settle, Elkanah. The Conquest of China by the Tartars. London: W. Cademan, 1675. Tan Qixiang 谭 其 骧 ed. Jianming Zhongguo Lishi Ditu Ji 简 明 中 国 历 史 地 图 集 [Con­ cise Historical Atlas of China]. Beijing: Zhongguo Ditu Chubanshe, 1991. Van den Vondel, Joost. Zungchin, of ondergang der Sineesche heerschappije. Amsterdam: Voor de weduwe van Abraham Wees, 1667. Van Kley, Edwin J. “News from China: Seventeenth-Century European Notices of the Manchu Conquest.” The Journal of Modern History 45, no. 4 (1973): 561–582. Wang Guowei 王 国 维 . “鞑 靼 考 [A Study on Tartar].” 清 华 学 报 Tsing Hua Journal 3, no. 1 (1927): 651–678. Yanai Wataru 箭 内 亘 . 兀 良 哈 及 鞑 靼 考 [A Study on Uriankhai and Tartar]. Translated from Japanese into Chinese by Chen Jie 陈 捷 and Chen Qingquan 陈 清 泉 . Beijing: The Commercial Press, 1932. Zhang Tingyu 张 廷 玉 et al. Ming Shi 明 史 [The Official History of the Ming Dynasty]. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2000. Zhang Xianqing 张 先 清 . 小 历 史 :明 清 之 际 的 中 西 文 化 相 遇 [Micro-History: En­ counters of Chinese and European Cultures during Late Ming and Early Qing Period]. Beijing: Shangwu Yinshu Guan, 2015.

Chapter 5

Just Like Zhou: Chinese Visitors to the Netherlands (1597–1705) and Their Cultural Representation Thijs Weststeijn Already during Roman times, people with remote Chinese ancestry lived in Britain.1 Yet it was only after the establishment of the Portuguese sea route that East Asians travelled directly to Europe. Initially, this was against their will: the first documentary evidence about slaves from Southeast and East Asia who were present on the Iberian peninsula dates from the sixteenth century. There is, however, much unclarity about their precise origin since the term “Chinos” denoted slaves rather than Chinese, and the term “Indios” had an even wider application, also referring to the West Indies; the specification “Indios Chinos” (“Chinese Indians”) was only slightly more helpful.2 For those who arrived in the Netherlands with the Dutch trading companies, the information is sometimes much more precise, even including detailed imagery. This chapter will present four visits by Chinese men as adequately documented by different sources; three other Chinese men are only known by their images; one is referenced in a single letter; and one more is reported to have departed for the Low Countries, but never arrived. As will become clear, the impressions made by East Asians in the Netherlands could vary widely: from publicized events of a performative nature to passing almost unnoticed. Some foreigners managed to integrate fully into Dutch society, such as the two sons of a Dutch official and a Japanese woman who were born and raised 1 R.C. Redfern a.o., “Going South of the River: A Multidisciplinary Analysis of Ancestry, Mobility and Diet in a Population from Roman Southwark, London,” Journal of Archaeological Science 74 (October 2016): 11–22; and criticism by Kristina Killgrove in Forbes, September 23, 2016, accessed April 29, 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2016/09/23/ chinese-skeletons-in-roman-britain-not-so-fast/#78a5ef4d5065. 2 J. Gil, “Chinos in Sixteenth-Century Spain” and T. Seijas, “Native Vassals: Chinos, Indigenous Identity, and Legal Protection in Early Modern Spain,” in Western Visions of the Far East in a Transpacific Age, 1522–1657, ed. C.H. Lee (London: Routledge, 2016), 139–152; 153–164. The term “indios chinos” is a found in administrative and private documents of New Spain, dating to the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries: see A. García-Abásolo, “Filipinos on the Mexican Pacific Coast during the Spanish Colonial Period (1570–1630),” in Into the Frontier: Studies on Spanish Colonial Philippines. In Memoriam Lourdes Díaz-Trechuelo, ed. M. S. T. Camacho (Pasig City: University of Asia and the Pacific, 2011), 118–119.

©

 | 

/

Chinese Visitors to the Netherlands

105

in Japan and enrolled at Leiden University as “japonensis” (Japanese), or the half-Japanese mathematician of the University of Harderwijk, Pieter Hartsinck (1637–1680).3 Similar half-Chinese visitors are not documented, which may be due to the fact that intermingling in East Asia, especially in Batavia, was so intensive that the voc forbade European sailors to bring Asian wives, children, or slaves with them to the Netherlands. As of 1639, it was even forbidden for all Company servicemen who had married Asian or half-Asian women to return to the Netherlands.4 This turned Chinese visitors into rarities worthy of admiration, for which sometimes an artist was called in. As late as 1710, an Amsterdam draftsman produced an image of a “Chinese man from China” (Chinees uyt China) present in a local zoo (or rather, as will be argued, of a statue of a Chinese man). As will become clear, the role of the visual arts in the reconstruction of the presence of Chinese in the Netherlands is equivocal. Yet these arts form an integral part of the discussion since calligraphy, paintings, silk, and porcelain constituted the material background against which encounters took place. As the meetings between Dutch and Chinese were, at least, to some extent shaped by cultural expectations, it may be less useful to see these individuals as protagonists in a clash of cultures than to identify them as mediators, whose appearances in the historical documents flag up cross-cultural ramifications (or branchements, to use Jean-Loup Amselle’s term), or to approach them as nodes in a network that connected people and objects on an increasingly global scale.5 1

A Boy Who Learned to Speak Dutch (1597)

A Chinese boy traveled to the Netherlands with the very first Dutch expedition to reach the East Indies, which returned in 1597. This famous First Navigation, discussed at some length above (Chapter 2), had four young men on board, 3 François Caron, his Japanese wife, and their two children left Japan in 1641. François fils enrolled at Leiden University on 4 September, 1654 as japonensis; cf. Peter F. Kornicki, “European Japanology at the End of the Seventeenth Century,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 56, no. 3 (1993): 502–524, esp. 505; G. du Rieu a.o. ed., Album studiosorum Academiae Lugduno Batavae mdlxxv–mdccclxxv; accedunt nomina curatorum et professorum per eadem secula (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1875), col. 438. 4 M. van Rossum, Werkers van de wereld. Globalisering, werk en interculturele ontmoetingen tussen Aziatische en Europese zeelieden in dienst van de voc, 1600–1800 (Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit, 2014), 80. 5 J.-L. Amselle, Branchements: Anthropologie de l’universalité des cultures (Paris : Flammarion, 2001).

106

Weststeijn

“two from Madagascar, two from Sumatra, and one from China.”6 They caught the attention of Minister Godfried Udemans, who envisioned the conversion of the Chinese to Protestantism. He reported that these foreigners learned to speak Dutch and could illuminate their hosts about their home country. Udemans went on to paint a very positive image of China as a “very happy and pleasant land, like a paradise,” producing enough silk to cloth the whole world and other admirable goods such as porcelain (allegedly made from shells, snails, and eggs). He praised the Chinese who, although lacking the light of faith, had been the able inventors of gunpowder, the art of print, and sailing chariots.7 The presence of the Chinese boy is confirmed in a journal of the First Navigation and at least one other source.8 Udemans thought that the boy returned to Asia with Jacob van Neck’s second expedition of 1599, and arrived in Bantam, a cosmopolitan Islamic-controlled port in West Java. Here, however, the minister must have confused him with a certain Abdul of Gujarat, a pilot who apparently spoke good Portuguese, Javanese, and Malay but whose ethnicity remains unclear—his name suggests he was from Mughal India.9 6 “Sy brachten oock eenige Indiaensche jongers mede, twee van Madagascar, twee van Sumatra, een van China, met eenige andere. De jongers leerden de Nederlantsche tale wel, ende hebben de gelegentheydt van haer landt breeder te kennen gegeven.” G. Udemans, ‘t Geestelyck roer van ‘t coopmans schip (Dordrecht: 1655, 1st edn. 1638), 159. 7 “[S]eer lustigh ende playsantigh landt, als een lust-hof.” Godfried Udemans, Geestelyck roer, 94; on porcelain, 93; on the Chinese inventions, 111. 8 “[A]cht vremdelinghen, die sy op de uytreyse ghekreghen hadden, namelijck, twee Jonhers van Madagascar, een Chinees, twee Malabaren, een die seyde ghebooren te wesen van Malacca, een kleyne Jonghen van omtrent 8. of 9. jaer oud, ghebooren op ‘t Eylandt Iava, in een Stadt ghenaemt Ioartam, ende Abdul de Guzarat”; Anon., “Eerste schipvaert der Hollanders […],” in Isaac Commelin, Begin ende voortgangh van de Vereenighde Nederlantsche geoctro­ yeerde Oost-Indische compagnie: Vervatende de voornaemste reysen, by de inwoonderen der selver provincien derwaerts gedaen (Amsterdam: Janssonius, 1646), i, 101b–102a. This journal of the First Navigation may have been written by Frederik de Houtman, according to P. Rouffaer & J.W. IJzerman, ed., De eerste schipvaart der Nederlanders naar Oost-Indië onder Cornelis de Houtman, 1595–1597; journalen, documenten en andere bescheiden (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1929), ii, 361, note 2; cf. iii, 203, note 3. Cf.: “Sy hadden met haer ghebracht wt het Eylant Madagascar twee jonghe mannen ende daerenboven andere twee Samatranen met eenen Chinees, [en] een man van volcomen ouderdom Abdol ghenoemt. Van welcke de jonghe de Nederlantsche tale gheleert hebbende, de onse terstont nut zijn geweest. De Chinees heeft hem oock wel gequeten,” according to Pontanus, Historische beschrijvinghe der seer wijt beroemde Coopstadt Amsterdam, 1614; quoted from Rouffaer & IJzerman, De eerste schipvaart, iii, 58. 9 Udemans, Geestelijck Roer, 161; “[D]en voornoemden Guzurate Abdul, die goed Portugijs, goed Javaens, ende goed Malays sprack.” Commelin, Begin ende Voortgangh, 58b. Abdul is tentatively identified as an Arab in H.T. Colenbrander, ed., “Reisverhaal van Jacob van Neck

Chinese Visitors to the Netherlands

107

Figure 5.1 Unknown draftsman. The Chinese Merchant Xing Pu 興浦 or Yppong. 1601. Drawing in colored ink on paper, octavo, 107 × 170 mm, from the Album amicorum of Nicolaas de Vrise, 1595–1609 Private collection, United States

2

Yppong, a Curious Merchant in Middelburg (1600–1601), and the Man Who Could Read Chinese (1637)

About the second Chinese visitor to the Netherlands, who arrived three years later on a similar voyage, much more is known as he was asked to contribute to an album amicorum—a friend’s book—of a lawyer in Middelburg: Nicolaes de Vrise. On January 12, 1601, this foreign visitor wrote down his name in Chinese characters—Yppong or Xing Pu 興浦—and a short notice about his travels and the current date according to the Christian calendar.10 A local artist drew Yppong’s portrait while, on the back of the page, someone explained in Latin his motivation and remarked on the nature of the Chinese script, the visitor’s unusual transparent hat made of horse hair, and his silken clothing (see fig. 5.1). (1598–1599),” Bijdragen en Mededeelingen van het Historisch Genootschap 21 (1900): 194– 329, esp. 195. 10 According to Chinese convention, personal names follow family names; the personal name Pu 浦 is straightforward. The first character denoting his family name is more difficult to decipher. It appears in a slightly clearer version in the inscription’s second line, where it is recognizable as the abbreviated version of Xing 興 , a traditional surname. T. Weststeijn & L. Gesterkamp, “A New Identity for Rubens’s ‘Korean Man’: Portrait of the Chinese Merchant Yppong,” Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art 66 (2016): 141–169, esp. 163; the authors are indebted to professors Li Song and He Jin of Peking University for their help in deciphering this character. Mayu Fujikawa kindly drew our attention to the web resource of the Japanese Center for Open Data in the Humanities, where the character Xing 興 is abbreviated in the same manner as in the De Vrise album, accessed December 1, 2018, http://codh.rois.ac.jp/char-shape/unicode/U+8208/.

108

Weststeijn

This Chinese merchant had travelled to Bantam where he had witnessed in astonishment the arrival of two Dutch ships, Langebark and Zon. He seems to have spoken amicably to the Dutch admiral, Gerard le Roy, and decided to join them on their way back simply “because the examination of singular things urge[d] [him] on.” Payment of a few pounds of pepper allowed him to embark on a long sea journey for which he was ill prepared: Yppong lamented that he no longer felt like an “inhabitant of the land, but of the sea and ships.” Arriving in Middelburg, he made some friends to whom he could tell his story and he toured Zeeland and Holland for about six months. He then decided to return to the Indies with the newly founded Zeeland Company, which would depart from the port of Vlissingen on January 28, 1601.11 Afterward, the little portrait of Yppong may have been copied in a drawing by none other than Peter Paul Rubens, who went on to create an image of an East Asian man in a sizeable altarpiece.12 Yppong also made an impression in China after his return. According to a reconstruction made by sinologist Leonard Blussé, he may be the same person as someone called Empou, Empo, and Inpon in voc documents of 1602–1615, a Chinese man who had visited the Netherlands and became a middleman between the Chinese and the Dutch, encouraging the latter to settle in Formosa.13 The source material in Dutch and Chinese is not always conclusive. Can Yppong be identified with Li Qin, an influential merchant in Pattani? According to Zhang Xie’s 張燮 Dongxi yangkao 東西洋考 [Investigations on the East and West Seas], Li Qin was executed in 1604; according to the Dutch sources, “Inpon” died in 1614 (see above, Chapter 3, p. 70, n. 24).14 Another effect of Yppong’s visit seems to have been increasing insight into the nature of the Chinese script among his Dutch hosts. The Latin text on the reverse of his portrait reports on Yppong’s clarification that “all of us move our 11

12 13 14

“Q[uo]d singulorum indagatio curiosa excitarat […] ita ut [n]o[n] terrae, sed maris naviumque incolas e[ss]e affirmarem saepius.” Pieter de la Ruë, Mengeling van aantekeningen over zaaken en gevallen van verscheiden aardt, 1720–1742, University of Amsterdam, Special Collections, Ms xiv G 1–5, vol. 3, par. 9, fol. 26; Weststeijn & Gesterkamp, “A New Identity,” 164. On Rubens’s painting see Weststeijn & Gesterkamp, “A New Identity,” and M. Fujikawa, “A Hint of Distant Asia in Rubens’s The Miracles of St. Francis Xavier,” Antwerp Royal Museum Annual 2013–2014 (2017): 76–90. L. Blussé, “Inpo, Chinese Merchant in Pattani: A Study in Early Dutch-Chinese Relations,” in Proceedings of the Seventh iaha Conference, held in Bangkok, 22–26 August 1977 (Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Press, 1977), 290–309. “Impon, Chinees, welck in Amboina gedoopt.” J.P. Coen to the voc directors, October 22, 1615, in Jan Pietersz. Coen, bescheiden omtrent zijn bedrijf in Indië, deel 1, ed. H.T. Colenbrander (The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1919), vol. 1, no. 7, 131.

Chinese Visitors to the Netherlands

109

writing not unlike the Hebrews from right to left, and not like the Latins from left to right; but from the upper part of the page to the lower part, yet in such a manner that the first line of the text has to begin on the right.”15 This is one of the first explanations of Chinese writing in the Netherlands and, in 1603, we find it repeated, in Dutch, on the title page of one of the first Chinese texts that are documented in the area: Ershisi Xiao 二十四孝 [Tales of the Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars], a classic of the Yuan dynasty. The Dutch text—one of the very earliest European inscriptions on a Chinese book—reads: A printed history from the great Kingdom of china, which is read going downward from the top in the manner of Hebrew, from the right hand [side] to the left-hand side, and dedicated to the noble and very honorable Nicolaes [Illegible]. With a Chinese book and sundry different shells and two sheets of white Chinese paper.16 It is not unthinkable that this book, along with information on how to read it, was brought to the Netherlands by Yppong and that the Nicolaes to whom the volume is dedicated was in fact his friend, ­Nicolaes de Vrise.17 In the next few decades Chinese texts—single pages and books—became more familiar items in collections of curiosities in the Netherlands; some

15

16

17

“Percipis, scio, inprimis itaq[ue] te monitum velim, nos [n]o[n] Hebraeor[um] instar, a dextra ad laevem nec Latinor[um] ad dextram a laeva, sed, a superiori paginae parte ad inferiorem, scripturam extendere, ita tamen ut prima lectionis regula a dextra incipi debeat.” De la Ruë, Mengeling van aantekeningen, fol. 26. “Historia Sinarum una cum figuris. Een gedruckte historie wt het groot Coninckrijck van china Dewelcke gelesen werdt vande boven neerwaerts gaende ende more hebraico, ande rechter handt naer de slincke Handt waerts [illegible] ende vereert aen [den] Edlen ende seer Eerweerdighen Nicolaes [illegible word: .oeck.o.] anno 1603. Met een Chinesche doosken ende ettelike verscheyden schelpen ende 2 bladen wit Chinesche pampier. Door uwen Dienstwillighen A. [unclear letter or combination of letters].” Bodleian Library, Sinica 41. I owe this reference to the Serica blog by David Helliwell, who identifies the book as follows: 新 刊 二 十 四 孝 故 事 卷 一 ; 新 鍥 重 訂 補 遺 音 釋 大 字 日 記 故 事 大 成 卷 二 至 八 / (明 )佚 名 撰 明 萬 曆 中 鄭 氏 聚 垣 書 舍 刊 本 . See https://serica.blog/ 2013/03/28/sinica-41/ . Last accessed March 20, 2019. Admittedly, in this case, one would have expected a Chinese dedication rather than one in Latin. Van Selm (Een menighte treffelijcke boecken: Nederlandse boekhandelscatalogi in het begin van de zeventiende eeuw, Utrecht: hes, 1987) has suggested that a sizeable consignment of books arrived with a fleet that had set sail from Amsterdam in April 1601; some of the ships returned in 1602, others only in 1604 and 1605. There followed an extraordinary sale of the cargo in Amsterdam in September 1605—postdating the inscription on this Chinese book.

110

Weststeijn

­survive in friendship albums like the one in which Yppong left his calligraphy.18 The materials sent in 1637 to the scholarly prodigy Anna Maria van Schurman deserve special attention. She was the first female student at a Dutch university (Utrecht) and well known for her proficiency in Oriental languages including Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Aramaic, Ethiopian (Ge’ez), and possibly Persian.19 Her interest in Chinese appears in the correspondence with Minister Andreas Colvius who had sent her “some curiosities that [she] might never have seen before, namely Persian and Japanese characters [sic] as well as some from the kingdom of Siam.” A single leaf of these curiosities survives (in the Martena Museum in Franeker), possibly from an encyclopedia of useful factoids: Five Cartloads of Collected Goodies (Wuche bajin 五車拔錦), printed in 1597.20 “If you want to do so,” Colvius added, “you can keep the originals, I will be satisfied with copies in your handwriting. As for the Chinese characters, they are fairly easy to come by and I have sufficient other examples. I hear that there is a Chinese man in Amsterdam who knows their writing.”21 On the basis of her literary and calligraphic virtuosity, Van Schurman was apparently expected to be able to copy the East Asian scripts accurately. Even more striking is this letter’s suggestion that whereas Persian and Japanese texts were rarities, Chinese texts were so common that Colvius was happy to part with one of them. Most tantalizing, however, is the statement that when, in 1637, one wanted to have a Chinese text translated, there was a literate Chinese man (un chinois … qui sait lire leur escriture) available in Amsterdam. Nothing else, however, is known about this individual—unless one presumes that ­Yppong had remained in the Netherlands and that he was, in fact, someone different from the Chinese man who, according to the voc archives, had ­returned to East Asia.

18 19 20 21

See Appendix 5.1 (Bernardus Paludanus and Ernst Brinck). According to B. Makin, An Essay to Revive the Antient Education for Gentle Women (London: Parkhurst, 1673), 12, Van Schurman even had texts published in Persian, which was little known in European universities. It is not certain whether the leaf surviving in the Martena Collection in Franeker was part of the materials sent by Colvius. “Madamoiselle, A fin que ma lettre vous puisse aggreer, j’y adjousteray quelques rarites que peut estre vous n’avez jamais veus. Assc. characteres Persiques Japonois, et du Royaume de Siam, ou est cette grande ville d’Odia [i.e., Ayutthaya]. s’il vous plaist retenir tout ceci, je me contenteray des copies de vostre main, vous laissant l’authentique. Pour le chinois, il est assez commun, et j’en ai assez. J’entends qu’il y a un chinois a Amsterdam, qui sait lire leur escriture.” Colvius to Van Schurman, November 3, 1637, Martena Museum, Franeker, inv.nr. S0094 (copy in Utrecht University Library, Ms 837 [vii E 6] fol. 147v–150r); the Chinese leaf is inv.nr S0119. Cf. P. van Beek, The First Female University Student: Anna Maria van Schurman (1636) (Utrecht: Utrecht University, 2010), 82.

Chinese Visitors to the Netherlands

111

Figure 5.2 Wautier, Michaelina. Portrait of Martino Martini. 1654. Oil on canvas, 69,5 × 59 cm signed and dated (top left): Michaelina Wautier fecit 1654. Chinese inscription (top right): Wei Kuangguo 衛 匡 國 . Formerly with Weiss Gallery, London; presented at tefaf Maastricht on March 19, 2017

3

“A Certainly not Unlettered Young Man,” Dominicus Fichinpai (1654)

Another documented Chinese visitor to the Low Countries came for very d­ ifferent reasons. This was the assistant of the famous missionary Martino Martini, who traveled from China to Amsterdam to raise funds for the Jesuit

112

Weststeijn

­ ission and prepare a publication of a large Chinese atlas (fig. 5.2). The assistant m ­appears by his Latin name, Dominicus (or Domingo), in sources related to his stay in the Netherlands, while his Chinese name was rendered as ­“Fichinpai” following a later visit to Vienna, from which also appears that he spoke Portuguese.22 Dominicus first caught the attention of the philologist Jacob Golius, a pioneer of the study of Chinese in the Netherlands. Golius wrote in glowing terms about this “certainly not unlettered youth” (juvenis minime illitteratus), whom he met in the company of Martini.23 His excitement was still evident in a letter he wrote a few years later to his fellow Orientalist in Rome, Athanasius Kircher. Apparently the young Chinese man had shown him the right manner of holding a Chinese writing brush, and Golius proudly stated that he now owned one of these brushes.24 Martino Martini certainly knew how to make an impression. For one, to attract young Jesuits for the mission he lectured on China using a magic lantern: this has been called the first presentation with slides in history.25 Bringing along this native Chinese, with his calligraphic vigor, seems to have been an essential part of his performance.26 Such theatrics were not without success, not only in persuading many young men to join the mission to the Middle

22

23

24

25 26

J. Caramuel y Lobkowitz, Apparatus philosophicus, de omnibus scientiis, et artibus breviter disputans (Cologne: Cholinus, 1665), 123; cf. L. Paternicò, When the Europeans Began to Study Chinese. Martino Martini’s Grammatica Linguae Sinensis (Leuven: Ferdinand Ver­ biest Institute, 2013), 79–80. J. Golius, “Additamentum de Regno Catayo,” in M. Martini, Novus atlas Sinensis, Amsterdam: 1655, p. ii; J.J.L. Duyvendak, “Early Chinese Studies in Holland,” T’oung Pao 32 (1934): 293–344, esp. 302, 322; also N. Golvers, “De recruteringstocht van M. Martini, S.J. door de Lage Landen in 1654: over geomantische kompassen, Chinese verzamelingen, lichtbeelden en R.P. Wilhelm van Aelst, S.J.,” De zeventiende eeuw 10, no. 2 (1994) : 331–350. In addition to the sources mentioned by Golvers, Dominicus is also mentioned in a letter to A. Kircher of 1665 (see the next note) and as late as 1761 in a catalogue of Chinese manuscripts of Adriaan Reland: “Vocabularium Sinicum partim a P. Martinio ejusque famulo Sinensi Dominico acceptum, partim ex eorundem ore per Cl. Jacob Golium exce[r]ptum.” Naam-lyst van een zeer keurige verzameling […] boeken. […] [&] Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum Arabicorum (Utrecht: Kroon & Van Paddenburg, 1761). “Alterum est, quod penicilli scriptorii, quo Sinae utuntur, alitur sit expressus situs, quam me Antuerpiae docuerit industrius de gente scriba, quem laudatus P. Martinius famulum habebat. Possideo et ejus generis penicillum, modi quo apprehendi ad scribendum ­debeat, non ignarus, ut plantae supra [illegible] iconem satis exquisitam.” Golius to Kircher, June 11, 1665, Archive Pontifica Università Gregoriana, Ms 562 f 139. Golvers, “De recruteringstocht.” N. Golvers, “Martino Martini in the Low Countries,” in Proceedings of the International Conference “Martino Martini (1614–1661), Man of Dialogue,” Held in Trento on October 15–17, 2014 for the 400th Anniversary of Martini’s Birth (Trento: Università di Trento, 2017), ed. L.M. Paternicò, C. von Collani, R. Scartezzini, 113–135, esp. 124–126.

Chinese Visitors to the Netherlands

113

Kingdom, including two Dutchmen, Ignatius Hartoghveldt and François de Rougemont. The exchange with the visitors from China also resulted in G ­ olius’s treatise An Addition on the Kingdom of Cathay (De regno Cattayo additamentum), that was included in Martini’s atlas printed in 1655. As various scholars have argued, meeting with Martini and Dominicus may have also inspired the Dutch poet Joost van den Vondel to write his play Zungchin (1667), a unique dramatization of the fall of the Ming and the suicide of the Emperor: events that ­Martini had witnessed from close by.27 Similarly speculative is a meeting with the Moroccan-born scholar Johannes Maurus. Around 1640, his father, a Moroccan of high standing, had decided to relocate to the Dutch Republic. Johannes was baptized as a Christian and studied theology in Leiden, apparently with a career as a missionary pastor in mind. He frequented Golius’s house and perhaps even lived there as his informal teacher of Arabic and Persian. In turn, Golius’s company seems to have provided Maurus with the opportunity to study Chinese. Both he and Golius possessed a Chinese glossary, which must have been furnished by, or based on conversations with, the two visitors from China.28 It is, in fact, hardly thinkable that, in the limited world of Orientalists and linguists in Amsterdam of that 27

28

J. van den Vondel, Zungchin, of ondergang der Sineesche heerschappije (Amsterdam: Voor de weduwe van Abraham Wees, 1667). Cf. J.J.L. Duyvendak, “China in de Nederlandsche letterkunde,” Jaarboek voor de Maatschappij der Nederlandsche Letterkunde te Leiden (1937–38): 6–7; G. Blue, “Johann Adam Schall and the Jesuit Mission in Vondel’s Zungchin,” in Western Learning and Christianity in China. The Contribution and Impact of Johann Adam Schall von Bell, S.J., ed. R. Malek (Nettetal: Monumenta Serica, 1998), 951–982; and Golvers, “Martini in the Low Countries,” 125. Part of the argumentation is the fact that Vondel dedicated Zungchin to Cornelius Nobelaer, father of Justus Nobelaer who received Martino Martini (and probably Dominicus) on his estate in Zoetwerwoude. “Morus” is mentioned in two letter fragments of an unidentified d.a.p., of Dec. 1669 and 16.03.1670, published by Andreas Müller in De Invento Sinico Epistolae nonnullae Amoebaeae Inventoris & quorundam Soc. Jesu Patrum, aliorumque Literatorum, s.l. s.a. [Berlin, c. 1676?], 29–30. Although d.a.p. is unidentified, it is clear he received, thirteen years before 1669 (in 1656), an “apparatum non contemnendum characterismorum a quodam Joh. S. Moro Amstelodami” (p. 29), in the other fragment called: “meus indiculus Sinicus, quem olim laudatus J.S. Morus dedit” (p. 30). See Golvers, “Martini in the Low Countries.” The word list may have been the Chinese-Portuguese one listed in the 1696 inventory of Golius’s Sinica: “Vocabularium, in quo characteres Chinenses Latinis litteris expressi Lusitan. explicantur.” Duyvendak, “Early Chinese Studies,” 315. On Maurus, see most recently G.A. Wiegers, “Polemical Transfers: Iberian Muslim Polemics and their Impact in Northern ­Europe in the Seventeenth Century,” in After Conversion: Iberia and the Emergence of Modernity, ed. M. García-Arenal (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 229–248, esp. 242–243; also O. Zwartjes, “Jacobus Golius (1596–1667) and Martino Martini (1614–61): The Vocabularium HispanoSinense (Bodleian Library, ms. March 696) and the Study of Chinese in the Netherlands,” in The Sixth Fu Jen University International Sinological Symposium: Early European (1552–1814) Acquisition and Research on Chinese Languages (Taipei: Wesolowski, 2011), 307–346, esp. 310.

114

Weststeijn

moment, the passage of a Jesuit from East Asia would not have resulted in similar contacts.29 When Martini returned to Amsterdam in 1654 for the printing of his atlas, the publisher Joan Blaeu organized meetings between the missionary and local dignitaries, including prominent members of the Catholic ­community. Speculating on these conversations in Amsterdam where a Chinese traveler may have met a Moroccan migrant as well as the Dutch “prince of poets,” Joost van den Vondel, is tantalizing for obvious reasons. An encounter with Dominicus—one of the first lettered Chinese to visit Europe, able to converse with his hosts in Portuguese—must have been highly attractive, not only for those who enjoyed first-hand accounts about a foreign country and the fall of an imperial dynasty, but also for scholars with more serious humanistic interests. In 1654, when Dominicus traveled on to Vienna, the versatile Spanish mathematician, logician, linguist, and architect Juan Cara­ muel y Lobkowitz arranged a meeting. Although his first observation was that the Chinese were unable to pronounce the letter “r” in Portuguese, Caramuel y Lobkowitz also understood “from the lips and pen” of this “good and industrious man,” the basics of Chinese grammar, which he needed in his project of conceiving of a philosophical language.30 In the Low Countries, similar interest existed in a universal language and a related script. The Chinese ideograms, that could reportedly be understood by speakers of different languages throughout East Asia, looked promising in this regard, which may help to explain why many Dutch scholars collected books in Chinese, such as Hadrianus Junius, Bernardus Paludanus, and Bonaventura Vulcanius (see the appendix).31 In this light, it is remarkable that Dominicus’s stay in the Netherlands did not give rise to more discussion, or that so little documentation survives about it.32

29 30

31 32

This was suggested by Noël Golvers, e-mail conversation to author, March 3, 2018. “In the year 1654, Dominicus Fichinpai came to Vienna in Austria, a good and industrious man from the nation of China, who also understood the Portuguese language. I went to him in order to acquire some knowledge of his language: and from his lips and pen I was able to confirm the table nr vi that I will now explain.” (“Agit hoc anno mdcliv Viennae in Austria Dominicus Fichinpai, vir bonus & industrius, natione Sina, & qui etiam idioma Lusitanum percallet. Cum eo egi, ut aliquam huius idiomatis possem adquirere notitiam: & ad eius labium & calamum Tabulam vi conformavi quam nunc expono.”) Caramuel y Lobkowicz, Apparatus Philosophicus, 123–124. Cf. L. M. Paternicò, “Martino Martini e Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz, La Grammatica Linguæ Sinensis,” Studi Trentini di Scienze Storiche lxxxvii (2008): 407–424, esp. 408, 417, 419. T. Weststeijn, “From Hieroglyphs to Universal Characters: Pictography in the Early Modern Netherlands,” Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art 61 (2011): 238–281. Dominicus’s visit to Vienna, by contrast, was also documented in D. Navarrete, Tratados historicos, politicos, ethicos y religiosos de la Monarchia de China (Madrid: Imprenta Real, 1676), 25, which suggests that he was a Dominican convert, possibly from Manila: “A few years ago a great missionary [Martini] brought a Chinese boy with him, with the name Domingo, baptized by those of my order, to whom he was a servant, and later he also was

Chinese Visitors to the Netherlands

115

Figure 5.3 Schmalkalden, Caspar. Two Chinese Men. 1655. Brush drawing Dated August 30, 1655 in A.G. & J.G. Kirchberger’s Album amicorum (1608 to 1660s), vol. 2, f. 266. Antiquariat Inlibris, Vienna

A search for alba amicorum from the years of Dominicus’s visit, like the booklet in which his countryman Yppong wrote in 1601, yields only one slightly similar image. In 1655, a former employee of the Dutch East India Company, C ­ aspar Schmalkalden, contributed an image of two Chinese men to a German album amicorum (see fig. 5.3).33 He added in Dutch the phrase “Aensien doet

33

a servant for the Fathers of S. Francis […] [Martini] stated that [Dominicus] was a great medical doctor, of which they thought highly; so that the emperor himself paid him extraordinary honor, with such excess that while he was present in Vienna, and got to know the Chinese and the missionary very well.”(“[A]un pocos años ha, que un gran Missio­ nario traxo un Chino, por nombre Domingo, bautizado por los de mi Orden, a quien sirviò de moço, y despues sirviò tambien de lo mesmo a los Padres de San Francisco; […] publicò era gran Medico, hizieron gran caso de èl; hasta el Emperador mesmo le honrò extraordinariamente, y con tanto excesso, que quien estava presente en Viena, y conocia muy bien al Chino, y al Missionario.”). Entry dated August 30, 1655, album amicorum of Anton Günther Kirchberger and Johann Günther Kirchberger (1608 to 1660s), vol. ii, fol. 266. The album is presently with Antiquariat Inlibris, Vienna (offered at auction in Amsterdam on October 1, 2017). See W. Klose, “Stammbücher—eine kulturhistorische Betrachtung,” Bibliothek und Wissenschaft 16

116

Weststeijn

Figure 5.4 Schmalkalden, Caspar. A Chinese Man in Batavia. c. 1655. Drawing Forschungs- und Landesbibliothek Gotha, Chart B 533, f. 262r

­gedencken” (images aid memory) and four Chinese characters (jia shi ba nu 加实巴奴: a combination that is meaningless in Chinese). Although his writing in Dutch suggests that there was a Dutch context for this encounter, it is most likely that the image does not portray Chinese visitors to Europe, but rather expresses memories from Schmalkalden’s travels with the voc. In a travelogue written at the same time of the album amicorum, he discussed the Chinese community in Batavia, where someone apparently tried to write his name (1982): 65–67; R. Seeberg-Elverfeld, “Revaler Eintragungen im Stammbuch des Johann Günther Kirchberger,” Ostdeutsche Familienkunde 7 (1974–1976): 2.

Chinese Visitors to the Netherlands

117

in Chinese (perhaps the origin of the phrase jia shi ba nu).34 Schmalkalden ­included an image of a Chinese merchant, characterized with a fan and parasol, hair tied into a knot, and a thin moustache (see fig. 5.4). He added a few lines of poetry: When anyone wants trade and valuable goods Then he may travel to our country; We have silken wares and pure porcelain If Mars doesn’t make us famous, Art certainly will.35 Like in Yppong’s case, admiration for these Chinese foreigners—whose military presence was apparently underwhelming—was chiefly expressed in relation to their arts; namely, ceramics, silk, and calligraphy. 4

Michael Alphonsus Shen Fuzong and His Colleague, a Medical Specialist (1683–1684)

One of the other arts the Chinese were famous for was book printing. The ­Amsterdam publisher Joan Blaeu will therefore have enjoyed receiving mail on this topic from his friend Philippe Couplet, a Jesuit based in China. The letters, “filled with much news that has happened in this kingdom,” came with two Dutch ships that had visited the port of Guangzhou in 1668–1669, which was rare. For Blaeu, the most relevant piece of information was that an Italian missionary was planning an edition of the writings of Confucius, for which he would bring to Europe “a Chinese printer, very experienced in writing the Chinese letters and cut or engrave them in wooden boards in order to f­inally be able to print in the Chinese manner (op het Sinoisch te doen drucken).”36 This expedition, however, would take time to materialize. Originally no less than five Chinese acolytes would travel to Europe, including the prolific 34 35 36

Schmalkalden’s original manuscript, written with his son, is now in the Forschungsund Landesbibliothek Gotha, Chart B 533, fol. 262r. See R. van Gelder, Het Oost-Indisch ­avontuur. Duitsers in dienst van de voc (1600–1800) (Nijmegen: sun, 1997), 259. “Sucht iemand Kaufmannschaft und kostbar teure Wahren, / dann ist nunmehr erlaubt in unser land zu fahren, / Wir haben saidenwahr and raines Porcelan / macht Mars uns nicht berühmbt, so hats die Kunst gethan.” “[D]ewelcke versocht geopent ende gelesen te worden, als zijnde met veel nouvelles in dit rijck voorgevallen, vervult”; “een Sinoische drucker, seer ervaren in de Sinoiische letteren te schrijven, te snijden ofte openen in houte berden ende eijndelijck op het Sinoisch te doen drucken.” Philippe Couplet to Johan Blaeu, January 24, 1669, National Archive, The Hague, NA 1.04.02 (voc) 1272 fol. 926, fol. 1225–1233.

118

Weststeijn

S­ ino-Christian landscape painter, poet, and calligrapher, Wu Li 吳歷. He was a good friend of the Dutch missionary François de Rougemont and of the Fleming Couplet, and he intended to join them on the journey to Europe. Their collaborative endeavor which included connecting to Blaeu in Amsterdam, seems to have been supported by the Jesuits’ vice-provincial in China, Ferdinand Verbiest, who himself hailed from the Low Countries. Yet after Verbiest was replaced by a less forthcoming Italian (Giandomenico Gabiani), Wu Li was not allowed to leave (remaining in Macao, he was ordained one of the first Chinese Jesuit priests in 1688). No more than two Chinese were to depart from Macao for Europe, on December 4, 1681.37 They travelled aboard a Portuguese ship for the first leg of the journey until they suffered shipwreck and were delayed for over a year in Batavia. Finally, on February 8, 1683, passage to the Netherlands was secured aboard a voc vessel.38 The coming of two Chinese was announced by Willem ten Rhijne, a medical doctor based in Batavia. He knew that, besides printing, they would demonstrate another art the Middle Kingdom was famous for: medicine. Ten Rhijne clearly did not put much faith in Chinese doctors over Western ones. He dismissed Chinese knowledge by associating it with the Jesuits: always suspicious in a Protestant context. As he wrote to a friend in Deventer, Caspar Sibelius: With these ships there comes a Jesuit father, Philippe Couplet […] in the company of two young Chinese, one of whom has some knowledge of the basics of medicine, which will seem a miracle in Europe, but on closer inspection will be judged for its true value. [Couplet] will go to Rome to report on his business and the state of the Roman Church in China, and then return via an overland route to China; on the whole he is very affable and, if he will stay for a while in Amsterdam, you will surely be ­entertained in his company, for which my business with him will provide sufficient occasion; but in one word, he is a Jesuit.39 37

38 39

I. Pina, “Shen Fuzong 沈 福 宗 (Michael Alphonsus),” in The Generation of Giants 2: Other Champions of the Cutlural Dialogue between Europe and China, ed. L.M. Paternicò (Trento: Centro Studi Martino Martini, 2015), 47–52, esp. 47; T. Brook, Mr. Selden’s Map of China: The Spice Trade, a Lost Chart, and the South China Sea (London: Profile Books, 2013), 79–80. T.N. Foss, “The European Sojourn of Philippe Couplet and Michael Shen Fuzong, 1683– 1692” in Philippe Couplet, S.J. (1623–1693): The Man Who Brought China to Europe, ed. J. Heyndrikx (Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1990), 150. “[D]aer komt nu een pater Jesuit, Philippus Couplet […] met dese schepen over, hebbende twee jonge geboren Chinesen by sich, waer van den eenen soo iets van de beginselen der Medicinen verstaet, ‘t welk in Europa eerst een miracul [sic] sal schynen, maer nader ingesien nae syn waerdy geacht worden; hy gaet nae Romen om van syn bedieninge

Chinese Visitors to the Netherlands

119

Of the young Chinese men, only one is reported to have arrived in Europe: this was Michael Shen Fuzong 沈福宗, known by the famous portrait, made when he was around twenty-four years of age, by Rembrandt’s pupil Godfried Kneller (see fig. 5.5). This painting, displayed in Windsor Castle, gave rise to discussion in the Netherlands as it proudly presented someone from a nation of “great practitioners of astronomy and mathematics.”40 Contrary to the announcement made in the letter to Blaeu, however, Shen does not seem to have demonstrated Chinese printing in Europe; his native speaker’s knowledge must have played a role in preparing the Confucius edition, but this eventually appeared without the original Chinese characters. Undoubtedly, Shen made an impression in Amsterdam. One of the city’s former mayors, Nicolaas Witsen, who read the manuscript of the Confucius edition, also asked Shen to help him to make a monumental Chinese map, to be included in his book on Tartary: Siberia and Northeast Asia.41

40

41

en staet der Roomse kerke in China rapport te doen, en alsdan over land nae China te retourneren; hy is anders seer affabel en sal Ued in syn geselschap, soo tot Amsterdam sich wat mocht ophouden, goet genoegen, daer onsen ommegang Ued genoegsame aenleydinge toe sal kunnen geven; maer met een woort, hy is een Jesuit.” British Library, Sloane MS 2729, fol. 130r, Willem ten Rhyne (Batavia) to Casparus Sibelius (Deventer), February 25, 1683, fol. 130r. The two Chinese are also mentioned in the Dagh-registers of the Castle in Batavia, January 26, 1682: “Den Eerw. pater Philippus Couplett, die met een Portugees scheepie St Anthonij uijt Macauw in ‘t lest van voorleden maant naar sijne 20 jaarige ­residentie in ’t groote rijck van China op Bantam gearriveert sij, komt heden middagh per Javaans vaertuijch hier te verschijnen om, soo sulx hen wilde vergunnen, benevens eenige tijtsverblijf alhier, gaarne met het aanstaande vertreck onser retourschepen naar het vaderlandt te retourneren, nevens met 2 sijner uijt China gebraghte Chinese discipulen, werdende Sijn Eerwaarde inwijlen om redenen en insichten in een der ledich staande heerenhuijsen binnen dit Casteel gelogieert.” W. Fruin-Mees, ed., Dagh-Register gehouden int Casteel Batavia vant passerende daer ter plaetse als over geheel Nederlandts-India Anno 1682 (Batavia: Koninklijk Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, 1928), i, 57. Another reference to the two Chinese is from Gabiani to the General, from Macao, December 20, 1682, Archivum Romanum Societas Jesu, Japonica-Sinica, Section 163, f. 166. See Heyndrikx, Philippe Couplet, 75, note 23; cf. 150. R. Dekker, ed., The Diary of Constantijn Huygens Jr., Secretary to Stadholder-King William of Orange (Amsterdam: Panchaud, 2012), 72. On January 8, 1689, Huygens Jr. refers to a man called “Fresor” who “said he had also been closely acquainted with the Chinese man whose portrait hangs in Windsor. He had memorized two thousand characters of Chinese. He told me that Father Couplet had told him that the Chinese were great practitioners of astronomy and mathematics.” “Ik hebbe het origineel nu tot parijs gedrukt eenig tijt onder mij gehadt, want Couplet was myn goede vrint,” Witsen to Cuper, 9 April 1713, in Gebhard, Het leven van Mr. Nicolaes Witsen, no. 51, p. 364. “[V]eele der Sinesche benamingen my door zeker gebooren Sineesch zijn vertaelt geworden,” N. Witsen, Noord en Oost Tartarye (Amsterdam: Halma, 1705), 966.

120

Weststeijn

Figure 5.5 Kneller, Godfried. Michael Alphonsus Shen Fuzong. 1687. Oil on canvas, 212.2 × 147.6 cm ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST/© HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II 2020

Chinese Visitors to the Netherlands

5

121

Dr. Zhou and the Man in the Amsterdam Zoo (1705)

As the medical specialist mentioned by Ten Rhijne did not arrive in the Netherlands, Witsen had to wait until 1705 for a demonstration of Chinese ­medicine. This year saw the arrival in Amsterdam of Zhou Meiye, a Chinese from Batavia who accompanied voc Governor-General in the Indies, Johan van Hoorn, as his personal physician. Upon Van Hoorn’s retirement, Dr. Zhou had decided to travel with him to the Netherlands, using the months at sea to discuss Chinese­ philosophy.42 In ­Amsterdam, he spoke in fluent Dutch to Witsen, who was eager to have his pulse taken according to the Chinese manner. Yet Dr. Zhou, apparently ­unhappy with the Dutch climate, returned to Batavia after only six weeks; Witsen continued to exchange a few letters with him.43 From around the period of Zhou’s visit, dates an image of a Chinese man (see fig. 5.6). The amateur draftsman Jan Velten made a picture of what he called “a Chinese from China who has been here in Amsterdam in the Doolhof [Labyrinth, i.e., a menagerie or zoological garden] during his lifetime.”44 Dr. Zhou may certainly have visited the Doolhof menagerie, which attracted the attention of foreigners in Amsterdam.45 Yet it is unlikely that this distinguished guest would have posed there for an amateur draftsman whose abilities, as demonstrated in the drawing, were very limited. Velten’s reference may rather have been to an earlier visitor or even to a Chinese man who was actually kept in the Doolhof as a permanent attraction: Amsterdam had several of these ­menageries where not only exotic animals were kept but also humans from remote civilizations, such as Greenlanders, often against their will.46 It is also probable is that Velten did not draw a Chinese man from life. His scrapbook, mostly filled with images of animals in the Amsterdam menageries, included many copies of existing drawings and prints, and it cannot be verified whether he saw the objects of his interest with his own eyes. In fact, there are

42

43 44 45 46

“Aantekeningen van de Chinese arts Thebitia,” kitlv library, Leiden, DH 269; see L. Blussé, “Doctor at Sea: Chou Mei-Yeh’s Voyage to the West (1710–1711),” in As the Twig is Bent…: Essays in Honour of Frits Vos, ed. E. de Poorter (Amsterdam: J.C. Gieben, 1990), 7–30, esp. 21. N. Witsen to G. Cuper, December 5, 1710 and also September 17, 1713 in Gebhard, Het leven van Mr. Nicolaes Witsen, i, 332–335, nr. 36; F. Valentijn, Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien (Dordrecht & Amsterdam: Johannes van Braam et al., 1724–1726), i, 254 and 367. “[E]en Chinees uyt China die hier tot Amsterdam in het doolhof selfs in ‘t leven geweest is.” Inscription on p. A1 of the Jan Velten Album (1700–1710), Artis Library, Amsterdam, Legkast 238. See below, note 49. E. Bergvelt & R. Kistemaker, De wereld binnen handbereik: Nederlandse kunst- en rariteitenverzamelingen, 1585–1735 (Zwolle: Waanders, 1992), 154.

122

Weststeijn

Figure 5.6 Velten, Jan. A Chinese Visitor to Amsterdam. 1700–1710. Pen and brush, 54.5 × 30 cm Jan Velten Album. Artis Library, Legkast 238, fig. 71. Amsterdam

striking visual parallels between Velten’s image and that by Schmalkalden (Fig. 5.4), which suggest that both were based on an older example: ­besides the similar position of the hands and the presence of the fan and parasol, one could point to the thin moustache and hair bun (although the conspicuous hairnet and decorated hairpins are absent in Schmalkalden’s image). What is more, Velten’s example may not have been a printed image but rather a ­life-size sculpture. A description of the Doolhof of 1648 mentions a series of statues, probably the work of the city sculptor Albert Vinckenbrinck. Next to an effigy of the infamous Duke of Alva, scourge of the Netherlands during their war of independence, there stood a statue of a “life-size Chinese, from the mighty kingdom of China.”47 Over half a century later, this work may have been presented to Velten as a portrait of a Chinese who had actually visited the city. 47

“Nr. X is een levens-groote Chinees, uyt het machtigh Koninghkrijck van China.” Anon., Verklaringe van verscheyden kunst-rijcke wercken […]. Alles te sien in’t Oude Doolhof tot A ­ msterdam (Amsterdam: Houthaeck, 1648), unpaginated [p. 4].

Chinese Visitors to the Netherlands

123

The Doolhof, on the intersection of the Prinsengracht and Looiersgracht in Amsterdam, had opened in 1625. It was an assemblage of a zoological garden and a fun fair with Madame Tussaud’s-style images of historical and contemporary figures, some with automated movements.48 The only surviving works are the statues of David and the giant Goliath (now in the Amsterdam Museum). The Danish scholar Ole Borch, who visited the Doolhof in 1662, expressed his admiration for the Goliath statue, whose rolling eyes could not be admired “without the horror of those present.” On that same day he saw a Chinese statue, a “pagan deity made from porcelain in the shape of a laughing man,” valued at an astounding one hundred florins, but this must have been a different work from the “Chinese from China” drawn by Velten.49 6

Conclusion: Images of Chinese—Fact or Fiction?

In 1705, a Dutch translation appeared of an English booklet, Description of the Island Formosa. The author, who called himself George Psalmanazar, was a consummate fraudster: apparently having learned of the experiences of Fichinpai or similar cases, he claimed to be fluent in “Formosan”—a consistent artificial language of his own making, complete with grammar and alphabet. Psalmanazar, posing as a native of Formosa who would unlock the riches of colonial trade with this island for the European trading companies, had become a celebrity in an environment where only a tiny minority would have been in a position to meet actual travelers from East Asia.50 According to a skeptical Jesuit priest, however, he looked like “a youth of about twenty-two years with blonde hair and a white, fresh complexion, who spoke the European languages without any Asiatic accent and seemed to be a Fleming or D ­ utchman.” What is more, his descriptions of Formosa did not match those provided by sailors of the voc.51

48 49

50

51

M. Spies, “Amsterdamse doolhoven: populair cultureel vermaak in de zeventiende eeuw,” Literatuur 18 (2001): 70–78. “[N]on sine horrore astantium”; “Deum Ethnicum ex porcellano opere factum forma ­ridentis, aestimatum 100 florinis.” O. Borch, Olai Borrichii Itinerarium, 1660–1665: The Journal of the Danish polyhistor Ole Borch, ed. with Introduction and Indices by H.D. Schepelern, 3 vols. (Copenhagen: Reitzel, 1983), ii, 149–150. G. Psalmanazar, Beschryvinge van het eyland Formosa in Asia […] uit de gedenkschriften van den hr. Georgius Psalmanaazaar […] t’zamengestelt […]. Door d’hr. n.f.d.b.r. (Rotterdam: Vander Veer, 1705). On Psalmanazar, see M. Keevak, The Pretended Asian: George Psalmanazar’s Eighteenth-Century Formosan Hoax (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2004). [J. de Fontaney], “Review of George Psalmanazar, Description of Formosa,” Memoires de Trevoux (April, 1705): 587–597, esp. 589.

124

Weststeijn

Psalmanazar’s performance raises some questions regarding the Chinese visitors to the Low Countries discussed above. The success of his deception (he was even invited to speak before the Royal Society in London) seems to cast doubt over the reliability of the other accounts and images, such as the aforementioned altarpiece by Rubens that modern art historians have, in fact, ­usually identified as an essentially “exotic” image: appealing to a growing taste for Oriental images but not a document of an actual cultural encounter. The “Chinese” effigy in the Amsterdam zoo also seems to reflect the generic emotion of wonder that a foreigner could arouse, and to document a discourse of curiosity based on images referring to other images, without necessarily being grounded in a meeting between individuals. Yet, as is strongly suggested by the availability of historical data concerning some of the Chinese travelers in this chapter, including the sitter for Rubens’s drawing, a generic notion of “exoticism” was not the entire story and has insufficient force to fully explain the descriptions and images of visitors from afar. Although a stereotypical notion of the Orient obviously played a role in shaping individual accounts and images, at the same time, the actual meetings with foreign visitors may have been a major catalyst in the Dutch discussions of China: a more essential one than the travelogues or new editions of Marco Polo’s writings.52 For instance, the impact of the visit of Dominicus Fichinpai may not have been limited to Joost van den Vondel’s revolutionary play. During his stay in Antwerp, this young Chinese may also have been introduced to the well-known humanist Isaac Vossius (who stayed in the same city in the retinue of his patron, Queen Christina of Sweden). In any case, a few years later, Vossius would become notorious as “the first European scholar to have accepted enthusiastically ancient Chinese history” as going further back than the Western classical and Judeao-Christian traditions.53 In 1659, Vossius published his argument that, on the basis of Chinese historiography, the text of the Hebrew bible was not an adequate historical source, since Chinese antiquity could not accommodate the dating of the Universal Flood around 2349 bc. After a heated ­exchange of statements with Georg Hornius of the University of Harderwijk, the debate petered out and was not of lasting influence on biblical criticism.54 52 53 54

Marco Polo, Markus Paulus Venetus, Reisen, en beschryving der Oostersche lantschappen […] met kopere platen verciert (Amsterdam: Abraham Wolfgang, 1664). E. J. van Kley, “Europe’s ‘Discovery’ of China and the Writing of World History,” The American Historical Review 76, no. 2 (1971): 358–385, esp. 370. T. Weststeijn, “Spinoza Sinicus: An Asian paragraph in the history of the Radical ­Enlightenment,” Journal of the History of Ideas 68, no. 4 (2007): 537–561.

Chinese Visitors to the Netherlands

125

Yet it flared up once more in the first decade of the eighteenth century in the scholarly environment of Nicolaas Witsen, who had managed to lay his hands on an ancient Chinese mirror that he dated to the earliest Chinese dynasties.55 It is likely that it actually stemmed from the Han period (206 bc–220 ad) but even so, it was the oldest East Asian object that European scholars had ever laid hands on and it became the topic of frantic discussion in Witsen’s circle; its inscription “set in steel” seemed so much more trustworthy than the textual transmission that Vossius had depended on. Unsurprisingly, Witsen also pulled a Chinese visitor into the ring, the aforementioned Dr. Zhou, as the authentic source to confirm the chronology of the Chinese emperors (“Naam en een tijt rekening der keysers van China”) to his Dutch hosts.56 As the “priority problem”—whether Chinese or European civilization was older—was such a destabilizing discussion for the Eurocentric worldview, it is plausible that it was galvanized by the culture shock of meeting someone from the Orient in the flesh– rather than just hearing stories about them. In any case the discussion seems to have been more virulent in the Dutch Republic than elsewhere in Europe. This may be partly due to the climate of intellectual skepticism and biblical criticism that had come with the onset of Cartesianism in the 1650s; yet, the arrival of Chinese visitors on the ships of the Dutch trading companies, and the cultural encounters they resulted in, cannot be ruled out as a factor. 7

Addendum: The Material Backdrop for Cultural Encounters

As we have seen in the above, most of the early reports on visitors from the Middle Kingdom draw attention to the quality of their material culture: not just the fabric of their clothes but also porcelain, print, and calligraphy. An aspect to consider when assessing the reactions to Chinese visitors is that, in the Netherlands, these meetings did not take place in a cultural void: expectations were shaped to a large extent by the profusion of Chinese material goods throughout the Low Countries, from games and weapons to books, artworks, and ceramics, which formed the literal or implicit background of the cultural encounters. For instance, it is likely that the meeting of Jacob Golius and Dominicus Fichinpai took place in the “Musaeum Sinense”—a collection of

55 56

W. van Noord and T. Weststeijn, “The Global Trajectory of Nicolaas Witsen’s Chinese Mirror,” The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 63, no. 4 (2015): 324–361. Leiden University, kitlv mss J. Van Hoorn nr. 269, April 27, 1710.

126

Weststeijn

Chinese objects—belonging to Jacob Edelheer in Antwerp.57 Although the catalogue of this collection does not survive, it is possible to reconstruct similar ones in the Netherlands via archival documents, descriptions, and travelogues, which are listed in the appendix (5.1) to this chapter. In Brussels, a certain Mr. Victor showed his guests Chinese statues, cabinets, firearms, a book on ­astrology, and even a letter from the emperor. In Amsterdam, a widely accessible gallery outfitted with Chinese paintings was in the headquarters of the voc at the Kloveniersburgwal. An example worthy of special note is the aforementioned Ole Borch. His accounts of his visits to Dutch collections abound in mentions of Chinese objects ranging from paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture to furniture, inkstones, clothes, weapons, and other objects with alleged wondrous or alchemical properties. Although the author gravitated towards medical topics, his interests clearly ranged wide. Even without expressly looking for Asiatica it seems to have been impossible not to be confronted with China in the Dutch Republic. When Borch visited the apothecary Jan Swammerdam (father of the famous naturalist of that name), he first admired a number of different eggs— crocodile, cassowary, ostrich, snake—but then most of his attention went to the collection of Sinica: [I saw] various paintings of Chinese soldiers, gods (of which also images of gold were seen), of women, some engraved with a burin […] Chinese books described with a wondrous variety of characters (of which they have sixty thousand), none of them printed on both sides […] various figures in slate stone, of trees, castles, shrubberies, cities, towers, ruins of cities and towers, pentagonal castles with their entrances […] a Chinese bow; very beautiful images of birds made of stones of different colors; silk flowers made artfully by the Chinese; Chinese silver vases without rust; various Chinese silk shoes made of red and blue silk.58 Chinese books were actually a special topic of interest for Dutch collectors. Above, we already mentioned Jacob Golius’s more than fifty books, part of which he acquired from Martini; there were many more available in the Netherlands, some of them illustrated, some of them published by the Jesuits in 57

58

Dominicus may have accompanied Martini on his visit to Edelheer, where he met Golius. “Sinense Musaeum […] ubi et raro spectaculo oculos et docta P. Martinii interpretatione animum pascere atque oblectare possem,” J. Golius, “Additamentum de Regno Catayo,” appendix in M. Martini, Novus Atlas Sinensis (Amsterdam: Blaeu, 1655), ii; quoted from Golvers, “De recruteringstocht,” 337, n. 49. See below, appendix: Jan Swammerdam’s collection.

Chinese Visitors to the Netherlands

127

China. It is, however, difficult to assess how Chinese texts were appreciated as no one in Europe (except for missionaries in transit) could read them. A report by the botanist Carolus Clusius gives a sense of the Dutch scholars’ frustration with the illegible script that might contain much useful knowledge. With two Leiden colleagues, he examined six illustrated Chinese botanical books, but could not do much more than just describe their physical properties and lay out: In 1603 the Dutch, just after arriving on Sumatra […] filled a large ship with many goods of great value brought from China, which they carried the next year to Amsterdam. Among these goods were also a few books written in Chinese characters, which contained images of plants and inscriptions with their names, and other words written in the margin that probably state the potency of the plants [….] The company of merchants who made the purchases during this trip gifted some of these books: I received two from them as a gift, while I have seen another four among friends in Leiden; namely, three with the noble Joseph Scaliger and one with the illustrious Pieter Paaw. They all contained so many diverse species of plants that, in six of these books, I could not see one and the same plant depicted twice. From these figures, even though they were expressed sketchily by the “crass Minerva” [i.e. in a coarse manner], I could see many plants that grow among the Chinese, among which are some very similar to those found here, but many others that are strange and unknown to us; whose names and effects, I presume, were written in the margin. There is no doubt that if someone among us could read and understand these, it would be most useful to the art of medicine: because it is probable that these writings contain many powers that as yet we do not know of. Now, however, I think these books can be of no use to us, except being placed in a collection of curiosities.59 In connection to this interest in Chinese scholarship, it is not surprising that two of the Chinese visitors, Yppong and Fichinpai, were asked to give a demonstration of the Chinese way of writing to their Dutch hosts. The urgency of the aforementioned plan to bring someone “able to print [books] in the Chinese manner” to Europe is also apparent. With the arrival of Shen Fuzong in Amsterdam, a more substantial exchange of knowledge occurred when he helped Witsen with the Chinese names on his map of Asia. The Amsterdam mayor also received a fully-fledged 59

C. Clusius, Exoticorum libri decem (Leiden: Raphelengius, 1605), 376 and infra.

128

Weststeijn

translation of three of the Four Books of Confucian philosophy that Shen was helping to prepare for publication. There is an aspect of this encounter that previous scholars did not remark on: their meeting probably took place against a splendid background of Chinese material culture. Witsen owned a staggering amount of more than 250 Chinese artworks—the majority of them landscape paintings—in addition to games, maps, and scientific instruments. This was by far the largest collection of Chinese paintings in Europe at the time; it must have been formative for Witsen’s enthusiasm in welcoming this foreigner.

Archival Documents



Amsterdam

De la Ruë, Pieter. Mengeling van aantekeningen over zaaken en gevallen van verscheiden aardt. University of Amsterdam, Special Collections, MS. xiv G 1–5. Jan Velten Album. Artis Library, Amsterdam, Legkast 238.

Franeker

Letter from Andreas Colvius to Anna Maria van Schurman, November 3, 1637. Martena Museum, Inv.nr. S0094.

Gotha

Forschungs- und Landesbibliothek, Chart B 533.

Leiden

Aantekeningen van de Chinese arts Thebitia. April 27, 1710. KITLV Library (Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies), DH mss J. Van Hoorn 269.

London

British Library, Sloane MS 2729.

Oxford

Bodleian Library, Sinica 41.

Rome

Archivum Romanum Societas Jesu, Japonica-Sinica, Section 163. Archive Pontifica Università Gregoriana, Ms 562.

Chinese Visitors to the Netherlands



129

The Hague

National Archive, NA 1.04.02 (VOC) 1272.

Vienna

Antiquariat Inlibris, Album amicorum of Anton Günther Kirchberger and Johann Günther Kirchberger (1608 to 1660s). Offered at auction in Amsterdam on October 1, 2017. Colenbrander, H.T., ed. Jan Pietersz. Coen, bescheiden omtrent zijn bedrijf in Indië, deel 1. 6 vols. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1919. Fruin-Mees, W., ed. Dagh-Register gehouden int Casteel Batavia vant passerende daer ter plaetse als over geheel Nederlandts India Anno 1682. Batavia: Koninklijk Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, 1928. Gebhard, N. Het leven van Mr. Nicolaes Witsen. 2 vols. Utrecht: Leeflang, 1882.



Selected Bibliography

Amselle, J.-L. Branchements: Anthropologie de l’universalité des cultures. Paris: Flammarion, 2001. Anon. Verklaringe van verscheyden kunst-rijcke wercken […]. Alles te sien in’t Oude Doolhof tot Amsterdam. Amsterdam: Houthaeck, 1648. Bergvelt, E., & R. Kistemaker. De wereld binnen handbereik: Nederlandse kunst- en rariteitenverzamelingen 1585–1735. Zwolle: Waanders, 1992. Blussé, Leonard. “Inpo, Chinese Merchant in Pattani: A Study in Early Dutch-Chinese Relations.” In Proceedings of the Seventh IAHA Conference, held in Bangkok, 22–26 August 1977. Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Press, 1977: 290–309. Blussé, L. “Doctor at Sea: Chou Mei-Yeh’s Voyage to the West (1710–1711).” In As the Twig is Bent…: Essays in Honour of Frits Vos, edited by E. de Poorter, 7–30. Amsterdam: J.C. Gieben, 1990. Borch, O. Olai Borrichii Itinerarium, 1660–1665: The Journal of the Danish polyhistor Ole Borch, ed. with Introduction and Indices by H.D. Schepelern. 3 vols. Copenhagen: ­Reitzel, 1983. Brook, T. Mr. Selden’s Map of China: The Spice Trade, a Lost Chart, and the South China Sea. London: Profile Books, 2013. Caramuel y Lobkowitz, J. Apparatus philosophicus, de omnibus scientiis, et artibus breviter disputans. Cologne: Cholinus, 1665. Colenbrander, H.T., ed. “Reisverhaal van Jacob van Neck (1598–1599).” Bijdragen en Mededeelingen van het Historisch Genootschap 21 (1900): 194–329.

130

Weststeijn

Commelin, I. Begin ende voortgangh van de Vereenighde Nederlantsche geoctroyeerde Oost-Indische compagnie: Vervatende de voornaemste reysen, by de inwoonderen der selver provincien derwaerts gedaen. Amsterdam: Janssonius, 1646. Dekker, R., ed. The Diary of Constantijn Huygens Jr., Secretary to Stadholder-King William of Orange. Amsterdam: Panchaud, 2012. Duyvendak, J.J.L. “Early Chinese Studies in Holland.” T’oung Pao 32 (1934): 293–344. [Fontaney, J. de]. “Review of George Psalmanazar, Description of Formosa.” Me-moires de Trevoux (April, 1705): 587–597. Fujikawa, M. “A Hint of Distant Asia in Rubens’s The Miracles of St. Francis Xavier.” Antwerp Royal Museum Annual 2013–2014 (2017): 76–90. Gil, Juan. “Chinos in Sixteenth-Century Spain.” In Western Visions of the Far East in a Transpacific Age, 1522–1657, edited by C.H. Lee, 139–152. London: Routledge, 2016. Golius, J. “Additamentum de Regno Catayo.” In Novus atlas Sinensis. 2 vols. by M. Martini. Amsterdam: Blaeu, 1655. Golvers, N. “De recruteringstocht van M. Martini, S.J. door de Lage Landen in 1654: over geomantische kompassen, Chinese verzamelingen, lichtbeelden en R.P. Wilhelm van Aelst, S.J.” De zeventiende eeuw 10, no. 2 (1994): 331–350. Golvers, N. “Martino Martini in the Low Countries.” in Proceedings of the International Conference “Martino Martini (1614–1661), Man of Dialogue,” Held in Trento on October 15–17, 2014 for the 400th Anniversary of Martini’s, edited by L.M. Paternicò, C. von Collani, R. Scartezzini, 113–135. Trento: Università di Trento, 2017. Heyndrikx, J., ed. Philippe Couplet, S.J. (1623–1693): The Man Who Brought China to Europe. Monumenta Serica Monograph Series xxii. Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1990. Killgrove, K. “Chinese Skeletons in Roman Britain: Not So Fast.” Forbes, September 23, 2016, accessed April 29, 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2016/ 09/23/chinese-skeletons-in-roman-britain-not-so-fast/#78a5ef4d5065. Kornicki, P.F. “European Japanology at the End of the Seventeenth Century.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 56, no. 3 (1993): 502–524. Müller, A. De Invento Sinico Epistolae nonnullae Amoebaeae Inventoris & quorundam Soc. Jesu Patrum, aliorumque Literatorum. S.l. s.a. [Berlin, c. 1676]. Navarrete, D. Tratados historicos, politicos, ethicos y religiosos de la Monarchia de China. Madrid: Imprenta Real, 1676. Paternicò, L. “Martino Martini e Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz, La Grammatica Linguæ Sinensis.” Studi Trentini di Scienze Storiche lxxxvii (2008): 407–424. Paternicò, L. When the Europeans Began to Study Chinese. Martino Martini’s Grammatica Linguae Sinensis. Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, 2013. Pina, I. “Shen Fuzong 沈 福 宗 (Michael Alphonsus).” In The Generation of Giants 2: Other Champions of the Cultural Dialogue between Europe and China, edited by L.M. Paternicò, 47–52. Trento: Centro Studi Martino Martini, 2015. Polo, Marco. Markus Paulus Venetus, Reisen, en beschryving der Oostersche lantschappen […] met kopere platen verciert. Amsterdam: Abraham Wolfgang, 1664.

Chinese Visitors to the Netherlands

131

Psalmanazar, G. Beschryvinge van het eyland Formosa in Asia […] uit de gedenkschriften van den hr. Georgius Psalmanaazaar […] t’zamengestelt […]. Door d’hr. N.F.D.B.R. Rotterdam: Vander Veer, 1705. Redfern, R.C., a.o. “Going South of the River: A Multidisciplinary Analysis of Ancestry, Mobility and Diet in a Population from Roman Southwark, London.” Journal of A ­ rchaeological Science 74 (October, 2016): 11–22. Rieu, G. du a.o., ed. Album studiosorum Academiae Lugduno Batavae mdlxxv– mdccclxxv; accedunt nomina curatorum et professorum per eadem secula. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1875. Rouffaer, P. & J.W. IJzerman, ed. De eerste schipvaart der Nederlanders naar Oost-Indië onder Cornelis de Houtman, 1595–1597; journalen, documenten en andere bescheiden. 3 vols. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1929. Seijas, T. “Native Vassals: Chinos, Indigenous Identity, and Legal Protection in Early Modern Spain.” In: Western Visions of the Far East in a Transpacific Age, 1522–1657, edited by C.H. Lee, 153–164. London: Routledge, 2016. Spies, M. “Amsterdamse doolhoven: populair cultureel vermaak in de zeventiende eeuw.” Literatuur 18 (2001): 70–78. Udemans, G. ‘t Geestelyck roer van ‘t coopmans schip. Dordrecht: 1655, 1st edn. 1638. Valentijn, F. Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien. Dordrecht & Amsterdam: Johannes van Braam, 1724–1726. Van Gelder, R. Het Oost-Indisch avontuur. Duitsers in dienst van de voc (1600–1800). Nijmegen SUN, 1997. Van Kley, E.J. “Europe’s ‘Discovery’ of China and the Writing of World History.” The American Historical Review 76, no. 2 (1971): 358–385. Van Rossum, M. Werkers van de wereld. Globalisering, werk en interculturele ontmoetingen tussen Aziatische en Europese zeelieden in dienst van de VOC, 1600–1800. Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit, 2014. Weststeijn, T. “From Hieroglyphs to Universal Characters: Pictography in the Early Modern Netherlands.” Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art 61 (2011): 238–281. Weststeijn, T. & L. Gesterkamp. “A New Identity for Rubens’s ‘Korean Man’: Portrait of the Chinese Merchant Yppong.” Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art 66 (2016): 141–169. Wiegers, G.A. “Polemical Transfers: Iberian Muslim Polemics and their Impact in Northern Europe in the Seventeenth Century.” In After Conversion: Iberia and the Emergence of Modernity, edited by M. García-Arenal, 229–248. Leiden: Brill, 2016. Witsen, N. Noord en Oost Tartarye. Amsterdam: Halma, 1705. Zwartjes, O. “Jacobus Golius (1596–1667) and Martino Martini (1614–61): The Vocabularium Hispano-Sinense (Bodleian Library, ms. March 696) and the Study of Chinese in the Netherlands.” In The Sixth Fu Jen University International Sinological Symposium: Early European (1552–1814) Acquisition and Research on Chinese Languages, 307–346. Taipei: Wesolowski, 2011.

Chapter 6

Chinese Petitions to the Dutch East India Company: Gambling on Formosa Joris van den Tol The history of the Dutch in Asia is traditionally a history of the success of the Dutch East India Company (voc) that, aided by an ambitious state, succeeded in subjugating vast territories through its superiority.1 Because most Asian merchants, in contrast to their European counterparts, lacked state support they “deservedly fell behind” and “as a fitting punishment” ended up “being colonized.”2 More recently, however, there has been more attention to the synergetic entanglement between Europeans and Asians.3 The voc, for example, relied on an already functioning trade network operated by Asian ships for their inter-Asian trade.4 Asian elites, moreover, were often the dominant and more powerful party in intercultural diplomatic exchanges. In other words, there is ample evidence that the voc had repeated “on-the-spot” interactions with the Asian population and the Asian population was far from subservient. These interactions form a very good point of departure to study the entanglement of global cultural history as it were; not the least being these exchanges that created, structured, and changed the entanglement. The colonial interactions between the European Companies and local agents are often defined in terms of negotiation, thus highlighting the antagonistic relation between the Europeans and the local populations. The “on-the-spot” negotiation remains an overlooked theme for the Dutch experience of empire. While Daniels and Kennedy’s Negotiated Empires has 1 I. Wallerstein, “Dutch Hegemony in the 17th-Century World-Economy,” in Dutch Capital­ ism and World Capitalism, ed. M. Aymard (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982); F.S. Gaastra, De Geschiedenis van de voc (Zutphen: Walburg Press, 2002). 2 M.N. Pearson, “Merchants and State,” in The Political Economy of Merchant Empires, ed. J.D. Tracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 69. 3 A. Games, The Web of Empire: English Cosmopolitans in an Age of Expansion, 1560–1660 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008); J.E. Wills Jr., “Maritime Asia, 1500–1800: The Interactive Emergence of European Domination,” The American Historical Review 98, no. 1 (1993): 83–105. 4 R. Parthesius, “Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters. The Development of the Dutch East India Company (voc) Shipping Network in Asia 1595–1660,” (PhD Diss., Universiteit van Amsterdam, 2007).

©

 | 

/

Chinese Petitions to the Dutch East India Company

133

only one contribution on the Dutch compared to fourteen on the English, French, and Iberians, Belmessous’s Empire by Treaty focuses on interstate negotiations in Europe that shaped European expansions.5 The space for on-thespot negotiation has been theoretically defined by Richard White as “middle ground” in “a world system in which minor agents, allies, and even subjects at the periphery often guide the course of empires.”6 For the Portuguese colonization of Brazil, Alida Metcalf has expanded this by highlighting the influence and importance of brokers, or what she calls “go-betweens,” who inhabited this middle ground.7 In this chapter, however, I would prefer to characterize the relation between the European colonizer and the Asian population in less antagonistic terms and view the relation between European and Chinese population on Formosa as more symbiotic. This chapter investigates a cultural aspect of the encounter: gambling (top­ pen). It is a particularly enlightening topic, as clear regulations emerged governing gambling on the island. Regulations are of interest since they are a form of institution that influences everyday life. They are the “rules of the game” that govern social interactions.8 The primary medium for ordinary people to influence regulations in the seventeenth century were petitions.9 This chapter relies on petitions and professional correspondence to reconstruct how Chinese colonists on Formosa succeeded in influencing voc policy. These sources can be found in the resolutions from the Formosan Council, the daily register (Dagregister) from Zeelandia, and correspondence between Formosa and Batavia. This chapter argues that Chinese merchants successfully forged an alliance with the local voc leadership to further their own interests. Moreover, through repeated interactions the petition traditions became increasingly entangled as both the voc leadership accepted “Chinese” petition traditions and the “Chinese” petitions adhered more to a traditional voc practice over time.

5 C. Daniels and M. Kennedy, ed., Negotiated Empires: Centers and Peripheries in the Americas, 1500–1820 (New York/London: Routledge, 2002); S. Belmessous, ed. Empire by Treaty: Negotiat­ ing European Expansion, 1600–1900 (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2015). 6 R. White, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650– 1815. Second Edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), xxvi–xxvii. 7 A.C. Metcalf, Go-Betweens and the Colonization of Brazil, 1500–1600 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005), 8–12. 8 D. North, “Institutions,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 5, no. 1 (1991): 97–112. 9 W. te Brake, Shaping History: Ordinary People in European Politics, 1500–1700 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998); G. Vermeesch and L. Geevers, ed., Politieke belangenbehar­ tiging in de vroegmoderne Nederlanden: de rol van lobby, petities, en officiële delegaties in de politieke besluitvorming, vol. 13 (Maastricht: Shaker Publishing, 2014).

134 1

VAN DEN TOL

Chinese in voc Territory

Sino-Dutch cooperation occurred both in Batavia and on Formosa. Blussé argues that there were two types of Sino-Dutch collaboration in Batavia: formal and informal. On a formal level, the Chinese functioned as brokers in the system of the Company; they were involved in tax-farming and tax-collecting on behalf of the voc. On an informal level, the affairs of Chinese individuals got entangled with the (forbidden) business interests of the employees of the Company; illegal trade and smuggling in particular.10 Andrade, who has become the leading authority on the seventeenth-century voc colony on Formosa, describes that island as a “Sino-Dutch hybrid colony.” The voc leadership on Formosa was initially (from 1624 onwards) reluctant to cooperate with the Chinese as the Company officials harbored a distrust towards them and suspected that they enticed the indigenous population against the Company. However, by the late 1630s, a more fruitful and promising cooperation was established.11 By the 1640s, the co-colonization of Formosa by Chinese settlers and voc leadership became more formalized. Other than petitioning, the Chinese colonists made use of the cabessa system. The ten cabessas (or heads, hoofden) emerged in Company documents from 1645 onwards. The cabessa system is, according to Andrade, similar to the “baojia 保甲 or lijia 里甲 system” on China’s mainland.12 The ten cabessas were selected from the most prominent families by the local communities, but the Company had the authority to remove cabessas from their office.13 The administration of justice over the Chinese, Dutch, and indigenous Formosans alike was in the hands of the Board of Aldermen (Schepenbank). This board had two to three Chinese members and resided in Fort Zeelandia, which was located in the Bay of Tayouan (in present-day

10 11 12 13

L. Blussé, Strange Company. Chinese Settlers, Mestizo Women and the Dutch in voc Batavia (Dordrecht: Foris, 1986), 87. T. Andrade, “Pirates, Pelts and Promises: The Sino-Dutch Colony of Seventeenth-Century Taiwan and the Aboriginal Village of Favorolang,” Journal of Asian Studies 64, no. 2 (2005): 299–301. T. Andrade, How Taiwan became Chinese: Dutch, Spanish, and Han Colonization in the Sev­ enteenth Century, [Gutenberg (e)] (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), 162–163. “[D]eporteren en ontsetten den gedaeghde (…) van beyde ampten ende gagien, soo van Cabessa ofte Outste der Chineesse (…) als van tolck.” G.C. Molewijk, ed. ‘t Verwaerloosde Formosa, of waerachtig verhael, hoedanigh door verwaerloosing der Nederlanders in OostIndien, het Eylant Formosa, van den Chinesen Mandorijn, ende Zeerover Coxinja, over­ rompelt, vermeestert ende ontweldight is geworden (Zutphen: Walburg Press, 1991), 194.

Chinese Petitions to the Dutch East India Company

135

Tainan).14 After complaints that subjects had to travel too far to the board, a more rural sheriff’s office (Landdrost) was established in 1654. The sheriff’s office also had the task of administering local political matters.15 The third tool of colonial government on Formosa was a diet (or Landdag). From 1641 onwards, the voc organized diets that not only reinforced the Company’s charisma of power, but also tried to instill the Company’s subjects with its interpretation of the rule. The diets were mostly aimed towards the indigenous Formosans who had traditionally less bureaucratization and less experience with—what Max Weber calls—legal-rational authority. The Chinese population was mostly excluded from the diets and only featured occasionally towards the end of the ritual to greet and honor the Company with gifts as a means of demonstrating Chinese subjugation to voc rule.16 The cabessa system, the diet, and the sheriff’s office allowed the Company to govern its subjects in a decentralized manner. Not all issues penetrated to the highest political authority in Fort Zeelandia, and not all issues were addressed through petitions. Petitions were thus, a fourth, additional, tool over colonial government. 2

Addressing Authority

Almost without exception, petitioners in the Dutch Republic would identify themselves in the opening paragraph. Either as “we, the undersigned” or as a specific group, such as “we, the merchants trading to Venice,” or “we, the inhabitants of Edam and Medemblik, and other cities in Holland.” These groups would then “respectfully give notice of” or “exhibit with due deference” a ­certain problem. The account of the problem typically took about two thirds of the petition. Subsequently, the petitioners would be “requesting therefore” the following measures to be taken to avert continuation of this problem. Typically, they would “trust in a favorable resolution,” and end their petition with the phrase “doing as such et cetera.” One option for this uniformity is that the

14 15 16

Andrade says there were two members: Andrade, How Taiwan became Chinese, 125. ­ owever, I found three: NL-HaNA 1.04.02 voc, inv nr 1148, fol. 237v-238r. H H. Chiu, “The Colonial ‘Civilizing Process’ in Dutch Formosa 1624–1662,” (PhD diss., Leiden University, 2007), 142–143. T. Andrade, “Political Spectacle and Colonial Rule: The Landdag on Dutch Taiwan, 1629– 1648,” Itinerario 21, no. 3 (1997): 74–76.

