China: Influenced by and Influencing the West

"Western Knowledge Flowing into the East"

Since the 16th century, with the opening of sea routes and development of sea trade, the distance between the East and the West drew closer and closer. Europeans could come into direct contact with the mysterious Orient, discovery complexity and the richness of Chinese civilization, and the Maritime Silk Road was the link of communication between the two worlds.

European merchants and missionaries unceasingly arrived to promote and market their lifestyles, religion and sense of values, while the mainstream mentality of the Chinese empire responded mostly with defense, restriction and objection. The delineation between Chinese and foreign things and the notion that "our heavenly kingdom is perfect in every way" severely hindered the rational observation and awareness of the world outside of China.

From the Ming to early Qing, foreign missionaries, while carrying out missionary work, also introduced Western science and technology to the Chinese and ultimately advanced the development of science and technology for the Ming-Qing China.

Map-making

Well-known missionary Matteo Ricci was a literati, and at the same time, affluent in astronomy, calendric systems, geography, mathematics and engineering, among other knowledge and fields of study. After coming to China, he continually presented Western sciences to Chinese governmental officials and scholars, especially the knowledge of astronomy and geography. In Zhaoqing City, Matteo Ricci re-illustrated the map of the Western world, accompanied by Chinese annotations (this is the famous Complete Map of the Earth's Mountains and Seas). In 1601, after entering Beijing, Matteo Ricci made special efforts to illustrate the Complete Map of the Myriad Countries of the World, in which he divided the earth into "five continents" and "five zones" [terms still used today unlike the Western concepts of the seven continents and the seven seas]. The five continents were Asia, Europa, Libia (Africa), Americhe and Magellanica (Antarctica); the five zones were the north frigid zone, north temperate zone, tropical zone, south temperate zone and south frigid zone. And to suit the traditional concept and custom of China [that yellow represents the emperor and since yellow is central, the emperor must be in central position], Matteo Ricci placed China at the center of the map, making Emperor Wanli quite pleased. [Typically when a country makes a map, their country is centrally located.]

Source - Jesuit missionaries, like Fr. Matteo Ricci, and Adam Schaal von Bell (above) recognized that the coherence between the teachings of Christianity and those of Confucius, made Chinese civilization receptive to Western Science.

Matteo Ricci introduced to the Chinese that the earth was round, as well as concepts of the north and south poles, the equator, longitudes and latitudes, to name a few. The new knowledge completely overthrew "the heaven is round and the earth is square" theory, and widened the horizon of many Chinese.

After Matteo Ricci, there was Didace de Pantoja (1571-1618) who was ordered by Emperor Wanli to translate the European map (a work which remained unfinished). In 1623, Giulio Aleni (1582-1649) completed the An Extra Record of Geography, a book illustrating the customs and geography of the countries in five continents, a rather complete account of world geography. In the early Qing Dynasty, missionaries including Luigi Buglio (1606-1677) and Ferdinand Verbiest together compiled the Important Accounts of the Western World, specially devoting attention on Western countries, their people and routes, a book which complemented Matteo Ricci and Giulio Aleni's works.

Source - Beijing observatory, designed and built by Fr. Ferdinand Verbiest.

The Italian Jesuit missionary Martino Martini (1607-1661) on the basis of field surveys, combined academic achievements from Chinese and foreign scholars, published the New World Map and the Map of the Chinese Empire in Augsburg in 1654. The following year he published Novus Atlas Sinensis (New Atlas of China) in Amsterdam (it's contents were detailed and precise), and Martini was considered the "father of geographical studies on China" in the West.

In 1707, Emperor Kangx ordered missionaries Joachim Bouvet (1656-1730), Jean-Baptiste Regis (1663-1738) and Pierre Jartoux (1668-1720) along with Chinese scholars He Guodong, Ming Antu and others to organize a cartography team, which then traveled to every province of China. Using longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates, they drew a detailed map of China: Complete Map of the Empire of Kangxi, a cartographic work considered very advanced.

Calendars

In 1601, Matteo Ricci had recommended the Western calendar to Emperor Wanli in Beijing, and Matteo along with scholar Li Zhizao and others finished many works, including Illustrated Explanation of the Sphere and Astrolabe, by using the Western calendar, knowledge in mathematics and in geography.

Following Ricci, other Jesuit missionaries like Didace de Pantoja, Sabbathin de Ursis (1575-1620), Nicolas Longobardi (1559-1654) Jean Terrenz (1576-1630), Johann Adam Schall von Bell arriving in China were affluent in astronomical calendars. They served the Chinese government by translating western teachings, participated in the revision of the calendar, made astronomical equipment, and contributed to the reforms of the calendric systems of the Ming and Qing dynasties, which ultimately abolished the old system of Datong Calendar and implemented the new Shixian Calendar.

