China in European Encyclopaedias, 1700-1850

China in European Encyclopaedias, 1700–1850

European Expansion and Indigenous Response Edited by

George Bryan Souza, University of Texas, San Antonio Editorial Board

João Paulo Oliveira e Costa, CHAM, Universidade Nova de Lisboa Frank Dutra, University of California, Santa Barbara Pedro Machado, Indiana University, Bloomington Malyn Newitt, King’s College, London Michael Pearson, University of New South Wales Alexandra Pereira Pelucia, CHAM, Universidade Nova de Lisboa José Damião Rodrigues, University of the Azores

VOLUME 9

China in European Encyclopaedias, 1700–1850 By

Georg Lehner

LEIDEN • BOSTON 2011

On the Cover: Louis Moréri, Le grand dictionnaire historique, vol. 4 (Paris 1759) p. 337 (s. v. ‘Cycle chinois’). Austrian National Library, Vienna; shelfmark 214618-E. Alt.4. Reproduced with permission of the Austrian National Library, Vienna. The sexagesimal cycle of Chinese chronology attracted the attention of seventeenthcentury Jesuit missionaries. Philippe Couplet SJ published his Tabula chronologica Monarchiae sinicae juxta cyclos annorum, ab anno ante Christum 2952 ad annum post Christum 1683 (Paris 1686) including a table “Paradigma cycli sexaginta annorum ex decem alphabeti litteris, & duodecim horarum numeris concinnatum” (p. xiv). Illustrating the combination of the 10 heavenly stems and the 12 earthly branches to form 60 unique combinations, this table was reproduced in Le Grand Dictionnaire historique from the 1690s editions up to the last edition published in 1759. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lehner, Georg. China in European encyclopaedias, 1700-1850 / by Georg Lehner. p. cm. — (European expansion and indigenous response, ISSN 1873-8974) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-20150-7 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. China—Civilization— Historiography—Europe—History—18th century. 2. China—Civilization— Historiography—Europe—History—19th century. 3. Historiography—Europe— History—18th century. 4. Historiography—Europe—History—19th century. 5. Encyclopedias and dictionaries—History and criticism. I. Title. II. Title: China in European encyclopedias, 1700–1850. III. Series. DS734.7.L39 2011 951.0072’04—dc22 2011010108

ISSN 1873-8974 ISBN 978 90 04 20150 7 Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. 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.

CONTENTS Preface ................................................................................................. Abbreviations ..................................................................................... Introduction ........................................................................................

ix xi xiii

Chapter One Backgrounds of Knowledge .................................. 1.1 Analyzing European Discourse(s) on China .................. 1.2 Interactions between Europe and China ......................... 1.3 Ordering Knowledge on Non-European Regions .......... 1.4 Exploring the History of Encyclopaedias—Current Trends .................................................................................... 1.5 Encyclopaedias in Cross-cultural Perspective ................. 1.6 European Encyclopaedias, 1700–1850 .............................

1 1 8 15

Chapter Two Formations of Knowledge .................................... 2.1 Knowledge from China: Chinese Sources for European Encyclopaedias ................................................... 2.2 European Sources on China .............................................. 2.3 Disseminating China: The Role of the European Republic of Letters ............................................................... 2.4 On the Authors of Entries on ‘China’ .............................

67

32 39 50

67 73 96 100

Chapter Three Canonizing China ................................................ 3.1 Describing China: Structures of Entries on ‘China’ ...... 3.2 Updating Information on China ....................................... 3.3 Visualizing China: Knowledge in Plates, Diagrams and Tables ..................................................................................... 3.4 Explaining China: Comparisons with Europe and Other Parts of the World ................................................... 3.5 Simplifying China: The Dissemination of Stereotypes ...

105 105 117

125 130

Chapter Four Geography .............................................................. 4.1 Defining China: What’s in a Name? ................................ 4.2 Extent, Boundaries and Political Geography .................. 4.3 Natural Resources ................................................................ 4.4 China’s Position in the World ...........................................

143 143 148 154 158

119

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Chapter Five Population and Society .......................................... 5.1 Origin of the Chinese .......................................................... 5.2 Chinese Society .................................................................... 5.3 Material Culture ...................................................................

165 165 174 185

Chapter Six Government, Politics and Economy ..................... 6.1 The Administration of China ............................................ 6.2 The Laws of China ............................................................... 6.3 The Armed Forces of the Qing Empire ........................... 6.4 Revenue and Money ............................................................ 6.5 Sino-Western Trade Relations ...........................................

195 195 209 212 214 217

Chapter Seven History ................................................................... 7.1 Classifying the Chinese Past .............................................. 7.2 Chinese Chronology as a Challenge to European Scholarship ............................................................................ 7.3 Encyclopaedic Visions of the Chinese Past ..................... 7.4 Ever-changing Contemporaries of China: Two Centuries of Latest Events ........................................ 7.5 Chinese Personal Names .................................................... 7.6 Historiography in China .................................................... 7.7 Assessing the History of China .........................................

229 229

245 250 252 253

Chapter Eight Language and Literature ..................................... 8.1 Language and Writing ........................................................ 8.2 Chinese Literature ...............................................................

259 259 279

Chapter Nine Philosophy and Religion ...................................... 9.1 Chinese Philosophy ............................................................. 9.2 Popular Religion .................................................................. 9.3 Confucianism and the ‘Ancient Religion’ of the Chinese .................................................................................. 9.4 Buddhism .............................................................................. 9.5 Daoism ................................................................................... 9.6 Christianity ........................................................................... 9.7 Muslims and Jews ................................................................

291 291 295

236 239

301 304 307 310 317

contents

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Chapter Ten Arts, Sciences, and Technologies ......................... 10.1 Natural Sciences: Astronomy and Mathematics .......... 10.2 Chinese Medicine .............................................................. 10.3 Architecture and Horticulture ......................................... 10.4 Painting and Sculpture ..................................................... 10.5 Music ................................................................................... 10.6 Agriculture .......................................................................... 10.7 Chinese Inventions ............................................................

321 321 327 331 341 343 346 348

Conclusion ..........................................................................................

355

Bibliography ........................................................................................ Encyclopaedias ............................................................................... English ........................................................................................ French ......................................................................................... German ....................................................................................... Other works cited ..........................................................................

365 365 365 366 367 368

Index ....................................................................................................

397

PREFACE The present study is the result of a research project on the discursive construction of China in European encyclopaedias carried out during the years 2006–2008 at the Department of History at the University of Vienna, Austria. The project received generous funding (project no. P18669-G08) from the Austrian Science Fund (Vienna), including a travel grant for research at the British Library (November 2007). Writing of the main parts of this book took place between September 2008 and July 2009. Preliminary findings of the project have been presented at a symposium on the history of Sino-Western Cultural relations at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou (China) in October 2006 and at the 30th German Oriental Congress held at Freiburg/Breisgau (Germany) in September 2007. Summaries of the main results of the project have been presented at a symposium on the formation of China in the writings of German and French nineteenth-century intellectuals (“Une Chine partagée. Présence de la Chine dans les Lettres françaises et allemandes du début du XIXe siècle au début du XXe siècle”, 13–16 mai 2009) organized by the Centre d’Études des Relations et Contacts Linguistiques et Littéraires (Université de Picardie, Amiens) and held at the Municipal Library (Bibliothèque Louis Aragon) at Amiens (France). In June 2009 a lecture on the most important findings of the project was given at the Department of History at the University of Vienna. During the academic year 2009/2010 the project “Hidden Grammars of Transculturality—Migrations of Encyclopaedic Knowledge and Power” set up by the Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context: Shifting Asymmetries in Cultural Flows” at Heidelberg University, Germany, provided further opportunities to present and discuss aspects of this book: parts of Chapter One on the occasion of the workshop “Encyclopaedia at the Crossroads: Formation of a Genre in East and West” (Heidelberg, 4 February 2010) and an overview on the presentation of China in nineteenth century European encyclopaedias at the international conference “Between East and West: Transcultural Flows of Encyclopedic Knowledge” (Heidelberg, 21–23 April 2010).

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In sharing a common interest in the history of Sino-Western relations, my sister Monika read an earlier version of the whole book. Her numerous suggestions not only influenced the overall structure and organization of the text but also helped to improve a great variety of details. However, responsibility for any errors and for remaining inconsistencies is mine. May 2010

Georg Lehner

ABBREVIATIONS Throughout this volume, abbreviations are rarely used. They mainly relate to biographical information: b. d. fl. r.

born deceased floruit (i.e. flourished) reigned

The following abbreviations refer to Roman Catholic religious orders: MEP OFM OP OSA SJ

Missions Étrangères de Paris Ordo Fratrum Minorum (Franciscan order) Ordo Praedicatorum (Dominican order) Ordo Sancti Augustini (Augustinian order) Societas Jesu (Society of Jesus, i.e. the Jesuit order)

The titles of encyclopaedias are given in the most widely used forms. The bibliography provides full bibliographic details for each of these works. For two German encyclopaedias, the Allgemeine Encyklopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste (General Encyclopaedia of Arts and Sciences; throughout this book referred to as Ersch/Gruber) and Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon, references include information on the respective section and volume. Roman numerals refer to the section, Arabic numerals indicate the volume. To these data, the year of publication is added. For example: Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) refers to the second part of the seventh volume in the first section of this encyclopaedia. Supplementary volumes of encyclopaedias have been referred to in the form S1 (i.e. Supplement, vol. 1), S2 (i.e. Supplement, vol. 2), and so forth.

INTRODUCTION For centuries, Europeans learned about China and the Chinese primarily from printed books. Travelogues, missionary writings and collections of letters, accounts of colonial enterprises in Southeast Asia, diplomatic embassies to China, and scholarly contributions reflected the intellectual interest of Europeans in things Chinese.1 From time to time, these rather extensive publications were made the subject of major syntheses to show the state of knowledge on China and the Chinese. Mainly based on major syntheses, but also including other publications, European encyclopaedias presented condensed summaries of European knowledge on China. These summaries, no matter how extensive they may be, serve as an indicator for the state of European perceptions of and knowledge on China. This book will explore how English, French, and German encyclopaedias dealt with things Chinese, how European knowledge on China evolved throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and how it found its place in general encyclopaedias. For the first time, extensive use of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century English, French, and German encyclopaedias is being made to analyze the formation of European knowledge on China. Encyclopaedias had two functions for the evolution of European images of China. They multiplied and disseminated information contained in early Western books on China, and they standardized noteworthy information on China. These processes of dissemination and standardization took place in ever-changing contexts in Europe and in China. The necessity of ‘explaining’ China (often seen as the ‘other’) to fellow Westerners has been (and still is) a major challenge for European observers. In historical and in contemporary perspective, the difficulty to give a concise description of China becomes obvious. This may be due to the fact that most Westerners generally seemed to be rather unprepared for the perception of the gigantic dimensions of the

1

Marcia Reed, Paola Demattè, “In Search of Perfect Clarity”, in: China on Paper. European and Chinese Works from the Late Sixteenth to the Early Nineteenth Century; edited by Marcia Reed and Paola Demattè (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2007), 1–7.

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predominant East Asian empire. Shifting images of China—as mirrored in encyclopaedias—show the persisting inability of Europeans to cope with dimensions of territorial extent, number of inhabitants, highly developed civilization, and vast literary tradition. This inability of the observers is reflected in the emergence, evolution, and dissemination of stereotypes and prejudices concerning China and ‘the’ Chinese. The formation of knowledge on non-European regions by Europeans has been a trans-European process and is closely related to the intellectual history of early modern Europe. Communication among the learned prepared the ground for the perception of non-European cultures. This perception took place in a multi-lingual environment. Translations of early modern European reports on Asia in general and on China in particular were printed at least in the then most widely used European languages (Spanish, Italian, French and German). The Historia de las cosas más notables, ritos y costumbres, del Gran Reyno de la China (1585) written by Juan González de Mendoza OSA (1545–1620) saw editions in seven different languages, Martino Martini’s (1614–1661) De bello Tartarico, a first-hand account of the fall of the Ming, was published in nine different languages (Latin, German, English, Spanish, Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish). The Description . . . (1735) published by Jean Baptiste Du Halde (1674– 1743) saw editions in French, English, German and Russian.2 Apart from the accumulation of European knowledge on China, encyclopaedias offer a wealth of information on practices within the European ‘republic of letters’. Depending on their language skills, English, French, and German editors of encyclopaedias could make use of Latin, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, English, Dutch, and German works on China as well as of translations of these texts available in several other European languages. A close examination of fragments of discourse will help to show modes and extent of intraEuropean flows of knowledge. The study of these flows as well as a comparative analysis of entries on China in English, French and Ger2 Peter Burke, “Translating histories,” in Cultural Translation in Early Modern Europe, ed. Peter Burke and R. Po-chia Hsia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 129 and 140. For the editions of works of González de Mendoza and Du Halde see Henri Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica. Dictionnaire bibliographique des ouvrages relatifs à l’Empire chinois, 5 vols. (Paris: Guilmoto, 1904–1922; reprint, Martino Publishing: Mansfield Centre CT 1997), cols. 8–16 (González de Mendoza) and 45–52 (Du Halde).

introduction

xv

man encyclopaedias examines “the links between various historically constituted formations.”3 The processes resulting in the formation of general knowledge on China reflect a broad variety of cultural transmissions. These cultural transmissions took place not only in the transmission of information (texts, artefacts, natural resources) between China and Europe but also in the spread of China-related information in intra-European communication and exchange. The first part of this book places the efforts of compiling, arranging, and presenting knowledge on East Asia in general and China in particular within the context of European discoveries, explorations, descriptions, and perceptions of the wider world. Concerning China, continuous processes of migrations of knowledge can be traced back to the early sixteenth century. To connect the formation of ‘encyclopaedic’ knowledge on China to the main directions in the evolution of early modern European organization of knowledge, Chapter One (Backgrounds of Knowledge) provides an overview on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century ways of ordering and classifying information on non-European regions. Universal geographies (mostly called cosmographies by sixteenth-century Europeans), historical and geographical dictionaries, and encyclopaedias were intended to provide ready reference. Against the background of current trends in research on encyclopaedias the chapter presents the most important stages in the history of European encyclopaedias from the end of the seventeenth- to the middle of the nineteenth-century. Chapter Two (Formations of Knowledge) focuses on the sources for the presentation of information on China in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century European encyclopaedias and on persistence and change in the use of these sources. These formations of knowledge on China and the wide range of sources used by contributors to encyclopaedias will be presented in a comparative overview based on bibliographic references of selected encyclopaedias. The examination of encyclopaedias will show how long certain sources were used and how and when they were replaced (usually when they became outdated, i.e. no longer regarded as reliable). Only a few books published in late seventeenth/early eighteenth century Europe remained among the

3 Michael Werner and Bénédicte Zimmermann, “Beyond Comparison: Histoire croisée and the Challenge of Reflexivity,” History and Theory 45, no. 1 (2006): 31.

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sources still used for information on China in mid-nineteenth century. Bibliographic data given in China-related entries reveal the extent of persistence and change in the use of sources. One of the most striking changes took place in the early nineteenth-century, when early sinologists started to use Chinese texts (or at least publications based on Chinese texts) as sources for articles they contributed to French, German and English encyclopaedias. As a side effect, encyclopaedias also contain much information on the early history of Chinese studies in Europe. As a result of these formations of knowledge Europeans generated a rather flexible set of conceptions of China and the Chinese. Chapter Three (Canonizing China) explores this set of conceptions and examines European strategies also employed by encyclopaedias in presenting knowledge on China. The structure of entries on ‘China’ closely followed the design of entries on other geographical entities. Within this structure the contributors aimed to place China within European horizons of knowledge. It will be shown that this aim was achieved mainly by means of transcultural comparisons. Although the ‘encyclopaedic’ use of visual representations of China was rather limited, some of these images taken from published accounts were further disseminated by works providing general knowledge. The necessity of providing comprehensive but concise information on the country and its people led to the creation and dissemination of stereotypes. Together with a variety of other European discourses on China these stereotypes were included in encyclopaedias’ presentations of China. These presentations were disseminated throughout Europe by means of adaptations and translations of general encyclopaedias. Following the analysis of the evolution of European ways of generating and presenting knowledge on China, the second part of this book focuses on encyclopaedias’ presentation of the main features of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century European knowledge on things Chinese. Arranged according to the main subjects of information presented by encyclopaedias, this part shows how knowledge on certain aspects of Chinese civilization was linked to strands of discourse prevailing within the European ‘republic of letters’, among the educated, and the general public. Information presented in encyclopaedias provides a wealth of material for an analysis of subject-oriented discourses on China (geography, government, economics, language and literature, arts and sciences, religion and philosophy, history, etc.). The historical development of European knowledge on China reflects general

introduction

xvii

European discourses (civilised people vs. barbarians, enlightenment vs. despotism, progress vs. stagnation, etc.) which indicate the varying expectations of Westerners when dealing with China at different times. Chapter Four (Geography) introduces the European perception of the geographical situation of the country. Remarks on the name(s) of that distant land were a common feature of most of the opening sections of entries on ‘China’ followed by information on natural resources. Reflecting the growing interest of Europeans in the China trade, encyclopaedias also contained remarks on the geostrategic position of China. Chapter Five (Population and Society) investigates encyclopaedias’ presentation of information on ‘the’ Chinese. Linked to the creation and dissemination of stereotypes (discussed in Chapter Three) information on ‘the’ Chinese included notes on their origin, on the number of inhabitants, on the social stratification of society, on different ethnic groups and on the role of women in society. In introducing customs and manners, encyclopaedias referred to Chinese cuisine, Chinese dress and on some of the entertainments of the Chinese. Chapter Six (Government, Politics and Economy) deals with European perceptions of the administration of China. Closely linked to general European discourse on China, information on this subject oscillated between admiration for a well-governed society repeatedly recommended as a model to European governments and contempt for a corrupt and despotic regime. Apart from an overall assessment of Chinese forms of government, encyclopaedias referred to details concerning the imperial court and the central government agencies as well as the provincial administration. Further information on the political system of China referred to the laws and to the armed forces of the empire. Information on the history of China formed an integral part of encyclopaedias’ entries on the country. Chapter Seven (History) explores the ways how encyclopaedias dealt with the Chinese past. In structuring this past, Europeans for a long time referred to the subsequent dynasties of China. Encyclopaedias’ presentations of Chinese chronology largely reflected the vain endeavours of late seventeenthand eighteenth-century European scholars to place Chinese antiquity in the context of biblical chronology. Our analysis of the contents of information on Chinese history focuses on the most prominent subjects: the rise and fall of the dynasties, virtues and vices of the rulers of

xviii

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China and on remarks concerning the changing fate of eunuchs at the imperial court. The chapter also examines the main trends in presenting (and updating) information on recent developments in China. Chapter Eight (Language and Literature) explores eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century European attitudes towards Chinese language, writing, and literature as mirrored in works of general knowledge. Shifting perceptions of these subjects were closely related to the state of Chinese studies in Europe. Encyclopaedias reflect the gradually changing focus of European interests in these subjects. Late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century scholars engaged in vivid discussions on the origin of language and writing. For some of them China and the Chinese played an important role in this context. Chapter Nine (Philosophy and Religion) investigates the ways information on religious systems of the Chinese, on their philosophy and ethics was presented in encyclopaedias. Following an overview of encyclopaedias’ general attitudes towards Chinese philosophy, the chapter introduces European views of popular religion, Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism as mirrored by works of general reference. Considering the pivotal role of Roman Catholic missionaries for creating and disseminating information on China, this chapter considers presentation and assessment of the rise and fall of Roman Catholic missions in the context of the history of the Rites Controversy. Chapter Ten presents the predominant Western conceptions of and attitudes towards Chinese achievements in Arts and Sciences. Although Europeans had been well aware of the very early Chinese inventions of papermaking, printing, and gunpowder, they portrayed the state of science in China in a very disparaging way. Europeans mostly were denying the probability of transmissions of knowledge from Asia to Europe prior to the Age of Discoveries and tended to describe Chinese inventions as ‘incomplete’ and Chinese sciences as ‘inexistent’. Despite referring to the writings of contemporary sinologists and often complaining about the lack of information on things Chinese in general, nineteenth-century encyclopaedias perpetuated these strands of discourse. Dealing with the evolution of European general knowledge of China, this study aims to show how, when, and which information on China and the Chinese became part of universal and/or useful knowledge. Despite of the ever-shifting focus of European perceptions of China over the centuries, eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias already contained much of what still today influences Western discourse on China.

CHAPTER ONE

BACKGROUNDS OF KNOWLEDGE 1.1

Analyzing European Discourse(s) on China

This study focuses on discourses on China as represented in European reference works in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Early modern European discourses on China rarely have been ‘original’ but repeatedly transmitted, transformed, and broken. Discourses emerging from these processes of transmission and transformation had been fed by a variety of sources: by printed accounts of China given by European travellers, traders, diplomats, and missionaries (and their perception throughout Europe), by natural products as well as by artefacts.1 From the sixteenth century onwards, members of the European aristocracy showed a strong interest in specimens of natural products and artefacts of East Asian or—as they put it—‘Indian’ origin. These non-textual representations of distant lands were eagerly collected throughout Europe. In their cabinets of curiosities, European rulers stored a wealth of information on the wider world.2 In approaching the supposed variety of discourses on China as represented in early modern European sources, this study will analyze the origins of these discourses, their formation, replacement, and temporary renewal/renaissance as well as their persistence and change. The analysis of the origin, formation (and diversification) of European discourses on China as mirrored in encyclopaedias will help us to learn more about various modes of perceiving China in eighteenthand early nineteenth-century Europe: The general public based its perception mainly on European accounts (travelogues, Jesuit publications, summaries of geographical knowledge). Due to lacking language

1 Thomas Pekar, Der Japan-Diskurs im westlichen Kulturkontext (1860–1920) (Munich: iudicium, 2003), 48 presented these arguments concerning Western discourses on Japan. 2 For a thorough analysis of the state of the field see the introductory remarks in Dominik Collet, Die Welt in der Stube. Begegnungen mit Außereuropa in Kunstkammern der Frühen Neuzeit, Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte 232 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2007).

2

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proficiency, Chinese language materials were widely neglected until the late eighteenth century. Only the accounts published by the Jesuits relied on Chinese sources. Encyclopaedic reference works are intended to be consulted, not to be read. Looking up an encyclopaedic work is intended to meet an immediate want for information. As important sources for the historical evolution of discourses in general, encyclopaedias represent a vast field of research for the historian.3 The value and significance of this sort of reference works has been repeatedly stated in the field of cultural studies.4 Regarding European encyclopaedias as well as European discourses in general, it may be supposed that China is only one subject among many. As a consequence, information on China is to be found not only under the headword ‘China’ but also under a wealth of other headwords. The analysis of encyclopaedias thus will provide a kind of ‘meta-ordering’ of knowledge disposed in this kind of reference works. Information on China as arranged in encyclopaedias will be put in the context of its genesis and will be analyzed in the light of the discussions led in the European ‘republic of letters’. Considering the complexity and scope of eighteenth- and nineteenthcentury encyclopaedias and the amount of information on China given by these reference works, an analysis of China-related information can hardly be exhaustive. In studying and analyzing the representation of China in European encyclopaedias, we concentrate on these parts of China usually labelled as China Proper (in French la Chine proprement dite, in German das eigentliche China).5 A thorough analysis of the peripheral regions of the Chinese Empire that from time to time were

3 See Paul Michel, “Ordnungen des Wissens. Darbietungsweisen des Materials in Enzyklopädien,” in Populäre Enzyklopädien. Von der Ordnung, Auswahl und Verwaltung des Wissens, ed. Ingrid Tomkowiak (Zurich: Chronos, 2002), 37 and Henri Meschonnic, Des mots et des mondes. Dictionnaires, encyclopédies, grammaires, nomenclatures (Paris: Hatier, 1991), 9: “On cherche des mots, on trouve le discours. On cherche le discours, on trouve des mots.” 4 Ulrike Spree, Das Streben nach Wissen. Eine vergleichende Gattungsgeschichte der populären Enzyklopädie in Deutschland und Großbritannien im 19. Jahrhundert, Communicatio. Studien zur Geschichte der europäischen Literatur- und Kulturgeschichte 24 (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2000), 9; see also Daniel Rosenberg, “Introduction. Early Modern Information Overload,” Journal of the History of Ideas 64, no. 1 (2003), 1–9. 5 Harry Harding, “The Concept of ‘Greater China’: Themes, Variations and Reservations,” The China Quarterly, no. 136 (1993), 660–686.

backgrounds of knowledge

3

ruled directly or indirectly by the Emperors of China would require skills for Manchuria, Mongolia, Tibet and Korea. These skills we do not possess.6 As far as the various forms of relations of the Chinese court with these regions (cultural influences, military campaigns, commercial relations) are represented in our corpus of sources (see below), these bits of information will be included in our analysis. In eighteenth-century Europe, scholars had a rather holistic approach to things Chinese. They were reading, arranging and analyzing information on China to develop their world-view.7 Then, European knowledge on the wider world had not been bound to the borders of different national cultures but had been developed in a trans-European intellectual sphere.8 The analysis of European ways of perceiving, describing and categorizing China as represented in encyclopaedias will help to understand, how and when the various strands of European discourse on China emerged, flourished, prevailed, and (apparently) perished. Conditions and structures important for the shaping of European discourses on China include their backgrounds (history, politics, economy and communication), origins and sources, institutions (courts, governmental authorities, churches, academies, universities, East India companies, etc.), dramatis personae (explorers, travellers, missionaries, scholars (covering the wide range from early modern scholarship to the beginnings of nineteenth-century sinology), writers, merchants, etc.), and contexts (politics, economy, publishing, etc.).9 Encyclopaedias are—like other early modern European sources— manifestations and results of a kind of shaping ‘China’. Acquiring knowledge of other cultures resulted from a dense network of political, economic, and religious/theological interests of Europeans in other

6

For a similar restriction see Isabelle Landry-Deron, La preuve par la Chine. La “Description” de J.-B. Du Halde, jésuite, 1735, Civilisations et sociétés 110 (Paris: Editions de l’EHESS, 2002), 35. 7 Jürgen Osterhammel, Die Entzauberung Asiens. Europa und die asiatischen Reiche im 18. Jahrhundert (Munich: Beck, 1998); Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer, Sinologie und das Interesse an China, Akademie der Wissenschaften und Literatur, Mainz/Abhandlungen der Geistes- und sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse 2007/4 (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2007). 8 Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink, “Von der Faszination zur Wissenssystematisierung: Die koloniale Welt im Diskurs der europäischen Aufklärung,” in Das Europa der Aufklärung und die außereuropäische koloniale Welt, ed. Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink, Das achtzehnte Jahrhundert/Supplementa 11 (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2006), 12. 9 Pekar, Der Japan-Diskurs im westlichen Kulturkontext (1860–1920), 17.

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parts of the world.10 Therefore, much data on non-European regions became available for the learned reader in early modern Europe: “In Europe, Asia came together as a subject of knowledge under imperial intelligence in capital cities that organized national interests in Asia and centralized accumulation of knowledge in huge national repositories.”11 These interests may be addressed as important agents in the formation of European images and imaginations of China. Acquisitions of knowledge and forms of its perception played a key role in the history of the European advance into Asia. Entries in encyclopaedias reflect the polyvalence of early modern European writings on Asia. Apart from the power of European imagination, these texts can be seen as an attempt to understand reality by means available to the respective contemporary observers.12 Apart from disadvantages like time lag and inertness caused by the use of older and thus sometimes outdated works, the advantages of encyclopaedias seem obvious. Following these considerations, in this study we will pay particular attention to the evolution of European images of China (including the creation and dissemination of specific stereotypes and prejudices) as mirrored in works of general knowledge. The analysis of China-related entries in encyclopaedias published in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Europe goes far beyond an evaluation of quality and quantity of knowledge represented. Beyond insights on geographical and institutional centres for this kind of production of knowledge, it will be possible to trace preconditions and circumstances of collecting and augmenting this information. The replacement of Latin as the language of the learned and the increasing use of a wide range of vernacular languages of Europe has also to be kept in mind for an analysis of eighteenth- and early nineteenthcentury European general knowledge of China. As most of the strands of European discourse on China had their origins in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the ways of including information on China in eighteenth- and early-nineteenth century

10 Peter Burke, A Social History of Knowledge (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000), 192–196. 11 David Ludden, “Presidential Address: Maps in the Mind and in the Mobility of Asia,” Journal of Asian Studies 62, no. 4 (2003), 1059. 12 Osterhammel, Entzauberung, 28.

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European encyclopaedias will be placed in the context of European expansion since the late fifteenth century. The following settings deserve special attention. All of them were subject to considerable changes und fluctuations during the period under consideration: 1. Ways of discovering, describing, and classifying the “other”: widening horizons in geography and in a variety of branches of knowledge in early modern Europe. In their assessments of non-European cultures and in their zeal of cross-cultural evaluation Europeans remained self-centred and limited.13 2. Early modern European intellectual history from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century and the history of general knowledge. 3. China as the distinct other: in eighteenth- and early nineteenthcentury Europe, China formed a kind of anti-Europe,14 which was seen as a kind of ‘dreamland’ mainly used to escape European reality. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) pointed this out in times of political disorder and turmoil (as during the so-called German Liberation Wars against Napoleon).15 4. The role of religion in early modern Europe and the significant role of missionaries in the formation of European knowledge on China. 5. Economic and political interactions on a global scale: Spain’s colonial empire in America and the establishment of Spanish colonial administration in the Philippines, the Portuguese sea-borne empire with one of its outposts in Macau, and the Russian expansion in

13 Jonathan Israel, “Admiration of China and Classical Chinese Thought in the Radical Enlightenment (1685–1740),” Taiwan Journal of East Asian Studies 4,1 (2007), 1–25. 14 Schmidt-Glintzer, Sinologie und das Interesse an China, 38. See also Wolfgang Bauer, “Die Bedeutung Ostasiens für Europa heute,“ in August Pfizmaier (1808–1887) und seine Bedeutung für die Ostasienwissenschaften, ed. Otto Ladstätter and Sepp Linhart (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1990), 11–22, and Eun-Jeung Lee, Anti-Europa. Die Geschichte der Rezeption des Konfuzianismus und der konfuzianischen Gesellschaft seit der frühen Aufklärung. Eine ideengeschichtliche Untersuchung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der deutschen Entwicklung, Politica et Ars 6 (Münster: LIT, 2003). 15 Staats-Lexikon oder Encyklopädie der Staatswissenschaften, ed. Carl von Rotteck and Carl Welcker, vol. 14 (1843) vol. 14 (1843) 520. On Goethe’s “orientalism” see Said Abdel-Rahim, “Goethes Hinwendung zum Orient—eine innere Emigration,“ Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 132 (1982), 269–288.

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Within these settings, the choice of the period for this study (1700– 1850) may be argued not only from developments in Sino-European relations, but also from developments in the European ‘republic of letters’ and by developments in China both political and intellectual: At the end of the seventeenth century, the Qing had finally consolidated their rule by the suppression of the “Three Feudatories” (sanfan zhi luan 三藩之亂), by the occupation of Taiwan in the early 1680s, and by the campaign against Galdan (1632/44–1697). After the consolidation of their rule over China, the Qing undertook efforts to regulate foreign relations: In 1684, the Qing court reopened ports for foreign trade. In an attempt to fix their common border, China and Russia concluded the Treaty of Nerčinsk (1689). At the turn of the eighteenth century, the Kangxi 康熙 Emperor (r. 1662–1722) commissioned huge literary collections, including the Guwen yuanjian 古文淵鑑 (Profound Mirror of Classical Prose, 1684/85), an anthology edited by the scholar-official and bibliophile Xu Qianxue 徐乾學 (1631–1694), as well as the encyclopaedia-like Yuanjian leihan 淵鑑類函 (Classical Repository of Profound Appraisals, 1701/1710). About the year 1700, the influence of Western missionaries at the court of the Kangxi Emperor reached its height. High-ranking officials of the Qing 清 dynasty as well as the emperor himself were interested mainly in scientific achievements demonstrated by the Jesuits. At the same time, the position of the Jesuits within the frame of Roman Catholic missions began to be challenged by the developments of the Rites Controversy. Political and economic interests of the Europeans in China became obvious at that time. In 1685, the French King Louis XIV (r. 1643–1715) sent six Jesuits to China (‘les mathématiciens du Roi’), mainly for the purpose of collecting data on the economic state of China. In 1700, English ships reached the Zhoushan 舟山 Archipelago for the first time. In the early eighteenth century, the European ‘republic of letters’ witnessed the beginning shift from publishing in Latin to publishing in various vernacular languages of Europe. This also became obvious in the field of subject-oriented reference works. Throughout the eighteenth-century, changes in European images of China were not primarily caused by events and developments in SinoEuropean relations but by controversial debates among European

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intellectuals.16 These images of China and a variety of stereotypes and prejudices based upon them were coined during the first phase of European contacts with China, which took place in the early modern era. In mid-nineteenth century—at the close of our period of examination—, Europe and China both underwent dramatic changes. In Europe, changes in the political systems (caused by the French Revolution and the revolutionary movements of 1830 and 1848) as well as the industrial revolution had reshaped the intellectual and economic settings: The emergence of a middle-class in Central and Western Europe17 created the need for reference works providing up-to-date information and useful knowledge. Reorganisation and diversification of scholarly disciplines had replaced the ‘republic of letters’. Such was the background for the beginning formation of Chinese studies as an academic discipline in early nineteenth-century Europe. Those concerned with the study of China (mainly Chinese language and literature) joined the newly established Asiatic Societies at Paris (Société Asiatique, 1822), London (Royal Asiatic Society, 1823), and Leipzig (Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft, 1845).18 Economic and political reasons led to an increased concern for the Chinese empire in early nineteenth-century Europe, culminating in the so-called “opening” (i.e. the nineteenth century Western invasion) of China in the aftermath of the First Anglo-Chinese War (Opium War) of 1839–1842. This challenge by the outside world coincided with a decline of imperial power within the realm of the Qing Empire since the 1790s. Natural disasters mainly caused by deforestation, a rapid growth of population, as well as popular unrest and rebellion (e.g. the

16 On the various strands of discourse on China in early modern Europe see below p. 23 f. 17 For early-nineteenth century definitions of ‘middle-class’ in English, French and German reference works see Reinhart Koselleck, Ulrike Spree, and Willibald Steinmetz, “Drei bürgerliche Welten? Zur vergleichenden Semantik der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft in Deutschland, England und Frankreich,” in Bürger in der Gesellschaft der Neuzeit. Wirtschaft—Politik—Kultur, ed. Hans-Jürgen Puhle, Bürgertum. Beiträge zur europäischen Gesellschaftsgeschichte 1 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1991), 22–35. Reprinted in: Reinhart Koselleck, Begriffsgeschichten. Studien zur Semantik der politischen und sozialen Sprache. Mit zwei Beiträgen von Ulrike Spree und Willibald Steinmetz sowie einem Nachwort zu Einleitungsfragmenten Reinhart Kosellecks von Carsten Dutt (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2006). 18 Douglas T. McGetchin, “Wilting Florists. The Turbulent Early Decades of the Société Asiatique, 1822–1860,” Journal of the History of Ideas 64, no. 4 (2003).

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activities of secret societies, a Muslim uprising in Xinjiang, and the outbreak of the Taiping 太平 Rebellion in 1850) destabilized China.19 Presentation of information on China varied considerably not only in its contents but also in its form. Not to mention the varying use of lists, tables, and plates, the arrangement of subjects within the articles on “China” underwent frequent rearrangement (as will be shown below, encyclopaedias followed no regular order even when listing the provinces of China). The wide range of sources compilers and editors of encyclopaedias relied on will also be discussed in detail: Knowledge on China had been disseminated not only by monographs and by (scholarly) journals but also very influentially by encyclopaedic dictionaries. Nevertheless, studies in the history of European images of and approaches to China largely neglected the genre of encyclopaedias. Reference works, travelogues, geographical gazetteers, works on universal history as well as scholarly books and journals (including early review journals) were used as sources for the entries in encyclopedias. 1.2 Interactions between Europe and China European knowledge on parts of East Asia nowadays known as China dates back to Graeco-Roman antiquity. The interactions leading to all forms of this knowledge have been direct as well as indirect: The earliest indirect contacts took place in the context of commercial activities of Greek merchants trading to the East. From antiquity onwards, these contacts are reflected in preserved cultural artefacts and texts as well, both telling us about the ever re-defined world-view of the different centres of learning in the course of European history.20 19 Philip A. Kuhn, Origins of the Modern Chinese State (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002), 2–8. 20 Interactions between China and Europe have been subject to ample research. The most useful presentations include: Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 1: Introductory Orientations (Cambridge: University Press, 1954), 150– 248 (“Conditions of Travel of Scientific Ideas and Techniques between China and Europe”); on Needham’s conceptual approach to interactions between Europe and China see Robert Finlay, “China, the West, and World History in Joseph Needham’s Science and Civilisation in China,” Journal of World History 11, no. 2 (2000), 265–303. For an introduction to the role of China in the transmission of knowledge between East and West see Christoph Koerbs, “East and West: China in the Transmission of Knowledge from East to West,” in Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, ed. Helaine Selin (Dordrecht, Boston, London:

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The first and most influential ‘encyclopaedic’ work in the intellectual history of medieval Europe, the Etymologiae written by Isidore of Seville (560–636) summed up the knowledge on East Asia collected in Greek and Roman antiquity.21 As Western and Central Europe did not maintain any form of communication with East Asia, a traditional and very limited body of knowledge had been perpetuated until the end of the Middle Ages. Moreover, medieval Western Europe did not learn about sporadic contacts existing between Byzantium and Eastern Asia,22 about the mostly indirect relations maintained by Arab and

Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997), 261–266.—For contacts and interactions between China and Europe see Wolfgang Franke, China und das Abendland (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1962), René Étiemble, L’Europe chinoise vol. 1: De l’Empire romain à Leibniz (Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1988), René Étiemble, L’Europe chinoise vol. 2: De la sinophilie à la sinophobie (Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1989), Thomas H. C. Lee, ed., China and Europe. Images and Influences in Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries, Institute of Chinese Studies. The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Monograph Series (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1991), Xiaoxin Wu, ed., Encounters and Dialogues. Changing Perspectives on Chinese-Western Exchanges from the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries, Monumenta Serica Monograph Series 51 (St. Augustin, Nettetal: Institut Monumenta Serica, 2005); David E. Mungello, The Great Encounter of China and the West, 1500–1800 (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2nd ed., 2005).—For European sources on the encounters between Europe and Asia in early modern times see the volumes of Asia in the Making of Europe by Donald F. Lach (for the seventeenth century together with Edwin J. Van Kley). Exhibition catalogues on early modern Sino-Western relations include Hartmut Walravens, China illustrata. Das europäische Chinaverständnis im Spiegel des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts, Ausstellungskataloge der Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel 55 (Weinheim: VCH Acta Humaniora, 1987), Anna Jackson and Amin Jaffer, Encounters. The Making of Asia and Europe, 1500–1800 (London: V&A Publications, 2004).—For recently published French-language exhibition catalogues see the notes in Jacques Marx, “De la Chine à la chinoiserie. Échanges culturels entre la Chine, l’Europe et les Pays-Bas méridionaux (XVIIe à XVIIIe siècle),” Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire 85, no. 3–4 (2007), 735–779. For a comparative view on the role of art as a means of power in eighteenthcentury China and Saxony see: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, ed., Goldener Drache—Weißer Adler. Kunst im Dienste der Macht am Kaiserhof von China und am sächsisch-polnischen Hof (1644–1795) (Munich: Hirmer, 2008).—For a recent bibliography on early modern Western works on China see Björn Löwendahl, Sino-Western relations, conceptions of China, cultural influences and the development of sinology disclosed in western printed books 1477–1877. The catalogue of the Löwendahl—von der Burg collection, 2 vols. (Hua Hin: The Elephant Press, 2008). 21 On the presentation of East Asia in Isidore’s work see Folker E. Reichert, Begegnungen mit China. Die Entdeckung Ostasiens im Mittelalter, Beiträge zur Geschichte und Quellenkunde des Mittelalters 15 (Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1992), 65–67. On ethnological information presented by Isidore see Margaret T. Hodgen, Early Anthropology in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1964), 59–64. 22 For research on the contacts between Byzantium and China see the bibliographic references in Michael Kordosis, “The Byzantine (Fu-lin) delegation of 643 in China.

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Jewish traders with Central Asia, or about ninth-century Arab travels to China23—the latter were only ‘discovered’ as subject of research by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French orientalists. Information on these travels became included in eighteenth and nineteenth-century works of general reference. Europeans received first reports of Mongol conquests in Inner Asia at the time of the Fifth Crusade (1217–1221). While the Arabs had played a key role in the preservation of the scientific legacy of European antiquity, the contacts with the Islamic world did not lead to an improvement of European knowledge on Inner Asia and China.24 About the year 1240, Central and Eastern Europe faced the height of the Mongol expansion to the West.25 To seek contacts with the Mongol rulers, the Papacy sent a mission (1245–1247) led by John of Plano Carpini (Giovanni dal Piano del Carpini OFM; c. 1182–1252). King Louis IX of France (r. 1225–1270) sent William of Rubruck OFM (c. 1215–after 1257) on a mission to Inner Asia.26 Although Rubruck never reached China, he presented the first European description “of the Chinese script, the postal system, the Southern Song empire, and the kingdom of Korea.“27 Observations made by these missions were not only perceived by contemporaries like Roger Bacon

The King Po-to-li,” in Hypermachos. Festschrift für Werner Seibt zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Christos Stavrakos, Alexandra-Kyriaki Wassiliou, and Mesrob K. Krikorian (Vienna: Österreichisch-armenische Gesellschaft, 2008), 153–158, especially 153 n. 1 and 2 and 154 n. 4. 23 Encyclopaedia of Islam. New edition, vol. 9 (1997) 616–625 (s. v. ‘al-Ṣīn’), especially 617–22 (‘Geographical and historical information to the year ca. A.D. 1050’; [M. Hartmann], C. E. Bosworth). 24 On the role of Islam in the transmission of knowledge between Europe and Asia see Richard C. Taylor, “East and West: Islam in the Transmission of Knowledge from East to West,” in Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, ed. Helaine Selin (Dordrecht, Boston, London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997), 270–274. 25 On the European perception of the Mongols see David Morgan, The Mongols (Cambridge, Mass, Oxford: Blackwell, 1996), 175–98, on the rumours from Inner Asia that reached the crusaders in Damietta see ibid., 178. Felicitas Schmieder, Europa und die Fremden. Die Mongolen im Urteil des Abendlandes vom 13. bis in das 15. Jahrhundert, Beiträge zur Geschichte und Quellenkunde des Mittelalters 16 (Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1994). 26 Nicolas Standaert, ed., Handbook of Christianity in China. Volume One: 635– 1800, Handbook of Oriental Studies, IV/15,1 (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 71–73 (Plano Carpini) and 73–74 (Rubruck). 27 Endymion Wilkinson, Chinese History. A Manual. Revised and Enlarged, Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series 52 (Cambridge, MA, London: Harvard University Press, 2000), 755.

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(c. 1214–c. 1292),28 they were also mentioned in thirteenth-century encyclopaedic works like the Speculum historiale, the most widely disseminated part of Vincent of Beauvais’ (before 1200–1264) Speculum maius (i. e. ‘The Great Mirror’).29 Because of Pax Mongolica—Mongol rule over vast areas of Eurasia— several Europeans set out for Inner Asia, some of them even reaching China.30 The most famous of these travellers was Marco Polo (1254– 1324/25), who accompanied his father and his uncle on their way to the East, where they remained for about two decades. In the latter half of the thirteenth century, the Mongols had established their rule over the northern parts of China and founded the Yuan 元 dynasty. The last pretender of the Southern Song 宋 dynasty died in 1279.31 China’s prosperous maritime trade to Southeast Asia, India, and Western Asia continued to flourish under the Yuan.32 28 For this perception see Jarl Charpentier, “William of Rubruck and Roger Bacon,” in Hyllningsskrift Tillägnad Sven Hedin, på hans 70-Årsdag (Stockholm: Generalstabens Litografiska Anstalt, 1935), 255–67, Hodgen, Early Anthropology, 103; Michael Friedrich, “Chiffren oder Hieroglyphen? Die chinesische Schrift im Abendland,” in Hieroglyphen. Stationen einer anderen abendländischen Grammatologie, ed. Aleida Assmann and Jan Assmann, Archäologie der literarischen Kommunikation VIII (Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2003), 91–95. 29 On this point see Hodgen, Early Anthropology, 103; Schmieder, Europa und die Fremden. Die Mongolen im Urteil des Abendlandes vom 13. bis in das 15. Jahrhundert, 70 and ibid., 207. See also Standaert, ed., Handbook of Christianity in China. Volume One: 635–1800, 46. For a review of twentieth century German research on medieval European images of the Mongols see Thomas Ertl, “Der China-Spiegel. Gedanken zu Chinas Funktionen in der deutschen Mittelalterforschung des 20. Jahrhunderts,” Historische Zeitschrift 280, no. 2 (2005). 325–6 (including bibliographical notes). On the representation of the marvels of the East in medieval encyclopaedias in general see Marcello Ciccuto, “Le meraviglie d’oriente nelle enciclopedie illustrate del Medioevo,” in L’enciclopedismo medievale, ed. Michelangelo Picone (Ravenna: Longo, 1994), 79–116. On the significance of medieval encyclopaedias for the shaping of fifteenthcentury European knowledge on non-European regions see Michael Herkenhoff, Die Darstellung außereuropäischer Welten in Drucken deutscher Offizinen des 15. Jahrhunderts (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1996), 27–38. 30 For the background of these missions see Standaert, ed., Handbook of Christianity in China. Volume One: 635–1800, 71–76. For bibliographical details on medieval European travellers to China see also Wilkinson, Chinese History, 755 f. 31 For an overview on research on Marco Polo see Igor de Rachewiltz, “Marco Polo went to China,” Zentralasiatische Studien 27 (1997), 34–92 and Peter Jackson, “Marco Polo and His ‘Travels’,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 61, no. 1 (1998), 82–101. 32 Apart from the comprehensive overview given by Angela Schottenhammer, “The East Asian maritime world, c. 1400–1800. Its fabrics of power and dynamics of exchanges—China and her neighbours,” in The East Asian Maritime World 1400–1800: Its Fabrics of Power and Dynamics of Exchanges, ed. Angela Schottenhammer, East Asian Economic and Socio-cultural Studies 4 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007), 1–86

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In this setting, European eyewitnesses were eager to explore hitherto unknown regions. In their reports on their experiences, they presented the wonders of the world (mirabilia mundi) on a new scale. Not only Marco Polo’s Livre des merveilles, but also the itinerary of Odorico da Pordenone OFM (d. 1331) and the fictitious Travels of the supposed writer John Mandeville (supposedly fl. 1357) served this purpose. Apart from satisfying the want for the curious, these authors used the exotic as a testing ground, either to check their own patterns of interpretation or for an experimental breaking of the strict rules imposed on them.33 These accounts were crucial for the formation of European knowledge on Asia. Despite the limited number of manuscript copies, these reports had circulated quite widely and thus had helped to shape first images on Central and East Asia for learned Europeans. Apart from first remarks on Chinese writing (William of Rubruck), medieval travellers informed about aspects of Chinese cuisine (preparation of snakes) or about the custom of footbinding (both observations reported by Odorico da Pordenone).34 These early descriptions of East Asia and China prevailed at least until the end of the fifteenth century.35 The advent and spread of printing made medieval texts more easily available. This

see also the following articles: Michael C. Brose, “Realism and Idealism in the Yuanshi Chapters on Foreign Relations,” Asia Major, 3rd series, 19, no. 1–2 (2006), 327–47 (on Yuan foreign relations and their representation in the Yuanshi 元史 (the “standard history” of the Yuan, compiled under the Ming); Tansen Sen, “The Yuan Khanate and India: Cross-Cultural Diplomacy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries,” Asia Major, 3rd series, 19, no. 1–2 (2006), 299–326 (on Yuan relations with India); Roderich Ptak and Ralph Kauz, “Hormuz in Yuan and Ming sources,” Bulletin de l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient 88, no. 1 (2001), 27–75 (on Chinese contacts with Hormuz). On long-term perspectives of cultural contacts in coastal areas see Hugh Clark, “The Religious Culture of Southern Fujian, 750–1450: Preliminary Reflections on Contacts across a Maritime Frontier,” Asia Major, 3rd series, 19, no. 1–2 (2006), 211–240. 33 Michael Rothmann, “ex oculata fide et probatione cotidiana. Die Aktualisierung und Regionalisierung natürlicher Zeichen und ihrer Ursachen im Liber de mirabilibus mundi des Gervasius von Tilbury,” in Kloster und Bildung im Mittelalter, ed. Nathalie Kruppa and Jürgen Wilke, Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte 218 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2006), 359–361. 34 Wilkinson, Chinese History, 755; Folker Reichert, “Odorico da Pordenone and the European perception of Chinese beauty in the Middle Ages,” Journal of Medieval History 25, no. 4 (1999), 339–355. 35 Reichert, Begegnungen mit China, 276–284 (on perceptions, misunderstandings and the European knowledge of East Asia); Reinhold Jandesek, Das fremde China. Berichte europäischer Reisender des späten Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit, Weltbild und Kulturbegegnung 3 (Pfaffenweiler: Centaurus, 1992).

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can be seen from the dates of the first printed editions: the book of Marco Polo (Nuremberg, 1477), the Travels of John Mandeville (1480), and the itinerary of Odorico da Pordenone (Pesaro, 1513).36 As the reading public rather soon became interested in travelogues and in all kinds of exotic mirabilia mundi, the early sixteenth century saw the formation of a “market for the marvelous”.37 The age of discoveries quickly provided further stimulus for this “market”: Compilers, translators, and editors of reports showing the widening horizons of European Renaissance had to take up the challenge of integrating new discoveries into ancient and medieval knowledge. Thus, the term ‘Renaissance’ may be used not only for the renewal of the study of texts dating from classical antiquity but also for the rediscovery of medieval travelogues on Central and Eastern Asia. A broader availability of medieval texts on East Asia coincided with Portuguese explorations in South and East Asia following the circumnavigation of the Cape of Good Hope. In 1498, Vasco da Gama (1468/69–1524) ‘discovered’ the sea-route to India. Shortly thereafter, the Portuguese seized Goa and made it their headquarters for further operations in Asia. After reaching Malacca in 1511, the Portuguese soon set out for China. Jorge Álvarez (fl. 1513–47) reached South China in 1513. In the following year, two Italian merchants in Portuguese service, Giovanni di Empoli (1483– 1518) and Rafael Perestrello (fl. 1514–7) reached China. In August 1517, a first Portuguese squadron entered the Zhujiang 珠江 (Pearl River) delta.38 From early modern times onwards, the European acquisition of knowledge on China has been closely linked to predominant sociopolitical and economic structures. For reasons of secrecy, information on the Portuguese advance to East Asia was disseminated in the European public only after the publication of the first three parts of João de

36 For detailed information on the earliest printed versions of these works see Herkenhoff, Die Darstellung außereuropäischer Welten in Drucken deutscher Offizinen des 15. Jahrhunderts, 47–49 (Marco Polo), 59 (Mandeville), and 46 n. 106 (Odorico). 37 Christine R. Johnson, “Buying Stories: Ancient Tales, Renaissance Travelers, and the Market for the Marvelous,” Journal of Early Modern History 11, no. 6 (2007), 405–446. 38 On these early Sino-European contacts see John E. Wills, “Relations with maritime Europeans, 1514–1662,” in The Cambridge History of China. Volume 8: The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644, Part 2, ed. Denis Twitchett and Frederick W. Mote, 333–375 (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998).

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Barros’ (1496–1570) Asia (these parts described Portuguese discoveries in the East from 1412 to 1526 and were published from 1552 to 1563). The spread of Jesuit missions to East Asia and the Spanish advance to the Philippines further weakened the Portuguese monopoly of information on these parts of the world.39 The Portuguese were the first Europeans to use the term ‘China’. Beginning in mid-sixteenth century, this term found its way into many other European languages. This new naming took place at a time, when the term ‘India’ was still commonly used by Europeans to describe the southern and eastern parts of Asia. In dealing with those parts of East Asia, which quite soon were to become ‘China’, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European scholars still tended to use the terms ‘Cathay’ (Marco Polo’s name for the northern parts of China) and ‘Mangi’ (for the southern parts of this vast empire).40 The final identification of the ‘Serica’ of European antiquity and the ‘Cathay’ of medieval sources with ‘China’ only took place in the early seventeenth century after Bento de Góis SJ (1563–1607) had taken the overland route from India to China.41 Early European knowledge on the geography of China had also become available through maps. In 1584, Abraham Ortelius (1527– 1598) included a map of China in the revised edition of his Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. This map, drawn by the Portuguese cartographer Luís Jorge de Barbuda (fl. 1575–1599), was the first printed map of China ever published in Europe.42 Maps depicting China also were included in the atlases compiled by Gerard Mercator (1512–1594) und Jodocus Hondius (1563–1612).

39

For the second edition (1628) of Barros’ Asia (originally published in 1552, 1553 and 1563) see Löwendahl, Sino-Western cultural relations, vol. 1, p. 42 (no. 75). On Spanish aspirations in East Asia during the 1570s and early 1580s see John M. Headley, “Spain’s Asian Presence, 1565–1590. Structures and Aspirations,” Hispanic American Historical Review 75, no. 4 (1995), 623–646. 40 On the coining of the term ‘Cathay’ see Denis Sinor, “Western Information on the Kitans and Some Related Questions,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 115, no. 2 (1995), especially 263 f. 41 Peter H. Meurer, Fontes Cartographici Orteliani. Das ‘Theatrum Orbis Terrarum’ von Abraham Ortelius und seine Kartenquellen (Weinheim: VCA Acta Humaniora, 1991), 111 f. 42 Standaert, ed., Handbook of Christianity in China. Volume One: 635–1800, 756.

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Ordering Knowledge on Non-European Regions

From the sixteenth century onwards, spatially arranged cosmographies and universal geographies gave a presentation of European knowledge on China and East Asia. These early modern universal geographies represent forms of European hegemonial world order in the beginning age of discoveries. The German astronomer Peter Apian (1495–1552) had dismissed the notion of ‘cosmography’ for works of universal geography. In his Cosmographicus Liber (1524) he made a clear distinction between the genres of cosmography (astronomy), geography (description of the world), and topography or chorography (description of clearly defined areas). Only in the early seventeenth century, the term ‘cosmography’ was replaced by ‘universal geography’.43 Margaret Hodgen referred to these works as “Renaissance collections of manners and customs (preserved necessarily between the covers of a little book).”44 Sixteenth century ‘cosmographies’ relied on medieval sources for their description of Central and East Asia. Among the popular medieval reports which included information on these regions, the Travels of the supposed writer Sir John Mandeville had been dismissed as unreliable as early as in the Welt-Buch (i.e. ‘book of the world’, 1534) by Sebastian Franck (c. 1500–1542/43).45 The gradual change of sources used for information on East Asia becomes obvious from the editions of the Cosmographia. Originally published in 1544 by Sebastian Münster (1488–1552), the work had been revised and enlarged several times. Up to the year 1628, the Cosmographia had been translated into several European languages.46 43

Vogel, “Cosmography”, 470. Hodgen, Early Anthropology, 131. 45 J. Löwenberg, “Das Weltbuch Sebastian Francks. Die erste allgemeine Geographie in deutscher Sprache,” Sammlung gemeinverständlicher wissenschaftlicher Vorträge 177 (N. S. 8) (1893), 321. For the representation of Asia in Franck’s work see ibid., 336– 338; Gita Dharampal-Frick, Indien im Spiegel deutscher Quellen der Frühen Neuzeit (1500–1750). Frühe Neuzeit 18 (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1994), 32–48—Michel, “Ordnungen des Wissens. Darbietungsweisen des Materials in Enzyklopädien,” 60–62 discusses Mandeville as an example for the disposition of knowledge as a world map. 46 On Münster’s description of Asia see Donald F. Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe. Volume II. A Century of Wonder. Book II: The Literary Arts (Chicago, London: Chicago University Press, 1977), 339–341; Günther Wessel, Von einem, der daheim blieb, die Welt zu entdecken. Die Cosmographia des Sebastian Münster oder Wie man sich vor 500 Jahren die Welt vorstellte (Frankfurt a. M.: Campus, 2004), 213–219.—As more than half of the whole work was formed by the description of Germany, Jean 44

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From mid-fifteenth to mid-sixteenth century, a considerable increase of information on non-European regions had taken place. This may be seen by a comparison of the Historia rerum ubique gestarum, written by Enea Silvio Piccolomini (1405–64) during his pontificate (Pius II, 1458–1464), and printed in Venice in 1477 and Botero’s Delle relazioni universale (first complete edition printed in Vicenza in 1595). The description of the world provided by Piccolomini was based on Ptolemy (c. AD 90–168), Strabo (64/63 BC–AD 20), Pliny (AD 23–79), and Pomponius Mela (fl. AD 44). In describing South and East Asia, he relied on Marco Polo and Odorico da Pordenone. Throughout the sixteenth century, the genre of cosmography flourished throughout Western and Southern Europe, to mention only the works of Lorenzo Anania (c. 1545–1607/09) and Giovanni Botero (1544–1617).47 Writing at the end of the sixteenth century and making use of the reports written since the beginnings of the age of discovery, Botero set a new standard concerning the field of universal geography not only by a remarkable density of description of peoples throughout the world but also by offering “systematic demographic, economic, and political comparisons between China and Europe.”48 In England, the Cosmographie (1652) published by Peter Heylin (1599–1662) became widely used.49 Examples for French efforts in this field are the Histoire universelle du monde (1572) written by François Belleforest (1530–1583) or the Cosmographie universelle by André

Bodin labelled it as a “germanographie”. See Marie Dominique Couzinet, “Fonction de la géographie dans la connaissance historique: le modèle cosmographique de l’histoire universelle chez F. Bauduin et J. Bodin,” Corpus. Revue de philosophie, no. 28 (1995), 123 n. 26.—On the presentation of Asia in early modern German cosmographies see Peter Rögl, “Die Beschreibung Asiens in den deutschen Kosmographien von 1550–1650” (unpublished Working Paper, University of Vienna, 1967). 47 For Anania’s and Botero’s presentation of Asia see Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe II/2, 229–232 (Anania); ibid., 235–249 (Botero). For orientalism in the writings of Botero see Joan-Pau Rubiés, “Oriental Despotism and European Orientalism: Botero to Montesquieu,” Journal of Early Modern History 9, no. 1–2 (2005), 124–134. 48 Francisco Bethencourt, “European expansion and the new order of knowledge,” in The Renaissance World, ed. John Jeffries Martin (London, New York: Routledge, 2007), 129–30. On Pope Pius’ II presentation of East Asia see also Reichert, Begegnungen mit China, 261 f. 49 For a chronological list of English works on universal geography see the appendix in O. F. G. Sitwell, Four Centuries of Special Geography. An annotated guide to books that purport to describe all the countries in the world published in English before 1888, with a critical introduction (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1993), on the various editions of Heylin’s Cosmographie see ibid., 301–305.

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Thevet (1516/17–1592) published in 1575.50 Thevet presented one of the last summaries of European knowledge on China before Juan González de Mendoza published his Historia de las cosas más notables, ritos y costumbres de gran reyno de la China in 1585.51 Heavily relying on González de Mendoza and other accounts published in late sixteenth and early seventeenth century Europe, Pierre d’Avity (1573–1635/40) included an extensive chapter on China in his Les estats, empires, et principautez du monde (1613),52 which was “a condensation of Mendoza”.53 In 1628, a Latin translation of this work under the title Archontologia cosmica was published in Frankfurt/Main; a second edition, published in 1649, was furnished with magnificent copperplates.54 According to Jean Céard, cosmographies represent only one kind of encyclopaedic writing in Renaissance Europe. They also include collections of travelogues (the best known collections were the Delle navigationi et viaggi edited by Giovanni Battista Ramusio (c. 1485–1557), the Principal navigations, voyages, traffiques and discoveries of the English nation (1598) edited by Richard Hakluyt (c. 1552–1616), and the Relations de divers voyages curieux (1696) edited by Melchisédec Thévenot (c. 1620–1692)),55 collections of language specimens (e. g. the Traicté des chiffres (1586) by Blaise de Vigenère (1523–1596) or the Thrésor de l’histoire des langues de cest univers compiled by Claude Duret (c. 1570–1611)) as well as compendia on zoography and agriculture.56 In their aim to give comprehensive information on all parts of the world, universal geographies may be regarded as one of the predecessors

50 For the representation of Asia and China in these works see Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe, II/2, 304 (on Thevet), ibid., 305 f. (on Belleforest). 51 For the various editions of Mendoza’s ‘bestseller’ see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, cols. 8–16. 52 Pierre d’Avity, Les estats, empires, et principautez du monde, représentez par la description du pays, moeurs des habitans, richesses des provinces, les forces, le gouvernement, la religion, et les princes, qui ont gouverné chacun estat. [. . .] (Paris: Olivier de Varennes, 1613). On China see ibid., 849–889. 53 Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe, III/4, 1571. 54 For these and other editions of d’Avity see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, cols. 23 and 3255–3258. 55 Löwendahl, Sino-Western relations, vol. 1, p. 8 f. (no. 10) lists the China-related contents of Ramusio; for the Thévenot collection see ibid., 109–112 (no. 217). For Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 1939 f. 56 Jean Céard, “Encyclopédie et encyclopédisme à la Rénaissance,” in L’encyclopédisme. Actes du Colloque de Caen 12–16 janvier 1987, ed. Annie Becq (Paris: Klincksieck, 1991), 66.

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of encyclopaedias. They offered a systematic arrangement of both geographical and historical knowledge on the wider world. These descriptions of the world met the want for a quick access to information on non-European regions freely used in inner-European discourses since the late Renaissance. Although the term of ‘cosmography’ had been abandoned in favour of ‘universal geography’, the German renderings ‘Weltbeschreibung’ (description of the world) or ‘Erdbeschreibung’ (description of the earth) remained in use in titles of works on universal geography until the eighteenth century.57 A general description of East Asia also had been included in works of universal history.58 The idea that such works provide access to information on China, is supported by the alphabetically arranged index to the Modern Part of the English Universal History (1736–1766).59 The crisis of European consciousness—as Paul Hazard labelled European intellectual developments in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries—coincided with increasing endeavours of European scholars to analyze the wealth of information on non-European regions which had reached Europe since the beginnings of European overseas expansion.60 In discussing the processes of European descriptions of China we have to bear in mind that both regions were rather heterogeneous in early modern times. The disparities became manifest in religion, languages, and ethnic diversity. In Europe, the age of discovery coincided with the age of the Wars of Religion. Views on the outside world were influenced by religious concepts and the influence of religion on society. Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Russian orthodox missionaries all contributed to the

57 See e. g. Christoph Benjamin Häckhel, Allgemeine und Neueste Welt-Beschreibung, aus Herrn Johann Caspar Funckens seel. weiland Mathes. P. P. Ulm. hinterlassenen MSC. vollends ergänzt, 2 ed. (Ulm: Daniel Bartholomäus, 1753). 58 On representations of Japan in early modern European universal histories see Harald Kleinschmidt, “Japan im Welt- und Geschichtsbild der Europäer. Bemerkungen zu europäischen Weltgeschichtsdarstellungen vornehmlich des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts,” Bochumer Jahrbuch zur Ostasienforschung 3 (1980), 132–208. 59 On the English Universal History see Tamara Griggs, “Universal History from Counter-Reformation to Enlightenment,” Modern Intellectual History 4, no. 2 (2007), 228–237. Examples for China-related references to the Universal History may be found in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., 3 (1778) 1907 and ibid., 1920 (s. v. ‘China’), Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 653 (s. v. ‘China’). 60 Paul Hazard, La crise de la conscience européenne (1680–1715) (Paris: Boivin & Cie, 1935).

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shaping of European images of China (and of Chinese religions) during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. In China, there existed three major teachings (san jiao 三教). These teachings nowadays commonly are addressed as ‘religions’ or ‘religious systems’ by non-Chinese observers. Early modern European authors labelled all three systems—Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism—‘sects’.61 At least during the eighteenth century, the various vernacular languages of Europe began to replace Latin as the language of scholarly communication. For European perceptions of China the geographical shift of centres for generating and accumulating knowledge meant a shift in the languages used for the presentation of materials on China. Throughout the sixteenth century, European information on China mostly had been collected in Portugal and Spain. Due to the importance of Roman Catholic missionaries for transmitting information from China to Europe, the importance of seventeenth-century Rome as a centre for collecting and (partly) disseminating knowledge on China became obvious. Shortly after the French court took a vivid interest in the China mission, Paris became the undisputed European center for European studies on China. Concerning information on contemporary developments in China, the leading position only began to challenged after the suppression of the Jesuit order. In pursuing economic interests in East Asia, the British provided ample information on the actual state of China. In their writings on China, European missionaries very soon noted different modes of written and oral language: in communication with different administrative levels they had to use guanhua (the official language, later commonly called Mandarin by foreigners), in dealing with the classical texts of China they had to read wenyan (Literary Chinese) and in preaching the gospel they had to have command of the vernacular language (i.e. one of the various dialects spoken in different parts of the empire). Moreover, with the establishment of the Qing dynasty, Europeans became aware of the various ethnic groups of China.62 The importance of the peoples of Inner Asia for

61 On the equation of the term ‘sect’ with the term ‘jiao’ 教 and on the origins of this equation see T. H. Barrett, “Chinese Religion in English Guise. The History of an Illusion,” Modern Asian Studies 39, no. 3 (2005), especially 511–13. 62 For recent research on this subject see Pamela Kyle Crossley, Helen F. Siu, and Donald S. Sutton, Empire at the Margins. Culture, Ethnicity and Frontier in Early Modern China (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2006).

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the maintenance of Manchu rule in a considerably enlarged Chinese Empire also was referred to by European observers. Among the new perspectives Europe gained at the beginning of the age of discovery there were ‘three new kinds of outside’: classical antiquity, new continents overseas, and a limitless universe.63 New perspectives on the three outsides (classical antiquity, new continents; a limitless universe) mostly were described with traditional means that already had been in use in antiquity and in medieval times. Our analysis will show which of the most prominent stylistic devices available for this purpose were used to portray China and the Chinese in European works of general knowledge. The most common strategies used by Europeans since the Later Middle Ages for describing alterities included comparisons, superlatives, parallels and exotic vocabulary.64 European knowledge on China was the product of a series of transmissions and transformations. These transmissions and transformations were the result of intellectual, economical, political, and cultural interests—both on institutional and individual levels. The contents of travelogues and of writings published by the philosophes repeatedly have been subject to detailed studies. In recent years, efforts have been made to analyze the cross-cultural transmissions and transformations of knowledge.65 An in-depth analysis of European encyclopaedias will contribute to a deeper understanding of both individual and institutional levels engaged in the processes of cultural transmissions and transmissions of knowledge. All transmissions can be reduced to the following elements: CONTEXT (why), CONTENT (what), RECEIVER (to whom), MEDIUM (how). These four elements as well as their definition closely follow the model described by Richard Scholar: According to Scholar, CONTEXT is defined “in terms of the question or needs to which the act of transmission responds or the purpose 63 Erik Ringmar, The Mechanics of Modernity in Europe and East Asia. The Institutional Origins of Social Change and Stagnation, Routledge Explorations in Economic History 29 (London, New York: Routledge, 2005), 32–38 and ibid., 172. 64 Michèle Guéret-Laferté, Sur les routes de l’empire mongol. Ordre et rhéthorique des relations de voyage aux XIIIe et XIVe siècles (Paris: Champion, 1994), 225–255 (“La rhétorique de l’alterité”) is following François Hartog, Le miroir d’Hérodote. Essai sur la représentation de l’autre (Paris: Gallimard 1980). 65 For a recent overview of these efforts see the bibliography in Ashley E. Millar, “The Jesuits as Knowledge Brokers Between Europe and China (1582–1773): Shaping European Views of the Middle Kingdom.” (London: London School of Economics, Working Papers No. 105/07, 2007).

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it serves.”66 In the representation of China in European encyclopaedias CONTEXT refers to the trans-European task of ordering and classifying the world from Renaissance to post-enlightenment days including ‘discovery’ and description of the world, economic and political interests and a broad variety of aspects meeting the intellectual needs of an ever growing group of educated people. CONTENT refers to practices, methods and theories of scholarly disciplines or of a body of knowledge. Before modern scholarly disciplines (among them the discipline of sinology) evolved, knowledge on China was configured, transmitted, and transformed within the structures of early modern European scholarship. From the second half of the seventeenth century onwards, scholarly journals played a key role in these processes of configuration, transmission, and transformation.67 The importance of early modern scholarly journals for these processes also becomes evident in the light of European encyclopaedias. MEDIUM: the media involved in cultural transmission comprise the following groups: a) vehicles: words, images and objects (as artefacts, commodities, etc.); b) entities: manuscripts and printed material, cabinets and collections (including early modern cabinets of curiosities (Kunstkammern, Wunderkammern) as well as museums in a more ‘modern’ sense founded in late eighteenth-century). To this may be added c) “codes that govern their meaning as (different) traditions, languages, and genres” and “institutions that govern their use and diffusion”. To the institutions mentioned by Scholar (universities, academies, courts, printing, and book-trade) there can be added trade companies (like the East India companies) and religious groups and institutions as well. RECEIVER: Scholar prefers this term instead of ‘reader’, ‘audience’, or ‘user’. The perception of contexts, contents, and media has always been either intended/implied or actual. Scholarly publications of early

66 Richard Scholar, “Introduction,” in Transmitting Knowledge. Words, Images and Instruments in Early Modern Europe, ed. Sachiko Kusukawa (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 6. 67 In a project on late seventeenth- and early-eighteenth century European discourse on China (China im Diskurs (1665–1726)) funded by the German Thyssen Stiftung (2005–2007), Li Wenchao collected and evaluated texts dealing with China that had been published in European academic journals in the years from 1665 to 1726. The publication of a two-volume monograph has been announced for 2010. See http://www.geisteswissenschaften.fu-berlin.de/en/izma/forschung/chinaimdiskurs/ index.html (2 April 2010).

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modern Europe are likely to show the extent to which contexts and contents have been perceived and in which way media have been used.68 The evolution of European knowledge on China forms part of the cultural and intellectual history of European expansion. This history contains elements of discovery, exploration and conquest.69 The ‘three types of discovery’ proposed by Michael Giesecke in his study on the discovery of America as represented in early modern European media70 may also be adapted for the analysis of knowledge on China as presented in European encyclopaedias: Discovery I: Perception and description of new worlds with special programs: description of new discoveries in using well-known and widespread concepts. Discovery II: alternative models for describing the self and the other and substitution of established paradigms: after facts had been established (for instance the identity of Cathay with (northern) China proved by the travels of Bento de Góis SJ (1563–1607) at the beginning of the seventeenth century) ‘Cathay’ had an afterlife as a kind of dreamland of European intellectual circles. Discovery III: reflexive systematization of bodies of knowledge established in the processes of ‘Discovery I’ and ‘Discovery II’: collecting, ordering, and analyzing of information on China may be seen as a prerequisite for the inclusion of information on China in European general dictionaries of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. European perspectives on newly discovered continents soon found their way into printed books: Between 1480 and 1609, France saw the publication of 180 titles on Asia and of 120 works on universal geography.71 Some of the titles on Asia and most of the cosmographies contained information on China.72 Up to 1570, this informa68

Scholar, “Introduction,” 1 and 4–6. Urs Bitterli, Die Entdeckung Amerikas. Von Kolumbus bis Alexander von Humboldt, 3rd ed. (Munich: Beck, 1992), 11–24. 70 Michael Giesecke, Von den Mythen der Buchkultur zu den Visionen der Informationsgesellschaft. Trendforschungen zur kulturellen Medienökologie, suhrkamp taschenbuch wissenschaft 1543 (Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp, 2002), 109–114. 71 Louis Dermigny, La Chine et l’Occident. Le Commerce à Canton au XVIIIe siècle (1719–1833), 3 vols. (Paris: S.E.V.P.E.N, 1964), vol. 1, p. 16. See also André Stegmann, “L’Extrême-Orient dans la littérature française (1480–1650),” Cahiers de l’Association internationale des études françaises 27 (1975), 41–63, Jean Delumeau, La Peur en Occident (XIVe–XVIIIe siècles) (Paris: Fayard, 1978), 262. 72 On China in French cosmographies of the sixteenth century see Geoffroy Atkinson, Les nouveaux horizons de la renaissance française (Paris: Libraire E. Droz, 1935), 56 and 177 f. as well as Stegmann, “L’Extrême-Orient”, 51–53. 69

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tion mainly was derived from travelogues of the Middle Ages. The influence of these travelogues on the images of China in early modern Europe has been stated repeatedly. Historical research in the evolution of European images on Asia in general has increased over the last decades. This increase led to a more careful analysis of shifting European images of China. Recently, the assumption that a sudden shift has taken place at the end of the eighteenth century has been labelled as too superficial and has been replaced by the analysis of late eighteenth- and early-nineteenth century processes leading to the exclusion of non-European civilizations.73 Our analysis of European views on China as presented in European encyclopaedias starts from the following strands of discourse common throughout early modern Europe:74 ethnography/ethnology, religion/ theology, China and the Meaning of history, trade, economy and technology as well as politics and international law. Ethnography/ethnology: For a long time customs and manners as well as the material culture of non-European civilizations have been used to construct ‘differences’. Discourses on race presumed a priori existing (pre-cultural) differences like climate, physiology, etc. In this context, early modern European writers placed China within traditional concepts that had prevailed thoughout ancient and medieval Europe. As a consequence of their attitude towards Enlightenment, eighteenth- and early-nineteenth century writers mainly contributed to the spread of pre-racist discourses on non-European civilizations. Religious systems of the ‘other’ were labelled as pagan or idolatric. As Günther Lottes has pointed out, “the Chinese ‘weapon’ which the freethinkers of the early Enlightenment used so effectively in their criticism of religion had been forged by the Church itself ”.75 Discourses on the meaning of history reached a new level in the days of European enlightenment. Scholarly discourse as well as general knowledge thus became strongly influenced by models of evolution which were used to define the ‘other’ (e. g. childhood, ‘primitive’

73

Osterhammel, Entzauberung, 380. Jürgen Osterhammel, “Kulturelle Grenzen in der Expansion Europas, ” Saeculum 46 (1995), 101–138. 75 Günther Lottes, “China in European Political Thought, 1750–1850,” in China and Europe. Images and Influences in Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries, ed. Thomas H. C. Lee, Institute of Chinese Studies. The Chinese University of Hong Kong Monograph Series 12 (Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1991), 67, on “China and the European Discourse on Religion” see ibid., 66–71. 74

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culture, etc.). In the Age of Reason, “the history of Europe became the natural history of the world while the histories of the great oriental civilizations, particularly that of China, were classified as decadent histories leading nowhere.”76 In this context eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century European scholars compared China to the civilizations of ancient Europe and the ancient Near East. The study of China therefore tended to resemble the studies of European antiquity (Altertumswissenschaft). This became evident as early as in late seventeenthcentury European discourses on origin (origo) and antiquity (vetustas) of Chinese culture. As early as at the beginning of the sixteenth century, non-European regions began to evolve as important markets for Europe. From the very beginning of early modern contacts, China was viewed by Europeans as an extremely abundant country providing goods of luxury that could not be procured from elsewhere (porcelain, tea and silk of the highest quality). In his The Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith admitted that China was one of the most fertile countries in the world, but the poverty of the lower classes “suggested to him that China was the classical case of a stationary economy where the price of the lack of economic growth is paid by the laboring classes.”77 Politics and international law: the restrictive policy of the Chinese authorities against foreign presence in China restricted European access to the country for a long time. Up to 1842, only foreign traders in Guangzhou 廣州 and members of European legations to the court of Beijing 北京 had the opportunity to interact with Chinese authorities. While eighteenth-century English discourse on China seems to have been “neither impressed nor disturbed by the lessons which the Chinese political system taught or appeared to teach”,78 China served as a frame of reference in debates on political modernization in continental Europe. For this purpose, China was portrayed as an ideal society.

76

Ibid., 83. Ibid., 85.—See Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations ([1776] Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith. Vol. 2a; Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1981) Book I, Chapter 8: “Of the Wages of Labour”. For an electronic edition see The Online Library of Liberty. A project of Liberty Fund, Inc. http://oll.libertyfund.org/ (2 May 2010). 78 Lottes, “China in European Political Thought”, 71. 77

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These strands of discourse had their counterpart in Chinese attitudes towards foreigners. Chinese representations of non-Chinese people played a key role for the formation of European views of Southeast Asian, North East Asian and Inner Asian people, as the Jesuit missionaries relied on the respective portions of the general gazetteers of the Chinese empire. Gudula Linck79 mentions seven strands of discourse concerning Chinese views of foreigners: Myth: The Shanhaijing 山海經 (Classic of mountains and seas), “the most famous Chinese compilation describing fantastic places and strange beings”,80 presented many mythical elements. An increase of geographical knowledge as well as the extension of the limits of Chinese civilization offered new insights. While the Hou Hanshu 後漢書 (History of the Later Han) used the denomination Woguo 倭國 (lit. ‘land of dwarfs’) for Japan, the Xin Tangshu 新唐書 (New History of the Tang) refers to Japan as Ribenguo 日本國 (lit. ‘land of the rising sun’) in adopting the Japanese term. As Linck points out, the notion of yanggui 洋鬼 (lit. ‘foreign devils’) used for Westerners in late imperial China still reflected and perpetuated the imagination of demons living on the periphery of the Sinosphere. Politics: perceptions of the foreign were closely linked to the role of China in an international context and to the general state of foreign relations. Linck discusses not only the southward expansion of Han 漢 and early Tang 唐 China, but also the beginning of territorial losses in late Tang China, which was followed by the establishment of the (foreign) Liao 遼 and Jin 金 dynasties. Contrary to the Liao and the Jin, the Mongols (thirteenth century) and the Manchu (seventeenth century) conquered the whole empire. While Japanese ‘pirates’ had been seen as a major threat to the coastal areas in the Lower Changjiang 長江 region (sixteenth century), the Chinese barely recognized the arrival of the Europeans (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries). Ethnography and geography: Chinese works on foreign countries included not only information on customs and manners, but also (and mostly) data on the most important products of these countries,

79 Gudula Linck, “ ‘Die Menschen in den Vier Himmelsrichtungen’. Chinesische Fremdbilder,” in Das andere China. Festschrift für Wolfgang Bauer zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer, Wolfenbütteler Forschungen 62 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1995), 257–289, on the seven strands of discourse see ibid., 260–281. 80 Cohen, Introduction to Research in Chinese Source Materials, 556.

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especially in works dealing with Southeast Asia. For this strand of discourse Linck refers to works dealing with foreign countries, which were written between Song and late Ming times: for example Zhou Qufei’s 周去非 Lingwai daida 嶺外代答 (Answers on Questions Concerning the Regions beyond the Passes, 1178), Zhao Rugua’s 趙汝适 Zhufan zhi 諸蕃志 (Description of Foreign Countries, before 1225), Ma Huan’s 馬歡 Yingya shenglan 瀛涯勝覽 (Overall Survey of the Ocean’s Shores, 1433), Fei Xin’s 費信 Xingcha shenglan 星槎勝覽 (Overall Survey of the Star Raft, 1436), or Zhang Xie’s 張燮 Dong Xiyang kao 東西洋考 (On the Eastern and Western Countries, 1618).81 Arrogance of the civilised: Rhetorics of reports on foreign countries often linked the ‘civilizing missions’ of the Chinese in the peripheral regions of the empire to the role of the cultural heroes of China’s mythical times for the emergence of Chinese civilization. Linck points out that Taiwan can be regarded as exemplary for this strand of discourse. Morality: Closely linked to the political discourse on foreigners, the Chinese tended to stress the superiority of their cultural achievements. The self had been considered superior to the other. People regarded as ‘barbarians’ by the Chinese should come to China to get used to Chinese culture (laihua 來華). While Linck mainly focuses on sources of pre-Christian times, this strand of discourse also was quite common in late imperial times, when the concept of huairou yuanren 懷柔遠人 (commonly but misleadingly translated as ‘tender cherishing of men from afar’) still had been perpetuated. Romantics and exoticism: Linck points out that this strand of discourse mainly can be found in Daoist writings. As early as in Zhuangzi 莊子 (4th century BC), there are mentioned the ‘better barbarians’ or as a kind of noble savages. Throughout history, exotic goods and foreign influences reached the courts of China. Understanding the ‘other’: According to Linck, discourses of acknowledging the ‘otherness’ of the foreign occurred as early as in Zhuangzi and in Liezi 列子. To a certain extent, this mutual understanding also may be found in late nineteenth-century Chinese perceptions of Europe, when Zhang Zhidong 張之洞 (1837–1909) advocated the strengthening of Chinese values while adopting Western technol-

81 For bibliographical information on these works and short remarks on their significance see Wilkinson, Chinese History, 746 f.

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ogy in using the slogan Zhongxue wei ti, xixue wei yong 中學為體西學 為用 (Chinese learning for fundamental principles, Western learning for practical application). In his manual on Chinese history, Endymion Wilkinson mentions “exaggerated and misleading statistics in modern statements about the Chinese past against which the student should be on guard.”82 This advice is also helpful in dealing with the representation of China in early modern European works in general and in European encyclopaedic reference works in particular. A wide range of exaggerated and misleading data relating to the scope and extent of things Chinese can be found in European reports on China since the beginning of regular contacts in the early sixteenth century. Since early modern times, Europeans regarded China as a giant, mentioning territorial extent of the empire, abundance of natural products, and luxury goods (silk, porcelain, tea), number and size of cities, number and density of population, Chinese writing (number of characters), communication networks (canals as systems for transport and irrigation, postal system, etc.), a few, but gigantic monuments (apart from the Chinese wall mainly bridges and pagodas as well as the huge size of Chinese bells).83 As Europeans saw China as a kind of distant giant, news from this ‘curious land’ made it necessary to develop intellectual strategies for a ‘reduction’ of this giant. The ‘hard facts’ (like extent, population, etc.) soon proved to be irrefutable. As a consequence, efforts to ‘reduce’ China to a comprehensible size mainly concentrated on aspects of society and culture. To denote a region culturally different from Europe, classical antiquity used the term ‘Asia’. The expansion of the Arabs in the seventh and eighth centuries AD and particularly in the age of the Crusades paved the way that the Orient “took on new meaning as the alien cultural realm” against which Europe defined itself.84

82

Ibid., 227. Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’ (paragraph on ‘Buildings and Furniture of the Chinese’) stated that the Chinese “are fond of every thing that is gigantic”. 84 Martin W. Lewis and Kären E. Wigen, The Myth of Continents. A Critique of Metageography (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1997), 53. 83

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Quite soon, the Orient became synonymous with Islam.85 As European interests moved more and more eastward, India and China were included into this concept. This move also becomes obvious in the light of entries on the ‘Orient’ in general dictionaries and encyclopaedias.86 In their aim to present reliable information on Asian civilizations, encyclopaedias repeatedly had to restructure the area usually known as ‘the Orient’ in Western academic discourse.87 In The Victorian Translation of China, Norman Girardot proposed to consider not only European attitudes towards the various civilizations of Asia, i.e. various kinds of “disciplinary Orientalism” (Semitic studies, the study of Islam, indology and sinology)88 but also the specific preconditions in different European countries engaged in the study of these civilizations. This approach would help to distinguish the different kinds of Orientalism “from the unfortunate monolithic implications of Said’s original formulations.”89 At a time when alphabetic order was about to prevail as the leading principle for the arrangement of reference works, the French scholar Barthélemy d’Herbelot (1625–1695) compiled the Bibliothèque Orientale. This alphabetically arranged work, was posthumously published in 1697 by the oriental scholar Antoine Galland (1646–1715).90 Information on China contained in this edition only reflected the mentioning

85 On images of Islam in (late) medieval Europe see Almut Höfert, Den Feind beschreiben. ‘Türkengefahr’ und europäisches Wissen über das Osmanische Reich 1450–1600, Campus Historische Studien 35 (Frankfurt, New York: Campus, 2003), 180–184. 86 For a rather tentative and very limited examination of respective entries see Andrea Polaschegg, Der andere Orientalismus. Regeln deutsch-morgenländischer Imagination im 19. Jahrhundert, Quellen und Forschungen zur Literatur- und Kulturgeschichte 35 (269) (Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2005), 64–69 and ibid., 81–85. 87 Edward W. Said, Orientalism. Western Conceptions of the Orient (London, New York: Penguin, [1978], reprinted with a new afterword, 1995). For a concise overview on research in Orientalism(s) see Polaschegg, Der andere Orientalismus. Regeln deutsch-morgenländischer Imagination im 19. Jahrhundert, 10–27. 88 Norman Girardot, The Victorian Translation of China. James Legge’s Oriental Pilgrimage (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of Califormia Press, 2002), 561 n. 6.—For earlier approaches on Orientalism in Chinese studies see the discussion in Hans Hägerdal, “The Orientalism Debate and the Chinese Wall. An Essay on Said and Sinology,” Itinerario 21, no. 3 (1997), 19–40. 89 Girardot, The Victorian Translation of China, 561 n. 6. 90 On the Bibliothèque Orientale see Henry Laurens, Aux sources de l’orientalisme. La Bibliothèque Orientale de Barthélemi D’Herbelot, Publications du Département d’Islamologie de l’Université de Sorbonne (Paris IV), no. VI (Paris: Maisonneuve, 1978), Nicholas Dew, “The Order of Oriental Knowledge. The Making of d’Herbelot’s

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of this country in Arabic-Islamic sources (works on universal history and universal geography). The treatment of the whole variety of information contained in these works inspired contemporary scholars to label the Bibliothèque Orientale as ‘Moréri Oriental’ (and thus referring to the successful historial dictionary published by Louis Moréri). The exclusive use of oriental terms as lemmas shows the reluctance to classify the material according to ‘Western’ categories.91 Throughout Europe, the Bibliothèque Orientale remained one of the most important reference works on Arabic-Islamic civilization up to the early nineteenth century. This may not only be seen from its use by leading eighteenth-century European scholars, but also from the fact that it was the only reference (for many entries e. g. in Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon) dealing with the history of the Mongol empire.92 The impact of this work on the ‘republic of letters’ is shown by the fact, that Pierre Bayle had mentioned it in the preface of the first edition of his Dictionnaire historique. Moreover, a comparison of the editions of Moréri’s Grand dictionnaire historique preceding and following the publication of the Bibliothèque Orientale illustrates the immediate influence on this work on general and encyclopaedic reference works.93 The supplement to the Bibliothèque Orientale, published in the 1770s in the Netherlands, contained several treatises on China. These treatises represent the complete published works of Claude Visdelou SJ (1656–1737). In the early eighteenth century, Visdelou directly referred to the original edition of the Bibliothèque Orientale.94 The far-reaching impact of the Bibliothèque Orientale on scholarly circles of Europe is illustrated by the fact that in 1817 Jean-Pierre Abel Rémusat argued in favour of a similar project concerning information

Bibliothèque Orientale,” in Debating World Literature, ed. Christopher Prendergast, 233–252 (London: Verso, 2004). 91 Dew, “The Order of Oriental Knowledge”: for “Moréri Oriental” see ibid., 249 n. 49, for the exclusive use of oriental terms ibid., 250. See also Laurens, Aux sources de l’orientalisme. La Bibliothèque Orientale de Barthélemi D’Herbelot, 80 (information on East Asia taken from Islamic sources). 92 See e. g. ‘Genghiskan’ [i.e. Genghis Khan, r. 1206–1227] (Zedler 10 (1735) col. 869) and ‘Octai-Chan’ [i.e. Ögödei, r. 1229–1241] (ibid., 25 (1740) col. 400 f.). 93 Jean Gaulmier, “A la découverte du Proche-Orient. Barthélemy d’Herbelot et sa Bibliothèque Orientale,” Bulletin de la Faculté des Lettres de Strasbourg 48, no. 1 (1969), 4 and ibid., n. 8. 94 Laurens, Aux sources de l’orientalisme. La Bibliothèque Orientale de Barthélemi D’Herbelot, 80.

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on China. The Chinese materials available at Paris should form the core for the preparation of a kind of ‘China Herbelot’—a work on China exclusively based on sources in Chinese.95 In 1822, the French orientalist and diplomat Jean Baptiste Louis Jacques Rousseau (1760–1831) published a prospectus for an Encyclopédie Orientale. This prospectus contained a sample of extracted articles of the planned work, which, due to the death of Rousseau, was never published. Like Herbelot, Rousseau planned to focus on an ‘Orient’ comprising Arabic, Ottoman and Persian sources. Nevertheless, an entry on ‘Sifan’ (Xifan 西番, i.e. ‘Barbarians in the West of China’; a denomination for people living in the Kukunor region and adjacent areas) was presented among the extracts chosen for the prospectus.96 In 1773, Pope Clement XIV (r. 1769–1774) suppressed the Society of Jesus. With their Mémoires concernant l’histoire, les sciences, les arts, les mœurs, les usages &c. des Chinois (published from 1776 onwards), the Jesuits for a last time provided a wealth of information on China.97 Some of the contributions published in the Mémoires directly referred to the anti-Jesuit accusations published by Corneille de Pauw (1739– 1799).98 Like the encyclopaedias themselves, the copious index to the

95 Jean Pierre Abel Rémusat, “Réflexions sur la redaction du Catalogue des livres chinois de la Bibliothèque du Roi, avec des notices sur quelquesuns des principaux articles de ce Catalogue, et des remarques critiques sur celui qui a été composé par Fourmont, en 1742,” Annales encyclopédiques 1817/Tome VI (1817), 47.—The Annales encyclopédiques continued the Magasin encyclopédique published from 1791 to 1816 under the direction of Aubin-Louis Millin (1759–1818). On the treatment of Oriental subjects in the Magasin see Pascale Rabault, “Réseaux internationaux de l’orientalisme naissant. Le Magasin encyclopédique comme relais du savoir sur l’Orient,” in AubinLouis Millin et l’Allemagne. Le Magasin encyclopédique—Les lettres à Karl August Böttiger, ed. Geneviève Espagne and Bénédicte Savoy, Europaea memoria. Studien und Texte zur Geschichte der europäischen Ideen. Reihe I: Studien, 41 (Hildesheim: Olms, 2005), 161–189. 96 J. B. L. J. R. *** [Rousseau], Encyclopédie orientale, ou dictionnaire universel, historique, mythologique, geographique et littéraire des divers peuples et pays, tant anciens que modernes, de l’Asie et de l’Afrique [. . .] (Paris: Treuttel et Wurtz, 1822), for “Sifan” see ibid., 32 f. 97 For a list of the contents of the sixteen volumes (published from 1776 to 1814) see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, cols. 54–56. For a last summary of eighteenth-century Jesuit knowledge on China, Osterhammel, Entzauberung, 470 n. 22 refers to Jean Baptiste Gabriel Alexandre Grosier, Description générale de la Chine, ou tableau de l’état actuel de cet empire [. . .] (Paris: Moutard, 1785). 98 Corneille de Pauw, Recherches philosophiques sur les Egyptiens et les Chinois, 2 vols. (Berlin: Decker, 1773). On the nature of de Pauw’s work see Löwendahl, SinoWestern relations, vol. 1, p. 257 (no. 575): “Pauw’s vicious attacks on everything Chinese in the present work were devoured and enjoyed by both lay and learned.”

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Mémoires may serve as a kind of guide or inventory to European knowledge of China. Similar to the index in Du Halde’s Description of 1735, the Mémoires provided a quasi-encyclopaedic vision of China.99 The nineteenth century saw the publication of alphabetically arranged reference works on East Asia. While the first edition of Edward Balfour’s (1813–1889) Cyclopaedia of India and Eastern Asia (1857) contained no entry on ‘China’, the second (1871) and third editions (1885) of the work provided extensive information on China.100 In the Netherlands, a similar need to present information on the Dutch colonial dominion in Southeast Asia led to the publication of the Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch-Indië, which saw two editions (1895–1905 and 1917–1939 respectively).101 In 1878, Herbert A. Giles (1845–1935) published A Glossary of Reference, on Subjects Connected with the Far East.102 With Things Chinese, James Dyer Ball (1845–1919) compiled a kind of alphabetically arranged handbook on China, that saw five editions in the years from 1892 to 1925.103 In 1917, Samuel Couling (1859–1922) published his Encyclopaedia Sinica.104 The end of Western influence in China did not mark the end of this kind of Western reference works exclusively dealing with that country. In the late 1960s/early 1970s, Wolfgang Franke (1912–2007) directed the publication of a German-language handbook on China (China-Handbuch, 1974).105 Plans for a revised edition of this reference work led to the publication of Das große China-Lexikon (2003), an updated English edition of the latter was published in 2008.106 99

Landry-Deron, La preuve par la Chine, 44. Edward Balfour, The Cyclopaedia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia; Commercial, Industrial and Scientific; Products of the Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal Kingdoms, Useful Arts and Manufactures, 3rd ed., 4 vols. (London: Bernard Quaritch, 1885). vol. 1, pp. 683–696. 101 Pieter A. van der Lith, A. J. Spaan, eds., Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch-Indië, 4 vols. (The Hague, Leiden: Brill, Nijhoff, 1896–1905). 102 Herbert A. Giles, A Glossary of Reference, on subjects connected with the Far East (Hongkong, Shanghai: Lane, Crawford & Co, 1878). 103 James Dyer Ball, Things Chinese. Being notes on various subjects connected with China (London: Sampson Low, 1892). 104 Samuel Couling, Encyclopaedia Sinica (Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh, 1917). For contemporary views on this publication see the reviews in Bulletin de l’École Française de l’Extrême-Orient 17 (1917), 16–19 (Noël Peri) and American Anthropologist, N. S. 21 (Jan.–Mar. 1919), 89 (B[erthold] L[aufer]). 105 Wolfgang Franke, ed., China-Handbuch (Düsseldorf: Bertelsmann Universitätsverlag, 1974). 106 Brunhild Staiger, Stefan Friedrich, and Hans-Wilm Schütte, eds., Das große China-Lexikon. Geschichte—Geographie—Gesellschaft—Politik—Wirtschaft—Bildung— 100

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The beginnings of the second opening of China in the late 1970s led to an increased interest in things Chinese. This demand for information was met by the publication of several ‘encyclopaedic’ reference works107 and companions to contemporary China.108 The structure of entries in these works was obviously influenced by the structures laid out in general reference works. Although Asia was subject of these reference works, their structure followed the well-established model of European reference works. Entries in these area-related encyclopaedias as well as in general encyclopaedias also reflect the development of Asian studies in Europe and of the interest European scholars took in Asia. Emerging from the larger context of oriental studies, the study of China became an academic discipline in the first quarter of the nineteenth century.109 1.4

Exploring the History of Encyclopaedias—Current Trends

Apart from the aforementioned developments, the period covered by the present study may be argued also by the impact of Enlightenment ideas on encyclopaedic reference works. Trends in that genre that emerged in the Age of Reason had been continuously developed and transformed in the Age of Revolution.110

Wissenschaft – Kultur (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2003); Daniel Leese, ed., Brill’s Encyclopedia of China, Handbook of Oriental Studies IV, 20 (Leiden: Brill, 2008). 107 Fredric M. Kaplan, Julian M. Sobin, and Stephen Andors, eds., Encyclopedia of China Today (New York, London: Eurasia Press – Macmillan, 1979), Brian Hook, ed., The Cambridge Encyclopedia of China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982). For a short assessment of these two works see Bohdan S. Wynar, ed., ARBA Guide to Subject Encyclopedias and Dictionaries (Littleton, Col.: Libraries Unlimited., 1986), 32 f. (no. 80, on Hook (Heather Cameron)), 34 (no. 84; on Kaplan/Sobin/ Andors (John W. Eichenseher)). 108 Graham Hutchings, Modern China. A Companion to a Modern Power (London: Penguin, 2001). 109 Knud Lundbaek, “The Establishment of European Sinology, 1801–1815,” in Cultural Encounters: China, Japan and the West. Essays Commemorating 25 Years of East Asian Studies at the University of Aarhus, ed. Soren Clausen, Roy Starrs, and Anne Wedell-Wedellsborg (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 1995), 15–54. On the coining of the term “sinology” which took place about the year 1810 see Georg Lehner, “Sinologie—Notizen zur Geschichte der Fachbezeichnung,” Bochumer Jahrbuch zur Ostasienforschung 27 (2003), 189–197. 110 Daniel R. Headrick, When Information Came of Age. Technologies of Knowledge in the Age of Reason and Revolution, 1700–1850 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000).

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In recent years, the history of encyclopaedic reference works, the evolution of general knowledge as well as the history of knowledge in general have been seen as very promising fields of research.111 The state of the field has been discussed in several review articles.112 The spread of the World Wide Web and the development of digital libraries113 encouraged research in traditional forms of classifying knowledge. Being confronted with today’s “information overload”, investigations into the history of the various ways of ordering knowledge are supposed to draw comparisons, parallels, and conclusions on how earlier generations dealt with similar phenomena. These comparisons are extended to cross-cultural aspects as well as to the evolution of encyclopaedic reference works in the course of history.114 Main trends of research in the history of encyclopaedias comprise a number of fields:115 • Evolution of encyclopaedias and the genre as a part of intellectual history: different ways of ordering knowledge in different times: on the one hand the evolution of the presentation of knowledge in reference works is studied in the light of philosophical concepts from the Middle Ages to the early modern period,116 on the other hand,

111 Pamela H. Smith and Benjamin Schmidt, eds., Making knowledge in early modern Europe. Practices, objects and texts, 1400–1800 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007). 112 For German research on encyclopaedias see Rex Clark, “A Million Pages and Counting—Recent German Encyclopaedia Research,” Eighteenth-Century Studies 34, no. 3 (2001), 461–465.—Other articles discussing the state of the emerging research on the history of knowledge include Peter Burke, “A Social History of Knowledge Revisited,” Modern Intellectual History 4, no. 3 (2007), 521–535; Steffen Siegel, “Medien des Wissens in der Frühen Neuzeit,” Frühneuzeit-Info 16, no. 1–2 (2005), 87–97; Marian Füssel, “Auf dem Weg zur Wissensgesellschaft,” Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung 34, no. 2 (2007), 273–289. 113 Robert Alan Hatch, “Clio Electric. Primary Texts and Digital Research in Pre1750 History of Science,” Isis 98, no. 1 (2007), 150–161; Gudrun Gersmann, “Nicht nur Wikipedia. Historische Enzyklopädien und Nachschlagewerke online,” Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht 57, no. 10 (2006), 602–604. 114 For a recent overview on the history of encyclopaedias see Richard Yeo, “Lost Encyclopedias. Before and After the Enlightenment,” Book History 10 (2007), 47–68. 115 For the various fields of research in encyclopaedic works see the introduction in Peter Binkley, ed., Pre-Modern Encyclopaedic Texts. Proceedings of the Second COMERS Congress. Groningen 1–4 July 1996, Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History 79 (Leiden, New York, Köln 1997: Brill, 1997), XVI–XVII. 116 Theo Stammen and Wolfgang E. J. Weber, eds., Wissenssicherung, Wissensordnung und Wissensverarbeitung. Das europäische Modell der Enzyklopädie, Colloquia Augustana 18 (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 2004); Franz M. Eybl et al., eds., Enzyklopädien

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encyclopaedias are dealt with as examples for the history of lexicography (topically versus alphabetically arranged encyclopaedias, macro- and micro-structures of encyclopaedias, specific word-families dealt with in encyclopaedias etc.).117 • Encyclopaedic dictionaries and the history of the book: Starting with Robert Darnton’s The Business of Enlightenment, the history of advertising, printing, and distributing encyclopaedic dictionaries has attracted the interest of a growing number of scholars.118 • Encyclopaedias in the context of classifying the world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: Endeavours of ordering knowledge were not only mirrored in encyclopaedic reference works, but played a pivotal role in the emergence of modern scientific disciplines. Systems comprising all branches of knowledge also had been developed by scholars and librarians in both East and West to provide bibliographical classifications. Since the 1990s, scholars in China examine the interdependencies between the history of bibliographic classifications and intellectual history.119 In early modern Europe, encyclopaedias also served as a kind of guide to ideal or virtual universal libraries. A close relationship exists between the representation of knowledge and the disposition of knowledge in encyclopaedias. Bibliographical classifications as represented in European encyclo-

der Frühen Neuzeit. Beiträge zu ihrer Erforschung (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1995), Ulrich Johannes Schneider, ed., Seine Welt wissen. Enzyklopädien in der Frühen Neuzeit (Darmstadt: Primus, 2006); Binkley, ed., Pre-Modern Encyclopaedic Texts, Christel Meier, ed., Die Enzyklopädie im Wandel vom Hochmittelalter bis zur Frühen Neuzeit. Akten des Kolloquiums des Projekts D im Sonderforschungsbereich 231 (29.11.–1. 12. 1996), Münstersche Mittelalter-Schriften 78 (Munich: Fink, 2002); Ingrid Tomkowiak, ed., Populäre Enzyklopädien. Von der Auswahl, Ordnung und Verwaltung des Wissens (Zurich: Chronos, 2002); Madeleine Herren, Paul Michel and Martin Rüesch, eds., Allgemeinwissen und Gesellschaft. Akten des internationalen Kongresses über Wissenstransfer und enzyklopädische Ordnungssysteme, vom 18.–21. September 2003 in Prangins (Aachen: Shaker Verlag, 2007). 117 Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann, Topica universalis. Eine Modellgeschichte humanistischer und barocker Wissenschaft, Paradeigmata 1 (Hamburg: Meiner, 1983), Béatrice Didier, Alphabet et raison. Le paradoxe des dictionnaires au XVIIIe siècle (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1996), Monika Braß, “Ordnungsstrukturen in englischen Enzyklopädien des 18. Jahrhunderts,” Bibliothek und Wissenschaft 35 (2002), 31–105. 118 Robert Darnton, The Business of Enlightenment. A Publishing History of the Encyclopédie 1775–1800 (Cambridge, Mass, London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1979). 119 For a discussion of recent Chinese scholarship on this subject see Martina Siebert, Pulu 譜錄 “Abhandlungen und Auflistungen” zu materieller Kultur und Naturkunde im traditionellen China, opera sinologica 17 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2006), 28–88.

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paedias from the Renaissance to the early nineteenth century have been examined in detail by the Italian librarian Alfredo Serrai.120 The disposition of geographical knowledge in European encyclopaedias repeatedly has attracted the attention of scholars.121 • The social role of encyclopaedias and their development in different political systems and religious groups: the whole range of works designed for the dissemination of knowledge shows that purposes and functions (cultural and political uses) of these works throughout the cultures “are more diverse than a narrow view based on modern encyclopaedias would encompass.”122 • Encyclopaedias as cross-cultural phenomenon: different ways of ordering knowledge in different cultures offer new insights into the motivation behind undertaking encyclopaedia-like compilations and the role of these compilations in different cultures.123 Apart from ever-predominant studies on the Encyclopédie edited by d’Alembert and Diderot,124 research in the history of other encyclopaedic dictionaries has increased considerably during the last two decades. 120 Alfredo Serrai, Storia della bibliografia I: Bibliografia e Cabbala. Le enciclopedie rinascimentali (I). A cura di Maria Cocchetti, Il bibliotecario 4,1 (Rome: Bulzoni, 1988), 135–420; Alfredo Serrai, Storia della bibliografia II. Le enciclopedie rinascimentali (II). Bibliografi universali. A cura di Maria Cochetti, Il bibliotecario 4,2 (Rome: Bulzoni, 1991); Alfredo Serrai, Storia della bibliografia VIII: Sistemi e Tassonomie. A cura di Marco Menato, Il bibliotecario 4,8 (Rome: Bulzoni, 1997), 281–678; for a late-eighteenth century German example see Katharina Middell, Die Bertuchs müssen doch in dieser Welt überall Glück haben. Der Verleger Friedrich Justin Bertuch und sein Landes-Industrie-Comptoir (Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2002), 199–201. 121 Johannes Dörflinger, Die Geographie in der “Encyclopédie”, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Sitzungsberichte, vol. 304/1; = Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und Medizin, vol. 17 (Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 1976), Charles W. J. Withers, “Encyclopaedism, Modernism and the Classification of Geographical Knowledge,” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers N. S, 21 (1996), 275–96. 122 Binkley, ed., Pre-Modern Encyclopaedic Texts, xvi. 123 Roland Schaer, ed., Tous les savoirs du monde. Encyclopédies et bibliothèques, de Sumer au XXIe siècle (Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 1996). See also below “Encyclopaedias in cross-cultural perspective.” 124 For further information on the Encyclopédie (and especially on the ARTFL Encyclopédie Project) see http://encyclopedie.uchicago.edu/ (6 May 2010).—On the ARTFL project (Project for American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language), a cooperative enterprise of the Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique and the University of Chicago see http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/ ARTFL/ (6 May 2009).

