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A Study of Giulio Aleni's Chih-fang wai chi1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Bernard Hung-kay Luk
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Extract

There exists a considerable body of scholarly literature on the contributions of the Jesuit missionaries of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to the knowledge of geography in China. Much of this literature is centred around the world maps of Matteo Ricci. Studies have been made on the different editions of these maps, on the sources of information (both European and Chinese) that Ricci must have used, on the reception by the Chinese literati of Ricci's time of the maps and the world-view represented by them, and on the possible influence of Renaissance cartography on Chinese map-making. Writers differ on the importance and utility of these maps and their influence.

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Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , February 1977 , pp. 58 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1977

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References

2 For example, Baddeley, J. F., ‘Father Matteo Ricci's Chinese world-maps, 1584–1608’, Geographical Journal, L, 4, 1917, 254–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bernard, Henri, ‘Les étapes de la cartographie scientifique pour la Chine et les pays voisins depuis le XVIe jusqu'à la fin du XVIIIe siècle’, Monumenta Serica, 1, 2, 1935, 428–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bernard, , ‘Les adaptations chinoises d'ouvrages européens: bibliographie chronologique depuis la venue des Portugais à Canton jusqu'à la Mission française de Pékin, 1514–1688’, MS, x, 1945, 1–57, 309–88Google Scholar; ‘… Deuxième partie, depuis la fondation de la Mission française de Pékin jusqu'à la mort de l'empereur K'ien-long, 1689–1799’, MS, xix, 1960, 349–83Google Scholar; Kuan-sheng, Kenneth Ch'en, ‘Matteo Ricci's contribution to, and influence on, geographical knowledge in China’, JAOS, LIX, 3, 1939, 325–59, 4Google Scholar, 1939, 509; Ch'en, , ‘A possible source for Ricci's notices on regions near China’, T'oung Pao, XXXIV, 1938, 179–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hao, Fang, Chung-kuo T'ien-chu-chiao shih jen-wu chuan 1, Hong Kong, 1970Google Scholar; Gernet, Jacques, ‘A propos des contacts entre la Chine et l'Europe aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles’, Acta Asiatica, XXIII, 1972, 78–92Google Scholar; Heawood, E., ‘The relationships of the Ricci maps’, GJ, L, 4, 1917, 271–6Google Scholar; Giles, L., ‘Translations from the Chinese world map of Father Ricci’, GJ, III, 6, 1918, 367–85Google Scholar; LIII, 1, 1919, 19–30; the essays in Li Ma-tou yen-chiu lun-chi , compiled by the Tsun-tsui Hsüeh-she , Hong Kong, 1971 (many of the articles in this anthology are taken from the geographical journal Yü-kung ; see especially the essays by Hung Wei-lien ; Rowbotham, A. H., Missionary and mandarin, the Jesuits at the court of Peking, Berkeley, 1942Google Scholar; Szcześniak, B., ‘Matteo Ricci's map of China’, Imago Mundi, XI, 1955, 127–36Google Scholar; and Yung, Wang, Chung-kua ti-li-hsüeh shih , Taipei, 1965Google Scholar. See also Needham, J., Science and civilisation in China, III, Cambridge, 1959Google Scholar, and his bibliography. Related to this topic are d'Elia, P. M., ‘Roma presentata ai letterati cinesi da Matteo Ricci, S. I.’, TP, XLI, 1–3, 1952, 149–90Google Scholar; and Harris, G. L., ‘The mission of Matteo Ricci, S. J.: a case study of an effort at guided culture change in the sixteenth century’, MS, XXV, 1966, 1–168.Google Scholar

3 Bernard, , ‘Les adaptations’, MS, X, 1945, 315Google Scholar, cites the following editions: 1584, 1596, 1600, 1602, 1603, 1608. There is no reference to the map in Chung-kuo ts'ung-shu-tsung-lu , or in the index to the Shih t'ung .

