Early Chinese Contact with the West

(16^th-17^th century)

POLITICAL CHANGE

Portuguese capture the SEA spice-trading kingdom of Malacca in 1511.

Portuguese established in Macao by 1557. Proceeded to send tribute to the Ming court

Zheng Chenggong or Koxinga (1624-62): famous pirate and Ming loyalist. Kicked the Dutch off Taiwan in 1661.

British entered the scene, via the British East India Company, and received permission from the Kangxi emperor to establish a "factory" trading center in Canton in 1685.

INTELLECTUAL CONTACT

Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552-1610): an individual success story in China. His Classical Chinese language works Treatise on Friendship (Jiao-yu lun) and Western Memory techniques (Xi guo ji fa), were written between 1595 and 1596.

1735 Rites Controversy: debate between Vatican and missionaries "in the field" over the proper attitude that a Christian should adopt toward Confucian practices, particularly ancestor worship. The Pope eventually condemned all Chinese rituals, and Kangxi expelled almost all Christian missionaries from China.

Voltaire (1694-1778): impressed with what he read of Chinese achievements. Voltaire saw the emperor Qianlong as a "philosopher king."

Chinoiserie as a movement swept Europe in mid-18th century.

By 1820's the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) was contending that "Oriental Civilizations, particularly the Chinese people, had been passed over by the World Spirit.