The publications on China that flooded Europe in the modern period offered a fairly complete image of the country, which in turn was complemented by the objects that arrived from the Far East, including porcelain, paintings, musical instruments, silk and Chinese books. It is precisely on the books written about China by Spanish authors that this paper will focus, providing an overview of the main works published on the subject in Spanish in recent history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first major work on China in the modern period, and undoubtedly one of the most relevant contributions to the European image of China, was written by the Augustinian Juan Gonz\u00e1lez de Mendoza: Historia de las cosas m\u00e1s notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reino de la China<\/em> (translated in English as The History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China and the Situation Thereof<\/em>), published in Rome in 1585 and commissioned by the Pope. The success of this History<\/em> was resounding: before the end of the 16th century there were 46 editions \u201311 of them in Spain\u2013 and it was translated into 7 languages [1]<\/a>1 \u2014 Lach, D. (1965). Asia in the making of Europe, vol. I, book II. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 744.\n<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The truth is that Mendoza never set foot in China. Although Philip II had chosen him to lead an embassy to China in 1580, the embassy only went as far as Mexico and never reached its destination. On his return to Europe and after the papal commission, Mendoza put together the first great synthesis on China based on the available sources, to which he had privileged access. On the one hand, he was familiar with the information provided by the Portuguese \u2013who had been settled in Macao since 1557\u2013 and although Mendoza did not use the book by the Portuguese Dominican Gaspar da Cruz, Tratado das cousas da China<\/em> (\u00c9vora, 1569), he was familiar with the Discurso de la navegaci\u00f3n<\/em> (Seville, 1577) by Bernardino de Escalante, which is a gloss on the Tratado<\/em> by Cruz. On the other hand, Mendoza was familiar with the accounts written on China by the Castilian settlers living in Manila from 1571 onwards. He also gathered information during his stay in Mexico, where there were already Chinese residents, and in Rome. Mendoza is a great admirer of China: The wealth and productivity of the Middle Kingdom \u2013where agricultural land was exploited to the full and the abundance of natural resources made everything available at very low prices\u2013 as well as the existence of a political system whose ruler was the epitome of ethics and courtesy, were good and solid reasons for it. Mendoza also describes Buddhists and Taoists, and although he identifies ancestor worship and the importance of studying the classics, he does not mention Confucius or Confucianism, first discussed in Europe by the Jesuits [2]<\/a>2 \u2014 Folch, D. (2021). “La selecci\u00f3n de Gonz\u00e1lez de Mendoza: lo que ensalz\u00f3, retoc\u00f3 o suprimi\u00f3”. In: Barl\u00e9s, E. (coord).\u202fEx Oriente.\u202f Zaragoza: PUZ (in press).\n<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The publications on China that flooded Europe in the modern period offered a fairly complete image of the country, complemented by the objects that arrived from the Far East<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n After the Historia<\/em> and before the end of the 16th century, information on China was to be found increasingly diluted in general works such as the Historia natural y moral de las Indias<\/em> (1590) by the Jesuit Jos\u00e9 de Acosta, the Historia de las cosas del Oriente<\/em> (1595) by Amaro Centeno and the Rep\u00fablicas del mundo<\/em> (1595) by the Augustinian Jer\u00f3nimo Rom\u00e1n. It is also possible to find some references to China in literature, albeit very slight, and we know that the (no longer extant) collection of King Philip II included some 3,000 pieces of porcelain kept at the Alcazar of Madrid [3]<\/a>3 \u2014 Krahe, C. (2017). \u201cLa globalizaci\u00f3n de la porcelana Ming\u201d.\u202fIn: El patrimonio intangible del arte chino. Maestros de la creaci\u00f3n, Madrid: CCACO, 144-151.