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Until now, efforts for a comparative analysis of subjects presented in English, French, and German encyclopaedic works are scarce. In theory, the importance of encyclopaedias for the intellectual history of early modern Europe has been repeatedly stated. They help to learn more about the zeitgeist of different ages.125 Despite these perspectives, only a few scholars engaged in the comparative analysis of specific subjects presented in English, French and German encyclopaedias.126 The significance of encyclopaedias and ‘encyclopaedic’ descriptions of other parts of the world has been recently observed in the context of ‘knowledge on non-European regions’.127 The ways in which Chinarelated information was presented in European encyclopaedias have not been subject to in-depth research until now. The variety of languages and the broad range of academic disciplines involved in this field of study led to a fragmentation of research on encyclopaedias. Scholarly reference works dealing with the notion

125 Hans-Joachim Schoeps, Was ist und was will die Geistesgeschichte? Über Theorie und Praxis der Zeitgeistforschung (Göttingen, Berlin, Frankfurt a. M.: Musterschmidt, 1959), Rolf Reichardt, “Einleitung,” in Handbuch politisch-sozialer Grundbegriffe in Frankreich 1680–1820. Heft 1/2, ed. Rolf Reichardt and Eberhard Schmitt (Munich: Oldenbourg, 1985). 126 Examples for a comparative analysis are: Barbara Suchy, Lexikographie und Juden im 18. Jahrhundert. Die Darstellung von Juden und Judentum in den englischen, französischen und deutschen Lexika und Enzyklopädien im Zeitalter der Aufklärung, Neue Wirtschaftsgeschichte 14 (Cologne: Böhlau, 1979); Ulrike Spree, “Die Rückbesinnung auf die mittelalterliche Stadt. Die Bedeutung der Stadt als Mittel der Identitätsfindung ‘mittlerer Schichten’ in der deutschen, britischen und französischen Lexikographie des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts,” in Bürgerschaft. Rezeption und Innovation der Begrifflichkeit vom Hohen Mittelalter bis ins 19. Jahrhundert, ed. Reinhart Koselleck and Klaus Schreiner, Sprache und Geschichte 22 (Stuttgart: 1994), Spree, Das Streben nach Wissen. Martin Gierl, “Compilation and the Production of Knowledge in the Early German Enlightenment,” in Wissenschaft als kulturelle Praxis, 1750–1900, ed. Hans-Erich Bödeker, Peter Hanns Reill, and Jürgen Schlumbohm. Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte 154 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999), 89–99, Karsten Behrndt, Die Nationskonzeptionen in deutschen und britischen Enzyklopädien und Lexika im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert, Europäische Hochschulschriften 3: Geschichte und ihre Hilfswissenschaften, vol. 956 (Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 2003); Ute Fendler and Barbara Greilich, “Afrika in deutschen und französischen Enzyklopädien des 18. Jahrhunderts,” in Das Europa der Aufklärung und die außereuropäische Welt, ed. Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink, Das achtzehnte Jahrhundert/ Supplementa 11, 113–37 (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2006); Debora Gerstenberger, Iberien im Spiegel frühneuzeitlicher enzyklopädischer Lexika Europas, Beiträge zur Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte 110 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden, 2007). 127 Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink, “Wissen und außereuropäische Erfahrung im 18. Jahrhundert,” in Macht des Wissens. Die Entstehung der modernen Wissensgesellschaft, ed. Richard van Dülmen and Sina Rauschenbach (Cologne, Weimar, Vienna: Böhlau, 2004), 635–641.

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of ‘encyclopaedia’ reflect this fragmentation. Reference works in the fields of ancient, medieval, and modern history provide (more or less detailed) overviews on the historical evolution of reference works.128 With few exceptions, reference works in other scholarly disciplines deal with the notion of ‘encyclopaedia’ within the limits of the respective disciplines, mostly after giving introductory remarks on the evolution of general encyclopaedias.129 Encyclopaedic reference works dealing with individual regions of the world contain information on encyclopaedic traditions in the respective areas.130 While historians of European intellectual history have been well aware of the different perceptions of China, scholars in the field of Chinese studies so far had no interest in the formation of European general knowledge concerning their field of study. Even entries on ‘China’ in individual encyclopaedias have not been subject to thorough research. An attempt to prepare a bibliography of all sources used for China-related entries in the Universal-Lexicon initiated by Zedler does not include a list of the entries examined.131 Two articles dealt with the representation of topics like medicine and anthropology in eighteenth-century encyclopaedias.132 In his Bibliotheca Sinica, 128 Ancient history: Der Neue Pauly. Enzyklopädie der Antike. Rezeptions- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte, vol. 13 (1999) col. 965–975—Medieval history: Lexikon des Mittelalters, vol. 3 (1986) col. 2031–2039 (s. v. ‘Enzyklopädie, Enzyklopädik’).—Modern history: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit, edited by Friedrich Jaeger, vol. 3 (2006), 344–356 (Martin Gierl, ‘Enzyklopädie’). 129 Theology: ‘Enzyklopädie, theologische.’ In: Gerhard Krause, Gerhard Müller, eds., Theologische Realenzyklopädie, vol. 9 (Berlin/New York 1982), 716–742 (Gert Hummel).—Art history: Dictionary of Art, vol. 10 (1996), 200–203 (‘Encyclopaedia, manuscript’, Elizabeth Sears), ibid., 203–214 (‘Encyclopaedias and dictionaries of art’, Alex Ross), on the period 1700–1850 see ibid., 205–209. 130 On Arabic ‘encyclopaedias’ see Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed, vol. 6 (Leiden: Brill 1991), 903–907 (Charles Pellat). On Persian ‘encyclopaedias’ see ibid., 907–910 (Ž. Vesel) and ‘Encyclopaedias, Persian’. In: Ehsan Yarshater (Hg.), Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 8 (Cosa Mesa, Cal.: Mazda Publishers, 1998) 435–439 (Živa Vesel, Hūšang Aʿlam). 131 Zhengxiang Gu, “Zum China-Bild des Zedlerschen Lexikons. Bibliographie der in seinen China-Artikeln besprochenen oder als Quellen genannten Werke,” in In dem milden und glücklichen Schwaben und in der Neuen Welt. Beiträge zur Goethezeit. Festschrift für Hartmut Fröschle, ed. Reinhard Breymayer, Suevica. Beiträge zur schwäbischen Literatur- und Geistesgeschichte 9 (2001/02) (Stuttgart: Hans-Dieter Heinz, 2004), 477–506. For example, apart from bibliographic references given in the article “Moxa (Chineser)” (Zedler 21 (1739) cols. 2013–2015) some of the titles mentioned in the article on Chinese philosophy (ibid., 37 (1743) cols. 1625–1644 (s. v. ‘Sinesische Philosophie’)) seem to have been missed by Gu in his study. 132 Silvia Eichhorn-Jung, “Anthropologie et religion chinoises dans les encyclopédies françaises du XVIIIe siècle,” in Les lumières européennes dans leurs relations

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Henri Cordier (1849–1925) had pointed out the importance of general encyclopaedias as sources for the history of European perceptions of China.133 So far, research on European perceptions and conceptions on China (for example images of China, development of Chinese studies, and Sino-Western relations in general) did not make extensive use of China-related information contained in European encyclopaedias. Only a few works refer to single entries on China in general reference works. As early as at the beginning of the nineteenth-century, Joseph Hager (1757–1819) referred to entries on ‘Seres’ and ‘Serica’ in some eighteenth-century reference works. He quoted from the Encyclopédie, the Encyclopédie Méthodique and from the geographical dictionary of Antoine Augustin Bruzen de la Martinière (1683–1746).134 Louis Dermigny occasionally referred to entries in eighteenth-century commercial dictionaries (including the section Commerce of the Encyclopédie méthodique).135 Scholars in the field of Sino-Western cultural relations mostly used encyclopaedias to add biographical information and not to show the state and growth of knowledge on topics under discussion. Recently published monographs dealing with the European reception of Confucianism occasionally quoted from encyclopaedias, but neglected articles on ‘Confucius’.136 In his ample study of early modern European perceptions of China, René Etiemble mentioned the ‘pouvait connaître de la Chine’ (i.e. what could be known about China) of those circles not belonging to the French philosophes. In this context, he merely referred to the thirty-volume Histoire moderne by François Marie de Marsy (1714–1763) and Adrien Richer (1720–1798) without referring to any encyclopaedic dictionary.137

avec les autres grandes cultures et religions, ed. Florence Lotterie and Darrin MacMahon, Études internationales sur le dix-huitième siècle 5 (Paris: Champion, 2002), 165–190. 133 Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica. col. 108–110. 134 Joseph Hager, Panthéon chinois, ou parallele entre le culte religieux des Grecs et celui des Chinois; avec des nouvelles preuves que la Chine a été connue des Grecs, et que les Sérès des auteurs classiques ont été des Chinois (Paris: Didot, 1806), 2, 65 and 66. 135 Dermigny, La Chine et l’Occident. 136 Werner Lühmann, Konfuzius. Aufgeklärter Philosoph oder reaktionärer Moralapostel? Der Bruch in der Konfuzius-Rezeption der deutschen Philosophie des ausgehenden 18. und beginnenden 19. Jahrhunderts, Lun Wen. Studien zur Geistesgeschichte und Literatur in China 2 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2003) only refers to biographical data. Lee, Anti-Europa, 55 only mentions an entry on Chinese philosophy. 137 Étiemble, L’Europe chinoise, vol. 2, p. 248.—François Marie de Marsy, Adrien Richer, Histoire moderne des Chinois, des Japonois, des Indiens, des Persans, des Turcs,

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While European encyclopaedias’ entries on China have been widely neglected up to now, Western encyclopaedias’ entries on Japan have been considered for anthologies of European texts on Japan.138 1.5

Encyclopaedias in Cross-cultural Perspective

Renaissance scholars coined the term ‘encyclopaedia’. The earliest evidence for this term is found in scholarly correspondence of fifteenthcentury Italy.139 The term ‘enkyklios paideia’ of classical antiquity thus got a new meaning. In print, the term first appeared in an edition of the works of the Roman orator Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (c. 35–100 AD). Its adaptation in the vernacular languages of Europe took place in the 1530s, when Thomas Elyot (c. 1490–1546) and François Rabelais (c. 1494–1553) used it first in English (1531) and French (1532) respectively. The earliest use of the term in a German-language text seems to have taken place as late as in 1706.140 The use of the term ‘encyclopaedia’ in titles of books of general reference had been successfully established by the German humanist Johann Heinrich Alsted (1588–1638) with his Encyclopaedia septem tomis distincta (1630). Alsted included not only the artes liberales and philosophy in a narrow sense, but also ‘all what can be taught’.141

des Russiens pour servir de suite à l’ Histoire ancienne de M. Rollin, 30 vols. (Paris: Saillant & Nyon, 1755–1778). 138 Peter Kapitza, ed., Japan in Europa. Texte und Bilddokumente der europäischen Japankenntnis von Marco Polo bis Wilhelm von Humboldt, 2 vols. (Munich: iudicium, 1990). 139 In correcting Jürgen Henningsen, “ ‘Enzyklopädie’. Zur Sprach- und Bedeutungsgeschichte eines philosophischen Begriffs,” Archiv für Begriffsgeschichte 10 (1966) and to get precise information on the earliest use of the term, Robert L. Fowler, “Encyclopaedias: Definitions and Theoretical Problems,” in Pre-modern encyclopaedic texts: proceedings of the second COMERS Congress, Groningen, 1–4 July 1996, ed. Peter Binkley, Brill’s studies in intellectual history 79 (Leiden, New York, Köln: Brill, 1997), 28 proposes thorough research in this kind of sources. 140 For detailed references see the respective entries in J. A. Simpson, E. S. C. Weiner, eds., The Oxford English Dictionary vol. 5, p. 219 (“encyclopaedia”); Paul Imbs (dir.), Trésor de la Langue Française. Dictionnaire de la langue du XIXe et du XXe siècle (1789–1960), vol. 7 (Paris: Éditions du CNRS 1979), 1056 f. (“Encyclopédie”); Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch, 2nd completely revised ed., vol. 5 (Berlin/New York: de Gruyter 2004), 168–172 (s. v. “Enzyklopädie”). 141 On Alsted see Howard Hotson, Johann Heinrich Alsted 1588–1638. Between Renaissance, Reformation and Universal Reform (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000). On his Encyclopaedia see Schmidt-Biggemann, Topica universalis and Frank Pohle,

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Pedagogical aspects formed the focus in the work of Alsted’s most able disciple Jan Amos Comenius (1592–1670). Seen from the number of editions of his Orbis sensualium pictus (first published in 1653; 244 different editions in a variety of European languages up to 1965), Comenius may be labelled the most influential lexicographer in European history. Until now, research on the history of European lexicography has widely neglected the significance of the Orbis sensualium pictus. Comenius thought it more important to impart basic knowledge than to classify the scholarly disciplines or to prepare vast compilations of knowledge.142 Referring to the cognitive metaphor of knowledge/ education as a building, Comenius represented the various phases of education by carefully chosen terms for the titles of his didactic works: From the vestibule (vestibulum, Vorhalle) the student passes the gate (janua, i.e. textbooks on the native tongue) and thus enters the hall ( palatium) of grammar-school. Thereafter, he may proceed to the store-house (thesaurus) of the sciences.143 The desire and need to order knowledge not only can be traced back to European antiquity, but also can be found in non-Western civilizations. In dealing with such works Westerners eagerly placed them in an ‘encyclopaedic’ context.144 Not only the East Asian tradi-

“Universalwissenschaft,” in Erkenntnis—Erfindung—Konstruktion. Studien zur Bildgeschichte von Naturwissenschaften und Technik vom 16. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert, ed. Hans Holländer (Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 2000), 86–89; Haß-Zumkehr, Deutsche Wörterbücher. Brennpunkt von Sprach- und Kulturgeschichte, 301. 142 Pohle, “Universalwissenschaft,” 90. 143 On Comenius’ use of metaphors in book titles see Alexandra Guski, Metaphern der Pädagogik. Metaphorische Konzepte von Schule, schulischem Lernen und Lehren in pädagogischen Texten von Comenius bis zur Gegenwart, Explorationen. Studien zur Erziehungswissenschaft 53 (Bern, Berlin: Lang, 2007). On Comenius as lexicographer see Haß-Zumkehr, Deutsche Wörterbücher. Brennpunkt von Sprach- und Kulturgeschichte, 303 and 305–308. On Alsted and Comenius and on their influence on Leibniz see Konrad Moll, “Der Enzyklopädiegedanke bei Comenius und Alsted, seine Übernahme und Umgestaltung bei Leibniz—neue Perspektiven der Leibnizforschung,” studia leibnitiana 34, no. 1 (2002), 1–19. 144 Recently, the project “Hidden Grammars of Transculturality—Migrations of Encyclopaedic Knowledge and Power” (Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context: Shifting Asymmetries in Cultural Flows”, Heidelberg University, Germany); focused on “analyzing encyclopaedia as global source material”; see http:// www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de/en/research/d-historicities-heritage/d5.html as well as http://www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de/en/research/d-historicities-heritage/ d11.html (accessed 6 May 2010). Regarding the history of European encyclopaedias this project continues work originally begun at Zurich University, Switzerland (2002– 2006; see http://www.enzyklopaedie.ch (accessed 6 May 2010).

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tions of ‘encyclopaedic’ compilations have attracted scholarly interest. In recent years, the respective achievements of medieval Hebrew and Islamic scholars were discussed in the context of cross-cultural aspects of compilations of knowledge145 and presented in edited volumes dealing with the development of traditional Hebrew and Islamic ‘encyclopaedias’.146 The need for ordering knowledge and for arranging it in a suitable manner has been a transcultural phenomenon. Thomas H. C. Lee mentioned these endeavours in connection with Chinese ‘encyclopaedias’ from the Song dynasty: Even before the time when the idea of ‘encyclopedia’ was first conceived in the West, the desire to find the unity of knowledge was already there. The accumulated weight of cultural legacy, history, and natural philosophy dictates that the people seeking to bring them together should find a satisfactory way to systematize their presentation. Such a need to organize available knowledge led to the creation of principles to help comprehend myriad things in a systematic and unified manner.147

Before the term ‘encyclopaedia’ emerged in early modern Europe, there existed a host of metaphors for the compilation and representation of knowledge.148 Book titles of compilations also used notions

145 Mauro Zonta, “Syriac, Hebrew and Latin Encyclopaedias in the 13th Century: A Comparative Approach to ‘Medieval Philosophies’,” in Was ist Philosophie im Mittelalter? Akten des X. Internationalen Kongresses für mittelalterliche Philosophie der Société Internationale pour l’Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale 25. bis 30. August 1997 in Erfurt, ed. Jan A. Aertsen and Andreas Speer, Miscellanea Medievalia. Veröffentlichungen des Thomas-Instituts der Universität zu Köln 26 (Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 1998), 922–928. 146 For a useful overview on Jewish encyclopaedias see Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed., ed. Fred Skolnik, Michael Berenbaum (Detroit/New York: Macmillan, 2007), vol. 6, pp. 399–402 (s. v. ‘Encyclopedias’, Theodore Wiener). On Arabic ‘encyclopaedias’ see Syrinx van Hees, Enzyklopädie als Spiegel des Weltbildes. Qazwinis Wunder der Schöpfung. Eine Naturkunde des 13. Jahrhunderts, Diskurse der Arabistik 4 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2002). Gerhard Endress, ed., Organizing knowledge. Encyclopaedic activities in the pre-eighteenth century Islamic world, Islamic philosophy, theology and science 61 (Leiden: Brill, 2006). 147 Thomas H. C. Lee, “History, Erudition, and Good Government: Cheng Ch’iao and Encyclopedic Historical Thinking,” in The New and the Multiple. Sung Senses of the Past, ed. Thomas H. C. Lee (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2004), 165. 148 See Pohle, “Universalwissenschaft,” 91 (on the ocean metaphor used by Francis Bacon) and Paul Michel, “Ordnungen des Wissens. Darbietungsweisen des Materials in Enzyklopädien,” in Populäre Enzyklopädien. Von der Auswahl, Ordnung und Vermittlung des Wissens, ed. Ingrid Tomkowiak (Zürich: Chronos, 2002), 38.—On

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referring to the spatial aspect of information storage.149 In the preface to Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon, this practice was clearly dismissed as such terms would represent an unsystematic approach to the various branches of knowledge.150 Since the early modern era, Europeans relied on a wealth of metaphors in titles of reference works:151 a) terms representing spatial aspects of (information) storage or ways to represent information:152 arsenal (armamentarium), storehouse ( promptuarium, Vorratskammer), library (bibliotheca, bibliothèque),153 censer (acerra, Rauchfaß), treasury (thesaurus, Schatzkammer) b) terms representing vision and visualism: mirror or looking-glass (speculum, miroir, Spiegel) c) terms representing nature (or organic structures derived from nature): tree (as in arbor scientiarum), garden, source/fountain, ocean d) terms representing linear development or arrangement: path or way, chain (catena), thread,154 net

metaphors in the field of history see Alexander Demandt, Metaphern für Geschichte. Sprachbilder und Gleichnisse im historisch-politischen Denken (Munich: Beck 1978). 149 For book titles of early modern compilations see Wolfgang Brückner, “Historien und Historie. Erzählliteratur des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts als Forschungsaufgabe,” in Volkserzählung und Reformation. Ein Handbuch zur Tradierung und Funktion von Erzählstoffen und Erzählliteratur im Protestantismus, ed. Wolfgang Brückner (Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1974), 83. 150 Zedler 1 (1732 [1731]), ‘Vorrede’, 1 f. 151 This enumeration is rather tentative—a thorough investigation of the subject would go far beyond the scope of this study. 152 On the metaphor of education/knowledge as a building see Guski, Metaphern der Pädagogik, 155–162. 153 On the use of ‘bibliothèque’ in titles of reference works see Elisabeth Arend, “Bibliothèque”—geistiger Raum eines Jahrhunderts. Hundert Jahre französischer Literaturgeschichte im Spiegel gleichnamiger Bibliographien, Zeitschriften und Anthologien (1685–1785), Abhandlungen zur Sprache und Literatur 6 (Bonn: Romanistischer Verlag, 1987), 83–89 (on Herbelot, Bibliothèque orientale, ibid., 86 f.). 154 The original meaning of the Chinese term jing 經 (classical text) was the warp on the loom. Of books “it meant those that have high and permanent authority” (Wilkinson, Chinese History, 476). Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 1364 f. mentions the original meaning of jing in quoting Prémare’s notes on the Yijing 易經 (Classic of Changes).—The German term ‘Leitfaden’ (i.e. guide, handbook) also refers to the ‘thread’ metaphor.

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e) terms representing medial aspects of information display: theatre (theatrum, Schauplatz),155 map of the world (mappa mundi, mappemonde, Weltkarte)156 Some of these metaphors have been used for book titles of reference works and handbooks not only in Europe, but also in the Near East and in East Asia. In Europe and in East Asia as well, scholars used metaphors like ‘mirror’ and ‘reflection’ quite often.157 In medieval Europe, these terms were used to provide a representation and a reduced form of the whole world as well.158 In Europe, the mirror should represent the ‘divine unity of truth’. In China, the ‘mirror’ should represent the ‘way to good government’159—for example the Zizhi tongjian 資治通鑑 (Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, 1084) by Sima Guang 司馬光

155 On ‘theatre’ as a metaphorical model see Helmar Schramm, “Theatralität.” In: Ästhetische Grundbegriffe. Historisches Wörterbuch; ed. Karlheinz Barck et al., vol. 6 (Stuttgart, Weimar: J. B. Metzler 2005), 48–73, especially 50–56.—On the metaphorical use of the term ‘theatre’ in book-titles see Steffen Siegel, “Bildnisordnungen. Visuelle Pragmatik in Paul Frehers Gelehrtenlexikon ‘Theatrum virorum eruditione clarorum’ (Nürnberg 1688),” Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 90, no. 1 (2008), 81 f. and 82 n. 5. The metaphorical use of the term “theatre” recently also has been examined at the symposium “Ordnung und Repräsentation von Wissen—Dimensionen der Theatrum-Metapher in der Frühen Neuzeit” held at the University of Augsburg (March 2007).—On theatres and encyclopaedias as forms of early modern European ‘circles of learning’ see William N. West, Theatres and Encyclopedias in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002); cf. ibid., 1: “Each made a claim, at least initially, to represent the manifold of the world in literally or metaphorically circular form [. . .].” 156 On the metaphorical use of ‘map’ in early modern Europe see Matthew H. Edney, “Reconsidering Enlightenment Geography and Map Making: Reconnaissance, Mapping, Archive,” in Geography and Enlightenment, ed. David N. Livingstone and Charles W. J. Withers (Chicago, London: Chicago University Press, 1999), 186. 157 For a thorough presentation of the concepts related to the terms reflection, mirror, and image see Hans Heinz Holz and Thomas Metscher, “Widerspiegelung/Spiegel/ Abbild,” in Ästhetische Grundbegriffe. Historisches Wörterbuch. Vol. 6, ed. Karlheinz Barck (Stuttgart, Weimar: Metzler, 2005), 617–669. In China, mirrors were in use since the Zhou dynasty and soon became a symbol for the search for immortality. 158 Herbert Grabes, Speculum, Mirror und Looking-Glass. Kontinuität und Originalität der Spiegelmetapher in den Buchtiteln des Mittelalters und der englischen Literatur des 13. bis 17. Jahrhunderts, Buchreihe der Anglia. Zeitschrift für englische Philologie, vol. 16 (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1973), 42 f.; Fowler, “Encyclopaedias: Definitions and Theoretical Problems”, 23. 159 Carol Gluck, “The Fine Folly of the Encyclopedists,” Biblion. The Bulletin of the New York Public Library 3, no. 1 (1994), 14.

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(1019–1086)160 in analogy to the ‘mirrors for the princes’ of the medieval Arabs161 and early modern Europe. In his catalogue of the Chinese books of the Royal library at Paris, Étienne Fourmont (1683–1745) rendered the title of the Zizhi tongjian as ‘speculum’.162 In the Science and Civilisation in China series, Joseph Needham rendered the titles of some Chinese encyclopaedias (leishu 類書) as ‘speculum’ (mirror), ‘florilegium’, and ‘summa’.163 An example for the Chinese practice to use the ‘mirror’ metaphor in book titles is the Mingxin baojian 明心寳鑑 (Precious Mirror for Illuminating the Mind) written by Fan Liben 范立本 (fl. sixteenth century)—the first Chinese work ever translated into a European language (by Juan Cobo OP (1546–1592/93); Spanish translation in 1592).164 Among the Chinese-influenced civilizations of East Asia the metaphor of mirror for book titles had been quite common.165 Chinese examples for this practice include Siyuan yujian 四元玉鑑 (Precious Mirror of the Four Unknowns, 1303) by Zhu Shijie 朱世傑 (fl. thirteenth century), one of the most important Chinese writings on algebra, as well as Xingshui jinjian 行水金鑑 (Golden Mir160 Xiao-bin Ji, “Mirror for Government: Ssu-ma Kuang’s Thought on Politics and Government in Tzu-chih t’ung-chien,” in The New and the Multiple. Sung Senses of the Past, ed. Thomas H. C. Lee (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2004), 1–31. 161 G. J. van Gelder, “Mirror for princes or vizor for viziers: the twelfth-century popular encyclopaedia Mufīd al-‘ulūm and its relationship with the anonymous Persian Bah̟r al-fawā’id,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 64, no. 3 (2001), 313–338. 162 Étienne Fourmont, Linguae Sinarum Mandarinicae Hieroglyphicae Grammatica Duplex, Latinè, & cum Characteribus Sinensium. Item Sinicorum Regiae Bibliothecae Librorum Catalogus [. . .] (Paris: Guerin, 1742), 386 (no. LIX). 163 See the chapter “Lexicographic and Encyclopaedic Texts” in Joseph Needham and Gwei-djen Lu, Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. 6: Biology and Biological Technology. Part 1: Botany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 182–220. 164 On the perception of this work in Europe see Hing-ho Chan, “Le Mingxin baojian (Miroir précieux pour éclairer l’esprit), premier livre chinois traduit dans une langue occidentale (le castellan),” in D’un orient à l’autre. Actes des troisièmes journées de l’Orient, Bordeaux, 2–4 octobre 2002, ed. Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont, Angel Pino, and Samaha Khoury, Cahiers de la Société Asiatique, Nouvelle Série IV (Paris, Louvain: Éditions Peeters, 2005), 101–108; Martin Gimm, Hans Conon von der Gabelentz und die Übersetzung des chinesischen Romans Jin Ping Mei, Sinologica Coloniensia 24 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2005), 140–142. 165 Examples may include the thirteenth-century chronicle Azuma kagami 吾妻鏡 (“Mirror of the Eastern Lands”; see J. B. Harley and David Woodward, eds., The History of Cartography. Volume Two. Book Two: Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies (Chicago, London: Chicago University Press, 1994), 395) as well as three famous historical works, covering the period from 660 BC to 1338 AD, and commonly known as San kagami 三鏡 (E. Papinot, Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan, Ninth Printing (Rutland VT, Tokyo: Tuttle, 1972; reprint, 1986), 540).

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ror of the Flowing Waters, 1725), a work on water conservancy written by Fu Zehong 傅澤洪 (fl. 1721–1725). In late imperial China, Manchu rulers adopted the metaphoric use of “mirror” in book titles like the grammar Qingwen jian 清文鑑 (A Mirror of the Manchu language, in Manchu Han-i araha nonggime toktobuha Manju gisun-i buleku bithe, completed in the early eighteenth-century). Nineteenth-century encyclopaedias also referred to this practice.166 In China and in Muslim culture the metaphoric use of ‘ocean’ or ‘sea’ in book titles usually referred to dictionaries and encyclopaedias. Examples include the Yuhai 玉海 (Sea of Jade) written by the scholar Wang Yinglin 王應麟 (1223–1296) at the end of the Song 宋 dynasty as well as character dictionaries—more recent examples for this practice are the Cihai 辭海 (Sea of Words, first ed. 1915) and the Zhonghua zihai 中華字海 (Sea of Chinese characters, 1994), the latter containing about 85,000 head characters.167 In Arabic, qāmūs usually denotes a dictionary. This term appeared at least at the time of the Prophet, meaning ‘the bottom, the very deepest part of the sea’. Arab geographers borrowed the Greek term Ωκεανος to denote ‘the mass of water surrounding the earth’. In a metaphorical sense, it came in use with the great dictionary of al-Fīrūzābādī (d. 1414).168 In Europe, the metaphorical use of ‘ocean’ for human knowledge dates back at least to Francis Bacon (1561–1626). In his Instauratio magna (1620) Bacon postulated that “the human spirit must be prepared for a voyage into the open sea”.169

166 See Ersch/Gruber II 29 (1852) 151 n. 51 (s. v. ‘Junnan‘ [Yunnan]).—On Han-i araha nonggime toktobuha Manju gisun-i buleku bithe see Gimm, Gabelentz, 101 n. 247. 167 For another example for the use of ‘sea, ocean’ in the history of Chinese lexicography see Françoise Bottéro, Sémantisme et classification dans l’écriture chinoise. Les systèmes de classement des caractères par clés du Shuowen jiezi au Kangxi zidian, Mémoires des Hautes Études Chinois 27 (Paris: Collège de France, Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises, 1996), 151. 168 On the etymology of qāmūs see Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., vol. IV (Leiden 1978), 524 f. (J. A. Haywood). On Arabic lexicography see also John A. Haywood, Arabic Lexicography. Its history, and its general place in the history of lexicography (Leiden: Brill, 1960). On cross-cultural comparisons with Chinese lexicography see ibid., 5–7. On the importance of Indo-Iranian influences on Arab learning in the context of lexicography see the remarks in Stefan Wild, Das Kitāb al-ʿAin und die arabische Lexikographie (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1965), 3–5. 169 Klaus A. Vogel, “Cosmography,” in The Cambridge History of Science, ed. Katharine Park and Lorraine Daston (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 495 f.; Pohle, “Universalwissenschaft,” 91 f.

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From time to time, scholars pleaded for a more careful use of the term ‘encyclopaedia’ for works that were produced in classical antiquity, in medieval Europe, in the Arab world, and in traditional East Asia. As Kaderas has pointed out for China, the term ‘encyclopaedia’ has been used very uncritically to denote a great variety of works of different cultures, different genres and different ages.170 Not only the representation of China in European encyclopaedias, but also the history of European knowledge on encyclopaedic works compiled in China has been neglected so far. A look into the (early) history of European research on Chinese leishu will show which Chinese ‘encyclopaedias’ were known in the period under consideration and which works were labelled as ‘encyclopaedias’. Traditional Chinese bibliographies used the term leishu (‘classified books’) from the Song dynasty (AD 960–1279) onwards. It has been applied to works intended as digests for the emperor or to manuals intended for the use of officials or for the use of candidates for civil examinations. The topical arrangement of materials is commonly seen as a general feature of leishu.171 In the early fifteenth century, the Yongle 永樂 Emperor (r. 1403– 1424) commissioned the largest encyclopaedic enterprise ever: The Yongle dadian 永樂大典 (Great literary repository of the Yongle reign), consisting of 22877 juan 卷 (chapters)—plus 60 juan preface and index—was completed in 1408. Due to its enormous size, this work was never printed.172 The most extensive printed leishu was compiled during the eighteenth century: the Qinding gujin tushu jicheng

170 Christoph Kaderas, Die Leishu der imperialen Bibliothek des Kaisers Qianlong, Asien- und Afrika-Studien der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin 4 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998), 9. For a critical assessment of Kaderas’ study see the review in the Journal of the American Oriental Society 120 (2000), 141–143 (Martin Kern).—On encyclopaedias in China see also Florence Bretelle-Establet and Karine Chemla, eds., Qu’était-ce qu’écrire une encyclopédie en Chine ? / What did it mean to write an encyclopedia in China? Extrême Orient, Extrême Occident, special issue (Paris: Presses Universitaires de Vincennes, 2007). 171 For a bibliographic overview of Chinese ‘encyclopaedias’ see Ssu-yü Teng and Knight Biggerstaff, An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Chinese Reference Works, 3rd ed., Harvard-Yenching Institute Studies 2 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), 83–128. 172 For a concise history of the Yongle dadian see Wilkinson, Chinese History, 604 f. Eighteen studies on the Yongle dadian published in twentieth-century China have been republished several years ago: Zhang Sheng 張昇, ed., Yongle dadian yanjiu ziliao jikan 永樂大典研究資料輯刊 [A collection of research material concerning the Yongle dadian] (Beijing: Beijing tushuguan chubanshe, 2005).

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欽定古今圖書集成 (Imperially commissioned synthesis of books and illustrations past and present), which comprised nearly 10,000 juan, was printed in the years 1726–1728.173 According to Jean-Pierre Diény, the publication of leishu came to an end during the Jiaqing 嘉慶 era (1796–1820).174 With adaptations, the genre of leishu also found its way to the other regions of the Sinosphere. In 1712, a Japanese version of the Sancai tuhui 三才圖會 (Assembled pictures of the three realms, i.e. heaven, earth and man) had been published at Ōsaka. The Ming scholar Wang Qi 王圻 ( c. 1565–1614) had compiled this richly illustrated leishu in the early seventeenth century. The Japanese version, Wakan sansai zue, edited in 1712 by the Ōsaka-born physician Terajima Ryōan (fl. 1712) may be seen in the context of efforts by Japanese scholars to adopt Chinese learning. On the model of the so-called ‘household encyclopaedias’ (riyong leishu 日用類書) that flourished in Ming China, Japan saw many editions of the Setsuyō shū (comprehensive collections for daily use or popular encyclopaedias).175 These works were “summarizing practical information for townsfolk and others not primarily concerned with mastering the Confucian heritage.”176 Cultural transmissions in this field were not restricted to East Asia. As a result of Dutch presence in Dejima and with the advent of Dutch studies (rangaku) in Japan, European dictionaries began to be perceived

173 Wilkinson, Chinese History, 605–607 provides an overview on the 32 sections of the work. For twentieth-century research on the Gujin tushu jicheng see Chan Hui-yuan [Zhan Huiyuan] 詹惠媛, “ ‘Gujin tushu jicheng’ yanjiu huigu”《古今圖書 集成》研究回顧 1911–2006” (An Overview of Research on Ku Chin Tu Shu Chi Cheng (1911–2006). Hanxue yanjiu tongxun 漢學研究通訊 27, no. 3 (2008), 16–29. For research on the section of canonical and other literature (jingji 經籍) of the Gujin tushu jicheng see a series of articles in Zhongguo wenzhe yanjiu tongxun 中國文哲研 究通訊 (Newsletter of the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, Academia Sinica), vol. 16, no. 4 (issue no. 64; Dec. 2006). 174 J[ean]-P[ierre] Diény, “Des encyclopédies aux concordances,” Cahiers de Linguistique d’Orientalisme et de Slavistique, no. 10 (janvier 1978), 65. 175 For an overview on the history of Japanese lexicography see Bruno Lewin, “Japanische Lexikographie”, in: Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft (Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science) vol. 5, part 3 (Berlin, New York: de Gruyter, 1991), 2617–2623, especially 2619. On setsuyō shū see Donald Shively, “Popular Culture,” in: The Cambridge History of Japan. Vol. 4: Early Modern Japan, ed. John Whitney Hall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 721 and Gluck, “The Fine Folly of the Encyclopedists”, 19 and 22–25. 176 Wilkinson, Chinese History, 602, see also ibid., 608 and Y. W. Ma, “t’ung-su leishu” [通俗類書], in: The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, ed. by William H. Nienhauser (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986), 841 f.

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by Japanese scholars. In 1781, Isaac Titsingh (c. 1745–1812) arrived at Japan with the 1778 edition of Noël Chomel’s (c. 1632–1712) Dictionnaire oeconomique (first edition published in 1709).177 In China, the emergence of encyclopaedias inspired by Western models (referred to as baike quanshu 百科全書) only took place in the final decades of the nineteenth century. While Japan had imported this genre from Europe, China adapted the Japanese model.178 The largest work of this type is the Zhongguo da baike quanshu 中國大百科全書.179 The equation of leishu and encyclopaedia very quickly became quite common in the works of early European sinologists:180 As early as in 1774, Joseph de Guignes (1721–1800) compared the Wanxing tongpu 萬姓通譜 (Collected Genealogies of Manifold People), compiled during the Ming dynasty by Ling Dizhi 凌迪知, to the Dictionnaire historique of Louis Moréri.181 In his Dictionary of the Chinese language, Robert Morrison (1782–1834) pointed out that European sinologists had adopted the term ‘encyclopaedia’ for works like Sancai tuhui and Yuanjian leihan.182 In 1837, Karl Friedrich Neumann (1793–1870) equated the Sancai tuhui to the Bilder-Conversations-Lexikon, then newly released by Brockhaus.183 As mentioned above, scholars only recently have called into question the equation of leishu and ‘encyclopaedia’.184

177 Jacques Proust, “Sur la route des encyclopédies: Paris, Yverdon, Leeuwarden, Edo (1751–1781),” in L’Encyclopédie d’Yverdon et sa résonnance européenne. Contexts—contenus—continuités, ed. Jean-Daniel Candaux, et al., Travaux sur la Suisse des Lumières 7 (Geneva: Slatkine, 2005), 443–468. 178 During the last years, research on “modern” Chinese encyclopaedias has increased. For a list of nineteenth and early twentieth century East Asian encyclopaedias see http://www.asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de/en/research/d-historicitiesheritage/d5/bibliographic-descriptions/encyclopaedia-china-japan.html (6 May 2010). 179 The Zhongguo da baike quanshu was published from 1980 to 1993 in 73 volumes (plus one index volume). See Wilkinson, Chinese History, 259. 180 For late-eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century European definitions of Chinese encyclopaedias see below (p. 289 f.). 181 Joseph de Guignes, “Idée de la Littérature chinoise en général, et particulièrement des historiens et de l’étude de l’histoire à la Chine,” Histoire de l’Academie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, avec les Mémoires de Littérature tirés des Registres de cette Academie / Mémoires de Littérature 36 (1774), 190–238, quote in ibid., 235. On the Wanxing tongpu see Kaderas, Leishu, 187–191. 182 Robert Morrison, A Dictionary of the Chinese Language, Part III: English and Chinese (London/Macao: East India Company 1822), 140 (s. v. ‘Encyclopedia’). 183 Carl Friedrich Neumann, review of Verzeichniß der chinesischen und japanischen Münzen [. . .], by Stephan Endlicher, Jahrbücher der Literatur 79 (1837), 242. 184 Apart from Kaderas, Leishu, 276 (who proposes the rendering ‘handbook’ (‘Handbuch’) instead of ‘encyclopaedia’), see also Johannes L. Kurz, Das Kompilationsprojekt Song Taizongs (reg. 976–997), Schweizer Asiatische Studien/Monographien,

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At a very early stage of Chinese studies in Europe, it became common to use the term ‘encyclopaedia’ not only for the group of leishu, but for all kinds of huge and/or systematic compilations.185 The term ‘encyclopaedia’ has also been applied to circumscribe the contents of dynastic or standard histories (zhengshi 正史), general gazetteers of the empire (yitong zhi 一統志), works on natural history (bencao 本草), and by far most frequently to characterize the group of handbooks on administration (zhengshu 政書). One of these zhengshu, the Wenxian tongkao 文獻通考 (General history of institutions and critical examination of documents and studies), compiled by Ma Duanlin 馬端臨 (c. 1254–c. 1323) in 1317, became the most “prominent” and most widely used zhengshu in eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe.186 This may be seen from the works of Claude Visdelou SJ, from the Histoire des Huns, des Turcs, des Mogols, et des autres Tartares occidentaux by Joseph de Guignes, and from the works of Jean-Pierre-Abel Rémusat (1788–1832), who is usually called the founder of (French) sinology.187 In 1867, Alexander Wylie (1815–1887) discussed the Wenxian tongkao according to its place in traditional Chinese bibliographies

vol. 45 (Bern: Lang, 2003), 20–28. Alvin P. Cohen, Introduction to Research in Chinese Source Materials (New Haven: Far Eastern Publications, Yale University, 2000), 337 (III.E) refers to leishu as “classified digest.” 185 See e. g. the treatment of Chinese ‘encyclopaedias’ in Agricole Joseph François Fortia d’Urban, Nouveau sistème bibliographique, mis en usage pour la connaissance des enciclopédies [sic], en quelque langue qu’elles soient écrites (Paris: Treuttel et Wurtz, 1821), 278–303. 186 [Heinrich Julius] Klaproth, “Notice de l’Encyclopédie littéraire de Ma touan lin, intitulée Wen hian thoung k’hao,” Journal Asiatique 2nd series, vol. 10 (1832), 3–38 and ibid., 97–137 and [Johann Heinrich] Plath, “Die 4 grossen chinesischen Encyclopädien der k. Staatsbibliothek,” Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-philologischen und historischen Classe der k. b. Akademie der Wissenschaften 1871, part 1 (1871) published overviews concerning the contents of the work. Plath announced to deal also with Yuanjian leihan, Sancai tuhui and Yuhai, but only this article dealing exclusively with a copy of Wenxian tongkao held in the Bavarian State library seems to have been published. 187 Joseph de Guignes, Histoire générale des Huns, des Turcs, des Mogols, et des autres Tartares Occidentaux [. . .] 4 vols. Paris: Desaint and Saillant, 1756–1758. For the table of contents of all four-volumes see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 2767 f.— For Visdelou’s use of Wenxian tongkao in his Histoire de la Grande Tartarie (History of Great Tartary), published in the supplement of Herbelot’s Bibliothèque Orientale see Louis Pfister, Notices biographiques et bibliographiques sur les jésuites de l’ancienne mission de la Chine, 1552–1773. Variétés Sinologiques, no. 59–60. 2 vols. (Chang-hai: Imprimerie de la Mission Catholique, 1932–1934), 454. For Rémusat’s description of Ma Duanlin’s work see the entry he wrote for the Biographie Universelle 27 (1820), 461–464 (s. v. ‘Ma-touan-lin’).

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among the “Treatises on the Constitution” (zhengshu).188 The importance of zhengshu for sinological research caused by their ‘encyclopaedic’ scope had been pointed out by twentieth-century scholars: Étienne Balazs (1905–1963) and Wolfgang Bauer (1930–1997) referred to these handbooks on administration as ‘encyclopaedias’.189 Western scholars also put the late Ming compendium Tiangong kaiwu 天工開物 (The exploitation of the works of nature) compiled by Song Yingxing 宋應星 (1587–1666?) in the context of Chinese ‘encyclopaedias’ referring to Song as ‘Diderot of China’190—rather a comparison of the importance of their works than of their personalities. Chinese works labelled as ‘encyclopaedias’ by Westerners also may be seen in the context of the history of collectanea in cross-cultural perspective. Scholars in Byzantium usually labeled “a collection of individual books and excerpts” as ‘encyclopaedic’.191 In this tradition may be placed the Patrologia cursus completus (the writings of the Church Fathers), edited by Jacques-Paul Migne (1800–1875) in nineteenthcentury France. The Science and Civilisation in China series referred to the Daozang 道藏 (‘Treasury of Dao’), the Daoist Canon, as ‘Taoist Patrology’.192 1.6

European Encyclopaedias, 1700–1850

An overall history of European encyclopaedias as well as of their perception at the time of their publication still remains to be written.193 188 Alexander Wylie, Notes on Chinese Literature. With introductory remarks on the progressive advancement of the art; and a list of translations from the Chinese into various European languages (Shanghae: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1867), 55 f. 189 Étienne Balazs, “L’histoire comme guide de la pratique bureaucratique (les monographies, les encyclopédies, les recueils de statuts),” in Historians of China and Japan, ed. William Gerald Beasley and E. Pulleyblank (London: Oxford University Press, 1961), 78–94. Wolfgang Bauer, “The Encyclopaedia in China,” Cahiers d’histoire mondiale 9, no. 3 (1966), 682 (referring to the Wenxian tongkao).—A recent study links the zhengshu of traditional China to the adab al-kātib of Arab tradition. See Bruna Soravia, “Les manuels à l’usage des fonctionnaires de l’administration (adab al-kātib) dans l’islam classique,” Arabica 52, no. 3 (2005), 417–36. 190 Joseph Needham, Christian Daniels, and Nicholas K. Menzies, Science and Civilisation in China. Volume 6: Biology and Biological Technology. Part 3: Agro-Industries and Forestry (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 7. 191 Fowler, “Encyclopaedias: Definitions and Theoretical Problems,” 11 f. 192 See e. g. Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Part 7: Military Technology. The Gunpowder Epic (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 111. 193 On eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century ways of ordering knowledge see the useful overview in Headrick, When Information Came of Age, 142–180 (‘Storing Information’).

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Besides archival records, a variety of published sources can serve this purpose: bibliographic descriptions of encyclopaedias, review articles on encyclopaedias, encyclopaedias’ entries on dictionaries and encyclopaedias, as well as paratexts (prefaces and lists of subscribers). Since the eighteenth century, encyclopaedic works have been listed repeatedly in ample bibliographies. In his Handbuch für Bücherfreunde published in the late 1780s and early 1790s, the writer and bibliographer Heinrich Wilhelm Lawätz (1748–1825) provided a list of encyclopaedic works from across Europe.194 At about the same time, Christian Heinrich Schmid (1746–1800), professor of eloquence and poetics at the University of Gießen, compiled a list of 220 German-language encyclopaedias and general dictionaries on arts and sciences published since the beginning of the eighteenth century.195 In his Répertoire Bibliographique Universel (1812), the French bibliographer ÉtienneGabriel Peignot (1767–1849) presented an annotated list of French, English and German encyclopaedias as well as very critical remarks on sixteenth- and seventeenth century Latin encyclopaedic works.196 In 1821, the French antiquary and patron of letters Agricole Joseph François Fortia d’Urban (1756–1843) published his Nouveau sistème bibliographique, intending to improve the knowledge on encyclopaedias in various languages including encyclopaedias in the classical languages Greek and Latin, French, German, and English encyclopaedias, Italian encyclopaedias as well as Arab, Egyptian, Chinese, and Japanese encyclopaedias.197 In the same year, Friedrich Adolf Ebert (1791–1834) published an annotated list of encyclopaedias in Allgemeines bibliographisches Lexikon (A General Bibliographical Dictionary).198 In 1857, the Nouveau Manuel de Bibliographie, published by the librarians Ferdinand Denis (1798–1890), Pierre Pinçon (1802–1873), and Louis

194 Heinrich Wilhelm Lawätz, Handbuch für Bücherfreunde und Bibliothekare, 4 vols. (Halle: Gebauer, 1788–1792). Vol. I,2 (1788), 365–376 (encyclopaedic instructions for learning) and ibid., 377–386 (general scholarly dictionaries). 195 Christian Heinrich Schmid, “Verzeichniß der in deutscher Sprache verfaßten Real-Wörterbücher über Wissenschaften und Künste,” Journal von und für Deutschland 8 (1791), 1049–1061. 196 Gabriel Peignot, Répertoire bibliographique universel, contenant la Notice raisonnée des Bibliographies specials publiées jusqu’à ce jour, et d’un grand nombre d’autres ouvrages de bibliographie, relatives à l’histoire littéraire, et à toutes les parties de la bibliologie (Paris: Renouard, 1812), 275–286. 197 Fortia d’Urban, Nouveau sistème bibliographique. 198 Friedrich Adolf Ebert, Allgemeines bibliographisches Lexikon, vol. 1: A–L (Leipzig: Brockhaus 1821), col. 521–526. For an English adaptation see: A General Bibliographical Dictionary, from the German of Frederic Adolphus Ebert [. . .] 4 vols. (Oxford: At the University Press, 1837), vol. 1, pp. 501–504.

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Georges Alfred de Martonne (1820–1896), contained 189 bibliographic entries under the headword ‘Encyclopédie’. According to a note at the end of the entry, the (first half of the) nineteenth century had seen the publication of so many encyclopaedias, that only the most important ones could have been listed.199 Other important nineteenth-century bibliographies listing encyclopaedias included Manuel du libraire et de l’amateur des livres (first published by Jacques Charles Brunet (1780– 1867) in 1810 (and in several revised and enlarged editions) or Trésor des livres rares by Johann Georg Theodor Graesse (1814–1885).200 Far more concentrated and complete bibliographic descriptions of European encyclopaedias have been published in 1875 in the general catalogue of the Leipzig publisher F.A. Brockhaus.201 Later on, the number of bibliographies of general encyclopaedias and works on subject lexicography increased considerably.202 199 Nouveau Manuel de Bibliographie Universelle (Paris: Libraire Encyclopédique de Roret 1857) 223–237 (s. v. ‘Encyclopédie’), ibid, 223: “Le nombre des ouvrages encyclopédiques est si considerable, surtout celui des ouvrages du XIXe siècle, que nous avons dû ne mentionner que les plus importants, et ceux qui presentment l’ensemble des sciences sous un nouvel aspect [. . .].” 200 Jean George Théodore Graesse, Trésor des livres rares et précieux ou nouveau dictionnaire bibliographique, 7 vols. (Dresde: Kuntze, 1858–1867), see ibid., vol. 2 (1861), 258 (“Conversationslexikon”) and 473–477 (see also ibid. under the names of various editors and publishers as well); Jacques Charles Brunet, Manuel du libraire et de l’amateur des livres (Paris: Didot, 5th ed. 1860–1865). 201 F. A. Brockhaus. Vollständiges Verzeichniss der von der Firma F. A. Brockhaus in Leipzig seit ihrer Gründung durch Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus im Jahre 1805 bis zu dessen hundertjährigem Geburtstage im Jahre 1872 verlegten Werke. In chronologischer Folge mit biographischen und literarhistorischen Notizen; ed. Heinrich Brockhaus (Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1872–1875), I–LXXII (Zur Geschichte und Bibliographie der encyklopädischen Literatur, insbesondere des Conversations-Lexikon [sic]). 202 Bibliographic reference works on encyclopaedias published since the 1950s include Gert A. Zischka, Index Lexicorum. Bibliographie der lexikalischen Nachschlagewerke (Vienna: Hollinek, 1959). 1–16, Robert L. Collison, Encyclopaedias. Their history throughout the ages. A bibliographical guide with extensive historical notes to the general encyclopaedias issued throughout the world from 350 BC to the present day (New York: 1964), Giorgio Tonelli, A short title list of subject dictionaries of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as aids to the history of ideas, The Warburg Institute; Surveys 4 (London: The Warburg Institute, 1971). An extended edition, revised and annotated by Eugenio Canone and Margherita Palumbo, was published in 2006 (including information on electronic editions), Helga Reinhart, “Bibliographie der Lexika, Wörterbücher und Nachschlagewerke,” in Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe. Historisches Lexikon zur politisch-sozialen Sprache in Deutschland, vol. 1, ed. Otto Brunner, Werner Conze, and Reinhart Koselleck (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1972), 930–948; Werner Lenz, Kleine Geschichte großer Lexika, originally 1972 ed. (Gütersloh: Bertelsmann/Lexikothek Verlag, 1980); Suchy, Lexikographie und Juden, 287–306; Werner Hupka, Wort und Bild. Die Illustrationen in Wörterbüchern und Enzyklopädien, Lexicographica: Series major 22 (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1989), 294–310;

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In their entries on ‘encyclopaedias’ or ‘dictionaries’, encyclopaedias themselves offer a wealth of information on the history of their predecessors in the genre. A thorough examination of these entries will go far beyond the scope of the present study. In his prospectus written for the Encyclopédie progressive the French politician and writer François Guizot (1787–1874) dealt extensively with other early-nineteenth century European encyclopaedias.203 Closely related to bibliographic descriptions of encyclopaedias and intended to serve as an aid for future users of works of general knowledge are review articles that commented on newly published encyclopaedic works. The function and value of such reviews for historical research in encyclopaedias comprises three aspects: (a) an overview of the state of the field, including remarks on the transnational dissemination of encyclopaedic models and concepts, (b) glimpses into the history and periodization of the genre, and (c) an assessment of the encyclopaedia(s) under review by their contemporaries immediately (or soon) after its/their publication. Notable review articles include a German overview on encyclopaedic works of the early 1830s (1834)204 and a survey on newly issued or planned French encyclopaedias (1836) written by the journalist Adolphe Granier de Cassagnac (1806–1880).205 In England, the Quarterly Review contained at least

Eybl et al., eds., Enzyklopädien der Frühen Neuzeit. Beiträge zu ihrer Erforschung, 308– 317; Hugo Wetscherek and Martin Peche, eds., Bibliotheca Lexicorum. Kommentiertes Verzeichnis der Sammlung Otmar Seemann. Eine Bibliographie der enzyklopädischen Literatur von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der im deutschen Sprachraum ab dem Jahr 1500 gedruckten Werke. Nach einem von Otmar Seemann erstellten Gesamtverzeichnis und mit einer mehr als 3000 Titel umfassenden Bibliographie zur Geschichte der Lexikonistik, Katalog Antiquariat Inlibris 9 (Vienna: Inlibris, 2001). For a bibliography of eighteenth-century English general reference works see R. C. Alston, A Bibliography of the English Language From the Invention of Printing to the Year 1800. A Corrected Reprint of Volumes I–X. Reproduced from the Author’s Annotated Copy with Corrections and Additions to 1973. Including Cumulative Indices (Ilkley: Janus Press, 1974), III, 123–134. 203 François Guizot, Encyclopédie Progressive, ou collection de traités sur l’histoire, l’état actuel et les progress des connaissances humaines, avec un manuel encyclopédique, ou dictionnaire abrégé des sciences et des arts [. . .] (Paris: Bureau de l’Encyclopédie Progressive, 1826). 204 “Uebersicht der seit 1830 erschienenen encyclopädischen und literarhistorischen Werke”, Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, no. 1 (January 1834), col. 1–8 and ibid., no. 2 (January 1834), col. 9–16. 205 A. Granier de Cassagnac, “Les nouvelles encyclopédies,” Revue de Paris, Édition augmentée des principaux articles de la Revue des deux Mondes, vol. 5 (May 1836), 5–25.

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two substantial review articles dealing with the history of encyclopaedias. On the occasion of the completion of the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, it presented details in the publishing history of all seven editions (1842).206 In 1863, Thomas Watts (1811–1869), at that time Assistant Keeper of Printed Books at the British Museum Library, provided a thorough survey on the history of alphabetically arranged encyclopaedias primarily intended to be a review of the English Cyclopaedia.207 At the turn to the eighteenth century, the number of publications in the vernacular languages of Europe began to increase considerably. In the course of the Age of Enlightenment Latin as the lingua franca of the European ‘republic of letters’ gradually was replaced by the various languages of Europe. The formation of the encyclopaedic genre also reflects the process of abandoning Latin in favour of the living languages. In publishing a historical dictionary in French (Le grand diction(n)aire historique), the priest Louis Moréri (1643–1680) initiated a new phase in the history of European subject lexicography. Between 1674 and 1759, this dictionary saw about twenty editions which were printed in France and the Netherlands. ‘Moréri’ had served as a model for similar enterprises in English, German and Dutch. While the English translations and adaptations had been prepared by Jeremy Collier (1650–1726), both the Netherlands and the German-speaking countries saw concurrent adaptations. Johann Franz Buddeus (1667–1729), professor of theology in Leipzig, published an Allgemeines Historisches Lexicon (1709), which went through various editions both at Leipzig (1722 and 1730–40) and—under the direction of Jakob Christoph Iselin (1681–1737) and his publisher Brandmüller—at Basle (1726, 1729, 1742–44 and 1747). In the Netherlands, the Algemeen Historisch Woordenboek edited by Abraham Georg Luïscius (fl. 1724–1737) soon was followed by the Groot allgemeen historisch [. . .] Woordenboek (1725–1733) directed by Daniel Franz van Hoogstraten.208 These adaptations in English, 206 “Art. II.—The Encyclopaedia Britannica [. . .] Seventh Edition [. . .],” London Quarterly Review (American edition), vol. 70 (June 1842), 25–40. 207 Thomas Watts, “History of Cyclopaedias,” Quarterly Review, vol. 113 (1863), 354–387. 208 Arianne Baggerman, “Het boek dat andere boeken overbodig zou maken. De mislukte lancering van een achttiende-eeuwse Nederlandse encyclopedie,” Jaarboek

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German, and Dutch were followed by a Spanish translation published at Paris in 1753. All these adaptations not only made use of Moréri, but also of Pierre Bayle’s (1647–1706) Dictionaire Historique (1697). Bayle originally intended to publish addenda and corrigenda to Moréri. His extensive notes mainly dealing with philosophical matters provoked scholarly discussions throughout the eighteenth century. In 1734, Thomas Birch (1705–1766), later Secretary of the Royal Society, started with the publication of an English version of Bayle’s dictionary. From 1741 to 1744, Johann Christoph Gottsched (1700–1766) published a richly annotated German translation.209 At the beginning of the eighteenth-century, the editions of Moréri consisted of four volumes bound in two. In the further course of the century encyclopaedic dictionaries on a much more extensive scale should be planned and published. Vincenzo Coronelli OFM (1650– 1718), cosmographer of the Republic of Venice, prepared materials for a Biblioteca Universale to consist of 45 folio volumes but only the first seven volumes were published: It forms a monument to his memory on the shelves of great libraries, not unlike the broken shaft of a column that is now so common in the cemeteries.210

In the Age of Enlightenment, some major innovations took place in the genre of encyclopaedic reference works. The order represented in encyclopaedias was no longer an absolute one. Encyclopaedias gradually became a tool for the popularization of knowledge. In the course of differentiation there emerged reference works dealing with specialized

voor nederlandse boekgeschiedenis 6 (1999), 137–155; on the works edited by Luïscius and Hoogstraten see ibid., 139 f. 209 On English adaptations see Isabel Rivers, “Biographical Dictionaries and their Uses from Bayle to Chalmers,” in Books and Their Readers in Eighteenth Century England. New Essays, ed. Isabel Rivers (New York: continuum, 2003), 149–160 (“The folio biographical dictionaries on the Baylean model”); on the German adaptation see Marie-Hélène Quéval, “Johann Christoph Gottsched und Pierre Bayle—ein philosophischer Dialog. Gottscheds Anmerkungen zu Pierre Bayles Historisch-critischem Wörterbuch,” in Diskurse der Aufklärung. Luise Adelgunde Victorie und Johann Christoph Gottsched., ed. Gabriele Ball, Helga Brandes, and Katherine Goodman, Wolfenbütteler Forschungen 112 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2006). 210 Watts, “History of Cyclopaedias,” 369.

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subjects.211 Two outstanding works for the field of economy212 were Noël Chomel’s Dictionnaire oeconomique (1709) and Jacques Savary des Bru(s)lons’ (1657–1716) Dictionnaire universel du commerce (1723).213 The emergence of special reference works of that kind and the publication of subject-oriented handbooks changed the function of general encyclopaedias. Encyclopaedias no longer were addressed to scholars, but to the educated (‘gens du monde’ in French, ‘gebildete Stände’ in German).214 In 1721, Johann Theodor Jablonski (1654–1731), the permanent secretary to the Prussian Academy of Sciences, published the Allgemeines Lexicon der Wissenschaften und Künste (General Dictionary of Arts and Sciences). Jablonski excluded entries on geography and history.215 In the early 1730s, the Leipzig publisher Johann Heinrich Zedler (1706–1751) launched what should become the largest completed German-language encyclopaedia of the eighteenth century: the Grosses Universal-Lexicon der Wissenschaften und Künste. Although the publication of this work was opposed by concurrent booksellers in Saxony and had to deal with serious financial troubles, the editors of the work succeeded at last. Mainly due to the efforts of Johann Peter Ludewig (1668–1743), chancellor of the University of Halle, Paul

211 Ulrike Haß-Zumkehr, Deutsche Wörterbücher. Brennpunkt von Sprach- und Kulturgeschichte (Berlin, New York: de Gruyter, 2001), 311 f. 212 On the beginnings of this genre see Jean-Claude Perrot, “Le premier dictionnaire d’économie en langue française,” Revue de synthèse 101 (1980), 63–76; still useful as bibliographic reference guide to the genre: Magdalene Humpert, Bibliographie der Kameralwissenschaften, Kölner Bibliographische Arbeiten 1 (Köln: Kurt Schroeder, 1935–1937), 382-90 (no. 4715–4782); for an overview of developments in this genre Jean-Claude Perrot, “Les dictionnaires de commerce au XVIIIe siècle,” Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine 28 (1981), 36–67. See also Doris Höhmann, “Opere enciclopediche e dizionari specialistici in campo economico nell’area di lingua e cultura tedescha (dal settecento al oggi),” Storia del pensiero economico 41 (2001), 131–63. 213 These works show the importance of East India companies for the transmission of information from Asia to Europe. On recent trends of research in this field see: Martine Julia van Ittersum, Profit and Principle. Hugo Grotius, Natural Rights Theories and the Rise of Dutch Power in the East Indies 1595–1615, Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History 139 (Leiden: Brill, 2006), xliv–liii. 214 For the rendering of ‘gens du monde’ as ‘Gebildete’ see “Uebersicht der seit 1830 erschienenen encyclopädischen und literarhistorischen Werke”, Allgemeine LiteraturZeitung, no. 1 (January 1834), col. 1–8 and ibid., no. 2 (January 1834), col. 9–16, especially col. 9. 215 See Bernhard Kossmann, “Deutsche Universal-Lexika des 18. Jahrhunderts. Ihr Wesen und ihr Informationswert,” Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens 9 (1969). cols. 1554–93.

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Daniel Longolius (1704–1779), and Carl Günther Ludovici (1707– 1778), 64 folio volumes were published from 1732 to 1750. The publication of a supplement was abandoned after only four volumes (A-Caq) which had been published in the years 1751–1754.216 In 1728, Ephraim Chambers (c. 1680–1740) published his Cyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences.217 According to the preface to his work, Chambers had been inspired “by the industry and endeavours of a long race of ancestors”,218 among them the Lexicon Technicum (1704) published by John Harris (1667–1719). Until the 1780s Chambers’ Cyclopaedia remained the most successful English language dictionary of arts and sciences. None of the dictionaries published in the 1760s superseded the Cyclopaedia—neither The Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1764–66) edited by Temple Henry Croker (1729–1790?) nor A New and Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences published by William Owen (fl. 1754–1763).219 In 1778, Abraham Rees (1743–1825) began to publish a revised and considerably enlarged edition based on Chambers’ work. The four volumes of this edition marked only a starting point of Rees’ endeavours in this genre. From 1802 to 1820, he published his Cyclopaedia in 45 volumes (39 volumes text and 6 volumes plates). In the early 1740s, the success of Chambers’ Cyclopaedia attracted the commercial interest of the Parisian publisher André Le Breton

216 For the digitized version of Zedler see http://www.zedler-lexikon.de (accessed 2 May 2010). Research on Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon recently has increased considerably. See Nicola Kaminski, “Die Musen als Lexikographen. Zedlers ‘Großes vollständiges Universal-Lexicon’ im Schnittpunkt von poetischem, wissenschaftlichem, juristischem und ökonomischem Diskurs,” Daphnis 29, no. 3–4 (2000), 649–693; Ines Prodöhl, “ ‘Aus denen besten Scribenten’. Johann Heinrich Zedler’s Universal-Lexikon im Spannungsfeld zeitgenössischer Lexikonproduktion,” Das Achtzehnte Jahrhundert 29, no. 1 (2005), 82–95. For a first assessment of geographical information given in the dictionary see Ulrike Hönsch, Wege des Spanienbildes im Deutschland des 18. Jahrhunderts. Von der Schwarzen Legende zum ‘Hesperischen Zaubergarten’, Hermaea. Germanistische Forschungen, N.S. 91 (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2000), 46–63. 217 On Chambers’ Cyclopaedia see Richard Yeo, Encyclopaedic Visions. Scientific Dictionaries and Enlightenment Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), Richard Yeo, “A Solution to the Multitude of Books. Ephraim Chambers’s Cyclopaedia (1728) as ‘the Best Book in the Universe’,” Journal of the History of Ideas 64, no. 1 (2003), 61–72.—For a digitized version see http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/ HistSciTech/subcollections/CyclopaediaAbout.html (29 April 2010). 218 See Watts, “History of Cyclopaedias,” 356. 219 See Frank A. Kafker, “The Achievement of Andrew Bell and Colin Macfarquhar as the first publishers of the Encyclopaedia Britannica,” British Journal for Eighteenth Century Studies 18 (1995).

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(1708–1779). Le Breton first planned to publish a translation of the work. In the early phase of the project the editorship of the work changed twice. In 1747, Denis Diderot (1713–1784) and Jean le Rond d’Alembert (1717–1783) took over responsibility for editing the Encyclopédie. Originally intended to be published in four volumes, the prospectus of the Encyclopédie published in 1750 announced a tenvolume work. The first volume of the epoch-making dictionary of arts and sciences was issued in 1751. As the editors pursued an outspoken anti-religious attitude, severe opposition by Roman Catholic circles against the Encyclopédie was to be expected. The whole project was suspended after the second volume had been published. Due to the help of Guillaume Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes (1721–1794), who controlled the press, the publication could be resumed. In 1757, d’Alembert’s portrayal of the clergy of Geneva caused another storm of protest by the adversaries of the project. For the remaining part of the project, Diderot mainly was assisted by Louis de Jaucourt (1704– 1780). Due to further restrictions, d’Alembert and other contributors ended their work for the Encyclopédie. The situation grew even worse when Claude-Adrien Hélvetius (1715–1771) published his De l’esprit (1758), propagating a materialist philosophy. In March 1759, the Royal Council withdrew the original privilege granted in 1746. Five months later, in September 1759, a new privilege was accorded for work on the plates. The editors of the Encyclopédie obtained a new privilege, which only allowed them to prepare the plates. With the expulsion of the Jesuits from France, the Encyclopédie lost its most eminent adversaries.220 From 1758 to 1781, several French-language editions of the Encyclopédie were published in Italy and Switzerland: at Lucca (1758–71), Livorno (1770–79), Yverdon (1770–80), Geneva (1777–79), Lyon (1780–81), and finally at Bern and Lausanne (1778–81).

220 For the history of the publication of the Encyclopédie see http://encyclopedie. uchicago.edu/node/82 (last accessed 30 January 2010) as well as Rolf Geißler, “Der historische Hintergrund und die wichtigsten Inhalte der ‘Encyclopédie’ ”, in: Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie. Begründet von Friedrich Ueberweg. Die Philosophie des 18. Jahrhunderts. New edition, ed. Helmut Holzhey. Vol. 2: Frankreich, eds. Johannes Rohbeck and Helmut Holzhey (Basel: Schwabe, 2008), 265–282 as well as id., “Die Enzyklopädisten” in ibid., 283–295, see also ibid., 295–302 for a bibliography on recent research on the Encyclopédie.

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Scottish Enlightenment owed much of its intellectual inspiration to French influences.221 In the heyday of Scottish Enlightenment, William Smellie (1740–1795) directed the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. This encyclopaedia finally comprised three volumes (published in instalments from 1768 to 1771). Until the turn of the nineteenth-century the size of the work grew considerably: second edition (1777–1784) in 10 volumes, third edition (1788–1797) in 18 volumes.222 Apart from the Encyclopaedia Britannica there emerged some other remarkable projects. A growing interest for ‘useful’ knowledge had been the driving force behind this development.223 In 1808, David Brewster (1781–1868) began editing the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia (18 vols., finished in 1830). Contemporaries regarded the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia as one of the most successful encyclopaedic projects.224 Another very influential reference work aiming to provide useful knowledge was the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana. The famous English writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) had drafted the original plan of the work. Having close business relations with the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Charles Knight (1791–1873) published the Penny Cyclopaedia (1833–1845), edited by George Long (1800–1876). In his assessment of the Penny Cyclopaedia, Thomas Watts pointed out that various foreign scholars contributed to this work: [. . .] many foreign names of rank, such as Rosen, the Sanscrit scholar; Gayangos, the Spanish Orientalist; and Carl Ritter, the first geographer of Germany. To Ritter, who had devoted years to the study of the geography of Asia, the Cyclopaedia was indebted for an article on Asia in which was embodied in a few pages the essence of all his labours.225 221 Richard B. Sher, The Enlightenment and the Book. Scottish Authors and Their Publishers in Eighteenth Century Britain, Ireland, and America (Chicago, London: Chicago University Press, 2006). 222 On the publishing history of the Encyclopaedia Britannica see Herman Kogan, The Great EB. The Story of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1958) and Yeo, Encyclopaedic Visions, 170–192. 223 See Alan Rauch, Useful Knowledge. The Victorians, Morality, and the March of Intellect (Durham: Duke University Press, 2001), 22–59. (Chapter 1: “Food for Thought: The Dissemination of Knowledge in the Early Nineteenth Century”). 224 For the history of the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia see the ‘Introduction’ by Richard Yeo in the reprint edition published by Routledge in 1999.—According to Fortia d’Urban, Nouveau sistème bibliographique, 198, volume 14 of the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia had been published in May 1820. 225 Watts, “History of Cyclopaedias,” 383.

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Eighteenth-century French and British encyclopaedias strongly influenced the origins of at least two major German-language encyclopaedias: the Deutsche Encyclopädie and the Oeconomische Encyklopädie. After it had proved impossible to find scholars for the translation of Ephraim Chambers’ Cyclopaedia, the Frankfurt publisher Franz Varrentrapp (1706–1786) proposed the translation of Diderot’s and d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie under the direction of the historian Heinrich Martin Gottfried Köster (1734–1802), The plan of a translation soon was abandoned. Köster and his collaborators decided to draw up an entirely new work. The first volume of this new work, the Deutsche Encyclopädie, appeared in 1778. After Köster’s death, the project was directed by Johann Friedrich Roos (1757–1804). During the Napoleonic Wars the project only made slow progress. Volume 23, published in 1804 and containing entries up to ‘Ky’ and a volume of plates published in 1807 marked the end of the Deutsche Encyclopädie.226 The Berlin physician and author Johann Georg Krünitz (1728–1796) originally had worked on a translation of the Encyclopédie oeconomique (16 vols.) published at Yverdon in 1770/71. From the very beginning of his work, Krünitz saw the necessity for an overall revision of the French original. The first volume of his Oeconomische Encyklopädie was published in 1773. By the time of his death (1796), he worked on volume 73. Under the direction of various editors the work finally comprised 242 volumes. The last volume was issued in 1858. A pirated edition had been published by Joseph Georg Traßler (1759–1816) at Brünn (Moravia) from 1787 to 1823; after 129 volumes this pirated edition was abandoned due to a considerable falling-off in sales.227 In 1782, the renowned Paris publisher Charles-Joseph Panckoucke (1736–1798) began the publication of another encyclopaedia, variously

226 Apart from Willi Goetschel, Catriona Macleod, and Emery Snyder, “The Deutsche Encyclopädie,” in Notable encyclopedias of the late eighteenth century: eleven successors of the Encyclopédie, ed. Frank A. Kafker, Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, no. 315 (Oxford: The Voltaire Foundation, 1994), 257–333 see Uwe Deckert, “Die ‘Deutsche Encyclopädie’,” Das Achtzehnte Jahrhundert 14 (1990), 147– 51; Edward Breuer, “The Deutsche Encyclopädie and the Jews,” Leo-Baeck-Institute/ Yearbook 44 (1999), 23–38. 227 An on-line edition of Krünitz’ work had been established by the University Library of Trier University (Germany): http://www.kruenitz1.uni-trier.de. This website provides also a wealth of information on the background and the history of the work.

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labelled as the ‘ultimate encyclopaedia’ or as ‘super-encyclopaedia’:228 Panckoucke aimed to surpass the Encyclopédie with his Encyclopédie Méthodique229 both in scope and in content. Having established more than forty different series, each devoted to a specific subject, the publication began in 1782. Despite the troubles caused by the French revolution, this project was continued even after Panckoucke’s death. By 1832, when the project was abandoned, 166 quarto volumes of text and 51 volumes of plates had been published—“in magnitude the greatest cyclopaedia that has yet been completed.”230 The richly illustrated work comprises 6439 plates.231 Early nineteenth-century French encyclopaedic dictionaries include the Encyclopédie moderne,232 the Encyclopédie des gens du monde, the Encyclopédie nouvelle, the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, and the Encyclopédie Catholique.233 The most important nineteenth-century planned general reference works in French were published after our period of consideration: the Grand Dictionnaire Universel du

228 Darnton, The Business of Enlightenment. A Publishing History of the Encyclopédie 1775–1800, 395–459 (‘ultimate encyclopaedia’); John Carter and Percy H. Muir, eds., Printing and the Mind of Man. A Descriptive Catalogue illustrating the impact of print on the evolution of Western Civilisation during five centuries. With an introductory essay by Denys Hay (London, Melbourne: Cassell & Comp, 1967), 121 (‘superencyclopaedia’). 229 On the Encyclopédie Méthodique see: Claude Blanckaert and Michel Porret, eds., L’Encyclopédie Méthodique (1782–1832). Des Lumières au Positivisme, Bibliothèque des Lumières LXVIII (Genève: Droz, 2006). 230 Watts, “History of Cyclopaedias,” 377. 231 Brockhaus, Vollständiges Verzeichniss, XIX. 232 For this study, the first edition of the Encyclopédie moderne (1823–1832) published by Eustache Marie Pierre Marc Antoine Courtin (1768–1839) as well as a new and enlarged edition (1861–1865) edited by Léon Rénier have been used. The article on the geography of China inserted in the two editions was written by the geographer and translator Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès (1767–1846). 233 Encyclopédie des gens du monde [. . .], 22 vols, ed. Jean Henri Schnitzler (Paris: Treuttel and Würtz, 1833–1844). On German-French transmissions in this work in general see Paul Rowe, “Upwardly Mobile Footnotes. German References in the Encyclopédie des gens du monde,” Modern & Contemporary France 14, no. 4 (2006), 433–448; for transmissions of knowledge on China see Georg Lehner, “Le savoir de l’Europe sur la Chine: transferts franco-allemands au miroir des encyclopédies (1750– 1850),” Revue Germanique Internationale 7 (2008), 26 f. and 30, Encyclopédie nouvelle. Dictionnaire philosophique, scientifique, littéraire et industriel offrant le tableau des connaissances humaines au XIXe siècle, par une société de savants et des littérateurs, 8 vols.; ed. Pierre Leroux, Jean Reynaud (Paris: Gosselin, 1836–1843); Encyclopédie Catholique. Répertoire universel et raisonné des sciences, des letters, des arts et des métiers, formant une bibliothèque universelle, avec la biographie des hommes célèbres, ornée de plus de 3000 planches, 18 vols. (Paris: Parent-Desbarres, 1838–1849).

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dix-neuvième siècle, edited by Pierre Athanase Larousse (1817–1875)234 and the Grande Encyclopédie.235 Another large scale encyclopaedic undertaking was launched by German scholars shortly after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. In an attempt to revive the encyclopaedic ideal of the Enlightenment, Johann Samuel Ersch (1766–1828) and Johann Gottfried Gruber (1774–1851) initiated a new general encyclopaedia. This work should replace the then rather outdated ‘Zedler’. Their ambitious project, the Allgemeine Encyklopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste, started publication in 1818. As the size grew more and more, it was decided to set up three different sections, the first section covering the letters A–G, the second covering the letters H-N and a third covering the letters O–Z.236 Writing in 1863, Thomas Watts commented not only on this practice but also on the extent of the work: As in some gigantic tunnel, for the execution of which three shafts are obliged to be sunk, operations were till lately carried on at once in this cyclopaedia from three different points of the alphabet. The first division, beginning of course at A, has now advanced in 75 volumes to nearly the end of G; the second, beginning at H, in 31 volumes to Junius; and the third, beginning at O, in 25 volumes to Phyxius; making 131 volumes in all. But the number of volumes sounds more formidable than it really is, for the quartos of Ersch and Grüber [sic] are particularly thin for German quartos, amounting to less than 500 pages each.237

Only the first of the three sections was completed. After the publication of a total of 167 volumes the whole project was discontinued in 1887. The early nineteenth century brought a dramatic change and new developments in the genre of general reference works. New types of reference works were developed to meet the demands of a newly

234

See André Rétif, Pierre Larousse et son oeuvre (1817–1875) (Paris: Larousse, 1975), Chapter V : ‘Le grand dictionnaire.’ 235 La Grande Encyclopédie. Inventaire raisonné des sciences, des letters et des arts; 31 vols, ed. Marcelin Berthelot (Paris: Lamirault, 1885–1902). 236 On Ersch’s role in this project see Joachim Bahlcke, “Enzyklopädie und Aufklärung im literarischen Deutschland. Zu Leben und Wirken des schlesischen Bibliothekars Johann Samuel Ersch (1766–1828),” Berichte und Forschungen des Bundesinstituts für ostdeutsche Kultur und Geschichte 5 (1997), 81–99. On the diffusion, spread and reception of this encyclopaedia see Bettina Rüdiger, “Der ‘Ersch-Gruber’. Konzeption, Drucklegung und Wirkungsgeschichte der Allgemeinen Enzyklopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste,” Leipziger Jahrbuch für Buchgeschichte 14 (2005), 11–78. 237 Watts, “History of Cyclopaedias,” 371.

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emerging middle class for reliable and useful information. In Germany and France, these new developments are closely related to political events. In the first decade of the nineteenth-century and caused by the Napoleonic wars, Europe was in turmoil. In these times of change, the market for works of general knowledge saw the creation of a new kind of encyclopaedia. In 1808, Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus (1772–1823) bought the stock of the Conversations-Lexikon mit vorzüglicher Rücksicht auf die gegenwärtigen Zeiten, originally drafted by Renatus Gotthelf Löbel (1767–1799).238 Löbel had intended to supersede the Reales Staats-, Zeitungs- und Conversations-Lexikon, which had seen many editions throughout the eighteenth century. The first edition of that work published in 1704 was compiled by Philipp Balthasar Sinold von Schütz (1657–1742). The schoolmaster Johann Hübner (1668–1731) wrote the preface—“the book was usually known from him as Hübner’s Lexicon.”239 Later on, Brockhaus published not only the ConversationsLexikon mit vorzüglicher Rücksicht auf die gegenwärtigen Zeiten, but also (from 1831) onwards the encyclopaedia initiated by Ersch and Gruber. The lasting success of Brockhaus’ Conversations-Lexikon was due to its focus on the most recent developments.240 In 1832, on the occasion of the first English adaptation of the work (published by Francis Lieber (1800–1872) under the title Encyclopaedia Americana), an anonymous reviewer characterised the encyclopaedia successfully developed by Brockhaus as follows: For the information of those who may not be acquainted with the Conversations-Lexicon of Germany, either directly, or through any of its numerous translations, it may be proper very briefly to state a few facts in regard to its origin, history and success, which we have borrowed from the work before us. The Allgemeine deutsche Real-Encyklopädie für die gebildeten Stände originated with Mr. Brockhaus [. . .] He called it the Conversations-Lexicon, as being a work chiefly designed for the use of persons, who would take a part in the conversation and society

238 Anja Zum Hingst, Die Geschichte des Großen Brockhaus. Vom ConversationsLexikon zur Enzyklopädie, Buchwissenschaftliche Beiträge aus dem Deutschen Bucharchiv München 53 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1995). 239 Watts, “History of Cyclopaedias,” 372. 240 The huge success of this newly developed genre of reference work may be seen from notes in contemporary bibliographies (e.g. Friedrich Adolf Ebert, Allgemeines bibliographisches Lexicon (Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1821), Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung 1834, col. 13–16 as well as from the Festschrift published on the occasion of the twohundredth anniversary of the Brockhaus publishing group.

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chapter one of well-informed circles. The character of the work, however, has been to a certain degree changed by numerous improvements, in each successive edition; and its original title has therefore ceased to be strictly appropriate. But as the book had become known, and had gained its well deserved popularity under that name, it was thought inexpedient to change the title.241

In 1863, Thomas Watts wrote on the lasting success of Brockhaus’ work: The leading idea in ‘Brockhaus’s Conversations-Lexicon,’ as it was universally called in honour of its publisher who was also partly its editor, was that it should be an ‘Encyclopaedia of Modern Times’, much prominence being given to subjects of every kind after the date of the French Revolution, in comparison to those before it. Especial attention was also paid in it to literary matters in preference to scientific. One of the elements of its original success was, no doubt, its paucity of volumes; but it has gone on increasing and increasing, till it has now assumed the proportions of a full-grown cyclopaedia [. . .].242

Watts also dealt with the supra-national success of Brockhaus’ idea: That the success of the Lexicon of Brockhaus should have called forth numerous or rather innumerable imitations in Germany, is not calculated to excite surprise; but the extent to which it has been made the basis of similar undertakings in other countries is a phenomenon without a parallel.243

Among the “rather innumerable imitations in Germany”, there were encyclopaedias founded by Heinrich August Pierer (1794–1850), Joseph Meyer (1796–1856), and Benjamin Herder (1818–1888) respectively: Despite the reluctant attitude of the Saxon authorities, Pierer succeeded with the first edition of his Universal-Lexicon der Gegenwart und Vergangenheit, finally completed in 1835. By this time—and also in Saxony—the Hildburghausen based publisher Joseph Meyer initiated and drafted another groundbreaking reference work. After five years of planning and preparation, the first instalment of Großes Conversations-Lexikon für die gebildeten Stände was published in August 1839. In his preface, Meyer promised to promote ‘intellectual equality’ (‘intellektuelle Gleichheit’) and to break the monopoly of the

241

Review on “Encyclopaedia Americana.” In: North American Review Vol. 34, No. 74 (January 1832), 262–268. 242 Watts, “History of Cyclopaedias,” 373. 243 Ibid.

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‘aristocracy of knowledge’ (‘Aristokratie des Wissens’) in the diffusion and popularization of knowledge.244 This kind of popularizing knowledge was opposed by political authorities before the 1848 revolution changed the general mood in the German-speaking area. In the 1820s, Austrian authorities restricted the dissemination of ‘Brockhaus’.245 Similar restrictions were imposed on the Staats-Lexikon founded by Carl von Rotteck (1775–1840) and Carl Theodor Welcker (1790–1869).246

244 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 1 (1840), VI (Preface, dated August 1839).—On Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon (1839–55) see Johannes Hohlfeld, Das Bibliographische Institut. Festschrift zu seiner Jahrhundertfeier (Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut, [1926]), 102–108; Heinz Sarkowski, Das Bibliographische Institut. Verlagsgeschichte und Bibliographie (Mannheim, Vienna, Zurich: Bibliographisches Institut, 1976), 54–57 and ibid., 217 (bibliographic description). 245 Utz Haltern, “Politische Bildung und bürgerlicher Liberalismus. Zur Rolle des Konversationslexikons in Deutschland,” Historische Zeitschrift 223, no. 1 (1976), 61–97, especially 74 f. 246 On the role of the Staats-Lexikon see ibid., 74 f.

CHAPTER TWO

FORMATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE 2.1

Knowledge from China: Chinese Sources for European Encyclopaedias

For a long time, scholars in Europe did not have sufficient command of the Chinese language to take their information on China from Chinese sources. Until the end of the eighteenth century, Roman Catholic missionaries, most of them Jesuits, played a key role to supply the European ‘republic of letters’ with information directly taken from Chinese sources. The important role of translations of Chinese texts into European languages becomes obvious from the impact of the publication of Confucius Sinarum Philosophus (1687).1 This translation of Confucian writings served as a mine of information for revised editions of Moréri’s Dictionnaire published from the early 1690s onwards. European missionaries perceived Chinese ways of describing and ordering the world in Europe with the first translations of Chinese works. Indigenous responses of the Chinese and their views on Europe and the Europeans only became obvious for European observers by restrictive regulations imposed by the Ming and Qing courts on foreign trade. With his Description . . . de la Chine (1735), Du Halde prepared the most outstanding example for an ‘indirect’ approach to Chinese sources. Without any knowledge of Chinese he drafted his work relying on translations by his fellow Jesuits working in China. He freely revised style and content of these translations.2 Two years after the publication of Du Halde’s Description, a remarkable manuscript came to Paris. It had been prepared by the French Jesuit Joseph Anne Marie Moyriac de Mailla (1669–1748). De Mailla had made extensive use of Zhu Xi’s 朱熹 (1130–1200) Tongjian gangmu 通鋻綱目 (an abridgment of Sima Guang’s Zizhi tongjian). Only after the suppression of

1

For a thorough discussion of Confucius Sinarum Philosophus see Mungello, Curious Land, 247–299. 2 On the translations of Chinese works Du Halde used for his work see LandryDeron, La preuve par la Chine, 193–247.

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the Society of Jesus, Grosier published the manuscript under the title Histoire générale de la Chine.3 The first European scholar possessing the necessary language skills to make extensive use of Chinese-language materials held in a European library was the above-mentioned Joseph de Guignes. As far as we know, de Guignes did not write for any of the major general encyclopaedias published in eighteenth-century France. Nevertheless, his scholarly contributions were widely acknowledged and used by authors, compilers and editors of encyclopaedic dictionaries. This was the case not only with his Histoire générale des Huns, des Turcs, des Mogols, et des autres Tartares occidentaux (1756–1758), but also with his publication of a translation of the Shujing 書經 (1770), prepared by Antoine Gaubil SJ (1689–1759).4 As early as in 1776, the French translation of the Shujing formed the basis for the article ‘Chou-King’ (Shujing) inserted in the supplement of the Yverdon edition of the Encyclopédie.5 Under the headword ‘Chinese’, the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica had mentioned several Chinese works dealing with the antiquity of the empire. The article mostly refers to the (presumed) authors of these writings including works like the Shujing (in an edition by Kong Anguo 孔安國 (c. 156–74 BC), the Kongzi jiayu 孔子家語 (School Sayings of Confucius) by Wang Su 王肅 (AD 195–256) and to authors like Kong Yingda 孔穎達 (AD 574–648), and the Lu shi 路史 (Great history) of Luo Bi 羅泌 (d. AD 1176). It also mentions the Shiji 史記 (Records of the Scribe, compiled c. 104–87 BC) of Sima Qian 司馬遷 (c. 145–86 BC), and works by Huangfu Mi 皇甫謐 (AD 215– 282; presumably the Diwang shiji 帝王世紀 (Genealogical Records of Emperors and Kings)) and Zuo Qiuming 左丘明 (Zuo zhuan 左傳 (Zuo’s tradition), fifth/fourth century BC).6 Not only due to the tran-

3

Joseph Anne Marie Moyriac de Mailla, Histoire générale de la Chine, ou annales de cet empire; traduites du Tong-Kien-Kang-Mou, 12 vols; ed. Jean Baptiste Alexandre Grosier and Michel Ange André Le Roux Deshauterayes (Paris: Pierres & Clousier, 1777–1783). See Löwendahl, Sino-Western relations, vol. 2, p. 5 (no. 599). 4 On De Guignes’ edition of the Shujing (‘Classic of Documents’) see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 1376 f., including references to contemporary reviews). For the history of the Shujing, also known as Shangshu 尚書 (Venerated Documents) see David Sheperd Nivison, “The classical philosophical writings”, in: Michael Loewe, Edward L. Shaughnessy, eds., The Cambridge History of Ancient China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 746. 5 Encyclopédie d’Yverdon, Supplément 2 (1775) 598–607 (s. v. ‘Chou-king’). 6 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1st ed., vol. 2, p. 184–191 (s. v. ‘Chinese’).

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scription of Chinese proper names is it likely that this presentation was taken from French accounts based on Chinese sources. A similar process took place in the presentation of information on the Ryukyu islands. The Zhongshan chuanxin lu 中山傳信錄 (Report on Ryukyu) by Xu Baoguang 徐葆光 (1671–1723/1740) concerning the Chinese legation of 1719 had been introduced to Europeans by the translation of Antoine Gaubil, originally published in the Lettres édifiantes et curieuses. Under its headword ‘Loo-tchoo’ (Liuqiu 琉球, i.e. Ryukyu), Rees’ Cyclopaedia referred to Gaubil’s work.7 In the early decades of the nineteenth century, contributors to encyclopaedias still relied on translations of Chinese sources into European languages. In his entry on China written for the Encyclopédie Moderne, Eyriès referred to Klaproths use of the Da Qing yitong zhi 大清一統志, the imperial gazetteer of the Qing Empire.8 The early nineteenth century also saw the shift from merely mentioning the titles of Chinese works to the active use of these sources due emerging language skills. In contributing to general encyclopaedias, early sinologists quoted from sources they had at their disposal for their scholarly work either in their private collections or in nearby libraries. In his article on the Yijing 易經 (Classic of Changes), Karl Friedrich Neumann referred to the same Chinese works that had been mentioned in the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In addition to the works mentioned above, Neumann referred to the Yishi 繹史 (An Explanation of History) by Ma Su 馬驌 (d. 1670) and to the Wenxian tongkao of Ma Duanlin. Neumann also quoted from more general works like Da Qing huidian 大清會典 (Collected statutes of the Great Qing)—not to mention the Kangxi zidian 康熙字典 (Kangxi character dictionary, 1716), which often had been referred to as the ‘Imperial Dictionary’.9 Neumann pointed out that the different interpretations

7 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 20, fol. 4T2r, s. v. ‘Lieou-kieou’.—On this report see Schottenhammer, “The East Asian Maritime World,” 45 f. and ibid., 46 n. 184. On the publication of Gaubil’s translation (Mémoire sur les Isles que les Chinois appellant isles de Lieou-kieou) of the text in the various editions of the Lettres édifiantes see the note in Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 935. 8 Encyclopédie Moderne, 6 (1825) 549 (new ed., vol. 9, col. 120).—For remarks on Klaproths use of the Da Qing yitong zhi in the French edition of the account given by Timkovskij, Voyage, see Ritter, Erdkunde, Second Part, Second Book: Asien, vol. 1 (1832), 147. 9 Ersch/Gruber II 16 (1839) 111–119 (s. v. ‘I-king’, Karl Friedrich Neumann).

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of the Yijing given by the missionaries have been caused by the use of different sources and commentaries.10 Neumann also possessed a copy of the collectaneum Huang Qing jingjie 皇清經解 (Qing dynasty exegesis of the classics) edited by the scholar-official Ruan Yuan 阮元 (1764–1849):11 In his Yijing article he referred to the Xici zhuan 繋辭傳 (Appended Statements Commentary; in the rendering ‘Hitse’), in his article on Yu the Great 大禹, one of the mythical rulers of ancient China, he made use of the Yugong zhuizhi 禹貢錐志 (A Modest Approach to the Tributes of Yu) originally published in 1704 by Hu Wei 胡渭 (1633–1714).12 In his article on China written for Ersch/Gruber (published in 1830), Wilhelm Schott did not refer to any Chinese-language source. However, he announced the preparation of an overview on the natural resources of China mainly based on the Guangyu tuji 廣宇圖記 (i.e. ‘Expanded map of the empire’).13 Schott’s memoir on the topography of the Chinese Empire (published in 1844 in the proceedings of the Prussian Academy of Sciences for 1842) formed one of the major sources for the article on Yunnan inserted in Ersch/Gruber.14 In the entry on ‘Peking’ for the same encyclopaedia, Schott not only referred to the Guangyu tuji, but also to the Huanyu ji 寰宇記 (‘Gazetteer of the World’) as well as to the Yehuobian 野獲編 (lit. ‘Harvested in the wilds’) of Shen Defu 沈德符 (1578–1642). Moreover, he mentioned that the description of Peking published by Iakinf Bičurin (1777–1853) represents a mere extract of a Chinese work by far more comprehensive than the work of this member of the Russian Ecclesiastical mission to Peking.15 Schott did not mention author and title of the work translated by Bičurin. This was the Chenyuan shilüe 宸垣 識略 (Sketches of the Imperial Enclosure) by Wu Changyuan 吳長元

10

Ersch/Gruber II 16 (1839) 112 (s. v. ‘I-king’, Karl Friedrich Neumann). On Ruan Yuan see Betty Peh T’i Wei, Ruan Yuan, 1764–1849. The Life and Work of a Major Scholar-Official in Nineteenth-Century China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2006. 12 Ersch/Gruber II 16 (1839) 111–119 (s. v. ‘I-king’), ibid., II 26 (1847) 304–307 (s. v. ‘Jü’). 13 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 162. 14 Ersch/Gruber II 29 (1852) 143–156 (s. v. ‘Jünnan’, by G. M. S. Fischer).—Wilhelm Schott, “Skizze zu einer Topographie der Producte des Chinesischen Reiches“, Abhandlungen der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Aus dem Jahr 1842. Philologische und historische Abhandlungen (Berlin: Königliche Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1844), 245–385. 15 Ersch/Gruber III 15 (1841) 87 and ibid., n. 15 (s. v. ‘Pe-king’). 11

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(fl. 1770), who had used the Rixia jiuwen kao 日下舊聞考 (Study of Ancient Accounts Heard in the Precincts of the Throne), an extended version of the Rixia jiuwen 日下舊聞 (Ancient Accounts Heard in the Precincts of the Throne) by Zhu Yizun 朱彜尊 (1629–1709).16 The authors of Ersch/Gruber also referred to the major bilingual dictionaries of the Chinese language: the information on baidunzi 白墩子 (‘petuntse’)—one of the basic materials for making porcelain—partly was drawn from the entry on porcelain in the English-Chinese part of Morrison’s dictionary.17 In its information on Chinese perceptions of Europeans, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon referred to the Guangdong tongzhi 廣東通志 (Gazetteer of Guangdong province) edited by the scholar-official Ruan Yuan.18 Writing for the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siécle, Édouard Biot used the Da Qing huidian for his presentation of Chinese administration.19 In his article on China prepared for the Encyclopédie Nouvelle, Jean Pierre Guillaume Pauthier (1801–1873) not only mentioned Song Yingxing’s Tiangong kaiwu, but also Fu Zehong’s Xingshui jinjian referring to the latter as the history and statistics of rivers and canals.20 The reference to and the use of Chinese sources in European encyclopaedias raises the question to what extent early sinologists contributed to works of general knowledge (see below “On the Authors of Entries on China”). For quite a long time, knowledge on China emerged in closely following the few translations of Chinese works into European languages that had been published during the seventeenthand eighteenth-centuries. With the emergence of sinology as an academic discipline, which was marked by growing philological interest in Chinese sources and by the establishment of respective academic institutions, two rather contrary developments took place. On the one hand, the foundation of Asiatic Societies in France, England and Germany contributed decisively to the formation of a sinological ‘body of knowledge’. On the other hand, predominant European discourses

16 On these works and on their perception in Russia and Western Europe see the references in Naquin, Peking. Temples and City Life, 1400–1900, 452–459 and ibid., 487 f. 17 Ersch/Gruber III 19 (1844) 430 f. (s. v. ‘Pe-tun-tse’; by G. M. S. Fischer). 18 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 296. 19 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 461. 20 Encyclopédie nouvelle, vol. 3, p. 538 f.

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on the supposed superiority of the “West” led to the marginalization of China in educational knowledge.21 Nineteenth-century encyclopaedias contained short remarks on the state of the emerging discipline of Chinese studies as well as information on early sinologists.22 The first edition of the Staats-Lexicon founded by Rotteck and Welcker mentions the “daily increasing number of sinologists”.23 In biographical articles on eminent sinologists, encyclopaedias mentioned the most important works of these scholars. Such articles may be found in Ersch/Gruber, Meyer’s ConversationsLexikon, in the Encyclopédie des gens du monde, and in the Penny Cyclopaedia. Either within their information on Chinese language and literature24 or within the presentation of the development of Oriental studies in Europe, encyclopaedias referred to the history of Chinese studies. Entries in Ersch/Gruber as well as in the Encyclopédie Nouvelle may serve as the two most outstanding examples for this practice.25 In structuring their subject they followed different patterns: while Ersch/ Gruber provides a chronological presentation of the different branches of Oriental learning in Europe, the Encyclopédie Nouvelle arranges this information according to the different ‘oriental’ languages: Concerning the development of the study of Chinese in early modern times, both encyclopaedias presented enumerations of Jesuit writings. According to the Encyclopédie Nouvelle, Joseph Amiot SJ (1718–1793) had been the last Jesuit missionary who reported on Chinese literature.26 In presenting the history of Chinese studies in Europe mainly as an achievement of French scholars, the Encyclopédie Nouvelle mentioned the backwardness of the German speaking countries in this branch of Oriental studies and critizised English efforts in the field, that only would serve economic and political purposes.27 21

Osterhammel, Entzauberung, 36. On this point see Georg Lehner, “Die Anfänge der Sinologie in französischen und deutschen Enzyklopädien (1800–1850)“ (On the beginnings of sinology as mirrored in French- and German-language encyclopaedias) presented at the symposium “Une Chine partagée. Présence de la Chine dans les Lettres françaises et allemandes du début du XIXe siècle au début du XXe siècle” held at Amiens (France) in May 2009. A French translation of this paper will be published in the proceedings of the symposium. 23 Rotteck/Welcker, Staats-Lexicon, 1st ed., vol. 14 (1843) 549 (s. v. ‘Sina’). 24 Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 364–373. 25 Ersch/Gruber III 5 (1834) 190–245 (s. v. ‘Orientalische Studien’, G. Flügel); Encyclopédie Nouvelle 7 (1843) 87–90 (s. v. ‘Orientalistes’). 26 Encyclopédie Nouvelle 7 (1843) 89. 27 Encyclopédie Nouvelle 7 (1843) 90. 22

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2.2 European Sources on China Investigations in early European writings on China have to bear in mind a vast amount of material.28 Until recently, travelogues and the works of the philosophes seem to have been predominating. Travelogues formed an important part of early modern European libraries. Together with reports and letters of the Roman Catholic missionaries and the accounts of embassies to the court of Beijing, travelogues came to form “a substantial body of ‘knowledge’ about the Ming and Qing empires in general [. . .].”29 In depicting China in European encyclopaedias, these groups of works represent only a minor part of the whole. Eighteenth-century European perceptions of China also were shaped by vivid discussions among scholars and writers throughout Europe. In their use of sources, encyclopaedias are both referential and intertextual: referential in their use of travelogues, scholarly publications, scholarly journals, and newspapers; intertextual in their use of reference works of all kinds (geographical gazetteers, economic dictionaries, earlier encyclopaedias, etc.).30 In transnational perspective encyclopaedias serve as highly reliable indicators for the various strands of European discourses on China. Until now, studies on the emergence and changes of European discourses on China do not analyze in detail the—sometimes very wide— range of sources that helped to form the prevailing images of China in Europe. The ‘Chinese’ frame of reference (text A or hypotext) in which European discourses on the subject were placed soon became replaced by other texts (text B or hypertext) that excessively dealt with information provided by the former. Thus, European accounts on China may be regarded as hypotexts. Texts produced in the course of perception, learned communication, and further dissemination (including encyclopaedias and works of general reference) can be seen as hypertexts.31

28

Jürgen Osterhammel, “Welten des Kolonialismus im Zeitalter der Aufklärung,” in Das Europa der Aufklärung und die außereuropäische koloniale Welt, ed. HansJürgen Lüsebrink (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2006), 23. 29 Naquin, Peking. Temples and City Life, 478. 30 Jay L. Caplan, “Alphabetized knowledge. Dictionaries and encyclopedias,” Stanford French Review 14, no. 3 (1990), 8. 31 Pekar, Der Japan-Diskurs im westlichen Kulturkontext (1860–1920), 49.

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As reflected not only by the source materials used by studies on the history of early modern European perceptions of China, but also by the references given in eighteenth- and early-nineteenth century encyclopaedias, the period up to the middle of the nineteenth-century saw numerous outstanding general works on China. In the second half of the sixteenth-century, political and commercial interests of Portugal and Spain in East Asia were reflected by the publication of the first books entirely devoted to China, starting with Gaspar da Cruz’ OP (d. 1570) Tractado [. . .] da China, published at Évora in 1569.32 While da Cruz’ work had not been widely circulated, a real bestseller was put to press in 1585: Using the eyewitness reports of fellow Augustinian friars, Juan González de Mendoza wrote his Historia de las cosas más notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reyno de la China, which was then translated into most of the European languages and published in twenty-eight editions up to the year 1655.33 While Michele Ruggieri SJ (1543–1607) and Alessandro Valignano SJ (1539–1606) only stayed at Macau, Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) entered China and began work at Zhaoqing 肇慶 in 1582. After moving to Nanjing 南京 in 1595 and a first visit to Beijing in 1598, Ricci finally gained permission to stay permanently in the capital of China (1601), where he lived and worked until his death in 1610.34 Ricci’s achievements in China were disseminated by the Flemish Jesuit Nicolas Trigault (1577–1628), who published an account of Ricci’s work under the title of De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas (1615).35 From mid-seventeenth century onwards, Europeans—or to be more precise European scholars—were provided rather continuously

32 Gaspar da Cruz, Tractado em que se contam muito por estenso as cousas da China (Evora: 1569). See Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 2063. 33 For research on this work see the references in Löwendahl, Sino-Western relations, vol. 1, p. 11 (no. 13). 34 On the beginnings of Jesuit missionary work in China see Dauril Alden, The Making of an Enterprise. The Society of Jesus in Portugal, Its Empire, and Beyond 1540– 1750 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), 66–71. For Ricci’s stay at Beijing see John W. Witek, “The Emergence of a Christian Community in Beijing During the Late Ming and Early Qing Periods,” in Encounters and Dialogues. Changing Perspectives on Chinese-Western Exchanges from the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries, ed. Xiaoxin Wu, Monumenta Serica Monograph Series 51 (St. Augustin: Monumenta Serica Institute, 2005), 95–98. 35 Matteo Ricci, De Christiana expedition apud Sinas suscepta ab Societate Jesu, trans. Nicolas Trigault (Augsburg: Mang, 1615). On the significance and influence of this work in seventeenth-century Europe see Löwendahl, Sino-Western relations, vol. 1, p. 29 f. (no. 54).

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with information on China. Later major contributions in this field started with Imperio de la China (1642) by the Portuguese-born Àlvaro Semedo (Semmedo) SJ (1585–1658).36 Martino Martini SJ (1614–1661) promoted knowledge on China by three very influential publications: With De bello Tartarico (1654) he published a first-hand account of the fall of the Ming and the rise of the Qing. Based on Chinese sources, his Novus Atlas Sinensis (1655) greatly improved European knowledge on the geography of China. Besides of beautifully coloured maps Martini gave a detailed description of all the provinces of China, dealing with their administrative organization, their natural products, and their main characteristics. According to Edwin J. Van Kley, Martini’s Sinicae Historiae Decas Prima (1658) was “the first systematic account of ancient Chinese history.” This transmission of knowledge caused a major challenge for European writing of world history.37 The controversies arising from the need to integrate Chinese history into the patterns of early modern European studies of chronology occupied the European ‘republic of letters’ until the end of the eighteenth century. Unlike Ricci, Trigault, Semedo, and Martini, the German born polymath Athanasius Kircher SJ (1602–1680)38 never had been to China. Besides his efforts to create new systems for the representation of knowledge,39 he collected every bit of information on China available to him and, in 1667, he published China monumentis . . . illustrata.40

36

Álvaro Semedo, Imperio de la China [. . .], Madrid: Sanchez, 1642.—On Semedo’s work see David E. Mungello, Curious Land: Jesuit Accommodation and the Origins of Sinology [Studia Leibnitiana Supplementa XXV. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1985]; paperback edition Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989), 74–90. 37 Edwin J. Van Kley, “Europe’s ‘Discovery’ of China and the Writing of World History,” American Historical Review 76, no. 2 (1971). 359. On Martini’s role for the European study of the history and geography of China see Mungello, Curious Land, 106–33. 38 On Kircher see Paula Findlen, ed., Athanasius Kircher. The Last Man Who Knew Everything (New York: Routledge, 2004). 39 Olaf Breidbach, “Zur Repräsentation des Wissens bei Athanasius Kircher,” in Kunstkammer – Laboratorium – Bühne. Schauplätze des Wissens im 17. Jahrhundert, ed. Helmar Schramm, Ludger Schwarte, and Jan Lazardzig, Theatrum Scientiarum 1 (Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2003), 282–302. 40 Athanasius Kircher, China monumentis, qua sacris quà profanis, nec non variis naturae et artis spectaculis, aliarumque rerum memorabilium argumentis illustrata. Amsterdam: Janssonius & Weyerstraet: 1667. For an overview of scholarly research on this work see Löwendahl, Sino-Western relations, vol. 1, p. 68 f. (no. 132). For another Amsterdam edition of 1667, “a counterfeit of the original edition” see ibid., p. 69 f. (no. 133).