Other Developments

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, missionaries introduced other Western disciplines to China, some of which included physics, agronomy, biology, medicine, architecture, music, fine arts, linguistics, philosophy, and more. There were also hands-on executions in the areas of horology, firearms, gardening, to name a few.

China Influencing Europe and America

Since the 16th century, Europeans who visited China were mostly missionaries, and they introduced a great deal of Chinese culture to the West. The missionaries studied Chinese literature and were pioneering figures in Western Sinology, and profoundly influencing modern cultural development in Europe. The Jesuits periodically reported in writing to the Church about developments in China, and these writings were the most crucial materials for informing Europe about Chinese thinking and culture.

Chinese literary works translated by missionaries included The Doctrine of the Mean, The Great Learning, and The Analects of Confucius by Prosper Intercetta (1599-1666), Confucius Sinarum Philosophus by Philippe Couplet (1624-1692), The Four Books, Book of Filial Piety, and Learnings for Children by Franciscus Noel (1651-1729), Idea Generalis Doctrinae libri Ye Kin by Joachim Bouvet, The Book of History by Antoine Gaubil (1689-1759), and more.

In the 18th century, translated by Jesuit missionaries, as many as 15 volumes of Chinese works on history, science, arts, and customs appeared in Europe. And disseminators of Chinese culture beyond missionaries were the journal logs of navigators along with adventurers and merchants to China.

Evidence of Chinese influence beyond China

18th century French ideologist Denis Diderot (1713-1784), Baron d'Holbach (1723-1789) and leaders of the French Enlightenment movement Montesquieu (1689-1775) and Voltaire (1694-1778) appreciated traditional Chinese culture and were keen to absorb its soul. Voltaire especially was an advocator of Chinese philosophy, ethics, and politics, and in his eyes, Confucius was greater than Jesus. Voltaire dreamed of finding a "rational religion" in which Confucius served as its model.

Traditional Chinese thinking with "emphasis on agriculture" profoundly impacted "physiocratic" theories of French economists Francois Quesnay (1694-1774) and Anne Robert Jacques Turgot (1727-1781). German philosopher Leibniz (1646-1716) was fascinated by the Yi Jing (The Book of Changes) and diagram of the 64 hexagrams, which influenced his Monodology and Natural Law. The great Russian author Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) performed systematic studies on Chinese thinking and culture late in his life, particularly praising Lao Zi, whom he referred to as his "most adored philosopher".

 

 The eight trigrams and the 64 hexagrams

 

In the 1760s British classical economist Adam Smith (1723-1790) learned of Chinese physiocracy and policies through Francois Quesnay, and this knowledge became a principle ideology behind his classical masterpiece on political economy, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Wealth of Nations).

In the 17th and 18th centuries large quantities of Chinese silk, porcelain and tea in fad proportions were shipped to Europe, along with household items like fans, sedan chairs, wallpapers, and garments, Eastern cultural additions which brought a poetic and fresh feeling to the West. 

 

Pair of large imari vases

From the 1770s to the 1780s, the pinnacle of "Chinese fashion" manifested in consumer fashion as well as in art style. The art style was a rebellion and negation against the Baroque art style that dominated Europe before the 18th century. This new style called "Rococo", originating from the French word "rocaille," which means having the characteristics of fineness, lightness, flamboyance, intricacy and dynamism. This style primarily influences landscape architecture that advocated Chinese fresco with floral patterns, home furniture with Chinese flower and bird paintings, Chinese prints, etc. Rococo art was popular in Europe for about a century until neoclassicism in the 1760s emerged and gradually became the mainstream art of Europe.

 

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Text Source:

 

This fascinating selection was taken from Li Qingxin's 2006 book "Maritime Silk Road", translated by William W. Wang, and published by China Intercontinental Press, pp. 183-189. An absolute read for the historian!

Sailing Alone around the World

Captain Joshua Slocum, born in Nova Scotia in 1844 and who later became an American citizen, had been lured by the sea his entire life. At 14 he ran away to work as a cook on a fishing schooner and two years later when his mother died he left home for good, enlisting as an ordinary seaman on a British merchant ship bound for Ireland. Then from Britain he shipped again sailing for China, the Philippines, and Singapore, and by 18 he had been awarded the certificate of second mate.