4 See the article by Wei-lien, Hung in Li Ma-tou yen-chiu, 67–116.Google Scholar The Ricci map was supposed to have been carved on stone outside the courier station at Ku-su , but it is not known if the stone is still extant. Ying-ching, Feng's Fang-yü sheng-lüehGoogle Scholar of 1609 reproduced Ricci's map, but inaccurately, making, among other mistakes, the one on Barca. The Yü-t'u pei-k'ao of P'an Kuang-tsn (1633, 1650) contains the truncating of place-names. The rounded projection is found in San-ts'ai t'u hui . The above works have not been available to me, and I have relied on Hung's summaries. Cf. Gernet, art cit.

More information on the Chinese geographical literature of the late Ming period may be found in Hummel, A. W., ‘Beginnings of world geography in China’, Annual Reports of the Librarian of Congress, 1938, 224–26Google Scholar; and his ‘A view of foreign countries in the Ming period’, ibid., 1940, 167–9.

5 Ricci himself had found it necessary to explain why the five continents were coloured differently on his maps. See his introduction to the map quoted by Kuan-sheng, Ch'en in Li Ma-ton yen-chiu, 132.Google Scholar Also, Ricci, , K'un-yü wan-kuo ch'uan-t'uGoogle Scholar ‘Matteo Ricci's world-map in Chinese, 1602’, photoreprint, Peking, 1936. It is interesting to compare Yüan, Wei's maps in Hai-kuo t'u-chihGoogle Scholar to Ricci and Aleni. The slightness of the influence is obvious. See also Jones, Y., Nelson, H., and Wallis, H., Chinese and Japanese maps: an exhibition organised by the British Library at the BM 1 February-31 December 1974. Catalogue, London, [C1974]Google Scholar, especially the sections entitled ‘Jesuit cartography and influence’ in China, and Japanese ‘World maps’, and the notes on exhibits C5, C16, C22, C29, and J2.

6 The Chung-kuo ts'ung-shu tsung-lu, Shanghai, 1959–1962Google Scholar, cites only Ricci's astronomical, philosophical, and religious works as having been included in later collectanea. The article on Ricci by the late eighteenth-century scholar-official Yüan Yüan (in Li Ma-tou, yen chiu, 1–3)Google Scholar does not mention the map, but discusses certain astronomically related theories of Ricci's geography.

7 As the editors of the Ch'ien-lung Imperial Library explain in their abstract of this book, Aleni ‘records the lands and customs of extremely distant places not noted in ancient and modern [Chinese] maps, and hence the title Record (chi) of areas outside (wai) the Imperial Geographer's (Chih-fang) concern’. See Aleni, (Ai Ju-lüeh), Chih-fang wai chi, 1. The edition used is the Ts'ung-shu Chi-ch'eng photoreproduction, Shanghai, 1936Google Scholar, of the Shou-shan Ke Ts'ung-shu edition. The Ming edition of the T'ien-hsüeh ch'u han was not available to me until after this paper was completed, but there does not seem to be any serious discrepancy between the two editions. (Chung-kuo Shih-hsüeh Ts'ung-shu photoreproduotion, Taipei, 1965).

In various Jesuit bibliographies, this book has been described as follows (after Bernard, ‘Les adaptations’, MS, X, 1945, 22.Google Scholar

List A, 1627: ‘mas una descripcion del Mapa universal, con las pinturas de todas sus partes y declaracion de ellas, donde se apuntan varias curiosidades de Europa’ (item 19).

List C, c. 1642: ‘Orbis terrarum descriptio’ (item 106).

List F, 1666: ‘Theatrum orbis divisum in quinque libros, in quibus res praecipuae Europae et aliarum Orbis partium explicantur’ (item 89).

List G, 1681: ‘Notitia cosmographica regnorum totius orbis 5 vol.’ (item 86).

8 This biographical account is based on the following authors: Pfister, L., Notices biographiques et bibliographiques sur les Jésuites de l'ancienne Mission de Chine, 1552–1773Google Scholar (in the Chinese version by Ch'eng-chün, Feng, Ju Hua Yeh-su-hui-shih lieh-chuan , Changsha, 1938)Google Scholar; Fang Hao, op. cit.; Dehergne, J. S. J., Répertoire des Jésuites de Chine de 1552 à 1800, Rome, 1973Google Scholar; Dunne, George S. J., Generation of giants, Notre Dame, Indiana, 1962Google Scholar; and the article on Aleni (Alenis) in the Dizionario biografico degli italiani, Roma, 1960.Google Scholar These authors disagree on the dates of Aleni's early career in China.