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From the sixteenth century onwards, European seafarers, adventurers. and missionaries wrote extensively about their experiences in the East. On the other hand, there are no contemporary published records by Chinese travellers to the West. From mid-seventeenth century onwards, Jesuit missionaries on their way back to Europe were accompanied by Chinese converts. European scholars of that time seized the opportunity to gain information on things Chinese from these short-time visitors: Jacob Gool (1596–1667), professor of Arabic at Leiden, got new insights in the geography of China. Thomas Hyde (1636–1703), renowned oriental scholar and Bodley’s Librarian at Oxford, got in touch with (Michael) Shen Fuzong 沈福宗 (c. 1658– 1691), who accompanied Philippe Couplet SJ (1623–1693).41 In the field of published syntheses of European knowledge on China, the beginnings of French missionary activity in China were marked by the Nouveaux mémoires sur la Chine (1696) published by Louis Le Comte SJ (1655–1728), who returned to France after staying in China for several years. The fact that this book had been censored by the Sorbonne in 1700 at the instigation of the adversaries of the French Jesuit missionaries at Beijing arose the curiosity of the public. Thus, the Nouveaux Mémoires may be considered one of the most widely read titles of that period.42 From the 1730s onwards, Europeans searching for information on China relied heavily on Jean Baptiste Du Halde’s (1674–1743) fourvolume Description géographique, historique, chronologique et physique de l’Empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie Chinoise (1735).43 The author of the entry on China inserted in the section on political economy (Economie politique et diplomatique) of the Encyclopédie

41 For bibliographic references on Chinese Christians going abroad (and visiting early modern Europe) see Standaert, ed., Handbook of Christianity in China. Volume One: 635–1800, 449–455. On materials on the Chinese language received by Gool see ibid., 871. 42 On the major seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French reports on China see Zhimin Bai, Les voyageurs français en Chine aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2007), 58–94. On the controversies following the publication of Le Comte’s account see ibid., 62 f.—On Le Comte see also Linda S. Frey and Marsha L. Frey, “The Search for Souls in China. Le Comte’s Nouveaux Memoires,” in Distant Lands and Diverse Cultures. The French Experience in Asia, 1600–1700, ed. Glenn J. Ames and Ronald S. Love, Contributions in comparative colonial studies 45 (Westport, Conn./London: Praeger, 2003). 43 On Du Halde and his work see Landry-Deron, La preuve par la Chine, Löwendahl, Sino-Western relations, vol. 1, pp. 180–183 (no. 394).

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Méthodique44 has been well aware of the ground-breaking account of Du Halde. To achieve a more balanced presentation he made use of sources not considered by Du Halde, among them Marco Polo, ‘Emmanuel Pinto’ (presumably Fernão Mendez Pinto (1509/14–1583), Domingo de Navarrete OP (1618–1686), Dutch travelogues, as well as the reports of Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri (1651–1725), Lorenz Lange (d. 1752), and Eberhard Isbrand Ides (1657–1708). The last two authors mentioned in that article—George Anson (1697–1762) and Pierre Poivre (1719–1786)—had published their accounts at a time when Du Halde’s Description already had been issued.45 In 1785, Jean Baptiste Gabriel Alexandre Grosier SJ (1743–1823) published another Description de la Chine, which saw two further editions up to 1820 as well as translations into English and German.46 However, Grosier’s synthesis of China-related information became superseded before the close of the eighteenth century. Eye-witnesses’ reports published by members of the British embassy to China led by Lord Macartney in 1792/93 made a huge contribution to a reshaping of European images of China. Due to its attention to economic issues, the Travels in China published by John Barrow (1764–1848) in 1804 proved especially influential throughout the first half of the nineteenth century (see also below pp. 117–119). Mainly led by a utilitarian approach, Barrow gave a very critical assessment of Chinese civilization in presenting it as stagnant, backward, and narrow-minded. He pointed out that China has isolated herself from the rest of the world. He also severely criticised China’s arrogance in its relations with foreigners and foreign nations in general.47

44 Encyclopédie Méthodique, Economie politique et diplomatique, vol. 1 (1784) 545 (s. v. ‘Chine’). For a digitized version of this section of the Encyclopédie Methodique see http://elib.doshisha.ac.jp/english/digital/yosyo.html (30 April 2010). 45 On the editions of Marco Polo’s Il Milione see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 1964–1988; on Mendes Pinto’s Peregrinacam (1614) ibid., col. 2065; on Navarrete’s Tratados historicos, politicos, ethicos, y religiosos de la Monarchia de China (1676) ibid., col. 31 f, on Dutch travelogues ibid., cols. 2344–2348; on Gemelli Careri’s Giro del Mondo (first published in Naples in 1699/1700) ibid., 2091; on Ides’ Three years travels from Moscow overland to China (English edition 1706; Dutch edition 1704) ibid., cols. 2468 f, on Lange’s account (first published in 1725) ibid., col. 2471 f, on Anson’s A voyage round the world (original edition 1748) ibid., cols. 2095–2097, on Poivre’s Voyages d’un philosophe (original edition Yverdon 1768) see ibid., col. 2100 f. 46 On the various editions of Grosier’s work see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, cols. 60–62. 47 For a critical assessment of twentieth-century research on the Macartney mission see Joseph W. Esherick, “Cherishing Sources from Afar,” Modern China 24, no. 2

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Beginning in the 1830s, English as well as French writers met the demand of an interested public for up-to-date information on China. John Francis Davis (1795–1890), from 1813 onwards on service with the East India Company’s factory in Canton, had published extensively on China. His most influential work The Chinese. A general description of China, and its Inhabitants was published in 1836. The French scholars Jean Pierre Guillaume Pauthier and Antoine Bazin (1799– 1863), both without any personal experience in China, compiled Chine moderne ou description historique, géographique et littéraire de ce vast empire. The first volume (1837), written by Pauthier, contained information on the history of China. The second volume (1853) dealt with a great variety of subjects (geography, administration, language, literature, philosophy, arts, natural history, agriculture, festivals, games, etc.). By far more influential than these publications became The Middle Kingdom written by the American missionary Samuel Wells Williams (1812–1884). This work, first published in 1848, saw several editions and translations into several European languages. Williams portrayed the Chinese as an industrious nation that had not reached an industrial level. According to Williams, despotism, distrust, lack of solidarity, and ‘paganism’ were the main causes for the supposed ‘backwardness’ of the Chinese.48 These works formed a kind of ‘nucleus’ for the European perception of China. Books and journal articles reflecting inner-European debates greatly contributed to the shaping of China from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries. The results of these debates on and analyses of older works on China became another integral part of European knowledge on China, which was mirrored also in the entries of encyclopaedias. The ways in which newly accessible sources on China were used for entries in encyclopaedias differed considerably. Encyclopaedic reference works had perpetuated medieval accounts on the geography

(1998), 135-161. For an assessment of Barrow’s account see Jürgen Osterhammel, China und die Weltgesellschaft. Vom 18. Jahrhundert bis in unsere Zeit (Munich: Beck, 1989), 27–29. 48 The various editions of Davis’ The Chinese are listed in Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica. col, 71–73; for La Chine moderne see ibid., col. 87 and for Williams’ The Middle Kingdom ibid., col. 85 f., for a table of contents of Bazin’s and Pauthier’s Chine moderne see ibid., col. 87. On the main strands of discourse in Williams’ The Middle Kingdom see Osterhammel, Weltgesellschaft, 31 f.

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of East Asia until the middle of the seventeenth century.49 They were replaced after Martini’s ground-breaking Novus Atlas Sinensis. At the end of the eighteenth century, a similar process took place. In the wake of the British embassy headed by Macartney the reports of the Jesuits were dismissed as one-sided while information provided by accounts of members of this embassy mostly was taken for granted. Despite these significant changes in the use of sources the longevity of European imaginations of China seems remarkable. Therefore, encyclopaedias frequently listed new sources when they gave wellknown facts. Sources on China used in the process of compiling encyclopaedias may be grouped as follows: 1. Widely spread general works on universal geography and works on specific areas: a. Early modern cosmographies and universal geographies, for example the several editions of the most influential cosmographies written by authors like Sebastian Münster or Pierre d’Avity. b. Early European books on China and on other parts of Asia (travelogues, general descriptions, etc.): Reports on Asian regions other than China reveal how Europeans perceived some of the mutual cultural transmissions within Asia (e. g. information on Chinese influence on and Chinese borrowings from material cultures in Southeast Asia). c. Quasi-encyclopaedic works on China like the descriptions published by Du Halde and Grosier. d. Works dealing with the history of European countries and with their expansion overseas: In Zedler’s entry ‘Formosa’ information on Taiwan had been taken from the Annales des Provinces-Unies by Jacques Basnage (1653–1723). On Russian trade relations with China, the compilers of Zedler quoted from a treatise on

49 See Archontologia cosmica, sive imperiorum, regnorum, principatuum, rerumque publicarum omnium [. . .], 2nd ed. (Frankfurt am Main: Merian, 1649), 182–202 (chap. “Regnum Chinense, sive Sinarum regio”). Paul Boyer, Dictionaire servant de Bibliothèque universelle [. . .] (Paris: Sommaville 1649), 329a (s. v. ‘Chine’) referred to the works of Abraham Ortelius and Gerhard Mercator. Fortia d’Urban, Nouveau sistème bibliographique, 38–39 presented Boyer’s work among “mélanges enciclopédiques [sic]”.

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the trade of the Muscovites.50 Rees’ Cyclopaedia also made use of works on Russia published by William Coxe (1748–1828) and William Tooke (1744–1820) as sources for the history of the Russo-Chinese border (used in Rees’ Cyclopaedia for entries on ‘Kalmucks’, ‘Kiakta’, ‘Mandshurs’).51 2. Books, treatises and articles by early modern European scholars dealing with China in a universal context on topics like history, language, chronology, theology etc.: for example Isaac Vossius’ (1618–1689) Variarum observationum liber (1685) and Georg Horn’s (1620–1670) Arca Noae sive historia imperiorum et regnorum a condito orbe ad nostra tempora (1666). 3. Compilations based on works mentioned sub 1. and 2.: Encyclopaedias derived some of their information on things Chinese from the Recueil des observations curieuses published in Paris in 1749. Krünitz made use of a description of Chinese lacquer and Rees got information on Chinese porcelain.52 In the Dictionnaire de la conversation et de la lecture information on China is drawn from a volume in the series Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire ancienne du globe terrestre published by Fortia d’Urban. Until now, sources of this kind and their role for the disseminating of knowledge on China have been widely neglected. 4. Predecessors in the genre of encyclopaedias as well as encyclopaedic works on individual regions (e.g. Herbelot, Bibliothèque Orientale): in preparing a new reference work, most contributors and editors were keen to distinguish their work from existing encyclopaedias. Nevertheless, much information contained in earlier encyclopaedias (or in earlier editions) was perpetuated for quite a long time. As 50 Jacques Basnage, Annales des Provinces-Unies depuis les négociations pour la paix de Munster, avec la description historique de leur gouvernement, 3 vols. (La Haye: Le Vier, 1719–1726) vol. 1, p. 444–452 (on the Dutch embassy of 1655–57) and ibid., 673 on the loss of Formosa to Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga); Paul Jakob Marperger, Moscowitischer Kauffmann (Lübeck: Böckmann, 1705). For a short description of Marpergers book see Löwendahl, Sino-Western relations, vol. 1, p. 135 (no. 289). 51 William Coxe, An Account of the Russian discoveries between Asia and America. To which are added, the conquest of Siberia, and the history of the transactions and commerce with China (London: Cadell, 1780); for a short description of the first French edition (1781) of this work see Löwendahl, Sino-Western relations, vol. 2, p. 9 (no. 611); William Tooke, History of Russia, from the foundation of the monarchy by Rurik to the accession of Catherine the Second [. . .], 2 vols. (London: Longman and Rees, 1800). 52 Krünitz 58 (1792) 524 (s. v. ‘Lackieren’); Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 18, s. v. ‘Hoache’ [huashi].

formations of knowledge

81

alphabetically arranged reference works on certain subjects became more usual in the period under consideration, entries in dictionaries on economy, medicine etc. were freely used by the compilers of general encyclopaedic reference works. 5. Syntheses of early modern scholarship: Contributors to encyclopaedias often relied on acknowledged syntheses of knowledge. These subject-oriented syntheses of knowledge on Asia could be used very conveniently for the alphabetical arrangement of knowledge. Examples for the most outstanding works of this kind include Flora cochinchinensis (1790) by the Portuguese Jesuit João Loureiro (1715–1794/96)53 and Die Erdkunde im Verhältniß zur Natur und zur Geschichte des Menschen by the German geographer Carl Ritter (1779–1859).54 As interest in China reached a climax among eighteenth-century European scholars, their perception of China comprised a variety of subjects: geography and ethnology, language (origin of languages, etc.), religion (Catholic missions and indigenous religions of Asia as well), chronology, history, music and natural studies to name only a few. In England,55 53 João Loureiro, Flora cochinchinensis: sistens plantas in regno Cochinchina nascentes. Quibus accedunt aliae observatae in Sinensi Imperio, Africa Orientali, Indiaeque locis variis [. . .] (Lisboa: Typis et expensis Academicis, 1790). On Loureiro and his work see Standaert, ed., Handbook of Christianity in China. Volume One: 635–1800, 806. 54 Carl Ritter, Die Erdkunde im Verhältniß zur Natur und zur Geschichte des Menschen oder allgemeine vergleichende Geographie als sichere Grundlage des Studiums und Unterrichts in physicalischen und historischen Wissenschaften, 2nd rev. and enlarged ed. (Berlin: Reimer): vol. 1: Der Norden und Nord-Osten von Hoch-Asien (1832); vol. 2: Der Nord-Osten und der Süden von Hoch-Asien (1833); vol. 3: Der Süd-Osten von Hochasien; deren Wassersysteme und Gliederungen (1835). 55 On late seventeenth-century English scholars interest in China see Matt Jenkinson, “Nathaniel Vincent and Confucius’s ‘Great Learning’ in Restoration England,” Notes & Records of the Royal Society 60 (2006), 35–47 (on Vincent and Temple), Lydia M. Soo, “The Study of China and Chinese Architecture in Restoration England,” Architectura 31 (2001), 169–184 and Ciaran Murray, “Sharawadgi Resolved,” Garden History 26, no. 2 (1998), 208–213 (on Temple). Robert Batchelor, “Concealing the Bounds. Imagining the British Nation through China,” in The Global Eighteenth Century, ed. Felicity A. Nussbaum (Baltimore, London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), 79–92 (on Temple and Addison).—On the sources for Defoe’s image of China see Francis Wilson, “The Dark Side of Utopia: Misanthropy and the Chinese Prelude to Defoe’s Lunar Journey,” Comparative Critical Studies 4, no. 2 (2007), 193–207; J. G. A. Pocock, “Gibbon and the Idol Fo. Chinese and Christian history in the Enlightenment,” in Sceptics, Millenarians and Jews, ed. David S. Katz and Jonathan I. Israel, Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History 17 (Leiden: Brill, 1990), 15–34 (on Gibbon).—On eighteenth-century perceptions of China in England from a mainly economic point of view see David Porter, “A peculiar but uninteresting nation. China

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France56 and in the German-speaking countries57 many eminent philosophers, writers and scholars made more or less extensive use of European texts on Asia.58 The sources used by the compilers of encyclopaedias for general information on China changed continuously. This change is mirrored by the bibliographic references given at the end of most of the entries on ‘China’. Based on the bibliographic references given in the articles on China of Hofmanns Lexicon Universale (1698) and of eighteenthand early nineteenth-century German- and English-language encyclopaedias, the table below (also containing references to Cordier’s Bibliotheca Sinica, here abbreviated BS) shows the persistence and/or change in encyclopaedias’ use of European publications on China.

and the discourse of commerce in eighteenth-century England,” Eighteenth Century Studies 32, no. 2 (2000), 46–58. 56 On Montesquieu and China see Richter, “Montesquieu’s comparative analysis of Europe and Asia”; Robert Charlier, “Montesquieus Lettres persanes in Deutschland. Zur europäischen Erfolgsgeschichte eines literarischen Musters,” in Montesquieu. Franzose – Europäer – Weltbürger, ed. Effi Böhlke and Etienne François (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2005), 131–153. On Montesquieu’s discussion of ‘oriental despotism’ see Rubiés, “Oriental Despotism and European Orientalism: Botero to Montesquieu,” 162–169. For the leading role of French scholars in European discourses on China see Ho-fung Hung, “Orientalist Knowledge and Social Theories: China and the European Conceptions of East-West Differences from 1600 to 1900,” Sociological Theory 21, no. 3 (2003), 254–80, mainly 259–62 and 264 f. 57 For German views on China see Adrian Hsia, ed., Deutsche Denker über China (Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1985), Ingrid Schuster, Vorbilder und Zerrbilder. China und Japan im Spiegel der deutschen Literatur, 1773–1890, Schweizer asiatische Studien / Monographien, 6 (Bern: Lang, 1988), Willy Richard Berger, China-Bild und China-Mode im Europa der Aufklärung, Literatur und Leben. N.S. 41 (Cologne: Böhlau, 1990). 58 Osterhammel, Entzauberung, 199 f.; Standaert, ed., Handbook of Christianity in China. Volume One: 635–1800, 883–889. See also Walter W. Davis, “China, the Confucian Ideal, and the European Age of Enlightenment,” Journal of the History of Ideas 44, no. 4 (Oct.–Dec. 1983), 523–548.

formations of knowledge

83

Marco Polo (first printed edition: Nuremberg 1477)59

X

Juan González de Mendoza, Historia de las cosas mas notables, ritos y costumbres del gran Reyno de la China (Rome 1585) [on the different eds. BS 8–15]

X

Meyer, Conversations Lexikon

Pierer 2nd ed.

Encyclopaedia Metropolitana

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia

Zedler

Works cited

Hofmann

Encyclopaedias’ use of European publications on China

Luis de Guzman, Historia de las missiones [. . .] en los Reynos de la China y Japon (Alcala 1601) [BS 784 f.] Nicolas Trigault, De Christiana Expeditione apud Sinas (Augsburg 1615) [BS 809]

X

X

X

X

X

Francisco de Herrera Maldonado, Epitome historial del reyno de la China (Madrid 1620) [BS 20]

X

Michel Baudier, History of the court of the King of China (London 1634) [BS 21 f.]

X

Álvaro Semedo, Imperio de la China (Madrid 1642) [BS 23, other eds., ibid., 23–25]

X

X

Alexandre du Rhodes, Divers voyages [. . .] en la Chine & autres Royaumes de l’Orient (Paris 1653) [BS 2080]

X

Martino Martini, Novus Atlas Sinensis (Amsterdam 1655) [BS 182]

X

Adam Preyel, Artificia Hominum miranda Naturae in Sina & Europa (Frankfurt/Main 1655) [BS 387]

X

Martino Martini, Sinicae Historia Decas Prima (Munich 1658) [BS 580]

X

X

X

59 On the numerous editions of Marco Polo’s Livre des merveilles printed in various languages from 1477 up to the early nineteenth century see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 1964–1987.

X

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Theophil Spizel, De re litteraria sinensium commentarius [. . .] (Leiden 1660) [BS 1412]

Meyer, Conversations Lexikon

Pierer 2nd ed.

Encyclopaedia Metropolitana

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia

Zedler

Works cited

Hofmann

(cont.)

X

Johan Nieuhof, Legatio Batavica ad Magnum Tartariae Chamum Sungteium, Modernum Sinae Imperatorem (Amsterdam 1668) [BS 2346 f., editions in other languages ibid., 2344–2348]

X

Athanasius Kircher, China . . . illustrata (Amsterdam 1667) [BS 26]

X

X

X

X

X

X

Prospero Intorcetta, Sinarum scientia politicomoralis (Canton/Goa 1667) [BS 1388 f.]

X

Juan de Palafox y Mendoça, Historia de la Conquista de la China por el Tartaro [. . .] (Madrid 1670) [BS 627 f.]60

X

Melchisédec Thévenot, Relations de divers Voyages curieux, qui n’ont esté publiés [. . .] (Paris 1672) [BS 1944 f. mentions the 1696 edition]

X

Couplet, Tabula chronologica Monarchiae Sinicae (Paris 1686) [BS 559]

X

X

Gabriel de Magaillans, Nouvelle relation de la Chine (Paris 1688) [BS 36]61

X

X

Andreas Müller, Basilicon Sinense (1689 ?) [BS 557 f.] Mentzel, Kurtze Chinesische Chronologia oder Zeit-Register aller Chinesischen Kayser (Berlin 1696) [BS 559 f.]

60

X X

Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon refers to the English edition published in 1679. Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1574 refers to “Magaillans Descr. Chinae”. See Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 36: “Cet ouvrage a été traduit en latin? (Avert. de l’éd. holl. de Du Halde).” 61

X

formations of knowledge

85

Louis Le Comte, Nouveaux Mémoires sur l’État present de la Chine (Paris 1696) [BS 39–43, on various eds.]

X

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Novissima Sinica [. . .] (no place 1697) [BS 834 f.]

X

Meyer, Conversations Lexikon

Pierer 2nd ed.

Encyclopaedia Metropolitana

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia

Zedler

Works cited

Hofmann

(cont.)

X

Adam Brand, A Journal of the Embassy [. . .] over Land into China (London 1698) [BS 2468]

X

Joaquin Bouvet, Histoire de l’Empereur de la Chine [. . .] (The Hague 1699) [BS 634]

X

Varia scripta de cultibus Sinarum, inter missionarios et patres Societatis Jesus controversis (1700)

X

Lettres de quelques missionnaires de la Compagnie de Jesus (Paris 1702) [BS 926]62

X

E. Isbrand Ides, Three Years Travels from Moscow overland to China [. . .] (London 1706) [BS 2468f., other eds. ibid., 2466–2470]

X

X

François Gonzales de S. Pierre, Relation de la nouvelle persécution de la Chine [. . .] (1714) [BS 916] Constitution de N. S. P. le Pape Clement XI. ou il decide de nouveau [. . .] ce qu’il avoit déjà jugé [. . .] touchant les cultes et les ceremonies chinoises (Rome 1715)63 [BS 917]

X

X

Eusèbe Renaudot, Anciennes relations des Indes et de la Chine de deux Voyageurs Mahometans (Paris 1718) [BS 1923 f.]

62 Zedler only refers to “Briefe der Missionarien in China” (i.e. ‘letters by the missionaries in China’). On the various eighteenth- and nineteenth-century edition of the Lettres édifiantes et curieuses see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 926–957. 63 Presumably Zedler refers to this publication—we only read of “Clement XI. Epistolae et bullarium.”

X

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David Faßmann, Der auf Ordre seines Kaysers reisende Chineser [. . .] (Leipzig 1721–1733)

Meyer, Conversations Lexikon

Pierer 2nd ed.

Encyclopaedia Metropolitana

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia

Zedler

Works cited

Hofmann

(cont.)

X

[. . .] Le Gentil, Nouveau Voyage autour du Monde [. . .] (Amsterdam 1728) [BS 2094 f.]

X

Theophil Siegfried Bayer, Museum sinicum in quo Sinicae Linguae et Litteraturae ratio explicatur [. . .], 2 vols. (St. Petersburg 1730) [BS 1658]

X

Jean Baptiste Du Halde, Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique de l’Empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise (Paris 1735) [BS 45–48]

X

Antoine-Auguste Bruzen de la Martiniere, Introduction à l’histoire de l’Asie [. . .] vol. 1 (Amsterdam 1735)

X

X

X

Étienne Fourmont, Meditationes sinicae [. . .] (Paris 1737) [BS 1658 f.] Étienne Fourmont, Linguae Sinarum Mandarinicae hieroglyphicae Grammatica duplex (Paris 1742) [BS 1659]

X X

Johann Lorenz Mosheim, Authentick memoirs of the Christian church in China [. . .] (London 1750) [BS 765–767; German original published in 1748]

X

The Ancient Part of an Universal History, vol. 20 (London 1748)

X

X

The Modern Part of an Universal History, vol. 8 (London 1759)

X

X

Joseph de Guignes, Mémoire dans lequel on prouve, que les Chinois sont une colonie égyptienne [. . .] (Paris 1759) [BS 571 f.] Thomas Percy, Hau Kiou Choaan or the Pleasing History, a Translation from the Chinese Language (London 1761) [BS 1755]

X

X

X

formations of knowledge

87

Meyer, Conversations Lexikon

Pierer 2nd ed.

Encyclopaedia Metropolitana

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia

Zedler

Works cited

Hofmann

(cont.)

John Bell of Antermony, Travels from St. Petersburg in Russia to Diverse Parts of Asia (Glasgow 1763) [BS 2093, other eds. ibid., 2093 f ]

X

X

X

Peter Osbeck, A Voyage to China and the East-Indies (London 1771) [BS 2098; other eds. ibid., 2097 f.]

X

X

X

Lettre de Pekin, sur le génie de la langue chinoise, et la nature de leur écriture symbolique (Bruxelles 1773) [BS 1735]

X

X

Corneille de Pauw, Recherches philosophiques sur les Egyptiens et les Chinois (Berlin 1773) [BS 572–573]

X

X

Joseph de Guignes, Idée de la littérature chinoise en général, et particulièrement des historiens et de l’étude de l’histoire à la Chine, Mémoires de Littérature, tirés des registres de l’Académie Royale des Inscriptions et BellesLettres 36 (1774), 190–238.

X

X

Mémoires concernant l’Histoire, les Sciences, les Arts, les Mœurs, les Usages, &c. des Chinois, 16 vols. (Paris 1776–1814) [BS 54–56]

X

X

X

Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville, Mémoire [. . .] sur la Chine (Paris 1776) [BS 187]

X

X

Joseph Anne Marie Moyriac de Mailla, Histoire générale de la Chine [. . .], 13 vols. (Paris 1777–1785) [BS 583 f.]

X

Pierre Sonnerat, Voyages aux Indes Orientales et à la Chine, 2 vols. (Paris 1781) [BS 2102–2103]

X

X

Jean Baptiste Grosier, Description générale de la Chine [. . .] (Paris 1785) [BS 60–62]

X

X

X

X

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George Leonard Staunton, An authentic account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China, 2 vols. (London 1797) [BS 2381]

X

X

Joseph-François Charpentier de Cossigny, Voyage à Canton [. . .] (Paris 1798) [BS 2105] Andreas Everard van Braam Houckgeest, An Authentic Account of the Embassy of the Dutch East-India Company, to the Court of the Emperor of China (London 1798) [BS 2351]

X

Meyer, Conversations Lexikon X

X X

X

George Henry Mason, The Costume of China, illustrated by Sixty Engravings [. . .] (London 1800) [BS 1858] John Barrow, Travels in China, containing descriptions, observations, and comparisons [. . .] (London 1804) [BS 2388 f.]

Pierer 2nd ed.

Encyclopaedia Metropolitana

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia

Zedler

Works cited

Hofmann

(cont.)

X

X

X

X

William Alexander, The Costume of China, illustrated in forty-eight engravings (London 1805) [BS 1858 f.]

X

X

X

John Barrow, Some Account of the Public Life, and a Selection from the unpublished writings, of the Earl of Macartney (London 1807) [BS 2391]

X

X

Chrétien Louis Joseph de Guignes, Voyages à Peking, Manille et l’Île de France, faits dans l’intervalle des années 1784 à 1801, 3 vols. and atlas (Paris 1808) [BS 2351 f.]

X

X

Joshua Marshman, Dissertation on the Characters and Sounds of the Chinese Language (Serampore 1809) [BS 1661]

X

X

George Thomas Staunton, Ta Tsing Leu Lee; being the Fundamental Laws, and a selection from the Supplementary Statutes, of the Penal Code of China (London 1810) [BS 546 f.]

X

X

X

X

X

formations of knowledge

89

Stephen Weston, The Conquest of the Miao-tse [. . .] (London 1810) [BS 1791]

X

Robert Morrison, Horae Sinicae: Translations from the popular literature of the Chinese (London 1812) [BS 1683]

X

Meyer, Conversations Lexikon

Pierer 2nd ed.

Encyclopaedia Metropolitana

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia

Zedler

Works cited

Hofmann

(cont.)

X

Chrétien Louis Joseph de Guignes, Dictionnaire chinois français et latin (Paris 1813) [BS 1589]

X

Robert Morrison, A Grammar of the Chinese Language (Serampore 1815) [BS 1662]

X

Robert Morrison, A Dictionary of the Chinese Language in Three Parts (Macao 1815–1823) [BS 1592 f.]

X

Robert Morrison, A View of China, for philological purposes; containing a Sketch of Chinese Chronology, Geography, Government, Religion & Customs (Macao 1817) [BS 65]

X

Henry Ellis, Journal of the Proceedings of the late Embassy to China [. . .] (London 1817) [BS 2393]

X

Antonio Montucci, Urh-Chih-Tsze-Tëen, being a Parallel drawn between the two intended Chinese Dictionaries (London 1817) [BS 1594]

X

X

X

Indo-Chinese Gleaner (Malacca 1818–21) [BS 1296 f.]

X

William Milne, The Sacred Edict, containing Sixteen Maxims of the Emperor Kang-he, amplified by his son, the Emperor YoongChing; together with a Paraphrase on the whole by a Mandarin (London 1817) [BS 1426]

X

Clarke Abel, Narrative of a Journey in the Interior of China (London 1818) [BS 2395]

X

Julius Klaproth, Supplément au Dictionnaire chinois-latin du P. Basile de Glemona (Paris 1819) [BS 1589]

X

X

X

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George Thomas Staunton, Narrative of the Chinese Embassy to the Khan of the Tourghout Tartars (London 1821) [BS 637] Jean Pierre Abel Rémusat, Élémens de la Grammaire chinoise [. . .] (Paris 1822) [BS 1662]

Meyer, Conversations Lexikon

Pierer 2nd ed.

Encyclopaedia Metropolitana

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia

Zedler

Works cited

Hofmann

(cont.)

X

X

George Thomas Staunton, Miscellaneous Notices relating to China and our Commercial intercourse with that Country (London 1822) [BS 67]

X

John Francis Davis, Chinese Moral Maxims, with a free and verbal translation; affording examples of the grammatical structure of the Language (Macao 1823) [BS 1429]

X

George Timkowski, Travels of the Russian Mission through Mongolia to China (London 1827) [BS 2473; for eds in other languages ibid., 2473 f.]

X

X

Chinese Repository, 20 vols. (Canton 1832–1851) [BS 2286 f.]

X

Miscellaneous papers concerning China (Royal Asiatic transactions), 1834

X

Peter Auber, China. An outline of its government, laws, and policy [. . .] (London 1834) [BS 70]

X

John Francis Davis, The Chinese: A General Description of China and its Inhabitants (London 1836) [BS 72]

X

Karl Friedrich Gützlaff, China opened; or, a Display of the Topography, History, Customs, Manners, Arts, Manufactures, Commerce, Literature, Religion, Jurisprudence etc., of the Chinese Empire (London 1838) [BS 74 f.]

X

formations of knowledge

91

Bibliographical references are usually given in a rather abbreviated form. Apart from the author’s name only some words of the title are given. Date and place of publication as well as the language of the cited edition are usually omitted. Exceptions may be found in two encyclopaedias: The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia contains short remarks on the contents of the works listed.64 Data on editions in several European languages are given in the second edition of Pierer’s UniversalLexikon.65 Not included in this list are the following remarks from the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana: “[. . .] and his [Rémusat’s] edition of the Chun Tseu of Confucius together with his Tracts relating to China, in the Mémoires de l’Academie des Inscriptions, and the Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque du Roi [. . .] with the recent translations from the Chinese by Sir G. Staunton, Mr. Davis, &.c.”66 At the close of its bibliographic references and in connection with the events of the Opium War and its aftermath, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon referred the user to the then recent issues of journals published in England, France and Germany.67 As might be expected not all of the influential works listed above have been equally used as sources for China-related entries. On the one hand this is due to the fact that some of the works albeit mentioned were regarded as outdated. While Krünitz did not make use of the Flora Sinensis of Michael Boym SJ (1612–1659)68 he frequently referred to Loureiro’s Flora cochinchinensis. On the other hand, access to and use of these works always had been related to the vicinity to important repositories of knowledge. Encyclopaedias also critically assessed sources that were crucial for European images of China and of Asia in general. In the seventh edition of Brockhaus (1827) it is stated that (reliable) European sources on China are very few in number.69 In referring to the reports of medieval European travellers to Central Asia one of the contributors to Ersch/Gruber pointed out that not only the time lag between the journeys and the actual writing of the

64

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 330 f. Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 427 f. 66 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, vol. 16 (Miscellaneous and Lexicographical, vol. 3) (London 1845) 595. 67 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 313. 68 Michael Boym, Flora Sinensis [. . .] (Vienna: Typis Matthaei Rictij, 1656). On the significance of the work see Standaert, ed., Handbook of Christianity in China. Volume One: 635–1800, p. 804. 69 Brockhaus, 7th ed., vol. 2 (1827) p. 621 (s. v. ‘China’). 65

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reports often had been too long, but also that the criticism of sources sometimes had been inadequate. As an example he mentioned that John Mandeville had taken much of his material from Odorico da Pordenone und Hayton (Hethoum) of Armenia.70 In its paragraphs on “Progressive Geography” inserted under the headword “China” Rees’ Cyclopaedia pointed out that the account given by Marco Polo “remained so unknown” that Pope Pius II had been “contented with the more imperfect account of Nicola Conti, a Venetian traveller of his own time, who visited Cathay.” Medieval knowledge available on Eastern Asia was described as “so perishable [. . .] as to have escaped even a learned pontiff.”71 Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon tried to give a critical assessment of early modern European descriptions of the tea-plant: these corrections referred to Der Orientalisch-Indianische Kunst- und Lust-Gärtner (1692) published by George Meister (1653–1713) as well as to the works of Engelbert Kaempfer (1651–1716).72 Another example for the criticism of sources is the attitude towards George Psalmanazar’s (1679–1763) An Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa (1704). In Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon Psalmanazar’s notes on the history of that island are presented but it is stated that there is no reason to trust in the account of this author.73 Pierre Jacques Malouin (1701–1778), professor of medicine at the Collège Royale, who wrote the article on pulse for the Encyclopédie, regretted Du Halde’s rather confused presentation of the subject and stated the impenetrable chaos in the Description. Regarding the degree of obscurity, Malouin suggested that neither the (Chinese) author (Wang Shuhe 王淑和, AD 265–316), nor the translator (Julien Placide Hervieu SJ, 1671–1746), nor the editor (Du Halde) had understood

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Ersch/Gruber I 36 (1842) 377–380 (s. v. ‘Erde’, L. F. Kämtz). Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’, paragraph on ‘Progressive Geography’.— On the travels of Niccolò de’ Conti (1395–1469) see Thomas Christian Schmidt, “Die Entdeckung des Ostens und der Humanismus. Niccolò de’ Conti und Poggio Bracciolinis ‘Historia de Varietate Fortunae’,” Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung 103 (1995), 392–418. 72 Zedler 43 (1745) col. 509 and 515 (s. v. ‘Thee’).—George Meister, Der OrientalischIndianische Kunst- und Lust-Gärtner [. . .] (Dresden: Riedel, 1692). On Meister’s account of Chinese gardening see Walravens, China illustrata. 242 f. 73 Zedler 9 (1735) col. 1498 (s. v. ‘Formosa’).—For the various editions of Psalmanazar’s work see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 281–283. 71

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anything of the subject.74 In his Notes on Chinese Literature, Alexander Wylie pointed out that Hervieu had translated Tuzhu maijue bianzhen 圖註脈訣辨真 (Illustrated annotations on the doctrine of the pulse), a Ming edition of the Maijue—based on an edition supervised by Lin Yi 林億 in 1068. According to Wylie, the Ming editor Zhang Shixian 張世賢 (fl. sixteenth century) “had not sufficient critical penetration to discover the facts” and Hervieu had translated the work “under the impression that it was the work of Wang Shŭh-hô.”75 The German translation of Du Halde’s Description de la Chine provoked further criticism of sources. While Johann Lorenz von Mosheim (1693–1755), the editor of the German translation, had pointed out that Du Halde’s presentation was one-sided and incomplete,76 the section on porcelain in the German edition of the Description later was subject to severe criticism in Krünitz’ encyclopaedia.77 In its section on political economy, the Encyclopédie Méthodique mentioned the ‘incompleteness’ of Du Halde’s work.78 The first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica introduced its presentation of the most remote antiquity of China with remarks on the nature of the available accounts: “But, when any thing is quoted from the Chinese history, it is absolutely necessary to attend, 1. To the times purely fabulous and mythological; 2. To the doubtful and uncertain times; and, 3. To the historical times, when the Chinese history supported by indisputable monuments, begins to proceed on sure grounds.”79 In its article on Athanasius Kircher, the author of China . . . illustrata (1667), Rees’ Cyclopaedia mentioned that Kircher had compiled much information but that he had not critically digested the material.80

74 Encyclopédie 13 (1765) 222 (s. v. ‘Pouls’): “C’est un chaos impenetrable, l’obscurité est si grande qu’on seroit tenté de croire que ni l’auteur, ni le traducteur, ni le faiseur de notes n’y entendoient rien.”—For an assessment of Du Halde’s use of sources for information on Chinese medicine see Landry-Deron, La preuve par la Chine, 166–168. 75 Wylie, Notes on Chinese Literature, 79. 76 Andreas Pigulla, China in der deutschen Weltgeschichtsschreibung vom 18. bis 20. Jahrhundert, Veröffentlichungen des Ostasien-Instituts der Ruhr-Universität Bochum 43 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1996), 83. 77 Krünitz 115 (1810) 264. 78 Encyclopédie Méthodique, Economie politique et diplomatique 1 (1784) 545 (s. v. ‘Chine’). 79 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1st ed., vol. 2 (1771) 184 f. (s. v. ‘Chinese’). 80 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 20, s. v. ‘Kircher’.

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The Nouvel Atlas de la Chine, de la Tartarie chinoise, et du Thibet (1737)81 prepared by Jean Baptiste d’Anville (1697–1782), which accompanied the work of Du Halde, was severely critized by early nineteenth-century scholars. In the Encyclopédie Moderne, Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès (1767–1846) pointed out that the romanization of Chinese and Manchu toponyms given by the Jesuit missionaries was teeming of mistakes. As d’Anville did not possess the necessary language skills to correct them, these mistakes were perpetuated in all later European maps of China and Chinese Tartary.82 In his article on pagodas written for Ersch/Gruber Gustav Flügel dismissed the practice of geographers as well of authors of travelogues to call the multi-storied buildings of China “pagodas.” Flügel pointed out that, in a reduced size, these multi-storied buildings may be seen in European parks usually referred to as Chinese towers. Contrary to European imagination and imitation these towers would never be used for any kind of worship.83 The use and the value of certain sources for information on China changed quite considerably during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. While nineteenth-century encyclopaedias still referred to sources that had been available and widely used in the early eighteenth century, these sources were used to show the evolution of knowledge on China and to present information in a mere historical perspective rather than to inform on the actual state of China.84 Although perpetuating the critical attitude towards the Jesuit accounts of China that had become predominant in works of general reference Ersch/Gruber relied on their writings for information on Chinese bells as no other European descriptions of the subject existed at that time.85 From the sources used for China-related entries in encyclopaedias we see that as early as in the late seventeenth-century knowledge on China had found its way into textual collections of curiosities. These 81 For a short presentation of the history of Jesuit cartography in China and its European perception see Wilkinson, Chinese History, 148; Standaert, Handbook of Christianity in China. Vol. 1: 635–1800, 756–763. 82 Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 560 (new ed., vol. 9, col. 125). 83 Ersch/Gruber III 9 (1837) 266 (s. v. ‘Pagode’, Gustav Flügel). 84 A similar use of sources has been pointed out in a case study on early modern European poetics by Hans-Henrik Krummacher, “Poetik und Enzyklopädie. Die Oden- und Lyriktheorie als Beispiel,” in Enzyklopädien der Frühen Neuzeit. Beiträge zu ihrer Erforschung, ed. Franz M. Eybl, et al. (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1995), 266 n. 35. 85 Ersch/Gruber I 70 (1860) 83 f (s. v. ‘Glockengiesserei’, C. Reinwarth).

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textual collections sometimes were used and/or quoted by the compilers of encyclopaedias. In Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon there are numerous references of this kind. One of the most frequently cited works of this kind was Rariora naturae et artis item in re medica written by Johann Christian Kundmann (1684–1751), published in 1737 and extensively used by the contributors to the Universal-Lexicon ever since.86 Fabulous creatures had attracted the attention of seventeenthcentury European observers of China. Martini, Nieuhof, and Navarrete engaged in the description of such ‘animals’, among these animals one that ‘has no mouth and lives on air’ as well as ‘crabs on Hainan that turn into stones when taken from the water’.87 These accounts also reported on a bird living in the coastal regions of Guangdong Province that turns into a fish before winter. European writers and scholars tried to explain these phenomena. German-language encyclopaedias perpetuated these tentative explanations until the end of the eighteenth-century.88 The Dictionnaire de Trévoux89 as well as Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon90 presented an entry on another curious animal—called ‘fefe’ and described as a black ape said to live in Yunnan Province, which runs very quick and would start laughing when attacking men. Traces of this baroque relic may be found implicitly as late as in Rees’ Cyclopaedia. “[. . .] a curious species of black apes, having the shape and features of a man, they are said to be very fond of women.”91 In his alphabetical index to the Chinese ‘encyclopaedia’ Gujin tushu jicheng, Lionel Giles referred to the feifei 狒狒 as ‘laughing ape’.92

86 Articles referring to Kundmann include ‘Sinesische Nieß-Erde’ (Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1624); ‘Sinesischer Würffel-Stein’ (ibid., col. 1645), ‘Trinck-Geschirre‘ (ibid., 45 (1745) col. 804–812, on China see ibid., col. 809). 87 On Fernandez Navarrete’s presentation of these creatures see Donald F. Lach and Edwin J. Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume Three: A Century of Advance. Book Four: East Asia (Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press, 1993), 1691. 88 Zedler 10 (1735) col. 706 f. (s. v. ‘Gelb-Fisch’); Deutsche Encyclopädie 11 (1786) 547 f. (s. v. ‘Gelbfisch’). 89 Dictionnaire de Trévoux, 1771 éd, vol. 4, p. 81 (s. v. ‘Féfé’). The entry referred to Nieuhof ’s account of the Dutch legation of 1655–1657 (“Ambassade des Hollandois à la Chine, Part. II, Chap. XIV, p. 97”). 90 Zedler 9 (1735) col. 412 (s. v. ‘Fofe’). 91 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. XVII, fol. Kkv. 92 Lionel Giles, An Alphabetical Index to the Chinese Encyclopaedia Ch´in ting ku chin t’u shu chi ch’êng (London: British Museum, 1911), 2 (‘Ape, laughing’) and ibid., 26 (‘Fei-fei’).

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chapter two 2.3 Disseminating China: The Role of the European Republic of Letters

The perception of things Chinese in early modern Europe was a transnational process. Throughout Europe scholars eagerly collected, analyzed, and commented on information relating to China. Based on reports written by eyewitnesses, eighteenth- and early nineteenthcentury European scholars more and more began to use information on China as a kind of weapon in debates on genuinely European affairs. Long before the emergence of ever-growing British commercial interests in East Asia and the failure of the Macartney embassy (1792/93), sinophobe elements had been used in the debates and controversies led by intellectuals throughout Europe. Critical European remarks on certain aspects of Chinese civilization can be traced back to the first accounts given by late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Jesuit missionaries. Since the days of Matteo Ricci, Europeans frequently presented Chinese art (architecture, music, painting) in a quite unfavourable manner. Originally, these critical remarks were intended to correct or at least to question Jesuit positions. In the course of the eighteenth century, a sinophobe image of China overlaid the earlier sinophile one. Both of these images conveyed an ‘imagined’ China and had nothing to do with the ‘real’ China of early modern times. Elements that helped to create an ‘imagined’ China gradually were applied to the supposedly ‘real’ China. From the late seventeenth-century onwards, encyclopaedias reflect these struggles for this European re-invention of China in a very condensed way. According to Hung Ho-fung, eighteenth-century sinophobe ideas had been “not novel.”93 Hung points out that sinophilia and sinophobia may be ascribed to different social strata. While eighteenth-century France saw a diminishing influence of the Jesuits in the public sphere, the importance of Jesuit writings for French and European discourses on China was still growing.94 In his discussion of intended and unintended consequences of Montesquieu’s comparative analysis of Europe and Asia, Melvin Richter showed that Montesquieu in De l’Esprit des Lois as well as Diderot

93 94

Hung, “Orientalist Knowledge and Social Theories,” 261. Ibid., 264.

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in the Encyclopédie included positive elements concerning China.95 In the third edition of his Historie générale des Indes, Guillaume Thomas Raynal (1713–1796) incorporated a “sharp dismissal of China written on order by Diderot” that opposed his own “idealized image” of China. As Richter put it, “Raynal called upon his readers to reconcile conflicting views of this political system judged so diversely by Europeans.”96 In discussing the influence of Raynal’s Histoire des Deux Indes on late eighteenth-century French encyclopaedic dictionaries, Muriel Brot pointed out that information on China given by Raynal formed the main source for the second part of the entry on ‘China’ inserted in the section on political economy of the Encyclopédie Méthodique.97 In presenting knowledge on China, European encyclopaedias relied on monographs and journals as well as on earlier published general reference works. As shown above (Sources on China) all these kinds of publications served the editors and compilers of encyclopaedias as sources for information on China. Throughout the encyclopaedic genre, the use of sources oscillated between clearly marked quotations and plagiarism. During the formative phase of sinology as an academic discipline, accusations of plagiarism were quite common. The most prominent example was the dictionary written by Basilio Brollo de Gemona OFM (1648–1704) and published in 1813 by Chrétien Louis Joseph de Guignes (1759–1845) under the title Dictionnaire chinois, français et latin.98 In defining their scholarly or educational aims, the editors of encyclopaedic reference works often used to point out their position compared to earlier published works of this kind. On the one hand, they saw themselves as followers of earlier works of this kind with the main aim of updating information. On the other hand, they clearly stated their delimitation from earlier encyclopaedic reference works. An

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Melvin Richter, “Montesquieu’s comparative analysis of Europe and Asia: intended and unintended consequences,” in L’Europe de Montesquieu. Actes du Colloque de Gènes (26–29 mai 1993), organisé par la Société Montesquieu, la Società italiana di studi sul secolo XVIII, l’Istituto italiano per gli studi filosofici et le Centro di Studi sull’Età Moderna, ed. Alberto Postigliola and Maria Grazia Bottaro Palumbo (Napoli: Liguori, 1995), 342 and 344–346. 96 Ibid., 345. 97 Muriel Brot, “Les dictionnaires de l’Histoire des deux Indes,” Dix-huitième siècle 38 (2006), 306. 98 Chrétien Louis Joseph de Guignes, Dictionnaire chinois, français et latin, publié d’après l’ordre de Sa Majesté l’Empereur et Roi Napoléon le Grand (Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1813). Osterhammel, Entzauberung, 181 and 183.

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example for this may be the refutation of the views expressed in the French Encyclopédie in the preface of the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. It was one of the aims of this edition “to counteract the tendency [of anarchy and atheism] of that pestiferous work.”99 Encyclopaedias sometimes quoted very freely from their predecessors and thus represent collections of marked and unmarked adaptations of earlier works on general knowledge and of information contained in earlier works on China as well. Examples for direct but unmarked quotations relating to information on China are numerous: Information on the personal names of the Chinese given in Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon was inserted in Krünitz’ encyclopaedia without any reference. Under the headword ‘Mandarin’ Krünitz follows the 1757 edition of Hübner’s Reales Staats- und Zeitungs-Lexicon with only slightly modified orthography but omitting any reference. A similar practice may be found in the information on dogs in China given in the Deutsche Encyclopädie—word by word borrowed from Krünitz’ encyclopaedia.100 On the other hand, ‘inner-encyclopaedic’ adaptations sometimes quoted from and referred to their predecessors.101 These ‘innerencyclopaedic’ adaptations occurred also across language areas. Rees’ Cyclopaedia derived its biographical information on the French scholar Étienne Fourmont from Moréri’s Grand Dictionnaire historique. In its entry on the city of ‘Hiao-Y’ (near Fenzhou in Shanxi province), Ersch/Gruber refers to the information in Rees’ Cyclopaedia.102 In its information on Chinese architecture, the Penny Cyclopaedia refers to the long article contained in the respective section of the Encyclopédie Méthodique.103 Ersch/Gruber derived information on decapitations in China directly from Krünitz. Information on theft in China is based on Staunton’s English translation of the Da Qing lüli 大清律例.104 Individual

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Quoted in Carter and Muir, eds., Printing and the Mind of Man, 132 (no. 218). Krünitz 26 (1782) 455 (s. v. ‘Hund’), Deutsche Encyclopädie 16 (1791) 382 (s. v. ‘Hund’). 101 Krünitz 105 (1807) 123 (s. v. ‘Onyx’) refers to Zedler 25 (1740) col. 1487 (s. v. ‘Onyx’). 102 Ersch/Gruber II 7 (1830) 386 (s. v. ‘Hiao-Y’). 103 Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 89 f. (s. v. ‘Chinese Architecture’). 104 Ersch/Gruber I 25 (1834) 27 (s. v. ‘Diebstahl’).—For Staunton’s Ta Tsing Leu Lee; being the fundamental laws, and a selection from the supplementary statutes, of the Penal Code of China (London 1810), its French and Italian translation as well as for 100

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preferences of the contributors may have caused this choice of different sources. The entry on ‘China’ in the Encyclopédie des gens du monde referred to the processes of ‘inner-encyclopaedic’ adaptations. Materials that had been put together by Julius Klaproth shortly before his death had been enriched with information given in the article on ‘China’ in the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Another example for the transnational dimension of the dissemination of China-related knowledge within Europe may be found in Hobson-Jobson.105 Under the entry on ‘Tea’ it referred to the respective article of Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon. In its article on tea, the UniversalLexicon also referred to English publications (not only to Thomas Salmon’s (1679–1767) description of China but also to the report on the Zhoushan archipelago by Cunningham published in the Philosophical Transactions).106 Eighteenth-century Europe saw the emergence of a host of journals and other rather periodically issued publications. The editors and compilers of encyclopaedic reference works were well aware of the importance of this comparatively new medium. Sometimes they explicitly mentioned this booming market.107 While the publication of translations of monographs had been a very expensive and time-consuming task, journals represented an ideal forum for quick dissemination of newly available information. How quick and in which ways this information spread throughout Europe before it found its way into works of general knowledge may be best seen from the bibliographic information listed in the early volumes of

early-nineteenth century reviews and translations of the work see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 547 f, see also Löwendahl, Sino-Western relations, vol. 2, p. 60 (no. 748). 105 Henry Yule and Arthur Coke Burnell, Hobson-Jobson: Being a glossary of AngloIndian colloquial words and phrases, and of kindred terms; etymological, historical, geographical and discursive (London: Murray, [1886], new edition edited by William Crooke, 1903), 908 (s. v. ‘Tea’). 106 Zedler 43 (1745) col. 506 (reference to Salmon’s Modern History, see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 43) and Zedler 43 (1745) col. 511, 516 and 517 (references to Cunningham; on Cunningham’s observations at Zhoushan see “Part of Two Letters to the Publisher from Mr James Cunningham, F.R.S. and Physician to the English at Chusan in China. Giving an Account of His Voyage Thither, of the Island of Chusan, of the Several Sorts of Tea, of the Fishing, Agriculture of the Chinese, etc. with Several Observations not Hitherto Taken Notice of,” Philosophical Transactions 23 (1702), 1177–1201. See also Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 253. 107 See for example a remark in Zedler 47 (1746) col. 2044 (s. v. ‘Versteinerte Sachen’).

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Krünitz’ encyclopaedia (i.e. as long as Krünitz himself prepared and edited the work). The references given in the information on Chinese gardens clearly show the English, French, and German ways of perceiving and disseminating the main points of the writings of William Chambers (1722–1796). Chambers’ Designs of Chinese Buildings, Furniture, Dresses, Machines and Utensils published in May 1757 soon was presented in English, French and German periodicals. Among the journals cited we find the London Magazine (May 1757) and the Gentleman’s Magazine (May 1757) as well as the Journal étranger (September 1757), the Journal oeconomique (May 1762), and the Bremisches Magazin of 1758.108 Apart from journals intended for a more general public, encyclopaedias relied on the proceedings of academies and learned societies. In Rees’ Cyclopaedia we find many references to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society which had played a key role for the dissemination of knowledge on China among late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century English scholars.109 In its information on white wax (baila 白蠟) Krünitz’ encyclopaedia referred to a treatise of George Pearson (1751–1828) published in the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1794.110 In its presentation of Chinese chess, Rees’ Cyclopaedia also mentioned a letter written in Guangzhou and published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy.111 2.4

On the Authors of Entries on ‘China’

Up to the early nineteenth-century, entries in encyclopaedias were mostly published anonymously. In encyclopaedic reference works of general knowledge published by Brockhaus this practice remained unchanged since the publishing house engaged in this kind of business.112 108

Krünitz 15 (1778) 186.—On the German translation published in Bremisches Magazin see also Walravens, China illustrata, 243 f. 109 See John H. Appleby, “Ginseng and the Royal Society,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 37, no. 2 (1983), 121–145. 110 Krünitz 108 (1808) 245 (s. v. ‘Pé-la’). 111 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4H2r–v (s. v. ‘Chess’) referred to “An account of the Game of Chess, as played by the Chinese, in a letter from Eyles Irwin, Esq., to the Right Honourable the Earl of Charlemont, President of the Royal Irish Academy.” Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. 5 (Dublin: Printed by George Bonham, n.d. [1800 ?]), 53–63. 112 Carter and Muir, eds., Printing and the Mind of Man, 163.

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In the context of the intellectual history of seventeenth- and eighteenth century Europe the attitudes of Pierre Bayle and Denis Diderot towards China and East Asia in general have attracted the attention of scholars.113 At least two other early eighteenth-century editors of encyclopaedias dealt with China in their other writings. Étienne Souciet SJ (1671–1744) not only was in charge of the 1721 edition of the so-called Dictionnaire de Trévoux, but also played a crucial role for the transmission of knowledge on astronomy and mathematics generated by the China Jesuits. Louis Ellies Du Pin (1657–1719), who was responsible for the 1712 and 1718 editions of Moréri’s dictionary, also was engaged in polemics concerning the Rites Controversy.114 According to the letter ‘q.’, James Brewster (1777–1847) wrote the extensive article on ‘China’ for the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, which was planned and edited by his younger brother David. The entry on “Chinese music” inserted in Rees Cyclopaedia had been written by the musician and author Charles Burney (1726–1814) who mentioned his General History of Music (1776–1789).115 From the list of contributors to the Penny Cyclopaedia we see that John Francis Davis, “late his Majesty’s Chief Superintendent to China”, wrote the entry on ‘China’.116

113 On Diderot and China see Huguette Cohen, “Diderot and the image of China in Eighteenth-Century France,” Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 242 (1986), 219–232; on Bayle and East Asia see (apart from literature mentioned in Standaert, ed., Handbook of Christianity in China. Volume One: 635–1800, 883 n. 11) Étiemble, L’Europe chinoise, vol. 2, 308–320 (on Bayle’s perception of the rites controversy); Sergio Zoli, “Pierre Bayle e la Cina,” Studi Francesi 33, no. 3 (1989), 467–72; Joy Charnley, “Near and Far East in the Works of Pierre Bayle,” The Seventeenth Century 5, no. 2 (1990), 173–83; 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. On the whole subject see also Jonathan I. Israel, Enlightenment Contested. Philosophy, Modernity, and the Emancipation of Man 1670–1752 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 640–662 (chapter 25: “Spinoza, Confucius, and Classical Chinese Philosophy”). 114 See Louis Ellies Du Pin, Défense de la censure de la Faculté de théologie de Paris, du 18 octobre 1700, contre les propositions des livres intitulés: ‘Nouveaux Mémoires sur l’état présent de la Chine’, ‘Histoire de l’édit de l’Empereur de la Chine’, ‘Lettre des ceremonies de la Chine’ (Paris: Pralard 1701); Étienne Souciet, ed., Observations mathématiques, astronomiques, géographiques et physiques, tirées des anciens livres chinois, ou faites nouvellement aux Indes et à la Chine, 3 vols. (Paris: Rollin, 1729–1732). 115 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘Chinese Music’.—On Burney’s contributions to the Cyclopaedia see Kerry Scott Grant, Dr. Burney as Critic and Historian of Music, Studies in Musicology 62 (Ann Arbor: UMI Press, 1983). 116 Penny Cyclopaedia 27 (1843), ‘List of Contributors’.

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While issuing the first volumes of his encyclopaedia, the Berlin physician Johann Georg Krünitz was engaged in the preparation of the German translation of Corneille de Pauw’s Recherches philosophiques sur les Egyptiens et les Chinois (1773). In his encyclopaedia Krünitz also referred to his own translation.117 From mid-eighteenth-century onwards, encyclopaedias prepared in cooperation by a group of scholars sometimes disclosed the names of their contributors. Early examples for this practice include the Encyclopédie (Diderot himself wrote the article on Chinese philosophy) and the Deutsche Encyclopädie, the latter publishing a list of abbreviations used in the course of publication. Johann Georg Purmann (1733– 1811), a schoolmaster in Frankfurt/Main wrote most of the articles on things Chinese as well as on most other Asia-related subjects.118 Beginning with the formative phase and professionalization of Chinese studies as an independent academic discipline, French and German sinologists contributed to encyclopaedias: Julius Klaproth (1783–1835) wrote several articles for the first volumes of the Encyclopédie des gens du monde and had assembled the material for his article on China at the time of his death in August 1835. His death deprived the editors of the work of one of the leading experts in the field and the article thus finally was based on that of the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.119

117

Krünitz 72 (1797) 219 (s. v. ‘Leibes-Schönheit und Häßlichkeit’). Articles in the Deutsche Encyclopädie written by Purmann that presented information on China include: ‘Ciam’ (5 (1781) 524), ‘Dynastie’ (7 (1783) 776 f.), ‘Ehe der Morgenländer’ (7 (1783) 937; ‘Essen der morgenländischen und anderer Völker (9 (1784) 24–28); ‘Fenster’ (9 (1784) 706 f.) ‘Feste, Festtage der Morgenländer’ (9 (1784) 758–762); ‘Flöte’ (10 (1785) 246); ‘Fo, Foe, auch Fwi’ (10 (1785) 313–315); ‘Fuhrwerk der Morgenländer (orient.), (10 (1785) 635 f.; ‘Garten (morgenl.)’ (11 (1786) 80–82; ‘Gefängnis (morgenl.)’ (11 (1786) 365); ‘Geld der Morgenländer’ (11 (1786) 563– 565); ‘Gerichte der Morgenländer’ (11 (1786) 563–565); ‘Getränke (antiq. orient.)’ (12 (1787) 241 f.); ‘Götter des asiatischen Heidenthums’ (12 (1787) 755–758, mainly including various cross-references); ‘Hauptschmuck’ (14 (1789) 533–536); ‘Jin-Seng’ [i.e. ginseng] (17 (1792) 168); ‘Joostje’ (18 (1794) 84 [i.e. joss, for the etymology see Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, 463 f.]); ‘Ki’ (20 (1799) 196 [qi 氣, i.e. breath, spirit, energy flow], ‘Kiao-kin-kiao’ (20 (1799) 197); ‘Ki-mung-ye’ [presumably jimang 雞盲, i.e. nyctalopia] (20 (1799) 294); ‘Kiu-tsin’ [ juren 擧人, i.e. Provincial Graduate, one of the degrees in the Chinese examination system] (21 (1801) 90); ‘Kleidungsstücke der Morgenländer’ (21 (1801) 303–310, on China see ibid., 309); ‘Ko-Laos, oder Kolawen’ [gelao 閣老, i.e. unofficial reference to a Grand Secretary (da xueshi 大學士)] (22 (1802) 229); ‘Kong-pu’ [gongbu 工部, i.e. ministry of works] 22 (1802) 314 f.). 119 For more details concerning the situation caused by the death of Klaproth see Lehner, “Le savoir de l’Europe sur la Chine”, 26 f. 118

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After the death of Klaproth Pauthier wrote articles on things Chinese for the Encyclopédie des gens du monde. To the Encyclopédie nouvelle Pauthier contributed the entry on China. Édouard Biot contributed the article on China to the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle. Further articles on things Chinese for this encyclopaedia were written by Pauthier and by the Italian-born Giuseppe Calleri (1810–1862). Auguste Savagner (1808–1849) compiled the extensive article on China for the Encyclopédie Catholique. He also published a twovolume Abrégé de l’histoire de la Chine d’après les meilleurs documents (Paris 1844).120 The prolific French writer Fortia d’Urban not only dealt with ancient history (including China) and compiled a bibliographic overview of encyclopaedias but also wrote the entry on the Huang He 黃河 (Yellow River) for the Encyclopédie des gens du monde. In the revised edition of the Encyclopédie moderne four contributors were responsible for information on China: Eyriès for information on the geography of China, Théodore Bénard (1808–1873) for information on the history of China, Leon Vaïsse (1807–1884) for information on Chinese language, writing and literature, and a certain Charles Cassou for information on philosophy and religion of the Chinese.121 For some of the early-nineteenth century German-language encyclopaedias we can trace close connections between publishers and editors on the one hand and contributors on the other hand. The linguist Hans Conon von der Gabelentz (1807–1874) had close and friendly relations with both the publisher Heinrich August Pierer and Pierer’s chief editor Julius Löbe (1805–1900). Löbe prepared the article on China. Von der Gabelentz wrote the article on Chinese language and literature (beginning with the second edition issued from 1840 onwards). A similar relationship between the publisher and the expert on Chinese literature can be traced for Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon. The philologist Georg Anton Adolf Ellissen (1815–1872) who engaged in the study of the Chinese language (in 1838 he visited Karl Friedrich Neumann (professor of Chinese and Armenian in Munich). had established friendly relations with the publisher Otto Wigand (1795–1870). In 1847, Ellissen wrote an extensive article on Chinese language and literature for Wigand’s Conversations-Lexicon.122 The above-mentioned 120

For the table of contents of this Abrégé see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 588 f. Encyclopédie moderne. new ed., vol. 9, p. 116–207. 122 Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon 3 (1847) 306–317 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache und Literatur’, Ellissen). 121

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Karl Friedrich Neumann also took an active part in the popularization of knowledge on China. From the 1830s to the 1860s he not only published a wealth of newspaper articles but also wrote for encyclopaedias: Having contributed several shorter articles to Ersch/Gruber, he finally wrote the article on ‘China’ for the third edition of the Staats-Lexicon initiated by Rotteck and Welcker.123 From the late 1820s to the early 1840s, Wilhelm Schott, whose main focus was on Chinese and FinnoUgric studies, wrote several articles for Ersch/Gruber, including the article on ‘China’.124

123 China-related articles by Neumann for Ersch/Gruber include: ‘Jang’ (yang 陽, i.e. the ‘positive’ principle; II 14 (1837) 301); ‘Jao’ (i.e. the mythical ruler Yao 堯; II 14 (1837) 365 f.), ‘I-King’ (Yijing 易經; II 16 (1839) 111–119), ‘Jü’ (the mythical ruler Yu 禹 the Great; II 26 (1847) 304–307 as well as ‘Java’ (II 30 (1853) 363–373.—For his article on “China” in the third edition of Rotteck/Welcker see: Das Staats-Lexikon, 3rd ed., vol. 3 (1859) 516–536. 124 The following articles in Ersch/Gruber were written by Schott: ‘China’ I 21 (1830) 159–176; ‘O-lo-pen, oder O-lo-puen’ [Aluoben 阿羅本] III 3 (1832), ‘Pe-king’ [Beijing] III 15 (1841) 83–87, ‘Pen-tsao’ [bencao 本草] III 16 (1842) 128–130.

CHAPTER THREE

CANONIZING CHINA 3.1

Describing China: Structures of Entries on ‘China’

Encyclopaedias as works of general reference present a compilation of what is considered worth knowing at the time of publication. A diachronic analysis of China-related entries therefore reveals unique insights into the shaping of a fixed set of knowledge about China and its changes. The compilers were well aware of the very narrow limits of European knowledge on China. All encyclopaedic projects endeavoured to provide information “according to the best and latest accounts.”1 The limits of knowledge on China available for Europeans in our period of consideration were due to the Chinese control of foreign intercourse. In the early nineteenth century, a time of growing European economic interest in East Asia, encyclopaedias repeatedly pointed out that restrictions imposed by the Chinese government on foreign trade prevented a detailed knowledge of China. The knowledge of the origin, history, and condition of this extensive and extraordinary empire is still extremely imperfect and uncertain. It was only at a late period that the nations of Europe became acquainted even with the existence of the country; and even then, the peculiar nature of the language, and the careful exclusion of foreigners by the Government prevented, and still in a great measure prevent, that degree of intercourse with the people, which is necessary to procure correct information of their manners, and free access to their historical records.2

Encyclopaedias had to cope with selecting reliable sources in presenting information on China. In labelling Chinese history as ‘uncertain’ and ‘uninteresting’, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia referred to this problem: That we may occupy as small a space as possible with what is so very uncertain and uninteresting, though necessary to be known as a portion of acknowledged history, we shall merely present a chronological

1 2

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1917. Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 216.

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chapter three view of each dynasty; and without noticing the progress of every reign, shall content ourselves with selecting the most remarkable events of the period.3

Europeans considered not only their own classifications of knowledge but also adopted Chinese patterns in canonizing knowledge on China. In classifying the literary traditions of China, Europeans steered a middle course: while adopting the Chinese presentation of sishu 四書 (Four Books) and wujing 五經 (Five Classics)4 for the most important sources of Chinese tradition, Europeans very early labelled the Confucian writings as the ‘classical’ writings of China—in analogy to European traditions of classical scholarship that dealt with Greek and Roman antiquity. Chinese classifications of geographical features also found their way into European encyclopaedias. Examples include not only the five lakes (wuhu 五湖, i.e. Dongting Hu 洞庭湖, Poyang Hu 鄱陽湖, Hongze Hu 洪澤湖, Xi Hu 西湖, and Tai Hu 太湖),5 but also the five holy mountains (wuyue 五嶽) according to Chinese cosmology.6 European scholars pointed out that the Chinese had ample descriptions of single mountains but that they did not have classified any of their mountain ranges—a task left to be done by Europeans.7 This invention of classifications for certain geographical features of Asia became a major task of nineteenth-century European scholars.8 In Ersch/Gruber, Schott on the one hand pointed out the general lack of scholarly synopses and classifications in China, on the other hand he wrote that Chinese works on history, geography and natural history will be of an ever-lasting value.9

3

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 218. On the formation of the Confucian canon see Wilkinson, Chinese History, 475 f. 5 The five lakes were mentioned in the Encyclopédie nouvelle 3 (1841) 526 and in the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 454.—Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 162 (s. v. ‘China’, W. Schott) also mentions the five lakes, Schott did not refer to the Xi Hu but to the Gaoyou Hu 高郵湖 in Jiangsu and Anhui Province (“Kao-yeu in Kiangnan”). In its article on Asia, Meyer mentions for China proper only the Dongting Hu, the Poyang Hu, and the Hongze Hu (Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 4,1 (1843) 822 (s. v. ‘Asien’). The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 661 only mentioned the Poyang Hu. 6 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 232. The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 247 provided information on the historical evolution of the “five yo [ yue] or mountains of sacrifice”, without naming all these five mountains. 7 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon II 3 (1850) 638 (s.v. ‘Petscheli’). 8 Osterhammel, Entzauberung, 23 and ibid., 409 n. 30. 9 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 163. 4

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Processes of standardization and canonization of knowledge always mean to discover, to correct, and to avoid errors and mistakes. Errors and mistakes always have to be seen in their contemporary intellectual environment. Very common forms of errors are erroneous transcriptions of Chinese words. These erroneous transcriptions could not be avoided as either the authors of the entries, or the editors, or the printers—or even all of them—usually were unfamiliar with things Chinese. The rise and prevalence of errors seems to be one of the timeless phenomena in the history of the configuration of general knowledge. Examples for the perpetuation of errors in encyclopaedias are still to be found nowadays. For example, the title of the Chinese ‘encyclopaedia’ Gujin tushu jicheng is rendered erroneously as “Gu-jin-tushu-ji-chang” in the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first edition of Brockhaus.10 As may be seen from a remark in the Encyclopédie nouvelle, nineteenth-century encyclopaedias aimed to meet the growing demand for information on the actual state of China.11 In the concluding remark of the entry on China in the Encyclopédie Catholique, Auguste Savagner (1808–1849) wrote that he had tried to make China known in a more complete manner as any other reference work of this kind.12 Due to the wealth of information available in various European repositories of knowledge, some eighteenth-century European scholars regarded China as the best-described part of the non-European world. However, at all times scholars were conscious about their limited knowledge on China. In his review of the Encyclopaedia Sinica (edited by Samuel Couling) Berthold Laufer wrote in 1919, that “our knowledge of China is still far from being complete.”13 In 1990, Gregory Blue pointed out “that even today, when a great deal more information and scholarship are available than they were during the enlightenment, our effective knowledge of China can still remain only insecure, fragmentary and tentative.”14 10

See Brockhaus Enzyklopädie, 19th, completely rev. ed., vol. 6 (1988) 452 (s. v. ‘Enzyklopädie’), Brockhaus. Die Enzyklopädie, 20th, rev. and updated ed., vol. 6 (1997) 455 (s. v. ‘Enzyklopädie’); Brockhaus Enzyklopädie, 21st ed., vol. 8 (2006) 175 (s. v. ‘Enzyklopädie’).—The italics in the quotation are mine. 11 Encyclopédie nouvelle 3 (1841) 539. 12 Encyclopédie Catholique 7 (1844) 438 (‘Chine’). 13 American Anthropologist, N.S. 21 (Jan.—Mar. 1919) 89 (B[erthold] L[aufer]). 14 Gregory Blue, “The Chinese presence in Europe,” Comparative Criticism 12 (1990), 296.

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The foremost aim of the editors and compilers of encyclopaedias at all times was to present easily retrievable information on a great wealth of subjects. In describing the the largest East Asian empire, encyclopaedias followed a well established scheme that also has been used to describe European countries. In his Geographia generalis (1650), the Dutch scholar Bernhard Varen(ius) (1622–1650) recommended three classes of ‘particulars’ (‘terrestrial’, ‘celestial’ and ‘human’). Eighteenth-century encyclopaedias limited their presentation of the various (European as well as non-European) countries to the terrestrial and human particulars. According to Sitwell these two groups included information on the following subjects:15 Terrestrial particulars: 1. The limits and bounds of the country 2. The longitude and situation of places 3. The figure of the country (i.e., its shape on a map) 4. Its magnitude 5. Its mountains; their names, situations, altitudes, properties, and things contained in them 6. Its mines 7. Its woods and deserts 8. Its waters; as seas, rivers, lakes, marshes, springs; their rise, origin, and breadth; the quantity, quality, and celerity of their waters, with their cataracts 9. The fertility, barrenness, and fruits of the country 10. The living creatures Human particulars: 1. The stature of the inhabitants; their meat, drink, and origin 2. Their arts, profits, commodities, and trade 3. Their virtues and vices; their capacity and learning 4. Their ceremonies at birth, marriages and funerals 5. Their speech and language 6. Their political government 7. Their religion and church government 8. Their cities

15

7–8.

On Varenius’ recommendation see Sitwell, Four Centuries of Special Geography,

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9. Their memorable histories 10. Their famous men and women, artificers, and inventions This way of describing the world had been pursued by early modern European geographers. A comparison of the main subjects treated in the entries on China in Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon and in the German edition of the Grand dictionnaire géographique et critique (1726–1739) of Bruzen de la Martinière16 shows that the order of subjects treated in these entries was quite unsystematic:

Zedler (col.)

Bruzen de la Martinière (col.)

names of China (exonyms and Chinese names)

1556

968, 972

geography of China

1557

972–974

geographical concepts of the Chinese (incl. China and her neighbours)

1557 f., 1572

971–972, 1001–1004 (relations with Russia)

mountains, terraces, irrigation

1558

979 f., 980, 980 f.

agriculture, natural products, mineral resources

1559, 1560, 1566 981–987, 990

wood (including commerce and transport)

1558 f.

981

inhabitants, number of population

1560 f.

976 f.

number of cities, capitals, fortresses

1558, 1559, 1561 974, 975 f., 999–1001 (longitudes and latitudes)

architecture (including Great Wall)

1556 f., 1561, 1563 f.

arts and sciences (including inventions)

1561, 1563, 1564 991, 992, 995

980, 990 f.

16 A. A. Bruzen de la Martinière, Historisch-Politisch-Geographischer Atlas der gantzen Welt. Oder grosses und vollständiges Geographisch- und Critisches Lexicon [. . .], vol. 10 (Leipzig: Heinsius, 1748), col. 968–1004.

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(cont.) Zedler (col.)

Bruzen de la Martinière (col.)

Chinese writing

1562 f.

994 f. (including language)

imperial court, central administration

1564 f., 1574

992–994, 995–999

tusi [土司] system (aboriginal offices in South and Southwest China)

1559 f.

974

religions (including Christian missions and Rites Controversy)

1565 f., 1566

977–979, 981

customs and manners

1561, 1562

987–990

antiquity and history of China

1566–1572

968–971

travelling in China

1563

–

travel routes to China

1566

–

bibliography

1574

1004 (including notes on maps)

From mid-eighteenth century onwards, information on geographical subjects became much more systematic and much more concise. An example for the latter development is the article on China inserted in the French Encyclopédie edited by Diderot and d’Alembert: China, (Geography), great empire of Asia, limited in the north by Tartary, from which it is separated by a wall of four hundred miles, in the east by the ocean, in the west by high mountains and deserts, and in the south by the ocean, by the kingdoms of Tongking, Laos and Cochinchina. China is about seven hundred miles in length and five hundred miles in breadth. This is the most populated and the best cultivated country on earth; it is irrigated by several grand rivers & intersected by an infinite number of canals. The most remarkable of these is the Royal Canal, which crosses the whole of China. The Chinese are very industrious, they like the arts, the sciences, and commerce: the use of paper, of printing, and of gunpowder was known to them long before Europeans thought of it. This country is governed by an emperor, who at the same time is chief of religion & who commands the Mandarins, who are the masters of the country. They have the freedom to tell him his deficiencies. The government is very gentle. The people of that country are idolaters and

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they take as much wives as they like. See their philosophy under the article Philosophy of the Chinese. The commerce of China consists of rice, silk, fabrics, and spices of all kinds.17

This article collects the most important bits of information on China considered useful for mid-eighteenth-century European readers. Like entries in earlier reference works—the Universal, Historical, Geographical and Poetical Dictionary (London 1703), the first edition of Reales Staats- und Zeitungs-Lexicon (Leipzig 1704), and Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon—, the entry on China of the Encyclopédie perpetuates an already well-established set of information. Apart from remarks concerning the geographical situation of the country, the entry refers to the huge population of China, to the efforts in irrigation and water conservancy. The Chinese were said to be very industrious and to be fond of arts and sciences. While religion (considered idolatry) as well as polygamy and the importance of the emperor as head of religion are covered in the entry on ‘China’, there is a separate article on the philosophy of the Chinese. Each of the multi-volume encyclopaedias contains an entry on ‘China’ or ‘Chinese’ with one sole exception: Krünitz’ Oeconomische Encyclopädie. This seems surprising—considering the fact that there is a lengthy entry on Burma (‘Vermanisches Reich’); in a similar way, information on China could have been presented under headwords like ‘Sina’ or ‘Tschina’, as both spellings had been common in early nineteenth-century German. Despite the lack of a general article on China, the 242 volumes of Krünitz provide a wealth of information on China—a search for China in the online-edition (not including the plates) retrieves 1662 hits for ‘China’. Longer sections on China are included in entries on war, military academies, government, and ethnology.18 In the early nineteenth century, most of the more comprehensive entries on ‘China’ arranged information thematically. A different approach can be found in the Encyclopaedia Perthensis, also published under the title New Universal Dictionary, where subject

17 Encyclopédie 3 (1753) 339.—Translation is mine. For a German translation of this article see Anette Selg and Rainer Wieland, eds., Die Welt der Encyclopédie (Frankfurt/ Main: Eichborn, 2001), 45 f. 18 Krünitz 49 (1790) 574–579 (s. v. ‘Krieg’), ibid. 52 (1790) 81–86 (s. v. ‘KriegsSchulen’); ibid., 162 (1835) 656–685 and ibid., 690–696 (s. v. ‘Staat’); ibid., 227 (1855) 432–440 (s. v. ‘Völkerkunde’).

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headings within the headwords “China” and “Chinese” were arranged alphabetically.19 In the course of the period under consideration, information given under the headword ‘China’ became more and more extensive: Encyclopédie catholique (169 pages); Edinburgh Encyclopaedia: (125 pages)—Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon (83 pages on “China”, 2 pages on “Chinese drama and theatre” and 7 pages on Chinese language, writing, and literature).20 The following listing shows the arrangement of subjects in the ‘China’ articles of these three encyclopaedias. Edinburgh Encyclopaedia: Topography—History—Government— Religion—Laws—Revenues—Army—Police—Language and Literature— Arts and Sciences—Agriculture [including gardening]—Population— Navigation—Money and Weights—Trade—Manufactures and Trade— Characters and Manners—Natural History—View of the progressive intercourse of other nations with China—[Bibliography] Encyclopédie Catholique: Extent and boundaries of the whole empire [Etendue et limites de l’Empire entier]—China proper: origin of the name [Chine propre.—Origine de ce nom]—Topographic division [Division topographique]—Basic elements of Chinese chronology [Principes de la chronologie chinoise] (including a detailed account of the history of China from the earliest times to the Opium War)—List of place-names (including data on the latitude and longitude of each of these places) [Lexique topographique]—Chinese government [Gouvernement chinois: classes; commerce; arts et metiers, etc.]—Chinese language [Langue chinoise]—Chinese writing [Écriture chinoise]— Chinese literature [Littérature chinoise]—Chinese theatre [Théâtre chinois]—Chinese music [Musique chinoise]—Conclusion Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon: Names, situation, boundaries, extent (Namen, Lage, Grenzen, Größe)—Topography and natural resources (Natürliche Beschaffenheit)—Number of inhabitants (Zahl der Einwohner)—Origin of the Chinese (Abstammung des Volkes)— Physical constitution (Körperliche Beschaffenheit)—National character

19 Encyclopaedia Perthensis 5 (1816) 519–557 (s. v. ‘China’, ‘Chinese’); The New Encyclopaedia 5 (1807) 508–549 (s. v. ‘China’, ‘Chinese’). 20 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 206–331 (s. v. ‘China’); Encyclopédie Catholique vol. 7 (1844) 269–438 (s. v. ‘Chine’); Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 230–313 (s. v. ‘China’); ibid., 333–335 (s. v. ‘Chinesisches Drama und Theater’); ibid., 335–342 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache, Schrift und Literatur’).

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(Volks-Charakter)—Religion (Religion)—Language (Sprache) [crossreference to ‘Chinesische Sprache und Literatur’ (Chinese language and literature)]—Society (Gesellschaftliche Zustände)—Customs and manners (Sitten und Gebräuche)—Arts and Sciences (Intellektuelle Bildung durch Wissenschaft und Kunst)—Government (Staatsverfassung, also including a cross-reference to ‘Armee’ (army))—History (Geschichte)—History of Sino-European relations (Geschichtliche Darstellung China’s in seinem Verhältnisse zu Europa)—Bibliography (Literatur) The rather extensive information collected under the headword ‘China’ can be regarded as a finding aid to access further information on China given under separate headwords. Entries on the various provinces of China may have served the same purpose, although the variety of possible transcriptions in use for each of the provinces even today may be seen as a major obstacle for the retrieval of information in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century reference works, e.g. Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon disposed information on Fujian Province under the headword “Phukian”.21 Although the first edition of Bayle’s Dictionaire historique (1697) provided an alphabetical index, this kind of retrieval tools was only common from the late eighteenth century onwards, starting with the two-volume Table to Diderot’s Encyclopédie. As an alternative to an index covering the whole work, early nineteenth-century French general reference works mainly tended to add a list of headwords included in each of the volumes (see for example the Encyclopédie des gens du monde and the Encyclopédie nouvelle). The index to Meyer’s ConversationsLexikon only partly refers to information on China disposed in the whole work. Information on China disposed in Meyer’s biographical and geographical headwords may not be retrieved.22 The only entry on ‘China’ supplied with an extra alphabetical index seems to be that in the Encyclopaedia Londinensis. The text of this article was not structured by headings, subheadings, or marginalia.23 While headings and subheadings within single entries have been used in German-language encyclopaedias (usually set in spaced type),

21 22 23

Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon II 3 (1850) 1042 f. (s. v. ‘Phukian’). See Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon, Supplement, vol. 6. Encyclopaedia Londinensis 4 (1810) 435–498.

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English-language encyclopaedias facilitated retrieval of information by supplying marginalia. Information on China partly was presented under transliterated Chinese headwords. On the one hand, we may ask to which extent knowledge disposed in this way had been retrievable for the users of encyclopaedias, i.e. how many users searched Ersch/Gruber under the entry ‘Pen-tsao’ (bencao) for information on Chinese pharmacology.24 On the other hand, this practice shows how the editors of encyclopaedias tried to present knowledge on China equal to that on other parts of the world, mechanics and natural sciences, as well as knowledge on and Greek and Roman antiquity. Apart from the most important place names of China and the names of Chinese individuals (either historical or contemporary) the most prominent example for the introduction of Chinese terms as headwords in encyclopaedias are terms relating to the production of porcelain, e.g. petuntse and kaolin. For the introduction of the latter into the English language, the Oxford English Dictionary even refers to the editio princeps of Chambers’ Cyclopaedia (1727/28).25 In a similar way, the Trésor de la Langue Française refers to the Encyclopédie Méthodique for the introduction of Chinese terms.26 Chinese terms chosen as headwords in encyclopaedias may be divided into the following groups: 1. the natural resources of China (including the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdom): among them terms like huashi 滑石 (soapstone),27 huojing 火井 (gas well),28 pengsha 硼砂 (borax), jian 鹼 (alkali) from the mineral kingdom,29 various fruits like lizhi 荔枝 (lychee),30 longyan 龍眼 (longan), shizi 柿子 (persimmon), trees (nanmu 楠木, wutong 梧桐),31 products from the vegetable

24

Ersch/Gruber III 16 (1842) 128–130 (s. v. ‘Pen-tsao’, W. Schott). Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon II 3 (1850) 118 (s. v. ‘Pen-tsao’) mentions Li Shizhen’s 李時珍 (1518–1593) Bencao gangmu 本草綱目 and refers to the article on Chinese language, writing, and literature. 25 Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., s. v. ‘kaolin’. 26 Trésor de la Langue Française 11 (1985) 1184 (s. v. ‘Moxa’). 27 Encyclopédie 8 (1765) 232 (s. v. ‘Hoatché’); Krünitz 24 (1781) 21–22 (s. v. ‘Hoa-che’). 28 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 15 (1850) 1294 (s. v. ‘Ho-tsing’). 29 See Krünitz 37 (1786) 439 (s. v. ‘Kien’); ibid., 116 (1810) 612 (s. v. ‘Pounxa’). 30 Encyclopédie 9 (1765) 484 (s. v. ‘Lichi’); ibid., 689 (s. v. ‘Lon-yen ou Lum-yen’); Penny Cyclopaedia 14 (1839) 43 (s. v. ‘Li-tchi, or Leechee’). 31 Krünitz 101 (1806) 212 f. (s. v. ‘Nan-mu’).

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4.

5.

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kingdom like the oil from the tallow tree ( jiuyou 桕油) as well as food like doufu 豆腐 (bean curd)32 Various ethnic groups living within the Chinese Empire: Yi 彜 (in encyclopaedias referred to as Lolo 玀玀 or 羅羅),33 Miao 苗, etc.34 Religion and philosophy: including denominations of religion in China such as fo 佛 (Buddha), fojiao 佛教 (Buddhism) or tiaojinjiao 挑筋教 (Jews) as well as terms like miao 廟 (temple) or wenmiao 文廟 (Temple of Confucius), city gods (chenghuang 城隍) as well as names of other tutelary gods and goddesses—the latter including Mazu 媽祖 (in eighteenth-century works rendered as ‘Neoma’) and Guanyin 觀音 (‘Quanina’).35 Government and administration: In encyclopaedias, the six boards (liubu 六部) of the central government frequently were presented in their respective Chinese renderings.36 Similarly, the various degrees of Chinese literati as mirrored by the examination system (xiucai 秀才 (lit. Cultivated Talent), juren 擧人 (Provincial Graduate), jinshi 進士 (Metropolitan Graduate))37 were introduced as headwords. The Encyclopédie des gens du monde contained a headword ‘Han-lin’ (Hanlin 翰林 or Imperial academy).38 Trade and Commerce: Encyclopaedias perpetuated a host of Chinese headwords mainly derived from eighteenth-century economic dictionaries, these Chinese terms referred to various fabrics and to weights and measures (for example bu 步 (pace)39 and li 里 (mile)).40

32

Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon S5 (1854) 1199 (s. v. ‘Taofoo’). Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 21, fol. Ppv-Pp2r (s. v. ‘Lo-los’); Meyer, ConversationsLexikon I 19,2 (1851) 802 (s. v. ‘Lolos’). 34 Encyclopédie 10 (1765) 484 (s. v. ‘Miao-fses’ [sic]); Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 21 (1852) 557 f. (s. v. ‘Miaothe’). 35 On Mazu see Zedler 23 (1740) col. 1713 (‘Neoma’) on Guanyin see ibid., 30 (1741) col. 67 (s v. ‘Quanina’); Encyclopédie 9 (1765) 137 (‘Kouan-in’). On city gods (chenghuang) see Deutsche Encyclopädie 5 (1781) 510 (s. v. ‘Chim-Hoam’). 36 E.g. the bingbu 兵部 (Ministry of War): Encyclopédie 12 (1765) 728 (s. v. ‘Pimpou’), the hubu 戶部 (Board of Revenues): Encyclopédie 8 (1765) 355 (s. v. ‘Hu-pu’), the xingbu 刑部 (Board of Justice) Encyclopédie 8 (1765) 210 (s. v. ‘Hing-pu’). 37 Encyclopédie 9 (1765) 132 (s. v. ‘Kiu-gin’ (i.e. juren); ibid., 16 (1765) 731 (‘Tsinsé’, i.e. jinshi).—For explanations of these three terms see Charles O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985), 248 f. (no. 2633, s. v. ‘hsiù-ts’ái’); ibid., 197 (no. 1682, s. v. ‘chü-jén’); ibid., 167 (no. 1148; s. v. ‘chìn-shìh’). 38 Encyclopédie des gens du monde 13 (1840) 434 f. (s. v. ‘Han-lin‘, G. Pauthier). 39 Zedler 29 (1741) col. 1123 (s. v. ‘Pu’); Krünitz 118 (1811) 459 (s. v. ‘Pu’). 40 Zedler 18 (1738) col. 1412 (s. v. ‘Ly’), Encyclopédie 9 (1765) 463 (s. v. ‘Li, Ly, Lis, Lys’); Krünitz 82 (1801) 94 (s. v. ‘Ly’). 33

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Several cycles concerning the ‘rectification of names’ took place in the context of cultural contacts and transmissions between China and Europe. The ‘wonders’ of ‘India’ clearly had influenced medieval European accounts on and perceptions of East Asia in general. At that time, India, Central Asia and East Asia were usually treated as a whole.41 A similar development took place in early modern times: Natural phenomena of Southeast Asia as well as observations on the material culture of the overseas Chinese living in these regions were ascribed to East Asia and China with some delay. The most striking examples for this practice include entries on Daoism, on typhoons, and on the Chinese gong (luo 鑼) in Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon—all three referring to early European accounts of Southeast Asia.42 Chinese terms introduced and explained by early nineteenthcentury encyclopaedias rarely became part of general knowledge. The example of the river Baihe 白河 (usually referred to as ‘Peiho’), an important waterway in Northern China, highlights this particular failure and even sheds light on the repeatedly stated immobility of the academic discipline of sinology.43 While we find the correct meaning (i.e. White River) of this toponym in Rees’ Cyclopaedia, in the Penny Cyclopaedia as well as in Ersch/Gruber44 and in some nineteenth-century travelogues and although detailed explanations of the name were provided, even in sinological literature the wrong meaning ‘North River’ prevailed until today.45 In some cases, misprints and erroneous spellings retarded or even prevented attempts for a ‘rectification of names’. Badly distorted proper names (personal names, reign periods, titles of works) that occurred in accounts of China also appeared in encyclopaedias. The entry on China in the section on political economy of the Encyclopédie Méthodique

41

Reichert, Begegnungen mit China, 10. Zedler 11 (1735) col. 181 (s. v. ‘Gong’); ibid., 16 (1737) col. 375 f. (s. v. ‘Lancu’), ibid. 57 (1748) col. 607 f. (s. v. ‘Wind’). 43 Harriet T. Zurndorfer, “La sinologie immobile,” Études chinoises 8, no. 2 (1989), 99–120, a review of Alain Peyrefitte, L’empire immobile ou le choc des mondes (Paris: Fayard, 1989). 44 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 26 (s. v. ‘Pei-ho, or White River’); Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 74 (s. v. ‘China’); in Ersch/Gruber III 9 (1837) 273 (s. v. ‘Pai-ho’) Schott refers to ‘albus fluvius’) as the only correct meaning of this toponym; in ibd, III 14 (1840) 344 f. (‘Pay, oder Pay-ho’) the meaning of the name is not mentioned at all. 45 See J. Y. Wong, review of English Lessons, by James Hevia, Journal of Asian Studies 65, no. 4 (Nov. 2006), 807, who refers to the description of the ‘White River’ in the Jiaqing edition of the Da Qing yitong zhi. 42

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speaks of ‘Lang-hi’ (i.e. Kangxi), of ‘Hau-lin’ (i.e. Hanlin) and of ‘SiAnhya’ (Xiaoxue 小學, i.e. Zhu Xi’s ‘Learning for Children’).46 In Krünitz’ encyclopaedia, we find the headword ‘Kieu-yen’ (instead of ‘Kieuyeu’ ( jiuyou) which was the most widespread spelling in eighteenthcentury Europe) referring to the oil from the tallow tree).47 In the Penny Cyclopaedia we read of ‘Meao-toa’ (i.e. the Miaodao 廟島 Archipelago), of ‘Mioa-tsee’ (Miao) and of Poa-king-foo (i.e. the city of Baoqing 保慶).48 As this phenomenon has not been restricted to Chinese proper names, it may be mentioned that in the entry on Tatars in Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon we read of ‘Résumat’ instead of Rémusat49—earlier this reference work had presented biographical and bibliographical information on Rémusat in the correct spelling.50 3.2

Updating Information on China

Of such a country it would be unpardonable not to give some account in a work of this nature; but we have not, in truth much to add to what has been said of China and the Chinese in the Encyclopædia Britannica. Since the article China in that work was published, the court of Pekin [sic] has indeed been visited by an embassy, and the origin of the people, as well as the antiquity of their empire has been investigated by Sir William Jones with his usual diligence; but from his memoir, published in the second volume of the Asiatic Researches, and from Sir George Staunton’s account of the embassy, there is not much to be extracted which would be either amusing or instructive to our readers.51

These remarks from the opening paragraph of the supplement to the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, published in 1801, named two of the most important sources English-language encyclopaedias relied on for presumed up-to-date information on China during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Not only the scholarly contributions of Sir William Jones (1746–1794), but also the account of the Macartney embassy published by George Leonard Staunton (1737–1801) became widely used sources on China and the Chinese.

46 Encyclopédie Méthodique, Economie politique et diplomatique 1 (1784), 557, 556 and 553 respectively. 47 Krünitz 37 (1786) 517. 48 Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 72 f. 49 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon II 11 (1851) 187 (s. v. ‘Tataren’). 50 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon II 5 (1850) 903 (s. v. ‘Rémusat’). 51 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Supplement to the Third Edition, vol. 1, p. 416.

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The process of updating information on China was stimulated further by the publication of John Barrow’s Travels in China (1804). Apart from their naming of sources, these lines also demonstrate, that not only instruction, but also amusement of readers was one of the goals of early-nineteenth century encyclopaedias. All editors of encyclopaedias had to cope with the problem of adding or updating information on articles already published in an earlier part of the work. Some of them solved the problem by adding supplementary volumes to the original work. This may be seen from Zedler’s Universal-Lexikon, from Diderot’s and d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie, from the Yverdon edition of the Encyclopédie published by Fortunato de Felice (1723–1789), from the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, from the Penny Cyclopaedia or from Meyer’s Großes Conversations-Lexikon—the six-volume supplement of the latter was published after our period of consideration (under the headword ‘China’ this supplement mainly provided statistical and ethnographic data and updated information on the first phase of the Taiping Rebellion).52 While eighteenth-century supplements also included additional information on the ancient history of China, nineteenth-century supplements mainly served to update information on contemporary developments and events—in our case concerning recent developments and events in China or newly published scholarly works on China. To serve this purpose, the supplementary volumes to Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon included larger sections from published British consular reports and from the annual reports by Jules Mohl (1800–1876) presented to the Société Asiatique.53 Especially works, that comprised more than twenty volumes also tried to integrate additional information in the course of the latter part of the alphabet. Apart from the headword ‘China’, the Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste (General encyclopaedia of arts and sciences) initiated by Ersch and Gruber in 1818 supplied much China-related information under a variety of headwords. Entries on single provinces of China are based on travelogues and general descriptions on China. Most of these entries provide a synopsis of information drawn from these materials containing a wealth 52

Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon, Supplement, vol. 2 (1853) 953–971 (s. v. ‘China’). See e.g. Penny Cyclopaedia, Supplement 1 (1845) 356–362 (s. v. ‘China’), Second Supplement to the Penny Cyclopaedia (1858) 137 (s. v. ‘China’); Meyer, ConversationsLexikon, Supplement 2 (1853) 953–971 (s. v. ‘China’). 53

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of details concerning the customs, manners and the material culture of the Chinese.54 Cross-references to an entry on Confucius show that the insertion of this article was postponed several times. Due to the course of publication of the whole work this postponement caused a delay of several decades until the article (then written by the German linguist and sinologist Georg von der Gabelentz (1840–1893)) finally could be published in 1887—long after our period of consideration. The entry ‘Confucius’ only referred to a future headword ‘Kong-FuTse’. Ample information on Confucius finally was presented sub verbo ‘Kung-Fu-Tse’.55 3.3

Visualizing China: Knowledge in Plates, Diagrams and Tables

Encyclopaedias contain only few visual representations of non-European regions. Yet there was a small, but distinct visual canon of China throughout early modern European literature. According to Osterhammel the following illustrations dominated the early modern European visualization of China: idealized portraits of Confucius, illustrations depicting the Great Wall, the Porcelain Tower at Nanjing, and the Potala Palace at Lhasa. Osterhammel also mentions illustrations displaying the ploughing ceremony as performed by the Emperor.56 European publications show portraits of Confucius, visual representations of the Great Wall, and the Porcelain Tower at Nanjing as early as in the 1660s. The publications of Athanasius Kircher’s China . . . illustrata (1667) and the accounts of the early Dutch legations to China given by Johan Nieuhof (1618–1672) and Olfert Dapper

54 Ersch/Gruber, s. v. ‘Junnan’ (II 29 (1852) 143–156 (G. M. S. Fischer), ibid., s. v. ‘Pe-king’ (III 15 (1841) 83–87, W. Schott) and ibid. s. v. ‘Pe-tsche-li’ (III 19 (1844) 399–419, G. M. S. Fischer). 55 Ersch/Gruber I 19 (1829) 72 (s. v. ‘Confucius’) and ibid. II 40 (1887) 230–240 (s. v. ‘Kung-Fu-Tse’; G. v. d. Gabelentz). 56 Osterhammel, Entzauberung, 176. For a preliminary assessment of early modern European visual representations of China see Manfred Boetzkes, “Aspekte der Chinamode in der Buchillustration des 18. Jahrhunderts.” in Die Buchillustration im 18. Jahrhundert. Colloquium der Arbeitsstelle 18. Jahrhundert, Gesamthochschule Wuppertal—Universität Münster, Düsseldorf, 3.–5. Oktober 1978 (Heidelberg: Winter, 1980); Ying Sun, Wandlungen des europäischen Chinabildes in illustrierten Reiseberichten des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, Studien zur neueren Literatur 1 (Frankfurt a. M.: Lang, 1996), Hans-Jürgen Lechtreck, “Herrscher im ‘royaume agricole’. Das kaiserliche Pflügen als Gegenstand reformabsolutistischer Bildsprache,” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 64, no. 3 (2001), 364–380.

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(c. 1635–1689) proved to be crucial for the shaping of visual representations of China.57 Shortly thereafter, the circulation of these images began. They were repeatedly engraved and reprinted in a great variety of works.58 Seventeenth-century European visual representations of China later were included in printed collections that offer valuable information concerning the canonization of European visualizations of non-European regions. The two outstanding publications of this kind were initiated during the 1720s in the Netherlands. About 1729/30, the Leiden publisher and printer Pieter van der Aa (1659–1733) issued La Galérie agréable du monde. This vast collection, a limited edition of 100 copies, contained a series of engravings, formerly published in seventeenthand early eighteenth-century works. Each of the volumes was issued with an introduction containing information on the regions represented in the respective volume. Out of the 2400 plates of the whole work, 113 dealt with things Chinese.59 The Amsterdam-based engraver Bernard Picart (1673–1733), one of the numerous French émigrés in the Netherlands, published the beautifully illustrated Cérémonies et coûtumes religieuses de tous les peoples du monde.60 In 1733/34, an English version of this work was published in London.61 From 1746 to 1748, the Swiss engraver David Herrliberger (1697–1777) edited a German translation of the part containing information on the religions of China. Compilers of encyclopaedias used Picart’s work, e.g.

57

On the visual representation of China in Nieuhof ’s book see Friederike Ulrichs, Johan Nieuhofs Blick auf China (1655–1657). Die Kupferstiche in seinem Chinabuch und ihre Wirkung auf den Verleger Jacob von Meurs, Sinologica Coloniensia 21 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2003). 58 On the spread of the illustrations published in Nieuhof ’s account see Reed and Demattè, China on Paper, 142 (cat. no. 2). 59 This calculation is based on the copy in the Austrian National Library, Vienna (shelfmarks BE.8.H.13 and BE.8.H.14). For a bibliographic description of this copy as well as a detailed enumeration of the parts of the whole work see Ingo Nebehay and Robert Wagner, eds., Bibliographie altösterreichischer Ansichtenwerke aus fünf Jahrhunderten. Die Monarchie in der topographischen Druckgraphik von der Schedel’schen Weltchronik bis zum Aufkommen der Photographie, vol. 1 (Graz: Akademische Druckund Verlags-Anstalt, 1981), 1–3.—See also the comment in John Lust, Western Books on China published up to 1850 in the Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. A Descriptive Catalogue (London: Bamboo Publishing Ltd, 1987), 1 (no. 1); Reed, Demattè, China on Paper, 19. 60 For a recent study of this work see Paola von Wyss-Giacosa, Religionsbilder der frühen Aufklärung. Bernard Picarts Tafeln für die Cérémonies et coutûmes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde (Wabern: Benteli, 2006). 61 See Israel, Enlightenment Contested, 379.

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the Padova-born scholar Giovanni Francesco Pivati (1689–1764) for his Nuovo Dizionario scientifico e curioso sacro-profano (1746–1751).62 Like their early modern Latin predecessors, the earliest general reference works published in the vernacular languages of Europe quite rarely presented illustrations63 not only due to technical and economic reasons but also due to the fact that encyclopaedias for a long time were intended as textual representations of the ordo rerum. However, eighteenth-century progress in mechanics, engineering and natural sciences made it desirable for the editors to add graphic representations of subjects treated in single articles. The first volumes of Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon did not include any illustrations. Later on, the editors of the Universal-Lexicon only reluctantly made use of illustrations. Concerning the representation of China only one figure was to be included. This figure—presumably derived from the works of Leibniz—is to be found in an article on Chinese coins, showing the yinyang 陰陽 symbol circumscribed by the eight trigrams.64 The plates of Diderot’s Encyclopédie occasionally dealt with things Chinese: apart from the section ‘Caractères étrangers’ which contained a presentation of the so-called Kangxi classifiers (significs used for the arrangement of characters in Chinese dictionaries),65 China only occurs in the sections on heraldry, pottery, music and natural history.66 Encyclopaedias published in the first half of the nineteenth century show different approaches towards illustrating things Chinese. Representations of things Chinese included in Brockhaus’ BilderConversations-Lexikon still were rather generic. A visual representation

62 Silvano Garofalo, “Gianfrancesco Pivati’s Nuovo dizionario,” in Notable encyclopedias of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Nine predecessors of the Encyclopédie, ed. Frank A. Kafker, Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 194 (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1981), 197–218; Franco Arato, “Savants, philosophes, journalists: l’Italie des dictionnaires encyclopédiques”, Dix-huitième siècle 38 (2006), 69–82, especially 72. 63 On the history of illustrations in encyclopaedic reference works see Hupka, Wort und Bild. as well as Barbara Holländer, “Die enzyklopädische Ordnung des Wissens in bildlichen Darstellungen,” in Erkenntnis, Erfindung, Konstruktion. Studien zur Bildgeschichte von Naturwissenschaften und Technik vom 16. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert, ed. Hans Holländer (Berlin: Mann, 2000), 163–179. 64 Zedler 22 (1739) col. 475 f. (s. v. ‘Müntze (Chinesische)’). 65 On these significs (also called ‘classifiers’ or ‘radicals’) see Wilkinson, Chinese History, 412 and 415 f. 66 Encyclopédie, Recueil des Planches, sections ‘Blason’ (heraldry), ‘Fayancerie’ (faience), ‘Musique’ (music) and ‘Histoire naturelle’ (natural history).

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of the Great Wall and seven different forms of the character ma 馬 (horse) were displayed in the entry on ‘China’.67 Further China-related illustrations were provided for the entries ‘Mandarin’ and ‘Peking’, the latter showing a rather Europeanized city wall.68 In its article on “China”, the Encyclopédie Catholique presented about 120 illustrations (on 170 quarto pages). These illustrations were rather generic, too. The plates included in the Mémoires concernant l’histoire, les sciences, les arts, les mœurs, les usages &c. des Chinois still formed the main source. The table below provides an overview of these illustrations including the French captions of these illustrations as well as indicating the subjects shown in these illustrations:69

page

Caption

Subject

271 288

“La grande muraille de la Chine.” “Fou-hi et les instruments de musique inventés par ce prince.” “La sphere de l’empereur Chun.” “Peuples anciennement connus des Chinois.” “Salle exterieure du Ming-tang.” “Lao-tseu monté sur un boeuf.” “Portrait de Confucius.” “Tombeau de Confucius.” “Les trois temples de la Lumière.” “Meng-tseu, philosophe chinois.” “Le grand char des empereurs chinois.” “Char de guerre de plusieurs soldats.” “Costumes, anciennes personnages.” “Costumes, anciennes personnages.” “Thsin-chi-houang-ti, empereur de la Chine.” “Hiang-yu ou Hiang-hi, general chinois.” “Kao-hoang-ti, empereur chinois.”

architecture—Great Wall antiquity—music

291 292 301 306 306 309 311 312 314 315 315 316 317 319 319

67

antiquity—astronomy antiquity—ethnography antiquity—architecture Laozi 老子—portrait Confucius—portrait Confucius—grave Temple Mengzi 孟子—portrait emperors—chariot soldiers—chariot antiquity—dress antiquity—dress Qin Shihuangdi 秦始皇 帝—portrait Xiang Yu 項羽—portrait Han Gaodi 漢高帝—portrait

Bilder-Conversations-Lexikon für das deutsche Volk. Ein Handbuch zur Verbreitung gemeinnütziger Kenntnisse und zur Unterhaltung, 4 vols. (Leipzig: Brockhaus 1837–1841), vol. 1 (1837), 412 (Great Wall) and 414 (characters). 68 Ibid., vol. 3 (1839), 41 (s. v. ‘Mandarin’), ibid., 436 (s. v. ‘Peking’). 69 Encyclopédie Catholique 7 (1844) 269–438.

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(cont.) page

Caption

Subject

319

“Grande route sur les piliers.”

320 322 322

“Portrait de Fou-seng, lettré chinois.” “Sou-tseu-king.” “Toung-fang-sou, ministre.”

322

“Toung-tchoung-tchou, sage et philosophe.”

327

“La lettrée Pan-hoeï-pan.”

340

“Kao-tseu Ier, empereur chinois.”

341

“Thaï-tsoung, empereur chinois.”

347

“Thou-fou, poète chinois.”

347

“Li-tai-pe, poète chinois.”

355 357

“Tai-tsou, empereur chinois, fondateur de la dynastie des Soung.” “Se-ma-kouang, historien chinois.”

361

“Tchou-hi, lettré chinois.”

362

“Tching-te-sieou, philosophe chinois.”

366

“Ye-sou-hai ou Taï-tsou, fondateur de la XXe dynastie des empereurs chinois.”