136

VAN DEN TOL

f­ ormat of a petition was laid out in books with standardized legal proceedings that had circulated at least since 1642.17 It occurred reasonably often that a petition would include a reference to how a new regulation or a certain policy would be beneficial for the “common wealth.” Petitions that highlighted a problem of poverty or a group’s trials and tribulations often attempted to appeal to the pathos of the addressee by emphasizing the shared Christian values or they attempted to make an analogy to parts of the Bible. Other rhetorical strategies included explicitly linking the individual to the addressee as “inhabitants of this city/place/country” to appeal to the addressee’s feeling of responsibility.18 This meant that a favorable resolution would be reasonable and/or fair. The Chinese petitions to the imperial court during the Ming and Qing dynasties were generally essays in carefully worded classical Chinese and known as “memorials to the throne.” These petitions were read out loud by the Office of Transmission (Tongzheng si), which decided what was worthy of the emperor’s time. In theory, everyone could petition, from peasant to scholarly official, as long as the matters were important enough. In practice, this meant that everyone who was not a scholarly official could only petition the throne to impeach their local magistrate.19 The memorials were far outnumbered by edicts, indicating the relative lesser importance. Parallel to this system, were also direct (private and secret) communications to the emperor.20 3

Chinese Petitions

The cabessa system might explain why there were so few Chinese petitions on Formosa. Only three Chinese petitions were sent as petitions to Batavia for

17

18 19

20

W. van Alphen, Papegay, ofte Formulier-boeck van alderhande requeste mandamenten, con­ clusien etc. ghelijck die ghebruyckt ende gepractiseert werden voor de respective hoven van iustitie in Hollandt. : Seer nut ende dienstigh alle practisyns den voorsz hove, ofte andere recht-bancke, frequenterende (The Hague: Johannes Verhoeve, 1642). Vermeesch, “Miserabele personen,” 18–25. E.P. Wilkinson, Chinese History: a Manual (Revised and enlarged edition) (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000), 532–535; T. Brook, The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 33–34; J.K. Ocko, “I’ll Take It All the Way to Beijing: Capital Appeals in the Qing,” The Journal of Asian Studies 47, no. 2 (1988): 291–315. B. Puente-Ballesteros, “Jesuit Medicine in the Kangxi Court (1662–1722): Imperial Networks and Patronage,” East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine 34 (2011): 86–162.

Chinese Petitions to the Dutch East India Company

137

further inspection: one in 1643 and two in 1654.21 This is based on the Overgeko­ men Brieven en Papieren (obp or Arrived Letters and Papers) database. An example from the two petitions from 1654 might further explain the low number of petitions. Two Chinese fishermen called Sischou and Teijlingh, both inhabitants of Formosa, petitioned independently for similar reasons. Both were fishing for mullet (harder) but were fined by the head of the tax collecting office, Reijnier Dammans, for bringing salted instead of fresh mullet. When the two petitioned to Governor Nicolaas Verburg, he “stood before them” and “tore the petition to pieces, without even looking at it.”22 Even though three petitions between 1624 and 1662 do not indeed seem numerous, only a total of seventeen petitions from all of the voc territories can be found in the obp during that the same period. One could thus just as well argue that the Chinese petitions from Formosa accounted for 17.6 percent and were overrepresented and very prominent. Moreover, the obp includes more petitions and references to petitions than just actual copies. For example, the resolutions of the Council of Formosa also mention petitions. My sample from the resolutions and the correspondence between Formosa and Batavia between 1638 and 1654 shows that Chinese petitions were not particularly numerous: averaging less than one every two years, but increasing in number over time. Still, this is far less than the more than eighty Portuguese petitions the Dutch West India Company received in its colony in Brazil in the year 1640 alone, for example.23 Most of the petitions that did survive in the minutes of the Formosan council involved requests for a job placement or a job transfer to a different voc colony. The majority of these came from Europeans. Filing a petition was standard practice for those who wished to be transferred to a different voc establishment. Thus, the Formosan council did receive many petitions, just those involving regulations have not survived in the archives. A possibility is that the voc leadership wanted to present itself as proactive in the minutes. A typical example of a Formosan council decision that logically derived from a petition, but has no archival evidence of such a petition is an entry in the council minutes from June 27, 1644. It reads: “[It has been] noticed that the Chinese in their quarters sell goods without any 21 22 23

Search for “reques*” in tanap database of Overgekomen Brieven en Papieren (obp)., see: http://databases.tanap.net/. Sischou writes: “Waer sijn versoeckschrift op stont voor den oogen aen stuck siende sien scheuren,” and Tijlingh writes: “Sijn versoeckschrift ongelesen op t ontslach aen stucken scheurende.” NL-HaNA 1.04.02 voc, inv. nr. 1207, fol. 553r-557v. J.J.S. van den Tol, “Lobbying in Company: Mechanisms of Political Decision-Making and Economic Interests in the History of Dutch Brazil, 1621–1657” (PhD diss., Leiden University, 2018), 69–71.

138

VAN DEN TOL

c­ onsistent weights or measurements, [but] sell as they please.”24 The solution was that the council published an ordinance that required all craftsmen and merchants to calibrate their measurement units twice a year. The word choice of “noticed that” presents the voc leaderships as ever-inquisitorial and on the lookout for improvement. It does, however, seem more likely that a petition pointed them in this direction. From all the remaining petitions that involve requests other than job transfers, the majority were written by Chinese inhabitants of the island. Thus, there were probably far more Chinese petitions than the resolutions lead us to believe. Further evidence for this can be found in daily register of Zeelandia. On September 5, 1651, the register reads: “It was an ordinary meeting. Plenty of oral and written petitions were delivered to the president and council, most of which were Chinese merchants and farmers. All were heard and received a reply that fitted their request.”25 On June 27 that same year, the register explains how the lease holders of a village “have demonstrated their large damages through multiple and numerous requests and petitions.”26 The majority of Chinese petitions that have survived concern financial affairs. For example, a Chinese merchant named Simsicqua who requested compensation for the loss of 9,500 reals taken from him by a Dutch ship in August 1643.27 He received nihil on his request, even though he attempted to bribe the voc officials with twelve pots of Chinese beer.28 To accompany a petition with a small- or medium-sized bribe was not uncommon. When Johan Maurits was the governor-general of the West India Company colony in Brazil, he once received ninety chests of sugar to decide favorably on a petition requesting pardon from a death sentence.29 When the town of Graft in Holland requested a recommendation on the exchange of imprisoned seafarers with the Dunkirker privateers in 1635, they accompanied their proposal with a bribe that shows either adorable innocence or lack of know-how or, perhaps, traditional Dutch stinginess. Their token of appreciation consisted of a ton of ship’s biscuit

24 25 26 27 28 29

Nationaal Archief, Den Haag (NL-HaNA), Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (voc), a­ ccess number 1.04.02, inventory number 1147, fol. 433v-434v. L. Blussé, W.E. Milde, and N. Everts, De dagregisters van het Kasteel Zeelandia, Taiwan 1629–1662, vol. 3: 1648–1655 (‘s-Gravenhage: Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis, 1996), 249. L. Blussé, W.E. Milde, and N. Everts, Dagregisters Zeelandia, 3, 220. NL-HaNA 1.04.02 voc, inv. nr. 1145, fol. 459r-459v. NL-HaNA 1.04.02 voc, inv. nr. 1146, fol. 617v. C.R. Boxer, The Dutch in Brazil, 1624–1654 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), 126–127.

Chinese Petitions to the Dutch East India Company

139

v­ alued at eleven guilders.30 On the other hand, it could also be considered offensive to ask if something was “for sale,” for it implied that someone was poor and forced to tarnish “good name and fame with such a disgusting and dis­ allowed rent-seeking.”31 A bribe was thus certainly no guarantee to receive a positive apostille on a petition. Instead (although this depended on what was requested) seeking assistance from a lawyer in drafting the petition increased the chances exponentially. At least, that is what literature suggests for petitioning in the Low Countries in the early modern period.32 These professional “solicitors” or brokers functioned to streamline the process of petitioning for the bureaucrats and allowed the requests of the occasional petitioner to find the right person.33 Extensive research on the petitions presented to the States General in the seventeenth century, however, suggests that evidence of professional solicitors can almost exclusively be found in petitions by poor people or as permanent representatives of organized interests.34 In any case, using a solicitor would require the presence of a lawyer or notary on Formosa. A list of “qualified people” in service of the voc lists scores of individuals with position as merchant, head merchant, minister, or council members, but none with a legal function.35 The absence of a lawyer or notary is further corroborated by the two petitions from 1654 mentioned earlier, which complained about other petitions being torn to pieces. One of the petitions is accompanied with an attestation that declared the authenticity and rightfulness of Sischou’s petition.36 The attestation was signed by Louis Isaacsz 30 31

32

33

34 35 36

A. Th. van Deursen, Een dorp in de polder: Graft in de zeventiende eeuw (Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 2013), 278. Luc Kooijmans quotes voc director Huydecoper’s diary on this topic: “En gevolgelijck mijn goede naem en faem door soo een vuijl en ongeoorlooft gewin komen te besoedelen.” L. Kooijmans, Vriendschap en de kunst van het overleven in de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw (Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 2016), 157–158. G. Vermeesch, “Professional Lobbying in Eighteenth-Century Brussels: The Role of Agents in Petitioning the Central Government Institutions in the Habsburg Netherlands,” Journal of Early Modern History 16, no. 2 (2012): 95–119; G. Vermeesch, “‘Miserabele personen’ en hun toegang tot het stadsbestuur. Pro deo petities in achttiende-eeuws Antwerpen,” Tijd­ schrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis 12, no. 4 (2015): 1–28. S.J. Fockema Andreae, De Nederlandse Staat onder de Republiek, vol. Nieuwe Reeks 68.3, Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie van Wetenschappen (Amsterdam: Noord-Hollandsche Uitgevers Maatschappij, 1975), 108–109; H.F.K. van Nierop, “Popular Participation in Politics in the Dutch Republic,” in Resistance, Representation and Community, ed. P. Blickle (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 285. Van den Tol, “Lobbying in Company.” NL-HaNA 1.04.02 voc, inv. nr. 1207, fol. 732–734. NL-HaNA 1.04.02 voc, inv. nr. 1207, fol. 555r.

140

VAN DEN TOL

Bassart, at that moment the voc’s chief factor (Opperhoofd) in Tonkin.37 The first (and only) public notary to have been appointed on Formosa was Leonard Verhagen on September 6, 1654.38 Previously, the secretary of the council had occasionally acted as notary.39 However, there is no evidence that supports the idea that the secretary doubled as solicitor. 4

Licensing Gambling

An important source of income for the voc on Formosa was leasing out several licenses such as fishing, deer hunting, tax collecting, or residency to the Chinese. This led Governor Nicolaas Verburg to claim that “the Chinese are the only bees on Formosa that give honey.”40 Gambling was one of the activities that could be licensed to an individual. However, since not everyone rejoiced in the possibility of gambling on Formosa, the decision to introduce this did not remain uncontested. On January 31, 1637, a Chinese man named Bencon proposed to the Council of Formosa to lease to him a license on gambling. Bencon had been the “captain” of the Chinese population in Batavia, but had, in 1636, decided to try his luck on Formosa instead. The voc had a difficult relation with Chinese gambling (toppen). So far, it had been prohibited on Formosa, but not everywhere in voc territory. On October 28, 1620, in Batavia, the voc leadership had tried to prohibit gambling. Four days later however, on November 1, 1620, Jan Pietersz Coen and the other Batavian council members revised this decision ­because “the government did not dare to forbid gambling completely.” Thus, they reluctantly allowed the Chinese to gamble and decided to tax it 20 percent instead, appointing Bencon and another Chinese named Jancon as collectors and regulators.41 When Bencon proposed to lease gambling rights to the Formosan council for 500 reals, the council responded that Formosa was “a colony of trade and 37 38 39 40 41

W. Wijnaendts van Resandt, De Gezaghebbers der Oost-Indische Compagnie op hare ­ uiten-Comptoiren in Azië (Amsterdam: Liebaert, 1944), 300. B Blussé, Milde, and Everts, Dagregisters Zeelandia, 3: 1648–1655, 415. For example, Philips Schillemans in 1644, see notarial deeds in NL-HaNA 1.04.02 voc, inv. nr. 1147, fol. 532r-532v. Quoted in Andrade, How Taiwan became Chinese, 159. “[H]et spel der Chinezen nog niet durfde verbieden […] evenwel het selvige niet gaerne toe en laten, maer de voorsz: speelders ende dobbelaers door eenige belastinge van ‘t selve gaerde soude abstraheren.” mr. J.A. van der Chijs, ed. Nederlands-Indisch Plakkaat­ boek, 1602–1811. Vol i: 1602–1642, vol. i (Batavia: Landsdrukkerij, 1885), 78.

Chinese Petitions to the Dutch East India Company

141

not of small profits” made from gambling licenses. Governor Johan van der Burch and the rest of the council realized that the Chinese were “generally very eager” to gamble, but they were afraid that Chinese principals would be reluctant to send their agents to Formosa if gambling was allowed; mainly, because principals would run the risk of all their belongings and profits being gambled away.42 Years of loyal service to the Company as captain of the Chinese had provided Bencon with enough clout in Batavia to have Governor-General ­Antonio van Diemen write to Van der Burch on June 30, 1639, to propose that gambling should be introduced “without further delay.”43 Bencon had moved back to Batavia in the meantime but, once again, showed his influence with the Batavian government by having Gonqua, “a seasoned merchant,” succeed Jacobam as one of the voc interpreters on Formosa.44 Moreover, the Batavian government had decided to lease the gambling license to Gonqua for 500 reals a year. However, because Gonqua had still not visited Formosa and the council did not know “whether he would appear at all,” they debated whether it would be better to sell the lease to a Chinese identified as “Lacco’s brother” for 600 reals.45 Notwithstanding the orders from Batavia, some council members still felt troubled about destroying the anti-gambling legacy of their ancestors. When the council eventually resolved a one-year trial for the lease for Lacco’s brother, six Chinese merchants appeared at the meeting.46 They presented a very lengthy essay-like petition in Chinese arguing against gambling on Formosa. They not only alleged that Bencon had “with false lies for a small profit” requested the lease, they also provided examples of two individuals that had become very notorious pirates because of their gambling debts. In China, the petitioners continued, gamblers that had lost everything, including their own body, were ostracized from society and families had been torn apart because of gambling debt. Therefore, gambling was presently forbidden in China, and those caught gambling were beaten with bamboo, forced to walk around with a big piece of wood around their neck, or jailed. In Manila, gambling was only allowed the five days after New Year and, in Japan, gambling had been allowed only briefly. After the Japanese lords had realized that it was 42

43 44 45 46

“[A]lsoo dese plaetse alleen bestaet in materie van handel, ende niet op een cleen gewin […] spelen, (waertoe de Chinesen t’ meerendeel seer genegen sijn).” B. Hoetink, “So Bing Kong: Het eerste hoofd der Chinezen te Batavia,” Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volken­ kunde van Nederlandsch-Indië 73, no. 3/4 (1917): 394. Quoted in Andrade, How Taiwan became Chinese, 164. Hoetink, “So Bing Kong,” 399. This might be Lim Lacco from Batavia? NL-HaNA 1.04.02 voc, inv. nr. 1131, fol. 819–821.

142

VAN DEN TOL

difficult to receive their payments from some agents due to gambling, the Japanese had made gambling an offence punishable by death. Moreover, wealthy merchants in China were so afraid that their profits and interests would be gambled away by their factors on Formosa that three of the most prominent agents47 on the island had to provide a guarantee that gambling would never be allowed. According to the petitioners, if the Company changed this policy, it would lose out on the rich trade with these merchants.48 After the Chinese merchants had explained that gambling was a “a dirty and harmful, yes—unspeakable—evil,” the council decided to revisit its position. Considering that gambling would have bad consequences for the flourishing trade with China, they decided to maintain the ban on gambling and to write to Batavia that their superiors were “too ill-informed to make a decision that was good for the Company.”49 When Gonqua finally arrived on Formosa in ­December 1639, he initially “showed little interest in the lease of gambling license,” but later showed up with ten to twelve supporters bidding 500 reals for the license. Upon learning that someone else had bid 600, he confirmed that he, too, would be willing to pay that much.50 He did not get the license though: nobody did. Gambling remained illegal for the duration of the voc colony on Formosa.51 When, in 1644, the council learned that gambling became increasingly popular among soldiers, officers, free citizens, and sailors, they published an ordinance forbidding gambling to Company servants, free citizens, Chinese, and all others. When caught, gamblers would not only lose their bets, but would further be fined 8 reals. Because the council considered gambling “a great shame for our nation,” eight days in a dark hole on water and rice would be added to the punishment.52 In 1644, the council had only one member, Maxilimaan le Maire, who had been part of the original decision to ban gambling. This further underlines the lasting influence an individual petition could have. A part of the Chinese population on Formosa had faced the introduction of gambling on the island head on. They had succeeded in maintaining an institution that would bring more economic prosperity to the voc colony—even though the gambling lobby was very well connected to the highest powers in 47 48 49

Hambuangh, Jochoo, and Jochin. NL-HaNA 1.04.02 voc, inv. nr. 1131, fol. 821–825. “[D]e Ed: Hr: Gouv: Gen: ende raden van Indien daer van niet ten rechter geinformeert sijn over sulcx om goede consideratien ten dienste van der Generale Compagnie.” NLHaNA 1.04.02 voc, inv. nr. 1131, fol. 826. 50 NL-HaNA 1.04.02 voc, inv. nr. 1130, fol. 288. 51 Andrade, How Taiwan became Chinese, 165. 52 NL-HaNA 1.04.02 voc, inv. nr. 1148, fol. 243r-244r.

Chinese Petitions to the Dutch East India Company

143

Batavia. This underlines the importance of petitions for decision-making because their arguments were not different from the arguments that the council had used to reject Bencon’s proposal in 1637. Instead, it seems to have been the power of the petition itself. Their petition did not entirely adhere to the normative practices of Dutch petitions in its formulations. For example, they addressed it to the governor, the “commissioner” (commissaris), and “further the rest of the council.” Moreover, their petition is exceptionally long; whereas most petitions to the States General are (at most) one page, this Chinese petition ran for several pages. They did identify themselves as “we the undersigned residing in Tayouan” (­Taiwan). Yet, the opening paragraph immediately continued with “[we] in good faith tell you that gambling is dirty and unbearable,” and “request that you not tolerate this.”53 There was no one who “respectfully gave notice of” or “exhibited with due deference” a certain problem. Never in the Dutch tradition of petitioning in this period does the opening paragraph contain the request. Moreover, in contrast to most Dutch petitions, they did not refer to Christian values in the text, but they did make use of the topos of “the family”: because of a gambling debt, fathers did not want to know their sons anymore, nor wives their husbands. Since this petition was presented in Chinese, it seems unlikely that a Dutch person helped them draft it. Instead, it seems that, through a process of repeated exchanges, the Chinese learned how to file a petition with the voc. It was not entirely “Dutchified” yet, but it was good enough to fulfil the role of a petition. As such, adhering to the Dutch customs of petitioning did not determine the success and impact of the petition in this voc territory, but it could prevent failure. At least three of these petitioners would petition the voc again in 1643.54 In this petition, they did not identify themselves by name in the introduction, but they are summarized as “the most prominent Chinese merchants” in the minutes of the council.55 This time, the merchants did “exhibit with due deference,” and they did “humbly request” at about two thirds of the way through the petition (a certain price for deer skin) instead of in the opening paragraph.56 This petition also received a positive apostille and the minutes of the council specifically address that these petitioners “requested respectfully.”57 Clearly, 53 54 55 56 57

NL-HaNA 1.04.02 voc, inv. nr. 1131, fol. 821. Ticquan, Samsiack, and Sansoe can be identified, but because of different spelling it is difficult to assess to what extent the other names match. Moreover, the list in the 1643 petition ends with “et cetera.” NL-HaNA 1.04.02 voc, inv.nr. 1145, fol. 448r. NL-HaNA 1.04.02 voc, inv.nr. 1146, fol. 513. NL-HaNA 1.04.02 voc, inv.nr. 1145, fol. 448r.

144

VAN DEN TOL

the most prominent Chinese merchants had learned how to adhere to the Dutch customs of petitioning between 1639 and 1643. Because not all petitions to the colonial government have survived, it is unclear how exactly this happened, but it is clear that the Chinese adapted and changed their practice as time progressed. 5 Conclusion The petitions presented to the council in the voc colony on Formosa functioned as a “contact zone” or “middle ground” that facilitated constructive interactions.58 Through petitions, the Chinese population in the voc colony on Formosa had an important role in shaping the regulations that governed their life. This underlines the notion that the voc was not an almighty organization that exclusively subdued Asian populations. Just as voc leadership relied on the cooperation of Asian merchants for their inter-Asian trade, it relied on Asian inhabitants for the shape and implementation of regulations that governed the daily lives of all colonists. The processes in this chapter are an excellent example of entangled global cultural history because they demonstrate how the institutional background that structured cultural interactions was the product of cross-cultural cooperation that took place in the “middle ground.” Furthermore, the evidence of the Chinese petitions on Formosa shows the increasingly entangled nature of their interactions: the Chinese merchants “Dutchified” their petitions to the voc over time. They initially presented a form of petitions that relied more on the traditional “essay-like” structure that the Chinese used for “memorials to the throne” of the imperial court. After requesting something in the opening paragraph, the petitioners argued why one option was better than the other, drawing from comparable cases all over Asia. When three of the petitioners submitted a new request a few years later, they adopted a more hybrid form for petitioning that approached “Dutch” traditions of petitions more closely. The third and final point is that the gambling lobbying resolutions shed light on the often-overlooked element of “on-the-spot” cross-cultural interactions. The Europeans are generally represented as a uniform entity with a particular interest acting in opposition to the local population with another interest. The decision-making in case of gambling regulations on Formosa highlights that neither the Chinese population, nor the voc had uniform interests. Instead, proponents and opponents of gambling licenses could be found on both 58

See footnote 13 in the introduction.

Chinese Petitions to the Dutch East India Company

145

sides. As such, the lobbying groups found each other on either side: Bencon forging an alliance with the governor-general in Batavia, and the six prominent merchants on Formosa reaching out to the local voc leadership. What united the lobbying alliances where their aggregate interests and not the color of their skin, their nationality, or their religion. Archival Sources The Hague, Netherlands National Archive

NL-HaNA 1.04.02 VOC, inv. nr. 1131. NL-HaNA 1.04.02 VOC, inv. nr. 1145. NL-HaNA 1.04.02 VOC, inv. nr. 1146. NL-HaNA 1.04.02 VOC, inv. nr. 1147. NL-HaNA 1.04.02 VOC, inv. nr. 1148. NL-HaNA 1.04.02 VOC, inv. nr. 1207.

Blussé, L., W.E. Milde and N. Everts. De dagregisters van het Kasteel Zeelandia, Taiwan 1629–1662. Vol. 3 1648–1655. 3 vols. ’s-Gravenhage: Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis, 1996 1996. Van der Chijs, mr. J.A., ed. Nederlands-Indisch Plakkaatboek, 1602–1811. Vol 1: 1602–1642. Batavia: Landsdrukkerij, 1885.

Bibliography Andrade, T. “Political Spectacle and Colonial Rule: The Landdag on Dutch Taiwan, 1629–1648.” Itinerario 21, no. 3 (1997): 57–93. Andrade, T. “Pirates, Pelts and Promises: The Sino-Dutch Colony of Seventeenth-Century Taiwan and the Aboriginal Villag of Favorolang.” Journal of Asian Studies 64, no. 2 (2005): 295–321. Andrade, T. How Taiwan became Chinese: Dutch, Spanish, and Han Colonization in the Seventeenth Century. [Gutenberg (e)]. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. Belmessous, S., ed. Empire by Treaty: Negotiating European Expansion, 1600–1900. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. Blussé, L. Strange Company. Chinese Settlers, Mestizo Women and the Dutch in VOC Bat­ avia. Dordrecht: Foris, 1986. Blussé, L., W.E. Milde, and N. Everts. De dagregisters van het Kasteel Zeelandia, Taiwan 1629–1662. Vol. 3: 1648–1655. ‘s-Gravenhage: Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis, 1996. Boxer, C.R. The Dutch in Brazil, 1624–1654. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957.

146

VAN DEN TOL

Brook, T. The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. Chiu, H. “The Colonial ‘Civilizing Process’ in Dutch Formosa 1624–1662.” PhD diss., Universiteit Leiden, 2007. Daniels, C., and M. Kennedy, ed. Negotiated Empires: Centers and Peripheries in the Americas, 1500–1820. New York/London: Routledge, 2002. Fockema Andreae, S.J. De Nederlandse Staat onder de Republiek. Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie van Wetenschappen. Vol. Nieuwe Reeks 68.3. Amsterdam: Noord Hollansdche UItgevers Maatschappij, 1975. Gaastra, F.S. De Geschiedenis van de VOC. Zutphen: Walburg Press, 2002. Games, A. The Web of Empire: English Cosmopolitans in an Age of Expansion, 1560–1660. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Hoetink, B. “So Bing Kong: Het eerste hoofd der Chinezen te Batavia.” Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië 73, no. 3/4 (1917): 344–415. Kooijmans, L. Vriendschap en de kunst van het overleven in de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw. Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 2016. Metcalf, A.C. Go-Betweens and the Colonization of Brazil, 1500–1600. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005. Molewijk, G.C., ed. ‘t Verwaerloosde Formosa, of waerachtig verhael, hoedanigh door ver­ waerloosing der Nederlanders in Oost-Indien, het Eylant Formosa, van den Chinesen Mandorijn, ende Zeerover Coxinja, overrompelt, vermeestert ende ontweldight is ge­ worden. Zutphen: Walburg Press, 1991. North, D. “Institutions.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 5, no. 1 (1991): 97–112. Ocko, J.K. “I’ll Take It All the Way to Beijing: Capital Appeals in the Qing.” The Journal of Asian Studies 47, no. 2 (1988): 291–315. Parthesius, R. “Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters. The Development of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) Shipping Network in Asia 1595–1660.” PhD diss., Universiteit van Amsterdam, 2007. Pearson, M.N. “Merchants and State.” In The Political Economy of Merchant Empires, edited by J.D. Tracy, 41–116. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Puente-Ballesteros, B. “Jesuit Medicine in the Kangxi Court (1662–1722): Imperial Networks and Patronage.” East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine 34 (2011): 86–162. Te Brake, W. Shaping history: ordinary people in European politics, 1500–1700. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. Van Alphen, W. Papegay, ofte Formulier-boeck van alderhande requeste mandamenten, conclusien etc. ghelijck die ghebruyckt ende gepractiseert werden voor de respective hoven van iustitie in Hollandt. Seer nut ende dienstigh alle practisyns den voorsz hove, ofte andere recht-bancke, frequenterende. ‘s-Gravenhage: Johannes Verhoeve, 1642.

Chinese Petitions to the Dutch East India Company

147

Van den Tol, J.J.S. “Lobbying in Company: Mechanisms of Political Decision-Making and Economic Interests in the History of Dutch Brazil, 1621–1657.” PhD diss., Leiden University, 2018. Van der Chijs, mr. J.A., ed. Nederlands-Indisch Plakkaatboek, 1602–1811. Vol 1: 1602–1642. Vol. 1. Batavia: Landsdrukkerij, 1885. Van Deursen, A. Th. Een dorp in de polder: Graft in de zeventiende eeuw. Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 2013. Van Nierop, H.F.K. “Popular Participation in Politics in the Dutch Republic.” In Resis­ tance, Representation and Community, edited by P. Blickle, 272–290. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. Vermeesch, G. “Professional Lobbying in Eighteenth-Century Brussels: The Role of Agents in Petitioning the Central Government Institutions in the Habsburg Netherlands.” Journal of Early Modern History 16, no. 2 (2012): 95–119. Vermeesch, G. “‘Miserabele personen’ en hun toegang tot het stadsbestuur. Pro deo petities in achttiende-eeuws Antwerpen.” Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis 12, no. 4 (2015): 1–28. Vermeesch, G., and L. Geevers, ed. Politieke belangenbehartiging in de vroegmoderne Nederlanden: de rol van lobby, petities, en officiële delegaties in de politieke besluit­ vorming. Vol. 13. Maastricht: Shaker Publishing, 2014. Wallerstein, I. “Dutch Hegemony in the 17th-Century World-Economy.” In Dutch Capi­ talism and World Capitalism, edited by M. Aymard, 93–145. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. White, R. The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815. Second Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Wijnaendts van Resandt, W. De Gezaghebbers der Oost-Indische Compagnie op hare Buiten-Comptoiren in Azië. Amsterdam: Liebaert, 1944. Wilkinson, E.P. Chinese History: A Manual (Revised and Enlarged Edition). Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000. Wills Jr., J.E. “Maritime Asia, 1500–1800: The Interactive Emergence of European Domination.” The American Historical Review 98, no. 1 (1993): 83–105.

Chapter 7

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen: Sir Constantijn Huygens’s Plea to Preserve a Chinese Artefact, 1685–1686 Willemijn van Noord Material culture is one of the main threads running through the entanglement of cultural histories.1,2 Encounters—direct or indirect—with artefacts from other cultures changed those cultures involved. It impacted views of the (­perceived) countries of origin as well as the domestic production of material ­culture.3 Since the material turn, more and more studies stress the material dimension of cultural encounters and recognize the entangled and global character

1 This chapter draws upon results of my research conducted for the project The Chinese Impact: Images and Ideas of China in the Dutch Golden Age, funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (nwo), which has partly been published in Willemijn van Noord, “European Reflections in Chinese Mirrors: Interpreting Self and Other through Encounters with Chinese Artefacts in the Dutch Republic, 1685–1715,” in Knowledge and Arts on the Move: Transformation of the Self-aware Image through East-West Encounters, ed. Christopher Craig, Enrico Fongaro & Akihiro Ozaki (Milan: Mimesis International, 2018), 39–56. I am grateful to Rosanne Baars, Frans Blom, Marten-Jan Bok, Inge Broekman, John Campbell, Jan van Campen, Nicholas Dew, Trude Dijkstra, Lia van Gemert, Anne Gerritsen, Lennert Gesterkamp, Frans Grijzenhout, Ineke Huysman, Michael Keevak, Ad Leerintveld, Stephanie Levert, Djoeke van Netten, Cynthia Viallé, Thijs Weststeijn, and Yue Zhuang for comments on various aspects of this research. Any mistakes are, of course, my own. 2 For example, Anna Jackson and Amin Jaffer, Encounters: The Meeting of Asia and Europe 1500–1800 (London: V&A Publishing, 2004); Anne Gerritsen and Giorgio Riello, ed., The Global Lives of Things: The Material Culture of Connections in the Early Modern World (London: Routledge, 2016); Craig Clunas, “Connected Material Histories: A Response,” Modern Asian Studies 50, no. 1 (216): 61–74; Miguel John Versluys, “Roman Visual Material Culture as Globalising Koine,” in Globalisation and the Roman World: World History, Connectivity and Material Culture, ed. Martin Pitts and Miguel John Versluys (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 141–174. 3 For example, Noord, “Reflections”; Femke Diercks, “Inspired by Asia: Responses in the Dutch Decorative Arts,” in Asia in Amsterdam: the Culture of Luxury in the Golden Age, ed. Karina Corrigan, Jan van Campen and Femke Diercks (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2015), 246–253; Miguel John Versluys, “Exploring Aegyptiaca and their Material Agency throughout Global History,” in The Routledge Handbook of Archaeology and Globalisation, ed. Tamar Hodos et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 141–174.

©

 | 

/

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

149

of the material culture involved in those encounters.4 However, the roles that material culture can play in the development of images of self and other, have received comparatively little attention. Few studies foreground the question of how early modern stereotypical views were shaped by and projected onto particular artefacts.5 It is not just cultures and their histories that are entangled (see above, Chapter 1): world history itself should be understood as (an ongoing) humanthing entanglement.6 At several moments in history, new ideas (about art, antiquity, other cultures and so on) were fueled by an unprecedented increase in the availability of artefacts,7 which prompted “those involved in the appropriation, emulation or creation of artefacts to adopt a position towards their own cultures and the shock of the new.”8 This was particularly the case for the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic, which witnessed an unprecedented increase of the availability of Chinese—and other foreign—artefacts.9 In their descriptions of these artefacts, Dutch interpreters conveyed their knowledge and views of China, but also information about how they positioned themselves. Encounters with other cultures, be they through people or through material culture, are governed by selective perception. Our attitudes are determined by underlying tensions between self-image and images of the other.10 This chapter tells the story of a cultural history with three main protagonists: two Europeans and one Chinese artefact. Their story unfolds against the 4

5

6 7

8 9

10

Anne Gerritsen and Giorgio Riello, ed., Writing Material Culture History (London: Bloomsbury, 2015): see also the introduction by Thijs Weststeijn, “China, the Netherlands, Europe: Images, Interactions, Institutions and the Ideal of Global Cultural History” (this volume, Chapter 1). For example, Claudia Swan, “Lost in Translation: Exoticism in Early Modern Holland,” in The Fascination of Persia: The Persian-European Dialogue in Seventeenth-Century Art and Contemporary Art of Teheran, ed. Axel Langed (Zürich: Scheidegger and Spiess, 2013), 100–117; Willemijn van Noord & Thijs Weststeijn, “The Global Trajectory of Nicolaas Witsen’s Chinese Mirror,” The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 63, no. 4 (2015): 324–361. Versluys, “Aegyptiaca,” 76. Caroline van Eck, Miguel John Versluys, and Pieter ter Keurs, “The Biography of Cultures: Style, Objects and Agency. Proposal for an Interdisciplinary Approach,” Cahiers de l’École du Louvre, recherches en histoire de l’art, histoire des civilisations archéologie, anthropologie et muséologie 7 (October 2015): 20. Eck, Versluys, and Keurs, “Biography,” 4. Thijs Weststeijn, “‘Sinarum gentes…omnium sollertissimae’: Encounters between the Middle Kingdom and the Low Countries, 1602–92,” in Reshaping the Boundaries: The Christian Intersection of China and the West in the Modern Era, ed. Song Gang (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2016), 9–34. Manfred Beller, “Perception, Image, Imagology” in Imagology: The Cultural Construction and Literary Representation of National Characters. A Critical Survey, ed. Manfred Beller and Joep Leerssen (Boston and Leiden: Brill, 2007), 6–7.

150

Van Noord

backdrop of the Dutch Republic during the “first global age.”11 By tracing the entanglement of these three agents, I will try to unravel how the encounters between this one object and two individuals triggered very different responses, conveying various views of China that were prevalent during the last decades of the seventeenth century. Moreover, it demonstrates how such views could lead to opposing attitudes towards the integrity of artefacts and how they should be used. The artefact in question is a Chinese lacquer screen that came into the possession of Princess Mary ii Stuart (1662–1694). There is a rather well-known letter from Sir Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687) addressed to the princess concerning the fate of this particular screen. The letter has been mentioned by several scholars, often in passing,12 sometimes more in depth,13 but often with errors.14 A comprehensive study that analyses this letter in the context of other relevant writings is lacking. This chapter aims to do just that and will provide new insights (and correct old ones) based on hitherto little-studied material. 11 12

13

14

Anne Gerritsen and Giorgio Riello, “Spaces of Global Interactions: The Material Landscapes of Global History,” in Gerritsen and Riello, Writing, 111. Marjorie Bowen, The Third Mary Stuart: Mary of York, Orange & England, Being a Character Study with Memoirs and Letters of Queen Mary ii of England, 1662–1694 (London: John Lane the Bodley Head Limited, 1929), 265; Marten Loonstra and Saskia S. Broekema, “Japanese Art at Court,” in Imitation and Inspiration: Japanese Influence on Dutch Art, ed. Stefan van Raaij (Amsterdam: D’Arts, 1989), 64; A.M.L.E. Erkelens, Queen Mary’s “Delft Porcelain”: Ceramics at Het Loo from the Time of William and Mary (Zwolle: Waanders, 1996), 15; Oliver Impey, “The Rise and Fall of the Porcelain Room: Patterns of Trade and Symmetry of Display,” in Kensington Palace and the Porcelain of Queen Mary ii, ed. Mark Hinton and Oliver Impey (London: Christie, Manson & Woods limited, 1998), 68; Wilfried de Kesel and Greet Dhont, Coromandel Lacquer Screens (Gent: Snoeck-Ducaju en Zoon, 2002), 28. Jacob. A. Worp, ed., De Briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens (1608–1687) Zesde Deel: 1663–1687 (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1917), 456–457; Theodoor Lunsingh Scheurleer, “Stadhouderlijke Lakkabinetten,” in Opstellen voor H. van de Waal (Amsterdam: Scheltema & Holkema, 1970), 164–173; Stefan van Raaij and Paul Spies, The Royal Progress of William & Mary (Amsterdam: Bataafsche Leeuw, 1988), 46–47; Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide, “The (Ab)Use of Export Lacquer in Europe,” in Ostasiatische und Europäische Lacktechniken/East Asian and European Lacquer Techniques, ed. Michael Kühlenthal (München: Arbeitshefte des Beyerischen Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, 2000), 29; Jan van Campen, De Haagse Jurist Jean Theodore Royer (1737–1807) en zijn Verzameling Chinese Voorwerpen (Hilversum: Verloren, 2000), 215–217; Jan van Campen, “‘Reduced to a Heap of Monstruous Shivers and Splinters’: Some Notes on Coromandel Lacquer in Europe in the 17th and 18th Centuries,” The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 57, no. 2 (2009): 136–149; Tristan Mostert and Jan van Campen, Silk Thread: China and the Netherlands from 1600 (Amsterdam & Nijmegen: Rijksmuseum & van Tilt, 2015), 101–103; Susan Broomhall and Jacqueline van Gent, Dynastic Colonialism: Gender, Materiality and the Early Modern House of Orange-Nassau (London and New York: Routledge, 2016), 229. See notes 59, 68, 74, 75, 118, and 148.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

151

In doing so, it allows us to evaluate Huygens’s initial letter in the context of his other writings and assess which rhetorical tactics he employed and to what end. By tracing the trajectory of the screen and the responses it triggered, this chapter attempts to reconstruct Anglo-Dutch views of China and its art and highlight the role that material culture played in processes of early modern image-formation.15 1

Sir Constantijn Huygens

Sir Constantijn Huygens (fig. 7.1) was a polymath and an esteemed diplomat who had served as the secretary to two stadtholders of the Dutch Republic.16 He was also one of the greatest poets of the so-called Dutch Golden Age. No other writer of this period left as many written documents. Huygens saved drafts or copies of everything he wrote and many of his works have been published and digitized.17 Based on Huygens’s own statement that he wrote approximately 100 to 120 letters a month, his outgoing correspondence has been

15 16

17

On object trajectories, see Anne Gerritsen and Giorgio Riello, “The Global Lives of Things: Material Culture in the First Global Age,” in Gerritsen and Riello, Global Lives, 1–28. Huygens was secretary to stadtholders Frederick Henry (1584–1647) and William ii (1626– 1650) and served as councillor and treasurer. Simon Groenveld, “‘Een Out ende Getrouw Dienaer, beyde van den Staet ende Welstant in ‘t Huys van Orangen’: Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687), een Hoog Haags Ambtenaar,” Holland: Regionaal-Historisch Tijdschrift 20, no. 1 (February 1988): 3–32. Ad Leerintveld, Constantijn Huygens: De Collectie in de Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Amerfoort & Brugge: Bekking & Blitz, 2013), 5. Many of Huygens’s letters were first published in the early twentieth century in J.A. Worp, Briefwisseling. However, Worp sometimes published abstracts rather than letters themselves and selectively omitted letters he deemed to be of insufficient importance. More recently, the Huygens Institute of Dutch History created a new digital edition of Huygens’s letters: “Briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1607– 1687,” Huygens ING, accessed February 25, 2019, http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/briefwisselingconstantijnhuygens. This edition provides a facsimile of each letter, a transcription and sometimes translation, as well as the way it was published in Worp. In the following references to Huygens’s letters below, I will therefore only refer to the online edition, where the relevant pages from Worp’s publication can also be found. On the new digital edition, see Ineke Huysman and Ad Leerintveld, “New Perpectives of the Digitized Correspondence of Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687),” Dutch Crossing 38, no. 3 (2014): 244–258. For publications of Huygens’s poems, see Jacob. A. Worp, ed., De Gedichten van Constantijn Huygens (1608–1687) (Groningen: Wolters, 1892–1899) and “De Gedichten van Constantijn Huygens,” Leiden University, accessed February 25, 2019, http://www.let .leidenuniv.nl/Dutch/Huygens.

152

Van Noord

Figure 7.1 Netscher, Caspar. Portrait of Constantijn Huygens. 1672. Oil on panel, 27 × 23 cm Rijksmuseum, inv. no. SK-A-292, Amsterdam

estimated at one hundred thousand letters, of which less than 10 percent survives today.18 As secretary and councilor and treasurer (raad en rekenmeester)—managing the estate of the Orange family—Huygens had occupied a prominent position at the highest levels of taste and connoisseurship at the court of the Dutch

18 Leerintveld, Constantijn Huygens, 124. Huysman and Leerintveld, “New Perspectives,” 246–247.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

153

stadtholders.19 He sourced all sorts of art and luxurious items for the court,20 his friends, and himself.21 Sometimes, these concerned items from Asia, such as pieces of lacquer and a Japanese robe for Béatrix de Cusance (1614–1663), who addressed him as “my lord intendant of the Indies” (Monsieur mon Intendant des Indes).22 When Huygens presented Béatrix with an “Indian” box, he wrote that, in his view, “the manners of those [Indian] nations, which we like to call barbaric, are expressed in a way that is not very ordinary,” and that the object was deserving of her beautiful hands.23 He thus viewed the object not merely as a decorative piece but as representative of a particular culture. Huygens seems to have had a personal interest in “the Indies” and in China more particularly. He received several letters from Willem Boreel (1591–1668) who worked as a lawyer for the voc, concerning the Indies, apparently responding to queries that Huygens had sent him,24 and he particularly liked East Indian candles.25 His friendship with Jacob Edelheer (1597–1657), pensionary of Antwerp, should also be mentioned. Edelheer owned the first known

19

Lisa Jardine, “The Reputation of Sir Constantijn Huygens: Networker of Virtuoso?,” in Temptation in the Archives: Essays in Golden Age Dutch Culture, ed. Lisa Jardine (London: ucl Press, 2015), 51. 20 For example, Inge Broekman, “Constantijn Huygens, de Kunst en het Hof” (PhD diss., University of Amsterdam, 2010); Jaap van der Veen, “Schilderijencollecties in de Republiek ten tijde van Frederik Hendrik en Amalia,” in Vorstelijk Verzameld: De Kunstcollectie van Frederik Hendrik en Amalia, ed. Peter van der Ploeg and Carola Vermeeren (Zwolle: Waanders, 1997), 87–96. 21 For example, Huygens acquired rare musical instruments for himself via his network, see Jardine, “Reputation,” 47–48. 22 Ineke Huysman, “Bewondering of Berekening? De Geschenkenuitwisseling tussen Béatrix de Cusance en Constantijn Huygens,” in Vrouwen rondom Constantijn Huygens, ed. Els Kloek, Frans Blom and Ad Leerintveld (Hilversum: Verloren, 2010), 212. Ineke Huysman and Rudolph Rasch, Béatrix en Constantijn: De briefwisseling tussen Béatrix de Cusance en Constantijn Huygens 1652–1662 (Amsterdam: Boom, 2009), 242–243. Huygens also presented Japanese robes to Anne of Austria (1601–1666) and apparently owned several items himself. Wybe Kuitert, “Japanese Robes, Sharawadgi, and the Landscape Discourse of Sir William Temple and Constantijn Huygens,” Garden History 41, no. 2 (2013): 174, n. 26. 23 “[Q]ue la politesse de ces nations, qu’il nous plaist d’appeler Barbares, y parroissant d’une manière qui n’est pas trop vulgaire. Huysman and Rasch, Béatrix, 238. 24 For example: “Briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1607–1687, Details voor brief n0405,” Huygens ING, accessed February 25, 2019, http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/brief wisselingconstantijnhuygens%3B/brief/nr/405; “Briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1607–1687, Details voor brief n0408,” Huygens ING, accessed February 25, 2019, http:// resources.huygens.knaw.nl/briefwisselingconstantijnhuygens%3B/brief/nr/408. 25 Worp, Gedichten Deel 8, 302. Perhaps this is also the type of candle which Le Roij refers to in his letter: see Appendix 7.8.

154

Van Noord

“­Chinese museum” in Europe, which Huygens doubtlessly would have visited.26 Huygens himself owned “very good paintings and drawings of the dress, idol worship, cities, temples, landscapes and ships of China, brought along with the last embassy that the lords of the States General sent to that country four or five years before.”27 He was also aware of other aspects of Chinese culture, such as Chinese medicine.28 In 1685, Huygens wrote a letter to Mary ii Stuart, Princess of Orange, concerning a Chinese lacquer screen (see “A letter from China” below). It is one of only three letters to Mary to survive,29 besides eight poems that he dedicated to her.30 Based on the surviving letters, it appears that Huygens’s corresponding relationship with this latest Princess of Orange was much more infrequent than with her predecessors.31 At this point in time, Huygens was an old man and no longer worked directly for the stadtholder and thus he 26

On Huygens’s friendship with Edelheer, see Maurits Sabbe, “Constantijn Huygens, en Zuid-Nederland,” in Verslagen en mededelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Taal- en Letterkunde (Gent: Koninklijke Vlaamsche Academie voor Taal- en Letterkunde, 1925), 784; Bert Timmermans, Patronen van patronage in het zeventiende-eeuwse Antwerpen: een elite als actore binnen een kunstwereld (Amsterdam: Aksant, 2008), 236. On Edelheer’s “Musaeum Sinense,” see Noël Golvers, “De recruteringstocht van M. Martini, S.J. door de Lage Landen in 1654: over geomantische kompassen, Chinese verzamelingen, lichtbeelden en R.P. Wilhelm van Aelst, S.J.,” De Zeventiende Eeuw 10, no. 2 (1994): 337. 27 Balthasar de Monconys, Journal des Voyages de Monsieur de Monconys: Seconde Partie (Lyon: Horace Boissat & George Remeus, 1666), 145, trans. in Thijs Weststeijn, “Vossius’ Chinese Utopia,” in Isaac Vossius (1618–1689) between Science and Scholarship, ed. Eric Jorink and Dirk van Miert (Boston and Leiden: Brill, 2012), 217. These drawings may well be the “Chinese drawings on Chinese paper etc.” (Chineesche Teekenkonst op Chinees pampier en andere/etc.) that are mentioned in the sale catalogue of Christiaan Huygens’s library, auctioned in 1695: Catalogus […] Librorum […] Christiani Huygenii, (The Hague: Adriaan Moetjens, 1695), 69. I am grateful to Trude Dijkstra for pointing this out. 28 For example, Huygens and Temple discussed Asian medical cures for gout: see Lisa Jardine, Going Dutch: How England Plundered Holland’s Glory (London: HarperCollins, 2008), 341–343. 29 “Briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1607–1687, correspondentie met Mary Stuart ii” Huygens ING, accessed February 25, 2019, http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/briefwisselin gconstantijnhuygens%3B/brieven?zk_correspondentid=1293&order=order_by_date. Also see “Constantijn Huygens to Mary ii Stuart (future Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland),” The Wives of the Stadtholders: an exhibition, Early Modern Letters Online, accessed May 6, 2017, http://emlo-portal.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/exhibition/sw/items/show/35. 30 Worp, Gedichten Deel 8, 349–358. 31 Huygens had a long track record of corresponding with the Princesses of Orange: see Els Kloek, Frans Blom and Ad Leerintveld, ed., Vrouwen rondom Constantijn Huygens (Hilversum: Verloren, 2010). Statistics taken from surviving letters show that Huygens corresponded with Amalia von Solms-Braunfels (1602–1675), wife of Stadtholder Frederick Henry, more than with any other individual. Huysman and Leerintveld, “New Perspectives,” 253.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

155

was not as closely involved with the life of the leaders of the Dutch Republic as he had been in the past.32 This may explain the tone of his letters to Mary, which appears to be even more flattering than usual in Huygens’s writings. 2

Princess Mary ii

Princess Mary ii (fig. 7.2) had moved from her native England to the Dutch Republic in 1677 as the wife of Stadtholder William iii who, in 1689, would be crowned King William ii of England, Scotland and Ireland when they would become known as “William and Mary.”33 She was a keen collector of porcelain and other exotic materials such as Asian lacquerware and textiles.34 Her father had been noted as a connoisseur of ceramics and owned various East Asian artefacts, and this early awareness of Oriental decorative arts was further fostered by members of the House of Orange. From the time of her marriage in 1677, she would spend vast amounts of money and time on the furnishing of residences with—mostly Asian—decorative arts.35 In her letters and diaries, she states: “I suffer’d myself also to spend too much time in altering my lodgings for my convenience and diversion.”36 As we will see below, one of these alterations was to be the construction of a Chinese cabinet in her private quarters in one of her Dutch residential palaces by cladding its walls with pieces of a dismantled lacquer screen. 3

Lacquer in the Dutch Republic

Before we get into the particulars of Mary’s Chinese screen, an appraisal of the position of Asian lacquer in Europe more generally, and the Dutch Republic in 32

33 34 35 36

His post as secretary had been terminated with the death of his employer, William ii, in 1650. However, Huygens would continue executing certain secretarial assignments. He would also remain councillor and treasurer until his death. See Groenveld, “Getrouw Dienaer,” 20–21. In 1677, Huygens wrote an epithalamium on the marriage of William and Mary, see Worp, Gedichten Deel 8, 168–171. John Ayers, Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen Volume 1 (London: Royal Collection Trust, 2016), 104–112. Joanna Marschner, “Queen Mary ii as a Collector,” in Kensington Palace and the Porcelain of Queen Mary ii, ed. Mark Hinton and Oliver Impey (London: Christie, Manson & Woods limited, 1998), 49–50. Adriana Turpin, “A Table for Queen Mary’s Water Gallery at Hampton Court,” Apollo 149, no. 443 (January 1999): 4.

156

Van Noord

Figure 7.2 Verkolje, Jan. Portrait of Mary ii Stuart. c. 1688. Oil on canvas, 39.7 × 32.4 cm National Portrait Gallery, inv. no. npg 606, London

particular, is in order. Lacquer is a material made of layers of dyed and dried sap of the lacquer tree (toxicondendron vernicifluum) which is native to China, Japan, and other parts of East Asia. Consecutive layers of lacquer—usually applied to a base of wood—form a coating that is both shiny and impervious to liquid, properties which were highly prized at the time.37 Asian lacquer had been imported into Europe since the sixteenth century through the trade 37

Tara Cederholm, “Curiously Engraven: the New Art of Japanning and an Exploration of Depictions of Asia in Eighteenth-Century London and Boston,” in Material Imitation and Imitation Materials in Furniture and Conservation: Proceedings of the Thirteenth

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

157

a­ ctivities of the Portuguese, and into the Dutch Republic since the beginning of the seventeenth century by the Dutch East India Company (voc). The material was admired for its flawless, light-reflecting surface, delightful decorations and striking durability (resisting hot liquids, damp air etc.).38 It was depicted in several paintings.39 Like porcelain, lacquer was a highly prized exotic substance that could not be made in Europe at the time due to the lack of appropriate ingredients, which added to the rarity and desirability of the materials. For porcelain it was lack of kaolin clay and china stone; for lacquer, it was the absence of (sap from) the lacquer tree.40 Lacquer was produced in and imported mostly (though not exclusively) from China and Japan.41 Because of its labor-intensive manufacture, it was rather scarce and very expensive and thus not imported in large quantities. Precious as it was, lacquer was very suitable to be used as diplomatic gifts. For example, in 1616, the Dutch Republic presented King Gustavus ii Adolphus (1594–1632) with a Japanese lacquer coffer.42 Several costly Japanese chests were presented to Marie de’ Medici (1575–1642) by the VOC, following her visit to the Low Countries in 1638 and, in 1642, Japanese lacquer coffers, cabinets, tables and even a portable toilet were presented to Queen Henrietta Maria (1609–1669), Mary, Princess Royal (1631–1660) and Amalia van Solms (1602–1675), Princess of

38 39 40 41

42

I­nternational Symposium on Wood and Furniture Conservation, ed. Miko Vasques Dias (Amsterdam: Stichting Ebenist, 2017), 177–189. Annemarie Klootwijk, “Curious Japanese Black: Shaping the Identity of Dutch Imitation Lacquer,” in Netherlands Yearbook for the History of Art 66, ed. Thijs Weststeijn, Eric Jorink and Frits Scholten (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 253–271. Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide, “Lacquer and Japanning in Seventeenth-Century Flemish and Dutch Paintings,” Antiques 162, no. 4 (October 2002): 150–159. Thijs Weststeijn, “Cultural Reflections on Porcelain in the 17th-Century Netherlands,” in Chinese and Japanese Porcelain for the Dutch Golden Age, ed. Jan van Campen and Titus Eliëns (Zwolle: Waanders, 2014), 222; Klootwijk, “Curious,” 253. On Dutch trade in Japanese lacquer, see Teresa Canepa, Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer: China and Japan and their Trade with Western Europe and the New World, 1500–1644 (London: Paul Holberton, 2016), 373–401 and Cynthia Viallé, “Japanese Lacquer Cabinets in the Records of the Dutch East India Company,“ in Japanische Lackkunst für Bayerns Fürsten: Die japanischen Lackmöbel der Staatlichen Münzsammlung München, ed. Anton Schweizer, Martin Hirsch, and Dietrich O.A. Klose (München: Staatlichen Münzsammlung München, 2011), 31–45. On Chinese Coromandel lacquer, see Campen, “Splinters.” Javanese lacquer was also imported by the voc in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. See Emile de Bruijn, “Globalised Lacquer – a Baroque Enthusiasm: Javanese Tables in Pride of Place at Dyrham Park and Ham House,” National Trust Arts, Buildings, Collections Bulletin (May 2013): 11–13. Reinier Baarsen, “Kistjes van Kick? Hollands Lakwerk uit de Vroege Zeventiende Eeuw,” The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 56, no. 1/2 (2008): 17.

158

Van Noord

Orange.43 Years earlier, the 1612 Dutch gift to Ottoman Sultan Ahmed i (1590– 1617) in Constantinople had included forty-seven pieces of lacquer, along with other highly prized “rarities” (rariteyten) such as porcelain and birds of paradise, but also locally produced items ranging from furniture to cheese.44 The lacquer pieces included a “large Chinese chest,” which, in fact, is more likely to have been Japanese.45 Descriptions of lacquered objects in inventories and auction announcements show that geographical denominations such as Chinese, Japanese or (East) Indian were used interchangeably.46 But the gift also listed lacquer vessels made in Amsterdam. Imitation lacquerware had been made in the Dutch Republic since the beginning of the seventeenth century, albeit on a small scale. The most famous example is that of Willem Kick who, in 1609, received an eight-year privilege from the States General to produce lacquerware “as those imported from the East Indies.”47 Even though it was impossible to replicate true lacquer due to the lack of the proper resources, local varnishes (often dammar, mastic or shellac) and techniques were used with varying degrees of success.48 It appears that Dutch craftsmen were recognized internationally for their skills in producing (imitation) lacquer. In 1617, a painter in Paris paid a Dutch craftsman to teach him the “China work” (oeuvre de Chine) in which he specialized.49 This is very likely the technique of “japanning,” as European imitation lacquer is often

43 44

45

46 47 48 49

Cynthia Viallé, “‘Fit for Kings and Princes’: A Gift of Japanese Lacquer,” in Large and Broad: The Dutch Impact on Early Modern Asia, ed. Yoko Nagazumi (Tokyo: Tokyo Bunko, 2010), 187–222, 190. Claudia Swan, “Birds of Paradise for the Sultan: Early Seventeenth-Century Dutch-Turkish Encounters and the Uses of Wonder,” De Zeventiende Eeuw 29, no. 1 (2013): 53. Also see Claudia Swan, “Dutch Diplomacy and Trade in Rariteyten: Episodes in the History of Material Culture of the Dutch Republic,” in Global Gifts: The Material Culture of Diplomacy in Early Modern Eurasia, ed. Zoltán Biedermann, Anne Gerritsen and Giorgio Riello (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 176. Baarsen, “Kistjes van Kick,” 17. The gift is also described in Petrus Scriverius, Beschrijvinghe van Out Batavien, mitsgaders d’Afkomst ende historie der graven van Holland, Zeeland ende Vrieslandt (Amsterdam: Cloppeburgh, 1636) Deel 2 “De Nederlantsche Oorloghen,” 158– 159. I am grateful to Frans Grijzenhout for pointing this out. And may even have been used to describe objects made in the Dutch Republic. Klootwijk, “Curious,” 253. Klootwijk, “Curious,” 254. Klootwijk, “Curious,” 253. Stephanie Levert, “‘Étrangers, mais Habitués en cette Ville de Paris’: Les Artistes Néerlandais à Paris (1550–1700): une Prosopographie” (PhD diss., University of Amsterdam, 2017), 135.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

159

called. In the 1660s, Dutch lacquer master François de Bray came to Denmark at the king’s request to decorate rooms in Rosenborg Castle with lacquer panels in chinoiserie style.50 The advantage of imitation lacquer was that it could be made on the spot, catering to the customer’s taste at that moment and matching the measurements of the rooms that it was meant to decorate. This was not the case for Asian lacquer. Although all sorts of lacquer items were made to order in Japan, it could take years before they reached the Netherlands, and they usually did not include items for interior decoration.51 Therefore, when particular cabinets and wall cladding made of Asian lacquer were desired, finished Asian screens and chests had to be dissembled and repurposed. The aforementioned Amalia van Solms, widow of Stadtholder Frederick Henry (1584–1647), appears to have started the fashion for repurposing this Asian material, when she had the first “lacquer cabinet” constructed in her residence in The Hague circa 1660, using the sides of Japanese lacquer chests to clad the walls.52 Such “cabinets” were not pieces of furniture but rather small rooms that were part of the princess’s quarters (appartements).53 They occupied a

50

51

52

53

Berit Møller, “Marble, Tortoiseshell, Wood and Other Materials Created in Paint and Lacquer during the Baroque Period in Denmark,” in Material Imitation and Imitation Materials in Furniture and Conservation: Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Symposium on Wood and Furniture Conservation, ed. Miko Vasques Dias (Amsterdam: Stichting Ebenist, 2017), 22. http://www.ebenist.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Moller_LR.pdf. After De Bray’s departure, the king employed another Dutch lacquer-worker: see Gudmund Boesen, “‘Chinese’ Rooms at Rosenborg Castle,” The Connoisseur 200, no. 803 (January 1979): 36. There is one example of a lacquer bed-rail being made to order in Japan for the aforementioned Amalia van Solms: see Theodoor Lunsingh Scheurleer, “De Woonvertrekken in Amalia’s Huis in het Bosch,” Oud Holland 84 (1969): 48–49; Anthony Wells-Cole, “Amalia van Solm’s Lost Japanese Lacquer Bed-Rail: Form and Decoration,” in The Investigation and Conservation of East Asian Cabinets in Imperial Residences (1700–1900): Lacquerware and Porcelain, ed. Gabriela Krist and Elfriede Iby (Wien: Böhlau, 2015), 41–52. Lunsingh Scheurleer, “Woonvertrekken,” 55–56. Although some seventeenth-century travelers would – erroneously – describe it as Chinese: see Kisluk-Grosheide, “(Ab)use,” 27. On Amalia’s cabinet and taste for Asian things, see C. Willemijn Fock, “Frederik Hendrik en Amalia’s appartementen: Vorstelijk vertoon naast de triomf van het porselein,” in Vorstelijk Verzameld: de kunstcollectie van Frederik Hendrik en Amalia, ed. Peter van der Ploeg and Carola Vermeeren (Zwolle: Waanders, 1997), 76–84. Although pieces of furniture are also known to have been made out of pieces of lacquer, especially in France. See Chou Kung-shin, “French Jesuits and Chinese Lacquer in the Late 17th Century,” Oriental Art 45, no. 4 (1999): 33–37; Kisluk-Grosheide, “(Ab)Use.”

160

Van Noord

specific place in aristocratic and royal apartments: only intimates and very high-ranking guests were received in these private inner chambers that could be reached from the state bedroom.54 From the description of travelers, we know that at least four lacquer cabinets existed in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic. They were all part of the stadtholder’s residences: Huis ten Bosch, Huis Honselaarsdijk, the stadholder’s quarters in The Hague and the stadholder’s court in Leeuwarden.55 The first cabinet is that belonging to Amalia, who used Japanese chests. The other three were constructed in the 1680s and made of Chinese lacquer screens. Only one survives and is now on permanent display in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (see fig. 7.3). It was originally installed in the Leeuwarden residence of Stadtholder Henry Casimir ii of Nassau Dietz (1657–1697) and his wife Henrietta Amalia von Anhalt Dessau (1666–1726) at the end of the seventeenth century.56 Research during its conservation process proved that three screens were split down the middle (over the length) in order to use both sides as wall paneling in the cabinet.57 Mary ii also planned to have Chinese screens dismantled in order to construct a lacquer cabinet in one of her Dutch residences, as becomes clear from a letter written to her by Constantijn Huygens. 4

A Letter from China

Huygens’s first dated letter to Mary concerns “a certain China screen” that was in her possession.58 The letter is part of a collection of Huygens’s personal drafts: they were copies and drafts of things he would publish or send. The manuscript letter has several words and phrases crossed out or inserted later

54

55 56 57 58

Johan de Haan, “The Leeuwarden Lacquer Room: a Royal Puzzle,” The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 57, no. 2 (2009): 155. See also Philipp Herzog von Württemberg, Das Lackkabinett im deutschen Schlossbau: Zur Chinarezeption im 17. Und 18. Jahrhundert (Bern: Peter Lang, 1998), 71–89. Lunsingh Scheurleer, “Lakkabinetten.” They took up residence in the palace in 1684. Campen, “Splinters.” See also Haan, “Puzzle.” Christina Hagelskamp, “De Leeuwarder Lakkamer in het Rijksmuseum: Nieuwe inzichten over het vervaardigen van Chinese kuan cai lakschermen en hun transformatie tot een laat 17e-eeuws Nederlands interieur,” Aziatische Kunst 45, no. 2 (July 2015): 37–38. A full transcription of this letter can be found in Appendix 7.1. For details of all the following quotes from letters and poems, please see the appendices.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

161

Figure 7.3 The Leeuwarden Lacquer Room. Before 1695. Lacquered wood, 294.5 cm high Rijksmuseum, inv. no. BK-16709, Amsterdam

(see fig. 7.4). A final version has never been found, but as will be shown further on, it must have been sent. In this letter dated September 21, 1685 (with a postscript dated September, 27: see Appendix 7.1), Huygens claims to have translated a letter from the Chinese

162

Van Noord

Figure 7.4 First page of Constantijn Huygens’s first letter to Mary ii concerning the screen Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KA 49dl 03 1093, The Hague

people,59 brought over from the Indies by voc ships, because he thought its contents were of too much interest to the princess to remain concealed from 59

Cf. Wybe Kuitert, “Context & Praxis: Japan and Designing Gardens in the West,” Die Gartenkunst 28, no. 2 (2016): 285, who states that Huygens wrote on behalf of the Chinese “emperor.”

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

163

her. The letter reveals that people of the “mighty Empire of China” are appalled at the princess’s plans to have their “illustrious monument […] reduced to a heap of monstrous shivers and splinters, and all this desolation to no higher purpose then to see the walls of some miserable cabinet decked and adorned forsooth with our unhappy ruins.” The aggrieved authors insinuate that Europeans, who in comparison produce only “poor and miserable” works of art do not understand Chinese “high transcendent wisdom.” These “ignorant, barbarous and malicious people” were moved by “mere envy and jealousy” to dismantle the piece and rearrange it with all the depictions of human figures and inscriptions of characters upside down. The authors then requested that the dimensions of the prospective cabinet be sent so that panels can be made to order to the exact measurements and the current piece be spared. 4.1 A Letter from China the Hague But were the authors really Chinese? Even though Huygens was known for mastering many languages and even secret code,60 Chinese was not one of them. As far as we know, no one in the Dutch Republic was able to read Chinese characters at this time.61 Whenever a Chinese text needed translation, 60

61

Christopher Joby, The Multilingualism of Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687) (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2014). On deciphering secret code, Huygens brags in his autobiography that “even if the characters were from the Ganges or never before seen griffins in fantastic shapes, I managed to decipher everything and presented it to my commander in clear words.” See Frans Blom, Constantijn Huygens: Mijn leven verteld aan mijn kinderen in twee boeken, Deel 1 (Amsterdam: Prometheus/Bert Bakker, 2003), 137; Frans Blom, Constantijn Huygens: Mijn leven verteld aan mijn kinderen in twee boeken, Deel 2, (Amsterdam: Prometheus/Bert Bakker, 2003), 256–258. Only the occasional Chinese visitor appears to have been able to. On November 3, 1637, Andreas Colvius (1594–1671) notes in a letter to Anna Maria van Schurman (1607–1678) that examples of Chinese characters—of which he sent her one page—are quite common and that he has heard that there is a Chinese person in Amsterdam who knows how to read their writing: see “Chinese leaves,” serica: some notes on old Chinese books by David Helliwell, accessed December 27, 2018, https://serica.blog/2018/11/05/chineseleaves/. Huygens’s son, Constantijn the Younger, remarks in his diary that on January 8, 1689, he spoke to a man named Fresor, who said that he knew his brother Christiaan in France and Father Philippe Couplet S.J., and that “he had known the Chinese whose portrait hangs in Windsor [i.e. Michael Shen Fuzong] very well and that he knew 20,000 characters by heart.” (syde de Chinees die te Winsor uytgeschildert stondt, seer wel gekent te hebben en dat hij 20/m characters van buyten kon). Constantijn Huygens Jr., Journaal van 21 october 1688 tot 2 september 1696. Eerste deel (Utrecht: Kemink & Zoon, 1876), 57. Cf. Rudolph Dekker, ed., The diary of Constantijn Huygens Jr., secretary to Stadholder-King William of Orange (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 72. Dekker’s translation suggests that it was Fresor who had memorized “two thousand”—not twenty thousand—characters, which would imply that a European who had never traveled to China might have been able to learn enough characters to provide a basic translation. However, the original Dutch sentence

164

Van Noord

Jesuit missionaries were consulted, either in China or during their (by definition temporary) return to Europe, sometimes accompanied by Chinese converts. Sometimes texts were sent to Batavia (now Jakarta) where many Chinese lived alongside the Dutch.62 If the letter was indeed brought from China “by our most recent ships from the Indies” as Huygens claims, it would have been with the second return fleet, which arrived in the Dutch Republic around August 30, 1685.63 This would give Huygens twenty-two days, which seems like an unfeasibly small window of time to contact intermediaries and receive a reply.64 Besides, it is difficult to imagine who amongst the Chinese people would have been informed about the princess’s plans to repurpose a screen and who would have cared enough to write such a critical message and have it sent halfway across the globe.65 Finally, the draft format of his letter indicates that Huygens was composing a text rather than translating: it is clear that he inserted certain sentences and paragraphs later on (see fig. 7.5). Although it is not impossible that a Chinese letter was first translated into another language by an intermediary, this article builds on the premise that there was no Chinese original and that Huygens fabricated the letter himself. All previous scholars who mention the letter assumed that this was the case, without question or further explanation.66 Only art historian Theodoor Lunsingh Scheurleer concluded, in the most elaborate study of the letter so far,

62

63

64

65 66

leaves open the possibility that it was Michael Shen who knew the Chinese characters. This would be much more likely, as functional literacy in written Chinese requires knowledge of about four thousand characters. On Shen, see note 112. For example, Willemijn van Noord, “The Earliest Known Attempt at Translating an Ancient Chinese Inscription into Dutch: Nicolaas Witsen’s Chinese Mirror and the Logistics of Translating Han Dynasty Seal Script at the Turn of the 18th Century” in The Fascination with Inner Eurasian Languages in the 17th Century: The Amsterdam Mayor Nicolaas Witsen and his Collection of “Tartarian” Glossaries and Scripts, ed. Bruno Naarden et al. (Amsterdam: Pegasus, 2018), 579–602, esp. 583. The second return fleet consisted of three ships which departed from Batavia in February 1685 and arrived in the Dutch Republic around August 30, 1685: “The Dutch East India Company’s shipping between the Netherlands and Asia 1595–1795,” Huygens ING, accessed December 12, 2017, http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/das/detailVoyage/96710. The most obvious interpreter seems to have been Philippe Couplet S.J. (1622–1693). He was travelling in Europe at the time, but was probably still in Rome in September: see Nicholas Dew, Orientalism in Louis xiv’s France (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 214. As we will see later on, Huygens indeed consulted him—indirectly—for the translation of the Chinese inscription on the screen, but there is no indication that they had been in contact before. As will become clear, some years had passed between the screen’s departure from China and its acquisition by Mary. It came on a voc ship as a traded good, not as a diplomatic gift from a prominent Chinese figure. See notes 12 and 13 above.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

165

Figure 7.5 Pages from Huygens’s first letter concerning the screen. The inserts on the right page imply compilation (rather than direct translation) Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KA 49dl 03 1094-5, The Hague

that, in the very last sentence, it becomes clear that there was no Chinese original but that Huygens had written everything himself.67 However, when we read the last sentence carefully (see Appendix 7.1), this is, in fact, not revealed. Indeed, Huygens does make a “very humble and gentle confession”; however, it is that, at his old age of eighty-nine years, he will not be able to offer his services for much longer. He adds this confession hoping that the princess will honor his request to order him quickly to procure a translation of the inscription on the screen.68 It is important to take a moment to consider the implications of Huygens’s act of fabrication. Even though Huygens was a creative writer who took pleasure in deploying wordplay and double meanings in his work,69 he was also a 67 68

69

Lunsingh Scheurleer, “Lakkabinetten,” 164. This idea is followed in Campen, Royer, 216 and Raaij and Spies, Royal Progress, 46. Moreover, a few weeks later, in his “Memoire pour Zeelem,” Huygens maintained that he himself translated a Chinese original (see Appendix 7.2). Marschner, “Collector,” 56, stated that Huygens wrote his letter under the pseudonym “A de la Haye,” but this really just meant that he wrote the letter from The Hague. Surely, he would have signed the letter with his real name because he wanted the princess to order him to procure a translation. For example, on his love for puns, see Joby, Multilingualism, 251–256.

166

Van Noord

God-fearing man who believed he needed to confess and repent his sins.70 He was also very much concerned with his reputation; in the numerous writings that he left us, it seems impossible to accuse him of telling a blatant lie.71 So what would be his motive to become suddenly so bold as to deliberately deceive the princess into thinking that the Chinese people were so outraged upon hearing of her plans that they would write a heated petition, and, more importantly, that Huygens recognized the importance of the letter and decided to hastily translate it to get the message to Her Highness? In the words of literary historian Frans Blom, Huygens was “one of the most strategic operators of the seventeenth century when it comes to using art for the sake of social positioning […and seemed…] unstoppable in creating artistic opportunities to stress his capacities, prestige, or reputation.”72 In his early years, Huygens had used his poetry to become a courtier at the House of Orange. Later on, when Orange power was at an all-time low, he used it to keep up his reputation. Finally, when William ii turned out to be a more powerful stadtholder than any of his predecessors and Huygens’s sons had been accepted as protégés of the prince, the publication of the second edition of his collected poems Korenbloemen (“Cornflowers,” The Hague, 1672) was again a strategic instrument to secure the renown of his family name.73 But what more was there to be gained with his “translation” of the Chinese letter? He was long retired as secretary and in these final years of his life there was little left to add to his solid social stature.74 In fact, there was more to be lost than to be gained. Huygens would not want the reputation that he worked so hard to achieve to dissolve or to affect his children in a negative way. His son Constantijn the Younger (1628–1697) was now secretary to the stadtholder and his position could be greatly compromised if it were discovered that his father

70

71

72 73 74

Christopher Joby, “The Theology of Poems on the Lord’s Supper by the Dutch Calvinist, Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687),” Scottish Journal of Theology 65 (2): 127–144 ; Christopher Joby, “Sin, Salvation and Paradox in the Sonnet Cycle, Holy Days, by the Dutch Calvinist, Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687),” Questions Liturgiques 94 (1–2) : 91–108. On Huygens’s concern for his reputation, see Frans Blom, “Building in Stones and Words: Strategies of Self Presentation in Huygens’ Volumes of Collected Poetry,” in Return to Sender: Constantijn Huygens as a Man of Letters, ed. Lise Gosseye, Frans Blom and Ad Leerintveld (Ghent: Academia Press/Ginkgo, 2013), 17–58. Blom, “Strategies,” 17. Blom, “Strategies,” 57. Cf. Hanneke Ronnes, “The Architecture of William of Orange and the Culture of Friendship,” Archaeological Diaologues 11, no. 1 (2004): 57–72, who implies that, at the time of writing, Huygens was “William of Orange’s secretary” and Mary was already “queen,” but this is incorrect: Mary became queen two years after Huygens’s death.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

167

had deceived the princess and heavily criticized her ideas.75 It seems that Huygens’s main motivation to embark on this risky endeavor was his genuine interest in a Chinese work of art and a deep concern for its fate. Clearly, Huygens felt compelled to do something to try and save the Chinese screen from being vandalized. Mary’s plans must have reminded him of a time earlier on in his career when he had been involved in the construction of Huis ten Bosch and Princess Amalia van Solms had precious Japanese chests destroyed to construct the first lacquer room there.76 Although there are no records of Huygens’s thoughts on Amalia’s actions, we might imagine that they left enough of an impression to stimulate Huygens to try and prevent it from happening again. Presumably, Huygens disguised himself as the voice of the Chinese people— whose crafts and wisdom he clearly admired—because it allowed him to be much more critical than he could ever be when writing in his own name. This idea of posing as a foreigner to comment on something European is reminiscent of the model used decades later by Montesqieu (1689–1755) in his Lettres Persanes (1721), in which he recounts the experiences of two Persian noblemen travelling through France through the letters they supposedly wrote to one another. A fictitious letter from Huygens’s lifetime was that by his friend Caspar Barlaeus (1584–1648)—and in fact revised by Huygens—who wrote “A letter by Amalia to her husband Frederick Henry, who quite audaciously wages battle directly beneath the walls of ‘s-Hertogenbosch” in 1629. The letter is a heroic epistle, a literary genre invented by Ovid, which typically recounts the yearnings of legendary women to be reunited with their lost love. Breaking with convention, Barlaeus writes his epistle in the name of a living “heroine” and mixes fact with fiction by incorporating accurate information provided to him by Huygens himself.77 Although there was no intention to fool the addressee into believing that this letter was real, Barlaeus’s idea to use current affairs at the stadtholder’s court to compose an epistle may have been an inspiration to Huygens. With regard to “Chinese” letters composed by European authors, there is an interesting example addressed to a European head of state in 1600.78 It was a 75 76 77 78

Cf. Turpin, “Table,” 5, who states that Constantijn the Younger wrote the letter, rather than his father, but this is incorrect. Scheurleer, “Woonvertrekken,” 55. Olga van Marion, Heldinnenbrieven : Ovidius’ Heroides in Nederland (Nijmegen : Vantilt, 2005), 161–163. I am grateful to Ad Leerintveld for bringing this publication to my attention. Ralf Hertel, “Faking It: The Invention of East Asia in Early Modern England,” in Early Encounters between East Asia and Europe: Telling Failures, ed. Ralf Hertel and Michael K ­ eevak

168

Van Noord

“reply” to a letter that Queen Elizabeth i had indeed sent—but was probably never delivered—to the emperor of China in 1596 to request trade privileges.79 Inaccuracies in the content reveal that the author of this response was certainly not the emperor of China, but probably an Englishman imitating a reply by the Ottoman Emperor to a similar request by Elizabeth.80 The purported emperor could hardly wait to embrace the English subjects of Elizabeth and even sent a present with his reply. In reality, however, the Chinese were not at all interested in trade with the English. The identity of the author and his or her motives remain unknown. However, as literary historian Ralf Hertel has argued, this hoax letter “counters, and thereby reveals, a specifically English inferiority complex by turning the reality of Anglo-Chinese relations upside down.”81 In a way, Huygens’s hoax letter also rebalances a power relationship but on a smaller scale. In his inferior position of retired secretary, it was not acceptable for him to utter fierce criticisms of the princess’s plans; but, posing as a writer from the “mighty Empire of China” allowed him to do so. It is important to note that Huygens did not reveal himself as the author of the “Chinese” letter, because this would have affected how Mary read the message of disapproval.82 Furthermore, since his aim was to let the princess believe that these words were uttered by a Chinese, Huygens’s writing from a Chinese perspective reveals how he thought the Chinese viewed the Dutch and, by extension, how the Dutch viewed the Chinese.83 To make his letter sound convincing he would have to speak in the way that Europeans would expect a Chinese to speak about their works of art and the plans of a European princess to destroy one. Huygens’s tone indirectly mocks the (perceived) arrogance of the Chinese, who are portrayed as a people convinced of their superiority “above all other people of the world, in the very center, which [they know their] empire to be

79 80 81 82 83

(New York and London: Routledge, 2017), 31–50. There is another fictious letter from the Chinese emperor to the pope in Rome that was published in Dutch and English newspapers in the 1710s and 1720s, Arie Pos, “Het Paviljoen van Porselein: Nederlandse Literaire Chinoiserie en het Westerse Beeld van China (1250–2007),” PhD diss., Leiden University, 2008, 28; 118. Leydse Courant, March 4, 1724. “Delpher,” Koninklijke Bibliotheek, accessed May 7, 2018, https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ddd:010904074:mpeg21:p001. Elizabeth’s letter was reprinted in the 1580s in Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation, vol. 16, part 2, ed. Edmund Goldsmid (Edingburgh: E. & G. Goldsmid, 1890), 114–116. Hertel, “Faking,” 33–34. Hertel, “Faking,” 38. See note 68 above. For an analysis of what the letter reveals about views of China and the self, see Noord, “Reflections.”

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

169

situated from all eternity,” and who judge their art to be much better than those “poor and miserable European pictures.”84 But it also conveys a profound admiration of Chinese arts and civilization. The reason Huygens made the effort to write this letter was out of serious concern with preserving this “most curious” and “precious” screen of Chinese “national skill and industry” and to prevent this inscribed artwork, which potentially carried words of Chinese “high transcendent wisdom,” from being dismantled for the purpose of mere decoration. One way of anticipating a plausible Chinese view of the Dutch Republic, is by referring to it as “your Kingdom of Holland.” Huygens himself would never have uttered those words, knowing the governing structure of his country better than any other. When visiting rulers in Asia to negotiate trade, however, Dutch ambassadors often had to uphold that they were from a kingdom to be taken seriously by their hosts.85 By Asian standards, only a sovereign could entertain a political relation with other rulers.86 Johan Nieuhof even wrote about it in his popular travelogue on the voc’s embassy to China,87 which Huygens would have read.88 Thus, by referring to the Dutch Republic as a kingdom, 84 85

86 87

88

This arrogance is also emphasized in “Mémoire pour Zeelhem”: see below. For example, in 1607, Admiral Cornelis Matelieff wrote a letter to the governor of Guangzhou in Lantau stating that he had come on the order of the “king of Holland” to conduct trade. Willem P. Groeneveldt, De Nederlanders in China: De eerste bemoeiingen om den handel in China en de vestiging in de Pescadores, 1601–1624 (The Hague : Martinus Nijhoff, 1898), 34. Jur van Goor, “Introduction,” in Trading Companies in Asia 1600–1830, ed. Jur van Goor (Utrecht: hes, 1986), 9–17. When the Dutch ambassadors had explained how their republic was governed, the emperor’s representatives “could not understand this form of governance (as the Tartars and Chinese do not know of any other government than that governed by a single Supreme Ruler) […] and interpreted the matter as though the embassy to the emperor was sent in the name of the Prince and State of Holland” (dewijl de Gecommiteerden deze form van land-bestier niet vatten nochte begrijpen konde, (gemerkt de Tarters en Sineezen geen andre regeering kennen, dan daar een eenig Opperhooft de heerschappy voert) […] zy de zaak zodanigh opnamen, als of deze bezending aan den Keizer geschiede uit den naam en wegen den Prins en den Staat van Holland). Johan Nieuhof, Het gezantschap der Neêrlandtsche Oost-Indische Compagnie, aan den grooten Tartarischen Cham, den tegenwoordigen keizer van China…Beneffens een nauwkeurige beschryving der Sineesche steden, dorpen, regeering (Amsterdam: Van Meurs, 1665), 160. In turn, a Chinese edict of 1686 states that “the king of Holland” Johannes Camphuys—really the governor-general of the voc—sends his ambassador to bring tribute and to deliver a manifest: see Jan Vixseboxse, Een Hollandsch Gezantschap naar China in de Zeventiende Eeuw (1685–1687)(Leiden: Brill, 1946), 29. Huygens received prints and paintings that were brought by the embassy, which Nieuhof describes (see footnote 27). In 1662, three years before its publication, Huygens’s son Christiaan sent Melchisédech Thévenot in Paris excerpts from Nieuhof’s travelogue. Christiaan Huygens, Oeuvres Complètes. Tome iv. Correspondance 1662–1663, ed. David Bierens de Haan (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1891), 148–190.