\n<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n In the 17th century, interest in China continued and, with a few exceptions, the bulk of publications on the subject came from religious orders. In 1601, the Jesuit Luis de Guzm\u00e1n\u2019s Historia de las misiones<\/em>, the Franciscan Marcelo de Ribadeneira\u2019s Historia del archipi\u00e9lago filipino y reinos de la gran China<\/em> and the printing of the Historia general de los hechos de los castellanos<\/em> by Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, court chronicler to Philip II and Philip III, were published. Two years later, the Historia de la India Oriental<\/em> by Fray Antonio San Rom\u00e1n was published, and in 1609 the Conquista de las islas Malucas<\/em> by Bartolom\u00e9 de Argensola. 1614 saw the publication of the Viaje del mundo<\/em> by Pedro Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez Ceballos \u2013soon translated into Dutch, French and Latin, and partially into English\u2013 and then, in 1621 and 1625 respectively, the Epitome historial del reino de la China<\/em> by Francisco Herrera Maldonado and the Viaje a la China<\/em> by the Jesuit Adriano de las Cortes, which also included some illustrations made in Manila by a Chinese draughtsman [4]<\/a>4 \u2014 Busquets, A. (2010). \u201cUn siglo de noticias espa\u00f1olas sobre China\u201d. Granada: UGR. Available online.\n<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it was in the second half of the 17th century that the two most important works on China written in Spanish in that century were published: the Historia de la conquista de China por el T\u00e1rtaro<\/em> by Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza and the Tratados hist\u00f3ricos, pol\u00edticos \u00e9ticos y religiosos de la monarqu\u00eda de China<\/em> by the Dominican Domingo Fern\u00e1ndez de Navarrete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Palafox\u2019s Historia<\/em>, published posthumously in 1670, brought a new subject matter to the nascent sinology with the addition of the Manchu conquest of China, the first Chinese event with repercussions beyond China. Although the Manchu conquest and the Ming-Qing dynastic change was known in Europe mainly through the information provided by the Jesuits \u2013those who were caught up in the civil strife in the country that accompanied the fall of the Ming as well as those who wrote a coherent account of the subject, as was the case of Martino Martini and his De Bello Tartarico<\/em> (1655)\u2013 Bishop Palafox\u2019s Historia<\/em> must also be taken into account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although he had never been to China, the bishop of Puebla de los \u00c1ngeles obtained his information from the Chinese living in Mexico and also from the manuscript and printed texts that arrived there, including a manuscript account from 1647, according to Palafox\u2019s own account. In his extensive Historia<\/em>, the bishop \u2013an experienced analyst of conflicts in Mexico and the Iberian Peninsula\u2013 chronicles the events that took place in China between 1640 and 1647, focusing on the Ming imperial court, the advance of the Manchus in China and Ming resistance in the southern provinces, providing news mainly about the rise of the Zheng family of merchants and pirates, led at that time by Zheng Zhilong, whose economic and military power came to rival that of the emperor himself. In the last hundred pages Bishop Palafox provides an extremely gentle, even idealised portrait of the Manchu people. Neither the atheism of the Manchus \u2013which he overlooks because of the good treatment given to the Christian missionaries\u2013 nor the vices he attributes to them \u2013such as cruelty in war or a taste for human blood and flesh\u2013 or some other vices to which he seems to attach little importance \u2013Palafox maintains that the Manchus are neither as sensual nor as prone to the sins of the flesh as the Chinese, especially to the nefarious sin, homosexuality\u2013 tarnish the highly positive image of the Manchus, with whom Palafox undoubtedly sympathised far more than with the Chinese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it was particularly with the publication in 1676 of Navarrete\u2019s Tratados <\/em>that China regained centre stage in a work in Spanish. The Tratados<\/em>, which consist of seven treatises that can be read as independent books, were intended as a reference manual for future missionaries and as a preamble Navarrete\u2019s Controversias<\/em>, which focused on religious matters. The Tratados<\/em> provide a broad synthesis of the main aspects of the Chinese empire and show Navarrete\u2019s deep knowledge of China, where he had lived for more than a decade. Navarrete used a wide range of sources, both European and Chinese, to support his account or to refute what had been written by