367

“Hiu-heng, philosophe et homme d’état chinois.” “L’empereur Houpilai, dans une tour portée par quatre elephants.”

architecture—road, bridge Fu Sheng 伏勝—portrait Su Wu 蘇武—portrait Dongfang Shuo 東方朔 (154–93 BC), Daoist, counsellor to Emperor Wu of Han—portrait Dong Zhongshu 董仲舒 (179–104 BC), sage and philosopher—portrait Ban Zhao 班昭 (style name Huiban 惠班), first female Chinese historian—portrait Tang Gaozu 唐高祖—portrait Tang Taizong 唐太宗—portrait Du Fu 杜甫, poet—portrait Li Taibo 李太白, poet—portrait Song Taizu 宋太祖—portrait Sima Guang 司馬光, Chinese historian— portrait Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130–1200), Chinese philosopher—portrait Zhen Dexiu 真德秀 (1178–1235), Chinese philosopher—portrait Yuan Taizu 元太祖 (i.e. Genghis Khan; the article refers to the father of Genghis Khan)—Portrait Xu Heng 許衡, philosopher—portrait Khubilai Khan—portrait

369

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(cont.) page

Caption

Subject

371

“Passage d’une écheine sur le grand canal de la Chine.” “Ming-taï-tsou, fondateur de la dynastie chinoise des Ming.”

architecture—Grand Canal Ming Taizu 明太祖, the Hongwu Emperor (r. 1368–1398) Nurhaci, founder of the Manchu dynasty architecture—porcelain pagoda justice—bastinado daily life

377 381 403 404 412 428 430– 434

“Taï-tsou, fondateur de la dynastie des Mantchous.” “Tour de porcelaine de Nan-king” “La bastonnade en Chine” “La marchande de riz.—Costumes actuels; hommes, femmes, enfants, soldats.” “Spectacle chinois.” [various musical instruments; illustrations without captions]

Chinese theatre

While French and German encyclopaedias preserved visual representation of China provided by the Jesuit missionaries, English encyclopaedias began to rely on contemporary visual representations of China supplied by William Alexander (1767–1816) and other members of the Macartney embassy to Beijing (1792/93). The illustrations of the Encyclopaedia Londinensis (published in 1810) may serve as an early example for this practice.70 Another way of providing information apart from running text or plates was the insertion of tables and diagrams. Beginning in the 1690s, the subsequent editions of Moréri’s Grand dictionnaire historique provided information on the history of China in form of a lengthy table listing the rulers of China from remote antiquity down to the emperors of the early Qing dynasty. For each ruler, the table lists the year he ascended to the throne and the duration of his rule. For some of them,

70 Encyclopaedia Londinensis 4 (1810), between pages 462 and 463: “A Chinese Prince of the present Manchoo Tartar race”; “A Chinese Princess of the present Manchoo Tartar race”; ibid., between pages 480 and 481: “A Sketch of the Chinese Wall, Military Post and Guard, Watch Tower and Pagoda”, between pages 482 and 483: “Tchien Lung Emperor who gave Audience to the British Embassy in 1793.”

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remarkable events occurring under the reign are mentioned.71 Other encyclopaedias dealt with the rulers of China in a similar way. The editors of Zedler provided a list showing the names of subsequent rulers. Many of them were introduced under separate headwords spread throughout the entire work.72 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia attempted to support the narrative on the major events in the history of China by inserting separate lists of rulers for each of the dynasties presented.73 New ways for a visual representation of knowledge in encyclopaedias emerged in the first decades of the nineteenth century—comparative tables and graphs showing the lengths of rivers and the heights of mountains found their way into encyclopaedic dictionaries. Examples may be found in Ersch/Gruber as well as in the Bilder-ConversationsLexikon.74 Another way to compare the length “of some of the most noted rivers in the world” presented by James Rennell (1742–1830) had been adopted in Rees’ Cyclopaedia: all rivers listed were put in relation to the length of the river Thames (346 km) while the Huang He (5,464 km—thus 12.7 times longer than the river Thames) was said to be 13.5 times longer, the Yangzi (6,385 km—thus 18.4 times longer) was said to be 15.5 times longer than the river Thames.75 3.4

Explaining China: Comparisons with Europe and Other Parts of the World

Classifying the world always represents an attempt of categorizing the self and the other. Eighteenth-century European publications on nonEuropean regions abound in comparisons and equations between the self and the other. These comparisons were intended to explain the ‘peculiarities’ of non-European cultures and to help to put new information in a seemingly appropriate context. The comparisons helped

71 Moréri, 1712 edition, vol. 2, pp. 273–279 (‘Suite chronologique, et historique des rois ou empereurs de la Chine’); ibid., 1725 edition, vol. 3, pp. 145–152 (‘Suite chronologique des familles imperiales de la Chine’), ibid., 1759 edition, vol. 3, pp. 629–636. 72 Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1567–1572 (list of emperors s. v. ‘Sina’). 73 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, pp. 219–232. 74 The tables in Ersch/Gruber I 45 (1847) 460 f. (s. v. ‘Fluss’) and Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 10 (1847) 624 (s. v. ‘Fluß’) contain data on the length of the world’s largest rivers, on the catchment area of each river and on the linear distance between their spring and their mouth.—See also Bilder-Conversations-Lexikon 2 (1838) 66 (s. v. ‘Flüsse’). 75 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 30, fol. Ssr (s. v. ‘River’).

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to construct the non-European other in the process of constituting the identity of the European self. The presentation of China in European encyclopaedias was closely linked to these categories of ‘self ’ and ‘other’ and showed the search for similarities and differences between Europe and China. In this search, constructions and deconstructions took place. From the entries of encyclopaedias we see how China was put into European patterns of interpretation. Attempts to classify (European knowledge on) China tended to describe it in familiar European categories. Until the early nineteenth century, the European ‘confrontation’ with China mainly took place on an intellectual level. In preparing articles on China for encyclopaedias, Europeans always had to cope with the challenge of pointing out (presumed) characteristics and peculiarities of ‘Chinese’ culture. Their description of presumed peculiarities reveals how they saw the main constitutive elements of ‘European’ culture.76 Beginning with the widening of horizons in Renaissance times, Europeans compared newly discovered civilizations in America, Asia, and Africa to pagan civilizations of European and Near Eastern antiquity.77 The search for comparisons and conformities often led to confusion. Concerning China, elements of the search for comparisons or conformities can be traced back to the end of the sixteenth century. In dealing with the origins of the indigenous people of America in his Historia natural y moral de las Indias (1590), José de Acosta SJ (1539–1600) also referred to China and to the Chinese in the light of the then newly published account of Juan González de Mendoza.78 About a century later, the search for comparisons and conformities between Asia and ancient Europe began to flourish. In 1700, at the heyday of the Rites Controversy, Noël Alexandre (1639–1724) published his Conformité des ceremonies chinoises avec l’idolâtrie grecque et romaine. In 1704, a certain M. de la Créquinière published his Conformité des Coutumes des Indiens Orientaux, avec celles des Juifs & des

76 Eduard Matt, Ethnographische Beschreibungen. Die Kunst der Konstruktion der Wirklichkeit des Anderen, Geschichte und Theorie der Ethnologie 3 (Münster: LIT, 2001), 192. 77 Michael Ryan, “Assimilating New Worlds in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 23 (1981), 526–536. 78 On Acosta’s remarks on China see Michel Cartier, “La Chine vue de l’Amérique espagnole à la fin du XVIe siècle,” Études chinoises 25 (2006), 101–112.

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autres peoples de l’Antiquité.79 De la Créquinière may have influenced the French Jesuit Joseph François Lafitau (1681–1746) in his Mœurs des sauvages amériquains, comparés aux mœurs des premiers temps (1724).80 One of Lafitau’s later critics was the Dutch-born Protestant clergyman Cornelius de Pauw (1739–1799), who, in 1773, severely criticised the Jesuit representation of China. In comparing ancient Egypt and China, de Pauw disproved the favourable Jesuit reports on China. His Recherches philosophiques sur les Égyptiens et les Chinois, published just at the time of the suppression of the Jesuit order, were influential in paving the way for a more critical attitude of Europeans towards China.81 Cross-cultural comparisons were also used for presentations of the Chinese language. The French Encyclopédie pointed out that the pronunciation of the Chinese language even varies in the different provinces and compared the various modes of pronouncing the language to the pronunciation of European languages: The people in Fujian, Zhejiang, Huguang, Sichuan, Henan, Jiangxi would pronounce the language more ponderous than the Spaniards. The inhabitants of the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan would pronounce the language as short as the English. Except the cities of Songjiang 松江, Zhenjiang 鎮江 and Fengyang 鳳陽, the inhabitants of the province of Nanjing would speak as pleasant as the Italians. Finally, the people in Zhili, Shandong, Shanxi, and Shaanxi would aspirate as much as the Germans.82 In using this comparison, early modern European observers noticed the existence of major regional dialects in the various parts of China.83 The physical geography of the Chinese Empire served for various comparisons and equations with European landscapes: encyclopaedias

79 Lucas Marco Gisi, Einbildungskraft und Mythologie. Die Verschränkung von Anthropologie und Geschichte, spectrum Literature 11 (Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2007), 114–149. 80 On Lafitau’s presentation of comparisons and conformities see Ryan, “Assimilating New Worlds in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” 531 and 536; Werner Petermann, Die Geschichte der Ethnologie (Wuppertal: Hammer, 2004), 180–184; Gisi, Einbildungskraft und Mythologie, 118–125. 81 Corneille de Pauw, Recherches philosophiques sur les Égyptiens et les Chinois, 2 vols. (Berlin: Decker, 1773). 82 Encyclopédie, Recueil de planches, Seconde livraison, première partie, Alphabets anciens, p. 16. 83 On major regional dialects in China see Cohen, Introduction to Research in Chinese Source Materials, 7–10; Wilkinson, Chinese History, 24–26.

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repeatedly spoke of the region between the Huang He and the Changjiang as of Chinese Mesopotamia. In China, too, this region between the two great rivers could be addressed as the region of learning, riches and power—like the region between Yamuna and Ganges in India or that between Euphrates and Tigris in the time of Assur.84 According to the Penny Cyclopaedia the East China Plain was seven times larger than Lombardy, “with which it may be compared in many respects.”85 Another comparison referred to the presumed freedom of mountaineers. Due to the desire for freedom of the inhabitants, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon labelled the province of Fujian “the Tyrol of the Middle Kingdom.”86 Guizhou province usually was labelled as “the Siberia of China”87 as disgraced mandarins sometimes were “punished by being sent to this province.”88 In the early eighteenth century, another comparison became quite common. Due to their important role in the Southeast Asian trade networks, Chinese were labelled as the ‘Jews of Asia’. Presumably starting with the first edition of Savary des Bruslons’ Dictionnaire du commerce (1723) this comparison found its way into European dictionaries and encyclopaedias. From the very beginning, this comparison always was accompanied by extremely pejorative remarks.89 During the following decades, this comparison spread throughout Europe. Carl Günther Ludovici, one of the editors of Zedlers Universal-Lexicon, included it in his Eröffnete Akademie der Kaufleute,90 first published just a decade after the article on China in ‘Zedler’. The volumes of Krünitz’ Oeconomische Encyclopädie repeatedly used this comparison.91 In German dictionaries, the comparison was still in use in the first half of the nineteenth century: for example remarks in articles of Allgemeine

84

Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 4,1 (1843) 815 (s. v. ‘Asien’). Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 74 (s. v. ‘China’). 86 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon II 3 (1850) 1042 (s. v. ‘Phukian’). For similar comparisons, that were drawn in eighteenth century European texts see Osterhammel, Entzauberung. 269. 87 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 212; Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 20, s. v. ‘Koei-tcheou’. 88 Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 401. 89 Jacques Savary des Bruslons, Dictionnaire universel de commerce, contenant tout ce qui concerne le commerce qui se fait dans les quatre parties du monde, vol. 1 (Paris: Estienne, 1723) col. 1175. See also Dermigny, La Chine et l’Occident. vol. 1, p. 29. 90 Carl Günther Ludovici, Eröffnete Akademie der Kaufleute: oder vollständiges Kaufmanns-Lexicon [. . .], vol. 2 (Leipzig: Breitkopf, 1753). col. 318 (s. v. ‘China’). 91 E.g. Krünitz 16 (1779) 457 (s. v. ‘Gast-Freyheit’); ibid., 227 (1855) 528 f. (s. v. ‘Völkerrecht’). 85

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Encyklopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste and of Pierer’s UniversalLexikon.92 Only Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon mentioned that Joshua Marshman (1768–1837) clearly had dismissed any construction of similarities between Chinese and Hebrews.93 Mainly following their sources, encyclopaedias tended to draw cross-cultural comparisons and parallels between ancient China and other early developed civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea, and—not only in connection with writing—to pre-Columbian civilizations. In discussing the character pao 跑 (to run), Rees’ Cyclopaedia pointed out, that the etymology of this word may have the same origin as a practice of ‘wrapping the feet’ in use among some ‘savages of Louisiana’.94 Most of these comparisons originated from Jesuit writings. In their reports, they pointed out the huge number of cities and towns throughout China. Comparisons of this kind were in use since medieval times, for example in the itinerary of Odorico da Pordenone.95 Le Comte’s Nouveaux mémoires sur l’état present de la Chine became the main source for comparisons of this kind in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias. This may be seen from the last edition of the Dictionnaire de Trévoux (published in 1771).96 Technical developments and inventions both in China and Europe formed a vast field for comparisons between these two civilizations. Early modern European scholars widely acknowledged the fact, that the Chinese had made technical and mechanical inventions (paper and printing, gunpowder, and compass) long before the Europeans. Europeans tended to label Chinese civilization ‘unique’. As a consequence of this supposed ‘uniqueness’ of the observed, the observers denied any comparability and connection of European and Chinese inventions. Although the Chinese had found many basic principles in mechanical engineering as well as in the construction of very useful technical devices, European observers stressed the ‘otherness’ of the Chinese.

92 See Ersch/Gruber I 3 (1819) 329 (s. v. ‘Amboina’) and ibid. I 7 (1821) 54 (s. v. ‘Bad’); Pierer, 4th ed., vol. 4 (1858) 10. 93 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 238 (s. v. ‘China’). 94 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 20, fol. [Mm4r] (s. v. ‘Language’). 95 Osterhammel, Weltgesellschaft, 26 f. 96 Dictionnaire de Trévoux, 1771 ed., vol. 2, p. 543 f.

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Simplifying China: The Dissemination of Stereotypes

The significance of encyclopaedias as indicators for the formation and prevalence of stereotypes has been pointed out by Hans-Joachim Schoeps as early as in 1959.97 While stereotypes concerning European regions and their population98 as well as the presentation of European minorities transmitted by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century encyclopaedias have been subject to several studies, encyclopaedias have been completely neglected in the context of creating and disseminating European stereotypes regarding China and the Chinese.99 Encyclopaedias are a reliable indicator for the genesis and evolution of one of the most persisting stereotypes connected with the Chinese— the colour of their skin as ascribed to them by Europeans.100 In their writings, eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century European scholars introduced a comparatively wide range of colours to depict East Asian people: while the French historian François-Xavier de Charlevoix

97

Schoeps, Was ist und was will die Geistesgeschichte, 64–66 and 99–116. On Spain see J[uana] Ugarte, “Un discours masqué. L’article ‘Espagne’ de l’Encyclopédie Méthodique où l’image de l’Espagne en Europe à travers d’un text,” Cahiers de lexicologie 58 (1991), Hönsch, Wege des Spanienbildes, 47–62, Françoise Étienvre, “Avant Masson, Jaucourt. L’Espagne dans l’Encyclopédie de Diderot et d’Alembert,” Bulletin Hispanique 104, no. 1 (2002), 161–180 and Gerstenberger, Iberien, on Serbia Hilmar Walter, “Das Serben- und Serbienbild in deutschsprachigen Enzyklopädien des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts,” Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Gesellschaftswissenschaftliche Reihe 38, no. 1 (1989), 66–70; on Switzerland Ina Ulrike Paul, “ ‘Wache auf und lies . . .’ Zur Tradierung von Nationalstereotypen in europäischen Enzyklopädien des 18. Jahrhunderts,” in Populäre Enzyklopädien. Von der Auswahl, Ordnung und Verwaltung des Wissens, ed. Ingrid Tomkowiak (Zurich: Chronos, 2002), 197–220. 99 For attitudes towards gypsies in German encyclopaedias see Aparna Rao and Michael J. Casimir, “Statica e dinamica degli stereotipi. La voce ‘Zigeuner’ nella letteratura enciclopedia tedesca del XIX e del XX secolo,” La Ricerca Folkloristica, no. 22 (1990), 37–46. 100 Until now, encyclopaedias’ entries have been totally neglected in research on this subject. See e.g. Walter Demel, “Wie die Chinesen gelb wurden. Ein Beitrag zur Frühgeschichte der Rassentheorien,” Historische Zeitschrift 255 (1992), 625–666 (see also id., “The Images of the Japanese and the Chinese in Early Modern Europe. Physical Characteristics, Customs and Skills. A Comparison of Different Approaches to the Cultures of the Far East,” Itinerario. European Journal of Overseas History 25, no. 3–4 (2001), 34–53); Gregory Blue, “Gobineau on China: Race Theory, the ‘Yellow Peril,’ and the Critique of Modernity,” Journal of World History 10 (1999), 93–131; Rotem Kowner, “ ‘Lighter than yellow, but not enough’. Western Discourse on the Japanese ‘Race’, 1854–1904,” Historical Journal 43 (2000), 103–131; id., “Skin as a Metaphor: Early European Racial Views on Japan, 1548–1853,” Ethnohistory 51, no. 4 (2004), 751–778. 98

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(1682–1761) labelled Japanese skin colour olive, the Scottish anatomist John Hunter (1728–1793) described East Asian people as brown. In 1775, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach wrote of a yellow complexion. While Kowner assumes, that Blumenbach had been the first to do so,101 a glimpse into Krünitz’ encyclopaedia shows that various earlier accounts of China mentioned the colour of yellow in referring to the Chinese: Based on the accounts of Le Comte, Du Halde, and Olof Toren, Krünitz describes the complexion of the Chinese as “yellow”.102 In the article ‘Civilisation’ of the Dictionnaire de la conversation et de la lecture, Jules Joseph Virey (1775–1847) speaks of the Mongol or yellow race.103 In 1835, the Encyclopédie des gens du monde also mentioned the “yellow complexion” of the Chinese.104 In subsequent editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica information on the complexion of the Chinese underwent a considerable change: “Near the tropic, their complexions incline to tawny; but in the northern parts, they are as fair as other people under the same parallel.”105 Decades later, the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica noted “a sickly white, or pale yellow, like that of a faded leaf, or the root of rhubarb.”106 The 1814 edition of Hübner speaks of a “dark brown”,107 the Bilder-Conversations-Lexikon mentions “brownish yellow skin”.108 According to the Encyclopaedia Edinensis, “the complexion varies from the darkest brown to the brightest olive.”109 In the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana we read of an “olive complexion” of the Manchu and the Chinese.110 Both the Damen-Conversations-Lexicon and Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon also referred to a “brownish yellow” (bräunliches Gelb) and Meyer adds that this may vary according to the different regions of the empire and to the different professions

101 Kowner, “Skin as a Metaphor,” 764. For an analysis of Blumenbach’s description of the Chinese in subsequent editions of his Handbuch der Naturgeschichte and in some of his other writings on natural history see Demel, “Chinesen,” 649–651. 102 Krünitz 71 (1796) 688. 103 Dictionnaire de la conversation et de la lecture 14 (1834) 409–421 (s. v. ‘Civilisation’), on China see 409, 411 and 413. 104 Encyclopédie des gens du monde 5 (1835) 722. 105 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1919. 106 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 549. 107 Hübner 1814 ed., vol. 2, p. 768. 108 Bilder-Conversations-Lexicon 1 (1837) 413. 109 Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 406. 110 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 571.

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as well.111 In Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon, published in 1847, we also read of a yellow complexion of the Chinese subject to regional disparities.112 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia provides information on this subject under its heading ‘Physical character’: The natural colour, both of the Tartars and Chinese, is that intermediate hue between a fair and a dark complexion called brunette; and those who are exposed to the influence of the climate, especially the women who labour in the fields, have a deeper colour and coarser features.113

The Encyclopédie Catholique discusses this point quite similarly: The people in northern China are “as white as the Europeans” while those in the south are “as bronzed as the people of Tanger and Morocco”.114 In writing for the Encyclopédie moderne, Eyriès described the complexion of the Chinese as ‘light-brown’, the lower classes are quite bronzed, the higher classes have a much lighter and sometimes healthy complexion.115 The Penny Cyclopaedia has the following on this subject: Among those who are not exposed to the climate the complexion is fully as fair as that of the Portuguese; but the sun has a powerful effect on their skins, and that upper portion of a man’s person which is habitually exposed in the summer above his loose trowsers [sic] is often so different from the remainder, that when stripped he looks like the lower half of a European joined on to the upper moiety of an Asiatic.116

Origin and dissemination of many of the stereotypes concerning the supposed ‘national character’ of the Chinese were caused by the restricted access Europeans had been granted to China. In his Travels of China, John Barrow explicitly opposed the favourable assessment of the Chinese given in the French Encyclopédie. The Encyclopédie had the following on this subject:

111 Damen-Conversations-Lexicon, 1st ed., 2 (1834) 365; Meyer, ConversationsLexikon I 7,2 (1845) 239. In ibid., I 21 (1852) 220 (s. v. ‘Menschenracen’), we read of a “white-yellowish” complexion of the Chinese. In ibid., I 15 (1850) 1163 Meyer refers to the ‘Homo sinicus’ in a scheme developed by the French naturalist Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent (1780–1846) describing the complexion of the Chinese as “yellow, oily”, that of Chinese women as “white, but somewhat suety.” 112 Wigand’s Conversations-Lexicon 3 (1847) 295. 113 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 308. 114 Encyclopédie Catholique 7 (1844) 411. 115 Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 550 (new ed., vol. 9, col. 120). 116 Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 79.

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The Chinese, who, by common consent, are superior to all the Asiatic nations, in antiquity, in genius, in the progress of the sciences, in wisdom, in government, and in true philosophy; may moreover, in the opinion of some authors, enter the lists, on all these points, with the most enlightened nations of Europe.117

About 1840, the repertoire of positive and negative connotations concerning China was fully developed. Accordingly, European (re-) presentations of China at that time were very inhomogeneous. Encyclopaedias and their sources offered material for a considerable variety of interpretations. The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana labelled the habits and manners of the Chinese “unerring evidences of the national character”.118 As we read in the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Europeans should be cautious in judging on the national character of the Chinese: Like other nations, therefore, the Chinese character has its bright as well as its dark side; and if we find the latter to be the most prominent, it should be remembered that it is drawn chiefly by foreigners, and principally by those who have only visited one of their out-ports, distant many hundred leagues from the seat of government.119

In the Encyclopédie des gens du monde120 and in Meyer’s ConversationsLexikon we find a similar approach: for a description of the character of the Chinese (‘Volks-Character’ in the German original), Europeans relied on travel accounts. Travellers’ individual observations often show their bitter experiences and disappointment, however, as some principal features are to be found in most of the travelogues, there may be a grain of truth in these reports. Most of these principal features were affirmed by the reports of Karl Friedrich August Gützlaff (1803– 1851). In the Conversations-Lexikon we read that Gützlaff ’s published accounts of China were balanced except for matters of religion.121

117 English translation given by John Barrow, Travels in China, containing descriptions, observations, and comparisons, made and collected in the course of a short residence at the Imperial Palace of Yuen-Min-Yuen, and on a subsequent journey through the country from Pekin to Canton, in which it is attempted to appreciate the rank that this extraordinary empire may be considered to hold in the scale of civilized nations (London: Cadell and Davies, 1804), 26. 118 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 571. 119 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 587. 120 Encyclopédie des gens du monde 5 (1835) 730. 121 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 240.

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The process of creating and disseminating stereotypes took place at a very early stage of European contacts with China.122 Most of the stereotypes concerning the national character of the Chinese soon found their way into works of general reference. Adaptations of these works in different languages paved the way for the spread of such prejudices throughout Europe. An early example for this practice can be found in Moréri’s historical dictionary, where the Chinese were labelled as ‘proper’, ‘decent’, ‘polite’, ‘industrious’ but ‘furiously avaricious and jealous’.123 This description prevailed not only in the subsequent editions of Moréri but also in English- and German-language encyclopaedias throughout the first half of the eighteenth century.124 As pointed out in the Encyclopédie nouvelle on the eve of the so-called ‘opening’ of China, the industriousness of the Chinese had become proverbial among Europeans.125 Apart from superstitions prevailing among the Chinese and their national pride, Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon mentioned a number of positive attributes under the headword ‘Sineser, Sinenser, oder Chineser’: the wisdom of the Chinese may be seen from the nice order in all their affairs, their politeness, and their serious character. They are experienced in their moral maxims and the fathers take care of the education of their children.126 In its section on political economy, the Encyclopédie Méthodique pointed out that there is no nation more laborious than the Chinese, no nation more moderate (sobre) and more industrious than them.127 The Allgemeinnütziges Geschicht- und Staaten-Wörterbuch (i.e. Historical and geographical dictionary for general use) published in

122 On seventeenth-century European impressions of the character of the Chinese (and on efforts to distinguish between Chinese and Manchu) see Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe. III/4, 1702 f. 123 Moréri, 2nd ed., vol. 2 (1683), 881 (s. v. ‘Chine’): “propres, civils, politiques, industrieux, mais furieusement avares et jaloux.” 124 See for example An Universal, Historical, Geographical, Chronological and Poetical Dictionary, vol. 1, s.v. ‘China’ (“The Men are Civil, Wellbred, Politick, and Industrious, but insupportably Jealous and Covetous [. . .].”); Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1561; Coetlogon, An Universal History of Arts and Sciences, vol. 1 (1745) 1153. For an assessment of European discourses on the politeness of the Chinese see Osterhammel, Entzauberung, 344–346. 125 Encyclopédie nouvelle, vol. 3 (1841) 558.—See also Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon II 3 (1850) 1042 (s. v. ‘Phukian’). 126 Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1613 (s. v. ‘Sineser, Sinenser, Chineser’). 127 Encyclopédie Méthodique, Economie politique et diplomatique 1 (1784) 549 (s. v. ‘Chine’).

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1794 in Vienna described the ‘national character’ of the Chinese as ‘very bright’, ‘polite’, ‘laborious’, and ‘fond of scholarship, arts and sciences’.128 The accounts published by various members of the Macartney embassy to China changed the general mood in the European perception of the ‘national character’ of the Chinese. Especially the account of John Barrow seems to have been of strong influence on early nineteenth century European images of China. Based on his own observations made during his stay at Canton in 1805/06, Adam Johann Krusenstern (1770–1846), captain of the Russian navy, referred not only to the account of Barrow but also to the negative presentation of China and the Chinese in the Recherches by de Pauw.129 For its presentation of the ‘national character’ of the Chinese, the Neues Rheinisches Conversations-Lexicon referred to the accounts of Barrow and Krusenstern.130 About the year 1800, a fundamental change in European views of the manners and customs of the Chinese began to take place. What at the first glance seemed to be a more balanced account of the Chinese than reported by the Jesuits proved to be a disparaging presentation of the Chinese. In the seventh edition of Brockhaus as well as in Rheinisches Conversations-Lexicon we read, that the Chinese have the usual virtues and vices of a servile (sklavisch), skillful (kunstfleißig) and trading people.131 Unfavourable European opinions of the merchants of Guangzhou seem to have prevailed since the middle of the eighteenth century. Robinet’s Dictionnaire universel distinguished between the inhabitants of big cities and the sea ports on the one hand and the people living in the rural parts of China on the other. Concerning the former, the foreign observer may be stunned by their ‘cowardness’ (lâcheté), their ‘bad faith’ (de leur mauvaise foi) and their ‘greed’ (de leur avarice).132 128 Allgemeinnütziges Geschicht- und Staaten-Wörterbuch [. . .], vol. 1 (Vienna: Alberti 1794), 507. 129 Adam Johann von Krusenstern, Reise um die Welt in den Jahren 1803, 1804, 1805 und 1806 auf Befehl Seiner Kaiserlichen Majestät Alexander des Ersten auf den Schiffen Nadeshda und Newa, 3 vols. (St. Petersburg: Schnoor, 1810–1812). On China see ibid., vol. 2 (1811), 295–382 (chapters 10 and 11), on Krusenstern’s praise of Barrow and de Pauw see ibid., 323. 130 Neues Rheinisches Conversations-Lexicon 3 (1832) 332. 131 Brockhaus, 7th ed., vol. 2 (1827) 623; Neues Rheinisches Conversations-Lexicon 3 (1832) 332. 132 Robinet 11 (1779) 647.

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Another early example, quoted by the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, was the travelogue published by the Swedish clergyman and botanist Peter Osbeck (1723–1805). The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia presented the most likely explanation for “the contempt testified by the Chinese towards foreign traders” in pointing out that this “is no doubt greatly confirmed by the knavery and deceit, which are sometimes practised upon their own people, by the merchants of Europe.” Bad experiences of the Chinese with English merchants who tried to sell them “gaudy watches” and “similar articles of indifferent workmanship” had been noted by John Barrow in his Travels in China. The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia also mentions the mutual contempt between English and Chinese merchants under the headings ‘Commercial tricks of the Chinese’ and ‘English tricks.’133 In describing the ‘national character’ of the Chinese, the Penny Cyclopaedia made use of the writings of Robert Morrison and stressed his eminent knowledge on China and his life-long efforts towards a better understanding of China and the Chinese. Writing for the Penny Cyclopaedia, John Francis Davis pointed out that it would be “unreasonable to infer the whole character of the nation from the unfavourable aspect in which it appears at Canton, a trading seaport, as to form an estimate from our national character in England from an experience equally limited and disadvantageous.”134 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that the higher officials at Guangzhou “have conceived a rooted prejudice against the British, which may not easily be removed.”135 One of the stereotypes usually mentioned in European descriptions of the Chinese referred to their skill in imitation. As early as in 1676, Navarrete wrote that the people of Guangdong province “have counterfeited several things so exactly that they sell them inland for goods brought from Europe.”136 The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana pointed out that “those nations which are least remarkable for original inventions” would succeed “most readily in arts which are merely imitative” and referred to European reports on the Poles and Russians “each of

133 134

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 301. Penny Cyclopaedia, vol. 7 (1837) 78 f. See also English Encyclopaedia 2 (1802)

494. 135 136

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 237. Quoted in Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe III/4, 1692.

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whom have a peculiar aptitude at seizing the accent and niceties of a foreign language.”137 The Penny Cyclopaedia provided a summary of positive and negative elements: The advantageous features of their character, as mildness, docility, industry, peaceableness, subordination and respect for the aged, are accompanied by the vices of insincerity and falsehood, with their consequences, mutual distrust and jealousy. Lyeing and deceit, being generally the refuge of the weak and timid, have always been held among us as disgraceful vices, while the Chinese at any time, do not attach the same degree of disgrace to deceit, and least of all when it is practised towards an European.138

In his presentation of China written for the Encyclopédie du dixneuvième siècle, Édouard Biot only mentioned positive characteristics of the ‘national’ or ‘moral’ character of the Chinese.139 In the early nineteenth-century at the latest, most other encyclopaedias provided overviews on good and bad features of the moral character of the Chinese. The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia highlighted these features as it placed the following subheadings in the margins of its presentation of ‘character and manners’ of the Chinese—mentioning mendacity, inhumanity, vindictive temper, licentiousness, sobriety, and vanity. At the end of the section on the character and manner of the Chinese, we read that these words only would describe the ‘prevailing character’ of the Chinese. According to the accounts given by the members of the British embassy of 1792/93 “there are not wanting (though in a smaller proportion than in other countries,) individuals possessed of real humanity, integrity, and disinterested minds.”140 In the Encyclopédie des gens du monde, in Pierer’s Universal-Lexikon, and in the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the alleged main features of the ‘national character’ of the Chinese were simply enumerated—the following table shows the notions chosen in the respective languages to present the ‘national character’ of the Chinese in selected French, German, and English encyclopaedias.141 137

Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 585. Penny Cyclopaedia, vol. 7 (1837) 79.—In dealing with the commerce of China, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 580 pointed out that: “The Chinese are rarely to be trusted where numbers are concerned; [. . .].” 139 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 457. 140 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 308 f. 141 Encyclopédie des gens du monde 5 (1835) 730; Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 420; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 587 f. (as may 138

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Encyclopédie des gens du Pierer, Universal– monde Lexikon, 2nd ed.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed.

froid rusé méfiant cupide – fourbe chicaneur – vindicatif – – –

kalt listig – – bestechlich betrügerisch – – rachsüchtig feig falsch wollüstig und unmäßig

– – piété filiale

unerträglich nationalstolz festhaltend am Alten –

respect pour la vieillesse sobre labourieux exact

– – fleißig geschickt

très affable

höflich

–

gehorsam

cold cunning distrustful covetous – [bribable, corrupt] deceitful dastardly quarrelsome vindictive timid – [treacherous] – [lustful and immoderate] – [inordinately proud of their nation] – [clinging to traditions] honouring his father and mother – [respect for the aged] sober industrious exactness and punctuality mild and affable manner obeying the commands of his superior

In 1834, the Damen-Conversations-Lexicon (General Dictionary for Women) pointed out, that in Europe the word ‘Chinese’ has got the meaning of ‘peculiar’, ‘strange’, ‘pedantic’ and ‘funny’ (“seltsam, sonderbar, pedantisch, komisch” in the German original).142 In this sense, the German writer and poet Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) had presented be seen from a note in the Encyclopédie des gens du monde 5 (1835) 719 the article on China has been published in the early 1830s). In the table above the English renderings for terms given in Pierer or in the Encyclopédie des gens du monde, but not in the Encyclopaedia Britannica are added in brackets and set in italics.—Similar lists also have been included in Brockhaus (8th ed., vol. 2 (1833) 607, ibid., 9th ed., vol. 3 (1843) 385) in Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon 3 (1847) 296 and in the Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 567 (new ed., vol. 9, col. 130). 142 Damen-Conversations-Lexicon, 1st ed. (1834), vol. 2, p. 361.

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his characterization of China and the Chinese in Die romantische Schule, a pamphlet on the developments in German literature from 1800 to 1830 (published in 1835). This text, including a severe critique of his compatriot and fellow writer Clemens Brentano (1778–1842), opens with a wide range of stereotypes usually ascribed to China and the Chinese.143 For England and France there exist similar approaches to widely spread stereotypes concerning China: With Life in China. The Porcelain Tower; or, Nine Stories of China (London 1841), Thomas Henry Sealy (1811–1848) published “a book purporting to provide more information on the country, but more likely intended as a great ‘send-up’ of the entire Chinese nation.”144 The French caricaturist and painter Honoré Daumier (1808–1879) published his ‘Album comique’ Voyage en Chine (Voyage in China) consisting of 32 lithographs.145 In dealing with a repertoire of stereotypes, encyclopaedias sometimes presented a comparison of the good and bad traits in the ‘national’ or ‘moral character’. After referring to the influence of “ceremonious constraint” exerted on the Chinese people, which makes it “unfair to look for sincerity, candour, or confidence,” the Encyclopaedia Edinensis had the following on this subject: But the moral qualities of this people are represented not to be of a negative description, but to exhibit many shades and degrees of positive wickedness. They are said to be at once proud and mean, grave, and frivolous, excessively refined, and grossly indelicate; they are accused of jealousy, hypocrisy, and falsehood; of bitter malice and vindictive tempers.146

Some years later, the Damen-Conversations-Lexicon made use of an interesting stylistic device that portrayed China as a country of contradictions in juxtaposing positive and negative elements of the supposed ‘national character’ of the Chinese. It contrasted the moral philosophy of the Chinese with their idolatry, their sense of honour with their

143 Heinrich Heine, Historisch-kritische Gesamtausgabe der Werke. Vol. 8,1, ed. Manfred Windfuhr (Hamburg: Hoffmann & Campe, 1979), 199. 144 James Hayes, “Canton Symposium. The World of the Old China Trade. The Locales and the People,” Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 43 (2003), 47.—For bibliographical details see Lust, Western Books on China, 293 (no. 1283). 145 This series of 32 lithographs was published in the French satirical magazine Le Charivari between December 1843 and June 1845. See “Series Details” and “Background Details” in the Daumier Register, DR 1189–1220 http://www.daumier-register .org/werkview.php?key=1189 (accessed: 29 April 2010). 146 Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 425.

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corporal punishments, and their tender love poems with the inferior position of women in Chinese society.147 Another of the stereotypes Europeans tended to assign to the Chinese concerned the supposed lack of hygiene. While the Encyclopaedia Edinensis labels the Chinese as ‘a frowsy race’,148 the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia has the following on the ‘general filthiness’ of the Chinese: They [i.e. the Chinese] are by no means a cleanly people, either in their persons or dress. They seldom change their under garments for the purpose of washing them; never employ the bath, either cold or warm; make no use of soap, and scarcely ever wash their bodies; and even the interior wrappers of the ladies feet are allowed to remain, as long as they will hold together.149

In Ersch/Gruber it was pointed out that the emperors and the nobles of the Chinese Empire were fond of the numerous warm springs. As the best travelogues would remain silent on the subject it may be supposed that the lower classes only very rarely would enjoy a bath.150 Quite usually, encyclopaedias combined various stereotypes that were perpetuated since the times of early modern European observers. For instance, the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana combined the common stereotypes of the ‘dirty’ Chinese on the one hand and of the alleged preference of the Chinese for food regarded as disgusting by Europeans: Want of sensiblity and cleanliness are among the most glaring defects of the Chinese. Their dress is seldom changed; their persons are more rarely washed; scraps of paper serve for pocket handkerchiefs, and dirty fingers are wiped on their dirty sleeves. At night they scarcely undress at all; their clothes therefore harbour innumerable tribes of vermin, which they pick off and crack between the teeth with the utmost sang-froid.151

These repeatedly presented enumerations of stereotypes worked to simplify European images of China. This can be seen best from the articles on ethnology published in Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon and in Krünitz’ encyclopaedia. Meyer presented widespread stereotypes relating to China and the Chinese in the light of China’s representation on the occasion of the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of

147

Damen-Conversations-Lexicon, 1st ed (1834), vol. 2, p. 361 f. Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 406. 149 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 308. 150 Ersch/Gruber I 7 (1821) 54 (s. v. ‘Bad’). 151 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, vol. 16 (1845) 572. See also Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 308; Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 552 (new ed., vol. 9, col. 122). 148

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All Nations (1851) held at London.152 In 1855, Krünitz’ encyclopaedia pointed out that subjection had led to a intellectual and moral degradation of the Chinese people—adding that the Chinese would be known everywhere as the “most deceitful and most wily people on earth.”153

152

Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon II 14 (1853) 161 (s. v. ‘Welt-Industrieausstellung’). Krünitz 227 (1855) 437 (s. v. ‘Völkerkunde’). For German precolonial discourses on China see George Steinmetz, “ ‘The Devil’s Handwriting’: Precolonial Discourse, Ethnographic Acuity, and Cross-Identification in German Colonialism,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 45, no. 1 (Jan. 2003), 73–77. 153

CHAPTER FOUR

GEOGRAPHY 4.1

Defining China: What’s in a Name?

In describing China, European observers had been well aware of the fact that the name they used for the country represents an exonym and thus originally had been unknown to the Chinese. Throughout our period of consideration, European encyclopaedias regularly listed Chinese names for the country described. They also added exonyms for China used by the other East Asian and Southeast Asian people.1 In the opening paragraph to its article on ‘China’, Rees’ Cyclopaedia gave a concise presentation of the name of the country: The word China is well known to the people whom we call Chinese; but the most learned among them never apply it to themselves or their country. They wish to be described as the people of Han, or of some other illustrious family, by the memory of whose actions they flatter their national pride; and their country they call Chum-cue [i.e. Zhongguo], or the central kingdom, representing it in their symbolical characters by a parallelogram exactly bisected; at other times they distinguish it by words that mean all that is valuable upon earth.2

Before the nineteenth century, when Zhongguo 中國—the expression referred to in the quotation above—emerged as the name for the country there existed numerous other expressions. During the Western Zhou 西周 (1045–771 BC), the term Zhongguo referred to all ‘inside the kingdom’ (guozhong 國中 in the sense of guonei 國内). Afterwards the term was used to refer to some of the feudal states in the middle and lower Huang He (Yellow River) region. In the Confucian classics the term Zhongguo represents a “concept to differentiate the Huaxia [華夏, literally ‘glorious and extensive’ [which] originally referred to a

1 See e.g. Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 585 (new ed. vol. 9, col. 142); Encyclopédie Catholique, vol. 7 (1844) 269. 2 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4O2r (s. v. ‘China’).—Italics according to the original.

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group of people living along the Yellow River] from the barbarians.”3 During the third and fourth centuries AD, the terms Zhongguo and Huaxia were abbreviated to Zhonghua 中華, an expression that soon came into general use.4 As we may see from Johann Jacob Hofmann’s Lexicon Universale, the denominations of China as Zhongguo (Middle Kingdom; translated by Hofmann as medium regnum) and Zhonghua (translated as medius hortus) were known to Europeans by the end of the seventeenth century.5 In 1743, Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon mentioned the terms Zhongguo, Zhonghua, Da Qing Guo 大清國 (Realm of the Great Qing), and also Taipingguo 太平國 (Realm of Great Peace)—a term that did not occur in any other of the encyclopaedias inspected.6 For one and a half century information on Chinese denominations for China had been derived from the writings of (mainly Jesuit) missionaries. English-language encyclopaedias usually only mentioned the term Zhongguo.7 In the Encyclopédie Nouvelle, Pauthier mentions the terms Zhongguo and Tianxia 天下, the latter rendering as ‘le Dessous du Ciel’ (i.e. ‘All under Heaven’).8 In the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, Édouard Biot (1803–1850) only introduced French translations for the denominations Zhongguo (‘royaume du milieu’, i.e. Middle Kingdom) and Zhonghua (‘fleur du milieu’, i.e. flower of the middle).9 Presumably due to the beginnings of serious scholarly studies of the Chinese language, this list was continuously enlarged. In 1841, the second edition of Pierer’s Universal-Lexikon presented eight different Chinese denominations for China (Zhongguo, Zhonghua, Da Qing Guo, Tianxia, Sihai 四海 (lit. ‘Four Seas’), Zhendan 震旦 (i.e. the abbreviated phonetical transcription for the Sanskrit ‘Cinasthana’, referring to the Qin dynasty, third century BC), Dongtu 東土 (lit. ‘Land in the East’), and Tianchao 天朝 (lit. ‘Celestial Dynasty’).10 Four years later,

3

Wilkinson, Chinese History, 132 (Box 2).—On these early concepts of Chineseness see Chen Zhi, “From Exclusive Xia to Inclusive Zhu-Xia: The Conceptualisation of Chinese Identity in Early China,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 3rd series, 14, no. 3 (Nov. 2004), 185–205. 4 Wilkinson, Chinese History, 132 (Box 2). 5 Johann Jacob Hofmann, Lexicon universale, 3rd ed. (1698), vol. 1, p. 834a. 6 Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1556. 7 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 206. 8 Encyclopédie Nouvelle 3 (1837) 524.—On the term tianxia see Cohen, Introduction to Research in Chinese Source Materials, 474. 9 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 452. 10 Pierer, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 420.

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Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon listed seven denominations offering a German translation of each of the Chinese terms—comparing the term tianxia to the orbis Romanus of Ancient Rome.11 Encyclopaedias eagerly presented and perpetuated early European views and speculations on the ‘true’ meaning of some these terms. Most of them commented on the term Zhongguo (‘Middle Kingdom’). In the English Encyclopaedia we read that the country “probably owes its name to a Chinese word, signifying middle, from a notion the natives had that their country lay in the middle of the world.”12 Concerning the names of China, Wilhelm Schott (1802–1889) referred to the works of Julius Klaproth. Apart from Asia polyglotta (1823), he also mentioned Klaproth’s article on the subject published in the tenth volume of the Journal Asiatique.13 Schott pointed out that the term Zhongguo is derived from the ‘old illusion’, that the earth is a quadrangular area surrounded by four seas. China, situated in the middle of this area, would be “the most splendid empire, the flower of all the others”.14 In the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, James Brewster also discussed the ancient imagination behind this Chinese concept: [. . .] they formerly imagined, that it was situated in the centre of the earth, and that all other countries lay scattered around their empire in the form of small islands. In later times, they have indeed, acquired a more correct geography; but so inveterately do they adhere to ancient opinions, and especially to whatever flatters their national vanity, that they still continue to express themselves in this erroneous manner, and to preserve unaltered every sentiment and expression of their great philosopher Confucius.15

Although Brewster admitted, that the Chinese had made some progress in their geographical knowledge, he linked the information on the name of the country to well-established European stereotypes and 11

Meyer, Conversations-Lexicon I 7,2 (1845) 231. English Encyclopaedia 2 (1802) 493. 13 [Julius] Klaproth, “Sur le nom de la Chine”, Nouveau Journal Asiatique 10 (1827), 53–61. For further nineteenth-century studies on this subject see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 357 f. 14 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 168 n. 7: “gründet sich auf den alten Wahn, daß unsere Erde eine viereckige, von vier Meeren umgebene Fläche sey, in deren Mitte das edelste Reich, die Blume aller übrigen, d. h. China, liege.” For a similar presentation see Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 231. On the term sihai (four seas) see above p. 144 and Wilkinson, Chinese History, 710. 15 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 206. 12

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prejudices referring not only to China as a static and unchanging society but also to the pride of the Chinese. Not only works of general reference implied that the Chinese were unique in regarding their country as central. Nothing could be further from the truth: the ancient Greeks, Romans, Indians, Japanese, Incas, Mayas, and Aztecs all saw their countries as the center of the world—but only the Chinese came to use the concept for the name.16

Encyclopaedias usually also referred to the medieval and early modern European denominations of China.17 Under its headword ‘Catay’, Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon pointed out that this term referred to the six northern provinces of China (i.e. Zhili, Shandong, Henan, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Shanxi), while the term ‘Mansi’ (sic) would have been applied to the other nine provinces of (Southern) China. In addition, Zedler notes that in earlier times Europeans thought that ‘Catay’ is a kingdom situated in ‘Great Tartary’. Only in the course of time Europeans discovered that all accounts of Cathay had described the six northern provinces of China and that the city of ‘Cambalu’ is that of Peking. References given in this article include Marco Polo, Bento de Goís Iornada al Cathay, Martini’s atlas of China, Andreas Müller’s Disquisitio geographica & historica de Chataja (Berlin 1671), and the Histoire du commerce et de la navigation des anciens (Paris 1716) published by the French scholar Pierre Daniel Huet (1630–1721).18 In its closing paragraph on ‘China’, the Penny Cyclopaedia points out that before the arrival of the Europeans China “was frequently divided into two or three states.”19 In its information on Confucius, it mentioned that when Confucius began his mission, there seem to have been as many independent kings in China as there were in England under the Saxon heptarchy. From the vast extent of the country, each of these states or kingdoms was probably as large as all England put together.20

16

Wilkinson, Chinese History, 132. For the presentation of the various names for China in seventeenth-century European first-hand accounts of the empire see Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe III/4, 1688. 18 Zedler 5 (1733) col. 1459/1460 (s. v. ‘Catay’). On Müller’s Disquisitio see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 29 f, for the dissemination of Goís’ report on his journey from India to China in early seventeenth-century Europe see the titles listed in ibid., col. 2072–2074. 19 Penny Cyclopaedia, vol. 7 (1837) 83 (s. v. ‘China’). 20 Penny Cyclopaedia, vol. 7 (1837) 445 (s. v. ‘Confucius’). 17

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The Penny Cyclopaedia linked the different names that had been used to denominate the northern and the southern parts of China to the repeated divisions of the Empire. The central Asiatic neighbours had called the northern parts of the empire Cathay.21 According to Zedler, the term Cathay had been used by Inner Asian Muslims and by the Tartars—according to Ersch/Gruber, the Mongols and Russians had adopted the term ‘Cathay’ for China in their respective languages, the inhabitants of India usually called the southern parts of the empire “Cin”.22 Relying on Klaproth’s publications on the subject, Schott wrote in Ersch/Gruber that the term ‘China’ may have been used for the first time by the people living east of the Ganges, possibly derived from one of the dynasties Qin 秦, Jin 晉, or Jin 金. Schott also mentioned the Persian, Turkish, Arabic and Aramaic renderings of this term.23 Contrary to the term ‘Cathay’, the term ‘Mangi’ is nowadays completely out of use. Under the headword ‘Mangi’, contributed by Jaucourt, the Encyclopédie points out, that this term had been applied to the southern parts of China in a like manner as ‘Cathay’ had been applied to the northern parts.24 In Zedler we read that ‘Mangi’ referred to continental Southeast Asia.25 European works on universal geography as well as encyclopaedias discussed the Manchu conquest of China. Rather soon it became quite common to distinguish between China proper (i.e. China until the end of the Ming) and the Chinese Empire (i.e., the incorporation of ‘Tartary’ as seventeenth- and eighteenth-century authors put it). Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon pointed out that this incorporation was quite important.26 Concerning the question of the incorporation of Manchu and Mongol territories Rees’ Cyclopaedia remained quite undecided: “though by transferring the seat of empire to Peking, and by adopting the Chinese language, manners and customs, Tartary seems rather to be incorporated with China, than the conqueror of it.”27 In referring to Khubilai Khan, Wilhelm Schott pointed out that all former foreign dynasties that ruled China also had adopted Chinese manners and 21 Penny Cyclopaedia, vol. 7 (1837) 83 (s. v. ‘China’).—Similar explanations of these two terms in Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 231. 22 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 168 n. 7. 23 Ibid. 24 Encyclopédie 10 (1765) 19. (s. v. ‘Mangi’). 25 Zedler 19 (1739) col. 952 (s. v. ‘Mangi’). 26 Ibid., 37 (1743) col. 1557 (s. v. ‘Sina’). 27 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, [fol. 4O3r] (s. v. ‘China’).

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customs. According to Schott, this refinement soon led to the decay of the Yuan.28 To explain the difference between “China” and “Chinese Empire” (and admitting that the comparison would be rather weak), the first edition of the Staats-Lexicon initiated by Rotteck and Welcker referred to European history: China had to be distinguished from the Chinese Empire in a like manner as mid-nineteenth-century Prussia has to be distinguished from the early Prussian kingdom.29 4.2

Extent, Boundaries and Political Geography

Extent and boundaries of China have been described by Europeans since their ‘rediscovery’ of the East Asian Empire in the sixteenth century. Although the Jesuits greatly had improved European knowledge on the geography of China, data on the territorial extent of China were ignored or remained rather vague for a long time. This was pointed out in the article on China in the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica: We can easily trace the boundaries and mark the extreme limits of these two great empires [i.e. China and Russia], by parallels of latitude and meridional lines of longitude; but when we come to reduce them to square miles, or speak of their contents in acres, the mind is bewildered by the magnitude of the numbers required to express them, and forms but an indistinct idea of their superficial extent.30

Therefore, the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica provided information on the boundaries of the Chinese Empire. Much more detailed data may be found in the Penny Cyclopaedia, which not only presented data based on Staunton’s account of the Macartney embassy (and referring to another source which remained unnamed) but also a comparison to the territorial extent of the British isles (“an area more than eleven times as large as that of the British isles”).31

28 29 30 31

Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 174 n. 58. Rotteck/Welcker, Staats-Lexicon, 1st ed., vol. 14 (1843) 521 (s. v. ‘Sina’). Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 548. Penny Cyclopaedia, vol. 7 (1837) 72.

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In Ersch/Gruber, Schott wrote that China would be at least six times larger than Germany. He added degrees of longitude and latitude to show the territorial extent.32 Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon presented four different data concerning the area of the Chinese Empire, ranging from 60,000 to 70,000 (German) square miles.33 In the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, Biot supplied additional information on the territorial extent of China: 2,100 kilometres from north to south and 2,400 kilometres from west to east. He added that— according to the map drawn by the missionaries at the beginning of the eighteenth century—China (Proper) comprises 3,3 million square kilometres being six times as large as France.34 Early modern European reports on the geography of China usually treated the physical geography of the country following the administrative division. Usually this description starts with a lengthy enumeration of neighbouring countries and adjacent areas, followed by a presentation of the physical and political geography of China. Encyclopaedias described the shape of China as defined by its borders as immense and almost circular.35 This definition, which can be found as early as in the Nouveaux mémoires published by Le Comte in 1696, remained in use until the early nineteenth century. At that time, the territorial expansion of Qing China that that taken place in the eighteenth century was taken into account in works of general knowledge. From then on, most entries of encyclopaedias analyzed for this study began to distinguish between the ancient and the then present extent of China and the Chinese Empire.36 In his introductory remarks on the subject written for the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, Biot pointed out that the territorial divisions of China have changed considerably in the course of time. Extent and name of the provinces had been modified in a very sensible way.37

32

Ersch/Gruber 21 (1830) 160. Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 231. 34 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 455. 35 Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1557, Encyclopédie nouvelle 3 (1841) 524 (‘une aire immense et presque circulaire’). 36 Encyclopédie nouvelle 3 (1841) 524: (‘Cette ancienne Chine [. . .] La Chine actuelle [. . .]’). 37 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 455. 33

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In presenting the administrative division of China, eighteenthand nineteenth-century Europeans had been less sensible. Like other works, encyclopaedias perpetuated information provided by midseventeenth century Jesuits. In his Novus Atlas Sinensis, Martini described the fifteen provinces of late Ming/early Qing China. When compiling his China . . . illustrata and writing on the fifteen provinces of China38 Kircher closely followed the description of Martini. Shortly before Kircher got the imprimatur for his quasi-encyclopaedic overview on European knowledge on China (1664), Qing authorities created new administrative units by dividing very large provinces. The province of Jiangnan was divided into Jiangsu and Anhui (1662) and the province of Huguang was divided into Hubei and Hunan. Due to the great success of the works of Martini and Kircher, the European ‘republic of letters’ largely remained unaware of these changes in the political geography of China. As a consequence, encyclopaedic dictionaries perpetuated the scheme of the fifteen provinces of China until the closing years of the eighteenth century. Thus, this presentation of the administrative division of China may be labelled as an example par excellence for the perpetuation of outdated information contained in encyclopaedias. Only occasionally eighteenthcentury European encyclopaedias mention more than fifteen provinces, most of them including the Liaodong 遼東 area (Southern Manchuria) among the provinces (only in the late nineteenth century, Inner Asia began to be organized into provinces; Manchuria and Mongolia followed in the early twentieth century),—the 1757 edition of Hübner even started its enumeration with Liaodong.39 Presumably following a similar source, the Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences mentions that China “is usually divided into sixteen provinces.”40 Within this perpetuation of outdated information the compilers of encyclopaedic dictionaries created varying schemes in the enumeration of the provinces of China. Beginning with Moréri and Hofmann, nearly all encyclopaedias inspected contain a list of the provinces. An exception of this was the New and Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (first ed. 1754, second ed. 1764). Under the headword ‘China’

38

Kircher, China . . . illustrata, 3. Johann Hübners Neu-vermehrtes und verbessertes Reales Staats- Zeitungs- und Conversations-Lexicon [. . .] (Regensburg/Vienna: Bader, 1757), 261 f. 40 Temple Henry Croker, The Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, vol. 1 (London 1764) fol. 5 Iv (s. v. ‘China’). 39

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we find no list of the provinces; it is mentioned, that the provinces of China will be presented in their appropriate place according to the alphabet.41 Encyclopaedias obviously followed different sources in enumerating the provinces of China. Only the compilers of the Dictionnaire de Trévoux (see the 1771 edition) as well as Carl Günther Ludovici in his economic dictionary presumably may have adopted the scheme of Martini’s atlas.42 Other patterns developed for the enumeration of provinces by eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias followed the geographical position of the provinces: Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon starts with Guangdong province and the other coastal provinces up to Zhili and continues with a counter-clockwise enumeration of the interior provinces of China starting with Shaanxi and ending with Henan.43 From the second to the sixth edition inclusively, the Encyclopaedia Britannica arranged the provinces clockwise starting with Shaanxi. In all these editions of the Britannica, Huguang Province is not rendered “Huquang”, as it had been common throughout eighteenth century geographical literature, but in the erroneous form of “Huquand”.44 European encyclopaedias perceived the changes in the administrative division of China introduced during the early years of the Kangxi reign (1662–1722) only with a considerable time lag. The replacement of the old order started during the last years of the eighteenth century. Based on the German translation of a Russian treatise on the Da Qing yitong zhi of 1764,45 the Allgemeines Geschicht- und Staaten-Wörterbuch

41 A New and Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences; Comprehending All The Branches of Useful Knowledge [. . .]. By a society of Gentlemen, vol. 1 (London: Printed for W. Owen, 1754), 567 f. (s. v. ‘China’). 42 Dictionnaire de Trévoux, 1771 ed., vol. 2, p. 543 f, Ludovici, Eröffnete Academie 2 (1753) 315. 43 Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1557. 44 See Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1907, English Encyclopaedia 2 (1802) 493. 45 “Kurze Beschreibung der Städte, Einwohner u. s. w. des Chinesischen Reichs, wie auch aller Reiche, Königreiche und Fürstenthümer, welche den Chinesern bekannt sind; aus der unter der Regierung des jetzigen Chans Kj’an’ Lun zu Pekin in Chinesischer Sprache gedruckten Chinesischen Reichs-Geographie ausgezogen von dem Herrn Secretair Leontiew. Aus dem Ruszischen des Herrn Secretairs Leontiew ins Deutsche übersetzt von M. Christian Heinrich Hase [. . .],” Magazin für die neue Historie und Geographie 14 (1780).

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mentioned the administrative division of China into eighteen provinces adding that a division into fifteen provinces is “not unusual”.46 The very slow process of updating information on the administrative division of China becomes evident from remarks in encyclopaedias published in the early nineteenth century: In presenting information on Huguang Province, the Cyclopaedia edited by Abraham Rees separately mentions the number of cities and towns for the northern and the southern parts of the province without introducing the names of Hubei and Hunan.47 The inconsistencies in the European perception of the administrative division of China are probably mirrored best in the Dictionnaire de la conversation et de la lecture where we read of fifteen as well as of eighteen provinces. Hunan, Guizhou and Gansu were omitted in the enumeration of the provinces.48 In 1845, about 180 years after Jiangnan and Huguang had been divided into two provinces each, Édouard Biot in the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle still spoke of “new divisions”.49 In other encyclopaedias we find similar strategies to justify the considerable time lag in the perception of China’s political geography.50 Following John Francis Davis’ presentation, the author of the entry on Zhili Province in the Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste pointed out, that at the time of Du Halde China still had been divided into fifteen provinces. The ‘new’ administrative division of China had been implemented after the publication of the Jesuit maps of the empire.51 Without any remarks on the changed political divisions of China, Brockhaus’ Conversations-Lexikon, Pierer’s Universal-Lexikon, and Meyer’s Großes Conversations-Lexikon gave lists of the eighteen provinces of China—Pierer (2nd ed.) and Brockhaus (8th ed.) numbered Liaodong as the nineteenth province of China. In its seventh edition (1827) Brockhaus still presented the fifteen provinces of China. The update in the eighth edition was based on information derived from 46 Allgemeines Geschicht- und Staatenwörterbuch (Vienna: Alberti 1794), vol. 1, p. 508 (s. v. ‘China’). 47 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 18, s. v. ‘Hou-quang’ and ibid, vol. 19, s. v. ‘Kiang-nan’. 48 Dictionnaire de la conversation et de la lecture 14 (1834) 114 (fifteen provinces) and 128 (eighteen provinces). 49 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 455 (s. v. ‘Chine’).—See also Encyclopédie Catholique 7 (1844) 275 (division territoriale nouvelle de la Chine). 50 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 17 (1850) 1079 (s. v. ‘Kiannan’) points out that Jiangnan ‘now’ is divided in Jiangsu (the eastern part) and Anhui (the western part). 51 Ersch/Gruber III 19 (1844) 399 n. 2 (s. v. ‘Petschili’).

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the works of Rémusat.52 In 1835, the Encyclopédie des gens du monde spoke of ‘18 or 19 provinces’, referring to a variety of sources, such as the Asiatic Journal and descriptions of China given by Schott (for Ersch/Gruber) and by Rémusat. While Schott gave the number of provinces as sixteen, Rémusat had spoken of nineteen provinces, presenting them with ‘somewhat different’ names.53 In its entry on the armies of the different nations, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon listed the provinces of China and referred to the meaning of each of their names.54 In mid-nineteenth-century, encyclopaedias contained information on the changing names of Chinese cities in the course of history. In referring to Biot’s Dictionnaire, the ninth edition of Brockhaus mentioned that due to these changes the historical geography of China seemed rather confusing.55 Eighteenth-century European scholars—and with them most of the works of general reference—freely applied to China various theories on climates that partly were the legacy of European antiquity and partly had originated in Renaissance times. Nineteenth-century encyclopaedias had a more sophisticated approach in pointing out that the climate of China varies considerably according to its extent and its surface. In the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica we read that due to the vast extent of the empire “it is impossible that either the climate or soil should be alike in all places.”56 According to the Encyclopédie nouvelle, the winters in Northern China would resemble those of Siberia while the summers in Southern China are like those in India.57 Encyclopaedias usually mentioned the fertility of the soil. According to the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, “all travellers agree in this respect, and make encomiums on the extent and beauty of its plains.”58

52 Brockhaus 7th ed., vol. 2 (1827) 621, ibid., 8th ed., vol. 2 (1833) 606, Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., 6 (1841) 420, Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 237. 53 Encyclopédie des gens du monde 5 (1835) 721 f. 54 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 4,1 (1843) 216 (s. v. ‘Armee’). 55 Brockhaus, 9th ed., vol. 3 (1843) 399 and ibid., 10th ed., vol. 4 (1852) 121. 56 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1917. See also English Encyclopaedia 2 (1802) 493. 57 Encyclopédie nouvelle 3 (1841) 526. 58 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 662.

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Natural Resources

Up to the mid-eighteenth century, European writers continued to describe China’s “wealth, products, crafts, and commerce in superlative terms, often repeating earlier descriptions”59 and to admire the domestic trade of the empire. In its presentation of the domestic trade of China, the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica oscillated between admiration and contempt: “No country in the world is better adapted, from situation, climate, and products, for extensive commerce, than China; yet no civilized country has profited less by these advantages.”60 In the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana we read that the “valuable productions of their soil, together with the many arts and manufactures successfully carried out by the Chinese” would “furnish materials for an extensive commerce.”61 Although reliable and/or exact data on the economic state and on the natural resources of China were not available to Europeans in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the presentation of information on this subject changed considerably. Apart from headwords like ‘porcelain’, ‘silk’ or ‘tea’, most eighteenth-century encyclopaedias usually presented information on the natural resources of China in articles dealing with the provinces and cities of China. Under the headword China, the various editions of Moréri’s Grand Dictionnaire historique referred to the natural resources under the heading “Richesses du pays” (i.e. wealth of the nation). Under its headword ‘Mines’, the Encyclopédie pointed out that China is rich in all kinds of metals and minerals but that it is prohibited by law to open gold or silver mines62—a fact that has been known among Europeans since early modern times.63 In the English Encyclopaedia we read that China produces “all metals and minerals that are known in the world.”64 The Encyclopaedia Edinensis has the following on the subject: The metallic ores and mineral productions of the Chinese mountains are various and valuable. Numerous veins of gold and silver have been discovered, but the working of them is discouraged from political con-

59 60 61 62 63 64

Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe III.4, 1691. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 580. Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 589. Encyclopédie 10 (1765) 529 (s. v. ‘Mines’). Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1560. English Encyclopaedia 2 (1802) 494.

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siderations. A good deal of gold, however, is collected from the sand of the mountain-streams. Mines of copper, iron, tin, lead, and other metals, are open and productive; and quarries of stone, marble and coal, are abundant in most of the mountain districts. A sonorous stone, called yu [ yu 玉, i.e. jade], of which musical instruments are made, is found in the bed of torrents; lapis lazuli, rubies, rock-crystal, &c. are also among the products of the Chinese mountains.65

The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia referred to the deposits of metallic ores and mineral productions of China in presenting information on different regions of the empire. It described the copper mines of Yunnan and Guizhou as “very productive.” Due to their abundance, iron, lead, and tin were sold “at a moderate price, in every quarter of the empire.” For Fujian Province, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia mentions marble quarries. It added that the Chinese “are said to be unacquainted with the best modes of working them.”66 In the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, Biot followed a similar pattern for his presentation: he mentioned the gold and silver mines of western and southern China; deposits of copper, tin and lead for Jiangxi Province, the rich mineral resources of every kind in Guizhou and Yunnan as well as the jade deposits of northern China.67 As Ulrich Johannes Schneider has shown for the entry on vanilla in Zedler, information on natural products inserted in eighteenth-century general encyclopaedias owed much to the then emerging economic dictionaries.68 The description of non-European natural products much depended on the importance of these products for European overseas trade and for the European market. As Japanese tea had not been an article of commerce for European traders, Zedler labelled it ‘uninteresting’.69 In its article on tea, published in 1844, Krünitz’ encyclopaedia not only noticed that Assam tea could endanger the Chinese monopoly in the future, but also pointed out that tea had become the most important commodity in the European trade with Asia.70

65

Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 397. Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 317. 67 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 455. 68 For an analysis of the entry on vanilla see Ulrich Johannes Schneider, “Die Konstruktion des Wissens in Zedlers ‘Universal-Lexicon’,” in Wissenssicherung, Wissensordnung und Wissensverarbeitung. Das europäische Modell der Enzyklopädien, ed. Theo Stammen and Wolfgang E. J. Weber, Colloquia Augustana 18 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2004), 94–101. 69 Zedler 43 (1745) col. 518 (s. v. ‘Thee’). 70 Krünitz 183 (1844) 8 (s. v. ‘Thee’). 66

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Eighteenth century discourse on the equality of European and Chinese natural products also became part of European general knowledge.71 Due to the vast quantities of tea consumed in eighteenth-century Europe, European scholars were concerned with the search for indigenous plants to substitute these imports. The extensive entry on tea in Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon contained a detailed account of European efforts in the search for substitutes and surrogates and listed about thirty plants German scholars had taken into consideration for serving this purpose.72 The fact that seventeenth-century accounts had described the tea plant as herb73 inspired European scholars to search for an equivalent for tea in European flora. In this search, the European ‘republic of letters’ mainly relied on eyewitnesses’ reports from East Asia74 and on correspondence with European residents in Southeast Asia, Japan, and China. After the scholar and physician Simon Paulli (1603–1680) had written that the tea plant might be equated with Myrthus Brabantica (also Rhus Sylvestris) the German physician Andreas Cleyer (1634– 1697/98) on service with the Dutch East India company in Batavia published an extensive refutation of Paulli’s theory.75 In 1694, Friedrich Hofmann (1660–1742), a Halle based professor of medicine, had advocated the use of speedwell (Veronica officinalis) as a surrogate for tea. His contemporary Johann Franck(e) (1648–1728) also shared this favourable opinion on the use of speedwell. Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon did not present Franck’s publication (together with bibliographic references on the subject) under the entry on tea but under the entry on veronica (as in almost every other eighteenth-

71 The dwindling purchasing power of the Europeans caused by the importation of luxury goods from Asia was repeatedly stated in encyclopaedias. See e.g. Zedler 28 (1741) col. 1681 (s. v. ‘Porzellan’). 72 Zedler 43 (1745) col. 527 f. (s. v. ‘Thee’). 73 See the remark in ibid., col. 502 (s. v. ‘Thee’). 74 The Amsterdam physician Nicolaes Tulp (1593–1674) provided an early synopsis of sixteenth- and seventeenth-European descriptions of the tea plant (Nicolaus Tulp, Observationes medicae (Amsterdam: Elsevir, 1672)). Zedler’s article on tea (43 (1745) col. 518) as well as the Penny Cyclopaedia 24 (1842) 284 (s. v. ‘Thea’) include a reference to Tulp’s book. 75 For a summary of this discussion see Zedler 43 (1745) col. 522–524 (s. v. ‘Thee’). On Pauli’s extensive treatment of the subject see Simon Paulli (Pauli), Commentarius De Abusu Tabaci Americanorum Veteri, et Herbae Theé Asiaticorum in Europa Novo (Argentoratum [i.e. Strasbourg]: Sumptibus Authoris Filij Simonis Paulli, 1665).

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century encyclopaedia).76 Franck’s pamphlet on the subject had been translated into French and even the Encyclopédie d’Yverdon mentioned Franck’s favourable description of veronica.77 The search for surrogates and substitutes reached its peak during the first quarter of the eighteenth century. As the authors of Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon put it, the scope of interest in this search mirrored the economic positions of the European powers. England and the Netherlands imported large quantities of tea. In an attempt to evade dependence on English and Dutch tea trade, the French and Germans had started searching for appropriate substitutes.78 Later encyclopaedias repeatedly reported on the rejection of veronica as an appropriate substitute for tea. The author of the entry on Veronica officinalis in the Deutsche Encyclopädie closed with the remark, that those who think to substitute Chinese tea by this herb never must have had the chance to taste or smell the East Asian original.79 Mid-nineteenth century encyclopaedias recapitulated the history of this search. In the Penny Cyclopaedia we read: Paullix, an old Danish botanist, endeavoured to prove that this plant was identical with the tea-plant of China, and it was once extensively used as a substitute for tea. It has an astringent bitter flavour, and is not so agreeable to the taste as tea. If however the consumption of tea depends on its containing chemical principles which it has in common with other plants, the analysis of the constituents of common European plants is perhaps an object worth the attention of the chemist.80

As late as in the early nineteenth century, encyclopaedias provided enumerations of natural resources from the animal, vegetable, and mineral realm respectively. Besides the mineral resources, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia discussed the ‘vegetable productions’ and the animals of the country in detail.81 Regarding the natural history of China, the Penny Cyclopaedia criticised a certain one-sidedness of the

76

Zedler 8 (1734) col. 433–436 (s. v. ‘Ehrenpreiß’). Lehner, “Le savoir de l’Europe sur la Chine”, 24–25 (including references to the writings of Hofmann and Franck(e)). 78 Zedler 43 (1745) 521 f. (s. v. ‘Thee’). 79 Deutsche Encyclopädie 7 (1783) 1045 (s. v. ‘Ehrenpreis’). 80 Penny Cyclopaedia 26 (1843) 271 (s. v. ‘V[eronica] officinalis’). For similar assessments see Krünitz 163 (1844) 2 f. (s. v. ‘Thee’); Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon II 11 (1851) 585 (s. v. ‘Thea’). 81 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 317 f. (‘Mineralogy’), ibid., pp. 319–324 (‘Vegetable productions’) and ibd, p. 324 f. (‘Animals’). 77

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subjects covered by Jesuit publications and regretted that they “lost an opportunity, which may perhaps never again occur”, as they missed the chance to investigate and describe the natural resources while they were preparing their “excellent map of the empire” during the Kangxi reign.82 Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon provided one of the most extensive enumerations of the natural products of China of all German-language encyclopaedias, giving separate lists for the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal kingdom and further distinguishing within these three realms. In classifying the mineral kingdom, it presented metals, fossils (solid as well as combustible), earths and salts; in presenting the vegetable kingdom, it distinguished between northern, central and southern China. The opening remarks to the presentation of the animal kingdom mentioning the fauna of Yunnan, Guangxi and Sichuan were followed by information on domestic animals, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, worms, octopuses, and mussels.83 In presenting the vegetable and the animal kingdom, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia also referred to the Chinese terms for most of the plants. Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon did not refer to the Chinese terms. At the end of the section on natural resources, it pointed out that these lists by no means can be complete, as observations had been very limited until the most recent past due to the restricted access to the country.84 4.4

China’s Position in the World

European attitudes and political strategies regarding non-European regions also found their way into works of general knowledge. Rees’ Cyclopaedia linked the supposed superiority of European arms to the vast extent of the Chinese Empire: The political importance and relations of China may be said to be concentrated within itself, as no example is known of alliance with any other state. It has been supposed, that one European ship would destroy the Chinese navy, and that 10,000 European troops might over-run the empire. Yet its very extent is an obstacle to foreign conquest, and, per-

82 83 84

Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 75. Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 235–237. Ibid., 237.

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haps, not less than 100,000 soldiers would be necessary to maintain the quiet subjugation of it: so that any foreign yoke must prove of very short continuance.85

German and English encyclopaedias vividly discussed the disadvantages Russia had to cope with due to the unsatisfying border regulations of the Treaty of Kiakhta (1727). While Krünitz had pointed out that Russia lost important deposits of iron ore, Rees stated that the Russians had no inland waterway to the Sea of Okhotsk.86 In referring to Xiamen 廈門 (Amoy), Rees’ Cyclopaedia pointed out that the East India Company “had once a factory there” and that “the port of Amoy has been described as one of the most convenient and safe harbours in India.”87 In the light of trade rivalries encyclopaedias commented on the reasons of the rise and fall of European colonial outposts in East and Southeast Asia. In this context, they did not consider the dynamics and changes in East Asian politics and economics. Quoting from French and English publications and referring to the city map of Macau published by Staunton, Rees’ Cyclopaedia pointed out that the position of the Portuguese in Macau was not very desirable as the colonial administration totally depended on the good will of Chinese authorities.88 In connection with the fur trade from the Nootka Sound (in today’s British Columbia) to China, Rees’ Cyclopaedia stated that the Chinese totally controlled their trade relations with foreigners and thus still had the power to set up the regulations for this trade.89 In its article on China, the Cyclopaedia showed some understanding for the position of the Qing Emperors concerning the question of foreign trade with the Europeans: “These emperors have wisely prevented the European nations, who have overthrown all the other eastern governments, from obtaining a footing in China.”90 Although Rees’ Cyclopaedia mentioned the failure of the Macartney embassy to the court of China, it pointed out the value of new findings

85

Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. [4P3r] (s. v. ‘China’). Krünitz 37 (1786) 218 (s. v. ‘Kjachta’), Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 1, s. v. ‘Amur’. 87 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 2, s. v. ‘Amoy’. 88 Ibid., vol. 21, s. v. ‘Macao’.—For a discussion of seventeenth-century European accounts of Macao see Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe III.4, 1697– 1700. 89 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 15, fol. 3Qv (s. v. ‘Furs’). 90 Ibid., vol. 7, [fol. 4O4v] (s. v. ‘China’). 86

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and observations made by the members of that embassy.91 In the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia as well as in the Encyclopaedia Edinensis we read of the complete failure of this embassy.92 Contrary to Rees’ Cyclopaedia, these presentations showed no understanding for the position of the Chinese: After enumerating various causes the failure of the embassy had been ascribed to, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that the “true reason is unquestionably of a more general nature” closely connected to the “proud, contemptuous, and suspicious” spirit of the Chinese people towards foreigners. It referred to the similar fate of the Dutch embassy of 1794/95 as a proof for the xenophobic attitude of the Chinese. Despite their preparations, the Dutch were “neither treated with so much respect as the English, nor were they, in the smallest degree, more successful in their object.”93 As we read in the Encyclopaedia Edinensis, the Dutch “failed in like manner” as the British. The embassy under the direction of William Pitt Lord Amherst (1773–1857), sent to Peking in 1815/16, “was still more unsuccessful than that conducted by Lord Macartney.”94 In the seventh edition of Brockhaus we read that neither the Russian embassy led by Jurij Aleksandrovič Golovkin (1763–1846) nor the second British embassy led by Lord Amherst had managed to influence the more than thousand-year-old policy of the court of Peking.95 Writing for Ersch/Gruber in 1830, Wilhelm Schott linked the future fall of the Qing and the necessary renaissance of the Chinese to the European advance into Asia. The ever-increasing power of the Russian Empire and the British possessions in India made it more likely, that the time of the Chinese Empire would soon be up.96 Europeans regarded the kowtow question (koutou 叩頭, from Song times onwards also known as ketou 磕頭) one of the major obstacles of regular intercourse with China. In Qing China people admitted to imperial audiences had to perform three kneelings and nine knockings of the head (sangui jiukou 三跪九叩). Beginning with the Mac-

91

Ibid., vol. 21, s. v. ‘Macartney, George Earl of ’. Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 236; Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 429. 93 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 236. 94 Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 429 and ibid., p. 430. 95 Brockhaus, 7th ed., vol. 2 (1827) 628; Neues Rheinisches Conversations-Lexicon 3 (1832) 345. 96 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 176. 92

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artney embassy, European diplomats repeatedly refused to perform the koutou.97 Heavily relying on Staunton’s account of the British embassy of 1792/93, the supplement to the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica referred to the kowtow question without introducing the Chinese term and placed the significance of this question in the context of the history of Sino-European relations. This presentation clearly shows how the contemporaries misunderstood the character of the reception of the embassy by the Qianlong Emperor: The Chinese court, which considers all other sovereigns as subordinate to their own, exacts from foreign ministers, as well as from natives of the empire, nine prostrations upon their first introduction to the emperor. This demand was made, in the last century, of the Dutch, who instantly complied with it in hopes of obtaining in return some lucrative advantages; and the consequence was, that their ambassador was treated with neglect, and dismissed without promise of the smallest favour. It was likewise made of a Russian ambassador in the present century; but he would not comply with it, until a regular agreement was made for its return, on a like occasion, to his own sovereign. Lord Macartney, who was repeatedly urged to go through the same object ceremony, displayed such firmness and address, that after much evasion it was at least announced to him, that his imperial majesty would be satisfied with the same form of respectful obedience that the English are in the habit of paying to their own sovereign; and upon these terms his lordship was introduced and graciously received.98

Several encyclopaedias explicitly mentioned the kowtow question. In between the ‘peculiar customs’ and the ‘moral character’ of the Chinese, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia presented information on this subject under the heading “ku-tou”: The description of this ceremony has been taken from the account of the Scottish physician John Bell (1691–1780), who went to China with the Russian embassy of 1719. The Encyclopaedia Edinensis described the kowtow as the “acme of Chinese ceremony” that is performed in “three prostrations to the ground, three times repeated.” The British embassies led by Lord Macartney and Lord Amherst had refused this ceremony “on the ground that, as

97 On the koutou (or ketou) see Wilkinson, Chinese History, 105–107. On the koutou question in Euro-American discourse see James L. Hevia, Cherishing Men From Afar. Qing Guest Ritual and the Macartney Embassy (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995), 232–237. 98 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., Supplement 1 (1801) 425 n. (A).

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it is understood by the Chinese themselves, it implies an act of worship, and a mark of inferiority, and even of vassalage.”99 According to Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon, the significance of the “Ko-teu” ceremony makes it obvious that the British refused to perform it. As a proof, it inserted a lengthy quotation from the writings of Rémusat without giving any reference.100 Meyer’s ConversationsLexikon added that the failure of the embassy of Lord Amherst was due not only to the kowtow question but also to the policy of the provincial authorities of Guangdong.101 At the beginning of its supplementary information on China, the Conversations-Lexikon pointed out that that country once again attracts the attention of the world: this strange world had gained its place in the deliberations of international politics.102 Even before the so-called ‘opening’ of China, European encyclopaedias presented attempts that tried to justify the European presence in East Asia from a moral point of view. The Encyclopédie Méthodique (in its section on political economy) pointed out that parts of the floating population in the Zhujiang (Pearl River) delta lived on the leftovers and leavings of European ships anchoring in this region.103 Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon presented a similar attempt of moral justification of the role of the Europeans in Asia: if the British had stopped their opium exports to China, Dutch and American traders immediately would have seized this trade. Moreover, opium had been considered the backbone of the British economy in India.104 The second edition of Pierer shows a more critical approach to the British dominance in the China trade: the tower that had been erected on the premises of the British factory in Guangzhou after the fire of 1822 allegedly should serve to install a clock; actually, it served to observe the neighbouring areas.105 In the same critical manner, the Encyclopédie nouvelle commented on English endeavours in the field of

99

Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 425. Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 298.—The paragraphs are chiefly a German translation of Jean Pierre Abel Rémusat, “Sur l’ambassade du lord Amherst, à la Chine, en 1816”, Mélanges Asiatiques, vol. 1 (Paris: Dondey-Dupré, 1825), 436 f. 101 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 298. 102 Ibid., S2 (1853) 953. 103 Encyclopédie Méthodique, Economie politique et diplomatique 4 (1788) 561 (s. v. ‘Travail’). 104 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 262. 105 Pierer, Universal-Lexikon 2nd ed., 6 (1841) 180 (s. v. ‘Canton’). 100

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Chinese studies. Walter Henry Medhurst (1796–1857) was referred to as “able sinologist and intelligence agent.”106 The ‘opening’ of China in the 1840s offered new opportunities. In his article on China written for the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, Biot critically assessed the new situation of international politics: “China would be rich pickings for the British who dream of taking possession of it.”107 Encyclopaedias broadly discussed not only the rise of the American trade with China but also the significance of the admission of California (1850) to the United States. In Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon we read that the Americans have benefited even from the Opium War as they provided their vessels not only for the English but also for the Chinese.108 Krünitz’ encyclopaedia argued that California would pave the way for new dimensions in world trade.109

106

Encyclopédie Nouvelle 7 (1843) 90 (s. v. ‘Orientalistes’). Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 472: “La Chine est une trop riche proie pour que les Anglais ne songent perpétuellement à s’en emparer [. . .]” 108 Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon 3 (1847) 298. 109 Krünitz 206 (1851) 179. 107

CHAPTER FIVE

POPULATION AND SOCIETY 5.1 Origin of the Chinese Discussing “the Chinese”, European encyclopaedias concentrated on five main features: the origin of the Chinese, the densely populated cities and towns of China (including data on the number of inhabitants of the Empire), the various ethnic groups mainly living in the peripheral regions of the Chinese empire, the main physiognomic characteristics of its inhabitants, and Chinese emigration to Southeast Asia. In 1845, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon presented a thorough overview of the various theories concerning the origins of the Chinese developed by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European scholars. Athanasius Kircher had shown similarities between India and China. Nicolas Fréret (1688–1749) and Joseph de Guignes had constructed an Egyptian origin of the Chinese.1 Jean Sylvain Bailly (1736–1793) and Sir William Jones had written that the Chinese originated from India.2 The entry on China inserted in the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica dealt extensively with the origin of the Chinese. After presenting an overview relating to “erroneous opinions concerning the origins of the Chinese” (dismissing all accounts of the Jesuits, of Fréret, de Guignes, and William Jones) the entry discusses the “probable origin” of the Chinese referring to de Pauw’s Recherches philosophiques (1773).3 Rees’ Cyclopaedia as well as Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon mentioned a theory introduced by the antiquary and classical scholar Jacob 1 Henri Cordier, “Origine des Chinois. Théories étrangères,” T’oung Pao 16 (1915), 575–603, Don Cameron Allen, “The Predecessors of Champollion,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 104, no. 5 (Oct. 1960), 527–547, especially ibid., 536–546. 2 Jean Sylvain Bailly, Lettres sur l’origine des sciences, et sur celle des peoples de l’Asie [. . .] (Paris: De Bure, 1777). William Jones, “The Seventh Anniversary Discourse. Delivered 25 February, 1790,” Asiatick Researches, vol. 2 (London: Sewell, 1801), 365–381. 3 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 548 f. (on ‘erroneous opinions’) and ibid., 549 f. (“probable origin”).

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Bryant (1717–1804) who, in A New System, or, An Analysis of Ancient Mythology (1775–1776), listed similarities between Chinese and Indians and presumed that the Chinese were of Egyptian, Roman, Greek or Indian origin.4 After mentioning the equation of Noah and Fuxi 伏羲, which had been ‘invented’ by the Jesuits, Meyer also presented the theory, that the Scythians must have been the ancestors of the Chinese, not only due to the adoration of the dragon.5 At least since the publication of Du Halde’s Description Europeans were well aware that there were various ethnic groups living in China.6 Concerning further details, the limits of knowledge of the ethnography of China become rather obvious throughout all eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European encyclopaedias examined. In some cases, information on ethnic groups in China was widely spread throughout an encyclopaedia, for example in the general encyclopaedia on arts and sciences initiated by Ersch and Gruber: Wilhelm Schott gave no list of ethnic groups in his article on ‘China’; he only mentioned the Miao as descendants of the ‘aborigines’ of China. In his article on ‘Peking’, Schott mentioned the ethnic diversity that may be seen when looking into the streets of the city from the top of the Beijing observatory.7 In dealing with the various ethnic groups of China, the Encyclopédie—mainly following Du Halde—introduced the geographical and historical background of these peoples: according to Chinese historians, the year 1227 marked the total ruin of the Xifan (l’époque de l’entière ruine des Si-fans) after long wars against the emperors of China. The Encyclopédie described the condition of this people as deteriorated as they have not even a single city (ils n’ont pas une seule ville).8 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia presented information on the Xifan, on the Yi (Lolo), on the Miao, and on the Jews as “those distinct and

4 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4O2v (s. v. ‘China’); Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 238. 5 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 239. 6 Jean Baptiste Du Halde, Description géographique, historique, politique et physique de l’Empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie Chinoise, 4 vols. (Paris: Le Mercier, 1735), vol. 1, pp. 41–60 (information on the Xifan, on the Tartars of the Kokonor region, on the Lolos, and on the Miao). 7 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 168 s. v. ‘China’, ibid., III 15 (1841) 83–87 (s. v. ‘Peking’, W. Schott). For similar remarks in Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon II 2 (1848) 1127 (s. v. ‘Peking’).—On the ethnic diversity see also Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 26, s. v. ‘Pe-king’. 8 Encyclopédie 15 (1765) 181 (s. v. ‘Si-fan’).—Du Halde, Description . . . de la Chine. vol. 1, pp. 41–53 (‘Des peuples nommez Si-Fan ou Tou Fan’).

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almost independent tribes, who reside within the limits of the Chinese empire”.9 Apart from Chinese, Manchu, Mongols, and Miao (‘SengMiao-tsee’ [sheng Miaozi] 生苗子), the Penny Cyclopaedia mentioned the Yi 彜 (‘Lolo’) and the Gelao 仡佬 (‘Tchang-Colas’). According to this entry, Miao and Gelao “differ in language and manner from the Chinese” and the “Lolos, or Lowas” were “only nominally dependent to the Chinese.”10 In the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana we read that the Yi “were not reduced to subjection to the Chinese till after a long series of bloody contests, this gallant defence of their independence secured to them, however, many privileges, which the jealousy of their conquerors makes them very unwilling to grant. They are more like feudal tenants than subjects of an absolute Prince, and seem superior in strength and character to the servile Chinese.”11 Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon listed ten different ethnic groups living in China. Apart from Han Chinese, Manchu, and Mongols there were mentioned Turks (‘Türken’), Tibetans (as ‘Fan’ or Tanguts (‘Tanguten’)), Qiang 羌 (‘Zsian’), Miao 苗, Yao 瑤, Li 黎, and Yi 彜 (‘Lolo’). Information on the Yi (Lolo) and the Miao also was given under separate headwords.12 Several German-language encyclopaedias referred to the Yupi dazi 魚皮韃子 (i.e. fish skin tartars, nowadays known as Nanaï or Hezhe 赫哲): Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon and the Encyclopédie even under a separate headword, Krünitz in its general article on fish, and Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon in the entry on Manchuria.13 Information on other ethnic groups was given under geographical headwords. Meyer referred to the Li of Hainan and to the aboriginal people of Taiwan under respective headwords.14

9

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 215 f. Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 80. 11 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 555. 12 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 237 f., ibid., I 19,2 (1851) 802 (s. v. ‘Lolo’), and ibid., I 21 (1852) 557 (s. v. ‘Miaothe’). See also ibid. I 17 (1850) 132 (s. v. ‘Juden’).—The Encyclopédie Catholique 7 (1844) 277 also listed ten different ethnic groups for China. 13 Zedler 60 (1749) col. 962 f. (s. v. ‘Yupi’); Encyclopédie 17 (1765) 679 (s. v. ‘Yupi’); Krünitz 13 (1778) 538 (s. v. ‘Fisch’); Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 20 (1851) 480 (s. v. ‘Mandschurei’).—For Chinese sources on the Yupi see Wolfram Eberhard, Kultur und Siedlung der Randvölker Chinas, T’oung Pao. Supplément au Vol. XXXVI (Leiden: Brill, 1942; reprint, 1979), 27. 14 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 10 (1847) 741 (s. v. ‘Formosa’); I 14 (1849) 741 (s. v. ‘Hainan’). 10

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Édouard Biot had presented a similar list, including Jews and Lolo but interestingly omitting the Mongols. In the Encyclopédie du dixneuvième siècle, Biot also mentioned the Yao or Muyao and explained these ‘ignominious names’ as ‘servants’ (serviteurs) and ‘bad servants’ (mauvais serviteurs).15 Brockhaus mentioned the latter, too, and described them as “partially semi-savage” (zum Theil halb wild).16 As early as in 1743, Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon presented information on the tusi 土司 system17 (Tonsons)—a ‘special kind of princes’ (eine gantz besondere Art von Fürsten) in the southern provinces of China. Although these people spoke Chinese, they also had retained their native tongue, which was not understood by the ‘other Chinese’; moreover, they would be braver than the Chinese.18 Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon linked the ethnic diversity of China to the territorial acquisitions following the establishment of Qing rule. While the reigning dynasty had nothing to fear from the wellcontrolled Europeans, they would have to be cautious against possible uprisings in the interior caused by unsatisfied Mongol princes. Any uprising may result in the dissolution of the Chinese empire.19 Further information on the various ethnic groups inhabiting the Chinese Empire was arranged under the respective headwords. In presenting this information, encyclopaedias continued the process of disseminating newly coined European denominations for newly described regions and their inhabitants based on European accounts of the Chinese Empire and of adjacent regions. Until the early nineteenth century, the areas today known as Mongolia and Manchuria as well as the vast regions of Central and Inner Asia usually were referred to as ‘Tartary’. In attempts to distinguish portions of this vast area Europeans coined terms like ‘Eastern

15

Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 457 (s. v. ‘Chine’). Brockhaus, 8th ed., vol. 2 (1833) 607 (‘China’), ibid., 9th ed., vol. 3 (1843) 385. These Muyao (?) also are mentioned in Pierer, Universal-Lexikon 2nd ed. 6 (1841) 421 as well as in Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon 3 (1847) 295. 17 For recent scholarship on the tusi offices see John E. Herman, “The Cant of Conquest. Tusi Offices and China’s Political Incorporation of the Southwest Frontier,” in Empire at the Margins. Culture, Ethnicity, and Frontier in Early Modern China, ed. Pamela Kyle Crossley, Helen F. Siu, and Donald S. Sutton (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2006), 135–168; for a definition of tusi ibid., 136 f. as well as Hucker, Dictionary of Official Titles, 78 (Ming dynasty), ibid., 90 (Qing dynasty) and ibid., 547 (no. 7355; s. v. t’ŭ-ssū’). 18 Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1559. 19 Ibid., col. 1574. 16

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Tartary’, ‘Western Tartary’, ‘Chinese Tartary’ and ‘Independent Tartary’.20 These attempts are mirrored in the entries of eighteenth and early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias. Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon referred to Great Tartary as well as to Eastern Tartary.21 In Krünitz, the entry on Tartary mentioned a great number of nomadic people living in Europe as well as in Asia.22 Under the headword ‘Tatarei’, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon pointed out that this denomination had been dismissed by geographers.23 In the early nineteenth-century, the term Manchuria had been introduced into the European languages. The 1814 edition of Hübner’s Lexikon and the article on Asia inserted in Ersch/Gruber (published in 1821) refer to “Mantschurey” and “Mantschurei” respectively.24 Therefore, the term must have been in use well before this time and long before the sinologist Johann Heinrich Plath (1802–1874) used it for the title of his 1830 history of China, which Elliott has referred to as a “very early use”.25 About the same time, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that “Mongolia and Mandschuria [sic]” are situated in the northern parts of ‘Chinese Tartary’.26 In mid-nineteenth century, the Penny Cyclopaedia as well as Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon used the term as headword.27 In 1845, Biot used the French rendering (Mantchourie) in his article on China for the Encyclopédie du dixneuvième siecle.28 In the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, information on the ethnocentric world-view of Chinese culture was presented in a paragraph on the “extreme pride of the Chinese”. The achievements of Chinese civilization

20 Mark C. Elliott, “The Limits of Tartary: Manchuria in Imperial and National Geographies,” Journal of Asian Studies 59, no. 3 (2000), 625–626.—For an analysis of eighteenth-century European discourses on Tartary see Osterhammel, Entzauberung, 246–255. 21 Zedler 42 (1744) col. 32–48. 22 Krünitz 180 (1842) 238–268 (s. v. ‘Tartarey’). 23 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon II 11 (1851) 185–187 (s. v. ‘Tatarei’), especially, ibid., 186. 24 Hübner, 1814 edition, vol. 2, p. 60; Ersch/Gruber I 6 (1821) 81 (s. v. ‘Asien’, S. F. G. Wahl). 25 Elliott, “The Limits of Tartary,” 628. 26 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 18, p. 531 (s. v. ‘Tartary’). 27 Penny Cyclopaedia 14 (1839) 378 f. (s. v. ‘Mandshooria’); Meyer, ConversationsLexikon, I 20 (1851) 477–483 (s. v. ‘Mandschurei’). 28 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 463.

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chapter five appeared to them so considerable, that they looked upon themselves as the only favourites of heaven, and the rest of mankind as barbarians, whom they represented as monsters, dwarfs, and contemptible creatures.

As the entry further states, the Chinese thought that their country is situated in the centre of the earth and that they are “the only people who had a human shape or form.”29 Krünitz mentioned Chinese maps as an example for their national pride.30 The self-image of the Chinese as superior to other people also became clear from their pictorial representations of the world: All the other kingdoms or nations, the number of which they imagined might be 72, were scattered about in small islands, the biggest of which, according to their maps, was not so large as the least of the Chinese provinces.

As all beings living in distant lands, the inhabitants of the neighbouring regions of Tartary, Japan, Korea and Tongking were looked upon by the Chinese as ‘barbarians’—“considerably improved by their vicinity to China”.31 Once the Encyclopédie had stressed the ignorance of the Chinese in geography,32 this European misconception began to prevail in works of general reference. The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia perpetuated this view of the weak geographical knowledge of the Chinese: Their knowledge of geography is equally defective; and they consider the earth as a plain square surface, of which their country occupies the central part. Even their plans and charts of their own empire were utterly rude and incorrect sketches, without either rule or proportion, till they were provided by the indefatigable labours of the Jesuits with their present accurate maps and surveys.33

Early nineteenth-century scholars only rarely refuted these views of the geographical knowledge of the Chinese. Writing for the Encyclopédie Moderne, Eyriès dismissed early modern European critique of the geographical knowledge of the Chinese. He pointed out that due to information given by a badly instructed missionary it has long been

29

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1917. Krünitz 40 (1787) 473 f. 31 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1917. 32 Encyclopédie, Supplément 1 (1776) 344 (s. v. ‘Amérique’). 33 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 282.—For a similar assessment see Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 576. 30

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repeated by Europeans that the Chinese would not even know neither the regions in the north of the Great Wall nor the deserts on the borders of their empire. From Chinese books, Europeans could learn, that the Chinese were well informed on the regions of Central and Southern Asia. In the course of their conquests, the Chinese would have attained much knowledge even on the Caspian Sea and on the Caucasus.34 Encyclopaedias and general dictionaries eagerly perpetuated early modern European reports on the Chinese world order. 35 Some of the Sinocentric elements soon were replaced by the desire to present the early modern European advent in East Asia as a major challenge for the traditional Chinese world order: It was therefore no small matter of wonder to them, when, upon their becoming acquainted with the Europeans, they found them not only as polite and rational as themselves, but far superior to them in all kinds of learning.36

Encyclopaedias mentioned a Chinese proverb that obviously originated as a consequence of their experiences with Europeans. This proverb said, that the Chinese had two eyes, the Europeans one, and the rest of the world none at all.37 In 1837, the Penny Cyclopaedia portrayed Chinese attitudes towards foreigners by referring to a Chinese saying: “to rule barbarians like beasts, and not like native subjects.”38 While Europeans were well aware, that the Chinese labelled all nonChinese ‘barbarians’,39 they themselves used the notion ‘barbarian’ in 34

Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 560 (new ed., vol. 9, col. 125). For a critical assessment of recent scholarship on this subject see Chin-keong Ng, “Information and knowledge: Qing China’s perceptions of the world in the eighteenth century,” in The East Asian Maritime World 1400–1800. Its Fabrics of Power and Dynamics of Exchanges, ed. Angela Schottenhammer, East Asian Maritime History 4 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007), 87–98; on eighteenth-century Chinese perceptions of Europeans see ibid., 92–94. See also John King Fairbank, ed., The Chinese World Order. Traditional China’s Foreign Relations (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968). 36 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1917. 37 See for example Zedler 21 (1739) col. 1512 (s. v. ‘Moral-Philosophie (Sinesische)’): “Die Sineser, welche sich ein Auge mehr als die Europäer zu haben einbilden [. . .]“; Ludovici, Eröffnete Akademie der Kaufleute, vol. 2 (Leipzig: Breitkopf, 1753) col. 318 (s. v. ‘China’), Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1917. 38 Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 79, Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 282. 39 On the notion of ‘barbarian’ and its role in early nineteenth-century SinoEuropean relations see Lydia H. Liu, The Clash of Empires. The Invention of China in 35

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relation to China. For a deeper understanding of the latter practice, we have to keep in mind the various strands of discourse on ‘barbarians’ in eighteenth-century Europe.40 In presenting the geographical and ethnic situation of the peripheral regions of the Chinese Empire in Inner Asia and Northeast Asia, Europeans highly depended on Chinese sources. In their early reports on these regions European observers tended to adopt (partially) the views of Chinese literati and thus they transmitted the sinocentric views on these areas that were perpetuated at the court of Beijing.41 As they fitted well into the ethnocentric scheme Europeans had developed for the description of non-European people, adoptions of Chinese views on other ethnic groups within their political influence were transmitted to Europe mainly by Jesuit missionaries.42 This kind of adoption and adaptation also may be seen in eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century encyclopaedias. For information on the Miao, Rees’ Cyclopaedia relied on Grosier’s description of China. After mentioning the Qing military campaigns against the Miao it pointed out that the missionaries had found the Miao an active, laborious and obliging people.43 Under the headword ‘Mongols’, Rees’ Cyclopaedia listed pejorative exonyms used by Chinese to denominate these peoples, for example ‘stinking Tartars’.44 The vast number of inhabitants of China as well as the densely populated cities and towns throughout the empire had attracted the attention of most of the early European observers. Many different data concerning the total number of inhabitants of China were circulating in eighteenth-century Europe. In its second edition (1778), the Encyclopaedia Britannica presented a paragraph on ‘incredible numbers of population’. Due to the lack of reliable data this edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica referred to the density of the population in perpetuating the presentation of early modern travelogues.

Modern World Making (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004), 31–69. 40 On eighteenth-century European discourses on ‘barbarians’ see Osterhammel, Entzauberung, 242–246. 41 For pejorative terms used by the Chinese for non-Chinese ethnic groups see Wilkinson, Chinese History, 725–727. 42 Examples for such adaptations are given by Osterhammel, Entzauberung, 236 and ibid., 444 n. 6. 43 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 23, s. v. ‘Miao-tse’ mountaineers’. 44 Ibid., s. v. ‘Mongols, Monguls, or Moguls’.

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In most of the provinces, the cities, towns, and villages, are so thick crowded upon one another, that the whole seems to be almost a continued town. All of them swarm with inhabitants, every one employed in some manufacture, traffic, or work. Their roads are crowded with passengers night and day, with coaches, carriages, wagons, and sometimes whole caravans; [. . .].45

Recent estimates concerning the number of inhabitants of China for the year 1800 range from 322 to 350 million.46 In his article on China published in the section on geography of the Encyclopédie Méthodique, Nicolas Masson de Morvilliers (1740–1789) pointed out that some writers give the population of China as 200 and others as 100 million.47 Based on the accounts of the British embassy to China (that had spoken of 333 million inhabitants) as well as on the travelogue of de Guignes, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia tried to shed new light on this debate.48 In the Encyclopédie Moderne, Eyriès refuted the data given by the British embassy of 1793 as exaggerated and referred to the researches by Klaproth who has written of 150 million inhabitants.49 Encyclopaedias usually referred to the vivid discussion among Europeans on that subject. Rees’ Cyclopaedia mentioned this topic as of “considerable debate” among Europeans.50 According to the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, the whole subject had led to ‘much calculation’ and ‘keen dispute’. These disputes were caused by the fact, that the statements of the French Jesuit missionaries refer to so many different periods, are founded so much upon conjectural computations, and are attended with so many irreconcileable discrepancies, that it is impossible to frame a consistent view of the matter from the varying data, which they severally furnish.51

The Penny Cyclopaedia stated that the population of China “has naturally been a subject of investigation with those persons who had the

45

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1918 (s. v. ‘China’). James Lee, Cameron Campbell, and Wang Feng, “Positive Check or Chinese Checks?”, Journal of Asian Studies 61, no. 2 (May 2002), 591–607, especially ibid., 600. 47 Encyclopédie Méthodique, Géographie, vol. 1, p. 428 (s. v. ‘Chine’). 48 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, pp. 293–296. 49 Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 549 (new ed., vol. 9, col. 119–120). 50 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’. 51 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 292 f.—For similar remarks on this subject see Encyclopédie des gens du monde 5 (1835) 721. 46

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best opportunities of pushing the enquiry with success.”52 The Encyclopaedia Edinensis contains an overview of the discussion on the subject by late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century European travellers and scholars. Apart from the travelogues of de Guignes, Barrow, and Henry Ellis (1777–1855) it refers to Malthus’ “chapter of his celebrated work on population which treats of the checks to population in China.”53 According to the Penny Cyclopaedia, a “number of natural, social, and political causes no doubt combine to explain the very dense population which the country unquestionably contains.”54 5.2

Chinese Society

We should analyze the presentation of Chinese society in eighteenthand early nineteenth-century European encyclopaedias in the context of the intellectual and social history of Europe during that period. Entries dealing with Chinese society reveal many explicit as well as many implicit comparisons to the state of European societies. Dramatically changed by the ideas of enlightenment and by the early stages of industrial revolution, European observers began to criticise the structures of Chinese society.55 Encyclopaedias disposed information on Chinese society usually under headings like “characters and manners.”56 The philosophes of Enlightenment Europe had expressed their admiration for certain aspects of Chinese society. One of these aspects concerned the well-established meritocracy57 and thus the lack of any kind of nobility in the strict sense of the word.58 The Encyclopédie mentioned that in China only the learned (gens de lettres) were regarded as nobles and that this kind of nobility was by no means hereditary. So, even the sons of the most eminent civil officers would remain among the masses (reste dans la foule) without

52

Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 77. Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 402. 54 Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 77. 55 On eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century European views on Chinese society see Osterhammel, Entzauberung, 325–330. 56 See Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, pp. 307–316. 57 For seventeenth-century European perceptions of the lack of hereditary nobility in China see Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe. III/4, 1704. See also Bai, Les voyageurs français, 133–139. 58 Robinet 11 (1779) 639. 53

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achieving any personal merit.59 The fact that a higher social position would be attained by personal merit (une récompense personelle) and contrary to Europe did not depend on hereditary nobility was widely acclaimed by early modern European authors.60 Almost all eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias pointed out that only the members of the imperial family and the male descendants of Confucius would enjoy privileges that might be compared to those of European nobility.61 In their information on Chinese society encyclopaedias also presented different classes in which “the great body of subjects” has been divided. Most encyclopaedias enumerated seven different classes of subjects: the mandarins, the military, the literati, the bonzes, the peasants, the artisans, and the merchants.62 In Ersch/Gruber, Wilhelm Schott gave a concise description of the different ‘classes of inhabitants’ (Klassen der Bewohner). Schott mentioned the changing fates of Buddhist and Daoist monks and arranged information on the different classes as follows: peasants, merchants, tradesmen, and last but not least the nobles (as he labelled the mandarins). Schott omitted information on the artisans and the military. 63 On the one hand, eighteenth century European encyclopaedias held up China as an example referring to the various precautions taken by the authorities to prevent the well-known dangers of gambling.64 They mentioned on the other hand, that the Chinese were fond of gambling,65 a strand of discourse that was perpetuated also in nineteenth-century works of general knowledge.66 Europeans reported that the Chinese either were playing cards or—especially among the lower classes—a game of ‘guess-fingers’ known to the Chinese by the name of caimei 猜枚 (also known as caiquan 猜拳) and usually compared to the Italian

59

Encyclopédie 11 (1765) 174 (s. v. ‘Noblesse Littéraire’). Robinet 11 (1779) 643 (s. v. ‘Chine’). See also Encyclopédie 10 (1765) 12: “Le mandarinat n’est pas héréditaire, & l’on y éleve que des gens habiles.” 61 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 460; Encyclopédie moderne 6 (1825) 569 (new ed., vol. 9, col. 131); Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 272. 62 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 244; Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, vol. 16 (1845) 560; Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 272 f.; Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 569 (new ed., vol. 9, col. 131). 63 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 165. 64 Jeroom Vercruysse, “Le jeu au dix-huitième siècle: l’ambivalence morale des encyclopédies et des dictionnaires,” Lias. Sources and Documents relating to the early modern history of ideas 24, no. 2 (1997), 271–93, especially 281 f. 65 Encyclopédie 8 (1765) 884. 66 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 314. 60

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morra. According to his Travels in China, John Barrow had “particularly noticed” this game “on account of the extraordinary coincidence between it and a game in use among the Romans, to which frequent allusion is made by Cicero.” Barrow referred to a commentary of the German humanist Philipp Melanchthon (1497–1560) on Cicero’s Offices.67 In remaining close to Barrow’s Travels, the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana mentioned that such a game was known to the ancient Romans.68 Encyclopaedias repeatedly described the Chinese form of chess. Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon pointed out that the game of chess was quite common throughout the Orient, among the Turks, Persians, and Chinese. However, the Chinese version of the game might not be the same as among other peoples of Asia.69 Decades later, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that “the number of pieces are the same as what are used in Europe, but both the names and moves are considerably different.”70 Krünitz’ encyclopaedia mentions that the Chinese call it the “elephant game” (i.e. xiangqi 象棋).71 Apart from the description of the above-mentioned games, European accounts of China and encyclopaedias as well usually mentioned the lack of any entertainment among the Chinese. In the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica we read that tea-houses and cook-shops are occasionally resorted by inferior officers of state and by the lower classes as well but that “there are no promiscuous assemblies or fixed meetings, as fairs for the lower classes, or routes, balls, or music parties for the higher ranks.”72 The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana referred to the social function of gambling: “Games of chance are almost the only objects that bring them together.”73

67 Barrow, Travels in China, 157 f. For a description of this game see ibid., 157: “Two persons, sitting directly opposite to each other, raise their hands at the same moment, when each calls out the number he guesses to be the sum of the fingers expanded by himself and his adversary. [. . .] The middling class of people likewise play at this game when they give entertainments where wine is served, and the loser is always obliged to drink off a cup of wine.” 68 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 575. 69 Zedler 34 (1742) col. 685 (s. v. ‘Schachspiel’). See also Krünitz 138 (1824) 227 (s. v. ‘Schach’). Zedler merely referred to Thomas Hyde’s history of chess, without providing exact bibliographic data (see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 1460). 70 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 315. 71 Krünitz 138 (1824) 225 (s. v. ‘Schach’). 72 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 586. 73 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 574.