170

Van Noord

­ uygens is trying to make his “Chinese” author more authentic. By contrast, H other choices of words in the letter hint at a classicist European education.89 Most of all, Huygens appears to be concerned about the screen’s inscription, since the dissolving of “the noble collection of those manifold chosen and selected characters, containing in our excellent Asiatic language the wittiest speeches, proverbs, emblems, parables, paradoxes and other higher mysteries” is the part that is “most bitterly to be lamented.”90 The ignorant Dutch would spoil Chinese words of wisdom by rearranging the panels for mere decoration. The letter concludes by offering to provide a translation of the inscription in the hope that “a true and legal interpretation of these noble characters” will improve the princess’s views “of the most high and divine Empire of China and its natives” and persuade her to respect the integrity of the artefact. Scheurleer has argued that “one need not doubt whether [Mary] followed the advice of Huygens, who had been the trusted advisor of the Orange family for decades, and put a stop to the construction [of the cabinet].”91 His argument is that, in 1687, the Swedish architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger (1654–1728) remarked that he could not visit the princess’s Chinese cabinet in the stadtholder’s palace in The Hague because it was under construction. What Tessin actually said was that “the princess’s precious cabinet of Chinese manufacture and small paintings cannot be seen because most of it is disturbed in order to be improved.”92 This comment does not prove that construction was stopped, let alone that it was related to Huygens’s letter. It may just as well be that the cabinet had already been constructed but that it was now closed for renovation. Moreover, the lacquer screen discussed by Huygens may not have been used for the palace at The Hague, but for the residence at Honselaarsdijk, where Mary also had a lacquer cabinet constructed. Tessin also visited this cabinet in 1687 and described it as “very preciously executed with Chinese manufacture and images.’93 Hitherto overlooked archival material sheds new light on this matter and demonstrates that Huygens’s words may not have been as persuasive as Scheurleer assumed.

89 90 91 92

93

Noord, “Reflections,” 44–45. My emphasis. Lunsingh Scheurleer, “Lakkabinetten,” 164; Campen, Royer, 216. “Der Printzessin kostbahrer Cabinet von Chinese arbeit undt kleinen Schilderijen kunte man nich sehen, weillen es meist wahr verstört, umb verbessert zu werden.” Gustaf Upmark, “Ein Besuch in Holland 1687 aus den Reiseschilderungen des Schwedischen Architekten Nicodemus Tessing d. J. ii.” Oud Holland 18, no. 3 (1900): 149. “[S]ehr kostbahr aussgemacht mit Chineser arbeit und Tafeln.” Upmark, “Besuch,” 146.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

5

171

A Lost Reply

That Mary was not very impressed by the Chinese people’s critical message that Huygens “translated” is proven by the latter’s “Mémoire pour Zeelhem” (see fig. 7.6 and Appendix 7.2), that has never been published before and over�looked by previous scholars.94 It is dated October 8, 1685 and probably dedicated to Constantijn the Younger, to whom Constantijn the Elder had given his title “Lord of Zeelhem.”95 The memoir opens stating humbly that Mary has dignified Constantijn the Elder “with an answer from her precious hand.” The princess had apparently written a “strong and honest” reply, voicing that the Chinese artefact was “an ill-favored Indian screen” that could be used for no better purpose than to dress the walls of her private quarters.96 It appears that the princess had responded to the comments in the first letter concerning the comparison between European and Chinese painting by remarking that the figures on the screen were badly painted and that the gilding was of poor quality. With regard to the inscription, it was merely a sample of bad handwriting, which the idolatrous and barbarian Chinese had displayed in a presumptuous way. By taking this badly executed work apart and repurposing it for interior decoration, she could “own them in their own wrong.”97 Huygens states that he will defend the princess’s case to anyone, for the screen could serve no better purpose than smashing it “into as many pieces as needed to dress a cabinet deemed worthy of the main and private retreat of such an excellent princess.” It is clear that Mary had no intention of following Huygens’s advice to keep the screen intact. In fact, it appears that (in her eyes) Huygens was not so much “the trusted advisor of the Orange family” as he had been for decades to her predecessors and that—perhaps—with her letter, she put him back in place to

94

95 96

97

Worp mentions its existence in a footnote but did not transcribe its contents. The manuscript has been digitized and is available on “Briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1607–1687,” Huygens ING, accessed October 31, 2017, http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/ briefwisselingconstantijnhuygens/brief/nr/n0014. Huygens gave his title of Lord of Zeelem to his son Constantijn the Younger during his lifetime. After Constantijn the Elder had passed away, the title was transferred to his other son Christiaan: see Blom, Leven Deel 1, 179. The term “Indian” is often used as a generic term to refer to anything foreign or Asian: see Jessica Keating and Lia Markey, “‘Indian’ Objects in Medici and Austrian-Habsburg Inventories: A Case-Study of the Sixteenth-Century Term,” Journal of the History of Collections 23, no. 2 (2011): 283–300; see also Klootwijk, “Curious,” 254. Which Huygens calls “her beautiful English sentence,” conveying the appreciation of her play on words (converting “in their own right” to “in their own wrong”).

172

Van Noord

Figure 7.6 First page of Huygens’s “Mémoire pour Zeelhem” Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KA 49dl 03 1091, The Hague

the extent that he now would openly defend her plans.98 The fact that Constantijn the Younger had become secretary to the stadtholder in 1672 explains why his father wrote his message in a memoir addressed to his son, knowing 98

Lunsingh Scheurleer, “Lakkabinetten,” 164.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

173

that he could forward it to the princess.99 Addressing his reply directly to Mary would perhaps be perceived as too bold; therefore, Huygens only formulates a humble and cautious suggestion to start a “commerce of letters” between two parties “so disproportionate in standing as Her Royal Highness and himself” in the last paragraph. Even though the princess was not impressed by the quality of the screen, she apparently did ask Huygens to write an apology to the Chinese senders of the original complaint. Huygens excuses himself for not being able to fulfil this request, due to lack of a “good English-Chinese dictionary.” This is an interesting remark because no English-Chinese dictionary is known to have existed at this time. Huygens continues that his translation of the “illustrious original”— purportedly sent by the Chinese—in his earlier letter was based on guesswork. Thus, contrary to what Scheurleer has argued, Huygens upholds the illusion that he translated a Chinese message and never reveals that he fabricated it himself. Huygens is compelled to agree with the princess that, in comparison to any European painting, the screen was decorated with badly painted and ugly Asian handwriting, which “these barbarian longbeards [i.e. the Chinese] have had the arrogance to display.” Nevertheless he will not give up his quest to obtain a translation of the inscription and to make “these poor idolaters” explain “the higher mysteries.” He hopes “with all the ardor of [his] soul” that Dutch ships will return with such an explanation before the time God has granted him to live runs out. 6

Not Giving Up

No other letters are known to have survived between Constantijn the Elder, Constantijn the Younger and Mary concerning the screen, so we do not know if and how the princess responded to the message in the memoir. However, it is clear that Huygens could not let go of the subject, because he would write four poems dedicated to the princess mentioning the screen.100 The first, “To Her Royal Highness” (see Appendix 7.3) is dated March 5, 1686, almost five 99

He had called upon his son before to communicate with the stadtholder’s court: On April 18, 1681, Constantijn the Younger writes that he has given his father’s letter to His Highness. “Briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1607–1687, Details voor brief 7172,” Huygens ING, accessed February 25, 2019, http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/briefwisselingconsta ntijnhuygens%3B/brief/nr/7172. 100 Four out of eight poems directed to the princess concern the screen, see Worp, Gedichten Deel 8, 349–358.

174

Van Noord

months after the “Mémoire pour Zeelhem.” It praises the “great princess” for inspiring him to start writing poems in English at the age of ninety and concludes: “This trouble is your last: or (as once more you have seen), I’ll be content to run the fortune of your screen.” Apparently, Huygens had addressed the princess concerning the screen once more. The “trouble” appears to refer to Huygens’s “perpetual babbling” in the previous line, presumably concerning his English skills—which he repeatedly downplays to be very modest—or perhaps it refers to him going on and on about the Chinese screen.101 That this is her “last” means this is the least of her worries: Mary already had enough going on with the increased tensions between the courts of Holland and England.102 To “run a fortune” in seventeenth-century English refers to “running a risk [of disaster].”103 The remark in the last sentence, that Huygens is happy to run the risk of the screen, can be interpreted in multiple ways. On the one hand, Huygens’s endeavors to obtain a translation of the inscription might change the princess’s mind about how she would use the screen, but there was still the risk that she would have it repurposed as wall paneling. On the other hand, Huygens, with his “perpetual babbling,” risks meeting a similar fate as the screen: being ruined.104 Less than two weeks later, Huygens writes another poem (see Appendix 7.4): With the Book of Dufour, of coffee, tea and chocolate Here are the grounds of three East and West Indian potions If you’ll examine them in their original notions 101 See also the next poem: “upstart mushroom English poet” and “Mémoire pour Zeelhem” (Appendix 7.2) about “my halting English diction.” In his life, Huygens had visited England seven times and wrote a significant body of poetry, primarily in Dutch, but also in Latin, and very occasionally in French and English, during these visits. See Christopher Joby, “A Dutchman Abroad: Poetry Written by Constantijn Huygens (1595–1687) in England,” The Seventeenth Century 28, no. 2 (2013): 187–206. 102 Just nine months earlier, Mary’s father, King James ii of England, faced two rebellions: one led by the Duke of Monmouth and the other by the Earl of Argyll. Argyll and Monmouth both began their expeditions from Holland, where Mary’s husband (James’s nephew and son-in-law), William of Orange, had neglected to detain them or put a stop to their recruitment efforts. Even though the rebellions were easily overthrown, it had strengthened James’ suspicion of the Dutch. John Miller, James ii (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000), 139–142. Around the time of the poem, a chamberlain of the princess, a Genevan named Verace, resigned his office under rather suspicious circumstances. Bowen, Third, 119. He later turned out to have been a spy, Mary F. Sandars, Princess and Queen of England, Life of Mary ii (London: Stanley Paul, 1913), 178. 103 “Oxford English Dictionary,” Oxford University Press, accessed March 15, 2018, http:// www.oed.com/view/Entry/73751?redirectedFrom=run+a+fortune#eid3844698. 104 We see this motif again in his last poem, see Appendix 7.10.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

175

And use them accordingly, you may be sure, they rain Such showers of wit and sense even in a Royal brain, That any China screen wherever it lies or stands Will stand immortally safe and whole in your hands. Your Royal Highness’s Most humble Upstart mushroom105 English Poet. March 18, 1686 The title of this poem refers to a book by Philippe Sylvestre Dufour (1622–1687), a French merchant and self-proclaimed pharmacist, who wrote a treatise on three fashionable hot beverages from the East and West Indies. It was published in 1671 in Lyon as De l’ Usage du Café, du Thé et du Chocolat and reprinted in 1684 in Lyon and in 1685 in The Hague as Traités nouveaux et curieux du Café, du Thé et du Chocolat.106 Mary would certainly have been aware of this popular publication and, as a keen collector of ceramic tea wares, she would have been interested in its content. It appears that Huygens appealed to this interest hoping that it would help open her eyes to the importance of respecting the integrity of the Chinese screen. That the poem was written “with” the book may indicate that he presented a copy to the princess as a gift. Huygens’s comment regarding “showers of wit and sense” conveys his admiration for Asian wisdom and products. Art historian Jan van Campen has already remarked that Huygens’s attitude towards the screen was rather exceptional for his time: he did not view it simply as a decorative object, but as an important, authentic artefact from China that deserved to be treated with respect.107 Using the metaphor of the Indian potions, he asks Mary to examine the artefact’s “original notions”; that is, the original intended function of the object and the hidden meanings of its inscription. He then asks her to use it 105 “Upstart mushroom” implies a sudden appearance: “Oxford English Dictionary,” Oxford University Press, accessed March 15, 2018, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/124100?rskey =RF9soD&result=1#eid. Huygens displays (false) modesty about his English to Mary on several accounts; see note 101. 106 See Worp, Gedichten Deel 8, 352. 107 Campen, “Splinters,” 139. Van Campen actually—rather confusingly—states that Huygens viewed the screen as a work of “art” and that his attitude was “proto-ethnographical.” Huygens, in his descriptions of the screen, never actually uses the word “art.” Rather, he approaches the artefact as an object that can inform him about the wisdom of the culture that produced it, which indeed points to an attitude that in today’s terms may be described as ethnographic.

176

Van Noord

accordingly and thus not to repurpose it as a cabinet. But there may be another reading here—as Huygens so much enjoyed lacing his writings with multiple interpretations—that suggests that Huygens acquiesced in the princess’s plans (as he voiced in “Mémoire pour Zeelhem”) and that the last two sentences indicate that, even if the princess turns the screen into a cabinet, it is still “immortally safe […] wherever it lies or stands.” Nevertheless, the addition of “whole” implies that he is really urging the princess to keep it intact. Less than three months later, Huygens writes a French poem about “the cabinet [made] of the pieces of the screen” (see Appendix 7.5). The poem is phrased as a (rhetorical) question, asking what is this extraordinary quality that the princess has to make us “adore even its errors?” The first lines state that the princess “promises” something that is supposed to “win all hearts.” Given the title of the poem, this promise—to build a cabinet from the screen—is one that is so famous that Nicodemus Tessin had heard about it and commented on not being able to visit it a year later (see above). In the original French of this poem, there is a play on words implying that Mary is the “queen of hearts.”108 The “adoration of its errors” again could be read in several ways: (1) the extraordinary princess is able to make us adore the errors of the ill-favored Chinese screen by turning it into a cabinet; (2) with her refined words the princess is able to make Huygens adore her errors; namely, the error of destroying a screen that should have been kept intact; (3) even though she may have convinced others to adore her error, she did not win Huygens’s heart. The latter two would be quite bold to state up front and, thus, through this ambiguity (which typifies Huygens’s play with words), he is able to convey this message in a more subtle, playful way. 7

The Chinese Inscription

This last poem must have been written around the same time that Huygens received a translation of the Chinese inscription on the back of the screen from Paris (see fig. 7.7 and Appendix 7.6).109 Jan van Campen discovered it amongst the papers left by Jean-Theodore Royer (1737–1807) in the Rijksmuseum archive. Royer must have acquired them through his second cousin

108 “Qu’ est ce que ne promet ceste estrange Princesse, au mestier de gaigner l’aveu de tous les coeurs” (see Appendix 7.5). I am grateful to Frans Blom for this suggestion. 109 Huygens may have just gone ahead with obtaining a translation but, for that, he would still have had to gain access to the screen to record the transcription of the characters. Therefore, it is more likely that Mary finally agreed that he could proceed.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

177

Figure 7.7 Philippe Couplet’s translation of the inscription of the back of Mary’s lacquer screen Noord-Hollands Archief, NL-HlmNHA 476 951 0002, Haarlem

­Susanna Louise Huygens (1714–1785), Constantijn’s great-granddaughter.110 The translation is unsigned but a letter from Paris dated September 13, 1686 (see Appendix 7.8) confirms that it was written by the Flemish Jesuit Philippe Couplet (1622–1693).111 Couplet had recently returned from China to promote the Jesuit mission on a tour of Europe and was in the process of translating the Confucian classics together with the Chinese convert who accompanied him on his journey: Michael Shen Fuzong 沈福宗 (?-1691).112 Shen must have 110 Campen, Royer; Broekman, “Kunst”; Ad Leerintveld, “Ter goeder memorie van mynen name: de nalatenschap van Constantijn Huygens,” in Soeticheydt des Buyten-levens: Leven en leren op Hofwijck, ed. Vicotr Freijser (Delft: Delftse Universitaire Pers, 1988), 97–115. 111 “[L]’explication du Pere Couplet.” Noord-Hollands Archief, Le Roij to Huygens, September 13, 1686, nha Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Archief Koninklijk Kabinet van Zeldzaamheden. Inv. Nr. 951. http://noord-hollandsarchief.nl/bronnen/archieven?mivast=236&mizig=210 &miadt=236&miaet=1&micode=476&minr=2198227&miview=inv2/. 112 Theodore N. Foss, “The European Sojourn of Philippe Couplet and Michael Shen Fuzong, 1683–1692,” in Philippe Couplet, S.J. (1623–1693). The Man who Brought China to Europe, ed. Jerome Heyndrickx (Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1990), 121–42. Robert K. Batchelor, “Shen Fuzong [Michael Alphonsus] (c.1658–1691),” in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), online edition, accessed Februay 25, 2019. https:// doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/95020.

178

Van Noord

helped Couplet with the translation, as all translation projects at that time were a product of teamwork, which included native speakers.113 Couplet wrote that all larger characters were variations of the character shou 壽, for longevity, and gave a transcription of the thirty-six smaller characters, explaining that it was a greeting from the governor-general of Fujian province Liu Dou to a friend (see Appendix 7.6). The Royer archive also kept strips of paper with a transcription of the characters (see fig. 7.8), which was presumably sent to Couplet for translation and returned afterwards.114 The translation itself is undated but there is an unsigned Dutch note in the same folder in the archive, dated July 27, 1686, which gives a summary of the translation “sent herewith” (see Appendix 7.7).115 From the transcribed characters, we can make a more detailed translation of the inscription: 總督福建等處地方軍務兼理糧餉，兵部右侍郎，兼都察院右副部御史 制，春，弟劉斗頓首拜。

Kowtowing in salutation, [this screen was] commissioned in spring by your humble Liu Dou,116 governor-general of Territorial Military Affairs and Provisions and Funds for Fujian [Province] and so on,117 right vice-minister of the Ministry of War and right vice censor-in-chief of the Imperial Censorate.118 113 For example, among documents from the period that Johan van Hoorn was governorgeneral of Batavia (August 15, 1704–October 30, 1709), there is a “translation of the five Chinese booklets, that bear the name Xinli (wise reasonings coming from the heart) written down according to the (oral) translation by the Chinese Sjainogoako and Limpboanko.” (Vertaling van de vijf Chineesse boekjes, die de naam dragen van Singli (wijse redenen uijt het hert voortkomende) overgeset volgens de vertolking der chineesen Sjainogoanko[?] en Limpboanko.) NL-HaNA, Collectie Van Hoorn-Van Riebeeck, 1.10.45, inv.nr. 12 (unpaginated). See also Noord, “Logistics,” 585, note 39. 114 In his letter, Thevenot wonders whether Couplet has made a copy of the original transcription, indicating that the latter was returned to Huygens (see Appendix 7.9). 115 Presumably this was a note accompanying Couplet’s translation and the returning transcriptions of characters, but it is not impossible that it is another translation (paraphrased) by someone else: that Huygens sent out the transcribed characters to several potential translators. This was not an uncommon practice: see Noord, “Logistics,” 583. 116 Couplet translated di 弟 as “I, your younger brother” (see Appendix 7.6) but, in this case, it probably should not be read so literally but rather as a modest way of saying “I” (to indicate inferiority). 117 Deng 等 “and so on” and chu 處 “place” referring to his other (simultaneous) positions as governor-general of another province, because zongdu 總 督 normally means to be governor-general of two provinces. 118 I am grateful to Lennert Gesterkamp for his help with this translation. The inscription clearly proves that this screen was made in China and not in Japan: cf. Marschner, “Collector,” 56; Turpin, “Table,” 5; Kuitert, “Context.”

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

179

Figure 7.8 One of several strips with transcribed characters from the inscription of the back of Mary’s lacquer screen Noord-Hollands Archief, NL-HlmNHA 476 951 00013, Haarlem

Liu Dou 劉斗 (?-1718), courtesy name (zi 字) Yao Wei 耀薇, was an official who initially worked for the Ministry of War and became an important figure in early Qing dynasty government.119 He was governor-general of Fujian Province in 1670–1672 and so, it would appear that he had this screen made as a gift to someone during this period. Who the recipient of the screen might have been and how it ended up in the hands of Dutch merchants remains unknown. Searches for Liu Dou’s names and titles in combination with terms describing the Dutch or foreigners in the Zhongguo jiben guji ku 中國基本古籍庫 [Database of Chinese Classic Ancient Books] and the Zhongguo fangzhi ku 中國方志 庫 [Database of Chinese Local Records] did not yield any relevant results.120 This makes it unlikely that Liu Dou had direct contact with the Dutch and that the voc acquired the screen through him. In fact, maritime trade was officially prohibited by the Kangxi Emperor between 1662 and 1684; however, in this

119 “Grand Secretariat Archives Project,” Academia Sinica, accessed November 9, 2017, http:// archive.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/ttscgi/ttsquery?0:16681231:mctauac:TM%3D%BCB%A4%E6. For a biography of Liu Dou, see Appendix 7.11. 120 Each database includes over 10,000 titles. Search terms included 劉 斗 ; 耀 薇 ; 福 建 總 督 combined with 蘭 ; 囒 ; 紅 ; 夷 ; 藩

180

Van Noord

period, Fujian was controlled by feudatory prince and warlord, Geng Jimao 耿 繼茂 and his son Geng Jingzhong 耿精忠, who succeeded his father after his death in 1671. Geng Jingzhong invited the voc to resume its trade through the burghers (Dutchmen settled at Batavia but not in the service of the Company) and Chinese of Batavia who sailed to Fujian.121 Presumably, the transfer of the screen was the result of these illegal trade ties between Fujian and Batavia. There are many examples of inscribed Chinese screens known from the late seventeenth to early eighteenth century made of so-called kuan cai 款彩 (“cut out and colored”) or ke hui 刻灰 (“incised ash”) lacquer. These names refer to their manufacturing technique, by which designs were carved out on solid wooden boards that had been covered by a thick layer of a composition of glue, lacquer and bone ash and then with a few layers of black or brown lacquer. The decorations were cut through the lacquer down to the surface of the composition and thereafter coloured with oil or lacquer pigments.122 The decorations often depict court scenes, episodes from the world of the immortals, panoramic or landscape views, and flora and fauna. In Europe, such lacquer had been called “Coromandel lacquer” from the nineteenth century onwards. This name refers to the Coromandel coast of India, where several European East India companies had trading posts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and where such Chinese screens are thought to have been transshipped onto vessels heading for Europe.123 Lacquer has a long history in China; vessels such as bowls and boxes were made as early as the Eastern Zhou period (771–256 bc). Large screens were already in use by the Northern Song dynasty (960–1126) and were usually employed in entrance halls or as room dividers or windscreens for gardens and terraces.124 The most luxurious lacquer screens were produced at the imperial workshops inlaid with mother-of-pearl or tortoiseshell.125 It is believed that

121 John E. Wills, Pepper, Guns, and Parleys: The Dutch East India Company and China, 1662– 1681 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974), 153. On the maritime trade ban and the illegal trade by the Geng’s and other warlords, also see Schottenhammer, Angela, “Characteristics of Qing China’s Maritime Trade Politics, Shunzhi Through Qianlong Reigns,” in Trading Networks in Early Modern East Asia, ed. Angela Schottenhammer (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2010), 101–154. 122 Sir Harry Garner, Chinese Lacquer (London & Boston, Faber & Faber, 1979), 259. 123 Campen, “Splinters,” 137. 124 Kesel and Dhont, Coromandel, 20. 125 E.g., “A Magnificent Twelve-Panel Inlaid Lacquer ‘Imperial Hunting’ Screen,” Sotheby’s, accessed November 24, 2017, http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/ imperial-interiors-hk0594/lot.3003.html.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

181

kuancai screens were developed in Southern China (around Fujian) as a cheaper alternative aimed at well-off merchants and civil servants.126 At the end of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), trade was flourishing in South China and a class of rich, highly cultured merchants had emerged, many of whom invested in art. As merchants, they were (by definition) at the bottom of the social scale. Some tried to improve their position through the civil service examinations. Once they had succeeded and had gained an official title, they wished to show off their status and had the financial means to do so. “The expression of good wishes was considered the highest form of respect and a Coromandel screen was one of the most valued but also one of the most expensive marks of respect.”127 The kuancai screens and cabinets that would be made for export towards the end of the seventeenth century and the eighteenth century were of much lesser quality than the screens made for presentation to Chinese high-ranking military officers and officials.128 The inscription tells us that Mary’s screen belonged to the latter category and was thus of high quality. Screens with inscriptions tend to dedicate the pieces to government officials, usually holding posts in Southern China (typically Fujian and Zhejiang, where these screens are thought to have been made), often commemorating a special event, such as a birthday or retirement gift. Up to now, the earliestknown inscribed screen bears the date 1659; it is the only piece of kuancai lacquer that can be positively dated earlier than the reign of the Kangxi Emperor (1662–1722). It was a gift presented to a Yintai Lao by numerous named relatives on the occasion of his birthday.129 Such screens tend to measure between 2.5 and 3 meters high and usually consist of twelve leaves (or panels) with a decoration on the front and an inscription with the dedication on the rear.130 126 Kesel and Dhont, Coromandel, 19–20. 127 Kesel and Dhont, Coromandel, 22. 128 Garner, Lacquer, 260. 129 Garner, Lacquer, 262. 130 For example, a twelve-fold screen with an inscription dating 1690, Jerry Dennerline, “Coromandel Screen,”Decorative Arts, Part ii: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings; Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets, ed. Virginia Bower et al. (Washington DC: The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue, 1998), 277–283; a twelve-fold screen with an inscription dedicating it the imperial government official Guo Shilong (1645–1716) on his 36th birthday dated 1681, “A Twelve-fold Chinese Coromandel Lacquer Screen,” Sotheby’s, accessed March 9, 2017, http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/pelhampublic-private-l16322/lot.111.html; a twelve-fold screen with a dedicatory inscription con�gratulating Elder Liu of Yongan County on the occasion of his birthday in 1689, “A Chinese Coromandel Lacquer Twelve-Panel Screen Dated 1689,” Sotheby’s, accessed March 9, 2017, http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/collections-european-decora��tive-arts-n09408/lot.648.html. A screen in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, with a date of Kangxi ninth year, equivalent to 1670, made for an official named Li, is the earliest

182

Van Noord

Usually, the inscriptions are much more elaborate than what has been ­transcribed from Mary’s example, often covering the rear of several leaves. Therefore, it is likely that Mary’s screen was not complete. Details such as the name of the person to whom the screen was dedicated and the year of manufacture may have been inscribed on other leaves that did not make it to Mary or that were perhaps not transcribed and sent to Couplet for translation. Other characters on the transcribed strips of paper are, as indicated by Couplet, different versions of the character shou 壽 for longevity written in all sorts of scripts—or fonts—if you will.131 These characters have also been found on a kuancai screen with a dated inscription of 1719 on the rear. The front is decorated with depictions of several officials, ladies and boys in a pavilion scene, enclosed by a thin border with stylized shou characters (see fig. 7.9). In his initial letter, Huygens also makes mention of several figures being depicted, fearing that their faces and limbs will end up upside down and in a horrible confusion if the screen were to be dismantled. Perhaps Mary’s screen looked similar to the 1719 screen with shou characters. The Royer folder in the Rijksmuseum archive contains two letters from Paris concerning the translation. The first is dated September 13, 1686 (see Appendix 7.8). It was from a certain Le Roij,132 explaining that he had not had the chance to consult Melchisédech Thévenot earlier (1620–1692)—Louis xiv’s librarian— regarding Father Couplet’s explanation, but that he had now met both Jesuits (i.e. Couplet and Shen?) whilst they were working on the translation of Chinese books and that he was told that there were two types of characters: not only shou for longevity but also fu 福 for good fortune.133 Finally, there

known one. “Prosperity in an Imperial Palace,” Asian Art Museum, accessed March 9, 2017, http://asianart.emuseum.com/view/objects/asitem/items$0040:440; Kesel and Dhont, Coromandel, 19–24. 131 Decorations with stylized shou characters are a common practice for Chinese objects meant to convey auspicious messages. See, for example, Peter Y.K. Lam, “Myriad Longevity without Boundaries – Some Qing Imperial Birthday Ceramics from Hong Kong Collections,” Arts of Asia 40, no. 5, (September-October 2010): 106–117; Teresa Tse Bartholomew, Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art (San Francisco: Asian Art Museum, 2006), 221–224. 132 Determining who he was is not a straightforward task: there is a fluidity of orthography between Le Roij, Le Roÿ and Le Roy and it is quite a common French name. Nicholas Dew kindly searched several indexes and the catalogue of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, but without a conclusive result. 133 However, the character fu is not found in the transcription of the characters. It is also not mentioned in Couplet’s translation (see Appendix 7.6).

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

183

Figure 7.9 A kuancai lacquer screen decorated with shou characters. China, 1719. Lacquered wood, 239.4 × 495.3 cm, with base designed by William Haines c. 1960 © Christies and William Haines Designs

is a letter from Thévenot himself dated October 2, 1686 (see Appendix 7.9). Thévenot remarks that Madame the Princess of Orange will probably not be very satisfied with the solution of the two words (fu and shou) that Couplet has sent and even less so with the explanation. It appears that, after receiving Couplet’s initial translation during the summer, Huygens had sent another letter to Paris to ask for a better explanation.134 After all, Huygens had promised the princess that a translation would unveil the mysteries of China’s “high and transcendent wisdom,” and a simple greeting from one official to another with some wishes for good fortune and longevity would not suffice to convince her to keep the screen intact. Indeed, the only other writing concerning the screen after Thévenot’s letter is Huygens’s poem dedicating his aforementioned Korenbloemen to the princess on New Year’s Eve, in which it becomes clear that the screen was indeed ruined (see “A Dying Man’s Final Quest” below). Even though the inscription does not provide information about how the screen was transferred from Liu Dou’s hands into those of the Dutch, other archival records allow us to trace how it ended up in one of Mary’s Dutch palaces and, thereby, to piece together the trajectory in the final stages of the screen’s biography.

134 This is also implied in Le Roij’s letter: see Appendix 7.8.

184 8

Van Noord

The Trajectory of the Screen

How did Mary manage to obtain a screen that was clearly not made to order for her—like some of Amalia’s Japanese lacquer—but for a Chinese official with friends in high places? Was it perhaps (part of) a gift from an East India Company official?135 Or did the princess purchase it directly from the voc?136 Records on the Dutch trade of Chinese lacquer screens (chineesche verlackte schutsels) are scarce137 but, by connecting the dots between some previously made but scattered observations, we can reconstruct the acquisition history of Mary’s screen. Scheurleer noted that the ship De Hollantze Thuyn, which left Batavia for Amsterdam on November 25, 1676, carried on board “three Chinese lacquered screens” (3 stux Chineze verlackte schutzels).138 Van Campen pointed out that, in 1678, two Chinese lacquered screens that had arrived in Amsterdam on the Hollantze Thuyn in 1677 had still not been sold.139 If we turn to the lists of “unsold goods” (onvercoghte goederen) of the Amsterdam Chamber in the voc 135 In April 1682, Elihu Yale, president of the English East India Company settlement at Madras, India, sent his family acquaintance, Joshua Edisbury in Wales, a vessel “fild with our best Mango Atchar” as well as a “Japan Skreene” for “your good Lady.” It was actually a gift in reciprocation of “a precious Comodity”; namely, “four Rundletts of Sandpatch Ale.” Albinia Lucy Cust, Chronicles of Erthig on the Dyke, vol. 1 (London: John Lane Company 1914), 44. The screen was, in fact, Chinese Coromandel lacquer and can still be seen today at Erddig Hall, Wales. Romita Ray, “Going Global, Staying Local: Elihu Yale the Art Collector,” Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin, (2012): 44. 136 For example, on September 17, 1688, Frederik iii King of Denmark would purchase “one lacquered screen” (1 laxserend skiermbert) from the Danish East India Company. The screen is still in the National Museum of Denmark today. By 1737, it had been dismantled into “twenty-two Chinese pictures made from an old Chinese screen [to] give the Indian Room a beautiful line up.” (22 Sinesische Schildereien, welche sindt von einem alten Sinesischen Scheirmbret gemacht und gehben der Indianschen Kammer ein Schoones anstehen). Martha Boyer, “Things Chinese from the 17th and 18th Centuries in the National Museum of Denmark,” in Studia Serica Bernhard Karlgren Dedicata: Sinological Studies dedicated to Bernhard Karlgren on his Seventieth Birthday, ed. Egerod Søren and Else Glahn (Copenhagen: E, Munksgaard, 1959), 151–152. 137 It was primarily a private trade good, which would naturally not be documented in official company archives. Van Campen has inventoried some notices of the Amsterdamse Courant, concluding that the English were by far the greatest importers of screens. Campen, “Splinters,” 140. 138 Jacobus A. van der Chijs, ed., Dagh-Register gehouden int Casteel Batavia vant passerende daer ter plaetse als over geheel Nederlandts-India Anno 1676, (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff/Landsdrukkerij Batavia, 1903) 331. Cf. Lunsingh Scheurleer, “Lakkabinetten,” 167 n.11 (he refers to p. 31 but this is incorrect). 139 Campen, “Splinters,” 140.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

185

a­ rchive, we see that the value of these two screens had been estimated in the Indies at 480 guilders,140 which was roughly the annual household income of a master laborer (such as a mason or a carpenter).141 In the archive, we also find that the screens were listed as unsold year after year, up until May 15, 1683.142 This would indicate that the screens were sold in the year thereafter; however, they are not mentioned on the list of “traded goods.”143 Where did they go? This is where the last piece of the puzzle falls into place because, elsewhere in his article, Scheurleer indirectly refers to a passage that describes how His Highness the Prince of Orange, upon visiting the Oostindisch huys—the voc headquarters in Amsterdam—on November 18, 1683, “spotted various curiosities [made] of lacquerwork, such as Chinese screens, Japanese cabinets, along with Japanese silk robes, silk fabrics, textiles, tea and all the like, laid out for that purpose, [thereupon at] the meeting of the [Gentlemen] Seventeen, two gentlemen and the advocate of the Company have commissioned, to choose there from such rarities and curiosities [of which] it is thought that they will please His Highly Esteemed Highness, and to present these [chosen rarities] in name of the Company with the appropriate compliments.”144 140 “Chinese Verlackte Schutsels 2 Ps. met d’Hollandsche Thuijn Ao. 1677 ontfangen getaxeert in India op.. 480.” The screens are first mentioned under “Onvercoghte goederen berustende inde Camer der Oostindische Comp tot Amsterdam onder Medio april anno 1678,” Nationaal Archief, Den Haag (NL-HaNA), Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (voc), access number 1.04.02, inv.nr. 4585 (unpaginated). The latter is also mentioned in Campen, “Splinters,” 140 to support a remark on the (lack of) popularity of Coromandel screens in Holland, but a link to Mary’s screen is not made. 141 Jan de Vries and Ad van der Woude, The First Modern Economy: Success, Failure, and Perseverance of the Dutch Economy, 1500–1818 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 609–611. 142 “Onvercoghte Goederen berustende inde Camer den Oostindische Comp. tot Amsterdam onder 15 Meij 1683,” NL-HaNA, voc, 1.04.02, inv. No. 4585 (unpaginated). 143 “Verhandelde goederen bij de Camer Amsterdam sedert 15 Meij 1683 tot 15 Meij 1684,” NLHaNA, voc, 1.04.02, inv.nr. 4585 (unpaginated). 144 “En wanneer deselve in ‘t jaar 1683 op het Oostindisch huys, om ‘t selve te besien, was geweest, mitsgaders sijn oogh hadde laten vallen op dese en gene curieusheden van lackwercken, als Chinesche schutten, Japansche comptoiren, vort Japansche zyde rocken, syde stoffen, lywaten, thee en diergelycke, te dien eynde opengeleyt, sijn door de vergaderinge van de Seventiene twee heeren en den advocaat van de Compagnie gecommitteert, om sodanige rariteyten en curiositeyten, als gemeynt wiert Sijn Hooggedachte Hoo­ gheyt aengenaam te wesen, daaruyt te kiesen, en deselve uyt naem van de Compagnie, met de complimenten, daartoe vereyschende, te presenteren.” Pieter van Dam, Beschrij­ vinge van de Oostindische Compagnie, ed. F.W. Stapel, Eerste Boek, Deel 2 (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1929), 340. Also available online at: http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/ retroboeken/vandam/#page=0&accessor=toc&view=imagePane. Lunsingh Scheurleer,

186

Van Noord

If we add up all the dates in the paper trail, it seems most likely that the screen ordered by Liu Dou between 1670 and 1672 was among those that arrived in Amsterdam in 1677 on the Hollantze Thuyn and remained unsold for six years.145 It is unclear whether the Prince of Orange, upon selecting the screens in 1683, knew they had been so unwanted. Perhaps Mary’s description of the pieces being “ill-favored” was referencing this, but we cannot know.146 The voc’s gift is also mentioned in several descriptions of visits to Huis Honselaarsdijk, one of which was published in 1710. It describes the “richly furnished principle apartments” and particularly the “esteemed cabinet of rarities from Japan and China which had been presented by the East India Company to the late Queen of England [Mary had died by then] at the time that she was only a Princess of Orange,” which was still “as she had arranged it by her own hand.”147 Since the abovementioned quote is a description of Honselaarsdijk, this would imply that Mary had Liu Dou’s screen repurposed as wall paneling there,

“Lakkabinetten,” 165, n. 6 and Theodoor Lunsingh Scheurleer, “Aanbesteding en Verspreiding van Japansch Lakwerk door de Nederlanders in de Zeventiende Eeuw,” in Jaarverslag Oudheidkundig Genootschap (Amsterdam: Van Kampen & zoon, 1941), 14–74, 71. Scheurleer never states the original source of the quote. I am ever grateful to Cynthia Viallé for pointing out that it came from Dam, Beschrijvinge, 340. Van Dam paraphrased from “Resolutions of the Gentlemen Seventeen, 18 Nov. 1683,” NL-HaNA, voc, 1.04.02, inv.no. 154: 444, accessed November 10, 2017, http://www.gahetna.nl/collectie/archief/inventaris/gahetnascans/eadid/1.04.02/inventarisnr/154/level/file/scans-inventarispagina/40. 145 The ship arrived at Texel on July 8 1677, its cargo was destined for the Chamber of Amsterdam: “The Dutch East India Company’s shipping between the Netherlands and Asia 1595– 1795,” Huygens ING, accessed December 18, 2017, http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/das/ detailVoyage/96607. 146 See “A Lost Reply,” above. 147 “Les principaux apartemens son richement meublez, & l’on y voit quantité de rares peintures. On trouve dans les galeries les portraits au naturel de la plûpart des Princes de l’Europe. On estime fort un cabinet de raretez du Japon & de la Chine, dont la Compagnie des Indes Orientales avoit fait présent à la feu Reine d’Angleterre du tems qu’elle n’étoit que Princesse d’Orange, & l’on prétent qu’elle l’a ordonné & rangé de sa propre main, comme il est encore à présent. L’Orangerie est toute pleine de très beauz Orangers. On trouve à la ménagerie des oiseaux & des animaux des Indes.” Jean Nicolas Parival, Les délices de la Hollande… (The Hague: Van Dole, 1710), 161. Mentioned in Theodoor Morren, Het Huis Honselaarsdijk (Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 1990), 52. Lunsingh Scheurleer, “Lakkabinetten,” 165, n. 6. For other descriptions of Honselaarsdijk in general and the cabinet in particular, see: Thomas von der Dunk, “Oranjepaleizen rond Den Haag als toeristisch trekpleisters Deel 1: Leonhard Sturm en andere vreemdelingen in Honselaarsdijk,” in Jaarboek 2006 Geschiedkundige Vereniging Die Haghe, ed. D.J. Cannegieter et al. (Den Haag: Geschiedkundige Vereniging Die Haghe, 2006), 23–68.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

187

rather than the stadholder’s quarters at the Binnenhof in the Hague.148 Therefore, Nicodemus Tessin’s aforementioned remark about restricted access to the princess’s Chinese cabinet in the stadholder’s quarters due to construction does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that the screen Huygens wrote about was indeed saved, as Scheurleer had argued. Rather, it leads us to read Tessin’s abovementioned comments on the cabinet at Honselaarsdijk with new eyes. He gives a detailed description of the possible new life of Liu Dou’s screens. The cabinet had recently been finished and it was located in the western wing of the palace: the princess’s quarter.149 The ceiling was set with mirrors in which one could see the room from new angles. The walls and the bed were black with gold decorations—like Japanese lacquer—with a mattress of white-gold brocade and finished with a red and gold rim. The chimneypiece was filled with precious porcelains.150 Scheurleer has pointed out that this cabinet at Honselaarsdijk was probably one of the earliest designs by the French Huguenot architect Daniel Marot (1661–1752). Marot had previously designed a cabinet for the dauphin at Versailles with a similar mirrored ceiling before fleeing France in 1685, following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The chimneypiece with porcelain displays presumably looked similar to the design Marot made for another residence of the House of Orange which was printed around 1695 (see fig. 7.10). It appears that on each side of the chimneypiece, a lacquered board with Chinese designs was supposed to decorate the wall: by the looks of it, European-made imitation lacquer rather than original Chinese screens.151 Apparently, the lacquer cabinets not only set a trend for other such cabinets paneled with Chinese (and Japanese) screens in Europe,152 but also for the local production of imitation lacquer panels and tapestries inspired by the designs.153 Tessin described the princess’s cabinet at Honselaarsdijk as “very preciously executed with Chinese manufacture and images.”154 Mary had clearly attained her goal to “gain the

148 Cf. Ronnes, “Architecture,” who claims the screen was upholstered at Het Loo but does not provide evidence. 149 Upmark, “Besuch,” 146. 150 Upmark, “Besuch,” 146. 151 Lunsingh Scheurleer, “ Lakkabinetten,” 165–166. 152 See Kisluk-Grosheide, “(Ab)Use”; Von Württemberg, Lackkabinett, 225–227. Also see various eighteenth- and nineteenth-century examples in Krist and Iby, Investigation. 153 See Campen, “Splinters,” 140–142 and Frederike Wappenschmidt, Chinesische Tapeten für Europa, vom Rollbild zur Bildtapete (Berlin: Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, 1989), 18–19. 154 “[S]ehr kostbahr aussgemacht mit Chineser arbeit und Tafel.” Upmark, “Besuch,” 146.

188

Van Noord

avowal of all hearts” (see Appendix 7.5); although, it seems that Huygens still viewed the construction of the cabinet as an “error.”155 9

A Dying Man’s Final Quest

Up until the last months of his life, Huygens could not let this subject go. Even though the princess was probably not impressed by the translation of the inscription he had managed to obtain, and even though she had gone ahead with the construction of her cabinet which required the destruction of the screen, Huygens could not help but to comment on the matter. His final quest of trying to preserve the integrity of the Chinese work of art had failed. The only other writing concerning the screen postdating Thévenot’s letter is Huygens’s poem dedicating his Korenbloemen to the princess on New Year’s Eve, just three months before his death. He had written the poem in the front of a luxuriously bound copy of his anthology of poetry.156 The poem of thirty-six lines (see Appendix 7.10) presents his work very humbly and concludes: […] If I have failed you, May your displeasure enlist me Among the most unfortunate: I desire to suffer all with them, When you wish for my ruin Treat me like the Chinese screen. In these last lines he states that, if the quality of his writing has disappointed her, he is prepared to suffer her disliking and she may “ruin” him like she had done with the Chinese screen. She may rip the “infamous mass of paper”—as he refers to his book in the poem’s opening lines—to shreds just like she had done with the Chinese artefact. Huygens’s modesty concerning the quality of his writing is false for this had been an acclaimed work for over a decade. By describing Mary’s treatment of the screen as “ruination” Huygens clearly voices his disapproval, even though he had promised in “Mémoire pour Zeelem” that he would defend her case. 155 Appendix 7.5. 156 This was the second edition (Amsterdam, 1672) bound in red Morocco leather with golden stamps. See Jan F. van Someren, “Iets over Magnus Hendricksz. en Hendrick Magnusz. ‘vermaarde boekbinders’ der 17e eeuw,” Oud Holland 1, (1883): 224–237.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

Figure 7.10

Marot, Daniël. Design for a chimneypiece. 1712. Etching and engraving, 24.7 × 19.5 cm, from Nouvelles Cheminées faites en plusieur en droits de la Hollande et autres Provinces du Dessein de D. Marot. Rijksmuseum, inv. no. RP-P-1964-3043, Amsterdam

189

190

Van Noord

It is unknown how Mary responded to Huygens’s final act of defiance. Contact did not cease, for Huygens would write two more poems dedicated to the princess before his death.157 It appears, however, that Huygens’s writings had little effect on the princess’s handling of Asian artefacts. When she became queen and moved to England in 1689, she brought her taste for things Asian with her. Two cabinets and three “Indian” tea tables from the royal collection were scheduled for shipment from the Netherlands to London.158 She also purchased more ceramics and lacquer items in England; as a 1688 newspaper reports: “The queen appeared at the market incognito, purchased some Chinese items and retuned to Windsor.”159 After her death, a bill was submitted by the “Japanner” Thomas Rymel for the cutting up of four screens, two cabinets and a large Japan chest to make new items.160 However, it should also be mentioned that the 1697 inventory of the Queen’s Gallery at Kensington House lists two “India screens” of eight leaves each—most likely of Coromandel lacquer— that she apparently had left intact.161 Huygens had not been alone in his critique of the repurposing of Asian lacquer. In their widely successful Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing, Stalker and Parker criticized those who make new cabinets out of old “Bantam” (i.e. Coromandel lacquer) screens without considering “the situation of their figures”: So that in these things so torn and hacked to join a new fancy, you may observe the finest hodgepodge and medley of men and trees turned topsyturvy and instead of marching by land you will see them taking journeys through the air […] in a word they have so mixed and blended the elements together […], nay deprived everything of its due site and position, that if it were like anything besides ruin and deformity, it must represent to you the earth, when Noah’s flood was overwhelming it. Such irregular pieces as these can never certainly be acceptable, unless persons have an equal esteem for ugly, ill-contrived works, because rarities in their kind, as for the greatest performances of beauty and proportion.162 157 Worp, Gedichten Deel 8, 356–358. 158 Marschner, “Collector,” 56. 159 “Woensdagh verscheen de Coningin incognito op de Marckt, kocht eenige Chineesse Waeren en keerde na Windsor.” Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant, September 11, 1688, “Delpher,” Koninklijke Bibliotheek, accessed March 22, 2018, https://www.delpher.nl/nl/krant�en/view?coll=ddd&identifier=ddd:010800939:mpeg21:a0010. 160 Turpin, “Table,” 5; Marschner, “Collector,” 56. 161 John Hardy, “Pretty Show Pots,” in Kensington Palace and the Porcelain of Queen Mary ii, ed. Mark Hinton and Oliver Impey (London: Christie, Manson & Woods limited, 1998), 82. 162 John Stalker and George Parker, A Treatise of Japaning [sic] and Varnishing […] (Oxford, 1688), 37–38, also quoted in Kesel and Dhont, Coromandel, 28.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

191

Stalker and Parker’s use of words such as “hodgepodge” and “topsy-turvy” is reminiscent of Huygens’s remarks in his “translation” of the letter from the Chinese people (see Appendix 7.1), in which he feared that by “deforming faces and all other limbs […] many of them chancing to stand upside down, legs and feet will meet with eyes, noses, knees and elbows, by so horrible a confusion all metamorphosed into a ridiculous mingle mangle.” They share the distaste for “mixing and blending” original works of great “beauty and proportion” into something deformed and ruined. However, whereas Stalker and Parker’s objections remain mostly aesthetic, Huygens goes further by stressing the need to use such works in their “original notions.” In Huygens’s view, the artefact provides an opportunity to learn about the culture that produced it and using the object in the way it was intended (or at least without physically altering it) is a way of respecting that culture. Huygens had also not been alone in his disapproval of Mary’s exotic innovations in interior decoration. Writer Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) would famously credit Mary with creating the passion for collecting porcelain in England to such an extent that she laid the foundation for “fatal excesses”: The queen brought in the custom or humor, as I may call it, of furnishing houses with chinaware, which increased to a strange degree afterwards, piling their china upon the tops of cabinets, scrutoteres, and every chimneypiece, to the tops of the ceilings, and even setting up shelves for their chinaware, where they wanted such places, till it became a grievance in the expense of it and even injurious to their families and estates.163 In England, Mary had furnished several residences with porcelain, turning them into “China cabinets,” including her apartments at Kensington Palace and the Water Gallery at Hampton Court Palace. The latter has been described as “paneled all with Japan,” which indicates that this was a lacquer room, although it is unclear whether the lacquer panels were made in Europe or Asia.164 Ironically, Mary’s own cabinets would be dismantled and repurposed soon after her death. Perhaps William was not as interested in China as Mary had been165 or it may simply reflect the change in fashion.166 In any event, Mary’s cabinet at Het Loo—presumably used to display porcelain—was turned into a 163 Daniel Defoe, A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain, 1724–6, Volume 1 (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927), 166. Quoted in Broomhall and van Gent, Dynastic, 229 and Turpin, “Table,” 5. 164 Kisluk-Grosheide, “(Ab)Use,” 33. 165 Raaij and Spies, Royal Progress, 47. 166 Impey, “Porcelain Room,” 68.

192

Van Noord

library; the Water Gallery was pulled down and, in 1699, William gave the complete Kensington Palace china collection (around 810 pieces) to his favorite, Arnold Joost van Keppel (1670–1718). The only pieces of “china” still at Hampton Court are actually made in Holland: these are the tin-glazed earthenware tulip vases that were made for Mary in Delft.167 Huis Honselaarsdijk, on the other hand, would keep attracting visitors for another century following Mary’s redecoration. They came to see the large collection of paintings and the “Indian cabinet” in particular. Guillaume-René Lefébure, baron de Saint-Ildephont (1744–1809), who visited Honselaarsdijk in 1782, remarked that the room of “old Japanese lacquerware” may not have been comparable to the Japanese room of the late Prince Charles de Lorraine in Brussels, but was certainly worth visiting.168 But not long after, the palace was found in a such a state of decay that it was recommended to be sold and demolished in 1795.169 It did not come to that just yet; however, in the years thereafter, the works of art and the furniture were brought to The Hague for public sale and the most important paintings were transferred to Huis ten Bosch.170 Although there are no records to confirm, it seems plausible that the lacquer screens from Mary’s cabinet were sold in The Hague in 1798. After having served as a military hospital and a military school, Huis Honselaarsdijk was finally sold and demolished in 1815.171 10 Conclusion By analyzing Huygens’s famous letter to Mary in the context of other writings and by tracing the trajectory of the screen through archival records, this chapter has shed new light on an old case. Countering earlier publications, it has argued that the princess proceeded with her plans to repurpose the Chinese screen and that Huygens did not reveal to Mary that he was the author of the message he supposedly only translated. This means that he willfully attempted to trick the princess into thinking that the Chinese people strongly objected to her plans and that he had been observant and loyal enough to recognize the importance of the message and swiftly translated it. Even though Huygens was a very strategic writer and enjoyed lacing his work with multiple 167 Raaij and Spies, Royal Progress, 47. 168 Morren, Honselaarsdijk, 95; Dunk, “Oranjepaleizen,” 58. 169 Morren, Honselaarsdijk, 96–97. 170 Morren, Honselaarsdijk, 99. 171 Morren, Honselaarsdijk, 111; Dunk, “Oranjepaleizen,” 58.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

193

interpretations, such deceit seems unfitting of his moral character. It appears that his appreciation for this artefact and the culture that produced it ran so deep that it urged him to take his rhetorical tactics to another level. This case study demonstrates the agency that material culture can have in mediating cultural entanglement and processes of image formation. To Huygens, the lacquer screen exuded the “high and transcendent wisdom” of a culture he clearly admired. He could not ignore the artefact and felt compelled to try and save it from ruination and determined to unravel the “higher mysteries” that its inscription contained. In his inferior position of retired secretary, the only way he could criticize the princess’s plans to the point that she might reconsider was to disguise himself as the voice of the Chinese people. The unusual format of the letter not only sheds light on Huygens’s own knowledge and opinion of China and its arts, but also on how he thought the Chinese people viewed their own arts and those of Europe. His persistence in writing poems concerning the screen—even after Mary had informed him that she saw no better purpose for this “ill-favored” screen than to use it to clad her walls—demonstrates just how serious his concern for the artefact was. It appears that Huygens’s previous encounters with ideas about and objects from China had fostered such a profound admiration for its culture, that any works produced by it deserved to be treated with respect. In this respect he seems rather unique. Whereas his contemporaries did decry the deformation of beautiful originals into ugly hodgepodges, their disapproval was chiefly in terms of aesthetics. Huygens tries to convince Mary to reevaluate her use of the screen by offering her more information about Chinese culture: first, in the form of a translation of the inscription and, later, with a book on Chinese tea. His urge to investigate the artefact’s inscription and to use it as it was originally intended— even after the content of the inscription proved to be disappointing—reveals an attitude that might be called “ethnographic” in today’s terms. It is as though he recognized this piece of foreign making as cultural heritage, which needed to be protected from vandalism. Mary’s treatment of the screen reflects a different and more common seventeenth-century European view of Chinese artefacts. Her interest in such items is first and foremost for the purpose of decoration and, as such, she sees no harm in dismantling objects to suit her demands. Her preference for things Chinese does not appear to be related to a particular view of or fascination with Chinese culture. Rather, it is about the exclusivity and luxurious appearance of the materials that these things are made of: lacquer and porcelain could not be successfully reproduced in Europe at the time. Mary appropriates the screen by repurposing it to adorn her private chambers: a space used to impress privileged guests with her taste and access to rare materials. She has

194

Van Noord

little interest in learning what the inscription on the back might say or in respecting the integrity of the object. Her attitude matches the European fashion for the use of Asian(-looking) artefacts in interior decoration: a fashion that she herself helped to create. Bibliography Academia Sinica. “Grand Secretariat Archives Project.” Accessed November 9, 2017. http://archive.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/ttscgi/ttsquery?0:16681231:mctauac:TM%3D%BCB %A4%E6/. Asian Art Museum. “Prosperity in an Imperial Palace.” Accessed March 9, 2017. http:// asianart.emuseum.com/view/objects/asitem/items$0040:440/. Ayers, John. Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen Volume 1. London: Royal Collection Trust, 2016. Baarsen, Reinier. “Kistjes van Kick? Hollands lakwerk uit de vroege zeventiende eeuw.” The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 56, no. 1/2 (2008): 12–27. Bartholomew, Teresa Tse. Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum, 2006. Batchelor, Robert K. “Shen Fuzong [Michael Alphonsus] (c.1658–1691).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006, online edition. https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/95020. Beller, Manfred. “Perception, Image, Imagology.” In Imagology: The Cultural Construction and Literary Representation of National Characters. A Critical Survey, edited by Manfred Beller and Joep Leerssen, 3–16. Boston and Leiden: Brill, 2007. Blom, Frans. Constantijn Huygens: mijn leven verteld aan mijn kinderen in Twee Boeken. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Prometheus/Bert Bakker, 2003. Blom, Frans. “Building in Stones and Words: Strategies of Self Presentation in Huygens’ Volumes of Collected Poetry.” In Return to Sender: Constantijn Huygens as a Man of Letters, edited by Lise Gosseye, Frans Blom and Ad Leerintveld, 17–58. Ghent: Academia Press/Ginkgo, 2013. Boesen, Gudmund. “‘Chinese’ Rooms at Rosenborg Castle.” The Connoisseur 200, no. 803 (January 1979): 34–39. Bowen, Marjorie. The Third Mary Stuart: Mary of York, Orange & England, Being a Character Study with Memoirs and Letters of Queen Mary ii of England, 1662–1694. London: John Lane the Bodley Head Limited, 1929. Boyer, Martha. “Things Chinese from the 17th and 18th Centuries in the National Museum of Denmark.” In Studia Serica Bernahrd Karlgren Dedicata: Sinological Studies dedicated to Benhard Karlgren on his Seventieth Birthday, edited by Egerod Søren and Else Glahn, 147–158. Copenhagen: E. Munksgaard, 1959.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

195

Broekman, Inge. “Constantijn Huygens, de kunst en het hof.” PhD diss., University of Amsterdam, 2010. Broomhall, Susan, and Jacqueline van Gent, Dynastic Colonialism: Gender, Materiality and the Early Modern House of Orange-Nassau. London and New York: Routledge, 2016. Canepa, Teresa. Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer: China and Japan and their Trade with Western Europe and the New World, 1500–1644. London: Paul Holberton, 2016. Catalogus […] Librorum […] Christiani Huygenii. The Hague: Adriaan Moetjens, 1695. Cederholm, Tara. “Curiously Engraven: the New Art of Japanning and an Exploration of Depictions of Asia in Eighteenth-Century London and Boston.” In Material Imitation and Imitation Materials in Furniture and Conservation: Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Symposium on Wood and Furniture Conservation, edited by Miko Vasques Dias, 177–189. Amsterdam: Stichting Ebenist, 2017. Chou Kung-shin. “French Jesuits and Chinese Lacquer in the Late 17th Century.” Oriental Art 45, no. 4 (1999): 33–37. Clunas, Craig. “Connected Material Histories: A Response.” Modern Asian Studies 50, no. 1 (216): 61–74. Cust, Albinia Lucy. Chronicles of Erthig on the Dyke vol. 1. London: John Lane Company, 1914. Dam, Pieter van. Beschrijvinge van de Oostindische Compagnie, ed. F.W. Stapel, Eerste Boek, Deel 2. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1929. http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/ retroboeken/vandam/#page=0&accessor=toc&view=imagePane/. De Bruijn, Emile. “Globalised Lacquer – a Baroque Enthusiasm: Javanese Tables in Pride of Place at Dyrham Park and Ham House.” National Trust Arts, Buildings, Collections Bulletin (May 2013): 11–13. De Haan, Johan. “The Leeuwarden Lacquer Room: a Royal Puzzle.” The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 57, no. 2 (2009): 150–169. De Kesel, Wilfried, and Greet Dhont, Coromandel Lacquer Screens. Gent: Snoeck-Ducaju en Zoon, 2002. De Vries, Jan, and Ad van der Woude. The First Modern Economy: Success, Failure, and Perseverance of the Dutch Economy, 1500–1818. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Defoe, Daniel. A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain, 1724–6, Volume 1. London: JM Dent and Co, 1927. Dekker, Rudolf, ed. The Diary of Constantijn Huygens Jr., Secretary to Stadholder-King William of Orange. Leiden: Brill, 2012. Dennerline, Jerry. “Coromandel Screen.” In Decorative Arts, Part ii: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings; Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets, edited by Virginia Bower et al., 277–283. Washington DC: The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue, 1998.

196

Van Noord

Dew, Nicholas. Orientalism in Louis xiv’s France. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Diercks, Femke. “Inspired by Asia: Responses in the Dutch Decorative Arts.” In Asia in Amsterdam: the Culture of Luxury in the Golden Age, edited by Karina Corrigan, Jan van Campen and Femke Diercks, 246–253. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2015. Early Modern Letters Online. “Constantijn Huygens to Mary ii Stuart (Future Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland),” The Wives of the Stadtholders: an exhibition. Accessed May 6, 2017. http://emlo-portal.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/exhibition/sw/items/ show/35/. Erkelens, A.M.L.E. (Wies). Queen Mary’s “Delft Porcelain”: Ceramics at Het Loo from the Time of William and Mary. Zwolle: Waanders, 1996. Fock, Willemijn C. “Frederik Hendrik en Amalia’s appartementen: Vorstelijk vertoon naast de triomf van het porselein.” In Vorstelijk Verzameld: de kunstcollectie van Frederik Hendrik en Amalia, edited by Peter van der Ploeg and Carola Vermeeren, 76–84. Zwolle: Waanders, 1997. Foss, Theodore N. “The European Sojourn of Philippe Couplet and Michael Shen ­Fuzong, 1683–1692.” In Philippe Couplet, S.J. (1623–1693). The Man who Brought China to Europe, edited by Jerome Heyndrickx, 121–42. Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1990. Garner, Harry. Chinese Lacquer. London & Boston: Faber & Faber, 1979. Gerritsen, Anne, and Giorgio Riello, ed. Writing Material Culture History. London: Bloomsbury, 2015. Gerritsen, Anne and Giorgio Riello. “Spaces of Global Interactions: The Material Landscapes of Global History.” In Writing Material Culture History, edited by Anne Gerritsen and Giorgio Riello, 111–133. London: Bloomsbury, 2015. Gerritsen, Anne, and Giorgio Riello, ed. The Global Lives of Things: The Material Culture of Connections in the Early Modern World. London: Routledge, 2016. Gerritsen, Anne and Giorgio Riello. “The Global Lives of Things: Material Culture in the First Global Age.” In The Global Lives of Things: The Material Culture of Connections in the Early Modern World, edited by Anne Gerritsen and Giorgio Riello, 1–28. London: Routledge, 2016. Golvers, Noël. “De recruteringstocht van M. Martini, S.J. door de Lage Landen in 1654: over geomantische kompassen, Chinese verzamelingen, lichtbeelden en R.P. Wilhelm van Aelst, S.J.” De Zeventiende Eeuw 10, no. 2 (1994): 331–350. Groenveld, Simon. “‘Een Out ende Getrouw Dienaer, beyde van den Staet ende Welstant in ‘t Huys van Orangen’: Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687), een hoog Haags ambtenaar.” Holland: Regionaal-Historisch Tijdschrift 20, no. 1 (February 1988): 3–32. Groeneveldt, Willem P. De Nederlanders in China: De eerste bemoeiingne om den handel in China en de vestiging in de Pescadores, 1601–1624. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1898.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

197

Hakluyt, Richard. The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation, vol. 16, part 2, edited by Edmund Goldsmid. Edingburgh: E/. & G. Goldsmid, 1890. Hagelskamp, Christina. “De Leeuwarder Lakkamer in het Rijksmuseum: Nieuwe inzichten over het vervaardigen van Chinese kuan cai lakschermen en hun transformatie tot een laat 17e-eeuws Nederlands interieur.” Aziatische Kunst 45, no. 2 (July 2015): 35–43. Hardy, John. “Pretty Show Pots.” In Kensington Palace and the Porcelain of Queen Mary ii, edited by Mark Hinton and Oliver Impey, 79–84. London: Christie, Manson & Woods limited, 1998. Hertel, Ralf. “Faking It: The Invention of East Asia in Early Modern England.” In Early Encounters between East Asia and Europe: Telling Failures, edited by Ralf Hertel and Michael Keevak, 31–50. New York and London: Routledge, 2017. Huygens, Christiaan. Oeuvres Complètes. Tome iv. Correspondance 1662–1663, edited by David Bierens de Haan. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1891. Huygens, Constantijn Jr. Journaal van 21 october 1688 tot 2 september 1696. Eerste deel. Utrecht: Kemink & Zoon, 1876. Huygens ING. “Briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1607–1687.” Accessed February 25, 2019. http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/briefwisselingconstantijnhuygens. Huygens ING. “Briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1607–1687, correspondentie met Mary Stuart ii.” Accessed February 25, 2019. http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/ briefwisselingconstantijnhuygens%3B/brieven?zk_correspondentid=1293&order= order_by_date. Huygens ING. “Briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1607–1687, Details voor brief n0014.” Accessed October 31, 2017. http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/briefwisseling constantijnhuygens/brief/nr/n0014. Huygens ING. “Briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1607–1687, Details voor brief n0031.” Accessed October 25, 2017. http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/briefwisseling constantijnhuygens/brief/nr/n0031/. Huygens ING. “Briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1607–1687, Details voor brief 405.” Accessed February 25, 2019. http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/briefwisselingc onstantijnhuygens%3B/brief/nr/405. Huygens ING. “Briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygesn 1607–1687, Details voor brief 408.” Accessed February 25, 2019. http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/briefwisselingc onstantijnhuygens%3B/brief/nr/408. Huygens ING. “Briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1607–1687, Details voor brief 7172.” Accessed February 25, 2019. http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/briefwisselingc onstantijnhuygens%3B/brief/nr/7172. Huygens ING. “Briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1607–1687, Details voor brief 7231.” Accessed October 31,2017. http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/briefwisseling constantijnhuygens/brief/nr/7231.

198

Van Noord

Huygens ING. “The Dutch East India Company’s shipping between the Netherlands and Asia 1595–1795.” Accessed December 18, 2017. http://resources.huygens.knaw .nl/das/detailVoyage/96607/. Huygens ING. “The Dutch East India Company’s shipping between the Netherlands and Asia 1595–1795.” Accessed December 12, 2017. http://resources.huygens.knaw .nl/das/detailVoyage/96710. Huysman, Ineke. “Bewondering of berekening? De geschenkenuitwisseling tussen Béatrix de Cusance en Constantijn Huygens.” In Vrouwen rondom Constantijn Huygens, edited by Els Kloek, Frans Blom and Ad Leerintveld, 203–223. Hilversum: Verloren, 2010. Huysman, Ineke, and Ad Leerintveld. “New Perpectives of the Digitized Correspondence of Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687).” Dutch Crossing 38, no. 3 (2014): 244–258. Huysman, Ineke and Rudolph Rasch. Béatrix en Constantijn: De briefwisseling tussen Béatrix de Cusance en Constantijn Huygens 1652–1662. Amsterdam: Boom, 2009. Impey, Oliver. “The Rise and Fall of the Porcelain Room: Patterns of Trade and Symmetry of Display.” In Kensington Palace and the Porcelain of Queen Mary ii, edited by Mark Hinton and Oliver Impey, 59–68. London: Christie, Manson & Woods limited, 1998. Jackson, Anna, and Amin Jaffer. Encounters: The Meeting of Asia and Europe 1500–1800. London: V&A Publishing, 2004. Jardine, Lisa. Going Dutch: How England Plundered Holland’s Glory. London: HarperCollins, 2008. Jardine, Lisa. “The Reputation of Sir Constantijn Huygens: Networker of Virtuoso?” In Temptation in the Archives: Essays in Golden Age Dutch Culture, edited by Lisa Jardine, 45–64. London: UCL Press, 2015. Joby, Christopher. “The Theology of Poems on the Lord’s Supper by the Dutch Calvinist, Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687),” Scottish Journal of Theology 65, no. 2 (2012): 127–144. Joby, Christopher. “A Dutchman Abroad: Poetry Written by Constantijn Huygens (1595–1687) in England.” The Seventeenth Century 28, no. 2 (2013): 187–206. Joby, Christopher. “Sin, Salvation and Paradox in the Sonnet Cycle, Holy Days, by the Dutch Calvinist, Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687),” Questions Liturgiques 94, no. 1– 2 (2013): 91–108. Joby, Christopher. The Multilingualism of Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2014. Keating, Jessica, and Lia Markey. “‘Indian’ Objects in Medici and Austrian-Habsburg Inventories: A Case Study of the Sixteenth-Century Term.” Journal of the History of Collections 23, no. 2 (2011): 283–300.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

199

Kisluk-Grosheide, Daniëlle. “The (Ab)Use of Export Lacquer in Europe.” In Ostasiatische und Europäische Lacktechniken/East Asian and European Lacquer Techniques, edited by Michael Kühlenthal, 27–43. München: Arbeitshefte des Beyerischen Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, 2000. Kisluk-Grosheide, Daniëlle. “Lacquer and Japanning in Seventeenth-Century Flemish and Dutch Paintings.” Antiques 162, no. 4 (October 2002): 150–159. Kloek, Els, Frans Blom and Ad Leerintveld, ed. Vrouwen rondom Constantijn Huygens. Hilversum: Verloren, 2010. Klootwijk, Annemarie. “Curious Japanese Black: Shaping the Identity of Dutch Imitation Lacquer.” In Netherlands Yearbook for the History of Art 66, edited by Thijs Weststeijn, Eric Jorink and Frits Scholten, 253–271. Leiden: Brill, 2017. Koninklijke Bibliotheek. “Delpher.” Accessed May 7, 2018. https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve ?urn=ddd:010904074:mpeg21:p001. Koninklijke Bibliotheek. “Delpher.” Accessed March 22, 2018. https://www.delpher.nl/ nl/kranten/view?coll=ddd&identifier=ddd:010800939:mpeg21:a0010. Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag, inv. no. KB KA 49-3. Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag, inv. no. KB KA xliiie 1681–1686. Kuitert, Wybe. “Japanese Robes, Sharawadgi, and the Landscape Discourse of Sir William Temple and Constantijn Huygens.” Garden History 41, no. 2 (2013): 157–176. Kuitert, Wybe. “Context & Praxis: Japan and Designing Gardens in the West.” Die Gartenkunst 28, no. 2 (2016): 278–292. Lam, Peter Y.K. “Myriad Longevity without Boundaries – Some Qing Imperial Birthday Ceramics from Hong Kong Collections.” Arts of Asia 40, no. 5 (September–October 2010): 106–117. Leerintveld, Ad. “Ter goeder memorie van mynen name: de nalatenschap van Constantijn Huygens.” In Soeticheydt des Buyten-levens: Leven en leren op Hofwijck, edited by Vicotr Freijser, 97–115. Delft: Delftse Universitaire Pers, 1988. Leerintveld, Ad. Constantijn Huygens: De Collectie in de Koninklijke Bibliotheek. Amerfoort & Brugge: Bekking & Blitz, 2013. Leiden University, “De Gedichten van Constantijn Huygens.” Accessed February 25, 2019. http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/Dutch/Huygens. Levert, Stephanie. “‘Étrangers, mais Habitués en cette Ville de Paris’: Les Artistes Néer­ landais à Paris (1550–1700): une Prosopographie.” PhD diss., University of Amsterdam, 2017. Loonstra, Marten, and Saskia S. Broekema. “Japanese Art at Court.” In Imitation and Inspiration: Japanese Influence on Dutch Art, edited by Stefan van Raaij, 61–72. Amsterdam: D’Arts, 1989. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Theodoor. “Aanbesteding en Verspreiding van Japansch Lakwerk door de Nederlanders in de Zeventiende Eeuw.” In Jaarverslag Oudheidkundig Genootschap, 14–74. Amsterdam: Van Kampen & zoon, 1941.

200

Van Noord

Lunsingh Scheurleer, Theodoor. “De Woonvertrekken in Amalia’s Huis in het Bosch.” Oud Holland 84 (1969): 29–66. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Theodoor. “Stadhouderlijke Lakkabinetten.” In Opstellen voor H. van de Waal, 164–173. Amsterdam: Scheltema & Holkema, 1970. Marschner, Joanna. “Queen Mary ii as a Collector.” In Kensington Palace and the Porcelain of Queen Mary ii, edited by Mark Hinton and Oliver Impey, 49–58. London: Christie, Manson & Woods limited, 1998. Miller, John. James ii. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000. Møller, Berit. “Marble, Tortoiseshell, Wood and Other Materials Created in Paint and Lacquer during the Baroque Period in Denmark.” In Material Imitation and Imitation Materials in Furniture and Conservation: Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Symposium on Wood and Furniture Conservation, edited by Miko Vasques Dias, 19–32. Amsterdam: Stichting Ebenist, 2017. Monconys, Balthasar de. Journal des Voyages de Monsieur de Monconys: Seconde Partie. Lyon: Horace Boissat & George Remeus, 1666. Morren, Theodoor. Het Huis Honselaarsdijk. Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 1990. Mostert, Tristan, and Jan van Campen, Silk Thread: China and the Netherlands from 1600. Amsterdam & Nijmegen: Rijksmuseum & van Tilt, 2015. Nationaal Archief, Den Haag, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (voc), access no. 1.04.02, inv. No. 154. http://www.gahetna.nl/collectie/archief/inventaris/gahetnasc ans/eadid/1.04.02/inventarisnr/154/level/file/scans-inventarispagina/40/. Nationaal Archief, Den Haag, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (voc), access no. 1.04.02, inv. No. 154: 444. “Resolutions of the Gentlemen Seventeen, 18 Nov. 1683.” Accessed November 10, 2017. http://www.gahetna.nl/collectie/archief/inventaris/ gahetnascans/eadid/1.04.02/inventarisnr/154/level/file/scans-inventarispagina/40. Nationaal Archief, Den Haag, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (voc), access no. 1.04.02, inv. No. 4585. Niemeijer, Hendrik E., Batavia: Een koloniale samenleving in de 17de eeuw. Amersfoort: Balans, 2005. Nieuhof, Johan. Het gezantschap der Neêrlandtsche Oost-Indische Compagnie, aan den grooten Tartarischen Cham, den tegenwoordigen keizer van China…Beneffens een nauwkeurige beschryving der Sineesche steden, dorpen, regeering. Amsterdam: Van Meurs, 1665. Noord-Hollands Archief, Haarlem, Archive of the Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam, access 476, inv. no. 951. http://noord-hollandsarchief.nl/bronnen/archieven?mivast=236& mizig=210&miadt=236&miaet=1&micode=476&minr=2198227&miview=inv2. Oxford University Press. “Oxford English Dictionary.” Accessed March 15, 2018. http:// www.oed.com/view/Entry/124100?rskey=RF9soD&result=1#eid/. Oxford University Press. “Oxford English Dictionary.” Accessed March 15, 2018. http:// www.oed.com/view/Entry/73751?redirectedFrom=run+a+fortune%20-%20eid38 44698/.

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

201

Parival, Jean Nicolas. Les delices de la Hollande […]. The Hague: Van Dole, 1710. Pieters, Jürgen. “Introduction: Constantijn Huygens as a Man of Letters.” In Return to Sender: Constantijn Huygens as a Man of Letters, edited by Lise Gosseye, Frans Blom and Ad Leerintveld, 1–16. Ghent: Academia Press/Ginkgo, 2013. Pos, Arie. “Het Paviljoen van Porselein: Nederlandse Literaire Chinoiserie en het Westerse Beeld van China (1250–2007),” PhD diss., Leiden University, 2008. Ray, Romita. “Going Global, Staying Local: Elihu Yale the Art Collector.” Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin, (2012): 34–51. Sabbe, Maurits. “Constantijn Huygens, en Zuid-Nederland.” In Verslagen en mededelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Taal- en Letterkunde, 775–799. Ghent: Koninklijke Vlaamsche Academie voor Taal- en Letterkunde, 1925. Sandars, Mary F. Princess and Queen of England: Life of Mary ii. London: Stanley Paul, 1913. Schottenhammer, Angela, “Characteristics of Qing China’s Maritime Trade Politics, Shunzhi Through Qianlong Reigns.” In Trading Networks in Early Modern East Asia edited by Angela Schottenhammer, 101–154. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2010. Scriverius, Petrus. Beschrijvinghe van Out Batavien, mitsgaders d’Afkomst ende historie der graven van Holland, Zeeland ende Vrieslandt. Amsterdam: Cloppeburgh, 1636. SERICA: some notes on old Chinese books by David Helliwell, “Chinese leaves.” Accessed December 27, 2018. https://serica.blog/2018/11/05/chinese-leaves/. Sotheby’s. “A Chinese Coromandel Lacquer Twelve-Panel Screen Dated 1689.” Accessed March 9, 2017. http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/collectionseuropean-decorative-arts-n09408/lot.648.html/. Sotheby’s. “A Magnificent Twelve-Panel Inlaid Lacquer ‘Imperial Hunting’ Screen.” Accessed November 24, 2017. http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2015/ imperial-interiors-hk0594/lot.3003.html/. Sotheby’s. “A Twelve-fold Chinese Coromandel Lacquer Screen.” Accessed March 9, 2017. http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/pelham-public-pri vate-l16322/lot.111.html/. Stalker, John, and George Parker, A Treatise of Japaning [sic] and Varnishing […]. Oxford, 1688. Swan, Claudia. “Birds of Paradise for the Sultan: Early Seventeenth-Century DutchTurkish Encounters and the Uses of Wonder.” De Zeventiende Eeuw 29, no. 1 (2013): 49–63. Swan, Claudia. “Lost in Translation: Exoticism in Early Modern Holland.” In The Fascination of Persia: The Persian-European Dialogue in Seventeenth-Century Art and Contemporary Art of Teheran, edited by Axel Langed, 100–117. Zürich: Scheidegger and Spiess, 2013. Swan, Claudia. “Dutch Diplomacy and Trade in Rariteyten: Episodes in the History of Material Culture of the Dutch Republic.” In Global Gifts: The Material Culture of

202

Van Noord

­Diplomacy in Early Modern Eurasia, edited by Zoltán Biedermann, Anne Gerritsen and Giorgio Riello, 171–197. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. Timmermans, Bert. Patronen van Patronage in het Zeventiende-Eeuwse Antwerpen: een Elite als Actore binnen een Kunstwereld. Amsterdam: Aksant, 2008. Turpin, Adriana. “A Table for Queen Mary’s Water Gallery at Hampton Court.” Apollo 149, no. 443 (January 1999): 3–14. Upmark, Gustaf. “Ein Besuch in Holland 1687 aus den Reiseschilderungen des Schwedischen Architekten Nicodemus Tessing d. J. ii.” Oud Holland 18, no. 3 (1900): 144–152. Van Campen, Jan. De Haagse jurist Jean-Theodore Royer (1737–1807) en zijn verzameling Chinese Voorwerpen. Hilversum: Verloren, 2000. Van Campen, Jan. “‘Reduced to a Heap of Monstruous Shivers and Splinters’: Some Notes on Coromandel Lacquer in Europe in the 17th and 18th Centuries.” The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 57, no. 2 (2009): 136–149. Van der Chijs, Jacobus A., ed. Dagh-Register gehouden int Casteel Batavia vant passerende daer ter plaetse als over geheel Nederlandts-India Anno 1676. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Den Haag/Landsdrukkerij Batavia, 1903. Van der Veen, Jaap. “Schilderijencollecties in de Republike ten tijde van Frederik Hendrik en Amalia.” In Vorstelijk Verzameld: De Kunstcollectie van Frederik Hendrik en Amalia, edited by Peter van der Ploeg and Carola Vermeeren, 87–96. Zwolle: Waanders, 1997. Van Eck, Caroline, Miguel John Versluys, and Pieter ter Keurs. “The Biography of Cultures: Style, Objects and Agency. Proposal for an Interdisciplinary Approach.” Cahiers de l’École du Louvre, recherches en histoire de l’art, histoire des civilisations archéologie, anthropologie et muséologie 7 (October 2015): 2–22. Van Goor, Jur. “Introduction.” In Trading Companies in Asia 1600–1830, edited by Jur van Goor, 9–17. Utrecht: HES, 1986. Van Marion, Olga. Heldinnenbrieven : Ovidius’ Heroides in Nederland. Nijmegen: Vantilt, 2005. Van Noord, Willemijn. “European Reflections in Chinese Mirrors: Interpreting Self and Other through Encounters with Chinese Artefacts in the Dutch Republic, 1685–1715.” In Knowledge and Arts on the Move: Transformation of the Self-aware Image through East-West Encounters, edited by Christopher Craig, Enrico Fongaro & Akihiro Ozaki, 39–56. Milan: Mimesis International, 2018. Van Noord, Willemijn, and Thijs Weststeijn. “The Global Trajectory of Nicolaas Witsen’s Chinese Mirror.” The Rijksmuseum Bulletin 63, no. 4 (2015): 324–361. Van Noord, Willemijn. “The Earliest Attempt at Translating an Ancient Chinese Inscription into Dutch: Nicolaas Witsen’s Chinese Mirror and the Logistics of Translating Han Dynasty Seal Script at the Turn of the 18th Century.” In The fascination with Inner Eurasian Languages in the 17th century: The Amsterdam Mayor Nicolaas

The “Unhappie Ruines” of Princess Mary ii’s Lacquer Screen

203

Witsen and his Collection of “Tartarian” Glossaries and Scripts, edited by Bruno Naarden, Tom van Brederode, Tjeerd de Graaf et al., 579–602. Amsterdam: Pegasus, 2018. Van Raaij, Stefan, and Paul Spies, The Royal Progress of William & Mary. Amsterdam: Bataafsche Leeuw, 1988. Van Someren, Jan F. “Iets over Magnus Hendricksz. en Hendrick Magnusz. ‘vermaarde boekbinders’ der 17e eeuw.” Oud Holland 1 (1883): 224–237. Versluys, Miguel John. “Exploring Aegyptiaca and their Material Agency throughout Global History.” In The Routledge Handbook of Archaeology and Globalisation, edited by Tamar Hodos et al., 141–174. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Versluys, Miguel John. “Roman Visual Material Culture as Globalising Koine.” In Globalisation and the Roman World: World History, Connectivity and Material Culture, edited by Martin Pitts and Miguel John Versluys, 141–174. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Viallé, Cynthia. “‘Fit for Kings and Princes’: A Gift of Japanese Lacquer.” In Large and Broad: The Dutch Impact on Early Modern Asia, edited by Yoko Nagazumi, 187–222. Tokyo: Tokyo Bunko, 2010. Viallé, Cynthia. “Japanese Lacquer Cabinets in the Records of the Dutch East India Company.” In Japanische Lackkunst für Bayerns Fürsten: Die japanischen Lackmöbel der Staatlichen Münzsammlung München, edited by Anton Schweizer, Martin Hirsch and Dietrich O.A. Klose, 31–45. München: Staatlichen Münzsammlung München, 2011. Von der Dunk, Thomas. “Oranjepaleizen rond Den Haag als toeristisch trekpleisters Deel 1: Leonhard Sturm en andere vreemdelingen in Honselaarsdijk.” In Jaarboek 2006 Geschiedkundige Vereniging Die Haghe, edited by D.J. Cannegieter et al., 23–68. Den Haag: Geschiedkundige Vereniging Die Haghe, 2006. Vixseboxse, Jan. Een Hollandsch Gezantschap naar China in de Zeventiende Eeuw (1685– 1687). Leiden: Brill, 1946. Wappenschmidt, Frederike. Chinesische Tapeten für Europa, vom Rollbild zur Bildtapete. Berlin, Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, 1989. Wells-Cole, Anthony. “Amalia van Solm’s Lost Japanese Lacquer Bed-Rail: Form and Decoration.” In The Investigation and Conservation of East Asian Cabinets in Imperial Residences (1700–1900): Lacquerware and Porcelain, edited by Gabriela Krist and Elfriede Iby, 41–52. Wien: Böhlau, 2015. Weststeijn, Thijs. “Vossius’ Chinese Utopia.” In Isaac Vossius (1618–1689) between Science and Scholarship, edited by Eric Jorink and Dirk van Miert, 207–242. Boston and Leiden: Brill, 2012. Weststeijn, Thijs. “Cultural Reflections on Porcelain in the 17th-Century Netherlands.” In Chinese and Japanese Porcelain for the Dutch Golden Age, edited by Jan van Campen and Titus Eliëns, 213–229. Zwolle: Waanders, 2014.