others. The sources included some of the main works written by the Jesuits \u2013Ricci-Trigault, Colin, Semedo, Kircher, Colin and Martino Martini\u2013 the manuscript of the Dominican Vittorio Riccio \u2013which he essentially follows for the information on the Manchu conquest of China\u2013 and a varied collection of Chinese materials, including some Confucian classics, printed books, memoirs, Chinese histories, dictionaries, some maps and some works on the Chinese language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Navarrete included Chinese texts in translation in his book, such as the Mingxin Baojian<\/em> \u2013which he translated as Espejo precioso del alma (Precious Mirror of the Soul)<\/em>\u2013 and some Confucian sentences. He also rescued and translated into Spanish a treatise by the Italian Jesuit Longobardo, De Confucio ejusque doctrina tractatus<\/em>, banned by the Jesuits. This placed Fern\u00e1ndez de Navarrete squarely in the middle of the \u201cChinese Rites controversy\u201d, the dispute between the Jesuits and the Dominicans over the status that should be given to Chinese rites, which was at its most heated when the Tratados<\/em> went to press [5]<\/a>5 \u2014 Longobardo\u2019s treatise, which made a deep impression on Leibniz, expounded for the first time in a Western language the philosophical concepts most prevalent in China, and collected the opinions of the scholars of the time, whether Christian or non-Christian. Gernet, J. (1982). Chine et christianisme. Action et r\u00e9action. Paris: Gallimard, 19.\n<\/span><\/span>. The Dominican Navarrete included in his work his opinion of some books written by the Jesuits: Letona\u2019s Descripci\u00f3n de las Filipinas<\/em>, Francisco Colin\u2019s Historia de los Jesuitas en Filipinas<\/em> or De Bello Tartarico<\/em> on the Manchu conquest by Martino Martini.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Navarrete\u2019s image of China is positive to the extent that, on more than one occasion, he presents Chinese civilisation as a model for Europe to follow \u2013thus anticipating what would happen with the Enlightenment\u2013 although his account does not leave out crude descriptions of such Chinese customs as the killing of newborn girls by drowning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Initially, the publication of the Tratados<\/em> was well received: the book was translated into Italian, English, German and French between the end of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century. Moreover, the Tratados<\/em> brought China closer to some physiocrats such as Quesnay or to philosophers such as Voltaire, who in 1769 claimed that China was better known than some provinces in Europe itself [6]<\/a>6 \u2014 Cummins, J.S. (1959). \u201cFray Domingo Navarrete: A source for Quesnay\u201d. Bulletin of Hispanic studies. Vol. 36, n\u00ba 1, 37-51; Cummins, J.S. (1962). The Travels and Controversies of Friar Domingo Navarrete. Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, ci.\n<\/span><\/span>. However, the fact that the work was linked to Inquisitorial Spain, the \u201cChinese Rites\u201d controversy (in which the Dominican Navarrete played a key role), the various anonymous writings condemning the Tratados<\/em> and the fact that it was not part of the Jesuit corpus, which at that time dominated the European cultural stage, undermined its impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Navarrete\u2019s image of China is positive to the extent that, on more than one occasion, he presents Chinese civilisation as a model for Europe to follow<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n China is also alluded to in some literary works written in the 17th century, like the dedication to the Count of Lemos at the beginning of the second part of Don Quijote<\/em> (1615) and especially in the works of Lope de Vega. Allusions to medicines, silk, ginger and other precious substances from the Far East [7]<\/a>7 \u2014 Krahe, C. (2016). Chinese porcelain in Habsburg Spain. Madrid: Centro de Estudios Europa Hisp\u00e1nica, 55.\n<\/span><\/span>, can also be found in some paintings depicting porcelain plates and bowls, imitating Chinese ceramics in their shape and decoration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n In the 18th century, Spanish interest and publications on China all but disappeared, in the aftermath of the expulsion of all missionaries from China in 1709 \u2013only a few Dominicans returned at the end of the century, settling in Fujian, on the southern coast of the country. In Europe, on the other hand, news on China continued to arouse interest and led to the dispatch of several embassies, and the Enlightenment hailed Confucius as a rationalist philosopher [8]<\/a>8 \u2014 It also prefigured the secularised Confucius of the Chinese modernists of the early 20th century. Cheng, A. \u201cConfucius revisit\u00e9: textes anciens, nouveaux discours\u201d. Histoire intellectuelle de la Chine. Available online.