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The role of women in society formed an integral part of early modern European travelogues and descriptions of China.74 Mainly from these sources eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century works of general reference took their information on the subject. While eighteenth-century encyclopaedias placed information on women under a variety of headwords,75 the majority of nineteenthcentury encyclopaedias tended to provide compact information under the headword ‘China’. In addition, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon disposed information on women in China also under headwords like ‘costumes’ and ‘woman’.76 Krünitz’ encyclopaedia placed information on women in China under the headword ‘slavery’.77 The Encyclopédie Catholique offered information on women in the context of marriage and described the status of married women as ‘very sad’.78 Like many of their sources, encyclopaedias provided ample information on the marriages of the Chinese.79 Encyclopaedias characterized the role of women in society either as “forced seclusion”80 or as “careful seclusion” and spoke of “female

74 For information on women in China as presented in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth century French accounts see Bai, Les voyageurs français, 274–296 and 317–320. On eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century European descriptions of Chinese women see Osterhammel, Entzauberung, 360 f. See also Folker Reichert, “Pulchritudo mulierum est parvos habere pedes. Ein Beitrag zur Begegnung Europas mit der chinesischen Welt,” Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 71 (1989), 297–307.—For information on women contained in leishu (Chinese ‘encyclopaedias’) see Harriet T. Zurndorfer, “Women in the Epistemological Strategy of Chinese Encyclopaedia. Preliminary Observations from some Sung, Ming and Ch’ing Works,” in Chinese Women in the Imperial Past. New Perspectives, ed. Harriet T. Zurndorfer, Sinica Leidensia 44 (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 354–395. 75 Zedler is perhaps the best example for this scattered presentation of information on women in China: see 27 (1741) col. 1632 (s. v. ‘Pflug’), ibid. 41 (1744) col. 1529 f. (s. v. ‘Takia’). 76 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon, II 12 (1853) 53 (s. v. ‘Trachten’); ibid., II 14,1 (1852) 1212 (s. v. ‘Weib’). 77 Krünitz 154 (1831) 590 and ibid. 739 (s. v. ‘Sklaverey’).—See also Brockhaus, 7th ed., vol. 2 (1827) 625. 78 Encyclopédie Catholique 7 (1844) 409. 79 English encyclopaedias referred to the marriages of the Chinese in their entries on ‘China’ under the heading ‘Characters and Manners’; see e.g. Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 310; various German encyclopaedias offered information on the marriages of the Chinese under the headword ‘marriage’; see e. g. Krünitz 23 (1781) 357–363 (s. v. ‘Heurath’); Ersch/Gruber II 9 (1832) 179 (s. v. ‘Hochzeit und Hochzeitsgebräuche’); Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 15 (1850) 303 (s. v. ‘Heirath, Ehe’). 80 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 164 (s. v. ‘China’), in the German original ‘gezwungene Eingezogenheit’.

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degradation”81 as well as of “the little value set upon females.”82 In the Deutsche Encyclopädie, Johann Georg Purmann pointed out that the status of Chinese women was by far worse than that of European women.83 Half a century later, the eighth edition of Brockhaus informed the users, that in China the female sex was very subordinate, but less restricted than in other parts of Asia.84 The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana linked the role of women to the level of development of civilisation: It has been frequently remarked that in proportion as civilisation advances, the respect and attention paid to the weaker sex are increased; but if the progress of this nation is measured by that standard, they [i.e. the Chinese] will sink very low in the scale.85

Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon argued in a similar way and pointed out that by the despotic governments of China as well as of Asia in general women are seen as a mere commodity.86 Encyclopaedias mentioned that prostitution was quite common in the cities of China.87 Encyclopaedias also stressed the differences between women of the upper, middle, and lower classes. The Encyclopaedia Edinensis pointed out that while upper-class women live in “idleness and apathy” middle- and lower-class women were exempt from these restrictions. In the countryside, they took part “in the most laborious operations of husbandry”, in the cities and towns they were employed in spinning, weaving, and embroidering.88 The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana distinguished the state of higher- and lower-class women in a similar way: women of the lower classes are allowed “to appear in public without restraint” but they had to do all hard labour: “[. . .] and the wife drags the plough, while the husband sows the seed.”89 Rees’ Cyclopaedia

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Encyclopaedia Edinensis 2 (1827) 408. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 587. 83 Deutsche Encyclopädie 7 (1783) 937 (s. v. ‘Ehe der Morgenländer’); Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 309. 84 Brockhaus, 8th ed., vol. 2 (1833) 607. 85 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 573. 86 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 243. (“[. . .] wo das Weib gleichsam als Waare betrachtet wird [. . .].”). 87 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon II 14,1 (1852) 1212 (s. v. ‘Weib’), Krünitz 26 (1782) 683 (s. v. ‘Hurerey’), ibid., 235 (1856) 565 (s. v. ‘Weib’). 88 Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 407. 89 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 573.—In European accounts of China, this strand of discourse appeared at least in Nieuhof’s account of the Dutch embassy of 1655/57. See the reference in Zedler 27 (1741) col. 1632 (s. v. ‘Pflug’). 82

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added remarks concerning the degree of civilisation of the Chinese in comparative perspective: “Among savage tribes the labour and drudgery fall heavier on the weaker sex. The Chinese have imposed on their women a greater degree of humility and restraint than the Greeks of old, or the Europeans in the dark ages.”90 Furthermore, encyclopaedias pointed out regional differences in the situation of women in China. In Moréri we read that women in Yunnan province enjoyed more freedom than women in all other parts of the empire.91 Although encyclopaedias perpetuated this observation, they did not link these regional differences reported by European observers to the ethnically inhomogeneous population of Yunnan. Closely linked to descriptions of the seclusion of women, encyclopaedias presented information on the custom of footbinding. In her analysis of shifting Western interpretations of footbinding, Patricia Ebrey mentioned the “six most dominant ways of framing footbinding: fashion, seclusion, perversity, deformity, child abuse, and cultural immobility.”92 Encyclopaedias regularly commented on the nature of the custom. Most of them pointed out that Chinese women would not be regarded as beauties if they did not have small feet.93 In the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica we read of an “absurd custom.”94 The Encyclopaedia Londinensis extensively quotes from the account of George Leonard Staunton,95 the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia spoke of a “strange and unnatural custom”96 and the Encyclopédie Catholique labelled it a “quite bizarre fashion.”97 The Encyclopédie Moderne called the custom not only barbarous but also inconvenient and dangerous.98

90 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’ (paragraph on ‘State of Society; Manners and Customs’). 91 Moréri 1759 edition, vol. 3, p. 625. See also Zedler 37 (1743) 1561 (s. v. ‘Sina’). 92 For an assessment of Western descriptions of footbinding see Patricia Ebrey, “Gender and Sinology: Shifting Western Interpretations of Footbinding, 1300–1890,” Late Imperial China 20, no. 2 (1999), quote from ibid., p. 11. 93 Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1562 (s. v. ‘Sina’), Encyclopédie 12 (1765) 555; Krünitz 15 (1778) 496 (s. v. ‘Fuß’); Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1919. 94 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 682. 95 Encyclopaedia Londinensis 4 (1810) 460 f. 96 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 310. 97 Encyclopédie Catholique 7 (1844) 411. 98 Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 550 (new ed. vol. 9, col. 121).

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As Rees’ Cyclopaedia pointed out, the small feet of Chinese women “may challenge the whole world.” Then, further details on bound feet are provided: This distorted member consists of a foot that has been cramped in its growth to the length of four or five inches, and an ancle that is generally swollen in the same proportion than the foot is diminished. The little shoe is as fine as tinsel and tawdry can make it, and the ancle is bandaged round with parsy-coloured cloth ornamented with fringe and tassel. [. . .] The fashion is, however, at present so universal, that any deviation from it is considered as disgraceful.99

Throughout the whole period under consideration, encyclopaedias pointed out that there are no reliable data available concerning the origins of this custom. Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon discussed the origins of footbinding under the headword ‘Takia’ referring to Da Ji 妲己 (eleventh century BC), the favourite concubine of the infamous Zhou Xin 紂辛, the last ruler of the Shang 商 dynasty.100 Thus, encyclopaedias also mentioned the significance of women who assumed power in the course of the history of China.101 In Pierer’s Universal-Lexikon as well as in Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon we read that Liu Bang’s Empress Lü Zhi 吕雉 (d. 180 BC), the first woman that had ruled China, dominated politics not only during the reign of her son Han Huidi 漢惠帝 (195–188 BC) but also ruled until her death.102 Moréri pointed out that Lü Zhi had made herself empress “against the laws of the country.”103 In its presentation of Tang history, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia mentioned that Wu Chao 武綤 (624–705, also known by her posthumous canonical title as Wu Zetian 武則天), had proved

99 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’.—On descriptions in German-language encyclopaedias see Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 421; Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 240. 100 Zedler 41 (1744) col. 1529 f. (s. v. ‘Takia, Taika, Taquia’). 101 On women as de facto rulers in the history of China see Cohen, Introduction to Research in Chinese Source Materials, 479. 102 Pierer Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 430 f.; Meyer, ConversationsLexikon I 7,2 (1845) 284: “[. . .] die erste Frau, welche in China die Regierung geführt hatte.”—The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 227 only mentions Lü Zhi in the list of rulers of the Han dynasty (“Kao-heoo, wife of Kao-tee”). 103 Moréri, Grand dictionnaire historique, 8th ed. (1698), vol. 2, p. 158.—See also Du Halde, Description . . . de la Chine, vol. 1, p. 378 f. where Lü Hou is presented as a female usurper (‘Liu Heou, usurpatrice’).

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“a monster of ambition and cruelty.”104 Beginning with Moréri, encyclopaedias have pointed out that Wu Chao had usurped the throne.105 In their presentations of footbinding, encyclopaedias quoted from European sources from Odorico da Pordenone down to various early nineteenth-century accounts. According to the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, “the Chinese relate twenty different accounts, all equally absurd” on the origins of “this unnatural custom.”106 The Encyclopaedia Edinensis ended its presentation of the subject with the remark that “no satisfactory account, however, has hitherto been given, either of the time when it became current, or of the reason of its adoption.”107 The seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica as well as the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana pointed out that Marco Polo did not mention this subject.108 While the Encyclopaedia Britannica as well as other works of general reference mentioned, that the “crippled feet” of Chinese women “were as common in his time as they are now”, the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana suggested, that this might be a comparatively modern “fashion”.109 Encyclopaedias also included the information that this custom was restricted to the ethnic Chinese and that the Manchu ladies “have never condescended to lame or imprison themselves, but wear broad shoes, and ride out on horseback in fine weather.”110 The Encyclopédie Moderne mentioned that in rural Jiangxi the feet of women were not bound. The women of Jiangxi would wear sandals of straw and walk without any difficulty.111 Occasionally, encyclopaedias provided data on the size of Chinese women’s feet. In the Encyclopédie, we read that the feet of Chinese

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Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 229. Moréri, Grand dictionnaire historique, 8th ed., vol. 2 (1698) 159. 106 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 587. 107 Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 407. 108 Encyclopaedia Britannica 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 587 (“wholly silent”); Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, vol. 16 (1845) 573 (“the silence of Marco Polo”); Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 240 (‘Marco Polo [. . .] dieser Mode mit keinem Wort gedenkt”).—Thus, this strand of discourse has been well-established long before Colonel Henry Yule (1820–1889) pointed it out in his 1871 translation of the account given by the medieval traveller. See Ebrey, “Gender and Sinology,” 2: “[. . .] since Yule’s time accounts of Marco Polo routinely mention his silence on footbinding.” 109 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, vol. 16 (1845) 573. 110 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, vol. 16 (1845) 573; Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 551 (new ed., vol. 9, col. 121). 111 Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 551 (new ed., vol. 9, col. 121). 105

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women had to be smaller than those of a of a six-year old child.112 The second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica states that the “foot of a full grown woman” should not be “bigger than that of a child of four years old”;113 according to the third edition the shoes of a “full grown Chinese woman will frequently not exceed six inches.”114 In this context, they also referred to the shoes of Chinese women. Some of these shoes were on display in European museums.115 The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana pointed out that these little shoes “were not made for dolls, as has been sometimes shrewdly conjectured.”116 European observers reported that many people in China had to live “entirely in vessels on the canals, keeping hogs, poultry, dogs, and other domestic animals, on board.”117 Remarks on this “floating population”, commonly known as Tanka (Danjia 蛋家 in Chinese),118 that were reported by European travellers and missionaries, were perpetuated by most of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century European encyclopaedias. As the Dutch legation of 1655/57 travelled to Beijing via the inland waterways of China, Nieuhof ’s account of this legation first published in 1665 seems to have served as the main source on this subject.119 Encyclopaedias presented information on ‘floating villages’

112

Encyclopédie 12 (1765) 555 (s. v. ‘Pié’). Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed. 3 (1778) 1919 (s. v. ‘China’). 114 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed. 4 (1797) 682. 115 Encyclopédie 12 (1765) 555 “[. . .] les curieux ont dans leurs cabinets de pantoufles de dames chinoises qui prouvent assez cette bisarrerie de goût [. . .].”—Krünitz 55 (1791) 414 (s. v. ‘Kunst-Kammer’) refers to the „extraordinary small shoes of Chinese women“ in its information on chambers of curiosities. 116 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, vol. 16 (1845) 573. 117 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1918. 118 On the Tanka see William T. Rowe, “Social Stability and Social Change,” in The Cambridge History of China. Volume 9. Part One: The Ch’ing Empire to 1800, ed. Willard J. Peterson (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 508 f. See also Hayes, “Canton Symposium. The World of the Old China Trade. The Locales and the People,” 35 f. who addresses them as “indigenous boat people of the Pearl River Delta.” as well as Helen F. Siu and Zhiwei Liu, “Lineage, Market, Pirate, and Dan Ethnicity in the Pearl River Delta of South China,” in Empire at the Margins. Culture, Ethnicity, and Frontier in Early Modern China, ed. Pamela Kyle Crossley, Helen F. Siu, and Donald S. Sutton (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2006), 285–310, on the Dan see ibid., 285–299. 119 Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe III.4, plate 328 not only have Nieuhof’s sketch of a ‘floating village’ but also (ibid., 1696) Magalhães’ remark on the “two Empires in China, the one upon the Water, and the other upon the Land; and as many Venice’s as there are Cities.”—Robinet 11 (1779) 638 refers to these ‘two empires‘ of China. 113

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either in their article on China or (as may be seen from German and French encyclopaedias) even under separate headwords.120 In its section on trade and commerce, the Encyclopédie Méthodique pointed out, that this ‘floating population’ represents a well-organized community.121 This remark may be seen in the context of governmental measures taken against non-resident groups of population in late-eighteenth century Europe. In its section on Economie politique et diplomatique, it pointed out that the ‘floating population’ is also fed by the garbage thrown overboard by European ships coming to the Zhujiang (Pearl River) delta.122 A similar remark of Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations shows that this information must have been spread throughout late eighteenth-century Europe.123 In its article on ‘China’, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia inserted similar information on this ‘floating population’ apparently based on the travelogue of Chrétien Louis Joseph de Guignes (1759–1845) under the heading ‘Paupers’. Under the heading ‘Mode of living’ it added: “There is nothing so filthy, that those who ply in boats upon the river at Canton will not use as food; and the dead hogs, which are thrown over board, and which float when begin to putrefy, are considered by these poor creatures as a most valuable prize, and often furnish occasion for serious contests.”124 Closely connected to the state of Chinese society, encyclopaedias presented information on infanticide and on infant abandonment. In Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon, it is pointed out that Chinese men would have no scruples to sell or even to drown their own children.125 Quoting extensively from Grosier’s “defence of the Chinese from the charge of murdering and exposing their children”, the third edition of the 120 Zedler 9 (1735) col. 1361 (s. v. ‘Flügende Dörffer oder schwimmende Dörffer in China’); Encyclopédie 6 (1756) 879b (s. v. ‘Flottes de la Chine’, Z.); Encyclopédie d’Yverdon 19 (1773) 456 f. (s. v. ‘Flottes de la Chine’); Deutsche Encyclopädie 7 (1783) 547 (s. v. ‘Dorf (historisch)’); ibid., 10 (1785) 258 (‘Floß’) and ibid., 263 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Flotten’). 121 Encyclopédie Méthodique, Commerce 3 (1788), s. v. ‘Villes flottantes’. 122 Encyclopédie Méthodique, Economie politique et diplomatique 4 (1788) 561 (s. v. ‘Travail’). 123 Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (London 1791), vol. 1, p. 108. Quoted in Lottes, “China in European Political Thought,” 85. 124 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 269 (China: ‘Paupers’), ibid. p. 311 (China: ‘Mode of living’).—In this context the Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 406 refers to “garbage of all kind.” 125 Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1561 (s. v. ‘Sina’).

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Encyclopaedia Britannica ascribes this practice mainly to the idolatry prevailing among the Chinese.126 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia labelled the practice of infanticide “as one of the deepest stigmas upon the character of the Chinese, and as the most unequivocal proof of their unfeeling disposition.” In its presentation, it explicitly refers only to the travelogue of the younger de Guignes who not only had dismissed the supposed frequency of this practice but also pointed out, that “the Chinese tenderly love their children.”127 As late as in 1843, the ninth edition of Brockhaus refers to the abandoning of children.128 Since the beginning of European expansion to Southeast Asia, European observers reported on overseas Chinese. Encyclopaedias included information on the Chinese living in Southeast Asia under a broad variety of headwords. In Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon, information on overseas Chinese was disposed in articles on Batavia and on the Philippine Islands.129 Almost a century later this information was presented not only under geographical headwords130 but also under headwords like ‘overpopulation’ (Krünitz) or ‘emigration’ (Meyer).131 It was noticed that the Chinese had no interest to found colonies. In Borneo and Banka, Chinese emigrants successfully engaged themselves in mining. They had a much more robust physical constitution than the indigenous population. Moreover, they also had the necessary technical skills to succeed in mining. In its supplement, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon described the processes of assimilation of the Chinese to the indigenous population.132 European encyclopaedias tended to stress the importance of the Chinese diaspora for the economic development of Southeast Asia.133 While Europeans repeatedly described the Chinese Empire as stagnant, they noticed the dynamic role of emigrated Chinese in the societies of Southeast Asia. In its article on ‘Jaccatra’, Rees’ Cyclopaedia mentioned the “industry and perseverance of the Chinese, who are

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Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 673. Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 310 f. 128 Brockhaus, 9th ed., vol. 3 (1843) 386. 129 Zedler 3 (1733) col. 672 (s. v. ‘Batavia’), ibid., 27 (1741) col. 1949 (s. v. ‘Philippinische Inseln’). 130 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 18, s. v. ‘Jaccatra’. 131 Krünitz 193 (1847) 110 (s. v. ‘Übervölkerung’); Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 4,2 (1844) 920 f. (s. v. ‘Auswanderung’). 132 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon S 1 (1853) 1249. 133 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 3, s. v. ‘Batavia’. 127

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settled here.”134 While the despotic rule of the emperors presumably had paralyzed the people throughout their realm, emigration helped to set free unpredictable energy. The majority of Chinese emigrants originated from Fujian province. Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon mentioned two reasons for this: on the one hand, Fujian very early had taken an active part in overseas trade, on the other hand, due to its geographical and topographical situation, this province had been protected from the polishing influence of Chinese culture.135 In its supplementary information on China, the Conversations-Lexikon pointed out that in recent times the Chinese had proved to be the ‘greatest colonial people of Asia’ (das größte Kolonialvolk Asiens). Concerning their activity in agriculture and horticulture, in trade and commerce as well as their exclusive character, they might be considered next to the ‘Anglo-Saxon race’ (stehen sie der angelsächsischen Race am nächsten), as the Chinese also tended to conquer, to subjugate and to extinguish the indigenous population: In Mongolia they would control the fertile land. In Bangkok there were living more than 300,000 Chinese. In the Philippines and on Java as well European rule repeatedly had seen uprisings of the Chinese.136 About 1850, encyclopaedias mentioned the beginning of Chinese emigration/immigration to California. They linked it partly to the California Gold Rush and partly to the social unrest in China resulting in the Taiping Rebellion.137 5.3 Material Culture Concerning the material culture of the Chinese encyclopaedias focused on Chinese clothing and on Chinese food. In his article for the Encyclopédie Moderne, Eyriès pointed out that he would not give a description of the dress of the Chinese, not only because of the various illustrations on the subject given in books dealing with China but also because of the great number of Chinese clothes

134 Ibid., vol. 18, s. v. ‘Jaccatra’; Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 11, p. 631 (s. v. ‘Java’). 135 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon II 3 (1850) 1042 f. (s. v. ‘Phukian’). 136 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon S2 (1853) 955 (s. v. ‘China’). 137 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon S1 (1853) 1242 (s. v. ‘Auswanderung’).

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imported to Europe.138 In fact, from the seventeenth century onwards, European observers had described the dress of the Chinese in detail.139 Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century encyclopaedias mainly relied on Du Halde and Grosier.140 As early as in the Encyclopédie we read that the Chinese did not wear hats but caps of a particular shape.141 The second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica contains a concise but very vivid description of Chinese dress: The men wear a cap of the shape of a bell on their heads, which does not cover their ears; they also wear a vest and sash, and over the vest a loose coat or gown, and a kind of silk boots quilted with cotton. In the southern provinces the inhabitants, when at home, throw off every thing but a pair of drawers, and appear naked; as the common people also do on the streets. The women dress with their hair down, having nothing on their heads, in the south. They generally wear a silk vest, red, blue, or green; and over it a loose gown with white sleeves, and embroidered silk shoes [. . .].142

According to Krünitz, Chinese dress was very uniform and only slightly adapted for the different seasons. This adaptation may be seen from different fabrics used for the clothes and from their headgears: from spring to fall they wear straw hats, in winter they wear fur caps.143 About four decades later, the Encyclopaedia Edinensis pointed out, that the costume “of either sex, and of all ranks of the Chinese, is essentially the same” only mentioning regional differences the South and the North caused by the different climates.144

138 Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 551 f. (new ed., vol. 9, col. 121).—On European perceptions of Chinese clothing from late sixteenth- to late nineteenth-century see Antonia Finnane, Changing Clothes in China. Fashion, History, Nation (London: Hurst & Co., 2007), 19–41. 139 According to Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe. III/4, 1701, who discuss late-seventeenth century European descriptions of Chinese dress, Nieuhof and Dapper made extensive use of the descriptions given by Trigault, Semedo, and Martini. Kircher had provided “some beautiful illustrations of Chinese dress but little other description.” For a discussion of French descriptions of Chinese clothing see Bai, Les voyageurs français, 307–309. 140 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 163 n. 26 (s. v. ‘China’, W. Schott) refers to Grosier. 141 Encyclopédie 2 (1751) 324 (s. v. ‘Bonnet’). 142 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1919 f. For a similar presentation see English Encyclopaedia 2 (1802) 494.—in the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (vol. 4 (1797) 681) the presentation of this subject had been slightly augmented. 143 Krünitz 40 (1787) 168 (s. v. ‘Kleid’). 144 Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 406.

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The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana adds that the “present dress” of the Chinese dates back only to the Manchu conquest and that the rich “have a superfluity of robes and coverings, of which silk, the staple production of the country, is the favourite material.”145 As late as in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia we read that silk forms “the principal clothing of the greater part of its inhabitants.”146 Closely connected to Chinese clothing, encyclopaedias included remarks on the hairstyle of the Chinese. Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon mentions that the Chinese wore plaits according to the fashion of the Tartars.147 Referring to Le Comte’s Nouveaux memoires, encyclopaedias mentioned the beards of the Chinese. The Chinese are said to affect long beards, but nature having denied their natural growth, they are sometimes supplied to the chin artificially. (See Nouveaux Memoires sur l’Etat de la Chine, par le R. P. le Comte, tom i. p. 209.)148

Due to the accounts of Dutch observers149 and of Roman Catholic missionaries, Europeans had been well-informed about the massive break that occurred at the beginning of the Qing dynasty. As early as in the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica we read that the Qing had forced the Chinese “to cut of all their hair except a lock on the crown like the Mahometans.”150 After a similar description, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia even mentioned the Chinese term for this queue: “[. . .], they shave the hair from their heads, except a single tress or tuft, which they form into a long plaited queue, called Penzé [bianzi 辮子].”151 In its presentation of the history of China, Meyer’s 145 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 574. See also Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 312. 146 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 304. 147 Zedler 12 (1735) col. 16 (s. v. ‘Haar’). 148 Penny Cyclopaedia 4 (1835) 96 (s. v. ‘Beard’). See also Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 4, s. v. ‘Beard’; Ersch/Gruber I 7 (1821) 435 and ibid note 7 (s. v. ‘Bart’). Without referring to Le Comte’s account Zedler 3 (1733) 531 (s. v. ‘Bart’) mentioned the beards of the Chinese. 149 On seventeenth-century Dutch representations of this subject see Ulrichs, Nieuhofs Blick, 77. 150 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1919 (s. v. ‘China’); see also ibid., 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 681 (111. Chinese obliged by the Tartars to cut off their hair); Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 551 (new ed., vol. 9, col. 120 f.). For an assessment of early European accounts on the new hairstyle since the Manchu conquest see Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe III.4, 1702. 151 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 312.—In similar words, the bianzi is described in Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 163 f. (s. v. ‘China’; W. Schott) and in the Encyclopaedia

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Conversations-Lexikon pointed out that these directives did not match with other plans of the Manchu conquerors to win the affection of the conquered in adopting their manners and customs.152 Concerning the outward appearance of the Chinese, encyclopaedias also mentioned the long finger-nails of the Chinese. In referring to similar customs reported from the coasts of Guinea and Malabar, Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon pointed out that the length of the fingernails would serve for the distinction of ranks.153 The ninth edition of Brockhaus refers to the long nail on the little finger of high-ranking Chinese.154 Information on Chinese food and beverages155 formed an integral part in encyclopaedias’ presentation of Chinese material culture. Their dishes are chiefly in the form of stews of fish, fowl, and meat, sometimes separately, and sometimes promiscuously, mixed with various vegetables and sauces; and their drink at table is either tea or an ardent spirit distilled from millet or rice, which they always drink in a hot state, and which is said to resemble hot brandy. They eat very plentifully, and rather voraciously, at meals; and throughout the day they are constantly eating pastry and fruits, sipping spirituous liquors, smoking tobacco, or chewing betel and areca nut.156

In their presentations of Chinese food, Europeans usually distinguished between the meals of the wealthy and the diet of the lower classes. Travelogues and first-hand accounts of the country and its people formed a main source for information on Chinese food and beverages as presented in encyclopaedias. 157 Based on these travelogues (as well as on a wide range of other publications on China) the Göttingen scholar Christoph Meiners (1747–1810) and the Swedish historian Bengt Bergius (1723–1784) each published detailed synopses. The value of these works was acknowledged by the compilers of

Metropolitana 16 (1845) 574. On the hairstyle of Chinese women see Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 313. 152 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 290. 153 Zedler 23 (1740) col. 425 (s. v. ‘Nagel’). See also Krünitz 100 (1805) 593 (s. v. ‘Nagel’). 154 Brockhaus 9th ed., vol. 3 (1843) 386. 155 On the variety and changes in the history of Chinese cuisine see Wilkinson, Chinese History, 635–645. On late seventeenth-century and early eighteenth-century accounts of Chinese cuisine see Bai, Les voyageurs français, 302–307. 156 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 312. 157 See e.g. the remarks in Zedler 43 (1745) col. 535 (s. v. ‘Thee’) on early European accounts of tea drinking in China and Japan.

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encyclopaedias. Krünitz frequently referred to the German translation of Bergius’ work that had been prepared and published by Johann Reinhold Forster (1729–1798) and Kurt Sprengel (1766–1833).158 In Rees’ Cyclopaedia we read: The researches of Meiners respecting food seem to have exhausted every accessible authority on the subject: his deductions exhibit so complete a view of the matter, that we present them to the reader in his own words.159

According to the Encyclopaedia Edinensis, the “ordinary bill of fare of the common people of China, is neither abundant nor various.”160 In describing the meals of the lower classes, encyclopaedias stressed the importance of boiled rice, millet and other grains. As the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia put it, the Chinese “have little milk, no butter, cheese, or bread.” The poor only could afford “a morsel of pork”. Encyclopaedias perpetuated early modern European reports that the lower classes eat “rats, mice and other vermin”, which according to the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, “are all excellent food to a Chinese.”161 In referring to animals which the Chinese allegedly would “devour most greedily”, the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana added, that the Chinese thus could not be accused of “squeamishness”.162 The seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica points out that only when “animal food fails them, the Chinese make no scruple in eating lizards, toads, grubs, cats, rats, mice, and many other nauseous creatures.”163 Apart from pork and donkey meat, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon mentioned that the Chinese were also fond of dog meat 158 Bengt Bergius, Über die Leckereyen. Aus dem Schwedischen mit Anmerkungen von D. Joh. Reinh. Forster und D. Kurt Sprengel, 2 parts (Halle: Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, 1792). 159 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 22, fol. Ss3v (s. v. ‘Man’). 160 Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 406. 161 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 311. Pierer’s Universal-Lexikon. 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 421 also mentioned the consumption of dogs, cats, and rats without distinguishing between the food of the rich and the poor.—Referring to Navarrete’s seventeenth-century account of China, Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe III.4, 1691 wrote: “He [i.e. Navarrete], like everyone else, reports that the Chinese eat dogs, horses, buffaloes, cats and mice.” 162 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 574. 163 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 580.—See also Encyclopédie moderne 6 (1825) 553 (new ed., vol. 9, col. 122), where it is pointed out that the lower classes would eat these things without the slightest scruple (sans scrupule). The Deutsche Encyclopädie 19 (1796) 371 (s. v. ‘Katze’) mentioned that the Chinese consider cats to be a delicacy.

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which they regard as even more tasty, and therefore they would take great care of their dogs. It added that the Chinese also would be very fond of eating the cooked and dried chrysalis of silkworm.164 In Krünitz’ encyclopaedia we read that the Chinese esteem locusts and bats as delicious.165 The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana noted that the Manchus would consider horsemeat and asses as “a favourite dish” and that the stag’s tail “is a luxury too exquisite for any but the Emperor’s table.”166 The most exotic meals on the tables of the wealthy were mentioned by almost all European encyclopaedias as the most delicious ones.167 The wealthy Chinese seek after the most nourishing and invigorating diet with great avidity, and at whatever price. The greatest delicacies are the most gelatinous substances, the paws of the bear, the fins of the shark, the sinewy parts of the stag and other animals, the nests of a particular species of swallows brought chiefly from Cambodia, and a kind of fucus or sea-plant.168

While any further explanations on the paws of the bear, the sinewy parts of the stag and the fins of the shark did not seem to be necessary,169 Europeans had been eager to learn more about the nature of bird’s nests.170 Early eighteenth-century encyclopaedias took their information not only from travel accounts but also from compilations relating to natural history. Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon referred to the Museum Wormianum (a description of the collection of Olaus (Ole) Worm (1588–1654), published in 1655) and to a German edition of Pierre Pomet’s (1658–1699) Histoire générale des drogues (the French original

164 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 259: “Noch schmackhafter findet der Chinese das Fleisch der H u n de , denen deshalb eine besondere Sorgfalt gewidmet wird.“—As early as in Krünitz 26 (1782) 683 (s. v. ‘Hund’) it is pointed out that in China the meat of dogs is more expensive than beef or mutton. 165 Krünitz 23 (1781) 493; ibid. 220 (1854) 29. 166 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, vol. 16 (1845) 574.—Information on the Chinese fondness of horsemeat had already been reported by Nieuhof. See the respective reference in Krünitz 110 (1808) 325 (‘Pferd’). 167 Encyclopédie Catholique 7 (1844) 412. 168 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 312. For similar enumerations see Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 406. 169 The Deutsche Encyclopädie 9 (1784) 25 also contains information on the preparation of the sinewy parts of the stag and of bear’s paws. 170 Leonard Blussé, “In praise of commodities. An essay on the cross-cultural trade in edible bird’s nests.” Emporia, commodities and entrepreneurs in Asian maritime trade, c. 1400 to 1750; ed, Roderich Ptak and Dietmar Rothermund. Contributions to South Asian Studies 141, (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1991), 317–335.

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published in 1694)—together with the travelogue of Jean Baptiste Tavernier (1605–1689). The article mentions that the Chinese were extremely fond of these nests and that incredible quantities of them were brought to the court of Peking.171 These bird’s nests were subject to an extensive trade and thus information on them also had been included in Savary’s Dictionnaire du commerce, which was the only source explicitly referred to by Jaucourt in his article on bird’s nests for the Encyclopédie.172 The Deutsche Encyclopädie already referred to the Linnaean system and refuted earlier theories on the nature of these nests, that still had been perpetuated in its information on Chinese food.173 Rees’ Cyclopaedia mentioned the description of these edible nests given by William Marsden (1754–1836) in The History of Sumatra (1783) and by Sir George Staunton in his account on the British embassy to China (1797) but prefers to rely on “a more minute and ample description of them” published in the third volume of the transactions of the Batavian society for promoting the arts and sciences (Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen).174 Krünitz’ encyclopaedia repeatedly mentioned these bird’s nests. In 1829 as well as in 1855, it referred neither to the eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century English nor to the above-mentioned eighteenthcentury Dutch reports but quoted from descriptions by Germans in the service of the Dutch East India Company dating from the end of the seventeenth century (Engelbert Kaempfer (1651–1716) and Georg Eberhard Rumpf (1627–1702)) as well as from the works of Buffon and to the account of Pierre Poivre.175

171

Zedler 50 (1746) 225 f. (s. v. ‘Vogelnester, (Ostindische)’). Encyclopédie 11 (1765) 138 (s. v. ‘Nids d’oiseaux’). 173 Deutsche Encyclopädie 17 (1792) 306 (s. v. ‘Indianische Vogelnester, Tunkinsnester’), see also ibid., 9 (1784) 25 (s. v. ‘Essen der morgenländischen und andrer Völker’). 174 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 4, s. v. ‘Bird’s nests’. See William Marsden, The History of Sumatra, Containing an Account of the Government, Laws, Customs, and Manners of the Native Inhabitants, With a Description of the Natural Productions, and a Relation of the Ancient Political Status of that Island (London: Printed for the Author, 3rd ed. 1811), 174 f. 175 Krünitz 150 (1829) 42–46 (s. v. ‘Schwalbe’); ibid., 226 (1855) 306–312 (s. v. ‘Vogel’). See Georges Louis Leclerc comte de Buffon, Histoire naturelle des oiseaux. Vol. 6: Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi. Vol. 21. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1779), 682–694 (X. La Salangane). 172

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From the sixteenth century onwards, European observers mentioned the importance of tea as a popular and widely consumed beverage in East Asia. Encyclopaedias repeatedly referred to the Dutch role in the tea trade, and to early descriptions of the tea plant.176 In eighteenth-century general dictionaries we read that the Chinese make no wine regardless of excellent grapes that grow in the country.177 According to the Deutsche Encyclopädie the Chinese had abstained from drinking wine in earlier times.178 In its article on beverages, the Deutsche Encyclopädie pointed out, that the Chinese also produced other alcoholic drinks in using rice, wheat, or fruits. The quantity used for the production of these wide-spread alcoholic drinks had been that high that it even had caused famines,179 although in case of bad harvests the authorities could prohibit the use of crops for distillation.180 Under the headword ‘Tarasun’, the Encyclopédie presented ample information on “a kind of beer or fermented liquor made by the Chinese” relying on the account published by Johann Georg Gmelin (1709–1755) on his travels in Siberia.181 Under the headword ‘Hokchus’ Krünitz’ encyclopaedia as well as the Deutsche Encyclopädie compared this beverage to brown ale.182 According to the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia the Chinese were “well-versed” in

176 See e.g. Penny Cyclopaedia 24 (1842) 284–291, esp. 284 f. (s. v. ‘Thea’). Without giving any references Krünitz 182 (1844) 732 f. (s. v. ‘Thee’) mentioned the accounts of Kaempfer, ten Rhyne, and Bontekoe as well as the descriptions given by Osbeck, Linné, and Lettsom. For a bibliographic overview on early European descriptions (up to 1770) of the tea plant see John Coakley Lettsom, The Natural History of the TeaTree, With Observations on the Medical Qualities of Tea, and Effects of Tea-Drinking (London: Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly, 1772), 8–12. 177 An Universal, Historical, Geographical, Chronological and Poetical Dictionary 1 (1703) s. v. ‘China’ (“The Chinese make no wine, tho’ they have excellent grapes.”); Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1566 (s. v. ‘Sina’).—As late as Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 259 pointed out that the Chinese only use their grapes to make a kind of fruit-wine (eine Art Most) and that they make no wine. 178 Deutsche Encyclopädie 9 (1784) 25 (s. v. ‘Essen der morgenländischen und andrer Völker’, Purmann). 179 Deutsche Encyclopädie 12 (1787) 242 (s. v. ‘Getränke (antiq. orient.)’, Purmann); Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 663; Krünitz 186 (1845) 672 (s. v. ‘Trank’). 180 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 673. 181 Encyclopédie 15 (1765) 903 (s. v. ‘Tarasun’).—Other references to this term include Zedler 41 (1744) col. 1809 (s. v. ‘Tarasun’), Ersch/Gruber I 10 (1823) 131 (s. v. ‘Bier’), Krünitz 160 (1842) 204 (s. v. ‘Tarasum’). 182 Krünitz 24 (1781) 336 (s. v. ‘Hokchus’), Deutsche Encyclopädie 15 (1790) 881 (s. v. ‘Hokchus’).

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the “practice of distillation”. One of their spirits, called “San-tchoo” was said “to have some resemblance to the whisky of Scotland.”183 In the Deutsche Encyclopädie, Johann Georg Purmann wrote not only on the various meals and beverages of the Chinese but also of their table manners: Without naming his sources, he noticed the absence of tablecloths, knives and forks. Each person has a pair of chopsticks made of wood or ivory. They use these chopsticks to handle their food. In this regard, the Chinese show an admirable cleanliness. Contrary to the practice of other Oriental people, the Chinese would sit on high chairs. At banquets, each guest has his own table.184 In its account on the history of China, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that Zhou Xin, the last ruler of the Shang dynasty “is considered as the inventor of the little ivory sticks which the Chinese employ in eating their food.”185 Under its headword ‘Fork’, the Penny Cyclopaedia linked information on the use of forks in seventeenth-century Britain to accounts referring to the practice of the Chinese: Even when Heylin published his ‘Cosmography,’ in 1652, forks for the table were still a novelty (see his third book); where, having spoken of the ivory sticks used by the Chinese, he adds, ‘the use of silver forks with us by some of our spruce gallants taken up of late, came from hence into Italy, and from thence into England.’186

183

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 283. Deutsche Encyclopädie 9 (1784) 25 (s. v. ‘Essen der morgenländischen und andrer Völker’, Purmann). 185 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 224. According to Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe. III/4, 1706, who refer to Navarrete’s account, any early modern European “description of Chinese food and banquets includes a description of chopsticks.” Moréri 1759 ed., vol. 3, p. 625 also mentioned the chopsticks (“avec de petits batons qui leur servent de fourchettes”).—See Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China. Volume 6: Biology and Biological Technology. Part 5: Fermentation and Food Science. By H. T. Huang (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 104: “Chopsticks are, of course, the best-known and most characteristically Chinese eating implement. According to the Shih Chi (Records of the Historian), –90, by Szuma Chhien, King Chou, the last ruler of the Shang dynasty, was the first person to have made a pair of chopsticks out of ivory, which implies that chopsticks must have been known before King Chou’s time, that is, before –1100.” 186 Penny Cyclopaedia 10 (1838) 371 (s. v. ‘Fork’). 184

CHAPTER SIX

GOVERNMENT, POLITICS AND ECONOMY 6.1

The Administration of China

In presenting the government of China, encyclopaedias either gave ideologically coloured analyses or they provided descriptive accounts of the most important governmental authorities and agencies.1 According to the opening paragraph in the entry on ‘China’ in the section on political economy of the Encyclopédie Méthodique, no government deserves to be studied more by philosophers and political leaders than that of China.2 This statement clearly refers to early modern European accounts of East Asia that depicted Chinese government and administration as a model for the modernization of European bureaucracy. The section on law of the Encyclopédie Méthodique warmly recommended to read the works of Montesquieu (De l’esprit des loix, 1748), Raynal (Histoire philosophique et politique des établissements et du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes, 1770), and Mably (Doutes proposés aux philosophes économistes, sur l’ordre naturel et essentiel des sociétés politiques, 1768).3 This interest was boosted not only by the idealistic presentation of the government of China in the reports of the Jesuits, but also by the European discourse on Oriental despotism.4 The second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica notes that the government of China “is monarchical, and in the highest degree despotic”. The Chinese were “inured to this kind of government” and that they have “little notion” of any alternative. This was illustrated by referring to the difficulties the Dutch legation of 1655/57 encountered in applying for an audience

1 For a discussion of the accounts of the Chinese government given by French Jesuit missionaries see Bai, Les voyageurs français, 99–148. 2 Encyclopédie Méthodique, Economie Politique et Diplomatique 1 (1784) 543. 3 Encyclopédie Méthodique, Jurisprudence 2 (1783), s. v. ‘Chine’. 4 See Rubiés, “Oriental Despotism and European Orientalism: Botero to Montesquieu.”

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at the Qing court.5 The supplement to the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica notes that the “government of China is despotic.”6 According to the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Emperor of China as a “self-created universal autocrat is not only the fountain of all honour in his wide dominions, but of all mercy.”7 In the Penny Cyclopaedia, we read that the government of China “is in principle an absolute despotism” and that the “authority of a father over his family is well known to be the exemplar or type of political rule in the country.”8 In characterising the government of China, encyclopaedias usually referred to its ‘patriarchal’ principles.9 According to Rees’ Cyclopaedia “examples of tyranny are rare” as the emperor is taught “to regard the people as his children, and not as his slaves.”10 The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana pointed out, that from this ‘strictly’ patriarchal form of government “it might be inferred that they existed as a separate community in the earliest ages.”11 According to Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon, the pattern of this patriarchal system may be traced back to the origins of Chinese civilisation. After the emergence of a differentiated government, the patriarchal system had been maintained as an instrument of suppression.12 As Rees’ Cyclopaedia put it, this system had been established on all levels of administrative organization throughout the empire.13 Closely linked to descriptions of the patriarchal form of government were remarks on the filial piety prevailing among the Chinese: The ancient and established maxims of filial piety, form, however, the grand basis of the Chinese government. Every son is supposed to hold the same relation to his father that the people do to the sovereign; and the same unnatural and unwarrantable power which is given to the father over his children could not consistently be withheld from the emperor.

5

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1918. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., Supplement 1 (1801) 423 (s. v. ‘China’). 7 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 553. 8 Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 76. 9 Krünitz 227 (1855) 432 (s. v. ‘Völkerkunde’).—The term ‘family’ also denotes a metaphor used “for the paternalistic and authoritarian nature of the imperial government [. . .] This metaphor of family was the basis for rationalizing a highly centralized government [. . .]” (Cohen, Introduction to Research in Chinese Source Materials, 461 f.). 10 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4P2v (s. v. ‘China’). 11 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 557. 12 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 270 and 272. 13 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’. 6

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No wickedness or unnatural treatment can, on the part of the parent, relieve a son from his duties.14

Ever since the earliest contacts between Europe and China, European observers were attracted by the fullness of power of the supreme rulers of China. Rather soon, Europeans labelled the sovereign of China as emperor. The eighth edition of Moréri derived its information on the emperor, the empresses, and the court of China from the report of Johann Grueber SJ (1623–1680).15 While Moréri still quoted the French translations for the various Chinese titles given in Thévenot, any translation of these titles later was omitted in the article on China published in Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon—the user of the dictionary is provided only with the transcriptions of the respective Chinese renderings.16 Speaking of the emperor of China, European encyclopaedias informed their users of the wide range of titles in use for this ruler. Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon introduced the terms huangdi 皇帝 and tianzi 天子.17 About a century later, Schott translated the first of these terms as ‘the sublime’ (der Hocherhabene) and ‘Son of Heaven’ (Sohn des Himmels).18 In 1845, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon mentioned the title huangdi and the Mongolian rendering (Bogdo-Khan) as well as German renderings of further denominations for the emperor: ‘father of the nation’, ‘sole ruler of the world’, ‘venerable lord of the golden throne of the hall of heaven’—without presenting transcriptions of the respective Chinese terms.19 In describing the imperial attributes, encyclopaedias usually stressed the great importance of the yellow colour. Even a yellow-coloured folding screen was regarded as venerable as the emperor in person by the Chinese. This unlimited veneration was also shown to imperial

14

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 554. Moréri, 8th ed., vol. 2 (1698) 153–161.—See “Viaggio del P. Giovanni Grueber, tornando per terra da China in Europa”, in: Relations de divers voyages curieux, qui n’ont point esté publiées, et qu’on a traduit ou tiré des Originaux des Voyageurs François, Espagnols, Allemands, Portugais, Anglois, Hollandois, Persans, Arabes & Autres Orientaux, published by the late Melchisédech Thévenot. Second, enlarged edition (Paris: Moette, 1696), vol. II, part IV, p. 4 (all accounts are paginated separately). 16 Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1565 (s. v. ‘Sina’). 17 Zedler 43 (1745) col. 1332 f. (s. v. ‘Thiensu’). 18 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 166. 19 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 271 and 273. 15

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decrees and visual representations of the emperor.20 Encyclopaedias mentioned two mythical creatures and their significance for the representation of imperial power: the dragon and the phoenix. The significance of the five-clawed dragon as the most important figure to be found on various imperial insignia was disseminated by almost all works of general knowledge.21 In Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon we read that the Chinese would regard the phoenix as a symbol of great virtue.22 Ersch/Gruber pointed out that the symbolic use of the dragon is intended to describe something excellent.23 Rees’ Cyclopaedia mentioned “two councils” that had to “assist the emperor in the weighty affairs of the state”, only referring to them as the “ordinary” and the “extraordinary” council.24 As the highest executive and advisory board of the central government of China, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon presented the neige 内閣 or ‘inner cabinet’, consisting of four ordinary members and two assessors. These men had acquired an in-depth knowledge of the affairs of state, government and administration. One of their tasks had been the drafting of imperial edicts and decrees. They also were assisting the emperor in performing religious ceremonies.25 After presenting information on the neige, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon discussed the privy council commonly known as junjichu 軍機處 (Kiung-ki-tschu) that had been established later than the neige. The members of this most powerful governmental body in China met every day and they usually accompanied the emperor on his travels.26 In the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, Édouard Biot pointed out the difference between the neige and the junchichu: while the former is charged with the preparation of

20 Brockhaus 8th ed., vol. 2 (1833) 210; ibid., 9th ed., vol. 3 (1843) 387; Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 271. 21 Zedler 7 (1734) col. 1374 (s. v. ‘Drache’) and ibid., 37 (1743) 1572 (s. v. ‘Sina’); Meyer I 7,2 (1845) 272 f. (s. v. ‘China’) and ibid., I 7,4 (1846) 1100–1101 (s. v. ‘Drache’); Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 252.—Krünitz 9 (1776) 455–457 (s. v. ‘Drache’) did not refer to China. 22 Zedler 27 (1741) col. 2184 (s. v. ‘Phönix, Sonnenvogel’). 23 Ersch/Gruber I 27 (1836) 286 (s. v. ‘Drache (Mythologie)’). 24 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. [4P3r]. 25 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 274. On the neige (Grand Secretariat), “from the 1420s to 1730, the most distinguished and influential body in the central government”, see Hucker, Dictionary of Official Titles, 346 f. (no. 4193, s. v. ‘nèi-kó’). 26 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 274. Established in 1730, the junjichu (Council of State) “deliberated with the Emperor on all policy matters, civil as well as military, and promulgated the Emperor’s decisions.” Hucker, Dictionary of Official Titles, 200 (no. 1735, s. v. ‘chün-chī ch’ù’).

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imperial decrees relating to celebrations and current affairs, the latter assists the emperor in his political decisions.27 Of the various denominations in use for high-ranking Chinese officials the Encyclopédie also introduces the term gelao 閣老, which had been an unofficial reference to the Grand Secretaries (da xueshi 大學士)28 during the Ming and the Qing dynasties. Under a separate headword (‘Ko-laos’) the Encyclopédie pointed out, that these gelao are the most influential advisers of the emperor mostly presiding over the six boards (les tribunaux supérieurs).29 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia also mentions some appellations in use for the high-ranking officials: “Lao-ye [laoye 老爺], or lord; Ta-lao-ye [da laoye 大老爺], or great lord; Ta-gin [da ren 大人], or great man.”30 In presenting the six boards or ministries as the major governmental agencies of China, encyclopaedias presented a host of different spellings and translations31 and introduced various renderings in European languages to explain the duties of each of the six boards or ministries.32 Some encyclopaedias dealt with these ministries under respective headwords, some of them in their sections on government and administration of China. In the Encyclopédie four of the 27

Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 461. On the term gelao see Hucker, Dictionary of Official Titles, 278 f. (no. 3174, s. v. ‘kó-lăo’), on da xueshi see ibid., 466 (no. 5962, s. v. ‘tà hsüéh-shìh’). 29 Encyclopédie 9 (1765) 134 (s. v. ‘Ko-laos’). 30 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 245. 31 On the liubu see Hucker, Dictionary of Official Titles, 318 f. (no. 3805). Encyclopaedias gave several different renderings of the term liu bu (six boards): In the Encyclopédie des gens du monde 5 (1835) 725 we read of “six départemens” (with a slight orthographical alteration the Encyclopédie Catholique 7 (1844) 404 has “six départments”), in the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 461 of “six cours souveraines” and in the Encyclopédie Nouvelle, vol. 3, p. 533 of “six tribunaux ou conseils supérieurs”—The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 665 referred to them as “six sovereign courts”; in the Encyclopaedia Londinensis 4 (1810) 448 there are mentioned six “superior courts [. . .] under the general denomination of leou-pou [. . .].” (italics as in the original ); Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’ as well as the Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 413 have “six boards or departments”; the Penny Cyclopaedia, vol. 7 (1837) 77 had “six boards or tribunals”, the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 554 spoke of “six departments”; in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 557 we read of “supreme tribunals” and in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 240 of “six superior tribunals”. Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1565 spoke of nine judicial courts (“9 Gerichte”); In Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 166 Schott spoke of “6 Hauptcollegien” and Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 275 had “6 oberste Tribunale” (six supreme tribunals). 32 For the presentation of the Six Ministries in early seventeenth-century European accounts see Lach and van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe III/4, 1582 f., for Le Comte’s presentation in his Nouveau Mémoires in 1696 see Bai, Les voyageurs français, 138. 28

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six ministries (the Ministry of Rites is referred to in French translation) are referred to by their Chinese denominations (see above p. 115 n. 36): libu 吏部 (Ministry of Personnel );33 hubu 戶部 (Ministry of Revenue);34 libu 禮部 (Ministry of Rites);35 bingbu 兵部 (Ministry of War);36 xingbu 刑部 (Ministry of Justice);37 gongbu 工部 (Ministry of Works).38

33 Hucker, Dictionary of Official Titles, 306 (no. 3630, s. v. ‘lì-pù’); Encyclopédie 9 (1765) 561 (s. v. ‘Lipou’): “ [. . .] est l’un des grands tribunaux souverains de l’empire de la Chine. Il a inspection sur tous les mandarins, & peut leur donner ou leur ôter leurs emplois”; Edinburgh Encyclopaedia vol. 6, p. 240 and Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’: “tribunals of appointments to office”; Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 77: “board of civil appointment”; Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 166: “[Hauptcollegium] der höhern Beamten (li-pu)”; Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 274: “Civilgerichtshof ”; Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 461: “cour des emplois civiles”; Encyclopédie Nouvelle, vol. 3, p. 533: “Tribunal civil”. 34 Hucker, Dictionary of Official Titles, 258 (no. 2789, s. v. ‘hù-pù’); Edinburgh Encyclopaedia vol. 6, p. 240 and Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’. “court of finance”, Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 77: “board of revenues”; Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 166: “Hauptcollegium der Finanzen (hu-pu)”; Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 275: “Finanzkollegium”; Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 461: “seconde cour souveraine, dite de la population ou du revenu public”; Encyclopédie Nouvelle vol. 3, p. 533: “Tribunal des finances” . 35 Hucker, Dictionary of Official Titles, 306 f. (no. 3631, s. v. ‘lĭ-pù’).—Encyclopédie 14 (1765) 302 (s. v. ‘Rites, tribunal des’): “[. . .] c’est un tribunal composé de mandarins & des lettrés chinois, dont la destination est de veiller sur les affaires qui regardent la religion”; Edinburgh Encyclopaedia vol. 6, p. 240 and Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’: “court of ceremonies”; Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 77: “board of rites and ceremonies”; Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 166: “Hauptcollegium der Gebräuche (ly-pu)”; Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 275: “Kultkollegium”; Encyclopédie du dixneuvième siècle 7 (1845) 461: “cour souverain des rites”; Encyclopédie Nouvelle vol. 3, p. 533: “Tribunal des rites”. 36 Hucker, Dictionary of Official Titles, 384 (no. 4691, s. v. ‘pīng-pù’).—Encyclopédie 12 (1765) 628 (s. v. ‘Pimpou’): “tribunal de la Chine où les affaires qui concernent les troupes sont portées”; Edinburgh Encyclopaedia vol. 6, p. 240: “tribunal of arms”, Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 77: “military board”, Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’: “court for regulating military affairs”; Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 166: “Hauptcollegium des Kriegswesens (ping-pu)”; Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 275 “Kriegskollegium”; Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 461: “cour souveraine de la guerre”; Encyclopédie Nouvelle vol. 3, p. 533: “Tribunal de la guerre”. 37 Hucker, Dictionary of Official Titles, 244 (no. 2590, s. v. ‘hsíng-pù’).—Encyclopédie 8 (1765) 210 (s. v. ‘Hing-pu’): “[. . .] c’est le nom qu’on donne à la Chine à un tribunal supérieur qui reside auprès de l’empereur. Il est chargé de la revision de tous les procès criminels de l’empire”; Edinburgh Encyclopaedia vol. 6, p. 240 and Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’: “tribunal of justice”; Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 77 “supreme tribunal of criminal jurisdiction”; Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 166: “Hauptcollegium der Strafen für gesetzwidrige Handlungen”); Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 275: “Justizkollegium”; Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 461: “cour des châtiments”; Encyclopédie Nouvelle vol. 3, p. 533: “Tribunal des peines”. 38 Hucker, Dictionary of Official Titles, 294 (no. 3462, s. v. ‘kūng-pù’).—Encyclopédie 9 (1765) 134 (s. v. ‘Kong-pu’): “c’est chez les Chinois le nom qu’on donne à un tri-

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Regardless of their increasing antipathy towards things Chinese, European observers were fascinated by the well-developed administrative system of China throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Not only the emperor and the imperial court, but also the high-ranking officials attracted the attention of European observers. From the sixteenth century onwards, all European accounts of China followed the Portuguese in naming these high-ranking officials mandarins. Under the headword ‘Mandarin’, Zedler’s Universal-Lexikon referred to the Nouvelle relation de la Chine by Gabriel de Magalhães SJ (1610–1677). Not mentioning the Chinese rendering (guan 官), Zedler presented the following details. The term ‘Mandarin’ usually refers to noblemen and high-ranking officials of the Chinese Empire, most of them governors of the provinces or privy councillors to the emperor. These men were selected from the most learned members of the ‘sect of Confucius’ (i.e. rujiao 儒教). They served far away from their native town or district. Their office usually was located in a magnificent palace. In the most distinguished room of this palace, a statue of the emperor had been erected in front of which the mandarin knelt down before starting his daily work. The article distinguished between military and civil mandarins, the former commanding troops, the latter serving as judges. Their rank could be seen from the kind of jewels they wore on their hats and girdles.39 Most European encyclopaedias published up to 1850 provided this basic information. The Encyclopédie informs us that the Portuguese had applied this term to the nobility and to the magistrates, especially to those of China.40 Until the early nineteenth-century, encyclopaedias perpetuated the wrong etymology of this term. Early sinologists also contributed to this perpetuation: In Ersch/Gruber, Schott wrote of nobles ( guanfu 官府 or dafu 大府, named mandarins by the Portuguese) and of

bunal ou conseil, qui est chargé des travaux publics de l’empire.”; Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 240: “the tribunal of public works”, Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’: “board of works”; Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 77: “board of public works”, Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 166: “Hauptcollegium des ganzen Bauwesens (kung-pu); Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 275: “Baukollegium”, Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, vol. 7, p. 461: “cour des travaux publics”, Encyclopédie Nouvelle vol. 3, p. 533. 39 Zedler 19 (1739) col. 886 (s. v. ‘Mandarin’). 40 Encyclopédie 10 (1765) 11 (s. v. ‘Mandarin’).

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‘Kuanfu or higher officials’.41 In the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, Biot mentioned that the term mandarin is unknown to the Chinese and had been coined by the Europeans who derived it from the Portuguese word mandar, to order.42 A more detailed discussion of this subject may be found in the Encyclopaedia Londinensis quoting from the German-language account on the Macartney embassy given by Johann Christian Hüttner (1766– 1847). Hüttner had been the preceptor to George Thomas Staunton (1781–1859), the son of Sir George Leonard Staunton, who had served as Secretary to this embassy. Hüttner pointed out that ‘mandarin’ is derived from the Portuguese word mandar and denotes “every public officer in the Chinese empire, whether his dignity be great or small, military or civil.” Hüttner also had tried to explain the Chinese term for ‘mandarin’: “This term, however, is never used by the people of China; their word for it is quang [guan 官], or quangfu [guanfu].”43 In nineteenth-century encyclopaedias, the information on mandarins usually is presented under the headword “China”. In the respective sections we are provided with a quite thorough overview over the civil and military administration of the Chinese Empire (including detailed descriptions of the insignia of the nine ranks).44 In the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle Biot pointed out that the whole administration of the Chinese Empire had been composed of three parts: of the central administration of the empire, of the administration of the provinces and colonies, and of the metropolitan administration of the capital.45 Most encyclopaedias freely made use of the detailed descriptions of the administrative system of China presented in quasi-encyclopaedic

41 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 165 and 166. See also Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 424. For an explanation of the term guanfu see Hucker, Dictionary of Official Titles, 285 (no. 3294, s. v. ‘kuān-fŭ’). 42 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 461. According to Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, 550 (s. v. ‘Mandarin’) it “is an old and persistent mistake” that the term Mandarin had been derived from the Portuguese mandar. The term had been derived from Sanscrit/Hindi “mantri, a counsellor, a Minister of State,’ for which it was indeed the proper old pre-Mahommedan term in India.” 43 Encyclopaedia Londinensis 4 (1810) 446. 44 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, pp. 244–246; Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 22, s. v. ‘Mandarin’; Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 273.—On the insignia of official status ( jiu pin 九品) see Cohen, Introduction to Research in Chinese Source Materials, 610 f. 45 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siécle 7 (1845) 461.

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works like Du Halde and Grosier. Based on these sources, the general overview on the subject got more and more detailed during our period of consideration. The Encyclopédie mentioned the fact that the mandarins had to take office far away from their native place in order to avoid any injustice caused by friendship or personal relationship.46 After introducing the seven classes of subjects (mandarins, military, literati, bonzes, peasants, artisans and merchants), the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that the mandarins were the most respected of these classes: “All the Chinese aspire to this rank, both as investing them with a portion of authority, and also as increasing their power of acquiring wealth.” After becoming rich by trade, a Chinese would procure “the office of an inferior mandarin, that he may enjoy his possessions with greater security.”47 This assessment of the social mobility of some groups of Chinese fits into the picture the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia presented of the corruption prevailing throughout China. The Confucian vision to govern the whole nation as a family would be “more beautiful in theory, than practicable in reality.” To show the lack of effective supervision within Chinese administration as portrayed in the accounts of de Guignes and in those of the British embassy to the Qing court, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia points out that the emperor’s “superintendence and vigilance are rendered unavailing, by the want of integrity in his deputies.”48 In some cases, encyclopaedias linked the phenomenon of corruption to the deteriorating state of administrative authority in early nineteenth-century China. Biot mentioned that literary degrees could be obtained by purchase. In his efforts to give a concluding analysis of the efficiency of the Chinese government, he wrote that the forms of corruption occurring in China had been particularly stressed in the accounts of the British in their effort to exaggerate the imperfections of Chinese government. According to Biot, China had the best of all Asiatic governments. The study of its institutions might be useful even for Europeans.49

46 Encyclopédie 10 (1765) 12 (s. v. ‘Mandarin’). On this point see also Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 554. 47 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 244. 48 Ibid., p. 241. 49 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 464.

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In their presentations of the Chinese court, encyclopaedias also mentioned the Peking Gazette, a newspaper issued under imperial auspices. The public voice is never heard, but the public opinion is sedulously courted by the sovereign, and conveyed to every part of the empire through the medium of the Pekin [sic] Gazette.50

Information on the existence of an official newspaper at the court of Peking had been disseminated throughout Europe by the reports of the French Jesuits.51 For information on newspapers in China, the Encyclopédie d’Yverdon referred to the remarks of Joseph de Guignes given in his preface to the translation of the Shujing.52 In the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica we read that this gazette “is even considered by administration as an essential part of the political constitution.”53 The seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica labelled this publication “a vehicle of imperial panegyric” and “one of the most powerful engines of state.”54 Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon not only mentioned the Chinese rendering for the gazette (King-pao [ Jingbao 京報], d. i. Residenz-Neuigkeiten [i.e. news of the capital]), but also referred to it as the “Moniteur of the Middle Kingdom”.55 This equation of the Jingbao to the Moniteur Universel, the official newspaper of late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century France, had earlier been used by the Encyclopédie Nouvelle.56 Contrary to the French Moniteur Universel the Chinese one only would contain official news. Apart from the Jingbao (labelled as the ‘most ancient newspaper of the world’) there were also mentioned the Yamen bao 衙門報, newspapers issued in the major cities of the provinces.57 Concerning the communication between the different administrative levels, encyclopaedias usually mentioned the postal system of China. Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon contained information on Chinese couriers. Based on the account of Marco Polo and on the preface of Martini

50

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 552. See Landry-Deron, La preuve par la Chine, 129–131. 52 Encyclopédie d’Yverdon 19 (1773) 250 f. (s. v. ‘Gazette’). 53 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 674. 54 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 552.—For a similar assessment see Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 272. 55 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 279. 56 Encyclopédie Nouvelle, vol. 3, p. 536 (‘[. . .] Moniteur impérial [. . .]’). 57 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 462. 51

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to his Novus Atlas Sinensis, Zedler pointed out that these couriers were a kind of people in China used to dispatch letters and other things in a very special and quick manner. Throughout the empire there existed about ten thousand of these inns or postal stations.58 The third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica pointed out that there “is no public post-office in China, though several private ones have been established.”59 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia portrayed this postal system as quite degenerated: these posts or relays established for changing the horses were “by no means very numerous.” Although the horses used in this service were described as “small, ill-fed, and carelessly treated”, it was added that “these couriers travel at a considerable rate, generally 100, and sometimes even 150, miles in the 24 hours; and they have been known to pass between Canton and Pekin in the space of 11 days.”60 For a long time, Europeans took general information on the administration on China from the writings of the Jesuit missionaries (sixteenth to eighteenth centuries) as well as from travelogues. Due to growing British commercial interests in East Asia, compilers of encyclopaedias could make use of new sources of information. Among these new sources were periodicals like the Asiatic Researches (founded in 1784)61 or the Asiatic Journal (founded in 1816). The entry on China inserted in the Dictionnaire de la conversation et de la lecture even presented a list of the presidents of the Six Ministries (liubu) and of the members of the neige (originally published in the Asiatic Journal).62 In mid-nineteenth-century, Europeans were well aware of the imperial almanac published at Peking four times a year containing lists of all the ‘mandarins’ of the Chinese Empire.63 Mid-nineteenthcentury encyclopaedias provided a thorough overview on the administrative organization of China including information on governmental agencies. Publications resulting from the activities of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission at Peking (and mainly Alexei Leont’ev’s (1716–1786)

58

Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1613 (s. v. ‘Sinesische Läuffer’). Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 670. 60 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 268; Krünitz 116 (1810) 161 (s. v. ‘Post’). 61 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Supplement to the Third edition, vol. 1 (1801) 419 (s. v. ‘China’). 62 Dictionnaire de la conversation et de la lecture, vol. 14 (1834) 126–128 (s. v. ‘Chine’: ‘Gouvernement et Administration actuelle de la Chine’). 63 Meyer I 7,2 (1845) 272. 59

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translations from the Manchu) also served as a source for encyclopaedias’ information on the Chinese government. This may be seen from an extensive entry on the central administration of China inserted in Krünitz’ encyclopaedia.64 In their presentation (and explanation) of the various administrative levels of imperial China, European observers on the spot as well as compilers and editors of encyclopaedias frequently borrowed terminology in use throughout the monarchies of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Europe. This fact has been widely neglected by nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars when they coined such renderings for official titles in their respective languages. Closely linked to the presentation of the various levels of the administration of China were bits of information on the recruitment of officers. The examination system of late imperial China had been much admired and described in detail by early modern European observers.65 In its article on schools, Zedler’s Universal-Lexikon paraphrased Nieuhof who had presumed that no other country would have such well-organized schools as China (implicitly referring to the examination system).66 According to the Encyclopédie it would be impossible to hold even the lowest office in China without being educated. Regarding the different degrees bestowed upon the successful candidates, the Encyclopédie pointed out that every candidate has to pass three very severe exams, which correspond to the European degrees of bachelor, licentiate and doctor.67 While eighteenth-century encyclopaedias sometimes also tended to split up this information under headwords referring to the various degrees, nineteenth-century encyclopaedias offered a very comprehensive treatment of the subject. Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon pointed out, that the literary degrees were of the highest importance as all administrative offices were held by scholars.68 In his article on China for the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, Biot expressed a more biased attitude in assessing the examination

64 Krünitz 162 (1835) 656–685 (s. v. ‘Staat’); Leont’ev’s translations from the Manchu were explicitly mentioned in ibid., 693. On Leont’ev’s translation, published at St. Petersburg in 1781–83, see Lust, Western Books on China, 166 (no. 711). 65 On the detailed accounts given by Trigault und Semedo see Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe III/4, 1638–1641. 66 Zedler 35 (1743) col. 1488 (s. v. ‘Schule’). 67 Encyclopédie 2 (1752) 232 (s. v. ‘Bibliothèque’). 68 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 279. See also above p. 115.

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system than other nineteenth-century contributors to encyclopaedias. Success in the civil examinations almost exclusively would depend on the memory and on the hand of each candidate rather than on his wit or his intelligence. Knowledge of the obscure texts of the Sacred Books of China (des livres sacrés de la Chine) seemed to be a quite uncertain pledge for the talent of future civil servants. The military examinations would mainly require the proper handling of premodern arms. Although Biot enumerated these obvious shortcomings of the Chinese examination system, he pointed out that there has been established a regular mode of admission to an administrative career in China. Biot added that no European country ever had possessed a similar system.69 A similar assessment was given by the unknown author of the entry on the Chinese government in Krünitz’ encyclopaedia. The administration of China was portrayed as one of the best organized of Asia. In connection with the administration of China, the author further dismissed European attempts to place China in the middle between the civilised nations of Europe and other nations of Asia. He pointed out that this might be true for their slow progress in arts and sciences but not for their government.70 Encyclopaedias referred not only to the central administrative organization of the Chinese Empire but also to the structure of provincial administration. The Encyclopédie had introduced the term zongdu 總督 (governor general) used by the Chinese to refer to the “viceroys of the provinces.”71 Early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias referred to the provincial administration of China: According to the Encyclopédie Nouvelle, each of the provinces is governed by a governor-general or a ‘lieutenant-governor’.72

69

Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 457 f.—On possible Chinese influence on civil servant examinations in Europe see Ssu-yü Têng, “Chinese Influence on the Western Examination System,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 7, no. 4 (Sep. 1943), 267–312, especially 292–301 (III. Development of the civil service examination in India and England and the weight of evidence against Chinese influence). 70 Krünitz 162 (1835) 690 f. (s. v. ‘Staat’). 71 Encyclopédie 15 (1765) 343 (s. v. ‘Somtou, ou Somtoc’). For the term zongdu (governor general ) see Hucker, Dictionary of Official Titles, 534 (no. 7158; s. v. ‘tsŭng-tu’). 72 Encyclopédie Nouvelle 3 (1841) 528: “un gouverneur-général ou un lieutenant gouverneur.”

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Referring to the European renderings of Chinese administrative terms, Schott pointed out that Europeans would render the term representing the highest officer of a province “usually but misleadingly” as ‘Viceroy’ (Unterkönig). He neither mentioned the term zongdu nor offered any alternative rendering.73 In discussing the civil administration of China, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia listed twenty-six different offices (including the provincial level).74 Of the chief administrative officers in the provinces, most encyclopaedias usually mentioned the governor general (zongdu), who presides over the governor (xunfu 巡撫 or fuyuan 撫院), as well as the provincial administration commissioner (buzhengshi 部政使), a provincial military commander (tidu 提督) and a surveillance commissioner (ancha shi 按察使).75 Mentioning these officials (including the romanized version of the respective Chinese terms), Pierer’s Universal-Lexikon added, that there were also supervisors of the learned and in some of the provinces there were inspectors for salt and grain.76 In 1845, Meyer’s ConversationsLexikon added that there had been established a customs officer (haiguan 海關) in the newly opened ports.77 The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana mentioned these haiguan or commissioners of the customs for the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian.78

73

Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 166. Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 245 f. 75 The renderings of the various terms and their translations given by encyclopaedias are: Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 245 f.: “1. Ttsong-too, whose jurisdiction extends over one or two provinces; and of whom there are reckoned only eleven in the empire, 2. Foo-yuen, or governor of a province. 3. Poo-tching-sse, or chief treasurer, and civil judge [. . .] 6. Ngan-sha-sse, chief criminal judge.”—In: German: Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 424: “Vicekönig (Tsung-tu) [. . .] ‘Unterstatthalter (Siün-fu, Fu-yuan) [. . .], Finanzverwalter (Pu-tsching-ßü), [. . .] Befehlshaber der Truppen (Thi-tu), der Criminalrichter (Ngan-tscha-juan) [. . .]“; Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 277 f.: “Tsong-to, oder General-Gouverneur“; “Fu-yuan od. Gouverneur“; “Pu-tsching-ße, oder Finanzverwalter, der Thi-tu, Befehlshaber der Truppen, der Ngan-tscha-yuen oder Kriminalrichter [. . .] ein Tschen-tschun-sse oder Salzaufseher.“—On the offices mentioned in this paragraph see Hucker, Dictionary of Official Titles, 255 (no. 2731, s. v. ‘hsün-fŭ’), ibid., 221 (no. 2121, s. v. ‘fŭ-yüán’); ibid., 127 (no. 487, s. v. ‘ch’éng-hsüān pù-chèng shĭh ssū’); ibid., p. 498 (no. 6482, s. v. ‘t’í-tū’) and ibid., 103 (no. 12, s. v. ‘àn-ch’á shĭh’). 76 Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 424.—This information presumably refers to the Grain Tax Circuits and the Salt Control Circuits of Qing China. See Hucker, Dictionary of Official Titles, 89. 77 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 278 (“[. . .] Hai-kuan oder Zollaufseher [. . .]”). 78 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 561. 74

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The Laws of China

The translation of the Da Qing lüli by George Thomas Staunton (published in 1810) provided Europeans with “a more thorough knowledge of the legislation of China than of any other subject respecting that country, to which our inquiry may be directed.”79 This general assessment of the importance of Staunton’s work given by the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia is mirrored by most entries on China in general encyclopaedias published after 1810. The Penny Cyclopaedia even mentioned the review of Staunton’s translation published in the Edinburgh Review that included “a very advantageous comparison with other Asiatic systems.” It also quoted later remarks on Chinese law given by Henry Ellis and John Francis Davis.80 In Ersch/Gruber, Staunton’s translation was used as the only source for information on theft in China.81 According to the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Staunton’s translation of the Da Qing lüli, together with Pierre Martial Cibot’s (1727–1780) abstract of the Da Qing huidian would enable Europeans to form a tolerably correct notion of the machinery by which the multitudinous population of the largest empire on the face of the world has been uniformely kept in motion, and performed its several functions, for the last four thousand years.82

Although European observers had reported repeatedly on “details of Chinese judicial practice”,83 eighteenth-century encyclopaedias contained little information on the judicial system of China. The second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica contained information on various punishments as well as on “two kinds of torture used in China.”84

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Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 256. Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 78. 81 Ersch/Gruber I 25 (1834) 27 (s. v. ‘Diebstahl’). 82 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 568. See Pierre Martial Cibot, “Notice de ce qui rapporte à la Piété Filiale, dans le Code des Loix de la dynastie règnante,” Mémoires concernant l’histoire, les sciences, les arts, les moeurs, les usages & c. des Chinois 4 (1779), 127–167. 83 Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe III/4, 1589. 84 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1919. See also ibid., 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 669. On the forms of torture in Qing China see Nancy Park, “Imperial Chinese Justice and the Law of Torture,” Late Imperial China 29, no. 2 (Dec. 2008), 37–67. On Western perceptions of torture in China see Timothy Brook, Jérôme Bourgon and Gregory Blue, Death by a Thousand Cuts (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008), 152–202 (chap. 6: “Chinese Torture in the Western Mind”). 80

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The section Jurisprudence of the Encyclopédie Méthodique presents five points: the authority of the Emperor of China, the distribution and the power of the magistrates, police and criminal laws, different civil and religious institutions, and the political relations of China with her neighbours.85 Of the sources used for its presentation of the police and the criminal laws of the Chinese, the article only mentions the account of Le Comte and the Mémoires concernant l’histoire, les sciences, les arts, les mœurs, les usages & c. des Chinois. The presentation of the administration of justice refers to the bastinado (stick-beating) and to the police at the city gates. Moreover, we read that each death sentence has to be confirmed by the Emperor.86 As early as in the Encyclopédie edited by Diderot we find an entry on ‘Pan-tsée’ (banzi 板子)—a flat bamboo for beating criminals: In this entry Jaucourt describes not only the shape of this device, he also gives details on its use.87 Mainly based on Grosier’s description of China, the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica refers to the ‘pan-tsee’ as the ‘instrument of correction’ used for the ‘slightest punishment in China’, and gives details on the respective procedure.88 Early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias usually based their information on Chinese laws and jurisdiction on Staunton’s translation of the Da Qing lüli. In the second edition of Pierer, it is pointed out that jurisdiction in China is made easy due to the existence of very minute codes which prescribe all punishments in detail. Infanticide is described as the most common of all crimes, followed by family quarrels, disobedience, and impious conduct. The various forms of punishments include the bastinado (with the bamboo), imprisonment, deportment, strangulation, decapitation, and the opening of the belly of the criminal. Pierer’s presentation of Chinese jurisdiction also contained information that torture was commonly used to get confessions, that verdicts had to be approved by the emperor and that some high-ranking persons including imperial princes and the nobility are exempt from general jurisdiction.89

85

Encyclopédie Méthodique, Jurisprudence 2 (1783) 603–617 (s. v. ‘Chine’). Ibid., p. 609–611. 87 Encyclopédie 11 (1765) 830 (s. v. ‘Pan-tsée’). 88 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 668. On seventeenth-century European descriptions of “the ubiquitous beating with bamboo canes as the most common punishment in China” see Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe III/4, 1715 f. (quote on p. 1715). 89 Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 425 (s. v. ‘China’). 86

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The third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica presented the ‘cangue’ (jia 枷) as the instrument used for “faults of a higher nature.”90 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia described the ‘cangue’ as a kind of “moveable pillory, [. . .] a wooden collar, composed of two flat pieces of timber, hollowed out in such a manner, that, when united together, there is room for a man’s neck to be inclosed between them.” The ordinary weight of this ‘instrument’ was given as 60 to 70 pounds: “When this machine is placed round the neck, and resting on the shoulders, the criminal is unable to see his feet, or put his hands to his mouth, and would die of hunger if he had no person to administer his food.”91 In Krünitz’ encyclopaedia, we read that many of those who are condemned to the cangue die because of considerable pain, hunger and lack of sleep.92 In its article on China, Meyer’s ConversationsLexikon also mentioned the ‘cangue’ in the rendering ‘Kia-Kangu’—a term which connects both the Chinese and the European designation for this device.93 Moreover, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon presented information on lingchi 淩遲, a method which is used in cases of treason, parricide, sacrilege, and incest. The offender is put to death by the slow process of slicing the limbs before beheading.94 Without mentioning the term lingchi the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica as well as the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia also provided information on this form of punishment.95 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that there has occurred quite a change in the various ways of punishments. In the times of Confucius the Chinese had used five sorts of punishment: “a black mark upon the forehead [mo 墨, branding], amputation of the tip of 90 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 668.—On the cangue see Park, “Imperial Chinese Justice,” 40. For seventeenth-century European descriptions of the cangue see Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe III/4, 1589 f. 91 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 257.—In the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1919 we read of the “kan-ghe, or wooden ruff. [. . .] a kind of portable pillory.” In ibid., 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 668 any comparison to a pillory had been omitted. The Penny Cyclopaedia 6 (1836) 238 (s. v. ‘Cang, or Kea’) refers to it as “a species of walking pillory”. In the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 562 we read of a “portable pillory”, Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4Sr described the ‘Cangue’ as “ambulatory pillory”. 92 Krünitz 159 (1833) 399 (s. v. ‘Spitzbube’). 93 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 277. 94 Ibid. 95 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 668 (based on Grosier); Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 257.

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the nose [yi 劓], or cutting off the feet [yue 刖], castration [gong 宮], and death [dapi 大辟].” It mentioned that none of these punishments is included in the Da Qing lüli.96 6.3

The Armed Forces of the Qing Empire

Early modern European observers portrayed China as a peaceful empire. These assessments evidently ignored the fact of eighteenthcentury China’s westward expansion which culminated in the extermination of the Zunghars. Hans van de Ven pointed out why Chinese culture repeatedly was regarded as a peaceful one. For eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Europe this image can be ascribed to European conceptions of Confucian aspirations and as “an Enlightenment image produced when dynastic wars ravaged Europe.”97 In his Histoire philosophique et politique des établissements et du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes (1770), Raynal perpetuated earlier European conceptions of China as a peaceful empire. The influence of Raynal on his contemporaries may be seen best from the article on China inserted in the Dictionnaire universel edited by Jean-Baptiste Robinet (1735–1820). Paraphrasing Raynal, Robinet pointed out that life in China is supple (souple), moderate (moderée), peaceful (paisible), und peace-loving (pacifique).98 In Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon we read that, due to the prevailing doctrines of Confucius the Chinese never were a conquering people and that the main task of the Chinese army had always been to maintain peace and security on the overland routes throughout China.99 Despite this general assessment, European encyclopaedias sometimes included an extensive presentation of Chinese military affairs. Up to the late eighteenth century, they took the information mainly from travelogues. With the publication of L’Art militaire des Chinois by Joseph Amiot, new information on Chinese military affairs became available. For the first time, Europeans could learn about the classical military writings of the Chinese. The section on the art of warfare

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Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 256. Hans J. Van de Ven, “War in the Making of Modern China,” Modern Asian Studies 30, no. 4 (Oct. 1996), 737–756, here 737. 98 Robinet 11 (1779) 648. 99 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 4,1 (1843) 215 (s. v. ‘Armee’). 97

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of the Encyclopédie Méthodique (published in 1784) quoted at length from Amiot’s treatise.100 This treatise shows, according to the English Encyclopaedia, “that the Chinese are well versed in the theory of the art of war.” Caution, care, and circumspection ever had been recommended to their generals. One of the maxims they closely observe would be “never to fight with enemies either more numerous or better armed than themselves.”101 In Ersch/Gruber, Schott recommended the seventh volume of the Mémoires concernant l’histoire, les sciences, les arts, les mœurs, les usages &c. des Chinois to all those who would like to study Chinese warfare in its entirety.102 In his article for the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, Biot relied not only on the accounts given by the younger de Guignes and by the Russian Jegor Fedorovič Timkovskij (1790–1875)103 but also on the ‘imperial almanac.’104 Even before the late eighteenth century, information on rather cruel details of Chinese warfare were disseminated throughout Europe. The most outstanding example for this refers to the consequences of one of the strategic operations during the siege of Kaifeng 開封 (Henan Province) in October 1642: after the Imperial forces had cut the dykes of Kaifeng in order to expel Li Zicheng and his rebels from the city, the severe flooding of the area caused the death of 300,000. Encyclopaedias mentioned this incident either in presenting information on the city of Kaifeng105 or in their presentation of the fall of the Ming.106 The English Encyclopaedia pointed out that since the Manchu takeover China had been “a far more powerful empire than it was before its conquest by the eastern Tartars in 1644.”107 Mid eighteenthcentury encyclopaedias presented details on changes in the military 100

Encyclopédie Méthodique, Art militaire 1 (1784) 158–161 (s. v. ‘Armes’). English Encyclopaedia 2 (1802) 498. 102 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 168.—The seventh volume of the Mémoires concernant l’histoire, les sciences, les arts, les mœurs, les usages &c. des Chinois, published in 1782, included a reprint of Joseph Amiot, Art militaire des Chinois (Paris 1772) and several other treatises on the art of warfare (also translated by Amiot). For details see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 1555 f. 103 Biot may have used the French translation of Timkovskij’s account (Voyage à Péking, à travers la Mongolie), published in Paris in 1827. For the various translations of the account see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 2473 f. 104 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 470 (s. v. ‘Chine’, E. Biot). 105 Zedler 5 (1733) col. 134 (s. v. ‘Caifung’) referred to the report on the Dutch legation of 1655/57 by Johan Nieuhof; see also Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 19, s. v. ‘Kai-fong’. 106 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 290. 107 English Encyclopaedia 2 (1802) 498. 101

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organization of China that had taken place as a result of the Manchu conquest. As early as in the Encyclopédie we find the headword ‘Ki’ (qi 旗, i.e. banner) containing the information that these banners serve the “Mongol Tartars” (Tartares Mongules) to distinguish the hordes or families their nation consists of. At the end of this entry we find a cross-reference to military insignia (‘Enseignes militaires’).108 Up to its seventh edition, the Encyclopaedia Britannica contained no details on the eight banners at all.109 the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia presented further information regarding the style and form of the eight banners. Also mentioning the Green Standard (luying 綠營) troops110 the section has the following on the eight banners: “a triangular standard about six feet in height; [. . .] those of the Tartars are of various colours, white, yellow, red, and blue, or yellow with red fringes, white with red fringes, red with white fringes, and blue with red fringes.”111 In the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, Édouard Biot stated that the organization of the armed forces of the Chinese may be compared to that of European armies.112 6.4

Revenue and Money

Since the very first contacts in early modern times, the incredible riches of China had attracted European curiosity. Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon based its information on the revenue of China mainly on the accounts of Trigault, Linschoten, and Nieuhof.113 For information on the revenues of the Chinese Empire, Robinet’s Dictionnaire universel mainly relied on Jesuit accounts. According to Amiot, the Chinese would have established their customs following a European model.114

108

Encyclopédie 9 (1765) 126 (s. v. ‘Kim-te-tchim’). Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 575: “They are arranged in eight banners, distinguished by different colours.” 110 Hucker, Dictionary of Official Titles, 92 and ibid., 324 (no. 3862, s. v. ‘lù-yīng’). 111 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 265.—Similar descriptions of the eight banners are given in Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon, I 4,1 (1843) 215 and Pierer, UniversalLexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 425, the latter also enumerating the eight banners in distinguishing plain (not specified in the German original) and bordered (xiang 鑲; ‘eingefaßt’ in the German original ) banners. On the terminology see Hucker, Dictionary of Official Titles, 134 f. (no. 611, s. v. ‘ch’í’) and ibid., 358 (no. 4538, s. v. ‘pā-ch’í’). 112 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 470. 113 Zedler 63 (1750) col. 177–179 (s. v. ‘Zoll’). 114 Robinet 11 (1779) 640. 109

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In the early nineteenth century, a change of sources of information on the revenue of China took place. Most encyclopaedias referred to the accounts of the Macartney embassy. Only scarcely the contributors and compilers still referred to the treatise on this subject given by Amiot in the Mémoires concernant l’histoire, les sciences, les arts, les mœurs, les usages &c. des Chinois—one of the latest may have been Wilhelm Schott in his article on China for Ersch/Gruber.115 In the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, Édouard Biot wrote that widely differing data concerning the revenue of China were a result of different approaches by Jesuit missionaries on the one hand and some members of the British embassy of 1792/93 on the other.116 Regarding the revenues of the Chinese Empire, encyclopaedias usually mentioned that data given by European observers differ considerably.117 The early nineteenth century offered a variety of “new” information on the subject. The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, which relied on material collected in the course of the Macartney embassy in 1792/93, compared it to data provided by the younger de Guignes. It stated that an inquirer generally receives as many different statements, as he consults different persons. [. . .] it was clearly the great object of the Chinese rulers to impress the British embassy with the most exalted notion of the strength and resources of their empire.118

In dealing with the revenues of all (major) countries in the world, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon stressed the insurmountable difficulties to get exact data on the national budget of China and Japan.119 In a quite similar way, the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica introduced its information on the subject: “It is utterly impossible, from any document that has appeared of an authentic nature, to form any estimation of the amount and value of the revenue.” As the available data on the subject were very unsatisfying the article concluded that the “immense treasures supposed to have been amassed

115

Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 162 f. Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 469. 117 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 262; Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 469 (s. v. ‘Chine’, É. Biot). 118 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 262. 119 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 6 (1843) 688 (s. v. ‘Budget’). 116

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in Tartary by the reigning dynasty exist only in the imagination of the Chinese.”120 The importance of trade relations with East Asia is reflected in detailed information on the currency of the Chinese Empire121 and of various other places on the route to the East. Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon placed information on Chinese currency in the entries on money and on Chinese coins.122 Under its headword ‘money’, the Encyclopédie presented a short paragraph on Chinese coins.123 Zedler took the information on Chinese coins from the accounts of the two seventeenth-century Dutch legations published by Nieuhof and Dapper.124 Moreover, the entry referred to an octagonal Chinese coin owned by the Duke of Gotha and on display in his coin collection. Explanations on a figure showing the eight trigrams were taken from the works of Couplet and Leibniz respectively. While the sources used for information on Chinese coins changed in the course of time, basic information on Chinese coins itself did not change very much. Encyclopaedias referred to the round shape of Chinese coins with rectangular holes in the middle.125 For payment the Chinese used ingots of gold or silver (in their form resembling little ships).126 The Chinese would always carry along with them a pair of scissors, a pair of scales,

120

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 559. Richard Von Glahn, Fountain of Fortune. Money and Monetary Policy in China, 1000–1700 (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1996). For a general overview on the history of money in China see Wilkinson, Chinese History, 247–252. For seventeenth- and eighteenth century French accounts on this subject see Bai, Les voyageurs français, 254–259. 122 Zedler 10 (1735) col. 712 (‘Geld’); ibid. 22 (1739) col. 475 f. (s. v. ‘Müntze (Chinesische)’). Much more detailed information on Chinese coins than inserted in Zedler had been presented in Ludovici, Eröffnete Akademie der Kaufleute, vol. 2 (1753) col. 335–342 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Münzen’). 123 Encyclopédie 10 (1765) 655 (s. v. ‘Monnoies de compte des modernes’). 124 Johan Nieuhof, L’Ambassade de la Compagnie Orientale des Provinces Unies vers l’Empereur de la Chine, ou Grand Cam de la Tartarie (Leiden: Meurs, 1665). For the various editions and translations of Neuhof’s account see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 2344–2348.—Olfert Dapper, Gedenkwaerdig Bedryf der Nederlandsche Oost-Indische Maatschappye, op de Kuste en in het Keizerrijk van Taising of Sina [. . .] (Amsterdam: Meurs, 1670). 125 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 670 f.; Meyer, ConversationsLexikon I 7,2 (1845) 269; Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed. 6 (1841) 422 f. 126 On the shape of these ingots see also the information in Krünitz 19 (1780) 584 (s. v. ‘Goltschut’). In the Deutsche Encyclopädie 12 (1787) 849 (s. v. ‘Goltschuit, Goltschut’) we read that the silver ingots are called Taels.—On these ingots see Von Glahn, Fountain of Fortune, 55. 121

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and a set of weights to prepare on the spot the necessary value in bullion.127 Under its headword ‘Money’, the Penny Cyclopaedia provided an alphabetically arranged list of different coins and currencies. This list contained concise information on Chinese money: ‘Cash’, ‘Sennis, or Cashes’, ‘Shoe of gold’, and ‘Tale’ (the latter only a cross-reference to ‘Cash’).128 Early-nineteenth encyclopaedias repeatedly referred to the paper money of the Chinese. The main sources for this information were a treatise by Louis-Mathieu Langlès published in the Décade philosophique, littéraire et politique (1795) and an article by Klaproth published in the first volume of Journal Asiatique (1822). Krünitz’ encyclopaedia quoted extensively from the German translation of Langlès’ treatise (published in 1798) including Langlès’ notes referring to Marco Polo, Magalhães, and Gaubil.129 The Penny Cyclopaedia pointed out that there “is a present no paper currency in China, although it was adopted by the Mongol conquerors of the empire.” It had been abandoned as a consequence “of the depreciation and discredit which ensued from over issues and the bad faith of the government.”130 6.5

Sino-Western Trade Relations

Economic interests had played a key role in the European advance into Asia ever since the early sixteenth century. In examining general reference works up to 1850 there emerge three major European attitudes towards the economy of Asia: European trade relations with Asia (i.e. importation of ‘exotic’ and luxury products), ‘invention’ of European substitutes for Asian products, and China as a market for European products.

127 Zedler 22 (1739) col. 475; Moréri 1759 ed., vol. 3, p. 625. See also Deutsche Encyclopädie 11 (1786) 564 (s. v. ‘Geld der Morgenländer’); Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 297; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 670 f.; Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 466 f. 128 Penny Cyclopaedia 15 (1839) 322–326 (s. v. ‘Money’). 129 Krünitz 107 (1807) 88–94 (s. v. ‘Ueber das Papiergeld der asiatischen Völker’).— On late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century French accounts see Bai, Les voyageurs français, 257–259. For the history of paper money in China see Von Glahn, Fountain of Fortune, 56–82. 130 Penny Cyclopaedia 6 (1836) 253 (s. v. ‘Canton’).

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Encyclopaedias usually presented information on European trade relations with Asia (as well as their historical backgrounds) in the context of information on the various East India companies founded in several European countries during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This pattern continued even in late eighteenth century when the power and significance of most of these companies had ended. In its section on commerce, the Encyclopédie Méthodique presented details on statistics for the Asian trade of the various East India companies.131 In 1840, Ersch/Gruber presented a long entry on the history and significance of these companies.132 Krünitz followed a three-fold model in presenting information on the China trade. Apart from ample information on the foreign trade of European and other nations trading to China, it also considered the activities of the East India companies as well as the significance of East Asia for global shipping routes.133 In assessing Sino-European trade relations, Krünitz’ encyclopaedia followed a model widely used by late-eighteenth and early nineteenth-

131

Encyclopédie Méthodique, Commerce 1 (1783) 55 (s. v. ‘Allemagne’, on the Asiatic company founded at Emden); ibid., p. 74 f. (s. v. ‘Angleterre’, on the East India Company).—Under the headword ‘Compagnie’ (ibid., vol. 1 (1783) 551–701 several paragraphs refer to the China trade (s. v. ‘Commerce de la Chine’), ibid., pp. 617–619; ibid., vol. 2 (1783) 535–656 (s. v. ‘Hollande’), on the China trade see ibid., 538; ibid., vol. 3 (1784) 282–311 (s. v. ‘Moscovie’), especially 282–284 (‘Commerce de la Sibérie avec la Chine’). Ibid., 431–436 (s. v. ‘Portugal’), on Macau see ibid., 432 f.—The Deutsche Encyclopädie 14 (1789) 254–268 provides information on the East Indian companies established and privileged by European governments in its entry ‘Handlungs- oder Handelsgesellschaft’: Denmark (255 f.), England (258 f.), France (260 and 262 f.), Holland (263 f.), Prussia (265 f.), Spain (267), Sweden (267 f.), as well as on the attempts made by the Habsburg Empire in the 1720s and 1770s (ibid., 264 f.). 132 Ersch/Gruber II 17 (1840) 427–453 (s. v. ‘Indische Handelsgesellschaften’). 133 Krünitz on the foreign trade of China: 163 (1835) 648–653 (s. v. ‘Staat’), on the shipping of China (mostly containing information on the European trade) see ibid. 144 (1826) 139–147. On Portuguese trade relations with China see ibid., 143 (1826) 732–734 (s. v.’Schifffahrt’). On the English East India Company see ibid., 105 (1807) 574–598 (s. v. ‘Ostindische Compagnie in England’), on the China trade also ibid., 143 (1826) 768 f. (s. v. ‘Schifffahrt’). On the Dutch East India Company’s activities in China see ibid., 105 (1807) 609 (s. v. ‘Ostindische Compagnie in Holland’). On French trade relations with China ibid., 105 (1807) 573 f. (s. v. ‘Ostindische Compagnie’) and ibid., 598–609 (s. v. ‘Ostindische Compagnie in Frankreich’; i.e. French East India Company). On the China trade of Russia see ibid. 129 (1821) 23; for Denmark’s Asian trade see ibid., 43 (1788) 784–793 (s. v. ‘Kopenhagen’, i.e. Copenhagen), for Sweden ibid., 144 (1826) 15 f. (s. v. ‘Schifffahrt’). For remarks on the rising American trade with China see ibid., 144 (1826) 118 (s. v. ‘Schifffahrt’) and ibid., 163 (1835) 667 (s. v. ‘Staat’). On the China trade of Hawaii see 163 (1836) 767 f. (s. v. ‘Staat’) and ibid., 144 (1826) 179 (s. v. ‘Schifffahrt’).

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century European writers: while China had been potrayed as stagnant, changes only had been caused by developments in European trade relations with East Asia.134 Encyclopaedias mentioned that the system of the Hong merchants originated in the eighteenth century. The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia presented ample information on the company of the so-called Hong merchants, also known as Co-Hong (gonghang 公行). Following a remark on the establishment of exclusive companies for the Asian trade by several European countries we read that the Chinese “themselves have found it requisite to form something like an exclusive company on their part, in trading with the foreign merchants who visit their ports.”135 In 1826, Krünitz’ encyclopaedia referred to the Hong merchants as trade guild.136 The seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica points out that the system of the foreign trade of China “is a monopoly confided to a certain number of persons, known by the name of Hong merchants, hong being the name of the large factories or masses of buildings surrounding square courts similar to our old inns, or the caravanserais of the East.”137 Encyclopaedias also provided information on the establishment of the gonghang. In the aftermath of the First Anglo-Chinese war, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon pointed out that the syndicate of Hong merchants had been set up in 1720 and lasted until its abolition by the Treaty of Nanjing (August 1842).138 In the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia we read that the “Cong-hang” had been “first instituted in 1759, by a Tsong-too [zongdu], named Lee [i.e. Li Shiyao 李侍堯, d. 1788]”. For its description of the “factories or lodgings of the foreign traders” the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia quotes at length from Osbeck’s A Voyage to China and the East Indies (an English translation had been published in 1771).139 The seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica illustrated the restrictions imposed by the Chinese on Europeans by the

134

Krünitz 163 (1835) 648 (s. v. ‘Staat’). Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 329. On the early history of the Hong merchants see Weng Eang Cheong, The Hong Merchants of Canton. Chinese Merchants in Sino-Western Trade, 1684–1798 (Richmond: Curzon, 1997). 136 Krünitz 144 (1826) 147. 137 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 582. 138 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 263 and 297. 139 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 329 f.—The Swedish original of Osbeck’s account had been published in 1757, a German translation in 1765. See Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 2097 f. 135

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various (unsuccessful) attempts of Thomas Manning (1772–1840) to gain access to China Proper.140 Up to 1850, encyclopaedias usually gave a more or less detailed presentation of the so-called ‘Canton Trade’141 and of (pre)conditions for European traders at Guangzhou. Describing the situation of the early 1830s, the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica pointed out that “for the last twenty years the foreign commerce of this port [i.e. Canton/Guangzhou] was almost exclusively in the hands of the English and the Americans.”142 German and French encyclopaedias also pointed out that this trade was mainly maintained by the British. They added that the China trade of all other Europeans (only naming the Dutch, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Danes, and the Swedes) had been rather insignificant.143 Eager to give a presentation of the latest developments in China, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon provided not only a detailed overview over the regulations for the British trade in the five ports opened by the Chinese as a consequence of the First Anglo-Chinese War, but also ample information on Hong Kong and on some of the newly opened treaty ports.144 In its article on China, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia inserted comprehensive information on the history of Sino-Western relations under the heading ‘View of the progressive intercourse of other nations with China’.145 In a similar way, most encyclopaedias combined their presentation of the historical evolution of Sino-European relations with information on the history of the European trade with East Asia. Under the headword “China” Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon as well as the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia dealt with the historical evolution of the China trade of the various European nations. The Portuguese, who had played a pioneering role in the ‘rediscovery’ of China by early

140 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 548.—On Manning’s travels see Osterhammel, Entzauberung. 126–128. 141 On the Canton trade see Paul A. Van Dyke, The Canton Trade. Life and Enterprise on the China Coast, 1700–1845. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2005. 142 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 582. 143 Krünitz 143 (1826) 758, ibid., 163 (1835) 648 (s. v. ‘Staat’); Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 263. 144 For a presentation of these regulations and of the customs tariff see Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 263–268. For information on Guangzhou see ibid., I 17 (1850) 515–517 (s. v. ‘Kanton’), on Hong Kong ibid., I 15 (1850) 1187 f. (s. v. ‘Hongkong’), on Ningbo ibid., I 23 (1853) 889–891 (s. v. ‘Ning-po’), on Shanghai ibid., II 8 (1851) 1207–1210 (s. v. ‘Shanghai’). 145 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 325.

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modern Europe, were described by Meyer as brutal and unrestrained, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia spoke of “insolent excesses” committed by the Portuguese.146 Concerning the Dutch, encyclopaedias mentioned their unsuccessful attack upon Macau in 1622 and their temporary presence at Taiwan. The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that the last Dutch embassy of 1794/95 “was productive of so little commercial benefit, while it was attended with so many circumstances degrading to their national character.”147 Concerning the early days of British trade with Asia, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out, that they experienced “numberless obstacles in the progress of their India commerce, from the intrigues of the Dutch and Portuguese, in these countries: but finally succeded in extending their trade to China”—the main article of export from China had been tea, “besides raw silk, silk stuffs, sugarcandy, porcelain, camphor, nankeens, & c.” while the English brought “money, lead, tin, woolen and cotton cloths, pepper, and other articles of merchandize.”148 Despite its failure, the British embassy of 1792/93 had contributed to an uninterrupted progress of trade in Canton.149 Presentations of Sino-European trade often started with remarks on the restrictions and detailed regulations set up by the Chinese. The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana pointed out that foreign trade received no encouragement and was “barely tolerated” because of “that jealous policy which draws a line of perpetual demarcation between China and the rest of the world.”150 In the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia we read that the merchant who engages in foreign trade “is accounted very little better than a vagabond.”151 In its article on China (written well before the days of the First Anglo-Chinese War) the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica pointed out that “[a]ll foreign commerce is systematically discouraged.”152 In concluding its general remarks on the “progressive intercourse of other nations with China”, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia even presented this subject in the context of presumed European superiority:

146

Ibid., see also Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 294. Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 327; Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 295. 148 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 327. 149 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 297. 150 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 589. 151 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 298. 152 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 581. 147

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chapter six All these nations are upon an equally precarious footing and exposed to an equally degrading treatment, in their commercial visits to Canton; and the extent of the mercantile transactions, which have been accomplished, in such inauspicious circumstances, may be regarded as a particularly striking specimen of the persevering ingenuity and accommodating spirit of European traders.153

In commenting on the state and extent of China’s foreign trade, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon presented a rather harsh assessment: Would the Europeans not drink tea, and would the Chinese not eat and smoke opium, even trade and commerce would have no interest, whether China was on the world map or not. Despite of more than 360 million people, China only would be a light weight on the scales of global trade. As for two thousand years the Chinese themselves produced all commodities they needed, they generally look with contempt on all foreign products.154 Under the head ‘Maritime intercourse’ we read in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia that the maritime knowledge of the Chinese “was more extensive in ancient than it is in modern times”. After presenting the main destinations of Chinese navigation and trade (reaching from Persia, South and Southeast Asia to the Kamchatka Peninsula in the northeast), it pointed out “that, in the seventh century, they carried on a trade with the western coast of North America.”155 The French scholar Joseph de Guignes had published this theory in 1761.156 Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon also referred to it and added that according to Spanish accounts of travels on the Western coast of America, there had been found the wreckage of Chinese ships.157 Other theories in connection with early forms of Chinese presence in parts of Asia and Africa were mentioned by early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias: the Chinese were supposed to have colonized Sumatra (“as there is a striking resemblance, in person and manners, between the inhabitants of that island and the natives of China”) and Ceylon (“the Cingalese are considered as still more decidedly descended from

153

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 326. Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 14 (1849) 994 (s. v. ‘Handel’). 155 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 295. 156 Joseph de Guignes, “Recherches sur les Navigations des Chinois du côté de l’Amérique, et sur quelques Peuples situés à l’extrêmité orientale de l’Asie”, Mémoires de l’Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 28 (1761), 503–525. 157 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 261 (s. v. ‘China’). 154

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a Chinese stock”).158 For its information on early Chinese contacts with Madagascar, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia referred to the travels of Marco Polo. From the account of John Barrow, it derived another connection between China and Africa: [. . .] as an obvious matter of fact, that many of the Hottentots [Khoikhoi] strikingly resemble the Chinese in the form of their persons, in the features of their countenance, and in their manner of speaking, so as to render it highly possible, that those tribes on the narrow extremity of Africa, who differ so remarkably from all their neighbours, have derived their origin from a colony of Chinese, to whom they have so close a resemblance.159

Concerning China’s foreign trade by land, Meyer’s ConversationsLexikon pointed out that the trade relations of China’s Inner Asian neighbours are due to similar restrictions as the trade relations of the Europeans and would represent nothing more than ‘temporary privileges’ (temporäre Vergünstigungen) granted by Chinese authorities who had set up detailed regulations for performing this trade.160 In discussing the foreign trade by land, most other encyclopaedias only gave an outline of the history of Sino-Russian relations.161 According to the treaty concluded with China in 1727, the Russians were entitled to send a caravan to Peking every three years. Krünitz pointed out that the Russians never had claimed this right in such regular intervals. From 1728 to 1756, only six caravans had been sent from Russia to China. As Krünitz pointed out, due to a “very wise order” of Catherine II (r. 1762–1796) the crown refrained from further sending caravans to China.162 Only as late as about 1830, RussoChinese trade again increased considerably.163 158 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 295 f.—See also Meyer, ConversationsLexikon I 7,2 (1845) 261. 159 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 296.—See also Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 261. For the context of these comparisons see Steinmetz, “Devil’s Handwriting,” 75. 160 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 261. 161 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 671 f. (88. History of the Trade with Russia); Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 299. 162 Krünitz 34 (1785) 649 f. (s. v. ‘Karavane’). See also Encyclopédie Méthodique, Economie politique et diplomatique 1 (1784) 569 f.; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 672. 163 On this increase see Joseph Fletcher, “Sino-Russian relations, 1800–1862”, in: John King Fairbank, ed., The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 10: Late Ch’ing, 1800–1911, Part 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), 327–329. Midnineteenth-century encyclopaedias usually presented statistical data on this increase: See e.g. Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 262 f.