204

Van Noord

Weststeijn, Thijs. “‘Sinarum gentes…omnium sollertissimae’: Encounters between the Middle Kingdom and the Low Countries, 1602–92.” In Reshaping the Boundaries: The Christian Intersection of China and the West in the Modern Era, edited by Song Gang, 9–34. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2016. Wills, John E. Pepper, Guns, and Parleys: The Dutch East India Company and China, 1622–1681. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974. Worp, Jacob. A., ed. De gedichten van Constantijn Huygens (1608–1687). 8 vols. Groningen: Wolters, 1892–1899. Worp, Jacob. A., ed. De briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens (1608–1687). 6 vols. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1911–1917. Württemberg, Philipp Herzog von. Das Lackkabinett im deutschen Schlossbau: Zur Chinarezeption im 17. Und 18. Jahrhundert. Bern: Peter Lang, 1998.

Chapter 8

A Chinese Philosopher in European Dress: The Review of the First Latin Translation of Confucius (1687) in the Philosophical Transactions and Its Preoccupation with Chinese Chronology Trude Dijkstra In 1687,1 the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society published a book review of the Jesuit translation of works by the Chinese sage Confucius that inspired even the author himself to proclaim that his article would, at first glance, seem “foreign to our purpose.”2 This purpose of the Transactions—as explicitly stated on the title page of the journal—was to provide readers with information and announcements concerning the scientific world: “Giving some account of the present undertakings, studies, and labors of the ingenious in many considerable parts of the world.”3 Here, the “philosophical” in the title refers exclusively to “natural philosophy,” equivalent today to what would be considered “science.”4 The Philosophical Transactions differed from many other learned journals printed during this period in that, while the latter also served as a vehicle for scientific information, they were in essence more general literary periodicals. The Philosophical Transactions, on the other hand, was—from the start—solely dedicated to the dissemination of scholarship. As such, an exposition on a book “consisting chiefly of moral and political precepts,” probably seemed somewhat counterintuitive.5 However, the book under discussion was Confucius Sinarum philosophus, the first European translation 1 The author is part of the UU/UvA research project The Chinese Impact. Images and Ideas of China in the Dutch Golden Age, funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (nwo). I owe a debt of gratitude to Thijs Weststeijn, Willemijn van Noord, Djoeke van Netten, Michael Keevak and Jim van der Meulen for their helpful comments. Any mistakes remain, of course, my own. 2 “Accounts of Books,” Philosophical Transactions 16 (1686–1692): 377–378, 377. 3 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, printed by T.N. for John Martyn at the Bell, 1665. The full text of the review has been added in Appendix 8.1. 4 Benjamin Goldberg, Evan Ragland, and Peter Distelzweig, “Introduction,” in Early Modern Medicine and Natural Philosophy. History, Philosophy and Theory of Life Sciences, Volume 14, ed. Peter Distelzweig et al. (Dordrecht: Springer, 2016), 1–15. 5 “Account of Books,” Philosophical Transactions 16, 377.

©

 | 

/

206

Dijkstra

of three of the Four Books that traditionally made up the canon of Confucian teachings in China. As such, it represented a defining moment in the European knowledge about Chinese religion and philosophy.6 Its importance was such, that the Philosophical Transactions, along with every other major learned journal of the time, deemed it necessary to provide their readers with a review of this important work, if only “to recommend it.”7 The following chapter examines how these reviews of Confucius Sinarum philosophus marks a defining moment in the history of intellectual and philosophical knowledge during the early modern period while, at the same time, being representative of a defining moment in the history of print. At no time before 1687 could the teachings of an Asian sage have become such an integral part of the European intellectual discussion since neither the content nor the medium of distribution had been in existence before.8 Recently, researchers have shown an increased interest in the periodic press as an agent of change, in which the learned journal functions as a conveyor of the intellectual debate within Europe during the early modern period. The erudite periodical had only arisen in the last decades of the seventeenth century: during the same period that Europeans started their uninterrupted encounter with China. This period saw a fundamental change in the way Europeans understood the concept of religion, which was partly fed by their interactions with Asia and, specifically, with China.9 Thus, while learned journals were still finding ways to define themselves and their place within the intellectual community of Europe, this print form was also reflecting on one of the most fundamental assaults on the European image of self and other: presented here in the shape of the Chinese sage, Confucius. The periodical press would soon become a powerful tool in the intellectual discourse against traditional structures of “authority, knowledge, and doctrine,” which was also represented in journals’ discussions of China and its religions and philosophy.10 This chapter gives an account of how the review of Confucius Sinarum philosophus in Philosophical Transactions gave one of the first European reactions 6

7 8 9 10

Philippe Couplet, Prospero Intorcetta, François Rougemont et al., Confucius Sinarum philosophus (Paris: Daniel Horthemels, 1687); Nicolas Standaert, The Intercultural Weaving of Historical Texts: Chinese and European Stories about Emperor Ku and his Concubines (Leiden: Brill, 2014). “Account of Books,” Philosophical Transactions 16, 377. Hans Bots, Periodieken en hun kring. Een verkenning van tijdschriften en netwerken in de laatste drie eeuwen (Nijmegen: Vantilt, 2006). Nicolas Standaert, “Early Sino-European Contacts and the Birth of the Modern Concept of ‘Religion,’” in Rooted in Hope. China – Religion – Christianity, ed. Barbara Hoster, Dirk Kuhlmann, Zbigniew Wesolowsi, vol. 1 (London: Routledge, 2017), 3–27. Jonathan Israel, The Radical Enlightenment. Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650–1750 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 142.

A Chinese Philosopher in European Dress

207

to Confucius and the manner in which this sage and China became known in Europe. As was argued in Chapter 1, encounters between China and Europe were defined by different material and intellectual contexts. In 1687, such a meeting took place between Chinese Confucianism and European humanism on the pages of the Philosophical Transactions, providing an excellent example of how East-West interactions found a material expression through the medium of print. By exploring the dynamics of this cultural discourse, it may indeed be possible to gain a further understanding of how it was especially the ideological background of religious and philosophical efforts to understand Confucius and his teachings that influenced the representation of the Chinese sage within the intellectual community of Europe during the last decades of the seventeenth century. From the first, Confucius and his teachings had been somewhat of a controversial subject in late seventeenth-century Europe, owing to a variety of ideological preconceptions in which a discussion of Chinese philosophy found fertile ground. Many different voices in Europe would use the Chinese sage to push their own philosophical, religious, or political agendas. I will discuss how the review focused on Chinese chronology and where this preoccupation with the antiquity of the world stemmed from. Therefore, I consider the influence of men such as Isaac Vossius—himself a fellow of the Royal Society since 1664—and Georg Hornius who were embroiled in a war of pamphlets on the subject of chronology during the 1650s and 1660s. Much of this polemic remained the prerogative of the learned elite until the emergence of the learned journal, which from then on would make even the intellectual debate concerning China available to a broader public. The rise of this newly devised vehicle of information shows how a change in material expression may influence the manner in which the meeting of China and Europe was presented and perceived by the European public. As such, the review of Confucius Sinarum philosophus in the Philosophical Transactions exhibits a certain unease in presenting such subjects as biblical chronology, often stepping back from the cliff of controversy at the last moment. This reveals how both the European understanding of China and the vehicle of this information—in the shape of the learned journal—were still struggling to find a clear definition. 1

The Jesuit Translation of the Confucian Classics

The publication of Confucius Sinarum philosophus (Confucius, philosopher of China) represents the apogee of almost a hundred years of interactions between China and the Jesuits. It was the missionaries of the Society of Jesus who would facilitate a broad European reading of the teachings of Confucius with

208

Dijkstra

their translation in Latin of three volumes of the Four Books (Sishu 四書), which traditionally make up the core of the Confucian canon; first among them were Philippe Couplet, Prospero Intorcetta, and François de Rougemont.11 The Jesuit preoccupation with Confucius had begun soon after their first forays into the Middle Kingdom at the end of the sixteenth century.12 Shortly after arrival, the Jesuits—Matteo Ricci as the first—had realized that, to convert the Chinese to Christianity, they had to incorporate local traditions into their preaching to the local population. This tactic, known as the Jesuit accommodation strategy, had quickly focused on Confucius since most of China’s elite were followers of his teachings, thereby facilitating a top-down process of conversion. Confucius (551–479 bc), whose name itself was the Jesuit Latinization of Kong Fuzi 孔夫子 or “Grand Master Kong,” was a Chinese philosopher whose teachings have greatly influenced Chinese society. As such, he was of great interest to the Jesuits preaching Christianity in China.13 A translation of the Four Books of Confucianism thus fitted right in with the accommodation policy of the Jesuits. Less intended to celebrate cultural differences, the translation served more as a tool to assist the process of conversion in a country with a cultural and philosophical system markedly different from the Jesuits’ own. With knowledge of the otherness of the Chinese in hand, the Jesuits were able to develop further requirements to convert the heathen Chinese into Christians, such as familiarity with the Chinese language and awareness of the local culture.14 Or, as stated by one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China mission, Matteo Ricci, in 1583: “We have become Chinese so that we may gain the Chinese for Christ.”15 Meanwhile, Confucius Sinarum philosophus also served the purpose of presenting Europe with a defense of their accommodation strategy, focusing on those tenets that Chinese philosophy shared with Christianity. This justification came with the disclaimer that the project of mass conversion could be based upon the joint foundation. 11 12 13 14 15

Thierry Meynard, Confucius Sinarum philosophus (1687). The First Translation of the Confucian Classics (Rome: Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 2011). David Mungello, Curious Land. Jesuit Accommodation and the Origins of Sinology (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1985). Paul Rule, K’ung-Tzu or Confucius? The Jesuit Interpretation of Confucianism (Sydney and Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1986). Thierry Meynard, The Jesuit Reading of Confucius. The First Complete Translation of the Lunyu (1687) Published in the West (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2015). Lionel Jensen, Manufacturing Confucianism. Chinese Traditions & Universal Civilization (Durham: Duke University Press, 1997), 42. See also Nicolas Standaert, “The Jesuits did NOT Manufacture ‘Confucianism,’” East Asian Science, Technology and Medicine 16 (1999): 116–117.

A Chinese Philosopher in European Dress

209

The text of Confucius Sinarum philosophus was the result of efforts made by at least seventeen missionaries working over a period of more than a century. The French royal censor granted his permission on April 29, 1687; shortly afterwards, the book was published in Paris by Daniel Horthemels of the Rue St. Jacques. Its appearance truly marked a pivotal moment in the history of global interactions. According to Dutch sinologist Kristofer Schipper, Confucius was the world’s “first philosopher to become famous outside his country, in other continents and civilizations,” even going so far as to claim that the impact of this “most influential thinker in human history” on the cultures of Asia is “as big as the combined influence of Socrates and Jesus on that of the West”.16 To be sure, Confucius Sinarum philosophus was, indeed, received with open arms in Europe by friend and foe of the Jesuit missionaries alike.17 The work also had a profound impact on the learned world of late seventeenth-century Europe, which is attested by the numerous reviews soon after it came out. In August of 1687, Pierre Bayle’s Nouvelles de la République des Lettres was the first to announce the book’s publication, thereby noting that copies could be acquired at Henri Desbordes in Amsterdam.18 A month later, the first full review was published in Henri Basnage de Beauval’s Histoire des ouvrages et de la vie des sçavans and, in December, Jean Leclerc’s Bibliothèque universelle et historique followed suit.19 Outside of the Dutch Republic, the Journal des sçavans in Paris, the Giornale de’ letterati in Parma, the Acta eruditorum in Leipzig, the Monatsgespräche in Halle and, of course, the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in London, would also review the Jesuit translation of Confucius.20 As a medium, the learned journal had first emerged in the 1680s, and it soon became a powerful vehicle in the spread of new knowledge. According to Francesco Scipione Maffei in 1710, no cultural innovation had exerted so immense 16

Kristofer Schipper, Confucius. De gesprekken (Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Augustus, 2015), 13, 20. 17 Meynard, The Jesuit Reading of Confucius, 79–81; Li Wenchao, “Confucius and the Early Enlightenment in Germany from Leibniz,” in The Globalisation of Confucius and Confucianism, ed. Klaus Mühlhahn and Nathalie van Looy (Berlin and Zürich: lit Verlag, 2012), 9–21. 18 Pierre, Bayle ed., Nouvelles de la République des lettres 2 (Amsterdam: Henri Desbordes, 1687): 910. 19 Jean Leclerc ed., Bibliothèque universelle et historique 7 (Amsterdam: Abraham Wolfgang et al., 1687): 387–455; Henri Basnage de Beauval ed., Histoire des Ouvrages et de la vie des sçavans 1( Rotterdam: Reinier Leers, 1687): 65–79. 20 Journal des sçavans 1 (1688): 99–107; Giornale de’letterati (1687): 163–166; Otto Mencke ed., Acta Eruditorum (Leipzig: Johann Friedrich Gleditsch, 1688): 254–265; [Christian Thomasius] ed., Monats-gespräche (1689): 598–634; Philosophical Transactions 16.

210

Dijkstra

an impact on Europe as these journals.21 New ideas, books, and intellectual debates became more easily accessible through the pages of these periodicals, so much so that “Europe [became], for the first time, amalgamated into a single intellectual arena.”22 2

The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society

As the monthly publication of the Royal Society of London, the Philosophical Transactions may be regarded as one of the most influential learned journals of the seventeenth century.23 Its authors adhered to the ideals preached by the society by publishing articles that exhorted experiment and observation over theory; within its pages are found contributions by some of the greatest minds of the times, such as Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, and Antoni van Leeuwenhoek.24 From its beginnings, the Philosophical Transactions had been international in its scope, with the full original title reading: “Giving some account of the present undertakings, studies and labours of the ingenious in many considerable parts of the world.”25 In a charter of April 1663, the Royal Society had proclaimed that “we have long and fully resolved with ourselves to extend not only the boundaries of the empire, but also the very arts and sciences.” The content of the Transactions had reflected this statement from its first publication onwards.26 The opening up of the world via voyages to the Americas, Asia, and Africa not only meant trade and colonization, but also extended into the sciences. After all, “to properly possess new territories, one needed to catalogue their products and their peoples.”27 As Harold Cook has argued, the quest for suitable goods for trade in an increasingly globalized world was a catalyst for scientific values based more on empiric research.28 The Royal Society was 21 Giornale de’letterati, (Venice: 1710), 13, cited in Israel, Radical Enlightenment, 142. 22 Israel, The Radical Enlightenment, 142. 23 David Kronick, “Notes on the Printing History of the Early ‘Philosophical Transactions,’” in Libraries and Culture 25, no. 2 (1990): 243–268. 24 Brian Silver, The Ascent of Science (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 115–117. 25 Philosophical Transactions, title page. My emphasis. 26 Second Charta, April 22, 1663 cited in Henry Lyons, The Royal Society, 1660–1940. A History of its Administration under its Charters (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1944), 329–340, 329. 27 John Gascoigne, “The Royal Society, Natural History and the Peoples of the ‘New World(s),’ 1660–1800,” British Journal for the History of Science 42, no. 4 (2009): 539–562, esp. 539. 28 Harold Cook, Matters of Exchange. Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 46.

A Chinese Philosopher in European Dress

211

­particularly committed to this empiric form of natural history and China figured heavily in its pages.29 In fact, the founding issue of the Philosophical Transactions already discusses the Middle kingdom, reporting that: [A] notice was given by an inquisitive Parisian to a friend of his in London, that by an acquaintance he has been informed, that Signor Septalio, a canon in Milan, had the secret of making a good porcelane as is made in China itself, and transparent; adding that he had seen him make some.30 This notice shows how the Royal Society was preoccupied with scientific discovery: in this case, in the form of a ceramic technique unknown in Europe.31 It also demonstrates the international character of the paper; a Frenchman had told his English friend that he had heard from an Italian who knew a man able to make Chinese-inspired porcelain.32 In the years following this first appearance of the Middle Kingdom, China would feature often in the Philosophical Transactions. Chinese medicine was scrutinized in notes such as “Discoursed also of the new way of curing the gout by the China Moxa,” and “pulse medicine,” arthritis, acupuncture, and other medical topics.33 Chinese language and philosophy also fascinated the Royal Society. In 1685, the society was informed that Philip Couplet had send 124 volumes from China: in the same year and the following, the society was presented with letters in “Chinese” script.34 One of the main items, however, was the publication of Confucius Sinarum philosophus.35 This event was so widely discussed that even King James ii would request a copy of the book when he visited the Bodleian in September of 1687. Bodley’s librarian Thomas Hyde was able to provide the king with the 29

Matt Jenkinson, “Nathanael Vincent and Confucius’s ‘Great Learning’ in Restoration England,” Notes & Records of the Royal Society 60 (2006): 35–47. 30 Philosophical Transactions 1 (1665). 31 However, this “Porcelane” does not refer to porcelain as we would understand it, but to “porcellana contrafatta,” or white glass, which imitates the colour of Chinese porcelain, but none of its hardness. 32 On attribution in the early editions of the Philosophical Transactions, see: Lynda Walsh, Scientists as Prophets. A Rhetorical Genealogy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 77–83. 33 Cook, Matters of Exchange, 361–377. 34 Thomas Birch, The History of the Royal Society of London, vol. 4, 426 (November 4, 1685), 370 (February 25, 1685), 489 (June 16, 1686); William Poole, “Heterodoxy and Sinology. Isaac Vossius, Robert Hooke and the Early Royal Society’s use of Sinology,” in The Intellectual Consequences of Religious Heterodoxy, 1600–1750, ed. Sarah Mortimer and John Robertson (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012), 135–153. 35 See also Jenkinson, “Nathanael Vincent and Confucius’s ‘Great Learning.’”

212

Dijkstra

r­ equested copy, which by then was already part of the library. It was also Hyde who (only a few weeks before) had received Britain’s first Chinese visitor capable of conversing in Latin in the shape of Michael Shen Fuzong, who had travelled to Europe in the company of Philippe Couplet.36 The Confucius translation was reviewed in volume 16 of the Philosophical Transactions, which covered the years between 1686 and 1692. In that same volume an account of “a voyage of the emperor of China into the Eastern Tartary” is found, along with “an explanation, necessary to justify the geography supposed in these regions,” and “some observations and conjectures concerning the Chinese characters.”37 The review starts out by noting the reverence with which the Chinese consider Confucius or “Cum-Fu-Cu” and how, before the translation of Philippe Couplet and his Jesuit brothers, this Chinese philosopher had “never appeared in European dress.” Thereafter follows the acknowledgement that “the subject of this book [may be] foreign to our purpose, [since] it consists chiefly of moral and political precepts,” prompting the author to add that he would “not enlarge thereon, only […] recommend it.”38 However, while the review emphasizes the novelty of the Confucius translation by Couplet, in actuality, a very partial English translation of Confucius’s Great Learning had already appeared in 1685. In that year, Nathanael Vincent, a little-known fellow of the Royal Society, seems to have included two paragraphs of Confucius in English in his sermon “The Right Notion of Honor.”39 Printed by Richard Chiswell, printer to the Royal Society, “the result was an odd collection of documents.”40 As appendix to Vincent’s sermon, he included a short account of “the Inhabitants of Cathaia, and the Northern China.” His information came mainly from classical texts, but he supplemented this with charts from Mercator and Ortelius, books by Marco Polo, and (in all probability) Isaac Vossius’s De artibus et scientiis Sinarum of 1685.41 Vossius was a controversial figure, who wrote extensively on the biblical chronology of the Hebrew bible. However, in contrast to Vossius, Nathanael Vincent completely ignored the controversial issue of biblical chronology, instead focusing on the existing notions of honor. Ironically, it was the c­ hronology 36 37 38 39 40 41

Theodore Foss, “The European Sojourn of Philippe Couplet and Michael Shen Fuzong, 1683–1692,” in Philippe Couplet, S.J. (1623–1693). The Man who Brought China to Europe, ed. Jerome Heyndrickz (Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1990), 121–142. Philosophical Transactions 16. Philosophical Transactions 16, 377. Nathanael Vincent, The Right Notion of Honour. As it was Delivered in a Sermon before the King at Newmarket, Octob. 4 1674 (London: Richard Chiswell, 1685). Jenkinson, “Nathanael Vincent and Confucius’s ‘Great Learning,’” 36. Jenkinson, “Nathanael Vincent and Confucius’s ‘Great Learning,’” 37–38.

A Chinese Philosopher in European Dress

213

of Chinese history that fascinated the Royal Society the most. While they all but ignored Vincent’s contribution, the review of Confucius Sinarum philosophus starts out by noting how “this account places the beginning of the C ­ hinese Empire long before the Deluge, according to the Holy Scriptures; wherefore if this be to be wholly rejected, as fabulous, or if not, how it is to be reconciled with the sacred chronology, belongs more properly to the disquisition of the Divines.” 3

The Age of the World

While the author would not enlarge upon most of the content of Confucius Sinarum philosophus—thereby essentially bypassing most of the explanations of the Jesuit accommodation strategy—there were still some elements in the Confucius translation that he deemed useful for readers of the Philosophical Transactions. For example, it was affirmed that “what may not improperly find place here is, the Chinese chronology, whereof such wonderful relations have been brought into Europe.”42 Early modern European scholars were very much concerned with accurate chronologies and the antiquity of China figured heavily in these discussions.43 Italian Jesuit missionary Martino Martini had claimed in his Sinicae historiae decas prima that the records of Chinese history were older than those known in Europe. Martini stated that Chinese records went back more than six hundred years before the time of the Deluge and that outer parts of Asia were certainly inhabited prior to this event. From this followed the problem how to reconcile Chinese with Biblical chronology, since it would be impossible to explain the existence of Chinese chronicles preceding the Deluge if one held with the sacred texts that the entire human race—sans Noah and his family—drowned in the Flood.44 This would have far reaching consequences. If the world had to be declared older by at least a millennium, the universal history of the Bible would no longer be valid and scholars would have to turn to written accounts of a different nature to understand the earliest years of history. Also, it would reduce biblical events such as the Deluge,

42 43 44

“Account of Books,” Philosophical Transactions’ 16, 377. Marcia Reed and Paola Demattè, China on Paper. European and Chinese Works from the Late Sixteenth to the Early Nineteenth Century (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2007), 36–41. William Poole, “The Genesis Narrative in the Circle of Robert Hooke and Francis Lodwick,” in Scripture and scholarship in Early Modern England, ed. Ariel Hessayon and Nicholas Keene (New York: Routledge, 2017), e-publication.

214

Dijkstra

the construction of the Tower of Babel, and the dispersion of peoples, to local events “involving a minor people in a circumscribed region of the earth.”45 The review in the Philosophical Transactions put the finger exactly on the sore spot by remarking how: “Twill be needless to advertise, that this account places the beginning of the Chinese Empire long before the Deluge.” With this sentence, the journal concludes a short summary of how the “author of this part of the book, P[hilippe] Couplet, seems well to have examined” the issue of chronology, in which the Jesuit translator has “sifted the credible from the fabulous.”46 Confucius Sinarum philosophus had begun its account with the reign of King Fohi—probably referring to Fuxi 伏羲—who had purportedly founded the Empire of China in 2952 bce. The review reflects on how Couplet had done well by rejecting all that “some authors have said of the times before” and following the opinion of the “most reputable” Chinese historians instead. The author of the Philosophical Transactions apparently trusted in Philip Couplet and his Jesuit colleagues to provide a truthful and well-advised translation, explicitly acknowledging the mediating role of the translators. The review continues with the historical account of China, noting important people and events, such as the invention of “the character now in use in China,” or the invention of the new “Chinese calendar.” However, soon after this optimistic beginning, the author encountered a problem when introduced to Hoam ti (Huangdi 皇帝).47 As one of the legendary Chinese sovereigns and cultural heroes, this person was said to have introduced a new chronology to China, consisting of “sexagenary cycles” or periods of sixty years, “according to which this chronology is adjusted, and for want of which or the like, our account of time, both sacred and profane, is subject to too great uncertainties.”48 Yet, instead of speculating or providing his own explanations for these “uncertainties,” the author continues with his summary of Chinese history. On several subsequent occasions, he runs into problems related to chronology; for instance, when discussing the manner in which the Chinese divide their lunar year. But again, it ends with a fizzle because the author simply concludes: “I shall not say more in a matter of such uncertainty.”49 45 46 47 48 49

Paolo Rossi, The Dark Abyss of Time. The History of the Earth and the History of Nations (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1984), 140. Philosophical Transactions 16, 377. On Fuxi’s and Huangi’s place in Chinese legend and mythology see: Charles Hucker, China’s Imperial Past. An Introduction to Chinese History and Culture (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995). On the segregation of “sacred” and “profane” times in religion, see: Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (London: George Allen & Unwin ltd, 1915). Philosophical Transactions 16, 378.

A Chinese Philosopher in European Dress

4

215

Isaac Vossius

The author of the review thus takes a firm step back from any true explanation of the problems concerning Chinese antiquity; nonetheless, many European minds remained fascinated with the chronology and its connection to biblical authority.50 The greatest expert on the subject was Joseph Scaliger, who would expand the notion of classical history from Greek and Roman history to include Persian, Babylonian, Jewish, and ancient Egyptian history.51 The last sixteen years of his life, from 1593 until his death in 1609, he lived and worked in the Dutch Republic and it was there that subsequent discussions on the subject would predominantly take place. The half century after Scaliger’s death saw many contributions to the debate. One curious example is from the French Huguenot Isaac La Peyrère who, in 1655, would argue that there had been men living before Adam, thus conveniently solving all problems related to chronology.52 When the Amsterdam printing house of Elsevier issued three different editions of La Peyrère’s exposition in the same year, complaints soon started rolling in and the book was banned on the grounds that it contained “some horrible and blasphemous opinions, contravening God’s Holy Word.”53 La Peyrère was eventually arrested in Brussels in 1656.54 This was, however, by no means the end of the discussion and, from 1659 onwards, it was Dutchman Isaac Vossius who stood at the center of “the storm over chronology.”55 Vossius had strong ties with the Royal Society, having been elected fellow at an early date. He also was in contact with Henry Oldenburg, secretary of the society, who advised him to publish a paper in the Transactions on ballistics and burning mirrors.56 As a scholar, Vossius had long been 50 51 52

53 54 55 56

Isaac Newton is a notable example. On his interest in chronology, see: Frank Manuel, Isaac Newton. Historian (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963). Anthony Grafton, Joseph Scaliger. A Study in the History of Classical Scholarship (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994). Eric Jorink, “‘Horrible and Blasphemous.’ Isaac La Peyrère, Isaac Vossius and the Emergence of Radical Biblical Criticism in the Dutch Republic,” in Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions. Up to 1700: Volume 1, ed. Jitse van der Meer and Scott Mandelbrote (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2008). Nationaal Archief, The Hague, “Missiven van het Hof van Holland,” 10e Register, Nr. 390, fol. 206, cited in Jorkink, Reading the Book of Nature, 64. Richard Popin, Isaac La Peyrère (1596–1676). His Life, Work and Influence (Leiden & New York: Brill, 1987). Anthony Grafton, “Isaac Vossius, Chronologer,” in Isaac Vossius (1618–1689), Between Science and Scholarship, ed. Eric Jorink and Dirk van Miert (Leiden and Boston: Brill 2012), 43–84, 43. Eric Jorink and Dirk van Miert, “Introduction. The Challenger: Isaac Vossius and the European World of Learning,” in Isaac Vossius (1618–1689), 1–14.

216

Dijkstra

preoccupied with China, from which soon followed a fascination with the problems concerning the antiquity of the world.57 His pamphlet De vera aetate mundi of 1659 argued that the universe was 1440 years older “than is usually calculated.”58 Vossius used the chronology of the Septuagint—the Greek version of the Old Testament—instead of the Hebrew Masoretic text to argue that the date of creation should be placed at about 5400 bce: lengthening the history of the world by 1440 years and thereby reconciling the conflicting Chinese and biblical evidence on the topic.59 From the very first pages, Vossius raised the problem of the antiquity of other cultures, such as that “of the Babylonians and Egyptians. Added to these are the Chinese.”60 Vossius expounded on his reasoning in De Septuanginta interpretibus eorumque translatione of 1661, arguing that the Greek version of the Bible was preferable in the process of calculating time. Conveniently, his new chronology gave a satisfactory explanation for the antiquity of—among others—the Chinese.61 Vossius’s Dissertatio de vera aetate mundi was first published in The Hague by Adriaen Vlacq.62 A Dutch translation was produced a year later by Tymon Houthaeck and Jan Hendricksz. Boom of Amsterdam.63 This edition commences with a letter from “the translator to his friend Mr. Leonard Pot.”64 Included as a preface to Vossius’s books, this letter is of interest since it clearly states the intention of the rest of the work while also explaining why a translation into Dutch was deemed necessary. The writer first clarifies why he did not publish this translation earlier: “The cause for this is that I first wanted to see what learned men thought of it and how the writer would defend his feelings;

57 58

Thijs Weststeijn, “Vossius’ Chinese Utopia,” in Isaac Vossius (1618–1689), 207–242. “[D]at men gemeenlijck reeckent.” Isaac Vossius, Discours van de rechten ouderdom der wereldt. Waer in getoondt wordt dat de werelt ten minsten 1440 jaren ouder is, dan men gemeenlijck reeckent (Amsterdam: Tymon Houthaeck and Jan Hendricksz Boom, 1660). 59 Eric Jorink, Reading the Book of Nature, 103. 60 “De verdediginge van hun gevoelen zoecken sy in de outheydt van de Babyloniers en Egyptenaren. By deze voegen eenige de […] Sinesen.” Vossius, Discours van de rechten ouderom der wereldt, 8. 61 Isaac Vossius, De Septuaginta interpretibus, eorumque tralatione & chronologia dissertationes (The Hague: Adriaen Vlacq, 1661). 62 Isaac Vossius, Dissertatio de vera aetate mundi (The Hague: Adriaen Vlacq, 1659). 63 Vossius, Discours van de rechten ouderom der wereldt, 8. 64 “[D]en overzetter aen zijnen Vriendt, Sr. Leonard Janzen Pot.” Isaac Vossius, Discours van de rechten ouderom der wereldt, 8. Little is known about either the writer or the recipient of this preface. The first only signed with what are perhaps the initials of Nicolaas Borremans from Amsterdam (n.b.a.), while Leonard Janzen Pot has disappeared from the annals of history.

A Chinese Philosopher in European Dress

217

this, I think, having been done well, the translation appears forthwith.”65 This statement refers to the overwhelming amount of criticism that befell Vossius after the publication of his chronology. While some may have found in Vossius’s theory an answer to the long-standing question of Chinese chronology, his De vera aetate clearly violated scholarly norms and questioned long-held views and he soon became involved in a pamphlet war.66 Vossius’s main opponent in this polemic was Harderwijk professor Georg Hornius. Hornius tried to refute Vossius’s chronology in several pamphlets, along with the book Arca Noae, published in 1666.67 Hornius’s first pamphlet responded to the notion presented by Vossius that the Flood was not universal but limited to Palestine. Already in the preface, Hornius presents Vossius as a secret follower of the pre-adamite doctrine of La Peyrère. According to Hornius, this belief would “lead straight to atheism” and had already been refuted.68 The only course of action Hornius saw fit was “that folly was struck by the strongest of arguments, so that, scarcely born, that unhealthy opinion, which was supported by no proof, was snuffed out. If any of its followers remain, may they be punished with scorn or with magistrates’ sentences.”69 While Vossius and Hornius both believed that the world was not eternal but created by God, Hornius drew from this premise a different conclusion than Vossius. If the world was created by God, the true beginning should be sought with Moses. And while this book of Moses may exist in different languages, Hebrew is the true and original language in which the Bible was written: all others are translations. Hornius then goes on to undermine arguments made by Vossius, and several chapters are devoted to the antiquity of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Arabs, and Chinese.70 Hornius offers proof to align the antiquity of these cultures in accordance with traditional chronology. According to him, every chronology that differed from the Mosaic tradition was “fabulous” and

65

“[D]aer van is dit de oorzaecke, dat ick eerst wilde zien wat geleerde luyden daer van oordeelden, en hoe den Schrijver sijn gevoelen verdedigen zoude; dit, mijns bedunckens, wel geschiedt zijnde, zo komt de overzettinge nu mede tevoorschijn.” Vossius, Discours van de rechten ouderom der wereldt, 8. 66 “[T]weederley soorten van menschen. Eenige welcken alle oud als vuns en vermust walgt, en dat terstont verwerpen. […] Andere zijnder wederom, die alles, wat hun nieuw voorkomt, voor enckele nieuwigheyt zullen schatten.” Vossius, Discours van de rechten ouderom der wereldt, 8. 67 Weststeijn, “Vossius’ Chinese Utopia,” 208–210. 68 Rossi, The Dark Abyss of Time, 148. 69 Rossi, The Dark Abyss of Time, 148. 70 Thijs Weststeijn, “Spinoza Sinicus. An Asian Paragraph in the History of the Radical Enlightenment,” Journal of the History of Ideas 68, no. 4 (2007): 537–561.

218

Dijkstra

only expressing the desire found in every people for “prolonging its own history” and of “declaring its own origins to be very distant, hence more noble.”71 Vossius swiftly responded to Hornius in a pamphlet of his own, entitled Castigationes ad scriptum G. Hornii de aetate mundi. Therein he not only discusses the Septuagint in relation to the Hebrew bible, but also delves deeper into the questions of chronology. Concerning the Chinese, Vossius accuses Hornius of confusing Cathay and China: an error that should have been laid to rest decades earlier.72 Vossius claimed that Hornius had clearly understood nothing of Martino Martini’s work and had written only nonsense about it. Still in 1659, Hornius replied in yet another pamphlet that Vossius had no right to use Martini as an argument concerning Chinese chronology since the Jesuit had “limited himself to repeating what the Chinese believed to be true, but he does not by any means approve of their opinions.”73 Further arguments against Martini’s account were made by Hornius, which revolved around the notion that Martini himself never believed in Chinese history and chronology and that “he laughed at it.” However, Martini—still residing in China—could never have said so “without most grave danger.”74 In another swift reply, Vossius exclaimed: “You say that Martini thought in one way and wrote in another. Marvellous among mortals, you know what Father Martini thought better than he did himself!”75 But Martini’s work was available to all, so readers could see for themselves that Martini’s history of China “takes place over 4600 years: sure, constant and uninterrupted.”76 Concerning Martini’s works and his own, Vossius was certainly right about their wide availability. Martini’s first work on the Manchu Conquest of 1644 was translated in Dutch, English, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Danish before the end of the century and it was reprinted twenty times before 1706.77 Admittedly, his work on Chinese history about chronology (from which Vossius took his argumentation) was less widely 71 Rossi, The Dark Abyss of Time, 149. 72 See above, Chapter 2, by Djoeke van Netten. 73 Rossi, The Dark Abyss of Time, 150. 74 Rossi, The Dark Abyss of Time, 150. 75 Rossi, The Dark Abyss of Time, 150. 76 Rossi, The Dark Abyss of Time, 150. 77 Martino Martini, De bello Tartarico historia. In qua, quo pacto Tartari hac nostra aetate Sinicum Imperium invaserint, ac fere totum occuparint, narratur; eorumque mores breviter describuntur (Antwerp: Ex Officina Plantiniana Balthasar Moretus, 1654); see also “Bibliotheca Sinica 2.0,” https://www.univie.ac.at/Geschichte/China-Bibliographie/blog/; Edwin van Kley, “Qing Dynasty China in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Literature, 1644–1700,” in The History of the Relations between the Low Countries and China in the Qing Era (1644–1911), ed. Willy Vande Walle and Noël Golvers (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2003), 217–234, 219–220.

A Chinese Philosopher in European Dress

219

d­ istributed as editions were limited to two in Latin, printed in Munich and Amsterdam.78 However, Isaac Vossius’s work on the antiquity of China was translated into Dutch: incidentally, unlike any of Hornius’s books on the same subject. This meant that, while scholars had a wider array of works to choose from if they wanted to inform themselves on the subject, people that could not read Latin—still the greater part of the Dutch population—had to make do with only Vossius’s account and would therefore be subjected to his perspective alone.79 While the available translations and editions indicate that the subject of Chinese chronology was mainly the prerogative of a more educated part of the public, there would still have been many people unversed in Latin that would have taken note of the fact that, according to Vossius at least, the world was now many years older than it had appeared previously. The general public was also catered to by the learned journals: one of the main objectives of these types of publications.80 Accordingly, Vossius’s remark that Martini’s work was available to everyone who wanted to inform themselves about the truth concerning Chinese chronology, is evinced by its analysis in the Philosophical Transactions. According to the journal, the author of the Confucius Sinarum philosophus “seems to have well examined [Chinese chronology] and to have sifted the credible from the fabulous.”81 The review also adopts the same rhetorical device as the Confucius Sinarum philosophus by emphasizing the reliability of the account, referring to “reputed Chinese historians.” The Jesuits had used numerous Chinese commentaries in their translation to validate the value of Confucius and to further emphasize that this translation was not their own invention but based on real Chinese sources. By referring to the same “reputed historians,” the Philosophical Transactions un­ derscored the reliability and accuracy of the chronologic table. The chronology of the Confucius Sinarum philosophus “ends with the year of Christ 1683, being the last of the seventy-third cycle, since the King Hoam ti, and contains, in all, 4380 years.”82 This also marked the end of the description of the Jesuit translation of Confucius in the Philosophical Transactions. However, the writer adds a

78

79 80 81 82

Martino Martini, Sinicæ historiæ decas prima. Res a gentis origine ad Christum natum in extrema Asia, sive magno Sinarum imperio gestas complexa (Munich: Johannes Wagner Civis, 1658; Amsterdam: Johan Blaeu, 1656); see also “Bibliotheca Sinica 2.0,” https://www .univie.ac.at/Geschichte/China-Bibliographie/blog/ On the culture of translating in early modern Europe, see Brenda Hosington, “Translation and Print Culture in Early Modern Europe,” Renaissance Studies 29, no. 1 (2015): 5–18. Harcourt Brown, “History and the Learned Journal,” Journal of the History of Ideas 33, no. 3 (1972): 365–378. Philosophical Transactions 16, 378. Philosophical Transactions 16, 378.

220

Dijkstra

last reflection: or, perhaps it is more of a disclaimer: “Twill be needless to advertise, that this account places the beginning of the Chinese Empire long before the Deluge, according to the Holy Scriptures; wherefore if this be to be wholly rejected, as fabulous; or if not, how it is to be reconciled with the sacred chronology, belongs more properly to the disquisition of the Divines.”83 5 Conclusion The controversy surrounding the Chinese chronology’s incompatibility with the one found in the Hebrew bible would have a long history. During the second half of the seventeenth century, many authors would use the arguments set forth by Martini and Vossius on the one hand and Hornius on the other, as ammunition to further their own agendas. The Jesuits were using the Chinese chronology as aids to conversion and “as means for the introduction of Christian truth.” Of course, the opposition affirmed that the authenticity of an overextended Chinese chronology should not be accepted. On the pages of the Philosophical Transactions, the intellectual consequences of the intercultural meeting between China and Europe found a material expression through the medium of print. When Europe gained a more thorough understanding of Confucius by way of the Jesuit translation, it was the newly arisen learned journal that made it possible for these ideas to reach a broader public of readers, who themselves would soon turn into active discussants. These reviews demonstrate how knowledge of China and Confucius was not simply recorded: in fact, a lively debate sprung up after the dust of the initial meeting died down. The context and outcome of this debate depended on both material dimensions of the learned journal as well as the political and religious agendas of the individual discussants. The controversy surrounding the Chinese chronology would endure well into the eighteenth century. Indeed, the Philosophical Transactions would also revisit the subject and, at that point, would be less nuanced in their assertion of its veracity. In volume 44, concerning the year 1747, A letter from Rev. Mr. G. Costard, to the Rev. Thomas Shaw, D.D.F.R.S. and Principal of St. Edmund-Hall concerning the Chinese Chronology and Astronomy was printed. In his writing to Thomas Shaw, George Costard reflects upon “the subject of our late conversation [that] turn’d upon the affectation of some nations, in carrying up their histories to so immoderate a height, as plainly to shew those accounts to be fictitious and without foundation.” Apparently, a few decades after the first comprehensive introduction of 83

Philosophical Transactions 16, 378.

A Chinese Philosopher in European Dress

221

Confucius to European scholarship, even the Philosophical Transactions dared discussing the subject in depth. As the contributions in this book illustrate, cultural interactions between China and Europe took on a variety of dimensions. There was an unmistakable desire to gain information about the foreign other; for instance, through the medium of the learned journal. These periodicals hint at the broad material and ideological dimensions that were connected to the early modern meeting between Asia and the West. An examination of reviews of Confucius Sinarum philosophus also illustrates how the introduction of Confucius to Europeans readers was the result of the political and religious agendas of its discussants, meaning that objectives beyond the collection of information mediated the interactions between different systems of belief. Finally, the Jesuit translation of Confucius may be one of the most striking examples of how the exchange of knowledge was a matter of collaboration between individuals from both China and Europe. Chapter 1 of this volume explained how and why confrontations between China and Europe can be considered through the lens of cultural history. An essential addition to this process lies in studying the formation of the images of East and West and, perhaps more importantly, how they circulated. In doing so, the dynamics of cultural discourses comes to the fore, which can tell much about how European concepts of China and Chinese concepts of Europe came in to being, rather than proving or disproving the veracity of these images. Ideas and perceptions of Confucius were first introduced in Europe by the Jesuits translators of the Four Books. The trajectory of information did not end there but was taken up by the learned journals who subsequently influenced the Western image of the Chinese sage. The ideological preconceptions of the editors of the journal thereby contributed to China’s impact in early modern Europe. Bibliography AA.vv., Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. London: John Martyn, 1665. AA.vv., Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 16. London: John Martyn, 1686–1692. AA.vv., Bibliothèque universelle et historique. Amsterdam: Abraham Wolfgang et al., 1687. AA.vv., Giornale de’letterati. Parma: Benedetto Bacchini, 1687. AA.vv., Histoire des Ouvrages et de la vie des sçavans. Rotterdam: Reinier Leers, 1687. AA.vv., Nouvelles de la République des lettres. Amsterdam: Henri Desbordes, 1687.

222

Dijkstra

AA.vv., Acta Eruditorum, Leipzig: Otto Mencke, 1688. AA.vv., Journal des sçavans. Paris: Jean Cusson, 1688. Birch, T. The History of the Royal Society of London. Vol. 4. New York: Johnson, 1968. Bots, H. Periodieken en hun kring. Een verkenning van tijdschriften en netwerken in de laatste drie eeuwen. Nijmegen: Vantilt, 2006. Brown, H. “History and the Learned Journal.” Journal of the History of Ideas 33, no. 3 (1972): 365–378. Cook, H. Matters of Exchange. Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. Couplet, Ph. Prospero Intorcetta, François de Rougemont et al. Confucius Sinarum philosophus. Paris: Daniel Horthemels, 1687. Durkheim, E. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. London: George Allen & Unwin LTD, 1915. Foss, Th. “The European Sojourn of Philippe Couplet and Michael Shen Fuzong, 1683–1692.” In Philippe Couplet, S.J. (1623–1693). The Man who Brought China to Europe, edited by Jerome Heyndrickz, 121–142. Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1990. Gascoigne, J. “The Royal Society, Natural History and the Peoples of the ‘New World(s),’ 1660–1800.” British Journal for the History of Science 42, no. 4 (2009): 539–562. Goldberg, B. E. Ragland, and P. Distelzweig. “Introduction.” In Early Modern Medicine and Natural Philosophy. History, Philosophy and Theory of Life Sciences, Vol. 14, edited by Peter Distelzweig et al., 1–15. Dordrecht: Springer, 2016. Grafton, A. Joseph Scaliger. A Study in the History of Classical Scholarship. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994. Grafton, A. “Isaac Vossius, Chronologer.” In Isaac Vossius (1618–1689), Between Science and Scholarship, edited by Eric Jorink and Dirk van Miert, 43–84. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012. Hosington, B. “Translation and Print Culture in Early Modern Europe.” Renaissance Studies 29, no. 1 (2015): 5–18. Hucker, Ch. China’s Imperial Past. An Introduction to Chinese History and Culture. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995. Israel, J. The Radical Enlightenment. Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650–1750. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Jenkinson, M. “Nathanael Vincent and Confucius’s ‘Great Learning’ in Restoration England.” Notes & Records of the Royal Society 60 (2006): 35–47. Jensen, L. Manufacturing Confucianism. Chinese Traditions & Universal Civilization. Durham: Duke University Press, 1997. Jorink, E. “‘Horrible and Blasphemous.’ Isaac La Peyrère, Isaac Vossius and the Emergence of Radical Biblical Criticism in the Dutch Republic.” In Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions up to 1700, vol. 1, edited by J. van der Meer and S. Mandelbrote, 428–450. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2008.

A Chinese Philosopher in European Dress

223

Jorink, E. Reading the Book of Nature in the Dutch Golden Age, 1575–1715. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2010. Jorink, E. and D. van Miert. “Introduction. The Challenger: Isaac Vossius and the European World of Learning.” In Isaac Vossius (1618–1689), Between Science and Scholarship, edited by E. Jorink and D. van Miert, 1–14. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012. Kronick, D. “Notes on the Printing History of the Early ‘Philosophical Transactions.’” Libraries and Culture 25, no. 2 (1990): 243–268. Li Wenchao. “Confucius and the Early Enlightenment in Germany from Leibniz.” In The Globalisation of Confucius and Confucianism, edited by K. Mühlhahn and N. van Looy, 9–21. Berlin and Zürich: LIT Verlag, 2012. Lyons, H. The Royal Society, 1660–1940. A History of its Administration under its Charters. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1944. Manuel, F. Isaac Newton. Historian. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963. Martini, M. De bello Tartarico historia. In qua, quo pacto Tartari hac nostra aetate Sinicum Imperium invaserint, ac fere totum occuparint, narratur; eorumque mores breviter describuntur. Antwerp: Ex Officina Plantiniana Balthasar Moretus, 1654. Martini, M. Sinicæ historiæ decas prima. Res a gentis origine ad Christum natum in extrema Asia, sive magno Sinarum imperio gestas complexa. Munich: Johannes Wagner Civis, 1658 and Amsterdam: Johan Blaeu, 1656. Meynard, Th. Confucius Sinarum philosophus (1687). The First Translation of the Confucian Classics. Rome: Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 2011. Meynard, Th. The Jesuit Reading of Confucius. The First Complete Translation of the Lunyu (1687) Published in the West. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2015. Mungello, D. Curious Land. Jesuit Accommodation and the Origins of Sinology. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1985. Poole, W. “Heterodoxy and Sinology. Isaac Vossius, Robert Hooke and the Early Royal Society’s Use of Sinology.” In The Intellectual Consequences of Religious Heterodoxy, 1600–1750, edited by S. Mortimer and J. Robertson, 135–153. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012. Poole, W. “The Genesis Narrative in the Circle of Robert Hooke and Francis Lodwick.” In Scripture and Scholarship in Early Modern England, edited by A. Hessayon and N. Keene, 41–57. New York: Routledge, 2017. Reed, M. and P. Demattè. China on Paper. European and Chinese Works from the Late Sixteenth to the early Nineteenth century. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2007. Rossi, P. The Dark Abyss of Time. The History of the Earth and the History of Nations. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1984. Rule, P. K’ung-Tzu or Confucius? The Jesuit Interpretation of Confucianism. Sydney and Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1986. Silver, B. The Ascent of Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

224

Dijkstra

Schipper, K. Confucius. De gesprekken. Amsterdam: Atlas Contact, 2015. Standaert, N. “The Jesuits did NOT manufacture ‘Confucianism.’” East Asian Science, Technology and Medicine 16 (1999): 116–117. Standaert, N. “Early Sino-European Contacts and the Birth of the Modern Concept of ‘Religion.’” In Rooted in Hope. China – Religion – Christianity, edited by B. Hoster, D. Kuhlmann, Z. Wesolowsi, 3–27. London: Routledge, 2017. Van Kley, E. “Qing Dynasty China in Seventeenth-Century Dutch literature, 1644–1700.” In The History of the Relations between the Low Countries and China in the Qing Era (1644–1911), edited by W. Vande Walle and N. Golvers, 217–234. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2003. Vincent, N. The Right Notion of Honour. As it Was Delivered in a Sermon Before the King at Newmarket, Octob. 4 1674. London: Richard Chiswell, 1685. Vossius, I. Dissertatio de vera aetate mundi. The Hague: Adriaen Vlacq, 1659. Vossius, I. Discours van de rechten ouderdom der wereldt. Waer in getoondt wordt dat de werelt ten minsten 1440 jaren ouder is, dan men gemeenlijck reeckent. Amsterdam: Tymon Houthaeck and Jan Hendricksz Boom, 1660. Vossius, I. De Septuaginta interpretibus, eorumque tralatione & chronologia dissertationes. The Hague: Adriaen Vlacq, 1661. Walsh, L. Scientists as Prophets. A Rhetorical Genealogy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Weststeijn, T. “Spinoza Sinicus. An Asian Paragraph in the History of the Radical Enlightenment.” Journal of the History of Ideas 68, no. 4 (2007): 537–561. Weststeijn, T. “Vossius’ Chinese Utopia.” In Isaac Vossius (1618–1689), Between Science and Scholarship, edited by E. Jorink and D. van Miert, 207–242. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012.

Chapter 9

The Relational Network of Court Jesuits in Local Provinces: The Example of Tomás Pereira (1689–1690) Chen Yufang The Jesuits who came to China in the late Ming and early Qing periods greatly valued their connection with the ruling class, since permission to stay or preach in the country was confined by the stance and policies of the imperial court and determined directly by local mandarins. The entangled history of the two groups, that is, Jesuits and the political powers including emperors and bureaucrat-scholars, illustrates the extent to which Europeans and Chinese could interact. This chapter explores how the success of the Jesuits’ approach rested on a sophisticated strategy to nurture relationships with bureaucratscholars in China. It focuses on Tomás Pereira 徐日昇 (1645–1708), successor of Ferdinand Verbiest as deputy director of the Imperial Bureau of Astronomy and his interaction with local-level mandarins from c.1689–1690 on. His example casts an innovative light on the success of the Jesuit mission: rather than on famous names of the mission such as Matteo Ricci and Verbiest, it was partly based on the distributed agency of networks that connected Westerners and Chinese and extended throughout the Qing Empire. In the last two decades, various studies have tried to explain the success of the Jesuits in China; not all of them, however, have taken the Jesuits’ Chinese counterparts into account. For instance, of the three monographs devoted to Matteo Ricci by Michela Fontana (2005), Ronnie Hsia (2010), and Mary Laven (2011), only Hsia made substantial use of relevant primary and secondary sources in Chinese.1 He dwelled in particular on Ricci’s interactions with Xu Guangqi 徐光启 (1562–1633): a bureaucrat-scholar, mathematician, and astronomer in Shanghai who translated, with his European guest, several Western classics into Chinese as well as several Chinese Confucian texts into Latin. Xu also introduced him to a great many other literati. More recently, however, 1 Ronnie P. Hsia, A Jesuit in the Forbidden City: Matteo Ricci 1552–1610 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010); Michela Fontana, Matteo Ricci: A Jesuit in the Ming Court (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011), orig. in Italian, Mondadori 2005; Mary Laven, Mission to China: Matteo Ricci and the Jesuit Encounter with the East (London: Faber & Faber, 2011).

©

 | 

/

226

CHEN

Roger Hart’s study Imagined Civilizations (2013) has cast a new light on what Ricci and his colleagues proudly presented as their Chinese “proselytes”: the latter were often literati who, out of interest in foreign science— from illustrated books and maps to state-of-the-art physics and mathematics—played the part the Europeans desired. Hart decides to not identify Xu and other scholars who were friendly to the Jesuits as converts but rather to see them as patrons who effectively “held enormous power over [their] Jesuit collaborators”: “Collaborators” is a more inclusive term, more effectively encompassing the wide range of Chinese who worked with the Jesuits along with those who in different ways may have supported various aspects of their mission. The term “collaborators” also reminds us of their vulnerability to possible charges of treason for aiding foreigners […] To assert that Xu was in fact a convert, just because the Jesuits claimed that he was, is no more justified than asserting that the Jesuits were in fact tributary officials who traveled to China to serve the Ming dynasty, simply because Xu claimed so in a memorial to the emperor.2 In what follows, the traditional story of the early missionaries as the “generation of giants,” in George Dunne’s words, will be nuanced further. The image of the missionaries as lone pioneers, the first Westerners to set foot in the Forbidden City who won over their Chinese onlookers to the True Faith by the mere demonstration of their superior learning, will be replaced by the suggestion that the missionaries’ success depended on their ability to establish and nurture a network of relations with Chinese in various positions of power.3 Shifting attention to these networks brings Tomás Pereira into view. His role was first noted in Liam Brockey’s eminent study, Journey to the East: The Jesuit Mission to China (2007), which identified the Jesuits’ success as a function of their combination of European and Chinese learning, and highlighted Pereira’s support for the establishment of a seminary catering to Chinese-born priests.4 In 2012, the importance of the position of this Portuguese missionary at the Kangxi court was recognized more fully: “Of all the Europeans at the Qing court, Tomás Pereira was the closest to the Son of Heaven himself”—to quote 2 Roger Hart, Imagined Civilizations: China, the West, and Their First Encounter (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), 8–9. 3 George H. Dunne, S.J., Generation of Giants: The Story of the Jesuits in China in the Last Decades of the Ming Dynasty (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1962). 4 Liam Brockey, Journey to the East: The Jesuit Mission to China, 1579–1724 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007), 149–150.

The Relational Network of Court Jesuits in Local Provinces

227

the eminent Australian Sinologue Paul Rule. This claim was made in a hefty volume edited by Artur Wardega and António Vasconcelos de Saldanha, In the Light and Shadow of an Emperor (2012). The book devotes essays to Pereira’s role as a courtier and diplomat, his understanding of Chinese religion, and his role in introducing Western astronomy and organ music at the imperial court.5 The following analysis will deepen the understanding of how Pereira managed to establish a broad relational network across provinces, from clerks to prefects and provincial governors. Like other court priests, he was not allowed to leave Beijing at will; yet, by frequently visiting officials who came to Beijing and by nurturing a wide-ranging network of correspondence, he managed to create effective relations between local officials and the missionaries in their regions. 1

Missionaries as Courtiers

Many attempts were made to send missions to the Ming court during the early period. Francis Xavier (1506–1552) was the first Jesuit who hoped to preach within China. On the basis of his missionary experience in India and Japan, he suggested that the governor of Goa send a diplomatic mission to China in the name of the king of Portugal.6 Melchior Nunes Barreto, who had been to Guangzhou twice to rescue imprisoned Portuguese in 1555 gave similar advice in his letter of the same year.7 Later, in 1563, Portuguese Jesuits Francisco Peres, Manuel Teixeira, and Brother André Pinto undertook the mission to China that was organized by the king of Portugal and led by Gil de Góis. All failed to receive permission to evangelize within China but left relevant experience for their successors. Father Teixeira considered imperial permission to be the most important step in evangelizing China ever since he became conscious of the power of the ruling class, including both the emperor’s and that of the mandarins.8 André Pinto held a similar viewpoint: “With the aid of the Lord, 5 Artur Wardega and António Vasconcelos de Saldanha, ed., In the Light and Shadow of an Emperor: Tomás Pereira, SJ (1645–1708), the Kangxi Emperor and the Jesuit Mission in China (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars, 2012), 2. 6 Pietro Tacchi Venturi, Opere Storiche del P. Matteo Ricci (Macerata: Premiato Stabilimento Tipografico avv. Filippo Giorgetti, vol. 1, 1911), 104. 7 Carta do Pe. Melchior Nunes Barreto aos Jesuitas de Goa (Lampacau, 23 de Novembro de 1555), repr. in Em busca das origens de Macau, ed. Rui Manuel Loureiro (Macao: Museu Maritimo de Macao, 1997), 83. 8 Carta do Pe. Manuel Teixeira aos Jesuitas de Goa (Macao, 1 de Dezembro de 1563), repr. in Em busca das origens de Macau, 110.

228

CHEN

these learned men should be the first who accept the Faith because, if we want to preach to others, we should first treat with them. With their permission, those inferiors will listen and accept our faith.”9 While European missionaries failed in their efforts to send missions directly to the Wanli Emperor, they were beyond the vision of the central court. In this case, the attitude of the local mandarins was particularly important. In 1582, Michele Ruggieri (1543–1607) and his companions were permitted by Supreme Commander of Liangguang 两广总督 Chen Rui 陈瑞, to reside in the prefecture of Zhaoqing 肇庆府, and gradually built relationships with more and more mandarins in villages, towns, cities and provinces who allowed them to stay in their administrative regions tacitly or publicly. Reliance on friendly mandarins, Matteo Ricci successfully reached the imperial city in 1601, getting access to more powerful officials in the central court. As it is documented: When we first arrived in Guangdong, we were summoned by the supreme commander whose surname was Liu 刘 to the prefecture of Zhaoqing 肇 庆. After interrogation, he wrote to the prefect of Shaozhou 韶州 and asked him to grant us land on the west side of the river 河西 to build houses. In this way, we could take a rest temporarily. Afterwards, with several companions, we started to carry tributes to the emperor in the imperial city. In transit, the vice-director of the Ministry of War, whose surname was She 佘, accompanied and accommodated us in the capital city of Jiangxi 江西 Province. Later, in the company of the director of the Ministry of Rites in Nanjing 南京 whose surname was Wang 王 and on his way to take up his post, we came to Nanjing and met mandarins like the director of the Ministry of Personnel whose surname was Zhang 张, the vice-director of Ministry of Rites whose surname was Guo 郭, the vice-director of the Ministry of Works whose surname was Wang 王, the senior supervising secretary 都给事中 whose surname was Zhu 祝 and other gentries. We became friends after meeting only once. One year later, we were permitted to reside there. Afterwards, with the license from officials, Ricci, Pantoja and other companions sailed north. They were stopped and examined by the eunuch Ma 马 who was in charge of collecting tax in Linqing 临清.10 9 10

Carta do Pe. Manuel Teixeira aos Jesuitas da Europa (Macau, 1 de Dezembro de 1565), repr. in Em Busca das Origens de Macau, 188. Diego Pantoja 庞 迪 我 et al., 奏 疏 [Memorial] [1617], repr. in Christian Texts in Ming and Qing China from Zikawai Library 徐 家 汇 藏 书 楼 明 清 天 主 教 文 献 , vol. 1, ed. Nicolas Standaert et al. (Taipei: Fangji Chubanshe, 1996), 71–139.

The Relational Network of Court Jesuits in Local Provinces

229

They continued to approach powerful men in the imperial city and formed a particular group later known as the “court Jesuits” or “priests in court.” This group had persistently pursued toleration from both emperors and officials at the central court since 1601. Moreover, they maintained acquaintanceships with officials who took office outside the imperial city to guarantee patronage to missionaries in their administrative regions. Despite the fact that Jesuit interaction with officials who were Confucian intellectuals has been much examined,11 their connection with political power is seldom studied from the perspective of how power relations influenced the Jesuits’ missionary work in China. The frequent interaction of the court Jesuits with local officials has not yet been given sufficient attention. The following, using Tomás Pereira as an example, explores his interaction with local officials from 1689–1690, his connection to powerful local-level officials and how their relationship contributed to local missions, which miniatured the court Jesuits’ relational network among local officials as a whole. Court Jesuits attached great importance to their contact with officials who governed other regions. How did they become acquainted with these officials from far away? The primary means was simply to make an appointment with local officials when they were in Beijing. It was the custom in Ming and Qing China that officials presented themselves in the imperial city when securing an official position for the first time or accepting a new appointment. During their tenure, they were required to come to the imperial city periodically to be evaluated by the central government. Missionaries in Beijing received news of their arrival from public lists, notices, gazettes, and other media.12 As revealed in Astronomia Europaea (1687) by Ferdinand Verbiest: Since every month many new prefects are sent from the imperial city of Beijing to the provinces and a long list with their names is posted in a public place, the father who is in charge of astronomy in Beijing hastens to visit personally all the mandarins destined for the cities with a missionary or at least with a fair number of Christians. He congratulates 11

12

Relevant studies on Jesuits’ relational network include the following papers: Lin Jinshui 林 金 水 , “利 玛 窦 交 游 人 物 表 [Matteo Ricci’s Relational Network in China],” in Zhongwai Guanxi Shi Luncong 中 外 关 系 史 论 丛 , 1 (1985): 117–143; Lin Jinshui 林 金 水 , “利 玛 窦 与 福 建 士 大 夫 [Matteo Ricci and Bureaucratic-scholars of Fujian Province],” in Wenshi Zhishi 文 史 知 识 , 4 (1995): 44–49; Lin Jinshui 林 金 水 , “艾 儒 略 与 福 建 士 大 夫 交 游 表 [Aleni and Bureaucratic Scholars of Fujian],” in Zhongwai Guanxi Shi Luncong 中 外 关 系 史 论 丛 , 5 (1996): 182–202. Noël Golvers, The Astronomia Europaea of Ferdinand Verbiest, S.J. (Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1993), 163, note 51.

230

CHEN

them on their new dignity and gives them, together with a little present, some books about the Christian law and thus strongly commends to them both the missionary fathers and the Christians who reside there.13 Court priests also had other ways to reach local officials; for example, when they traveled as imperial commissioners 钦差, accompanied emperors on imperial tours, or even when en route to Beijing for the first time. Tomás Pereira, a Portuguese Jesuit during Kangxi’s 康熙 reign, served at the imperial court from 1673 until he passed away in 1708. He was summoned to serve at the court for his proficiency in calendrical work and was appreciated by the Kangxi Emperor for his musical talent. After Ferdinand Verbiest’s death in 1688, Pereira was assigned to take charge of the Bureau of Astronomy 钦天 监 together with Antoine Thomas during the absence of Claudio Filippo Grimaldi. Pereira also contributed to the signing of the Nerchinsk Treaty in 1689. Several of his letters to the Japan-China Provincial Visitor Francisco Xa­ vier Filippucci,14 dating from 1688 to 1690, disclosed his contact with local officials and how he shared information with local missionaries. Pereira enjoyed good relations with Kin Laoye and his son, as he made clear in his letter to Filippucci on February 10, 1689. Pereira told Filippucci that this Kin Laoye was the viceroy of Guangdong when he arrived in China. In the Local Chronicles of Guangdong Province 广东通志, the viceroy in 1673, when Pereira was summoned to the imperial court, was Jin Guangzu 金光祖. This Kin Laoye was—in fact—Jin Guangzu, who was a Manchu student 生员 and once was the fifth regimental commander and the seventh company commander of the Chinese military White Banner 正白旗汉军第五参领第七佐领.15 He was promoted to the post of Fujian commissioner 福建布政使in 166216 and provincial governor of Guangxi 广西巡抚 in 1665. He was later appointed viceroy of Guangdong and Guangxi 两广总督 in the second lunar month of the ninth year of Kangxi’s reign (1668) but was dismissed in 1681.17 When the twenty-five missionaries who were imprisoned in Guangdong during the Calendar Case were ordered to return to their own churches by the emperor in 1671, Jin 13 14 15 16 17

Noël Golvers, The Astronomia, 56. Francisco Xavier Filippucci took the office of Visitor from January 1688 for two years. He was the superior in Guangzhou before taking that office. Qinding Baqi Tongzhi 钦 定 八 旗 通 志 [Qianlong Period] (the Complete Library of the Four Treasures version 四 库 全 书 本 ), Juan 24, 25. Xu Jingxi 徐 景 熹 , Lu Zengyu 鲁 曾 煜 et al. ed., 福 州 府 志 [Local Gazetteers of Fuzhou Prefecture] [1754], Juan 46, (repr. Taibei: Chengwen Publishing House, 1967), 933. Zhao Erxun 赵 尔 巽 , Draft History of Qing Dynasty 清 史 稿 [early 20th century], Juan 197 (repr. Beijing 北 京 : Zhonghua Shuju 中 华 书 局 , 1977), 7099–7113.

The Relational Network of Court Jesuits in Local Provinces

231

Guangzu was the viceroy of Guangdong and Guangxi. He was commanded to send Grimaldi and Christian Wolfgang Henriques Herdtrich 恩理格, who were said to be proficient in calendrical work, to the imperial court while the others returned to their own churches.18 In 1673, when the emperor called Pereira to the court, Jin Guangzu was in charge of handling Pereira’s travel. This event was later recorded by Zhao Zhiqian 赵之谦, the painter and calligrapher of Qing dynasty, in Yonglu Xianjie 勇庐闲诘 which is a book about tobacco and snuff bottles.19 When Pereira wrote the letter to the Visitor in 1689, Jin Guangzu’s son was appointed to assume office in the Guangdong Customs Office 粤 海关 from the imperial city. The Guangdong Customs was established in 1685 and affiliated with the Ministry of Revenue 户部. In the Customs Office, there was one superintendent 监督, one Manchu clerk 笔帖式 and one Chinese.20 Jin Guangzu’s son was perhaps a petty official in Guangdong Customs because there is no record of him in the list of officials in Gazetteer of Guangdong Customs 粤海关志. Pereira told the Visitor that this junior Kin Laoye asked Pereira to find someone in Macao to help him buy items from the Dutch: clocks, in particular. Pereira wrote a letter and introduced Tu sien siem, that is, Lodovico Azzi 齐又思 to help him. In addition, he asked this junior Kin Laoye to take a map to Francisco da Veiga.21 In this way, missionaries in Guangdong were connected to the junior Kin Laoye through Pereira. Pereira’s letters of October 20 and December 26, 1689 reveal that he maintained a close relationship with the Xe 石 family.22 Pereira referred to one Xe Laoye who was the emperor’s cousin and a member of the White Banner. At the time Pereira wrote the letter of October 20, 1689, this Xe Laoye was a Tsian kiun and set out from Beijing to take office in Fujian. The viceroy of Guangdong at that time was his uncle who introduced him to Pereira. This particular Xe 18

19 20 21 22

Two memorials submitted by the Ministry of Rites 礼 部 为 天 恩 难 报 事 二 疏 [1672], repr. in Xichao Ding’an Xichao Chongzheng Ji (Wai Sanzhong) 熙 朝 定 案 熙 朝 崇 正 集 (外 三 种 ) , collated and annotated by Han Qi 韩 琦 and Wu Min 吴 旻 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju 中 华 书 局 , 2006), 87–88. Zhao Zhiqian 赵 之 谦 , Yonglu Xianjie 勇 庐 闲 诘 [19th century], repr. in Congshu Jicheng Xinbian 丛 书 集 成 新 编 , vol. 47 (Taiwan 台 湾 : Xinfeng Chuban Gongsi 新 文 丰 出 版 公 司 , 1985), 763. Liang Ting’nan 梁 廷 枬 , Gazetteer of Guangdong Customs 粤 海 关 志 [Daoguang period], Juan 7 (repr. in Xuxiu Siku Quanshu 续 修 四 库 全 书 , Juan 834), 572. Tomás Pereira’s Carta ao Francesco Saverio Filippucci, Pequim, February 10, 1689, repr. in Tomás Pereira Obras, vol. 1, 239–240. Tomás Pereira’s Carta ao Visitador Francesco Saverio Filippucci, Pequim, October 20, 1689, repr. in Tomás Pereira Obras, vol. 1, 301; Tomás Pereira’s Carta ao Visitador Francesco Saverio Filippucci, Pequim, December 26, 1689, repr. in Tomás Pereira Obras, vol. 1, 325, 326.

232

CHEN

Laoye should be Shi Wenbing 石文炳. As documented in Chinese language materials, Shi Wenbing was a Manchu soldier of the White Banner, the eldest son of Shi Huashan 石华善 and the grandson of Shi Tingzhu 石廷柱. When his grandfather Shi Tingzhu passed away in 1661, Shi Wenbing inherited the honorary title of duke of the third class 三等伯爵 and assumed the office of military commander of Fuzhou 福州将军 in 1689. The Guangdong viceroy in 1689 who was referred to as Pereira’s friend was Shi Lin 石琳, the fourth son of Shi Tingzhu 石廷柱, younger brother of Shi Huashan and Shi Wenbing’s uncle. He was appointed viceroy of Guangdong and Guangxi 两广总督 from the seventh lunar month of the twenty-eighth year of Kangxi’s reign (1689) until 1702.23 Pereira recommended two missionaries in Fujian—José Monteiro and Diogo Vidal—to Shi Wenbing with the purpose of securing patronage in Fujian. He also knew Shi Huashan 石华善 well, who was Shi Wenbing’s father. This can be inferred from a letter in April 1690: “A few days ago, I wrote to the Viceroy Xe Laoye and included a letter to the military commander of Fujian. He was my great friend and his nephew […] I will ask his older brother who was also my friend and father of the military commander of Fujian to write a letter for this.”24 From Chinese documents, we know Shi Huashan was the third son of Shi Tingzhu, and Shi Lin’s older brother and served as military commander of Dingnan 定南 from 1678 to 1695. Besides the above three officials from the Xe family, Pereira was also acquainted with another Xe Laoye who was a prefect (Chifu 知府) and one of Shi Lin’s nephews. This prefect might be Shi Wensheng 石文晟, whose father was Shi Lin’s brother, Chuo Ermen 绰尔们. Shi Wensheng was the Chaozhou 潮州 prefect in 168825 and perhaps also in 1689. Pereira met him once in 1688 but did not know he was Shi Lin’s nephew. As recounted in a letter of February 1688: “I gave presents to the prefect of Chaozhou who just left, so that he could treat well those revered priests of the Franciscan Order.”26 One year later, in the letter of October 20, 1689, he told the Visitor that he had asked Veiga to send a letter to a prefect who told him in person he was Shi Lin’s nephew and Pereira had not known this before.

23 24 25 26

Zhao Erxun 赵 尔 巽 , Draft History of Qing Dynasty 清 史 稿 [early 20th century], Juan 197, 7123, 7141. Tomás Pereira’s Carta ao Visitador Francesco Saverio Filippucci, Pequim, April 19, 1690, repr. in Tomás Pereira Obras, vol. 1, 344–345. Ruan Yuan 阮 元 , Chronological Gazetteer of Guangdong 广 东 通 志 , Juan 50, in Xuxiu Siku Quanshu 续 修 四 库 全 书 , vol. 669 (Shanghai上 海 : Shanghai Guji Chubanshe 上 海 古 籍 出 版 社 , 2002), 25. Tomás Pereira’s Carta ao Padre Superior, Pequim, February 11, 1688, repr. in Tomás Pereira Obras, vol. 1, 127.

The Relational Network of Court Jesuits in Local Provinces

233

Pereira requested for an official called Tum Laoye, who was the son of Kieu Kieu,27 to help missionaries in Fujian in 1689. This Tum Laoye wrote to Pereira that he had met with one missionary in Fujian many times concerning the business of Kien nin fu 建宁府. In order to introduce Carlo Giovanni Turcotti— who was in Fujian at that time—to Tum Laoye, Pereira sent Turcotti a letter of thanks to Tum Laoye and had Turcotti hand the letter over to him.28 Later on December 25, Pereira revealed in his letter that this Tum Laoye helped missionaries in Fujian: “Kieu Kieu’s son arrived here. I thanked him properly for what he had done for Your Reverence. He told me everything.”29 Pereira also informed the Visitor of an official Kim Laoye in 1689.30 Kim Laoye was once the provincial governor 巡抚 in Changsha 长沙, and handled the issue of a church purchased there. He was in Beijing in October 1689 to accept the office of viceroy of Fujian 福建总督. Pereira met him at this event. This Kim Laoye would be Xing Yongchao 兴永朝. Discovered in the Chinese document Chronicles of the Qing Dynasty 东华录, Xing Yongchao was the provincial governor of Pianyuan 偏沅巡抚 and was ordered to assume the office of viceroy of Fujian and Zhejiang 闽浙总督 in the fifth lunar month of the twentyeighth year of Kangxi’s reign (1689). It should be noted that the mansion of the provincial governor of Pianyuan 偏沅 was located in Changsha 长沙 during Kangxi’s time.31 That is the reason why Pereira mentioned him as governor in Changsha. Pereira told Filippucci that Xing’s son was his friend and they were on good terms. Xing Yongchao’s son was Xing Wangzheng 兴王政 in Chinese documents. In another letter, Pereira talked about one Him Laoye who had a similar backstory as Kim Laoye.32 Him Laoye was said to be Pereira’s friend and on the way to assume the post of viceroy in Fujian 福建总督 in 1689. He showed great benevolence and respect to Pereira. As I see it, this Him Laoye is the abovementioned Kim Laoye and the spelling Kim is a variation of Him. 27

28 29 30 31 32

It is known from Pereira’s letters that this “Kieu kieu” was the Kangxi Emperor’s uncle and the ambassador to Nerchinsk. This Kieu Kieu is Tong Guogang 佟 国 纲 in Chinese documents. He had three sons. The identity of the son who went to Fujian and met with missionaries is not yet known. Tomás Pereira’s Carta ao Visitador Francesco Saverio Filippucci, Pequim, October 20, 1689, repr. in Tomás Pereira Obras, vol. 1, 301. Tomás Pereira’s Carta ao Visitador Francesco Saverio Filippucci, Pequim, December 25, 1689, repr. in Tomás Pereira Obras, vol. 1, 321. Tomás Pereira’s Carta ao Visitador Francesco Saverio Filippucci, Pequim, October 20, 1689, repr. in Tomás Pereira Obras, vol. 1, 301. Jiang Liangqi 蒋 良 骐 , Chronicles of Qing Dynasty 东 华 录 [Qianlong period], Juan 10, (repr. Taiwan台 湾 : Wenhai Chuban She文 海 出 版 社 , 2006), 379. Tomás Pereira’s Carta ao Visitador Francesco Saverio Filippucci, Pequim, December 26, 1689, repr. in Tomás Pereira Obras, vol. 1, 327.

234

CHEN

Pereira also briefly informed the Visitor of his visits to other officials. In the letter of December 26, 1689, he reported a visit to the prefect of Guilin prefecture 桂林, Yao Laoye.33 This Yao Laoye was Yao Wenguang 姚文光. As shown in Chinese documents, Yao Wenguang was the prefect of Guilin from the twentyninth year of Kangxi’s reign (1690) to the thirtieth year (1691). Li Laoye was mentioned in the letter of February 9, 1690, who was Pereira’s companion when they went to Moscow to negotiate with the Russians and was about to become governor of Customs in Macao. Pereira made all the necessary recommendations to him.34 This Li Laoye is Li Jie 李杰 in Chinese documents, superintendent of Macao Customs in 1690.35 In addition, Pereira told the superior in Guangzhou on September 14, 1690 that an escrivam 笔帖式 (clerk or secretary) named Xao would go to Guangdong and work as the governor’s clerk. This escrivam previously worked in the Bureau of Astronomy and was his friend. Pereira intended to introduce him to the superior in Guangdong and asked him to take a letter to Diogo Vidal. Pereira held the point that, since this escrivam was the viceroy’s clerk, the Jesuits would benefit if they built a relationship with him. He also gave Xao Laoye a letter to the governor.36 While Pereira exchanged information about local officials with his superiors, information asymmetry nonetheless existed in communications between court priests and local missionaries. In the first place, Pereira (at times) failed to know exactly who had helped missionaries in the provinces. Tum Laoye once granted a favor to Visitor Filippucci, but Filippucci did not tell him. Pereira expected to be informed in a timely fashion so as to show sufficient gratitude to those officials in the future.37 In the second, Pereira reminded the Visitor to notify him of the Chinese names for newly arrived missionaries once they arrived38 and also the Chinese names of relevant officials. For example, regarding some issue of Macao, he replied to Filippucci that he needed detailed information about those local officials, such as their Chinese names and sobriquets (“alcunhas”) in order to take action. He had no idea who the Haytao 33 34 35 36 37 38

Tomás Pereira’s Carta ao Visitador Francesco Saverio Filippucci, Pequim, December 26, 1689, repr. in Tomás Pereira Obras, vol. 1, 325, 326. Tomás Pereira’s Carta ao Visitador Francesco Saverio Filippucci, Pequim, February 9, 1690, repr. in Tomás Pereira Obras, vol. 1, 337. Liang Ting’nan 梁 廷 枏 , Gazetteer of Guangdong Custom 粤 海 关 志 [Qianlong Period], 572. Tomás Pereira’s Carta a Diogo Vidal, Pequim, September 14, 1690, repr. in Tomás Pereira Obras, vol. 1, 395. Tomás Pereira’s Carta ao Visitador Francesco Saverio Filippucci, Pequim, December 26, 1689, repr. in Tomás Pereira Obras, vol. 1, 325. Tomás Pereira’s Carta ao Visitador Francesco Saverio Filippucci, Pequim, December 26, 1689, repr. in Tomás Pereira Obras, vol. 1, 326.

The Relational Network of Court Jesuits in Local Provinces

235

was and he needed his Chinese name and alcunha.39 He repeated this once again in the letter of June 21, 1690 that: Please tell these gentlemen that, in the future, they all need to write in a list the Chinese names of mandarins who did any injustice and do not make them confusing and unclear. Because if they only say the mandarin of Caza Branca in Portuguese, I can conclude nothing, because I do not know the mandarin of Caza Branca in Chinese. Make a list of the cities, in which has the year, month and day in Chinese when injustices occur and names of mandarins.40 Though Tomás Pereira, like other court priests, stayed in Beijing most of the time and could not go out at will, he had a broad relational network across provinces, from provincial governors and viceroys to prefects of different levels and even clerks. He transmitted information of various officials’ movements and their connections with certain officials who happened to be in Beijing to the Visitor. In this way, local missionaries would know others through his relational network and turned to him for recommendations or help whenever necessary. In the meantime, Pereira created relations between local officials and missionaries in their regions by asking officials to send letters to missionaries or vice versa. He also wrote directly to local officials either to increase the frequency of their contact or to help regional missionaries solve problems they encountered. Additionally, he frequently visited important officials who came to Beijing and thanked those who helped local missionaries. 2 Conclusion Pereira’s case clearly reveals that court Jesuits did not confine their activities to the imperial city; instead, they developed a sizeable relational network among local officials. This close relationship was intended to safeguard local missions. Furthermore, court Jesuits had more advantages than those in local regions to protect the mission in China. Being situated at the political center, they were able to reach a larger number of officials. What is more, the imperial favor and patronage enhanced their prestige among all officials. Local missionaries often 39 40

Tomás Pereira’s Carta ao Visitador Francesco Saverio Filippucci, Pequim, April 19, 1690, repr. in Tomás Pereira Obras, vol. 1, 345. Tomás Pereira’s Carta ao Visitador Francesco Saverio Filippucci, Pequim, June 21, 1690, repr. in Tomás Pereira Obras, vol. 1, 354–355.