The quotation on pp. 62–3 is taken from Fang Hao, who also has the richest Chinese citations. The most detailed account, however, is to be found in Dunne, but Dunne's focus is not biographical, and he tends to leave large gaps of time unfilled. The official baptized as Peter (p. 62) is named in Dunne as Ma San-chih (without characters); the other authors do not identify Peter's Chinese name. For Aleni's writings, see Bernard, ‘Les adaptations’, Dehergne, and Fang Hao; the citations in Streit, Bibliotheca Missionum are incomplete. Cf. the biographies of Schall and Verbiest in Spence, J., To change China, Boston, 1969.Google Scholar

For a different view of the Jesuit-Mendicant controversies, see Cummins, J. S., (ed.), The travels and controversies of Friar Domingo Navarrete (1618–1686), Cambridge, 1962Google Scholar, ‘Introduction’.

The efforts of Aleni and other Jesuits at rendering the Bible and Biblical stories into Chinese may have influenced Robert Morrison's first Protestant translation of the Bible. See Latourette, K. S., A history of Christian missions in China, London, 1929, 190.Google ScholarGoodrich, L. C. and Fang, C. (ed.), Dictionary of Ming biography, New York and London, 1976 (published when this paper was at the printers) contains an article on Aleni which is fuller than, and complementary to, the sketch given here.Google Scholar

9 Aleni, , Chih-fang wai chi, ed. cit., 1–4.Google Scholar

10 Spence, , op. cit., 6Google Scholar. Spence is quoting from Gallagher, L., S. J., China in the sixteenth century: the journal of M. Ricci, 22–3.Google Scholar

11 cf. Ricci's introduction to his map; see p. 60, n. 5, above. Aleni seems to display a better grasp of Chinese astronomical terminology, and also a deeper sense of Chinese tact. This may reflect the experience gained by the Jesuits in some 20 years.

12 Aleni, , GFWC, 12–14.Google Scholar

13 ibid., 14–15.

14 ibid., 15–18.

15 ibid., 19–21.

16 ibid., 21–4.

17 ibid., 24–9. The friars had accused the Jesuits of suppressing the doctrine of the Crucifixion. rebuts, Dunne: ‘Almost every Jesuit who published anything in Chinese had written something on the passion and crucifixion of Christ…’ (op. cit., 275).Google Scholar That may well be. But Dunne fails to note that not everything published by the Jesuits mentioned the Crucifixion in the pertinent places, as in the present instance. I suspect the omission of the Crucifixion in Chih-fang wai chi probably indicates that the book was directed primarily at non-Christians. See also p. 83.

18 Chen, Kung, Hsi-yang fan-kuo chih , edited by Ta, Hsiang, Peking, 1961, 39–41.Google Scholar Cf. Hsin, Fei, Hsing ch'a sheng lan , edited by Ch'eng-chün, Feng, first ed., 1938; photoreprint, Taipei, 1962, 39–41.Google Scholar

19 Hsin, Fei, op. cit., 34–5.Google Scholar Cf. Huan, Ma, Ying ya sheng lan , edited by Ch'eng-chün, Feng, first ed., 1935; photoreprint, Taipei, 1962, 42–50.Google Scholar The Hakluyt Society has published a translation of this book by J. V. G. Mills. The translations here are my own.

20 Chen, Rung, op. cit., 41–4.Google Scholar Cf. Hsin, Fei, op. cit., 35–6Google Scholar; Huan, Ma, op. cit., 63–8.Google Scholar

21 Ma Huan, , op. cit., 69–72.Google Scholar Cf. Hsin, Fei, 25–6Google Scholar; Chen, Kung, 44–6.Google Scholar One or two of these three authors might have been Muslims, which may account in part for some of the favourable views of the Muslim countries, but not of the non-Muslim countries.