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Since 1727/28, Russo-Chinese trade had been confined to a place on the river Kiakhta. Encyclopaedias usually informed on the so called Kiakhta trade.164 Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon gave a detailed description not only of the architecture but also of the social life of the two boroughs (Kiakhta and Maimaicheng 買賣城) that had been erected on the Russian and on the Chinese side of the border. The Russians would refer to the latter only as the “Chinese city.”165 The second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica presented the main commodities of Sino-European trade: Their chief commodities are, [!] silk, cotton, tea, china-ware, and cabinets or lacquered-ware. Their silks are exceedingly fine; their atlas’s, gold, and silver stuffs, are not to be paralleled; but their porcelain is thought to be equalled or even excelled by that of Dresden, and their lacquered-ware is greatly excelled by that of Japan.166

In the latter half of the eighteenth century, Europeans were well aware of the superiority of all kind of Chinese fabrics. At that time, they began to doubt the quality of Chinese porcelain and lacquerware. As we may see from the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, eighteenth-century Europeans had been sure to excel the Chinese in making clocks, watches, door- and gun-locks.167 Encyclopaedias usually presented the above-mentioned commodities of China in rather comprehensive articles. Of these, especially luxury goods were dealt with in detail. Due to its focus on economy, Krünitz’ encyclopaedia devoted twenty-nine pages to lacquer-ware, fifty-one on porcelain and only three pages to sericulture in China. For a description of the first two products, it heavily relied on the reports of Pierre Nicolas le Chéron d’Incarville SJ (1706–1757) and François-Xavier d’Entrecolles SJ (1662/63–1741).168 Before information 164 Krünitz 37 (1786) 218 (s. v. ‘Kjächta’); ibid., 129 (1821) 23 (s. v. ‘Rußland’).— Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 19, fol. 5B2v (s. v. ‘Kiakta’); ibid., vol. 22, fol. U2v (s. v. ‘Maimatschin’); Penny Cyclopaedia 13 (1839) 209 (s. v. ‘Kiachta’). 165 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 17 (1850) 1078 (s. v. ‘Kiachta’); ibid., I 20 (1851) 270 f. (s, v. ‘Maimatschin’), for a general assessment of Russian trade relations with China see ibid., I 7,2 (1845) 295 f. (s. v. ‘China’). 166 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1920 (s. v. ‘China’). 167 Ibid. 168 On lacquer-ware see Krünitz 58 (1792) 522–551 (s. v. ‘Lackieren’), on the art of making porcelain in China ibid., 115 (1810) 264–315 (s. v. ‘Porzellan’); on sericulture in China ibid., 152 (1830) 27–30 and a short remark in ibid., 70 (s. v. ‘Seide’). For bibliographic references to d’Entrecolles report on porcelain production see Pfister,

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on Chinese lacquer-ware became available to Europeans by the reports of d’Incarville, encyclopaedias only referred to lacquer-ware from Japan and Tongking.169 As Europeans successfully produced first substitutes for china-ware or porcelain at the beginning of the eighteenth century, eighteenthand early nineteenth-century European encyclopaedias focused on the techniques used for the production of these substitutes. The first edition of the Dictionarium polygraphicum, had presented information on the earliest successful European attempts to produce a kind of porcelain under the headword ‘China-ware.’ The second edition of this work put the focus on the Jesuit reports on the porcelain manufactures of Jingdezhen 景德鎮 (in Jiangxi Province) and presented this information under the headword ‘porcelain’.170 After 1730, all major articles on porcelain and on related subjects inserted in French, German and English encyclopaedias relied on the report of d’Entrecolles on the porcelain manufactures at Jingdezhen published in the collection of the Lettres édifiantes et curieuses.171 Encyclopaedias also referred to the memoirs by the eminent French scientist René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (1683–1757) on the different materials used for the production of porcelain published at Paris in the Mémoires de l’Académie des Sciences.172 This may be seen from the articles on porcelain included in Zedler, in the Encyclopédie, in the various editions of the Dictionnaire de Trévoux, and in the section ‘Commerce’ of the Encyclopédie Méthodique, in Rees’ Cyclopaedia, and in Krünitz’ encyclopaedia.173 The text of the article on porcelain inserted in the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d’Alembert had previously been published in the Lettres edifiantes et curieuses and in Du Halde’s Description . . . de la Chine. Rees’ Cyclopaedia and the general encyclopaedia of arts and sciences initiated by Ersch and Gruber added

Notices biographiques et bibliographiques, 540 and 547 f., for references to d’Incarville’s treatise on Chinese varnish and its application see ibid., 797. 169 See Zedler 16 (1737) col. 40 f. (s. v. ‘Laccirte Arbeit’). 170 Barrow, Dictionarium polygraphicum, 1st ed. (1735), 2nd ed. (1758). 171 See e.g. Encyclopédie 9 (1765) 129 (s. v. ‘Kim-Te-Tchim’). 172 On these memoirs of Réaumur see Landry-Deron, La preuve par la Chine, 164 f. 173 Zedler 28 (1741) cols. 1680–1690 (s. v. ‘Porzellan’); Encyclopédie 13 (1765) 106– 123 (s. v. ‘Porcelaine de la Chine’), Dictionnaire de Trévoux, 1771 ed., vol. 6, p. 898 (s. v. ‘Porcelaine’); Encyclopédie Méthodique, Arts & Metiers Mechaniques 6 (1789) 557–596 (s. v. ‘Porcelaine’); Rees, vol. 28, s. v. ‘Porcelain’; Krünitz 115 (1810) 264–315 (s. v. ‘Porzellan’, section on the production of porcelain in China).

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to these sources a memoir published by the Swedish chemist Henrik Theophil Scheffer (1710–1759).174 Although the unknown author of the article on porcelain in Zedler also relied on the report of d’Entrecolles and the memoir of Réaumur, he added some information that allows glimpses into the early modern European perception of Chinese porcelain. One of the early modern European theories on the material used for making porcelain that had been disseminated by the writings of Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484–1558) said that porcelain was made of eggshells. The user is provided with a list of writings published from late sixteenth-century onwards including Juan González de Mendoza, Athanasius Kircher, Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, Johan Nieuhof, Erasmus Francisci (1627–1694), Arnoldus Montanus (ca. 1625–1683) and a treatise published in the Philosophical Transactions of 1666 and Amboinische Raritäten-Kammer by Georg Eberhard Rumpf, a German physician on service with the Dutch East India company. Zedler also provided a bibliographical overview on the dissemination of d’Entrecolles’ report. 175 For early eighteenth-century Europeans, the abundance of silk in China was a matter of common knowledge. Most eighteenth-century general encyclopaedias took their information on silk from an article in Savary’s Dictionnaire universel de commerce. In doing so, Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon as well as the Encyclopédie pointed out that the climate of the majority of provinces of China favours the culture of mulberry trees and sericulture in general. No one might imagine the vast amount of silk produced by the Chinese. Encyclopaedias perpetuated the assumption that only the silk production of Zhejiang province might be sufficient not only for the whole Chinese empire but also for the whole of Europe. They also pointed out that the silk trade would be the most important branch of commerce in China. The main elements of these presentations were dominant in works of general knowledge until the early nineteenth century—they still may be found as late as in Rees’ Cyclopaedia.176

174 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 28, s. v. ‘Porcelain’; Ersch/Gruber III 19 (1844) 430 (s. v. ‘Pe-tun-tse’). For bibliographic references to the works of Réaumur and Scheffer see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 1549 f. 175 Zedler 28 (1741) 1681 f. (s. v. ‘Porzellan’). 176 Zedler 36 (1743) col. 1341 (s. v. ‘Seide (Chinesische)’); Encyclopédie 15 (1765) 270 (s. v. ‘Soie’). Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 32, fol. 4Yr (s. v. ‘Silk’).

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Encyclopaedias also provided information on the origins of sericulture in China: Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon referred twice to Chinese accounts. After pointing out that sericulture first had been practised by one of the wives of the Yellow Emperor about 3000 BC, it referred to accounts pretending this invention for the year 2602 BC.177 In Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon as well as in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia we read that “mention is made of a kind of brocade in the annals of Tcheoo, about 780 years before Christ.”178

177 178

Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 259. Ibid., Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 304.

CHAPTER SEVEN

HISTORY 7.1

Classifying the Chinese Past

In their attempt to structure the history of China, early modern European authors very soon adopted the scheme of the dynasties as first transmitted to Europe by Philippe Couplet in the Tabula chronologica Monarchiae Sinicae (published in 1686 and one year later as an appendix to Confucius Sinarum Philosophus).1 From the 1690s onwards, the editors of the subsequent editions of Moréri’s Grand Dictionnaire historique presented a French translation of these tables preceded by a list giving the successive dynasties together with their number of emperors and the duration of each dynasty (Suite Chronologique des Familles Impériales de la Chine). The table presenting the emperors included data on the beginning and on the duration of each reign together with a short note that characterized each of the emperors (Suite Chronologique et Historique des Rois ou Empereurs de la Chine).2 The editors of Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon also adopted the scheme originally presented by Couplet. While the subsequent editions of Moréri had given a concise presentation of the rulers of China indicating the duration of each reign (occasionally including remarkable

1 Confucius Sinarum Philosophus, sive Scientia Sinensis latine exposita (Paris: Horthemels 1687) contained a Latin translation of three of the Confucian sishu 四書 (Four Books): Daxue 大學 (Great Learning), Zhongyong 中庸 (Doctrine of the Mean), and Lunyu 論語 (Analects). These translations had been prepared by the Jesuits Prospero Intorcetta (1625–1696), Christian Herdtrich (1625–1684), François Rougemont (1624–1676), and Philippe Couplet. See Iso Kern, “Die Vermittlung chinesischer Philosophie in Europa,” in Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie. Begründet von Friedrich Ueberweg. Völlig neubearbeitete Ausgabe. Vol. 1: Die Philosophie des 17. Jahrhunderts. Part I: Allgemeine Themen—Iberische Halbinsel—Italien, ed. Jean-Pierre Schobinger (Basel: Schwabe, 1998), 227 (bibliographic description) and ibid., 262–267 (contents).—On Couplet’s Tabula chronologica monarchiae Sinicae, published in 1686 and as an appendix to Confucius Sinarum Philosophus see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 559. 2 See e.g. Moréri, Grand Dictionnaire historique, 8th ed. (Amsterdam 1698), vol. 2, pp. 156–160.

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occurrences), the article on China in Zedler’s Universal-Lexikon provided a list of the subsequent dynasties and rulers of China—a unique feature in all eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Germanlanguage encyclopaedias.3 Information on individual rulers was disposed under separate headwords and thus dispersed throughout the sixty-eight volumes of the whole work. As spelling of Chinese names is not consistent at all and thus differs from entry to entry, the retrieval of this information is quite difficult. There are entries on the most important rulers of Chinese history, e.g. on Qin Shihuangdi 秦始 皇帝 (r. 221–210 BC), Han Guangwudi 漢光武帝 (r. AD 25–57), Song Taizong 宋太宗 (r. 976–997), and on Ming Shenzong 明神宗 (r. 1573–1620, the Wanli 萬曆 Emperor).4 Entries on single dynasties provide further access to information on Chinese history.5 Late eighteenth-century encyclopaedias mostly referred to Couplet’s presentation of the chronological order of the emperors that had been perpetuated by Étienne Fourmont’s Réflexions critiques sur les histories des anciens peoples, Chaldéens, Hébreux, Phéniciens, Egyptiens, Grecs etc. (Paris 1735; second edition 1747) and Du Halde’s description of China. In the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, information on the history of China had been limited to the mythological origins of Chinese civilisation.6 Starting with the second edition, the presentation of the history of China was largely extended.7 The second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica mentioned that Du Halde’s presentation on this subject “is commonly reckoned to be the most authentic.”8 This presentation in the Encyclopaedia Britannica served as a model for most English encyclopaedias published up to 1850. In the Encyclopaedia Londinensis we read that the “whole of the Chinese

3

See Zedler 37 (1743) cols. 1567–1572 (s. v. ‘Sina’). On Qin Shihuangdi see Zedler 60 (1749) 739–744 (s. v. ‘Xi-Hoam-Ti’); on Han Guangwudi ibid., 30 (1741) col. 59 (s. v. ‘Quamvuti’), on the Wanli Emperor ibid., 60 (1749) 776–778 (s. v. ‘Xin-Cum’) and ibid., 46 (1745) col. 526 (s. v. ‘Van-Lie’). 5 Examples for this practice may be found starting from letter ‘S’: Zedler 41 (1744) 241–245 (s. v. ‘Sum’) on the Song dynasty (AD 960–1279) and ibid., col. 1614–1616 (s. v. ‘Tam’) on the Tang dynasty (AD 618–906). 6 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1st ed., vol. 2 (1771), s. v. ‘Chinese’. 7 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1907–1920 (s. v. ‘China’). Ten out of thirteen pages deal with Chinese history. 8 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1909. See similar presentations of the dynasties in Deutsche Encyclopädie 7 (1783) 777 (s. v. ‘Dynastie’). 4

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emperors abstracting from those who are said to have reigned in the fabulous times, are comprehended in twenty-two dynasties.”9 French encyclopaedias like the Encyclopédie Catholique10 placed comprehensive accounts of the history of China within the same scheme. German encyclopaedias perpetuated this scheme until the first decades of the nineteenth century. This may be seen best from Schott’s entry on ‘China’ in Ersch/Gruber. In his presentation of the history of China, Schott still referred to the works of Kircher and Du Halde, but also mentioned that de Mailla’s Histoire générale de la Chine has been the most extensive work on the subject available in a European language.11 Krünitz’ encyclopaedia followed the same pattern. Under the headword “political slavery”, it mentioned twenty-two main revolutions (zwei und zwanzig Hauptrevolutionen) for China.12 Up to 1832, Krünitz counts 233 rulers of China.13 The Penny Cyclopaedia presented no list of the successive dynasties of China. It gave a “brief summary of the principal revolutions in the history of this antient [sic] empire”.14 The following table (based on the list given in the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica) is intended to introduce the presentation perpetuated by encyclopaedias from the late-seventeenth century up to the 1830s. Chinese characters, pinyin transcription and correct(ed) dates are added not only to show which dynasties were considered or omitted in these presentations but also to provide a grid for the events in the history of China mentioned in this chapter:15

9

Encyclopaedia Londinensis 4 (1810) 438. Encyclopédie Catholique 7 (1844) 287–396 (s. v. ‘Chine’). 11 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 169–176 (s. v. ‘China’).—For Schott’s remark on de Mailla’s Histoire see ibid., 176 n. 61. 12 Krünitz 155 (1832) 5 (s. v. ‘Sklaverey, politische’). 13 Krünitz 162 (1835) 453 f. (s. v. ‘Staat’). 14 Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 81. 15 Numbers 14 to 18 in this list only refer to the wudai (five dynasties). The shiguo (ten states) were omitted.—In perpetuating this presentation, Schott (Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 173 n. 55 pointed out that these five dynasties are also known by the name of hou wudai 後五代 as they had chosen the same names as earlier dynasties. 10

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Dynasty/Period

Subdivision

Before Christ 1. Hya, containing 2. Shang, or Ing

17 28

2207 1766

3. Chew 4. Tsin 5. Han

35 4 25

1122 248 206

BC Xia 夏 Shang 商 / Yin 殷 Zhou 周 Qin 秦 Han 漢

ca. 21st–16th c. ca. 1600–1045 1045–256 221–206 202 BC–AD 220

After Christ

AD Sanguo 三國

6. Hew-han

2

220

7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

Tsin Sung Tsi Lyang Chin Swi Twang

15 8 5 4 4 3 20

265 420 479 502 557

14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19.

Hew-lyang Hew-tang Hew-tsin Hew-han Hew-chew Song

2 4 2 2 3 18

907 923 936 947 951 960

9 16

1280 1368 1645

20. Iwen 21. Ming 22. Tsing

618

(Shu) Han 蜀漢 (Cao) Wei 曹魏 (Sun) Wu 孫吳 Jin 晉 Liu Song 劉宋 Qi 齊 Liang 梁 Chen 陳 Sui 隨 Tang 唐 Wudai Shiguo15 五代十國 Hou Liang 後梁 Hou Tang 後唐 Hou Jin 後晉 Hou Han 後漢 Hou Zhou 後周 Song 宋 Liao 遼 Jin 金 Yuan 元 Ming 明 Qing 清

220–280 221–265 220–265 222–280 265–420 420–479 479–502 502–557 557–589 581–618 618–907 907–960 907–923 923–936 936–946 947–950 951–960 960–1279 916–1125 1115–1234 1279–1368 1368–1644 1644–1912

Although the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia perpetuated this scheme of twenty-two dynasties, it slightly altered the presentation for the various periods of division: Under the heading “The Southern Empire . . . and . . . the Northern Empire. Eighth Imperial Dynasty” it provided information on the Yuan Wei 元魏 or Bei Wei 北魏 dynasty (AD 386–534)—for a long time more commonly addressed to by Europeans as the “Tartars of Topa” (reflecting the Chinese denomination Tuoba Wei 拓拔魏) continuing the list of the Bei Wei rulers parallel to those of the “ninth imperial dynasty”, the Qi dynasty (AD 479–502). Similarly, parallel to the rulers of the Liang dynasty it presented information on the rulers of the Eastern (AD 534–550) and the Western Wei 魏

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(AD 535–556) dynasties and parallel to the rulers of the Chen 陳 dynasty (AD 557–589) it gave the list of rulers of the Northern Zhou 北周 (AD 557–581) and Northern Qi 北齊 dynasties (AD 550–577).16 The same practice was observed for the time between the end of the Tang (AD 907) and the beginning of the Yuan dynasty. Parallel to those of the fourteenth (Later Liang, AD 907–923) to the nineteenth dynasty (Song) it listed the Qidan 契丹 rulers of the Liao dynasty and parallel to the nineteenth dynasty it inserted the list of the last Liao rulers, of the Jin and of the early rulers of the Mongol Empire (from Genghis Khan (r. 1206–1227) to Möngke (r. 1251–1259).17 During the first decades of the nineteenth century, a gradual change in the presentation of Chinese history began to take place. Due to the growing demand for quick reference and as a result of the growing Eurocentrism of world history, the history of China more and more had to fit into the European scheme of ‘antiquity—middle ages—modern times’. In early modern European works of the history of Ancient Rome, this scheme had been well established before the historian Christoph Cellarius (1638–1707) adopted it for didactic reasons.18 While the subsequent editions of Brockhaus presented a quite unstructured narrative of the history of China, Pierer’s UniversalLexikon tried to apply a conventional pattern for the periodization of (ancient, medieval, and modern) history. Starting with the mythical times of the Three Emperors (sanhuang 三皇) and the Five Rulers (wudi 五帝), it adopted the terms Ancient History and Medieval History. Instead of introducing the term Modern History, Pierer’s Universal-Lexikon perpetuated the dynastic pattern for the time after 1368.19 I. Mythical times A. Three Emperors B. Five Rulers

16

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, pp. 228–230. Ibid., p. 230. 18 Christoph Cellarius, Historia nova, hoc est XVI et XVII saeculorum, qua ejusdem auctoris historiae, antique et medii aevi, ad nostra tempora continenti ordine proferuntur (Halle: Bielkius, 1696); id., Historia universalis breviter ac perspicue exposita, in antiquam et medii aevi ac novam divisa, cum notis perpetuis (Jena: Bielkius, 1704– 1708). 19 The following table is based on Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 428–442 (s. v. ‘China (Gesch.)’). 17

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II. Ancient History A. Xia B. Shang/Yin C. Zhou D. Qin a. Qin b. Hou Qin E. Han a. Xi Han (Western Han) b. Tai Han (Eastern Han) III. Medieval History A. Jin a. Xi Jin (Western Jin) b. Tai Jin B. Division of the Empire (Nan-Bei chao) a. Song b. Qi c. Liang d. Chen C. After the reunification of the Empire D. Tang E. Hou wudai a. Hou Liang b. Hou Tang c. Hou Jin d. Hou Han e. Hou Zhou F. Song IV. China under Mongol rule (Yuan dynasty), 1279–1368 V. Ming China VI. China under Manchu rule (Qing dynasty) This pattern served as a model for the presentation of Chinese history in Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon.20 Much earlier than for the presentation of the history of China this pattern (ancient—medieval—modern) had been adopted for the presentation of Chinese philosophy. As early as in Croker’s Complete

20

Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 281–312.

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Dictionary of Arts and Sciences we read that the “middle age of Chinese philosophy commences about the tenth or eleventh century” and that the coming of the Europeans would mark the beginning of “modern philosophy” in China.21 Although Europeans soon had adopted the scheme of the dynasties, they tended to Europeanize the order of subsequent emperors. Contrary to the practice of Chinese historiography, European works on universal geography and universal history introduced a subsequent numbering of the temple names (miaohao 廟號) of emperors of different dynasties.22 Encyclopaedias adopted this practice until the nineteenth century: For example, the Encyclopédie des gens du monde referred to Zhu Yuanzhang 朱元璋 (1328–1398), the Hongwu 洪武 Emperor (Ming Taizu 明太祖, r. 1368–1398), as “Chou, who had become emperor under the name of ‘Tai-Tsong IV’ (Chou, devenu empereur sous le nom de Tai-Tsong IV)—evidently mingling the syllables zu and zong.23 The eighth and ninth edition of Brockhaus both referred to Tang Taizong as ‘Tai-tsung I.’: in the eighth edition we read that China gained power under his reign. In the ninth edition it is mentioned that in the times of this learned ruler Nestorians were permitted entrance into China.24 Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon also followed this scheme. Apart from ‘Tai-tsung I.’ it referred to the Wanli Emperor (Ming Shenzong 明神宗) as “Schin-tsung II.”25 The extent of information on the history of China provided by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century encyclopaedias differed considerably. Contrary to the above-mentioned presentations of the subject in the various editions of Moréri as well as in Zedler’s UniversalLexicon, the Encyclopédie edited by Diderot (as well as the Deutsche Encyclopädie) contained neither a table showing the successive dynasties of China nor a longer text summarizing the principal events of Chinese history.

21 Temple Henry Croker, The Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, vol. 1 (London 1764), s. v. ‘Chinese Philosophy’. 22 This early modern European practice had been mentioned by Landry-Deron, La preuve par la Chine, 44. 23 Encyclopédie des gens du monde 5 (1835) 731. 24 Brockhaus, 8th ed., vol. 2 (1833) 614; ibid., 9th ed., vol. 3 (1843) 389. 25 Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon 3 (1847) 300 mentioned the coming of Nestorians under the reign of the learned “Tai-tsung I.” On the Wanli Emperor see ibid., 301. According to this practice Emperor Shenzong of the Song dynasty (r. 1068–1085) would have been “Schin-tsung I.”

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In their articles on China most early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias contained extensive presentations of Chinese history that formed major parts of these articles: in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia 23 out of 125 pages or about 18.4 %, the Encyclopédie Catholique 109 out of 169 pages or about 64.5 %, and Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon 41 out of 83 pages or about 49.4 %.26 In Pierer’s Universal-Lexikon information on the history of China is presented under a separate headword (‘China (Geschichte)’, i.e. ‘China, history of ’).27 In these presentations, the history of Sino-Western relations since early modern times formed an important part. Sometimes, the history of these relations was overemphasized in the context of Chinese history. In Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon, the section on the history of Sino-European relations comprised approximately 62,5 % of the presentation of Chinese history. In its presentation of this history, it mainly dealt with the events leading to the Opium War.28 7.2

Chinese Chronology as a Challenge to European Scholarship

In inspecting Chinese sources, the Jesuits soon faced the problem, that some (mythical) events recorded by Chinese historiography took place even before the universal flood.29 The European ‘republic of letters’ broadly discussed questions relating to universal chronology. From the very beginning of presenting Chinese history to their European contemporaries, the Jesuits saw the necessity to synchronize Chinese and biblical chronology. Based on the works of Martino Martini and Philippe Couplet, vivid discussions among late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century European scholars emerged. The main strands of discourse also found their way into encyclopaedic dictionaries.

26

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, pp. 216–239; Encyclopédie Catholique 7 (1844) 287–396, Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 281–312. 27 See Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 428–442 (s. v. ‘China (Geschichte)’). 28 Meyer I 7,2 (1845) 281–312. 29 Martino Martini SJ played a crucial role in the transmission of information on Chinese flood myths. See Mungello, Curious Land, 124–133 (Martini and the early history of China); Anthony Grafton, “The Chronology of the Flood,” in Sintflut und Gedächtnis. Erinnern und Vergessen des Ursprungs, ed. Martin Mulsow and Jan Assmann (Munich: Fink, 2006), especially ibid., 75–77. On Chinese flood myths see Mark Edward Lewis, The Flood Myths of Early China (Albany NY: State University of New York Press, 2006).

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Bibliographical data listed in the respective entries indicate the most influential publications in this field. These entries repeatedly quoted from the works of the two Protestant Dutch scholars Georg Horn and Isaac Vossius. Another important publication regularly referred to by encyclopaedic dictionaries was L’Antiquité des Tems, published in 1687 by the French scholar Paul Pezron (1639–1706). A late reference to early modern European scholarship on this particular subject can be found under the headword ‘Deluge’ (i.e. universal flood) in Rees’ Cyclopaedia.30 In their attempts to synchronize Chinese and biblical chronology, European scholars were attracted by supposed similarities of foundation myths and soon they tried to equate figures known from the Bible to Chinese historical personage. Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon referred to this strand of discourse not only under the headword ‘Sündfluth’ (i.e. universal flood) but also in section 13 of the headword ‘Welt’ (i.e. world), dealing with the age of the world (‘Alter der Welt’).31 In its article on chronology, the Encyclopédie pointed out that even the Jesuits doubted the indigenous sources on Chinese chronology. It referred to a remark by Niccolò Longobardo SJ (1565–1655) that the chronology of the Chinese is very uncertain and to the works of JeanFrançois Foucquet SJ (1663–1741), who had argued that the historical records of the Chinese only would be reliable beginning with the fourth century BC. The article further mentions the works of Leibniz as edited by Christian Kortholt (1709–1751) as well as those of Nicolas Fréret (1688–1749).32 The fact of a coincidence of the earliest astronomical observations done by Chinese and Chaldeans had seemed to prove the theory that the Chinese originated from the Ancient Near East.33 In late eighteenth-century Europe, scholars doubted Jesuit presentations of the antiquity of Chinese tradition. The Deutsche Encyclopädie perpetuated this strand of discourse and labelled ancient

30

Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 11, fol. 3Dv (s. v. ‘Deluge’). Zedler 41 (1744) 113–129 (s. v. ‘Sündfluth’), especially col. 115; ibid. 54 (1747) col. 1674–1678 (s. v. ‘Welt’), especially cols. 1674 and 1676. 32 For bibliographic details of these works see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 561 f. (on Fréret), ibid., col. 899 (on Longobardo’s Traité sur quelques points de la religion des Chinois (Paris 1701)), and ibid., col. 920 (on Kortholt’s edition of Leibniz’ Epistolae ad diversos 4 vols. (Leipzig: Breitkopf, 1734–1742)). On the various editions of Longobardo’s Traité see Kern, “Vermittlung chinesischer Philosophie,” 227 (no. 12). 33 Encyclopédie 3 (1753) 393 (s. v. ‘Chronologie’). 31

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history of China a ‘hodgepodge of fabrications’ (ein Mischmasch von Erdichtungen)—due to the lack of notes on China in ancient Greece and Persia. It further pointed out that China might not have been inhabited about the year 1300 BC. The ‘defenders of the Chinese’ (Vertheidiger der Chinesen) would speak of a prosperous empire for that early period.34 Decades after this assessment by the Deutsche Encyclopädie and far from ‘defending’ the Chinese, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon noted, that China had been powerful at the time of the foundation of Carthage (ninth/eighth century BC) and at the time Lycurgus acted as legislator of Sparta (eighth century BC).35 Seventeenth-century Jesuits had introduced the sexagenary cycle of Chinese chronology, which recently has been labelled “the most salient characteristic of Chinese chronologies and calendrical notations.”36 Eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias provided detailed information on this so-called “Chinese cycle”. As early as in the eighth edition of Moréri information on the Chinese cycle had been included.37 In Rees’ Cyclopaedia, information on the Chinese cycle is still based on the works of Du Halde and Gaubil, but also on the account of George Leonard Staunton. The Chinese cycle is defined as “[. . .] a period of 60 years, or of 720 revolutions of the moon [. . .]. Each year of the cycle is distinguished by the union of two characters, taken from such an arrangement of an unequal number of words placed in opposite, that the same two characters cannot be found again together for 60 years.”38 While the Encyclopédie Catholique presented a table synchronizing Chinese and European chronology,39 other encyclopaedias restricted comparative information to certain years. In the Deutsche Encyclopädie we read that the year 1789 corresponds to the 46th year of the 75th

34

Deutsche Encyclopädie 10 (1785) 314 (s. v. ‘Fo’). Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 281. 36 Marc Kalinowski, “Time, Space and Orientation: Figurative Representations of the Sexagenary Cycle in Ancient and Medieval China,” in Graphics and Text in the Production of Technical Knowledge in China. The Warp and the Weft, ed. Francesca Bray, Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann, and Georges Métailié, Sinica Leidensia 79 (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 137. 37 Moréri, 8th ed. (Amsterdam: Gallet, 1698), vol. 2, pp. 312–314 (s. v. ‘Cycle chinois’); Moréri, 1725 ed., vol. 3, pp. 535–537 (‘Cycle chinois’). 38 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 10, s. v. ‘Cycle, Chinese’. 39 Encyclopédie Catholique, vol. 7 (1844) 282 f. and 285 f. (s. v. ‘Chine’). 35

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cycle and in the fourth edition of Pierer’s Universal-Lexikon that the year 1858 corresponds to the 55th year of the 76th cycle.40 In his entry on ‘chronology’ for Ersch/Gruber (1818),41 the philologist and orientalist Georg Friedrich Grotefend (1775–1853) gave no information on the Chinese system. In the entry on ‘China’ (1830), Schott mentioned that the Chinese cycle comprises 60 years, each of them expressed by two characters—combinations of 10 so-called stems and 12 branches. For more details, Schott referred to the twelfth volume of de Mailla’s Histoire générale de la Chine.42 A more detailed account of Chinese chronology—still based on early-eighteenth century Jesuit works—had been inserted in Ersch/Gruber’s article ‘Jahr’ (i.e. year). Quoting from Gaubil’s Traité sur la chronologie chinoise, the author mentioned the 10 stems and the 12 branches followed by a list of the 60 terms composed by the combination of stems and branches—none of the articles introduced the terms ‘heavenly stems’ (tiangan 天干) and ‘earthly branches’ (dizhi 地支).43 Encyclopaedias usually added that the animals of the Chinese zodiac (rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, cock, dog, pig) correspond to the 12 branches.44 7.3

Encyclopaedic Visions of the Chinese Past

In their presentation of Chinese history, encyclopaedias perpetuated ideas on the subject as expressed in early modern European accounts on China. A diachronic analysis of information given by encyclopaedias shows that these presentations mainly focused on the following points: (a) gaining and losing the Mandate of Heaven, (b) the rulers of China: brutal tyrants or wise and enlightened princes, and (c) the role of eunuchs. Encyclopaedias commented on the rise and fall of successive dynasties. In general, they gave a rather positive assessment of the founders

40 Deutsche Encyclopädie 16 (1790) 672 (s. v. ‘Jahr’); Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 4th ed., vol. 4 (1858) 7. These data are obviously an extrapolation of the tables given in the various editions of Moréri. 41 Ersch/Gruber I 2 (1818) 71 (s. v. ‘Ära’). 42 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 168 n. 47. 43 Ersch/Gruber II 14 (1837) 210 (s. v. ‘Jahr’). 44 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 282; Ersch/Gruber II 14 (1837) 211 n. 31 (s. v. ‘Jahr’).

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of most of the dynasties. In their presentation of these rulers, encyclopaedias mentioned the personal background of the founders of dynasties. In introducing Liu Bang 劉邦 (256/247–195 BC), the founder of the Han dynasty (Han Gaodi 漢高帝 or Gaozu 高祖, r. 202–195 BC), the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that he “was successively a private soldier, a captain of a troop of robbers, a general, a petty prince, and, at length, usurper of the throne.”45 In Meyer’s ConversationsLexikon we read, that Liu Bang had been the leader of those rebels who had caused the preceding emperor to commit suicide.46 According to the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming dynasty, “ascended the throne with universal applause.” The Shunzhi 順治 Emperor (r. 1644–1661), the first ruler of the Qing, was portrayed as an “amiable prince”.47 In their presentation of the fall of dynasties, encyclopaedias referred to several topoi. In using metaphors from nature, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon explained the fall of the Song and the establishment of the Yuan dynasty.48 As regards the fall of the Yuan, encyclopaedias perpetuated the topos of Oriental despotism in pointing out that the Mongols had been weakened both by the climate and by the vices of the Orient and gave themselves up to luxury and inertia.49 In the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica we read that during the reign of Shundi 順帝 (r. 1333–1368), the last ruler of the Yuan, the Mongols “had become enervated by long prosperity.”50 The eighth edition of Brockhaus presented Shundi is a ‘voluptuous prince’ (einen wollüstigen Fürsten).51 In its presentation of the fall of the Ming, the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica pointed out that Ming Huaizong 明懷宗 (the Chongzhen 崇禎 Emperor, r. 1628–1644) had been “a great lover of the sciences, and a favourer of the Christians; though much addicted

45

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 227. Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 284. 47 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 231 (on the Hongwu Emperor), ibid., p. 232 (on the Shunzhi Emperor). 48 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 288: “[. . .] und ein neuer Herrscherstamm beschattete den Drachensitz, nachdem der alte entmarkt und kraftlos dem Sturm erlegen war.” 49 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 289. 50 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 659. 51 Brockhaus, 8th ed., vol. 2 (1833) 614. 46

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to the superstitions of the Bonzes”. Although the Chongzhen reign had been marked by the rise of the Manchu and by rebellions in the interior, the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica linked the final fate of the Chongzhen Emperor also to betrayal by his entourage.52 The authors of entries on the history of China sometimes complained about the uniformity of Chinese history. According to the Damen-Conversations-Lexikon there were no “celebrated heros—no Hercules, no Rustan, no Cid.”53 Contrary to this and in introducing Qin Shihuangdi, the First Emperor of China, the eighth edition of Brockhaus pointed out that in 256 BC a “Chinese hero” stood up, who unified all the small principalities.54 Encyclopaedias portrayed Qin Shihuangdi as a very conflicting personality. According to the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia he was the “most celebrated prince of his dynasty”, who “greatly extended the boundaries by new conquests” and “completed at length the great wall.”55 Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon pointed out, that Qin Shihuangdi had been “a vigorous, but also despotic and cruel ruler.”56 In the second edition of Pierer’s Universal-Lexikon we read, that, due to the cruelties he committed, he lost the affection of the people.57 Encyclopaedias commented very critically on his burning of the books: in the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica we read that the burning of the books was the result of Qin Shihuangdi’s efforts “of making posterity known that he himself had been the first Chinese emperor that ever sat on the throne.” In implicitly referring to the Chinese term fenshu kengru 焚書坑儒 (i.e. burn the books and bury the scholars alive), it added that for this purpose “he ordered all the historical writings to be burnt, and caused many of the learned to be put to death.”58 Writing for Ersch/Gruber, Wilhelm Schott pointed out that this burning of the books can be seen as a remarkable document for Qin Shihuangdi’s horror of the dismemberment of the empire in the times of the Zhou.59 52

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1916; ibid., 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797)

660. 53

Damen-Conversations-Lexikon, 1st ed., vol. 2 (1834) 369. Brockhaus, 8th ed., vol. 2 (1833) 613. 55 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 227. 56 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 284. 57 Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 430. 58 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1909. 59 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 170: “[. . .] dieser merkwürdigen Urkunde seines Abscheues vor dem Zerstückelungssysteme der Dscheu.”—Brockhaus, 8th ed., vol. 2 (1833) 613 referred to the burning of the books in a similar way. 54

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Nevertheless, encyclopaedias presented not only information on outstanding, celebrated and ‘enlightened’ monarchs, but also on extremely cruel, despotic, or brutal rulers. In Ersch/Gruber, Wilhelm Schott showed that each of the dynasties had its wise and able emperors as well as its cruel, unable, and weak rulers.60 Among the rulers of ancient China portrayed as most cruel by Europeans may be mentioned Zhou Xin, the last ruler of the Shang dynasty. The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia characterised Zhou Xin as a “worthless prince, crafty, vain, profuse, and much addicted to wine and women”.61 Schott pointed out, that Zhou Xin has been as disgraceful (unwürdig) as his predecessors.62 In a similar way, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon linked the fall of the Shang not only to Zhou Xin but also to his predecessors whom it labelled ‘a lot of idiots.’63 In presenting information on the history of China, encyclopaedias usually referred to the pivotal role of Genghis Khan for the history of thirteenth-century Eurasia. The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia spoke of the “infamed Genghis-Khan”.64 In its article on China, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon mentioned this “famous” and “great” conqueror only in passing but provided ample information on the founder of the Mongol Empire: In its biographical information (s. v. ‘Dschengis-Khan’) it spoke of the ‘infamous Mongol conqueror’, who may be regarded as a ‘second Attila’.65 The seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica described him as “famous barbarian” and mentioned that “the name of this marauder does not appear in the list of Chinese emperors, nor those of the two next in succession, Ogdaikhan and Menko-khan [Möngke], though their exploits are amply detailed in Chinese history. The Mongoo dynasty only commences with Kublai-khan [. . .].”66 Looking up encyclopaedias for information

60

Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 169–176. Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 224. 62 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 170. 63 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 283: “[. . .] eine Reihe von Schwachköpfen [. . .].” 64 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 231. 65 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 288 (s. v. ‘China’); ibid., I 7,4 (1846) 1255 (s. v. ‘Dschengis-Khan’).—Brockhaus, 9th ed., vol. 3 (1843) 389 also spoke of Genghis Khan as a ‘great conqueror’ (‘[. . .] diesem großen Eroberer’). 66 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 550 (“famous barbarian”) and ibid., 552. 61

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on Genghis Khan, users had to search either for a respective biographical entry or for articles relating to ‘Tartary’.67 Dealing with the Ming-Qing transition of seventeenth-century China, encyclopaedias usually mentioned another cruel ruler: Zhang Xianzhong 張獻忠 (1605–47) had established a terrorist regime in Sichuan province at the time of the Ming-Qing transition. Jesuit missionaries gave an account of his atrocities. Based on these reports, encyclopaedias portrayed Zhang in the most unfavourable manner. According to the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, Zhang was “rather a general murderer and robber, than a competitor for the crown, or a commander in any interest” and was said “to have committed barbarities altogether incredible; and governed everywhere in the most tyrannical and ferocious manner”.68 Encyclopaedias tended to give a very critical assessment of the role of eunuchs in the history of China. As we read in Pierer and Meyer, during the major part of the ninth century the eunuchs dominated the Tang court. After Tang Xuanzong 唐宣宗 (r. 847–859) vainly had tried to get rid of them (and later was poisoned), Tang Zhaozong 唐昭宗 (r. 888–904), who had been imprisoned by the eunuchs at the beginning of his reign, not only managed to escape but also to hire some robbers who nearly extinguished the eunuchs. Thus, Tang Zhaozong had liberated China from a ‘lasting pain’.69 During the following dynasties, eunuchs again played an important role at court. Encyclopaedias also referred to the regulations aiming to limit the influence of eunuchs: The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia mentioned a “useful regulation” issued by the Emperor Mingzong 明宗 (r. 926–934) of the Hou Tang dynasty, which “excluded all eunuchs from public employment.”70 Pierer’s Universal-Lexikon mentioned that due to the fact that Emperor Shundi (r. 1333–1368) had his empire governed by two eunuchs, the fall of the Yuan only had been a matter of time.71 Warned by the fall

67 Brockhaus, 9th ed., vol. 3 (1843) 389 gave a cross-reference to the entry on ‘Dschingis-Khan’. 68 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 233.—In Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 175 Schott too wrote of the “incredible atrocities” (unerhörte Grausamkeiten) ordered by Zhang Xianzhong. 69 Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 433; Meyer, ConversationsLexikon I 7,2 (1845) 287. 70 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 230. 71 Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 435.

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of the Yuan, the first Ming Emperor had tried to exclude eunuchs from governmental posts, but they regained their influence during the Yingzong 英宗 reign (1436–50 and 1457–1464).72 Eighteenth-century encyclopaedias contained only little information on the eunuchs at the court of China. Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon mentioned that eunuchs still may be found at Oriental courts.73 In the Deutsche Encyclopädie, this subject was presented in connection with surgery: as the practice of castration has been in use among the Chinese and other Asian people since remote times, this may serve as a proof for the knowledge of surgery among these people.74 Under the head “Eunuchs of the palace”, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that after the Ming-Qing transition “all the eunuchs, to the number of 6,000, were deprived of all offices of trust and importance.” In the light of the mainly eighteenth-century sources used by James Brewster, the eunuchs seemed still to be “extremely numerous about the court”, their duties included the keeping of the women and the superintendency of gardens, buildings, and “other works connected with the palaces”. Europeans usually described eunuchs in the most unfavourable manner: These creatures, in general, are described as addicted to all the vices which distinguish the tribe in other places; as particularly insolent, rapacious, and spiteful in the extreme; as detested and dreaded by all the court officers, and even by the princes of the blood; and as requiring to have their good will secured by frequent and costly presents.75

In the eighth edition of Brockhaus, we read that Chinese parents would not restrain either to have their sons castrated or to sell their daughters as prostitutes.76 Krünitz’ encyclopaedia referred to the eunuchs in the contexts of government and mutilation. Contrary to 72 Ibid., 433; Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 289.—On this attempt to forbid the participation of the eunuchs in political affairs see John D. Langlois, “The Hung-wu reign, 1368-1398,” in The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 7: The Ming Dynasty. Part 1. Frederick W. Mote and Denis Twitchett eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 150. 73 Zedler 47 (1746) col. 1719–1722 (s. v. ‘Verschnittener, oder Cappaun, Lat. Eunuchus, Castratus, Spado, Frantz. Eunuque’). 74 Deutsche Encyclopädie 5 (1781) 528 (s. v. ‘Chirurgie’). 75 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 243 (based on the account given by Barrow, Travels in China, 230–234. For a similar presentation see Meyer, ConversationsLexikon I 7,2 (1845) 249. 76 Brockhaus, 8th ed., vol. 2 (1833) 608.—For encyclopaedias’ presentation of information on prostitution in China see Krünitz 26 (1782) 683 (s. v. ‘Hure’) and Meyer,

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the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia it spoke of 10,000 to 12,000 eunuchs at the time of the Manchu takeover.77 Encyclopaedias also mentioned eighteenth-century philosophers’ assessments of the repeated attempts to ban the eunuchs from power. Krünitz’ encyclopaedia pointed out that according to Montesquieu, these eunuchs may have been a necessary evil. Wise men would prophesy, that the eunuchs once again will assume power as soon as the Manchu dynasty would be in a deteriorating state.78 7.4

Ever-changing Contemporaries of China: Two Centuries of Latest Events

From the early seventeenth-century onwards, European observers regularly reported on contemporary developments in China. Based on these accounts, encyclopaedic dictionaries included information on some of the most recent events in China. On the one hand, eighteenthcentury European works extensively discussed the fall of the Ming and the rise of the Qing, on the other hand information on the dramatis personae of eighteenth century China remained rather poor. This may be seen from the fact that the editors of Zedler’s UniversalLexicon not only provided ample information on the last emperor of the Ming and the first emperor of the Qing but also presented entries on the famous but notorious eunuch Wei Zhongxian 魏忠賢 (1568– 1627), on the rebel leader Li Zicheng 李自成 (c. 1605–1645), on Candida Xu 許甘第大 (1607–1680), on the Zheng family (on Zheng Zhilong 鄭芝龍 (1604–1661) and Zheng Chenggong 鄭成功 (1624– 1662; known to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europeans as Coxinga)), and on the Revolt of the Three Feudatories (sanfan zhi luan 三藩之亂), especially on the role of Wu Sangui 吳三桂 (1612–1678).79

Conversations-Lexikon II 9 (1852) 309 (s. v. ‘Sittenpolizei’). Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 164 mentioned Suzhou 蘇州 as one of the centres of white slave traffic. 77 Krünitz 162 (1835) 494 (s. v. ‘Staat’; 10,000); ibid. 217 (1854) 476 f. (s. v. ‘Verstümmeln’, 12,000). 78 Krünitz 217 (1854) 477 (s. v. ‘Verstümmeln’). 79 Chongzhen Emperor: Zedler 64 (1750) col. 44–45 (s. v. ‘Zunchin’); Shunzhi Emperor: ibid., 60 (1749) col. 789 Wei Zhongxian: Zedler 11 (1735) col. 1219 (s. v. ‘Guei’); Li Zicheng: ibid., 17 (1738) col. 940 (s. v. ‘Licungz’); Candida Xu: ibid., 5 (1733) col. 524 (s. v. ‘Candida, aus China gebürtig’); Zheng Zhilong: ibid., 5 (1733) col. 2141 (s. v. ‘Chinchilung’); Zheng Chenggong: ibid., 15 (1737) col. 1609 (s. v. ‘Koxenga’); ibid., 51 (1747) col. 840–842 (s. v. ‘Usan-Quei’).

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The article on Candida Xu is an example for inner-encyclopaedic migrations of information. The editors of Zedler took it from Amaranthes’ Frauenzimmer-Lexicon (published in 1715).80 In presenting the development of Qing rule over China, European encyclopaedias generally tended to connect the history of China to respective contemporary developments concerning the court and the foreign relations of the Empire. Remarks on deaths and successions of emperors show the time lag between the events and the transmission of this information to Europe. In the 1725 edition, Moréri refers to the death of the Kangxi emperor (1722) but does not give any date.81 In the list of emperors included in its article on China, (published in 1743), Zedler still presented the Yongzheng Emperor (d. 1735) as the reigning sovereign of China and added additional information under a separate headword.82 While Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon did not mention the Qianlong Emperor at all, it presented information on the Kangxi Emperor only in the article on China and not under a separate headword—an entry “Cham-Hi” (obviously planned to be included in further supplementary volumes) was never published due to the cease of publication at ‘Caq’.83 This time lag became obvious in English-language encyclopaedias, too. Both, the second (1777–1784) and third (1788–1797) editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica concluded their presentation of Chinese history with the death of the Yongzheng Emperor (1735).84 The last edition of Moréri (1759) mentioned that the Qianlong Emperor had ascended the throne in 1735.85 Apart from considerable time lags in the transmission of information, the compilers of encyclopaedias also had to face erroneous information on the emperors of China. Such erroneous information on the

80 Amaranthes (i. e. Gottlieb Siegmund Corvinus), Nutzbares, galantes und curiöses Frauenzimmer-Lexicon [. . .] (Leipzig: Gleditsch 1715), col. 293 f. (s. v. ‘Candida’). 81 Moréri 1725 edition, vol. 3, p. 151. 82 Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1572 (s. v. ‘Sina’) and ibid., 60 (1749) col. 866 f. (s. v. ‘Yong-Tching’).—This may be a proof for the use of information on the then reigning Yongzheng Emperor contained in Du Halde, Description . . . de la Chine, vol. 1, pp. 550–556 (s. v. ‘Yong Tching’). 83 Zedler S4 (1754) col. 1448. This volume only contains a cross-reference to a planned article on ‘Cham-Hi’ (ibid., col. 1320 (s. v. ‘Camhi’). 84 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1917 (s. v. ‘China’) erroneously gives the year 1736.—This error had been perpetuated at least in ibid., 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 661 (s. v. ‘China’). 85 Moréri, 1759 edition, vol. 3, p. 636.

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death of the Qianlong Emperor (d. 1799) had been published by the German writer Georg August von Breitenbauch (1731–1817) in 1788 and evidently had been perpetuated in the 1804 edition of the Reales Staats- und Zeitungs-Lexicon—combined with the likewise erroneous information that the Jiaqing Emperor would not be the son but the grandson of the Qianlong Emperor.86 Due to the shifting focus of the genre as a whole, early nineteenthcentury encyclopaedias focused on the modern history of China and on the various stages of contacts between China and the outside world. As early as in 1703, the Universal, Historical, Geographical, Chronological and Poetical Dictionary had mentioned these incursions.87 In the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica we read that “the most interesting particulars of the Chinese history relate only to the incursions of the Tartars, who at least conquered the whole empire.”88 The Encyclopaedia Edinensis mentions that after the end of the Qianlong era there had occurred “several insurrections” in the western and the southern provinces of the empire, “which had hopes of overturning the Tartar dynasty.”89 In his remarks on the contemporary history of China written for Ersch/Gruber, Wilhelm Schott pointed out that the enemies of the Qing had gained ground during the reign of the Jiaqing Emperor: Rebellions had broken out in some of the provinces of central and southern China. Tongking and Cochinchina (two former tributaries of the Qing) had been unified and thus the independent empire of ‘Anam’ (i.e. Annam) had been established. Schott referred to all these events as a proof that the power of the Qing had weakened considerably and that the Manchu rulers would share the same fate as the Yuan. All this will happen again and again until a ‘moral renaissance’ of the Chinese will take place.90 According to Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon, the Jiaqing Emperor had been a cruel and brutal ruler who excelled all vices of his father but possessed none of the virtues of the Qianlong Emperor. As regards the reign of the Daoguang 道光 Emperor (r. 1821–1850), Meyer mentioned repeated persecutions of

86

Hübner, 1804 edition, vol. 1, col. 476. An Universal, Historical, Geographical, Chronological and Poetical Dictionary, vol. 1 (London: Hartley 1703), s. v. ‘China’. 88 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1909 (s. v. ‘China’).—See also Encyclopaedia Londinensis 4 (1810) 438. 89 Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 430. 90 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 176. 87

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Christians and pointed out that the Chinese would see the reign as unlucky because of several earthquakes and inundations.91 Encyclopaedias not only mentioned early nineteenth-century raids of the pirates on the South China coast,92 but also referred to the activities of secret societies. Under the heading ‘Seditious societies’ the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia referred to the uprisings initiated by members of the Tiandihui 天地會 (romanized as ‘Thian-thee-ohe’ and translated as ‘heaven and earth united’) and of the Bailianjiao 白蓮教 (romanized as ‘Pelinkias’ and rendered as ‘enemies of foreign religion’). The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia mentioned that in 1804 no less than nine provinces of China “were disturbed by the machinations of these levellers [i.e. the Tiandihui].”93 Krünitz’ encyclopaedia mentioned that “turmoil and disputes” were nothing new to China, and that the members of these societies would have the aim to set up a republic.94 According to German-language encyclopaedias, the main aim of the Tiandihui would be the extermination of the Manchu dynasty.95 Information on the then contemporary history of China given in the subsequent editions of Brockhaus shows how quick early nineteenth-century Europeans noticed events in China: in the seventh edition, published in 1827, the presentation of Chinese history ends with the death of the Jiaqing Emperor (1820) and the accession of the Daoguang Emperor. The eighth edition, published in 1833, already contained information on the Qing campaigns against the Muslim uprising in Xinjiang and mentioned a campaign against ‘a rebel in the western mountains of the empire’, led in late 1831. The ninth edition, published in 1843, continued this presentation up to the treaty of Nanjing concluded in August 1842. In the tenth edition (published in 1852), events in China were presented up to the death of the

91

Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 292 f.—A similar presentation of the personality of the Jiaqing Emperor had been given some years earlier in Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 439. 92 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 238; Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 292. 93 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 238.—Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 291 mentions the Bailianjiao (i.e. “Sect of the White Lotus”) uprising among the events of the Qianlong reign. 94 Krünitz 162 (1835) 695 f. (s. v. ‘Staat’) also refers to the Tiandihui as ‘Thianthee-ohé’. 95 Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 425; Meyer, ConversationsLexikon II 11 (1851) 990 (s. v. ‘Tian-ti-hui’).

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Daoguang Emperor (February 1850) and the accession of the Xianfeng 咸豐 Emperor (r. 1850–1861).96 The practice of overemphasizing the significance of contemporary events in the context of the long history of China prevailed at least until the middle of the nineteenth century. In the ninth edition of Brockhaus we read that the Opium War of 1839–1842 is to be regarded not only as the most important event of the Daoguang reign but perhaps of the whole history of China.97 Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon even compared the ‘opening’ of China and its significance for mankind to the discovery of America.98 In its supplementary volumes, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon provided ample information on the developments in China up to 1850, including the death of the Daoguang emperor.99 Ersch/Gruber presented the events in China during the age of the Opium Wars (1839–1860) under information on Great Britain.100 Krünitz’ encyclopaedia dealt with the opium trade to China under its information on poppy. As early as in 1803, it pointed out that the Chinese have been very delighted of smoking tobacco mixed with opium and that they have used it to cheer up. It added that the Jiaqing Emperor had prohibited all imports of opium because of its severe consequences for the health of the people. The imperial edict may not only serve as an example for Chinese bureaucracy but also to illustrate the dramatic consequences of the frequent abuse of opium.101 As

96

Brockhaus, 7th ed., vol. 2 (1827) 628; ibid., 8th ed., vol. 2 (1833) 615; ibid., 9th ed., vol. 3 (1843) 394 f.; ibid., 10th ed., vol. 4 (1852) 117. 97 Brockhaus, 9th ed., vol. 3 (1843) 391. 98 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 230. 99 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon S2 (1853) 958–971 (s. v. ‘China’, referring to the events from 1842 to March 1853); ibid., S5 (1854) 1199–1204 (s. v. ‘Tao-Kuang’). The death of the Daoguang Emperor had already been mentioned in the main section of the work (ibid., II 11 (1851) 124 (s. v. ‘Tao-kuang’). 100 Ersch/Gruber I 92 (1872) 345 f. and ibid., 354 f. (s. v. ‚Grossbritannien’, information on the events from 1839–42 and on the Treaty of Nanjing), ibid., 452–454 and 471–473 (on the second Opium War). 101 Krünitz 92 (1803) 640 (s. v. ‘Mohn’).—This edict has been communicated to the Chinese and foreign merchants at Guangzhou. While it was pointed out (ibid., 640) that the Jiaqing emperor prohibited all opium imports to China in 1801, the date given ibid., 642 at the close of this paragraph (sixteenth day of the eleventh month in the four year of the Jiaqing era) corresponds to 12 December 1799. The year 1799 is also mentioned in Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon II 1 (1848) 545 (s. v. ‘Opium’). On the various attempts of the Chinese authorities to prohibit the opium trade see also the presentation in Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 440 which also refers to the disastrous consequences of opium abuse.

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Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon pointed out, the prohibition of trade led to the rise of smuggling.102 7.5

Chinese Personal Names

Only in referring to historical and contemporary events in China, European encyclopaedias had to deal extensively with Chinese personal names.103 Nevertheless, they presented general remarks on the variety of personal names in use among the Chinese. As early as in Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon five kinds of names were mentioned. The Chinese would get their first or personal name from their parents, their school-name from their schoolmaster, another name at the time of their marriage, a ‘great name’ as they assume an office, and if they confess to a particular sect, they also would get another name—implicitly referring to the Buddhist fahao 法號 (or jieming 戒名) and the Daoist daohao 道號 respectively.104 About a century later, Eyriès also enumerates five kinds of personal names in use among the Chinese.105 The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana as well as Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon devoted a whole paragraph to this subject.106 In connection with the surnames (xing 姓) we read in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia that a surname “is never changed”.107 The Encyclopédie Moderne as well as Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon pointed out that they are little in number and that this number is fixed.108 As we read in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana the “common surname” is “borne by every individual in the family.” In Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon we read that there existed no fixed set of given names in China.109 Concerning the names of males, encyclopaedias provided detailed overviews: Not distinguishing between xiaoming 小名 and ming 名 102

Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon II 1 (1848) 545 (s. v. ‘Opium’). For recent overviews on this subject see Cohen, Introduction to Research in Chinese Source Materials, 468–478; Wilkinson, Chinese History, 96–105. 104 Zedler 23 (1740) 480 (s. v. ‘Nahme’). Krünitz 100 (1805) 747 (s. v. ‘Name’) took its information on the subject from Zedler without any reference. 105 Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 585 f. (new. ed., vol. 9, col. 142). 106 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 573 f.; Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 247 f.—The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 310 also did not provide the Chinese terms for the different names. 107 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 310. 108 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 247; Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 586 (new ed., vol. 9, col. 142). 109 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 247. 103

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(personal name), the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana pointed out that boys “as soon as born” receive their ming “i.e. little or infantine name”, while the Encyclopédie moderne explained it as the proper name, given just after birth.110 In presenting the zi 字 (public name), the second edition of the Encyclopédie Moderne as well as the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana pointed out, that this “manly name” is given “at the age of twenty.”111 According to the latter, girls did not “enjoy such honour, being called simply first, second, third, & c. according to seniority.”112 Referring to posthumous names, both encyclopaedias introduced hui 諱 (taboo names), which, according to the Encyclopédie Moderne, referred to the qualities or to a remarkable event in the life of the deceased. What the hui would have been for common people, the miao 廟 or miaohao 廟號 (temple name; temple title) would have been for emperors. As we read in the Encyclopédie Moderne only these titles were used when referring previous emperors of China. The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana even distinguishes between “two sorts of posthumous names” for the emperors: apart from the miaohao or temple name, “which is inscribed on the monumental tablet” it also mentioned the shi 諡 (royal canonical epithet or title) as “an assemblage of encomiastic epithets.”113 In Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon it was mentioned that, according to all historians, the emperors of China as well as the rulers of Abessinia would change their name at the time of their accession.114 In pointing out that only the “Kwi-hao [guohao 國號],115 ‘the Imperial name,’ or Nyen-hao [nianhao 年號 (era name, reign title], ‘the Year-name,’ ” would be used in historical accounts, the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana added that these “year-names” are formed “by a brace of laudatory epithets”, Qianlong would mean “the firm and exalted” and Daoguang “the light of reason.”116

110

Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 586 (new ed., vol. 9, col. 142). Ibid.; Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 573. 112 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 573. 113 Ibid. 114 Zedler 23 (1740) col. 527. 115 Evidently, the term guohao (dynastic name; see Wilkinson, Chinese History, 13 f.) was equated with the term nianhao. For another (late nineteenth-century) example see Balfour, Cyclopaedia of India, vol. 1, p. 683, where the various nianhao of the Ming and Qing emperors were listed under the head ‘Kwo-Hiau, or reigning title’. 116 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 573 f. For a similar translation of the term Daoguang as “Reason’s luster or light” see Charles Gutzlaff, The Life of TaouKwang, Late Emperor of China: With Memoirs of the Court of Peking; including a 111

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Historiography in China

Despite an ever-growing critical attitude towards things Chinese in the first half of the nineteenth-century, encyclopaedias usually acknowledged the continuity of the Chinese annals. With regard to the sources of European antiquity, Rees’ Cyclopaedia pointed out: At worst, the Chinese annals stand on as good a footing as either these of Greece and Rome. Their annalists, both for order and chronology, are not inferior to any of these ancients so much admired among us: but far surpass them in point of antiquity, and have a better title to be credited, as having written by public authority, which can be said of few Greek and Roman pieces, except perhaps the Capitoline Marbles, which are not properly a history.117

Contrary to Rees’ Cyclopaedia, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia mentioned the “uncertainty and deficiency of early annals”. As a proof for this assessment it was pointed out that the “surviving chapters” of the Shujing “are meagre and imperfect.”118 In Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon we read that the Chinese had their annals even earlier than the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians and Persians.119 Nevertheless, in its article on the Middle Ages, it pointed out that most of the annals of the Chinese were still inaccessible for Europeans. Due to the isolated state of the Chinese, they only would be of minor value for medieval history.120 In his presentation of Chinese literature given in the 1860s edition of the Encyclopédie Moderne, Léon Vaïsse pointed out that the Chinese possess the most complete and most continuous set of annals existing in any language.121 Ersch/Gruber contained information on Chinese historiography not only under the headword ‘China’, but also in the entry on historiography. Wilhelm Schott pointed out, that the Hanlin Academy would deserve special attention. Consisting of the most excellent scholars of China, its duties also would comprise the writing of an unbiased his-

sketch of the principal events in the history of the Chinese Empire during the last fifty years (London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1852), 45. 117 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 2, s. v. ‘Antiquity’. 118 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 218. This attitude was perpetuated at least until the middle of the nineteenth century. See e.g. Ersch/Gruber I 62 (1856) 355 (s. v. ‘Geschichte’, G. Hertzberg). 119 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 3 (1842) 73 (s. v. ‘Annalen’). 120 Ibid., I 21 (1852) 975 (s. v. ‘Mittelalter’). 121 Encyclopédie Moderne, new ed., vol. 9, col. 178.

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tory of the Empire. Schott mentioned that each dynasty would commission the writing of the history of the preceding dynasty.122 In his presentation of the history of historiography, Gustav Hertzberg (1826– 1907) also included information on China. In referring to the Standard Histories (zhengshi), Hertzberg pointed out that these contained not only information on the political history of the empire but also on trade and commerce, on inventions, literature, biography, statistics, and geography. The annals themselves only would treat rebellions, dethronements, and the succession of dynasties. Hertzberg added, that these annals would be as monotonous as the Chinese language and that they could not show even the slightest development due to the stationary character of the Chinese people.123 7.7

Assessing the History of China

For a long time, Europeans regarded China as an empire without history or at least with a history of minor interest. The reason for this minor interest was explained by the lack of any closer historical relationship between Europe and Asia.124 The Encyclopaedia Edinensis pointed out that “nothing important or interesting is recorded” from the sixth to the thirteenth dynasties. This ignorance towards the history of China coincides not only with the omission of large periods of Chinese history, but also with some errors in data referring to the end of dynasties. After mentioning the building of the Great Wall, the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica immediately presents information on the beginning of the Liao dynasty in AD 907.125 The Encyclopaedia Londinensis even starts its presentation of historical events with the advent of the Liao dynasty.126 In assessing the period from the establishment of the Liao to the end of the Yuan, the Encyclopaedia Edinensis erroneously dated the fall of the Yuan, in pointing out that the seven dynasties

122 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 167.—On the Hanlin yuan 翰林院 see Hucker, Dictionary of Official Titles, 223 (no. 2154; s. v. ‘hàn-lín yüàn’). 123 Ersch/Gruber I 62 (1856) 355 (‘Geschichte’, G. Hertzberg). 124 Krünitz 230 (1855) 286 (s. v. ‘Volksschule’). 125 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 653. 126 Encyclopaedia Londinensis 4 (1810) 438.

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chapter seven which comprehend the space between the 907 and the 1333 [sic; recte 1368] of the Christian era are equally barren of incident with the seven which precede them.127

Although encyclopaedias often transmitted this point of view, they dealt extensively with the history of China. Until the early nineteenth century, encyclopaedias relied almost exclusively on the works of the Jesuit missionaries. Due to antiquarian interest, the ancient history of China received broad interest among eighteenth-century European scholars. The above-mentioned overviews over the various dynasties as well as those over the history of China in general usually were preceded by remarks on the mythical rulers of China. Encyclopaedias also had to find a way to explain the ‘extravagant numbers’ occurring in Chinese calculations on the origin of the world and of “that prodigious number of reigns before Fou-hi”. In perpetuating information from Jesuit and French publications, the first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica linked these calculations with Daoist conceptions of the origin of the world. The presentation of the early history of China strictly was limited to the period up to the three emperors (sanhuang 三皇) of Chinese antiquity.128 The seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica compared the fabulous history of the Chinese to that of other ancient people: As the early history of every ancient people is more or less vitiated by fable, we ought not to be more fastidious or less indulgent towards the marvellous in that of China, than we are towards Egyptian, Greek or Roman history.129

In an attempt to assess the early annals of the Chinese, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that the “early history of China [. . .] is so extremely limited, as scarcely to deserve the name.” This assessment was based on the scope of Chinese records of antiquity and relied on data given by de Guignes (Idée de la Littérature chinoise, 1774): only 14 out of the 500 volumes known “by the name of the twenty one historians” comprehend the period from Yao 堯 to the year 200 BC—“and seven of these 14 contain only genealogical tables.”130 127

Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 428. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1st ed., vol. 2 (1771) 191 f. 129 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 550. 130 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 218.—The notion “by the name of the twenty one historians” refers to the Standard Histories (zhengshi 正史) for each successive dynasty. From the end of the fourteenth century up to the eighteeth century their 128

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The Penny Cyclopaedia provides a more general assessment: While the historical records of the Chinese Empire should not be rejected, it had become “pretty generally admitted” that the high degree of antiquity has been “considerably exaggerated.” Fuxi and Shennong 神農 as well as their “immediate successors” should be placed “rather under the head of mythology than of history; resembling those demi-gods and heroes of Grecian fable who rescued mankind from primeval barbarism.”131 As early as in the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica the presentation of the main events of Chinese history stressed the importance of the repeated conquests of China by nomadic people of Inner and North East Asia. These “incursions of the Tartars” which would be the “most interesting particulars of the Chinese history” had “begun very early.”132 In its presentation of these ‘incursions’, the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica focused on the rise and fall of the Liao, Jin and Yuan dynasties (tenth to fourteenth centuries). Mainly English language encyclopaedias explicitly perpetuated this strand of discourse until mid-nineteenth century. Apart from the subsequent editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, this may be seen best from the presentation of the history of China given in Rees’ Cyclopaedia133 as well as in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia. After a presentation of the principal events in the history of China, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia tried to give a general assessment of this history. In its introductory remark it pointed out that “the boasted antiquity, extent, civilization, and tranquillity of China have been too easily been admitted by Europeans”. This assessment clearly opposed the prevailing idea of an unchanging China (at least concerning historical events and developments). It further pointed out that about 800 BC the empire only comprised the regions later known as the provinces of Zhili, Shandong, Henan and Shanxi as well as (minor parts of ) Shaanxi while the rest of the country still was “in the possession of barbarians.” Thus, early nineteenth-century Europeans were well aware of

number was twenty one. With the completion of the Standard History of the Ming Dynasty (Mingshi 明史) in 1735 the number raised to twenty-two. In 1775, during the compilation of the Siku quanshu (Complete Library of the Four Treasuries) collection two recovered editions of earlier dynasties were added. This brought the number to twenty four. For an overview and detailed bibliographic references see Wilkinson, Chinese History, 501–515, especially 505 f. 131 Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 80. 132 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1909. 133 See e.g. Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’.

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the different phases of a gradual expansion of the so-called ‘Chinese’ empire: The empire of China, in the earlier ages of its existence, if indeed it existed so early, must have been composed only of a few civilized clans, who lived in the midst of barbarians, and who changed their place of residence as circumstances required. 134

Only as late as in the third century BC Qin Shihuangdi became “sole master of the empire [. . .] now united for the first time.” In its further assessment of Chinese history, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia stressed the repeated divisions that marked the history of the empire in the era now commonly known as Wei, Jin, Nanbei chao 魏晉南北朝 (AD 220–589)135 as well as from the tenth to the thirteenth century. Due to the presence of the “two Tartar nations of Kee-tan [Qidan, i. e. the Liao 遼 dynasty] and Kin [i.e. the Jin 金 dynasty], or Niu-tche [Nüzhen 女真], and the prince of Hia [i.e. Xia 夏]” in the northern and western parts of their dominion, the Song “were obliged to to remove their seat of their empire to a greater distance from these formidable neighbours.” While the Song had to move to the region which later became known as Zhejiang, they tried to get rid of the Liao and the Jin. To achieve this, they sought the assistance of the Mongols, but a few decades later they themselves were overthrown by these invaders led by Khubilai Khan who established the Yuan dynasty and “became absolute sovereign of all China”. Although China had not been divided again since the days of the Yuan it witnessed “two great revolutions”— from Yuan to Ming (1368) and from Ming to Qing (1644) “and has scarcely, in any reign, been entirely free from revolts, wars and domestic seditions.”136 In the final paragraph of this general assessment, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that only its isolated geographical situation had saved China from even more severe consequences. These remarks also reveal that early nineteenth-century Europeans clearly had dismissed the Chinese concept of China as the ‘Middle Kingdom’:

134

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 238. Contrary to the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 228 which only speaks of “The Southern Empire, . . . and . . . The Northern Empire”, Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 432 and Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 228 mentioned the Chinese term “Nan-pe-tschao” (Nanbei chao). 136 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 239. 135

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Instead, therefore, of being regarded as a privileged country governed from time immemorial by the same constitution, except from foreign conquest and intestine commotions; the only peculiarity which it possesses, in comparison with all other empires which have disappeared from the earth, is this, that, owing perhaps to its peninsular situation, at the extremity of the habitable world, and its consequent exemption from the sweep of those conquering nations, who changed the people whom they overthrew, it has preserved its manners and usages in a great manner unaltered, amidst the various revolutions and subjugations, which it has experienced.137

137

Ibid.

CHAPTER EIGHT

LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 8.1

Language and Writing

In analyzing encyclopaedias’ information on Chinese language and literature, we need to keep in mind, that European knowledge on these matters had been rather limited until the advent of sinology as an academic discipline in the early nineteenth century. Despite this fact, Chinese language and writing had a prominent place in early modern European discourses on the origin of languages and in the search for a universal language.1 Moreover, early modern Europeans closely linked information on Chinese language and literature to discourses on Chinese philosophy. In late seventeenth-century encyclopaedic reference works, information on the Chinese language in general had been derived from the presentation of the subject by the Austrian Jesuit Johann Grueber (1623–1680). Grueber’s text originally had been used by Athanasius Kircher. Shortly thereafter a French edition of the text had been published together with a reedition of Intorcetta’s translation of the Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean), one of the Confucian classics.2 The examples used for the description of the Chinese language prevailed in some eighteenth-century European encyclopaedias. This may be seen from the later editions of Moréri3 and from the Deutsche Encyclopädie.4 In his Nouveaux Mémoires sur l’état present de la Chine (1696), Le Comte provided another presentation of the Chinese language, that was referred to by European encyclopaedias up to the late eighteenth-century.5 1 See Mungello, Curious Land, 174–207 (Chapter VI: Proto-Sinology and the Seventeenth-Century European Search for a Universal Language). 2 “Voyage à la Chine des PP. I. Grueber et d’Orville”, 8. Published together with: La Science des Chinois, ou le livre de Cum-Fu-çu. Traduit mot pour mot de la langue Chinoise par le R. P. Intorcetta Iesuite (Paris: Cramoisy, 1673). 3 Moréri, Grand Dictionnaire historique, 8th ed. (1698), vol. 2, p. 155. 4 Deutsche Encyclopädie 5 (1781) 522. 5 For early European reports on the Chinese language (including the account of Le Comte) see Bai, Les voyageurs français, 322–331.

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Only in mid-eighteenth century, encyclopaedias started to distinguish between the various Chinese dialects and between oral and written language. In the Encyclopédie we read that the Chinese would apply the term ‘Mandarin’ also to the learned language (langue savante) of their country: Apart from the proper and particular language of each nation and each province ‘Mandarin’ would be used as a mean of communication not only at court but also on all levels of administration.6 In most encyclopaedias, presentations of Chinese language and writing were crucial for the perpetuation of the widespread idea of the ‘otherness’ of China. Examples for this perpetuation include the first edition of Ephraim Chambers’ Cyclopaedia as well as the introductory remarks to the section on Chinese language and literature inserted in Rees’ Cyclopaedia. In the first edition of Chambers’ Cyclopaedia we find a condensation of Louis Le Comte’s description of the Chinese language. F. le Comte observes, that the Chinese has no analogy with any other Language in the World: It only contains 330 Words, which are all Monosyllables; at least, they are pronounc’d so close, that there is no distinguishing above one Syllabic, or Sound in them. But the same Word, as pronounc’d with a stronger or weaker Tone, has different Significations: Accordingly, when ‘tis accurately spoke, it makes a sort of Musick, which has a real Melody, that constitutes the Essence and distinguishing Character of that Language.7

The first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica relied on this entry of Chambers with slight changes in orthography and punctuation— omitting only the reference to the account of Louis Le Comte.8 These general remarks referred to the antiquity and singularity of the Chinese language and perpetuated the perception of Chinese as a difficult language.9 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia linked this information on the antiquity of the language to the European discourse on the stability or even immobility of China: “[. . .] the language has

6

Encyclopédie 10 (1765) 12 (s. v. ‘Mandarin, (Littérat.)’). Ephraim Chambers, Cyclopaedia: or An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, vol. 1 (London: Printed for James and John Knapton [. . .], 1728) vol. 1, s. v. ‘Chinese’.—On the passages in Le Comte’s Nouveaux mémoires (1696) referred to by the Cyclopaedia see Mungello, Curious Land, 340–342 and Bai, Les voyageurs français, 322 and 325. 8 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1st ed., vol. 2 (1771) 184 (s. v. ‘Chinese’). 9 For examples of perpetuating late seventeenth-century presentations of the Chinese language see Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4Q2r (s. v. ‘China’). 7

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undergone no radical change, since the days of Confucius, whose style and manner differ very little from those of the best modern Chinese productions, except that these latter are seldom so concise; and there is still extant a dictionary, entitled See-ooen [i.e. Shuowen jiezi 說文 解字], compiled under the dynasty of Han, about 2000 years old.”10 Even before encyclopaedic dictionaries could rely on Le Comte’s presentation of the Chinese language, they labelled it as difficult: As early as in the first edition of Pierre Bayle’s Dictionaire historique, the Chinese language was said to be very difficult to learn.11 Prejudices of this kind were perpetuated in eighteenth-century Europe and thus retarded the spread of genuine philological interest in this language among European scholars for a long time. In 1827, the seventh edition of Brockhaus stated that the modifications of the various tones were unattainable for the ears and the tongues of Europeans.12 Early nineteenth-century English language encyclopaedias questioned the myth of the difficulty of the Chinese language by a comparison of the number of entries contained in the Kangxi zidian on the one hand and in Latin and English dictionaries on the other hand. They pointed out that the Kangxi zidian contains about 45,000 characters of which only 36,000 are still in use.13 Regarding the number of entries in European dictionaries, the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica referred to “about 44,000 words” in the Greek-Latin dictionary compiled by Johannes Scapula (c. 1540–1600) and to the 45,000 headwords in the dictionaries of Robert Ainsworth (1660–1743; Thesaurus Linguae latinae compendiarius, 1736) and Samuel Johnson (1709–1784; A Dictionary of the English Language, 1755). The Encyclopaedia Britannica supplied also data on the number and use of distinct characters and pointed out that there might not be any difficulty: while “the whole works of Confucius contain only about 3,000 different

10

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 276 (s. v. ‘China’). In a similar way this was pointed out in Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’ (“The Chinese language is not only one of the most ancient in the universe, but is, perhaps, the only language of the early ages, which is still spoken and living”) and by Édouard Biot (Encyclopédie du dixneuvième siècle 7 (1845) 458: “La forme de la langue offre l’exemple le plus surprenant de l’immutabilité des anciens usages en Chine.”). 11 Pierre Bayle, Dictionaire historique (Rotterdam: Leers, 1697), vol. 1, 2nd part (C–G), p. 1248 note F (s. v. ‘Golius’). 12 Brockhaus 7th ed., vol. 2 (1827) 629 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache, Schrift und Literatur’). 13 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 270; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 569.

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characters”, the Da Qing lüli might have about 100,000 characters, “but not more than 1860 different ones throughout the whole work.”14 Encyclopaedias also referred to the supposed inability of the Chinese to pronounce the letter “R”: Zedler in connection with the Chinese name for the Tartars, the Deutsche Encyclopädie not only in its information on the Chinese language, but also on the Japanese language, and Krünitz’ encyclopaedia in its entry on the Chinese language.15 Although criticizing the prevailing variety of European conjectures referring to the Chinese language, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia repeated that in the Chinese spoken language “there is no b, d, r, x, or z; no word begins with a or e; and all of them terminate with the vowels, a, e, i, o, u, ou, or the consonants n, ng, and l.”16 Searching for the original language of mankind, seventeenth- and eighteenth century scholars soon included not only Phoenician, Hebrew, Abessinian, Scythian, Cimbri (‘Cymbrisch’ in the German original), Latin, and Swedish, but also the Chinese language in their speculations.17 In its article on the confounding of languages, Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon pointed out that the languages of different areas may change somewhat in the course of time but one language never would change into another: even if the Chinese language may change over several thousand years, it never will become German.18 In the opening paragraph on Chinese language and literature in Rees’ Cyclopaedia we read that the Chinese language “is not only one of the most ancient of the universe, but is, perhaps, the only language of the early ages, which is still spoken and living.”19 Apart from a separate headword on Chinese language and literature, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon presented information on the subject under its information on antiquity.20 The introductory remarks to articles on Chinese language referred not only to the possible origins of the Chinese language, but also to the state of Chinese studies in Europe. In the supplement to the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica we read that the Chinese language 14 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 569.—The Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 82 also referred to the number of characters in the Kangxi zidian as well as to the number of words in Johnson’s dictionary. 15 Zedler 42 (1744) col. 30 (s. v. ‘Tartar, Tatar, oder Tatter’); Deutsche Encyclopädie 5 (1781) 522, ibid. 20 (1799) 197; Krünitz 160 (1834) 413 (s. v. ‘Sprache (Chinesische)’. 16 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 274.—See also Deutsche Encyclopädie 5 (1781) 522 f. (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache’). 17 Krünitz 202 (1850) 363 (s. v. ‘Ursprache’). 18 Zedler 39 (1744) col. 467 (s. v. ‘Sprach-Verwirrung’). 19 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4Q2r. 20 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 2 (1841) 319 and 324 (s. v. ‘Alterthum’).

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“is very little understood in Europe.”21 Information on the subject mainly was derived from Staunton’s account of the British Embassy to China, which “will undoubtedly place him high among the most eminent philologists of the 18th century.”22 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia added that “a variety of opinions, or rather conjectures, prevailed among the learned, respecting the origin, progress, and structure of this extraordinary language.”23 In Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon, Ellissen stressed the importance of language for the development of Chinese civilisation. Due to the differences between the Chinese language and all other languages it would be impossible to derive all the various nations from the same primitive tribe of early mankind—a subject eagerly discussed by eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century European scholars.24 The Encyclopaedia Edinensis argued that the “peculiar character both of their oral and their written language” would distinguish the Chinese “from the rest of mankind” more than any of “their other singularities.” Thus, “the antiquity of their origin is incontestably proved.” Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon provides a similar presentation of this point.25 From the early nineteenth-century onwards, information on Chinese language and writing presented in encyclopaedias became more and more structured and organized. The main points covered by almost all of these presentations were the origins of Chinese writing, the different modes of writing, the classifiers (bushou 部首, also called zimu 字母), the six principles theory (liushu 六書) and sound and pronunciation of the characters. In the presentation of the Chinese language, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia referred to grammar, syntax, punctuation, and to the styles of composition as well as to vernacular Chinese. The introductory remarks in the section on Chinese language and literature represent a first attempt for a critical assessment of earlier European works on

21

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., Supplement 1 (1801) 419. Ibid. 23 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 269 f. 24 Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon 3 (1847) 306 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache und Literatur’, Ellissen).—On eighteenth-century hypotheses concerning the common origin of all men see Manfred Petri, Die Urvolkhypothese. Ein Beitrag zum Geschichtsdenken der Spätaufklärung und des deutschen Idealismus, Historische Forschungen 41 (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1990); Helmut Zedelmaier, Der Anfang der Geschichte. Studien zur Ursprungsdebatte im 18. Jahrhundert, Studien zum achtzehnten Jahrhundert 27 (Hamburg: Meiner, 2003). 25 Encyclopaedia Edinensis 2 (1827) 417. For a similar presentation see Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 335 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache, Schrift und Literatur’). 22

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the Chinese language. They show an improved consideration of English language publications on this subject “and a variety of opinions, or rather conjectures, prevailed among the learned, respecting the origins, progress, and structure of this extraordinary language.”26 In 1843, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon pointed out that the Chinese language for a long time had been said to be the most difficult language.27 For Ersch/Gruber, Schott had written one of the first comprehensive entries on Chinese language. This article, published in 1827, marks a turning point in the presentation of the subject (at least in Germanlanguage encyclopaedias). As various other works of general reference mentioned this article (the Encyclopédie Catholique even inserted a French translation of it),28 Schott’s presentation deserves a closer look. In his opening remarks, Schott pointed out, that the Chinese language is one of the most original and most remarkable languages in the world. In perpetuating the erroneous view of Chinese as a monosyllabic language, he referred to the comparative tables published by Klaproth in his Asia polyglotta (Paris 1823). In the eighth edition of Brockhaus, published in 1833, we find an implicit correction to this point of Schott’s presentation: the works of Rémusat and Davis had shown that the supposed monosyllabic character of the Chinese language had been nothing more than a mere illusion.29 Nevertheless, encyclopaedias perpetuated this strand of discourse. Writing for Pierer’s Universal-Lexikon (and some years after the above mentioned eighth edition of Brockhaus had been published), von der Gabelentz opened his article on Chinese language and writing with the remark that the language is monosyllabic and without any inflections.30 After remarks on the various dialects of the Chinese language (including information on Cantonese), Schott discussed the pronunciation of the very limited number of the different syllables and presented an overview on the tonal system of the Chinese language.31 According

26

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 269 f. (s. v. ‘China’). Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 4,1 (1843) 786 (s. v. ‘Asiatische Sprachen’): “[. . .] jetzt aber näher bekannt und vielfach erforscht.” 28 Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 359–364 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache’). French translation in Encyclopédie Catholique 7 (1844) 413–417. 29 Brockhaus, 8th ed., vol. 2 (1833) 610. 30 Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 455 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache u. Schrift’). 31 Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 360–362 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache’). 27

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to Schott, Europeans hardly could bear in mind the correct pronunciation of the first three tones. As the Chinese were an “ingenious nation”, they managed the “scarcity” of distinct syllables by combining two words that may convey similar meanings to compose new words. Schott used the word daolu 道路 as example. This word combines the words dao (‘way, road’) and lu (‘street’) to a word meaning ‘highway’. By combining two synonymous words, the Chinese would avoid misunderstandings and ambiguities in the spoken language.32 To illustrate the (alleged) scarcity of distinct syllables, Schott added a list of nine different words that are pronounced dao and seven different words that are pronounced lu.33 The following table adds the Chinese characters and the English meaning to each of the words selected by Schott (diacritics according to the original).

Schott Chinese character— (transcription English translation and translation)

Schott (transcription and translation)

Chinese character— English translation

dáo, führen 導—to lead, to guide dáo, entwenden 盜—to rob, to steal

lù, Weg lú, Edelstein

路—road 璐—beautiful variety of jade 露—dew 鷺—an egret 賂—to give a present, to bribe 輅—a chariot 潞—a name of a river in Shanxi and another in Yunnan

dáo, erreichen 到—to arrive at, to reach lú, Thau dáo, einstürzen 倒—to fall down lú, Seerabe34 dáo, bedecken 幬—to cover lú, schmücken35 dáo, Fahne 纛—flag, standard dáo, mit 蹈—to tread on Füßen treten dáo, Getreide dáo, Weg

lú, Wagen lú, Eigenname eines Flusses

稻—rice growing in the field 道—a road, a way

32 In Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon 3 (1847) 308 Ellissen also mentioned this example. The same example is presented by Wilkinson, Chinese History, 35: “The most common type of compound in Literary Chinese was not bound. The two constituent words had equal weight and were usually synonyms or near synonyms, such as daolu 道路 (avenue + road = highway).” 33 Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 362 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache’). 34 The French translation of the article (see Encyclopédie Catholique 7 (1844) 416) has “cormorant” which would refer to the character lú 鸕. 35 The French translation (ibid.) has “suborner”, i.e. to bribe.

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While referring to the great wealth of composita, Schott pointed out that these composita always would remain separated in writing and that there is no metamorphosis in the pronunciation of these characters either in tone or articulation. In addressing the alleged immutability 36 of the Chinese language, Schott wrote that it would lack not only etymology but also morphology. In addition to these general notes which he closed with remarks on the different styles of the language, Schott provided information on Chinese phraseology and prosody.37 Closely linked to the widespread remarks on the monosyllabic character of the Chinese language encyclopaedias presented the problem of homophony. As late as in Pierer we read that the syllable “ĭ” [yi] not only means ‘one’ [yi 一] but also ‘strong’ [yi 毅], ‘silence’ [yi 怡], ‘to come to an end’ [yi 已], ‘breast’ [yi 臆], and so on.38 As early as in the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica we read that “there are four different languages” in Chinese.39 While this information had entirely been derived from Grosier, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia based its information on Chinese language on the works of Barrow and de Guignes, and especially on the Dissertation on the Characters and Sounds of the Chinese language (1809) published by the Baptist missionary Joshua Marshman (1768–1837).40 The Encyclopaedia Britannica labelled guwen 古文 as the “classical language.”41 In its description of the “Koo-ooen, or style of the books named King” the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia mentioned the three kinds of this style. The first one, “extremely concise and full of metaphors” would comprise the jing 經 (in the original ‘King’ remains untranslated), the second one would comprise texts written until the burning of the books under the reign of Qin Shihuangdi, and the third kind is the style of the books written from Han to Song.42 In Ersch/Gruber, Schott described the style of guwen as “concise, dark and elliptic”.43 In the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, Biot 36 On this point see Ibid., 18 f.: “The official belief in an uninterrupted legitimate succession from ancient times to the dynasty of the day and the unbroken use of a learned written language reinforced the impression of an unchanging China.” 37 Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 363 f. (‘Chinesische Sprache’). 38 Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 455 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache u. Schrift’). 39 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 687. 40 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 270. For Marshman’s Dissertation see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 1661. 41 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 687. 42 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 275. 43 Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 363 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache’).

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only mentioned that guwen is the style of the ancient literary monuments of the Chinese.44 In defining the wenzhang 文章 (i.e. ‘essay’ as well as ‘figured or brilliant’) style, the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica pointed out that this was the language “used in compositions where a noble and elevated style is requisite” and that it was never spoken.45 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia noted that the wenzhang, “or the style of elevated composition” is “not so laconic as the Koo-ooen, but is even still more flowery and recondite.”46 In Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon, Ellissen pointed out that the wenzhang style would be extremely rich in tropes and metaphors.47 To illustrate the presentation, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia referred to the following examples: the death of an emperor thus would be expressed by the terms bin tian 賓天 (“a guest has entered into heaven”) or “what would be still more emphatic and sublime, the word Pong [beng 崩], a mountain is burst and tumbled in pieces.” Composition in this style not only requires “the greatest care of knowledge” but also “is a very rare attainment.”48 In the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia we read that these “figures of speech” would be “so entirely applicable to Chinese history, as to be intelligible only to those, who are well acquainted with their ancient events and proverbs.” To illustrate this, it added further examples for this metaphoric use of language like ‘to paint the tiger’ (i.e. to drink hard) or ‘a peach tree and a spring of water’ (taoyuan 桃源, i.e. the retirement of a sage).49 In Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon, we also find some examples for metaphors used in Chinese, among others longmen dian’e 龍門點額 (lit. to bend at the gate of the dragon) which means ‘to fail one’s exam.’50 In referring to guanhua 官話 (i.e. “the language of the officials”),51 the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that this “is the style employed

44 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 473 (s. v. ‘Chinoises (langue et littérature)’). 45 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 688. 46 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 275. 47 Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon 3 (1847) 308 (‘Chinesische Sprache und Literatur’). 48 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 275. 49 Ibid., vol. 6, p. 278. 50 Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon 3 (1847) 308. 51 According to W. South Coblin, “A Brief History of Mandarin,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 120, no. 4 (Oct.–Dec. 2000), 537 the term guanhua originally referred to “the universal standard language or koiné spoken by officials and educated people in traditional China during the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing

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by the mandarins, the literati, and all well educated persons.” It described this style as ‘more extended’ than the wenzhang style and adds that guanhua only serves for ‘oral communications.’52 Contrary to this, Schott pointed out that the guwen style is used not only in business and in correspondence but also for commentaries, dramas, novels, etc.53 Writing for the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, Biot mentioned that guanhua generally is divided into a northern and into a southern form. The latter that had been the language of the people of Nanjing had also been used for drama and belles-lettres.54 Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon explicitly mentioned that the most refined and most correct pronunciation of the Chinese language is that used by the people of Nanjing.55 As regards the vernacular language(s) of China (xiangtan 鄉談, i.e. local patois), which represented “only a corruption” of guanhua and were “the ordinary dialect of the populace, and varies in the different provinces and districts,”56 Biot pointed out that the Chinese language in fact consisted of two distinct languages, written and oral.57 According to the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, all educated persons would be able to use the dialect of their native place, “but never employ it in conversation with mandarins or learned men.”58 Biot mentioned the local dialects in the different provinces of China and also the efforts by Robert Morrison (Vocabulary of the Canton dialect, 1828) and Walter Henry Medhurst (A Dictionary of the Hok-këèn Dialect of the Chinese Language, 1832/1837) to study the dialects of Guangdong (Canton) and Xiamen (Amoy).59 In its bibliographical references, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon lists Medhurst’s dictionary of the Southern Fujian (Hokkien) language or dialect as well as the works by Morrison and

(1644–1912) dynasties. In this use it parallels and may in fact be modeled on early southern European missionary expressions, such as la lengua mandarina, falla mandarin, etc.” 52 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 275. 53 Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 363 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache’). 54 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 475 (s. v. ‘Chinoises (langue et littérature)’). 55 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 338 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache, Schrift und Literatur’). 56 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 275. 57 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 475 (s. v. ‘Chinoises (langue et littérature)’). 58 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 275. 59 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 475 (s. v. ‘Chinoises (langue et littérature)’).

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Elijah Coleman Bridgman (1801–1861) (Chinese Chrestomathy in the Canton dialect, 1841).60 In Pierer’s Universal-Lexikon, Hans Conon von der Gabelentz referred not only to Morrison’s Vocabulary, but also to Theophil Siegfried Bayer’s (1694–1738) presentation of the Zhangzhou 漳州 dialect in the Museum sinicum (1730).61 In general, encyclopaedias mentioned the quite simple grammatical structures of the Chinese language.62 While most encyclopaedias simply mentioned this fact, Rees’ Cyclopaedia went into details: In the Chinese language there are not many minute rules of grammar, conjugation or declension. There is no necessity of distinguishing substantives, adjectives, or verbs; nor any accordance of gender, number or case, in a Chinese sentence. [. . .] A very few articles denote the past, the present, and the future; nor are these auxiliaries employed, when the intended time may be otherwise inferred with certainty.63

Works of general knowledge indicate how European knowledge on Chinese writing increased from late seventeenth to mid-nineteenth century. This increase reflects the intellectual history of early modern Europe. While scarcely dealing with the Chinese language, Zedler’s UniversalLexikon mainly provided information on the nature of Chinese writing.64 Apart from introductory remarks on the language that referred to the writings of Kircher, Grueber, Magalhães and Le Comte,65 the major part of this sequence dealt with Chinese writing. A large portion of the information on Chinese writing was borrowed word by word from the 1734 edition of the travelogue by Adam Brand, first published in 1698.66 In the Encyclopédie, the entry on Chinese writing written by Louis de Jaucourt (1704–1780) illustrates how knowledge on this subject

60

Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 338. Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 456 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache u. Schrift’). On Bayer’s treatment of the Zhangzhou dialect see Knud Lundbaek, T. S. Bayer (1694–1738). Pioneer Sinologist, Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies Monograph Series No. 54 (London, Malmö: Curzon, 1986), 129 f. 62 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 688; Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 455 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache u. Schrift’); Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 337 (s. v. ‘Chinesische, Sprache, Schrift und Literatur’). 63 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4Q2r. 64 Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1562 f. (s. v. ‘Sina’). 65 For an assessment of early modern European presentations of Chinese writing see Bai, Les voyageurs français, 331–337. 66 Adam Brand, Neu-vermehrte Beschreibung Seiner grossen Chinesischen Reise [. . .] (Lübeck: Böckmann, 1734), 322–325. 61

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increased during the first half of the eighteenth-century. Apart from the writings of the Jesuit missionaries in China (Jaucourt mentioned Martini, Magalhães, Semedo, Gaubil), he also referred to publications by Du Halde, Fourmont, Fréret, and William Warburton (1698–1779).67 Chinese writing would be composed of abridged marks, which had been combined and thus multiplied to a prodigious number. Jaucourt mentioned that a different character represents each idea and that Chinese writing thus had spread to other nations in East and Southeast Asia and now is common to different nations who speak different languages.68 This rather general presentation given in the text volumes of the Encyclopédie was followed by a much more detailed presentation of the subject given in the first instalment of the second volume of the Recueil de planches, published in 1763. The explanatory treatise attached to these plates had been furnished by Michel-Ange André Le Roux Deshauterayes (1724–1795). This treatise provided largely extended information on Chinese writing. After referring to the tonal system of the Chinese and to the early history of Chinese writing, Deshauterayes—for the first time in an encyclopaedic reference work published in Europe—presented a list of the 214 keys, an overview on the development of the different styles of Chinese writing, and on the liushu (six principles theory) referring to the latter as six different orders or classes.69 None of the eighteenth-century encyclopaedic dictionaries that followed the Encyclopédie superseded this presentation. The 1778 edition of Chambers’ Cyclopaedia, edited by Abraham Rees, also contained information on the ‘six sorts’ of writing.70 Regarding the number of Chinese characters, eighteenth and early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias spoke of 60,000 to 80,000 charac-

67

On Warburton’s observations on the origin of languages see Allen, “Predecessors,” 535 f. 68 Encyclopédie 5 (1755) 360 (s. v. ‘Écriture chinoise’, Jaucourt). 69 Encyclopédie, Recueil de planches, sur les sciences, les arts libéraux, et les arts méchaniques, avec leur explication. Seconde livraison, première partie (Paris: Briasson 1763), Alphabets anciens, pp. 12–17. 70 Cyclopaedia, Or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. Containing An Explanation of the Terms, and an Account of the Several Subjects, in the Liberal and Mechanical Arts, and the Sciences, Human, and Divine. Intended as a Course of Ancient and Modern Learning, by E. Chambers. With the Supplement and Modern Improvements, Incorporated in one Alphabet. By Abraham Rees (London: Printed for W. Strahan, 1778), vol. 1, s. v. ‘Chinese, or Chinese Tongue’.

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ters.71 In the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle we read of 40,000 characters.72 The Kangxi zidian 康熙字典 (The Kangxi Character Dictionary), published in 1716 contains over 47,000 single-character entries.73 Strongly influenced by the advent of sinology, early-nineteenth century encyclopaedias broadly discussed the nature of the 214 keys. The Encyclopaedia Edinensis presents the most comprehensive overview on denominations used for these 214 characters in China as well as in Europe: These 214 elementary characters are denominated by the Chinese themselves Tse-moo [i.e. zimu], mother characters—Tse-poo [i.e. zibu 字部], directing characters,—and Shoo-moo [shumu 書目], the eyes of the books. But by Europeans they are designated the elements, the keys, and the roots of the language.74

The Penny Cyclopaedia mentioned ‘root characters’—a term quite common in early nineteenth-century presentations of the Chinese language.75 Rees’ Cyclopaedia presented “the genera or roots of the language.”76 Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon explained that these 214 roots would provide the keys for all the characters of the Chinese and for the arrangement of Chinese dictionaries. The arrangement of the characters under each of the strokes corresponds to the number of strokes added to the respective basic character. This arrangement would considerably ease the task of locating a character in a dictionary.77

71 Encyclopédie, Recueil des planches [. . .] Seconde livraison, première partie, ‘Alphabets anciens’, p. 12; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1920: “near 60,000 of these characters in all, but those in common use do not exceed 3,000”; Meyer, Conversations-Lexicon I 7,2 (1845) 337 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache, Schrift und Literatur’). Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 20, [fol. 4E4v] (s. v. ‘Letter’; 80,000 characters) referred to the account of Le Comte. 72 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 473 (s. v. ‘Chinoises, Langue et Littérature’). 73 See Cohen, Introduction, 107 and Wilkinson, Chinese History, 45–47. For a definition of “adult literacy [. . .] as having a knowledge of about 3,000 characters” see ibid., 47 n. 34. 74 Encyclopaedia Edinensis 2 (1827) 418. See also Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 564.—For a similar but less complete enumeration of Chinese terms see Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 270. 75 Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 82. 76 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4Q2r. 77 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 337.

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Concerning the historical evolution of Chinese writing,78 late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias usually pointed out that the origins of Chinese writing are lost in the mythical ages of the Chinese.79 Before the invention of these characters the Chinese had used knots—encyclopaedias did not mention the term jiesheng 結繩 for these knotted cords—similar to the quipus of the Peruvians.80 They also mentioned that the Chinese were used to ascribe the invention of Chinese writing traditionally to Fuxi and/or Huang Di 黃帝.81 The information on the various modes of writing (to be presented below) shows that Europeans were well aware of the different stages in the development of Chinese characters. In its section on Chinese writing the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia presented a heading ‘Classification of characters’ and thus explicitly stressed the need for ordering the respective knowledge.82 Rees’ Cyclopaedia took its information on the liushu from a treatise on Chinese writing published in the Philosophical Transactions and thus only circumscribed the Chinese expressions83—a practice that also may be seen in the ninth edition of Brockhaus84 and in Meyer’s Con-

78 On the origins and development of Chinese writing see Qiu Xigui, Chinese Writing, trans. by Gilbert L. Mattos and Jerry Norman. Early China Special Monograph Series No. 4 (Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 2000). 79 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 270: “The origin of these mother characters is entirely a matter of conjecture.” Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 580 (“Whatever be the age in which these characters were first used [. . .].”); Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 365 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Schrift’, W. Schott): “verliert sich in das Mythenalter des chinesischen Volkes.”—In the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 473 (s. v. ‘Chinoises (langue et literature)’), Biot did not provide dates for the ‘invention’ of Chinese writing. 80 Encyclopédie, Recueil de planches, Seconde livraison, prèmiere partie, Alphabets anciens, p. 16: “Tels étoient les quipos dont se servoient les Péruviens”; Encyclopaedia Edinensis 2 (1827) 417. 81 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 270: “but they [i.e. the Chinese] are fond of representing the lines of Fo-shee, broken and unbroken [. . .] as at once the most ancient of their records [. . .].”; Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 580; Ersch/ Gruber I 16 (1827) 365 f. (‘Chinesische Schrift’, W. Schott). 82 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 271 f. 83 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4Q2r.—Charles Morton, “Extract from the journals of the Royal Society, June 23, 1768, respecting a letter addressed to the Society by a member of the house of Jesuits at Pekin in China.” Philosophical Transactions, vol. 59. For the Year 1769 (London 1770), 489–504 (quoted after Löwendahl, Sino-Western cultural relations, vol. 1, p. 246 (no. 554)). 84 Brockhaus, 9th ed., vol. 3 (1843) 396 f. (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache, Schrift, und Literatur’).

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versations-Lexikon as well.85 Although relying on the works of Robert Morrison and enriched by Chinese characters, the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica followed the same practice.86 In his article on Chinese language and literature written for the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, Édouard Biot did not mention the liushu at all.87 In writing for Ersch/Gruber, Wilhelm Schott dismissed the presentation of the liushu. In trying to correct Chinese philologists and the presentation of Rémusat in the Élémens de la grammaire chinoise (1822) he proposed seven sorts of characters.88 In the Encyclopédie Nouvelle, Pauthier pointed out that the liushu have been presented by Xu Shen 許慎 in his Shuowen jiezi and all Europeans dealing with the subject had presented them in the same order. Pauthier himself proposed a slight alteration of this order.89 In their presentation of the six sorts of characters (liushu),90 encyclopaedias provided a wealth of English, French and German renderings for each of the six terms (xiangxing 象形,91 zhishi 指事,92 85 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 336 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache, Schrift und Literatur’). 86 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 565 f. 87 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 472–480 (‘Chinoises (langue et literature)’). 88 Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 365 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Schrift’).—Schott’s critical assessment of these ‘six sorts’ had also been by later encyclopaedias, e.g. Wigand’s Conversations-Lexicon 3 (1847) 308. 89 Encyclopédie Nouvelle 4 (1843) 568 (s. v. ‘Écriture’). 90 Cohen, Introduction to Research in Chinese Source Materials, 19–25 speaks of ‘Six Script Forms’; Wilkinson, Chinese History, 411 f. of ‘six types of character composition theory’. The following notes refer to the English renderings for these terms given by Cohen und Wilkinson respectively.—For further bibliographic references on this subject (including French and German-language research) see Georg Lehner, Der Druck chinesischer Zeichen in Europa. Entwicklungen im 19. Jahrhundert (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2004), p. 3 f. 91 Cohen: ‘to depict a form’; Wilkinson: ‘indicative’: ‘siang-hing, ou conforme à la figure’ (Encyclopédie, Recueil de planches, Alphabets anciens, 16) ‘siang-hing [. . .] figuratifs purs (Encyclopédie Nouvelle 4 (1843) 568); ‘exhibiting the shape of sensible things’ (Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4Q2r); ‘Siang-hing, i.e. image and symbol’ (Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 271); ‘Syang-hing, i.e. images, (Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, 16 (1845) 580); ‘Siáng-ching, oder Bilder’ (Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 365 n. 7); ‘rohe Bilder (siang-hing)’ (Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 455); ‘Siàngching, Bilder, d. i. Vorstellungen sinnlicher Gegenstände’ (Wigand, ConversationsLexikon 3 (1847) 308). 92 Cohen: ‘to indicate/depict an abstract thing’; Wilkinson: ‘pictographic’: ‘tchi-ssé, representation’ (Encyclopédie, Recueil de planches, Alphabets anciens, 16); ‘tchi-sse [. . .] indicatifs’ (Encyclopédie nouvelle 4 (1843) 568); ‘indicating the object by some visible addition to the shape or symbol’ (Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4Q2r); ‘Tchee-see,

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huiyi 會意,93 xingsheng 形聲 (or xiesheng 諧聲),94 jiajie 假借,95 zhuanzhu 轉注).96

i.e. indication of the object or idea’ (Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 271); ‘chise, i.e. indicative’ (Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 581); ‘Dschì-szé, eigentliche Zeichen’ (Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 365 n. 7); ‘willkührliche Zeichen (tchì-ssé)’ (Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 455; ‘Dschì-szé, andeutende Zeichen’ (Wigand, Conversations-Lexikon 3 (1847) 309). 93 Cohen: ‘to cojoin meanings’ or ‘cojoined meanings’; Wilkinson: ‘associative’: ‘hoei-y, connexion de caracteres’ (Encyclopédie, Recueil de planches, Alphabets anciens, 16); ‘associating two characters to express an object, which neither will denote separately’ (Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4Q2r); ‘hoeï-I, à sens combinés’ (Encyclopédie Nouvelle 4 (1843) 568); ‘Hoey-ye, i.e. combination of the object or idea’ (Edinburgh Encyclopaedia vol. 6, p. 272); ‘hweï-i, or combinations’ (Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 580); ‘choéi-í oder combinirte Begriffe’ (Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 365 n. 7); ‘mehrere derselben combinirt (hoei-i)’ (Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 455; ‘Choéĭ-í, combinirte Begriffe’ (Wigand, Conversations-Lexikon 3 (1847) 309). 94 Cohen: ‘to harmonize/shape sounds’; Wilkinson: ‘picto-phonetic’: ‘hiá-ching, & contient les caractères auxquels on a joint d’autres pour lever les equivoques qui en résulteront lorsque leur pronunciation est la même’ (Encyclopédie, Recueil de planches, Alphabets anciens, 16); ‘hing-ching, idéo-phonétiques’ (Encyclopédie nouvelle 4 (1843) 568); ‘expressing a sound, in order to supply the defect of the figure’ (Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4Q2r); ‘Kiai-in, i.e. explanation by the sound’ (Edinburgh Encyclopaedia vol. 6, p. 272); ‘Hing-shing. i.e. ‘representing the sound’ (Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 580); ‘Ching-sching oder Schall nachbildende’ (Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 365 n. 7); ‘eine Art phonetischer Zeichen (hîng-shîng)‘ (Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 455; ‘Chìng-sching, Tonbilder, d. i. Charaktere, deren jeder zur Hälfte bildlich, zur Hälfte phonetisch ist’ (Wigand, Conversations-Lexikon 3 (1847) 309). 95 Cohen: ‘false borrowing’; Wilkinson: ‘loan characters’: ‘kia-tsié, emprunter’ (Encyclopédie, Recueil de planches, Alphabets anciens, 16); ‘kia-tsiéi, métaphoriques’ (Encyclopédie Nouvelle 4 (1843) 568); ‘being a metaphorical application of their characters, by which their language acquires a force and vivacity of colouring peculiar to itself, but at the same time rendering it extremely obscure (Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4Q2r); ‘Kia-tsié, i.e. idea borrowed or metaphorical’ (Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 272); ‘kya-tsyeī, i.e. borrowed’ (Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 580); ‘Giă-dsiéi, oder metaphorische’ (Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 365 n. 7; ‘den Zeichen concreter Dinge abstracte Bedeutung beigelegt (kià-tsiéi)’ (Pierer, Universal-Lexicon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 455); ‘Già-dsiéi, entlehnte Zeichen oder, wie Remusat [!] sie nennt, metaphorische’ (Wigand, Conversations-Lexicon 3 (1847) 309). 96 Cohen notes that the meaning of this term is uncertain; Wilkinson: ‘notative’, ‘tchùen-tchu, interpretation flexible ou inflexion de voix’ (Encyclopédie, Recueil de planches, Alphabets anciens, 16); ‘tchouan-tchu, inverses’ (Encyclopédie Nouvelle 4 (1843) 568); ‘extending the primitive sense of a character, so that the same character may denote a verb or adverb, an adjective or substantive’ (Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4Q2r); ‘Tchuan-tchoo, i.e. extension, development’ (Edinburgh Encyclopaedia vol. 6, p. 272); ‘chwan-chu, [. . .] indicates inversion’ (Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 581); ‘Dschuan-dschü, umgekehrte, inverse Charaktere’ (Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 365 n. 7); ‘durch veränderte Stellung der Zeichen (tschuan-tschü) eine Veränderung ihrer Bedeutung angezeigt’ (Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 455); ‘Dschuan-dschü, umgewandte Charaktere’ (Wigand, Conversations-Lexikon 3 (1847) 309).