236

CHEN

wrote to Jesuits in Beijing whenever they needed help. For example, the missionary Agustin de S. Pascual in 1681 wanted to buy a house in Jining 济宁 and asked Ferdinand Verbiest to send a letter to the local prefect.41 In 1691, when Zhang Penghe 张鹏翮, the provincial governor of Zhejiang, started a provincewide persecution of Christianity, Prospero Intorcetta wrote to the Beijing fathers for help. Both cases demonstrate the role of court Jesuits in protecting local missions. Yet, it should be noted that their association with local officials was not always a lubricating factor in their missionary work. Whereas the emperor’s positive attitude could help the Beijing fathers maintain good relations with local officials, their negative attitude could ruin it, as happened during Emperor Yongzheng’s 雍正 and Emperor Qianlong’s 乾隆 reigns. Different routes of communication were possible in the encounter of European and Chinese cultures. The Jesuits opted for approaching the political powers to facilitate the exchange. They tried sending embassies or going to the imperial city by themselves.42 When they successfully set foot in the imperial court, they proceeded to build relationships with officials. Pereira’s example illustrates the success that court Jesuits could have in connecting with a large network extending from the capital to the provinces. Bibliography Brockey, Liam M. Journey to the East: The Jesuit Mission to China, 1579–1724. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007. Dunne S.J. George. Generation of Giants: The Story of the Jesuits in China in the Last Decades of the Ming Dynasty. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1962. Fontana, Michela. Matteo Ricci: A Jesuit in the Ming Court. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011 (orig. in Italian, Mondadori 2005). Golvers, Noël, ed. Letters of a Peking Jesuit: the Correspondence of Ferdinand Verbiest, S.J. (1623–1688). Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, 2017. Golvers, Noël. The Astronomia Europaea of Ferdinand Verbiest, S.J. Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1993. Han Qi 韩 琦 and Wu Min. Xichao Ding’an Xichao Chongzheng Ji (Wai Sanzhong) 熙 朝 定 案 熙 朝 崇 正 集 (外 三 种 ). Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 2006. 41 42

Agustin de S. Pascual from Ji’nan fu to F. Verbiest in Beijing (1681/03/04), repr. in Letters of a Peking Jesuit: the Correspondence of Ferdinand Verbiest, S.J. (1623–1688), ed. Noël Golvers (Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, 2017), 409–411. M. Keevak, Embassies to China. Diplomacy and Cultural Encounters before the Opium Wars (London: Palgrave, 2017).

The Relational Network of Court Jesuits in Local Provinces

237

Hart, R. Imagined Civilizations: China, the West, and Their First Encounter. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2013. Hsia, R.P. A Jesuit in the Forbidden City: Matteo Ricci 1552–1610. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Jiang Liangqi 蒋 良 骐 . 东 华 录 [Chronicles of the Qing Dynasty] [Qianlong period], Juan 10. Reprinted Edition. Taiwan: Wenhai Chuban She, 2006. Keevak, Michael. Embassies to China. Diplomacy and Cultural Encounters before the Opium Wars. London: Palgrave, 2017. Laven, Mary. Mission to China: Matteo Ricci and the Jesuit Encounter with the East. London­: Faber & Faber, 2011. Lin Jinshui 林 金 水 . “利 玛 窦 与 福 建 士 大 夫 [Matteo Ricci and Bureaucratic Scholars of Fujian Province].” Wenshi Zhishi 文 史 知 识 4 (1995): 44–49. Lin Jinshui 林 金 水 . “利 玛 窦 交 游 人 物 表 [Matteo Ricci’s Relational Network in China].” Zhongwai Guanxi Shi Luncong 中 外 关 系 史 论 丛 1 (1985): 117–143. Lin Jinshui 林 金 水 . “艾 儒 略 与 福 建 士 大 夫 交 游 表 [Aleni and Bureaucratic Scholars of Fujian].” Zhongwai Guanxi Shi Luncong 中 外 关 系 史 论 丛 5 (1996): 182–202. Loureiro, Rui Manuel, ed. Em busca das origens de Macau. Macao: Museu Maritimo de Macao, 1997. Min Erchang 闵 尔 昌 comp. Beizhuan Jibu 碑 传 集 补 [1932], vol. 1, juan 14. Taiwan: Ming­ wen Shuju, 1985. Ruan Yuan 阮 元 . Chronological Gazetteer of Guangdong 广 东 通 志 , Juan 50. In Xuxiu Siku Quanshu 续 修 四 库 全 书 , vol. 669. Shanghai: Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 2002. Standaert, Nicolas, et al., ed. Christian Texts in Ming and Qing China from the Zikawai Library 徐 家 汇 藏 书 楼 明 清 天 主 教 文 献 . Taipei: Fangji Chubanshe, 1996. Tacchi Venturi, Pietro. Opere Storiche del P. Matteo Ricci. Macerata: Filippo Giorgetti, 1911. Wardega, A. & A. Vasconcelos de Saldanha, ed. In the Light and Shadow of an Emperor: Tomás Pereira, SJ (1645–1708), the Kangxi Emperor and the Jesuit Mission in China. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars, 2012. Wardega, Artur K., S.J. and António Vasconcelos de Saldanha, ed. In the Light and Shadow of an Emperor. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars, 2012. Xu Jingxi 徐 景 熹 , Lu Zengyu 鲁 曾 煜 et al., ed. 福 州 府 志 [1754] [Local Gazetteers of Fuzhou Prefecture] Juan 46. Reprinted Edition. Taibei: Chengwen Publishing House, 1967. Zhao Erxun 赵 尔 巽 . 清 史 稿 [Draft History of the Qing Dynasty] [early 20th century], Juan 197. Reprinted Edition. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1977.

Chapter 10

Jesuit Libraries in Beijing and China in the Perspective of the Communication between Europe and China in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Noël Golvers Amongst the strongest drivers in intercultural and inter-linguistic contacts are obviously books and libraries. Books, especially when illustrated, can be offered as an introductory present, can raise the curiosity for other topics or fields of knowledge, if not cultures, and become the basis of translations. Libraries, then, often become the site of entangled cultural histories: meeting centers and locations for exhibitions, lectures, and other public and promotional manifestations to introduce another culture, language, etc. in its receiving milieu. This is exactly what happened—according to our sources—with Jesuit libraries in late Ming, early Qing China, from the first settlement of the Jesuits in Macao (1555) and Beijing (ca. 1600) until the holdings of the last surviving library—the Nantang collection—were transferred to the Russian archimandrite in 1826. To be a meeting center and point of contact with the Chinese was, from the outset, also the intention, and the sources on the Beijing residences indeed report about Chinese visitors, guided tours through the Jesuit compound, exhibitions of prestigious books, and typographical oddities within the Jesuit compounds.1 The involvement of books and libraries in evangelization had its more remote model or inspiration in the Bibliothekenstrategie,2 which the ­Society of Jesus had developed during its campaigns to “reconquer” the European countries the Catholic world had lost to Lutheranism and Protestantism, mainly in Central Europe: the so-called “Counter-Reformation.” After the 1 For this “demonstrative” aspect of Jesuit libraries in China, see, for example, Noël Golvers, “The Pre-1773 Jesuit Libraries in Peking as a Medium for Western Learning in Seventeenthand Early Eighteenth-Century China,” The Library, 7th series 16, no. 4 (2015): 429–445. 2 Term coined by Heinrich Kramm, Deutsche Bibliotheken unter dem Einfluß von Humanismus und Reformation (Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1938), 93–98. It is probably useful to note that this intention not only answered a “strategic” purpose but also translated a fundamental option of the society’s Constitutiones (see especially Part iv, 372 and 373).

©

 | 

/

Jesuit Libraries in Beijing and China

239

­earliest generations,3 Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) had been among the first to also realize the importance of books in the remote Chinese mission, a consequence of the book-and learning-oriented Chinese culture. His personal experience brought him to emphasize, in his letters to Italy, the impact of (especially) books on sciences, in meetings with Chinese literati.4 Shortly after his death in 1610, this perception had been upgraded to a real project or program by Nicolò Longobardo (1565–1655) in a Memorandum (1613) destined for Nicolas Trigault (1577–1628), the mission’s procurator, who was elected in 1613 to travel to Europe for searching for funds, new missionaries, books, and scientific instruments. The story of how Trigault has implemented this part of his mission in Europe, in close collaboration with Johann Schreck Terrentius (1576–1630), his socius in the period 1615–1618, is partly described in Trigault’s report from Brussels (January 2, 1617)5 and partially in two new documents recently found: the latter is a list of 331 books, bought by the same in one day in Antwerp on December 6, 1617.6 After the books arrived at their destination in 1625—the basis of the Jesuit library of the Portuguese college Xitang in Beijing—they became the basis of the intense scholarly activities of the Longobardo generation: Adam Schall mainly concentrated on the restoration of the Chinese calendar. This technical operation was paralleled by the gradual publication of a ­110-volume (Western) astronomical encyclopedia (Qongzhen li shu, 1635),7 which was itself part of an all-encompassing translation and composition program.8 The program was conceived as a step-by-step introduction to Christian 3 Rui Manuel Loureiro, Na Companhia dos livros. Manuscritos e impressos nas missões jesuitas da Asia Oriental (1540–1620) (Macao: University of Macao, 2007). 4 For analysis of of Ricci’s library, see Roui Manuel Loureiro, “Como seria a biblioteca de Matteo Ricci?,” in Metahistory. History Questioning History. Metahistória. História questionando História. Festschrift in Honour of Professor Teotonio R. de Souza, ed. Charles J. Borges, S.J. & Michael N. Pearson (Lisbon: Nova Vega, 2007), 521–535. 5 Published by E. Lamalle, “La propagande du P. Nicolas Trigault en faveur des missions de Chine (1616),” Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu 9 (1940): 49–120. 6 See my book on The European Intellectual Network of Johann Schreck Terrentius (1600–1618), in preparation. 7 Of which several editions existed: see especially Henri Bernard, “L’encyclopédie astronomique du Père Schall (…). La réforme du calendrier chinois sous l’influence de Clavius, de Galilée et de Kepler,” Monumenta Serica iii (1938): 441–527. 8 For an overview of the Chinese compositions of the Jesuits’ ca. 1,500 titles, see the online C(hinese) C(hristian) D(ata) B(ase) (A. Dudink-N. Standaert, KULeuven). For the position of “translations” in this program, see: Tsuen-hsuin Tsien, “Western Impact on China through Translation,” Far Eastern Quarterly 133 (1954): 305 ff.; Erin M. Oder, “Undoing the Binaries. Rethinking ‘Encounter’: Translation works of Seventeenth-Century Jesuit Missionaries in China” (PhD diss. Ohio University, 2006); Ronnie Po-chia Hsia, “The Catholic Mission and

240

Golvers

teachings, ascending from Western physics and metaphysics—embodied in the Aristoteles Latinus in the Commentarii Conimbricenses (1591–1606)— through rational theology to the teachings; the latter was the sum of the entire translation and writing program, which gave a strong epistemological and ­rational basis to the preaching. The last parts of it were made by Ferdinand Verbiest (1623–1688) and dedicated to the emperor in 1684 under the title Qiongli xue. His stratagem, to introduce this “Western philosophy” among the compulsory reading program for the official exams, however, was thwarted by the members of the Han lin academy, who had understood the stratagem very well.9 It was especially after 1644 and the appointment of a Jesuit of this college as the head of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau (Qintianjian), that the work on the Chinese calendar and related astronomical work was continued by astronomers such as Verbiest, Antoine Thomas (1644–1709), Claudio Filippo Grimaldi (1638–1712), Ignatius Kögler (1680–1746) and ­Augustin von Hallerstein (1703– 1774). Since the late seventeenth century, the scholarly activities of these socalled “Portuguese” Jesuits were also greatly diversified over a large domain of technology, engineering, and medicine (among others). This was all concentrated around this Portuguese college, now (actually since the early 1700s) called “Nantang” and its French counterpart, Beitang, which was founded around the same date and had its own library. 1 Selection It is obvious, that this program—together with the expectations and interests of the Chinese target public—also “shaped” the selection of Western books, which were brought to China with heavy budgetary efforts and despite complex logistical problems.10 Yet, since its outset, it was the intention to offer to the Jesuits in this Chinese periphery a “complete library” (livraria acabada) or, 9 10

Translations in China, 1583–1700,” in Cultural Translation in Early Modern Europe, ed. P. Burke & Ronnie Po-chia Hsia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 39–51. See the contributions by A. Dudink, N. Standaert and N. Golvers in N. Golvers, ed., The Christian Mission in China in the Verbiest Era: Some Aspects of the Missionary Approach, Louvain Chinese Studies vi (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1999), 11–53. An overall overview of the problems related to the acquisition of these books and libraries I presented in: Libraries of Western Learning for China. Circulation of Western Books between Europe and China in the Jesuit Mission (ca. 1650–ca. 1750). 1. Logistics of Book Acquisition and Circulation. Leuven Chinese Studies, xxiii (Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, 2012).

Jesuit Libraries in Beijing and China

241

at least, a representative selection of all the fields of Western knowledge with a “central” library in Beijing and reference libraries in the other mission posts of China. This emerges very clearly from an analysis of the surviving books, namely the 4,100 titles of the so-called “Beitang collection,” now in the N ­ ational Library of China (Baishi Qiao).11 These books are themselves the residue of the last phase of the Nantang library (until ca. 1826), which before that moment had received and incorporated nuclei of books from other Jesuit—and even Franciscan (in Shandong Province)—libraries throughout China. This intention to build at least one “comprehensive” and generally representative library becomes still more apparent when we consider the many hundreds of book titles. We only know of these after a tiresome and time-consuming analysis of the archival evidence: inventories, quotations, references to books they read and consulted during their stay in China, which are, since that time, lost (these were listed in a separate Source Book, to be published in the future). After its first establishment, in the terms described above, this basic library (and its branches) needed a more or less permanent update: not the least reason being that they were under the pressure of the incessant and scrupulous (if not suspicious) insistence of Chinese literati—the main target public of the entire Bibliothekenstrategie. For the same reasons, there was the constant ­challenge for the Jesuits themselves to improve the results of “Jesuit science,” especially (but not only) in the domains of astronomy and practical mathematics, technology and engineering, medicine, artillery, and land surveying. Hence, the endlessly repeated request—over some two centuries (from Matteo Ricci until the last Jesuit head of the Qintianjian, José Bernardo de Almeida: 1728– 1805)—for bibliographical novelties (“nova,” “novissima” and “recentissima”). This was a constant refrain in the correspondence from China to Europe. This updating happened through the arrival of individual new titles or volumes but also by the assimilation of “private” book collections, including the 290 items from the Diogo Valente collection (†1633) in Macao,12 the personal books of Jean-François Foucquet (1665–1741) in the French residence library in 1720,13 and the collections of the eighteenth-century bishops Policarpo de Souza (1697–1757) and Alexandre de Gouveia (1751–1808), the latter a Franciscan 11 12 13

Described by Hubert Verhaeren, “L’ancienne bibliothèque du Pé-t’ang,” Bulletin Catholique de Pékin 27 (1940): 82–96; Hubert Verhaeren, Catalogue de la bibliothèque du Pé-t’ang (Beijing: Imprimerie des Lazaristes, 1949). N. Golvers, “The Library Catalogue of Diogo Valente’s Book Collection in Macau (1633). A Philological and Bibliographical Analysis,” Bulletin of Portuguese / Japanese Studies 13 (2006): 7–43. N. Golvers, “‘Bibliotheca in cubiculo’: The Personal Library of (Especially Western Books of) J.-F. Foucquet, S.J. in Peking (Beitang), 1720,” Monumenta Serica 58 (2010): 249–280; on

242

Golvers

into the Nantang of Beijing.14 At some other moments, serial acquisitions are also mentioned, such as the series of books on canon law acquired for 1,100 livres that arrived in Beijing in 1732, or the twenty-eight issues of the German Curiosi naturae (Halle) that arrived all at once in 1723 in Jiu Jiang (Jiangxi ­Province), addressed to the attention of Joseph de Prémare. But mostly, the extension of the libraries was the result of a policy of patient requests and well-considered selection, on the basis of information from various origins, such as backlists of publishers, suggestions in personal correspondence with fellow fathers or book agents in Europe, reviews in scholarly periodicals, and oral information from newly arrived Jesuits. 2

Personal Interests

But not only the Chinese context shaped the composition of the library’s holdings. Many of the newly arrived Jesuits also brought their own personal interests and specializations to China together with the books related to it. As these books were, according to the general rules, transferred to the general residence library (bibliotheca secreta) at the departure or the death of their original owner, these libraries, after some generations of accumulating books, reflected the multidisciplinary interest of the Jesuit readers and their projects. This included more remote specialties, such as iatrochemistry, magnetism, veterinary medicine, horse raising, regional European botany, German spas, arithmetical curiosities, “heterodox” ideas (on astrology or cabbala) and other idiosyncrasies (such as in the case of some “figurists,” like Joachim Bouvet [1656–1730] and Jean-François Foucquet), and even books, which were put on the “Index,” “expurgated” next to “not expurgated”). Through the books they brought from different parts of Europe to China, in eight different European languages, including English and Polish, all exposed on the shelves of thematic classes next to each other, very different academic and non-academic traditions were represented and made accessible; moreover, old editions of titles could also occasionally get a new life. But it was ­especially new developments, trends and discoveries in European science, for example, in the field of medicine and pharmacy, botanical taxonomy, geo­ graphy (regarding the shape of the earth in particular) which, thanks to a

14

his Chinese books (both for his own use and for the Royal Library in Paris), see infra note 22. On this typical “Illuminist” library, see J. Beckmann, “Bischof Alexander de Gouvea von Peking (1771–1808) im Lichte seiner Bibliothek,” Euntes Docete 21 (1962): 457–479.

Jesuit Libraries in Beijing and China

243

well-organized logistical system, arrived quite quickly in China. These came as the result of either “on demand” requests from China, on the initiative of the Jesuits’ book agents in Europe or book donors. The pace with which these new items arrived in China could differ substantially, depending on factors such as technological and meteorological circumstances; however, in the eighteenth century (in particularly favorable conditions), a new book could arrive within the same year it was published.15 This supply kept going on until the last decades of the eighteenth century, both in the Portuguese Nantang and its French counterpart, where two more or less independent parallel collections were built up, although forms of mutual contact (consultation, borrowing and exchange of books) are well-known in the sources. We are well-informed on this process of acquisition for the French residence in the eighteenth century, thanks to the abundant correspondence of Antoine Gaubil (1689–1759), PierreMartial Cibot (1727–1780), especially thanks to their contacts with the milieu of Paris scholars in the Académie Royale des Sciences (for example, Dortous de Mairan), the Académie des Inscriptions & des Belles Lettres (for example, Nicolas Fréret), the Jardin des Plantes (for example, Bernard de Jussieu), other academicians (the chemist Jean Hellot, connected to d’Incarville), booksellers (Hippolyte-Louis Guérin, connected to Michel Benoist) and politicians (Ministre d’Etat Henri Bertin), as well as with the Academia Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitanae (the Imperial Academy in St. Petersburg established in 1725; Joseph Delisle; António Nunes Ribeiro Sanchez, and the secretaries). Furthermore, individual requests also continued to be sent from outside the world of learning; for example, the order of a series of “fashionable” spiritual books from France, requested by Nicolas-Marie Roy in the 1770s. The fact that some of the main collections, such as that of the Colégio Madre de Deus of Macao or the “Portuguese” college Xitang (since ca. 1700 renamed Nantang) and its French counterpart Beitang (since ca. 1690) were undisturbed for one to two centuries (for the former with a short “break” during the Oboi 鳌 拜 Regency [1665–1669]),16 opens a promising “diachronic” perspective in the 15

16

Newton’s ideas and publications arrived in China through different, complementary ways, in various languages: (a) his chronology in the original English version, in an abridged version (1728) and in the Jesuit critical French Dissertation by Etienne Souciet; (b) his explanation of the tides arrived in China through the Portuguese translation made by Jacob De Castro Sarmento in London (Verhaeren, no. 3588); (c) his Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica in a Latin edition from London; his Optics in Latin arrived through Paris in the hands of Foucquet; his lunar theory came through Nicasius Grammatici to Kögler. For an outline of these collections and a reconstruction of their holdings, see my Libraries of Western Learning for China. Circulation of Western Books between Europe and China in

244

Golvers

analysis of their holdings. In these libraries and within particular domains, chronological “layers” can be distinguished, in which books with “old-­ fashioned” theories and knowledge were succeeded and replaced by more recent ones: traditional mathematics (Euclid; ancient Greek mathematicians) were completed with books on algebra and infinitesimal calculation. “Aristotelian” (or peripatetic) books were followed by the works of Copernicus, Kepler, Galilei, Brahe, Descartes, Newton and so on. Traditional “iatrochemical” books (mostly imported by Johann Terrentius)17 were succeeded by modern medical and surgical monographs (Boerhaave; Weitbrecht, for instance). Classical botany was replaced by the works of modern French botanical authors (de Tournefort). Probably most visible, because they were most in demand, are twentytwo different series of astronomical tables, from the Alphosine tables to the mid-eighteenth-century tables of Zanotti, which circulated within the China mission either synchronously or successively. By this same state of relatively undisrupted continuity, annotations from predecessors (scientific and otherwise) could have also been recuperated much later through their books and their manuscript notes, papers (and so on), for which indications also exist. 3

Missionary Inspiration

It is obvious that the missionary inspiration—in fact the original and primary perspective of the entire project, the scholarly aspect being only i­ nstrumental— left a deep and multiform imprint on the book selection and acquisition and on the composition of the libraries’ holdings. I recognize here several categories, each reflecting a particular aspect of the missionaries’ life: (1) books with regard to the “doctrine,” i.e. theology, which seem to have been rather large in number compared to other categories relating to church life. In all probability, doctrinal specialities were less essential for the active missionary, even when questions on the orthodoxy of some publications are not completely absent from China (Arsdekin); (2) Bible exegesis, including concordances, the illustrated life of Christ (Nadal): works on biblical cartography and so on are widely represented, even when translations of the Bible were very rare and only

17

the Jesuit Mission (ca. 1650–ca. 1750). Vol. 2. Formation of Jesuit Libraries, Leuven Chinese Studies, xxvi (Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, 2013), 73ff. (Macao); 100 ff. (Xitang/ Nantang) and 178 (the ancient Beitang). On the stratification of medical and pharmaceutical books, see N. Golvers, “The Jesuits in China and the Circulation of Western Books in the Sciences (17th–18th Centuries): The Medical and Pharmaceutical Sections in the SJ Libraries of Peking,” East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine 34 (2011): 15–85.

Jesuit Libraries in Beijing and China

245

­partial; (3) private spirituality, both Jesuit and non-Jesuit, and books on meditation and self-edification (with “exempla” etc.), from which we learn how some Jesuits were sometimes attached to one particular book (Slavicek with regard to Diertins’s edition of Ignatius’s spiritual exercises); (4) books on particular devotions, regarding Jesuit saints or a series of “national” saints; (5) breviaries. The organizational and institutional aspect of the mission was present in the books on canon law, the Jesuit constitutions and such. A really impressive series of titles refers to the manifold aspects of the catechetical and pas­ toral activities of the missionary-in-the-field: catechisms and other chresto­ macies; the Christian calendar—with, at regular times the introduction of innovations, a subject which was anxiously inquired about by the fathers in China—and the liturgy: sermon books, books on the sacraments and so forth. All these categories filled large armaria of the Jesuit libraries: for personal reading and reflection, for transmission through preaching and teaching to the Chinese, converts and non-converts alike.18 Also in this section, we can find again the echoes of several trends in European spiritual history; for example, the Breton spiritual school of L. Lallemant (Rigoulec, Maunoir, the “retraites de Vannes”) and “illuminist” influences in the library of, among others, Alexandre de Gouveia. From this necessarily cursory analysis, these libraries appear as true strongholds for spiritual refreshment and recreation and as reservoirs or “databases” of (partly new) knowledge, which were built in view of the manifold public commitments of the Jesuits within China, their scholarly projects, their “on demand” commitments and contacts with some European academies (especially in Paris and St. Petersburg), and the—very broad and challenging—­ curiosity of the Chinese literati. In this sense, they were also “living” libraries, with livres actifs (to use D. Julia’s term),19 even when not all the sections were always in demand and some obscure corners contained antiquated or obsolete items. This “living” character is also shown in the long series of precise textual quotations and other references (traced during a patient investigation of some 1,700 titles, which were apparently read and used), the many physical signs of intense use in the approximately 4,100 books still existing (I refer here to underscores, handwritten annotations “inter lineas” or in the margin, etc.) and, last but not least, in the large series of bi- or trilingual dictionaries (such as: 18

19

N. Golvers, “Jesuit Missionaries in China and their Western Books: Evidence of Spiritual and Devotional Books,” in Proceedings of the ixth F. Verbiest Symposium (Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, 2011), 114–149); Golvers, Libraries of Western Learning, vol. 3. Of Books and Readers, 80–103. D. Julia, “La Constitution des bibliothèques des collèges. Remarque de méthode,” Revue d’histoire de l’église de France 83 (1997): 145–161.

246

Golvers

Latin-French; Italian-French), the presence of which seems senseless in the Chinese context, if they were not really used, more precisely for reading the books of this eight-language patrimony. While this reading (translating and writing) appears in our sources not a problem for Latin and a series of European vernaculars, there are also other indications: the presence of Portuguese portable dictionaries in the Beitang may be relevant for the poor communication between the French and the Portuguese residence (and mission). Problematic, if not absent, was the knowledge of English, which was also the language of the eagerly read Transactions of the Philosophical Society of London; for Russian, the language used in the contact with the three-yearly Russian caravan (ca. 1725–1755) and the Russian mission in Peking, even the basic materials were lacking. As such, and by being intensely interwoven with the missionaries’ activities, these books and book collections were highly representative of the mission life within the Chinese context.20 Certainly one can consider Jesuit libraries in China as an unexpected mirror of European cultural life in all its aspects, which prove some important things: (1) the Jesuit mission in China was “­peripheral” in a geographical sense, even when the progress of nautical and navigational technology had reduced the waiting time for new books (and correspondence) between Europe and China to roughly eight months. However, it was not peripheral from an intellectual perspective, as the Jesuits were in close contact with what happened on the European scene of science and spirituality. An intense and well-organized network of correspondence also largely contributed to this21 and the circulation of the next issues—at the expense of great effort—of some twenty-five prominent academic periodicals: this since the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.22 (2) The comprehensive evidence on the book acquisition and the evidence on the surrounding network, with its emphasis on the “updating” of the books sent to China and the 20

See, to cite just one example, the copy of M. Bocarro Frances, Tratado dos cometas que appareçeram em Novembro passado de 1618, composto pello licenceado Manoel Bocarro Frances, Medico & Astrologo, natural desta cidade de Lisboa (Lisbon: Craesbeeck, 1619) (copy in the library of the Xitang college). 21 Some of the Jesuit scholars (such as Johann Terrentius) preferred correspondence on books as a most flexible (albeit also vulnerable) instrument for a quick exchange of new information. On the role of correspondence, see N. Golvers, “‘Savant Correspondence’ from China with Europe in the 17th–18th Centuries,” Journal of Early Modern Studies 1.1 (2012): 21–41. Fo the analysis of the scholarly topics in one individual correspondence, that of Antoine Gaubil (1689–1759) and in which also the acquisition of books was an important feature, see J. Brucker, “Correspondance scientifique d’un missionnaire français à Pékin,” Revue du monde catholique lxxvi (1883): 5–26, 206–227, 365–377, 701–716. 22 Golvers, Libraries of Western Learning, vol. 3, 461–473.

Jesuit Libraries in Beijing and China

247

quantitative evidence, which suggests for the Peking libraries a volume, comparable to that of average Jesuit colleges in Europe, are two main arguments, to my opinion, to counter the assumption that the science imported by the Jesuits was more or less intentionally “old-fashioned” or not “topical.” 4

The Apologetic Dimension of Libraries

Another, apologetic dimension of the libraries unfolded when the China mission became—from the 1660s—the target of systematic opposition and heavy criticism in some influential milieus of European intelligentsia: among these critiques were their use of “human means” (media humana) as a mission’s vehicle (astronomy; mathematics, music, medicine). Their chairmanship of institutional bodies, such as the Qintianjian and their professional involvement with the Chinese calendar with all its (alleged) superstitious aspects and the entire range of questions regarding Chinese rituals and terms, were considered in Europe as incompatible with Catholic doctrine. Anti-Jesuit pamphlets (feuilles volantes)—many of them of Jansenistic inspiration—and books were published in Europa and circulated, for example, in France, Holland and the Southern Low Countries, and Germany. These books were, especially since the procuratorship of Philippe Couplet (1622–1693) in Europe (1681–1692) systematically collected and brought or sent to China, in order to be refuted. Especially in Beijing, an intense polemic activity was unfolding, emanating in apologetic texts, which were to be translated in Spanish: most of these, however, were never printed. Writing refutations was more in particular a specialty, entrusted to some scriptores in the Beitang: especially the French had developed a “Euro-Asiatic” circulation network around Jean de Fontaney (1643– 1710), in which anti-Jesuit texts were sent to China, where manuscript refutations were written, of which manuscripts were taken to Paris to be printed, especially by the specialized printer Pepie (ca. 1700; Paris). This happened to such an extent that there were complaints about the financial burden. Other names involved were Jean Dez and a series of Jesuits, about whom especially the correspondence of the French assistant Guibert informs us. For this polemic engagement, the libraries were also used—and provisioned—as bibliothèques de combat,23 provided with the materials necessary for discussion with opponents and the refutation of their arguments in all fields this opposition covered. Many books on the history of the early Church also belonged to the arsenal of the Jesuit polemists: the early Church was perceived in China as an 23

Accepting the term of M.-H. Froeschlé-Chopard.

248

Golvers

encouraging parallel to their own situation and printed reports (Relationes) on the early history of their own China mission (Ricci, Longobardo, etc.), as a reminder of the original élan and inspiration of their predecessors. Needless to say, that, also in this respect, the Jesuits in China were in direct contact with the ongoing public discussions in intellectual Europe: far from being isolated for a lifetime in the periphery. To sum up: the libraries had been a central function in the intellectual, pastoral and apologetic activities of the mission. To this can be added a fourth function, that of pure “representation”: from the sources, it clearly emerges how Chinese literati—in this book- and learning-oriented civilization—felt themselves very attracted to the Western libraries: their “ornatus” (the largesize folio volumes, the spectacular book illustrations, gilded features and so on); guided visits to the library of the Xitang/Nantang for Chinese authorities (including the emperor and common literati), following precedents both in the West and in the Far East, brought visitors to the conviction that Western books included all human wisdom and the solution for all possible questions. This was, obviously, a fine platform to start preaching the faith and the libraries also became instrumental for the mission in this indirect way. Precisely the same discussions on the acceptability of particular Chinese rites and terms, with regard to the name of God, and rituals with regard to the ancestors cult, as well as problematic chronological correspondences between Chinese and biblical chronology were also the ultimate incitement to a thorough study of (ancient) Chinese sources, classical texts (in their oldest traceable form) and their comments. For these reasons, the Jesuit libraries were also mostly “double” libraries with a considerable Chinese section, either in the same room (cubiculo) or in a separate one. Already in 1618, the Colégio São Paolo (also named Madre de Deus) had a mestre dos livros Sinicos, a position which refers—logically speaking—to some substantial collection of Chinese writings, probably related to the systematic courses of Chinese taught at the same college. This suggestion is confirmed by another indirect reference; namely, the fact that the “private” room collection of Jean-François Foucquet in the Beitang residence of Beijing (ca. 1710–1720) counted one thousand or 1,200 Chinese volumes (yuan), versus around three hundred Western ones.24 The many quotations and references to these Chinese texts, found in treatises, lists of extracts and letters prove that they were indeed intensively used as an integral part of their current reading. 24

See N. Standaert, “Jean-François Foucquet’s Contribution to the Establishment of Chinese Book Collections in European Libraries. Circulation of Chinese Books,” Monumenta Serica 63, no. 2 (2015): 361423.

Jesuit Libraries in Beijing and China

5

249

Cross-linguistic Intertextuality

The immediate vicinity of Chinese works within the Jesuit compound, next to European books is an important fact: it facilitated and stimulated the ­complementary use of Chinese and Western books, the crossing of western and Chinese sources, and a cross-linguistic intertextuality:25 where Roman naturalist Pliny was compared to a Chinese benzao, Western pharmacopoeia were confronted with Chinese books of recipes, and—to quote the French Jesuit Pierre-Martial Cibot (1727–1780)—ancient Chinese texts and wisdom could explain “obscure” passages in the Bible, Homer, and Plato.26 Here, the Chinese Jesuit libraries appear as the real “battlefield,” where Western and Chinese knowledge were compared, mutually exchanged, translated and/or ­paraphrased. This is the main reason to continue the study of the physical remnants (books) and archival remnants of these collections, as these books—in their inscriptions, annotations and other physical features, to the extent these are made in the Far East—contain the fingerprints of the Jesuits’ working in their China context. Through these features (and Verhaeren’s catalogue mentions the presence of them in some 6 percent of the surviving books), these books are not only rare and precious books (which they certainly are), but are also unique testimonies of this exceptional intercultural entanglement, which the Jesuit mission of China also is. This we will further prove in the future. Bibliographical Note The catalogue of the surviving books in the “Beitang” : H. Verhaeren, Catalogue de la bibliothèque du Pé-t’ang, Pekin: Imprimerie des Lazaristes, 1949 (photographic reprints in 1969; 2009) contains 4,101 items. This counting is somewhat ambivalent and does not give an exact idea of the numbers of different titles: Verhaeren uses a separate number for either (a) an individual book, (2) a new edition of the same title, (3) an extra copy of the same edition. The real number of different titles, therefore, is lower than 4,101; the real number of volumes, on the other hand, is much higher (as, for example, all the issues of one periodical are mentioned under one and the same number).

25 26

For a tentative description of this cross-cultural phenomenon, see my note on “European Jesuits in China: Their Philological Practices with Chinese books (17th–18th Century)” (Chinese translation in preparation by Yu Sanle). Cf. his letter of November 5, 1769, published in Revue d’Extrême Orient iii (1887): 262.

250

Golvers

This catalogue, which is the successor of a former inventory by Mr. Thierry (ca. 1860), mentions the extant books in 1949. As for the lost books, we have several indications: (1) the many hundreds of titles mentioned in Jesuit materials from China and which represent lost books I inventoried in my “Source Book” (in preparation); (2) in the first half of the nineteenth century, forty-five books on mathematics, from the ­original Nantang library, were moved through the Russian mission to St. Petersburg and are now in the library of the Observatory of Pulkovo. Recently, a doctoral dissertation and some contributions on the books of the Bei­ tang collection were presented by Zhao Daying (National Library of China). A tentative comprehensive regard on this collection, its formation, and the “headlines” of Jesuit reading in China, I presented in: N. Golvers, Libraries of Western Learning for China. Circulation of Western Books between Europe and China in the Jesuit Mission (ca. 1650–ca. 1750), 3 vols. Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, 2012. 2013, and 2015. Vol. 1: The logistics of acquisition and circulation; Vol. 2: Formation of Jesuit libraries; Vol. 13: Of Books and Readers. In addition, I made several different intersections through this evidence:



1. According to European Background

See: Portuguese Books and their Readers in the Jesuit Mission of China (17th–18th centuries) (Lisbon: Centro Científico e Cultural de Macao, 2011) (on the 282 Portuguese books that survived).

2. According to the Location in China Beijing

Cf. “Circulation of Western Books between Europe and the Jesuit Mission in China. Outline of the history of the Xitang / Nantang Library in Peking,” in Multi Aspect Studies on Christianity in Modern China. Louvain Chinese Studies, xx (Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press, 2011), 240–277.

Macao

Cf. Gao Huashi 高 華 士 (Golvers, Noël), “17–18 shiji Aomen yesuhui zai Zhong Ou shuji liutong zhong de juese” 17–18 世 紀 澳 門 耶 穌 會 在 中 歐 書 籍 流 通 中 的 角 色 , transl. Li Qing 李 慶 , Aomen yanjiu 澳 門 研 究 (2012:4), 126–132.



3. According to the Original Private Collector in China

Cf. “The Library Catalogue of Diogo Valente’s Book Collection in Macau (1633). A Philological and Bibliographical Analysis,” Bulletin of Portuguese Japanese Studies 13 (Dec. 2006): 7–43. “‘Bibliotheca in cubiculo’: The Personal Library of (Especially Western Books of) J.-F. Foucquet, S.J. in Peking (Beitang), 1720,” Monumenta Serica 58 (2010): 249– 280.

Jesuit Libraries in Beijing and China

251

“La bibliothèque occidentale de Matteo Ricci à Pékin: quelques observations critiques,” in Isabelle Landry-Deron & P. Cartier (ed.), La Chine des Ming et de Matteo Ricci (1552–1610). Le premier dialogue des savoirs avec l’Europe (Paris: cerf histoire—­ Institut Ricci, 2013), 133–145; Bulletin of Portuguese / Japanese Studies, 2018 (forthcoming).



4. According to the Contents



5. On General Aspects



6. On a Parallel Collection in Shanghai, which was Established in the Nineteenth Century

Cf. “Jesuit Missionaries in China and their Western Books: Evidence of Spiritual and Devotional Books,” in Proceedings of the ixth F. Verbiest Symposium (Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, 2011), 114–149. “The Jesuits and the Circulation of Western Books in the Sciences (17th–18th Century): The Medical and Pharmaceutical Sector in the Jesuit libraries of Peking,” East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine 34 (2011): 15–85.

Cf. “The pre-1773 Jesuit libraries in Peking as a Medium for Western Learning in Seventeenth- and Early Eighteenth-Century China,” The Library, 7th series 16, no. 4 (Dec. 2015): 429–445.

Cf. “Old Provenances of the Western Books in the Former (and Current) Xujiahui (Zikawei) Library, Shanghai,” Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal xxxvi (2014): 25–43.

Bibliography Beckmann, J. “Bischof Alexander de Gouvea von Peking (1771–1808) im Lichte seiner Bibliothek.” Euntes Docete 21 (1962): 457–479. Bernard, Henri “L’encyclopédie astronomique du Père Schall […]. La réforme du calendier chinois sous l’influence de Clavius, de Galilée et de Kepler.” Monumenta Serica iii (1938): 441–527. Bocarro Frances, M. Tratado dos cometas que appareçeram em Novembro passado de 1618, composto pello licenceado Manoel Bocarro Frances, Medico & Astrologo, natural desta cidade de Lisboa. Lisbon: Craesbeeck, 1619. Brucker, J. “Correspondance scientifique d’un missionnaire français à Pékin.” Revue du monde catholique lxxvi (1883): 5–26, 206–227, 365–377, 701–716. Golvers, Noël, ed. The Christian Mission in China in the Verbiest Era: Some Aspects of the Missionary Approach, Louvain Chinese Studies vi. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1999.

252

Golvers

Golvers, Noël. “The Library Catalogue of Diogo Valente’s Book Collection in Macau (1633). A Philological and Bibliographical Analysis.” Bulletin of Portuguese/Japanese Studies 13 (2006): 7–43. Golvers, Noël. “‘Bibliotheca in cubiculo’: The Personal Library of (Especially Western Books of) J.-F. Foucquet, S.J. in Peking (Beitang), 1720.” Monumenta Serica 58 (2010): 249–280. Golvers, Noël. “Jesuit Missionaries in China and their Western Books: Evidence of Spiritual and Devotional Books.” In: Proceedings of the ixth F. Verbiest Symposium. Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, 2011, 114–149. Golvers, Noël. Libraries of Western Learning for China. Circulation of Western Books between Europe and China in the Jesuit Mission (ca. 1650–ca. 1750). Vol. 1. Logistics of Book Acquisition and Circulation, Leuven Chinese Studies, xxiii. Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, 2012. Golvers, Noël. Libraries of Western Learning for China. Circulation of Western Books between Europe and China in the Jesuit Mission (ca. 1650–ca. 1750). Vol. 2. Formation of Jesuit Libraries, Leuven Chinese Studies, xxvi. Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, 2013. Golvers, Noël. “‘Savant Correspondence’ from China with Europe in the 17th–18th Centuries.” Journal of Early Modern Studies 1, no. 1 (2012): 21–41. Golvers, Noël. The European Intellectual Network of Johann Schreck Terrentius (1600– 1618), in preparation. Golvers, Noël. “The Jesuits in China and the Circulation of Western Books in the Sciences (17th–18th Centuries): The Medical and Pharmaceutical Sections in the SJ Libraries of Peking.” East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine 34 (2011): 15–85. Golvers, Noël. “The Pre-1773 Jesuit Libraries in Peking as a Medium for Western Learning in Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth-Century China.” The Library, 7th Series 16, no. 4 (2015): 429–445. Hsia, Ronnie Po-chia. “The Catholic Mission and Translations in China, 1583–1700.” In Cultural Translation in Early Modern Europe, edited by P. Burke & Ronnie Po-chia Hsia, 39–51. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Julia, D. “La Constitution des bibliothèques des collèges. Remarque de méthode.” Revue d’histoire de l’église de France 83 (1997): 145–161. Kramm, Heinrich. Deutsche Bibliotheken unter dem Einfluβ von Humanismus und Reformation. Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1938. Lamalle, E. “La propagande du P. Nicolas Trigault en faveur des missions de Chine (1616).” Archivium Historicum Societatis Iesu 9 (1940): 49–120. Loureiro, Roui Manuel. “Como seria a biblioteca de Matteo Ricci?” In Metahistory. History Questioning History. Metahistoria. Historia questionando Historia. Festschrift in Honour of Professor Teotonio R. de Souza, edited by Charles J. Borges, S.J. & Michael N. Pearson. Lisbon: Nova Vega, 2007, 521–535.

Jesuit Libraries in Beijing and China

253

Loureiro, Rui Manuel. Na Companhia dos livros. Manuscritos e impressos nas missões jesuitas da Asia Oriental (1540–1620). Macao: University of Macao, 2007. Oder, Erin. “Undoing the Binaries. Rethinking ‘Encounter’: Translation works of Seventeenth-Century Jesuit Missionaries in China.” PhD Diss., Ohio University, 2006. Standaert, Nicolas. “Jean François Foucquet’s Contribution to the Establishment of Chinese Book Collections in European Libraries. Circulation of Chinese Books.” Monumenta Serica 63, no. 2 (2015): 361–423. Tsien, Tsuen-hsuin. “Western Impact on China through Translation.” Far Eastern Quarterly 133 (1954): 305. Verhaeren, Hubert. “L’ancienne bibliothèque du Pé-t’ang.” Bulletin Catholique de Pékin 27 (1940): 82–96. Verhaeren, Hubert. Catalogue de la bibliothèque du Pé-t’ang. Beijing: Imprimerie des Lazaristes, 1949.

Chapter 11

Curiosity and Authority: Images of Europeans at the Qing Court during the Kangxi and Yongzheng Reigns Sun Jing Although visual images cannot be seen as “mirrors, unproblematic reflections of their times,”1 they serve as important sources for cultural history.2 Images of Others not only reflect how an unfamiliar culture was perceived and described after the first encounter, but also how a group’s own cultural identity was developed and reinforced, distinguishing oneself from these Others or identifying with them. Western images of the East have been explored at great length; wellknown is Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978), which explores the Orient as a construct of the Western imagination that “has a history and a tradition of thought, imagery, and vocabulary that has given it reality and presence in and for the West.”3 The mirroring question, about Eastern images of the West, has received less attention. Focusing on the images of Europeans when they first appeared at the Qing court, this chapter investigates their political implication and the roles they played in the cultural encounter between China and Europe. During the reign of the Kangxi Emperor 康熙 (r. 1661–1722), much of the knowledge about Europe and its people was obtained from the Jesuit missionaries, who were very active at the court and involved in scientific, artistic, and diplomatic activities.4 Furthermore, envoys from European countries, whose task was to e­ stablish diplomatic relations or commercial interaction with the Qing

1 The author is grateful to Professor Thijs Weststeijn for his valuable comments and suggestions. This research is supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (14CF124). 2 Peter Burke, What is Cultural History? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 20–21. 3 Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage, 1978), 5. 4 Jesuits played an important role in the Qing court’s understanding of Europe. After the MingQing transition in China, Johann Adam Schall von Bell became one of the Shunzhi Emperor’s trusted counsellors. Giuseppe Castiglione served as a painter at the court of three emperors: the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong emperors. Ferdinand Verbiest taught the Kangxi Emperor geometry and astronomy and participated in the Qing’s diplomatic policy with Russia. Jean Franciscus Gerbillon also taught the Kangxi Emperor mathematics, philosophy, medical sciences, and human anatomy. For more information on the Jesuit’s activities at the Qing court, see e.g., Mary Laven, Mission to China: Matteo Ricci and the Jesuit Encounter with the East (London: Faber & Faber, 2011), and Yu Sanle 余 三 乐 , Qingdai Gongtingzhongde ©

 | 

/

Images of Europeans at the Qing Court

255

administration, also provided opportunities for the imperial court to have access to and establish connections with Westerners and the new objects they brought the emperor. This chapter will explore the entangled relationship between the court and foreign visitors through a cultural lens: the painting Dutch Delegates Presenting a Gift of Horses and Oxen, made for Kangxi, and a series ordered by his predecessor: The Yongzheng Emperor’s Portraits in Western Costume. Analyzing the visual sources of these images and their reception, interpretation, and transformation by court artists in Beijing, the chapter argues that the twin factors of curiosity about foreigners and imperial authority expressed in the mirror of the foreign, provide interpretive models for these artifacts of cultural entanglement. 1

The Tribute from the Dutch Embassy of 1667 and the Authority of the Kangxi Emperor

The painting Dutch Delegates Present a Gift of Horses and Oxen in Beijing, made by anonymous Chinese court painters, records a Dutch delegation visiting the Qing court in 1667 (see fig. 11.1).5 This embassy was dispatched by the Dutch East India Company and led by Pieter van Hoorn, a member of the Council of the Indies in Batavia. The gifts that the embassy brought the Kangxi Emperor included “amber, coral, spices, incense woods, Persian carpets, fine sword blades, fine pistols, telescopes, ornamented glass lamps, and copper statues.”6 The presents that made the greatest impression in Beijing were four Persian horses and two small oxen from Bengal.7 The thirteen-year-old Kangxi Emperor was so eager to see these animals that the officials of the Board of Ceremonies asked the delegation to prepare the horses and oxen in the midnight of their first arrival of the Residence for Tributary Envoys, so that the emperor could see them the next morning.8 Constantijn Nobel,9 the first counselor of

5 6 7 8 9

Waiguoren 清 代 宫 廷 中 的 外 国 人 [Foreigners at the Qing Court] (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2010). About this painting, also see Ching-Ling Wang, “De Nederlandse ambassade naar het hof van keizer Kangxi in 1667,” in Barbaren en Wijsgeren het beeld van China in de Gouden Eeuw, ed. Thijs Weststeijn and Menno Jonker (Nijmegen: Vantilt, 2017), 41–47. John E. Wills, Embassies and Illusions: Dutch and Portuguese Envoys to K’ang-hsi, 1666–1687 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984), 53. John E. Wills, Embassies and Illusions, 53 John E. Wills, Embassies and Illusions, 68–69. Constantijn Nobel had been involved in Sino-Dutch relations since he was secretary of the Council on Taiwan in the late 1650s and was the voc’s most astute political negotiator with the Chinese, so he decided to present the animals to the Kangxi Emperor before the formal

256

Figure 11.1

SUN

Anonymous court artists. Dutch Delegates Present Gifts of Horses and Oxen in Beijing. 1667, Chinese hanging scroll painting, 207.8 × 161.3 cm National Palace Museum, Taipei

Images of Europeans at the Qing Court

257

ambassador Van Hoorn, and his secretary accompanied the animals and presented them to the emperor, after having been taken to the palace and inspected by the regents Oboi 鳌拜 and Ebilun 遏必隆.10 Kangxi was, unsurprisingly, curious about the geographical location of the Netherlands and Batavia, as well as about the ruler or other authority who sent the embassy. But apparently, he was most interested in and impressed by the animals, as “he looked the horses over especially carefully, and could hardly take his eyes off them, laughing constantly and talking about them to the first councilor [Oboi]”.11 Afterwards, he required a court artist to depict them. The inscription at the top of the painting introduces the context of the commission: “On the first day of the fifth month in the sixth year of Kangxi’s reign [June 21, 1667], the Dutch (Helan Guo, 荷兰国) paid tribute and offered four horses and four oxen. On the fifth day of the sixth month [July 25] of the same year, the emperor’s order was issued: make a painting of the horses and oxen as well as the servant who lead the horses and oxen. Imperial Edict. The craft department of the imperial household has begun working on this painting since the eighth day of this month [July 28] and finished on the thirtieth day of the seventh month [September 17]. Now the finished work is presented to the emperor respectfully.”12 This inscription suggests that the animals apparently drew most of the young emperor’s attention, while the Dutch delegation leading the horses and oxen were depicted more or less as “servants” or supplementary objects.13 The belittling way in which Constantijn Nobel and the secretary were addressed might be due to the fact that the court mistakenly regarded the councilor and the secretary as servants taking care of the animals, since it was not the

arrangement of the official diplomatic reception. For more information on Nobel’s activities in China, see Wills, Embassies and Illusions, 48. 10 Oboi 鳌 拜 was a prominent Manchu military commander and was appointed by the Shunzhi Emperor as one of four regents to assistant his eight-year-old son Xuanye to govern the country untill the young emperor reached the age of sixteen. However, with the growing power of Oboi, conflicts arose with the young Kangxi Emperor. On August 25, 1667, the thirteen-year-old Kangxi took over the reins of power. In 1669, he had Oboi arrested and began taking personal control of the empire. For more information on the political conflicts, see Lin Tiejun 林 铁 钧 , Shi Song 史 松 , ed., Qingshi biannian 清 史 编 年 [Chronicles of the Qing Dynasty] (Beijing: China Renmin University Press, 2000), ii, 1–120. 11 Wills, Embassies and Illusions, 69. 12 Cf. Wang, “De Nederlandse ambassade.” In this article, the date “the thirtieth day of the seventh month” was miscalculated. It should be September 17, rather than 31 August, 1667. 13 Images of horses have been particularly significant in Chinese art. For more information, see Robert E. Jr. Harrist, Power and Virtue: The Horse in Chinese Art (New York: China Institute Gallery, 1997).

258

SUN

­ mbassador Pieter van Hoorn himself who should be granted an audience A with the emperor in a very formal manner. In addition, it might also be attributed to the Chinese tribute system under which the Qing administration regarded itself as the “Celestial Empire”: other countries should pay tribute to the imperial court. By contrast, rather than to pay tribute to the Qing court, the voc’s main goal was to negotiate trading privileges in China, and its first diplomatic effort was sending the embassy under Pieter de Goyer and Jacob de Keyzer in 1655–1657.14 Yet, their main achievement after having an audience with the Shunzhi Emperor, was that the Dutch were permitted to send a tribute delegation every eight years, which was nowhere near their initial proposal of yearly trading business.15 Of course, the voc made additional attempts, including sending three fleets in 1662–1665 to the Fujian coast to support the Qing forces in the wars against Zheng Chenggong 郑成功, also known as Koxinga, a military leader at the end of Chinese Ming dynasty, in the expectation of receiving commercial benefits.16 Eventually, in November 1663, as a reward for their military support, the voc was permitted to trade in China every other year. In 1664, however, eight years after the first embassy, the voc did not send another envoy.17 Instead, when the Dutch ships anchored off Mount Putuo 普 陀山, an island of southeast of Shanghai in Zhoushan prefecture of Zhejiang Province and one of the most sacred Buddhist sanctuaries in China, their crews raided a few temples: this was reported to Beijing by local officials.18 The Qing authorities sent orders to coastal officials prohibiting the Dutch ships from entering Chinese harbors until they sent another embassy. It is under such circumstances that the delegation under Pieter van Hoorn was sent to Beijing in 1666. 14

15 16 17 18

This is the first important diplomatic contact of Europeans with the Qing administration. See Leonard Blussé, Tribuut aan China: Vier eeuwen Nederlands-Chinese betrekkingen (Amsterdam: Cramwinckel, 1989), 61–62. See also Henriette de Bruyn Kops, “Not Such an ‘Unpromising Beginning’: The First Dutch Trade Embassy to China, 1655–1657,” Modern Asian Studies 36, no. 3 (2002): 535–578. About the Shunzhi Emperor’s decree to the Dutch embassy, see Zhuang Guotu 庄 国 土 , Heshi Chufang Zhongguoji yanjiu 研 究 [Study on the First Dutch Embassy to China] (Xiamen: Xiamen University Press, 1989), 40. John E. Wills, Pepper, Guns, and Parleys: The Dutch East India Company and China, 1662– 1681 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974), 26. The Qing authorities had noted that the Dutch were supposed to send an embassy in 1664 and, in 1665, an order was given to Fuzhou officials to find out why they had not sent one. See Wills, Embassies and Illusions, 52. See John L. Cranmer-Byng and John E. Wills, “Trade and Diplomacy with Maritime Europe, 1644–c.1800,” in China and Maritime Europe, 1500–1800, ed. John E. Wills (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 189.

Images of Europeans at the Qing Court

259

The negative impression made on the Qing authorities, however, could not be wiped out; so, even when Van Hoorn arrived in Beijing in 1667, he did not get a chance to explain or discuss the decision of the Qing to revoke the previously granted privileges. Therefore, the demeaning manner of addressing the Dutch delegation in the painting’s inscription may also reflect the response and attitude of the court towards the voc’s activities in China. But it does not mean that the court underestimated, or lacked proper knowledge of, the Netherlands and its people to the same extent as was demonstrated in earlier descriptions of the late Ming dynasty. According to some Chinese historical records, back in the 1600s when the Chinese first encountered the Dutch at China’s southeast coast, the Dutchmen had “red hair and beards, round and deep eyes, long noses,” they were “more than one Zhang 丈 tall [i.e., more than three meters],” the length of their feet was “one Chi 尺 two Cun 寸 [i.e., around forty centimeters],” and they “simply wrapped round their body a piece of cotton fabric rather than refined clothes,” their heads covered with red silk.19 In an illustration (see fig. 11.2) in the famous Chinese encyclopedia Sancai Tuhui (三才图会, 1607), the Netherlands was referred to as “red-barbarian country” (红夷国) and a Dutchman was depicted as a half-naked man with heavy body hair, bare feet, and his body and head were wrapped up with some fabric.20 In the painting from the Qing court, by contrast, some of the older artistic and ideological preconceptions have been corrected. Now, the Netherlands is called “Helan Guo” (荷兰 国)21 and the Dutch are represented in a civilized manner that can hardly be called “barbarian.” As shown in this painting, eight Dutchmen lead one horse or oxen each, and they are neatly arranged in four rows and two columns. These images are accompanied by explanatory notes written on the left of the figures and atop of the animals, marking their height and the type of animal. 19

20 21

According to the earlist Chinese records of the voc’s activities on the coasts of China, two Dutch ships arrived in Macao in 1601, and Chinese people called them “red-haired barbarians” due to their exotic appearance. See Wang Linheng 王 临 亨 , Yue jian bian 粤 剑 编 [Compliation on Southern China] (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1987), 92. More descriptions of the Dutch people can be found in Zhang Tingyu 张 廷 玉 etc., ed., Ming shi 明 史 [Ming History], vol. 28, (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1974), 8434; Zhang Xie 张 燮 , Dongxi yangkao 东 西 洋 考 [Investigations of the East and West Seas] (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1981), 127. The discussion on red-haired barbarians has also been presenred in the present volume, Chapter 3. See Wang Qi 王 圻 and Wang Siyi 王 思 义 , Sancai Tuhui 三 才 图 会 [Collected Illustrations of the Three Realms] (Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1988), 863. It is very likely that “Helan Guo” has been used to call the Netherlands since the description in Dongxi yangkao, and it is a transliteration of Holland. See Zhang Xie, Dongxi yangkao, 127.

260

SUN

Figure 11.2

Anonymous artist. Untitled. Woodcut. 1607. From Sancai Tuhui 三才图会 [Collected Illustrations of the Three Realms]

The height of Dutchmen is around “five Chi eight Cun,” equivalent to around two meters.22 The Chinese painters’ representation of the Dutch is apparently more reliable and may have been based on careful observation: white skin, yellow hair, and typical costumes featuring a white collar, a coat with loose sleeves and narrow cuff, tight leggings, and high-heeled shoes. A Dutchman in a similar costume features in a drawing by Pieter van Doornik, who was part of the embassy (see fig. 11.3). This drawing illustrates the meeting between the delegation and Chinese officials, and the Dutchman in the left foreground who is supervising the distribution of the presents is very similar to the figure depicted in this court painting.23 In addition, all Dutchmen are represented wearing a sword and a golden ribbon, an embellishment fitting to high social class, indicating that the “servant who leads the horse and oxen” very likely represents Constantijn Nobel with his secretary, who would have worn formal costume when they presented the animals to the emperor. Therefore, the elaborate and reliable depiction of the Dutch in this court painting not only shows the painters’ ability to make convincing representations of foreign figures, but also indicates that the Qing authority must have obtained a much deeper and proper perception of this new overlord of the world, either through the Dutch embassy’s visit to the court, the voc’s involvement of the war against Zheng

22 23

1 chi (尺 ) is equivalent to 1/3 meter and 1 cun (寸 ) is equivalent to 1/10 chi, according to Chinese traditional measurements. These drawings are preserved at Atlas van Stolk, Rotterdam, inv. 16127.

Images of Europeans at the Qing Court

Figure 11.3

261

Van Doornik, Pieter. Meeting of the Van Hoorn Embassy with Chinese Officials. 1667. Drawing, 41.7 × 51.4 cm Atlas van Stolk, Rotterdam

Chenggong, or through Chinese frontier officials’ report about the voc’s activities in Chinese coasts and South Asia. Moreover, this painting could hardly be regarded as an accurate historical record of the very day the Kangxi Emperor first saw these animals as, instead of the two Dutchmen, four Persian horses, and two oxen from Bengal that are documented, the image shows eight groups of men and animals. Repeatedly depicted in the same pattern, with identical posture and gesture, the Dutchmen become stereotypes of ethnic identity, rather than flesh-and-blood humans with specific features. It is, in fact, not novel that Chinese emperors required court painters to depict exotic tributary presents given by foreign envoys. For instance, the Yongle Emperor (1360–1424), of the Ming dynasty, asked his court artists to make paintings of a giraffe presented by an envoy from the king of Bengal, as this

262

SUN

exotic tribute item had never been seen before in China. The painting Shen Du’s Ode on a Painting of Qilin (a Giraffe) shows a bearded foreign trainer ­leading the giraffe by a long cord around its neck (see fig. 11.4).24 Apparently, the painting Dutch Delegates Present Gifts of Horses and Oxen in Beijing follows the same convention: it focuses on the exotic animals and people who lead them without any narrative background that reveals how the Dutch envoy presented the animals to the emperor. Unlike the giraffe, horses and oxen were quite ordinary animals for Chinese viewers, so it would have been the exotic Dutchmen that would have drawn their attention. Even though some European Jesuits served at the Qing court, they aimed at blending in with Chinese tradition, including learning the Chinese language and dressing themselves in Chinese fashion to penetrate deeply into Chinese society for their mission work.25 This might be the reason why the painters have paid great attention to detail in the Dutchmen’s costume and appearance. In this sense, this painting is more like a scientific illustration, reflecting the curiosity of the Kangxi Emperor: a general impression of how the foreign animals looked like, their height and type, as well as the appearance of the European figures. It is also worth mentioning that paintings in a Western style, showing exotic tributary creatures, became very popular later, during the Qing dynasty.26 The Kangxi Emperor’s interest in the people and culture of the West may stem from his father, the Shunzhi Emperor 顺治 (1638–1661), who had a very close relationship with the Jesuit father Johann Adam Schall van Bell (1591– 1666).27 Schall had been in charge of the Astronomical Bureau 钦天监 ­throughout the Shunzhi reign. But when the emperor died, Oboi and other regents tried to restore traditional policies and intentionally neglected the young Kangxi’s opinion. Schall was then attacked by some Chinese officials in regard to his calculations of the calendar. Kangxi later revealed these details when explaining what had prompted him to study Western science: “When I 24 25 26 27

According to the inscription by the scholar Shen Du in this painting, the giraffe is actually regarded as Qilin 麒 麟 , or the Chinese unicorn, an auspicious omen for the reign of the Yongle Emperor. See Nicolas Standaert, The Interweaving of Rituals: Funerals in the Cultural Exchange between China and Europe (Seattle & London: University of Washington Press, 2008). For more information on the influence of Western art the Qing court, see Yang Boda 杨 伯 达 , Qingdai yuanhua 清 代 院 画 [Court Paintings in the Qing Dynasty] (Beijing: Forbidden City Press, 1993). Schall had worked at the Astronomical Bureau for the Ming emperor, Chongzhen 崇 祯 since 1630. In 1645, he was appointed to make a calendar for the newly established Qing government. He had sincere and close relationships with the Shunzhi Emperor. See Weite 魏 特 (Alfons Vath), Yang Bingchen, trans., Biography of Tang Ruowang 汤 若 望 传 (Beijing: Intellectual Property Publishing House, 2015), 270–280.

Images of Europeans at the Qing Court

Figure 11.4

263

Anonymous court artists. Shen Du’s Ode on a Painting of Qilin (a Giraffe). 1414. Hanging scroll painting, approx. 1414.9 × 4845 cm National Palace Museum, Taipei

264

SUN

was young, the Han officers 汉官 of the Astronomical Bureau were not at peace with Westerners, and they threatened each other, even with the punishment of death. Yang Guangxian 杨光先 (1597–1669) and Schall placed their bets on [different calculations of] the sun’s shadow in front of the Nine Ministers outside of the Wu gate 午门, but there was no one at the court who understood their methods. I thought, how could I judge between right and wrong if I personally did not know? I was irritated and began to study.”28 But beyond such practical concerns, Kangxi’s curiosity about the West also resonated with certain political factors. As a young ruler, he was eager to obtain both ­comprehensive knowledge and governing competence to exert his personal control.29 In December 1668, when he became aware of the inaccuracy of Yang Guangxian’s calendar, which was supported by Oboi, Kangxi asked the Jesuit Ferdinand Verbiest (1623–1688) and the bureau’s officials to compare their calculations of celestial phenomena in order to verify which calendar was right.30 During this process, the emperor expressed his dissatisfaction with his officials and appointed Verbiest to take charge of the bureau in March 1669. Oboi was arrested soon afterwards in the same year. Against such a complex historical background, this artwork depicting the Dutch as tributaries to the emperor expresses not only the emperor’s enthusiasm toward European people and animals, it also conveyed strong political connotations from two perspectives. First, the timing of this commission, which was made by the young emperor on July 25, 1667, more than one month after he first met the Dutch embassy and saw the animals, is very likely related to the political environment of the time. After having been restrained by the regents for years, Kangxi formally took over the reins of power from the regents in an ascension ceremony on August 25 of the same year.31 This was a very tense period due to the political conflicts between Kangxi and the regent Oboi. On the one hand, it is likely that this painting, recording a diplomatic event, was used by the young emperor to demonstrate his capacity to handle diplomatic affairs and rule the country, just like the political intention expressed in 28 Kangxi, Tingxun geyan 庭 讯 格 言 [Maxims of Fatherly Advice] (Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou Ancient Books Publishing House, 1994), 172. The end of the conflicts between Yang and Schall was that the Jesuits, including Schall, were found guilty for the faults of their astronomy and were jailed. When a strong earthquake struck Northern China, this was interpreted as a sign that the verdict against the Jesuits was unjust, so all the Jesuits in Peking were released. Schall was also released in accordance with an order by Xiaozhuang 孝 庄 , Kangxi’s grandmother. 29 Catherine Jami, “Western Learning and Imperial Scholarship: the Kangxi Emperor’s Study,” East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine 27 (2007): 153. 30 Qingshilu 清 实 录 圣 祖 仁 皇 帝 实 录 [Memoir of the Qing], vol. 28 (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1985), 383–386. 31 See Lin and Shi, Qingshi biannian, 79.

Images of Europeans at the Qing Court

265

the painting Shen Du’s Ode on a Painting of Qilin (a Giraffe). On the other hand, considering that the work highlights the young emperor’s interest in animals, it is also possible that it had to convey the impression that he only cared for entertainment. This would be in order to hide his true political ambition from Oboi, since it was two years later that the emperor finally managed to arrest him and took personal control of the empire. Secondly, it flaunts the Qing government’s influence and its superior position in the world while, at the same time, implicating the Qing authority’s complicated attitude towards the West. The Qing authority had come into contact with Western advanced science, artillery, and naval prowess, which to a certain degree contributed to its sense of crisis. Recording the Dutch embassy’s tributary items to the Qing court could reinforce the Celes­tial Empire’s glory and impact. Similar efforts were also made by Kangxi during his later reign; from 1711 to 1716, he commissioned and personally instructed the Jesuit Joachim Bouvet (1656–1730) to translate the Yijing 易经 [Classic of Changes], an ancient Chinese divination book, into French. One of the ­purposes of this commission was to prove that Western mathematics stemmed from Chinese mathematics.32 2

The Yongzheng Emperor’s Portraits in Western Costume

During his thirteen-year reign, the Yongzheng Emperor 雍正 (r. 1722–1735) showed more interest in representing himself as a European, than in representing European envoys. A typical bust portrait displays Yongzheng from a three-quarter view, an approach that is often applied in Western traditional portraiture (see fig. 11.5). The emperor’s face, hair, and the folds of his clothes are rendered with layers of color wash and conspicuous light and shade, which suggests its connection to Western techniques. Of course, what is most surprising about this portrait is that the emperor wears a brown wig, a blue sash around his neck, a waistcoat decorated in patterns, and a dark blue overcoat. This fantastic costume seems to have been inspired by French fashion from the mid-seventeenth to early eighteenth century. In any event, the style in this portrait is innovative in a Chinese context and it may therefore be interpreted as conveying a sense of personality. The work is quite different from traditional “imperial visage portraits,” such as Portrait of the Yongzheng Emperor in Court

32

See Zhang Xiping 张 西 平 , the preface in Claudia von Collani, Yesu hui shi Bai Jin de sheng ping yu zhu zuo 耶 稣 会 士 白 晋 的 生 平 与 著 作 [P.Joachim Bouvet S.J.: Sein Leben und sein Werk], ed. and trans. Li Yan 李 岩 , rev. Zhang Xiping 张 西 平 , Lei Libo 雷 立 柏 (Zhengzhou:Daxiang Publishing House, 2004), 8–15.

266

Figure 11.5

SUN

Anonymous court artists, Half-Length Portrait of the Yongzheng Emperor. Yongzheng Period. Paper, 52.3 × 43cm The Palace Museum, Beijing

Dress (see fig. 11.6). This very formal painting depicts the Yongzheng Emperor in a perfect frontal view, wearing a yellow chaofu (court dress) and headgear and sitting upright on a matching throne and cushions, without any bodily movement or facial expression. These differences give rise to the question as to whether the emperor really wore French fashion and why he wanted such a change of attire. In terms of costume, strict regulations had been made in the very beginning of the Qing dynasty. The Manchu Khan, Hong Taiji 皇太极 (1592–1643), had emphasized the importance of maintaining the Manchu tradition by stating that “our costume and language cannot easily be changed […] the descendants

Images of Europeans at the Qing Court

Figure 11.6

Anonymous court artists. Portrait of the Yongzheng Emperor in Court Dress. Yongzheng Period. Hanging scroll painting, 277 × 143.4 cm The Palace Museum, Beijing

267

268

Figure 11.7

SUN

Jin Tingbiao. Qianlong gongzhong xingletu 乾隆皇帝宮中行樂圖 [The Qianlong Emperor enjoying his pleasures in the palace] 1763. Ink and paint on silk. Hand scroll, 167.4 × 320 cm The Palace Museum, Beijing

should follow and do not give up the ancestor’s regulations.”33 To judge from the extant pictorial material, the portraits of emperors in the early Qing dynasty­always show them in Manchu costumes; Yongzheng was the first to commission portraits of himself in varied dresses. Later, his son, the Qianlong Emperor 乾隆, was also keen on representing himself wearing Han and Tibetan costume. In relation to a portrait of Qianlong wearing Han dresses by the court painter, Jin Tingbiao 金廷标, the emperor himself made an annotation to a poem in praise of the Qianlong gongzhong xingletu 乾隆皇帝宮中行樂圖 (literally “The Qianlong Emperor enjoying his pleasures in the palace”): this work was simply an imitation of Liu Songnian’s 刘松年 original painting and it was just a game of painting with no serious intention to admire the Han example (see fig. 11.7).34 In practice, painting the emperor’s portrait was never a playful affair. As has been argued by Yang Boda, when the court painters in Qianlong’s reign worked on imperial portraits, “only after inspection and approval of a preliminary version was the painter permitted to officially undertake the full painting.”35 Therefore, these exotic portraits do not mean that the sitters ever 33

Qingshilu 清 实 录 太 宗 文 皇 帝 实 录 [Memoir of the Qing], vol. 34 (Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1986), 446. 34 Jihui 纪 昀 , Yongrong 永 瑢 , ed., Siku Quanshu 四 库 全 书 [Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature] (Taibei: Taiwan Shangwu Yinshuguan, 2008), vol. 1305, 662. 35 Yang Boda 杨 伯 达 , “The Development of the Ch’ien-lung Painting Academy,” in Words and Images: Chinese Poetry, Calligraphy, and Painting, ed. Alfreda Murck and Wen Fong (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991), 335.

Images of Europeans at the Qing Court

269

wore such costumes. This begs the question, what was the source for this painting, and why did the Emperor Yongzheng commission such a portrait? With regard to the source of the costume portrait, Wu Hung has postulated that the court painters or the emperor were “inspired by the phenomenon of the masquerade, which became extremely popular in Europe from the early eighteenth century.”36 In his opinion, Western rulers often “disguised themselves as gods and goddesses and acted out fantastic allegories of court life” and would reveal their own identity at the end of the masked ball; many “fancy dress portraits” that were commissioned at these social events inspired “Yongzheng’s costume portrait.”37 However, Wu also admits that no actual masquerades were ever staged in the Qing court. As Yongzheng may not even have known about Western masked balls, it is more reliable to trace this pictorial convention back to the practice of previous dynasties. Art historians have discovered that emperors of the Tang and Song dynasties required painters to insert their faces into paintings of cultural mentors; for instance, in a set of scrolls of The Thirteen Sages and Rulers of the Orthodox Lineage, Daoist and Confucian sages were depicted with the countenance of Southern Song Emperor Lizong 宋理宗 (r.1224–1264).38 Taking this convention into account, it is worthwhile exploring whether the Western costume portrait was also based on a pictorial source. As is well-known, besides presenting European scientific achievements such as clocks, telescopes, and microscopes to the Beijing court, the Jesuits also introduced the Chinese emperors to Western prints and paintings, including portraits of the European aristocracy.39 According to a letter from Father Pierre Jartoux (1668–1720) to Jean de Fontaney (1643–1710) in 1704, the reception room of the newly built Beitang church displayed “portraits of Louis xiv, French archbishops and kings, a Spanish regent, the English king, and many other

36 37 38

39

Wu Hung 巫 鸿 , “Emperor’s Masquerade: ‘Costume Portraits’ of Yongzheng and Qianlong,” Orientations 26, no. 7 (1995): 31. Wu, “Emperor’s Masquerade,” 33. About the Lizong Emperor’s The Thirteen Sages and Rulers of the Orthodox Lineage (道 统 十 三 赞 ), see Yu-Heng Hsiao, “Emperor Li-Tsung’s Political Propaganda by Artworks, ‘The Thirteen Sages and Rulers of the Orthodox Lineage’ and ‘Quietly Listening to Soughing Pines,’” Journal of Art Forum 9 (2015): 55–80. The essay argues that this set of scroll paintings was used as a plea against the emperor’s insufficient legitimacy and as a gift to please scholars. About the exotic European objects brought by the Jesuits to the Qing court, see Di Ergong 蒂 尔 贡 , Li Shengwen 李 晟 文 , “明 末 清 初 来 华 法 国 耶 稣 会 士 与 ’西 洋 奇 器 [French Jesuits in China in the Late Ming and Early Qing Dynasties and Western Scientific Instruments],” China History Studies 中 国 史 研 究 2 (1999): 140–151.

270

SUN

Figure 11.8 [After Hyacinthe Rigaud]. Portrait of King Louis xiv in Armor with the Sash of the Order of the Saint-Esprit. Oil on canvas, 71.5 × 58.4 cm Sold by Christie’s, July 13, 2001, London

kings.”40 These portraits must have belonged to a shipment of paintings from the French Jesuits to the court in 1688. Although the abovementioned paintings have been lost, it is not impossible to find comparable images. For instance, the bust portrait of Louis xiv after Hyacinthe Rigaud has some details in common with Yongzheng’s portrait (see fig. 11.8): the three-quarter profile, the empty background, the sitter’s wig and, perhaps most importantly, the impression of the ruler’s calm confidence. Louis xiv, the great patron of French art, had recognized from the very beginning of his reign that “images had the power to shape perception,”41 so he not only commissioned his portraits in painting and prints, but also sponsored major French painters and engravers in order to promote French artifacts and culture, both at home and abroad. In this context, it is possible that variations on this official portrait had been brought to China, and played a role of reference for the court painters commissioned to portray the Yongzheng Emperor. Moreover, the use of portraits of Western aristocracy as a point of reference is already evinced in Chinese folk woodprints from the early Qing dynasty. The 40 41

Jean-Baptiste Du Halde, ed. and Zheng Dedi 郑 德 弟 , trans., Yesu hui shi zhongguo shujian ji 耶 稣 会 士 中 国 书 简 集 [Letters from the Missions], 2 vols. (Zhengzhou: Daxiang Publishing House, 2001), 1–2. Maxime Préaud, “Printmaking under Louis xiv,” in Peter Fuhring a.o. ed., A Kingdom of Images: French Prints in the Age of Louis xiv, 1660–1715 (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2015), 9.

Images of Europeans at the Qing Court

271

Figure 11.9 Anonymous artists. Untitled. From Fifty-three Transformation Bodies of Guanyin. Kangxi period. Woodcut

woodcut engraving from the illustrated book Fifty-Three Transformation Bodies of Guanyin (慈容五十三现; in Sanskrit she is Avalokitasvara, the “Goddess of Mercy”) depicts a gentleman in three-quarter profile, splendidly dressed in a black coat with a white ribbon across his body and holding a scepter in his right hand (see fig. 11.9). The Chinese print displays various similarities with portraits of the French King Louis xiii; for instance, the version preserved at Prado Museum featuring the three-quarter profile, white ribbon, and scepter (see fig. 11.10). It is possible that French Jesuits brought one of their king’s portraits to China, which the Chinese artists then used as their model. However, as the laws of perspective required Western portraits to show the sitter from a single angle, they could not provide full details of the sitter’s clothing, headgear, and footwear. This may be the reason why the representation of Western costume in Chinese painting is occasionally not very accurate. For instance, in the painting The Yongzheng Emperor Hunting a Tiger from Album of the Yongzheng Emperor in Costumes,42 the painter gave the emperor a Western costume, but failed to render the European waistcoat and overcoat

42

The Yongzheng Emperor Hunting a Tiger is one of the fourteen leaves in Album of the Yongzheng Emperor in Costumes. On the other leaves, Yongzheng assumes other identities, of different ethnicities and historical figures. See Evelyn S. Rawski and Jessica Rawson, ed., China: The Three Emperors 1662–1795 (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2005), 248–249.

272

SUN

Figure 11.10

de Champaigne, Philippe. King Louis xiii. 1655. Oil on canvas, 108 × 86 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid

f­aithfully and even paired them with a Chinese belt and Chinese court boots (see fig. 11.11).43 43

The taming or hunting of tigers is a traditional religious subject in Chinese art, which usually represents Lohan (Arhat) taming a tiger. But in this painting, it is the emperor in Western costume facing the tiger and he holds a western trident rather than a Chinese traditional spear.

Images of Europeans at the Qing Court

Figure 11.11

273

Anonymous court artists. The Yongzheng Emperor Hunting a Tiger. Yongzheng Period. Color on silk. 34.9 × 31 cm. From the album The Yongzheng Emperor in Costumes The Palace Museum, Beijing

As to the question of why the Yongzheng Emperor commissioned his portraits in Western costume, the woodcut from the Fifty-Three Transformation Bodies of Guanyin may shed some light. It is noteworthy that, behind the figure modeled after the French king, there is a parrot along with a bottle with willow branches. From an iconographical perspective, these objects, as well as the boy with his hands folded in front of the king, indicate a story mentioned in the last chapter of the Huayanjing 華嚴經 [Flower Garland Sutra], in which a boy named Sudhana (Shancai tongzi 善財童子) visits and humbly asks fifty-three “wise teachers” for wisdom in life.44 The Fifty-Three Transformation Bodies is 44

This story has also been recorded in Saddharma pundarika sutra 妙 法 莲 华 经 and some other sutras. See Weng Lianxi 翁 连 溪 and Li Hongbo 李 洪 波 , ed., Zhongguo fojiao

274

SUN

a compilation of fifty-three woodcuts showing different appearances of ­Guanyin, including one inspired by the portrait of Louis xiii.45 According to Chinese pictorial convention since the Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368), Guanyin was usually represented in various female images and it is the first time that she appears with the features of a French king. Besides mere curiosity about a foreign image, there may be a specific reason why the Chinese anonymous folk painter inserted Louis xiii into a Chinese Buddhist story. Not dissimilar to the Jesuits in China who included images of Chinese people in their Christian religious painting, in order to make Christianity easier to understand for the common people, this painter may have wanted to reflect the boundless power of Guanyin and Buddhism and to show that even the Western king is a transformation of Chinese culture. The portraits in Western costume may also reflect practical concerns for the Yongzheng Emperor. Throughout his rule, he was confronted with the question of legitimacy since his father, Kangxi, did not officially appoint a successor.46 Being depicted in the same pattern as the mighty French king reinforced, to a certain extent, the legitimacy of the imperial authority. What is more, in the Album of the Yongzheng Emperor in Costumes, this Manchu emperor is actually represented in the guise of different ethnicities and of certain historical and legendary persons, including a Tibetan monk, a Mongolian noble, a Daoist magician, and so forth. In so doing, the album fashions his identity as a ruler who governs multiple ethnic groups and embraces the culture of non-Han entities and culturally non-Chinese nations, including Mongolian, Tibetan, and, apparently, even European culture. Interpreting these portraits in the light of imperial self-fashioning, one should, however, take into account that they were very likely made for the emperor’s private viewing and not for public admiration. The two paintings, therefore, also reflect his personal curiosity about Westerners: not unlike how his forefather Kangxi had looked upon the painting of the Dutch Delegates

45

46

b­ anhua quanji 中 国 佛 教 版 画 全 集 [Complete Works of Chinese Buddhist Prints] (Beijing: China Bookstore Publishing House, 2015), vol. 36, 1–2. Another version, Thirty-two Transformation Bodies of Guanyin is attributed to Ding Yunpeng 丁 云 鹏 (1547–1628), a painter of human figures and landscapes in the late Ming dynasty. This version does not contain the portrait of Louis xiii. Apparently, the later version is inspired by the previous one and adds some new woodcuts. About these two versions, see: Ci rong wushisan xian 慈 容 五 十 三 现 [Fifty-three Transformation Bodies of Guanyin] (Hangzhou: Zhejiang renmin meishu Publishing House, 2016). About the Emperor Yongzheng’s struggle for legitimacy, see Silas H.L. Wu, Passage to Power: K′ang-hsi and His Heir Apparent, 1661–1722 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979).