\n<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, in 1703, the Arte de la lengua mandarina<\/em> by the Dominican Francisco Varo was published posthumously in Canton by the Franciscan Pedro de la Pi\u00f1uela. Two manuscripts of this Chinese grammar have survived, one in Spanish (1682) and the other in Latin (1684). Varo, who studied Chinese for thirty years, wrote a grammar of the Guanhua language, which was the lingua franca<\/em> used by Chinese scholars, merchants and foreign missionaries, and which was widespread in China from the 16th to the 18th centuries [9]<\/a>9 \u2014 Coblin. W.S. (2000). Francisco Varo’s Grammar of the Mandarin Language (1703). Philadephia: John Benjamins Publishing Co., xxii.\n<\/span><\/span>. The Arte de la lengua mandarina<\/em> was the culmination of a series of grammars and dictionaries written by Spanish missionaries in the previous decades, including the Arte y vocabulario de la lengua china<\/em> by Mart\u00edn de Rada and the Arte de la lengua china<\/em> by the Dominican Juan Cobo \u2013although both works are now lost [10]<\/a>10 \u2014 Paternic\u00f2, L. M., When Europeans Began to Study Chinese, Leuven, Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, 2013, pp. 43-44.\n<\/span><\/span>\u2013 and the manuscript Arte de la lengua chio chiu<\/em>, compiled around 1620 probably by the Dominican Melchior de Man\u00e7ano, with Chinese characters and its transcription into Spanish, being one of the oldest grammars that has been preserved [11]<\/a>11 \u2014 There is one copy in the library of the Universitat de Barcelona. D. (1995). \u201cSinological materials in some Spanish libraries”. Caley, J. & Ming, W. (eds.), Europe Studies China. London: Han-shan Tang Books, 149-160. For further details, see Kl\u00f6ter, H. (2011). The Language of the Sangleys. A Chinese Vernacular in Missionary Sources of the Seventeenth Century, Leiden-Boston: Brill, 56-57.\n<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the 18th century, China became a completely exotic and distant subject, a peripheral place whose main export was porcelain. Much Chinese porcelain continued to arrive in the form of vessels and figurines made to order and decorated by the Chinese to European tastes. Philip V\u2019s royal collection included Chinese famille rose<\/em> porcelain tableware \u2013for tea, chocolate and coffee, three of the most highly valued foods in European courts, decorated with the insignia of the Golden Fleece and of the Order of the Holy Spirit with the royal crown [12]<\/a>12 \u2014 S\u00e1nchez, M.L. (2003). \u201cLa vajilla de Felipe V\u201d. Oriente en Palacio. Asian treasures in the Spanish royal collections. Madrid: Patrimonio Nacional, 203-209.\n<\/span><\/span>\u2013, and we know that Philip\u2019s second wife, Isabella of Farnese, had a large collection of Chinese objects. The Real F\u00e1brica del Buen Retiro in Madrid (1760), popularly known as \u201cLa China<\/em>\u201d, was created under Charles III. Among other things, it produced the Porcelain Room at Aranjuez, one of the finest examples of European chinoiserie<\/em>, whose walls and ceilings were entirely covered in porcelain, and the whole room was filled with French rococo motifs. Charles\u202fIII not only sought to provide the Spanish court with good porcelain \u2013thus imitating other European courts\u2013 but he also sought to avoid the excessive expense of foreign porcelain, essentially from China [13]<\/a>13 \u2014 Garc\u00eda-Ormaechea, C. (2003). \u201cLa porcelana del Palacio Real\u201d. Oriente en Palacio. Asian treasures in the Spanish royal collections.\u00a0Madrid: Patrimonio Nacional, 226-239.