Around 1870 he was given command of a merchant ship that he sailed out of San Francisco to Japan, China, the Spice Islands, and Sydney Australia, where he met an American woman, Virginia Albertina Walker, who he married. The two were well matched for ship life and together for the next 13 years sailed the world, with Virginia giving birth to and schooling their seven children (only four survived) on the various ships that Slocum commanded. 

But this ideal marriage to the sea and a wife did not last and Virginia took ill and died. Two years later Slocum married his cousin Henrietta aka Hetty and with a crew of 10, including two of Slocum's sons, the newlyweds set out for South America. The voyage was conflicted with problems -- a cholera outbreak, a smallpox epidemic, and a mutinous crew before finally running aground near Paranagua, Brazil. Stranded, Slocum salvaged what he could from the wreck and constructed the Liberdade, a 35-foot long "canoe" that he sailed for 5,500 miles home, the adventure that he later published in his Voyages of the Liberdade, 1890. Hetty was completely disenchanted with ship life, and on their honeymoon voyage at that, and the forever-after land-loving Hetty and old sea-wolf Slocum stayed married but pretty much only in name.

With the advent of steamships, sailing the seas became steaming the seas, yet old-school Slocum refused to adjust. In 1892 Slocum was offered the rotting shell of a 37-foot long oyster boat, the Spray, which Slocum rebuilt from the keel up. And with this oyster boat Slocum determined to circumnavigate the earth alone, a feat emphatically expressed as impossible.

Many books by Joshua Slocum titled Sailing Alone around the World. I read the Barnes and Noble 2005 edition. It came with a timeline of Slocum's life juxtaposed with world events affecting him (e.g. the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898 affecting his solitary return) and a glossary of sea terms.

In April 1895 Slocum sets sail aboard the Spray. He had almost no money and lacked critical navigational equipment. The last leg of his journey he even lacked a map as the goat that had kindly been given him as a companion chewed through his ropes, equipment and seemed to have a palette partial for maps. On June 27 Slocum sails into Newport, Rhode Island, completing the world's first solo circumnavigation, a passage of 46,000 miles. 

To earn money for his journey, along the way at various ports he would entertain people in halls and informal places with his stories, charging them a small fee. At some of these ports he would stay but a few days or even hours while at others he would stay for extended periods of time, like at the southern tip of Africa where he was given a free rail pass and just wandered, enjoying the sites, for three months. On his return to the States, he achieved great fame and his adventures printed first as a serial and later as a book, Sailing Alone around the World, were well received. With the proceeds he was able to purchase a house on the Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. 

Yet, the sea still called and restless Slocum sailed off to the Caribbean for the winter of 1905, returning with rare Caribbean orchids for President Theodore Roosevelt. On November 14, 1909, the aging Slocum in the aging Spray set sail for South America, and the story of him and his Spray, which to this day is one of the most replicated boats due to its reliable and well-balanced construction, disappeared. 

Sailing Alone around the World (Barnes and Nobles 2005), p 230-231

Amitav Ghoush: The Hungry Tide

The story unfolds in an immense archipelago of islands, the Sundarbans, between the sea and the plains of Bengal on the easternmost coast of India. Without clear borders to divide salt and fresh waters and with islands criss-crossed with man-eating tigers and huge crocodiles, in decades past a visionary Scotsman founded a utopian settlement where people of all races, classes and religions could live together. However, with the arrival of the good-intentioned Piyali Roy of Indian descent but still stubbornly American, and her scholarly pursuit of the rare river dolphins, the ecobalance of quiet community begins to fragment.

As as cetologist seeking the rare and elusive river dolphins, Piya hires Fokir, an illiterate peasant man, to guide her through the backwaters to map out the dolphin's territory, while Kanai, an older businessman with some infatuation with Piya's youth and drive becomes her translator and mentor of sorts, and so the tides of life begin to turn.

The women in the fishing village where Piya ended up were unusual in that during the day they were devoid of marital reds. Because fishing took the lives of many men, women in their twenties and more fortunately in their thirties would become widows, and so as soon as their men left to go fishing (what other livelihood could there be in this remote island region?), the women changed to saris of white mourning, removed the bangles from their wrists and washed the vermilion from their hair as if to ward off the evil eye and hold misfortune at bay. Shedding the symbols of marriage would have been unthinkable in other parts of India, but here it was done with hopes of preventing bad luck.