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Encyclopaedias also paid attention to the evolution of Chinese writing in the course of time. Most likely derived from Jesuit writings, Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon mentioned seventeen modes of ancient Chinese characters, pointing out that one of them was still unknown!97 The scope of the presentation of the different modes or styles of Chinese writing in early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias differs considerably. The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia and the Encyclopédie Nouvelle provided the most extensive treatment of this subject. While Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon pointed out that the shape of characters had changed due to the development of the materials used for writing as time went on, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia only mentioned that “various changes were made in the form of writing.”98 In referring to one of the oldest Chinese scripts, encyclopaedias mentioned the tadpole script (kedouwen 蝌蚪文).99 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that the Chinese would regard the tadpole script as “the most ancient form of writing” usually ascribed to Cang Jie 倉頡, “a mandarin under Hoang-tee [Huang Di].”100 In mideighteenth-century, the Encyclopédie referred to Cang Jie’s invention.101 In the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia we read that Cang Jie had called his invention Niao-ky-tchouen [niaojizhuan 鳥跡篆] (letters imitating the footsteps of birds); but, as they were supposed to have a resemblance to an animal called Kho-theoo, a kind of water insect, they received and have hitherto borne this last appellation.102

97

Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1562 f.; ibid., col. 1563: “Die 16te ist annoch unbekannt.” Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 336 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache, Schrift und Literatur), Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 271. 99 See Qiu, Chinese Writing, 85: “This name stems from the tendency of writing the strokes comprising the ancient script forms with thick heads and fine tails, or thick mid-sections and fine tips, thus featuring shapes which do slightly resemble tadpoles.” 100 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 271. 101 The Encyclopédie (Récueil de planches, Seconde livraison, première partie (1763) Alphabets anciens, p. 16 only referred to the term niaojizhuan romanized as ‘niaotsi-ouene’. 102 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 271. See also Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 367 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Schrift’, W. Schott) as well as the French translation of Schott’s text in Encyclopédie Catholique 7 (1844) 419.—Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 336 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache, Schrift und Literatur’) mentioned the kedouwen (‘Ko-teu’), but provides no translation of this term. The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 581 referred to the ‘K’ho-teù, or tad-pole characters’. 98

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During the Eastern Zhou era (770–256 BC) there emerged a new script mainly to be found on bronze vessels.103 While we read in the Encyclopédie that the 72 tributary kings were eager to develop their own script,104 the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia referred to the invention of zhouwen 籀文 (also called dazhuan 大篆, i.e. large seal script) “about 826 years before Christ.”105 The invention of another script mentioned by early nineteenthcentury encyclopaedias was closely connected to the unification of the empire by Qin Shihuangdi. Li Si 李斯 (d. 208 BC), prime minister to the First Emperor, invented the xiaozhuan 小篆 (small seal script). In this context, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia mentioned the “Ly-tse” characters (lishu 隸書, i.e. chancery or clerical script) which, after “new corrections having been made upon the system [. . .] were named Kiaee-tchoo [kaishu 楷書].”106 Ersch/Gruber and Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon as well pointed out that the zhuan style had been in use from the times of Confucius up to the Han.107 The invention of the cursive script (caoshu 草書)108 during Han times was mentioned by the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia and by Ersch/Gruber. In the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia we read that these characters were invented under Tchang-hoang-tee, AD 80, [Emperor Zhang 章 of Han, r. AD 76–88] but as this mode greatly disfigured the characters, it was soon abandoned, and is now used only as a running hand.109

In Ersch/Gruber, Schott added that this style mainly is in use for inscriptions, prefaces and for the decoration of folding screens.110 At the end of its presentation of the “modes of writing”, the Edinburgh

103 Qiu, Chinese Writing, 72–77, on the invention of the zhouwen by Shizhou 史籀, the historian of King Xuan of Zhou (r. 827–782 BC), and on the character compendium Shizhoupian 史籀篇 see ibid., 72 f. 104 Encyclopédie, Recueil de planches, Seconde livraison, première partie, Alphabets anciens (Paris: Briasson 1763), p. 16. 105 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 271. 106 Ibid. 107 Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 367 (up to the Later Han); Meyer, ConversationsLexikon I 7,2 (1845) 336, speaking erroneously of the ‘Tschun’ writing (the appropriate Romanization as used in the article would have been ‘Tschuan’). 108 For the cursive script see Qiu, Chinese Writing, 130–138. 109 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 271.—The practice of rendering the term caoshu as ‘grass script’ prevailed in Western publications on the subject. As Cohen, Introduction to Research in Chinese Source Materials, 18 points out, caoshu means ‘hasty script’. 110 Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 367 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Schrift’, Schott).

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Encyclopaedia mentioned the xingshu 行書 (semi-cursive script) as an attempt to “facilitate the manner of writing them.”111 In concluding its section of the different modes of writing, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia referred to the specimen of “all the various kinds of character which had at any time been in use” represented in the publication of the French translation of Shengjing fu 盛京賦 (Ode to Mukden) composed by the Qianlong Emperor.112 The presentation of Chinese writing (and of Chinese printing as well) also reflects the state of printing Chinese characters in eighteenthand nineteenth-century Europe. Only a few encyclopaedias contained Chinese characters printed by typographic means and inserted in the running text. From a close examination of encyclopaedias, there may be added further bits of information to the history of printing Chinese characters in Europe. In a type specimen inserted in the Technologische Encyklopädie that was printed by Gerold in Vienna and published by Cotta in Stuttgart we find a late example for the use of the divisible characters prepared by Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf (1719–1794) in Leipzig.113 Breitkopf’s efforts to print Chinese characters with typographic means had been mentioned in biographical entries in Ersch/Gruber, in Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon, and in information on typography presented in Krünitz’ encyclopaedia.114 The Chinese types cut by Vincent Figgins were used for the London Encyclopaedia to print the Chinese version of the Lord’s Prayer.115 The seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana as well contained printed Chinese characters to explain

111 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 271. In Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 456 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache’) there are only mentioned the zhuanshu, the lishu, and the caoshu.—On the semi-cursive script see Qiu, Chinese Writing, 138–149. 112 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 271. Joseph Amiot, trans., Éloge de la ville de Moukden et de ses environs; poème compose par Kien-long, empereur de la Chine & de la Tartarie, actuellement regnant, ed. Joseph de Guignes (Paris: Tilliard, 1770). 113 Johann Joseph Prechtl, ed. Technologische Encyklopädie, oder alphabetisches Handbuch der Technologie, der technischen Chemie und des Maschinenwesens, vol. 3 (Stuttgart: Cotta 1831), 302 (no. 92), according to a note ibid., 278, the Chinese types displayed on p. 302 were provided by the typefoundry of Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig. On Breitkopf ’s Chinese types see Lehner, Druck chinesischer Zeichen, 104–109. 114 Ersch/Gruber I 12 (1824) 353 f. (s. v. ‘Breitkopf ’); Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 5 (1842) 741 (s. v. ‘Breitkopf ’); Krünitz 191 (1847) 565 and 568 (s. v. ‘Typographie’). 115 London Encyclopaedia 5 (1829) 620 (s. v. ‘China’).

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the above mentioned liushu (six sorts of characters).116 The insertion of Chinese characters in the entry on writing in the Encyclopédie nouvelle was a result of Pauthier’s efforts to obtain a set of Chinese types during the 1830s.117 Almost all eighteenth- and nineteenth-century encyclopaedias pointed out that the Chinese write in columns “from the top to the bottom of the page” and from right to left.118 Regarding Chinese writing utensils, Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon mentioned that the Chinese and all those who had adopted Chinese writing, would use a brush.119 About a century later, encyclopaedias contained little more information on this subject. The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia described the mode of writing: In writing, they hold the pencil perpendicular between the thumb and the first two fingers, so that the point is fully an inch beyond the little finger, while the hand rests upon the wrist.120

Early modern European accounts of Chinese ink helped to establish persistent views on the subject. Regarding the ingredients of this ink, Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon relied on Trigault and mentioned the soot from the oil of trees.121 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia added that this soot is mixed with isinglass and musk “to correct the odour of the oil.”122 For information on Chinese ink, Rees’ Cyclopaedia relied on the account given by Du Halde and pointed out that Europeans had not succeeded in imitating this ink.123 The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana stated that the Chinese learned “the secret of preparing their excellent ink now so universally used by our artists under the name of Indian Ink” on the Korean peninsula.124

116 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 563–566; Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, vol. 16 (1845) 580. 117 Encyclopédie nouvelle 4 (1843) 567–569 and ibid., 574 (s v. ‘Écriture’). On Pauthier’s supervision of the production of a set of Chinese printing types see Lehner, Druck chinesischer Zeichen, 89–98. 118 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1920. See also Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1563; Deutsche Encyclopädie 5 (1781) 520 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Schreibkunst’); Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 305; Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 336 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache, Schrift und Literatur’). 119 Zedler 28 (1741) col. 386 (s. v. ‘Pinsel’). 120 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 305. 121 Zedler 7 (1734) col. 959 (s. v. ‘Dinte’). 122 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 305. 123 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 19, fol. R2v (s. v. ‘Ink, Indian, or Chinese’). 124 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 586.

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Chinese Literature

Although the Chinese language had been described as unattainable for Europeans for a long time, information on works of Chinese literature was included in encyclopaedias. The topical disposition of this information within alphabetically arranged reference works on general knowledge changed considerably. These changes reflect not only the shifting focus of early modern European scholars in dealing with China but also a remarkable improvement of philological scholarship and the emergence of sinology as an academic discipline. Since the late sixteenth century, Jesuit missionaries had described the Four Books (sishu) and the Five Classics (wujing) as the most important works of Chinese literature. For about 120 years, the Jesuit translations of the “works of Confucius” (beginning with the publication of Confucius Sinarum Philosophus in 1687) formed the main source of European encyclopaedias for information on Chinese literature. Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon presented information on the Confucian writings in its article on Chinese philosophy. The Encyclopédie Méthodique presented information on the Confucian writings not in the section on grammar and literature but in the section on political economy.125 Misleading data on the multitude of Chinese books had their origin in early Jesuit writings. The Encyclopédie perpetuated this view. Due to the necessary study for civil examinations there must have been an infinite number of books and the wealthy must have established extensive libraries. As a proof for this assumption, it quoted from the account of Nicolas Trigault, that it had taken a wealthy Chinese convert four days to burn all his books dealing with the various superstitions of the Chinese.126 Strongly influenced by accounts of the members of the Macartney Embassy of 1792/93 that intended to define the rank of China among the civilised people of the world, English language encyclopaedias also questioned the multitude of Chinese books. After referring to the works prepared by the Hanlin Academy, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia tried to assess the scope and quality of all the other Chinese printed works:

125 Encyclopédie Méthodique, Economie politique et diplomatique, vol. 1 (1784) 543– 573 (‘Chine (Gouvernement de la)’). 126 Encyclopédie 2 (1752) 232 (s. v. ‘Bibliothèque’).

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chapter eight In other respects, there are few publications and little printing in China, except a multitude of temporary and trifling productions, which are poured forth every month from the presses at Pekin, and which are speedily circulated throughout the empire. These consist chiefly of almanacks and calendars; manuals of medicine and devotion, of rites and ceremonies, and rules of good-breeding; predictions of good and bad fortune; moral maxims from ancient sages, and the exhortations of the existing emperor; novels, romances or moral tales; comedies and laughable stories, popular songs and fables; receipts for cookery or physic, and similar productions, which are generally sold at a cheap rate, and of which the Chinese are said to be great readers.127

Separate entries on Chinese literature in French and German language encyclopaedias emerged in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, while English language encyclopaedias still provided information on this subject in their articles on ‘China’. French and German language encyclopaedias based their entries on Chinese literature not only on the researches and translations of early sinologists, but also on an analysis of printed catalogues of collections of Chinese books in European libraries. These entries128 repeatedly mentioned the catalogues of Chinese books held at the Royal Library at Paris (published by Fourmont in 1739/42) and of the Chinese collection of the Royal Library at Berlin (published by Klaproth in 1822; a supplement published by Schott in 1840).129 For his article on Chinese literature published in Ersch/Gruber in 1827, Schott mainly relied on information given in Klaproth’s catalogue.130 Judging from the spelling of some titles in the second edition of Pierer’s Universal-Lexikon, the catalogue of the Chinese collection of the then Imperial Library at Vienna published by the renowned Austrian botanist Stephan Ladis-

127

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 277. Pierer, Universal-Lexikon 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 448–454 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Literatur’); Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I,7,2 (1845) 335–342 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache, Schrift und Literatur’). 129 Fourmont, Linguae Sinarum Mandarinicae Hieroglyphicae Grammatica Duplex, 345–516; Julius Klaproth, Verzeichniss der chinesischen und mandshuischen Bücher und Handschriften der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin (Paris: Königliche Druckerei, 1822); Wilhelm Schott, Verzeichniss der Chinesischen und Mandschu-Tungusischen Bücher und Handschriften der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin. Eine Fortsetzung des im Jahre 1822 erschienen Klaproth’schen Verzeichnisses (Berlin: Königliche Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1840). 130 Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 364–373. 128

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laus Endlicher (1804–1849) also had been a source of information.131 The Chinese books brought to Munich by Karl Friedrich Neumann were repeatedly mentioned in German language encyclopaedias.132 In listing the most important novels of the Chinese for the second edition of Pierer’s Universal-Lexikon, Hans Conon von der Gabelentz adopted the presentation of the shi caizi 十才子 (‘ten books of talent’) and the si da qishu 四大奇書 (‘four masterworks’) given by Heinrich Kurz (1805–1873) in a pamphlet on Neumann’s earliest publications on China.133 Encyclopaedias usually mentioned the Siku quanshu 四庫全書 (Complete Library of the Four Treasuries) project that had been initiated by the Qianlong Emperor in the 1770s. They also mentioned the four branches of Chinese literature (sibu 四部)134 and some contributors used the imperial catalogue compiled during the Siku quanshu project. While French presentations showed the advent of sinology, English presentations primarily referred to the possible advantages of Chinese studies for future commercial relations with China. About the year 1830, German presentations also referred to trilateral transmissions (publications of various German adaptations based on the French translations of Chinese novels). This may be seen from an entry on Chinese novels in the Conversations-Lexicon der neuesten Zeit und Literatur. The author of this entry, Theodor Mundt (1808–1861), pointed out, that Chinese novels might be used to attain a better understanding of Chinese culture. Mundt admitted that it would be better to have direct translations from the Chinese original into German than to rely on the

131 Stephan Endlicher, Verzeichniss der chinesischen und japanischen Münzen des k.k. Münz- und Antiken-Cabinetes. Nebst einer Übersicht der chinesischen und japanischen Bücher der k.k. Hofbibliothek (Vienna: Beck, 1837), 117–134. 132 Ersch/Gruber II 16 (1839) 116 (s. v. ‘I-king’); Brockhaus, 10th ed., vol. 4 (1852) 122. 133 Heinrich Kurz, Über einige der neuesten Leistungen in der chinesischen Litteratur. Sendschreiben an Herrn Professor Ewald in Göttingen (Paris: Königliche Druckerei, 1830), 6 n. 1 (on the si da qishu) and ibid., 7 (on the shi caizi). 134 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 276 (“distributed into four classes”).—At the beginning of the Tang (seventh century AD), the Chinese for the first time classified all forms of their literature into the four branches classics, history, philosophers and belles-lettres. See Wilkinson, Chinese History, 269; Cohen, Introduction to Research in Chinese Source Materials, 223–230; Siebert, Pulu, 50–57.

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works of English and French translators who had tried to promote the spread of Chinese literature by means of “popular disguise”.135 Had the eighth edition of Brockhaus (1833) still presented information on Chinese language and literature amidst its article on China, the ninth edition (1843) contained a separate entry on Chinese language and literature.136 This development indicates not only an increased interest in the subject, but also the competition between German-language reference works. In 1841, the second edition of Pierer’s Universal-Lexikon presented a thorough overview on Chinese literature.137 During the 1840s, two other German reference works also published detailed overviews on Chinese literature: Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon provided this information split up under two headwords on Chinese drama and theatre and on Chinese language, writing and literature.138 In Wigand’s Conversations-Lexicon, Ellissen gave a comprehensive treatment of the subject referring also to a great variety of works of Chinese literature.139 During the late 1830s and the early 1840s, French encyclopaedias augmented their information on Chinese literature. Implicitly referring to the sibu (four branches of Chinese literature), the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle provided a tour d’horizon on these four branches.140 In the article on China published in the Encyclopédie nouvelle, the paragraph on Chinese language and literature started with the remark that the appropriate treatment of both of these subjects would require a volume of its own.141 The Encyclopédie Catholique

135 Conversations-Lexicon der neuesten Zeit und Literatur, vol. 1 (1832) 413–415 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Romane’). In his article on China for Ersch/Gruber, Wilhelm Schott recommended to consult Rémusat’s translation of the Yu Jiao Li 玉嬌梨, when presenting information on Chinese women in general (Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 164 and ibid., notes 28 and 29). 136 Brockhaus, 8th ed., vol. 2 (1833) 610–613 (s. v. ‘China’); Brockhaus 9th ed., vol. 3 (1843) 397–400 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache und Literatur’). 137 Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 448–454 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Literatur’). 138 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon, I 7,2 (1845) 333–335 (s. v. ‘Chinesisches Drama und Theater’); ibid., 335–342 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache, Schrift und Literatur’). 139 Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon 3 (1847) 310–317 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache und Literatur’, Ellissen). 140 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 472–480 (s. v. ‘Chinoises (langue et littérature)’). 141 Encyclopédie Nouvelle, vol. 3, p. 536.

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inserted a translation of Wilhelm Schott’s entry on Chinese literature originally published in Ersch/Gruber.142 The sources early nineteenth-century English language encyclopaedias used for their presentation of Chinese language and literature show the two geographical centres of Chinese studies in Europe at that time. Despite the fact that British Protestant missionaries in South and East Asia had begun to publish grammars and dictionaries of the Chinese language as well as treatises on Chinese language and literature, English-language encyclopaedias still relied on the accounts given by eighteenth-century French scholars and missionaries. From the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana we see that these latter sources remained in use until mid-nineteenth century.143 Some of these authors were well aware of the fact, that European attempts to classify all the writings of Chinese tradition according to European schemes of classification were misleading and inappropriate.144 To explain the significance of particular works of the four branches of Chinese literature to the European reader encyclopaedias used the stylistic device of comparing them to publications of early modern Europe. Adopting a comparison introduced by John Francis Davis, the Penny Cyclopaedia presented the Lunyu 論語 (Confucian Analects) as “a Chinese Boswell”—presumably referring to the The Book of Psalms, in metre; from the original, compared with many versions in different languages (London 1784) published by Robert Boswell.145 For the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, Édouard Biot pointed out that the form of the Tongjian gangmu has some resemblance with the Abrégé chronologique published by Charles Jean François Hénault (1685–1770).146 In the Encyclopédie Moderne Chinese calendars were compared to the almanac of Mathieu Laensberg,147 a seventeenth- and eighteenth-century popular almanac known as the Almanach de Liège. The seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica compared the Da Qing lüli to The Justice of the peace and parish officer, first published by

142 Encyclopédie Catholique 7 (1844) pp. 420–425 (s. v. ‘Chine’, section on ‘Littérature chinoise’). 143 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, s. v. ‘China’. 144 See e.g. Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841), p. 448 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Literatur’). 145 Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 447. 146 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 478 (s. v. ‘Chinoises (Langue et Littérature)’. 147 Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 562 (new ed., vol. 9, p. 126).

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Richard Burn (1709–1785)148 in 1755 (30th and last edition in 1869). The second edition of Pierer’s Universal-Lexikon mentioned the Shixue yuanji huofa dacheng 詩學圓機活法大成 (Guide to Poetry) of 1697 as Gradus ad parnassum (obviously referring to Paul Aler’s (1656–1727) Gradus ad parnassum, sive novus synonymorum, epithetorum, phrasium poeticarum ac versuum thesaurus (London 1725).149 This reference to a Chinese Gradus ad parnassum indicates a growing interest of nineteenth-century European scholars in Chinese poetry. Before the advent of sinology, encyclopaedias only occasionally mentioned this subject. While Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon contained a short remark on the poetry of the Chinese,150 the Deutsche Encyclopädie stated that the Europeans would only have a very poor knowledge of this subject. Those Europeans acquainted with Chinese poetry had described it in a rather disadavantageous way.151 Rees’ Cyclopaedia presented information on Chinese poetry under the headword ‘Versification’.152 As the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia first pointed out, Chinese literati would “put very little value upon poetical compositions, except as a mere amusement in moments of relaxation.” Nevertheless, the “perusal of verses” had been widely spread among the Chinese as there were “few of their writers, who have not devoted a part of their leisure hours to the muses.”153 Next, it mentioned “two kinds of Chinese poetry, which may be distinguished by the epithets written or painted, and oral or audible.”154 While the first one mainly consisted “in such a selection of characters as may convey the meaning in a concise expression, and at the same time, excite agreeable associations in the mind of a Chinese reader” the second one “is addressed to the ear” and the verses “of a regulated measure, occasionally, though not uniformly, [are] terminating in rhyme.”155 In Ersch/Gruber, Schott pointed out that Chinese prosody only gradually reached perfection. In ancient

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Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 655. Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 450. 150 In Zedler 28 (1741) col. 985 (s. v. ‘Poesie’) we read that the Chinese would be fond of rhyming (“finden Vergnügen im Reimwerck”). 151 Deutsche Encyclopädie 7 (1783) 212 (s. v. ‘Dichtkunst’). 152 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 37, fol. L2v, s. v. ‘Versification’ (in the paragraphs on ‘History of Versification’). 153 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 277. 154 Ibid., p. 278. 155 Ibid. 149

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times, end rhymes and alliterations had been quite common. Odes and hymns of the Shijing 詩經 may serve as examples for the oldest forms of Chinese poetry. These forms also had been the model for the Ode to Mukden (Shengjing fu 盛京賦) written by the Qianlong Emperor. Usually, most verses would consist of five (wuyan shi 五言 詩) or seven characters (qiyan shi 七言詩). Verses consisting of three, four, six or nine characters would be far less common. In their metrics, the Chinese would distinguish between even (pingsheng 平聲) and oblique tones (zesheng 仄聲).156 In the second edition of Pierer’s Universal-Lexikon, Hans Conon von der Gabelentz referred to Davis’ presentation of technical aspects of Chinese poetry (published in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society). Von der Gabelentz further mentioned various anthologies of Chinese poetry, among them the Quan Tangshi 全唐詩 (Anthology of Tang Poetry, 1705) as well as the Guwen yuanjian (1684/85).157 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia referred to the difficulties of presenting details on Chinese poetry to the European public: As neither the expression of the visible character to please the eye, nor the accompanying tones addressed to the ear, can be represented to the European reader, it is not possible to give a fair specimen of such poetry.158

In Ersch/Gruber, Wilhelm Schott mentioned that the Chinese collection of the Royal Library at Berlin held two of the most esteemed novels of the Chinese: Luo Guanzhong’s 羅貫中 (c. 1330–1400) Sanguozhi (yanyi) 三國志 (演義) (History of the Three Kingdoms) and the Shuihu zhuan 水滸傳 (The Water Margin), commonly attributed to Shi Nai’an 施耐庵 (c. 1296–1372). As regards the contents of these novels, Schott wrote that both of them refer to events in the history of China—the first one to the division of the empire in the third century AD, the second one to the rebellions against the Song in the eleventh century. In his closing remarks on Chinese novels, Schott added further details on European translations. Rémusat had translated the Yu Jiao Li 玉嬌梨 (The Two Fair Cousins) into French.159 Another novel had been pub156

Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 364. Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 449 f. 158 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 278. 159 Jean Pierre Abel Rémusat, Iu-kiao-li, ou les deux cousines; roman chinois [. . .] précédé d’une préface où se trouve un parallèle des romans de la Chine et de ceux de l’Europe, 4 vols. (Paris: Moutardier, 1826). 157

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lished as early as in 1761—an English translation of the Haoqiuzhuan 好逑傳 (The Fortunate Union) edited by Thomas Percy (1729–1811).160 The eighth edition of Brockhaus mentioned translations of Chinese novels that had been published in England and France up to 1830.161 The second edition of Pierer distinguished between historical novels— among others the Sanguozhi yanyi, the Shuihu zhuan, and domestic novels—including the Yu Jiao Li and the Haoqiu zhuan—and introduced about a dozen different titles.162 According to the introductory remarks to the article on Chinese drama and theatre in Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon, plays and dramas may indicate the level of education of each nation. This may not only be true for classical Greek tragedies, Shakespearian plays and the productions of German writers—the latter reflecting the struggle of the Germans for intellectual and political liberty—but also for the works of the Chinese. Their written drama may serve as a proof for their stationary character.163 Years earlier, the Encyclopaedia Edinensis had presented a similar assessment: If the amusements of the Chinese theatre be taken as the criterion of the civilization, morality, and genius of that people, they must in all these respects rank extremely low in the scale; for they abound in the most scurrilous buffooneries, the grossest indecencies, and the most puerile tricks.164

In his remarks on Chinese theatre written for the Encyclopédie du dixneuvième siècle, Biot also referred to the accounts of European travelers according to whom the dramatic arts of China still had been in a state of infancy.165 Early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias regularly mentioned information on Chinese theatricals. They took this information from the

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Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 372 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Literatur’).—Hau Kiou Choaan or The Pleasing History. A Translation from the Chinese Language [. . .], ed. by Thomas Percy, 4 vols. (London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley, 1761). For other eighteenth-century European editions (in French, German, and Dutch) of the Haoqiu zhuan see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 1755 f. 161 Brockhaus, 8th ed., vol. 2 (1833) 613 (s. v. ‘China’). 162 Pierer, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 450. 163 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 333 (s. v. ‘Chinesisches Drama und Theater’). 164 Encyclopaedia Edinensis 2 (1827) 420. 165 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 480 (s. v. ‘Chinoises (Langue et Littérature)’).

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accounts given by the members of the British and Dutch embassies that came to China in the 1790s and witnessed theatrical entertainments during their stay at Peking. Most of the accounts recommended the European reader to be prepared for a kind of culture shock as “many of the scenes which are exhibited are too grossly indelicate and shockingly horrid to be witnessed by foreigners.”166 In Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon, Ellissen mentioned an example for these supposedly “grossly indelicate and shockingly horrid scenes” from the drama Dou E yuan 竇娥冤 (Injustice to Dou E) by Guan Hanqing 關漢卿 (c. 1230–c. 1300), in which vomiting in the truest sense of the word plays a key role. Drawing from a limited number of examples, generalizations frequently led to the impression that the dramatic productions of the Chinese might serve as an inexhaustible reservoir of emetic for the European taste.167 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia portrayed the main characteristics of Chinese drama in a more neutral manner: The Chinese drama possesses none of the requisites of the European stage; observes none of the unities of time, place, or action; makes no distinction between tragedy and comedy; and exhibits the whole life of the hero, or even the duration of a whole dynasty, without any regard to regularity or probability of the plot.168

Translated by Joseph-Henri de Prémare (1666–1736), published in Du Halde’s quasi-encyclopaedic description of China, and used by Voltaire for a European version, the fourteenth-century drama Zhaoshi gu’er 趙氏孤兒 (The Orphan of the House of Zhao, written by Ji Junxiang 紀君祥) had remained the only piece of this branch of Chinese literature known to Europeans until the end of the eighteenth century. As we read in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, Prémare’s work had not been “considered [. . .] as a very faithful translation.” Ancient Chinese philosophers “uniformely condemned theatrical representations” and modern literati “rarely employ their talents in writing for the stage”.169

166

Encyclopaedia Edinensis 2 (1827) 420. Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon 3 (1847) 315 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache und Literatur’). 168 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 279.—For a similar presentation (and wording) see Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, [fol. 4Q3r] (s. v. ‘China’). 169 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 279. 167

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Closely connected to this, European accounts of China (and encyclopaedias as well) mentioned the bad image of actors in Chinese society: Notwithstanding the excessive fondness of the Chinese for theatrical exhibitions, the office of comedian is so much despised by the people in general, that the managers of their theatres, or rather leaders of strolling companies, experience great difficulty in procuring a sufficient number of actors, and are frequently obliged to purchase, and to bring up children for the purpose.170

Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon used Bazin’s Théâtre chinois ou choix des pièces de théâtre composées sous les empereurs Mongols (1838) as the main source of information on the history of Chinese theatre. In following Bazin’s presentation, Ellissen mentioned three different classes of Chinese theatricals: the chuanqi 傳奇 (drama) that emerged under the Tang from the eighth century onwards, the xiqu 戲曲 (musical plays) that flourished since Song times, and the yuanben 院本 (the latter also including the zaju 雜劇). In presenting the latter, Ellissen referred to the Yuanren baizhong qu 元人百种曲 (One hundred plays of the Yuan dynasty), which included almost all those Chinese plays that became known in mid-nineteenth century Europe.171 The enumeration of the titles of Chinese plays in encyclopaedias also heavily relied on Bazin’s introduction to his Théâtre chinois.172 The editor(s) of the extensive article on China in the Encyclopédie Catholique regretted, that space did not allow them to reproduce Bazin’s preface to his 1841 translation of the Pipa ji 琵琶記 (The Lute), which would have provided ample instruction on the subject.173 Relying on the accounts of European travelers, encyclopaedias pointed out that in Peking alone there are about one hundred of these touring companies, each of them consisting of up to fifty persons, “and composed of speakers, musicians, tumblers, and jugglers, [. . .] said to live in passage boats, and [. . .] thence transported wherever they are wanted.”174 In nineteenth-century Europe, it became common knowl170

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 280. Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon, vol. 3 (1847) 315 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache und Literatur’). 172 Antoine Bazin, Théâtre chinois ou choix de pièces de théâtre composées sous les empereurs mongols (Paris: Imprimerie royale, 1838). 173 Encyclopédie Catholique 7 (1844) 429 f. 174 Encyclopaedia Edinensis 2 (1827) 421.—For a similar presentation see Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 570. 171

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edge, that women were “not permitted to appear upon the stage” and that boys or eunuchs would play female roles.175 Apparently relying on Bazin, encyclopaedias added that the appearance of females had been prohibited after the Qianlong emperor had chosen an actress as one of his concubines.176 Eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias also referred to the vast literary compilation projects of China. As early as Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon implicitly referred to the compilations projects commissioned by Song Taizong (r. 976–997) and mentioned his founding of a library of 80,000 volumes.177 This remark proves that Europeans were aware of the fact, that China possessed huge collections of literature. Reyling on the writings of Joseph de Guignes, the supplement to the Encyclopédie d’Yverdon mentioned the Taiping yulan 太平御覽 (‘Imperial Readings of the Taiping era’, 984) compiled by Li Fang 李昉 (AD 925–996).178 Wilhelm Schott referred to Chinese ‘encyclopaedias’ in his article on Chinese literature published in Ersch/Gruber. He noted that the Chinese had a kind of miscellaneous literature, ‘encyclopaedias’, and other literary collections. Paraphrasing Rémusat’s presentation of the Wenxian tongkao, Schott mentioned the “magnificent opus” of Ma Duanlin. He pointed out that this work alone would justify to proceed in the study of the Chinese language, as this work compensates for a whole library.179 While a thorough discussion of the use of Chinese encyclopaedias by Western scholars is far beyond the scope of the present study, the presentation of Chinese ‘encyclopaedias’ in European works of general knowledge may serve as an indicator for the emerging European

175 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 279; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 570 f. 176 Pierer, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 427; Encyclopédie Catholique 7 (1844) 420.—See Bazin, Théâtre chinois, XLIV–XLV (Introduction). 177 Zedler 41 (1744) col. 241 (s. v. ‘Sum’): “Er liebte die Gelehrten, und legte eine Bibliothek von 80000 Büchern an.” 178 Encyclopédie d’Yverdon, Supplément 2 (1775) 565 (s. v. ‘Chinois, Géog. et Hist.’). 179 Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 373.—See also Rémusat, “Réflexions sur la redaction du Catalogue des livres chinois.”—For his part, Rémusat had relied on Joseph Amiot, “Remarques sur un écrit de M. P.**, intitulé Recherches sur les Égyptiens et les Chinois,” Mémoires concernant l’histoire, les sciences, les arts, les mœurs, les usages & c. des Chinois 2 (1777), 469–477.

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knowledge of encyclopaedic traditions in China: The article on Chinese literature published in the second edition of Pierer and co-authored by Hans Conon von der Gabelentz mentioned six works of China’s encyclopaedic tradition: the Gujin shiwen leiju 古今事文類聚 (lit. ‘Taxonomic Collection of Matters and Writings of Ancient and Modern Times’) compiled by Zhu Mu 祝穆 (AD 1133–1191), the Shilei fu 事類賦 (‘Rhyming Encyclopaedia’) compiled by Wu Shu 吳淑 (twelfth century AD), the Guang shilei fu 廣事類賦 (‘Extended Rhyming Encyclopaedia’, compiled by Hua Ximin 華希閔, ca. 1699), the Gujin tushu jicheng, the Cefu yuangui 冊府元龜 (‘Outstanding Models from the Storehouse of Literature’; lit. ‘Tortoise Shells for Divining from the Imperial Archives’) compiled in 1013 and edited by Wang Qinruo 王欽若, and the Taiping guangji 太平廣記 (‘Copious Records collected in the Taiping era’) compiled in 978 by Li Fang.180 In the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, Biot labelled the Gujin tushu jicheng an illustrated description of ancient and modern people and mentioned the Sancai tuhui as one of the illustrated general encyclopaedias.181 Thus, early nineteenth-century European encyclopaedias clearly showed the importance of leishu not only for the literary tradition of China but also for the emerging discipline of sinology.

180 Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 453 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Literatur’). For information on these works see Kaderas, Leishu, ibid., 81–83 (Shilei fu; ibid., 81 a short remark on the Guang shilei fu), ibid., 89–93 (Cefu yuangui), ibid., 120–125 (Gujin shiwen leiju), ibid., 73 (Taiping guangji).—On the Gujin tushu jicheng see above p. 46 f. and p. 47 n. 173. 181 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 479 (‘Chinoises (Langue et Littérature)’).

CHAPTER NINE

PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION 9.1

Chinese Philosophy

The activities of Roman Catholic missionaries in China strongly influenced all European presentations of Chinese philosophy and religion in early modern times. The first substantial European encounter with Confucianism took place at the end of the sixteenth century when Jesuit missionaries entered China.1 Not only late-seventeenth- and early-eighteenth-century Protestant scholars, but also opponents of the Jesuits within the Roman Catholic Church clearly dismissed the positive image of Confucianism as presented by the Jesuits. As Dominicans and Augustinians feared that their influence in China might diminish, they accused the Jesuits for their toleration of allegedly pagan practices. These competing views within the Roman Catholic Church soon became known as the Rites Controversy.2 Eighteenth-century European encyclopaedias dealt with the Rites Controversy under a variety of headwords. They presented respective information in entries on Confucius3 as well as in articles on the ‘veneration’ of Confucius4 (also under the headword ‘Tien’ (i.e.

1 For the history of the early European reception of religious and philosophical writings of the Chinese see D. E. Mungello, “European Philosophical Responses to Non-European Culture: China,” in The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy, ed. Daniel Garber and Michael Ayers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 87–100 and Kern, “Vermittlung chinesischer Philosophie.” 2 On the history and significance of the Rites Controversy for Christianity in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century China see Standaert, ed., Handbook of Christianity in China. Volume One: 635–1800, 680–688. For a recent study see Liam Matthew Brockey, Journey to the East. The Jesuit Mission to China, 1579–1724 (Cambridge, MA: Belknap (paperback edition), 2008), 179–192. Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, cols. 869–926 lists late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century pamphlets relating to this controversy.—On the presentation of the Rites Controversy by eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias see below. 3 Moréri, 1725 edition, s. v. ‘Confucius’; Zedler 6 (1733) col. 964–966 (s. v. ‘Confucius’); Deutsche Encyclopädie 6 (1782) 253–257 (s. v. ‘Confucius, Streitigkeiten über die Verehrung des Confucius und andere chinesische Gebräuche’). 4 Zedler 47 (1746) cols. 402–406 (s. v. ‘Verehrung des Confutius’).

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tian 天),5 on Chinese philosophy and moral philosophy,6 on Christian missions in China,7 on the Jesuits in general8 and in entries on Jesuit missionaries and other representatives of this controversy.9 These presentations included information on the eighteenth-century European perception of this controversy. An outstanding example for the perception of Chinese philosophy by European scholars was the famous speech delivered at Halle in July 1721 by the philosopher Christian Wolff (1679–1754).10 In his critical history of philosophy (Historia Critica Philosophiae a mundi incunabulis ad nostrum usque aetatem deducta; Leipzig 1742–1744), Johann Jacob Brucker (1696–1770) had presented a first thorough overview on Chinese philosophy. According to Lundbaek, Brucker himself had written the entry on Chinese philosophy for Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon.11 Diderot used Brucker’s work for his article on Chinese philosophy in the Encyclopédie.12 Diderot’s article later was inserted in the Encyclopédie d’Yverdon and in the section on philosophy of the Encyclopédie Méthodique.13 The influence of Brucker’s history of philosophy for the presentation of Chinese philosophy in European encyclopaedias lasted at least until the early years of the nineteenth-century. At that time, encyclopaedias also referred to concise summaries of Chinese philosophy. The very brief remarks on

5 Zedler 44 (1745) col. 74–77 (s. v. ‘Tien’), Encyclopédie 16 (1765) 319 (s. v. ‘Tien, ou Tyen’). 6 Zedler 37 (1743) 1625–1645 (s. v. ‘Sinesische Philosophie’); Deutsche Encyclopädie 5 (1781) 514–516 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Philosophie’). 7 Zedler 37 (1743) cols. 1615–1623 (s. v. ‘Sinesische Mißion’). 8 Zedler 14 (1735) cols. 467–470 (s. v. ‘Jesuiten’), Krünitz 29 (1783) 346 (s. v. ‘Jesuit’), ibid., 195 (1848) 159 f. (s. v. ‘Umtriebe’); Deutsche Encyclopädie 17 (1793) 65–143 (s. v. ‘Jesuiten’), on the Rites Controversy ibid., 142 f.; Ersch/Gruber II 15 (1838) 427–461 (s. v. ‘Jesuiten’), on the Jesuit mission in China ibid., 440 f. 9 Zedler 44 (1745) cols. 1742–1746 (s. v. ‘Tournon’). The Yverdon edition of the Encyclopédie contained some biographical entries on Jesuit missionaries in China. 10 On Wolff ’s perception of China see Mark Larrimore, “Orientalism and Antivoluntarianism in the History of Ethics. On Christian Wolff ’s Oratio de Sinarum philosophia practica,” Journal of Religious Ethics 28, no. 2 (2000), 189–219.—Zedler 58 (1748) cols. 574–578 and col. 636 f. (‘Wolf, Christian’ [sic]), see also ibid., col. 974 f. (s. v. ‘Wolfische Philosophie’ [sic]). 11 Zedler 37 (1743) cols. 1525–1545 (s. v. ‘Sinesische Philosophie’). 12 Knud Lundbaek, “Notes on some early studies of Neo-Confucianism in the West. From Confucius Sinarum Philosophus to de Harlez,” in Actes du IIIe colloque international de sinologie. Appréciation par l’Europe de la tradition chinoise à partir du XVIIe siècle (11–14 septembre 1980), La Chine au temps des lumières 6 (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1983), 131–176, especially 148–151. 13 Encyclopédie d’Yverdon 9 (1771) 455–467 (s. v. ‘Chinois, Philosophie des’).

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Chinese philosophy in Krünitz’ encyclopaedia referred to Johann Andreas Fabricius’ (1696–1769) history of scholarship (Abriß einer allgemeinen Historie der Gelehrsamkeit, Leipzig 1752).14 The author of the entry on Chinese philosophy in Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon pointed out that European approaches to Chinese philosophy had changed considerably and rather frequently.15 Moreover, the article recommended to be cautious of the two evils peregrinitas (Europeans would tend to portray foreign things as great and imposing) and credulitas (users should not believe those who present the subject not according to its real nature) in studying European presentations of Chinese philosophy. The author pointed out that in preparing the article he had completely excluded such presentations.16 The article further provided an overview of European publications expressing either favourable or critical attitudes towards Chinese philosophy.17 In the Encyclopédie we read that Johann Franz Buddeus, Christian Thomasius (1655–1728), Christoph August Heumann (1681–1764), as well as Nicolaus Hieronymus Gundling (1671–1729) together with other ‘enlightened’ authors have portrayed the Chinese not in a favourable manner. The favourable description of wisdom of the Chinese provided by the Jesuits had been refuted by other missionaries, and even the reports of the Jesuits would include some critical remarks on the Chinese.18 In the closing paragraphs of its article on Chinese philosophy, Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon provided information on the five phases (wuxing 五行), on the eight trigrams (bagua 八卦), and on the sixtyfour hexagrams.19 In this context it presented the two basic elements of

14

Krünitz 112 (1809) 538 (s. v. ‘Philosophie’). Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1625 (s. v. ‘Sinesische Philosophie’). 16 Ibid., col. 1626. 17 Zedler 37 (1743) cols. 1625–1628 (s. v. ‘Sinesische Philosophie’). For a discussion of these late-seventeenth and early eighteenth-century views on Chinese philosophy see Lee, Anti-Europa, 55–57. A very extensive overview on Jesuit and anti-Jesuit writings concerning the Rites Controversy had been given by Johann Albert Fabricius, Salutaris lux evangelii toti orbi per divinam gratiam exoriens, sive Notitia historicochronologica literaria et geographica propagatorum per orbem totum Christianorum sacrorum (Hamburg: Felginer, 1731), 665–674 (pro Jesuitis) and ibid., 674–677 (contra Jesuitas, et pro Dominicanis). 18 Encyclopédie 3 (1753) 342 (s. v. ‘Chinois (Philosophie des)’). 19 On the importance of the five phases theory in Chinese history from the Warring States to the Nanbei chao period see Wilkinson, Chinese History, 513 as well as the bibliographic references ibid., n. 9.—On the bagua and on the sixty-four hexagrams see ibid., 374 f. 15

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yin 陰 and yang 陽 and mentioned the positive attributes of the former and the negative ones of the latter. Finally it showed the eight trigrams with their respective figures. The article dismissed Confucius’ explanations of the eight trigrams as so weak that it would be impossible to have a clear idea of his system.20 In referring to the basic elements of yin and yang, encyclopaedias gave the following explanations. According to the Penny Cyclopaedia, yin would represent ‘light’, ‘invisible’, and ‘ascending’, while yang would represent ‘gross’, ‘palpable’, and ‘descending’;21 according to the second edition of Pierer, yang would refer to anything ‘complete’, to ‘heaven’, ‘sun’, ‘day’, ‘heat’, and ‘male’, while yin would refer to anything ‘incomplete’, to ‘moon’, ‘earth’, ‘night’, ‘cold’, and ‘female’.22 Under the headword ‘Chinese philosophy’, Croker’s Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences also refers to the Yijing: “it is composed of whole lines and hemistichs, or rather lines stopped at different lengths, the combination of which exhibits sixty-four different figures.”23 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia based its account of the “lines of Fo-shee [Fuxi]” on the presentation and the assessment given by Barrow in his Travels in China. Barrow had considered these lines “as nothing else than the school-boy’s amusement of the magic square, in which the nine figures are arranged in such a manner as to make the number 15 in whatever way they are added.”24 In 1839, Karl Friedrich Neumann provided a sketch on the history of the European perception of the Yijing and of the eight trigrams. He pointed out that the European missionaries who went to China had started rather late to translate this text—among them Magalhães, Couplet, Visdelou, de Mailla, Pierre Vincent de Tartre SJ (1669–1724), and Jean-Baptiste Régis SJ 1663–1738). Finally, Neumann presented a table showing the sixty-four hexagrams and indicating their respective meaning.25 In its article on Chinese language, writing and literature, 20

Zedler 37 (1743) 1644 (s. v. ‘Sinesische Philosophie’). Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 446 (s. v. ‘Confucius’). 22 Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 426. 23 Temple Henry Croker, The Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences 1 (1764), s. v. ‘Chinese Philosophy’. 24 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 276. 25 Ersch/Gruber II 16 (1839) 116 f. (s. v. ‘I-king’), for the table showing the 64 hexagrams see ibid., 118 f. In his article Neumann explicitly referred to Magalhāes Nouvelle relation de la Chine, contenant la description des particularitez les plus considérables de cet grand empire (Paris: Barbin, 1688), 120 f. and to Confucius Sinarum Philoso21

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Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon also referred to the European perception of the Yijing: Leibniz thought to have found a system of binary arithmetic. The French Jesuit Joachim Bouvet (1656–1730) eagerly adopted this theory and announced that the mystery of the lines of Fuxi has been solved. The German writer Johann Heinrich Schumacher (d. 1777) even thought he had found a hieroglyphic history of the Chinese Empire.26 In Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon we read that ancient Chinese philosophy starts with the interpretation of the Yijing given by Confucius. Next to him came the works of Zi Si 子思, Mengzi, Laozi, and Zhuangzi 莊子.27 9.2

Popular Religion

The increasing efforts of Europeans to classify the world become obvious from the opening paragraphs on religions in China as presented in the second and in the seventh editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In the second edition we read: The Chinese are said to worship one supreme God along with several inferior deities, who appear to have been men eminent in several ages; particularly the inventors of arts and sciences.28

phus (Paris: Horthemels, 1687), Prooemialis Dissertatio, xxxviii.—For the efforts of the other missionaries mentioned by Neumann see Pfister, Notices biographiques, 455 (referring to Visdelou’s work on the Yijing published in 1770 together with Gaubil’s translation of the Shujing), ibid., 534 f. (on Régis’ extensive translation of the Yijing). Régis relied on a manuscript of du Tartre dealing with and explaining several difficult passages of the text (ibid., 592) and on work done by de Mailla (see ibid., 603). Régis’ manuscript was published in the 1830s by the orientalist Jules Mohl: Jean Baptiste Régis, Y-king antiquissimus sinarum liber [. . .] ex latine interpretatione, ed. Julius Mohl. 2 vols. (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1834–1839). 26 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 338 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache, Schrift und Literatur’).—For the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European perception of the Yijing see the titles listed in Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 1372 f. including Johann Heinrich Schumacher, Die verborgenen Alterthümer der Chineser aus dem uralten canonischen Buche Yeking untersuchet [. . .] (Wolfenbüttel: Meißner, 1763).— For the historical context see Mungello, Curious Land, 312–328 (“The Transmission of Bouvet’s Figurist Theories to Europe Through Leibniz”). 27 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 2 (1841) 324 (s. v. ‘Alterthum’). 28 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1920.

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In the seventh edition we read: Religion, as a system of divine worship, as piety towards God, and as holding forth future rewards and punishment can hardly be said to exist among the people. It is here, at least, neither a bond of union nor a source of dissension. They have no sabbatical institution, no congregational worship; no external forms of devotion, of petition, or thanksgiving to the Supreme Being.29

The seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica shows the problems Europeans encountered in describing the religion(s) of China and “to class its numerous superstitions under appropriate heads.”30 In Meyer’s Conversations-Lexicon, information on religions in China was disposed under a variety of headwords.31 In his article on ‘China’ for Ersch/Gruber, Wilhelm Schott did not give any details on religions in China. Instead, he referred readers to the article on Confucius for information on the “old, indigenous religion of China”, he considered Buddhism should be covered in connection with India, from where it originated, and he did not mention Daoism at all.32 In their description of the religions of China, encyclopaedias followed the pattern laid out by early Jesuit writings on China. The Jesuit practice of labelling the religions of China ‘sects’ (secta) had been perpetuated by European writers and also found its way into works of general knowledge.33 This may be seen from the second edition of Moréri. This edition, published in 1683 and referring among other works to Kircher’s China illustrata, presented ‘three sorts of idolaters’ sects’ among the Chinese, not mentioning any denominations for these sects: the first one mentioned was labelled the sect of their king and of their nobles, who offer sacrifices to the stars. The second one was said to consider the first kings and sages of the Chinese as gods, for whom they erect temples. The third of these sects was said to have done most of the harm to the Christian missionaries and was labelled sect of astrologers and sorcerers.34 More than a century later, based on the Description given by Grosier, the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica points out that the ‘purity’ of the religion of the ancient

29 30 31 32 33 34

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 559. Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 246. Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I,2 (1841) p. 304 f. (s. v. ‘Alterthum’ [antiquity]). Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 165. See Barrett, “Chinese Religion in English Guise. The History of an Illusion.” Moréri, 2nd ed. (1683), vol. 2, p. 882.

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Chinese “has [. . .] been long contaminated by many idolatrous and fanatical sects.”35 In enumerating the religions of China, early modern European encyclopaedias mentioned the presumed ‘atheism’ of the Chinese. Examples include not only the various editions of the Dictionnaire de Trévoux (referring to 1. religion of state, 2. idolatry, 3. atheism, and 4. Christianity)36 but also the section on logic and metaphysics of the Encyclopédie Méthodique.37 In referring to the account of the Amherst mission of 1816 given by Sir Henry Ellis, the Encyclopaedia Edinensis points out that it may not surprise “that some late travellers have concluded, from the transient view they were permitted to take of the country, that the people of China are almost entirely destitute of religion.”38 Rees’ Cyclopaedia explained that ‘literati’ not only refers “to such persons among the Chinese, as are able to read and write their language,” but also “the name of a particular sect, either in religion, philosophy, or politics” which “introduced a refined kind of atheism.”39 In the Encyclopédie, Diderot had pointed out that Confucianism (‘Ju-kiao’; i.e. rujiao), Buddhism (‘Foe-kiao’; i.e. fojiao) and Daoism (‘Lao-kiao’; i.e. laojiao) are nothing more than three different combinations of superstitions, idolatry, polytheism, and atheism.40 In its article ‘Athées’, the Encyclopédie also treats the ‘famous question’ if the learned men of China were veritable atheists.41 The entry on ‘Atheism’ in Rees’ Cyclopaedia referred to the writings of Sir William Temple and Philippe Couplet SJ and thus showed that this discussion had ended in mid-eighteenth century.42 Early modern European observers frequently referred to various superstitions prevailing among the Chinese. In his article on Buddhism written for the Encyclopédie, Jaucourt inserted cross-references to information on superstitions and fanaticism.43 As mentioned above, 35

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 677. Dictionnaire de Trévoux, 1771 edition, vol. 2, p. 543 f. 37 Encyclopédie Méthodique, Logique et Métaphyisque 1 (1786) 190 (s. v. ‘Athéisme’). 38 Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 422. 39 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 21, fol. U4r–v (s. v. ‘Literati’). 40 Encyclopédie 3 (1753) 343 f. (s. v. ‘Chinois (Philosophie des)’). This assessment has been adopted by Temple Henry Croker, The Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, vol. 1 (London 1764) s. v. ‘Chinese Philosophy’. 41 Encyclopédie 1 (1751) 800 (s. v. ‘Athées’). 42 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 3, s. v. ‘Atheist’. 43 Encyclopédie 6 (1756) 461 (s. v. ‘Fe, Fo, Foé’). 36

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encyclopaedias usually referred to the (supposed) superstitions of the Chinese among the main features of the ‘national character’. The Encyclopaedia Edinensis pointed out that there “is perhaps no country on the face of the earth which exhibits at once a greater want of genuine religion, or a greater grossness of superstition, than that of China.”44 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia mentioned that none of the religions of China “can be found existing pure and distinct from the rest.”45 Its general assessment of the subject was presented in the context of religions in China: Every trouble in China is attributed to the influence of some evil spirit, which every one’s imagination frames to himself, and which he places, as it pleases him, in an idol, an old oak, a lofty mountain, or at the bottom of the sea. These mischievous spirits are considered by some as the souls or purified aerial substances of animals, such as of foxes, apes, frogs, &c.; and these creatures are supposed to have the power, after living a certain number of years, to divest themselves of the grosser parts of their nature; and, after becoming pure essences, to take delight in tormenting human beings, especially by exposing them to diseases. Hence, in time of sickness, the principal remedy is to send for the bonzes, to banish, by their noises and incantations, those malignant spirits.46

Of the supposed superstitions of the Chinese, the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica mentioned the “external attention to the memory of the dead” referring to the moving of coffins from the place “in which they have been interred, if the situation be gloomy or the ground swampy.” Another of the supposed superstitions of the Chinese was the “almost universal observance” of lucky and unlucky days,47 in which they would show “great dependence” on the casting of lots.48 In its third edition, the Encyclopaedia Britannica offered a more detailed description of fengshui, “one other superstition that seems peculiar to the nation”. Based on the account given by Grosier, it pointed out that by this practice the Chinese are eager to avoid malignant influences and referred to a magistrate who tried to secure himself from the influence of a church of the Jesuits by the erection of an

44

Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 422. Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 250. 46 Ibid., p. 253. 47 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 562.—For further remarks on lucky and unlucky days of the Chinese see Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 253. 48 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 253. 45

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enormous image of a “tutelary dragon.”49 In its seventh edition, the Encyclopaedia Britannica places the observation of lucky and unlucky days among the “partly native and partly exotic” superstitions of the Chinese: Another universal superstition is the fung-shui [ fengshui 風水], wind and water, which relates to the exact line in which the roof of a house must be placed in order to preserve its own security and its owner’s prosperity.50

The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia referred to fengshui in connection with Chinese medicine: Like all oracular personages, however, unless, they have been able, by other means, to learn the feelings of the patient, they generally ascribe the disorder to a cause of universal application, viz. to Fong-shooy [ fengshui], that is good or bad fortune, and to heat or cold.51

The Encyclopaedia Edinensis did not mention the Chinese term: “The roof of every house, in order to be free from danger, must be run in the right direction of the wind and the water.”52 None of these quotations used the term ‘geomancy’ for “these systems of interpreting the configurations of the earth” formally called kanyu 堪與 by the Chinese.53 After its presentation of the religions (cultes) of China, the Encyclopédie Catholique pointed out that Chinese of all ranks dedicated themselves to absurd superstitions. They would believe in the existence of good and evil spirits and they would adore tutelary deities.54 Closely connected to the presentation of popular beliefs and customs, encyclopaedias contained quite extensive information on the festivals of the Chinese. Under its information on the festivals of Oriental people the Deutsche Encyclopädie dealt also with the great number of festivals among the Chinese.55 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, the

49

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 678. On Grosier’s presentation of fengshui see Linda L. Barnes, Needles, Herbs, Gods, and Ghosts. China, Healing, and the West to 1848 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), 197 f.—On dragon heads as ornaments on the roofs to ban malignant influences see also Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 247. 50 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 562. 51 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 283. 52 Encyclopaedia Edinensis 2 (1827) 424 (italics in the original). 53 Quoted from the concise presentation in Cohen, Introduction to Research in Chinese Source Materials, 538 f. 54 Encyclopédie Catholique 7 (1844) 405. 55 Deutsche Encyclopädie 9 (1784) 761 f. (s. v. ‘Feste, Festtage der Morgenländer’).

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Encyclopaedia Metropolitana as well as Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon presented information on the various festivals of the Chinese after a description of the so-called superstitious practices of the Chinese.56 On the one hand, Europeans saw these festivals—especially Chinese New Year—as a kind of holidays,57 on the other hand, they described them as a kind of substitution as the Chinese knew “no regular day of religious rest”.58 The great importance of Chinese New Year ( yuandan 元旦) has been stressed by most eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century European encyclopaedias.59 In describing Chinese New Year, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that this is one of the “most remarkable” Chinese festivals, which “is universally celebrated throughout the empire.”60 According to the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, a new year “is ushered in with every demonstration of joy.” Especially by younger people fire-crackers are let “in such numbers that the whole streets are sometimes covered with the fragments.”61 Over the centuries, Europeans have noticed that there existed various versions concerning the possible origin of the Feast of Lanterns (shangyuanjie 上元節).62 In writing for the Encyclopédie, Jaucourt mainly relies on the report given by Louis Le Comte. In his opening remark, Jaucourt points out that most of the missionaries provide such marvellous descriptions of this festival that seem to be beyond all probability. Even those who try to give more neutral accounts of this feast would present it as an exciting event due to the multitude of richly decorated lights and lamps.63 This day, the fifteenth of the first moon of the year, the Chinese would celebrate by “suspending numbers of lanterns before the doors of their houses, and in the middle of the streets.”64 Rees’ Cyclopaedia referred to another speculation: “It has been supposed that it may be derived from a common origin, with an annual illumination of the same kind mentioned by Herodotus; which was generally observed, from the cataracts of the Nile to the borders

56

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 251; Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 569; Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 250 f. 57 Deutsche Encyclopädie 9 (1784) 761 (s. v. ‘Feste, Festtage der Morgenländer’). 58 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 251. 59 Deutsche Encyclopädie 7 (1784) 761 f. 60 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 251. 61 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 569. 62 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 164. 63 Encyclopédie 9 (1765) 278 (s. v. ‘Lanternes, fête des’). 64 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 251.

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of the Mediterranean, by hanging lamps of different kinds to the sides of the houses.”65 In perpetuating the main elements of these descriptions, the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica explicitly refers to Du Halde, Grosier, Barrow, and to the journal of Lord Macartney.66 The origin of the Feast of Boats (duanwu jie 端午節), celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth moon, was usually linked to “a search made with boats for the dead body of a drowned mandarin”. Due to the fact that the long narrow boats used on this occasion frequently would cause severe accidents, mandarins “often prohibit the celebration of the festival.”67 9.3

Confucianism and the ‘Ancient Religion’ of the Chinese

In early eighteenth century Europe, interpretations of Confucianism focused on its supposed elements of atheism, materialism and Spinozism. Only the Jesuits and—based on their publications and on correspondence with them—Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz described Confucianism as the ‘natural theology’ of the Chinese.68 Descriptions of Confucianism (rujiao) were an integral part of information on China presented in encyclopaedias. Most encyclopaedic reference works contained a headword ‘Confucius’69 or presented information on Confucianism in the context of articles on (Asian,

65 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4Rr.—For illuminations in ancient Egypt see Herodotus 2.62 (on-line version at Perseus Digital Library. Gregory R. Crane, Editorin-Chief; Tufts University http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/ (accessed 30 April 2010), based on Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1920). 66 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 561. 67 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 251. 68 On Leibniz’ “Discourse on the Natural Theology of the Chinese” see Albert Ribas, “Leibniz’ ‘Discourse on the Natural Theology of the Chinese’ and the Leibniz-Clarke Controversy,” Philosophy East and West 53, no. 1 ( Jan. 2003), 64–86. 69 See e.g. Zedler 6 (1733) 964–966 (s. v. ‘Confucius’); Deutsche Encyclopädie 6 (1782) 253–257 (s. v. ‘Confucius, Streitigkeiten über die Verehrung des Confucius und andere chinesische Gebräuche’); Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 1121– 1122 (s. v. ‘Confucius’); Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 445–447 (s. v. ‘Confucius’); Encyclopédie des gens du monde 15 (1841) 713–715 (s. v. ‘Kong-Fou-Tse’); Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 8 (1846) 442 f. (s. v. ‘Confucius’; Eug. Villemin).—For remarks on a Chinese word for Confucius see T. H. Barrett, “Is There a Chinese Word for ‘Confucius’? A Review Article,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 62, no. 1 (1999), 105–110; idem, “The Chinese for ‘Confucius’ Confirmed,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 63, no. 3 (2000), 421–423.

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Chinese or even ‘barbaric’) religion and philosophy.70 In describing the sage, encyclopaedias either named him a philosopher or a moralist. Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon added that Confucius might not be named a philosopher in the true sense of the word.71 As early as in the Encyclopédie, information on Confucianism was not only presented in the entry ‘Ju-kiau’ [rujiao] but also in the article on Chinese philosophy.72 Other encyclopaedias provided this information under the headword ‘Literati’.73 Based on the second volume of the Epistolae ad diversos, which contained the writings of early China missionaries on Chinese religion and philosophy, augmented with the annotations of Leibniz,74 Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon placed the main points of early modern European knowledge on Confucianism and on the ‘temple’ of Confucius under the headword ‘Miao’ [miao 廟], translating this term as ‘temple’.75 Encyclopaedic reference works have perpetuated Leibniz’ thoughts on Confucianism until the early nineteenth-century. In mentioning the ‘system of binary arithmetic’ supposed by Leibniz, Rees’ Cyclopaedia refers to a “a strong predilection for predicting events by the mystical lines of Fo-shee [Fuxi]” in the writings of Confucius.76 At a very early stage in their study of Confucianism, Europeans had been well aware of the fact that Confucius never adopted the idea of a personification of a deity. Confucius and his followers considered “the sun, moon, stars, and the elements, with the azure firmament, as the creative and productive powers, the immediate agents of the deity.”77 In their worship, the followers of Confucius united these agents under the term tian (i.e. heaven).

70

Deutsche Encyclopädie 2 (1779) 837–839 (s. v. ‘Barbarische Philosophie’). Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 1121 (s. v. ‘Confucius’). 72 Encyclopédie 9 (1765) 53 (s. v. ‘Ju-kiau’), see also Deutsche Encyclopädie 18 (1794) 264 (s. v. ‘Jukiao’).—On the presentation of Confucianism in the article on Chinese philosophy see Takeshi Koseki, “Diderot et le confucianisme: autour du terme Ju-kiao de l’article *Chinois (Philosophie des),” Recherches sur Diderot et sur l’Encyclopédie 16, no. 1 (1994), 125–131. 73 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 21, s. v. ‘Literati’: “[. . .] is also the name of a particular sect, either in religion, philosophy, or politics; consisting principally of the learned men of that country [i.e. China]: among whom it is called jukiao [. . .]” (italics in the original ). 74 See the bibliographic references in Kern, “Vermittlung chinesischer Philosophie,” 227 no. 12. 75 Zedler 21 (1739) col. 3–5 (s. v. ‘Miao’). 76 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’. 77 Ibid. 71

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Rees’ Cyclopaedia stated that contrary to an imagination evidently widespread among Europeans the followers of Confucius have never erected any statue to his memory, nor paid him divine honors, as has been erroneously supposed. In every city is a public building, in which examinations for public officers are held, and this building is called the house of Confucius. Here on certain days the men of letters assemble to pay respect to the memory of their philosopher.78

In general, encyclopaedias gave very divergent descriptions of the function and use of these buildings: in Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon the term miao is not only translated as ‘idolater’s temple’ but also as ‘magnificent chapel.’79 Under the headword ‘Miao’ the Universal-Lexicon pointed out that wenmiao 文廟 is the most important of these temples. About a century later, Krünitz’ encyclopaedia labelled the wenmiao “a kind of Valhalla of the Chinese.”80 In the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana we read that these temples were “often well endowed”, that they “are built round courts” and thus “bear a strong resemblance to those common in some parts of the west.” Most of the chapels and oratories were situated on places “scarcely accessible.”81 All encyclopaedias unanimously refer to the importance of the doctrines of Confucius for Chinese society. All of them faced the difficulty to put the teachings of Confucius within the European circle of knowledge. As encyclopaedias perpetuated the reports of seventeenthcentury Jesuits, they presented Confucius frequently as the Socrates of China.82 For eighteenth-century European observers it remained difficult to say, whether Confucius may be addressed as the Socrates or the Anaxagoras of China as the whole question “depends on a great knowledge of the language.”83 At the close of our period of consideration, the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana pointed out the still existing difficulties for an exact description of Confucianism:

78

Ibid. Zedler 21 (1739) col. 4 (s. v. ‘Miao’); ibid., 47 (1746) col. 402 (s. v. ‘Verehrung des Confucius’). 80 Krünitz 204 (1851) 294 (s. v. ‘Venmiao’). 81 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 569. 82 Moréri, 2nd ed., vol. 2 (1683) 965 (s. v. ‘Confutius’). 83 Temple Henry Croker, The Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, vol. 1 (London 1764), s. v. ‘Chinese Philosophy’. See also Encyclopédie, vol. 3 (1753) 343 (s. v. ‘Chinois (Philosophie des)’). 79

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chapter nine The doctrines of Confucius have been very differently represented by different writers; nor will it, perhaps, be possible to form a correct estimate of them, till a more critical version of his principal works shall have appeared.84

In their presentation of Confucianism, encyclopaedias also referred to the ‘primitive religion’ and to the ‘national worship’ of the Chinese. Regarding the ‘primitive religion’ of the Chinese, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that the ancient Chinese (previous to the time of Confucius) worshipped a Supreme Being, which they regarded as possessed of all natural and supreme perfections, as exercising a minute and judicial providence over mankind, as rewarding virtue and punishing vice, even in this life, as sending calamities to warn and reform the offender, and as ready to relent, and pardon him upon his repentance.85

The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia presented the emperor of China as the supreme head of all religious teachings prevailing throughout China. In connection with ‘national worship’, it mentioned the most important sites together with the ceremonies performed: the Tiantan 天壇 (Altar to Heaven), the Ditan 地壇 (Altar to the Earth), the Ritan 日壇 (Altar to the Sun), and the Yuetan 月壇 (Altar to the Moon).86 In the Penny Cyclopaedia we read of the two principal altars [. . .] on which the Emperor presents his offerings. These are the Tien-tan [tiantan], or Eminence of Heaven, which is round, and about two miles in circumference, and the Tee-tan [ditan], or temple indicated to the earth which is a square, because the antient [!] Chinese considered the earth to be of a square form.87

9.4

Buddhism

Up to the early nineteenth-century Europeans referred to Buddhism under a variety of denominations.88 In adopting the Chinese term for

84 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 567 (s. v. ‘China’).—For a similar assessment of European knowledge of the writings of Confucius see Meyer, ConversationsLexikon I 7,2 (1845) 1121 (s. v. ‘Confucius’). 85 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 246. 86 Ibid., p. 250.—For descriptions of the Altar of the Earth and the Altar of Heaven in an eighteenth-century encyclopaedia see Encyclopédie Méthodique, Architecture 1 (1788) 661 f.—On the establishment of these altars see Naquin, Peking, 144 f. 87 Penny Cyclopaedia 17 (1840) 374 (s. v. ‘Peking’). 88 On sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European views of Chinese Buddhism see Ines G. Županov and R. Po-chia Hsia, “Reception of Hinduism and Buddhism,”

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Buddha ( fo 佛)89 and Buddhism ( fojiao 佛教), encyclopaedias usually presented information on Chinese Buddhism under the headword ‘Fo’ (or ‘Fe’).90 Under the headword ‘Buddou’, Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon only referred to Buddhism on the island of Ceylon.91 Quite contrary to most other encyclopaedic reference works, the huge geographical dictionary edited by Bruzen de la Martinière pointed out some common features in comparing Buddhism and European philosophy: a plurality of worlds (Democrit), metempsychosis (Pythagoras), one heaven, one hell, and one god (named ‘Fo’).92 In works of general reference, comparisons of the Buddhist doctrines to the teachings of Pythagoras prevailed until mid-nineteenth century.93 Under the headword ‘Fe, Fo, Foé’, Jaucourt wrote in the Encyclopédie that this ‘pretended god’ received “the most ridiculous worship” and that this idolatry had infected the whole of East Asia.94 With the spread of Buddhism in China, atheism, idolatry and all kinds of superstitions were disseminated throughout the empire. In following Brucker, Diderot added that the quietists or ‘Uu-guei-kiao [wuwei jiao 無爲教], nihil agentium’, had succeeded this ‘sect’.95 Up to the beginning of the nineteenth-century, encyclopaedias often confounded information on ‘Fo’ (Buddhism) and ‘Fohi’ (Fuxi, the mythical founder of Chinese civilization).96 Although Johann Georg Purmann (1733–1813), who wrote most of the articles on Asian religions for the Deutsche Encyclopädie, clearly dismissed this confounding, he nevertheless spent one third of the article to give information in Cambridge History of Christianity. Volume 6: Reform and Expansion, 1500–1660, ed. R. Po-chia Hsia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 585–594; on eighteenth-century European attitudes towards the ‘sect of Fo’ see Pocock, “Gibbon and the Idol Fo.” 89 Zedler 9 (1735) col. 351 (s. v. ‘Fe, oder Fo’), ibid., col. 1406 (s. v. ‘Foe’, a crossreference to ‘Fe’), ibid., col. 1420 (s. v. ‘Foikiao, oder Foquexus’). 90 Zedler 9 (1735) col. 1420 (s. v. ‘Foikiao’). This entry mainly contained information on Buddhism in Japan. 91 Zedler 4 (1733) col. 1797 f. (s. v. ‘Buddou’). 92 Bruzen de la Martinière, HIstorisch-Politisch-Geographischer Atlas der gantzen Welt. Oder grosses und vollständiges Geographisch- und Critisches Lexicon [. . .], vol. 10 (1748) col. 978. 93 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 560. 94 Encyclopédie 6 (1756) 460 (s. v. ‘Fo, Fe, Foé’). 95 Zedler 37 (1743) cols. 1634 and 1636. Encyclopédie 3 (1753) 343 (s. v. ‘Chinois (Philosophie des)’). 96 Examples include: Dictionnaire de Trévoux, 1771 edition, vol. 2, p. 543 (“[. . .], 2. idolâtrie (indien Fo-hi [sic]”), Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1920: “[. . .] the idol Fo, or Fo-hi [. . .].”—On this erroneous confounding see the remarks in Krünitz 163 (1835) 41 (s. v. ‘Staat’).

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on Fuxi.97 Under the headword ‘Boodh’, Rees’ Cyclopaedia shed some light on the history of the confounding of ‘Fo’ (i.e. Buddha) and ‘Fohi’ (i.e. Fuxi): “Mr. Chambers, following M. Gentil, and followed by Paulinus, conceives, by a very forced train of etymology, the Fo or Fohi of the Chinese to be a corruption of Bouddha.”98 As late as in 1839, Guillaume Pauthier pointed out that it needs great care not to confound Fuxi and Fo.99 As a consequence of the increasing scholarly interest in Asian religions that emerged at the turn to the nineteenth century, encyclopaedias only occasionally contained separate articles on ‘Buddha’ and ‘Fo’.100 The author of the entry on Buddhism in Ersch/Gruber, who regretted that Isaac Jacob Schmidt’s (1779–1847) Forschungen im Gebiete der älteren religiösen, politischen und literarischen Bildungsgeschichte der Völker Mittel-Asiens, vorzüglich der Mongolen und Tibeter (1824) had reached him too late to be considered for this article, dismissed all attempts to combine the mythological traditions of Europe and Asia and to search for traces of Buddha in Egypt, Greece, Scandinavia, and Britain.101 Rather limited information on the various schools of Buddhism had nourished such speculations. In its description of Buddhist bonzes, Rees’ Cyclopaedia almost exclusively relied on Jesuit writings but added a comment on the general mood of these missionary reports.102 In describing the duties of the followers and the concept of transmigration of souls, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia referred to the Buddhist pantheon: In consequence of this doctrine, a multitude of idols have sprung up wherever the religion of Fo has prevailed; and temples have been erected to quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles of every description, according as the god was imagined to have occupied any of their bodies in the course of his transmigration.103

97

Deutsche Encyclopädie 10 (1785) 313–315 (s. v. ‘Fo, Foe, auch Fwi’). Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 4, s. v. ‘Boodh’.—For the writings of Gentil and Paulinus of St. Bartholomew see Francis Buchanan, “On the Religion and literature of the Burmas”, Asiatic Researches [London edition] 6 (1801), 163–308, especially 260 f. 99 Encyclopédie des gens du monde 11 (1839) 354 (s. v. ‘Fou-hi’; G. Pauthier). 100 See Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 5 (1842) 466–468 (s. v. ‘Brahmaismus und Buddhaismus’) and ibid., I 6 (1843) 632 f. (s. v. ‘Buddha und Buddhaismus’) as well as ibid., I 10 (1847) 651–652 (s. v. ‘Fo’). 101 Ersch/Gruber I 13 (1824) 330 (s. v. ‘Buddha, Buddhaismus’). See also ibid., 335. 102 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 4, s. v. ‘Bonzes’. 103 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 249. 98

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In Rees’ Cyclopaedia, it is pointed out that the concept of metempsychosis is retained in India and China “and makes the principal foundation of their religion.”104 In its article on ‘idols’, the Deutsche Encyclopädie mentioned that the multitude of Buddhist idols. It added, that the Chinese would most esteem images of dragons and elephants.105 Without explicit reference to any of the religions of China, the English Encyclopaedia pointed out that the temples of the Chinese “are chiefly remarkable for the disagreeable taste in which they are built, for their capaciousness, their whimsical ornaments, and the ugliness of the idols they contain.”106 The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana added, that the idols of Chinese Buddhism “appear to be more numerous than those of any other sect of Buddhism.”107 According to Rees’ Cyclopaedia, Buddhist temples “abound with more images than are found in most Christian churches.”108 In 1842, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon linked British colonial rule in India and the opening of China to the end of Buddhism: Western influence was supposed to bring the end of Brahman and Buddhist teachings.109 9.5

Daoism

For a long time, Daoism remained a mystery for European observers. They hardly could decide whether to classify Daoism as a philosophical school or as a religious sect.110 The comparison of Daoism to the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus (341–270 BC) had its origins in the writings of seventeenth-century Jesuits and had been perpetuated by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century encyclopaedias.111 Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon described Daoism as a mystic

104

Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 22, fol. 3Fv (s. v. ‘Metempsychosis’). Deutsche Encyclopädie 12 (1787) 767 (s. v. ‘Götzenbilder’), see also ibid., 11 (1786) 207 (s. v. ‘Gebet der morgenländischen Heiden’). 106 English Encyclopaedia 2 (1802) 496. 107 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 569. 108 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’. 109 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 5 (1842) 468 (s. v. ‘Brahmaismus und Buddhaismus’). 110 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 242.—For late-seventeenth- and early eighteenth century French views on the subject see Bai, Les voyageurs français, 165–169. 111 Zedler 37 (1743) 1633 (s. v. ‘Sinesische Philosphie’). Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 677, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 560. 105

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and pantheistic philosopheme.112 In referring to the Journal Asiatique, the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana pointed out that the “simplicity and sublimity of the theological, and obstruseness of the metaphysical doctrines” of Laozi “accorded ill with the gross superstitions of his contemporaries.”113 The Encyclopédie labelled Daoism a ‘corrupted sect’.114 Rees’ Cyclopaedia contained details on the outward appearance of ‘idols’ found in Daoist temples: Their temples are crowded with large and monstrous figures, some made of wood, some of stone, and others of baked clay, daubed over with paint and varnish, and sometimes gilt.115

Considerable problems arose even with the denomination of this ‘sect’. Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon presented the wide range of spellings in use for the Daoists in early modern Europe. Cross-references to the article ‘Lancu’ (where the information was to be found) included ‘Lanthu’, ‘Lanzu’, ‘Laosu’, ‘Lauzu’ (different and sometimes distorted spellings of Laozi) and ‘Laotan’ (i.e. Lao Dan 老聃, the posthumous name of Laozi). The entry ‘Lauzu’ points out that this spelling is the misleading denomination of the ‘sect’ correctly called ‘Lancu’.116 In the Encyclopédie, information on Daoism had been presented not only under the headword ‘Lao-kiun’ but also under the headword ‘Taut-se’.117 Decades later, the Encyclopaedia Edinensis translated the latter notion as ‘sons of the immortals’.118 These difficulties regarding the ‘correct’ spelling had their origin in different sources used for this information: In referring to the travelogue of Jean Baptiste Tavernier, encyclopaedias used the spelling “Lanthu”, in referring to Kircher’s China [. . .] illustrata encyclopaedias preferred the spelling “Lancu”. The Encyclopaedia Edinensis had presented Laozi’s most important teachings in a few lines: 112

Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I,2 (1841) 304 (s. v. ‘Alterthum’). Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 567. 114 Encyclopédie 9 (1765) 281 (s. v. ‘Lao-kiun’). 115 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’. 116 Zedler 16 (1737) 375 f. (‘Lancu’) referred to the accounts of Kircher, Tavernier and Dapper. For respective cross-references to the entry ‘Lancu’ see Zedler 16 (1737), col. 710 (s. v. ‘Lanthu, siehe Lancu’), ibid., col. 717 (s. v. ‘Lanzu, siehe Lancu’), ibid., col. 730 (s. v. ‘Laosu’ and ‘Laotan’), ibid., col. 1216 (s. v. ‘Lauzu’). 117 Encyclopédie 9 (1765) 281 (s. v. ‘Lao-kiun’); ibid., 16 (1765) 946 (s. v. ‘Taut-se’). 118 Encyclopaedia Edinensis 2 (1827) 423. 113

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He taught that the Tao is the intelligent but incomprehensible Author of all that exists in heaven or in earth; that supreme happiness consists in a union with the Tao, a consummation to be attained only by a complete command of the passions: the utter rejection of riches and worldly distinctions, and the entire abstraction of the mind from all sublunary cares.119

As early as in the Encyclopédie we read, that Laozi’s disciples supposedly had altered his teachings.120 Laozi had propagated mildness and benevolence and “a hatred of violence and bloodshed” but also exhorted his followers to “accommodate themselves to the times in which they lived”, this led to the “entire perversion of the doctrine.”121 In their early attempts to characterize Daoism, Europeans pointed out that the Daoists promised wealth and a long life to be achieved by magical practices.122 The second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica stated that Laozi (‘La-lao-kun’ [sic]) had taught that god was ‘corporeal’, and that there were ‘many subordinate deities under his Government.’ Further information referred to the Daoist quest for immortality.123 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia connected this quest for immortality (and for a ‘beverage of life’ as well) to the decay of the Daoist teaching as times went by: “In pursuit of this beverage of immortality, they addicted themselves to the study of alchymy [sic], which they mixed up with various magical practices, tricks of divination, and other superstitious absurdities.”124 The practices of Daoism were widely spread among the higher classes of the people. In the course of history, access to the imperial court sometimes led the Daoists in a unique position, as these beverages “were not unfrequently rendered instrumental in cutting of sovereigns and grandees of the empire, by administering a poisonous dose in their place.” This beverage of life, labelled “a pernicious superstition” by the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, was considered harmful to the physical constitution of the recipient as it was said to be “a compound of opium and other stimulating drugs.”125 As we may see from this quotation, the problem of drug abuse was

119 120 121 122 123 124 125

Encyclopaedia Edinensis 2 (1827) 423. Encyclopédie 9 (1765) 281 (s. v. ‘Lao-kiun’). Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 566 f. Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1633 (s. v. ‘Sinesische Philosophie’). Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed.. vol. 3 (1778) 1920. Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 247. Ibid., p. 248.

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subject to the European discourse on China many years before the age of the Opium Wars. The seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica also referred to the changing fate of Buddhists and Daoists under subsequent emperors: “The emperor persecutes the Ho-chang [heshang 和尚] of Fo [i.e. the Buddhist masters], and encourages the Tao-tse [daoshi 道士]. He drinks the beverage of immortality, and dies soon after: his successor eradicates the the Tao-tse for poisoning the sovereign, and sanctions the worship of Fo.”126 9.6

Christianity

The beginnings of Christianity in China usually were ascribed to the efforts of Nestorian monks who reached China in the seventh century. An “ancient marble pillar erected in the province of Shen-si [Shaanxi]” along with Chinese records indicated the arrival of a man “who preached a heavenly doctrine, and confirmed it by miracles”.127 The second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica mentioned that an “ancient marble pillar”—the Nestorian tablet—had been found at Xi’an 西安 in 1623/25. Detailed information on this tablet (including notices on European scholars’ controversies on the authenticity of this monument)128 had also been inserted in encyclopaedias. Without providing any references Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon pointed out that Kircher, Le Comte, and Le Gobien had mentioned this tablet in their writings.129 For information on this subject later encyclopaedias mainly referred to Du Halde.130 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia informed its readers, that the “Christians of the Nestorian sect [. . .] were tolerated by the [Chinese] gov-

126 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 561. On the fate of the Daoists under the Qing see also the remarks in Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 242. 127 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1920. 128 See Michael Keevak, The Story of a Stele. China’s Nestorian Monument and Its Reception in the West, 1625–1916 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2008). 129 Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1128–32 (s. v. ‘Sigan’), especially col. 1132. Moréri, 1759 ed., vol. 3, p. 626 f. also contains a summary of seventeenth-century European approaches to this monument.—On the Nestorian presence in China see Standaert, ed., Handbook of Christianity in China. Volume One: 635–1800, 1–42. 130 See Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 81: “According to the Jesuits whom Du Halde has quoted, a stone monument was found by them in Shen-sy [Shaanxi], with the cross, an abstract of the Christian law, and the names of seventy-two preachers in Syriac characters, bearing the date of AD 640.”

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ernment nearly two centuries” and also mentioned the designation of “priests of Ta-tsin [Da Qin 大秦].”131 Perhaps the most extensive information on the founder of the Nestorian sect in China, Aluoben 阿羅本, in all the encyclopaedias inspected is found in Ersch/Gruber under the separate headword ‘O-lo-pen’. In this entry, Wilhelm Schott clearly dismissed etymological speculations by Voltaire relating to the possible origin of this man.132 The second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica mentioned presumptions according to which Christianity was “planted” in China “either by the apostle Thomas, or some of his disciples”. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europeans repeatedly doubted this early history of Christianity in China as Roman Catholic missionaries had not found “the least vestige of Christianity on their arrival in China.”133 Eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias presented information on medieval Franciscan missionaries in Central Asia and China. While Zedler placed this information under a variety of respective biographical headwords,134 other encyclopaedias referred to these developments under a variety of subjects. Ersch/Gruber provided some information on medieval missionaries’ experiences in connection with geographical discoveries, Krünitz’ as well as Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon did in connection with travels.135 In its paragraphs on Christianity, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia only mentioned that in the thirteenth century some Christians “of the Greek church, who had followed the army of Genghis-Khan, entered China along with the Tartars under Kublai-khan” from whom they received a piece of land “for the purpose of erecting a church.”136

131

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 254. Ersch/Gruber III 3 (1832) 101 f. (s. v. ‘O-lo-pen’). 133 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1920. 134 Zedler 25 (1740) col. 512 f. (s. v. ‘Odoricus’). Under the headword ‘Ioannes de Plano Carpini’ Zedler (14 (1739) col. 1007) has a cross-reference to ‘Ascelinus’ (Zedler 2 (1732) 1798. On William of Rubruck see ibid., 32 (1742) 1436 (s. v. ‘Rubrock, oder Ruybrock (Wilhelm von)’ and ibid., 32 (1742) 1438 (s. v. ‘Rubruquis (Wilhelm von)’. The former referred to a Dutch edition of his report (published in 1706), the latter referred to the edition of Pierre Bergeron’s collection Voyages faits principalement en Asie (1735). 135 Ersch/Gruber III 1 (1830) 352–354 (s. v. ‘Oderich von Portenau’, L. F. Kämtz); I 36 (1842) 271–393 (s. v. ‘Erde’; L. F. Kämtz); I 59 (1854) 135–183 (s. v. ‘Geographie (Geschichte und Literatur der)’, J. Hasemann); Meyer II 1 (1848) (s. v. ‘Oderich von Portenau’), Krünitz 194 (1847) 458 (s. v. ‘Umseglung (Welt-)’); Penny Cyclopaedia 2 (1834) 458 (s. v. ‘Asia’). 136 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 255. 132

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Encyclopaedias usually ascribed the success of the Jesuits in gaining access to the court of Beijing to their knowledge in the field of natural sciences. While Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon mentioned only their knowledge of astronomy, the Deutsche Encyclopädie pointed out that the Jesuits had been successful due to their knowledge in mathematics and astronomy, but also in painting and in other liberal arts.137 As the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia put it, the “superior talents” and “useful services” of the Jesuits had secured them the “protection and favour” of the Kangxi Emperor.138 Information on the Rites Controversy had a prominent place in encyclopaedias’ information on China. In retrospect, the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica labelled this controversy a “ridiculous dispute [. . .] between the Jesuits and other sectaries of the Catholic religion.”139 In the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, Biot wrote of very regrettable discussions between the Jesuits and the Dominicans.140 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia linked the failure of the Jesuits to the continuing jealousy among the Roman Catholic missionaries and to “their frequent dissessions” which led to severe persecutions of Christianity in China.141 The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana labelled the Jesuit missionaries as “zealous and vigilant.” The Kangxi Emperor regarded the papal decisions which should bring this controversy to an end as “an encroachment on his authority, an interference which he could not break.” Based on the travelogue of the younger de Guignes, it added that Christianity has not entirely been wiped out and that there still lived “a few Roman Catholic Missionaries in the heart of the Empire.”142 Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon provided an ample presentation of the Rites Controversy under the headwords ‘Sinesische Mißion’ (China mission), ‘Verehrung des Confutius’ (veneration of Confucius), and ‘Tournon’. The main purpose of the article on the China mission was

137 Zedler 2 (1732) col. 1969 f. (s. v. ‘Astronomie’); Deutsche Encyclopädie 17 (1793) 126 f. (s. v. ‘Jesuiten’). 138 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 255. 139 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 559. Meyer’s ConversationsLexikon I 7,2 (1845) 291 pointed out that this controversy was not only ridiculous (“lächerlich” as well as “albern” in the German original) but also dangerous to the principles of the Chinese government. 140 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 460. 141 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 255. 142 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 571.

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to show when and how the Roman Catholic missionaries tried to disseminate Christianity in China. In chronological order, the article mentioned the most important missionaries as well as the most influential writings by these missionaries.143 Based on information available through early modern biobibliographical works, Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon contained biographical entries on Jesuits of the China mission. Apart from portraying their achievements for the mission, the articles sometimes contain a list of their works including also those written in Chinese. Further information on the activities of the missionaries was supplied in the article on Chinese missions. The following table shows those missionaries mentioned in Zedler’s article on Chinese missions as well as those presented in separate entries in the Universal-Lexicon. Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon on Jesuit missionaries in China column missionaries mentioned in Zedler’s article on Chinese missions 1615 1616 1616 1616 1616 1616 1616 1617 1617 1617 1617 1618 1618 1618 1618 1619 1619

separate biographical entry in Zedler

Nicolas Trigault SJ (1577–1628)

45 (1745) 740–742 Trigaultius oder Trigautius (Nicolas) Martin de Rada OSA (1533–1578) 30 (1741) 508 Rada (Martin de) Matteo Ricci SJ (1552–1610) 31 (1742) 1255 f. Riccius (Matthäus) Johann Adam Schall SJ (1592–1666) — Gabriel Magalhães SJ (1610–1677) — Ludovico Buglio SJ (1606–1682) — Ferdinand Verbiest SJ (1623–1688) 47 (1745) 159–161 Verbiest, (Ferdinand) Tomé Pereira SJ (1645–1708) — Claudio Filippo Grimaldi SJ — (1638–1712) Antoine Thomas SJ (1644–1709) 43 (1745) 1526 Thomas (Anton) Prospero Intorcetta SJ (1625–1696) 14 (1739) 790 f. Intorcetta (Prosper) Jean-François Gerbillon SJ — (1654–1707) José Soares SJ (1656–1736) — Joachim Bouvet SJ (1656–1730) S4 (1754) 413 Juan Bautista de Morales OP 21 (1739) 1459 f. (1597–1664) Charles Maigrot MEP (1652–1730) — Louis Le Comte SJ (1655–1728) —

143

Zedler 37 (1743) cols. 1625–1644 (‘Sinesische Mißion’).

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(cont.) Column Missionaries mentioned in Zedler’s separate biographical entry in Zedler article on Chinese missions 1620 1621 1622 1622 1623 1623

Charles Maillard de Tournon (1668–1710) Carlo Ambrogio Mezzabarba (ca. 1685–1741) Teodorico Pedrini CM (1671–1746) Jean-François Foucquet SJ (1665–1741) Joseph Anne Marie Moyriac de Mailla SJ (1669–1748) Dominique Parrenin SJ (1665–1741) Philippe Couplet (1623–1693) Emanuel Diaz SJ (1574–1659) Domingo Fernandez Navarrete OFM Diego de Pantoja SJ (1571–1618) Michele Ruggieri SJ (1543–1607)

44 (1745) 1742–1746 Tournon, Carl Thomas Maillard de 20 (1739) 1523 Mezzabarba, Carl Ambrosius — — 19 (1739) 556 f.

— 6 (1733) 1748 Couplet (Philippus) 7 (1734) 777 Diaz, (Emanuel) 23 (1740) 1335 Navarrete (Dominicus Ferdinand) 26 (1740) 599 Pantoja, (Didacus) 32 (1742) 517 Rogerius ode Ruggerius (Michael) Francesco Sambiasi SJ (1582–1649) 33 (1742) 1647 Sambiascus Álvaro Semedo SJ (1585–1658) 36 (1743) 1781 f. Semmedo Alessandro Valignano SJ 46 (1745) 348 f. Valignanus, (Alexander) (1539–1606)

In its article on the China mission, Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon provides a survey on the changing fate of the efforts undertaken by Roman Catholic missionaries. The following analysis of encyclopaedias’ presentations of the Rites Controversy will show the perspectives eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century works of this genre developed on this question. Even modern interpretations of this controversy oscillate between defining it as “a watershed in the early modern history of the Sino-Western cultural relations” or to understand it as “a purely European affair which can be easily omitted when attempting to understand the history of Christianity in China from a Chinese perspective.”144 The article on the Chinese mission inserted in Zedler’s UniversalLexicon mentioned that Matteo Ricci had faced some troubles. Only after presenting some scientific instruments to the Chinese, he was 144

Standaert, ed., Handbook of Christianity in China. Volume One: 635–1800, 684.

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able to establish the mission. These first successful steps soon attracted the interest of the Dominican order in the China mission. In offering their scientific knowledge, Schall and Magalhães had won the favour of the Shunzhi Emperor. His death caused a severe threat to the Roman Catholic missionaries. While only Schall, Magalhães, Buglio, and Verbiest were allowed to stay in Beijing, all the others were sent to Guangzhou (Canton).145 In the presentation of the further developments in the Rites Controversy, Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon pointed out that, as a consequence of the so-called Edict of Toleration (issued by the Kangxi Emperor in 1692), the controversy between Jesuits and Dominicans grew larger and larger. The Universal-Lexicon stressed the leading role of French pamphlets for the perception of the Rites Controversy by a broader European audience.146 In their presentation of the Rites Controversy, especially eighteenthcentury encyclopaedias dealt extensively with the three main strands of discourse this controversy consisted of:147 the name of God (could concepts like tian 天 and shangdi 上帝—both taken from the Chinese classics—represent the Christian concept of God or must there be coined new terms to convey the intended meaning?), ceremonies in honour of Confucius and the cult of ancestors, and participation of Chinese Christians in seasonal festivals in honour of non Christian deities. In its information on the veneration of Confucius as well as under a separate headword ‘Tien’ (tian, i.e. heaven) Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon discussed the different Chinese terms Jesuits and Dominicans used to express the notion of God: While the Jesuits used the term tian and even put tablets in their churches bearing the characters jing tian 敬天 (lit. ‘to worship heaven’), the Dominicans favoured the term shangdi (Supreme Lord) and argued that shangdi would refer to an invisible heaven while tian would merely represent the visible heaven. According to the Dominicans, the use of tian only would refer to a subtle atheism.148

145 Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1616. For the context see Standaert, ed., Handbook of Christianity in China. Volume One: 635–1800, 514. 146 Zedler 37 (1743), especially col. 1619 f. 147 On these strands of discourse see Standaert, ed., Handbook of Christianity in China. Volume I: 635–1800, 680 f. (there referred to as ‘three sets of problems’). 148 Zedler 44 (1745) col. 75 (s. v. ‘Tien’); ibid. 47 (1746) col. 403 (s. v. ‘Verehrung des Confutius’).—On 20 November 1704 the decree Cum Deus Optimus forbade not only these tables bearing the expression jing tian but also the use of tian as well as of

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In the article on Chinese missions Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon pointed out that while the Dominicans labelled the veneration of Confucius as idolatry, the Jesuits stressed the civil character of related ceremonies.149 Under the headword “Jesuiten” ( Jesuits), published in 1792, the Deutsche Encyclopäde also mentioned the ‘political character’ of the veneration of Confucius and that the Jesuits had feared to fail in their evangelization of China if they would prohibit these ceremonies.150 Encyclopaedias discussed the Rites Controversy as one of the main reasons for the failure of the Roman Catholic missionaries in China. According to Edinburgh Encyclopaedia the Jesuits professed “that they were come only to restore the ancient religion of the country”, the Dominicans “at once condemned these compromising arts, excluded these mixed proselytes” and prohibited their followers to practise “that fundamental national duty of sacrificing to their deceased relatives in the hall of ancestors.”151 As the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia put it, the Jesuits succeeded in receiving “an attestation from the emperor himself ” emphasizing that “the ceremony of paying homage to the dead [. . .] was not of a religious but of a civil nature, and a duty which the political constitution of the empire rendered indispensable.”152 Concerning the participation of Chinese Christians in common seasonal festivals in honour of non Christian deities, encyclopaedias often linked the description of these practices to the veneration of Confucius. Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon commented on the role of the Papacy in the course of the Rites Controversy: In order not to offend either the Jesuits or the Dominicans, the popes repeatedly would have tried to delay a final decision on this matter. Finally, the Jesuits took things too far. Thus, the papacy could not remain silent and issued several decrees.153 Europeans were well aware of the fact, that the fate of the Roman Catholic missionaries could easily change under successive emperors: the Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences pointed out that while the Kangxi Emperor favoured the missionaries’ skills in

shangdi and approved the term tianzhu 天主. See Standaert, ed., Handbook of Christianity in China. Volume One: 635–1800, 683. 149 Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1618 (‘Sinesische Mißion’). 150 Deutsche Encyclopädie 17 (1792) 126 (s. v. ‘Jesuiten’). 151 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 255. 152 Ibid. 153 Zedler 44 (1745) col. 75 (s. v. ‘Tien’); ibid., 60 (1749) col. 595 (s. v. ‘Xangti’ [i.e. shangdi]).

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mathematics, anatomy, astronomy, and mechanics, the Yongzheng Emperor banished all Europeans not residing in Peking to Guangzhou and Macau. Finally, the Qianlong Emperor had shown “a little more indulgence to the learned of Europe” but prohibited the preaching of Christian doctrines.154 In its presentation of the state of Roman Catholic missions in late eighteenth-/early nineteenth-century China, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia referred to the travelogue of the younger de Guignes, who had pointed out that every nation “who shall preserve some individuals” at the court of China “may account herself fortunate” as long as the empire “shall remain shut against Europeans.”155 9.7

Muslims and Jews

Apart from Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, and Christianity encyclopaedias also presented information on Muslims and Jews living in China.156 In his article on ‘China’ for Ersch/Gruber, Wilhelm Schott pointed out that Muslims and Jews have been almost completely assimilated by the Han Chinese.157 According to Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon, Muslims and Jews were tolerated in China and the latter were granted access to posts in the administration of the empire. It added, that the Chinese government did not fear any faith, but thoughts and knowledge. Qing authorities would oppose religious enthusiasm. In 1817, the Qing had prohibited pilgrimages in Jiangsu and Anhui to prevent any uprisings.158 In his article on ‘China’ written for the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, Édouard Biot mentioned, that all religions are admitted in the empire unless they are not seen as dangerous.159 154 Temple Henry Croker, The Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, vol. 1 (1764), s. v. ‘Chinese Philosophy’. 155 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 255 f. 156 See e.g. Moréri 1759 edition, vol. 3, p. 627.—For early modern French accounts on Jews in China see Bai, Les voyageurs français, 178–182. 157 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 165.—For an analysis of the acculturation and assimilation of Jews (and also Muslims) in China see Stephen Sharot, “The Kaifeng Jews: A Reconsideration of Acculturation and Assimilation in a Comparative Perspective,” Jewish Social Studies: History, Culture, Society n.s. 13,3 (2007), 179–203. 158 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 280 f.—On pilgrimages as part of the suggested superstitions of the Chinese see Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 253. 159 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 459: (“[. . .] et tous les cultes y sont admis, pourvu que le gouvernement ne les juge pas dangereux.”)

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The Encyclopaedia Londinensis named the “discovery of a synagogue in an empire so remote” as “too interesting to be omitted.”160 While most encyclopaedias placed information on the Jews living in China under the headwords ‘China’ or ‘Jews’,161 the Deutsche Encyclopädie referred to the earlier Chinese expression Tiaojinjiao 挑筋教— although in the distorted spelling ‘Kiao-kin-kiao’.162 According to the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, Jews were “the best silk manufacturers in the Empire, and most numerous in the provinces in which silk-worms are reared”. In connection with the silk manufactures, it had been conjectured “that the art of weaving silk was introduced by Jewish emigrants after the conquest of Alexander.”163 According to the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, a “colony of Jews” had been established in China “about the year 206 BC.”164 The eighth edition of Brockhaus also referred to the immigration of Jews in Han times.165 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia advocated the theory, that the Jews had come to China shortly after the time of the eastern campaigns of Alexander the Great and—similarly to the Deutsche Encyclopädie—introduced a Chinese exonym for the Jews: “They are not very numerous, and are called by the Chinese, Hoey, or Langmao-hoey [lanmao Hui 藍帽囘, i.e. blue-capped Hui], that is, Hoey with the blue bonnets, because they wear a species of turban of that colour, when they assemble in their synagogues.”166

160

Encyclopaedia Londinensis, vol. 4, p. 459. Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 254; Krünitz 31 (1784) 348 f. (s. v. ‘Jude’); Ersch/Gruber II 27 (1850) 237 (s. v. ‘Juden (Geschichte)’, on China); Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 17 (1850) 122–150 (s. v. ‘Jude’, on China see ibid., p. 132). 162 Deutsche Encyclopädie 20 (1799) 197 (s. v. ‘Kiao-kin-kiao’).—On the expression Tiaojinjiao see Wilkinson, Chinese History, 589 n. 49: “After the Kashrut regulation that forbid the eating of the thigh muscle on the hip socket.” 163 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 585.—The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 325 points out that from a passage in Quintus Curtius Rufus (Historiae Alexandri Magni Macedonis) it had been presumed, that Alexander the Great “had attained some knowledge of the Chinese during his conquests in India.” See also ibid., p. 304. Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 17 (1850) 132 places the immigration of Jews into China in the same context, referring to several persecutions of Jews in classical antiquity. 164 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 679. 165 Brockhaus, 8th ed., vol. 2 (1833) 613. 166 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 254; Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, vol. 16 (1845) 571. 161

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In general, we may locate various strands of discourse in the European perception of Muslims in China167 as mirrored by English, French, and German encyclopaedias. Europeans had learned from the writings of the Jesuit missionaries, that Muslims had come to China during the Yuan dynasty to improve the astronomy of the Chinese.168 Encyclopaedias mentioned that the Muslims had taken care of children abandoned by the Chinese.169 The principal means employed for this purpose are, to purchase a great number of children brought up in idolatry, whom their poor parents are glad to part with; and those they circumcise, and afterwards instruct in the principles of their religion.170

Encyclopaedias presented information on Muslim people living in the Western regions of the Chinese empire. This may be seen especially from a variety of entries in Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon.171 In presenting information on the Muslims of China, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia mentioned that “there are not many of this sect in the body of the empire” but that “numerous tribes of them inhabit the extremities of the province of Shen see [Shaanxi].”172 Sometimes, encyclopaedias’ entries on the Western regions of the Chinese empire reflect the ethnocentric views of the Han Chinese in characterising the Muslim population of the Western regions of the Chinese empire as inferior compared to the Chinese living in that area.173

167 On Muslims in China see Jonathan Lipman, “ ‘A Fierce and Brutal People’. On Islam and Muslims in Qing Law,” in Empire at the Margins. Culture, Ethnicity, and Frontier in Early Modern China, ed. Pamela Kyle Crossley, Helen F. Siu, and Donald S. Sutton (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2006), 83–110. On the various terms used for Muslims in Chinese see ibid., 86–88 (“Categorizing the Sino-Muslims”). 168 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 254. 169 Deutsche Encyclopädie 2 (1779) 532 (s. v. ‘Aussetzen der Kinder’). 170 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 679. 171 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 6 (1843) 310–317 (s. v. ‘Bucharei’); ibid., I 16 (1850) 433 f. (s. v. ‘Ili’), ibid., 1260 f. (s. v. ‘Jerkim’ [i.e. Yarkand]), ibid., I 17 (1850) 774 (s. v. ‘Kaschgar’), ibid., 1071 f. (s. v. ‘Khokan’ [Khokand]), ibid., II 9 (1852) 91–93 (‘Sifan (Tangut)’), ibid., 114–117 (s. v. ‘Si-ju’ [Xiyu]). 172 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 254. 173 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon II 9 (1852) 116 (s. v. ‘Si-ju’ [Xiyu]).

CHAPTER TEN

ARTS, SCIENCES, AND TECHNOLOGIES 10.1

Natural Sciences: Astronomy and Mathematics

In their approach to Chinese conceptions and explanations of natural phenomena, eighteenth-century Europeans referred to the theory of the Five Phases (also known as Five Agents or Five Elements). Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon took the five elements (water, fire, metal, wood, earth) as a proof that the Chinese were not very strong in natural sciences.1 This assessment prevailed throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Croker’s Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences linked the success of the Jesuit missionaries at the court of Beijing to the state of science in China: At length the Europeans carried our sciences into the East; and this event is the epocha of the modern philosophy among the Chinese. The singular esteem with which they honoured the first Europeans who travelled into China, give us no very high idea of their skill in mechanics, astronomy, and other parts of the mathematics.2

Rees’ Cyclopaedia as well as the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that science “strictly so called, can scarcely be said to exist in China.”3 In the section on the natural philosophy of the Chinese, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia continued that the Chinese “have a practical knowledge of some of the most obvious effects produced by natural causes.” It added that “no branch of physical science is pursued as a subject of investigation.”4 Despite the large number of descriptions and the occasional description of a new craft or product, there were no major changes in Europe’s view of Chinese arts and crafts. In fact, products (silk, 1 Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1644: “[. . .] ist noch zu erinnern, daß die Sineser, da sie fünf Elemente setzen, nehmlich die Erde, das Wasser, das Feuer, das Metall, das Holtz, eben keine sonderlichen Helden in der Natur sind.” 2 Temple Henry Croker, The Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences 1 (1764) s. v. ‘Chinese philosophy’. 3 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 281. 4 Ibid., p. 282.

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porcelain, paper), inventions (gunpowder and printing) and architecture (temples, palaces, and the Great Wall ) were described again and again in language similar to that of Trigault, Semedo, and Martini.5 General remarks on arts and sciences reveal much of the attitude the compilers and editors of encyclopaedias had towards China and the Chinese: The Encyclopédie pointed out that all nations cultivate the sciences, some more and some less, but there will not be found a nation where the sciences are more esteemed than among the Chinese. Consequently, the Chinese also had established libraries. The burning of books ordered by China’s first unifier Qin Shihuangdi had retarded the quest for knowledge.6 Under the headword ‘Chinese Philosophy’, the Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences edited by Temple Henry Croker pointed out that the Chinese were “universally allowed to have surpassed all other nations of India [i.e. Asia]” in various fields and also in “the improvement of the sciences.”7 Limited knowledge of things Chinese and unwillingness to understand non-European approaches to arts and sciences shaped most of the introductory remarks to the paragraphs on arts and sciences in early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias. A very critical attitude towards arts and sciences can be found in entries written by scholars engaged in the field of Chinese studies. In Ersch/Gruber, Wilhelm Schott pointed out, that the Chinese would dislike to admit the superiority of the other. According to Schott, this had led to a distinct one-sidedness (große Einseitigkeit) in all branches of arts and sciences, even increased by “a stupid, if not idolatrous preference for antiquity.” Europeans perceived Chinese art within a spectrum between monstrous representations and childish pedantry.8

5

Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe III.4, 1693.—For a discussion of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French perceptions of science in China see Bai, Les voyageurs français, 360–383. 6 Encyclopédie 2 (1751) 232 f. (s. v. ‘Bibliothèques’).—This presentation of Chinese books and libraries had been adopted by the editors of Deutsche Encyclopädie 3 (1780) 665 (s. v. ‘Bibliotheken’) and Krünitz 135 (1824) 515 (s. v. ‘Sammlung (Bücher-)’).—In Zedler 60 (1749) cols. 739–742 (s. v. ‘Xi-Hoam-Ti’) information on Qin Shihuangdi and on the burning of the books had been taken from Kircher, Le Comte, and Isbrand Ides. 7 Temple Henry Croker, The Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, vol. 1 (London 1764) s. v. ‘Chinese Philosophy’. 8 So according to Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 163.