Images of Europeans at the Qing Court

275

Presenting a Gift of Horses and Oxen. In the analysis of cultural encounters, Peter Burke has suggested that “the view from outside needs to be supplemented by one inside, stressing the experience of crossing the boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them.’”47 It seems that by presenting himself in Western costume, Yongzheng could—to a certain extent—obtain a view of Europe from both outside and inside. In this process, he constructed a more vivid and powerful self-image. 3 Conclusion The works considered in this chapter illustrate to what extent images of foreigners, although perhaps of little use for the historical reconstruction of meetings between Westerners and Chinese, are all the more essential in understanding processes of cultural self-fashioning. Two Chinese emperors used Western imagery to strengthen the legitimacy of their own authority. In the case of the Kangxi Emperor, he emphasized the otherness of the Dutch, imagining their failed attempt to open up China for free trade as a performance of tributary subordination. By contrast, his son, the Yongzheng Emperor, used images to express a degree of identification with the foreigners, having himself represented in the same manner as a French king and co-opting an image of a European among the different figures from the multi-ethnic Qing empire with whom he sought to identify. For the young Kangxi, representing the Dutch tributary event was, on the one hand, a concealed claim to personal power and confirmation of his ability to govern the country and, on the other hand, an expression of the empire’s status in the world. For Yongzheng, by contrast, the painting served to define himself as a legitimate ruler of a multiethnic entity. Eventually their successor, the Qianlong Emperor, would prove himself even more proficient in adopting the images of Europeans in a series of grand celebration paintings, aimed at praising the emperor’s legitimacy to rule and the glorification of the empire’s unity and prosperity.

47 Burke, What is Cultural History, 119.

276

SUN

Bibliography Anon. Qingshilu 清 实 录 太 宗 文 皇 帝 实 录 [Memoir of the Qing]. Vol. 34. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1986. Anon. Ci rong wushisan xian 慈 容 五 十 三 现 [Fifty-Three Transformation Bodies of Guanyin]. Hangzhou: Zhejiang renmin meishu Publishing House, 2016. Blussé, Leonard. Tribuut aan China: Vier eeuwen Nederlands-Chinese betrekkingen. Amsterdam: Cramwinckel, 1989. Burke, Peter. What is Cultural History? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Collani, Claudia von (Ke Lanni zhu 柯 兰 霓 ). Yesu hui shi Bai Jin de sheng ping yu zhu zuo 耶 稣 会 士 白 晋 的 生 平 与 著 作 [P. Joachim Bouvet S .J.: Sein Leben und sein Werk], edited and translated by Li Yan, 李 岩 , reviewed by Zhang Xiping 张 西 平 , Lei Libo 雷 立 柏 . Zhengzhou: Daxiang Publishing house, 2004. De Bruyn Kops, Henriëtte. “Not Such an ‘Unpromising Beginning’: The First Dutch Trade Embassy to China, 1655–1657.” Modern Asian Studies 36, no. 3 (2002): 535–578. Di Ergong 蒂 尔 贡 and Shengwen Li李 晟 文 . “明 末 清 初 来 华 法 国 耶 稣 会 士 与 ’西 洋 奇 器 [French Jesuits in China in the Late Ming and Early Qing Dynasties and Western Scientific Instruments].” China History Studies中 国 史 研 究 2 (1999): 140–151. Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste and Zheng Dedi 郑 德 弟 , trans. Yesu hui shi zhongguo shujian ji 耶 稣 会 士 中 国 书 简 集 [Letters from the Missions]. 2 vols. Zhengzhou: Daxiang Publishing House, 2001. Fuhring, Peter. et al., ed. A Kingdom of Images: French Prints in the Age of Louis xiv, 1660–1715. Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2015. Harrist, Robert, E. Power and Virtue: The Horse in Chinese Art. New York: China Institute Gallery, 1997. Hsiao Yu-Heng. “Emperor Li-Tsung’s Political Propaganda by Artworks, ‘The Thirteen Sages and Rulers of the Orthodox Lineage’ and ‘Quietly Listening to Soughing Pines’.” Journal of Art Forum 9 (2015): 50–58. Jami, Catherine. “Western Learning and Imperial Scholarship: The Kangxi Emperor’s Study.” East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine 27 (2007): 146–172. Jihui 纪 昀 , Yongrong永 瑢 , ed. Siku Quanshu 四 库 全 书 [Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature], vol. 1305. Taibei: Taiwan Shangwu Yinshuguan, 2008. Kangxi. Tingxun geyan 庭 讯 格 言 [Maxims of Fatherly Advice]. Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou Ancient Books Publishing House, 1994. Laven, Mary. Mission to China: Matteo Ricci and the Jesuit Encounter with the East. London: Faber & Faber, 2011. Lin Tiejun 林 铁 钧 , and Shi, Song 史 松 , ed. Qingshi biannian 清 史 编 年 [Chronicles of the Qing Dynasty], 2 vols. Beijing: China Renmin University Press, 2000. Murck, Alfreda, and Wen Fong, ed. Words and Images: Chinese Poetry, Calligraphy, and Painting. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991.

Images of Europeans at the Qing Court

277

Rawski, Evelyn S. and Jessica Rawson, ed. China: The Three Emperors, 1662–1795. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2005. Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage, 1979. Standaert, Nicolas. The Interweaving of Rituals: Funerals in the Cultural Exchange between China and Europe. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2008. Wang Ching-Ling, “De Nederlandse ambassade naar het hof van keizer Kangxi in 1667.” In Barbaren en wijsgeren het beeld van China in de Gouden Eeuw, edited by Thijs Weststeijn and Menno Jonker, 41–47. Nijmegen: Vantilt, 2017. Wang Linheng 王 临 亨 . Yuejianbian 粤 剑 编 [Compilation on Southern China]. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1987. Wang Qi 王 圻 , and Siyi Wang 王 思 义 . Sancai Tuhui 三 才 图 会 [Collected Illustrations of the Three Realms]. Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1988. Weite 魏 特 (Alfons Vath), and Bingchen Yang, trans. Tang Ruowang zhuan 汤 若 望 传 [Biography of Tang Ruowang]. Beijing: Intellectual Property Publishing House, 2015. Weng Lianxi 翁 连 溪 , and Li Hongbo 李 洪 波 , ed. Zhongguo fojiao banhua quanji 中 国 佛 教 版 画 全 集 [Complete Works of Chinese Buddhist Prints]. Beijing: China Bookstore Publishing House, 2015. Wills, John E., ed. China and Maritime Europe, 1500–1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Wills, John E. Embassies and Illusions: Dutch and Portuguese Envoys to K’ang-hsi, 1666– 1687. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984. Wills, John E. Pepper, Guns, and Parleys: The Dutch East India Company and China, 1662–1681. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974. Wu Hung 巫 鸿 . “Emperor’s Masquerade: ‘Costume Portraits’ of Yongzheng and Qianlong.” Orientations 26, no. 7 (1995): 25–41. Wu, Silas H.L. Passage to Power: K′ang-hsi and His Heir Apparent, 1661–1722. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984), 53.ss, 1979. Yang Boda 杨 伯 达 . Qingdai yuanhua 清 代 院 画 [Court Paintings in the Qing Dynasty]. Beijing: Forbidden City Press, 1993. Yu Sanle 余 三 乐 . Qingdai Gongtingzhongde Waiguoren 清 代 宫 廷 中 的 外 国 人 [Foreigners at the Qing Court]. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 2010. Zhang Xie 张 燮 . Dongxi yangkao 东 西 洋 考 [Investigations of the East and West Seas]. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1981. Zhuang Guotu 庄 国 土 . Heshi Chufang Zhongguoji yanjiu 研 究 [Study on the First Dutch Embassy to China]. Xiamen: Xiamen University Press, 1989. Zhang Tingyu 张 廷 玉 etc., ed. Mingshi 明 史 [Ming History], vol. 28. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1974.

Chapter 12

The Origin of the Dutch Embassy to China in 1794 Cai Xiangyu In 1794, the commissioners-general at Batavia on Java (also mentioned as “the high government” or “the authorities at Batavia” in this chapter), who were then directing the affairs of the Dutch East India Company (voc) in Asia, sent Isaac Titsingh as ambassador to the court of Beijing to congratulate the sixtieth anniversary of the Qianlong Emperor’s enthronement.1 André Everard van Braam Houckgeest, chief of the Dutch factory in Guangzhou, served as the second ambassador while Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes, the interpreter of the French consulate in Guangzhou, who (through Titsingh’s protection) was assigned as one of the secretaries of the embassy. These three men respectively kept detailed records of the whole journey; among them, Van Braam’s journal was regarded by Charles R. Boxer as the best and most informative.2 The outcomes of this embassy, politically failed but culturally trumpeted, attracted the attention of the contemporaries3 and scholars of the following generations.4 In 1797 and 1798, personal articles, such as furniture and export paintings collected by Van Braam in Guangzhou, helped to render his villa “China’s Retreat” 1 The voc set up their Asian headquarters in Batavia (present-day Jakarta) in west Java, then a minor port called Sunda Kelapa or Jayakarta. 2 Andre Everard van Braam Houckgeest, Voyage de l’Ambassade de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales Hollandaises, vers l’Empereur de la Chine, dans les Années 1794 & 1795 (Philadelphia: Philadelphie Moreau de Saint-Méry, 1797–8); Chrétien-Louis-Josephe de Guignes, Voyages à Peking, Manille et L’Île de France, faits dans l’intervalle des années 1784 à 1801. Tome 1, Voyage à Peking pendant les Années 1794 et 1795 (Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1808); Frank Lequin, Isaac Titsingh in China: het Onuitgegeven Journaal van zijn ambassade naar Peking 1794–1796 (­Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 2005). For Boxer’s assesment of Van Braam’s journal, see C.R. Boxer, “Isaac Titsingh’s Embassy to the Court of Chi’en Lung (1794–1795),” Tien Hsia, 8 (January 1939): 9–33. 3 J.-F. Charpentier de Cossigny, Voyage à Canton, Capitale de la province de ce nom, à la China; Par Gorée, le Cap de Bonne-Espérance, et les Isles de France et de la Réunion; Suivi d’Observations sur le voyage à la China, de Lord Macartney et du Citoyen Van-Braam, et d’une Esquisse des arts des Indiens et des Chinois (Paris: Chez André, Imp.—Libraire, An vii de la République Francaise, 1798); John Barrow, Travels in China, 2nd ed. (London: Cadell & Davies, 1804). 4 The Dutch sinologist J.J.L. Duyvendak (1938, 1940) devoted a long research article and two supplementary papers to it, then followed the research by Charles R. Boxer (1939), George R. Loehr (1954), Cai Hongsheng (蔡 鸿 生 , 1997, 1998, new edition in 2007), Jan van Campen (2005), Leonard Blussé (2008), John Haddad (2008) and Lin Faqin (林 发 钦 , 2013) and Tonio Andrade. ©

 | 

/

The Origin of the Dutch Embassy to China in 1794

279

near Philadelphia into “the first comprehensive Chinese collection seen in the United States.”5 However, on February 15 and 16, 1799, due to financial difficulty, Van Braam’s paintings and other Chinese art objects were sold at auction in London. Although the abundant collection of paintings and drawings assembled by Van Braam was dispersed, this event resulted in an influx of publications on Chinese export paintings either in England or in Europe. Now, cultural and art historians are still tracing the “indefinite” cultural legacy left by him. Due to Van Braam’s double identities (he was by birth a Dutchman and, by adoption, an American), and his multilingual capacities (besides his native language and English, Van Braam knew French, Portuguese and had a speaking knowledge of Cantonese) as a medium between East and West cultures, he has received increasing global academic interest in the past decade. Thus, his cultural legacy cannot be narrowly identified as either “Dutch” or “American.” Instead of exploring the fabulous cultural impacts of his legacy, this paper aims to probe the institutional, political, and economic conditions of the voc and the Canton trade system6 that made the 1794 Dutch embassy to the Qing court possible. The round trip between Guangzhou and Beijing offered the members of embassy a rare chance to peer into the interior of the Qing Empire and not be restricted to the “trading zone” or “contact zone”; that is, the foreign compound by the Pearl River in Guangzhou. For many years, Van Braam was regarded as the initiator of this ill-fated embassy. De Guignes, mentioned above, ascribed the sole initiative to Van Braam’s ambition. Additionally, he implied that the Chinese officials at Guangzhou also expected the arrival of a European embassy for such a significant event. It is the willingness of both parties, in fact, that eventually urged the authorities at Batavia to dispatch this embassy.7 Considering the misleading suggestions given by Van Braam to the ill-informed high authorities back in Java, the Dutch sinologist J.J.L. Duyvendak has concluded that it was Van Braam who longed for the dispatch of such a mission and for himself to serve as ambassador. He emphasizes the role played by Van Braam, saying that he was “the man who was chiefly responsible for the mission.”8 Boxer also agrees that “the man who was chiefly responsible for this

5 George R. Loehr, “A.E. van Braam Houckgeest: The First American at the Court of China,” The Princeton University Library Chronicle 15, no. 4 (Summer 1954): 179–193. 6 Paul van Dyke, The Canton Trade: Life and Enterprise on the China Coast, 1700–1845 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2005). 7 Chrétien-Louis-Josephe de Guignes, Voyages à Peking, Manille et L’Île de France, faits dans l’intervalle des années 1784 à 1801. Tome 1, Voyage à Peking pendant les Années 1794 et 1795 (Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1808), vol. 1, 254–256. 8 J.J.L. Duyvendak, “The Last Dutch Embassy to the Chinese Court (1794–1795),” T’oung Pao 34 (1938): 1–137, esp. 4.

280

CAI

surprising resolution was the chief of the Dutch factory at Canton.”9 By bringing together the sources of all parties involved—the letter sent by Van Braam to the commissioners-general at Batavia, the investigation carried out by Tit­ singh at Guangzhou on the credibility of Van Braam soon after his arrival, and the testimonies given by the chiefs of the English and Spanish factories—this study tries to reconstruct some of the crucial links in the formation of the mission.10 This information not only helps to reveal more details, but also adds to a better understanding of the roles respectively played by the Chinese officials at Guangzhou and the foreign ambassadors within a cultural framework, namely that of the tribute system of the mid-Qing dynasty. In so doing, the chapter notes that, just like all other embassies that the voc dispatched to Beijing, the 1794 mission ended in failure, and casts a new light on the similar failure of the well-known Macartney embassy of the British East India Company of 1793. 1

Van Braam’s Request for an Embassy

Owing to the risks of sea voyages, Van Braam sent at least two letters (respectively dated at Guangzhou April 6 and 12, 1794) to the high government to guarantee the reception of his message. The former was translated into French and printed as appendix A in the second volume of Van Braam’s journal.11 The latter, mentioned in Titsingh’s letters to the chiefs of the English and Spanish

9 10

11

Charles R. Boxer, Jan Compagnie in Japan, 1600–1850 (Dordrecht: Springer, 1950), 157. The relevant correspondence on the 1794–1795 Dutch embassy are compiled in a volume titled Papieren betrekkelijk de ambassade van de Heren naar Peking, now collected in the Dutch National Archives in The Hague. The documents in this volume are mainly in Dutch: some are in English, French, and Spanish but generally they have Dutch translations. The main catalogue is as follows: A: Titsingh’s letter to the High Government at Batavia dated November 21, 1794; B: Titsingh’s letter to Henry Brown, chief of the English factory dated November 18, 1794, and C: the latter’s reply dated November 20, 1794; D: Titsingh’s letter to Manuel de Agote, chief of the Spanish factory dated November 18, 1794, and E: the latter’s reply dated November 19; F1: Van Braam’s letter to Agote dated April 2, 1794, and F2: the latter’s reply dated April 5. Additionally, on the way to Peking, Titsingh sent a long letter to the high government at Batavia from Yingde 英 德 , a county in the north of Guangdong province. This letter is found in Frank Lequin, Isaac Titsingh in China: het Onuitgegeven Journaal van zijn ambassade naar Peking 1794–1796 (Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 2005), 230–245. Andre Everard van Braam Houckgeest, Voyage de l’Ambassade, vol. 2, 357–364. Appendix A: “Lettre de l’auteur à messieurs les commissaires-généraux arrivés à Batavia pour le rétablissement des affaires des Indes Orientales Hollandaises.”

The Origin of the Dutch Embassy to China in 1794

281

f­actories, was received by the high government and based on this, the final decision was made to dispatch an embassy.12 In the former letter, Van Braam described an unexpected visit of the magistrate of the Nanhai district 南海县令 to the Dutch factory on April 2, which was under the command of Chang Lin 长麟, viceroy of the two Guang provinces: Guangdong and Guangxi (also mentioned as “tsong-tou,” 总督, in the quotation). With the interpretation of Monqua (文官，蔡世文，万和行), the magistrate told Van Braam “that His Imperial Majesty will next year enter in the sixtieth year of his reign and that, because of that extraordinary event, the entire court will come to Beijing to congratulate the monarch. That in consequence, the tsong-tou asked me the question whether the Dutch Company did not want to envoy someone to the court and charge him with congratulating the emperor on this rare circumstance.”13 Van Braam was eager to inform the commissioners-general that the Chinese government took the initiative in requesting a Dutch Embassy in such a significant and rare event. The Nanhai magistrate also mentioned “that the English and Portuguese of Macao had declared that they had sent an envoy and, because the Dutch had always been the oldest friends of the Chinese, the tsong-tou much desired that there was also a deputy of our nation; that if it were impossible to send an ambassador from very far, I myself could go as chef des affaires of the nation, if one would send me letters of recommendation for the emperor and the tsong-tou of that department, to which should be added some presents for the monarch.”14 The quotation embodies three points: (a) the English and Portuguese in China had already determined to dispatch a mission, (b) The viceroy earnestly cherished the friendship with the Dutch that he wished the Netherlands could also dispatch an embassy, and (c) considering the long distance from western Europe to China, a more practical plan was conceived whereby Van Braam, who resided at Guangzhou, would be the ambassador, with the premise that the authorities at Batavia should prepare the letter of credence and the presents in 12 13

14

See note 1, letter B and D. “[Q]ue Sa Majesté Impériale entrera l’année prochaine dans la soixantième année de son règne, & qu’à cause de cet événement extraordinaire, toute la cour se rendra à Pe-king pour féliciter le monarque. Qu’en conséquence le tsong-tou me faisait demander si la Compagnie Hollandaise ne voudrait pas députer quelqu’un vers la cour & le charger de complimenter l’empereur sur cette circonstance rare.” “[Q]ue les Anglais & les Portugais de Macao avaient déclaré qu’ils auraient un envoyé, & que les Hollandais ayant toujours été les plus anciens amis des Chinois, le tsong-tou dési­ rait beaucoup qu’il y eût aussi un député de notre nation; que s’il était impossible d’envoyer un ambassadeur de très loin, je pourrais aller moi-même comme chef des affaires de la nation, pourvu qu’on m’envoyât des lettres de crédit pour l’empereur & le tsong-tou de ce département-ci, auxquelles seraient joints quelques présents pour le monarque.”

282

CAI

advance. Due to the fact that only the Dutch embassy arrived, Isaac Titsingh (who was appointed by the high government as ambassador) doubted the credibility of these words. Therefore, he resorted to the chiefs of the English and Spanish factories to find out whether the invitation actually came from the Nanhai magistrate or was simply a lie elaborated by Van Braam. When the intention of the visit was presented, Van Braam expressed his sincere gratitude to the magistrate for the viceroy’s invitation. He then promised to pass the message to the commissioners-general and that he was willing to be the ambassador. When the magistrate asked how long it would take for the reply to come from Batavia, Van Braam answered that five months were needed and added that it would take a bit longer (about six to seven months) to send an ambassador from Batavia. Hence, the magistrate asked Van Braam to put his promise into practice as soon as possible and he would make a report to the viceroy about this plan. At the time, two vessels still in the Whampoa roadstead some way up the Pearl River, belonging to private individuals of Bombay and commanded by Captains Richardson and Douglas, were preparing to leave in a fortnight to return to Bombay via Batavia.15 Van Braam hurriedly wrote the letter dated April 6, urging the commissioners-general to consider carefully about the feasibility of this plan. He pointed out that, by taking advantage of this opportunity (to congratulate the Qianlong Emperor on the sixtieth anniversary of his reign), the Dutch could not only satisfy the viceroy, but also do good to promote the commercial interest of the voc in China. In Van Braam’s words, “on such an occasion, one would have the hope to ask, with a measured request, satisfaction for the arbitrary treatment by the present hou-pou (whose name is Shengzhu 盛住) in regard to the detention of the ship, the Zuiderberg (which happened at the end of 1793), the proofs of which I have at hand.”16 When Titsingh arrived at Guangzhou, he discovered how unrealistic it was to ask for compensation on such a solemn tribute-bearing occasion. It should be underlined here that, in the letter,17 Van Braam mentioned three times that the other European factories at Guangzhou also planned for a mission: the first time is at the beginning of the letter where the Nanhai magistrate told Van Braam that the English and the Portuguese at Macao would respectively dispatch their own ambassadors; the second time is in the middle 15 16 17

Van Braam, Voyage de l’Ambassade, vol. 2, 3. “[P]uisque dans une telle occurrence, il y aurait l’espoir de demander, par une requête mesurée, une satisfaction des traitements arbitraires du précédent hou-pou, à l’égard de la détention du navire le Zuiderberg, & dont les preuves sont entre mes mains.” Van Braam, Voyage de l’Ambassade, vol. 2, supplément A, 362–363.

The Origin of the Dutch Embassy to China in 1794

283

part of the letter when Van Braam mentioned that “I understand that the English will send two envoys [subrécargues]. As to the Spanish, it is probable that their commander will go himself and that from the part of the Portuguese they will send one of the officials or judges from Macao.”18 The third time, in order to push the high government into action, Van Braam wrote in the conclusion of the letter that “I arduously desire that you, venerable and mighty lords, decide to execute this project of an embassy in whatever manner, to reply to the desire shown by the viceroy. The interests of our Company are strongly linked to it and otherwise this resolution is somehow inevitable as three other nations have already accepted it among whom there are two that, in terms of their trade with China, are completely inferior to our Company. Her honor and reputation demand imperatively that she would not seem to be inferior to other nations on such a public occasion.”19 These words may have left two deep impressions on the authorities at Batavia: (a) the viceroy had required (or invited) several European factories to dispatch their ambassadors, (b) at least the English, the Spanish and the Portuguese had accepted the invitation and promised to send their own embassies. The second point is crucial in the process of decision-making for the high government. What the commissioners-general learnt from Van Braam’s letter was that “she (the Netherlands) would not seem to be inferior to other nations on such a public occasion”20 in interest, honor, or prestige. In the analysis by Duyvendak, “finally [Van Braam] speaks of these three nations having already adopted the suggestion as a certain fact which leaves the Company no choice. It is surprising that the authorities at Batavia accepted these statements without asking for further confirmation.”21 Only after his arrival at Guangzhou did Titsingh try to carry out a secret investigation. In Duyvendak’s viewpoint, “the arguments of this letter are exceedingly feeble. It

18 19

20 21

“J’apprends que les Anglais y enverront deux subrécargues. Quant aux Espagnols, il est probable que le chef ira lui-même & que de la part des Portugais on enverra un des officiers ou des juges de Macao.” “(Je désire) ardemment que vous vous résolviez, vénérables & puissants seigneurs, à mettre à exécution ce projet d’ambassade d’une manière quelconque, afin de répondre au désir manifesté par le vice-roi. L’intérêt de notre Compagnie y est grandement lié & d’ailleurs cette résolution est en quelque sorte inévitable, trois autres nations l’ayant déjà adoptée, parmi lesquelles il en est deux qui, par rapport à leur commerce avec la Chine, sont fort inférieures à notre Compagnie. Son honneur & sa réputation exigent donc impérieusement qu’elle ne paraisse pas au-dessous des autres nations dans une occasion aussi publique.” “[E]lle ne paraisse pas au-dessous des autres nations.” Duyvendak, “The Last Dutch Embassy to the Chinese Court,” 11.

284

CAI

is obvious that the writer desires the embassy and wants himself to be the ambassador. The suggestion that he should go himself is represented as coming from the viceroy, but this is too thin a veil to cover up his own ambition.”22 He moves on to say that although “actual collusion with the Chinese authorities cannot be proved, one cannot very well acquit Van Braam of the charge of having pressed overmuch what was evidently his pet scheme. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, one may say that, carried away by his own enthusiasm and desire, he placed such an interpretation on words and hints of the Chinese authorities as suited him best.”23 Obviously he doubted the credibility of Van Braam’s words and that dispatching a mission was probably Van Braam’s own desire to be ambassador rather than coming from the expectation of the viceroy. Indeed, this advice might be a distortion of his hints and actually disclosed Van Braam’s own “ambition.” Such a negative judgment might have resulted from the accusation brought against Van Braam by Titsingh and De Guignes: an inerasable image that has accompanied him since then. 2

Did Chang Lin Take the Initiative in Requesting a Mission?

The vessels anchored in the roadstead of Whampoa left successively. To guarantee the reception of such an important message by the high government, Van Braam sent out another letter dated April 12. This letter was eventually received and a positive decision was made in June. Since the right man for such a mission seemed to be available, the commissioners-general neglected Van Braam’s self-recommendation and appointed Isaac Titsingh as ambassador, while Van Braam was the candidate with full powers to take Titsingh’s place in case he fell sick or died. Titsingh had successively held titles of chief of the Dutch trading post in Nagasaki in Japan, governor of Chinsura (Bengal) and raad-ordinair (member of the council) in Batavia. Due to his familiarity with Asian (especially the Japanese) cultures, he was regarded as the best person. As for the round trip from Batavia to China, it would take at least a whole year from the preparation of letter of credence and presents to the emperor. What is more, the authorities at Batavia appointed Titsingh to replace Van Braam as the chief of the Dutch factory as soon as he arrived in Guangzhou. Before his departure, Titsingh needed some time to grasp his new duties as member of the Council in replacing Van Braam. It was not until August 15 that

22 23

Duyvendak, “The Last Dutch Embassy to the Chinese Court,” 10–11. Duyvendak, “The Last Dutch Embassy to the Chinese Court,” 14–15.

The Origin of the Dutch Embassy to China in 1794

285

Ambassador Titsingh went on board of the Siam, one of the ordinary vessels that anchored in the roadstead of Batavia, setting sail together with five other vessels. The journey to Guangzhou took about one month; the fleet arrived on September 12 at noon outside the roadstead of Macao. What confronted the fleet on their arrival was a horrendous typhoon that raged for several days in the estuary of the Pearl River. It was not until September 17 that Titsingh met Van Braam for the first time outside Bocca Tigris downstream of Whampoa. The latter had to report implicitly that no other nations were sending an embassy. Seeking to evade responsibility perhaps, Van Braam mentioned the viceroy’s invitation on April 2 once again, whereby he sincerely wished the Dutch could dispatch an ambassador and earnestly insisted that such an ambassador could be sent from Batavia instead of the Netherlands.24 The situation now was completely different from Van Braam’s earlier statement in his letter (that all the European factories at Guangzhou accepted the invitation). Titsingh instantly felt at a loss. In his journal handed over to the authorities at Batavia, Titsingh wrote:25 Amazed at this news, I expostulated with him, saying that he had represented the journey to Peking of the English, the Spanish and the Portuguese as so certain, that the commissioners-general had been forced to comply with this suggestion, at a time when the Company’s financial condition made all extraordinary expenses extremely undesirable; he replied that the Namhuy had assured him positively of the willingness of the English, who had left for Macao on the same day, that the Spanish chief had written about it to the governor of Manila, and that [the authorities at] Macao had requested a favorable “fiat” from Goa; but, later to his regret he had realized that the things, which the Namhuy had reported to him as a certain fact, had merely been based on probability.26 24 Lequin, Isaac Titsingh in China, 72. 25 Lequin, Isaac Titsingh in China, 73. 26 “Verstomt over deeze teiding, hield ik hem voor, dat hy zo stellig de optogt der Engelse, Spanjaarden en Portugesen na Peking had bedeeld, waardoor Heeren Comm: Genl als genootsaakt waren geworden aan die voorslag gehoor te geeven in een teid dat ‘s Comps finantiën alle buytengewone onkosten hoogst ongerade maakten—het antwoord was— dat de Namhuy hem positief van de bewilliging der Engelsen had versekerd, die denselven dag na Macou waren vertrokken, dat de Spaanse Chef daarover aan het Gouvernement van Manilha had geschreven, en die van Macou een gunstig fiat van Goa hadden versogt, dog hy zints tot zyn leedweese moest ontwaren dat wat hem door den Namhuy als een besliste zaak was gemeld, slegts op waarscheinlykheid had berust.” Duyvendak, “The Last Dutch Embassy to the Chinese Court,” 12–13.

286

CAI

Confronting such an unexpected situation, Titsingh “deemed best not to say anything further about it, but on my arrival at Canton to investigate closely what had happened.”27 Based on Van Braam’s account, Duyvendak mentions that “after the ambassador’s arrival at Canton, the viceroy was at first very aloof. Although the idea of an embassy had originally been prompted by him, he now pretended not to know anything about it.”28 Such an attitude greatly disappointed Titsingh. He considered Van Braam’s advice that a letter to the viceroy should be prepared by the Batavian authorities “to announce [to] him that the embassy was due to congratulate His Majesty with the renewal of the sixtieth year of his reign; avoiding, however, any semblance that this action was undertaken at the invitation of the tsong-tou.”29 All of these clues made Titsingh doubt the credibility of Van Braam’s statement that the invitation was given by the viceroy and accepted by the English, Spanish, and the Portuguese. After the first meeting with Van Braam, Titsingh even thought of terminating the mission. However, the news of his arrival was widespread, making it impossible for him to retreat: he had no choice but to continue his mission. An overall investigation requires the testimonies of all the parties involved: for the part of the Chinese, these were the Hong merchant Monqua 蔡世文, the magistrate of Nanhai District, and viceroy Chang Lin. As for the Westerners, they were Henry Browne, chief of the English factory, Manuel de Agote, chief of the Spanish factory, and the Portuguese authorities in Macao. Nowadays no clue reveals that Titsingh ever privately made a protest to the Hong merchants or resorted to Monqua asking about what had actually happened on April 2. It was impracticable either to consult the magistrate or the viceroy. Therefore, searching for testimonies from the English and Spanish chiefs is more applicable. Titsingh arrived at the Dutch factory on September 24. The next day, except for the English, the clerks of the other European factories came to greet him. Titsingh paid them a return visit with the company of Van Braam on the 26th. It was not until October 7 that the clerks of the English factory returned from Macao and not until the 14th—one week after their arrival—that chief Henry Browne paid Titsingh a visit in the Dutch factory. The date was carefully chosen for, on the preceding day (the 13th), Titsingh and Van Braam were formally 27 28 29

“[D]agt best my daarover niet verder uyt te laten, en het gepasseerde by myn komst te Canton naauwkeurig te onderzoeken.” Duyvendak, “The Last Dutch Embassy to the Chinese Court,” 13. Duyvendak, “The Last Dutch Embassy to the Chinese Court,” 32. “[E]n lui annonçant l’ambassade destinée à féliciter Sa Majesté sur le renouvellement de la soixantième année de son règne; sans toutefois qu’il paraisse que cette démarche soit faite à l’invitation du tsong-tou.” Van Braam, Voyage de l’Ambassade, 363.

The Origin of the Dutch Embassy to China in 1794

287

­received by Chang Lin and the other provincial officials in the Honan Temple (海幢寺); that is to say, their identities as ambassadors had been confirmed by the Chinese authorities. Although the English and Dutch factories were adjacent to one another, the interaction of their personnel was reduced to such an extent that an air of hostility resulted from commercial and military competition. Moreover, since Titsingh was sent by the commissioners-general from Batavia (as opposed to the Earl of Macartney who was sent directly by King George iii from England in the preceding year), Browne had reason to disregard Titsingh as a formal ambassador. He had to change his mind only when the identity of the latter was accepted by the Chinese government. Titsingh, however, attributed the hostility of both factories to Van Braam. In order to build up a stronger and closer friendship with the other factories and to enhance the dignity and social distinction of the Dutch ambassador, Titsingh planned to invite the personnel of all the factories in the compound for dinner on every Thursday evening from October 14 onwards. However, the food budget of 600 piastres per month determined by the Batavian authorities was insufficient: “I [Titsingh] hope to have occasion hereafter to send Your Noble Highness my accounts of the comprador and of other indispensable expenses, for which 600 Spanish piastres per month are by no means sufficient.”30 An enjoyable friendship was successfully built among Titsingh, Brown, and Agote. Titsingh stated that Browne “was described to me as a most adorable character, which proved to be correct, since I enjoy all the friendship and politeness of him and the other gentlemen.”31 Four days before his leaving for Beijing, on November 18, Titsingh wrote to Browne and Agote, asking for the visit of the Nanhai magistrate on April 2. An exchange of letters in several languages ensued. Titsingh wrote to Browne in English and Browne replied in the same language. The letter to Agote was in French and a Spanish reply was received, attached with a short note in French written by Van Braam to Agote in the evening of April 2 (he was in Macao at the time): the latter’s reply in Spanish was dated April 5. Browne testified that the Nanhai magistrate had visited the English factory first on April 2, accompanied by Monqua, with the aim of informing him of the viceroy’s request of sending a delegation to the court. Then they went forward to the adjacent Dutch ­factory 30 31

“[I]k hoop hierna geleegenheid te hebben Uw Hoog Edele mijne reekeningen van den Compradeur zoals van verdere onvermijdelijke depences te toonen, waarvoor 600 spaanse matten ‘s maands op verre na niet toerijken.” Lequin, Isaac Titsingh in China, 237. “[H]et eerder aan nationale vues, dan aan personeele motiven attribueerende, wijl de Heer Browne mij als een aller beminnelijkst character was beschreeven, zoals de uijtkomst bewaarheid, daar ik van hem, en de verdure Heeren, alle vriendschap en politesse geniet.”

288

CAI

to meet Van Braam. Agote proved that the Nanhai magistrate and Monqua did not visit the Spanish factory.32 The reason was that as the chief was not at Guangzhou, the magistrate did not want to inform Mr. Fuentes, who was second in command of the Spanish factory. Instead, he entrusted Van Braam to pass this news to Agote (an explanation given by Van Braam himself). Therefore, the latter immediately wrote a short note to Agote on the very same evening. De Guignes’ journal reveals that Van Braam also informed the chiefs of other European factories except the French, inviting them to come together with the Dutch ambassador to Beijing.33 Why were the French excluded? The reason is that, at the time, both countries were at war due to the French Revolution. Van Braam showed his hostility toward France by saying that the country “is a complete nothing in China and in Europe, where she will soon be eliminated by a number of forces.”34 Browne’s testimony proved the initiative of the authorities at Guangzhou. Furthermore, the attentive assistance provided by Viceroy Chang Lin and the Hopo in collecting suitable presents for the emperor during the stay of the embassy at Guangzhou might also prove, from another aspect, that it was the viceroy who took the initiative in requesting a European embassy. England and the Netherlands were the first two countries whose commercial engagement was taken seriously by the Chinese government (even though the fate of the voc almost came to the end); therefore, the magistrate visited both chiefs personally, while the invitation to the other countries was passed on through Van Braam. The question is, why did the viceroy take the initiative to urge the English and the Dutch in sending an embassy? Browne’s reply to Titsingh, dated November 20, might help to clarify this puzzle. 3

Why Did Chang Lin Take the Initiative in Requesting a Mission?

Browne’s reply contains some crucial evidences that could help to clarify the intention of the viceroy, and it is important enough to be cited here in full:35

32 33 34 35

See note 1, letter E. De Guignes, Voyages à Peking, 254. “[E]lle était aussi nulle à la Chine qu’en Europe, où bientôt elle serait rayée du nombre des puissances.” De Guignes, Voyages à Peking, 255. Papieren betrekkelijk de ambassade van de voc naar Peking, Littera C: Copia Missive van den Heer Browne aan den Heer Ambassadeur in dato 20 November met dies translaat.

The Origin of the Dutch Embassy to China in 1794

289

To His Excellency i. Titzingh Esqre. &c, &c, &c. Sir! I have been honored with your Excellency’s letter of the 18th instant & take the earliest opportunity of satisfying you as far as I am able on the point in which you desire to be informed. The Hongist Munqua waited upon me on the 2nd of April last, accompanied by an inferior mandaryn called the Namheyon with a message from the Tsontoc, the purpose of which was to learn from me whether there was any certainty that Sir George Staunton would return to China as ambassador from His Brittanic Majesty to congratulate the emperor on his entering the 60th year of his reign, as his Excellency Lord Macartney & Sir George himself had assured him he would. To this I could only reply that if the Tsontoc had received such assurances from his Lordship & Sir George they undoubtedly had authority for so doing and would not deceive him, but that I was not authorized to give him any such assurance from myself. The mandarin then explained the object of his visit more fully by stating that the Tsontoc, on the strength of the above assurances, had ventured to inform the emperor of the intended compliment & that His Imperial Majesty had returned a gracious answer in which he warmly expressed his approbation thereof. The Tsontoc having perhaps rather too precipitately gone thus far, it became an object of some consequence that the emperor should not be altogether disappointed; & reflecting that from the length of time and distance intervening, such a disappointment might very possibly happen notwithstanding the most favorable intentions of the British government, he wished to know whether in that case the English factory could send up a gentleman who might in some degree supply the deficiency; that such a measure would be sufficient to safe his credit with the emperor and assurance to that effect from would make his mind easy. I, accordingly, did not hesitate to say that, in the event of such a disappointment, there would be no difficulty in complying with the Tsontoc’s wishes. The Hongist Monqua then informed me that it was the Tsontoc’s intention to obtain a similar promise from the other European nations resident at Canton as he thought such an addition would seem further reconcile the emperor to the disappointment of not seeing the ambassador, which had been promised him from his Brittanic Majesty, should it so happen.

290

CAI

Your Excellency will perceive that the promise as far as relates to the English factory was only conditional and depending on the Tsontoc’s future dispositions or the arrival of Sir George Staunton. I therefore did not take any step as a consequence of it, nor had I any intention of so doing till I should receive a second application. I think, however, nothing is more probable than that Munqua in order to secure Mr. van Braam’s compliance might speak of it as a measure absolutely resolved and, under such an impression, it must be allowed Mr. van Braam appears to have been actuated by a laudable zeal for the honor of his nation in endeavors to procure so respectable a representative as Your Excellency. It may not be foreign to the purpose to mention that since my return to Canton, I have been privately informed that the emperor, from some superstitious motive, wishes to decline all congratulations on his ensuing birthday, which may account for my not having heard anything further on the subject from the Tsontoc. I have the honor to be with greatest respect & esteem. Your Excellency’s most obedient and most humble servant Henry Browne Canton November 20, 1794 The eagerness of Chang Lin in urging a fresh English embassy is clearly represented in this letter. The viceroy thought both Lord Macartney and Sir George Staunton had assured him on it. Did they ever make such a promise? The conversation between the Earl of Macartney and Chang Lin in Changshan Xian 常 山县36 dated November 20, 1793 during the return voyage from Beijing to Guangzhou, could provide the answer. Macartney’s journal records their conversation as follows: [Chan-ta-gin 长大人 seemed somewhat apprehensive, that] I must feel some dissatisfaction at bottom, as I certainly do, in not having succeeded 36

Namely “Chan-san-shen” in George Staunton, An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China; Including Cursory Observations Made, and Information Obtained in Travelling Through that Ancient Empire, and a Small Part of Chinese Tartary. Together with a Relation of the Voyage Undertaken on the Occasion of His Majesty’s Ship the Lion, and the Ship Hindostan, in the East India Company’s Service, to the Yellow Sea, and Gulf of Pekin; as well as of their Return to Europe […] Taken Chiefly from the Papers of His Excellency the Earl of Macartney […] Sir Erasmus Gower […] and other Gentlemen in the Several Departments of the Embassy (London: W. Bulmer and Co., 1797), 302.

The Origin of the Dutch Embassy to China in 1794

291

in the points I have solicited, and that consequently my representations home might be the future trouble or mischief. He was, however, much pleased when, on his renewing the subject of our former conversation, I repeated to him exactly what I had said to him a few days before. But, still doubtful of my sincerity, I found he was desirous of putting it to a test, by his asking me whether I would authorize him to tell the emperor that the king my master would always continue in friendship with him, and in testimony of it would write to him, and send an ambassador again if the emperor were willing to receive him. I said that, though what I solicited was refused, yet in every other respect I had no reason to complain, as the embassy had been very honorably received and entertained, and that the emperor had sent presents to the king as marks of his friendship in return for those sent by the king for the emperor. That, therefore, I had no doubt that the king might go as far as to write to the emperor to acknowledge the receipt of the presents, and the marks of distinction conferred on the embassy. As to matters of business, they stood on a different ground. The king’s original idea was to have an ambassador usually resident in China, and if I had found my staying at Pekin had been agreeable I should have remained there a considerable time, but that frequent or temporary embassies from so great a distance were attended with much trouble and expense to both courts. Nevertheless, I thought another minister might be sent to China if there was good ground to expect that such a measure would be requited by adequate advantage; but that my state of health and many other circumstances rendered it impossible for me to think of undertaking a second embassy. He then asked me if the king were to send here another minister, how soon it would be; but that he did not mean to propose to me a repetition of so great and splendid an embassy as mine, which he was sensible could not be equipped without great charge and inconvenience. I told him it was not in my power to say how soon or to calculate any time, the space between England and China being so vast, and sea voyages being so precarious. Before he went away he assured me he had received the greatest satisfaction from the different conversations he had had with us, and should immediately write to the emperor, who would be highly pleased in every respect with his accounts of us.37 37

Helen H. Robbins, Our First Ambassador to China: An Account of the Life of George, Earl of Macartney, with Extracts from his Letters, and the Narrative of his Experiences in China, as Told by Himself, 1737–1806, from Hitherto Unpublished Correspondence and Documents (London: John Murray, 1908), 363–364. For the Chinese version, see Magaerni 马 嘎 尔 [George Macartney], Qianlong yingshi jinjian ji 1793 1793 乾 隆 英 使 觐 见 记 [Journal of the English Ambassador to the Court of Qianlong], trans. Liu Bannong, with an introduction by Lin Yanqing (Tianjin: Tianjin renmin chubanshe, 2006), 200–202.

292

CAI

The record shows that Chang Lin asked Macartney time and again about the possibility of dispatching a second ambassador: “His asking me whether I would authorize him to tell the emperor that the king my master would always continue in friendship with him, and in testimony of it would write to him, and send an ambassador again if the emperor were willing to receive him.” This quotation reveals that the idea of sending a new ambassador should be derived from Chang Lin, not from the Qianlong Emperor himself. We could not deny the possibility that Qianlong secretly entrusted Chang Lin to ask this question, so as to prepare the counter strategies in advance. Macartney’s answer to this question was that “I thought another minister might be sent to China if there was good ground to expect that such a measure would be requited by adequate advantage; but that my state of health and many other circumstances rendered it impossible for me to think of undertaking a second embassy.” He implied the possibility of a new embassy, but did not promise to come by himself. A similar conversation could be found in the journal of George Staunton, a contemporary witness:38 The viceroy then asked the ambassador if he could authorize him to promise a proof of the continuance of his good disposition, by the king’s writing soon to His Imperial Majesty, and by sending again a minister to China, if the emperor were disposed to allow of such, not with the parade and expense of the present embassy, but simply as a testimony of the subsisting friendship of his Britannic Majesty. To this unexpected proposal, His Excellency ventured to answer by saying, that the king would probably have no difficulty in writing to the emperor, to acknowledge the presents sent by him, and to thank him for the honorable reception of the embassy: a circumstance distinct from the objects of it, all of which he still hoped might be brought about in time; but that the distance of the two empires from each other, and the uncertainty of sea voyages rendered it impracticable to ascertain the period of the arrival of a new embassy. The viceroy concluded the conversation by saying, that he would immediately dispatch a courier to court, to relate the substance of the conference; together with such suggestions from himself as would, he trusted, give perfect satisfaction to the emperor on all points.

38 Staunton, An Authentic Account, 320–321. For the Chinese version, see Qiaozhi Sidangdong 乔 治 ·斯 当 东 著 [George Staunton], 叶 笃 义 译 Yingshi yejian qianlong jishi 英 使 谒 见 乾 隆 纪 实 [An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China] trans. Ye Duyi (Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1963), 476–477.

The Origin of the Dutch Embassy to China in 1794

293

Therefore, we know that the proposal of sending a second embassy came from Chang Lin himself, and Macartney was confused and annoyed by such an unexpected question. Actually, Macartney and Staunton did not make any promises, and Chang Lin did not convey the original answer to the Qianlong Emperor; however, instead he reported to the latter that it was Macartney who pleaded to pay tribute once again. The content of his memorial to Qianlong and the latter’s reply is as follows: An Imperial Edict received on the 28th day of the 10th month [December 1, 1793], that a memorial from Chang Lin had been received and we learnt the date he supervised and accompanied the English tribute ambassador leaving the boundary of the Zhejiang Province, and the delightful mood and obedient attitude of this foreigner [barbarian]. Chang Lin also reported that “this tribute ambassador told the guard-conductor officials, that his Britannic Majesty is truly sincere in paying tribute: ‘Before our departure, the king had conferred with us and came to the agreement, that we will pay tribute to China in an intermittence of years from then on. While due to the long distance, we could not fix the exact time (year and month), we would provide a letter of credence when we come back to pay tribute in the future. If a gracious permission was granted by the emperor, we would present the letter of credence and tribute-presents to the Yamen (government office) of the viceroy, petitioning him to report on behalf of us to the emperor. We dare not importune for going to Beijing, it is a grace for us if our request is permitted.’” This request is anyhow applicable […] Now you [i.e. Chang Lin] have reported that they wish to provide another a letter of credence and pay tribute in the future. Considering the submissive and sincere attitude of the king, i, the great emperor, kindly ratify the request. The transmission of message through sea voyage is, however, so uncertain, that there is no necessity to come in a fixed intermittence of years, it all depends on your convenience anyhow. Shall the shipment of tribute-presents reach Canton, according to the regulations of the Celestial Empire, whenever a foreign barbarian offers a letter of credence and tribute-presents, the viceroy and governor would report to the court, they have no reason to conceal the news. When the document and tribute-presents were received, they would report objectively on your behalf, and the great emperor would issue an edict of permission, granting exuberant rewards so as to manifest the idea of “giving more and getting less.” You can pass my thought to your king when you return to the homeland.39 39 “十 月 二 十 八 日 (1793年 12月 1日 )， 奉 上 谕 :长 麟 奏 管 带 英 吉 利 贡 使 趱 出 浙 境 日 期 及 该 夷 等 悦 服 恭 顺 情 形 一 折 ， 览 奏 已 悉 。 又 据 奏 ， ”该 贡 使 向 护 送

294

CAI

Based on this edict, the viceroy entrusted the Nanhai magistrate to urge the chiefs of the European factories, as Browne related, that “the Tsontoc, on the strength of the above assurances (given by Lord Macartney and George Staunton), had ventured to inform the emperor of the intended compliment and that His Imperial Majesty had returned a gracious answer in which he warmly expressed his approbation thereof.” Actually, Qianlong clearly showed his attitude in the edict: “The transmission of message through sea voyage is, however, so uncertain, that there is no necessity to come in a fixed intermittence of years, it all depends on your convenience anyhow.” In other words, he did not expect a new English ambassador to come back so soon. Therefore, what the magistrate told Browne—that the emperor would be disappointed when not seeing the arrival of the ambassador—was groundless. George Staunton had already pointed out that such suggestions were from the viceroy himself.40 It could thus be concluded that the instigator of a new embassy in 1794 was Viceroy Chang Lin and that England was his first choice, followed by the Netherlands and the other countries were just candidates who could help to reconcile the emperor or, more exactly, the viceroy’s disappointment. In his paper analyzing a Chinese poem that records the arrival of the ­Titsingh embassy at Guangzhou, Cai Hongsheng regards Chang Lin as an “­intelligent, elegant and luxurious man.”41 Zhao Lian 昭梿 (1776–1829), a contemporary of Chang Lin, mentioned that he had “long beard and magnificent visage, and could talk for a whole day with such elegance that nobody felt weary; therefore, people were ready to make friends with him.”42 Macartney also judged that “every time we see this gentleman he (Chang Lin) gains upon our 之 道 将 等 称 :该 国 王 此 次 进 贡 ， 实 是 至 诚 。 我 们 未 来 之 前 ， 国 王 曾 向 我 们 商 议 ， 此次回去，隔几年就来进贡一次，是早经议定的。惟道路太远，不 敢定准年月，将来另具表文再来进献。若蒙恩准办理，即将表章、贡物，呈 送总督衙门转奏，也不敢强求进京，只求准办，就是恩典”等 语 。 此 尚 可 行 。 …今 据 尔 禀 称 :将来尚欲另具表文，再来进贡。大皇帝鉴尔国王恭顺悃 忱，俯赐允准。但海洋风信靡常，亦不必拘定年限，总听尔国之便。贡 物 到 粤，天朝规矩，凡外夷具表纳贡，督、抚等断无不入告之理。届时表 贡一到，即当据情转奏。大皇帝自必降旨允准，赏赐优渥，以昭厚往 薄 来 之 义 。 尔 等 回 国 时 ， 可 将 此 意 告 知 尔 国 王 。 ” Liang Tingnan 梁 廷 枏 , Haiguo sishuo 海 国 四 说 ·粤 道 贡 国 说 [Four Tales on Maritime Countries] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1999), 243–244. 40 Staunton, An Authentic Account, 321. 41 Cai Hongsheng 蔡 鸿 生 , Zhongwai jiaoliu shishi kaoshu中 外 交 流 史 事 考 述 [Examination and Narration for the Events on Sino-Foreign Communications] (Zhengzhou: Da­ xiang chubanshe, 2007), 364. 42 “修 髯 伟 貌 ， 言 语 隽 雅 ， 坐 谈 竟 日 ， 使 人 忘 倦 ， 人 亦 乐 与 之 交 。 ” Zhao Lian 昭 梿 , Xiaoting zalu 啸 亭 杂 录 [Miscellanies of the Howling Pavilion] (Beijing: Zhong­hua shuju, 1980), 459.

The Origin of the Dutch Embassy to China in 1794

295

good opinion, and I do not despair of the Company’s receiving many advantages by his means. It is true that he has art and address and an air of candor to disguise them with, but he has prudence, sagacity, and a sense of character.”43 As a brilliant conversationalist of convivial talent, Chang Lin left a deep impression on his peers and the English ambassador. “He was luxurious in his way of living, he purchased several thousand buildings as his private houses that were adjacent to each other and therefore formed a street block. Zhongzai (冢 宰, minister of the Board of Civil Office) Tie Yeting 铁冶亭, i.e. Tie Bao, 铁保) used to exhort him, but Chang Lin replied that ‘I know I have purchased too many houses, I have been an official in several provinces outsides the capital for so many years, it would be sufficient for me if the people who live in this block would not forget my name.’”44 From this episode, Zhao Lian concludes that he was “good at rejecting [the] admonishment of his peers.”45 His stubborn and grandiose character, therefore, is obvious to identify. After enduring the offensive behavior of Macartney (rejecting to play the ritual of kowtow, i.e. the three-times-three prostration) and the intrusive request he raised (a long-term stay as envoy at Beijing), if Chang Lin could procure the arrival of several tribute ambassadors, with the help of the European merchants at Guangzhou, in such a rare event as the emperor’s sixtieth anniversary of enthronement, then the honor and grandeur of the emperor and the Qing Empire could be widely spread, Chang Lin’s diplomatic talent and skills could also be well demonstrated. In the memorial informing the arrival of the Dutch Tribute ambassador (Titsingh), he reported to Qianlong that “after the return of the English ambassador last year, through investigation, my peers and I have learnt that the foreign merchants of all countries at Canton are touched by the heaven-like mercy and awe of your majesty, and are more submissive than before. Moreover, witnessing that the English ambassador had a chance to go to Beijing and view the celestial visage of Your Majesty, all of them are full of envy and regard it as an honor.”46 By these words he implied that the magnificent spectacle of the arrival of all the tributary states to the court was

43 Robbins, Our First Ambassador to China, 364–365. See also, Magaerni 马 嘎 尔 [George Macartney], Qianlong yingshi jinjian ji 1793, 202. 44 “然 性 好 奢 华 ， 置 私 宅 数 千 厦 ， 毗 连 街 巷 。 铁 冶 亭 冢 宰 尝 规 之 ， 公 曰 :‘ 吾 久 历 外 任 ， 亦 知 置 宅 过 多 ， 但 日 后 使 此 巷 人 知 有 长 制 府 之 名 足 矣 .’” Zhao Lian, Xiaoting zalu, 459–460. 45 “善 为 拒 谏 .” Zhao Lian, Xiaoting zalu, 460 . 46 “臣 等 伏 查 自 上 年 英 吉 利 进 贡 回 国 之 后 ， 各 国 在 广 贸 易 夷 人 ， 无 不 感 皇 上如天恩威，较前倍觉恭谨。且见英吉利使臣得以进京瞻仰天颜，亦 无 不 共 生 仰 慕 ， 引 为 荣 幸 。 .” Liang Tingnan, Haiguo sishuo, 213.

296

CAI

not an unreachable dream but, instead, it fit well with the wish of the foreigners and could be achieved by providing them with a good opportunity. Although such an inference on Chang Lin’s intention could help to understand why he required the English and the Dutch to dispatch an embassy, it could not be agreed upon by his contemporaries. De Guignes’ judgment is quite otherwise: “At the same time, the officials of Canton themselves, who feared that the complaints made by Lord Macartney would not attract the emperor’s attention, sought a means to withdraw from this embarrassment; the only one they could find was to send to the court a European who, while he complimented the emperor and thanked him for the favors shown to the trade of the foreigners, would consequently present the conduct of the mandarins in a good light: this man was soon found, since Mr. Van Braam did not ask for anything better than to carry out such a project.”47 Charles Boxer agrees with him by saying that “in this project, he was aided and abetted by some of the high officials at Canton who, for reasons of their own, were desirous of producing at court a suitably docile and obedient foreign embassy which would counteract any awkward after-thoughts, which Macartney’s mission might have inspired.”48 Such a practical intention might be more reasonable considering that many vexations and grievances existed in the Guangzhou trade that were regarded by the foreign merchants as unbearable at the time. 4

Van Braam Adopted a Plan That Was Rejected by the Other Countries

No matter how Chang Lin tried to impose the plan on Browne with the excuse that Macartney and Staunton had assured him of their return, the latter rejected it with the excuse that he “was not authorized to give him any such assurance.” He answered perfunctorily that, in case both ambassadors could not come, there would be no difficulty for the English factory to send up a gentleman who might in some degree supply the deficiency. Actually, he did not make any promise. Seeing that the English were not persuadable, the Nanhai magistrate and Munqua went on to visit Van Braam in the neighboring Dutch 47

“À la même époque, les grands de Quanton, craignant que les plaintes faites par le lord Macartney n’excitassent l’attention de l’empereur, cherchaient eux-mêmes un moyen de se tirer d’embarras; le seul était de produire à la cour un Européen qui, complimentant l’empereur et le remerciant des faveurs répandues sur le commerce des étrangers, présentât par conséquent, sous un jour favorable, la conduite des mandarins: l’homme fut bientôt trouvé, car M. van Braam ne demandait pas mieux que de seconder un pareil projet.” De Guignes, Voyages à Peking, 254–255. 48 Boxer, Jan Compangie in Japan, 157.

The Origin of the Dutch Embassy to China in 1794

297

factory. This was exactly what he wanted: Van Braam had been longing for such a plan since 1793. Boxer judges Van Braam as a man of pleasure, conviviality, prudence, intelligence and adaptability and yet also grandiose and arrogant. In any case, he was very tolerant and had a thirst for new knowledge. From his endeavor in realizing this mission, Prof. Cai Hongsheng regards him as a man of enterprising and pioneering character.49 Van Braam had long cherished the idea of ­proceeding to Beijing as an ambassador or representative of voc. He was so jealous of Macartney’s mission in 1793 that he requested a similar embassy from the high government in Batavia.50 Due to the wrong timing, however, the proposal was rejected. The high government learnt that Van Braam, probably joined by other Europeans and Chinese at Guangzhou, were endeavoring to counteract the effect of the Macartney embassy. Willem Arnold Alting, one of the commissioners-general, had disclosed this news to Macartney who then passed by Batavia on his way to China. He also wrote a letter of admonishment to Van Braam, preventing him from doing so.51 On April 2, 1794, the date he learnt about the invitation of the viceroy, Van Braam would never let such a good opportunity slip away. His enthusiasm to be the Dutch ambassador was perceivable in his letter to the high government dated April 6. Judging the length of time and distance, Chang Lin and the Nanhai Magistrate understood that the return of Macartney and Staunton would be out of the question. The viceroy, therefore, wished to know whether the English factory could send up a gentleman who might in some degree supply the deficiency. Similarly, it is quite possible that the viceroy recommended Van Braam himself to be the ambassador. This was not necessary an invention of Van Braam’s. But why did he mention the countries of England and Portugal at the beginning, then went a step further to add Spain on the list? The answer may be found in the reply of Agote, chief of the Spanish factory, to Titsingh dated November 19 and its accompanying notes (a short note from Van Braam to Agote on the evening of April 2 and the latter’s reply dated April 5). Both messages are as follows: Van Braam to Agote, April 252 Sir, I have just received a visit from Namhiyon from the city with a commission to Tsontok, and he has charged me with a commission for you that I have promised to carry out, and to let him know the answer 49 Cai Hongsheng, Zhongwai jiaoliu shishi kaoshu, 348. 50 Lequin, Isaac Titsingh in China, 72–74. 51 Duyvendak, “The Last Dutch Embassy to the Chinese Court (1794–1795),” 8. 52 See appendix 12.1.

298

CAI

when I will have received it. This commission entails that I ask you whether on behalf of the king or of the Spanish Company one could send from Manila an envoy to the court in Beijing in March 1795. If it would be possible to have from Manila a few precious things as presents for the emperor, please have the goodness to consider these, and to send me your reply via the messenger that sends you the present letter: I do not know for what reason it is addressed to me and not to your envoy Mr. Fuentes, if it is not that the mandarin has not wanted to deal with an envoy. In short my friend, I hand you this just as I have received it. If you would like, you could undertake this visit to the court yourself, as Monkua has told me. Please accept my confirmations of respect owed to your having mentioned my name so sincerely. Your very humble servant and friend Van Braam Houckgeest. Canton 2 April 1794—the English will leave this evening. Agote to Van Braam, April 553 Macao, April 5, 1794 My Lord van Braam My dear Lord! I have received your letter of the 2nd of this month and have to tell you, after having read it, that after you will have asked counsel from my second Don Julie Fuentes, you will be able to answer the Tsontok by means of the Namhuij, that we have no power to send such an embassy to Beijing, but that His Excellency the Tsontok can rest assured that we will inform the government in Manila about everything that you have mentioned in your letter and that we will be happy to let this embassy happen if the government will judge that it will be appreciated and necessary. Agote and Browne gave an identical answer, saying that they had no authority to promise an embassy. Since the clerks of the English factory had left Guangzhou for Macao on the evening of April 2, it might be possible that Agote had discussed a suitable reply with Browne and the Portuguese authorities in Macao. De Guignes also resided in Macao; he mentioned that Van Braam had actually informed the chiefs of all the European countries except France. Agote’s reply dated April 5, if by express it could reach Van Braam within one day, then the latter might learn the former’s uncertain answer on April 6, on the same day he wrote a letter to the Batavian authorities. Van Braam mentioned first: “I understand that the English [will] send two envoys [subrécargues]. As to the 53

See appendix 12.2.

The Origin of the Dutch Embassy to China in 1794

299

Spanish, it is probable that their commander will go himself and that from the part of the Portuguese they will send one of the officials or judges from Macao.”54 At the end of the letter, he turned the possibility into certainty: “The interests of our Company are strongly linked to it and otherwise this resolution is somehow inevitable as three other nations have already accepted it.”55 He strayed too far from the fact. Thus, if he was misled by the Nanhai magistrate and Munqua to believe the certainty of a new English embassy, then he did concoct the notion that Spain and Portugal would also send their own ambassadors. For this reason, he deserved to be criticized by his contemporaries. De Guignes, who was French, was appointed by Titsingh as one of the secretaries of the Dutch embassy. His comments on the role played by Van Braam are as follows: “Mr. Van Braam, chairman of the Dutch Company in Canton, had since a long time wanted to go to Beijing as envoy of the stadtholder. Because the first letters he wrote to the governor in Batavia, to make this proposal, did not have the desired effect, he wrote other, more pressing ones; to assure their success, he announced that representatives of the different countries established in China had to congratulated the emperor on the sixtieth year of his reign.”56 These words could not be totally accepted without any criticism considering the intensive relationship between De Guignes and Van Braam, for the former used to be rejected by the latter in his request for joining the Dutch embassy to Beijing. De Guignes’ comments were right only to a certain extent. Hence, without the invitation and acquiescence of the viceroy, it would have been difficult for Van Braam to take advantage of the event to fulfill his dream. Batavia ultimately accepted his proposal anyway. Besides concocting the necessity of sending an embassy, he listed several recommendations on the preparation of a letter of credence and tribute-presents in the letter (dated April 6). At the superficial level, the intention of the commissioners-general was to congratulate Qianlong for the sixtieth jubilee of his reign; in reality, they 54 55 56

“J’apprends que les Anglais y enverront deux subrécargues. Quant aux Espagnols, il est probable que le chef ira lui-même & que de la part des Portugais on enverra un des officiers ou des juges de Macao. ” Van Braam, Voyage de l’Ambassade, 361. “L’intérêt de notre Compagnie y est grandement lié & d’ailleurs cette résolution est en quelque sorte inévitable, trois autres nations l’ayant déjà adoptée.” Van Braam, Voyage de l’Ambassade, 362. “M. Vanbraam, chef de la compagnie hollandaise à Quanton, désirait depuis longtemps aller à Peking comme envoyé du Stathouder: ses premières lettres à la régence de Batavia, pour en faire la proposition, n’ayant pas produit l’effet qu’il attendait, il en écrivit de plus pressantes; et pour en assurer le succès, il annonça que les représentants des diverses nations établies à la Chine, devaient envoyer complimenter l’empereur sur la soixantième année de son règne.” De Guignes, Voyages à Peking, 254.

300

CAI

wanted to pursue their own interests by taking advantage of this occasion to lodge complaints on the detention of the Zuiderberg and to guarantee certain compensation. As for his self-recommendation, Van Braam asked the commissioners-general to “consider this sincere offer as a proof of the vivacity and zeal that have always animated me for the good of the Company, rather than as a mark of vain pride.”57 This statement helped to conceal his private intention to a certain degree. Furthermore, Van Braam knew very well that expenditure was a crucial factor considered by the struggling Company in decision-making. To solve this problem, he raised the following four suggestions: First, he drew up a list of presents that suited the taste of the Chinese emperor and could be obtained without much expense. Second, to save the expense of a round trip from Java to Guangzhou, he recommended dispatching someone who was enthusiastic for the affairs of the Company and was willing to travel onboard one of the ordinary vessels of the Company. Third, he stressed that the expense of a round trip from Guangzhou to Beijing was to be paid by the Chinese government, the main expenditure would be for the inexpensive tribute-presents. He recommended that parts of the presents could be drawn out from the stock in Batavia, and parts could be purchased at Guangzhou after the arrival of the ambassador. Fourth, to guarantee the approval of this proposal, Van Braam tried to reduce the expense by asserting that he was willing to give up the indemnity deserved if he was appointed as the first ambassador. If such wish could not be realized, he still pleaded to accompany the embassy to Beijing by explaining that his participation would not cost much and would never hinder the daily affairs of the factory. In relation to the temptation that “the interests of our Company are strongly linked to it,” the Batavian authorities only should give him un titre plus élevé or send a new ambassador, together with two official letters (one to the emperor, the other to the viceroy) and some presents that were practical and inexpensive, then “she (the Netherlands) would not seem to be inferior to other nations on such a public occasion.”58 It was not difficult for the high government to weigh up the situation and send Titsingh as ambassador­. Only after his arrival did he realize that he was trapped in a dilemma (that no other nations were sending a congratulatory mission save the Dutch). Titsingh had thoughts of abandoning the project and returning to Batavia, but soon made up his mind to go through with it. Boxer explains that “the reasons for 57 58

“[C]onsidérerez cet offre sincère comme une preuve de la vivacité du zèle dont je suis continuellement animé pour le bien de la Compagnie, plutôt que comme la marque d’un vain orgueil.” “[E]lle ne paraisse pas au-dessous des autres nations dans une occasion aussi publique.” Van Braam, Voyage de l’Ambassade, 359–364.

The Origin of the Dutch Embassy to China in 1794

301

this decision are not very far to seek. Like Van Braam, he was a great admirer and student of Far Eastern culture, and he was fully aware that it was the lot of few to go to Beijing.”59 It might be better to say that Titsingh had no chance to get rid of this trap, for the viceroy would never let go of this perfect scapegoat. What he could do was to continue his mission and make a secret investigation on Van Braam, who was so enthusiastic to bring forth such a mission. 5 Conclusion To sum up, it was Chang Lin, viceroy of the two Guang provinces and Van Braam, chief of the Dutch factory at Guangzhou who jointly brought about the 1794 Dutch embassy. Chang Lin’s original plan was to procure a second English embassy, and to bring forth a magnificent spectacle: all the foreign countries coming to the court to pay tribute. Of course, the motive of getting rid of the embarrassing complaints lodged by the Earl Macartney on the Guangzhou trade, as implied by De Guignes, could not be denied and excluded. However, more sources are needed to support this judgment and to reconstruct a more nuanced relationship between the Hong merchants, the Chinese officials at Guangzhou and the newly arrived Viceroy Chang Lin. The point is, that after the United Kingdom had sent its first embassy in 1793, resending another one in the following year was actually out of the question. Witnessing the embarrassment and failure of the Macartney embassy, the other European countries hesitated in complying with the expectations of the viceroy: they put it off with the excuse that, as chiefs of the factories, they had no authority to make any promise. For Van Braam, proceeding to Beijing as an ambassador or representative of his employers was a long-cherished idea. The devastated condition of the voc also predicted the forthcoming termination of his sojourn in China, and these could help to explain his enthusiasm in realizing this embassy. Prof. Cai Hongsheng previously pointed out that congratulating the emperor on the sixtieth anniversary of his reign “was just a suitable excuse, the true motive was to pursue new interests for the voc in its China trade.”60 Although Chang Lin’s original plan (expecting a fresh English embassy) could not be realized, Van Braam’s enthusiasm did him a favor. On the origin of the 1794 Dutch Embassy, De Guignes commented that: “Events almost always have weak causes; vanity and personal interest make them happen, and often a state

59 Boxer, Jan Compagnie in Japan, 158. 60 Cai Hongsheng, Zhongwai jiaoliu shishi kaoshu, 360.

302

CAI

finds itself engaged in an action that is presented as useful and necessary, while it only satisfies the self-love and ambition of an individual.”61 Although this comment was an attack aimed at Van Braam, it reveals the truth to a certain extent. Acknowledgement I thank the Chinese Ministry of Education for fully supporting this project through a generous research grant (13YJC770001).

Archival Sources



The Hague, Netherlands National Archive

Papieren betrekkelijk de ambassade van de heren naar Peking.

Bibliography Boxer, Charles R. “Isaac Titsingh’s Embassy to the Court of Chi’en Lung (1794–1795).” Tien Hsia 8 (January 1939): 9–33. Boxer, Charles R. Jan Compagnie in Japan, 1600–1850. Dordrecht: Springer, 1950. Blussé, Leonard. Visible Cities: Canton, Nagasaki and Batavia and the Coming of the Americans. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008. Cai Hongsheng 蔡 鸿 生 . Zhongwai jiaoliu shishi kaoshu中 外 交 流 史 事 考 述 [Examination and Narration for the Events on Sino-foreign Communications]. Zhengzhou: Daxiang chubanshe, 2007. De Guignes, Chrétien-Louis-Josephe. Voyages à Peking, Manille et L’Île de France, faits dans l’Intervalle des Années 1784 à 1801. Tome 1, Voyage à Peking pendant les Années 1794 et 1795. Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1808.5. Duyvendak, J.J.L. “The Last Dutch Embassy to the Chinese Court (1794–1795).” T’oung Pao 34 (1938): 1–137. Haddad, John Rogers. The Romance of China: Excursions to China in U.S. Culture, 1776– 1876. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. 61

“Les événements ont presque toujours de faibles causes; la vanité et l’intérêt personnel les font naître, et souvent un État se trouve engage dans une démarche représentée comme utile et nécessaire, tandis qu’elle ne satisfait que l’amour-propre et l’ambition d’un particulier. ” De Guignes, Voyages à Peking, 254.

The Origin of the Dutch Embassy to China in 1794

303

Lequin, Frank. Isaac Titsingh in China: het onuitgegeven journaal van zijn ambassade naar Peking 1794–1796. Alphen aan den Rijn: Canaletto, 2005. Liang Tingnan 梁 廷 枏 . Haiguo sishuo 海 国 四 说 ·粤 道 贡 国 说 [Four Tales on Maritime Countries]. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1999. Lin Faqin 林 发 钦 . “Diguo xieyang: Helan shichen desheng shihua kaoshu帝 国 斜 阳 : 荷 兰 使 臣 德 胜 使 华 考 述 ”[Sunset of the Empire: Examination and Narration for the Dutch Titsingh Embassy to China], Aomen ligong xuebao澳 门 理 工 学 报 [Revista do Instituto Polétecnico de Macau (Chinese version)] 1 (2013). Loehr, George R. “A.E. van Braam Houckgeest: The First American at the Court of China.” The Princeton University Library Chronicle 15, no. 4 (Summer 1954), 179–193. Magaerni 马 嘎 尔 [George Macartney]. Qianlong yingshi jinjian ji 1793 1793 乾 隆 英 使 觐 见 记 [Journal of the English Ambassador to the Court of Qianlong of 1793]， translated by Liu Bannong, with an introduction by Lin Yanqing. Tianjin: Tianjin renmin chubanshe, 2006. Qiaozhi Sidangdong 乔 治 ·斯 当 东 著 . [George Staunton]. 叶 笃 义 译 , Yingshi yejian qianlong jishi 英 使 谒 见 乾 隆 纪 实 [An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China], translated by Ye Duyi. Beijing: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1963. Robbins, Helen H. Our First Ambassador to China: An Account of the Life of George, Earl of Macartney, with Extracts from his Letters, and the Narrative of his Experiences in China, as Told by Himself, 1737–1806, from Hitherto Unpublished Correspondence and Documents, London: John Murray, 1908. Staunton, George. An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China; Including Cursory Observations Made, and Information Obtained in Travelling Through that Ancient Empire, and a Small Part of Chinese Tartary. Together with a Relation of the Voyage Undertaken on the Occasion of His Majesty’s Ship the Lion, and the Ship Hindostan, in the East India Company’s Service, to the Yellow Sea, and Gulf of Pekin; as well as of their Return to Europe […] Taken Chiefly from the Papers of His Excellency the Earl of Macartney […] Sir Erasmus Gower […] and other Gentlemen in the Several Departments of the Embassy. London: W. Bulmer and Co., 1797. Van Braam Houckgeest, André Everard. Voyage de l’Ambassade de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales Hollandaises, vers l’Empereur de la Chine, dans les Années 1794 & 1795. Philadelphia: Philadelphie Moreau de Saint-Méry, 1797. Van Campen, Jan. “Chinese bestellingen van Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest.” Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 53, no. 1 (2005): 18–40. Zhao Lian 昭 梿 . Xiaoting zalu 啸 亭 杂 录 [Miscellanies of the Howling Pavilion]. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1980.

Appendices

Appendix 3.1



Zhang Xie, The Red-Haired Barbarians

From Dongxi yangkao 東西洋考 [Investigations on the East and West Seas], by Zhang Xie 張燮, orig. 1617 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1981), 127–130. A digital version is available at ctext: https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&chapter=792663&remap=gb. Accessed June 21, 2019. Text between round brackets is the commentary in the original text. Text between square brackets contains comments, clarifications, and corrections essential for understanding the text. Minor comments are added in footnotes. The red-haired barbarians call their country Holland [helan 和蘭], which they say is adjacent to the land of the Farangi [folangji 佛郎機, the “Franks,” i.e. the Portuguese and Spanish]. Since ancient times, they never had contact before with China. Their people have deep sunken eyes and long noses, and their hair and beards are all red, for which reason we call them red-haired barbarians. (Commentary: Yan Shigu 顏師古 (581–645) writes: “The Rong barbarians of the western regions all have strange appearances. The foreigners of our day have blue eyes and red beards, and their bodies look like those of a species of monkeys”1). Another name is Misuguo 米粟果 (?). Because the Farangi had captured Luzon [Manila] and traded in Macao, the hearts of the Dutch were filled with envy. They embarked on their huge boats and began attacking everything between Java and Pattani, all the while building factories to serve as trade stations. Nevertheless, they were far removed from China, making them drool on the ground [thinking of trade with China]. Once, they attacked Luzon but Luzon repelled them, and they had to leave empty-handed. Then, they went to Macao but were beaten off by the Portuguese and returned angrily, waiting several years for another opportunity. (Commentary: The Guangdong Provincial Gazetteer writes: “The red-haired devils, we do not know from which country they are. In [the] winter of the twenty-ninth year of the Wanli reign period (1601), they came with a large vessel to Macao. They were dressed in red and their eyebrows, hair, and beards were also all red. Their feet from heel to toe were one foot and two inches long, and they were extraordinarily tall. The Portuguese interrogated them repeatedly, but through an interpreter they always replied that they only came to establish a tribute relationship [with China] and had no 1 This citation is found in a Tang dynasty commentary by Yan Shigu to the chapter on the western regions in the History of the Han.

Appendices

305

intention to plunder. The official in charge however did not find such a beginning [of a tribute relationship] appropriate [because of the Portuguese]. Li Que sent orders to invite the Dutch chief [Van Neck] to sail to the city and stay for a month. But because the Portuguese were already in Macao and wanted to keep the situation as it is [in their favor], they did not allow them to come ashore, and they eventually left.”) Li Jin 李錦 was originally from Haicheng 海城 county [near Zhangzhou] and lived already a long time in Pattani, where he had become close with the Dutch. The shrewd merchants Pan Xiu 潘秀 and Guo Zhen 郭震 also lived in Pattani and traded back and forth with the Dutch. One day they discussed the matter of trading with the Chinese with the chief Van Warwijck, and Li Jin told him: “If you want to make a fortune, the best thing for you to do is to go to Zhangzhou. Because, outside Zhangzhou, the Penghu Islands (the Pescadores) lie in the open sea [near Taiwan], where you can build a fortress for its defense.” The chief said: “But what if the local officials do not approve?” Li Jin said: “The eunuch Gao Cai 高寀 is [the imperial tax collector] in Fujian province and has an insatiable greed for money. If we curry favor with him, the eunuch will send a memorial especially on your behalf [to the emperor] to hear your case [of establishing trade relationships with China], how could the local officials go against the imperial regulations [of granting free access to foreign envoys]?” The chief said: “Excellent!” Thereupon, they had letters from the king of Pattani sent to Fujian as an official invitation, one to the local dignitary [Gao Cai], one to the garrison commander, and one to the navy commander; but, in fact, all letters were drafted by Li Jin. Pan Xiu and Guo Zhen were dispatched to deliver the letters. However, when these two were on their way to Zhangzhou, the navy commander Tao Gongsheng 陶拱聖 heard of this and was greatly astonished. He had Pan Xiu apprehended halfway in broad daylight and thrown in jail. Zhen was allowed to continue because he had hidden his letter, which thus never arrived. In the beginning, Pan Xiu promised to the foreigners that, if a treaty was brokered, they could enter Fujian [waters] and that he would send a boat to welcome them. But the foreigners could not hold still and impatiently embarked on two large ships and two medium boats following in his tail. Soon thereafter, they occupied the Penghu Islands. That was in the seventh month of the thirty-second year of the Wanli reign-period (1604). At that time however, the Chinese soldiers had already been evacuated because of the rising waters and they arrived at a completely uninhabited wasteland. The foreigners then cut trees to build a factory and sold fish to obtain clothing. Li Jin, meanwhile, took a small fishing boat to sail up the river to Zhangzhou for some reconnaissance, deviously saying that he was an escaped prisoner of the foreigners and on his way home [to Haicheng]. The local official, however, had already learnt about his pro­venance and had him arrested as well. In order to redeem themselves, he ­persuaded Li Jin and Pan Xiu to summon the foreigners to return to their country, and have Guo Zhen to join them in this plan as well. Li Jin, however, schemed with the foreign chief,

306

Appendices

and was not prepared to sell out [the Dutch], only telling that the Chinese had not made a decision yet. Commander Zhan Xianzhong 詹獻忠 was subsequently dispatched with an order [to the Dutch] but, hoping for a big compensation, he instead brought along a lot of coins, silk, vegetables, and wine. The coastal people also smuggled Chinese goods to them for trade, and the more [trade] the foreigners saw, the less they were prepared to leave. Officials repeatedly sent them orders [to leave], but as soon as the envoys saw the foreigners, the topic was not raised, and the foreigners viewed their trade mission as a piece of cake. Regarding eunuch Gao Cai, he had already hurriedly dispatched his confidant Zhou Zhifan 周之范 to the sea to set up an alliance, requesting thirty-­thousand taels (of silver) for the “long life” of the dignitary [Gao Cai] and his full support. When the alliance was being negotiated, Regional Commander of the Southern Circuit Shi Dezheng 施德政 dispatched Commander Shen Yourong 沈有容 to deliver the order (to the Dutch to leave) with armed forces. Commander Shen was a man of many talents and great acumen, whose brush was as sharp as his tongue. He calmly spoke to the foreigners: “China never allows strangers from remote places, and there is simply no other way. Now, you foolishly wish to stay, how stupid! The four seas are big. Where can you not find a place to live?” As soon as he found out that the eunuch’s envoy was present, he added: “Our magnificent China, how can it be short of a few ten thousand taels? [To the Dutch again] You are fooled by a bunch of rats. If trade cannot succeed and the money is not returned, then it is already too late to feel sorry!” Confronted with Shen Yourong’s grand demeanor and fierce words, Van Warwijck sighed: “Such words I have never heard!” His companions, who were standing to his side, drew their swords and said: “The Chinese ships have arrived, if you want to have us kill each other, well, let us kill each other, how about it?” Shen Yourong told them in a stern voice: “China is most accustomed to killing bandits. You lot said you were merchants, and that is why you were tolerated; so why do you speak of making war? That is the opposite of your original words. Have you not seen the mighty forces from the Celestial Empire?” The foreigners were lost for words. Feeling regret and fear in their hearts for having giving the money to Zhou Zhifan, they immediately called Zhou Zhifan and demanded to have their salaries returned. In the end, they only sent the eunuch a woolen carpet, glassware, foreign swords, foreign wine, and a letter of the foreigners requesting trade to be presented to the emperor on their behalf. However, the censor-in-chief memorialized [to the emperor] for the suppression [of the Dutch], and Shi Dezheng had to stand firm and defend the Chinese territory [of the Penghu Islands]. He ordered the troops to sharpen their weapons, clean their armor, and wait for his order to move out. Soldiers or civilians approaching them [the Dutch for trading] from sea, were not to allowed to carry a single coin of money on their bodies. Those who carried money were punished according to the law. Thus having successfully cut their resources, we announced our plans to attack them with fire-boats. The foreigners calculated their chances and [seeing that they were] without help and completely

Appendices

307

trapped, they hoisted their sails on the twenty-fifth day of the tenth month and left. Li Jin, Pan Xiu, Guo Zhen, and Zhan Xianzhong were sentenced to death, and soldiers [involved in trading with the Dutch] were put on special duty. On imperial order, a wealthy merchant was sent to Pattani with a written missive to the Dutch [warning them] to be never misled again by these small-minded people [that is, Chinese merchants]. Some mention that the only special skills of the Dutch are their boats and guns. Their boats are ninety meters long and fifteen to eighteen meters wide; the boards [of the hulls] are more than two feet thick and nailed on each other like the scales of fish; on top they have five masts girded in iron [cables?]; on the outside they are painted with horse fat, making them so shiny you can you see your own reflection. Their boats have three decks and small windows on each side with copper cannons sticking out. Each cannon has a mechanism that pushes the cannon through the window before firing and retracts it after firing without taking any human effort. Below the masts [on the upper deck] are the large cannons, which are more than six meters long and have a barrel of four feet as big as a wagon wheel. Shots from these can shoot holes and cracks in stone city walls, and their thundering sound can be heard from several kilometers away. When an enemy attacks them, they use these to sink [any enemy vessel] in no time without taking prisoners. They have enlisted men called black devils [i.e. Africans], who can jump from high into the sea and easily move with the waves [i.e. swimming] as if walking on land. Behind the helm [at the rear deck], the boats have a copper disc of several feet in diameter that, according to what people say, can reflect the sea like a mirror; and for those knowing how to use it will never get lost on sea [i.e. a compass?]. They are very strict about worshipping heaven, and they make sacrifices to a lord of heaven, as they call him, whom they say lives there. Their chief lives and sleeps inside [the ship] where woolen carpets [or curtains?] are hung from the four walls. Each time a Chinese merchant wishes to meet with the chief, the guard strikes a bell signaling [his arrival], and two attendants come out to receive the [written] message. If the chief is busy, sleeping or elsewhere, [the Chinese merchant] has to sit outside waiting in another room, and he can enter only when summoned. Sometimes they arrange food, which they serve all together on one plate; each man is given a knife with which he cuts and eats his food. They have told the Chinese that they will attack them repeatedly. However, if the Chinese are at war with other foreigners [i.e. the Portuguese and Spanish], they say they instead will help the Chinese. They often tell the Chinese: “When this body [boat] is floating and mooring in this world, it must have scales, shields, claws, and fangs, so people are terrified.” However, is this not the same as a chicken, which is ridiculed because it cannot fight, [making it look terrifying by] smearing some fox grease on its head [as in cock fights].2 2 In cock fights, fox grease was smeared on the head of the cock to trigger its instincts of smelling a fox and make the cock more aggressive.

