Mungello, the Great Encounter or China and the West
The Great Encounter of China and the West 1500-1800
The Chinese and European cultures came together for the first time in the fifteenth century when great Chinese fleets traveled throughout the Indian Ocean and along the coast of Africa. These voyages created much concern for China. They lead to a period of isolation for security reasons. By the time the first Europeans arrived in China there was little to no evidence of these voyages. (Mungello 2005) Fallowing that time the Chinese government proceeded with a policy of containment to the trade merchants and missionaries that would visit them in the coming centuries. This paper will server an explanation to why China and Europe at first embraced each other then rejected each others cultures in the time period 1500-1800.
Both cultures were eager and fascinated by the similarities of their moral teachings that had emerged over thousands of years oceans apart. The first contact China had with the West was Franciscan monks in the 1500's. These monks suffered a severe communication barrier with the Chinese. Their goal in China was to spread Christianity. The Franciscans were not to widely accepted by the Chinese because the Chinese saw nothing to be gained by them. The Franciscans were fallowed by the much more successful Jesuits lead by Francis Xavier. Xavier was never able to penetrate into main land China but his successor Father Matteau Ricci was. He saw that the Chinese were an ethnocentric people and fed off this by presenting to them a map of the known world with China being the focal point. This supported the Chinese concept of zhongguo or middle kingdom. The Jesuits philosophy of missionary work was to start at the top of the society and allow their views to trickle down. They first chose the Buddhist monks but later changed their sights to the literati's or Confucian scholars. These scholars were open to the teachings of the Jesuits because the Jesuits worked Christian teachings around
The Chinese and European cultures came together for the first time in the fifteenth century when great Chinese fleets traveled throughout the Indian Ocean and along the coast of Africa. These voyages created much concern for China. They lead to a period of isolation for security reasons. By the time the first Europeans arrived in China there was little to no evidence of these voyages. (Mungello 2005) Fallowing that time the Chinese government proceeded with a policy of containment to the trade merchants and missionaries that would visit them in the coming centuries. This paper will server an explanation to why China and Europe at first embraced each other then rejected each others cultures in the time period 1500-1800.
Both cultures were eager and fascinated by the similarities of their moral teachings that had emerged over thousands of years oceans apart. The first contact China had with the West was Franciscan monks in the 1500's. These monks suffered a severe communication barrier with the Chinese. Their goal in China was to spread Christianity. The Franciscans were not to widely accepted by the Chinese because the Chinese saw nothing to be gained by them. The Franciscans were fallowed by the much more successful Jesuits lead by Francis Xavier. Xavier was never able to penetrate into main land China but his successor Father Matteau Ricci was. He saw that the Chinese were an ethnocentric people and fed off this by presenting to them a map of the known world with China being the focal point. This supported the Chinese concept of zhongguo or middle kingdom. The Jesuits philosophy of missionary work was to start at the top of the society and allow their views to trickle down. They first chose the Buddhist monks but later changed their sights to the literati's or Confucian scholars. These scholars were open to the teachings of the Jesuits because the Jesuits worked Christian teachings around