22 Aleni, , C F W C, 31–2Google Scholar: ‘To the south-east of Canton is Luzon. This land produces an eagle. Whenever the king eagle flies, the rest of the eagles would follow; whenever they catch some bird or beast, they would wait until the king eagle has taken the eyes of the victim before they would devour its flesh. There is also a tree under which no beast could pass and survive’.

23 CFWC, 39–51.Google Scholar It is instructive to compare this description with the Confucian ideal of ta-t'ung in the famous passage in the Li chi, Li yün .

24 Quoted in full in Tsung-tse, Hsü, Ming-Ch'ing-chien Yeh-su-hui-shih i-chu t'i-yao , Shanghai, 1949, 314–17Google Scholar: Li Chih-tsao, ‘All sorts of unexpected information [in this book] are delightful and surprising. Although we had never before heard the like of it, everything is based on [the missionaries'] personal experience or are documented in their countries' (p.315.). Yang T'ing-yün's preface is more philosophical, almost theological, but is in the same vein.

25 CFWC, 60.Google Scholar

26 Hsü, , op. cit., 289–91.Google Scholar

27 The article by Mish is not very analytical, but the reproduction of the entire text of this rare book is extremely valuable. For gome reason, however, the preface to this book is left out of Mash's article, but it can be found in Hsü, , op. cit, 300–1.Google Scholar See Mish, J. L., ‘Creating an image of Europe for China: Aleni's Hsi-fang ta-wen’, MS, XXIII, 1964, 1–87.Google Scholar

28 Hsü, , op. cit., 318–21.Google ScholarBernard, , ‘Les adaptations’, 337.Google ScholarK'un-yü t'u shuo is available in a Ts'ung-shu Chi-ch'eng edition. Hsi-fang yao chi refers the reader to Chih-fang wai chi on leaf Ib, p. 6011 in the Hsüeh hai lei pien edition, vol. x.

29 CFWC, 53.Google Scholar The name in the Shou-shan text is Ko-ya-mo , which does not correspond to any of the names of the twelve Apostles. It is a misprint for Ya-ko-mo, Giacomo, James, Santiago. The older, T'ien-hsüeh ch'u han text gives the correct name.

30 For example, Ricci renders Flanders as Fei-lang-ti-ya Flandria where Aleni has Fa-lan-te-ssu, Flandres.

31 According to Aleni's preface, (CFWC, 1)Google Scholar, ‘His late Majesty Shen-tsung in his magnificent and sage virtue, was hospitable to all strangers, no matter from how far they may come. And so my friend Ricci submitted his map of ten thousand nations. Later on my friend Pantoja was commanded to translate a map printed in the West, and presented a translation of the legend of the map. This work was very popular in the society of the capital, but has never circulated in print.

Since His present Majesty came to the throne, all people and things have been renewed in spirit.… I admire the work of my predecessors, and do not want to see it lost to the ages. By chance I discovered an old draft among their papers, and, adding materials that I have brought with me from the West, I edited the general description of nations …’.

Dunne, however, says, ‘In 1623, [Yang T'ing-yün] collaborated with Aleni to produce the [CFWC].… The foundation of the treatise consisted of the explanatory notes that de Pantoja and de Ursis had written, in compliance with an imperial order, to the World map which Ricci had presented to the throne in 1601' (p. 115). The role of de Ursis is based on Li Chih-tsao's preface (Hsü, 315); Aleni does not mention him. Whatever the case might have been, Aleni was as much compiler as author of the CFWC, and this is reflected in the linguistic evidence of the place-names.

32 For example, the drinking habits of the Tartars quoted on p. 66 above can also be found in the 1550 edition of Münster. Although the text of Münster does not mention that the Tartars had houses built on wheels, there is an illustration to that effect. Also, both Aleni and Münster mention the old myth that nothing poisonous could exist in the British Isles: Aleni, 76; Münster, 1572 edition, 44.