308

Appendices

(Commentary: In the forty-fifth year of the Wanli reign-period (1617, i.e. 1603?), the Chinese merchants were attacked in the harbor of Luzon and savagely killed, and the [Dutch] boat captain deplored it greatly.) Products: Gold, silver, amber, agate, glass, velvet, down [cotton?], woolen carpets, knives [swords?] Trade: Their merchant ships have not reached our land yet. They conduct trade between Siam, Java and Brunei in particular. Because those countries are wealthy, both Chinese and foreigners seek their fortunes there. The goods of the Chinese are of high quality and they consequently fetch high prices far exceeding their value. For this reason, the prices for the goods sold by the red foreigners have also risen steeply [also asking high prices like the Chinese?]. 紅毛番 紅毛番，自稱和蘭國，與佛郎機鄰壤；自古不通中華。其人深目長鼻， 毛髮皆赤，故呼紅毛番雲(顏師古曰:西域諸戎，其形最異。今胡人青眼、赤 須，狀類獮猴者，其種也)。一名米粟果。佛郎機據呂宋而市香山，和蘭心 慕之；因駕巨艦，橫行爪哇、大泥之間，築土庫為屯聚處所。竟以中國險 遠，垂涎近地。嘗抵呂宋，呂宋拒不納。又之香山，為澳夷所阻，歸而狠 卜累年矣(「廣東通志」曰:紅毛鬼，不知何國；萬曆二十九年冬，大舶頓至 濠鏡。其人衣紅，眉發連須皆赤；足踵及趾長尺二寸，壯大倍常。澳夷數 詰問，輒譯言不敢為寇，通貢而已；當道謂不宜開端。李榷使召其酋入 見，游處會城一月始還。諸夷在澳者，尋其守之，不許登陸，始去)。 澄人李錦者，久駐大泥，與和蘭相習；而猾商潘秀、郭震亦在大泥，與 和蘭貿易往還。忽一日，與酋韋郎談中華事。錦曰:若欲肥而橐，無以易漳 者。漳故有彭湖嶼在海外, 可營而守也。酋曰:倘守臣不允，奈何?錦曰:釆珰 在閩負金錢癖，若第善事之，珰特疏以聞，無不得請者；守臣敢抗明詔哉? 酋曰:善。乃為大泥國王移書閩當事，一移中貴人、一備兵觀察，一防海大 夫，錦所起草也；俾潘秀、郭震齎之以歸。防海大夫陶拱聖聞之，大駭白 當道，系秀於獄。震續至，遂匿移文不投。 初，秀與夷約，入閩有成議，遣舟相迎。然夷食指既動，不可耐，旋駕 二巨艦及二中舟尾之而至。亡何，已次第抵彭湖；時萬曆三十二年七月 也。是時汛兵俱撤，如登無人之墟。夷遂伐木駕廠，自以鱗介得窺衣裳 矣。李錦徐挐得一漁舟，附之入漳偵探，詭雲為夷所虜逃還。當事者已廉 知其蹤，並系之。嗣議使錦、秀諭令夷人還國，許以自贖，並拘郭震與 俱。錦等既與夷首謀，不欲自言其不售，第雲我國尚在依違而已。材官詹 獻忠捧檄往，乃多攜幣帛瓜酒，覬其厚償。海濱人又有潛裝華貨往市者， 夷益觀望不肯去。屢遣官諭之，比見夷，語輒不揚，夷視之如發蒙振落 也。而釆珰者，已遣親信周之范馳詣海上，與夷訂盟；以三萬金為中貴人 壽，貴人從中持之。

Appendices

309

盟已就，會南路總兵施德政遣材官沈有容將兵往諭。沈多才略，論說鋒 起，從容謂夷曰:中國斷不容遠人，實逼處此；有誑汝逗留者，即是愚爾。 四海大矣，何處不可生活?嗣又聞珰使在此，更曰:堂堂中國，豈乏金錢巨萬 萬；爾為鼠輩所誑，錢既不返、市又不成，悔之何及!麻郎見沈豪情爽氣， 嘆曰:從來不聞此言。旁眾露刃相語曰:中國兵船到此，想似要與我等相殺， 就與相殺何如?沈厲聲曰:中國甚慣殺賊，第爾等既說為商，故爾優容；爾何 言戰鬥，想是元懷作反之意。爾未睹天朝兵威耶?夷語塞。又心悔恐為之范 所賣，乃呼之范，索所餉金錢歸，只以哆囉嗹、玻瓈器及夷刀、夷酒遺 珰，將乞市夷文代奏。而都御史若(右?)御史，各上疏請剿，於是德政嚴守 要害，厲兵拭甲，候旨調遣。兵民從海外入者，一錢不得著身；挾錢者治 如法。蓋接濟之路遂窮，又聲言預作火攻之策。夷度茲事必無濟理，又且 坐困，乃以十月二十五日掛帆還。錦、秀、震、獻忠等論死及戍有差。嗣 奉旨使殷商至大泥，移檄和蘭，毋更為細人所誤雲。 或謂和蘭長技，惟舟與銃耳。舟長三十丈，橫廣五、六丈；板厚二尺 餘，鱗次相銜。樹五桅舶上，以鐵為網，外漆打馬油，光瑩可鑑。舟設三 層，傍鑿小窗，各置銅銃其中。每銃張機，臨放推由窗門以出；放畢自 退，不假人力。桅之下置大銃，長二丈餘，中虛如四尺車輪。雲發此可洞 裂石城，震數十里；敵迫我時，烈此自沉，不能為虜也。其役使名烏鬼， 嘗居高自投於海，徐出行濤中，如御平原。舵後銅盤，大徑數尺，譯言照 海鏡；識此，可海上不迷。奉天甚謹，祀所謂天主者於中。其酋所居及臥 內，俱哆囉嗹蒙其四壁。每華商詣酋，守門者撞鐘為報，侍者二人出傳 語；值酋臥或別冗，則坐外間以俟，傳見乃進。或為設食，以一大片置盤 中，人分一刀，切而食之。與華人語，數侵華人；若華人與他夷人爭鬥， 則為華人左袒。嘗謂華人曰:此身浮泊世間，須有鱗甲爪牙，令可畏；若輩 牝雞耳，譏其不善鬥，未嘗以狸膏蒙其頭也(萬曆四十五年在呂宋港口迎擊 華商，大肆劫掠，舶主苦之)。 物產:金、銀錢、琥珀、瑪瑙、玻瓈、天鵝絨、瑣服、哆囉嗹、刀。 交易:商舶未有抵其地者；特暹羅、爪哇、渤泥之間，與相互市。彼國既 富，褭蹏華夷，華人貨有當意者，輒厚償之，不甚較值。故貨為紅夷所 售，則價驟湧。



Appendix 3.2

諭西夷記陳學伊 余又聞之紅夷舊為佛郎機別部，一名和蘭，後以強盛自雄。其人長身赤 髮，深目藍睛。居常帶劍，劍善者直百餘金。惟利吾中國湖絲，從水道與 大泥通。舟長二十餘丈、高數丈許，板厚二尺有咫，內施錫片。舟旁各列 大銃三十餘，銃中鐵彈四五具，重三四十斤，舟遇之立粉。水工有黑鬼

310

Appendices

者，最善沒，沒可行數里。諸凡器械巧詐非諸夷可比，即稱強如佛郎機 者，且斂手避，殆未易以中國長技敵也。



Appendix 3.3

明實錄 兵部覆福建巡撫徐學聚等，奏紅番闖入內洋，宜設法驅回，以清海徼，勾 引奸民潘秀張嶷等，均應究處。 上曰，紅毛番無因忽來，狡偽叵測，著嚴 行拒回呂宋也。著嚴加曉諭，毋聽奸徒，煽惑擾害，□民潘秀等，依律究 處。



Appendix 3.4



Zhang Xie, Travels of the Red Foreigners

“Hongyi xing 紅夷行” in Qunyu lou ji 群玉樓集, compiled by Zhang Xie 張燮 (1574– 1640), printed in 1638 (no place), 15b–16b. The red foreigners say they are from Holland. They came on huge warships and seized our Penghu Islands. Sailing in and out Lumen and Guiyu, they caused the coastal areas to be without peace for a long time. The officials are blinded by financial gains, and the foreigners are playing us on the palm of their hands, intensifying their roaring (laughter). The hermit (i.e. Zhang Xie) has no place to escape to. Outraged by this all, I wrote this song. The red-haired foreigners are looking for trade, Years ago we expelled them, chasing them far away; After many years of atrocities, they eventually returned, With their huge cannons and tall sails, they are pointing their finger at us; Threatening our ancestors, they have landed at the Penghu Islands, Brazenly building walls and erecting a fortress; Each time they sail their boats to the edges of the sea (i.e. coast), The home of fishermen and their boats are all destroyed; Among them are only criminals, wrecking everything, When they set our places on fire, the cries of calamity are near; These cunning people trade secretly, goods coming to and fro, Once these sea turtles have tasted the juice (of victory), they forget to return; Our soldiers fear these thieves as if they are wild beasts, Discarding spears and armors, they silently pray on their walls;

Appendices

311

The general overseeing the battle utters no sound, He is unjustly murdered on top of the city walls under the sound of thundering drums; The government officials worship these thieves as if they are gods, Promising big benefits, they welcome each other; During banquets they cut open bellies searching for hidden pearls, They empty their libraries and prepare the ritual victims (in violation of ritual regulations); The foreign chief is named Kobenloet 高文律, Loads of shining gold and silk, he carried from our shores; Riding their horses from the relay station, they look at the vice-censor’s terrace, A thousand barbarians leave comfortably without saying a word; Everywhere where they show themselves boisterously, the Fujian people go into hiding, But they still spy our valuables, leaving us nowhere to go; Their violent and cruel behavior exceeds any norm, Their control of our territory is over the edge; Plundering goods, they heap them like mountains, who dares to question them? Killing people, they heap them like hemp, when will it ever end? Sometimes, even when a small boat is destroyed in a forceful wind, They force the locals to swim to collect the remaining goods; Each and every government official is chasing for profit, The foreigners just have to sit and wait for them in the harbor; Don’t they feel shame about the feminine hats they are all wearing? How will their ugliness not be transmitted far and wide? Peace can only be achieved when the eldest son leads the army When there is game (i.e. enemy invasion) in the fields, it is beneficial to catch it; Having taken revenge and eradicated the evil, better days will return, Having cleansed the roving bandits, new hope will come. Later, the censor-in-chief of the south came with his plan to destroy the foreigners and defeat these invaders: at the break of dawn, we attack them with fire (boats), after which we send our fleet to chase the foreigners and banish them far away. Evidently, the saying (from the Book of Changes hexagram 7, Earth above Water) “the eldest son leads the army” were prophetic words (coming true). 紅夷行 紅夷自稱和蘭國，乘巨艦據我彭湖，出入鷺門、圭嶼。久之，海濱一帶無 復寧宇。官以款自愚，夷玩我股掌之上，益肆哮吼。幽人徙避無處，慨焉 作歌。

312

Appendices 赤髪夷人求互市，昔年驅之隨遠從， 歲久獰猙竟復來，巨銃長帆搖食指， 聲言遠祖在澎湖，公然築城置營壘， 開柂時入海門涯，鱗屋漁舟盡披霏， 間有犯者但摧碎，火燎于原難響邇， 黠者濳通貨往還，蒼龜嗜汁忘溺外, 軍士畏賊如豺虎，偃戈息甲祈晏堵， 將軍督戰下無聲，枉殺城頭雷大鼓， 官府媚賊如神明，早辭厚享相逢迎， 但晏剖腹必藏珠，空費束書而載牲， 夷酋舊號高文律，照耀金緋㟁上出， 乘驛往見中丞臺，千番慰遺說不開， 招搖突遍榕隱返，覘我虛實無近遠， 封豕長蛇氣益橫，內地當家臥長阪， 掠貨如山誰敢問，殺人如麻猶未晚， 有時小艇衝風破，居人泅水拾殘貨， 官府一一嚴追償，夷人踞向津頭坐， 巾幗相遺不識羞，此醜那堪遠傳播， 安得長子來帥師，田有禽時利執之， 雪恥除兇天好還，廓清逋穢會有期。

後南中丞來一意，剿夷躬犯；霜雪初，用火攻，嗣遺舟師，窮追夷，遂 遠，從長子帥師之言，殆為語䜟。



Appendix 5.1



Overview of Chinese Objects and Books Present in the Low Countries in the Seventeenth Century

This appendix lists Chinese objects and books mentioned in a variety of sources. It includes objects explicitly named as Chinese. It does not include generic references to porcelain or silk or to objects listed as “Indian” that may have been Chinese. The list has no pretention to be exhaustive and is not based on systematic archival research. I am indebted to Willemijn van Noord and Trude Dijkstra for their contributions. The main relevant literature is: – Borch, O. Olai Borrichii Itinerarium, 1660–1665: The Journal of the Danish Polyhistor Ole Borch. Ed. with Introduction and Indices by H.D. Schepelern. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Reitzel, 1983. – Duyvendak, J.J.L. “Early Chinese Studies in Holland.” T’oung Pao 32 (1936): 293– 334.

Appendices

313

– Golvers, N. “De recruteringstocht van M. Martini, S.J. door de Lage Landen in 1654:

over geomantische kompassen, Chinese verzamelingen, lichtbeelden en R.P. Wilhelm van Aelst, S.J. ” De zeventiende eeuw 10, no. 2 (1994): 331–350. – Golvers, N. “The xviith-Century Jesuit Mission in China and its ‘Antwerp Connections,’ i. The Moretus Family (1660–1700).” De gulden passer 74 (1996): 157–188. – Van Campen J., F. Diercks & K. Corrigan, ed. Asia in Amsterdam: The Culture of Lux­ ury in the Golden Age. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, 2015. – Van Selm, B. Een menighte treffelijcke boecken: Nederlandse boekhandelscatalogi in het begin van de zeventiende eeuw. Utrecht: hes, 1987.

Amsterdam

1604 Public auction of the cargo of the Portuguese carrack Santa Catarina, captured by Jacob van Heemskerck off Patani (on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula). The cargo consisted of 1,200 bales of raw Chinese silk; chests filled with coloured damask and silk; large amounts of gold thread or spun gold; cloth woven with gold thread; robes and bed canopies spun with gold; silk bedcovers and bedspread; “an innumerable quantity of porcelain vessels of all kinds, about thirty lasts, which is over a thousand hundredweight” and a “thousand other things that are produced in China.” Levinius Hulsius, Achte Schiffart oder kurtze Beschreibung etlicher Reysen so die Hol­ länder vnd Seeländer in die Ost Indien Anno 1599. biß Anno 1604. gethan (Frankfurt: Beckern, 1608), quoted from Teresa Canepa, Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer: China and Japan and their Trade with Western Europe and the New World 1500–1644 (London: Paul Holberton, 2016), 89–91.

Amsterdam

Cornelis Claesz, 1605 “A collection of various Chinese books, or books that have now for the first time been brought from China of the realm of the Chinese with their ink and paper of admirable size.” (“Chinensium variorum librorum Bibliotheca, sive libri, qui nunc primum ex china seu regno Sinarum cum ipsorum atramento & charta admirandae magnitudinis advecti sunt. Amsterdami, 1605. Apud Cornelium Nicolai.”) Philippe Labbé, Nova bibliotheca mss. librorum (Paris: 1635), 396; Van Selm, Nederland­ se boekhandelscatalogi, 320–333, argues that these books were part of the cargo of the Portuguese carracks captured by the Dutch in 1603 and 1604.

Amsterdam

Johannes Halsbergius, 1607 “A Chinese book in quarto”

314

Appendices

(“Liber in quarto chinensis”) Catalogus Librorum … Iohannis Halsbergii, Leiden 1607; Van Selm, Nederlandse boekhandelscatalogi, 156–7, 328, nr. 14.

Amsterdam

Jan Nicquet, 1612–1613 Lacquerware desks (“comptoirkens”), East Indies paintings (“schilderijen”), a parasol, and a silver-plated and gilt miniature Chinese junk. Inventory of the widow of Jan Nicquet, Stadsarchief Amsterdam, notary J. Franssen Bruyningh, notarial archives 197, fol. 436–453, dated December 14, 15, 19, and January 19, 1613; Van Campen, Asia in Amsterdam, 137.

Amsterdam

20 June 1620 Chinese book on typhoid fever brought from Amsterdam, now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford Lei bian shanghan huo ren shu kuo zhi zhang tu lun 類編傷寒活人書括指掌圖論 (1589), Bodleian Library, Sinica 77 [SC1961 (G.19?)]. With a ms. note (upside down) in Dutch on first page: “Chinees boeck, den 20 Junio 1620 van Amsterdam gebrocht.”

Amsterdam

27–28 June 1634 A single incoming voc cargo included 219,027 pieces of Chinese porcelain, 52 chests with Japanese and Korean porcelain, 241 pieces of Japanese lacquerware, and 1155 pounds of raw Chinese silk. Courante uyt Italien en Duytschland, 27–28 June 1634, quoted in Simon Schama, Over­ vloed en onbehagen: de Nederlandse cultuur in de Gouden Eeuw (Amsterdam: Olympus, 2006), 352.

Amsterdam, Prinsengracht

Jan Bassé, 1637 Cabinet of curiosities including a green cup that may have been jade (“een groen stene copgen”), East Indian sculptures (“Oostindische neger,” “Indiaens beelt”), two stone sculptures of monks (“twee steene Muncken”), perhaps “Chinese soapstone figures of Buddhist monks” according to Van Campen, Asia in Amsterdam, 131; A. Bredius, Künstler-Inventare (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1915–1922), i, 127–147, esp. 132, 139, 146.

Amsterdam, Kloveniersburgwal Oost-Indisch Huys, 1639/1683

Appendices

315

“Chinese and Japanese paintings hanging in the hall where the voc directors meet and discuss their trade” (“In de zael, daer de Bewindhebbers vergaderen, en van hunnen handel raedslagen, hangen Chineesche en Iaponsche schilderyen.”) Caspar Barlaeus, Blyde Inkomst der allerdoorluchtighste Koninginne, Maria de Medicis, t’Amsterdam, transl. J. van den Vondel (Amsterdam: Blaeu, 1639), 37, fol. G2r. “Various curiosities [made] of lacquerwork, such as Chinese screens, Japanese cabinets, along with Japanese silk robes, silk fabrics, textiles, tea and all the like.” (“Curieusheden van lackwercken, als Chinesche schutten, Japansche comptoiren, vort Japansche zyde rocken, syde stoffen, lywaten, thee en diergelycke.”) Visit by the Prince of Orange, November 18, 1683; National Archive The Hague, voc Archief Resoluties heeren zeventien, November 18, 1683, 1.04.02, inv.nr. 154; cf. Van Noord, this volume, p. 185.

Amsterdam, Intersection Prinsengracht—Looiersgracht

Menagerie De Oude Doolhof, 1648 “A life-size Chinese, from the mighty kingdom of China.” (“Een levens-groote Chinees, uyt het machtigh Koninghkrijck van China.”) Ano., Verklaringe van verscheyden kunst-rijcke wercken […]. Alles te sien in’t Oude Dool­ hof tot Amsterdam (Amsterdam: Houthaeck, 1648), unpaginated [p. 4].

Amsterdam

Willem Goes, 1653 “Chinese statues […] among which is a devil of wondrous shape that is said to hold kings in check and revert them to order, whenever they would turn to tyranny.” (“Idola Chinensia […] Inter quae est mira formae diabolus, qui dicitur reges cohibere atque in ordinem redigere, quoties ad tyrannidem vergunt.”) Barthold Neuhaus to Athanasius Kircher, 14 may 1653; cf. Willem Goes to Neuhaus forwarded to Kircher, 30 July 1653. Universita Gregoriana, Rome, Ms 557 (Ep. Kirch. iii) 194, 218–220.

Amsterdam, Jodenbreestraat

Rembrandt van Rijn, 1656 “In the Art Chamber: […] two East Indian cups, a bowl ditto [decorated] with a little Chinaman, a sculpture of an empress, an East Indian powder box, […] an Indian cup, […] an East Indian sewing box, […] two porcelain cassowaries, […] two porcelain figurines, […] a Japanese helmet, […] a Chinese basket full of portrait casts, […] A little Chinese basket.” (“Op de kunstcaemer: […] Twee Oost-Indische bakkies, een dito nap met een Sineessien; Een beelt van een keyserin; Een Oost-Indische poeyerdoos […] Een

316

Appendices

Indies koppie […] Een Oost-Indische naeydoos […] Twee porceleyne caguwarisen […] Twee porceleyne beeltiens […] Een Japanse hellemet […] Een Chineese ben vol gegoten konterfeitsels […] Een Chinees bennettie.”) The inventory of Rembrandt’s insolvent estate (Cessio Bonorum) (25–26 July 1656), Amsterdam City Archive, nr. 5072, inv. nr. 364, fol. 29–38v. URL: http://remdoc.huygens.knaw.nl/#/document/remdoc/e12718; http://remdoc.huygens .knaw.nl/#/document/remdoc/e12724. Accessed July 21, 2019.

Amsterdam

Paul Cordes, 1662 “A Chinese idol in the form of a black demon; a Chinese ink stone in an oblong rectangular shape; an image in angular black Spanish wax with an inscription in some Chinese characters; Chinese silver money with Chinese letters; an agate shaped by the Chinese with singular skill, as a ring in the form of the head of an Aethiopian; a Chinese fan sown with threads made of tree moss to make fresh air; various stones among which a black one as large as a flat mosaic stone, the color of slate, that when put in cold water causes forceful sparkling […]; a silver effigy of that man Fayet [Guo Huaiyi, a leader of the Chinese on Formosa], who betrayed the Chinese King, made from pure gold after the Chinese and Japanese manner.” (“Idolum Chinense forma nigri Daemonis cum Rege quodam pingui fabulans penicillo pulchre expressum, atramentum Chinense forma oblonga quadrangulari, instar cerae hispan: nigrae angulosae cum inscriptione aliqvuot characterum Chiniticorum, pecuniae Chinenses argenteae cum literis Chinensib. achates a Chinensibus efformatus in annulo in formam capitis Aethiopis singulari arte, flabellum Chinense ex musco arboreo hinc inde trajecto filis consutum ad faciendum ventulum, lapides varii, inque iis quidam niger magnitudine tesserae planae, colore lapidis lydii, qui impositus aquae frigidae effervescit potenter […] Imago argentea illius Fayet, qui Chinensem Regem prodidit, aurum Chinense, et Japonense a natura purum elaboratum.”) Described by Ole Borch, March 30, 1662; Borch, Itinerario, ii, 88.

Amsterdam

Unnamed East Indies Shop Visited by Ole Borch, June 22, 1662 “Various precious East India wares, precious silk underware […]; a pagan deity made from porcelain in the shape of a laughing man, estimated at 100 florins; oblong golden Chinese money, marked with a few letters.” (“Varias merces Indica pretiosas, perizomata sericea […] Deum Ethnicum ex porcellano opere factum forma ridentis, aestimatum 100 florinis, pecunias aureas Chinenses oblongas, literis paucis signatas.”) Borch, Itinerario, ii, 149–150.

Appendices

317

Amsterdam

Roetert Ernst, August 1663, March 1685 “Several books from Japan, and from China, a variety of miniature images from that country.” (“Plusieurs livres du Japon, & de la Chine, quantité d’Images en miniature de ce pays-la.”) B. de Monconys, Journal des voyages de Monsieur de Monconys (Lyon: Boissat, 1666), ii, 170. “The heirs of the late Sir Roeter Ernst […] will sell publicly on Tuesday 24 April, new style, and the following days […] many very curious Indies and Chinese drawings and prints; and a statue of a woman, being a cabinet filled with silver and crystal bottles, with all kinds of Chinese extracts.” (“d’Erfgenamen van wylen de Heer Roeter Ernst […] sullen op Dinsdag den 24 April, N. Stijl en volgende dagen, in ’t openbaar verkopen […] veele seer curieuse Indiaense en Chineesche Tekeningen en Printen; en een Vrouwen Beelt, zijnde een Cabinet, voorsien met Silvere en Cristalijne Flessen, met allerlye Chineesse Extracten.”) Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant, March 6, 1685. Reference provided by Dijkstra & Van Noord.

Amsterdam

East Indies Shop of Adriaen Claesz. Bleecker, 1664 Fifty-four East Indies dolls (“Indische poppen”) and a book with Chinese paper. Amsterdam City Archives, notary J. Hendrickz. Leuven, notarial archives 2738, 623– 646, July 29, 1664 (copy), and notarial archives 2731, 655–667, July 29, 1664 (original); Van Campen, Asia in Amsterdam, 141.

Amsterdam

Jan Witsen, October 1671 “Indian and Chinese paintings, of an inestimable effort. One discovers here the most secret particularities of the histories, the manners of living, and the religion of the country.” (“Des tableaux Indiens & Chinois, d’un travail inestimable. On descouvre dans celuy-ci les plus secrettes particularitez des histoires, de la façon de viure, & de la religion du pays.”) C. Patin, Relations historiques et curieuses de voyages (Rouen: 1674), 162; P. Lunsingh Scheurleer, “Het Witsenalbum; zeventiende-eeuwse Indiase portretten op bestel­ ling,” Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 44 (1996): 167–230, esp. 213–214.

318

Appendices

Amsterdam

Philips de la Fonteyne, 1673 “Many curious prints and drawings as well as Mughal, Japanese, and Chinese paintings.” (“Veel raere Printen en Teeckeningen, als mede Mogolle, Japanse en Chineesse Schilderytjens.”) Advertisement in Amsterdamsche Courant, October 24, 1673.

Amsterdam

Cargo of the ship De Hollantze Thuyn, 1677 “Three Chinese lacquered screens.” (“3 stux Chineze verlackte schutzels.”) De Hollantze Thuyn arrived in Amsterdam in 1677; by 1678, two of the screens had still not been sold. J.A. van der Chijs (ed.), Dagh-Register gehouden int Casteel Batavia vant passerende daer ter plaetse als over geheel Nederlandts-India Anno 1676 (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1903), 331; cf. Van Noord, this volume, pp. 184.

Amsterdam

Christina Heere, widow of Daniel van Swieten, 1682 “Two Chinese paintings.” (“Twee Chinese schilderijtjes.”) Inventory February 17, 1682, City Archive, Amsterdam, naa 2639, film 2665.

Amsterdam

Juriaen Baeck & Adriana van Cruijningen, 1683. “Five small Chinese images in gilded frames.” (“Vijff Chinesche beelties in vergulde lijssiens.”) Inventaris van den boedel in gemeenschap beseten bij den capiteyn Juriaen Baeck en wij­ len Juffr. Adriana van Cruijningen, February 12, 1683; Gemeentearchief, Amsterdam, Nederland, naa 4520 (film 5310), ff. 477–513, esp. f. 489.

Amsterdam, Herengracht

Nicolaas Witsen, 1684, 1700, 1705, 1728 A Chinese atlas; two round bronze mirrors; the writings of Confucius; and more than 250 Chinese objects listed at the posthumous auction of Witsen’s inventory. Luo Hongxian 嘉靖中, Guang Yutu 廣輿圖 [Enlarged Terrestrial Atlas]. First edition, published in China, 1555–1558. Museum Meermanno, The Hague, M.115.B.1. Given by Philippe Couplet to Nicolas Witsen in 1684. Described by Marcel Destombes: “A rare Chinese atlas,” Quaerendo 4, no. 4 (1974): 336–337.

Appendices

319

Two round Chinese bronze mirrors, to be dated in the Han dynasty on the basis of their inscriptions. Found in Siberia with a number of “Tartar” jewels. See W. van Noord & T. Weststeijn, “The Global Trajectory of Nicolaas Witsen’s Chinese Mirror,” The Rijks­ museum Bulletin 4 (2015): 325–361. The writings of Confucius in 14 volumes “I have received with the latest East India ships the works of the Philosopher Confucius printed in Chinese, in 14 parts” (“Ik heb met de laeste Oostindische schepen de werken van de Philosoof Confucius in t Sinees gedrukt in 14 stukken ontfangen”) Nicolaas Witsen to Gijsbert Cuper, 3 November 1705, Special Collections, University of Amsterdam, uba Be 36. P. 3. A Venus and Cupid, being a Chinese wax sculpture. Een Venus en Cupido, zynde een Chinees Boetseersel in Wasch. P. 4. A necklace with 110 little fruits, on each of which is carved a curiously detailed Chinese image. Een Ketting met 110 Vrugtjes waarvan op ieder Curieuse uitgewerkte Chineese Beeldjes zyn gesneden. Two ivory Chinese spoons decorated with images. Twee Ivoore Chineese Lepels, met Figuuren gesneeden. P. 6. A Chinese game. Een Chinees Spel. P. 7. A Chinese game in a box. Een Chinees-spel in een Doos. A black soapstone Chinese figure. Een zwart Speksteene Chineesje. P. 8. A large Chinese porcelain tower, very artfully made. Een dito[= grote] Chineese Porcelyne Tooren, zeer konstig gemaakt. P. 10, no. 1. A large scroll painted in color, being a Chinese landscape furnished with many figures, a few ells in length Een groote Rol met Couleuren geschildert, zynde een Landschap in China, met veel Beeldjes gestoffeert, eenige ellen lang. 3. Ditto, being a large landscape, with many figures. Een dito, zynde een groot Landscap, met veel Beeldjes. 4. Ditto. Een dito. 5. Ditto, much more fine and precise in draftsmanship. Een dito, veel fynder en netter van Tekening. 11. A Chinese almanak. Een Chineese Almanack. 18. Nine large Chinese landscapes furnished with beautiful colors and small figures. Negen stuks groote Chineese Landschappen, met schoone Kouleuren en kleine beeldjes gestoffeert. 26. A small Chinese printed book. Een Chinees dito [= gedrukt boekje]. A. A folder with Mughal and Chinese drawings. Een omslag met Mogolse en Chineesche Tekeningen.

320

Appendices

C. Nine large Chinese landscapes. Negen stuks Capitaale Chineesche geselschappen. D. Thirty images of Chinese women, including a few Mughal ones. Dertig Chineesche vroutjes, waar onder eenige Mogolse. E. Thirty Chinese images of birds, herbs and flowers. Dertig dito met Vogeltjes, Kruyden en bloemen. F. Thirty-six Chinese landscapes with figures. Ses en dertig Chineesche landschappen met beeldjes. G. Fourteen Chinese paintings with herbs, birds, and flowers. Veertien dito met Kruyden, Vogeltjes en bloemen. H. Sixteen Chinese paintings with flowers and herbs. Sestien dito met Bloemen en Kruyden. I. Twelve Chinese landscapes with figures etc. Twaalf dito Landschappen met Beeldjes etc. K. About fifty Chinese landscapes with figures. Omtrent vijftig dito Landschappen met Beeldjes. L. About forty Chinese images with birds, herbs and flowers. In de veertig dito, met Vo­ geltjes, Kruyden en Bloemen. M. Twelve excellent Chinese landscapes furnished with many figures. Twaalf Uytmun­ dende Chineesche Landschappen met veel Beeldjes gestoffeert. N. Twelve Chinese paintings with large figures. Twaalf dito met groote Beelden. P. About fifty Chinese landscapes painted on silk. Omtrent vyftig Chineesche Land­ schappen, op zyde geschildert. S. A few Chinese landscapes. Eenige Chineesche Landschapjes. T. A few Chinese birds and other animals. Eenige dito Vogels en andere Gediertens. U. A few Chinese penitents [e.g., mendicants?] with colors. Eenige Chineesche Peneten­ taren met Couleuren. Y. A few Chinese drawings and prints. Eenige Chineesche Tekeningen en Prenten. 1. Varous large Chinese drawings furnished with figures. Diverse groote Chineesche Te­ keningen met beelden gestoffeert. 2. Nine Chinese drawings fit for a chamber screen. Negen Chineesche Teekeningen, be­ quaam voor een Kamerschut. 3. Three similar large drawings. Drie dito groote Teekeningen. 4. Two similar scroll drawings. Twee Opgerolde dito Teekeningen. 6. A few Chinese printed maps, including the entire map of Siberia printed on cotton, and a printed Chinese volume with maps. Eenige Chineesche gedrukte Caarten, waar onder een, de heele Caart van Siberien, gedrukt op Catoen,als mede een gedrukt Chinees Caarteboek. P. 13, no. 6. A Chinese botanical work with herbs, flowers, plants, and seeds, painted in China. Een Chineesche Herbarius met kruyden, Bloemen, Planten en Saden, in China geschildert. Seeven Folianten.

Appendices

321

P. 13, no. 7. Four books with mathematical, astronomical, mechanical, and other instruments, some of which have been translated into Latin. Vier Boeken van ­Mathematice, Astronomice, Mechanice en andere Instrumenten, Chineesche druk, waar van eenige in ‘t Latyn zyn vertaalt. P. 14, no. 12. A Chinese glass painting, skillfully made. Een Chineese Glaaze Schildery, konstig gemaakt. P. 16. A drawn map, being a part of the Chinese coast. Een getekende Kaart zynde een gedeelte der Chineese Kust. A drawn map of the coast of China, Japan and Korea. Een dito van de naastgelegene Kusten van China, Japan en Coria. P. 19 A Chinese abacus. Een Chineese rekentafel. A Chinese clock. Een Chineese Klok. A torn[?] Chinese clock. Een dito gescheurt. p. 20, no. 1. A silver Chinese junk, most artfully made, with clockwork that makes it sail to and fro on a flat surface with severeal soapstone figures doing the ropework like raising and taking in the sails, in its wooden box. Een Zilvere Chineese Jonk, overkon­ stig gemaakt, met een Uurwerk, waard door het over een vlakke Vloer heen en weder zeild, doende verscheide Speksteene Beeldjes haar Scheepswerk, zo met vallen als ophaalender zeilen, in deszelfs Houte kas. no. 11. A Chinese junk artfully made of porcelain. Een Chineese Jonk, konstig van Porcelein gemaakt. no. 12. Two small Chinese junks with mirroring figures inside. Twee kleine dito, met Speculatie Beeldtjes van binnen. no. 13. A large artfully made Chinese lantern, that they use for their celebrations, in heptagonal shape. Een groote konstige Chineese Lantaarn, die zy op haar Vreugdefeesten gebruiken, zynde zeskantig. no. 14. Two smaller Chinese lanterns, also heptagonal. Twee kleinder dito, mede zeskantig. no. 15. Two Chinese lanterns, cuboid. Twee dito, vierkantig. P.21, no. 1. A Chinese shirt woven without hems. Een Chinees Hembt zonder naad geweeven. no. 15. A pair of Chinese women’s shoes. Een paar Chineese Vrouwe Muylen Catalogus van een heerlyk kabinet met Oost-Indische en andere konstwerken en raritey­ ten, als […] Chineese, Tartarise en andere afgoden, Chineese, Japanse en Mogolse min­ iaturen (Amsterdam: Erven Jacob Lescailje & Dirk Rank, 1728).

Amsterdam

Herman van Pamburg, 1685 “Middleman Herman van Pamburg will sell on Tuesday, April 17th, a lot with excellent Chinese tea, sundry cotton textiles, painted Chinese bed covers, Chinese flowers in gold and silk, three curious large Chinese jars.”

322

Appendices

(“Herman van Pamburg, makelaar, zal dinsdag den 17 April ’t Amsterdam verkopen een partij puike Chineese thee, diverse catoene lywaren, geschilderde Chineese spreien, gouden en zijde Chineese bloemen, 3 curieuze grote Chinese potten.”) Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant, April 14, 1685; reference from T. Dijkstra, “The Chinese Imprint: Printing and Publishing Chinese Religion and Philosophy in the Dutch Republic, 1595–1700”, PhD dissertation University of Amsterdam, 2019, p. 289.

Amsterdam, Singel

Joan Breyne/Brayne, 1693 “A Chinese incense monster [i.e., dragon] made of stone, very curious.” (“Een Chinees wierookmonster van steen, heel raer.”) Catalogus van een groote partij extraordinaire curieuse Rariteyten […] Joan Breyne, 1693, 7, 10, 11, 13; E. Bergvelt & R. Kistemaker, De wereld binnen handbereik: Nederlandse kunst- en rariteitenverzamelingen, 1585–1735 (Zwolle: Waanders, 1992), 315. “The heirs and legal guardians of the under-age children of the late Joan Brayne, a famous apothecary during his life, will sell to the highest bidder on Tuesday 7, July, in Amsterdam on the Singel between the Lijnbaens Brug and Jan Roonspoort Toorn, all his extraordinary curious rarities, consisting in […] Chinese boxes, fruits, sundry books with Chinese and other curious drawings in watercolor, cabinets and many more other things.” (“De Erfgenamen en Voogden over de onmondige Kinderen van wijlen Joan Brayne, in sijn Leven vermaert Drogist, sullen op Dingsdag, den 7 July, tot Amsterdam op de Cingel tusschen de Lijnbaens-Brug en Jan-Roonspoort-Toorn aen de meestbiedende verkopen alle sijne extraordinaire curieuse Rariteyten; bestaende in […] Chineesse Doosen, Vruchten, verscheyde Boecken met Chineesse en andere curieuse Tekeningen van Water-verwe, Cabinetten en veel meer andere dingen.”) Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant, June 2, 1693. Reference thanks to Dijkstra & Van Noord.

Amsterdam, de Doelen

Barent Groenendijck, 1697 “On Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd of March, 1697, one will sell to the highest bidder in Amsterdam in the Doelen of Barent Groenendijck […] a lot of ancient kraak porcelain, […] with many curious rarities, […] Chinese and Mongol drawings, etc.: which can all be seen by the lovers of art on the day before the sale.” (“Op Donderdag en Vrydag, den 21 en 22 Maert, 1697, sal men tot Amsterdam in de Doelen van Barent Groenendijck aen de Meestbiedenden verkopen […] een ­Party out Kraeck-Porceleyn, […] mede veel curieuse Rariteyten, […] Chineese en

Appendices

323

­Mongolse-Tekeningen, &c. : Die alle Daegs voor de Verkopinge aldaer by de Liefhebbers konnen gesien werden.”) Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant, December 3, 1697. Reference thanks to Dijkstra & Van Noord.

Amsterdam

Jan Wijnkoop, 1701 “Two Chinese figures in black frames.” (“Twee Chinesen, in swarte lijsten.”) Inventory March 11, 1701, City Archive, Amsterdam (naa 6216, fols 461–508).

Amsterdam

Pieter and David Raket, 1711 “White Chinese satins […] two large East Indian paintings [made] of sandalwood, depicting a garden with sculptures, all inlaid with soapstone; ditto screens.” (“Pieter en David Raket, Makelaers, sullen Donderdag, den 10 September, t’Amsterdam in ’t Oude Heeren-Logement verkopen […] witte Chineesse Satijnen […] 2 groote Oostindische Schilderyen van Sandelhout, verbeeldende een Hof met Beeltwerck, alles met Speksteen ingeleyt; dito Schutjes.”) Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant, September 5, 1711. Reference thanks to Dijkstra & Van Noord.

Amsterdam

Johan van Hoorn, 1711 Van Hoorn spent thirty years in Batavia, where he was closely connected to the Chinese community. When he returned to the Netherlands, accompanied by a Chinese man, he filled his Amsterdam mansion with a large amount of East Asian arts and crafts. Johan van Hoorn inventory, notary Michiel Servaas, Amsterdam City Archives, notarial archives, inv. no. 5006, no. 15, October 20, 1711; Van Campen, Asia in Amsterdam, 46.

Amsterdam, Prinsengracht

Dr. Krytenberg, 1702 “Between Tuesday and Wednesday on February 15, 1702, in Amsterdam have been stolen […] five painted Chinese satins […] to be returned to Doctor Krytenberg on the Prinsengracht, at the Brewery De Oliphant” (“Daar zyn tusschen Dingsdag en Woensdag den 15 February 1702 tot Amsterdam ge­ stolen […] 5 geverfde Chineese Satynen […] te regt te brengen aen den Doctor Krytenberg, woont op de Prince-graft, by de Brouwery van de Oliphant.”)

324

Appendices

Amsterdamse Courant, February 16, 1702. Reference thanks to Trude Dijkstra.

Amsterdam

Bartel Verhage, 1703 “Middlemen Cornelis Roos de Jonge and Pieter Raket will sell on Wednesday October 3, 1703, in the house of Anthony Swanenburg […] the legacy of Bartel Verhage, porcelains, lacquer and many curiosities, consisting of twenty-four bottles with Oriental figures of all kinds, six large jars and smaller ones, bottles, one thousand cups, a large party of red, blue, and brown wares for coffee, chocolate, and tea; one hundred trekpotten, a set of large and small statues, a cabinet with beautiful shells, horns, etc.; Chinese bows, arrows, sabers, and guns with silver inlay; unicorn horns, elephant teeth, and rhinoceros horns, together with many other splendid sights; as they can be seen by everyone two days before the sale.”) (“Cornelis de Roos de Jonge, en Pieter Raket makelaers sullen op woensdag den 3 October 1703, ten huyse van Anthony Swanenburg […] verkoopen de nagelate porceleynen, lakwerk en veele rariteyten van Bartel Verhage, bestaende in 24 flessen ­Orientaelse figuuren van alderhande soort, 6 groote potten, kleynder dito, flessen, 1000 spoelkommen, een groote party root, blaeuw, en bruyn koffie, chokolaet, en teegoed, 100 de trekpotten, een party groote en kleyne beelden, een kabinet met mooiie schelpen, horens, &c. Chineese Bogen, pylen, sabels, en roers met zilver beslag; eenhoorens, olifants-tanden, en rinoceros horens, benevens veel fraije gezichten meer; gelyk deselve 2 dagen voor de verkopinge van een ieder konnen gesien worden.”) Amsterdamse Courant, September 15, 1703. Reference thanks to Trude Dijkstra.

Amsterdam

Manuel Levy Duarte (1631–1714) Private sales in Chinese lacquer. E. Samuel, “Manuel Levy Duarte (1631–1714): An Amsterdam Merchant Jeweller and his Trade with London,” Transactions & Miscellanies ( Jewish Historical Society of Eng­ land) 27 (1978–1980): 11–31, esp. 18–20.

Amsterdam

Simon Schijnvoet, 1728 “An album with Mughal, Chinese, and Japanese drawings, being compositions, figures, landscapes, portraits, and other, besides some Chinese prints.” (“Een Boek met Mogolsche, Sineesche en Japansche Tekeningen, zijnde Ordinantien, Beelden, Landschappen, Portraiten, en andere, beneffens eenige Chineesche Printen.”) Catalogus van een uytmuntende partij tekeningen en prenten nagelaten door Simon S­ chijnvoet, auction at Amsterdam, February 18, 1728, “Kunstboek 27”; P. Lunsingh

Appendices

325

Scheurleer, “Het Witsenalbum; zeventiende-eeuwse Indiase portretten op bestel­ ling,” Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 44 (1996): 167–230: 216.

Amsterdam

Constantijn Jan Pierraard, Heer van Heenvliet, 1737 “Thirteen Chinese gilded prints and three East Indies cityscapes and maps; an East Indies lacquered sedan chair, with inside a Chinese statue with two Chinese carriers […] two East Indies maps […] eight Chinese paintings.” (“Dertien dito [=Chineese] vergulde printen en drie Oostindische stads- en landkaarten stads- en landkaarten; Een Oostindische verlakte draagstoel, waerin een Chinees beeld met twee Chineese dragers […] Twee Oostindische kaarten […] 8 Chineesche schilderijen.”) Inventory of Constantijn Jan Pierraard, February 8, 1737–19; March 1738, Amsterdam City Archive, naa 9137, akte 254, 1, Item 2a, Item 10.

Amsterdam

Isaac Vossius’s (1619–1689) Library, Auctioned in 1740 “Chinese books: A Chinese table on silk paper; A chart containing a schematic outline of parts of the human body and the muscles, where they apply cauterizing for a short time or pierce the affected part with a hot golden needle; a four-volume Chinese book printed on Chinese paper.” (“Libri Sinici: 1. Scheda M.S. Sinica in charta serica; 2. Scheda continens rudem delineationem partium corporis humani, seu musculorum quos inter aut cauterium ad breve tempus adhibent aut cum acu aurea candefacta partem afectam perforant; 3. Tomi 4 Libri Sinici impressi in Charta serica.”) Bibliotheca Vossiana sive Catalogus Librorum quos magno studio, dum viveret, collegit Vir Illustris Isaacus Vossius, 1740. Leiden University Library, M1s. Codex no. 127 AF. According to Duyvendak, “Early Chinese Studies,” 343–344, no. 3. is a record of the events of the Ming dynasty, partly written by Chung Hsing (d. 1625). Mingji bian nian 明紀編年 (The Ming Chronicles), 12 vols., 1660. Leiden University Library, Sinology, Schlegel 50. The book belonged to Isaac Vossius and was purchased by Leiden University along with the rest of his collection in 1690. The book also contains a Chinese letter by the Christian Lu Xiyan 陸希言, who was in Macao in 1680.

Antwerp, Lange Nieuwstraat

The Antwerp city secretary Jacob Edelheer (1597–1657) established a kunstkammer with a great variety of unidentified Chinese objects. “Jacob Edelheer has invited me of his own volition and hospitably in the Chinese collection of his extraordinary house that was outfitted with a plenitude and variety of things.”

326

Appendices

(“[Edelherius] ad egregiae domus suae Sinense Musaeum, multiplici rerum varietate instructum, ultro & liberaliter invitavit”). J. Golius, “Additamentum de Regno Catayo,” in M. Martini, Novus atlas Sinensis, vol. 2 (Amsterdam: Blaeu, 1655); T.S. Bayer, Museum Sinicum, in quo Sinicae Linguae et Lit­ eraturae Ratio explicatur (Petropoli: Academiae Imperatoriae, 1730), vol. 1 19–20; M. Sabbe, “De Antwerpsche vriendenkring van Anna Roemers Visscher,” Verslagen en Mededeelingen der Koninklijke Vlaamsche Academie voor Taal en Letterkunde n. 4 (October 1925): 762; Duyvendak, J., “Early Chinese Studies,” 302; B[.], “Jacob Edelheer als verzamelaar van Chineesche antiquiteiten,” De gulden passer 15 (1937): 128; Golvers, N., “De recruteringstocht,” 348.

Antwerp

Jesuit Residence, 1616–1617, 1671, 1683 Chinese books given by Nicolas Trigault to the Jesuits, 1616–1617. N. Standaert, Chinese Voices in the Rites Controversy: Travelling Books, Community Net­ works, Intercultural Arguments (Rome: Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 2012), 91. Bilingual Latin-Chinese books sent from Guangzhou to the Jesuit residence, 1671. François de Rougemont sent copies of Chinese books printed in the residence of the Jesuits in Guangzhou to the Father Provincial or to Father Godfried Henskens in the Antwerp residence, September 7 and 11, 1671. “The argument […] discusses the restoration of the Christian faith in China; I want to let you know that this book has been engraved in wooden plates and printed in our house, which the Chinese have done with such a great ease and agility.” (“Den inhoudt […] begrijpt de herstellinghe van het Christen ghelove in China; soo laet UE weten dat desen boeck in ons huys, ende voor onse ooghen, in houte tafels ghesneden ende ghedruckt is, welcke de sinoischen ghedaen hebben met een soo groote lichticheijdt ende behendigheijdt.”) According to Golvers, “Antwerp Connections,” this was a bilingual edition with Chinese texts and Latin commentaries, printed in the Chinese xylographic technique, of Innocentia Victrix, sive Sententia Comitiorum Imperij Sinici pro Innocentia Christi­ anae Religionis (Quangzhou: 1671). “We do not know if these copies ever arrived at their destination in the Moretus house and the Jesuit residence; they are lost, and even were not inscribed in the catalogue of the Moretus private library.” Chinese curiosities sent to the Jesuit college from Macao by Antoine Thomas, 1683. “Three or four crayfish or crabs from the island of Hainan in China, which when they pull themselves out of the water transform in stones; […] three Chinese ink stones;

Appendices

327

a little vase of excellent unicorn horn, as an antidote; […] a bit of porcupine boiled in wine, against diarrhea.” (“Trois ou quatre escrevisses ou cancer de l’isle de Hainaum en la Chine, lesquels se tirant de l’eau se convertissent en pierres; […] trois pains d’encre de la Chine; […] une petite vase de corne excellent de licorne; cette (sic) un contrepoison […]; un peu de porc d’espine, broie dans du vin, contre le mal de colique de ventre.”) A. Thomas, “Liste de ce que j’envoie a Monsr Balthasar Moret, de Macao, 15 Févr. 1683,” formerly kept in Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-College of Antwerp, now in Heverlee-Leuven; Golvers, “Antwerp Connections.”

Antwerp, Vrijdagmarkt

Bilingual Chinese/Manchu eulogies for Johann Adam Schall von Bell, 1653, possibly sent to Balthasar Moretus. Titulus honorificus & laudes, quas Imperator Sinarum Xun Chi dictus anno Imperii sui decimo dedit P. Joanno Adamo Schall S.J. ob navatam in restauranda Astronomia op­ eram, 1653. According to Golvers, “Antwerp Connections,” “About the origin of the copy [presently] in the Plantin Moretus collection nothing is known with certainty, but by way of analogy […] it could have been a present [from the Jesuits in China] to the editor in Antwerp as a token of gratitude and respect.”

Arnhem

Gijsbert Cuper, 1715 “I have been at an auction of books in Arnhem; there I have bought a Chinese or Japanese map, that I take the freedom to give to you, to whom it might be of great understanding.” (“Ik ben op een auctie van boeken geweest tot Arnhem; heb daer gekoft eene Chineesse of Japanse Land-caert, dewelke de vryheit neme van aen U WelEd te schenken, of die veel light aen deselve soude kunnen dienen.”) Letter from Cuper to Witsen, October 1, 1715, University of Amsterdam, Special Collections, BE 92, fol 540.

Brussels

Cabinet of Mr. S. Victor, 1663 “A variety of entire figures, cabinets, chests and boxes from China; a patent letter of the king of China on silk paper painted with golden flowers like brocade; a book on astrology from the same country, of which the pages are very delicate […] a small Chinese screen, the doors of which close and open to the same side […]; various Chinese firearms.”

328

Appendices

(“Une quantité de figures entières, des Cabinets, des coffres & des boettes de la Chine; vne patente du Roy de la Chine en papier de soye peint de fleurs d’or comme vn brocart ; vn livre d’Aftrologie du mesme pais, dont les feuillets font très délicats : […] vn petit Pareuant de la Chine, dont les portes se ferment & s’ouvrent du mesme costé; […] plusieurs armes à feu de la Chine.”) From the description of the visit in July 1663 by B. de Monconys, Journal des voyages de Monsieur de Monconys (Lyon: Boissat, 1666), ii, 100.

Delft

Nicolaes Verburch, 1677 Three Chinese paintings. Delft City Archive, Oud Notarieel Archief 2159, fol.253vo., 8 maart 1677 (not. T. van Hasselt). M. van Aken-Fehmers a.o. (eds.), Delfts Aardewerk: Geschiedenis van een Natio­ naal Product (deel 1), M (Zwolle: Waanders, 1999), 31. Reference thanks to Willemijn van Noord.

Deventer

Gijsbert Cuper, 1716 “Chinese statues.” (“Idola Sinensia.”) Sold in 1716 for 1 guilder and 18 stivers, according to the auction catalogue of Cuper’s possessions in Royal Library The Hague, 72H29 and 72C32. These may have been similar to the Chinese statues that were excavated in 2013 near Cuper’s house; cf. Emile Mittendorff and Annelies Berends, “‘Effigies idolorum sinensium’: bijzondere vondsten uit de beerput van Gisbert Cuper in Deventer,” Vor­ men uit Vuur 230, no. 1 (2016): 10–19.

Dordrecht

Pieter de Lairesse and Margareta van der Gijssens, 1669 “A small Chinese statue.” (“Een sinees beeltie.”) Inventaris van alle de goederen soo roerende als onroerende achtergelaten bij Pieter de Lairesse […] May 7, 1669, Gemeentelijke Archiefdienst, Dordrecht.

Dordrecht

Cornelis van Herff, 1690 “Twenty Chinese paintings in gilded frames.” (“Twintigh shineese schilderijties in [ver]gulde lijsies.”) Inventory March 17, 1690, Gemeentelijke Archiefdienst, Dordrecht (ona 482), f.332v.

Appendices

329

Enkhuizen

Bernardus Paludanus, 1595, 1617 On June 23, 1595, Christoph Spindlerus adds a Chinese woodcut text to Paludanus’s Album amicorum (1595), Royal Library The Hague, signature 133 M 63, fol. 410v–h. Because of the bad quality of the woodblock print, it is not possible to identify the Chinese text. “Eight East Indies books printed in China, one with herbs, fishes, animals, stones etc.” (“Octo libri Indici Chinensium Typis editi unus herbarum piscium animalium, lapidum etc. Acht oost Indijsche buecher in China gedruckt, daronder dasz ainsis von Kreuttern Vischen Vogelen undt thieren als auch von steynen undt historien.”) Cathalogus sive description rerum naturalism et artificialium […] collectarum a Bernar­ do Paludano, Leiden University Library, bpl 2596–9, 30.

Haarlem

Unknown bookseller, visited by Balthasar de Monconys in August 1663 “Some books on geometry and trigonometry in Chinese.” (“Quelques livres de Géometrie, & Trigonometrie en Chinois.”) B. de Monconys, Journal des voyages de Monsieur de Monconys (Lyon : Boissat, 1666), vol. 2, 159.

Haarlem, Nieuwe Gracht

Maria Justina Kraij, 1722 “Chinese Troops Marching.” (“Een Chineese mars.”) Inventaris […] soo als alle deselve opden 24 maart 1720 metter doot ontruymt ende nagel­ aten bij Vrouwe Maria Justina Kraij weduwe en boedelhoudster van wijlen den Heer Mr. Samuel vander Lanen, August 30, 1722, Archiefdienst voor Kennemerland, Haarlem, Nederland (nah 622, no.105, n.p.), 17, Item 190.

Harderwijk

Ernst Brinck, 1612–1635, 1651 A truncated section from a Chinese rhyme dictionary, Hanlin chongkao ziyi yunlü da­ ban ha pian xinjing 翰林重攷字義韻律大板海篇心鏡, c. 1596, survives in Brinck’s Album amicorum 2 (1612–1635), Royal Library The Hague, signature 135 K 4, fol. 121c. “Chinese books and pages made of bark.” (“Libros Chinenses, et e cortice folia.”)

330

Appendices

Bartholdus Nihusius (Amsterdam) describes Brinck’s collection to Athansius Kircher (Rome), September 22, 1651, Archive Pontifica Universita Gregoriana, Rome, Ms 557 (Ep. Kirch. iii) fol. 222–223.

Honselersdijk

Palace Huis Honselaarsdijk, 1710 “Held in high regard is a cabinet of rarities from Japan and China which had been presented by the East India Company to the late Queen of England at the time that she was only a Princess of Orange.” (“On estime fort un cabinet de raretez du Japon & de la Chine, dont la Compagnie des Indes Orientales avoit fait présent à la feu Reine d’Angleterre du tem[p]s qu’elle n’étoit que Princesse d’Orange.”) Jean Nicolas Parival, Les délices de la Hollande (The Hague: Van Dole, 1710), 161. See also Van Noord in the present book, p. 186.

Leiden

Carolus Clusius, Josephus Justus Scaliger, and Pieter Paaw acquire and examine six Chinese books of botany in 1605 “In 1603 the Dutch, just after arriving on Sumatra (which many consider to be the Trapobana of the ancients), filled a large ship with many goods of great value brought from China, which they carried the next year to Amsterdam. Among these goods are also a few books written in Chinese characters, that contained images of plants and inscriptions with their names, and other words written in the margin, which probably state the potency of the plants; all these things are expressed in Chinese characters. The company of merchants who made the purchases during this trip gifted some of these books: I received two from them as a gift, a further four I have seen among friends in Leiden, namely three with the noble Joseph Scaliger and one with the illustrious Pieter Paaw; they all contained so many diverse species of plants that in six of these books I could not see one and the same plant depicted twice. From these figures, even though they were expressed sketchily by the “crass Minerva” (i.e. in a coarse manner), I could see many plants that grow among the Chinese, among which are some very similar to those found here, but many others that are strange and unknown to us; whose names and effects, I presume, were written in the margin. There is no doubt that, if someone among us could read and understand these, it would be most useful to the art of medicine: because it is probable that these writings contain many powers that as yet we do not know of. Now, however, I think these books can be of no use to us, except being placed in a collection of curiosities. One of the books I have contains fifty-nine pages, they are double since, because of the thinness of the paper, only one of the sides is covered with

Appendices

331

characters; it has ninety-one images. The other book has sixty-one double pages and seventy images. But I do not know how many pages there are in the other books I saw or whether they have images; although I observed that the individual pages are also double [i.e., printed only on one side].” (“Batavi anno Christi millesimo sexcentesimo tertio, paullo supra Sumatram (quam plerique Veterum Tarpobanam esse consent) maximam corbitam multis mercibus magni pretii e Sinarum Regno petitis onustam occupabant, insequente vero anno Amstelredamum invehebant. Inter eas merces reperti sunt etiam aliquot Libri Sinensibus characteribus expressi, qui plantarum figuras continebant, & iis inscripta nomina, ad latus vero alia vocabula, quibus plantarum facultates declarati verisimile est; & haec omnia Sinensibus characteribus expressa. Mercatorum qui in eam profectionem sumptus fecerant societas quosdam ex his libris donabant: ego binos ab illis pro munere habui, quator praeterea Lugduni Batavorum apud amicos conspiciebam, Nobilissimum virum Iosephum Scaligerum videlicet, tres; & Clarissimum virum Petrum Paauwium, unum, & omnes diversi generis plantas continentes; ut in sex illis Libris, unam eandamque plantam bis expressam observare non potuerim. Ex his figuris, tametsi rudibus & crassa minerva expressis, animadvertere poteram multas plantas apud Sinenses nasci, iis quae apud nos reperiuntur valde similes, sed plurimas nobis peregrinas & ignotas; quarum nomina inscripta, & facultates, ut reor ad latus adpositas, si nostrum quispiam legere & intelligere posset, magnam utilitatem ad Medicam artem allaturum esse, non est dubium: nam verisimile est plerasque alias facultates ista sriptura contineri, quas adhuc ignoramus. Nunc autem nulli usui nobis esse posse istos libros opinor, nisi ut in peregrinarum rerum thesauris reponantur. Unus porro eorum quos habeo, continent quinquaginta novem paginas, easque duplicatas, nam ob chartae tenuitatem, ab uno dumtaxat latere expressi sunt characters; icones autem unam & nonaginta. Alter vero sexaginta paginas duplices et unam: icones septuaginta. Quot autem paginas habuerint reliqui quos conspiciebam libri singuli, quitve icones continuerint, mihi non compertum ; singulas tamen paginas etiam duplicatas fuisse observabam.”) Carolus Clusius, Exoticorum libri decem (Leiden: Raphelengius, 1605), 376.

Leiden

Josephus Justus Scaliger, 1609 “Four books printed in China.” (“Libri in China excusi quatuor.”) Catalogus librorum bibliothecae Illustrissimi viri losephi Scaligeri, Leiden, 1609; H.J. de Jonge (ed.), The Auction Catalogue of the Library of J.J. Scaliger (Utrecht: hes, 1977), 51.

332

Appendices

Leiden/Hazerswoude

Egbertus Aemilius and Jacobus Kuchlinus, 1610 “Various Chinese books.” (“Verscheyden Chineesche Boekcken.”) Catalogus librorum […] Egberti Aemylii & D. Iacobi Kvchlini, Leiden 1610; Van Selm, Ne­ derlandse boekhandelscatalogi, 152, no. 1.

Leiden

Bonaventura Vulcanius (1538–1614) “Thee books with Chinese characters.” (“Tres libri characteribus Chinensibus.”) P.C. Molhuysen (ed.), Bibliotheca Universitatis Leidensis. Codices manuscripti. iii. Codi­ ces Vulcaniani (Leiden: 1910), vii, no. 15.

Leiden

Christiaen Porret, Apothecary at the Sign of the Three Kings, 1628 Paintings from the Indies and China, a Chinese flowerpot in the shape of a lion, “two books printed in China,” “an Indian or Chinese printed book.” (“Twee Boecken in China gedruct,” “Een Indiaensch off Chineesch gedruct boeck.”) Catalogus oft register vande sonderlingh-heden oft rariteyten ende uutgelesen sinnelick­ heden […] die Christiaen Porrett, wijlen apoteker, in zijn cunstcamer vergadert had, Leiden 1628; rkd The Hague, Lugt nr. 2; Van Selm, Nederlandse Boekhandelscatalo­ gi, 53, 328; A. Goldgar, Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Gold­ en Age (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2008), 72–73.

Leiden

Otto Heurnius, 1629 Two illustrated Chinese books and various manuscripts sent by Justus Heurnius, minister in Batavia, to his brother Otto in Leiden. Xuehai qunyu 學海群玉 (1607), a popular encyclopedia of general knowledge about astronomy, marriage ceremonies, laws, and the arts; Dili tianji huiyuan (1615) a rare, state-sponsored book about sitology (fengshui): illustrated indications of the right locations for houses and graves. See K. Kuiper, Catalogue of Chinese and Sino-­ Western Manuscripts in the Central Library of Leiden University (Leiden: Legatum Warnerium in Leiden University Library, 2005), 68–69, 71–74. Manuscript Chinese-Latin and Latin-Chinese translations, with the Chinese characters and phonetic transcription, plus a Compendium Doctrinae Christianae (Batavia 1628), Leiden University, Special Collections, Acad. 225. The bundle contains “Confucii doctrina moralis,” with 5/6 of Chapter 1 of the Analects (fol. 11v–14v); “Colloquium Confucii cum puero” (i.e., the text and translation of

Appendices

333

Xiao’er lun 小兒論, a discussion with the seven-year old Xiang Tuo during which Confucius is outwitted), fol. 6r–11r; and a number of Christian works translated into Mandarin, such as the Ten Commandments, and a Dutch-Latin-Chinese dictionary. See K. Kuiper, “The Earliest Monument of Dutch Sinological Studies: Justus Heurnius’s Manuscript Dutch-Chinese Dictionary and Chinese-Latin Compendium Doctrinae Christianae (Batavia 1628),” Quaerendo 35 (2005): 95–186. Some of these manuscripts probably arrived in the hands of Jacob Golius and later with Adriaen Reland; Duyvendak, “Early Chinese Studies,” 326.

Leiden

Pieter de la Tombe, 1645 “[A book with a] description of the properties of animals made in China, in the Chinese language and Chinese letters”; “two Chinese books.” (“Beschrijvinghe vande eyghenschappen vande Dieren in China gemaeckt, inde Chineese tael en Chineese letteren, fol;” “Idem 2 Chineese boekcen, fol.”). Catalogus vande Boecken van Pieter de la Tombe, fol. A3v, no. 7, Leiden University Library, Codices manuscripti vii, no. 34.

Leiden

Jan Jacobsz Swammerdam, 1662, 1679 “Various paintings of Chinese soldiers, gods (of which also images of gold were seen), of women, some engraved with a burin, as was a certain image of an elephant, whose rider, sitting on top, pricks with a hook on that part of his forehead, which sticks out from the skull bones, in order to steer the animal according to his judgement; we saw Chinese books described with a wondrous variety of characters (of which they have sixty thousand), none of them printed on both sides […] various figures in slate stone, of trees, castles, shrubberies, cities, towers, ruins of cities and towers, pentagonal castles with their entrances […] a Chinese bow; very beautiful images of birds made of stones of different colors; silk flowers made artfully by the Chinese; Chinese silver vases without rust; various Chinese silk shoes made of red and blue silk.” (“Picturae Sinensium variae militium, Deorum (quorum etiam visa ex auro simulacra) faeminarium, quaedam etiam acu pictae, qualis erat quaedam imago elephantis cui insidens gubernator hamo illam frontis partem pungebat, quae ossium expers cerebrum ostendit, ut bestiam pro arbitrio regeret; visi libri Sinensium admiranda characterum (quos habent ad sexaginta millia) varietate descripti, nulli eorum opistographi […] variae in lapidibus Lydiis figurae arborum, castellorum, fruticum, urbium, turrium, ruinarum urbium et turrium, castelli pentagoni cum suo exitu […] arcus Sinensis, ex varii coloris lapidibus junctis pictae elegantissmae avium imagines […] flores sericei a Sinensibus ex arte confecti, Sinensium argentea vasa sine ferrumine, calcei varii Sinensium serici ex serico rubro et coeruleo.”) From the description by Ole Borch, March 21, 1662, Borch, Itinerarium, ii, 79–81.

334

Appendices

A small Chinese image stamped on silver, a gold Japanese idol, and a Chinese printed almanac, six feet in length. (“Sineesche gedrukte almanak lang ses voet.”) Catalogus van een seer wel gestoffeerde konstkamer/Catalogus musei instructissimi (s.l [Amsterdam] 1679), August 14, 1679, Special Collections, University of Amsterdam, 637G5(1), 56 and book no. 15.

Leiden

Johan Cunaeus, 1662 “A playful Chinese abacus almost like ours, but much more artful; […] an extraordinary Chinese shield made of black lacquer with a central knob around which six crowns of gemstones were set; […] various chests of Chinese gold and silver made from parallel grooved threads interwoven with larger beams in a very beautiful manner: inside are similar silver vases, in which thee [tea] is prepared; alabaster statues of Chinese men with very black, long and slender beards and also striking ears […] rough slate stones in which gold is enclosed, to rub off this gold, the stone is heated and pressed in black wax so that [the gold] is better visible; such wax is used by the Chinese mediators, de makelaars, and although they are wont to use that wax frequently, they are unable to extract the gold that is rubbed off for their financial gain.” (“Abacum lusorium Chinensium paene ut nostrum, sed longe magis artificiosum […] scutum egregium Chinense lacca nigra egregie tinctum per cujus medium umbonem dispositae erant sex gemmarum coronae)[…] “varia armaria ex auro et argento Chinensi efformata ex continuis et striatis filis cum intertextis hinc inde majorib. trabibus, opere pulcherrimo, item vasa intus argentea, in quibus thee coquitur, ex alabastro statuas Chinensium cum barbis nigerrimis longis et tenuibus, etiam paene ad aures conspicuis […] lapides lydios scabros auro clausos, quibus ubi affricatur aurum, ille frictus imprimitur cerae nigrae, ubi melius repraesentatur; tali cera utuntur mediatores Chinenses, de Machelaers, atque ubi ea cera saepe usi sunt, norunt Solem affrictum inde extrahere pro lucro suo.”) From the description by Ole Borch, July 7, 1662; Borch, Itinerarium, ii, 159–160.

Leiden

Jacob Golius, 1665, 1696 Fifty-one Chinese books, some illustrated; manuscripts; five maps and a Chinese writing brush. “A writing brush used by the Chinese […] I also have a brush of this kind and am not ignorant of how one has to hold it to write.” (“Penicilli scriptorii, quo Sinae utuntur […] Possideo et ejus generis penicillum, modi quo apprehendi ad scribendum debeat, non ignarus.”)

Appendices

335

Jacob Golius to Athanasius Kircher, July 11, 1665, Archive Pontifica Universita Gregoriana, Rome, Ms. 562 fol. 139. “Chinese books and manuscripts. A Chinese dictionary, namely the Chinese characters explained in the Dutch language and also in Latin and Mandarin, in alphabetical order, in folio. 2. A summery of the Christian doctrine regarding the creation and salvation of man. Letters and statements from various collections, such as a true description of rhubarb and the names of the Chinese kings etc. rendered in the Mandarin language of the Chinese with their characters, with the pronunciation of single words in Latin letters and the Latin translation, in folio. 3. Another example but without the Latin version, in folio. 4. A very rare thesaurus in which 10.000 Chinese characters are explained in Spanish, on Chinese paper. 5. A vocabulary list in which the Chinese characters are rendered in Latin letters and explained in Portuguese, on Chinese paper. 6. A Spanish-Chinese vocabulary list with notes by Jacob Golius, with a Spanish booklet about the pronunciation of Chinese characters, in octavo, on Chinese paper. 15. Four Chinese maps. 16. A very large Chinese geographical map.” (“Libri Chinenses, & M.S. 1. Dictionarium Chinense, hoc est, Lingua Belgica juxta Alphabeti ordinem, & Latine & Mandarinice quoque explicati Chinensium characteres, in folio. 2. Compendium doctrinae Christianae, de creatione & salvatione generis humani I): Epistolae & variorum contractuum formulae, item vera Rha. Barbari descriptio: item nomina Regum Chinensium &c. Lingua Mandarina Sinensium eorumque characteribus traditae, cum vocum singularum per Latinas litteras expressione, & versione Latina in folio. 3. Alterum exemplum, sine vers. Latina, in folio. 4. Thesaurus rarissimus, in quo explicantur 10000 Characteres Chinensium lingua Hispan. in fol. chart. Serica. 5. Vocabularium, in quo characteres Chinenses Latinis litteris expressi Lusitan. explicantur in fol. charta serica. 6. Vocabularium Hispanico-Sinense, cum annotat. J. Golii; item libellus Hispanicus de pronuntiatione Charact. Chinensium, in octavo, charta serica. […] 15. Chartae Chinenses quatuor M.S. 16. Charta Geographica Chinensis ampliss. M.S.”) 1.

“Printed Chinese books: Twenty-four Chinese books, bound in their manner, which have been brought from the East Indies to these regions very recently. 2. A medical book on how to cure certain ills. 1.

336 3.

Appendices

The book Thaihac, author Soething, and another book named Soesie by the author Khonstgoe [Confucius]. 5. On agriculture, in particular on Orysa [sic] and the silk industry, with images. 6. A book on morals. 7. A summary of the doctrine or the exercise of religion, published by the Jesuits in China, as it is set forth by their disciples. 8. A history of the Messiah with images. 9. A book on astronomy with images. 10. Philosophical works of Confucius, 18 volumes. 11. Four volumes of other works. 12. Commentary on the statements of Confucius. 13. The works of the ancient philosopher Koyanghsjun in 9 volumes. 14. A very old Chinese book. 15. A medical book. 16. Chinese philosophy with images. 17. A Chinese geographical book with images. 19. Eleven Chinese books whose authors and titles are unknown.” (“Libri Chinenses impressi 1. xxiv Libri Chinenses, eorundem more compacti, nuperrime ex India Orientali in hasce regiones devecti. 2. Liber Medicus de morborum particularium curatione. 3. Liber Thaihac, auth. Soething, item alius Soesie dictus, authore Khonstgoe. 4. Nomina animalium, plantarum, vestium, instrument. supellectilis &c. item Epistolae familiares, mandata &c. 5. De agricultura, spec. de Orysa & re sericaria, cum fig. 6. Liber moralis. 7. Compendium doctrinae, sive exercitium religiosum, a Jesuitis editum in China, quod ibidem discipulis suis proponunt. 8. Historia Messiae cum figuris. 9. Liber Astronomicus, cum fig. 10. Confuchii Opera Philosophica. xviii volum. 11. alia opusc. iv vol. 12. Scholia in sententias Coonfuchii. 13. Opera antiqui Phil. Koyanghsjun ix volum. 14. Liber chinensis antiquissimus. 15. Liber Medicus. 16. Philosophia Chinensium, cum fig. 17. Liber Geographicus chin. cum fig. […] 19. Libri Chinenses xi, quorum Authores & tituli ignorantur.”) Catalogus insigniunt in omni facultate, linguisque, Arabica, Persica, Turcica, Chinensi &c. Librorum M.ss. quos Doctissimus clarissimusque Vir D. Jacobus Golius, dum vi­ veret: Mathesios & Arabicae Linguae in Acad. Lugd. Batav. Professor Ordinarius, ex variis Regionibus magno studio, labore & sumptu, collegit. Sold with Joannes du Vivie in Leiden, October 16, 1696; Duyvendak, “Early Chinese Studies in Holland,” 314–316. Many of Golius’s books arrived in the Bodleian Library (Oxford), according to the late Prof. Piet van der Loon. The medical work Zhouhuikui jiaozheng si shu daquan 周會 魁校正四書大全, Bodleian Library, Sinica 68, has an inscription identifying it as coming from Golius’s collection.

Appendices

337

Leiden

Johannes Hoornbeeck, 1669 “I have in my possession a Chinese-Latin manuscript, a gift from Justus Heurnius, a very pious man and special friend, whose Ad Indos legatio Evangelica is well-known. This book contains some chapters of a moral doctrine, and a conversation of Confucius with a boy, about his task and obedience. Right in the beginning, it states as the foundation of piety the obedience of sons towards parents and of women towards their husbands. This is stated in excellent and beautiful sentences.” (“Est penes me Confutii istius aliquod manuscriptum Sinico-Latinum, dono D. Justi Heurnii, viri piissimi & amici singularis, cujus nota ad Indos legatio Euangelica: quo continetur Doctrinae moralis aliquot capita, & Colloquium Confutii cum puero, super ejus officio, & obedientia: in cujus statim initio, pro fundamento pietatis ponitur, obedientia filiorum erga parentes, & mulierum erga maritos. Constat sententiis, egregrie ac concinne dictis.”) Johannes Hoornbeeck, De conversione Indorum et Gentilium (Amsterdam: Van Waesberghe, 1669), 48. Translation by Ineke Sloots. This may refer to the manuscripts now in Leiden University, Special Collections, Acad. 225, with 5/6 of Chapter 1 of the Analects and the text and translation of Xiao’er lun 小兒論, a discussion with the seven-year old Xiang Tuo during which Confucius is outwitted. These manuscripts seem to have circulated among scholars, including Jacob Golius and Adriaen Reland. See K. Kuiper, “The Earliest Monument of Dutch Sinological Studies: Justus Heurnius’s Manuscript Dutch-­Chinese Dictionary and Chinese-Latin Compendium Doctrinae Christianae (Batavia 1628),” Quaerendo 35 (2005): 95–186.

Leiden

Hadrianus Junius, 1669 “Chinese books: ten books on Chinese paper; a book with fair-sized characters, not written with a quill but painted with a brush, on Chinese paper, in quarto; another one of oblong shape, some pages with illustrative images where one can see those things that are discussed, on Chinese paper.” (“Chinenses: 57. Libri decem charta serica. in folio. 58. Liber grandiuscolo charactere non calamo scriptus sed penicillo pictus, charta serica. in quarto. 59 Alius oblonga forma, cujus singulae paginate suas imagines habent indices, ut videtur, earum rerum, quae in iis tractantur, charta serica.”) Catalogus variorum insignium & rarissimorum librorum, praecipuè miscellaneorum, ut & nonnulla rariora mss, Hebraea, Graeca, Arabica, Persica, Turcica, Chinica, &c. Quorum auctio habebitur in aedibus Cornelii Hackii, bibliopolae op de hoeck van de Houtstraet, ad diem 20 Maji 1669 (Leiden: Hack, 1669).

338

Appendices

Leiden, Rapenburg 65

Karel Heidanus, 1697 A book with fifteen Chinese and five “Persian” drawings and a “very large beautiful Chinese drawing, showing a landscape with figures.” (“Een seer groote schoone Chineese tekening, verbeeldende een landschap met beelden.”) T.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, C.W. Fock, A.J. van Dissel, Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht deel I: Groenhanzenburch (Leiden: Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, 1986), 32. Reference thanks to Willemijn van Noord.

Leiden, Rapenburg 4

Cecilia Brouwer, 1727 “Six Chinese figures, some wooden and ivory Chinese men, one Chinese figure, two porcelain candlesticks, three lacquered trays.” (“6 Chinese beelden; Eenige houte en yvoore Chineese mannetjes; 1 Chinees beeld; 2 posteleyne blakers; 3 verlakte blaadjes.”) National Archive 1894, notary G. van Leeuwen, no. 22, March 21, 1727. T.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, C.W. Fock, A.J. van Dissel, Het Rapenburg: Geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht deel ii: De Paplepel (Leiden: Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, 1987), 290– 298. Reference thanks to Willemijn van Noord.

Leuven (Louvain)

Chinese calligraphy made by Dominicus in the Jesuit Residence, 1654 Text in Chinese on European paper: “The sign of the Holy Cross. May God the Lord deliver us from our enemy. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.” Pasted in manuscript text, Onderwijs voor de eerst leerende apothekers, vervattende de beginselen van de pharmacie ende chymie, Leuven 1655, Fol. 797v, with the explanation “Dit ter syde staende Chinoische geschryft heeft geschreven Domingo, den knecht van P. Martinez, wesende te Looven in het jaer 1654.” Presently in Royal Library, Brussels, kbr Inv. 3510. Cf. Golvers, “Recruteringstocht,” 342.

Lille (Rijssel)

Giulio Aleni, Tianzhu jiangsheng chuxiang jingjie 天主降生出像經解 (Illustrated Life of our Lord Jesus Christ). Preface dated 1637. Bodleian Library, Douce Chin.d.6. According to Noël Golvers, this copy was brought to Europe by Fr. François Noël, S.J. and was lodged in a Jesuit residence in the Southern Low Countries, possibly Lille. It passed to the Bodleian in 1834.

Middelburg

Chinese calligraphy made by Yppong for Nicolaes de Vrise, 1601

Appendices

339

Album amicorum Nicolaes de Vrise, Private collector, United States. See T. Weststeijn & L. Gesterkamp, “A New Identity for Rubens’s ‘Korean Man’: Portrait of the C ­ hinese Merchant Yppong.” Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art 66 (2016): 141–169.

Middelburg

Bookseller Firentius, 1663 “Three books from China, one of them was a [translation of ] Euclid.” (“Trois livres de la Chine, dont l’une etoit un Euclide.”) This may have been Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi’s 徐光啓 Yuan rong jioa yi 圜容 較義 [Treatise on Geometry], printed in Beijing in 1614. From the visit on July, 1663 by B. de Monconys, Journal des voyages de Monsieur de Monconys (Lyon: Boissat, 1666), ii, 109; P.M. Engelfriet, Euclid in China. The Genesis of the First Translation of Euclid’s Elements Books i–vi ( Jihe yuanben; Peking, 1607) and its Reception up to 1723 (Leiden: Brill, 1998); Yibao Xu, “The First Chinese Translation of the Last Nine Books of Euclid’s Elements and Its Source,” Historia Mathematica 32.1 (2005): 4–32.

The Hague(?)