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The opening paragraphs of the section on arts and sciences in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia as well as in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana clearly indicate the paradigmatic shift of European images of China in the early nineteenth century. The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana admitted that the Chinese “appear to have attained a certain degree of civilisation sooner than most of their neighbours” but of science “in the strict sense of the term, they may be said to know nothing.”9 As regards the more useful arts of life, the Chinese “have made little progress” and except for horticulture “they are still in a state of barbarism.”10 According to the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, the Chinese “far surpass the generality of the Asiatic nations” in some of the crafts in which they “discover considerable skill and ingenuity.”11 Under the heading “intellectual education by arts and sciences” Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon pointed out that not only the despotic pressure that had been exerted on the empire and its population since millennia but also the egoistic seclusion of China from world trade had led to the destruction of the moral character of the whole people and to the retardation of intellectual education.12 This disparaging way of presenting the arts and sciences of the Chinese was quite common in early-nineteenth century encyclopaedias. It was only occasionally mentioned that this disparaging view was closely linked to the fact that in Europe nothing had been published “to warrant any other conclusion than that of the utter ignorance of the Chinese in the pure, speculative, and abstract science of mathematics.”13 In dealing with Chinese astronomy, encyclopaedias stated a “division of labour” between the Jesuit missionaries and the Chinese in this field. Since their admission to the Directorate of Astronomy (qintian jian 欽天監),14 European missionaries had been in charge of astronomy, while their Chinese colleagues devoted themselves to astrology.15 The Encyclopédie Catholique concluded that it was not surprising that the imperial almanac of the Chinese had been well-made as foreigners

9

Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 576. Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 281. 11 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 576. 12 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 252. 13 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 575. 14 For information on this office see Hucker, Dictionary of Official Titles, 169 (no. 1185, s. v. ‘ch’īn-t’iēn chiēn’). 15 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4Rv; Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 254. 10

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always had calculated the astronomical part of it.16 As early as in the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica it was pointed out that the Chinese had “some knowledge of astronomy [. . .] but that was exceedingly defective.” Albeit the Chinese had calculated the eclipses of the sun, Europeans had found out that many of these proved to be “false and erroneous.”17 According to the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, astronomy may be regarded as “the most valued, but least understood [science] by the Chinese.”18 According to the Yverdon edition of the Encyclopédie, the Directorate of Astronomy had been a society of astrologers.19 The Deutsche Encyclopädie stated that the Chinese had done more for the progress of astronomy than any other people of Asia, but the Jesuit missionaries made too much fuss about it. To stress the allegedly poor state of Chinese astronomy, encyclopaedias quoted from European accounts on popular beliefs of the Chinese in connection with eclipses of the sun or the moon.20 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that the Chinese “imagine that these luminaries are in danger of being devoured by a dragon” and that the people would beat “upon drums and kettles to frighten the devouring dragon, and continuing the din without intermission till the termination of the eclipse.”21 Rees’ Cyclopaedia quoted from a similar account given by Peter Simon Pallas (1741–1811), a German scholar in Russian service, who had visited Khiakhta on his travel to the East in 1771/72.22 In referring to “the strong influence of superstitious prejudices”, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia mentioned that the occurrence of an eclipse “is there viewed as an event affecting the stability of the empire, or the safety of the prince; and the whole nation are assembled to the spectacle by express order of the government.”23

16

Encyclopédie Catholique 7 (1844) 405. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1920. 18 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 281. 19 Encyclopédie d’Yverdon 4 (1771) 16–19 (s. v. ‘Astrologie’). 20 Deutsche Encyclopädie 5 (1781) 515 f (s. v. ‘Chinesische Philosophie’). 21 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia vol. 6, p. 251.—This had been pointed out as early as in the Deutsche Encyclopädie 15 (1790) 440 (s. v. ‘Hexerey’).—On terms for the solar and the lunar eclipse in Asian languages see Schott, Skizze zu einer Topographie, 247 n. 1. 22 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 22, s. v. ‘Maimatschin’.—For a similar presentation of eclipses see Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, vol. 16 (1845) 576–577. 23 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 282. 17

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In an assessment of Chinese astronomy, Rees’ Cyclopaedia pointed out that European knowledge on this subject had been drawn exclusively from Jesuit accounts.24 In its entry ‘Planetary Machinery’, it gave a description of the ‘planetarium or astronomical machine’ constructed by Philipp Matthäus Hahn (1739–1790). A description of this machine has been given in a pamphlet published in London in 1791. Referring to this pamphlet, Rees’ Cyclopaedia also informed on the further fate of this astronomical machine: As the “whole fabric was of the best workmanship, and its different portions were so symmetrically arranged” it was deemed “a handsome present” to be carried by the British embassy to China (1793), “where probably its uses will not be duly appreciated.”25 In 1851, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon pointed out that it would forever remain a humiliation for the pride of the Europeans that data on the observation of comets in antiquity had not been collected in Italy, Germany or France, but by Chinese and Arab astronomers. Especially the Chinese would have noted data, which are not only remarkable for their age but also for their exactness. These data also are of more scientific value than everything noted in the Occident.26 In their presentation of the astronomy of the Chinese, encyclopaedias usually referred to Chinese antiquity. In its article on astronomical observations Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon not only mentioned the paragraph in the Shujing referring to observations in the year 2155 BC, but also to the San tong li 三統歷 (Three Sequences Calendar) by Liu Xin 劉歆 (c. 50 BC–AD 23).27 Of the foremost Chinese astronomers presented in the Jesuit writings, encyclopaedias repeatedly mentioned Guo Shoujing 郭守 敬 (1231–1316), who served under the Yuan dynasty. In the Penny Cyclopaedia we read that Guo “introduced spherical trigonometry, and rejected the antient chronology.”28 As late as in 1851, Meyer’s

24

Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 3, s. v. ‘Astronomy’. Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 27, s. v. ‘Planetary Machinery’.—On the background of this present see Simon Schaffer, “Instruments as Cargo in the China Trade,” History of Science 44, no. 2 (2006), 217–246. 26 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 18 (1851) 678 (s. v. ‘Kometen’). 27 Zedler 25 (1740) col. 280, s. v. ‘Observation (Astronomische)’: “Licov-Hin [. . .] einen Cursum Astronomicum verfertiget, den er Son Tong oder die 3 Principia nennet.” 28 Penny Cyclopaedia 2 (1834) 533 (s. v. ‘Astronomy’). 25

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Conversations-Lexikon pointed out that the Chinese were indebted to Guo for the greatest part of their astronomical knowledge.29 In their endeavour to show the state of science in China, encyclopaedias generally tended to give a very critical assessment of Chinese astronomy. The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia neither mentioned Chinese astronomers nor any of the astronomical works of the Chinese: But whatever might have been the knowledge of this people in former times, the state of astronomy is very low [. . .] at present, although it is cultivated at Peking by public authority, in the same manner as in most of the capital cities of Europe.30

Encyclopaedias often limited their information on Chinese mathematics to a presentation of the suanpan 算盤—the ‘abacus’ of early modern European accounts of China. Early descriptions of this device had been given by the Jesuit Martino Martini and by the English scholar Robert Hooke (1635–1703). The description of the suanpan given in Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon is likely to be based on these seventeenthcentury descriptions.31 Mid-nineteenth-century encyclopaedias still referred to the information given by Du Halde in 1735. Meyer pointed out that until his times similar instruments were in use among the Russians (the sčôty or ‘Russian abacus’).32 On the one hand, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia refers to the description of Hooke under the headword ‘Shwan-pan’ (suanpan), on the other hand (in its entry ‘China’) it refers to a figure and a description of this machine in Barrow’s Travels in China.33 The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana refers not only to Martini but also to Barrow: They are ready and rapid in arithmetical calculations, but their results are obtained only by means of a machine called Swen-p’han, or reckoning-table, much like the abacus of the Romans.34

In the Penny Cyclopaedia we read, that a Chinese suanpan had been in the collections of the East India Company’s museum.35

29 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 18 (1851) 1215 (s. v. ‘Koscheu King’ [i.e. Guo Shoujing]); for further information on Chinese astronomy see also ibid., 678 (s. v. ‘Kometen’). 30 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 3, fol. Yr (s. v. ‘Astronomy’). 31 Zedler 44 (1745) col. 412 (s. v. ‘Tisch, (Rechen-) Rechen-Bret, Rechen-Taffel’). 32 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon II 3 (1850) 600 (s. v. ‘Recheninstrumente’). 33 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 18, p. 235 (s. v. ‘Shwanpan’); ibid., vol. 6, p. 282. 34 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 577. 35 Penny Cyclopaedia 1 (1833) 7 (s. v. ‘Abacus’).

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A more detailed knowledge on Chinese mathematics36 became available in Europe only in the formative phase of sinology. The mathematical works of the Chinese mentioned in encyclopaedias had been introduced to Europeans in the first half of the nineteenth century by the efforts of the French sinologist Édouard Biot. In the Penny Cyclopaedia we read that “the Jesuit missionaries found very little knowledge of the properties of space.”37 Ersch/Gruber mentioned the Zhoubi suanjing 周髀算經 (Arithmetical Classic of the Gnomon and the Circular Paths of Heaven), compiled between 100 BC and AD 100) and the Suanfa tongzong 算法統宗 (Systematic Treatise on Arithmetic, c. 1592) written by Cheng Dawei 程大位 (1533–1606). In Ersch/Gruber we read that the mathematical knowledge of the Chinese had been limited to arithmetics and that the Chinese thus have done nothing for the further development of geometry.38 Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon presented the erroneous information that geometry had been totally unknown to the Chinese.39 10.2

Chinese Medicine

Eighteenth-century encyclopaedias referred to Chinese medicine under various headwords referring to practices like acupuncture or moxa and to the significance of the pulse. This arrangement of information may be found in the various editions of the French Encyclopédie, in Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon, and in Krünitz’ encyclopaedia. Users had to search for this information under various headwords.40 36 For the history of Chinese mathematics see Jean-Claude Martzloff, A History of Chinese Mathematics, trans. Stephen S. Wilson, corrected second printing of the first English edition of 1997 (Berlin: Springer, 2006). 37 Penny Cyclopaedia 11 (1838) 151 (s. v. ‘Geometry’). 38 Ersch/Gruber I 59 (1854) 229 f. (s. v. ‘Geometrie’). On geometry in China see Martzloff, History of Chinese Mathematics, 273–306 (Chapter 15: Geometry). 39 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 254. 40 On acupuncture: Encyclopédie Méthodique, Médecine 1 (1787) 184–188 (‘Acupuncture’), Encyclopédie des gens du monde 1 (1833) 177; Zedler 23 (1740) col. 332 f. (s. v. ‘Nadelstechen’), Krünitz 100 (1805) 569 (s. v. ‘Nadelstechen’), see also ibid., 43 (1788) 364–367 (s v. ‘Kolik’); Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 1 (1840) 301 (s. v. ‘Acupunctur’); Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 1, s. v. ‘Acupuncture’.—On moxa: Penny Cyclopaedia 15 (1839) 464 f. (s. v. ‘Moxa’) Encyclopédie Méthodique, Médecine, vol. 10 (1821) 378 f. (s. v. ‘Moxa’); Zedler 21 (1739) cols. 2013–2015 (s. v. ‘Moxa (Chineser)’; Krünitz 94 (1804) 658–675 (s. v. ‘Moxa’) see also ibid., 25 (1782) 619 (s. v. ‘Hüft-Weh’); Deutsche Encyclopädie 18 (1794) 127 f. (s. v. ‘Ischiatik, Hüftweh’), Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 22 (1852) 269–272 (‘Moxa’).—On the doctrine of the pulse:

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Early modern European knowledge on some details of Chinese medicine referring to acupuncture and moxa mainly had been derived from the tracts published by officers in the service of the Dutch East India Company. The Penny Cyclopaedia not only pointed out that these seventeenth-century accounts of acupuncture had been neglected by European scholars but also referred to the role of encyclopaedias for the dissemination of knowledge on things Chinese throughout Europe: No further notice appears to have been taken of this mode of treatment in Europe for upwards of a century, when it was alluded to by the celebrated Vicq-d’Azyr [i.e. the physician and anatomist Félix Vicq d’Azyr (1748–1794)], in the Encyclopédie Méthodique, merely for the purpose of congratulating the world that the statements of Ten Rhyne and Kaempfer, the physicians who had given the first accounts of it, had not induced any European physician or surgeon to practice it. In the year 1810, however, some trials of it were made by Dr. Berlioz, a physician of Paris, who found, or fancied to found, it so efficacious a remedy, that he was induced to employ it very extensively, and many French practicioners imitated his example with the same apparent results.41

In 1735, Du Halde published ample information on the so-called ‘doctrine of the pulse’. He used and annotated a translation of extracts of the Maijue 脈訣, a text included in the Maijing 脈經 (Pulse Classic) of Wang Shuhe. These texts had been translated by Julien-Placide Hervieu SJ (1671–1746). In dealing with this subject, eighteenthcentury encyclopaedias had to rely on Du Halde’s presentation. As mentioned above, in writing for the Encyclopédie, Malouin regretted the rather confused presentation of the subject by Du Halde.42 When general information on Chinese medicine reached Europe, scholars sometimes engaged in vivid discussions. In Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon we read that according to the natural philosophy of the Chinese the state of their medicine must have been quite poor. According to Zedler, the German scholar Daniel Georg Morhof (1639–1691) had been right in judging the medical theories of the Chinese as

Encyclopédie Méthodique, Médecine 12 (1827) 275 (s. v. ‘Pouls’); Zedler 29 (1741) col. 1233 (s. v. ‘Puls’), Krünitz 118 (1811) 575 (s. v. ‘Puls’), on Cleyer’s presentation of the doctrine of the pulse see also ibid., 47 (1789) 676 (s. v. ‘Krankheits-Gemählde’). 41 Penny Cyclopaedia 1 (1833) 107 (s. v. ‘Acupuncture’). 42 For Malouin’s criticism of Du Halde’s use of sources concerning the doctrine of the pulse see above p. 92 f. as well as Landry-Deron, La preuve par la Chine, 167.

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ridiculous.43 In German-language encyclopaedias, this assessment seems to have prevailed at least until the early nineteenth-century. To Georg Heinrich Ritter (1764–?), who wrote the article on medicine for Ersch/Gruber, most of the information on Chinese medicine seemed of minor interest and truly boring.44 Scarcely referring to any details, encyclopaedias tried to give a general assessment of Chinese medicine. In Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon we read that the Chinese solely make use of medical herbs and that physicians are not highly esteemed among them.45 Rees’ Cyclopaedia pointed out that, according to the accounts of travellers, the state of medicine was “extremely low in China.”46 The third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica noted that “most of the Chinese medicine is absolute quackery.”47 According to the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, “it is certain, that they have made very little progress in this most important science.”48 It was common knowledge to early nineteenthcentury Europeans, that China had no schools of medical instruction49 and that medicine formerly had been taught publicly combined with astrology.50 Encyclopaedias also tried to assess the various branches of medicine. According to the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the knowledge of the Chinese on anatomy “is not only very limited, but mixed with such a number of falsehoods, as render it in a manner absolutely useless.”51 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that the Chinese physicians are “altogether ignorant of physiology”, that they are “utter strangers also to every branch of anatomy” and that their surgery is “equally defective.” Contrary to the accounts of the Jesuit missionaries, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia added that the Chinese “are entirely unacquainted with the circulation of the blood;

43

Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1644 (s. v. ‘Sinesische Philosophie’). Ersch/Gruber I 6 (1821) 29 (s. v. ‘Arzneikunde’). 45 Zedler 2 (1732) col. 1745 (s. v. ‘Artzeney-Kunst’). 46 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’. 47 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 690. See also Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 577. 48 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 283. 49 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., Supplement vol. 1 (1801) 427; Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 283; Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 566 (new ed., vol. 9, col. 129). 50 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 23, s. v. ‘Medicine, History of’. 51 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 690. 44

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and their whole art is limited to the study of the pulse.”52 Contrary to this view, Biot, in his article for the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, pointed out that the Chinese had discovered the circulation of the blood long ago.53 Rees’ Cyclopaedia offered a general assessment of Chinese medicine under the entry ‘Medicine, History of’: Under the despotic government of China, whatever its admirers may choose to say, and whatever antiquity they may ascribe to its institutions, it was utterly impossible that the liberal arts could attain any high improvement. The medical code, which is ascribed to Hoangti [Huang Di, i.e. The Yellow Emperor], and said to have been composed 4,000 years ago, but which has been proved to be of much later origin, forms the guide of the Chinese physicians.54

This entry doubted the antiquity of Chinese tradition. As regards the state of Chinese medicine it relied on the accounts of Staunton “and other late travellers.” In the early nineteenth century, the Specimen Medicinae Sinicae of Andreas Cleyer (published in 1682 and warmly welcomed by his contemporaries) was taken as a sufficient proof “that the Chinese were never acquainted with its fundamental principles.”55 Early nineteeth-century Europeans were well aware that the Chinese made use of a considerable variety of medical plants and herbs. In 1845, Édouard Biot mentioned that in China treatises on medical plants are known by the name of bencao 本草.56 Some years earlier, Wilhelm Schott had contributed a separate article on this genre of works for Ersch/Gruber.57 Not only officers in the service of the Dutch East India Company but also Jesuit missionaries in China informed Europeans on the use of ginseng as the most universal of all Chinese medical plants.58 Lateseventeenth century Europeans knew that this plant was found in

52 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 283.—Jesuit accounts, that the Chinese also had discovered the circulation of the blood, had been dismissed in a similar manner in the Deutsche Encyclopädie 5 (1781) 650 f. (s. v. ‘Circulation des Bluts’). 53 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 467: “Ils ont adopté depuis longtemps le principe de la circulation du sang.” 54 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 23, s. v. ‘Medicine, History of’. 55 Ibid. 56 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 467. 57 Ersch/Gruber III 16 (1842) 128–130 (s. v. ‘Pen-tsao’; W. Schott). 58 Examples for this assessment as perpetuated by encyclopaedias include Krünitz 18 (1779) 544 (s. v. ‘Ginseng’) and Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 422.

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Liaodong and in Korea. The entry on ginseng in Zedler’s UniversalLexicon provides useful information on the spread of information on this plant in late seventeenth-century Europe. It points out that in China, according to the writings of Georg Eberhard Rumpf, the use of the plant as restorative remedy was reserved to the nobles.59 Zedler as well as Krünitz mentioned the use of ginseng as aphrodisiac—not only for China and Japan but also among European aristocrats.60 In its first edition, Ephraim Chambers’ Cyclopaedia pointed out that “all the Writers of the Chinese Affairs make mention of the Gin-seng.” The Cyclopadia not only referred to Martini’s Novus Atlas Sinensis and Kircher’s China illustrata, to the Mémoires of Le Comte, and the account on Siam given by Guy Tachard SJ (1651–1712), but also to the most-detailed account of this plant available to early eighteenthcentury Europeans, written in 1711 by the French Jesuit Pierre Jartoux (1669–1720).61 Apart from Jartoux’ account, later eighteenth-century encyclopaedias mentioned that in 1716 Joseph-François Lafitau had discovered American ginseng (Panax quinquefolium) in the woods of Canada.62 Referring to observations made by the renowned Leiden physician Herman Boerhaave (1668–1738), Krünitz argued that ginseng had not proved to have the expected effects.63 In 1848, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon pointed out that Europeans did not use ginseng for medical purposes anymore.64 10.3

Architecture and Horticulture

The taste for Chinese temples and Chinese gardens that emerged in Europe during the latter half of the eighteenth century led to an

59

Zedler 10 (1735) cols. 1487–1490 (s. v. ‘Ginseng’). Zedler 10 (1735) col. 1489 (s. v. ‘Ginseng’); Krünitz 18 (1779) 542 (s. v. ‘Ginseng’). 61 Chambers, Cyclopaedia, 1728 ed., vol. 1, pp. 147–149 (s. v. ‘Gin-seng’). Jartoux’ letter was published in the Lettres édifiantes. For bibliographic references to the various editions see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 487 and ibid., col. 931. On the perception and description of ginseng by eighteenth-century European botanists see Alexandra Cook, “Linnaeus and Chinese plants: A test of the linguistic imperialism thesis”, Notes & Records of the Royal Society, published online 23 September 2009; doi: 10.1098/rsnr.2009.0051, p. 11 f. 62 Krünitz 18 (1779) 539–547 (s. v. ‘Ginseng’). 63 Ibid., 544 f. (s. v. ‘Ginseng’). More than two decades earlier, the Encyclopédie 7 (1757) 666 (s. v. ‘Gins-eng’ [sic]) also had referred to Boerhaave’s observations. 64 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 12 (1848) 1049 (s. v. ‘Ginseng’). 60

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increased consideration of Chinese architecture and decoration in the presentations of English, French, and German-language encyclopaedias.65 Nevertheless, the widespread popularity of chinoiserie in architecture was subject to severe criticism. In discussing the random combination of architectural styles in use in the various parts of the Roman Empire at the time of Emperor Hadrian (r. AD 117–138), Rees’ Cyclopaedia labelled this “another instance of false taste, somewhat resembling what we have seen in England, by the introduction of Italian villas and Chinese bridges.”66 Especially the extensive article on Chinese architecture inserted in the respective section of the Encyclopédie Méthodique67 proved very influential. The Penny Cyclopaedia still referred its users to the “very long article” on the subject inserted in the Encyclopédie Méthodique.68 Relating to the possible origins of Chinese architecture, European encyclopaedias contained only very few remarks. According to Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon the Chinese received their architecture in the course of the spread of Buddhism to East Asia. Only the pailou 牌樓 (honorary arches or portals) were labelled a genuinely Chinese invention in Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon.69 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia also referred to these pailou: The triumphal arches, so highly extolled by the missionaries, are nothing but four-sided blocks of wood or stone, covered with inscriptions, but altogether devoid of any real ornament or grandeur; and it has been affirmed by recent travellers, that there is not a statue, or a column in the whole empire, which deserves to be noticed.70

65 On this aspect of chinoiserie see Marx, “De la Chine à la chinoiserie,” 747–751. On early European perceptions of Chinese architecture see W. Percival Yetts, “Writings on Chinese Architecture”, The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, vol. 50, no. 288 (Mar. 1927), 116–131, especially 120. On Chinese architecture in general see Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. 4: Physics and Physical Technology. Part 3: Civil Engineering and Nautics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971), 58–144 (section 28 ‘Civil Engineering’, building technology). 66 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 8, s. v. ‘Civil architecture.’ 67 Encyclopédie Méthodique, Architecture, vol. 1 (1788) 644–671 (s. v. ‘Chinois, Jardins’ [Chinese gardens]. Following the description of Chinese gardens (644–654), the article includes information on some of the monuments of the Chinese (654–667) and on the principles, character and taste of Chinese architecture (667–671). 68 Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 89 f. (s. v. ‘Chinese Architecture’). 69 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 3 (1842) 803 (s. v. ‘Architektur’ III.6).—Information on the pailou available in Europe seems to have been ‘standardized’ by Du Halde, Description . . . de la Chine. vol. 1, p. 31. For early European references to the pailou see also Ulrichs, Nieuhofs Blick. 65 f. 70 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 287. The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 578 described these pailou in similar words.

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The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia critically assessed Chinese architecture. The houses of the Chinese “have nothing remarkable in their external appearance” and “their public edifices are distinguished rather by their extent, than their magnificence.”71 Critical remarks on Chinese architecture were not new to late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Europe. As early as in the Nouveau mémoires (1696), Louis Le Comte considered Chinese architecture “deficient by contemporary French standards.”72 The seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica linked the architecture of the Chinese to their form of government: It is somewhat remarkable that a government so long and so firmly established, and a population so numerous and civilized, should at no period of its history have constructed a building, public or private, that could deserve the least attention or admiration for its form, solidity, or magnitude, or that could possibly resist the action of two or three centuries; such is the obstinate and inveterate adherence of this people to ancient usage, which has narrowed and confined their ideas in the construction of their dwellings to the primitive tent.73

The seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica refuted the “absurd and ridiculous” theory advocated by Grosier that extremely cold winters in the north as well as extremely hot summers in the south had prevented a more solid method of construction. Other Jesuits had ascribed the “lowness of the houses” and “the lightness of the materials” to the frequently occurring earthquakes: The eruptions of Vesuvius have not prevented the inhabitants of Naples from building palaces, much less the Russians from rebuilding Moscow; though the distance between these two cities is not greater than that of Peking, where earthquakes are frequent, from that of Canton, where they never happen.74

Referring to architectonic monuments of the Chinese most encyclopaedias mentioned the Great Wall, the imperial palace at Peking, the Porcelain Pagoda at the Bao’en Temple 報恩寺 (Temple of Gratitude) at Nanjing, and the Grand Canal. Relying on Du Halde and other early

71 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 284. See also the introductory remarks in Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’ (paragraph on ‘Buildings and Furniture of the Chinese’). 72 Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe III.4, 1694. 73 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 573. 74 Ibid.

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modern European accounts as well,75 eighteenth and early nineteenthcentury works of general reference used various superlatives for the Great Wall. As early as in Zedler we read that this wall is known all over the world.76 Apart from the works of the Jesuit missionaries, accounts by late seventeenth-century travellers in Russian service formed an important source for European knowledge on the Great Wall. Amongst other references, Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon mentioned the travelogue of Adam Brand.77 In its third edition, the Encyclopaedia Britannica referred to the account given by John Bell.78 In 1830, Wilhelm Schott mentioned the (German edition) of Du Halde and the first edition of Ritter’s geography.79 Quite early, encyclopaedias referred to the Chinese denomination for the wall—either in rather distorted transcriptions for the term wanli changcheng 萬里長城 (lit. “the 10,000 li long wall”) or in translation.80 In works of general knowledge, this comparison of the Great Wall to the pyramids of Egypt may be found as early as in the Encyclopédie.81 In presenting information on the Great Wall, the Encyclopaedia Londinensis relied on the Novus Atlas Sinensis of Martini, on the travelogue of John Bell, and of the account published by George Leonard Staunton: This stupendous monument of human art and industry, exceeds every thing that we read of in ancient or modern history. The pyramids of Egypt are little, when compared with a wall which covers, three provinces, stretches along an extent of fifteen hundred miles, and is of such an enormous thickness, that six horsemen may ride a-breast upon it.82

75 Du Halde, Description . . . de la Chine, vol. 1, pp. 38–41. For this and other early modern European descriptions of the Great Wall in general see Arthur Waldron, The Great Wall of China. From History to Myth (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990). 76 Zedler 37 (1743) col. 1614 (s. v. ‘Sinesische Mauer’). 77 Ibid.—Brand, Beschreibung, 141–146 (chapter VII). 78 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 665. 79 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 160. 80 Transcriptions: Zedler 46 (1745) col. 526 (s. v. ‘Vanliching’)—Translations: “le rampart de 10,000 li, c’est-à-dire environ 1,000 lieues” (Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 468 (s. v. ‘Chine’, É. Biot).—Translations and transcriptions: “Wan-lichang-ch’hing, the Long Wall of 10,000 li” (Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 578). 81 Encyclopédie 10 (1765) 866 (s. v. ‘Muraille de la Chine’): “monument supérieur par son immensité aux pyramides d’Egypte.” 82 Encyclopaedia Londinensis 4 (1810) 448.

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The third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica refers to the Great Wall as the “principal defence of the empire against a foreign enemy.”83 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia speaks of the “most stupendous work of masonry in China” and a “remarkable fortification”,84 the Encyclopaedia Edinensis presents the Great Wall as a “stupendous bulwark” and as “more stupendous, (though not now so important) than even the imperial canal [i.e. the Grand Canal].”85 The Penny Cyclopaedia labelled the Great Wall a “great monument.”86 The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana presents it as “certainly the most remarkable” of the monuments of China.87 The fourth monument of China extensively described in European encyclopaedias was the Grand Canal (Da Yunhe 大運河).88 Encyclopaedias usually linked the existence of a great number of inland waterways to the nature of the political system of China and to the restrictions imposed by the Chinese government on foreign trade. Canals were the means to promote the domestic trade and thus to secure the wealth of the nation.89 In Rees’ Cyclopaedia, we find a similar assessment: China owes the greatest part of her riches to those numerous canals which are cut through any kind of private property, not even excepting the gardens of the emperor.90

Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon mentioned the most common names used by the Chinese for the Grand Canal to which it referred as one of the marvels of the world: Yuhe 御河 (‘imperial river’), Yunhe 運河 (‘transport river’), Yunlianghe 運量河 (‘river for the transport of grain’) and Caohe 漕河 (‘tribute river’).91 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that the Grand Canal is nearly equal to the Great Wall “in grandeur, and superior in point of utility.”92 Rees’ Cyclopaedia

83

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 665. Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 287. 85 Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 408. 86 Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 74. 87 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 578. 88 For seventeenth-century European descriptions of the Grand Canal see Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe III.4, 1696. 89 Deutsche Encyclopädie 5 (1781) 2 (s. v. ‘Canal’); Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4P2r (s. v. ‘China’); Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 233. 90 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4P2r. 91 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 233. 92 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 286. 84

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referred to the Grand Canal as “the grandest inland navigation in the known world.”93 In presenting these monuments, encyclopaedias relied almost exclusively on the reports of short-time European visitors or on the reports of Jesuit missionaries. During the period under consideration, European knowledge especially on the layout and structure of the imperial palaces of Peking as referred to in seventeenth-century accounts had been perpetuated. According to Naquin, Magalhães presented the first European map of the city in his posthumously printed Nouvelle relation de la Chine (1688). Until the early nineteenth century, the “best new map” of the walled city had been attached to the description of the city published by Bičurin in 1829.94 According to Rees’ Cyclopaedia, the imperial palace at Peking “may be compared to a large city.”95 The Penny Cyclopaedia mentioned the “immense scale” of the imperial palace.96 The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana pointed out that “many of the apartments are wretchedly furnished and miserably out of repair.” Even the hall of audience did not surpass the luxury of the dwellings of most Asiatic Princes. Larger dimensions and a greater abundance of painting and gilding, are the only points in which the Imperial residence surpasses any other.97

Despite the fact that the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia adopted many of the critical and disparaging views of China reported by Barrow and other members of the Macartney embassy, it gave a positive description of the imperial palace at Peking: This imperial residence comprehends a vast assemblage of immense buildings, extensive courts, and magnificent gardens. It occupies a space about a mile in length, and three quarters of a mile in breadth, and is inclosed on all sides by double walls of red polished bricks, 20 feet high. Through the middle of this inclosure winds a considerable rivulet, formed into canals, basons [!], and lakes, and adorned with artificial rocks, mounts, and grottos. This palace is peculiarly distinguished by the

93

Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4P2r. Naquin, Peking, 481 and ibid., 488 n. 125. 95 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’ (paragraph on ‘Buildings and Furniture of the Chinese’). 96 Penny Cyclopaedia, vol. 7 (1837) 89 (s. v. ‘Chinese architecture’). 97 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 578. 94

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singular structure of its pavilion roofs, which are covered with varnished tiles of so brilliant a yellow, as to have the appearance, at a distance, of being gilded.98

Late seventeenth and early eighteenth-century European writers generally were fond of the pagodas of India and other parts of Asia. As we read in the Encyclopédie, the most beautiful pagodas were those of the Chinese and the Siamese (Thai). The article also informed about the main sources for the European perception of pagodas. Referring to Simon de la Loubère’s (1642–1729) description of Siam (nowadays Thailand) and to the accounts of China published by Roman Catholic missionaries, it mentioned that the pagodas of China were ornamented with marble, jasper, porcelain, and gold leaf. For a visual representation of such pagodas, it referred to the essay on architecture published by the Austrian architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach (1656–1723).99 Not only Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon but also the French Encyclopédie100 contained a separate headword on the pagoda in the Bao’en Temple. The information given by Zedler mainly was based on the 1734 edition of the travelogue originally published by Adam Brand.101 Due to the vivid descriptions and the illustrations given in European accounts, encyclopaedias mentioned the Porcelain Pagoda as one of the most beautiful buildings of China102 or even as the “best contrived, most solid and magnificent work in all the East.”103 In its description of this pagoda, the Penny Cyclopaedia only mentioned Henry Ellis’ Journal of the proceedings of the late embassy to China.104 Under its headword ‘Pagoda’, it referred the reader to the Chinese term for pagoda:

98

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 206. Encyclopédie 11 (1765) 746 (s. v. ‘Pagode’). On Fischer von Erlach’s work see Löwendahl, Sino-Western relations, vol. 1, p. 153 (no. 338).—As late as in Rees’ Cyclopaedia, vol. 26 (s. v. ‘Pagod, or Pagoda’) it is pointed out that the “pagods of the Chinese and Siamese are exceedingly magnificient.” 100 Encyclopédie 16 (1765) 461 (s. v. ‘Tour de porcelaine’). 101 Zedler 28 (1741) col. 1691 f. (s. v. ‘Porzellan-Thurm’). See Brand, Beschreibung, 301–303. 102 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon II 4 (1850) 673 f. (s. v. ‘Porzellanthurm’). 103 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, fol. 4S2r.—On the description of the Porcelain Pagoda given by Nieuhof see Ulrichs, Nieuhofs Blick, 63–65. The Encyclopédie Méthodique, Architecture 1 (1788) 663 referred to Le Comte’s Nouveaux mémoires. 104 Penny Cyclopaedia 16 (1840) 74 (s. v. ‘Nankin’). 99

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“[. . .] yet although called pagodas by Europeans, the name given by the Chinese themselves to such towers is Taas [i.e. ta 塔].”105 Since the seventeenth century, bridges had played a key role in European accounts on Chinese architecture. Du Halde, who relied on earlier accounts, referred to the ‘magnificence’ of the Chinese in erecting stone bridges.106 Following all these accounts, some encyclopaedias presented information on these bridges under a variety of headwords107 and pointed out that the bridges of the Chinese excel in their colossal forms and dimensions as well as in their beauty. In Ersch/Gruber we read that their most famous bridges date from antiquity.108 Mentioning the descriptions of Barrow (Travels in China, 1804) and referring to Du Halde, the Penny Cyclopaedia pointed out that the Chinese “lay claim to a high antiquity in bridge-building by means of arches.”109 In the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana we read that the bridges of the Chinese are no less light than their pagodas; but they are seldom either solid or durable, often unprovided with side-rails, and frequently in such a dilapidated state as to be dangerous.110

Closely connected to the presentation of canals and bridges, encyclopaedias discussed the state of the roads of China. The Encyclopaedia Britannica pointed out that the imperial government paid much attention to the “conveniency of travellers.”111 Travellers “may shelter themselves from the inclemencies of the weather” not only in “covered seats” erected on the major roads but also in temples and pagodas. However, encyclopaedias usually pointed out that there was no want of inns, “but they are all ill-supplied with provisions”, which had to be brought along by the travellers.112 Originating in the writings of the Jesuits, this positive assessment had been perpetuated at least until the end of the eighteenth century. The

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Penny Cyclopaedia 17 (1840) 130 (s. v. ‘Pagoda’). Du Halde, Description . . . de la Chine. vol. 1, p. 31 f. 107 Krünitz 126 (1819) 627 (s. v. ‘Rollbrücke’) referred to Le Comte’s Nouveaux mémoires. See also Ersch/Gruber I 27 (1836) 316–320 (s. v. ‘Drahtbrücke’, v. Hoyer). 108 Ersch/Gruber I 13 (1824) 140 (s. v. ‘Brücke’), Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 6 (1843) 86 (s. v. ‘Brücken’). 109 Penny Cyclopaedia 5 (1836) 411 f. (s. v. ‘Bridge’). 110 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 578. 111 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 670.—For positive remarks on the state of Chinese roads see Zedler 40 (1744) col. 715 f. (s. v. ‘Straße’). 112 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 670. 106

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presentation changed in the wake of the British Embassy of 1792/93. According to the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, Chinese authorities would “profess to pay great attention to the accommodation and security of travellers [. . .] but they have neglected the construction of good roads, where there is no inland navigation.” Some authors stressed the excellence of the highways of the Chinese and their great care “to keep them in a state of proper repair.”113 In their presentation of Chinese architecture, encyclopaedias also treated the more common buildings of the Chinese. Pierer’s Universal-Lexikon pointed out that Chinese cities usually had walls, towers, gates, moats, and wide streets. In these cities, the houses are built of loam and bricks and painted with various colours. Roofs and doors are richly decorated. The houses usually consist of several parts with several courtyards and are mostly one-storied except those of the merchants.114 Encyclopaedias also referred to the various materials used by the Chinese for interior designs. They mentioned that windows usually were made of paper or horn and that doors usually were made of fragrant wood, and floors of variously coloured marble. Regarding the furniture of these houses, encyclopaedias usually referred to lacquered tables, to chairs made of bamboo, precious porcelain vessels, and to the brick beds warmed by a fire (kang 炕).115 Rees’ Cyclopaedia refers not only to the kang (mentioning “a drawing and description of this stove” in the Philosophical Transactions) but also to the various uses of bamboo cane.116 The seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica compared the architecture and the furniture of the Chinese to that of other peoples of Asia:

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Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 267. Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 421. 115 This enumeration follows Pierer, Universal-Lexikon, 2nd ed., vol. 6 (1841) 421. Another description of the kang, similar to that of Pierer had earlier been given in Brockhaus, 8th ed., vol. 2 (1833) 606. The kang was also mentioned in Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 7,2 (1845) 247: “Die meisten Zimmer haben Betten von Ziegelsteinen mit einer Filzdecke versehen; unter diesen Betten sind Oefen angebracht.”—For other presentations of the interior of buildings and furniture of the Chinese see Encyclopédie Méthodique, Architecture 1 (1788) 657 f. Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 578. 116 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 19, s. v. ‘Kang’.—See [Joseph de Grammont,] “VIII. An Account of the Kang, or Chinese Stoves, by Father Gramont, translated from the French. (Read Jan. 31, 1770).” Philosophical Transactions, vol. 61. For the Year 1771, Part I (London: Printed for Lockyer Davis, 1772), 61–70. 114

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chapter ten Superior as the temples and palaces of the Hindus and Mahommedans in India and Persia, and indeed throughout Asia, are to those [sic] of the Chinese, the dwellings of the latter are infinitely more comfortable in every respect than those of the former. The stoves for warming the apartments and for cooking, their beds and furniture, bespeak a degree of refinement and comfort unknown to other oriental nations; but the great characteristic difference is, that the Chinese sit on chairs, eat off tables, burn wax candles, and cover the whole body with clothing.117

European knowledge on Chinese gardening had been improved considerably by the account of Jean-Denis Attiret published in the Lettres édifiantes and by the Dissertation on Oriental Gardening published by William Chambers.118 These accounts, together with those published in the wake of the Macartney embassy, were still used as source of information by encyclopaedias as late as in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. The Encyclopaedia Edinensis complained that “the reality of the fanciful descriptions which Father Attiret and Sir William Chambers have obtruded on the public, is sought for in vain.”119 According to the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, it was “quite certain that a traveller in the best and most frequented parts would look in vain for the least trace of these enchanting gardens” and that with the exception of the imperial gardens at Yuanmingyuan 圓明園 and Rehe (Chengde 承德) “there is not, perhaps in all China a piece of ornamental ground of the extent of three acres.”120 Encyclopaedias’ general assessments of Chinese gardening repeatedly mentioned the admiration expressed by European observers. The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that the Chinese “excel in gardening” and that they were “particular eminent in the art of embellishing garden grounds, which may be considered as the only one of the fine arts, in which they display either genius or taste.”121 In the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana we read that in gardening “quantity rather than quality is their great object.”122 Concerning ornamental gardening the Chinese would surpass any other nation: 117

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 574. Remarks on the content of Attiret’s letter (published in the Lettres édifiantes) in Pfister, Notices biographiques, 792. For bibliographic references to the different editions of the Lettres édifiantes see Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 222.—William Chambers, A Dissertation on Oriental Gardening (London: Printed by W. Griffin, 1772). 119 Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 405. 120 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 584 f. 121 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 291. 122 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 584. 118

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The variety, brilliance, and airiness of the Chinese pleasure-grounds, leave the stiff monotonous gardens of France and Italy, once so much admired, far behind them;—because the Asiatics imitated Nature’s beautiful irregularity, while the Europeans strove to force upon trees and greenawards a symmetry which is entirely out of nature. The defect of the Chinese gardeners is, that they attempt too much.123

Late eighteenth-century Europe saw several attempts to dismiss the theory that the English only had imitated the Chinese gardens described by William Chambers. As one of these attempts may be seen a note in Ersch/Gruber’s article on horticulture that referred not only to the German translation of Chambers’ treatise on Chinese gardens but also on Theorie der Gartenkunst (1779–1785), a five-volume work on horticulture published by Christian Cajus Lorenz Hirschfeld (1742–1792).124 10.4

Painting and Sculpture

Referring to the art of painting, encyclopaedias unanimously repeated the unfavourable descriptions of this subject that were common since the first accounts of the Jesuit missionaries had been published.125 As we read in Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon, the Chinese would use excellent colours but they had not learned to depict light or shadow.126 According to the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, painting— much esteemed in former times—“has now fallen into disrepute on account of its political inutility.” We also read that the cabinets and galleries of the emperors “are filled with European paintings.” The offer to erect “a school of painting”, made by the two most prominent Jesuit painters in China, Giuseppe Castiglione (1688–1766) and Jean Denis Attiret (1702–1768), had been rejected by the court.127

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Ibid., 585. Ersch/Gruber I 54 (1852) 72 n. 48 (s. v. ‘Gartenkunst’, Karl Hermann Scheidler). Christian Cajus Lorenz Hirschfeld, Theorie der Gartenkunst, vol. 1 (Leipzig: Weidmann, 1779), 81–103. 125 A summary of the first phase of the European perception of Chinese painting may be found in Joachim von Sandrart’s Teutsche Academie (1675–1680). On Sandrart’s presentation of Chinese art which was based on second- and third-hand information see Walravens, China illustrata, 232 f. For more information on Sandrart and his work see http://www.sandrart.net (accessed 8 May 2010). 126 Zedler 19 (1739) col. 261 [sic, recte: 461] (s. v. ‘Mahler-Kunst, Mahlerey’). 127 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 691. 124

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In Rees’ Cyclopaedia we read that concerning the art of painting the Chinese “can be considered in no other light than as miserable daubers” who are even “unable to pencil out a correct outline of many objects.”128 In the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica we read that Chinese painting “is wanting in all the requisites that are considered to be necessary to form a good picture.”129 In its description of Chinese painting, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia pointed out that the Chinese “display extraordinary powers of the most minute imitation, without the smallest portion of scientific knowledge, or of original invention.”130 This aspect of Chinese paintings, stressed by almost all European observers, had also been mentioned in Ersch/ Gruber where concise information on Chinese painting had been placed in information on the Jesuit painter Jean-Denis Attiret.131 In the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, Biot pointed out that the principal merit of Chinese painting consisted of the preparation and application of colours.132 Krünitz’ encyclopaedia mentioned the intensity and durability of the colours used by Chinese painters.133 The lack of perspective and distance in traditional Chinese paintings was mentioned repeatedly. As the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia put it, the Chinese themselves consider “the diminished appearance and faded colouring of distant objects as the consequence of a natural defect in the organ of sight.”134 In a similar way, the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica pointed out that the Chinese “offend against every principle of perspective” and a proper disposition of light and shadow which “they affect to consider as unnatural.”135 In their presentation of the sculptures of the Chinese, encyclopaedias usually gave conflicting presentations: On the one hand, they stressed the skilfulness of the Chinese when carving in wood, ivory, or stone.136 On the other hand, they perpetuated very disparaging remarks on the style of Chinese sculptures. According to the Encyclopaedia Edinensis,

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Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘China’. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 572. 130 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 287. 131 Ersch/Gruber I 6 (1821) 262 f. (s. v. ‘Attiret’). 132 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 467. 133 Krünitz 107 (1807) 211 (s. v. ‘Papiermahlerey der Chinesen’). 134 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 287. 135 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 572. 136 For a positive assessment of the skills of the Chinese in the carving of ivory see Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 577. 129

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the sculpture of the Chinese was “destitute of principle and taste.” Most of the figures exhibited at temples, bridges and burial-grounds may be regarded “so grotesque and monstrous as never to have existed, unless in the distorted imagination of the sculptor.”137 10.5

Music

In his article on ‘Chinese Music’ inserted in Rees’ Cyclopaedia, Charles Burney gave a sketch of the history of European knowledge on this subject up to the early nineteenth century. A more general European public received first bits of information on Chinese music from Du Halde’s Description published in 1735. According to Burney, Du Halde’s presentation of the subject “did not much enlighten” the contemporaries. Later French writers had provided much more information on the subject: while Joseph Amiot took his information on Chinese music from Li Guangdi’s 李光地 (1642–1718) Guyue jingzhuan 古樂經傳 (Commentary to the Classic of Ancient Music), his contemporary Pierre Joseph Roussier (1716–1790) still relied on information given by Du Halde. Jean Benjamin de la Borde (1734–1794) made use of Du Halde and Amiot for his four-volume Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne (1780). These sources also were used in the section on music of the Encyclopédie Méthodique.138 In his article on Chinese music written for Ersch/Gruber, Gottfried Wilhelm Fink (1783–1846) also mentioned the importance of the works published by Amiot and Roussier. At the same time, he pointed out that the contents of these works were not widely known. He argued that only a patient reader would go through these works even if he has enthusiasm for the subject.139 Most encyclopaedias took their descriptions (including not only the text but also the visual representation) of the musical instruments of the Chinese from the memoir of Amiot. The illustrations first 137

Encyclopaedia Edinensis 2 (1827) 421. Encyclopédie Méthodique, Musique 1 (1791) 255–267 (M. Ginguené); Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, col. 1572 f. lists the works of the Peking Jesuits published in the 1770s and 1780s but does not refer to Pierre Joseph Roussier, Mémoire sur la Musique des Anciens (Paris 1770). On the German perception of Roussier’s memoir in the context of the search for cultural origins see Petri, Urvolkhypothese, 115 f. See also Jean Benjamin de la Borde, Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne, 4 vols. (Paris: Pierres & Onfroy, 1780), vol. 1, pp. 125–148 (Chap. XV). 139 Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 373 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Musik’; G. W. Fink). 138

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published by Amiot found their way not only into Ersch/Gruber (on separate plates) but also into the Encyclopédie Catholique.140 For his General History of Music, Burney had searched for additional sources. He had sent queries to “an English gentleman, a good judge of music, who had resided many years at Canton.” These queries were transmitted to the interior of China from where there were obtained not only answers “in French and Italian, from missionaries long resident there,” but also a complete set of Chinese instruments. Burney had been granted access to further information on Chinese music after Lord Macartney returned from his embassy to China and added information from the reports of John Barrow and Johann Christian Hüttner, two other members of that embassy. Burney pointed out, that the music of the Chinese had been “severly censured by the gentlemen of the embassy.”141 The sources mentioned by Burney were also used by most earlynineteenth century encyclopaedias. The seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica even refers to Burney’s views on the subject.142 Most of them reflect the vivid discussions among eighteenth century European scholars concerning the possible origin of Chinese music in ancient Greece or Egypt. They all perpetuated information given by Amiot in his memoir on Chinese music.143 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia referred to this comparison: The Chinese, like the Greeks and Egyptians, speak of their ancient music, as an instrument of extraordinary power, often producing the most wonderful effects; and as these other nations had their Hermes and their Orpheus, as the country of China boasts of a Lyng-lun [i.e. Ling Lun 伶倫], a Pin-moo-kia [?], and especially a Kuei 夔 [Kui], who were able, by their skilful sounds, to soften the hearts of men, and to tame the most ferocious animals.144

The sections on Chinese music in European encyclopaedias also refer to European perceptions of a mutual misunderstanding regarding the music of the other. In the Encyclopaedia Edinensis we read that a majority of the variety of musical instruments used by the Chinese “is

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Encyclopédie Catholique, vol. 7 (1844) 430–432 and 434. Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘Chinese Music’. 142 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 572. 143 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘Chinese Music’. 144 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 287.—For a similar paraphrase see Rees’ Cyclopaedia, vol. 7, s. v. ‘Chinese Music’. 141

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fitted to make noise enough, if not music.”145 While the Encyclopédie des gens du monde pointed out that Chinese music did not deserve to be mentioned among the arts,146 the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana informs its users that the Chinese “are quite ignorant of the scientific part of music.”147 In the Encyclopédie Moderne and in the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle as well we read that Chinese music is not pleasing to the ears of Europeans.148 On the one hand, Europeans could hardly stand the ‘noise’ of Chinese instruments, on the other hand, Chinese were not very fond of music introduced to China by Europeans.149 The Encyclopaedia Edinensis provided the following assessment of the character of Chinese instrumental music: “The jarring, jingling, and squeaking noise omitted from a full band of such instruments, is said to be extremely offensive to a musical ear.”150 According to the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, pieces of Chinese music are “extremely discordant and inharmonious.”151 The Encyclopédie des gens du monde states that the Chinese have no notion of harmony and that all musical instruments of the Chinese (whether string, wind, or percussion instruments) have a sound meagre, screaming and harsh.152 Chinese musical instruments had been subject to comparisons with those of the Europe. These comparisons all referred to the sheng 笙, “[. . .] a sort of clarionette which emits as nearly as possible the tones of the Scottish bagpipe.”153 According to the Encyclopaedia Edinensis, the Chinese had “a kind of organ, formed of unequal reeds, something like the pipe of pan.”154 The seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica presented another cross-cultural comparison: As Europeans might find “detestable” even the best pieces of Chinese music, the Chinese “are as

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Encyclopaedia Edinensis 2 (1827) 421. Encyclopédie des gens du monde 5 (1835) 729. 147 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, vol. 16 (1845) 579. 148 Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 566 (new ed. vol. 9, col. 129); Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 467. 149 Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 373–383 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Musik’), especially 373. 150 Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 421.—The Damen-Conversations-Lexikon 1st ed., 2 (1834) 368 refers to Chinese music as “a senseless noise.” 151 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 579. 152 Encyclopédie des gens du monde 5 (1835) 729.—Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 22 (1852) 550 (s. v. ‘Musik’) also refers to the want of harmony and measure in Chinese music. 153 Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 82. 154 Encyclopaedia Edinensis 2 (1827) 421. 146

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fond of their own [music] as a Highlander is of the bagpipe.”155 In a similar way, Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon pointed out that the “basic melodies of the ancient Far East may also be heard in the Highlands.”156 German encyclopaedias referred to attempts made by Saxon instrument makers to adapt the sheng for European music.157 Encyclopaedias stressed the importance of music for all public and religious ceremonies since the earliest times of Chinese civilization.158 In ancient times, music had been employed “as an instrument of government, and the handmaid of good morals.”159 The Encyclopédie Moderne pointed out that this practice continued until the days of the Qing.160 10.6

Agriculture

In following the images created and perpetuated by almost all seventeenth-century European remarks on the subject,161 the vast majority of eighteenth-century encyclopaedias stressed the appreciation and esteem the Chinese had for agriculture. As the most outstanding example for this esteem, encyclopaedias pointed out that the emperor “annually tills the earth with his own hands.”162 In tracing furrows and turning the earth with a plough, the emperor gave an example to all his subjects who subsisted on agriculture.163 Eighteenth-century European writers took this information from the Description of Du Halde. In its entry on ‘Agriculture’, the Encyclopédie referred to the description of this annual ceremony not only practised by the Emperor of China but also by high-ranking members of his entourage.164 According to

155

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 571. Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon I 22 (1852) 549 (s. v. ‘Musik’). 157 Ersch/Gruber I 16 (1827) 272 (s. v. ‘Cheng’); Krünitz 189 (1846) 144 f. (s. v. ‘Tschiang, Tseng, auch Tscheng’).—For information on the Chinese instrument also see Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon II 12 (1853) 532 (s. v. ‘Tscheng’). 158 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, vol. 16 (1845) 579. 159 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 287. 160 Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 565 (new ed., vol. 9, col. 129). 161 For a summary of Navarrete’s presentation of Chinese peasants see Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe III.4, 1691 f. 162 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 673. 163 See Julia Ching, “Son of Heaven: Sacral Kingship in Ancient China,” T’oung Pao 83, no. 1–3 (1997), 34. 164 Encyclopédie 1 (1751) 184 (s. v. ‘Agriculture’). 156

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Robinet’s Dictionnaire universel, the art of agriculture had been honoured, protected, and even practised by the emperors.165 Krünitz’ encyclopaedia mentioned the ceremony of tilling the soil several times: in its entry on ploughing, it had a cross-reference to its entry ‘Land-Mann’ (i.e. countryman).166 There, we find a detailed description of the ceremony quoted after Reisen eines Philosophen in Asien und Afrika, the 1773 German translation of Travels of a Philosopher: or, Observations on the Manners and Arts of Various Nations in Africa and Asia—the English translation of Pierre Poivre’s Voyages d’un philosophe (1768).167 For the invention of the plough (traditionally ascribed to the mythical ruler Shennong) it not only referred to the account of Martini but also to the German edition of De l’origine des loix, des arts, et des sciences et de leurs progrès chez les anciens peuples by Antoine Yves Goguet (1716–1758), a counselor to the parliament of Paris.168 In presenting information on the imperial patronage for agriculture in China, early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias also relied on the accounts of French Jesuits published in the Mémoires concernant l’histoire, les sciences, les arts, les mœurs, les usages, &c. des Chinois. In Ersch/Gruber, Schott mentioned that the Yongzheng Emperor had told the provincial authorities to inform him of those peasants who have excelled in their profession.169 In his Travels in China, John Barrow mentioned that “the Emperor at the vernal equinox [. . .] goes through the ceremony of holding the plough” and that he was followed in this example by “viceroys, governors and great officers in every part of the empire.”170 The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia linked this ceremony to the importance of agriculture in China: It is the great maxim of the Chinese government, that agriculture is the true source of national prosperity and wealth; and they have, in every 165 Robinet 11 (1779) 653.—See also Deutsche Encyclopädie 3 (1780) 66 (s. v. ‘Bauer’). 166 Krünitz 112 (1809) 388 (s. v. ‘Pflügen’).—Pierre Poivre, Travels of a Philosopher: or, Observations on the Manners and Arts of Various Nations in Asia and Africa [. . .] (Glasgow: Printed for Robert Urie, 1770). 167 Krünitz 60 (1793) 550–552 (s. v. ‘Land-Mann’). 168 Krünitz 112 (1809) 311 (s. v. ‘Pflug’). On Goguet and his work see Nathaniel Wolloch, “ ‘Facts, or Conjectures’: Antoine-Yves Goguet’s Historiography,” Journal of the History of Ideas 68, no. 3 (July 2007), 429–49. 169 Ersch/Gruber I 21 (1830) 165. 170 Barrow, Travels in China, 399.

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chapter ten period of their history, been forward to bestow the highest honours upon the improvers of the art.171

As the Encyclopaedia Edinensis put it, this estimation of agriculture expressed by the rulers of China was not only due to the “promotion of public prosperity,” but also to the “diffusion of individual happiness.”172 The seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica presented a much more critical assessment of the subject—mentioning that only few of the Chinese were cultivating more than they needed for their own use and for the payment of taxes. “The whole of the land in China under cultivation may be said to be employed exclusively for the subsistence and clothing of man.”173 10.7

Chinese Inventions

Whatever may be the actual antiquity of the Chinese people, no doubt seems now to exist of their having been the authors of what are justly considered in Europe as three of the most important inventions or discoveries of modern times: the art of printing, the composition of gunpowder, and the magnetic compass.174

In this short summary, the Penny Cyclopaedia referred to the most important inventions of the Chinese. Starting with the account of Mendoza (1585), Europeans had been fascinated by the so-called sailing chariots (or sailing carriages) of the Chinese.175 Navarrete presumed, that Mendoza’s description of such chariots may have come from devices used for irrigation near Nanjing.176 Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European encyclopaedias referred to the invention of the Flemish mathematician and engineer Simon Stevin (1548–1620) but did not mention that Stevin supposedly had got the idea for his

171

Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 289.—For a similar assessment see Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 584. 172 Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 405. 173 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7th ed., vol. 6 (1842) 579. 174 Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 81. 175 Landry-Deron, La preuve par la Chine, 151. For a discussion of early European sources on the ‘sailing wheelbarrows’ of the Chinese see Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. 4: Physics and Physical Technology. Part 2: Mechanical Engineering (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965), 274–281. 176 Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe III.4, 1693.

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sailing carriage from early European writings on China.177 Zedler referred to the Dutch invention under the biographical entry on Stevin as well as under a separate entry on such chariots. Under the entry on the city of Shunde (Zhili Province) Zedler mentioned “fabulous accounts” on the sailing chariots of the Chinese.178 Without any reference to China, the Penny Cyclopaedia contained the following remark in its biographical entry on Stevin: Stevin is said to have contrived a car which moved by means of sails, on the flats of Holland, with more rapidity than any carriage drawn by horses.179

Despite the European search for differences between East and West, encyclopaedias sometimes mentioned transcultural similiarities. The Penny Cyclopaedia pointed out that the Chinese have been well aware of the “attractive power of the loadstone” since early times and added that “its property of communicating polarity to iron” had been explicitly noticed “in a Chinese dictionary finished in AD 121 [i.e. the Shuowen jiezi]” under the head of loadstone. Relying on Gaubil’s history of the Tang dynasty, the Penny Cyclopaedia mentioned the fact that “the same word (chin [i.e. zhen 針]) is used by them to express the magnetic and the common needle, as among ourselves.”180 Quite contrary to this and in referring to the transmission of knowledge on the mariner’s compass, the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia noted the conjecture “that Marco Polo brought from China, about the end of the thirteenth century, this new and valuable use of the magnetic needle.”181 Encyclopaedias quite regularly pointed out that some inventions had taken place in both parts of the world, but at different times. In the context of order, storage, and retrieval of knowledge, European encyclopaedias also contain remarks comparing printing and book

177 On Stevin’s invention and on early European accounts of sailing carriages (or sailing chariots) among the Chinese see J. J. L. Duyvendak, “Simon Stevin’s ‘SailingChariot’,” T’oung Pao 36 (1942), 401–407. 178 Zedler 39 (1744) col. 2081 f. (s. v. ‘Stevin, (Simon)’), ibid., 57 (1748) col. 807 f. (s. v. ‘Wind-Wagen’) and ibid., 60 (1749) col. 795 (s. v. ‘Xunte-Fu’). Stevin’s efforts in constructing a sailing chariot were also mentioned by Krünitz 81 (1801) 656 (s. v. ‘Luftwagen’). 179 Penny Cyclopaedia 23 (1842) 49 (s. v. ‘Stevin, Simon’). 180 Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 81. 181 Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 296.

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culture of Europe and China. Rees’ Cyclopaedia refuted all speculations that the invention of letterpress printing in fifteenth-century Europe had been derived from similar experiments made in eleventhcentury China: [. . .] European printing, in its original, was much the same with the Chinese, yet as there was at that time no commerce or correspondence between Europe and China, the passage into the East by the Cape of Good Hope being as yet undiscovered by the Portuguese, there is no room to charge the Europeans with borrowing their art from the Chinese: but each must be owned to have fallen on the same thing, though at a different time.182

Since the sixteenth-century, Europeans had been well aware of the fact that the invention of printing in China had taken place centuries earlier than in Europe. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European encyclopaedias also included information on the origins of printing in China. In Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon, we read that about the year 930, during the reign of Emperor Mingzong (r. AD 926–934), the second emperor of the Hou Han dynasty (AD 923–936), there were made very incomplete attempts by means of xylography.183 The Encyclopédie Nouvelle pointed out that stereotype printing—as well as gunpowder, paper, and paper-money—found its way from Asia to Europe as a consequence of the relations between Europe and Asia during the thirteenth century.184 Remarks in the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica indicate that, in the context of the Chinese attitude towards inventions, a set of prejudices relating to an (alleged) backwardness was already in place in the second half of the eighteenth century: They had the use of gun-powder, and of the mariner’s compass, for many centuries before they were known in Europe; but through a neglect unaccountable in such an ingenious people they scarce reaped one single advantage either from the one or the other.185

182

Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 28, s. v. ‘Printing’. Wigand’s Conversations-Lexikon 3 (1847) 308 (s. v. ‘Chinesische Sprache und Literatur’). 184 Encyclopédie Nouvelle 7 (1843) 87. 185 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1920. 183

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In the 1850s, the author of Ersch/Gruber’s entry on trade and industry argued that the Chinese excelled in these fields in very early times although the documents translated, quoted or at least referred to in the works of Julien and Gützlaff still may not be seen as totally reliable evidence on this subject.186 In its information on gunpowder, Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon referred to various claims for this invention. While the Germans had preferred to speak of Berthold Schwarz OFM (c. fourteenth century) as the inventor of gunpowder, the English would favour Roger Bacon and the Chinese would claim this invention for themselves. Another theory mentioned by Zedler had been presented by Thomas Hyde. In his work on the history of chess, Hyde had tried to prove that the Indians had been the true inventors of gunpowder and cannons and that these inventions had been transmitted from the Indians to the Chinese together with the game of chess.187 The Penny Cyclopaedia pointed out that the date of the invention of gunpowder “is involved in obscurity.”188 According to Meyer’s Conversations-Lexikon, the Chinese had known the use of gunpowder much earlier than the Europeans.189 In his article on China for the Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle, Édouard Biot put it as very likely that gunpowder technology may have been transmitted from the Chinese to the Arabs and from the Arabs to the Europeans.190 Mentioning only the German and Chinese attempts in this field, Krünitz’ encyclopaedia pointed out that there exist only speculations on the invention of gunpowder, as there are no authentic accounts on this matter.191 The Encyclopaedia Metropolitana linked the invention of gunpowder to the geological situation of Northern China.

186

Ersch/Gruber I 65 (1857) 356 (s. v. ‘Gewerbe’). Zedler 29 (1741) col. 1297 f. (s. v. ‘Pulver, Schüßpulver’). 188 Penny Cyclopaedia 11 (1838) 495 (s. v. ‘Gunpowder’). 189 Meyer, Conversations-Lexikon II 7 (1851) 701 (s. v. ‘Schießpulver’). 190 Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 467.—Some years earlier, the Penny Cyclopaedia 11 (1838) 495 (s. v. ‘Gunpowder’) stressed the role of the Arabs and the Crusaders for the transmission of gunpowder to Europe. 191 Krünitz 142 (1826) 600 f. (s. v. ‘Schießpulver’). 187

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chapter ten The soil and climate in Tátary and China, as well as India, are favourable to the spontaneous production of nitre; it is therefore not unlikely, that its explosive power, when combined with sulphur and charcoal, may have been discovered by the natives of those countries long before it was known in Europe.192

As the Encyclopaedia Edinensis put it, gunpowder “or a compound possessing similar properties, was probably known to the Chinese for ages prior to its discovery in Europe.” Nevertheless it seemed to be “not unlikely that they derived their first knowledge of fire-arms from the Jesuits.”193 In the Encyclopédie Moderne, Eyriès also pointed out the backwardness of Chinese artillery, albeit their knowledge of gunpowder would date back to the pre-Christian era.194 While Europeans doubted the pioneering role of the Chinese in the invention of gunpowder and its use for warfare, they usually admitted the excellence of the Chinese in this field.195 European admiration for the fireworks of the Chinese lasted at least until the middle of the nineteenth century. In its entry on fireworks, Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon did not mention China and the Chinese.196 In referring to Du Halde, Krünitz’ encyclopaedia pointed out that all travelogues would agree that the Chinese excel all other nations in this skill.197 From the presentation in most of the early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias it becomes clear, that the fireworks of the Chinese had been admired not only by the Jesuit missionaries but also by the members of the British Embassy that visited China in 1793.198 Under its headword ‘Pyrotechny’, Rees’ Cyclopaedia even quoted extensively from the account given by John Barrow as a proof that the Chinese “have attained to a degree of perfection not surpassed even by the artists of England, France, or Italy.”199 According to Ersch/Gruber, Euro-

192

Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 593. Encyclopaedia Edinensis, vol. 2, p. 416. 194 Encyclopédie Moderne 6 (1825) 563 f. (new ed., vol. 9, col. 127). For remarks on the backwardness of Chinese artillery see also Encyclopédie du dix-neuvième siècle 7 (1845) 467: “leur artillerie est très médiocre” (Édouard Biot). 195 On fireworks in China see Needham, Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. 5, Part 7, 127–146. For a short synopsis of European descriptions of fireworks in China up to the nineteenth century see ibid., 127 and 138 f. 196 Zedler 9 (1735) col. 773 (s. v. ‘Feuerwerck’). 197 Krünitz 142 (1826) 577 f. (s. v. ‘Schießpulver’). 198 Encyclopaedia Metropolitana 16 (1845) 593. 199 Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 29, s. v. ‘Pyrotechny’. 193

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pean travellers’ reports on fireworks in China could have caused the spread of fireworks throughout Europe.200 Encyclopaedias usually pointed out that the Chinese had used beautiful paper since immemorial times.201 Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon mentioned that the Chinese produced paper of bamboo reed, cotton, and silk.202 As we read in the Encyclopédie, Europeans would never match the skill of the Chinese. Their paper had the advantage of being soft and smooth. Throughout the empire more than forty different kinds of paper were produced. Regional disparities were caused by different materials used in the production process: hemp in Sichuan, young bamboo in Fujian, the bark of the mulberry tree in the northern provinces, the straw of wheat or rice in Zhejiang, the skin of the cases of the silkworm in Jiangnan, and the bark of a tree called ‘ko-chu’ in Huguang province203—the last one presumably referring to guzhi 穀紙, paper made of the bark of the mulberry tree.204 This information, mainly based on the account of Le Comte and on the Lettres édifiantes, was perpetuated until the early nineteenth century.205 In 1840, the Penny Cyclopaedia still referred to the description of Du Halde, but also to the respective chapter in Davis’ The Chinese (1836).206 An example for a careful approach to the ‘otherness’ of things Chinese (which had been repeatedly stated by European observers past and present) can be found in the information on Chinese printing presented in the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The Chinese, a “very ingenious people”, were supposed to have had the art of printing “from time immemorial”. It was pointed out that the Chinese printed their books “by wooden blocks in the same manner as cards are done among us”. The Chinese were doing so because “the

200

Ersch/Gruber I 43 (1846) 384 (s. v. ‘Feuerwerk’). On papermaking in China see Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Part 1: Paper and Printing. By Tsuen-hsuin Tsien (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985). 202 Zedler 26 (1740) 641 (s. v. ‘Papier’). 203 Encyclopédie 11 (1765) 851 (s. v. ‘Papier’). Apart from Du Halde, Krünitz 106 (1807) 858–863 (s. v. ‘Papier’) refers also to some articles published in late-eighteenth century journals.—On the materials used by the Chinese for papermaking see Needham and Tsien, Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 5, Part 1, 52–64. 204 Ibid., 56 f. 205 For an English translation see e. g. Rees, Cyclopaedia, vol. 26, s. v. ‘Paper, Chinese’. 206 Penny Cyclopaedia 17 (1840) 208 f. (s. v. ‘Paper’). 201

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vast number of their characters renders it impossible to bring that art to the same perfection which it hath attained in Europe.”207 The third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica perpetuated the ‘otherness’ of Chinese printing: “The method of printing is not by a press as in Europe, as neither their wooden planks nor their soft paper could sustain so much pressure.”208 According to the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, Chinese printing would be more “like the engraving on copper-plates [sic], than the moveable types of an European press.”209 The Penny Cyclopaedia also noted that the “precise mode” of Chinese printing is “certainly different” from European printing, “but the main principle, that of multiplying and cheapening books, by saving time and labour of transcription, is altogether the same.”210 All these quotations clearly show the main European strategies in dealing with Chinese inventions. The search for similarities and differences resulted in discovering that these inventions were based on the same principles but achieved by different modes. Sometimes nineteenth-century encyclopaedias perpetuated the view, that the Chinese had done most of their inventions by lucky coincidence, while European inventions had been the result of thorough reflection.

207 208 209 210

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (1778) 1920. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed., vol. 4 (1797) 689. Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol. 6, p. 305. Penny Cyclopaedia 7 (1837) 81; see also ibid., 19 (1841) 16 (s. v. ‘Printing’).

CONCLUSION Encyclopaedias display the ways of early modern European perceptions of China in the most condensed way. For this reason, they serve as a reliable indicator for persistence and/or changes in the presentation of things Chinese as well as for the rising and waning of the various strands of discourse. They help us to learn more about the main tendencies as well as the most important achievements, but also about wrong ways and blunders in the course of this perception. These works of general reference reveal a wealth of sources that had been neglected in earlier research on the history of the European perception of China. This perception took place in a multi-lingual environment. By means of translations and adaptations knowledge on China that previously had been available in only one European language spread all over the continent. A minute analysis of encyclopaedic dictionaries reveals the extent of these processes of transmission. Encyclopaedias clearly indicate the divergence between the materials used by eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century scholars and those accounts of early Sino-European encounters (i.e. travelogues, reports by Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries as well as accounts on European embassies to China) mainly used by scholars during the last decades in their research on the history of early Sino-European encounters. This kind of a narrowing of the corpus of sources sometimes has led to further simplification and to a perpetuated canonizing of certain publications. Due to this practice most strands of early modern discourses on China have been largely neglected by earlier (mostly twentieth-century) research on European perceptions of China. Like works on universal history and universal geography, early modern encyclopaedias may be addressed as inventories of European knowledge on non-European regions and civilizations. The importance of European encyclopaedias as historical sources is not only limited to studies in the intellectual history of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe but also proves fruitful for studies in the history of European overseas expansion as well as for the wide range of area studies. While late-seventeenth and early eighteenth-century European encyclopaedias provided only rather concise entries on China, these entries were continuously and considerably expanded until the end of

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our period of consideration. Up to the second half of the eighteenthcentury the entries on China were structured according to the well established scheme that early modern European geographers had applied for their description of countries all around the globe. In a like manner, some nineteenth-century encyclopaedias explicitly pointed out the necessity to follow a standardized scheme for the presentation of information in their articles on single countries. Eighteenth-century encyclopaedias depicted the finely nuanced scholarly discussions within the European ‘republic of letters’ to an extent hitherto barely noticed and studied by scholarship on the Enlightenment. Thus, they reveal the dynamics of these intra-European discussions of things Chinese and help us to learn more about the various processes that shaped and influenced European perceptions of China. The popularization of European knowledge on China only began to take place after the predominance of Portugal and Spain in Europe’s early modern discovery of East Asia was drawing to its close. Processes of intra-European transmissions of knowledge generated by the various European centers of political and commercially interested parties in China only emerged in the early years of the supranational Jesuit mission to Asia as well as with the coming of commercial interested parties from Protestant countries in northwest Europe. The Netherlands and England played a key role for the dissemination of (general ) knowledge on China. They not only imported commodities like tea that partially changed daily life, but also—albeit at different times— were crucial for the dissemination of newly acquired knowledge on China by means of books and journals throughout Europe. Seventeenth-century European knowledge on China was the backbone of presentations of the country in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century European encyclopaedias. This knowledge became an integral part of learned analyses by eighteenth- and early-nineteenth century scholars although during the first quarter of the nineteenthcentury earlier accounts tended to be replaced by more recent European descriptions of China and the Chinese and thus generally became regarded as outdated. This replacement emerged rather slowly. For the eighteenth-century the often retarded change of sources not only reflects the predominant role of French Jesuits for the evolution of European images of China but also serves as an indicator for the success of their publications. This may be seen best from the publication of accounts of various

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members of the Macartney embassy to China. Despite the first reports had been published as early as in 1795, English-language encyclopaedias still relied on the English translation of Grosier up to 1810—the Encyclopaedia Britannica partly relied on Grosier even in its seventh edition (completed in 1842). After 1810, the broad perception of John Barrow’s Travels in China influenced the presentation of China in encyclopaedias considerably—in Britain as well as in France and in the German-speaking countries. Relying on newly published accounts of China and the Chinese, early nineteenth-century encyclopaedias provided comprehensive information on a great variety of subjects: physical geography, climate, natural resources, economy (trade and commerce, navigation, etc.), government (imperial court, various levels of administration, armed forces), society, arts and sciences, history, language, and literature. In early modern European accounts as well as in alphabetically arranged encyclopaedic works of general reference, main attention was placed on the following points: ethnography/ethnology, religion/theology, China and the meaning of history, trade, economy and technology as well as politics and international law. European interest in the country and its people resulted in vivid descriptions of the supposed main characteristics of the Chinese. In their aim to present concise but comprehensive information on China, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century universal geographies as well as eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century encyclopaedic dictionaries had to extract information on customs and manners of the Chinese given in the sometimes very extensive accounts of early Sino-Western encounters. In isolating remarks on characteristics of ‘the Chinese’ from their context and background, the processes of reduction led to the creation and dissemination of stereotypes and prejudices. Stereotypes referring to China and the Chinese found their way into European works of general knowledge. At the time of the so-called ‘opening’ of China as a consequence of the First Anglo-Chinese War (1839–1842), the repertoire of stereotypes and prejudices relating to China had been firmly established and could be instrumentalized at will. Thus, encyclopaedias may be regarded as a powerful engine for the perpetuation and dissemination of stereotypes and prejudices. In early eighteenth-century encyclopaedic dictionaries, stereotypes focused on a supposed ‘national character’ of the Chinese (mostly depicting them as avaricious and jealous). Up to 1850, the newly emerged strands of discourse mainly

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referred to the outward appearance of the Chinese. Apart from the complexion (described as a kind of yellow by most early nineteenthcentury reference works) and the hairstyle of the Chinese (however, encyclopaedias noted that the queue only had been forced on the Chinese by the Manchu conquerors), early-nineteenth century encyclopaedias tended to emphasize the lack of hygiene among the Chinese. In discussing Chinese food, only some encyclopaedias distinguished between the meals of different classes of Chinese society. According to the misleading simplifications of a majority of general reference works published in mid-nineteenth century, all Chinese would have been fond of eating cats, rats, and dogs—not mentioning that these animals only were eaten in times of severe famine. Encyclopaedias’ articles on China show that especially early nineteenth-century contributors/compilers/editors were well aware of the fact that earlier European accounts of China had been too subjective in their judgements and thus users had to be extremely cautious about them. Nevertheless, they did not abstain from inserting lists of supposed (predominantly negative) national characteristics of the Chinese. In the latter half of the eigtheenth century, discourse on progress and backwardness also began to influence European assessments of Chinese government, society, economy and technology. Quite soon, this discussion influenced not only new accounts of China but also the presentation of China in European encyclopaedias. European perceptions and presentations of Chinese government and society oscillated between admiration and contempt: The Jesuits presented the administration of China as a well-organized meritocracy. Thus, they recommended it as a model for European governments. While French sinologists like Édouard Biot (although with restrictions) perpetuated this strand of discourse until mid-nineteenth century, the general mood of Europeans towards Chinese government had turned to severe criticism after Montesquieu had applied the catchword “Oriental despotism” to describe Asian governments. This strand of discourse became widely used in European accounts of the court and of the various central administrative agencies of the Chinese Empire. In early modern times, collecting information on China mostly took place in the setting of the Roman Catholic missionary enterprise. Therefore, religion and theology played an important role in the configuration of early modern European knowledge on China. This

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becomes apparent not only from the attempts to describe and explain the religious systems of the Chinese and to incorporate this information in encyclopaedic dictionaries, but also from the widespread use of Jesuit accounts for the description of Chinese civilization. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Jesuit accounts dealt extensively with Chinese history. These presentations not only greatly influenced European discourse on Chinese antiquity, but also stimulated efforts to synchronize Chinese and Biblical chronology. At the end of the eighteenth-century, these discussions had come to an end as most European scholars dismissed the alleged antiquity of China. Until the late eighteenth century, works of general knowledge had inserted lists of the rulers of China (taken from Jesuit publications) and eagerly summed up discussions about the beginnings of Chinese chronology in remote antiquity. In the early nineteenth-century, they impressively depicted the radical change of European attitudes towards Chinese history which resulted in the presentation of the Chinese as a people without history—or at least without any relationship to other parts of the world. Nevertheless, encyclopaedias mentioned the major occurrences for the successive dynasties—sometimes with gaps of several centuries. Based on seventeenth-century European accounts of East Asia, early and mid-eighteenth century encyclopaedic dictionaries dealt extensively with the transition from Ming to Qing. Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon presented this information in several biographical entries. As Zedler and many other eighteenth-century encyclopaedic dictionaries relied on Du Halde’s Description, their presentation of the most recent developments in China usually ended with the Yongzheng reign (1723–1735). Only during the last quarter of the eighteenthcentury, then obviously based on the eleventh volume of de Mailla’s Histoire générale de la Chine, encyclopaedias began to mention remarkable events of the Qianlong reign (1736–1796). In the early decades of the nineteenth century, they were anxious to cover even the most recent events. These efforts may be seen best in those entries published in the days of the Opium War (1839–1842) and of the initial phase of the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864). Well aware of the fact that those inventions considered most influential for the evolution of early modern European civilization (printing, compass, and gunpowder) much earlier had been made by the Chinese, Europeans tended to consider these Chinese inventions as

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imperfect und thus less useful. In their aim to emphasize the superiority of modern European science and technology, early nineteenthcentury accounts on China and encyclopaedias as well dismissed also speculations that any transmissions from East to West had taken place in medieval times. For a long time, Europeans only had very restricted access to China. Nevertheless, encyclopaedias sometimes included notes on the importance of China for world trade and international politics in articles dealing with the geography of China as well as referring to the history of Sino-Western relations. During the sixteenth- and seventeenth centuries, European observers portrayed China as a powerful empire. Mid-eighteenth-century encyclopaedias still perpetuated this view. They pointed out that the Chinese Empire only may be threatened by possible future conflicts between Manchu, Mongols, and Chinese, but not by any European power. This assessment gradually changed in the course of the industrial revolution and with the rise of British commercial and political interests in South and East Asia. Frenchlanguage encyclopaedias commented critically on the British efforts that resulted in the so-called ‘opening’ of China. From the late seventeenth century onwards, the main strands of discourse established, disseminated, and sometimes perpetuated from early European accounts of China were subject to vivid scholarly discussions. Most of these discussions were led using a host of then newly established periodical publications for the learned as well as for a more general public. Frequent translations of articles into several European languages contributed to a quick spread of information throughout Europe. In the early nineteenth-century, the journals issued by the newly founded Asiatic Societies at Paris and London further improved the availability of then philologically reliable information on things Chinese—encyclopaedias especially referred to articles published in the Journal Asiatique. The dissemination as well as the widespread use of certain accounts all over Europe (either in their original language or in translation) did not prevent the emergence and differentiation of peculiar attitudes towards China in English, French, and German publications in general and in encyclopaedic works in particular. On the one hand, these peculiar attitudes were closely linked to the specific intellectual traditions that emerged since the sixteenth century, on the other hand, these attitudes clearly show the degree of importance of China mainly for late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century economic and politi-

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cal considerations. While early nineteenth-century English presentations stressed the significance of China as an important future market for the Europeans (and especially for the British), French works of general knowledge focused on Chinese history and literature. Early nineteenth-century German interest for China was steered by the perception of Chinese novels which had been adapted from French and English translations. The forms of instrumentalizing China oscillated between attempts to demonstrate national superiority on the one hand and an intensified scholarly exchange on a transnational European level on the other. English-language encyclopaedias stressed the predominant role of England for the European China trade. French encyclopaedias not only reflected the influence of early modern French accounts but also referred to the key role French Jesuits had for the dissemination of knowledge of things Chinese throughout the eighteenth-century. Moreover, French encyclopaedias proudly presented their country and especially Paris as the center of the emerging discipline of sinology— not only by mentioning the collection of Chinese books housed in the Royal Library but also by referring to the pioneering role of early nineteenth-century French scholars in the field of Chinese studies. As the German-language regions lacked not only any stable political framework but also any sustainable direct contacts with China, they mainly had to engage in collecting, comparing, analyzing, and presenting information available as a consequence of direct contacts with China established and maintained by other European nations. These perceptions of the self influenced not only the views on the activities of other European countries in the East but also European images of China. Encyclopaedias clearly show that up to the lateeigtheenth century sinophile or sinophobe attitudes often grew out of inner-European controversies on subjects only loosely connected with China. Eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century encyclopaedic (re-)configurations of China followed well-known stylistic devices in use for the description of foreign people since European antiquity and perpetuated by early modern European accounts of East Asia. As a result of the very restricted access Europeans had been granted to the country by Chinese authorities, they have been ignorant of many aspects of Chinese civilization—a matter of fact that still has been noted in mid-nineteenth century European encyclopaedias. In order to attract further financial support for their activities in China, the Jesuits had

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published extensive accounts of China which not only demonstrated their indefatigable endeavour to accumulate knowledge on the country and its people, but also even served their opponents as mines of information. To place this information within the frame of European learning, European authors made use of comparisons and parallels. Some of these comparisons and parallels between China and Europe (as well as other parts of the globe) found their way into works of general knowledge. Since early modern times, European observers regularly included various superlatives in their accounts of China. Based on these accounts, encyclopaedic dictionaries mentioned such superlatives in the context of the extent of the empire, the antiquity of the empire, the number of inhabitants, and the number of Chinese characters. Like European images of China in general, some of these superlatives applied to the country underwent gradual changes. Encyclopaedias show how closely these changes had been connected to the formation of European scholarship and to the main strands of discourse that shaped the intellectual environment of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Europe. European assessments of the number of inhabitants changed from positive (Jesuit accounts) to negative (in the writings of Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus). The discourse on Chinese writing (especially on the vast number of Chinese characters) developed quite differently. While the China Jesuits and eighteenthcentury European scholars eagerly had perpetuated the presumed difficulty of the Chinese language, the advent of sinological studies in the early nineteenth-century may be seen at least as a starting point for the dissipation of prejudices referring to Chinese language and writing. Quite early, encyclopaedic dictionaries mentioned the rich literary traditions of the Chinese. In the eighteenth century, information on the classical Confucian writings usually had been presented under the headword ‘Chinese philosophy’. In the 1780s, the Encyclopédie Methodique placed information on these writings in its section on Economie politique et diplomatique (i.e. political economy). Only in the second quarter of the nineteenth-century encyclopaedias started to provide information on the Chinese classics and on Chinese literature in general under headings like ‘Chinese literature’ or ‘Chinese language and literature’. The introduction and use of Chinese terms (a paragon of exotic vocabulary even for the educated not only in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Europe) as headwords in encyclopaedias clearly

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reflects early modern European views on the Chinese language. The way Chinese terms were used in encyclopaedias also reveals the limited knowledge on this subject. The limited knowledge of the Chinese language also may have prevented or at least retarded the retrieval of information disposed under such ‘Chinese’ headwords. Up to the early nineteenth-century, encyclopaedias derived their information on Chinese language and writing from general accounts on China—of all eighteenth-century encyclopaedias only the Encyclopédie included an extensive presentation of the subject mainly relying on the presentation given in Fourmont’s work on the Chinese language. Encyclopaedias also show the influence of historical events on the general public’s attitude towards the usefulness of particular subjects. Before 1842, China had been considered inaccessible to Europeans. Thereafter, early steps towards an ‘opening’ of the country nourished the hope that prosperous trade relations could be established. Based upon rather enthusiastic newspaper reports and journal articles, even encyclopaedias pointed out that the promising economic prospects of the China trade would usher in a new era of Sino-Western relations. This new era of Sino-Western relations paved the way for the publication of a hitherto unknown wealth of eyewitness accounts of the country and its people. However, this multitude of publications met with a firmly established set of information on China existing in midnineteenth century Europe. An analysis of the influence of these newly available accounts on European images of China as perpetuated since early modern times would go far beyond the scope of this study.

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INDEX Aa, Pieter van der 120 Acosta, José de 126 Ainsworth, Robert 261 Alembert, Jean le Rond d’ 35, 58, 60 Aler, Paul 284 Alexander the Great 318 Alexander, William 88, 124 Alexandre, Noël 126 al-Fīrūzābādī 45 Alsted, Johann Heinrich 39 Álvarez, Jorge 13 Amherst, William Pitt Lord 160 Amiot, Jean Joseph Marie 72, 212, 213, 214, 215, 343, 344 Anania, Lorenzo 16 Anson, George 77 Anville, Jean Baptiste d’ 87, 94 Apian, Peter 15 Attiret, Jean-Denis 340, 341, 342 Avity, Pierre d’ 17, 79 Bacon, Francis 45 Bacon, Roger 10, 351 Bailly, Jean Sylvain 165 Balazs, Étienne 50 Balfour, Edward 31 Ball, James Dyer 31 Barbuda, Luis Jorge de 14 Barros, João 14 Barrow, John 77, 88, 118, 132, 135, 136, 176, 326, 336, 338, 347 on Chinese festivals 301 on Chinese language 266 on Chinese music 344 on Chinese philosophy 294 on resemblance of Khoikoi with the Chinese 223 on the number of inhabitants of China 174 Basnage, Jacques 79 Bauer, Wolfgang 50 Bayer, Theophil Siegfried 86, 269 Bayle, Pierre 29, 55, 101, 113, 261 Bazin, Antoine Louis 78, 288, 289 Beauvais, Vincent of. See Vincent of Beauvais Bell, John 87, 161, 334 Belleforest, François 16

Bénard, Théodore 103 Bergius, Bengt 188 Berlioz, physician at Paris 328 Bičurin, Iakinf 70, 336 Biot, Édouard 103, 137, 153, 168, 213, 214, 283, 312, 317, 327, 330, 342, 351, 358 on Chinese administration 71, 198, 202, 203, 206, 215 on Chinese language and literature 266, 268, 272 n. 79, 273, 286, 290 on the geography of China 144, 149, 152, 155, 163, 169 Birch, Thomas 55 Blumenbach, Johann Friedrich 131 Boerhaave, Herman 331 Borde, Jean Benjamin de la 343 Boswell, Robert 283 Botero, Giovanni 16 Bouvet, Joachim 85, 295, 313 Boym, Michael 91 Breitenbauch, Georg August von 247 Breitkopf, Johann Gottlob Immanuel 277 Brentano, Clemens 139 Brewster, David 59 Brewster, James 101, 145, 244 Bridgman, Elijah Coleman 269 Brockhaus, Friedrich Arnold 63 Brollo, Basilio 97 Brucker, Johann Jacob 292, 305 Brunet, Jacques Charles 52 Bruzen de la Martinière, Antoine Augustin 86, 109, 305 Bryant, Jacob 165 f. Buddeus, Johann Franz 54, 293 Buglio, Ludovico 313, 315 Burn, Richard 284 Burney, Charles 101, 343, 344 Calleri, Giuseppe Maria 103 Cang Jie 275 Cassou, Charles 103 Castiglione, Giuseppe 341 Cellarius, Christoph 233 Chambers, Ephraim 57, 60 Chambers, William 306, 340, 341

398

index

Charlevoix, François-Xavier de 130 f. Cheng Dawei 327 Chomel, Noël 48, 56 Cibot, Pierre Martial 209 Clement XIV, Pope 30 Cleyer, Andreas 156, 330 Cobo, Juan 44 Collier, Jeremy 54 Comenius, Jan Amos 40 Confucius 38, 67, 91, 115, 119, 122, 145, 146, 175, 211 f., 279, 291 f., 294–296, 301–304, 312 Cordier, Henri 37 Coronelli, Vincenzo 55 Couling, Samuel 31 Couplet, Philippe 76, 84, 216, 229 f., 236, 294, 297, 314 Coxe, William 80 Coxinga. See Zheng Chenggong Crequinière, M. de 126 f. Croker, Temple Henry 57 Cruz, Gaspar da 74 Cunningham, James 99 Da Ji 180 Dapper, Olfert 119, 186 n. 139 Daumier, Honoré 139 Davis, John Francis 78, 90, 91, 101, 136, 152, 209, 264, 283, 285, 353 Denis, Ferdinand 51 Dermigny, Louis 38 Deshauterayes, Michel Ange André Le Roux 270 Diaz, Emanuel 314 Diderot, Denis 35, 58, 96 f., 101, 102, 292, 297, 305 Du Halde, Jean Baptiste xiv, 31, 67, 76 f., 79, 86, 93 f., 131, 166, 186, 225, 278, 287, 301, 310, 333 f., 338, 346, 352 f., 359 on Chinese administration 203 on Chinese medicine 92, 328 on Chinese music 326, 343 on Chinese writing 270 on festivals of the Chinese on the history of China 230 f. on the political geography of China 152 on the sexagenary cycle 238 Du Pin, Louis Ellies 101 Duret, Claude 17 Ebert, Friedrich Adolf 51 Ellis, Henry 89, 174, 209, 297, 337

Ellissen, Georg Anton Adolf 103, 263, 267, 282, 287 f. Elyot, Thomas 39 Empoli, Giovanni di 13 Endlicher, Stephan Ladislaus 280 f. Entrecolles, François Xavier d’ 224 Ersch, Johann Samuel 62 Eyriès, Jean-Baptiste 61 n. 232, 69, 94, 103, 132, 170, 173, 185, 250, 352 Fabius Quintilianus, Marcus 39 Fabricius, Johann Andreas 293 Fan Liben 44 Fei Xin 26 Fernandez de Navarrete, Domingo 77, 95, 136, 314, 346 n. 161, 348 Figgins, Vincent 277 Fink, Gottfried Wilhelm 343 Fischer von Erlach, Johann Bernhard 337 Flügel, Gustav 94 Forster, Johann Reinhold 189 Fortia d’Urban, Agricole Joseph François 51, 80, 103 Foucquet, Jean François 237, 314 Fourmont, Etienne 44, 86, 98, 230, 270, 280, 363 Francisci, Erasmus 226 Franck, Sebastian 15 Franck(e), Johann 156 Franke, Wolfgang 31 Fréret, Nicolas 165, 237, 270 Fu Zehong 45, 71 Fuxi 166, 255, 272, 294, 295, 302, 305 f. Gabelentz, Georg von der 119 Gabelentz, Hans Conon von der 103, 264, 269, 281, 285, 290 Galdan 6 Galland, Antoine 28 Gama, Vasco da 15 Gaubil, Antoine 68 f., 217, 238 f., 270, 295, 349 Gayangos, Pascual de 59 Gemelli Careri, Giovanni Francesco 77 Genghis Khan 123, 233, 242 f., 311 Gerbillon, Jean François 313 Giles, Herbert A. 31 Giles, Lionel 95 Gmelin, Johann Georg 192 Goguet, Antoine-Yves 347 Goís, Bento de 14, 22, 146

index González de Mendoza, Juan xiv, 17, 74, 83, 126, 226, 348 Gool, Jacob 76 Gottsched, Johann Christoph 55 Graesse, Johann Theodor 52 Granier de Cassagnac, Adolphe 53 Grimaldi, Claudio Filippo 313 Grosier, Jean Baptiste Gabriel Alexandre 68, 77, 79, 87, 172, 183, 186, 203, 210, 211 n. 95, 266, 296, 298, 299, 301, 333, 357 Grotefend, Georg Friedrich 239 Gruber, Johann Gottfried 62 Grueber, Johann 197, 259, 269 Guan Hanqing 287 Guignes, Chrétien Louis Joseph 88, 89, 97, 173, 174, 183, 184, 203, 213, 215, 266, 312, 317 Guignes, Joseph de 48, 49, 68, 86, 87, 165, 204, 222, 254, 289 Guizot, François 53 Guo Shoujing 325 Hadrian, Emperor of Rome 332 Hager, Joseph 38 Hahn, Philipp Matthäus 325 Hakluyt, Richard 17 Han Gaodi. See Liu Bang Han Gaozu. See Liu Bang Harris, John 57 Hayton of Armenia 92 Heine, Heinrich 138 Hélvetius, Claude Adrien 58 Hénault, Charles Jean François 283 Herbelot, Barthelemy d’ 28, 30, 49 n. 187, 80 Herder, Benjamin 64 Herrliberger, David 120 Hertzberg, Gustav 253 Hervieu, Julien Placide 92, 328 Hethoum, see Hayton of Armenia Heumann, Christoph August 293 Heylin, Peter 16, 193 Hirschfeld, Christian Cajus Lorenz 341 Hondius, Jodocus 14 Hoogstraten, Danel Franz van 54 Horn, Georg 80, 237 Hu Wei 70 Hua Ximin 290 Huang Di, or Yellow Emperor 272, 330 Huangfu Mi 68 Hübner, Johann 63 Hüttner, Johann Christian 202, 344 Hunter, John 131

399

Ides, Eberhard Isbrand 77, 85, 322 n. 6 Intorcetta, Prospero 84, 229 n. 1, 259, 313 Iselin, Jakob Christoph 54 Isidore of Seville 9 Jablonski, Johann Theodor 56 Jartoux, Pierre 331 Jaucourt, Louis de 58, 147, 191, 210, 269 f., 300, 305 Ji Junxiang 287 Jiaqing Emperor. See: rulers of China John of Plano Carpini 10, 311 n. 134 Johnson, Samuel 261 Jones, Sir William 117, 165 Kaempfer, Engelbert 191, 192 n. 176, 328 Kangxi Emperor. See: rulers of China Kircher, Athanasius 75, 84, 93, 119, 150, 165, 186 n. 139, 226, 231, 259, 269, 296, 308, 310, 322 n. 6, 331 Klaproth, Julius 69, 89, 99, 102 f., 145, 147, 173, 217, 264, 280 Knight, Charles 59 Kong Anguo 68 Kong Yingda 68 Kortholt, Christian 237 Köster, Heinrich Martin Gottfried 60 Krünitz, Johann Georg 60, 80, 91, 100, 102 Krusenstern, Adam Johann 135 Kui 344 Kundmann, Johann Christian 95 Laensberg, Mathieu 283 Lafitau, Joseph-François 127, 331 Lange, Lorenz 77 Langlès, Louis Mathieu 217 Laozi 122, 295, 308 f. Larousse, Pierre Athanase 62 Lawätz, Heinrich Wilhelm 51 Le Breton, André 57 f. Le Comte, Louis 76, 85, 129, 131, 149, 187, 199 n. 32, 210, 259, 261, 269, 271 n. 71, 300, 310, 313, 331, 333, 337, 353 Le Gobien, Charles 310 Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm 85, 121, 216, 237, 295, 301 f. Li Fang 289, 290 Li Guangdi 343 Li Shiyao 219

400

index

Li Zicheng 213, 245 Lieber, Francis 63 Lin Yi 93 Ling Dizhi 48 Ling Lun 344 Linschoten, Jan Huyghen van 214, 226 Liu Bang 180, 240 Liu Xin 325 Löbe, Julius 103 Löbel, Renatus Gotthelf 63 Long, George 59 Longobardo, Niccolò 237 Longolius, Paul Daniel 57 Louis IX, King of France 10 Louis XIV, King of France 6 Loureiro, João 81, 91 Ludewig, Johann Peter 56 Ludovici, Carl Günther 57, 128, 151 Luïscius, Abraham Georg 54 Luo Bi 68 Luo Guanzhong 285 Ma Duanlin 49, 69, 289 Ma Huan 11 Ma Su 69 Mably, Gabriel Bonnot de 195 Macartney, George Earl of 160 f., 301, 344 Magalhães, Gabriel de 201, 217, 269 f., 294, 313, 315, 336 Maigrot, Charles 313 Mailla, Joseph Anne Marie Moyriac de 67, 87, 231, 239, 294, 314, 359 Maillard de Tournon, Charles 314 Malesherbes, Chrétien de Lamoignon de 58 Malouin, Pierre Jacques 92, 328 Malthus, Thomas Robert 174, 328 Mandeville, John 12, 13, 15, 92 Manning, Thomas 220 Marsden, William 191 Marshman, Joshua 88, 129, 266 Marsy, François Marie de 38 Martini, Martino xiv, 75, 79, 83, 95, 146, 150, 151, 205, 236, 270, 322, 326 Martonne, Louis Georges Alfred de 52 Masson de Morvilliers, Nicolas 173 Medhurst, Walter Henry 163, 268 Meiners, Christoph 188, 189 Meister, George 92 Mendez Pinto, Fernão 77 Mendoza. See Gonzalez de Mendoza Mercator, Gerard 14, 79 n. 49

Meyer, Joseph 64 Mezzabarba, Carlo Ambrogio 314 Migne, Jacques-Paul 50 Mingzong, Emperor of the Hou Han Dynasty. See rulers of China 243, 350 Mohl, Jules 118, 295 n. 25 Möngke Khan 233, 242 Montesquieu, Charles Louis Secondat 82 n. 56, 96, 195, 245 Morales, Juan Bautista de 313 Moréri, Louis 29, 48, 54 Morhof, Daniel Georg 328 Morrison, Robert 48, 71, 89, 136, 268, 269, 273 Mosheim, Johann Lorenz von 86, 93 Müller, Andreas 84, 146 Münster, Sebastian 15, 79 Navarrete, see Fernandez Navarrete Neumann, Karl Friedrich 48, 69, 70, 103, 104, 281, 294 f. Nieuhof, Johan 84, 95, 119, 186, 206, 214, 216, 226 Odorico da Pordenone 12, 13, 16, 92, 129, 181 Ortelius, Abraham 14, 79 Osbeck, Peter 87, 136, 192, 219 Owen, William 57 Pallas, Peter Simon 324 Panckoucke, Charles-Joseph 60, 61 Pantoja, Diego de 314 Parrenin, Dominique 314 Pauthier, Jean Pierre Guillaume 71, 78, 103, 144, 273, 278, 306 Pauw, Corneille de 30, 87, 102, 127, 135, 165 Pearson, George 100 Pedrini, Teodorico 314 Peignot, Étienne Gabriel 51 Percy, Thomas 86, 286 Pereira, Tomé 313 Perestrello, Rafael 13 Pezron, Paul 237 Picart, Bernard 120 Piccolomini, Enea Silvio, see Pius II, Pope Pierer, Heinrich August 64 Pinçon, Pierre 52 Pinto. See Mendez Pinto Pitt, William, Earl of Amherst 160 Pius II, Pope 16, 92

index Pivati, Giovanni Francesco 121 Pliny 16 Poivre, Pierre 77, 191, 347 Polo, Marco 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 77, 83, 92, 146, 181, 204, 217, 223, 349 Pomet, Pierre 190 Pomponius Mela 16 Prémare, Joseph Henri de 287 Psalmanazar, George 92 Ptolemy 16 Purmann, Johann Georg 102, 178, 193, 305 Qianlong Emperor. See rulers of China Qin Shihuangdi. See rulers of China Quintilianus, Marcus Fabius. See Fabius Quintilianus Rabelais, François 39 Rada, Martin de 313 Ramusio, Giovanni Battista 17 Raynal, Guillaume Thomas 97, 195, 212 Réaumur, René Antoine Ferchault de 225, 226 Rees, Abraham 57 Régis, Jean-Baptiste 294 Rémusat, Jean Pierre Abel 29, 30, 49, 90, 91, 117, 153, 162, 264, 273, 274 n. 95, 285, 289 Rennell, James 125 Ricci, Matteo 74, 75, 96, 313, 314 Richer, Adrien 38 Ritter, Carl 59, 81 Ritter, Georg Heinrich 329 Roos, Johann Friedrich 60 Rosen, Friedrich August 59 Rotteck, Carl von 65 Rousseau, Jean Baptiste Louis Jacques 30 Roussier, Pierre Joseph 343 Ruan Yuan 70, 71 Rubruck. See William of Rubruck Ruggieri, Michele 74, 314 rulers of China Chongzhen Emperor 240, 241, 245 n. 79 Daoguang Emperor 247, 248, 249, 251 Han Guangwudi 230 Han Huidi 180 Hongwu Emperor 124, 235, 240 Hou Tang Mingzong 243, 350 Jiaqing Emperor 47, 247, 248, 249

401

Kangxi Emperor 6, 117, 151, 158, 246, 312, 315, 316 Ming Huaizong, see rulers of China: Chongzhen Emperor Ming Shenzong, see rulers of China: Wanli Emperor Ming Yingzong 244 Qianlong Emperor 161, 246, 247, 251, 277, 281, 285, 289, 317, 359 Qin Shihuangdi 122, 230, 241, 256, 266, 276, 322 Shunzhi Emperor 240, 315 Song Taizong 123, 230, 289 Tang Taizong 235 Tang Xuanzong 243 Tang Zhaozong 243 Wanli Emperor 230, 235 Xianfeng Emperor 249 Yongzheng Emperor 246, 317, 347, 359 Yuan Shundi 240, 243 Zhou Xin 180, 193, 242 Rumpf, Georg Eberhard 191, 226, 331 Sambiasi, Francesco 314 Savagner, Auguste 103, 107 Savary des Bru(s)lons, Jacques 56, 128, 191, 226 Scaliger, Julius Caesar 226 Schall, Johann Adam 313, 315 Scheffer, Henrik Theophil 226 Schmid, Christian Heinrich 51 Schmidt, Isaac Jacob 306 Schott, Wilhelm 70, 104, 160, 197, 311 on arts and sciences 322, 330 on Chinese chronology 239 on Chinese language and literature 106, 241, 252 f., 264–266, 268, 280, 283, 284, 285, 289 on Chinese writing 273, 276 on religions in China 296, 317 on the administration of China 201, 208, 213, 215, 347 on the geography of China 145, 147 f., 149, 153, 330 on the history of China 231, 242, 247 on the population of China 166, 175 Schumacher, Johann Heinrich 295 Sealy, Thomas Henry 139 Semedo, Álvaro 75, 83, 270, 314, 322 Shen Defu 70 Shen Fuzong 76

402

index

Shennong, mythical ruler of China 255, 347 Shi Nai’an 285 Shunzhi Emperor. See rulers of China Sima Qian 68 Sinold von Schütz, Philipp Balthasar 63 Smellie, William 59 Smith, Adam 24, 183, 362 Soares, José 313 Song Yingxing 50, 71 Souciet, Étienne 101 Sprengel, Kurt 189 Staunton, George Leonard 117, 179, 191, 202, 238, 263, 330, 334 Staunton, George Thomas 88, 90, 98, 202, 209, 210 Stevin, Simon 348, 349 Strabo 16

Wang Qi 47 Wang Qinruo 290 Wang Shuhe 92, 328 Wang Su 68 Wang Yinglin 45 Wanli Emperor. See: rulers of China Warburton, William 270 Watts, Thomas 54, 59, 62, 64 Wei Zhongxian 245 Welcker, Carl Theodor 65 Wigand, Otto 103 William of Rubruck 10, 12, 311 n. 134 Williams, Samuel Wells 78 Wolff, Christian 292 Worm, Olaus 190 Wu Changyuan 70 Wu Sangui 245 Wu Shu 290 Wylie, Alexander 49, 93

Tachard, Guy 331 Tartre, Pierre Vincent de 294 f. Tavernier, Jean Baptiste 191, 308 Temple, William 297 Terajima Ryōan 47 Thévenot, Melchisédec 17, 84, 197 Thevet, André 17 Thomas, Antoine 313 Timkovskij, Jegor Fedorovič 213 Titsingh, Isaac 48 Tooke, William 80 Traßler, Joseph Georg 60 Trigault, Nicolas 74, 75, 83, 186, 214, 278, 279, 313, 322

Xu Baoguang 69 Xu, Candida 245, 246 Xu Qianxue 6 Xianfeng Emperor. See: rulers of China

Vaïsse, Léon 103, 252 Valignano, Alessandro 74, 314 Varenius, Bernhard 108 Varrentrapp, Franz 60 Verbiest, Ferdinand 313, 315 Vicq d’Azyr, Félix 328 Vigenère, Blaise de 17 Vincent of Beauvais 11 Visdelou, Claude 29, 49, 294 Vossius, Isaac 80, 237

Yongzheng Emperor. See: rulers of China Zedler, Johann Heinrich 56 Zhang Shixian 93 Zhang Xianzhong 243 Zhang Zhidong 26 Zhao Rugua 26 Zheng Chenggong (Coxinga) 80 n. 50, 245 Zheng Zhilong 245 Zhou Qufei 26 Zhou Xin. See: rulers of China Zhu Mu 290 Zhu Shijie 44 Zhu Xi 67, 117, 123 Zhu Yizun 71 Zi Si 295 Zuo Qiuming 68