33 Heylyn on Muscovy: ‘They are altogether unlearned. Even the priests are meanely indoctrinated; it being cautioned by the great Duke that there be no sohooles, lest there should be any Schoolers but himselfe: so that the people used to break the Sabaoth, holding it fit only to be kept by Gentlemen; and to say in a difficult question, God and our great Duke know all this; and in other talke, All we enjoy health and life, all from our great Duke…’ (p. 343). Cf. CFWC, 74.Google Scholar The parallel is so close that it suggests a single common source.

34 In the catalogue, some 40 items are indexed under geography, of which 11 were published before 1620. Here are the short titles.

Alsted, , Elementale mathematician, Frankfurt, 1611.Google Scholar

Alsted, , Methodus admirandorum mathematica novem, 1613.Google Scholar

Apianus, , Cosmographia Petri Apiani et Gemmae Frisii, 1574; 2 editions.Google Scholar

Cheyne, , De geographia libri duo, 1576.Google Scholar

Idrisi, , Geographia Nubiensis, 1619.Google Scholar

Maffei, , Commentariorum urbanorum, 1603.Google Scholar

Magini, , Moderne tavole di geografia, 1598.Google Scholar

Penegetes, Dionysius, De situ orbis liber, 1556.Google Scholar

Roomer, , Parvum theatrum urbium, 1608.Google Scholar

Scrieck, , Van t'beghin der eerster volcken van Europen, 1614.Google Scholar

See Verhaeren, H., (ed.) (Mission Catholique des Lazaristes à Pékin), Catalogue de la Bibliothèque de Pé-t'ang, Peking, 1949.Google Scholar A recent account of the Jesuit collection is given by Cummins, J. S., ‘Present location of the Pei-t'ang Library’, Monumenta Nipponica, XXII, 3–4, 1967, 482–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 For example, his visit to Borne, , CFWC, 61.Google Scholar

36 For a description of the Chung-kuo ts'ung-shu tsung-lu, see Teng, S. Y. and Biggerstaff, K., An annotated bibliography of selected Chinese reference works, Cambridge, Mass., 1971, 67.Google Scholar

37 For example, the information on Europe is limited to the finger-size clock made in Germany, and various unusual animals and sea monsters. In the table of contents, Verbiest's name was rendered as Huai-jen, ‘of the Extreme South-west’ instead of Nan Huai-jen ‘of the Extreme West’ .Google Scholar

38 Ssu-k'u ts'ai chin shu-mu , Peking, 1960.Google Scholar

39 CFWC, 1–3.Google Scholar

40 Hsü, , op. cit., 291.Google Scholar

41 Wei-hua, Chang, Ming shih Fo-lang-chi, Lü-sung, Ho-lan, I-ta-li-ya ssu chuan chu-shih (preface dated 1934; photoreprint edition, Taipei, 1972), 215.Google Scholar

42 For the Ku-chin t'u-shu chi-ch'eng, see Teng, and Biggerstaff, , op. cit., 95.Google Scholar Citations from Verbiestr-Aleni can be found in vols, v–3, vi–2, vii–307, viii–88, viii–105, viii–139, viii–140. (Notations used follow Giles's index.)

43 Huang-ch'ao wen-hsien t'ung-k'ao (first ed., 1747+; photoreprint, Shanghai, 1936)Google Scholar, chüan 298, pp.Google Scholark'ao 7467–74.Google Scholar

44 cf. Hsü, Immanuel, The rise of modern China, New York, 1970, 241, 333–4.Google Scholar

45 Yuan, Wei, Hai-kuo t'u chihGoogle Scholar (100 chüan edition of 1852), chüan 4Google Scholar, postscript on the atlas.

46 ibid., chüan 37, leaf la. Ta Ch'in in various Chinese sources has been used to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire, or specifically the Syrian province thereof.

47 One author, for instance, denies that Aleni was authoritative because the CFWC does not mention Russia, apparently not knowing that Russia was Muscovy in the book.

48 Chih-tung, Chang, Shu-mu ta-wen pu-cheng , indexed edition (Hong Kong, 1969), leaf 19b.Google Scholar