It was the freshwater Gangetic dolphins, discovered by William Roxburgh, that were said to explicitly delight in the freshwaters of the Ganges and cavort in the labyrinth of rivers and creeks in the South and Southeast of Calcutta that drew Piya to the backwaters. Once in contact with Fokir who knew the tide waters intimately and had an immediate connection to Piya, she was taken to see the rare elusive dolphins. Orcaella were of two kinds: one liked the salt waters of the coast while the other preferred the rivers and fresh water. There seemed to be no biological difference but rather a choice based on habitat selection, and while the numbers of salt-water preferring dolphins were in the thousands, those preferring the fresh waters were in the mere hundreds and were a fast dwindling breed.

Before coming to these tide waters, Piya had already spent three years working as an Orcaella specialist. She had worked everywhere the Irrawaddy dolphins were found - Burma, northern Australia, the Philippines, coastal Thailand, everywhere in fact except where the first entered the record-book of zoological reckoning: India. Now she was here.

Piya learns more about herself and her choice in studying cetology as she encounters the strangely remote island world of ebbing salt waters. Born in July, her zodiac sign is the crab and she had always wondered why, of all the many interesting animals in the world, a society would choose to honor a crab every twelve years, but in the coastal labyrinth of islands she begins to understand. Crabs are launderers of the mud, scrubbing it grain by grain. Their feet and sides are lined with hairs forming microscopic brushes and spoons. They are a sanitation department and a janitorial team rolled into one - they keep the mangroves alive by removing leaves and litter, and without them the mangroves would choke in their own debris. In fact, they comprise a fantastically large portion of the coastal waters biomass. They likely outweigh the trees and the leaves. They are keystone builders and caretakers of the biomass and should therefore have more recognition than crocodiles, tigers and dolphins who seem to get by far the largest portion of research attention. Ah, and if Fokir hadn't been in pursuit of crabs, she wouldn't even be aware of the vicinity of the dolphins. Maybe the ancients had gotten it right after all - perhaps it was the crabs that rule the tide of her destiny.

Ah, but tigers played a big role to in the balance of the ecosystem. The Sundarbans were remote and official research was sketchy but the wife of the Scotsman who had initially established the utopia had been keeping records for years on tiger killings and it was her guess that among the network of islands, one person a day was killed by tigers. Though the number was shocking, the woman referenced 4,218 humans killed by tigers in lower Bengal between 1860 and 1866. The number was compiled by J. Fayrer, the English naturalist who coined the phrase "Royal Bengal Tiger".

The story ends with the death of Fokir, the mourning of Piya, her departure and finally her return "home", the surprising term she used for the Indian backwaters where she had so recently been emotionally traumatized in. But in her defense, she says she came "home" because to her home was where the dolphins were. The tides had gone out, and yet there should be no surprise that they have returned.

Trash Island

 

This phenomenal presentation presented by three of my freshmen Academic English students -- Park Soo A, Kim Hyuk, and Han Ji Hyeon -- has been published here by their permission. They did an absolutely wonderful job on their final presentation, so I asked to share it with others :) Well researched!

Easter Island Orongo Birdman Culture

Rapa Nui National Park was created by means of the Supreme Decrees Number 103 on January 16th of 1935, of the Ministry of Lands and Colonization and it is under CONAF administration. All the island territory was declared Historic Monument which means that it is protected by the Law 17.288 of National Monuments. The park was declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1995. There is always a park guard in the following places : Orongo, Tahi, Rano Raruku volcano and Anakena beach.

What is Orongo?

It is a ceremonial center built for religious practices related to the cult of the Manutara and bird-man (tangata manu) competition. This village was seasonably used, that is, people stayed here for some weeks at the beginning of the spring every year. The one room dwellings built here were not present in other parts of the island. Although the architecture clearly reflects that of boat-houses (hare-paenga), the building system is similar to control towers (tupa). It is believed that this site began to be used by the end of the 16th century; however, the bird-man cult seems to have become more relevant later.

What is the importance of the site?

The cult of the ancestors, represented in the great quantity of carvings of megalithic statues or moai, was one of the most important characteristics of the prehistoric Rapa Nui culture and its manifestations are spread all over the island. However, from the 16th century Rapa Nui began to create megaliths as a religious and political expression and that is how a new religious cult emerged - with the god Make-Make and beliefs closely related to fertilization, spring and the arrival of migratory sea birds. Thus, Orongo became an essential part in the life of Rapa Nui people, representing a new era in the history and culture of this society and where a different religion and political system gradually prevailed over the former one, and marked what happened until the end of the 19th century.

What was the Tangata-Manu ritual about?