Amalia van Solms-Braunfels, Princess of Orange, 1642 “Twenty-four pieces of double red Cantonese damask […] two Chinese and two Japanese screens.” (“24 stucx dobbele roode Cantonse damasten […] 2 Chinese ende 2 Japanse schutsels.”) National Archive, voc 148, Resoluties van de Heren Zeventien, November 25, 1642. Published in Cynthia Viallé, “’Fit for Kings and Princes’: A Gift of Japanese Lacquer,” in Large and Broad: The Dutch Impact on Early Modern Asia. Essays in Honor of Leon­ ard Blussé, ed. Nagazumi Yōko (Tokyo: Tokyo Bunko Research Library 13, 2010), 208. Reference thanks to Willemijn van Noord.

The Hague

Constantijn or Christiaan Huygens, 1663 Chinese drawings, or drawings made in China (perhaps Johan Nieuhof’s original drawings) “Very good paintings and drawings of the dress, idol worship, cities, temples, landscapes and ships of China, brought along with the last embassy that the lords of the States General sent to that country four or five years before.” (“Force bons tableaux, et des crayons des habits des Idoles, des Villes, des Temples, des Paisages, et des Vaisseaux de la Chine rapportez de la dernière Ambassade, que Messieurs des Estats enuoyeront en ce pays là il y a 4. ou 5. ans.”) B. de Monconys, Les Voyages de Balthasar de Monconys, ed. C. Henry (Paris: 1887), 81.

340

Appendices

The Hague

Auction at the Doelen, 1692 “On Friday October 24 […] one will sell in The Hague at the new Doelen […] a Chinese gold filigree jewelry box.” (“Vrydag, den 24 October […] sal men in ’s-Gravenhage op de nieuwen Doele op ­ Boelhuys-recht verkopen […] een curieus Chinees Gout fil-grain JuweelCoffertje.”) Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant, October 23, 1692. Reference thanks to Dijkstra & Van Noord.

The Hague

Christiaan Huygens, 1695 “Chinese drawings on Chinese paper etc.” (“Chineesche Teekenkonst op Chinees pampier en andere/etc.”) Sale catalogue of Christiaan Huygens’s library, auctioned in 1695: Catalogus […] Libro­ rum […] Christiani Huygenii (The Hague: Adriaan Moetjens, 1695), 69.

Utrecht

Anna Maria van Schurman, 1637 A page from the popular encyclopedia Wuche bajin 五車拔錦 [Five Cartloads of Col­ lected Goodies] printed in 1597. Martena Museum, Franeker. Inv. Nr. S0119. URL: http://www.dcn-images.nl/img/MM/ S0119.jpg Accessed June 28th, 2019. In all probability, it is this page sent by Andreas Colvius to Van Schurman in 1637, see the letter in Martena Museum inv. Nr. S0094 (copy in Utrecht, Universiteitsbibliotheek Hs 837 [vii E 6] f. 147v–150r.)

Utrecht

Philippe Masson, c. 1700 Copy of the manuscripts by Justus Heurnius, including a transcription and translation of the first four chapters of Confucius’s Analects. The manuscripts were taken to England, probably by Masson’s son; now in British Library, Sloane MS 2746, pp. 217–256, fol. 310v–329v, “Confutii Doctrinae Moralis.” See Kuiper, “The Earliest Monument of Dutch Sinological Studies.” Masson seems to have based a scholarly discussion on the manuscripts, even thoug he could not read Chinese: “Dissertation critique sur la langue Chinoise,” in J. Masson and S. Masson, Histoire critique de la république des lettres, Utrecht 1712–18, vol. 3, pp. 29–106, vol. 4, pp. 85–93.

Appendices

341

Utrecht

Adriaen Reland (1676–1718), 1708, 1761 Chinese books, manuscripts (some from Golius’s and Heurnius’s collections), and coins. A handwritten book with phrases from the Analects in Chinese, Leiden University, Special Collections, Nr. Acad. 223. See K. Kuiper, Catalogue of Chinese and Sino-Western Manuscripts in the Central Library of Leiden University (Leiden: 2005), 68–69. According to the Dissertationum miscellanearum pars tertia et ultima (Utrecht: 1708), quoted from Duyvendak, “Early Chinese Studies,” 322: 1. A Glossary of Chinese characters, their Latin translation, and their pronunciation in Japanese, Chinese and Annamese (“Tabella vocum, cum pronuntiatione earum Japonica, Sinica et Annamitica”). 2. The Lord’s Prayer in Chinese characters with Chinese pronunciation and Latin translation written by Father Martini (“Oratio Dominica Sinicis notis expressa cum pronuntiatione Sinica et earundem interpretatione Latina a P. Martinio exarata”). 3. The Apostolic Creed (“Symbolus Apostolicus”) in Chinese. (Probably made by Heurnius.) 4. The Decalogue (“Decalogus”) in Chinese. (Probably made by Heurnius.) 5. The Brief Catechism (“Brevis Catechismus”) in Chinese. 6. The Thousand Characters Classic (“Liber Sinicus, inscriptus Tcien cu van, hoc est: Chiliogrammos Syntaxis”). 7. A paper inscribed with seven Chinese characters (“Programma septem characteribus Sinicis insignitum”). According to Duyvendak, “Early Chinese Studies,” 326, this is the poster Martini put up on his house stating “Hic habitat ex magno Occidente divinae legis Doctor,” to defend himself from the Manchu invasion (see above, Chapter 4, p. 92): “programma […] quod in charta rubra magnis literis exaratum ante fores suas suspenderat in urbe, Soei-ngan-chien, quum Tatari Sinam, quam adhuc regunt, invadentes eam urbem diriperent, Pater Alartinius, qui solus e Jesuitis ibi habitabat, quique hac opera cum duobus praeceptoribus suis Sinis evasit.” According to the 1761 catalogue: Among the manuscripts, p. 1, no. 4: “A few quotations collected from the works of Confucius, about what suits a man at ten, thirty, and sixty years; […] a Chinese dictionary partly received from Father Martini and his servant Dominicus, partly recorded from their mouths by Jacob Golius.”

342

Appendices

(“Sententiae quaedam ex operibus Confucii collectae, de eo quod hominem decet x. xxx & xl annorum” […] nr. 25: “Miscellanea & Vocabularium Sinicum partim a P. Martinio ejusque famulo Sinensi Dominico acceptum, partim ex eorundem ore per Cl. Jacob Golium exce[r]ptum: Item, quaesita varia imprimis circa computum Sinarum Astronomicum.”) Among the coins, no. 14: “Two coins […] from the island of Java decorated with Chinese letters” (“Duo Nummi […] ex Insula Java literis Sinicis distincti.”) Further: “Chinese and Japanese manuscripts: a. The works of Mencius, 2 vols. b. The works of Confucius, 3 vols. c. A volume on Chinese histories, containing events from around the year 12 ad. d. A description of Chinese pleasant places. g. Chinese astronomical tables for a single year. m. A Chinese book containing various images of estates and regions, elegantly outlines, with their description. n. Five Chinese tables painted in ink. o. A Chinese letter. p. Chinese manuscripts without title page and torn.” (“Manuscripta Sinica & Japonica: a) Opera Mincii, ii. Tomi. b) Opera Confucii, iii. Tomi. c) Pars Historiarum Sinicarum, gesta continens circa Saeculum aerae Christ. xii. d) Descriptio amoenitatum Sinicarum. […] g) Ephemerides Sinicae anni unius. […] m) Liber Sinicus continens varios conspectus praediorum & regionum eleganter delineatos cum descriptione. n) Quinque Tabellae Sinicae atramento depictae. o) Epistola Sinica p) mss. Sinicum absque titulo & lacerum.”) Naam-lyst van een zeer keurige verzameling […] boeken. […] [&] Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum Arabicorum (Utrecht: Kroon & Van Paddenburg, 1761).

Appendices



343

Appendix 7.1

September 21, 1685, Constantijn Huygens to Mary Stuart3 Full Transcription of the Manuscript:4 21. Sept. 1685. To the Roijal Highnesse of the High and mightie incomparable Princesse of Orange, Marij Daughter of his …Royal.. … King of great Brittaine Humbly sheweth the whole and universall nation and exteme born subject both male and female of the most famous and mightij Empire of China, to the number of a great manij more millions of People then the5 greatest skilfulst Arithmetician were able to summe up in ……nd year summer daij a summer day, That to their extreme joy and exultation being has informed how a certain publiq Peece of proof and demonstration of their natifs national skill and industry in gilt gilt and painted lackwork in form of a Roijal Skreene having had the great happines to fall into Yr Roijal Highn.s noble hands[,] to their inconsolable greef and mor[t]ification they have been have latelij been told how some most ignorant, barbarous and malitious people, acting and of mooved onely by meere envie and jealousie of their our ancient Oriental China honour, should have so farre prevailed wth y.r High.s renowned goodness sweet and mild and gracious disposition

3 For the appendices to Chapter 7, the transcriptions have been made from the manucripts, except for appendix 10 and 11. Any emphasis (underlining:_) or crossing-out is in the original. Line breaks may have been removed due to space restrictions. I am deeply grateful to Rosanne Baars, Marten-Jan Bok, John Campbell, Frans Grijzenhout, Stephanie Levert, and Thijs Weststeijn for comments and suggestions on my transcriptions and translations below. Any mistakes are, of course, my own. 4 Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag, inv. no. KB KA 49-3, 1093–6. The letter was published in Worp, but the transcription was incomplete. “Briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1607– 1687, Details voor brief 7231,” Huygens ING, accessed October 25, 2017, http://resources .huygens.knaw.nl/briefwisselingconstantijnhuygens/brief/nr/7231. 5 Worp has transcribed “your” here but the manuscript clearly states “the.”

344

Appendices

as to persuade her, to have it let the same illustrious making? monument masterpiece sawed, divided, cut, clift cleaven and slit asunder and reduced to a heap of monstrous shivers and splinters, and all this dtirre desolation and cruel destruction desolation to no higher purpose then to see the wals of some low[?] ill favoured miserable cabinet, cj……………….and and decked and adorned and embellished, forsooth w.th our unhappie miserable unhappie ruines. Which enterprize no understanding Artist being able for his life to perform such an ill favoured with without maijming, laming and totalij spoijling the most curious and skilfull and artificial drawings and limnings of that glorius incomparable Pictor bij deforming faces and and all other limbs limbs and members of it; so that, manij of them chancing to stand upside downe legs and feet will meet w.th eyes, noses … knees and elbows, unduly t…ng bij so horrible a confusion all metamorphosed into a most ridiculous mingelmangle, And, (which is most bitterly to be lamented) w.th dissolving, turning, severing and disjoining the noble collection of those manijfold chosen and selected characters, containing containing in our excellent Asiatic language the wittiest speeches, proverbs, emblems, parables, paradoxes and other higher mysteries, could be found such incontestable testimonies of our nations high and transcendent nation wisdom above all other people of the world the world, in the very center ……….point of w.ch we know, our Empire it … (in spight despight of y.r foolish Geographers Cosmographers) .… our Empire to be pl…d…d situated from all eternity. We return in to humbly and …. most fervently to beg; it may please y.r Roijal Highn.s if so inhumane a resolution maij have been conceaved to revoked that it maij it be and as a monstruous embrijon smothered in its birth ….. and destroyed before its ilfavored it see the light, birth. …..ill And shall this be an action perfectly worth of y.r great and generous Genius, and most properlij fitting becoming y.r cleare, and perspicacious witt and judgement, of both which a constant fame hath blown over the noijse and notice even to these remoted parts. Wherefore so that we cannot doubt but so eminent a spirit will easily most wiselij the consider how y.r Highn.s and y.r nation would ….kebe loath to endure the same sort of scandal, if a peece of y.r best (though in comparison of ours but poore and miserable) European) Pictures did fall in our hands, and we would came to have the boldness to cut it in peeces and abuse and dispose of them of it in the such like

Appendices

345

shamefull a manner manner as is said above, and that consequentlij would will not suffer anything to be done to us what y.u would not to be have done to y.urself and yours, nor m…. no more than if a peece of our delicate Tapestrie silk and golden painted all over w.th manij rich figures of Men and beasts were not to be found fit unfit to the proportion of some bare wall, that y.u would instantly presentlij resolve to cutt her make y.rselfs a training gowne or a petticoat of them it: though indeed the yu could never be clothed in a more illustrous habit stately apparel. Eu……… In conclusion, High and mighty Princesse, if y.ur humble petitioners may be so happij as to obtayne from y.r Roijal goodnesse à favorable answer upon the mergent[?] of their at the foot of this their just and reasonable demands, and y.r highn. be pleased to honour them in their commands and give order will may vouchsafe to command me that the right m…. and exact measures and and our proportions maij be sent them of anij such stately and illustrious Princely Building, y. maij intend to finish, with their either of chambers, Halls, with theirGalleries and anij cabinets or any other kind of Rooms, and Cabinets and Chests and other honorable lodgings, other appartnmentsThey will p…..e endeavour to procure upon their word and faith and undertake most true and loijallij to have that all and every one one peece theretounto belonging of readij cutt and … shaped gilt and painted and guilt and prepared to the purpose here within our Empire and shall be speedily sent y.u over bij the first of y.r Batavia fleets that parting for y.r Kingdom of Holland, when y.r highn. maij be assured never hath been or shall be seene a more glorious and miraculous peece of Cina worke. As finaly also they do oblige them self to prove .. unto yr p…g.. send y.r Highn. w.th the first a true and legal interpretation of these noble characters expressed in her with y.r sayd precious and unhappy skreene whereby at least y.u are to acquire a something more avantageous opinion of the most high and divine Empire of China and its natifs then it appeareth y.u have had of them to this day.

346

Appendices

17 Sept. 1685, noctib ab arthritide insomnibus. Madame Trouvent Just que original de Jugeant que la Reqte lettre de cy joincte, que les nos derniers vaisseaux des Indes ont apportée en original concernoit les interests de V.A.R.le de trop près pour luij demeurer cachée, je me suis mis en devoir de le traduire de la langue Tartare Chinoise dans la langue en belle [langue] que j’aij observe que V.A. aijme mieux à parler que toutes les qu’ aucune des autres, que toutefois, à nostre grand estonnement elle entend et parle toutes avec mesme grace et facilité. Je la supplie en toute soumission que ma bonne intention puisse etre agreée et ensemble avec la tres humble et tres douce profession que ie faij (ne pouvant n’aijant plus sur quoij faire offre d’aucun long service dans cet aage de 90 Années òu je suis entré) sinon de vouloir pouvoir vivre au moins de vouloir mourir. [vortre obeisant serviteur] A la Haye, le 27 Sept. 1685.

Translation of the Transcription

September 21, 1685. To the Royal Highness, the incomparable Princess of Orange, Humbly shows the whole and universal nation, both male and female of the most famous and mighty Empire of China, to the number of a great many more millions of people than the skillfullest arithmetician were able to sum up in a summer day, that to their extreme joy and exultation being informed how a certain public piece of proof and demonstration of their national skill and industry in gilt and painted lacquerware in form of a royal screen having had the great happiness to fall into Your Royal Highness’s noble hands. [However,] to their inconsolable grief and mortification they have lately been told how some most ignorant, barbarous and malicious people, moved only by mere envy and jealousy of our ancient Oriental China honour, should have so far prevailed with Your Highness’ renowned sweet and mild and gracious disposition as to persuade her, to let the same illustrious monument sawed, divided, cut, cleft and slit asunder and reduced to a heap of monstrous shivers and splinters, and all this desolation to no higher purpose then to see the walls of some miserable cabinet decked and adorned and forsooth with our unhappy ruins. Which enterprise no understanding artist being able for his life to perform, without maiming, laming and totally spoiling the most curious skillful and artificial drawings and limning of that incomparable Pictor by deforming faces and all other limbs and members of it, so that, many of them chancing to stand upside down, legs and feet will meet with eyes, noses, knees and elbows, by so horrible a confusion all metamorphosed into a most ridiculous mingle mangle, and, (which is most bitterly to be lamented) with dissolving, turning, severing and disjoin-

Appendices

347

ing the noble collection of those manifold chosen and selected characters, containing in our excellent Asiatic language the wittiest speeches, proverbs, emblems, parables, paradoxes and other higher mysteries, could be found such incontestable testimonies of our nations high and transcendent wisdom above all other people of the world, in the very center of which we know, in despite of your foolish cosmographers our empire to be situated from all eternity. We return humbly and most fervently to beg, it may please Your Royal Highness if so inhumane a resolution may have been conceived that it may be as a monstrous embryo smothered in its birth and destroyed before it sees the light. And shall this be an action perfectly worthy of your great and generous genius, and most properly becoming your clear, and perspicacious wit and judgement, of both which a constant fame has blown over the noise and notice even to these remote parts. Wherefore we cannot doubt but so eminent a spirit will most wisely consider how Your Highness and your nation would be loathed to endure the same sort of scandal, if a piece of your best (though in comparison of ours but poor and miserable) European pictures did fall in our hands, and we came to have the boldness to cut it in pieces and abuse and dispose of it in the like shameful a manner as is said above. And that consequently we will not suffer anything to be done to us what you would not have done to yourself and yours, no more than if a piece of our delicate tapestry silk and golden painted all over with many rich figures of men and beasts were not found unfit to the proportion of some bare wall, that you would resolve to make yourself a training gown or a petticoat of it: though indeed you could never be clothed in a more stately apparel. In conclusion, high and mighty Princess, if your humble petitioners may be so happy as to obtain from your royal goodness a favourable answer at the foot of this their just and reasonable demands, and your highness will vouchsafe to command me that the right and exact measures may be sent them of any such stately and princely building, you may intend to finish, either of chambers, halls, galleries, cabinets or any other kind of honourable lodgings, they will endeavour to procure upon their word and faith and undertake that all and every piece there unto belonging ready cut and shaped gilt and painted guilt and prepared to the purpose here within our empire shall be speedily sent you over by the first of you Batavia fleets parting for your kingdom of Holland, when your highness may be assured that never hath been or shall be seen a more glorious and miraculous piece of China work. Finally, they do oblige themsel[ves] to send Your Highness with the first a true and legal interpretation of these noble characters expressed with your said precious and unhappy screen whereby at least you are to acquire a something more advantageous opinion of the most high and divine Empire of China and its natives then it appears you have had of them to this day.

348

Appendices

September 17, 1685, nights of insomnia [due to] arthritis. Madam, Judging that the appended request [i.e. the letter from the Chinese people], the original of which has been brought by our most recent ships from the Indies, concerns the interests of Your Royal Highness too closely for it to remain concealed from her, I set about translating the Tartar language of the Chinese into the beautiful language of which I have observed that Your Highness loves to speak more than any other [i.e., English], even though, to our great astonishment she understands and speaks all languages with the same grace and ease. Humbly I beg you to accept my good intention and together with the very humble and gentle confession that I make (being for not much longer able to offer long service at this age of ninety that I have reached) not being able to live like this yet without wanting to die [as your most obedient servant]. The Hague, September 27, 1685.



Appendix 7.2

October 8, 1685, “Memoire pour Zeelhem.” Full Transcription of the Manuscript:6 8 Oct 85 Memoire pour Zeelhem. S Que sans perdre temps il sache d’auoir l’honneur de representer de ma part a S.A.R. d…..p… que ie suis plus sensible qu’homme du monde .. le sçauroit estre, de sa grace dont il luij a pleu m’honorer et daignant respondre y de ça pretieuse main à la mechante lettre que j’aij osé faire seruir d’enveloppe à ceste importante piece Chinoise de ma traduction. Qu’à mon aduis toutes deux ni la Cour ni les deux Academies d’Oxford et de Cambrigs d’Angletere ensemble ne sçauroijent produire deux ensemble ..se à deux une seule plume si elegante que et si gracieuse qu’est celle de S.A. Encor moins un stile plus aussi fort si onaite et plus si nerveux. Par subjet de quoij la force d..qet et la clarté d’i ce luij Au moijen duquel ie suis contraint d’avouer que jamais je n’aij veu Cause disputable faiblette plus adroittement soustenue de sorte que ie m’en 6 Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag, inv. no. KB KA 49-3, p. 1091–2. Worp mentions its existence in a footnote but did not transcribe it.“Briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1607– 1687, Details voor brief n0014,” Huygens ING, accessed October 25, 2017, http://resources .huygens.knaw.nl/briefwisselingconstantijnhuygens/brief/nr/n0014.

Appendices

349

trouve sens reduit à faire de la au regard part de mes Chinois, ce que S.A. offre si modestement pour soij mesme dans sa belle phrase Angloise, c’est to owne them in the their owne wrong. Jusqu’ à me trouver, engagé et obligé moij mesme, s’il plaist à S.A. de me le commander, a de maintenir sa au…se son droit contre tous venans tres animé et à plaider fortement hautement, qu’ il ne fut jamais rien de mieux imaginé, que de fracasser an ill favoured Indian skreene en autant de morceaux qu il en faut pour habiller un Cabinet estimé digne de la principale et privée retraite d’une si excellente Princesse. Et ce non obstant le bouleversement de tant de tout de tant de Tetes, de Jambes, et de mains si mal peintes et encor plus mal dorées par ces barbares longbeards qui ont bien la presumption de sa pique de leur Asia d’estaller leur griffonnage Asiatique, au prix en comparaison de toute la nombre en Peinture d’Europe. Car pour ce qui est des Characterers des Revers de l’Escran en question quoij qu’on ne s’en puisse rien promettre qu’ à l’advenant de la Cervelle de ces pauures idolatres, il ij aura moijen d’en faire expliquer le haut mijstere par eux mesmes, à la presmiere occasion du retour de nos vaisseaux, que Lesquels venants peut estre à tarder plus que dans ceste fin prochaine de ma sotte vie ie ne sais en eser de les pouvoir pourraij estr attendre, je mourraij satisfaict de ce que S.A.R. se trouvera en estant a loisir de les veoir venir à son aijse, et de vivre encor apres tres heureuse, pour le moins jusques au terme a où dieu m’a faict la grace de pouvoir arviuer . Ce que ie souhaitte avec tout d’ardeur toute l’ardeur dont ce supplié de mon ame. d’avoir, par…l.peq……………………………………………… ma dire ….y le plus humble ve..pret…x. Suppliant au reste, que si je demeure en faute de m’etendre à l’endroit des … Chinois sur l’apologie de S.A. dans les beaux termes qu’elle prend la peine de ma m’en prescrire, ce ne sera que par faute d’un bon dictionnaire Anglois Chiniques, dont je supose me prevaloir, à peu près comme j’aij f…… fait le moing mal qu’il m’a esté possible me du Chinique Anglois en hazardant a la traduction de ceste illustre original. Ou je doibs tout à la grande douceur et ceste merveilleuse patience de cest merveilleuse Princesse qui aeste applente de ca fatigue de penetrer à force le sens de ma de ma boiteuse diction Anglaise Je me suis S N’estant pas si mal appris que j’ose presumer d’etablir par un mot de ? replique commerc une forme de commerce de lettres entre deux partis de si extreme disproportion qu il y qu’est celle d’entre Elle S.A.R. et moij: Par j’ai en j’aij rengainent doucem[ent] ma miserable plume, et je vous ?? ordonne ?? en suitte que sans perdre temps vous tachez d’avoir l’honneur de luij

Translation of the Transcription: October 8, 1685. Memoir for Zeelhem. [Could you] present from my part [to Her Royal Highness] that I am more sensitive than any man of the world could be, that her ladyship has been pleased to honour me and dignify me with an answer from her precious hand to the wicked letter that I dared

350

Appendices

to use as an envelope to present the important Chinese piece that I have translated, which in my opinion neither the court, nor the two English academies [i.e. Oxford and Cambridge] together would be able to produce with a single feather [pen] as elegant and as graceful as that of Her Highness. Even less so could they produce a style as strong and as honest and as lively. I am compelled by her strength and clarity to admit that I have never seen a weaker case that was more skilfully supported, so that I find myself reduced to doing, concerning my Chinese [i.e. the people for whom I speak?], what Her Highness offers so modestly for herself in her beautiful English sentence, that is “to own them in their own wrong.” To the extent that I find myself engaged and even obliged, if it pleases Her Highness to command me, to maintain her right against all who come pleading very animatedly and loudly that there was never anything better imagined than smashing “an ill-favoured Indian screen” into as many pieces as needed to dress a cabinet deemed worthy of the main and private retreat of such an excellent princess. And this notwithstanding the upheaval of so many heads, legs, and hands so badly painted and even more badly gilded by these barbarian longbeards who have had the arrogance to display their ugly Asian scribbles, in comparison with any European painting. For with regard to the characters on the reverse of the screen in question, [even though] we cannot promise anything in accordance with the brains of these poor idolaters, there [still] is a possibility to make them explain the higher mystery themselves, on the first occasion of the return of our ships. If those approaching [ships], take longer than the imminent end of my foolish life, and I cannot wait that long, then I will die satisfied knowing that Her Royal Highness will have the leisure to see them coming at her convenience. And [if I am] still alive afterwards then I will be very happy, for at least for the term that God has granted me to live, which I wish for with all the ardor of my soul. Furthermore, I beg [forgiveness] if I remain at fault to extend the apology of Her Highness with regard to the Chinese, in the beautiful terms that she has taken the pain to prescribe to me. It is only due to the lack of a good English-Chinese dictionary of which to avail myself, more or less as I have done the the least damaging possible to the Chinese-English in hazarding the translation of the illustrious original [i.e. the very first “letter of the Chinese people”]. I owe everything to the great sweetness and patience of this wonderful princess who has exhausted herself to penetrate the meaning of my halting English diction. Not being so badly educated that I dare to presume to establish with a short reply a form of commerce of letters between two parties of such an extreme disproportion [in social standing] as that of Her Highness and myself: I have softly placed my miserable pen back in its holder and command you [my son, Constantijn Jr.] to try to have her honor without wasting time.

Appendices



351

Appendix 7.3

March 5, 1686, To Her Royal Highness Full Transcription of the Manuscript:7 To Her R.l Highness I see ‘t, and cannot leaue to take it for a Fable, That anij Roijall inspiration should be able. To make one of the dullest of all mortall men Become an English Poët at fourescore and ten. Bee ‘t a fable or a truth, great Princess, doe not fear To have hear haue mij babling Muse perpetually at y.r eare: This trouble is y.r last: or (as once more y.u haue seen) I’ll be content to run the fortune of y.r skreen. Mart. 86 Translation of the Transcription: To Her Royal Highness I see it, and cannot leave to take it for a fable, That any Royal inspiration should be able. To make one of the dullest of all mortal men Become an English poet at fourscore and ten [the age of ninety] Be it a fable or a truth, great Princess, do not fear To have my babbling Muse perpetually at your ear This trouble is your last: or (as once more you have seen) I’ll be content to run the fortune of your screen. 5 March 1686

7 Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag, inv. no. KB KA xliiie 1681–1686, 34 recto. Published in Worp, Gedichten Deel 8, 351.

352

Appendices

Appendix 7.4

March 18, 1686, With the Book of Du four Full Transcription of the Manuscript:8 Wth the Book of Du four, of Cavé, Thé and Chocolate Here are the grounds of three East and West Indian potions If you’l examine them in their orig’nal notions And use ‘hem accordinglij, yu maij be sure, theij raine Such showers of wit and sence, even in a Roijall braine, That anij China skreen wher’ever it laijth or stands Will stand immortallij and safe and whole in yr hands. yr R. Highn.es most humble upstart mushroom English Poet. 18. Mart. 86 For the modern translation see the main text of the article.



Appendix 7.5

July 3, 1686, Sur le cabinet des pieces de l’escran Full Transcription of the Manuscript:9 Sur le Cabinet des pieces de l’escran. Qu’ est ce que ne promet ceste estrange Princesse, Au mestier de gaigner l’aveu de tous les coeurs, que n’attendons nous point d’une si fine

8 Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag, inv. no. KB KA xliiie 1681–1686, 34 recto, Published in Worp, Gedichten Deel 8, 352. 9 Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag, inv. no. KB KA xliiie 1681–1686, 34 verso. Published in Worp, Gedichten Deel 8, 354.

Appendices

353

que n’attendons nous point d’une si fine addresses qui sçait faire adorer iusques à ses erreurs? 3. Iul. 86

Translation of the transcription: On the cabinet of the pieces of the screen: What is not promised by this extraordinary Princess, With the goal to gain the avowal of all hearts, Which we do not expect from such a fine address, Who can make one adore even its errors? 3 July 1686



Appendix 7.6

Philippe Couplet’s Translation (undated) Full Transcription of the Manuscript:10

in dese bovengemelde 36 kleijne letters is het onderscrift van eenen governeúr generael van de provincie fŏkién genaemt Lieû teú in sekeren brief van groetenisse tot eenen synen vriendt, alwaer hij naer het scryven synder ampten ende titels besluijt ick U.u kleijnsten broeder Lieû teú nederbuyghende het hooft groet U van hondert lancklevens Letters eene afbeeldinghe de hondert ende 8 letters mij toeghesonden al syn sy op verscheyde wijse gescreven, syn nochtans ider van den selven inhout elck een niet anders beduydende als xeú dat is Lanckduerigh leven die de sinoiosen malcander

10

Noord-Hollands Archief, Haarlem, Archive of the Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam, access 476, inv. no. 951, http://noord-hollandsarchief.nl/bronnen/archieven?mivast=236&mi zig=210&miadt=236&miaet=1&micode=476&minr=2198227&miview=inv2. Emphasis (underlining) in original.

354

Appendices toewenschen ende toescrijven int nieúw-jaer ende jaerlycksen dagh haerder gheboortes.

總督福福建等處地方軍務兼理糧餉兵部右侍郎兼部察院右副部御史制春弟 劉斗頓首拜

Translation of the Transcription: In these abovementioned thirty-six small letters is the postscript of a governor-general of the province of Fujian named Liu Dou in a certain letter of greetings to one of his friends. After writing the titles he concludes I Your smallest brother Liu Dou bow my head down to greet You. Of one hundred longevity letters one image. The one hundred and eight letters that were sent to me, even though they are written in various ways, they are still all of the same content, each meaning nothing else that shou, that is long life that the Chinese wish onto each other, and write in the new year and yearly on birthdays. For a translation of the Chinese characters, see the main article.



Appendix 7.7

July 27, 1686, Unknown Writer to Huygens Full Transcription of the Manuscript:11 In Amsterdam den 27en Julij 1686 Ick hadde gehoopt d’eere te hebben van UEden. alhier te sien int weeder keeren van UEden. reijse, naer den haegh. maer alsoo het soo lang aen loopt soo vertrouwe dat UEden. over Uttrecht sult gegaan sijn, dierhalve hebbe goet gedacht de Chineese Caracters, met de explicatie daerbij aen UEd. opden haegh tesenden, gelijk die dan hiernevens gaen, debovenste en onderste caracter sijn maer alleningh die geexpliceert sijn, de middelste billetten sijn maer alle van eenen inhoudt dat is geluck wenschinge en lanckleven, en vorders Gedraege [verstaan] mijn aen dememorie hier nevens, hoope dat haer conk Hoogh 11

Noord-Hollands Archief, Haarlem, Archive of the Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam, access 476, inv. no. 951, http://noord-hollandsarchief.nl/bronnen/archieven?mivast=236&mizig =210&miadt=236&miaet=1&micode=476&minr=2198227&miview=inv2.

Appendices

355

hier mede voldaen sal sijn, en iets anders voorvallende tot haere Conc. Hoogh. dienst, sal d’ere van hare commando tegemoet sien in mijn geluckigh achten Etc. …

Translation of the Transcription: In Amsterdam, the 27th of July 1686. I had hoped to have to honour of seeing Your Honourable Sir here upon your return of your travels to The Hague, but as it is taking so long I trust that you went via Utrecht. Thus, I thought it best to send you the Chinese characters with the explanation to The Hague, which is the same as below: the top and bottom characters are the only ones that are explained, the middle strips are all of one content that is wishes of good fortune and longevity. And further I refer you to the memoire [sent] herewith, hoping that Her Royal Highness will be pleased with it. And that if there is anything else to which I can be to Her Royal Highness’s service, I would praise myself lucky and look forward to her command etc…



Appendix 7.8

September 13, 1686, Le Roij to Huygens Full transcription of the manuscript:12 Paris le 13 Septembre 1686. Monsieur; Une maladie, causée par une grande chaleur dans le sang, et oppression de poitrine, m’a obligée de garder la chambre plus de trois sepmaines, et empéchée par consequent d’aller trouver Monsieur Thevenot pour sçavoir son sentiment sur l’explication du Pere Couplet; mais, me sentant un peu remis, je fis hier ma premiere sortie et trouvaij les deux d. tis personnes ensemble aux grand jesuites, où ils travaillent continuellement à la traduction des livres Chinois dont led.t Pere a fait present au Roij. L’un et l’autre soutenoit que le plus habile du païs méme n’en sçauroit faire une autre interpretation, puis qu’il n’ij a que deux sortes de Charactéres, à sçavoir une qu’on prononce Xeu et l’autre Fo. dont la premiere signifie Bonheur et la seconde Longue Vië; et pour ce qui 12

Noord-Hollands Archief, Haarlem, Archive of the Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam, access 476, inv. no. 951, http://noord-hollandsarchief.nl/bronnen/archieven?mivast=236&mizig =210&miadt=236&miaet=1&micode=476&minr=2198227&miview=inv2.

356

Appendices

regarde la quantité des Charactéres tous d’une mesme façon, cela ne veut dire qu’un redoublement des souhaits. Led.t Pere a envie de faire dans deux mois une second voijage pour la Chine, qu’il appelle son Épouse, et dit ij avoir convertis plus de quatre mille personnes chaque année, pendant le 24. ans qu’il a fait sejour dans ce païs-là. Voijlà, Monsieur, tout ce que j’aij pû apprendre sur ce sujet. Les nouvelles de la prise de Bude seront sans doute desjà arrivées à la Haije, et ij auront apparemment causée plus de joije qu’elles n’ont fait icij. Il est arrivé un Courier au Nonce avec la nouvelle dela promotion de 27. Cardinaux; voicij la Liste, Monsieur, de ceux qui on esté elevé à cette dignité. Les Mareschales dela Fuillade et le duc de Villeroij sont partis pour leurs gouvernements du dauphiné et de Lions, et il ij a des gens qui parlent comme si l’on pourroit bien entreprendre quelq[ue] chose contre Geneve pour ij fiare recevoir un Evéque et établir la Religion Romaine. Le Roij ira demain à Maintenon pour voir l’ouvrage de l’Aqueduc. Monseigneur le dauphin partira le mesme jour d’Anes et rencontera Sa Maj.té le midij en chemin. Ce voijage ne sera que de 4 jours et la Cour sera Mardij de retour à Versailles. Je viens d’envoijer les Bougies à Rouën pour estre embarquées avec les hardes du valet de ­Chambre de Monsieur l’ambassadeur qui part au demain avec les Coches de Bruxelles; il en aura soin quand le vaisseau de Rouën sera arrivé à Rotterdam, et les portera luij mesme à la Haije. j’aurois esté bien aijse si les desseins pour Madame de S.t Anneland eussent esté achevez, car il les auroit pu prendre fort aisément avec luij; mais il m’a esté impossible de les avoir, nonobstant toutes deligençe imaginable. mesme ne seront ils achevez que vers la fin du mois. Celuij qui m’avoit prié de pouvoir excercer la charge de Procureur pendant mon absence avoit crû pouvoir eviter par là de faire la garde et toutes autre exercice des Bourgeois; mais estant informé que cela ne servirois de rien, je ne crois pas, Monsieur, qu’il vous importunera par ses sollicitations; cependant je demande mille pardon de ce que j’aij pris la liberté de vous representer là dessus. Je prie Dieu, Monsieur, qu’il vous conserve en parfaite santé et demeure avec profond respect, Monsieur, Votre tres humble, tre obeissant et tres obligé Serviteur Le Roij.

Translation of the Transcription: Paris, September 13, 1686 Sir; An illness, causing caused by a great heat in my blood and oppression in my chest, has forced me to remain in my chambers for over three weeks and consequently kept

Appendices

357

me from going to find Mister Thevenot to learn of his opinion regarding Father Couplet’s explanation. However, feeling a little bit better, I went out for the first time yesterday­and found the two persons together with the great Jesuits, working continually on the translation of the Chinese books that the aforementioned Father [Couplet] had presented to the king. Both maintain that even the smartest person in the country would not be able to produce a different interpretation, since there are only two types of characters, namely one that is pronounced shou and the other fu, of which the first means happiness and the second longevity.13 Regarding the number of characters all of the same sort, that only means that it is a doubling of the wishes. The aforementioned Father [Couplet] would like to make a second voyage to China, which he calls his wife, in two months’ time, and says that he has converted over four thousand persons every year during the twenty-four years that he stayed in that country. Sir, that is all that I have been able to learn on the subject. The news of the siege of Buda has without doubt reached The Hague already, and it appears that it has brought about more joy [there] than it has here. Mail has arrived from the [Papal] Nuncio with the news of the promotion of the twenty-seven ­cardinals; it lists, Sir, those who have been promoted to that high office. The Marshal de la Feuillade and the Duke of Villeroy have left for their governments [former provinces] of Dauphiny and of Lyonnais, and there are those who talk as though we might well do something against Geneva to get a bishop and to establish the Roman religion. The king will go to Maintenon tomorrow to watch the construction of the aquaduct. My lord the dauphin will leave the same day from Anes and will meet His Majesty on the way at noon. The journey will take only four days and the court will be returning to Versailles on Tuesday. I just sent the candles to Rouen to be taken on board with the personal belongings of the servant of my lord the ambassador who leaves tomorrow with the coaches from Brussels; he will take care [of them] when the ship from Rouen arrives at Rotterdam, and will personally take them to The Hague. I would be more than pleased if the designs for the Lady of Sint-Annaland [i.e. Huygens’s daughter Susanna] were finished, because he would have been able to take them with him with ease; but it has been impossible for me to get them, even though every effort imaginable has been made. They will only be finished towards the end of the month. The one who has requested to be in charge of the prosecutor during my absence thought he could thereby avoid doing his duties and all other civil performances; but being informed that [he] did nothing of service, I do not believe, Sir, that he will be bothering you with his requests; yet I ask you a thousand times forgiveness for having taken the liberty to present you with the above.

13

Actually, it is the other way around; shou means longevity and fu means happiness.

358

Appendices

I pray to God, Sir, that he keeps you in perfect health and remain with the utmost respect, Sir, Your most humble, most obedient and most grateful Servant Le Roy.



Appendix 7.9

October 15, 1686, Thévenot to Huygens Full Transcription of the Manuscript:14 R 15. Oct 86 Monsieur Voicy Comment le pere Couplet má expliqué lá solution qu’il vous á donnée a locasion de lecran, les deux lettres xue et fo sécrivent ordinairement de cette Maniere 壽 福  mais dans les premiers bonheur  longue vie temps de lempire de la chine elle secrivoint autrement et ces manieres de les escrire ont changé plusieurs fois avant que destre fixees, Ces cent lettres ou figures que vous avez remarqué dans lecran signifient lá mesme chose cest a dire bon heur et longue vie, ce sont des sinonimes des deux figures que Jay mis cy dessus, si le pere couplet eut gardé une copie des figures que vous luy avez envoiée, J’en aurois peustre tirée plus d’eclairsisment Il y a presentement en la bibliotheque du Roy des dictionnaires chinois forts amples, J’y ayt trouvé ces deux figures, un de ces dictionnaires ne raporte que dix ou douze manieres de les exprimers il marque qu’elles ont estes en usage en differents temps, mais enfin il ny en á que 10 ou 12 et vous en avez compté une centaine sur lécran, Je luy ayt fait cette difficulté il s’en est tiré en me disant que sous la figure du bonheur par exemple ils peuvents avoirs mis encores des figures des Richesses dela santé et semblables, qui contribuent aux bonheurs dela vie, de cette maniere lá multiplicité des figures ne vous estonnerá plus, Mais Je vois bien aussy que madame la princesse d’orange ne será pas satisfaite de la expliquation solution en deux mots que le pere couplet á envoié et encore moins de Cette explication, Jen tirerois peutestre plus declairsisement si J’aurois une copie des lettres de lécran les marques que Je viens de recevoir de vostre amitié 14

Noord-Hollands Archief, Haarlem, Archive of the Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam, access 476, inv. no. 951, http://noord-hollandsarchief.nl/bronnen/archieven?mivast=236&mizig =210&miadt=236&miaet=1&micode=476&minr=2198227&miview=inv2.

Appendices

359

mont donné une joye tres sensible Je tascheray d’en meriter la continuation par toutes sortes de respects et de services Je suis avec un entier atachément Monsieur Vre tres humble et tres obeissant Serviteur Thevenot Paris ij 8bre 1686

Translation of the Transcription: R[eceived] 15 October 1686 Sir Here is how Father Couplet has explained to me the solution that he has given you with regard to the screen; the two letters shou and fu are ordinarily written in these ways: 壽 福 happiness longevity15 But in the first period of the Empire of China, they were written differently and these ways of writing have changed several times before they became fixed. Those hundred letters or figures that you have noticed on the screen [all] mean the same thing, namely happiness and longevity, they are synonyms of the two figures that I have placed above. If Father Couplet has kept a copy of the figures that you have sent him, I could perhaps extract further clarification. There are currently in the royal library very comprehensive Chinese dictionaries, I found the two figures. One of these dictionaries only reports ten or twelve ways of expressing them. It remarks that they have been in use at different times, but in the end there are only ten or twelve and you have counted a hundred on the screen. I gave him [Couplet] this challenge, he came through by telling me that in the figure of happiness, for example, there could be placed even more figures for riches, good health and the like, which contribute to the joy of life. In that way the multitude of figures will not surprise you. But I also see that the madame Princess of Orange will not be satisfied with the solution of the two words that the Father Couplet has sent and even less with that explanation. I might [be able to] derive more clarification if I had a copy of the letters on the screen. The symbols that I have just received [thanks to] your friendship have given me a very significant pleasure. I shall try my best to be of be deserving of the continuation [of our friendship] through every possible kind of respects and services. I am with a complete commitment, Sir, your most humble and most obedient Servant Thevenot. Paris October 2, 1686 15

In reality, it is the other way around: shou 壽 means longevity and fu 福 means happiness.

360

Appendices

Appendix 7.10

December 31, 1686, A Son Altesse Royale Madame A Son Altesse Royale16 Madame L’infame masse de Papier Que peu devant hier Vous eutes la bonté, Princesse, De recevoir parmi la presse D’une armée d’honestes gens, Hommes solides et sçauants, Qui dans vos petites demeures Vous regalent aux belles heures Desrobbées à ce tracas, Que vous souffrez, et n’aijmez pas D’une infinité de causeuses, Ces mesmes Fueilles, trop heureuses, Revienent encor ceste fois Vous divertir en leur patois. Accoustumée que vous estes De longue main à leurs Sornettes, J’espere que dans les habits Que vous voijez qu’elles ont pris Vous resoudrez à leur permettre D’entrer en Cour, et d’y parestre Parmi des foux de leur mestier. C’est de quoy vous prie l’Ouurier : Non pas l’Auteur ; mais le Libraire. Car l’autre n’a plus qu’à se taire, Apres tant d’effroijable bruit, Dont il vous lasse par escrit. Pardon, de grace, [Mad]Ame Royale, Qui ne connoissez point d’égale; Je promets de m’en corriger, 16

Transcription copied from J.F. van Someren “Iets over Magnus Hendricksz. en Hendrick Magnusz. “vermaarde boekbinders” der 17e eeuw.” Oud Holland (1883): 224–237. I was unable to check the original because it has been transferred from the Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie der Wetenschappen (knaw) to the International Institute for Social History (issg) where it was misplaced and has not yet been located.

Appendices Sans plus ainsi vous outrager. Si ie vous manque de parole, Que votre déplaisir m’enrole Au nombre des plus malheureux: Je veux souffrir tout auec eux ; Quand vous voudriez pour ma ruine, Me traicter en Escran de Chine. La veille de l’An 1686

Translation of the Transcription: To Her Royal Highness Madam The infamous mass of Paper [i.e. Korenbloemen] That, a little before yesterday You had the goodness, Princess, To accept amidst the bustle Of an army of honest people, Good and learned men, Who in your small residences Delight you until the finest hours Hidden from that unpleasantness Which you suffer and dislike Of an infinite [number] of chatterboxes; The same leaves [i.e. Korenbloemen] [are] only too pleased, To return once again [To] amuse you in their dialect. Accustomed as you have been For a long time [now] to their nonsense, I hope that in the dress [i.e. the luxurious leather binding], That you [can] see they have put on You [will] decide to permit them To enter the Court, and appear there Amongst the jesters of their trade. That is what I beg of you, [as] the Artisan: Not the Author, but the Bookseller. Because the other [i.e. the author] just has to keep his mouth shut, After all that abominable noise,

361

362

Appendices That he has bored you with through [his] writing. I beg your pardon, Madame Royal, Who is without equal; I promise that I will better myself, Without further insulting you. If I have failed you with [my] words, May your displeasure enlist me Among those most unfortunate: I wish to suffer all with them, When you wish for my ruin Treat me like the Chinese Screen. New Year’s Eve (December 31, 1686)



Appendix 7.11

Translation of the Biography of Liu Dou 刘斗，清苑人。少习国书，善翻译，能得其精义，教习诸王世子。授兵部 心郎。积九载，擢宗人府。旋晋国史院学士，出抚甘肃。上疏陈边要，肃 邮政，垦荒田，清藩汉地界，悉荷嘉纳。后迁福建总督，与巡抚许世昌治 绩并称一时。时海寇频警，军兴旁午，斗戢兵筹饷，卒奏大功。八闽荐绅 勒石颂之。康熙五十七年卒，祀乡贤。17 Liu Dou was a man from Qingyuan [county in today’s Hebei province]. When he was young, he studied the [Manchurian] dynastic histories. He was good at translating, and [in his translations] he was able to obtain the precise/quintessential meaning [of the Manchu texts]. He instructed [the texts] to several generations of children of princes. He was awarded [the position of] Manchu interpreter at the Ministry of War. After nine years, he was promoted to the court of the Imperial Clan. Soon thereafter he advanced to scholar at the Academy of National History and went on to become inspector-general of Gansu [province]. He presented memorials to the emperor explaining the importance of borders, the regulation of the system of postal relay stations, the opening up of wasteland for farming, and the clearing up of boundaries [between] Han and foreign (non-Chinese) land. He took on all these responsibilities in a ­commendable way. Thereafter, he was promoted to governor-general of Fujian [prov17

Xu Shichang 徐 世 昌 (ed), Da Qing jifu xianzhe zhuan 大 清 畿 輔 先 哲 傳 (Beijing guji chubanshe, 1993), 54.

Appendices

363

ince]. Together with Inspector-General Xu Shichang, he achieved great administrative results and at that time/moment their names were praised jointly. At that time, sea pirates frequently caused great alarm. [When] the [local] armies responded in disarray, Liu Dou collected weapons and raised funds for army provisions, and [thereupon] the soldiers achieved great successes. The high officials of Fujian province had a stone inscription carved eulogizing him. He died in the fifty-seventh year of the Kangxi reign, and in his home town he was sacrificed to as [if he were] a sage.18



Appendix 8.1



Review of Confucius Sinarum philosophus, “Account of Books,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 16 (1686–1692): 377–378.

The famed Chinese philosopher called Cum-Fu-Cu, or as we call him Confucius being in so great esteem in his own nation and having never yet appeared in European dress cannot but be gratefully received by the curious especially since the version is performed by very ancient missionaries sufficiently accomplished in the knowledge of the Chinese character and at the command (as is said) of the King king of France. The subject of this book being foreign to our purpose is consisting chiefly of moral and political precepts and uphold the apophthegmes of the philosopher, I shall not enlarge thereon; only to recommend it, the translators assure that the memory of the author is still precious in China; and that in respect to him, his posterity after above 2200 years enjoy certain great privileges never granted but to the Royal family; is exempt from all taxes; and whosoever is advanced degree of Doctor, gives, as a mark of his respect to the great Confucius some present to the eldest of his family, who now 68 generations removed from him. As to the time when Confucius lived, ‘tis here precisely set down from the Chinese Annals: He was born Anno 551 ante Christum, and lived 73 years; so that he was contemporary­with the most ancient Greek Philosophers, and not long after Pythagoras, flourishing about the time of Tarquinius Superbus and the first Consulates, when Darius Hystaspis held the Persian Empire. He is said to be descended of a Branch of one of the most ancient Royal Families, which might not a little contribute to gain respect and credit to his writings. But what may not improperly find place here is, the Chinese Chronology, whereof such wonderful Relations have been brought into Europe: This matter the author of 18

I am grateful to Lennert Gesterkamp for helping me with this translation.

364

Appendices

this part of the Book, P. Couplet, seems well to have examined, and to have sifted the credible from the fabulous. They begin their Account with the Years of the Reign of King Fohi, who was the Founder of their Empire, about the Year before Christ 2952; rejecting, as ill grounded, and not to be believed, all that some Authors have said of the Times before, and following therein de Opinion of the best reputed Chinese Historians. This Fohi is said to have reigned 115 years, and to have invented the Character now in use in China, and his successor Xinnum is made to govern 140 years: These two Kings are by our Author, by reason of some manifest Fables in their History, reputed doubtful; wherefore they, as from a more certain Aera, choose to begin their Annals with the third King Hoam-Ti, and the Year before Christ 2697. This Hoam ti is said to have instituted the Sexagenary Cycles or Periods of 60 Years, according to which this Chronology is adjusted, and for want of which or the like, our Account of Time, both Sacred and Profane, is subject to too great Uncertainties; the Years of the Reigns of Kings, where the Months and Days are neglected, introducing great Errors of in length of Time which by this method are prevented. Since this Institution, there are now 73 Periods elapsed, and the 74 is current; in which time they account that there has been 234 Kings of China, sprung from o less than 22 several Royal Families; the King now reigning being the second of the Race of the Tartars, who within these 50 Years have throughly subjected China. In this Chronology are set down the beginnings of each Kings Reign, with a short Character of the Prince, and the principal of his Acts, with the most notable Contingencies of his Time: amongst the rest, several Eclipses of great Antiquity are recorded, whereby this account may be examined. The third King, Chuen-hio, is said to be the Author of the Chinese Kalender, and to have appointed the beginning of the Year to be on the New-Moon next the beginning of the Spring, which the Chinese account to be when the Sun is in 5gr. of Aquarium: this Account is now in use, tho’instituted 2500 Years before Christ. About 700 years after, the King Chim tam reduced the beginning of the Year to the Winter Solstice; but the former was restored about 100 Years before Christ, and is still continued. The Years of this Account are Luni-solar, or consisting of 12 Lunar Months, half of 30 days, and the rest of 29 days, with the Intercalation of 7 mon in 19 years, so that 7 years in each Cycle have 13 mon. This distribution of mon. was ordained by K. Yao above 2300 Years ante Christum, and is, if rightly intercalated, a more exact measure of the Coelestial Motions than our Julian Account or old Style, for that fails a day in 131 Years, whereas this Account of the Chinese (which is nearly the same with the Jewish) fails but a day in 225 years, or 4 days in 900 years; but since their method of Intercalation is not here expounded, I shall not say more in a matter of such Uncertainty. This here said, that the famous Wall of China, extending above 400 Leagues, was begun by King Xi-Hoam-Ti about the year ant. Chr. 210. to hinder the Incursions of the

Appendices

365

Tartars, which in all Ages have infected this Country. The following Cycles are more amply described, and towards the End, the Transactions of the Romish Missionaries are inserted, with a brief account of that great Revolution in China by the entire ­Conquest of that Kingdom by the Tartars. This Chronology ends with the year of Christ 1683, being the last of the 73d Cycle, since the King Hoamti; and contains in all 4380 years. ‘Twill be needless to advertise, that this Account places the beginning of the Chinese Empire long before the Deluge, according to the Holy Scriptures; wherefore if this be to be wholly rejected, as fabulous; or if not, how it is to be reconciled with the sacred Chronology, belongs more properly to the Disquisition of the Divines.



Appendix 12.1

From Papieren betrekkelijk de ambassade van de heren naar Peking, Littera F: Copien der bijlagen tot voorms. brief behorende met deszelver Translaten, No.1 Van Braam a Agote, Avril 2, 1794. Monsieur, je viens dans le moment recevoir une visite du Namhiyon de la ville avec un commission au Tsontock & il m’a chargé d’une commission pour vous que je lui ai promis d’exécuter et de lui en faire avoir la reponse dès que je l’aurai recue. La ­commission excite pour vous demander si du part du Roi ou de la Compagnie Espagnolle on pourras envoyer de Manilla un Ministre à la cour de Pekin en Mars (17)95. S’il ce seroit possible d’avoir de Manille quelques choses precieuses pour servir de presents à l’Empereur, ayez la bonté de penser sur ceci, et de me donner votre reponse par l’Expres qui vous remettre la presente—Je ne sai pour quelle raison en s’est adressé à moi, et non à Monsr. Fuentes votre second, si ce n’est que le Mandarin n’a pas voulu se render chez un second. Enfin mon ami je vous rend ceci comme je l’ai recue, si vous voudriez, vous pourrez vous même faire cette visite à la cour, comme m’a dit Monkua. Recevez mes assurances de respect tandis que par l’honneur de me nommer très sincerement. Monssieur votre très humble servant & ami. Van Braam Houckgeest. Canton 2 Avril (17)94—la Anglois partent le soir—

366

Appendices

Appendix 12.2

From Papieren betrekkelijk de ambassade van de heren naar Peking, Littera F: Copien der bijlagen tot voorms. brief behorende met deszelver Translaten, No.2 Agote naar Van Braam, April 5, 1794. Macao den 5 April 1794 Myn Heer van Braam! Myn waarde Heer! Ik heb uw brief van den 2 dezer maand ontfangen, en moet U seggen, na hem te hebben geleesen, dat na dat gy met myn Tweede Don Julie Fuenter zult hebben geraadpleegt, gy den Tsontok door middle van den Namhuij kunt antwoorden, dat wy geen magt hebben om zulk een Ambassade na Peking te zenden, maar dat zyn Excellentie de Tsontok kan versekert zyn, dat wy het gouvernement van Manilha zullen kennis geeven, van al wat gy by uw brief hebt gemeld en dat wy ons vleyen dat ingevalle dat gouvernement de Ambassade welvoeglyk en nodig zal oordeelen dezelve zal plaats hebben.

The Original Spanish Letter: Señor Van Braam Macao 5 de Abril de 1794. Mui (Muy) Señor mío: He recivido la apreciable carta de VM (Vuestra/vuesa Merced) de 2 del corriente y enterado de su contenido devo decirle que después de consultar con mi compañero Don Julian de Fuentes respondas à el Sontu por medio del Nanjaij que nosotros ni nos hallamos autorisados para poder asegurar la tal Embassada de Manila para Pekin; pero que S Exa. (Su Excelencia) puede estar persuadido que ­haremos presente al Illmo (Illustrisimo) Señor governador y capitán general de las Yslas Filipinas todo lo que VM me ha di(c)ho presente en su citada carta y que nos lisonjeamos que acaso aquél govierno si tiene por conveniente la hara. Nuestro Señor que aún muchos años B.L. M de VM su más atento seguro servidor Manoel de Agote.

Index of names Abdul of Gujarat 106 Ablyn, Cornelis 30, 31 Acosta, José de 40 Adam 215 Aemilius, Egbertus 332 Agote, Manuel de 280n10, 286–288, 298 Ahmed I, Ottoman Sultan 158 Aleni, Giulio 86, 338 Alexander the Great 27 Almeida, José Bernardo de 241 Alting, Willem Arnold 297 Alva, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of 122 Álvares, Jorge 29 Andrade, Tonio 7, 134, 135n14, 278n4 Apian, Peter (Petrus Apianus) 30 Arsdekin, Richard 244 Austria, Anne of 153n22 Azevedo, Manuel de 90 Azzi, Lodovico 231 Baeck, Juriaen 318 Barbuda, Luiz Jorge de 32 Barlaeus, Caspar 167 Barros, João de 29, 32 Basnage de Beauval, Henri 209 Bassart, Louis Isaacsz 140 Bassé, Jan 314 Bayle, Pierre 209 Belmessous, Saliha 133 Bencon 140 Bertin, Henri 243 Bin Wong 3 Blaeu, Joan 114, 117, 119 Bleecker, Adriaen Claesz 317 Blom, Frans 166 Blussé, Leonard 7, 65, 67, 108, 134, 278n4 Boerhaave, Herman 244 Boom, Jan Hendricksz 216 Bor, Pieter 39 Borch, Ole 123, 126, 316 Boreel, Willem 153 Borichius, Olaus see Borch, Ole Bourne, William 37 Bouvet, Joachim 242, 265

Boxer, Charles 13n31, 26, 46, 278, 296–297, 300 Brahe, Tycho 244 Brancaccio, Lavinia 8 Bray, François de 159 Brayne, Joan 322 Brinck, Ernst 329 Brockey, Liam 7, 226 Brouwer, Cecilia 338 Browne, Henry 280n10, 286–288, 294 Brunel, Oliver 36 Burch, Johan van der 141 Burke, Peter 5, 275 Cai Hongsheng 278n4, 294, 297, 301 Campen, Jan van 148n1, 175–176, 184n137, 278n4 Camphuys, Johannes 169 Caramuel y Lobkowitz, Juan 114 Caron (Jr), François 105n3 Caron (Sr), François 105n3 Castiglione, Giuseppe 254n4 Cavendish, Thomas 34, 38 Chang Lin 20, 281, 288, 284, 286–287, 292–295, 301 Charles de Lorraine, Prince 192 Chen Rui 228 Chen Xueyi 70–71 China, Dirck see Gerritsz Pomp, Dirck Chiswell, Richard 212 Chongzhen Emperor 94, 262n27 Christina of Sweden, Queen 124 Chuo Ermen 232 Cibot, Pierre-Martial 243, 249 Claesz, Cornelis 36, 39, 42–46, 48 Cleyer, Andreas 14n36 Clusius, Carolus 127, 330 Coen, Jan Pietersz. 140 Colvius, Andreas 110, 163n61, 340 Confucius 2, 19, 117, 119, 205–224, 319, 332–333, 336–337, 340–341, 363 Cook, Harold 13, 210 Copernicus, Nicolaus 244 Cordes, Paul 316 Costa, Ignácio da 90

368

Index of names

Couplet, Philippe 16, 117–119, 163n61, 177, 182, 208, 212, 214, 247, 318, 363 Cruijningen, Adriana van 318 Cruz, Gaspar da 30, 32, 84 Cunaeus, Johan 334 Cuper, Gijsbert 327–328 Cusance, Béatrix de 153

Fréret, Nicolas 243 Fresor 119n40, 163n61 Frisius, Gemma 30 Fuentes, Don Julie 298 Fujikawa, Mayu 107n10 Furtado, Francisco 91 Fuxi (Chinese King) 214

Dammans, Reijnier 137 Defoe, Daniel 191 Delisle, Joseph 243 Desbordes, Henri 209 Descartes 125, 244 Dez, Jean 247 Dias Junior, Manuel 87 Diemen, Antonio van 141 Ding Ning 8 Doesschate Chu, Petra ten 9 Domingo see Dominicus Fichinpai Dominicus Fichinpai 1, 2, 12, 111–112, 114, 124–125, 127, 338, 341 Doornik, Pieter van 260 Drake, Francis 34 Dufour, Philippe Sylvestre 174–175 Dunne, George 226 Duyvendak, J.J.L. 278n4, 279, 283

Gabiani, Giandomenico 93, 118 Galilei, Galileo 244 Gao Cai 72, 306 Gao Zai 74, 75 Gaubil, Antoine 243 Geng Jimao 180 Geng Jingzhong 180 Geng Zhongming 90 Genghis Khan 83 George iii, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 287 Gerbillon, Jean Franciscus 254n4 Gernet, Jacques 8 Gerritsen, Anne 9, 148n1 Gerritsz. Pomp, Dirck, also known as Dirck China 23, 34, 36, 40–42, 45, 46, 47 Gijssens, Margareta van der 328 Goes, Willem 315 Gog and Magog 27 Góis, Bento de 50 Góis, Gil de 227 Goliath 123 Golius, Jacob 1, 92, 112, 113, 125–126, 333–338, 341–342 Gombrich, Ernst H. 77n31 Gonqua 141–141 Gouvea, António de 91–92, 95–96, 99 Gouveia, Alexandre de 241, 245 Goyer, Pieter de 258 Grasskamp, Anna 9 Greslon, Adrien 93 Grimaldi, Claudio Filippo 230–231, 234, 240 Groenendijck, Barent 322 Grynaeus, Simon 30 Guanyin 274 Guérin, Hippolyte-Louis 243 Guignes, Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de 278–279, 284, 288, 296, 298–301 Gunder Frank, André 3 Gunn, Geoffrey 4

Ebilun 257 Edelheer, Jacob 126, 153, 154n26, 325 Edisbury, Joshua 184n135 Elizabeth I, Queen of England and Ireland 168 Ernst, Roetert 317 Escalante, Bernardino de 32 Euclid 244, 339 Fang Zhangyou 81 Fichinpai see Dominicus Fichinpai Filippucci, Francisco Xavier 230, 233 Flavius Josephus 27 Fontana, Michela 225 Fontaney, Jean de 269 Fonteyne, Philips de la 318 Foucquet, Jean-François 241–242, 248 Franklin, Benjamin 210 Frederick Henry of Orange, Stadholder of the Netherlands 154n31, 167 Frederik ii, King of Denmark 184n135

369

Index of names Guo Changgang 5 Guo Zhen 75, 305, 307 Gustavus ii Adolphus, King of Sweden 157 Haddad, John 278n4 Hakluyt, Richard 38 Halde, Jean-Baptiste du 83 Hallerstein, Augustin von 240 Halsbergius, Johannes 313 Hamme, Petrus Van 14n35 Hart, Roger 226 Hartoghveldt, Ignatius 113 Hartsinck, Pieter 105 He Jin 107n10 Heemskerck, Jacob van 313 Heere, Christina 318 Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich 8 Heidanus, Karel 338 Hellot, Jean 243 Henrietta Amalia von Anhalt Dessau 157, 160 Henry Casimir ii of Nassau Diez 160 Henskens, Godfried 326 Herdtrich, Christian Wolfgang Henriques 231 Herff, Cornelis van der 328 Hertel, Ralf 9, 168 Hertroijs, Frasie 14 Heurnius, Justus 332, 337, 341 Heurnius, Otto 332 Him Laoye 233 Homer 249 Hong Taiji 266 Hoorn, Johan van 121, 178n113, 323 Hoorn, Pieter van 255, 257–258 Hoornbeeck, Johannes 337 Hornius, Georg 124, 207, 217 Horthemels, Daniel 209 Hostetler, Laura 9 Houthaeck, Tymon 216 Houtman, Cornelis de 39, 39n72, 48 Houtman, Frederik de 39, 39n72, 48, 106n8 Hsia, Ronnie Po-Chia 7, 225 Huangdi (Chinese King) 214 Huangtaiji 87 Huttich, Johan 30

Huydecoper, Joan 139n31 Huygens the Younger, Constantijn 163n61, 166, 171, 173 Huygens, Christiaan 163, 169n88, 339–340 Huygens (the Elder), Constantijn 18, 148–204, 339 Huygens, Susanna Louise 177 Hyde, Thomas 211 Intorcetta, Prospero 208 Jackman, Charles 36 Jacobam 141 James ii, King of England, Scotland and Ireland 211 Jancon 140 Jartoux, Pierre 269 Jesus Christ 92, 209 Jin Guangzu 230–231 Jin Tingbiao 268 Johns, Christopher 9 Junius, Hadrianus 114, 337 Jussieu, Bernard de 243 Kangxi Emperor 16, 20, 181, 230, 254–277 Karelsen, Cornelis 31 Keevak, Michael 9, 96, 148n1 Kepler, Johannes 244 Keppel, Arnold Joost van 192 Keyzer, Jacob de 258 Kick, Willem 158 Kieu Kieu 233 Kim Laoye 230–233 Kirchberger, Anton Günther 115 Kirchberger, Johann Günther 115 Kircher, Athanasius 112, 112n23, 330, 335 Kley, Edwin Van 15 Kneller, Sir Godfried 119 Kobenloet 311 Kögler, Ignatius 240 Kong Youde 90 Kooijmans, Luc 139n31 Koxinga see Zheng Chenggong Kraij, Maria Justina 329 Kublai Khan 28 Kuchlinus, Jacobus 332 Kuruppath, Manjusha 9

370 Lach, Donald 15, 26 Lairesse, Pieter de 328 Lallemant, Gabriel 245 Lasso, Bartholommeo de 39 Laureati, Giovanni 11n26 Laven, Mary 225 Leclerc, Jean 209 Leerintveld, Ad 167n77 Leeuwenhoek, Antoni van 210 Lefébure, Guillaume-René, Baron de Saint-Ildephont 192 Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm 10 Levy Duarte, Manuel 324 Li Deyu 81 Li Jie 234 Li Jin 75, 305 Li Qin 70n25, 108 Li Que 305 Li Song 107n10 Li Zicheng 90, 92 Lin Faqin 278n4 Linschoten, Jan Huygen van 36–39, 42–48 Liu Debin 5 Liu Dou 178–179, 183, 186 Liu Songnian 268 Liu Wenming 4n7 Liu, Lydia H. 9 Lizong Emperor 269 Lodewijcksz, Willem 40, 48–49 Loehr, George B. 278n4 Longobardo, Niccolò 239, 248 Loon, Piet van der 336 Louis xiii, King of France 271–273 Louis xiv, King of France 182, 269–270 Louis, François 9 Loyola, Ignatius of 245 Lu Xiyan 325 Lu Mingjun 9 Lunsingh Scheurleer, Theodoor 164, 170, 184–185 Macartney, George, Earl of 20, 280, 287–292, 296–297 Maffei, Scipione 209 Magog 27 Mairan, Jean-Jacques Dortous de 243 Maire, Maximiliaan le 142

Index of names Manjushri 87 Marot, Daniel 187 Mars 117 Martini, Martino 1, 83, 90–94, 97–99, 111–114, 126, 213, 218, 220, 341 Mary ii Stuart, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland 18, 148–204 Masson, Philippe 340 Matelieff, Cornelis 169n85 Maurits van Nassau Siegen, Johan 138 Maurus, Johannes 1, 2, 12, 113 Medici, Maria de’, Queen of France 157 Mencius 2, 342 Mendoza, Juan González de 32, 41, 44–46, 48, 85 Mercator, Gerardus 31, 33, 212 Metcalf, Alida 133 Meteren, Emmanuel van 38 Miller, Peter 9 Minerva 127 Monconys, Balthasar de 329, 339 Monqua 281, 286–298 Monteiro, José 232 Montesquieu, Charles de 167 Moretus, Balthasar 327 Moses 217 Moucheron, Balthasar de 38–39, 49 Müller, Andreas 113n28 Mungello, David 8 Munqua 289–290, 296, 299 Münster, Sebastian 30 Musillo, Marco 9 Nadal, Hieronymo 244 Navarrete, Domingo 1n1 Neck, Jacob van 106, 305 Nederveen Pieterse, Jan 5 Newton, Sir Isaac 210, 244 Nicquet, Jan 314 Nieuhof, Johan 16, 169, 339 Nihusius, Bartholdus 330 Noah 190, 213 Nobel, Constantijn 255, 257, 260 Noël, François 338 Nunes Barreto, Melchior 227 Nunes, João 91 Nurhachi 87–88, 90

Index of names Oboi 243, 257, 262, 264 Oldenburg, Henry 215 Ortelius, Abraham 31–33, 38, 212 Ovid 167 Paaw, Pieter 127, 330 Palafox y Mendoza, Juan de 94–96, 98 Paludanus, Bernardus 45, 47–48, 114, 329 Pamburg, Herman van 321 Pan Xiu 73, 75, 305, 307 Panofsky, Erwin 77n31 Pantoja, Diego de 228 Parker, George 190–191 Pereira, Tomás 19, 225–237 Peres, Francisco 227 Pérez García, Manuel 4 Pet, Arthur 36 Peyrère, Isaac La 215, 217 Philip ii, King of Spain 27 Pierraard, Constantijn Jan 325 Pinto, André 227 Pires, Tomé 83 Plancius, Petrus 39, 42, 46, 48 Plano Carpini, John of 28, 38 Plato 249 Pliny 28, 31, 50 Polo, Marco 17, 28–29, 30, 46, 49, 83, 124, 212 Pomeranz, Kenneth 3 Pomp, Dirck see Gerritsz Pomp, Dirck Porret, Christiaen 332 Pot, Leonard 216 Prémare, Joseph de 242 Psalmanazar, George 18, 123–124 Ptolemy 28, 31 Qianlong Emperor 236, 268, 282, 292, 294–295 Rada, Martín de 47 Raket, David 323 Raket, Pieter 323 Reland, Adriaen 92, 112n23, 333, 340 Rembrandt van Rijn 119, 315 Rhijne, Willem ten 118, 121 Ribero Sanchez, Antonio Nunes 243 Ricci, Matteo 7, 19, 85–86, 208, 225, 228, 239, 241, 248, 337

371 Ricci, Vittorio 93 Riello, Giorgio 9 Rigaud, Hyacinthe 270 Rijn, Rembrandt van see Rembrandt Rougemont, François de 93, 113, 118, 208, 326 Roy, Gerard le 108 Roy, Nicolas-Marie 243 Royer, Jean Theodore 176, 178, 182 Rubens, Peter Paul 70n25, 108, 124 Rubruck, William of 28 Ruggieri, Michele 228 Rule, Paul 227 Rumsfeld, Donald 25 Rymel, Thomas 190 S. Pascual, Agustin de 236 Said, Edward 254 Salvi, Antonio 94 Sambiasi, Francesco 91 Sas, Theodorus 14n36 Scaliger, Josephus Justus 127, 215, 330–331 Schall von Bell, Johann Adam 7, 93, 239, 254n4, 262, 264, 327 Schijnvoet, Simon 324 Schillemans, Philips 140n39 Schipper, Kristofer 209 Schmalkalden, Caspar 116–117, 122 Schurman, Anna Maria van 110, 163n61, 340 Semedo, Álvaro de 91 Septalio 211 Settle, Elkanah 94 Shen Du 262n24 Shen Fuzong, Michael Alfonsus 117–119, 127, 163n61, 177–178, 212 Shen Yourong 70, 75, 306 Shi Dezheng 306 Shi Huashan 232 Shi Lin 232 Shi Tingzhu 232 Shi Wenbing 232 Shi Wensheng 232 Shunzhi Emperor 254n4, 262 Sibelius, Caspar 118 Sischou 137–138 Socrates 209 Solms-Braunfels, Amalia van, Princess of Orange 154n31, 157, 159, 167, 184, 339

372 Souza, Policarpo de 241 Spence, Jonathan 6 Spindlerus, Christoph 329 Stalker, John 190–191 Standaert, Nicolas 8 Staunton, Sir George 289–290, 296 Sudhana 273 Swammerdam, Jan Jacobsz 126, 333 Swieten, Daniel van 318 Tacitus 13 Taemsz, Cornelis 44, 45, 47 Tao Gongsheng 305 Teijlingh 137 Teixeira, Manuel 227 Terrentius, Johann Schreck 239, 244 Tessin the Younger, Nicodemus 170, 176, 187 Thévenot, Melchisédech 169n88, 178n114, 182–183, 188 Thomas, Antoine 14n35, 230, 240, 326 Tie Yeting 295 Tio Heng see Zhang Yi Titsingh, Isaac 20, 278–302 Tombe, Pieter de la 333 Tournefort, Joseph Pitton de 244 Trigault, Nicolas 14n35, 239, 326 Tum Laoye 233 Turcotti, Carlo Giovanni 233 Udemans, Godfried 106 Valente, Diogo 241 Van Braam Houckgeest, André Everard 20, 278–302 Van den Vondel see Vondel Vasconcelos de Saldanha, António 227 Veer, Gerrit de 46, 49 Veiga, Francisco da 231–232 Velten, Jan 121–123 Veneto, Marco see Polo, Marco Verbiest, Ferdinand 7, 14, 16, 19, 118, 225, 229–230, 240, 254n4, 264 Verburch, Nicolaes 328 Verburg, Nicolaas 137, 140 Verhaeren, Hubert 249 Verhage, Bartel 324 Verhagen, Leonard 140 Vidal, Diogo 232, 234

Index of names Vincent, Nathanael 212 Vinckenbrinck, Albert 122 Vlacq, Adriaen 216 Vondel, Joost van den 11, 94, 113–114, 124 Vossius, Isaac 124–125, 207, 215–216, 220, 325 Vrise, Nicolaes de 107–109, 338 Vulcanius, Bonaventura 114, 332 Waghenaer, Lucas Jansz. 33–34, 37, 40 Waldseemuller, Martin 31 Wallerstein, Immanuel 12 Wang Guowei 81 Wanli Emperor 73, 74, 228 Wardega, Artur 227 Warwijck, Wybrand van 75, 305 Wautier, Michaelina 111 Weber, Max 135 White, Bernard 133 Wijnkoop, Jan 323 William iii of Orange, King of England, Scotland and Ireland 155, 166191 William I of Orange, Stadholder of the Dutch Republic 31 Wills, John 7 Witsen, Jan 317 Witsen, Nicolaes 13, 119, 121, 125–128, 318–320, 327 Wu Hung 269 Wu Li 118 Xavier, Saint Francis 227 Xe Laoye 231–232 Xia Jiguo 4n7 Xiang Tuo 332 Xiazhuang 264n28 Xing Pu see Yppong Xing Wangzheng 233 Xing Yongchao 233 Xu Guangxi 225, 339 Xu Xueju 73–75 Xuanye 257n10 Yale, Elihu 184n135 Yan Shigu 69, 304 Yan Yinglong 74 Yanai Wataru 81 Yang Boda 268 Yang Chi-ming 9

373

Index of names Yang Guangxian 264 Yao Laoye 234 Yao Wei 179 Yao Wengguang 234 Yintai Lao 181 Yongle Emperor 261 Yongzheng Emperor 16, 20, 236, 265–277 Yppong 70n25, 107–109, 115, 127, 338 Yue Zhuang 148n1 Zanotti, Franceszo 244 Zhan Xianzhong 306–307

Zhang Xie 17, 57–81, 108, 304–312 Zhang Yi 73–75 Zhao Daying 250 Zhao Lian 294–295 Zhao Rushi 63 Zhao Zhiqian 230 Zheng Chenggong 258, 260–261 Zheng He 59 Zhongzai 295 Zhou Meiye 121, 125 Zhou Zhifan 306 Zhu Yuanzhang 85

Index of places Africa 13, 33, 40, 100, 210 Aleppo 35 Alkmaar 44 Amoy see Xiamen Amsterdam 31, 37n60, 40, 105, 109n17, 114, 121, 209, 216, 219 Annan 91 Antwerp 2, 14n36, 30, 38, 92, 126, 239, 325–327 Archangelsk 33 Arnhem 327 Ayutthaya 110 Babylon 215 Banda 41 Bantam 40, 48, 106, 108 Basel 30 Batavia 14n36, 15, 20, 61, 70, 75, 116–118, 121, 134, 164, 255, 280n10, 283, 297 Beijing 1, 10, 16, 19, 20, 29, 61, 75, 85–92, 227–236, 238–249, 255–275, 278–300 Bengal 255, 261, 284 Bocca Tigris 285 Borneo 32, 63 Brazil 13, 133, 137–138 Brussels 2, 327 California 3 Cambalu 31, 50 Canton see Guangzhou Cape of Good Hope 35, 37, 39 Cape Tabin 50 Caribbean 13 Cathay 6, 17, 28, 31, 36, 218 Ceylon 13, 32 Changsha 233 Changshan Xian 290 Chaozhou 232 Chinsura 284 Chittim 27 Cochinchina 91 Constantinople 158 Delft 44, 328 Den Bosch 167

Denmark 159 Deventer 328 Dieppe 33 Dingnan 232 Dordrecht 328 Dunkirk 138 Edam 135 Egypt 215 Enkhuizen 23, 36, 36n58, 37, 42, 44–46, 329 Forbidden City 19 Formosa 3, 11, 15–18, 65, 76–77, 108, 123, 132–147 France 33 Franeker 110 Fujian 1n1, 60, 63, 65, 73, 92, 178–181, 230 Fushun 87, 90 Fuzhou 92, 232 Gansu 362 Gibraltar 33 Goa 35–36, 39, 285 Gobi Desert 86 Gouda 29 Graft 138 Greenland 121 Guangdong 20, 230–231, 281 Guangxi 20, 230–231, 281 Guangzhou 29, 62n10, 84, 117, 169n85, 227, 280, 285–290, 301 Guilin 234 Guiyu 310 Haarlem 329 Haicheng 305 Hainan Island 91 Halle 209 Hangzhou 92 Hebei 68–69, 362 Heilongjiang 86 Henan 68–69, 90 Hoorn 44

375

Index of places India 30, 32, 35 Ioartam 106n8 Ireland 155 Italy 11 Jakarta see Batavia Japan 13, 24, 32, 35–39, 46, 59, 61, 63, 66, 90–91, 96, 105, 141–142, 156, 159, 230, 284 Java 13, 32, 40, 48, 300 Jiangxi 228 Jilin 86 Kara Sea 36, 38, 46 Kensington 190 Korea 68, 88 Lantau 169 Leeuwarden 160 Leiden 1, 113, 330–338 Leipzig 209 Leuven 6, 33, 338 Liangguang 228 Liaodong 88 Liaoning 86 Lille 338 Linqing 228 Lisbon 35, 39, 39n72, 89 London 19, 38, 124, 190, 209 Louvain see Leuven Lumen 310 Luzon see also Manila 61, 70, 73, 74, 76, 304 Lyon 175 Macao 24, 29, 42, 50, 60, 66–67, 89, 91–92, 118, 234, 238, 241, 259n19, 283–285, 304 Madagascar 106 Madras 184n135 Madrid 89 Magellan, Strait of 35, 37, 46 Malabar 106 Malacca 35, 41, 61, 76, 106n8 Manchuria 86–89, 99 Manhattan 13 Manila see also Luzon 1n1, 24, 60, 77, 94, 114n32, 141, 285, 298, 304 Medemblik 135 Mexico 60 Middelburg 107–108, 339

Mindanao 32 Moluccas 13, 32, 34, 41 Munich 92, 219 Nagasaki 61, 284 Nanhai 281 Nanjing 77, 228 Nantes 187 Nassau Strait 37 Ningyuan 90 North Cape 35 North Pole 37 Nova Zembla 35, 39, 49 Ormus 35 Oxford 336 Paris 98, 158, 209, 211 Parma 209 Pattani 70–71, 75, 108, 305, 313 Pearl River 279, 282, 285 Peking see Beijing Penghu Islands 65, 72, 74–76, 305, 310 Persia 13, 68, 215 Peru 41 Pescadores see Penghu Islands Pianyuan 233 Putuo, Mount 258 Qinghepu 87, 90 Qingyuan 362 Quinsay 30, 31 Rhine 41 Rome 89, 92, 99 Rosenborg 159 Russia 35, 238 Saint Petersburg 245 Sarhu 90 Scotland 155 Scythia 28, 30 Shaanxi 90 Shandong 68, 90, 241 Shanghai 4, 258 Shanxi 90 Shaozhou 228 Siam 13

376 Siberia 88, 119 Spice Islands see Moluccas Sri Lanka see Ceylon Sumatra 40, 106, 127 Tainan 135 Taiwan see Formosa Tarim Basin 69 Tartary 31, 81–103, 119 Tayouan, Bay of 134 Thailand see Siam The Hague 159–160, 175, 340 Tonkin 13, 140 Tripoli 35 Utrecht 110, 340–341 Venice 29, 135 Versailles 187 Vienna 92, 114–115 Vietnam 63 Vlissingen 108

Index of places Wales 184n135 Waygats 35, 37, 39 Wenzhou 92 West Frisia 23 Westphalia 71 Whampoa 282, 284 Windsor 119, 190 Wuqiao 90 Xiamen 63 Xinjiang 69 Yingde 280 Zeeland 16, 27, 33, 38 Zeelandia 133, 138 Zhangzhou 63, 66, 72, 77, 305 Zhaoqing 228 Zhejiang 92, 181, 236, 258, 293 Zhoushan 258