\n<\/span><\/span>. In fact, European courts adopted the early chinoiserie<\/em> for both interior decoration and furniture, and the use of lacquer panels in decoration became an unmistakable symbol of elegance and luxury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was in the second half of the 19th century that China reappeared in Spanish texts, mostly written by travellers and diplomats who would echo the internal turmoil the country was going through with multiple rebellions, as well as the conflicts with foreign powers in the form of the Opium Wars (1839-1842 and 1856-1860). Some examples of such works would be Juan Mencarini\u2019s contributions to the journal Vida mar\u00edtima: Revista de navegaci\u00f3n y comercio<\/em>, Luis Prudencio \u00c1lvarez y Tejero\u2019s Rese\u00f1a hist\u00f3rica del Gran Imperio de China<\/em> (1857) and Jos\u00e9 de Aguilar\u2019s El int\u00e9rprete chino<\/em> (1861) \u2013a collection of phrases in Chinese, with their transliteration and translation into Spanish, designed for future merchants\u2013 and Adolfo Mentaberry\u2019s Impresiones de un viaje a la China<\/em> (1876).<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there can be no doubt that the main Spanish expert on China in this period was Sinibald de Mas (1808-1868), whose numerous writings include L\u2019Angleterre et le C\u00e9leste Empire<\/em> (1857), L\u2019Angleterre, la Chine et l\u2019Inde<\/em> (1858) and La Chine et les puissances chr\u00e9tiennes<\/em> (1861), all in French, probably because of the lack of interest in Spain in China at that time. Sinibald de Mas, regarded as the first Spanish diplomat in China, offered a lucid portrait of 19th-century China, paying attention both to the country\u2019s history and culture and to the main internal events \u2013with first-hand information on the Taiping rebellion (1850-1864)\u2013 and the role of the European powers. While admiring China\u2019s past, he blames the Manchu dynasty for the country\u2019s crisis, justifying European colonial rule [14]<\/a>14 \u2014 Permanyer, A. (2006). \u201cSinibaldo de Mas, un observador espa\u00f1ol de la realidad china del siglo XIX\u201d. San Gin\u00e9s, P. (ed.). La investigaci\u00f3n sobre Asia Pac\u00edfico en Espa\u00f1a. Granada: UGR. Available online.\n<\/span><\/span>. After several failed attempts, Sinibald de Mas managed to sign the first treaty regulating diplomatic relations between Spain and China (1864), a commission he had received from the Spanish Ministry of State, although it was of little use due to the scarce presence of Spaniards in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1925, Apel\u00b7les Mestres published a short anthology of Catalan translations of Chinese lyrical poetry, “Poesia xinesa”, a first in its kind. Three years later, Mari\u00e0 Manent published a book of translations of Chinese poetry, “L’aire daurat”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n At the turn of the 20th century, the contribution of other diplomats as well as some religious figures should be highlighted. Among the diplomats, mention must be made of another Catalan, Eduard Toda, vice-consul of Spain in China between 1876 and 1882. The ever-curious Toda wrote La vida en el Celeste Imperio<\/em> (1887), in which he provided an overview of the Chinese world resulting from his experiences in China. Toda was an avid collector, particularly of coins \u2013his collection included 15,000 coins, mostly Japanese and Chinese [15]<\/a>15 \u2014 Gin\u00e9s, M. (2013). El col\u00b7leccionisme entre Catalunya i la Xina (1876-1895). Universitat de Barcelona: PhD thesis, 28.\n<\/span><\/span>\u2013, and his work contained information on material culture, paying special attention to Chinese crafts that were in great demand in Europe at the time. On his return to Europe, Toda gave lectures on China, published several articles in magazines on the subject and wrote another book, on Chinese history: Historia de la China<\/em> (1893).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n As for the works written by religious authors, the books by two Augustinians stand out: P\u00e1ginas de la \u00faltima revoluci\u00f3n china<\/em> (1914) by Agust\u00edn Melc\u00f3n, a testimony of the transition from the Manchu empire to the Chinese Republic, and El comercio en el Extremo Oriente<\/em> (1918) by Gaudencio Castrillo. Mention must also be made of some dictionaries such as the Diccionario chino-espa\u00f1ol del dialecto de Amoy<\/em> (1937) by the Dominican Francisco or the Diccionario manual Castellano-Chino, chino-espa\u00f1ol<\/em> (1933) by the Jesuit Luis Mar\u00eda Nieto [16]<\/a>16 \u2014 Borao, J. E. (2017). Las miradas entre Espa\u00f1a y China. Un siglo de relaciones entre los dos pa\u00edses (1864-1973). Madrid: Miraguano, 135 & 186.\n<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe 17th century: the Ming-Qing transition<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
From books to porcelain: 18th century chinoiseries<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
The textual re-emergence of China in the 19th and 20th centuries<\/h5>\n\n\n\n