It was an annual ceremony in which the chiefs from different tribes or lineages, or their representatives (hopu) came to obtain the first egg of the sooty term or Manutara. This migratory bird nests on the islet Motu Nui, the biggest of the three islands, in front of the Orongo site. Actually, the bird has become protected as is Rapa Nui itself, for its number have been decimated by human exploitation, the elements and its fragile breeding ground and breeding habits.

In spring, different groups from all over the island travelled to Orongo and prepared for the bird-man activities. When competition started, competitors climbed down the cliff of Rano Kau and swam up to Motu Nui. There they stayed days or weeks waiting for the arrival of manutara, until one of them managed to find one egg, which he wrapped in a hand-woven basket attached to his head and then swam against the mighty current back to the foot of the Orongo cliff, which he climbed. The first man back (not the first to find the Manutara egg, but the first one to bring a Manutara egg back safely, was proclaimed the next bird-man was for the next year he became like a diety. When the competitor arrived back with a perfect egg and presented it (to whom?), the Tangata Manu title was conferred on him, or the chief to whom the competitor represented. The new bird-man or Tangata Manu was considered sacred or tapu and he remained in seclusion for one year. During that year, he would remain in one of the elliptical cliff dwellings, be fed by his family and villages, could not cut his hair or nails, and must be regarded and act like a holy man. The last ceremony was celebrated in 1867.

In this ceremonial village, not only archaeological vestiges related to the bird-man (Tangata Manu) cult are preserved, even more, a great number of Rapa Nui art and culture is presented here. Orongo is one of the main Polynesian rock art places. It is also one of the most stunning views in the Rapa Nui National Park.

[1] From here a general view of the village can be obtained, as well as the offshore rocky islets (motu) which are closely related to the Orongo ritual activities. The orientation of the houses face the motu. Motu Nui is the largest and it is where Manutara or the sooty tern nests.

[2] Two unrestored houses give an idea of how these dwellings used to be before they were rebuilt between 1974 and 1976.

[3] In this partially restored house of stone masonry, the way of building can be observed - a unique long and narrow room of elliptical shape, with thick double walls made of stone laja [sic] filled with earth. The roof was made of larger angular slabs which overlapped, and which finally consisted of a turf cover.

[4] Most social activities done in Orongo were done in front of these dwellings, in terraces clearly defined by a low stony wall. Groups from different tribes met here during many weeks dancing and singing songs related to the Tangata-Manu ritual. In spite of all the artifacts, little is known about the true origin and significance of this ancient ceremony.

[5] In one of these houses, there was a famous Moai Hoa Haka Nana La, statue of 2.5 meters high, made of basalt and adorned with petroglyphs related to the Tangata-Manu ritual. This moai was taken to England in 1968 and today is exhibited in the British Museum.

[6] The central area of the ceremonial culture has houses constructed that take advantage of the natural unevenness of the peak. Some dwellings had ornamental walls with paintings of the Orongo ritual such as sea birds, ceremonial oars called ao. Some painting have been removed and are on exhibit in various museums.

[7] This area, the Mata Ngarahu, is where the ceremonial activities were the focus of attention during the bird-man competition. Hundreds of petroglyphs of Tangata-Manu, Make-Make god and Komari were carved on the stones here in testimony of intense ritual activities related to the bird-man cult. According to the island tradition, priests in charge of the ceremony stayed in these houses waiting for the results of the competition. At present, for security reasons a maximum of five people at one time can stand on this cliff lip which has no guard rails or other barriers from the sea below. The rather preposterous film Rapa Nui, which tries to explain some of the unknown myths of the island as well as weave in a sappy romance, shows Kevin Costner as the bird-man jumping off of this cliff to the ocean fa-ar below. If someone jumped from such a height, they would almost certainly be injured or killed, but from this site, the jump would absolutely be suicidal as the cliff is not as sheer as it looks but flairs out slightly, making it possible for the returning competitors to scale the near-sheer but very craggy cliff. People on Rapa Nui enjoy showing the movie to visitors, who flock in to see it, but they deride most of the movie ... and use it as a come-on to the sites, explaining what was wrong in the movie.

[8] Keho, or basalt stone for building a house, is located on the eastern side of the Orongo area, and it is here that basalt slabs were quarried to build the village huts (hare) which also employed straw (totora) in the construction. The basalt created strong structures and were resistant to the strong winds always blowing here.

[9] Although this site is in ruins, a central platform with a ramp to a small ceremonial altar (ahu) are still distinguishable. Pieces of rock from the Rano Raraku volcano belonging to a moai once erected here still remain in pieces around it.

source

Throughout the Orongo site are Make-Make or rock carvings of the cult's god.